Book 16-5.1: Ancient's Battle

"Lily, you alright?"

Scarlett's voice jolted Yuriko out of her daze. She shook her head and chuckled. What was she being distracted for? Her true body was the stronger one by a huge margin, and she need not worry. It was just a waste of time, and did little other than prolong the agony. Her incarnation body only had ten strands of consciousness, and while her true body had the remaining ninety-eight, two more than when they originally split, it only took one strand to pay attention to what was happening on the other side, leaving the rest to focus on what was happening here and now. 

The audition's venue looked like a dressed up warehouse, and the interior was filled with staff and crew. They were led to a hall where other actors were waiting for their turn, and one of the attendants gave Yuriko a script. 

"Which one am I auditioning for again?" Yuriko asked Scarlett.

"Jeannette Marau," Scarlett answered, pointing out the roles. "She's one of the leaders during the Unification War, but she was quite young during all of it." 

"I see."

Yuriko hummed as she perused the script, using her perception aura while casually leafing through the pages. When she was done a few minutes later, she nodded to herself. Jeanette was someone she could sympathise with, even if the movie's version was probably quite embellished. 

The time it took to read through the script was about the time it took for her true body to arrive near the spaceport hub. 

Longer than she expected, but then again, she was dragging a several MiJin-heavy Voidship with her and an unconscious Sha'ledras. Her reach had exceeded four hundred paces; her initial assessment of how much weight she could carry and how fast she could move things with her Animakinesis were so far off that she might as well ignore it. She'd long ceased measuring, but the initial standard of five Jin per one pace per second per inch of reach was still her default measurement. Never mind that it was probably close to a hundred Jin so and so by now, since every inch of reach as she measured it increased the volume of her Anima by a greater amount than every inch before.

It made her head ache just by trying to calculate the formula…wait, she could probably use a computer to do that, right? She didn't have to do the arithmetic herself! Oh, joy. Still, it was probably too much of a bother to count, and suffice to say that she could lift a great amount of weight and mass with just her Animakinesis alone, or a comparable amount with just her body. If the thing was large, too, she'd have to use her kinesis to keep an even hold, otherwise she might break the thing in half or something like that.

Anyway, why was it relevant to her thoughts and why did it take her that long to return? Well, the greater amount of weight she carried, the slower she could fly. Multiples of her body weight divided her speed by that much. She could barely break the sound barrier with her current speed.

Only the fact that she couldn't sense anything even remotely close to distress from her links with Heron and Gwendith allowed her to keep at her pace. Otherwise, she would have ditched both ship and pilot to the ground and flown back as quickly as she could. It also occurred to her that her maximum flight speed was probably higher than she expected. The only reason she hadn't figured it out was that first, she didn't know, hence, didn't push herself, second, an utter lack of reason, and third, until recently, flying had been difficult since Dragon Fall City's reality canvas forbade it. 

That was another mystery she'd like to dig into but had to set aside. In the grander scheme of things, how likely was she to return to Dragon Fall City? But she had to worry about entering another place like it, and considering that she was travelling through both directions in the Eternal Tower, she was just as likely to encounter something like that again. 

None of the other Voidship fighters came close to her during her flight. She'd oriented the captured ship so that it looked like it was flying properly, but she also knew she wasn't fooling anyone. There were communication devices within the ship, and they were all from one force, so there was no doubt that whoever the invaders were. They knew of her actions, even if she was actively blocking the Voidship's computers from broadcasting their position. It wasn't that hard to notice the wavelength of their communicators, especially while it was under the ambit of her Anima. She was keenly aware of everything that happened inside it after all. 

Her Autotab's connection had failed. After she got an initial burst from Ilvarra, only static answered her when she tried to call. Messages failed to be sent too. Admittedly, the Autotab no longer worked as it did back in Dragon Fall City. There were no connecting threads to reach into REI-space since that layer of reality didn't exist here. Instead, a more…electronic alternative had been used, quite similar to what was available in Astoria but empowered by a factor of ten or so. There was a local web connecting every device on the planet, but the waves that represented that connection were notably absent. So it was more than likely that the invaders were interrupting the connections. 

By the time she came within sight of the space hub, she noticed more than a few things amiss. The hub was protected by an energy shield, and she could see the invaders and their siege machines set up a couple of longstrides away.

Except they weren't fighting.

They were standing around and looking at another place, where she felt and saw Gwendith and Heron were. Along with five other people in armour. At the moment, Heron and one of the strangers were facing each other, while Gwendith was a few dozen paces behind him. The other four were in a similar position but behind their comrade. Their posture didn't indicate they were ready to fight, but Yuriko could see…auras? Anima? 

She was too far away for her perception to reach them, being roughly a couple of leagues away and another longstride above them. Enhanced Sight allowed her to see everything as if she had a front-row seat. 

