Chronicles of the Exalted Sun Child

Book 17-3.1: A Glimmer of a Dream



Watching Desire's healing hymn at work was always fascinating for Yuriko, not least of which was that she couldn't figure out how to do it herself. Healing her body was ridiculously easy, even with her limited incarnation self. Even if she was limited to a tenth of her Anima reach, she could still change parts of her flesh into Radiance, repair the damage that way, and return back to flesh. She couldn't do all of herself at once since her incarnation physique wasn't Radiance-based, but she figured she'd be able to do something similar with Swordlight. Eventually. How long that would eventually take, she didn't know, but she suspected it would take longer than bringing her Radiant Ennoia to Colligia.

Anyway, she couldn't do what Desire was currently doing. She couldn't use her Animus, her Anima, or any other esoteric energy, push it into a wound, and use such energies to rebuild flesh and bone. What she could do, was insert her Anima into a body and use it to guide the other's Anima, or Animus into the Recovery technique. It was good for training, but not for mending lethal injuries. Any attempt she made would have proven useless as the fallen Dominator…thrall died of blood loss. But it was amazing to watch her bound Chaos Lord work.

The harmony she hummed melded with the energies she released into the body. The melody somehow harmonised the Chaos and allowed it to merge with the body. It rebuilt the damaged veins and arteries, then knitted torn muscle and skin. The bullets also grazed several vital organs though none had perforated the heart. There were three holes through the lungs, however.

Part of the Chaos Desire injected into the man moved towards the head and kept the seat of consciousness from fading away. Healing took time, after all, especially when the patient wasn't any tougher than a mortal. If they had awakened Anima, Animus, or any kind of esoteric energy within the body, healing would have been quicker and simpler, not to mention that it would be harder to be hurt in the first place.

Altered Humans didn't use any kind of esoteric energy that Yuriko could perceive, though she was starting to be able to detect them, though only by their negative presence. As Desire flooded the body with Chaos, the motes interacted oddly with practically invisible motes, too. If this wasn't about saving a life, Yuriko would have flooded more energies into the man, but since doing so would run counter to what she intended, she left it be.

"Huh?" she muttered as she felt something else happening in the warehouse. She expanded her perception aura to its maximum reach, then flexed it so that it distorted and she could extend past sixty paces. She blinked when she beheld the scene.

Brilliance was tangled up in Tentagirl's tendrils and was well on her way to being a burrito. Speedrun was the same, though he was trying to escape by battering the shadows with his baton. The glowing girl used her hard light to fight back, and normally, her element countered the shadows. But clearly, Brilliance was struggling, and losing.

Humming to herself, Yuriko flew into the warehouse. She noted the residue of popped clones and marked where the original was, and didn't see him anywhere. Had he skipped out on the multi-gang meeting? He'd sent his duplicates to guard, but wisely kept his original body elsewhere. His power had a too-blatant weak point, and he'd been captured enough times to make him wary. At least he was improving, Yuriko mused.

Her entrance had not gone unnoticed. Tentagirl hissed at her and flung shadow tendrils. There were a few more gangsters, possibly supervillains, by the backdoor, though one was already halfway out.

One, she was sure, was made out of metal, or converted entirely into powered armour. Her Anima perception stopped at the edge, held out by whatever Altered power he had. She would have said it was the villain who ambushed her above the clouds of Neo Prism City before she took on her Regalia mask, if not for the fact that the body shape was wrong. Too bulky and taller than she remembered, but since that was probably a different suit…yeah, the helmet had the same basic design, so it was either that person or someone wearing that person's work.

The remaining two were a bit less familiar but she recognised villainous capes. They weren't from the Caplan Gang or part of the Duad. Her attention was only diverted for a few moments since Tentagirl unleashed a flood of tendrils towards her.

"It's Regalia! Run!" One of the newbies yelled, a man in a trenchcoat-wearing aviator goggles to cover his eyes. Yuriko smirked, though it wouldn't be visible because of her tinted helmet. While she hadn't been as active as Brilliance and Speedrun, when she entered a fight, she didn't lose.

But the other villain didn't run. Instead, they took a vial from their pocket, popped it open and downed it in one go. She saw his eyes shine for a moment, then the light receded to the edges. The tendrils from Tentagirl arrived before anything else could happen, but they were easy enough to deal with.

She allowed Radiance to infuse into her Anima and solidified several hands to grab and block the tendrils. Each individual tentacle twisted away from her initial grab, and she ended up holding nothing but air. The tendrils pushed towards her when they slipped past her golden hands, and when she pivoted to catch them, they once again twisted out of the way.

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She could see the manic grin coming from Tentagirl, and Yuriko sighed, then snapped her fingers. She infused a strand of Swordlight into the Invisible Edge and fed more than a bit of Intent into it. The Edge blasted out of her fingers but didn't shoot towards the villain. Instead, it spread out across the area and covered Brilliance, Speedrun, and the attacking tendrils. A moment later, the tentacles were split apart.

