Several emotions warred in Yuriko’s head. Shame and disappointment that no matter what she did, she couldn’t even touch her enemy. Anger and frustration, Chaos be damned, she already had an artefact and it wasn’t enough. Hope, to see that her instructors were still on top of things, and despair when even they couldn’t stop the Seeker from stabbing Shillogu twice.

The Seeker’s words barely registered in her mind while she tried to recover her breath. The quick skirmish had drained little Animus but her mind was exhausted just from processing everything her sword dance nudged her to do. All she could do now was stare at the adults fighting for their lives while she and the other children stayed at a safe distance away.

More than anything, it was the feeling of helplessness that warred in her. She had to do something!

The Seeker continued dancing around Shillogu, but by that point, Armsmaster Byrne and Leader Yoran managed to cover the Avos. It helped that Shillogu wasn’t running all over the place anymore.

Leader Yoran kept pulsing quick beams of light that the Seeker dodged, though Yuriko could tell that she was trying to herd the Chaos Lord towards the Armsmaster. Yuriko couldn’t help but stare at Trevor Byrne’s missing limb. From his expression, he didn’t look like he was bothered by it, but it did hamper the way he fought. Every now and then he moved his stump as if it still held a weapon only to realize at the last second that there was nothing there.

The Seeker was capitalising on it, too, using that area as a safe zone while he continued his assault.

“Are you alright?” Heron asked behind her. She shook her head angrily. “You’re glowing.”

Blinking in confusion, Yuriko stared at the boy. He gestured at her and pointed at Fri’Avgi. The gem was glowing, she abruptly realised, and something was flowing into her through the artefact.

For a brief moment, she saw her Anima being fed green motes of light from the artefact. She could see it making its way towards her Animus core, tainting her flames green. Her Facet glowed with golden light, shining like the sun and bathing her Anima and her core with its pristine light. It burned away the green of raw Chaos and turned it into fuel for her core.

Beyond that, she could see it touching her mind, feeling her emotions being prodded. Even now, her awareness of it faded and the next thing she knew was that she needed to fight. She needed to end the Seeker and stop him from tainting Shillogu and turning the entirety of the northern forest into a Chaos Spring.

But what could she do? She tried, Ancestors knew she tried her best. But it wasn’t enough. What were his words to her? She didn’t even know how to use Fri’Avgi properly? How could she even do that? She only had this thing since last night?

Bond.

Well, sure it was bonded to her but what did that actually mean? The stream of knowledge that flooded her mind when she first touched it? She couldn’t even make sense of most of it! The only thing she got from that was the artefact’s Chaos damned name.

Afraid.

Yes, she was afraid. Who wouldn’t be? For one thing, she didn’t even know why Fri’Avgi picked her. She had her theories but there was no proof. So she just happened to have the last wielder of Fri’Avgi as her ancestor? Her brothers were also descendants, so was her Da, or her Mum for that matter.

Too far.

Well, Rumiga had only been settled by the Empire the last few centuries, so she guessed that no other descendants had the chance. But was that it? She coincidentally had the correct Heritage?

No. Focus.

Right, she should. She didn’t know how to use Fri’Avgi properly and since she couldn’t really affect the battle in the state she was in now, then perhaps she should find out how to use the weapon and unlock its true power.

Danger.

It didn’t matter. If the Seeker succeeded then Faron’s Crossing and the Watchtower, not to mention all the other villages this side of the Zarek Mountains would be in danger. Her brothers would be in danger, her Da was still missing and, if she wanted to find him, the Wave had to end.

Open.

She was still wary of Fri’Avgi. She didn’t know what it was doing to her and for good reason. If her Golden Recovery didn’t neutralize her Chaos poisoning, she would have surely died. Even still, there were remnants of it in her body and she didn’t know what to do with it. Would she be fine now only to die later when too much of the residue remained in her body?

Knowledge.

The answers to her problems were probably already in the artefact and in her mind. All she needed to do was find a way to access it, to understand.

Open yourself.

