With Sadeen taking over Eli'Theria's control, Yuriko was free to survey the battlefield. Previously, she only had time to glance towards the centre every now and then. Now, as she recovered her breath, she noted the warships' dance of battle.
A bone-deep weariness came over her as the repercussions of her battle, her Radiant Anima Refinement, and the simple fact that she was piloting a Colossus far beyond her in strength, drained her Will. It wasn't a matter of Animus reserves, but of bearing a weight that was just a bit too heavy for her to carry. It was like carrying a boulder just above her maximum deadlift, which she wasn't sure how much was at now. Hmmm, more tests when she had the time. Only by knowing her strengths could she hope to prevail against enemies stronger than she was.
Shaking her head, she watched as Eli'Theria flew closer to the Imperial navy's Planar Suppression Formation. The shoal of squidships near them began to retreat, but even their movement was slowed. They were pulled closer to Equilibrium, with some rising in level, while others descended.
At exactly 1 iarvesh, Equilibrium was the dividing line between the Chaos Sea and the Firmament, with the latter's ambient Chaos dwindling until there was practically none. From what Yuriko understood, the Firmament was where the Celestial Bodies of the Radiant Sun and the Luminous Moon dwelt, and she supposed the absence of ambient Chaos was their doing.
The destroyer ships could rise all the way to 0.7 iarvesh, while the squidships could only go up to 0.9. They could descend deeper into the Sea, reaching somewhere between 3 and 4 iarvesh. Thankfully, the Imperial warships can reach that depth easily too. It was only the converted merchant navies that lingered at 2 iarvesh.
The distance between the points varied, depending on the Waypoints. In the open Sea, between 1 iarvesh and 2, could be a matter or a longstride to a league. It could also be as low as two hundred paces.
Rising up to the Firmament, the distances were long compared to iarvesh level, with each tenth of an iarvesh representing one to two longstrides. The thinner the iarvesh, the wider the gap, however, and between 0.8 and 0.7, it was at least a league.
The squidships were being forced into Equilibrium, while the navies were keeping a safe distance and bombarding them with a fusillade of plasma bolts. It was only when they moved a couple of leagues away from the Green Swan did the influence of the formation wane. But by then, several dozen squidships, maybe a hundred or so, had perished.
But the Chaos dwellers wouldn't go down easily. From their reserves, right next to the fortified Fysalli, several figures darted out. For a moment, Yuriko wasn't sure whether those were more squidships or Chaos Lords, but once they pushed past the haze, the figures became clearer. Behemoths.
The monstrous things barrelled through the shoal of squidships and pushed right into the Planar Suppression Formation. And as they did in actual planes, the Behemoths were barely affected. There must have been dozens of the creatures, but before they could close in on the Chaos shops, Colossi from the carriers shot towards them.
They met in a thunderous clash. Three or four Koinos per Behemoth, or a couple of Certus Colossi in the match-up. The Koinos struggled against the creatures, who were more than three or four times their mass, and overtopped them by a couple of paces at least.
Her experience with the beasts told her that each Behemoth was different from the next, and their combat capabilities varied to a wide degree. But there ones… they were armed and armoured.
Plates of metal covered their torsos and heads. One particular specimen had three heads on long necks connected to a stubby body. Their helms had long horns on them, which they used to parry a Koinos' axeblow. Their necks were plated with steel, while the body looked like nothing more than an iron ball with apertures for a long tail, equally armoured, and three pairs of flippers.
The left head spewed streams of flames, while the right one spat out clouds of sharp ice. The middle head didn't spit out anything but held back and watched the movements of its foes. The three Koinos fighting it couldn't seem to get an advantage even if they circled around the creature.
'Why isn't Legate Segawa doing anything?' Yuriko wondered.
Those creatures and the shoal of squidships were well within range of his Domain, but nothing happened. Was he holding out to fight a similarly powerful foe? That made sense, she supposed.
According to the intelligence shared, the Asheron Court had three Marchionesses and they'd allied themselves firmly with the Telurian. She wasn't sure how to distinguish the members of either court, but she supposed it didn't matter.
'Keeping the Planar Suppression Formation needs a Knight Dominus' power and focus,' Mum answered. 'It's not that he's waiting, but he can't do anything while it's up.'
'Isn't that going to be disadvantageous?' Yuriko muttered.
'That's what we're here for,' Sadeen answered. She directed Yuriko's attention to the rest of the battle and she realised that the formation practically scuttled the Chaos dwellers' squidships. The merchant vessels were rallying towards the controlled space and it gave them a much-needed breather.
Even as the Behemoths were fighting back, the Green Swan and the others pushed towards the fortified Fysalli. The border of the formation was clearly visible, as it actually tamed the wild Chaos flows.
Yuriko mostly ignored the view, but the Chaos flows caused all kinds of changes and hazards. It could either help or hinder the Imperials' efforts. One time, as a barrage of plasma bolts was about to kill off a squidship, the Chaos around it changed and somehow moved the creature away.
Another time, a sheet of obsidian suddenly formed in front of a squidship's blast before it could perforate a merchant ship's Protective Sphere. However, the events that helped the Imperials were in the minority. This was the Chaos dwellers' home ground after all.
'By using the formation, Legate Segawa brought the advantage to our forces,' Yuriko whispered.
Despite their hasty retreat, more squidships had fallen in the few minutes the suppression field had been up than the rest of the earlier battle.
By the time Eli'Theria managed to make it into the suppression field, the Behemoths had been engaged with the Colossi for several minutes now. They could have gone faster, Yuriko knew, but that involved strain on both of their parts.