Her lovers were also in their powered armour, something she hadn't done. She was only clad in her traveller's outfit, and while she could have stored her armour in her hip satchel, she hadn't bothered. Oh well. Their being in armour meant she couldn't see faces and expressions, though she could feel the connection between the three of them.

Heron was cautiously confident while Gwendith had some slight anxiety, though that was likely caused by Heron's opponent, who towered over him by a head. The man was half again as broad across the shoulders as Heron, which almost made him look as if he was as wide as he was tall. 

Ah, it was starting. A duel? Heron and his opponent circled around each other, then stopped once their backs faced open ground rather than their allies. Heron nodded while the giant extended an arm and mockingly gestured. Her lover wasn't impressed, but he condensed his Anima around himself and augmented his physique. Then, he coated his spear with his Anima, similarly condensed, then lunged. 

He crossed several paces with a single bound, spear whistling as it stabbed through the air. The giant's Anima was similarly condensed around his body so Yuriko couldn't measure his reach, but from the intensity of the colour—light brown—it must be condensed at least as much as Heron's. 

A corona of brown light converged around the giant's fists and he interposed his hand between his body and Heron's spear. The brown Anima flared for a moment as the spear approached. The edges of their Anima clashed and sparks flew from the impact. Heron's attack slowed enough that the giant was able to grab the weapon's business end before it could stab into his armour. 

As soon as the huge fingers closed, Heron twisted the spearhaft and imposed a rotation on both the weapon and Anima. At the same time, he pulled back while he flared the Anima coating the spearhead. It created a gap a fraction of an inch wide, just enough that he was able to free his weapon. As soon as the head was free, he reversed the motion and stabbed lower, aiming to score a hit on the giant's gut. 

His opponent twisted smoothly, faster than his size could logically move. Instead of trying to catch the weapon again, he stepped towards Heron while using his other hand to keep the weapon away from him. Then he chopped with his left hand, aiming towards Heron's neck. 

A hexagon of solidified air interposed itself against the blow, but it collapsed almost as soon as the giant touched it. It gave Heron an instant to defend or dodge, and he chose the former. His right hand released the spearhaft and punched the offending chop.

Boom!

A shockwave of displaced air blew a cloud of dust around them. Heron hopped out from the concealing cloud, but his opponent did not. A moment later, an errant breeze blew the dust away and revealed the giant standing nonchalantly in place. 

A bit of shock reverberated across the emotional link. Her lover hadn't thought he'd be outclassed through sheer strength by anyone at his level.

'So they are Actualised,' Yuriko thought as her interest plummeted. 'Are they really Ancients?'

'Yes,' Gwendith answered through their link. 'They introduced themselves that way, with a long, introductory spiel, too.'

'Conclave?'

'Conclave of Conquest, they said. They're with the Hartdel Defiant.' Gwendith added, 'They revealed quite a few interesting things.'

'Such as? Does it have to do with why those soldiers are just sitting on their bums?'

'Quite. Their leader, the man facing Heron, Glenn Boyle, asked us which Conclave we belonged to, but they didn't persist when we didn't answer. Instead, they challenged us to what they call an Ancient's Duel. Our 'circle' against his.'

'Circle? Ah, what they called Conclave groups, right?'

'I get the feeling it's more than that, but the only other example I know are those 2nd Growth Ancients we encountered in those ruins.'

'So this duel…?'

'Right, one of them, the woman called Alyssa, insulted Heron and myself, telling us that we weren't following the rules.'

'Anima pride,' Yuriko mused. 'You were defending spaceport against those mortals, right?'

'Yeah.'

'So, it's not just me.' 

'I guess not if they have formalized rules regarding it. The duel is for who will end up controlling the field.'

'Rules of engagement?'

'We agreed on individual duels.'

'There are five of them.'

'Yes, if either of us wins, we'll have to face the others. It will continue until none are left.'

'To the death? Submission?'

'Either works. Honourbound to accept surrender.'

While they conversed mind to mind, Heron's duel continued. He managed to control his shock and continued the brawl. He had superior midrange control, Yuriko thought, but the giant, Glenn, was much tougher. Still, she could see both of their Anima develop microfractures at the impact points, and that would probably hinder Heron when he fought again later, should he manage to win. 

'He'd better win,' Yuriko thought, 'otherwise I'm going to intensify his training.' 

'He'd no doubt love that,' Gwendith said. 'I'm sure he'll win.' The light anxiety within the other girl had faded. Yuriko quietly closed in on the duelling ground, where the fight had moved from basic martial techniques to more esoteric methods. 

The giant of a man moved backwards after nearly getting stabbed through when Heron focused his Anima into a densely packed point. He raised his fists high, then slammed them into the ground, which then shattered and turned into dense pillars that struck Heron on the side and flung him into the air.