After an hour of trekking through the grass paths, Gwendith’s team had gathered over a dozen beast cores from the Molebeasts. The cores were of different hues though were generally a mix of brown and grey. There were a few with reddish streaks along with brown, and those cores came from Molebeasts that shot gouts of flame at Heron before getting skewered.

The fire bolts that were deflected wound up igniting the grass, but contrary to what she feared, it didn’t ignite a conflagration. Instead, the stalk burned for a bit, then the fire puttered out. The grass ended up charred, but very much alive.

Gwendith drew in the heat from her surroundings and concentrated it upon the nearby grass. When it burst into flame, Heron and Saki yelped in surprise.

“Gwen!” Heron pulled her back from the flames, but stopped when the fire didn’t spread, but began to weaken instead. “What in the Abyss were you thinking?”

“Testing,” she answered shortly, shrugging his hand off her shoulder. “Are the paths the only way or can we cut our way through here? The intel from the guild didn’t say.”

“Are you sure you want to tempt the Threads of Fate by doing that?”

“Hmmm, I guess not,” Gwendith muttered, “but we’re looking for Ambrosia. Many delvers come here, and if they don’t find any with regularity, what chance do we have, following in their footsteps?”

“There’s no rush, you know,” Heron said. “We aren’t going to leave this country any time soon. Yuri’s got that look on her.”

“Yeah, she does.”

Gwendith sighed. Yuriko does get into odd fits and starts, especially when she finds something interesting. She and the others had already begun researching the portals to other cities in Arcadia, but while the books provided enough information on how to activate and access them, there was little there to learn about how to alter the destinations. In other words, the portal in Bresia City only led to a portal hub rather than any other.

The record of the last opening was nearly a decade ago. The details were concealed on who used it, but the cost to open equated to roughly a hundred thousand golds. But it wasn’t paid in coins, but in Elemental cores, valuable reagents, ores, and other materials. In other words, without those things, even if they had a hundred thousand, it would be pointless.

As for the destination, it was to a place called Eternal Tower which was about fifty thousand leagues away. If the Wind Darter could travel a thousand longstrides a day, which it actually can’t without draining them of Animus, it would take more than three Seasons to get there. And at a more sedate pace of twenty leagues a day, then it would take nearly seven years of travel. How wide was the Arcadia Region again? Was it not a million leagues across?

Were the books kidding? It would take more than a century to travel across it if they could move twenty leagues a day! That was nearly the same amount of time it would take to get back to the Empire, right?

The world was frighteningly huge. Gwendith shuddered. She had not expected it. Rumiga was smaller than Bresia even before it fractured. And they were at the edge.

Ah, the Davar Wanderlust. Yuriko’s father mentioned it before, and it looked like Yuriko had it bad. Well, it wasn’t as if she was insisting on travelling to every new place. At least she had a better sense of exploring and living in a new place before haring off in another direction. From everything Gwendith’s seen so far, Bresia was a relatively welcoming place.

“Let’s just continue,” Gwendith said, and Heron nodded. Ambrosia could help Yuriko advance faster, and when she does, both of them would also be able to reach Transformation faster. A stronger Yuriko would probably be able to travel much faster, and they could either go home or continue to explore. Not that there was much for Gwendith back home.

The wind rustled the grass, sounding much like waves crashing against the shore. It was soothing and serene but was nothing more than a trap to lull the senses. Gwendith shook her head. Her Anima reach was at five paces now, though she could stretch her control to nearly twenty. That was only with tendrils holding on to her Ice Daggers, however, as full perception was only at her normal reach. Heron’s was about ten inches short of hers but his control range didn’t extend a single inch beyond it. His condensed Anima was incredibly difficult to penetrate, however, with either piercing or shockwave attacks.

For most of the day, they crisscrossed the grasslands and collected more beast cores. The Chaos Fount had Earth, Metal, Fire, and Wind Elemental energies, though only the first three were present in the Molebeasts. The Vultures had not swooped in yet, despite the trail of disembowelled bodies they left behind. There was more rustling behind them, though.

“Scavengers,” Saki said. “Jackals, roughly two paces high at the shoulder, but as slender as snakes.”

“Should we get rid of them?” Heron asked.

“They’re keeping their distance,” Saki said.

“Then ignore them,” Gwendith decided.

“They might swarm us later?” Saki insisted.

“Did they detect you?”

“No.”

“Then take care of them at range. Did you learn the Shadow Bolt spell?”

“Hmm, I did.” Saki grinned. “I’ll clean up our rear then.” The woman shrouded herself again and drifted back.

A few moments later, there was a high-pitched squeal that devolved into a pained gurgle, followed by heavy rustling. A minute later, Saki came back carrying an earthen brown beast core.

So it went until dusk arrived. The three of them set up a tent inside another clearing and put up a watch rotation. During Gwendith’s session, she killed half a dozen beasts, mostly Jackal-snakes, with an odd Molebeast near the end.

The next morning, after a quick breakfast, they continued on their path. Gwendith missed talking with Yuriko, so her attacks were particularly vicious. Any beast that came close was disembowelled then vivisected by her Ice Daggers. By midmorning, they could see a small hill rising from the grass, and by noon, the hill dominated the view. An hour after that, the grass trail ended up at the foot of the burrow. The path was now cobblestones and led directly to the side of the hill, and into a cave entrance.