Open herself to what? She thought furiously. What did she have to open? Her thoughts and feelings? Her body? Her mind?

Your Anima.

Oh.

‘Isn’t that dangerous?’ she thought frantically. It was literally baring her most essential being to something that may or may not have her best interest at heart. The Anima was the core of a being and without it, a living being would lose the animating spark that made it, well, alive.

Why hesitate?

‘Who wouldn’t?’

As Yuriko dithered on the brink, the fighting continued. At this point, all of Shillogu’s limbs had been neutralized save for the tentacles on his back. Every time Seeker cut one off, it grew back just as feisty as before. He couldn’t quite stab directly into Shillogu’s back because of it and the two instructors covered the Avos as much as they could.

Seeker treated them as if they were a nuisance, dodging or parrying their attacks but doing little else. At least they weren’t completely ignored. She and Heron were completely useless and didn’t even warrant a second glance.

You can make a difference. Open your Anima.

She couldn’t help but feel as if she was making a bargain with a Chaos Lord. She would get power but at what cost? Was an artefact, sentient or otherwise, any better than Chaos dwellers? What exactly will she gain upon agreeing?

Power. To end this! Strength to save, to protect.

And what would she lose?

…

Why be silent now?

Your life will change, one way or another. Do nothing and you and yours may die. Do something and the same may happen. The only difference is that you acted.

Yuriko’s hands tightened on the artefact’s hilt. Even though it barely weighed anything for her, she could nevertheless feel it pressing down on her mind. She couldn’t just watch and wait, hoping for someone to step in and save them. If Seeker defeats Shillogu, how long before the Shillogu Woods fall into the Chaos Lord’s domain?

She knew that reinforcements were coming from Rumiga City but would they come in time to stop this? It didn’t look like Shillogu would last longer than a few minutes more at most.

‘Can I rely on you to save us?’ she sent her thoughts at Fri’Avgi.

Join your Anima to mine.

With a sigh, Yuriko nodded to herself. Whatever happened, she could only pray to the Ancestors that Fri’Avgi would deliver.

The actual process of opening her Anima to Fri’Avgi was laughably easy. All it took was a desire to connect and it happened. Then she had to consciously allow the artefact into her Anima. A miniature figure of Fri’Avgi appeared at the edge of her mind’s eye. It entered into her domain, floating around her Animus core. It attempted to touch the flames but was suddenly yanked up to her head. The figure spun around her Facet, coming closer and closer to it like a leaf stuck in a whirlpool. When it finally touched the edge, a glowing hand appeared and grabbed it.

The small, masculine Golden Silhouette appeared, holding the miniature Fri’Avgi, though they were of the same size. The silhouette’s eyes stared into Yuriko’s. Then he grinned.

-----

Heron tried to speak, to call out to Yuriko but she didn’t answer or even look at him. Her face twisted with emotion, running the gamut from fear to anger to indifference. The red bloodstains had all flaked away at this point and the light from Fri’Avgi was almost blinding.

“Yuri…?”

She closed her eyes, stabbing the point of the artefact greatsword into the earth in front of her. Her Animus field flickered widely for a couple of seconds before settling around her like a cloak.

The Wyldlings were giving them some room, with the swarmlings and Wanderers engaged with beasts that Heron figured Shillogu had summoned. He kept to his feet but he wanted nothing more than to sit down and catch his breath.

A hundred or so paces away, Shillogu and the instructors were still trying to fight off the Chaos Lord and he knew that they were losing.

“Yuri, come on. We have to get to the others. We have to run away,” he said, but the girl didn’t move or even acknowledge him. “Oh…”

What was she doing? He could feel an almost tangible pressure pushing down on him. Yuriko’s beautiful face had settled into a flat expression though she still had her eyes closed. Then, without so much as a word, her eyes opened, blazing with golden light. She pulled the greatsword out of the earth and pointed it up directly at the sun.

The winds howled and the area around them darkened. Looking up at the sky, Heron shivered when he saw the blue slowly turning into the myriad colours of the Chaos Streams, somehow bypassing the sun’s protective light.

