Their very first clash resulted in Yuriko’s loss. A sunblade pair struck at the Chaos swordsman, going for an overhead slice. A second pair moved to strike from his right. The way she angled the blades, it was as if she was there in front of her foes, controlling the weapons with both hands. In fact, she could feel the way the sunblades’ hilts pressed against her palm. The Radiant gauntlet felt like an extension of herself, and because she felt that way, and the fact that her Anima, Animus Core, and body were suffused with Radiant energy, the gauntlet sent feedback to her mind. It was really as if her hands were inside the hourglass gauntlets. Even if there was a separation because no matter what, those gauntlets were thick and normally made out of metal, the existence of that feedback raised her swordsmanship to new heights.

She expected the Chaos swordsman to evade her exploratory strikes, but instead of taking a simple backstep, the man met her Radiant sunblades directly. The swords met edge to edge, something that still made her wince for all that the weapons she used now were conjured, hence entirely disposable. Were she to use her Arclight Sword, she would not use it to parry that way lest she cause the edge to roll. As it were, the Chaos swordsman’s blades were material weapons, even if they were clad in roiling crimson flames. And it was those flames that protected the metal from being damaged.

At the same time, the sunblades and crimson flames negated each other explosively.

Boom!

The sunblade and hourglass gauntlets nearly shattered. They leaked Radiant-infused Animus, however, which the Chaos swordsman handily avoided by stepping back. Then he looked up at Eli’Theria and mockingly waved a beckoning hand. Yuriko clicked her tongue but didn’t fall for the provocation. That single exchange alone proved that her singular opponent was probably at least a strong Chaos viscount.

There were a dozen more sun blade pairs at her command. Yuriko controlled two and sent them to attack. Her senses were linked to the gauntlets, but she could also somewhat feel as though the sunblades were also part of her body…

The first dance in ascendance, she probed the swordsman with a flurry of blows, this time making sure not to meet the crimson flames head-on. For while the sunblades’ Radiant energy was consumed, the crimson merely flickered and was renewed a moment later. They were fighting in Chaos, and the swordsman visibly drew Chaos into himself to replenish his Well.

“Tsk.”

Yuriko’s blades danced. Her focus was entirely on the battle. The swordsman didn’t move from where he stood, and he easily parried her attacks. Feeling more than a little frustrated, Yuriko sent another two blade pairs. The strain of controlling four blades while acting as if they were connected to her…it was hard. She felt her mind heat as she struggled to prevent the blades from simply mirroring each other. She was used to the sunshards and blades acting almost independently, but she knew doing that now would result in wasted Animus.

The swordsman simply parried, leaned out of the way, or batted the sunblades out of the way. Yuriko tried to catch his counterattacks with the gauntlets, as those were sturdier than the blades, but every time, he simply shifted the angle of his blows and struck at the blades. The crimson flames burst, and the Radiant energy dissipated or exploded. Every time the latter happened, a sheen of crimson light appeared just a couple of inches from the swordsman’s body and deflected the shock.

Yuriko and Eli’Theria moved closer. Even though the Colossus amplified her Anima, the extra fifty paces weren’t as sensitive or flexible as her natural reach. In fact, she contemplated moving out of Eli’Theria since the feedback from her weapons felt dull. Eli’Theria’s protections extended to the mind and Anima after all.

“Is this all you can do?”

The swordsman’s words were flat, disinterested. And it was that tone that riled up Yuriko’s anger. She controlled another pair, gritting her teeth as she spread her focus even further. And while she thought leaving Eli’Theria was unwise, she opted to ignore the Colossus’ body to focus on the blades. Eli’Theria stopped moving, and simply stood with her feet planted on the ground, arms crossed.

‘You can do it, mistress!’ Fri’Avgi yelled.

‘Take care, young Ancient,’ the Colossus cautioned.

The battle, if it could even be called that, had lasted for several minutes already, and there were no signs of other Chaos Lords. At the back of her mind, she wondered if they even appeared in this layer, but it seemed the Chaos Fortress’ defenders deemed this lone swordsman to be more than a match for her. He was, but only with the sword.

And Yuriko could admit that freely and was more than eager to keep fighting.

This was it. She could hone her swordsmanship and perhaps…achieve something that would help balance things out with her Radiance. An Ennoia of Swords? Such as one Swordmaster Kinohara touched? But could one even touch more than one Ennoia? Or would the fact that her Radiance was at Colligia change things?

Her instincts tell her that she could touch more than one. That to do so was actually ideal. Very few things that are pure, too pure, are resilient. Pure Radiance left her bereft of control, but what if she channelled it through the sword?

Eight pairs now. They swung, sliced, chopped, and thrust. One set looking to find weakness, another to defend and deflect the blows, a third to strike as powerfully as she could. A fourth to play with time, speeding up and slowing down, disrupting the swordsman’s rhythm. A fifth to resonate with the element of flames, igniting the ambient around the blade. A sixth to cover the space with jade rocks and metal. A seventh to conjure ice and snow, water flowing from solid to liquid, to gas. All the better to smother the man’s crimson flames. An eighth to call the winds, and bring it all together.

