The journey through the portal felt nearly the same as when they first went through the portal back in Synkrasia. It was the same feeling of time passing by, while they were stuck in a daze, well, at least, for most of the others. With Fri’Avgi out, Yuriko’s consciousness wasn’t affected by the Chaos tunnel, and she felt every subjective second of the journey.

Or rather, it might have taken hours. Her timesense had stopped working as soon as they went through, so she had nothing to mark time against. Not even breaths, or heartbeats. It was quite a disconcerting feeling especially since she couldn’t move, and neither could her Anima. Still, it wasn’t as if she could do nothing.

The Chaos tunnel was a wonder. She could see the Deep Chaos Sea beyond, with an iarvesh rating so high that it had surpassed normal methods of measurement. To be frank, anything beyond 10 iarvesh was difficult to measure since none of the Empire’s instrumentation could measure that far. What one had to gauge was how much the Chaos pressed down against them, but even that was fully subjective. Someone with a strong Anima wouldn’t feel that the pressure of the Depths was anything to worry about, but a Knight would have their defences crumble beyond 10 iarvesh.

Come to think of it, in the True Refraction, the iarvesh level felt like it was at ten, wasn’t it?

Anyway. It wasn’t just the sight of the Deep Chaos Sea that fascinated her. It was the tunnel itself. The edges were covered in runescript formations, and it was all she could do not to cry from being unable to copy them down. The meanings and syntax looked to be perfected versions of what the Empire used, and it bore similarities to Damien’s syntax as well as the Karcellians. It was a perfect merger of the three, but even as she looked and read, she felt the knowledge slipping from her mind, from her Anima. They were too esoteric, and she wasn’t able to grab hold of it.

There was one thing, though. Karcellian methodology had an aspect of sacrificial power, wherein they destroyed a material, reactive malachite in that case, and used it to fuel effects that would have required far more lumens than was possible. It was the one aspect on the tunnel wall that she managed to retain, only because she understood that the Chaos tunnel was destroying ambient Chaos to fuel the runescript lines and maintain its stability.

It was a fascinating piece of work actually. It was as if the tunnel, which only widened to accommodate them, and was normally narrower than a piece of string, fueled the movement, stasis, and sustenance aspect, with the destruction of the surrounding Chaos, as well as the collapsing tunnel behind them. It made use of every bit of incidental entropy to fuel its effects, essentially allowing the system to work without adding additional Animus or dedicating too much space to creating Animus gathering runescript or even Chaos conversion.

Destroy. Harvest. Channel.

It was all she could do to memorise the patterns. Well, it helped that it repeated throughout the entire space they were in. While she wasn't sure she could etch those words into her Anima, she could definitely use it somehow.

The hours passed by in a blur. Once her focus was on something other than passing time, the hours seemed to flash by. Then…

She felt their movement screech to a halt. The outside showed the Chaos Sea, but it was no longer the dark and dangerous Depths. It was closer to what she witnessed when she travelled the Chaos Sea on her own. Also…there was a strange…resistance.

There was a barrier stopping them from going through. It wasn’t that strong but the push from the Chaos tunnel wasn’t all that forceful. Fri’Avgi was still in Yuriko’s hands, and she was still in Ignition, so what she held was more like an arming sword with an extra long handle. The blade shards were placed in equidistant positions around her, and when she Willed them, they moved towards the barrier. As soon as the tip touched the entrance, the resistance vanished and they were pulled through.

As she passed by the threshold, she could see the chamber ahead. It was a spherical space, with several portal rings mounted on some kind of moving platform. Only those at the center were active while the rest were tucked into the walls.

But as they passed through, the scenery at their exit point shifted.

‘No!’ Yuriko shouted mentally as she felt some fell influence try to change the portal chamber’s settings. But her Will was like a cow standing on a locomotive’s railway, only to be swept aside with barely a stutter. Pain spiked in her mind, but she forced herself through it. The influence shifted the chamber slightly, and before the rest could even regain consciousness, they were swept into a smaller portal. Yuriko was thrown through as well, but the journey this time was instantaneous, and she felt that they were in the same general area. Within the same plane, hopefully, but she didn't know how big this place was.

Where they wound up was a fairly large chamber. It had grass for flooring, and even fruiting trees that were at least five paces or so from each other. She wasn’t the only one to notice the trees and the ripe fruits hanging from the branches. There were many that were familiar, peaches, apples, and other varieties that really shouldn’t have been able to thrive here. She saw lemons and other citrus trees in the distance too.

Well, it was a good thing they had not been starved, otherwise, the aroma of the fruits would have overwhelmed their senses…

“Darren, what…?” Yuriko blinked as the woman scaled up the tree and plucked an apple from the branch. She bit into it after wiping it on her sleeves, and almost fell off it when she swooned.

“Iz good!”

Yuriko plucked one using her kinesis, sniffed it, then took a nibble. It was sweet, and actually a tad overripe, but Darren was right, it was delicious. The others grabbed several pieces, eating a couple, while putting the rest away. At the very least, they wouldn’t starve here.

“Enemy ahead!” One of the marines, who ventured nearly a couple of hundred paces from where they appeared, yelled. The warning was followed by the sound of her Plasma Caster firing.

Yuriko tried to use Enhanced Sight, but the trees’ positioning actually meant that she couldn’t see beyond fifty paces because they were physically blocking the way. Instead, she ran towards the marine, only to hear another scream in warning, from the opposite side. “Hostiles!”

