Squinting, Yuriko tried to make out what was happening in the pandemonium. She could see wagons and beasts of burden on one side, then a line of men and women on the eastern side of the clearing at the end of the road. From what she could see, the obsidian tower had an opening on its southern face and a courtyard that was at least five times as wide as the road that led to it. The wagons and oxen were in the middle, surrounded by a gaggle of non-combatants. Even as she watched, a wagon and ox pair moved towards the tower’s entrance and disappeared in its darkness.

As for the fight…the warriors seemed like they were attacking empty air. Flashes of Animus light curved away from hands, staves, and blades, and went through open air before disappearing into the forest. Their enemies weren’t toothless either, as every now and then, one of the warriors would stagger back, impaled by some kind of transparent spike.

It took opening her Chaos Sight to see what they were fighting. Wasps. Giant wasps roughly a fifth the size of a man. They were hovering at head height, and every now and then, they would fling their bottoms forwards and a crystalline spike would erupt. There were hundreds of them, most dodging away from the Federation warriors’ attacks.

Yuriko frowned. From what she learned about wasps in the encyclopedia, they weren’t this aggressive unless their nests were in danger. Or perhaps when they were looking for prey? Er, maybe they weren’t wasps at all, but bees? They were huge compared to the everyday insect, but they were narrow in proportion to their body’s length.

Most of them were gathered near the obsidian tower, so maybe the nest was there? Not at the entrance, certainly, otherwise, the fight would have been there rather than off to one side. Hmmm, well, as tempted as she was to just watch, it didn’t look like the Feds were in any danger, not that she would help them anyway. But the danger of the huge insects meant that using this tower to enter the tunnels underneath would be dangerous too. How many towers were there and did each of them have an entrance to the tunnels?

She pulled back and summoned Fri’Avgi to hand, then asked, “Can you show me that map again?”

‘Alright!’

Golden light burst from the red gem and transformed into an image. It first showed the hourglass shape of Rumiga plane, as seen from above, then the map honed in on the split mountain valley at the southern end of the plane. The light construct was detailed enough that she could see the contours of the land, however, none of the cities she’d been to, as well as the villages and towns of the Empire was visible. The River Caradec was but a trickle, and the mountains looked far more jagged than they were now.

‘The map is old, ’ Fri’Avgi squeaked, ‘might not be true anymore!’

“I know. Thank you,” Yuriko said. “Can you show me the tunnels that lead to Synkrasia?”

‘Easily done.’

An overlay of tunnels appeared, and sure enough, there was more than one. Each of the surface entrances was surrounded by a boxy fortress, and there looked to be five of them.

“Thank you, Fri’Avgi,” Yuriko said.

‘Aight!’

While she didn’t see the tunnels lead directly to Synkrasia, she did see that they eventually intersected. So any of the tunnels would lead to her destination. Now, it was only a matter of which one they would use, and her time was best spent looking, rather than gawking at the Federation.

She pulled back away from the clearing and went back west for a longstride. Then she climbed up the crown of a tree until she had penetrated past the canopy. The thin branches would have snapped at her weight, which was much heavier than she remembered at a hundred Jin. Her Animakinesis spread out her weight across several branches and the air itself though, so the branch she was on didn’t even dip down by an inch.

The obsidian tower dominated the skyline, but off in the distance, northwest of where she was, she could see another tower. Maybe a dozen leagues away?

She jumped up and created Anima wings. She glided towards that tower at a respectable speed, just a bit faster than she could run. The winds blew at her back, which actually helped push her onwards.

“Just need to check the tower before finding a path,” she muttered, justifying to herself why she changed her plans.

Halfway to that tower, the winds changed and pushed her southwards rather than north, so she dropped back to using the arboreal roads, popping above the canopy every now and then to check her bearing.

She supposed she was going too fast for any of the cats to get to her, as nothing interrupted her journey. A couple of hours later, she was standing in a clearing, an overgrown courtyard surrounding the tower’s base.

Weeds poked out of the cobblestones, and there was a strange scent in the air. It was a sharp scent, akin to ashes and a coming storm. A glance at the skies showed dark grey clouds low enough to touch the tower. Blue flashes of light were followed by rolling thunder. Droplets of rain…no, hail. The ice pellets were as large as her fist and struck the ground only to shatter into mists. Lightning…

“Should I try to get hit?” she muttered.

The last time lightning struck her she’d been able to advance her Radiant Body Refinement by several percentage points. It would save her weeks of training should she do it.

Well, she needed to check the tower anyway. Some of the lightning struck the tower, but little more than sparks ensued from the violence. She quietly crossed the courtyard, then circled the tower’s base. It was around a hundred and fifty paces around, and she found the gate closer to the southeast than south side. Well, she called it a gate, but there was nothing barring her from entering the tunnel. Except for the darkness anyway.

