The arming sword Yuriko picked up was more than what it seemed on the surface. For one thing, her Anima perception had a difficult time penetrating it, taking about twice as much Anima flare as what it would have taken to see through a stone wall of similar volume. For another, she could see runescript weaving within the grain of the metal, and most of it was opaque to her. Well, some of the weaving had to do with durability and sharpness, as well as a bit of self-repair, which was why the weapon had remained untarnished throughout the years it had been uncared for.

She also saw the same runescript weaving she used for Animus storage, and with some anticipation, she channelled enough lumens to fill the reservoir. It took a hundred lumens in total. What it would do, she didn’t know, and she had a hunch it would require actually swinging the sword around to find out. As enamoured of the weapon as she was, she wasn’t foolish enough to trigger it while they were in an enclosed space.

They navigated around the side buildings, most of which were nearly locked up tight. She could open the doors, she knew, but there was little point. For one, even if there were more treasures inside, she wouldn’t be able to carry them away. For another, it would be Lucian and his ilk who’d benefit instead. The man tried to cajole her into opening another room once they reached the next building, but she demurred. The third time he asked, she just glared icily at him and he went back to his frequent scowling.

An hour later, they had managed to circle around the Inner Court through the outer buildings without getting into a fight. But that didn’t look like it was possible now.

Ah, and now she knew what the gate was.

In the middle of the courtyard were several pillars set in a circle. And in the middle of that was what looked like a whirlpool of darkness and light, oriented perpendicular to the ground. From her vantage point, and from using Chaos Sight, the whirlpool’s funnel touched the Veil somehow, from the display of multi-hued streams at the base, and the thick Chaos particles that lingered around it.

Well, that and the fact that a constant stream miner drones laden with ores walked into the whirlpool from one side and didn’t emerge on the other. After the line of miners dried up, another set emerged from the gate, this time with empty carriers.

The panel wasn’t quite next to the gate but was placed a dozen paces away. And there was an Athrodius right next to it.

This one was taller than the two she’d fought before, and unlike them, this one carried a circular shield and had a sword hanging off its waist. It stood unmoving next to the panel, which was really a flat-ish square set on a pedestal.

“Was that thing there when you touched the panel?” Yuriko asked.

Lucian’s face was pale as he shook his head. “No. Nothing was there. But the pillars started spitting out lightning when it happened. We got chased out by that brute soon after.”

“That’s a portal, alright,” Faeril murmured.

“You’ve seen something like this before?” Yuriko asked.

Faeril gave her a sidelong glance then nodded.

“Huh.”

Either way, they would have to fight their way towards the gate and panel. Aside from the Athrodius, there were several dozen Warforged Drones in squares on either side of the gate. That was at least seventy-two Drones, but she was sure there were more. Plus, the wall that separated this area from the outer areas was only a couple of hundred paces away. The wall’s gate wasn’t that close though, and not in a direct line, but it shouldn’t be too far away.

“As planned, I’ll take on the Athrodius and try to lead it away. You take care of the Drones and one of you deactivates the panel,” Yuriko said.

She pulled back into the shadows between the buildings and started conjuring her sunshards. She made sure her Adamant Guardian Seals were ready and filled with Animus, and then debated whether to use her new arming sword or Fri’Avgi.

Well, this really wasn’t the time to hold back, so…

As soon as the artefact materialised on her hand, she created more sunshards until she had nearly two dozen of them swirling around her body. She didn’t bother to create a sunblade and dagger as those would cost more Animus and Radiant energy and were a lot less agile than the shards. With another thought, she also triggered the Animus Armour.

The gems on the torque, bracelets, and anklets blazed to life, and she felt an invisible force wrap around her body. It pressed her clothes tight against her skin for a moment, then eased up to allow her freedom of movement.

The Anima Armour was translucent, which meant that if the light hit it right, it prismed into rainbow colours. Annoying when it happened over her eyes. With a bit of adjustment, she got the thing to retract away from her face. And for some reason, her hair still flowed out of the translucent helmet as if it wasn’t there. Huh. Well, her Anima would still protect her head, and vision was much more important for her anyway.

“Go,” she said simply as she passed by the men who were psyching themselves up for the fight.

“Hey wait!” somebody yelled, but she had already walked past them.

The next moment, she launched herself from their hiding place, using her condensed aura to springboard her forward. The Drones and the Athrodius snapped their heads to her, with the metal man dropping into a combat stance. He drew his blade and oriented his shield towards her, hiding the weapon behind the shield and body.

The pelter Drones started shooting at her but, of course, the bullets didn’t even make it past her condensed Anima. Most were deflected away from her with a scant few hitting dead on. The kinetic force of each round was absorbed and spread out by her Anima, where she directed most of the shockwaves down towards her feet, giving her footsteps a slight boost.

She had Fri’Avgi held overhead, with the blade pointing behind her as she charged. From that stance, she could transition to an overhead chop or a sideways slash. The sword dances flowed within her body, overcharged with more Animus than she normally used. The side effects were a stronger glow coming from her eyes, as well as spillover from the artefact. Those lumens were wasted though, spending their energy as heat. Radiant energy mixed in with the sword dances’ circulation, which also added more heat to her body and weapon. Through her Anima perception, curtailed as it were when she kept her aura condensed, she could practically feel the air igniting around her.

