Chronicles of the Exalted Sun Child

The Radiant flame tornado roared to the skies. The grey storm clouds dispersed revealing pale blue skies. The tornado rose beyond the clouds and roughly a league above. There it hit a…ceiling. The flames spread out, consuming, propagating. Radiance consumed everything to make more of itself, stopping only when it encountered something that cost more than what it could gain back.

Ennoia energies, anchored by Intent and Will, were unexpectedly effective barriers, as Yuriko found out.

The unknowing skies, the Veil, the barriers…none of them were infused with Will. None of them was able to resist. The flames propagated. Ate through the Veil, and burst into the next biome. Consumed it, then propagated on to the next. And the next. Everything within burned to create more Radiance. More and more, until the density of Radiance energy grew enough that it created a gravity well. It sucked everything within, condensed into a tiny ball akin to a miniature Radiant Sun. It hovered in front of Yuriko, the only living being within hundreds of leagues.

It collapsed in front of her and merged with her body.

______________

The blizzard raged as the golems rampaged across the biome. They pushed the delvers back and out through the door frames, and then slew those that couldn't escape. The five muscular men were one group that couldn't exit. There was another group, from the east, and another from the west valley. All told, twenty other people who were backed into the door frames and couldn't exit because it was their tenth biome of the day.

Desperate defense.

They fought the ice golems but couldn't make a dent. The storm sustained the golems, or perhaps the better term was elemental. They drew power from the biome they reached from a hole in the Veil. The elementals weren't supposed to be here; they were too powerful for the delvers who trawled the biomes in search of wealth and power. But sometimes…sometimes, the planet cleaned the house.

When too many pests linger on the surface, it is just a natural consequence that one scratches the itch. No matter that the action would result in numerous deaths.

Delvers and adventurers wagered life and limb for gold and treasure. The deaths would just be part of the cold calculus of Shangria's everyday affairs.

The biome was taken over by the elementals, and soon, the very air froze over until it was nothing more than a block of glacial ice.

___________

An enormous silhouette covered the horizon. Yuriko could barely see it in the distance, but she also had the impression it was closer than she thought. Behind the silhouette was the shadow of an enormous pillar that reached to the heavens and beyond. A pillar that also stabbed into the depths to dwell in the Abyss.

The humanoid silhouette turned its featureless face towards her—well, not featureless. The darkness of its body was lit up by countless pinpricks of light which were grouped up into spirals and discs. The eyes were darker than the void around it, and it narrowed as it stared at her.

Restraint. It admonished her. You who walk to Exaltation, know Restraint or break the very world you walk on.

The scene around her shattered like glass.

____________

Yuriko blinked as the Radiant Lance slammed into the colossal golem. The Radiant energy she gathered from her superheated surroundings burst out of containment and mixed with the hurricane-force winds around the monster. It created a burning tornado that shot up to the heavens.

Echoes of what could have been, had she acted, had she not, or if she had never been to this place, flashed across her mind. She gasped, seeing the utter destruction unchecked Radiance caused, but knew that it was just the surface of what the Primordial Element could do. The burning tornado reached for the clouds, and soon, it would be beyond her control. At the moment, her Intent still lingered within the flames, but the little that she added to the Sorcerous Working for soon be insufficient.

She reached with her Anima and her mind. The Intent infused into the fiery tornado resonated with her. And she pulled the flames back, preventing it from hitting the biome's ceiling. One that happened, the chain reaction of the Radiance burning into the prodigious amount of energy used to create, sustain, and defend the biomes would destroy everything within several biomes of where she was. The conflagration would have destroyed the orbital elevator, too, she thought.

The Radiant flames obeyed, though a bit reluctantly. They wanted to continue burning, to propagate, and to create their source, even in miniature. She could feel the canvas of reality around her warping slightly as the flames burned through the ink, the paints. That wasn't good.

The Radiant energy was too much. Even if she pulled all of it to her, what was she to do? She couldn't contain that much within her body or Anima. She wouldn't be hurt, but her surroundings wouldn't remain unscathed.

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…or break the world you walk on…

The words echoed in her mind, and she felt…frustration. It had been so long since she fought without holding back. Nothing in Dragon Fall City warranted calling upon thousands of sunblades. Nothing in Bresia warranted it either, save perhaps for the archmagus that had yet to make an appearance. The Grand Magi of Bresia might have put up a fight, but why would she attack her nominal allies?

She had been backed up quite a bit, and she'd been venting her aggression on other things. She thought Shangria would have been a great place to let loose, but finding out that if she let loose too much, she was just as likely to destroy everything around her as not. A disappointment, but perhaps the next level below would allow her to fight without restraint?

No. Restraint, the tower spirit said, was expected of one who walks the path to Exaltation. She pulled at the flames, infused more Intent until she drained a tenth of her reserves. It would take an hour to recover from that, but it was effective.