"What! That's not fair!" Tentagirl whined. Her eyes contained the same shimmer that the other villain had, and waved her arms vigorously, sending even more of her shadows on the attack. Yuriko grabbed her allies with her kinesis and pulled them away from the danger zone.

"Ack!" Brilliance yelped. Speedrun just grunted, fell limp, and allowed himself to be pulled away.

Yuriko landed on the ground and strolled towards Tentagirl. She held out her hand and created an Animus construct. A sword, though not a sunblade. A simple arming sword she infused a strand of Swordlight into. She'd pay for that later with the need to weave more strands into her core, but she had quite a bit to spare now compared to when she started out.

The Swordlight-infused blade danced as she intercepted the tendrils with casual swings. The tentacles tried to avoid her blows, but the blade cut with more than just the visible edge. The Swordlight infused into it allowed her to cut the very essence of the shadow tendrils, so even if Tentagirl attempted to avoid her parries, they were nonetheless, cut.

She had only taken a couple of steps when the other villains struck. Two had escaped, and only the metal man and the one who imbibed the drugs remained. That one she wasn't sure of his power, but soon enough, he pulled out a handgun from his hidden holster. He aimed it at her… no, it was offside for a reason, then pulled the trigger. Yuriko's eyes widened when she realised that his bullet intercepted her sword's trajectory and she had to adjust her defences otherwise either the bullet would hit Speedrun behind her, or the tendril would have reached her arm. She managed the defence without using her kinesis, but that wasn't the end of the attack.

Aviator guy shot her a couple more times, and each bullet intersected with her defensive manoeuvres. Not that it actually stopped her or even made her hesitate. The Swordlight made connecting to the Ennoia of the Bladeless Sword easier and it took but a thought to allow the light to split off from the blade and perform another defense.

She held out her empty left hand and snapped her fingers. An Invisible Edge shot towards Aviator, and a second snap sent another to Tentagirl. Their eyes flared with silver light, and both of them deflected her Invisible Edges. A bullet countered the one meant for Tentagirl while a shadow tendril blocked Aviator's.

"Interesting," Yuriko muttered. Tentagirl had never displayed such skill in her earlier fights, and Aviator had taken the time to drink whatever drug it was in the vial before engaging in battle. As for the other Altered Humans, the armoured figure had stepped aside and was observing, his posture casual and relaxed. The other thugs had already been neutralised by her allies, and one of the gangsters who escaped peeked back into the warehouse. The other Dominator thrall, she assumed, mostly from the identical mask and the odd sensations her perception aura gave her.

'Now why would that thrall return?' Yuriko thought sarcastically, though she wondered if the master could see through a thrall's senses or if they just received a data packet or something. Well, time to wrap things up anyway. She absently inspected the contents of the warehouse and found that most of the crates contained an assortment of powdered drugs, firearms, and hard currency. The Torries would make for an acceptable bounty, she thought, but the rest must be submitted to the police or the Protectorate, considering Altered Human presence. Or cape presence, since Altered Humans weren't considered automatically part of the incident unless they took up a mask or cowl.

She continued defending herself, but the patterns had gone stale. Neither Tentagirl nor Aviator diverged much from their attack and response. If she showed a false opening, they invariably tried to take advantage even if it would have caused them to overreach.

She snapped her fingers twice, then sent Sword Arcs from her arming sword. Tentagirl and Aviator's faces were pale and dripping with sweat, and the initial confidence had waned. They managed to defend themselves, but one of the Edges nicked Tentagirl's shoulder. Her wound seeped blood and if her bodysuit wasn't black, it would be crimson. Aviator's trenchcoat sported a few cuts now, too.

The shimmer at the corner of their eyes slowly diminished, and with it, the preternatural manner of their attacks. She noted that they moved to defend even before she made the attack, and when she changed the trajectory upon noticing their reactions, they were able to easily adjust. She wondered if the drug gave them precognitive senses or if it merely heightened their normal senses.

She sped up her strikes and they were still able to fight. If they were their normal selves, she would have defeated them with this level of force already, and they were reacting to thrice the speed she normally fought them at.

But as with any external rise in power, it was bound to be limited. No doubt with dangerous aftereffects too, and she wondered if Desire would be necessary to keep them alive after their drug wore out.

In the midst of her enjoyment, the armoured man finally took action.

He seemed to blur, and it was only her perception aura that caught his movement. Someone who was twice her width shouldn't have been able to move that fast, right? In the blink of an eye, the man was suddenly behind the Aviator. His hand left an afterimage as he grabbed something from Aviator, and then in another blink of an eye, he darted to Tentagirl and did the same thing.

Neither combatant missed the action, and Tentagirl yelled, "You farking traitor!"

Armoured man was back in his original position even as Tentagirl hurled invectives. Then he moved past the thrall who could only blink at the metal-clad man dumbly. Then, he glanced back at Yuriko for a moment, then gave a near imperceptible nod, before vanishing in the darkness.


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