Then again, couldn't Mum fight these things even without the Colossus?
'You underestimate the danger Sorceresses face in the open Chaos Sea,' Sadeen said grimly. 'But while we're here, let me show you a few spells you can try to learn.'
Eli'Theria hovered above the plane of battle and Chaos swirled around her. Seven vortices formed, three on each side, and one above her head. Yuriko could feel a strange resonance between the two of them, and she felt the Colossus pull at some of her Radiant energy. She gave it to Eli'Theria easily, and the motes flowed from her core like a river, draining her dry in a matter of moments.
But that wasn't even what Mum needed to cast. The Radiant energy spewed out of Eli'Theria's vents and mingled with the Chaos around them. Normally, that would change the ambient Chaos to Radiant light, consuming everything else in the process, but Mum's Will wrapped around the motes, mixed it with her Will, and a touch of her Ennoia.
Silvery flames replaced golden light. But they acted more like liquid than fire with the way they moved and flowed. Mandalas filled with complex runescript patterns, ones that burned themselves off Yuriko's memories, leaving nothing but the impression of power and purpose, but not the actual details.
As the seven mandalas formed, nearly all eyes turned towards them. Behemoths screamed in rage. Some rushed towards them, trodding through Chaos flows that solidified under their claws. The Colossi fighting them struggled to keep them contained, but they were ignored in the beasts' need to reach the hated Sorcery.
Yuriko's eyes widened at the number. It wasn't just Behemoths either. She could see smaller figures flitting about. They hadn't been visible while they had been en route, so subtle was their effect on the battlefield. But closer to them, Yuriko knew they were Chaos Lords. Barons and Viscounts, she thought. They were using the Behemoths as meat shields while they worked their powers against the Colossi.
Farther back, she saw a cabal of Viscounts in a circle, Shaping something dreadful. They stood just outside the boundary, and there was darkness and lightning coalescing in between their fingers. How could she have missed them? Ah, there was a screen of attuned Chaos covering their presence, and only the Planar Suppression Formation was causing disruptions.
As the silvery lights of Sadeen's mandalas swirled, the nearest Behemoth managed to come within reach. Sunshards would have been Yuriko's default option to fight, but with most of her Radiant energy being siphoned away, she didn't have enough to even form a single blade.
'Do you want to take control?' Sadeen asked.
'Yup,' Yuriko answered quickly.
The Behemoth was shaped like a crimson ape, but nearly five times the size at twenty paces tall. Its arms were longer than its legs and were tipped with wicked claws that were nearly a pace long by themselves. Its head was disproportionally large, and hinged open like a snake, revealing a maw filled with inward-curving teeth. Stones formed beneath its hind legs and it used those to propel itself towards them.
Yuriko triggered the wrist armaments and spread her Anima within Eli'Theria's body. She cycled the sword dances within, and by instinct, triggered the Ender's Waltz. She was half afraid it wouldn't activate, but it did. A prodigious amount of Animus burned away as multiple images of the beast foreshadowed its attack, each one reacting differently to whatever her sword dance prompted her to.
She felt her Mum yelping in the background and the mandalas faltered for a moment, but they resumed operation soon after. Of the foreshadowed images, one suddenly stood out, and the result of the clash would have the beast carved to bits.
Yuriko followed that path, of course. She tilted Eli'Theria beneath the beast's swipe, kicked its other claw away, then stabbed it by the hip. A twist wrenched the wrist blade out, eliciting a roar of pain, and the second blade stabbed up into its jaw, silencing it. Then, she spun a couple of circles and crisscrossed the slashes, until the thing separated into fragments that fell towards the Abyss. All without moving more than a pace away from her original position.
It was easy. Killing the Behemoth using Eli'Theria. She probably didn't even need to use the Ender's Waltz. Reviewing the information she received from the technique, she found out that the path she took was simply the quickest one she could take. But all other branch paths eventually led to the Behemoth's death. Such was Eli'Theria's might.
Feeling a little bit inadequate, Sadeen's spell forms were finally completed. The mandalas shrank down, then widened into spheres. From within, serpents of silvery flame darted out, each one a pace wide and fifteen long. Dozens came out of each sphere, and the silverflame serpents struck at all of the Behemoths, the supporting Chaos Viscounts and Barons, as well as the squidship shoals that were still nearby.
With a single spell, Sadeen wiped out a large part of the Chaos dwellers' forces.
Yuriko couldn't help but grin in triumph. That was easy…too easy?
Then, from the group of Chaos Lords pooling their power in a ritual circle, an oval rift appeared. A portal. A small figure emerged from it. Minuscule compared to the Behemoths and squidships. But somehow, that figure, a girl who looked barely pubescent, clad in a pale, off-white dress that had puffy skirts and tons of lace, drew everyone's eye. The weight of her presence caused the surrounding Chaos flows to ripple, and when those touched the suppressive formation's boundary, they pressed and clashed against each other with thunderous force.
The girl spoke and the flow of battle stopped to listen to her words. "Flames burn to Ashes. Flesh becomes Dust. One flows from the other, but only through whim. Come back and continue to Burn."
The words rippled the Chaos flows even more than her entrance, and where the ripples touched the corpses, of the squidships, or the Behemoths, and of the Chaos Lords…be they ashes, be they bodies carved to pieces, it was as though time turned back. The squidships, along with their fallen crew became whole. The Behemoths roared as they were knit back together, and the Chaos Lords were born anew.
The frozen battlefield flashed and the battle was once again joined. Of the girl in white, she stepped back into the portal, leaving only her sobriquet ringing in Yuriko's mind. She Who Divines Secrets, Mistress of the Past.