Chronicles of the Exalted Sun Child

"Desire."

Yuriko's voice was as warm as she felt, especially since the Chaos Lord had wrapped her in a tight hug. The girl who looked so much like her old classmate, except all grown up, that she sometimes choked up on the memory. That girl died at the hands of a monster that had been hunting her, after all.

"Master," Desire purred. The Chaos Lord was still shorter than Yuriko, but looked and felt a bit more robust. Ah, come to think of it, Desire had ascended to Chaos Viscount, so she was stronger than Yuriko's incarnation body now. Interesting. Well, not physically stronger, she thought. Not quite. Close.

"Let's get some privacy," Yuriko said. They were in the middle of the walkway, and Yuriko noticed more than a few eyes trained in their direction. She was used to the looks, and the student population was also somewhat used to her presence, but the sight of someone actually hugging her was new. Thankfully, no one had been recording her or taking pictures since Desire literally stepped out of a crack in reality.

"As you command, my Master."

Desire released the hug, but continued to hold on to her arm. The girl practically radiated joy and anticipation, and Yuriko recalled her words to the Chaos Lord before she left. Her cheeks warmed slightly, and she coughed.

She led Desire into one of the parks nearby. There was a grove in the middle of a pond that was often used as a trysting place, though not in the middle of the day, of course. As it were, she spotted several students tucked away in small burrows against the tree trunks, reading or fiddling around with their phones. Yuriko spotted an empty grotto and brought her bound Chaos Lord there.

"You know this isn't my true body," Yuriko said.

"Master is master, no matter which body you inhabit," Desire said. "Besides, incarnations aren't that rare. You remember the Watcher? He had hundreds, perhaps thousands, of incarnations scattered across the Chaos Sea." She paused and tilted her head. "I don't know why I know that."

Yuriko waved her hand dismissively, "It doesn't matter, I guess. Unless you think he would reform? Did your ascension give you any clues?"

"I…no, master. I don't think he will ever reform. Perhaps the idea of what he was would. Eventually. But the individual consciousness that was the Watcher died to you." Desire smiled sweetly. "But let's not rehash old news, master." She sidled up to Yuriko and practically draped herself over her body. "I will collect on the promise."

Yuriko swallowed. "Ah, not right now, please. I still have a schedule to follow…"

Desire pouted at her, with her eyes wide and tremulous. "...please?"

Yuriko rolled her eyes and booped the girl's nose. "Delayed gratification would make things sweeter for you later. Tonight."

Desire sighed. "As you wish, my Master. Ah, my sobriquet has changed."

"I see." Yuriko waited expectantly, and Desire's grin widened.

"Beholden Flower of the Sun's Desire."

"Congratulations." Yuriko hummed. "Does the change affect your techniques and abilities?"

"More was added. The old remains." Desire held out a hand, and a moment later, an ethereal blossom unfolded over her palm. The scent was intoxicating, and Yuriko felt heat suffuse her body, and suddenly, she felt her lower lips glisten with moisture.

"Stop," Yuriko said flatly while Desire giggled. The girl leaned closer and brazenly kissed Yuriko's cheek.

"As you wish."

Yuriko sighed and hugged Desire closer. "As unexpected as this is, I'm happy to have you with me here, in Astoria. How did you make your way to my side?"

"I followed our bonds," Desire said. "I chose the thread that felt closer. Still! I was lost in the underlayers for weeks! Did you know that there are daemons and human invaders digging a tunnel through?"

"Yes. How long would it take for them to finish, by your reckoning?"

"I don't know, master. It might be a few weeks, but it might be a year instead. The dimensional passage's resistance fluctuates the closer it is to this end of reality. The presence of daemons actually makes it harder to breach the barriers…" Desire mused.

"A mixed force," Yuriko nodded. "I noticed them a few weeks ago, when I was drawn into the interstitial spaces."

"What do you wish to do with them, master?"

Yuriko shook her head, "Nothing. I'm not about to start a war on behalf of someone else, much less a government that doesn't hold my allegiance." She hummed in thought. "I will try to prevent civilian casualties, if I can."

"You don't wish to inform the Astorian leadership?"

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"I think they already know," Yuriko muttered. "Odd things have been happening lately. Their military is also increasing recruitment, if I read it right. There are more posters, recruitment drives, and ads…"

Desire eyed her oddly, then said, "We've been apart for long enough that I don't quite get what you're saying, master."

Yuriko nodded. "Before we left Bresia, I know. We've been to another plane…city? Before here. The Eternal Tower sent us to a similar style of city…of civilisation, I guess, before my incarnation ended up here." She lowered her voice and scanned her surroundings, then created a sound isolation barrier. Desire eyed it with interest, especially when Yuriko tuned her Anima so that outside light would not intersect with the barrier, essentially making it invisible instead of glowing a soft golden light.

"My identity here is Lilibeth Lawson. The original died and my…incarnation seed took over. It was only possible because of the Eternal Tower's assistance."

Desire merely nodded and didn't seem perturbed, but then again, why would she feel that way? Yuriko and Desire were connected by bonds thicker than the threads that entangled all others. It was even thicker than the bonds she had with Heron and Gwendith, for her lovers could choose to leave if they wanted to. Desire could not. The Chaos Lord had entangled and fused Yuriko into the very fabric of her being, and if those bits were torn away, Desire would unravel.

