The grey-furred blood ape sat on his haunches, with his hands raised up, palms facing them. Gwendith exchanged looks with the twins, and the soldier driving the car. The young man had a twisted expression on his face, however, and had a white knuckled grip on his gun.

“Don’t make a move,” Gwendith said softly, voiced pitched just so only the soldier could hear. He glanced at her, swallowed convulsively, then spat at the snow.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Gwendith got out of the car, looked towards where the older members of Yuriko’s group were, and waited for them to join her. She kept her Anima ready, holding several ice daggers behind her back. Once Sheamus, as well as Horace Greenfield, and the Karecellian company commander, a grizzled veteran by the name of Ruthyard, joined her, they strode towards the ape.

The powdery snow gave the others some trouble so she extended her control around them, using her Ennoia to shape the ice a bit rougher, so that their boots wouldn’t slip from lack of traction.

They approached and stopped nearly five paces from the ape. He looked at her warily, then shifted his gaze to the others, before looking at the battle group. The enhanced machine guns were all pointing towards his torso, but he didn’t seem all that bothered. Gwendith suppressed a shudder when he attempted a reassuring grin, which bared worn down teeth. Not quite intimidating, but his canines still looked sharp. It was his other teeth, incisors, and molars that were worn to nearly a nub.

“We’re here,” Gwendith said by way of greeting. “You wished to parley, so what is it that you’re offering?”

The grey-furred ape chuffed in laughter that had a melancholic bent to it, then he said, “My foolish people know nothing but war and death, even away from the prison plane, our Lord’s corpse, where fighting is not the only path, we fall back to it. But I, and those of us who lived beyond our strife-worn childhood, want something else.” His blood red eyes seemed to flare, “Mortals, humans. Do you only know strife?”

“No, of course not,” Gwendith said, “You wish for peace? You and your kind, invaders and occupiers of this land?”

“We do. Some of us.” He bared his teeth again. “But the children can be…educated.” He tilted his head, and showed greater wisdom by asking, “Do you have authority to negotiate?”

At this, Gwendith and the other Imperials laughed. “No, this is not my land. We’re merely outsiders fulfilling a deal.”

“Understood. Then who among you can do so?”

Gwendith turned to Captain Ruthyard, who, despite the cold, had sweat visible on his forehead. “I’ll need to call the generals.”

“Very well, then may we meet again when you have? We offer plenty in exchange for peace,” he drew a deep breath, “and perhaps, a new home.” He reached behind him, moving his hands extraordinarily slow, then brought forth a chunk of mineral ore and plopped it down in front of him. It was bigger than Gwendith’s head, and sunk between the common stone were veins of glimmering green. “‘Tis but a taste.”

“Very well, but,” Gwendith pointed towards the back mountain. “We came here to help my friend. Something attacked her.”

The ape flinched and muttered. “The fools sacrificed their lives to bring forth the great elder. And for what, a small window of time for destruction before He is pulled back? I will not stop you, but proceed at your own peril. I will approach your camp in three days. Pray do not kill me then.”

Gwendith nodded, then asked, “Your name?”

The grey-furred ape froze, then laughed bitterly. “I have not earned one. Perhaps I will, in the future.” Then, he backed away until he was a few dozen paces from then, spun around and trotted towards the hills.

Gwendith watched him leave, waiting until he crossed over the ridge before turning to her allies and friends.

“Well, take that ore and bring it to HQ. Captain, you’ll need to send a detachment back. We’ll proceed on our own.”

The earth shuddered in counterpoint, and Gwendith grimaced. She and the others got back on their landcraft, all the while thinking that maybe she’d be faster if she ran. However, they would have to leave their back up, and unlike her beloved, she was far from strong enough to fight alone.

They went over and around several hills, having to follow the road as it would around places rather than cutting through. She understood that it would be faster to follow the road rather than the other way around, even if it felt they were taking a step back for every two that they took.

And then, the road abruptly ended. The hills were sheared through, melted by heat, or crumbled to stones. What was before them was a vast crater, and they could now see their target. Yuriko was there, thankfully, her golden glow incredibly visible. Her opponent was nothing but a blur, though in truth, the only thing Gwendith could see were streaks of golden and darklight.

Then, the lights stopped, and the darkness disappeared. Gwendith heaved a sigh of relief, but then, Yuriko suddenly slammed the ground.

The cars that were about to go down into the crater were thrown off course. They bounced up, the wheels having left the ground, and they slammed back down with teeth shattering force.

“Yuri!” she cried out, but then, the rumbling stopped. When she looked towards the center, she found another crater right where Yuriko was, about half the size of the big one. By the time Gwendith got her bearings, Yuriko was floating a dozen paces above the crater’s bottom, in a seated meditation pose, and with sparks of light flashing all around her.

Gwendith started when the landcraft rumbled forward. “Wait, stop,” she said quickly. The driver followed her command but looked at her in confusion. The other cars and tanks continued down the slope. “Wait, signal them to stop!”

“Ah, yes, ma’am!” The driver pressed the a button on the steering wheel, which caused a loud noise to scream out from the car. He pressed it in a pattern, which was deciphered by the other cars and tanks to stop.