Heron kept the lead, but he cast a basic spell, Light Orb, which floated behind him and illuminated roughly ten paces around him. The cave entrance was barely three paces wide, and actually sloped upwards. The walls were worked and buttressed stone, with recesses for torches. There were no light sources other than Heron’s Orb, at least for the first hundred paces of tunnel or so. When they rounded a corner, Gwendith squinted at the harsh yellowish light emitted from a rough crystal jammed into the recess.

Heron approached it, careful to keep his aura condensed properly. He stopped a couple of paces from the light source, then jumped back as a shadow from an alcove darted to grab him. Gwendith expanded her perception and yelled, “Revenant!”

The creature stepped out of the recess, its face was nothing but a bare skull with reddish flames burning in its eye sockets. The rest of its body was mostly bones with some black icky matter stuck in the gaps. The bones weren’t white, but grey, and dark tendrils connected each bone to the others, acting as muscles and tendons. All the way down the hallway, revenants marched out of their hiding places. The sharp clicks of their bones echoed and melded, creating an ominous melody.

Ice Daggers materialised around Gwendith and she sent them against the first revenant while Heron swiped with his Anima-clad spear. He didn’t try to stab as there were no internal organs to puncture. Instead, he sought to crack and shatter the leg bones.

The Ice Daggers slammed against the bones and deflected off it, A few chips flew off the impact point but that was it. A Shadowy Bolt blasted at the thing, but it did worse than nothing. Instead, the black tendrils around the bones thickened.

Crack!

Heron’s incredible strength shattered a femur, and the spear continued across and shattered the other one. The upper body spun sideways as it fell down and Heron took a step forward, then stomped the skull and shattered it to bits. The red flames puffed into nothingness and the tendrils dissipated.

Cold didn’t work, so perhaps Flames would be better. Gwendith’s fingers wove the somatic components of the Fire Bolt spell and she spat out the vocals. A couple of seconds later, an flame arrow shot from her finger tip and slammed into the closest revenant. The spell washed over the bones and burned the tendrils. The projectile had struck the thing’s right side, and its arm and leg seized. The other limbs still tried to move forward, but it was clearly hampered. A moment later, the red flames brightened, and it pointed its finger at her. All of the dark tendrils slithered towards that finger and blasted out a beam of darkness, straight at her chest.

Swish!

Heron’s hardened air shield, laden with his Anima, intercepted the beam. He winced when his Anima cracked, but that stopped the attack dead. The revenant fell into pieces as its animating energies dwindled to nothing.

“Thanks, but I think we’re better off dodging that.” Gwendith muttered.

“Could you have?” Heron asked.

She paused for a long moment, then sighed. “Not from this close, I guess.”

“Hmmm. Stay behind me then. Keep casting that spell, it’s effective, but aim at the sternum.”

Gwendith snorted, “It’s not that easy.”

“Then how about using your Lancet instead?” he joked.

“Not worth it.”

“Fire Bolt!” Saki yelled as she flung the double-circle spell at another revenant. Her aim was better than Gwendith’s and she struck centre mass. The revenant shattered to pieces.

“I don’t think these are the same revenants we fought in Uaran,” Heron said. “They’re laughably weak compared to them but unexpectedly resilient to other things.”

“Yeah,” Gwendith said sourly. She continued to cast, but after a couple of near misses, she began using her Ennoia energies instead. She drew in the Heat from her surroundings and formed a burning orb above her left hand while she moved water vapour into the cold region. Instead of daggers, she created blocks of ice. She flung the flames one way and rammed the block at another revenant. The blunt force shattered its arm bones and she pulled the block back to strike again. A couple of hits later and she shattered the skull. The burning orb took down a couple of skeletons, while Saki continued casting Fire Bolt one after another.

Soon enough, the hallway was filled with shattered bones and dust, and the three of them continued on to the next section.

_________

“Observe closely,” Yuriko said sourly as she glared at the two students. Their shallow use of rapiers in battle had intrigued her at first, but their nonchalant mention of the fact that they don’t even bring their weapons to train had annoyed her. Sofia Garcia didn’t even own the weapon she used to good effect!

The training blade danced around her as she performed Roaring Volcano Style. While the Four Phases of the Sword had been subsumed into her Ennoia of Radiant Flying Swords, she could still separate the foundations like this.

With a single movement, Fire Elemental energy coated the wooden blade, and as she swung, the flames collected at the tip and exploded.

Sofia and Juliette watched her display with their jaws hanging.

“How? Martial Arts?” Sofia muttered.

“That was not a spell.” Juliette frowned.

Yuriko grinned, then transitioned to Sweeping Gale. As soon as she started the slash, Wind Elemental energy formed along the edge, and at the midpoint of the downwards slice, the Wind blade jumped out of the wooden sword and careened towards the mirror. It was stopped by her Anima, otherwise she would have damaged the wall.

Then, Yuriko tossed the wooden sword to the two girls and Sofia caught it awkwardly. Both girls stared at the training blade for a long moment, then Juliette said, “This is not enchanted.”

“So… are you two interested?”

Both looked at her, eyes shining brightly. “Yes!”

Yuriko nodded happily and beckoned for them to approach. “The sword requires sincerity, you will have to show it if you want the Elements to bend to your Will.”