Chronicles of the Exalted Sun Child

The battle didn't last long afterwards. Except for the fact that the Dominator thrall tried something just after the armoured man fled. He stepped up towards her and spoke a word that caused the surrounding energies to resonate.

"Stop."

A simple command but enforced and bolstered by the reality around her. Unfortunately for the thrall, his Intent was pitifully inadequate to shake her Will. The command was stopped dead in its tracks as soon as it clashed against her Anima, and she reflected it back to him after a moment's thought. The thrall froze in place for a long moment, before the command lost power and he started gasping for air.

It so happened that Tentagirl and Aviator were also within the area of effect, and they collapsed afterwards. Tentagirl started trembling on the ground, while Aviator struggled to push himself up, arms visibly shaking. The shine had disappeared.

Yuriko wrapped all three of them with her kinesis and divested them of their weapons. She flew outside and caught sight of one other cape, the first one who left, down the alleyway, a moment before she turned around the corner. She glanced back as she did, and met Yurio's gaze through the tint of her visor. The woman visibly paled and hurried away. Yuriko tapped the bottom of her helmet, then frowned when her fingertips didn't touch her lips. She sighed and put her hand down.

She looked towards the dark sky but couldn't find anyone else. She didn't think the armoured man could fly in that get-up, but she didn't really know his armour's specs anyway. There was no sign of him, and she was somewhat loath to let a villain go, even if most of them ended up back on the streets a week later.

It was a strange cycle, especially here in Brookshield, though the same happened in Jackstone. Villains, not just plain criminals, but Altered Human criminals who wore masks, often were able to escape justice. Either they were let out on bail, they weren't charged with anything, especially those captured by vigilantes or even independent heroes, due to lack of evidence, tampered or whatever excuse the courts came up with, or the villains were broken out of jail by other villains. Those villains may not be part of the captured villain's gang, but inadvertently, one new villain or perhaps a veteran one would stage a jailbreak, intercept a prisoner transport, or otherwise endeavour some other method, and then, the villains were back on the street.

It didn't help that there was a new villain practically every day, while on the Protectorate's intake was slow and stringent. She supposed that the governmental body for cape law enforcement couldn't just accept everybody—that's how one got moles in their organisation—the process she saw looked needlessly complex and intimidating. She had applied once, but she was ignored thereafter.

'But then, why did Lightfoot, Soundwave, and Weavemaster forget about her?' She thought heavily. Was her incarnation body somehow less than her true body in that way? This body just looked a few years older than her original, and some features were blended with the previous owner…

Huh, was she insecure? How could somebody forget about her, after all? Or rather, they didn't forget about Lilibeth Lawson, they forgot that they knew each other. Perhaps that was it? It was a conundrum she didn't visit much except in passing, though perhaps it was a sign of more serious issues with the Protectorate?

Either way, she didn't care to investigate the matter…no, she actually did, but she lacked the means to do so without terribly inconveniencing her civilian persona.

The captives were struggling against their bonds and she could see Speedrun had actually been injured. He was limping and wincing through his mask. Brilliance was still a bit out of it and was staring a bit wild-eyed at Tentagirl.

Yuriko sniffed, then commanded, "Sleep."

Tentagirl, Aviator, the thrall, and every other gangster slumped down softly. Yuriko nodded in satisfaction.

"What the fark!" Brilliance yelped, while Speedrun shook his head.

"I didn't know you could do that." He said slowly.

Yuriko shrugged. "It doesn't always work, but it's good to keep people subdued."

"Yeah, it does that, alright." Brilliance muttered.

Speedrun pulled out a phone and called the police. He hurriedly relayed the address of the warehouse — 23 Sinclair Street — the fact that there were dozens of goons, millions of Torries worth of drugs, cash, and guns, and the fact that there were four captured capes. Multiplier's original wasn't here, and the others had made a clean getaway.

She wasn't all that fussed about their escape, though she extended her Anima perception to watch Harakin and Desire. Her Chaos Lord had finished healing the forsaken thrall, and the man was unconscious.

The only male comrade hung up on the police then called the Protectorate hotline and relayed most of the same information though he added his Independent Hero group's ID when he started. By the time he finished, he said, "Police will arrive in ten minutes, the Protectorate in five."

