For a very long moment, Yuriko was tempted to begin Spell Shaping. Not by using the Radiant Lance implement but by going through all of the steps of proper Shaping. The results would have been magnitudes greater and the destruction would have been complete. Why, she was sure a full Radiant Lance would melt right through the Chaos lake, and would probably burn the pure Chaos to fuel it and make it that much more powerful.

And it would also bring down the cavern. Probably.

And, with a long sigh, she turned away from the Femorant formation. If she needed to destroy the nest, all she’d need to do was use her Sorcerous Working away from their reach and simply blast them to pieces. And only if she wanted everything gone. Which she didn’t.

The tower in Cerkala told her that the intrusion must be eradicated in order to open the way back into Synkrasia, but there’s probably another way that could be taken without killing everything in sight. And the fact that the Red Femorant Queen was much more powerful than she was had little to do with her decision. Nope, not at all.

Being at the Knight Commander level, the Queen was just out of reach, but Yuriko supposed that should she progress well into the upper ninety percent of Radiant Body Refinement, she may have a chance to match. Certainly, once her Anima reach goes up beyond ten paces, she’d also transcend a Knight’s power level. So both reaching milestones would give her a chance.

Except, she didn’t see that happening in the near future. The progress for Radiant Body Refinement had slowed to a crawl now that she was past 50%. She didn’t know what to do to accelerate it, and neither Damien nor Fri’Avgi had any useful advice other than to keep at it and wait it out.

Did you think that such power grows quickly? If it did, it would be too shaky. Lay the foundations properly child, you’ll regret it otherwise. Damien said.

‘Yeah, what Dame-dame said!’ Fri’Avgi agreed.

Yuriko ignored both of them as they wandered down the tunnels. Seran led the way this time with Lucian and the rest of the explorers trailing behind. They passed a tunnel intersection, heading straight forward, but no more than a couple of hundred paces ahead, they had to stop.

There was a wall of dirt and stone blocking the path, and the Imperial scout marines looked disturbed.

“That was the path we took. If we have to detour, it may take a whole lot longer since we didn’t go that way,” Seran said sadly.

“Hmmm.” Yuriko hummed while Asami and Orrin exchanged glances. She extended her perceptive aura into the cave in, threading through the little gaps within so she didn’t have to waste her reach going through solids. “Five paces deep. I think the tunnel’s clear afterwards.”

“Oh. Think you can clear it?” Asami asked while Seran looked up in relief.

“Probably,” Yuriko muttered as she used her kinesis to pull the dirt and stones. “We’ll need earthmelders to brace the roof, however.”

She looked expectantly at the explorers, but other than Lucian scuffing his feet, none of them met her eyes.

“What? None of you are earthmelders?”

“No. Sorry,” Lucian muttered.

“That’s…weird,” Orrin said, his antennae quivering and flitting about. “You lot went underground and none of your crew can move dirt and stone with your techniques?”

“They…well…we got separated. When those creatures attacked,” Lucian admitted.

“None of them came back?” Orrin asked.

“No.”

“Ancestors,” Orrin grumbled.

“Peace. It’s fine,” Yuriko said. “I’ll figure out a way. In the meantime, why don’t you boys set up camp and prepare lunch?”

She barely noticed their acknowledgement as she focused on the cave in. She pulled the heavier stones out of the pile, which triggered the dirt to cascade down. She tossed the rocks behind her, but even as she continued to pull the chunks out, she noticed more flowing from above. The tunnel’s ceiling had been breached, which exposed it to more dirt and rock above?

The ceilings were solid stone, but it held back gravel, dirt, and loose stones. The quake had cracked the solid rock in places, afterwards, she assumed the weight of the earth above continued the process.

The solid shell was actually thinner than Yuriko expected. It was roughly an inch wide, and with the current breach, the cracks were slowly widening. Well, if earthmelders aren’t available to fuse the dirt and stones, she’d have to do it herself.

Radiant energy streamed into her Animakinesis, and she infused it into the stone and earth. With the Radiant motes in the pebbles and stones, she could more easily control them. Infusing on loose dirt didn’t quite work as she expected though, with the motes unable to fuse with more than a single particle of dirt. The pebbles, being bigger, also only needed a single mote, which meant she had far less need to diverge her attention. She allowed the Radiant to heat the rocks until they melted, and since they were still infused with Radiant motes, she was able to manipulate them freely.

She spread the molten rocks across the gap, forming a new ceiling. Of course, she now had the problem of cooling the molten rocks down enough so that they became solid. As long as her Radiant energy was infused into them, they would remain heated, but if she removed the motes, she’d also lose control of the semi-liquid rock.

If Gwendith were here, she would’ve pulled the heat out of the rocks fast enough to solidify them before they dripped to the floor. Since she wasn't, Yuriko wracked her head on how to go about it, finally settling on slowly withdrawing the Radiant energy rather than all at once. She had to redo the melding several times over until the molten rock solidified into an actual wall in front of her instead of the cave-in’s dirt and stone. At least she could drill her way through that easily enough.

By the time she was finished, dinner was more than ready. Yup…it took her half the day. Her tummy rumbled with hunger so she scarfed down three bowls of ration bar stew. The Imperial marines were more than stocked for survival, and the Federation’s explorers were carrying several LiJin of Wayfarer’s Bread.

It happened while she finished off her third bowl. Faeril, who had been completely unconscious the entire time, suddenly jolted, sat upright and screamed.

Asami jumped out of her seat, which was nothing more than a small boulder with a flattened top, and dropped her bowl, scattering the rest of its contents. “Ancestors!”