The sword pairs surrounded the Chaos swordsman at eight points of the compass, and the ninth pair attacked from above, moving to the tune of the Ender’s Waltz. Animus and Radiant energies gushed from Yuriko’s Anima, feeding and empowering the nine pairs of blades and the gauntlet. Animus from her core, Animus from her runescript weavings. Animus drawn into her body and infused with unlimited Radiant energy borne from her Essence. Radiant energy infused into her physique, and into her Anima. She was Radiance. Radiance…was Yuriko.

She could feel it. The stirrings of Transformation. But it was not yet complete. The one thing that brought Anima, body, and Animus together…was still incomplete.

Swords…

She took them up after her Atavism denied her desire to wield the Davar Heritage. She had shed all regret during her journey and with the culmination of her World Trials. She accepted what she was, but she didn’t stay the same. She grew. She changed. And with parts of her disparate desires scattered through different paths, how was she to move forward?

Swordsmanship. Sorcery. Shaping. Spellweaving. Trinity Cycle. Ender’s Waltz. The Adamant Guardian Seal. All different paths and each could be bolstered and empowered by Radiance.

However, Radiance alone was not enough. Add too much and the power would overwhelm her. What use was so much strength if she could not bring it to bear? And of all the paths she walked, two would allow her to shape it properly. Swords. Sorcery.

But the latter…she had little experience. Her little experiments, a bit of training, and a lot of studying…

Was Sorcery her path?

No. It was her Mum’s. It was also what Sadeen wanted for her, even to the detriment of everything else. Sorcery was potent, but it was not Yuriko’s passion.

Swords were. She enjoyed it. Fighting up close, using her body, using her wits, speed, and skill…those were a pleasure. Even if she fought at a distance now well, why couldn’t she use that instead? She had taken the first step, and honestly, with her Anima reach growing, it would make little difference. And when she reached Manifestation, her distant swordsmanship would gain slivers of her Will and Intent. Then, no matter how far her body was, she would be right there in the midst of the fight.

Sorcery was a path to supplement her main one, to make things easier for herself, but it was not her path to Exaltation.

She felt she could touch it soon. The Ennoia of Swords. A concept of battle, but something was stopping it. A thick barrier that prevented her fingertip from dipping in…

The Chaos swordsman defended against her multidirectional assault. Not easily, but with grace and poise. Yuriko’s attacks weren’t in unison, she realised. There was a gap between each pair. A minuscule one that lasted less than a fraction of a second, but it was there anyway.

And now that she was so close to touching the Ennoia, she could feel a…resonance…with him.

The Chaos Lord had touched the Ennoia of the Sword! How?

She didn’t think it was possible. Then again, she never thought to ask Desire or Devotee about it. She just assumed…

But if he had the Ennoia of Swords, would that make this easier or harder? His crimson flames didn’t have anything to do with the Ennoia, and it was probably a form of Chaos. Nothing else would cancel out her Radiance and now that she had a moment to think, didn’t that mean that his Chaos was much stronger than her Radiance? Did that mean he was a Chaos Earl?

Well, it was a good thing she didn’t try to fight without Eli’Theria.

She struggled to add another blade pair, and it was at that point that the swordsman’s tactics shifted. Two of the remaining swords on his back were drawn, though not by the hands he was currently using to fight. Two disembodied hands materialised at the hilt, looking nearly identical to her hourglass gauntlets. She goggled in surprise as the second pair of curved blades cut into a sunblade pair and destroyed the construct as well as ruining her sword attack formation.

Then the floating hands and blades shot towards Eli’Theria and it was all she could do to bring a couple of sunblade pairs to defend against it. Unlike his defence, which was fierce and direct, his attack was elusive. She could barely get the sunblades to interpose, and more often than not, the floating blades bypassed her defence and struck at Eli’Theria’s armour. And because she had abandoned controlling the Colossus, the blades struck without challenge.

‘That barely tickled,’ Eli’Theria said, but there was more than a smidgen of worry. The crimson flames burned past Yuriko’s condensed aura, which also ignited the infused Radiant energy, and left marks on the orichalcum armour.

The pain of the exploding Radiant infusion broke her control of the eighteen swords and gauntlets, and the Chaos swordsman smashed them to smithereens. Yuriko and Eli’Theria staggered back, her control snapping into the Colossus’ body when her connections broke.

The Chaos swordsman took a threatening step towards her, and even though he had no mouth, she could tell that he was smirking with his eyes.

“Come now. You must be more of a challenge than this.”

The mocking tone whipped at her anger, but also struck her with fear. She could feel her Mien moving to control her emotions, and she calmed down.

His mastery of the sword was greater than hers, there was no doubt. But she was close, oh so close. She wanted to press ahead, but then, the Chaos flows of the Fysalli turned against her. They pressed down on Eli’Theria as the Chaos swordsman’s aura flared up high. The third pair of curved swords left their sheaths, carried by another pair of disembodied hands.

“Who are you?” Yuriko couldn’t help but ask, but the swordsman didn’t answer.

Instead, he continued to mock, “Run home, little girl, and live another day.”

And for a long moment, she was tempted to obey…