The obsidian tower also reminded her of the heaven-reaching pillar that connected Kogasi and Bella planes. Although this one led to the tunnels below rather than above. There was also little sign that this had been the centre of a fortress. Except for the courtyard anyway. With her perceptive aura, she could see more stones underneath the millennial accumulation of dirt and grass. And while she couldn’t see far, she was sure there were chambers underneath it. Perhaps the path to get to it would be through the tower?

Or, through a buried stairwell.

She found one near the northwest corner, under a pile of eroded rocks. She could probably excavate it and explore what was hidden underneath, but the storm and the lightning wouldn’t wait for her forever, while this one had been covered and hidden for who knew how long.

She piled the rocks into a more obvious and eye-catching pile then turned towards the tower. She thought it was obsidian, but up close, she wasn’t quite so sure. It didn’t have that smoothness at all. Well, it was black. She touched the stone and it felt rough under her fingers. Her Anima penetrated less than a pace deep, and it was solid stone throughout all of that. Still, her kinesis allowed her to grip the wall, and she could climb it easily from the outside.

It was about seventy paces of tower beneath the clouds. She pulled herself up the side with her fingers and kept her body restriction up in order to get the most out of this training. As far as she could tell, there was nothing near the tower that could threaten them, so after she was done, she would plot out a course through the forest to get here safely.

Hand over hand, she climbed up. Despite the restriction, she managed to climb up within ten minutes. The clouds were just in front of her nose, and despite the fact that her perception easily saw through them, there was just that little bit of hesitation before she could go into someplace where she could barely see. She reached up and was through the clouds in an instant.

Crackle!

Brakoom!

Lightning struck a couple of paces away. Electric snakes spread out across the black stone, and some of it entered her body. Most of the energy was ablated by her Anima, but enough wormed its way to her body that she froze for a long moment. Then, she continued. That little bit wasn’t even enough to spur her Radiant energy for longer than an instant.

Lightning struck a couple more times, but nowhere near her at the time. She would have to do something to actually call the lightning to her. She remembered the sand rubbing against her Anima back in the desert, which somehow attracted the lightning to her. There was no sand nearby, but she also knew that carrying something metallic, like her arming sword, would also attract lightning.

She reached the top of the tower a minute or so later. It was only thirty paces above the cloud line, but that wasn’t really the noteworthy thing. The clouds covered her vision but from what her perceptive aura could tell, the roof was entirely flat. A surface nearly as smooth as glass, covered in just enough abrasion that a foot wouldn’t immediately slip. However, the rain and dampness made this place far more treacherous. Her kinesis kept her stable and her sense of balance easily adjusted to how she could stand and walk so that she wouldn’t slip. Still, she decided that she didn’t need to go the the roof’s centre to make use of the lightning storm.

She drew the arming sword from its scabbard and raised it up high, then waited.

Any time now…

Huh.

Krakoom!

But the bolt of lightning didn’t strike the sword. It struck the opposite side of the roof from where she was instead.

Grumbling under her breath, Yuriko sheathed the blade and flared her Anima to its full reach. Still, none of the lightning hit her, and what few sparks reached her Anima was swallowed and neutralised without issue. For that matter, the lightning within her body from back then had already faded away, or perhaps, had grown so faint that she could notice it.

She spun streams of her Anima around the other layer, crisscrossing the flow such that each one brushed slightly against the others. She could feel a bit of lighting potential at the edges, so she kept up. The clouds began to lighten and she hurried her efforts, spinning and brushing faster and faster until sparks flew from the edges into the clouds instead.

Brakoom!

A bolt of blue lighting struck her Anima and forced its way in. However, the resistance it encountered ablated its might until a fraction of a fraction was left. It barely even tingled when it touched her skin.

“More,” she said hungrily, and the clouds and lightning answered.

She was struck by dozens of bolts every second, but none of them could so much as harm her Anima now. Well, her training idea fell down the drain. Rotter.

She stopped trying to absorb the lighting to further her Radiant Body Refinement and kept them instead to trigger awakenings. She guessed a few things from what happened before, and the lighting was simply a catalyst for the unawakened to feel their Animus reserves. They would need to reach the brink through training and desire first. Perhaps there were other and better ways, but the lightning was convenient.

A few minutes later, the lighting storm finished, and the clouds began to clear up. Yuriko got up from her seated meditation pose and stretched out the kinks in her muscles. The roof wasn’t flat and had a very slight slope, peaking at the centre, she supposed. She spun around, intending to stand at the highest point and observe the landscape around her.

Krrrrrrrkt!

Only to be met with the sight of a white-furred monkey clad in azure robes, in a seated meditation pose right in the middle of the roof. Golden lightning snakes danced around the monkey and the ornate bronze staff it held cradled between its arms. Even as Yuriko looked, the monkey sensed her gaze and its eyes snapped open.

Golden green eyes met hers, and the monkey bared its teeth, while little lighting snakes crawled all over its fur.