Fifty paces from the Athrodius.

She sent her sunshards to distract. Even if the small flying blades weren’t strong enough to pierce the armour, they still imparted enough kinetic energy to unbalance her foe. She flung a couple of ball bearings at the thing, but he shifted his shield and intercepted the attacks. The glow of Animus and Chaos negated her Empowered Strike, and the angle of the defence deflected the metal balls.

The Athrodius sidestepped and slashed with his arming sword. She was too far away to be hit, being more than forty paces away, but…

A gleam of metallic light shone from the weapon, and the next thing she knew, an arc of bronze light careened towards her.

Knowing better than to let herself be hit, she slashed down with Fri’Avgi, intent on cutting apart the arc. It was as if she hit a solid metal beam. Oh, it was cut apart, but the reverb against her hands made her freeze for a fraction of an instant.

The Athrodius finished his sideways slash, pulled the blade back behind the shield and kept his glowing red eyes trained at her. He stood there frozen for a couple of seconds while Yuriko watched him warily. Then, he did the same movement, and the same arc of bronzed light flew towards her.

Sunshards slammed into the arc light this time and succeeded in blocking and dissipating the attack. With a confident grin, Yuriko pushed off from the cobblestones, using her kinesis to give her better and stabler footing. With her physical strength, she was more than capable of cracking or shattering stone when she stomped hard on the ground.

In the blink of an eye, she was within striking distance. She veered left, away from the shield arm and spun Fri’Avgi over her head to slash left to right. The Athrodius didn’t make the mistake of blocking with his weapon and instead dropped down to the ground, legs spread wide and waist bent low.

It would have worked if Fri’Avgi were as heavy as she looked. Instead, as soon as the creature ducked, Yuriko arrested her blade’s movement, twisted it so that the edge faced down and slammed it towards the creature’s head.

Somehow, he managed to react to the quick change by leaning to his right and raising the shield at an angle. Fri’Avgi’s edge slammed into the shield and deflected sideways just enough that she cut into the cobblestones instead of the Athrodius’ body or leg. However, the enormous kinetic force, as well as the Animus and Radiant energy invested into the artefact, meant that the Athrodius didn’t get off injury-free.

His metal skin, silvery instead of the usual bronze that she had fought off before, turned orange, and she thought she saw parts of it start to melt. At the same time, he jabbed his sword at her, and only her Anima perception saved her from getting blindsided when bronze light blasted out from the weapon.

The empowered stab skittered off her condensed Anima even as she jerked to the side and penetrated past a couple of layers at her waist, before a fragment of the remnant slammed into the Animus Armour. A ripple emerged from the impact point and spread across her torso, but she was otherwise unharmed.

Yuriko cursed and kicked at the Athrodius. Her heel impacted the shield which sunk back, absorbing her unenhanced blow. It allowed her to put up some distance though, just right for Fri’Avgi’s reach. She slashed again and again at the Athrodius, and he expertly deflected each of her blows and counterattacked with an extended blade or an arclight. Each time, it happened too fast for her to properly react and each time, her condensed aura and Animus Armour saved her from injury.

Clicking her tongue, she instinctively spread her aura into perception mode, even if it lowered her defences by quite a bit. It turned out that the Animus Armour freed up quite a bit of her aura reach, so she was able to keep the same level of defence while only using half of the volume to condense. The remaining half allowed her to expand her aura to two paces away, just barely within Fri’Avgi’s reach.

However, it gave her enough of a warning whenever something entered her perception range, like an arclight slash or stab.

This time, she was able to leverage her flexibility and agility to avoid a stabbing blast. As always, the movement had been concealed behind the Athrodius’ shield, but this time she saw it.

Grinning, she redoubled her assault, adding more and more Animus into the circulation pattern until the dances ate up nearly a hundred lumens a minute. The result was that even the merest touch of her blade imparted enough kinetic energy and heat that the Athrodius’ shield turned orange and dented.

Then, with a powerful overhead swing, she managed to strike the shield dead on. Even if the creature tried to angle it away, the heat had softened the metal enough that the artefact sunk into it instead of deflecting away.

Shwunk!

Half of the Athrodius’ shield as well as part of his arm went flying away. The creature didn’t press the attack but stepped back just out of reach. He straightened out of his combat stance and held his blade in front of his chest in a combat salute.

“Authenticate. Key Wielder Dawn Breaker. Authenticate,” the metal man, repeating what a previous Athrodius said before.

Yuriko opened her mouth to say that no, she still didn’t know what he was asking for. Instead, what came out of her mouth was, “Radiant light brings the dawn. Night falls before the sun.”

It was in the Old Imperial that she could barely understand. Yuriko blinked in confusion, but of course, that had been Damien. Her voice came out in a lower register, too, even though it was still feminine.

“Acknowledge Ancient One. Standing down.”

The Athrodius’ eyes changed from red to blue, and he sheathed his weapon. Then, he stood frozen like a statue.

What just happened?