Worryingly, Faeril and the other man were still unconscious by the time morning came along. Yuriko, Asami, and Orrin prepared breakfast. While the porridge was cooking, Yuriko relented and used her Anima perception to get a better look at the two.

Faeril’s body, though it had recovered some weight and muscle mass, was still looking slightly withered. As for the other, Yuriko didn’t see much improvement, and they needed more food and drink, both of which she had no idea how to give to the unconscious patients. Fortunately, Asami and Orrin had an inkling how.

“I think we can dribble liquified food and water down their throats as long as we avoid the windpipe,” Orrin said while his antennae twitched nervously.

The two tendrils betrayed his emotions despite how well he kept his face impassive, and from what Yuriko could tell, he only knew theory. Sharom Academy didn’t teach healing or other similar techniques, aside from what could be done with runescript and spellweaving. When questioned, he simply said, “I’ve read some in the library.”

Asami, however, could draw upon what she witnessed in the healers’ quarters back in Rumiga City. “There’s a homeostasis runescript formation usually coupled with regeneration runescript aids in hospitals. I…I’m not sure how they’re written though. As for food and water, the runescript formation takes care of it, but some kind of slurry is usually loaded into one of the formation nodes. As for battlefield healing, well, protocol is to bring the wounded to the healers.”

A tube to deliver the liquified ration bars and water should do the trick, and with Yuriko’s acute perception and Animakinesis, the only thing they need to prepare are the actual tubes.

Again, Yuriko wove the tubes out of her Animus. Unfortunately, like the pot, it leaked. So she created another sheath, long and narrow, then curled it around itself to form the tube. She made a bit of an overlap so that it didn’t meet edge to edge and, hopefully, wouldn’t leak.

The ration bar porridge needed more water so that it would slide down the tube properly. She also formed a funnel, and another tube so that Faeril and the other man wouldn’t have to share. Afterwards, they waited for the porridge to cool.

Manipulating the tube to go down Faeril’s throat through his mouth brought about gagging and coughing, until Orrin remembered that the tube should go up the nose instead.

“But, it’s the nose, not the mouth!” Yuriko protested.

“It connects to the throat!”

A quick examination revealed that he was right, so Yuriko guided the tube up Faeril’s nostril, carefully making sure it doubled back down towards his throat. Threading the thing down towards his tummy was nervous work, but thankfully, her Animakinesis couldn’t shake or tremble. As soon as she was reasonably sure that whatever they push down the tube would head directly to his tummy, Yuriko gestured for Asami to pour a little bit of the runny porridge into the funnel. The goopy mixture stuck on the tube until Asami sent a bit of wind into it, afterwards, the mixture shot straight down.

Faeril didn’t react much, so they had her pour down his share of ration bars and water, then she allowed the tube to unravel and dissipate.

She was gentler with inserting the tube into the weaker man, and in short order, accomplished the feeding and watering. Already, Faeril’s complexion was much better, which was a relief.

Still, they can’t stay in this area for long and Yuriko wished that the two would recover enough so they wouldn’t have to be carried. Neither Asami nor Orrin was strong enough to carry them and still be able to fight or run.

Well, she would do what had to be done, and she wasn’t willing to abandon anyone she’d already helped.

After observing the two invalids for a while to make sure that nothing went wrong with the feeding, Yuriko and Orrin aimed to make their current shelter as secure as possible. With no roof, the interior was visible to anyone looking from on high. Even from the shadow of the walls, Yuriko could easily see the pillars, which meant anyone on the towers with a good vision-enhancing technique could see them even now. Thankfully, the pillars visible from here were empty. Unless they could see through the stone, or if there were tiny blinds or something.

There wasn’t much she could do about that, except move a few boulders to create a shaded area between the walls, which also broke line of sight. At least that should keep the two invalids out of sight.

Asami, for her part, used her Wind Scour every minute or so, to make sure that no one was sneaking around them. Her range was wider than Yuriko’s reach by twice as much, so she was an ideal scout. The only issues would be if her technique got detected, which would alert them that there was someone snooping around. It was a risk, but better than getting ambushed.

Even late at night, neither of the two woke up, so Yuriko, Orrin, and Asami set up a watch rotation and settled down to rest. Yuriko took the first watch and spent most of it in silent contemplation. One of the first things she mulled about was how she managed to escape the Femorant Queen.

Damien said that the creature was barely at the Manifestation Stage, but she wasn’t so sure that was the only reason. The sight of the queen’s manifested Animus chasing after her, despite being long out of reasonable sight and range, was frightening. But also, exciting. If that’s what kind of power she’d possess in the future…she could envision sunblade manifestations striking from leagues away, at targets she wouldn’t know of until it reaches them. Or setting the shards to protect her or her friends without needing any input from her at all.

All of that meant she was sure that the Femorant Queen had let them go instead of her escaping. Why?

Of course, those were just her guesses, and there was no reasonable means of being certain. And, since she couldn’t answer why, either, she worried about the problem until everything was a jumbled mess by the time her watch was done.

The next day, her eyes were gummy and her mouth was dry. She checked Orrin and Asami if anything else happened after their exposure to the Chaos lake, but other than Orrin’s ant-like mutations, nothing else. Those antennae were pretty expressive actually. They drooped while he ate ration bar porridge, flickered excitedly when they chatted and stiffened nervously whenever he looked outside.

After they fed the two unconscious men, Orrin brought up his thoughts, “We’ll have to carry them, I’m afraid. They’re not waking up. They aren’t Knights, are they?”