‘Go check it, Heron!’

‘Yes!’

She continued towards the first marine and found what she had shot at. It was already dead, with a burnt hole in the middle of its head. The insectile body twitched a few times but ultimately perished.

“A wingless giant hornet?” Yuriko murmured. The insectoid was as large as a land raptor, nearly three paces long and two high. “It attacked you?”

“Yes, ma’am.” The marine, Selene Nimdahl, answered. “It charged at me while making aggressive postures.”

“I see. Keep watch for now.”

Selene nodded and Yuriko spun and made her way to the other marine. When she got there, she saw Roland standing over the dismantled corpse of another gigantic hornet. Unlike Selene’s, this one had been violently torn limb from limb. The wolfkin was also examining the meat in its legs and body. Kassy had already shucked the exoskeleton and sniffed the muscle fibers.

“Looks like it’ll be edible,” the wild cat-kin said with a satisfied smirk. “We won’t stave anytime soon.”

“Agreed,” Yuriko nodded. “But I think we should look for shelter first.”

“As you wish,” Kassy smirked.

Soon enough, more giant hornets had been found and killed. The brutes were aggressive enough to ignore numbers, but it was also possible that they were in the insectoids’ territory. Actually, that was the most likely reason for the hostility. Still, she could see the edges of the orchard, even after she climbed up the trees. She tried flying next but encountered a ceiling just fifty paces up. The stone reflected the skies outside, and her Anima couldn’t penetrate even a fraction of an inch into the material.

Some of the trees were high enough to brush against the invisible ceiling, and there were enough of them that she could see past a certain point, maybe a couple of leagues. She also had no idea where to go.

Hmmm, there was that faint thing pulling at her consciousness. She hadn’t noticed until just a while ago when she started to meditate. She’d have to go to the dreamscape to get more information, so she told Gwendith and Heron that she’d be out of it for a while. She settled into a seated meditation pose beneath the leaves of a mango tree and reached for the dreamscape…

When she opened her eyes, the Chaos flows of the dream were turbid. Dozens…no, hundreds? Thousands? Threads of Fate clung to her body. They were thin threads, narrower than a strand of spider silk and they all came from one direction. And when she touched a thread, trying to see who it connected to, she only got an image of a stranger. But she recognized the fashion and it was definitely Karcellian.

The threads headed to the Irvalla region? Did she meet that many people?

She brushed the threads aside, trying to sever them, but oddly enough, almost as soon as she did, different threads attached to her, and even the ones she severed returned to stick to her almost as once. Why?

Snorting in annoyance, she changed her focus to the one she needed to look for but froze when she realised that there were far more threads, thick, chain-like connections to those she really cared about. Gwendith, Heron, Desire, Orrin, Braden, Asami, Sheamus, Saki…the threads towards the marines, beast-kin, and the Haveenians were there, too, but thinner. And…

Two chains that were both thick, yet gossamer thin. Her parents.

They were here.

Trembling, Yuriko lurched out of the dreamscape and stumbled to her feet.

Heron. She called, though she wasn’t sure if she actually said anything. The boy rushed up to her, face painted with worry as his eyes focused on her eyes, then at her hands.

“What is it? Yuri?”

Gwendith must have sensed her shaken emotions too since the girl ran up to her, followed by Saki. “What happened?”

“Heron…I feel my Da’s presence. Here.”

“Your father…?” He tilted his head in confusion, and it dawned on his face a couple of seconds later. “My father too? The expedition!”

Heron bounced on his toes, looking like he was about to go off running if only he knew where to go. He looked at her, his eyes wide and hopeful, pleading.

“I…” Yuriko coughed, “I can’t tell where exactly. That way, for sure.” Pointing towards the direction close to where Selene killed the hornet. “But I don’t know what’s between us and them…and…” She frowned, “There may be Fysallis between us. The connection is firm, I know they’re here, but I also so they’re not going to be easy to reach.”

“I…thank you,” Heron said. “At least we know they’re here…I almost lost hope.”

“Uh, I only know my parents are here. I’m not sure about your father. Sorry…”

“It’s fine.” Heron took a deep breath. “That’s more than enough.” He forced a grin. “Heh, now I’m the one who found the lost boy, hehehe.”

Yuriko returned his smile, then said, “Well, let’s head that way and let’s see what’s there.”

As the others gathered supplies, plucking fruits and harvesting meat, Yuriko returned to the dreamscape to look for the thing that was calling to her. Whatever it was, it was definitely in this place. But she couldn’t pinpoint the source.

Soon, they left the grove. But it turned out that the orchard was far wider than they expected. The fruit trees eventually gave way to grain fields, and there were more of the giant hornets around. But this time, they didn’t kill the insectoids, since there were far too many.

It was only when the skies turned dark at dusk when Gwendith posed a question, one sent a shiver down her spine.

“When we arrived here, where was the portal? I couldn’t find it.” Gwendith asked.

Yuriko hadn’t found it either, but the more important point was that…she forgot to look. And she knew that she wasn’t that careless. Something else was messing with her senses, and she…she knew that something had happened during the Chaos tunnel…at least when they arrived. As for the passage itself, what she saw there had slipped from her memories, and the only thing she remembered was the runescript words.

Destroy, Harvest, Channel.