“Ahhhhhh!” Faeril bawled, until one of the marines, Louen Berne, jumped towards the Sha’ledras youth and clamped a hand over his mouth. The boy’s eyes swam in fear, before locking on Louen’s. He struggled for a long moment, and Yuriko could feel his pulse racing through her perception aura.

“Faeril,” she said as she hurried towards him. She waved away Louen and the stocky marine scout nodded and released the boy’s mouth. “Look at me.”

Faeril’s green eyes locked into hers, and she noted the glimmer of recognition burning away the fear. “Yuriko Davar…”

“Yes, you’re safe now.” Yuriko shrugged. “Well, safer than being stuck in the nest….”

“Nest…grandpa!” he yelped. “Where…did you rescue him? Please tell me you did!”

“Wait, wait.” Yuriko let him grab her wrists and that seemed to steady him. “I didn’t see him there. What happened?” That might not have been the right time to ask him to remember as his eyes glazed over and he began trembling something fierce.

“I…I…we…were kicked out of the Hollow,” Faeril stammered, “by the…by the Warforged. They stormed the walls, came over them as though the defences weren’t there. The turrets shot once but no more… then they were through. They…” The distraught Sha’ledras swallowed convulsively. “They captured and subdued, then they tossed us out with just the clothes on our backs…”

“The Athrodius?” Yuriko asked. “Did it say anything?”

Faeril shuddered. “I think so…grandpa yelled at it. Why? It said…the Siderious will not tolerate scavengers.”

“Siderious?” Yuriko frowned at the familiar word. Where had she…? Damien? He was oddly silent, but she could feel him brooding at the back of her mind.

“We left. We had no choice,” Faeril continued. “And then…we were attacked by the anathema beasts!” His voice grew louder and louder until it echoed down the tunnels. Louen and the ones near him flinched, and Lucian walked over, scowling in disapproval.

“Could you keep him quiet?” Lucian hissed. “His shouting will travel far in the tunnels.”

Yuriko gave the man an annoyed side eye, and he backpedalled. “He’s right though,” Yuriko said to Faeril. “We’re not all that far from the Femorants and the skellies.”

“Femorants…” Faeril hissed.“Please…please find my grandpa!”

“I’ll try,” Yuriko answered slowly, “I can’t make any promises. Their queen is at the Knight-Commander level.”

“What?” Lucian yelped. “Grandmaster? Oh, land gods save us.”

“She seems stuck in the Chaos lake,” Yuriko said placatingly, “but that also means we can’t go in and search. We’re headed towards Synkrasia, too.” Yuriko continued. “And one of the things we found out in one of the other cities is that the path is blocked until we wipe out the Femorants.”

Faeril shook his head. “That isn’t true. Rather, there are always paths towards Synkrasia, no matter what you’ve read.”

“Well, there was an earthquake that caved in the tunnels,” Yuriko pointed out. “And then another one just a while ago.”

Faeril looked up desperately. “I know the way. I can make a way. I’m linked to the Hollow and I can open paths towards it. But I need my grandpa.”

“Oh…” Yuriko hummed. “Well, where do you think he is?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know!” Faeril sobbed, “I…I…” Then, he seemed to notice the other Hollower, who was still unconscious. The poor man was lying next to the walls, tended to by the other Imperial marine, Nagi Kinohara. “I’m not even sure if those monsters took him… I…the last thing I remember was a…pain. Pain in my back. Something struck me, then…nothing. I woke up here…”

“Alright.” Yuriko clasped his shoulder and gave a gentle squeeze. “Rest. Eat. You need it. I’ll look for Vaeril. No doubt he’s looking for you, too, if he’s avoided being captured.”

“Oh…yes. Thank you.” Faeril drew a deep breath, shuddered and curled up on himself.

Yuriko sighed and got up. She felt sorry for Faeril’s tribulations, but what he told her made things a lot more complicated than she expected. She’d assumed that the Femorants had invaded Synkrasia and the Warforged fought them off, but in the process, pushed out the Hollowers too. That they were the ones to actually drive off the people… well, she wondered if they would still obey her because of the access codes Damien provided.

And what was the Siderious? Ah!

Wasn’t it the place that was beyond the portal? That the hostility came from there…well, perhaps she’d have to go to the Siderious to recruit the Warforged to her side.

After a suitable rest period, roughly six hours or so, the group continued on their way towards where the Imperial marines were camped. The other Hollower had not woken up, and it increasingly looked as though that became an unlikely event to happen. Faeril identified the man as Harold, but the boy was too worried over his grandpa that he barely gave any attention to the convalescent.

They encountered several more cave-ins, but with practice, Yuriko managed to clear them with just a little bit of difficulty and lost time. Her responsibilities weighed down on her and with Faeril’s request, her burdens seemed nearly impossible to carry. Where would she even start to look for Vaeril? He was either dead or escaped. And if he hadn’t managed to rescue his grandson on his own…

Either way, she must stick to her priorities. She’d go pick up her cousins and aunt, then they’d go back to Cerkala. Afterwards, she’d look for Vaeril if she could, but more importantly, she had to get to Synkrasia to talk and hopefully bring the Athrodius and the Warforged to her side. Afterwards…well, the more urgent thing was to stop the Chaos Duke from subsuming the plane.

The Chaos Duke was two levels above the Femorant Queen’s level, and she would need the weapon Fri’Avgi told her was in Synkrasia…or more likely, in Siderious, to even have a chance. Only once she’d secured that would she have the luxury of looking for Faeril’s family.

Finally, they reached the threshold of the next city. And when Yuriko cleared the final blockage, it was to the sight of the underground city buried under piles of humongous rocks, and of skellies crawling all over it.