“Ashes!” The Seeker cursed as he jumped away from Armsmaster and Leader Yoran’s attack, disturbed by the celestial phenomenon. Heron could see him lock his gaze to Yuriko before his face twisted into an angry snarl. The Seeker lunged at the two of them, blade ready to kill.

Heron interposed himself between the girl and the monster, conjuring several hexagons of hardened air in front of him. It wasn’t even remotely enough. The Seeker’s rapier broke the shield blocking him and moved to stab Heron.

His physical shield, the buckler strapped onto his arm, caught the rapier’s point, but in the next instant, the weapon punched through the metal. The Chaos Lord whipped the weapon to his side, dragging the boy haplessly in its wake. The force of the manoeuvre flung the shield away, along with Heron, who crashed into the lake waters the next second while pain lanced into his arm and shoulder.

Everything trembled, the waters wild. Thankfully, it was shallow enough that he found his footing along the muddy bottom easily enough and he managed to stand up before he could swallow more than a mouthful of water. He got out of the water just in time to see a multi-hued Chaos stream descend from the skies and into Fri’Avgi.

His eyes widened in horror as he watched it flow down the blade and into Yuriko. The Seeker wasn't near her but was, instead, in a crater a couple of dozen paces away. Smoke rose from his body as he got to his feet, his face twisted in a scowl. There was smoke rising from the rapier in his hand.

“Impossible,” he muttered just loud enough for Heron to hear him. “Calling upon the Chaos Streams will destroy everything it touches! What, no Fri’Avgi is a tool. Foolish girl child using it as a sword of all things!” He looked up just in time to see the Chaos Stream touching the greatsword, but instead of fear, the Seeker only leered.

Heron stared at Yuriko, ignoring the fact that he was hip-deep in lake water. The Chaos Stream connected the sky and earth and when it flowed into Yuriko, blood started seeping from her eyes like tears.

Then her Animus flared out of her body and solidified into a translucent figure. Yuriko’s feet floated several inches off the ground, the figure’s legs firmly planted on the surface. The greatsword’s hilt moved away from her fingers and was held firmly by Animus-shaped construct.

It was the figure of a tall, muscular man with short, cropped hair and a clean-shaven face. Heron couldn’t make out any of the man’s features as he was entirely awash with golden light. The construct was garbed in a vest and a pair of palazzo pants. Yuriko floated in the middle of the figure her face expressionless and her eyes continuing to blaze with golden light.

Without a word, the Seeker turned on his heels and ran. Not that it did any good. Yuriko still held Fri’Avgi over her head, though it was the Animus construct that had it in its hands. The Chaos Stream broke off and with a casual gesture, she brought the sword down. As soon as the tip touched the earth, the air split, creating a dark rift.

A mass of multi-hued light emerged from it but a few inches from the rift, it transformed. The lights broke off into fist-sized globules then transformed into obsidian messenger cranes. Thousands upon thousands of cranes.

“No!” Seeker gasped just before the cranes crashed into him and in the next second, as they flew past, there was no sign of the Chaos Lord. The cranes spread out and did the same thing to every swarmling, Wanderer, and even the hidden Hunters. They didn’t even have enough time to scream in pain before they were extinguished.

The obsidian cranes avoided the humans and Shillogu, who could only stare slack-jawed. As quickly as they appeared, the cranes left no Wyldlings alive and, in their wake, left only mangled corpses. The Seeker was nowhere in sight, not even leaving a body, though there were blue bloodstains left on the mud.

Heron rushed to the shore. Yuriko was still standing there, the construct around her already dissipating. Before it was gone entirely, the head turned to look at Heron and his eyes narrowed. Heron stopped dead in his tracks. The rift disappeared though the obsidian cranes did not. After they cut down the Wyldlings, they fell to the ground, inert.

The golden figure dissipated completely and Fri’Avgi fell to the ground, followed by Yuriko, her eyes closed. Heron rushed to her side. Her chest wasn’t moving.