The burning tornado wavered, then dispersed into a cloud of Radiant flames. Still too much for the biome to hold, and if left alone, it would still destroy it.

What did she see before? A vision of the future? A simulation of what would have happened had the intelligence controlling the Eternal Tower not intervened? Who would allow their dominion to be destroyed by acting? At the very least, the tower spirit had not retaliated against her. Then again, the spirit had helped her previously, and it wasn't as if she actually destroyed anything important. Yet.

The Radiant flames were spreading across the sky. They were out of her range, and if she left it at that, they would continue to burn until nothing was left. The air was already warm, and the snow in the distance was melting.

Yuriko thought of the sensations she felt during the vision, and latched on to one particular thing. The flames condensed into an orb and drew every stray flame back into it. A lot like her own core within her Anima.

So that's what she did. Her Intent pressed the Radiant flames together, rolled them into a ball, and kept compressing and compressing until the volume of flame that would have covered the clouds was the size of a marble. Then she pressed down some more. It was only when the marble shrunk to a hundredth of an inch wide did she felt the pull. Gravity.

But left as it was, it would draw in everything, consume it, then explode with more Radiance. Yuriko wrestled with the idea for a long moment, but things seemed to click. After all, Radiant was her Colligia, and it was only a matter of time before it became more.

The new application of Radiance was easy enough to control. Radiant pulled Radiant, even if it could pull everything else. The question was if she could use gravity without the overt presence of a Radiant orb. But perhaps that was what training and experimentation were for.

The skies filled with Radiant flame swirled like a storm around its eye. The flames didn't quite touch the marble, at least, not at first. But eventually, ten minutes later, they did. And then, it was as if the skies drained into the orb. Winds buffeted the valley, and the flames disappeared into the orb, which further condensed until it no longer looked like a ball of flames, but a solid sphere made out of gold. Yuriko flew up to it, not quite daring to lose control. When it came within her reach, she sighed in relief, and perhaps a bit of disappointment. It had turned solid, but in the process, it also lost much of what made it Radiance.

The marble, aside from looking like gold, had nothing else to…

Wait, was this not…orichalc? A single marble that was barely a quarter of an inch wide was made out of a sky full of Radiant flame and condensed until it stabilised and morphed? Huh. It wasn't even warm to the touch.

A glimmer on the ground caught her eye, especially when she saw people, other delvers, approaching. It was at the center of the flame tornado where the colossal golem…elemental…had been destroyed.

She flew down after she pocketed the nugget of orichalc. She landed on bare ground and spotted the glimmering thing. It was a crystal, blue as glacial ice, just a couple of shades darker than her eyes, and about three inches at the widest point. Four inches long, she thought, and about a couple of inches thick. The crystal wasn't faceted but had a wild, uncut appearance. Nevertheless, she could feel ice-cold Ennoia energies drifting from the rough edges.

The delvers who were approaching came from the other valleys. The colossal elemental had actually been at the center of the biome when she vanquished it. They were a disparate mix of humans, Sha'ledras, Durandal, Sylvanite, and varied beastkin. All were clad in the same kind of outfit Carina wore. The Ultramuscle Alliance and her guide approached her quickly.

"That's an Ennoia Seed!" Carina gaped. "What luck!"

"It is, indeed," Yuriko hummed as she packed up the thing with her Anima. "It seems your reputation was accurate, Carina."

The greenette blushed bright red, despite her brown skin. It was rather adorable.

Orlov, the Ultramuscle Alliance leader, guffawed. "Yes, Lady Evanova does have a reputation. I guess having the bad luck of encountering a third layer monster on the first was a one in a million chance, but with you around, it's more like one in a hundred."

"Bad luck can easily turn to good with strength," Yuriko mused. "How much is something like this worth, anyway?"

"You want to sell it?" One of the other delvers asked with a dumbfounded look.

"Well, maybe," Yuriko said. "One of my companions has a similar Ennoia, but I'm not sure if it's close enough to help her or if it would pollute her path."

The other delvers exchanged looks and one of them muttered under his breath, "I wish I could afford to consider that."

Orlov and the other Ultramuscle men just chuckled, and the leader said, "Well, Your Grace, ah pardon me if that is the incorrect address, ahem. I believe no one will contest her Grace's claim to the seed?"

A series of no's was the answer.

"With that said, I believe we owe you our gratitude for our lives, Your Grace."

Yuriko waved her hand. "Think nothing of it."

"Nevertheless, thank you." He and the others bowed, and she just chuckled.

"Well, Carina, I believe we should return to the city," Yuriko said as she tucked the crystal into her hip satchel. As they left the delvers, who moved to prepare camp, Yuriko asked, "Hmm, is this what a regular day for a delver's like?"

Carina gave her a scandalised glare, but then chuckled. "Maybe."

"Well, I look forward to more of it."