“They’re not,” Yuriko answered. If they were, they would have put up more of a fight against the Femorants.

“Then perhaps their Animas were damaged by the exposure?”

“Undoubtedly,” Asami said dryly. “But, I agree. We should return to the others. We’ve got limited supplies and I’d assume they’d grown frantic with our absence.”

“Very well.” Yuriko sighed. “Let’s see if we can find our way back to Cerkala.”

“Well, I can tell you that Braden’s that way,” Orrin said, his antennae waving about excitedly. The direction he pointed was back towards the Chaos tunnels, but Yuriko hoped that he meant beyond that rather than having to go into the tunnels and back into the lake.

At least with a heading, they could always adjust their course, even if the tunnels beyond this ruined city might be a maze that twisted and turned. What she was worried about was that every tunnel they might pick would come close but ultimately turn away.

They packed up what little gear they had out. No bedrolls or blankets. Yuriko had slept using her explorer’s coat as a pillow. She barely felt cold now, due to the warmth her Radiant Essence gave out, so she didn’t mind. Asami had snuggled up next to her while Orrin suffered in silence, curled up in a little ball. She would have invited him to share their warmth, but it hadn’t occurred to her to do so until the next morning.

As for Faeril and the other man, for the moment, she carried them with her Animakinesis. Orrin and Asami would take over if they needed to, but lately, she’s been fighting more with her sunshards than her body. Fri’Avgi was still her strongest weapon, but the Radiant Lance was actually the most destructive thing she could do. Ah, she’d need her full attention to successfully cast it though, so no spells while carrying two unconscious men.

They exited their previous shelter and oriented towards where Orrin pointed. They stuck mainly to the smaller roads and side alleys, though most of the walls were barely half of her height. It was better than nothing even if she had to climb over piles of rubble. These looked somewhat new, though. The stone’s edges were still sharp rather than worn away by years of exposure to the elements. Well, underground, the elements must be milder with no rain or snow.

Looking up, she saw the darkness between the cracks in the ceiling. Perhaps the same earthquake that caved in the tunnels to Synkrasia was also responsible for this?

From her perception aura, she noticed Orrin’s antennae stiffen, then orient towards his left. His head soon turned to follow and his feet stopped moving.

“What is it?” Yuriko asked curiously.

“I…I don’t know. I smell something familiar…”

“You smell something?” Yuriko asked doubtfully, while Asami eyed the boy with an arched eyebrow. He coloured faintly.

“Yes. Something. I feel like we should go check.”

Since the direction he pointed at wasn’t that much of a divergence from where they were currently heading towards, Yuriko agreed.

“Wouldn’t this just be a needless diversion?” Asami protested.

Yuriko shrugged. “At the moment, as long as we find a tunnel leading out of this city, it’ll all be the same.”

“Oh. I suppose you’re right.”

So they followed Orrin’s direction. There was a point wherein the roads were so filled with rubble that they were no longer qualified as roads, but thankfully, they could clamber over the buildings broken by the side, or over the mounds as well. Yuriko’s perception and kinesis meant that even treading upon loose stone she could easily catch stumbles and prevent falls.

They must have crossed nearly a longstride on Orrin’s trail. It wasn’t straight either, but twisted and turned, following a path, across the debris. It was actually on the more stable parts of the loose stone piles, from what Yuriko could tell. Then, she heard something.

Boom! Crunch! Hiss! Raaagh!

Roars and the sound of clashing weapons? The three of them exchanged glances and Asami’s Wind Whisper connected the three of them.

“Look, leave, or hide?” Asami began.

“You two hide and I’ll look,” Yuriko said.

“Please don't leave us alone again.” Orrin shivered.

“Oh, uhm, I guess we’ll hide and sneak,” Yuriko said.

“Shouldn’t we just leave?” Asami pointed out.

“We might have to face whatever’s making that noise on the way out,” Yuriko answered.

“Fine, do what you want,” Asami grumped, then added in an undertone outside of Wind Whisper but was nevertheless audible to Yuriko, “that’s what you always do anyway.”

The sounds were coming from another block away. The buildings across the road were little more than walls with rubble in between, but it was taller than she was from the street level. She carefully climbed over the loose stones, using her kinesis to keep herself and the rubble stable. She peeked over the crest and frowned.

There were Femorants across the block, workers and warriors. But what they were fighting was what surprised her.

It was those walking skeletons in armour they encountered outside of Uaran. And they were crushing the Femorants as though they were bugs under their heels.

Even as she watched, the worker and warrior ants tried to grapple and prize apart the skellies’ armour plates, but were swatted aside and skewered in turn. Not that the fight was completely one-sided, however. Enough warrior ants could destroy a skelly by stabbing into the armour and crushing the bones underneath but usually lost their limbs in the process. The Femorants were bunched up, while there was a line of them rushing towards the battlefield stretching out behind. The skellies weren’t organized either and were just marching inexorably onwards. The road they were on would eventually lead to where Yuriko and the others exited the Chaos lake, though not directly at the tunnel.

Well, if those two groups were headed to the Abyss of mutual destruction, then they were more than welcome to it. Yuriko snorted and was about to retreat, except movement across the road, and on the opposite buildings caught her eye.

An activation of Enhanced Sight later, and a copious amount of squinting and alternating use of Chaos Sight, eventually allowed her to pierce the stealth technique. It was a man in nondescript clothing, staring down avariciously at the fighting skellies and Femorants. Her prolonged gaze might have tipped him off since he glanced up towards her hiding place and she saw his eyes widen. He scooted backwards until he was mostly out of sight, and then, he was gone.