Gwendith got out of the landcraft and walked towards Yuriko, but she gestured for the others to wait. Heron followed behind her, his eyes not leaving Yuriko’s form. It took a bit more than a minute to reach her beloved, but it didn’t seem like Yuri realised they were there. She had her eyes closed and Gwendith noticed that there was an inordinate amount of both Animus, and what Yuriko called Radiant energy orbiting around her.

She and Heron exchanged a glance and both of them kept away from the limits of Yuriko’s Anima reach to avoid disturbing her. The dust billowed around her, spinning in a cyclone, while pebbles and bigger stones cracked and crumbled to dust.

“What now?” Heron muttered.

“Nothing but to wait,” Gwendith answered easily. She giggled softly as she stared up at Yuriko, only to swallow her mirth. “Is that blood?”

Heron’s eyes widened and he gaped up at their friend. There was blood, and the overcoat, undershirt, and even her brassiere was torn. There was a large gash along Yuriko’s side. It was at least several inches wide and wrapped around her ribs. But…

Gwendith focused her Enhanced Sight and noted that there was no open wound. Or rather, it had scabbed over. The dried blood was also slowly chipping away, and even as she stared, the revealed skin underneath was no paler than the rest of Yuriko’s alabaster white skin. After a while, she couldn’t even determine where the edges of the wound had been, and it had probably been bigger earlier.

The sight of it, and the barely perceptible tears on Yuriko’s other clothes, made Gwendith’s heart clench in worry, but…

“It’s been a long while since I last saw her bleed,” Heron said ruefully. “Before she was lost in the Chaos Sea. I’m also sure that if we’d reached her while she was fighting, we would be injured or dead.” His hands suddenly clenched so quickly that there was a soft boom of displaced air. He turned to Gwendith, “How far are you from a pace?”

Gwendith responded by flaring her Anima. Pale pinkish blue light spread out and stopped after reaching thirty inches from her skin. Heron nodded and flared his, too. The colour of his Anima was the colour of the clear noon skies, and was almost as far along as hers. It was short by an inch or so.

“I’ve been at this range for weeks now,” Gwendith said, and Heron nodded. “I don’t think we’ll progress further here.”

“I agree. But…” He held out a hand and Gwendith felt more than saw the winds swirl above his palm. After a long moment, however, the dust caught in the miniature gale grew thick enough to make the spherical hurricane visible. Well, that and there was a visual distortion.

Gwendith breathed out a puff of air and stripped the heat from it. The cloud touched Heron’s hurricane and froze every bit of moisture caught in it, creating a flurry of snow. With the heat she got, she gathered it above her other hand, at the tip of her index finger, which created a small flame. That one stretched out and turned into a ribbon, which danced contrary to the breeze.

“It’s our control and understanding of the Ennoias that advanced,” Heron said.

Gwendith smiled dryly. Many of the scientific principles of this region had been helpful, even if some of those rules had to be discarded or bent because they limited her too much. But she agreed. A solid foundation of such principles made manipulating cold and heat much easier.

“Since we can’t advance our Anima reach, then the only way we can grow stronger while remaining here is by improving our Ennoias,” Gwendith repeated the sentiment, before glancing up at Yuriko.

Radiant energy billowed out from her body, and swirled around her. Even more disconcerting, the temperature around them grew higher and higher. The dirt directly underneath Yuriko’s floating form turned orange and melted.

Wordlessly, the two of them retreated far enough that the heat was more manageable. Gwendith shunted it away, while Heron used his control over the winds to create a flowing curtain.

They heard footsteps behind and when they turned around, they found Sheamus and Saki. Both had their eyes focused on Yuriko. Saki paused well back from the edge of Yuriko’s reach, but Sheamus took a few steps closer and stumbled when the heat suddenly grew so much that sweat popped out of his forehead.

He retreated towards Gwendith and Heron, then glanced back. Her gaze followed and found the twins, as well as Asami, trudging towards them. A few soldiers, and Captain Ruthyard followed behind, but the mortals stopped well back from Yuriko’s heat.

“Safe to say the battle’s done, yeah?” Sheamus muttered. “Although the soldier boys wasted time coming here for rescue, the peaceful contact should be worth it.” He looked up at Yuriko again, pursed his lips and muttered, “What is she doing?”

“Training, probably,” Gwendith sighed, “Let’s not disturb her. You can leave a few cars at the edge, set up a defensible camp and send the rest of the boys back to base. If we’re lucky, the campaign will be over soon and we can go back home.”

“Here’s to that,” Heron agreed.

The twins and Asami reached their position, blanched at the heat, but settled into their own form of resistance training. It took some time before Gwendith noticed that the ambient Chaos was much denser here, so she went about distilling Chaos to help feed Desire, who was probably sleeping or meditating back at camp.

The process of making distilled Chaos was a tedious one and could be done with half her attention after so many hours doing it. For the rest, she practiced Ennoia application with Heron.

It was perhaps an hour later when they all noticed the sudden pressure coming off Yuriko, followed by ambient Chaos and Animus so dense that it probably reached three iarvesh. Then,

“I did it!” Yuriko crowed, before blinking owlishly at them and cocking her head sideways. “Er, what are you doing here?”

Gwendith glared up at her beloved, before snorting a laugh. Some things never changed.