It started to snow.

The grottos were warmed by space heaters glowing a dim red at the corners, but in the midst of the Season of Water, it was barely enough to ward off the cold. The others who were using the nooks wore thick clothes and were snuggled against each other.

And despite Yuriko's practical immunity to inclement weather, she shivered. She knew how deeply she and Desire were entangled, but seeing it, thinking about it, still produced a bit of shock. She pulled the smaller girl close and kissed the top of her head. Desire purred in satisfaction.

"What're you thinking about?" Gwendith asked while she walked beside Yuriko. The biome was the last one they could reach for the day. It was their north day on the first layer, and it would take just one more to reach the…uh, portal? Stairs? Carina didn't really say what the path would look like, and she was rather cagey about the details.

"Desire has returned. In Astoria." Yuriko answered after a long moment.

"Oh! That's good, isn't it? Hmmm," Gwendith hummed while looking out across the biome. The first layer's biomes had similar themes to each other, and they were mainly temperate and natural areas. A valley. Plains. Grasslands, savannahs, hillsides. A bit of the woods, forests, but no jungles, swamps, or marshes. Pleasant places to be at if not for the presence of shard monsters.

Heron, Ilvara, Carina, Ryoko, Saki, Devotee, Gwendith, Fluffington, and Sir Blue. All eight of them were in the expedition, and while they hadn't brought any vehicles with them, they all had spatially expanded backpacks filled with MREs, basic supplies, and camping gear fit to last for fifty days or so. They only needed to reach the second layer, and from there, spend an entire cycle harvesting shards and other things to earn credits. Normally, that would be far from lucrative enough to serve, but Carina's presence meant that they were likely to encounter deadlier, hence more lucrative, foes. Anytime now…

Yuriko sighed. Ninety biomes and none of them produced any kind of anomalous monster. Carina looked puzzled too, but wasn't overly concerned.

"If I could predict bad luck coming, then it wouldn't be bad luck, would it? It would be an opportunity." Carina shrugged. "I hate it and this is the kind of farking crud that happens when I anticipate it."

Since they could only cross ten biomes a day, at least for the first layer, it made little sense to rush to the end considering they needed to harvest shards. The tentative schedule was about an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half to cross each biome and to harvest as many shards as they could. That left a bit more than ten to eleven hours for food prep and rest. So far, they had gathered an average of a hundred shards per biome on the first layer, which was about ten thousand credits per day. It fluctuated, of course, since there were other hunters too.

Thankfully, people on the path to the next layer didn't overhunt the biomes, and those who had no intention of heading to descent broke off from the path by the third day or so. Not all monsters dropped shards, but all of them dropped some sort of loot. Claws, fangs, horns, and even leather pieces. Each loot was materialised by Shangria rather than harvested directly from the monsters' corpses.

Yuriko studied the phenomenon as closely as she could, but the process happened too quickly to gain much out of it. Even after watching thousands of monsters disintegrate into dust and leave a pile of loot behind, she still couldn't see the transition. One moment, dust, the next, loot.

She couldn't even get the timing right, as it seemed to vary with every individual monster. It was a matter of fractions of a second, but it was still there. It was as if Shangria was messing with her study which, now that she had the chance to think of it, was probably true.

Still, the process of the loot seemingly appearing from nowhere was fascinating, though it occurred to her that other Ancients must have looked too. She wondered if they saw nothing as well, or if there was a trick to it. Perhaps an Ennoia? An application of Truth, or a new Mystery to solve.

As this was the ninetieth biome, they were done for the day. The forested hills had enough nooks and crannies to find an excellent campsite. Yuriko and Gwendith set up the camp, using Animakinesis to good effect. Then, they pulled out the MREs to eat. The things were activated by pulling a tab, then waiting for a minute for the food inside to heat up. Then, she pulled the cover off and it revealed its bounty. The label said noodles with cheese sauce and breaded pork cutlets. If she squinted and looked at it sideways, it might actually pass for a decent meal from a restaurant.

Admittedly, the MREs tasted leagues better than ration bars, but they weren't quite as filling. She could survive it, especially since her body could subsist on Radiant energy if she had to. But she wasn't about to abandon the pleasure of a good meal. Besides, if she didn't actually eat, her body would eventually lose all of her fat and she'd look bulky and hard. No thanks.

After the meal, she settled to meditate for a couple of hours, then slept. When she woke up, it was to another MRE for breakfast.

Back in Astoria, Yuriko had Desire shadow her as she went through her schedule. Scarlett looked askance at the Chaos Lord, and Yuriko explained that Desire was her personal assistant.

"When did that happen?" Scarlett asked suspiciously.

Desire simply eyed the smol girl from head to toe, then smirked. It ticked Scarlett off, and the two of them had been glaring at each other ever since.

"From when I was younger."

"From your family?"

"I guess you can say that, ehehehe."

Scarlett rolled her eyes, but had little choice but to accept it. Though she got more miffed when Desire, or Dee as she was introduced as, followed them home.