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

Yuriko nodded absently, but her focus was on her perception aura. She examined the merchandise through the crates and found a small cache of the same drugs that the leadership, and later, the armoured man had taken. Curious, she took one of the vials as one of the little paper strips that were filled with tiny words and instructions. It was easy enough to push the crate open and slip out her loot.

'Glimmer v:A.'

Yuriko hummed. So it was the new popular drug after all. But the way it affected Tentagirl and the other capes was different from what she heard from her coworkers. She had been offered the drug while at work, or rather, during one of the shoots after parties that happened at the end of every workweek.

They'd mixed the drug with some alcohol, coffee liquor actually, though when Yuriko tried it, her physique simply neutralised the effects before she could enjoy it. Well, she didn't taste anything but the coffee, and it would take a bit more concentrated alcohol to really affect her.

Of late, she noticed a dissonance between her Ennoia core and her Radiant Physique, or this incarnation's version of it. She suspected it wouldn't be resolved until she unified her Ennoia of the Sword. It wasn't much of an issue at the moment, just took a bit more Will to muster her defences, or to access the Radiance locked within her cells. Her body's autonomous functions weren't affected at all, so there was that. Which also meant that being able to enjoy wine or any other recreational substance took an active effort on her part, and the least bit of inattention would see every little bit of poison in her veins burned away.

Anyway, the relatively minuscule amount of Glimmer included in the concoction didn't survive touching her tongue. She wondered what the concentrated dose would do to her, however, or what exactly it did to Altered Humans.

'Or normal humans.' She thought idly.

She grabbed a couple more doses and put them into her pocket. They didn't quite have the same spatial expansion as her hip satchel or backpacks, but she'd figured out how to make them a while back. The runescript patterns were simple enough, but no two spatially expanded containers were truly the same and involved a bit of adaptation that required experience and skill. Damien's memories were extensive, but runescript enchantment wasn't featured prominently in them. Or at least, not the memories she had access to.

Over the past weeks, in between the bits of action in Shangria, she finally determined to get an overview of what her old passenger had. Most of it involved Radiance, as well as an outline of the steps to take along the Path to Exaltation, which was a distinct branch of the Ancients' Way, focused on reaching the peak of perfection and probably beyond. The steps above Transformation were quite opaque, hidden beneath a level of encryption that she had no way to break. Thankfully, she now knew that every step of the Way, she'd know what she had to do to remain on the Path. Just like she knew she had to reach Reperta with the Ennoia of Radiance, and at least one of her Sword Ennoias must reach Colligia. She needed her Anima reach to be at a longstride in radius, and her reserves of Intent and Will must be deeper than what they are now. She didn't know by how much more, unfortunately, but she should be able to tell when she got there.

That meant she also had no idea how much longer it would take her to reach Manifestation, but she shouldn't really bemoan that fact. Most Ancients lingered for centuries or more at Actualisation, and more of them died on that level than reached the next one. The fact that all Ancients were practically unaging didn't help.

Actually, that might hinder them, she realised. Without the pressure of time running out, other Ancients might not deem advancing beyond Actualisation all that urgent. They had forever to do it, after all, and she suspected most thought as much until they took their last breath to an enemy.

Her morbid thoughts accompanied her as she left the warehouse. She could hear sirens in the distance, and it was time to leave. Only Brilliance and Speedrun were affiliated after all, and she had no wish to be pressured or otherwise cajoled to join up. Not after what happened earlier. There was something rotten happening inside the Protectorate, but that was just her gut feeling. Besides, she had a career to look after anyway, and the cape life was just a hobby.

It looked like Desire had finished healing the thrall, orformer thrall from the looks of it. The man had regained consciousness and was clutching Harakin's arm. Her friend was staring at the man intently, while Desire was looking around curiously.

"You should hide yourself," Yuriko said to her Chaos Lord. Desire was not wearing a costume or a mask, though she cloaked herself with her power. Chaos was so easily shaped into anything its wielder wanted and a Chaos Lord commanded Chaos as easily as any limb. Yuriko doubted anyone who looked at Desire would be able to remember her exact features, but that didn't change the fact that an uncommonly pretty girl was out and about with capes.

"Of course, master," Desire said as she twisted her body and faded from this layer of reality. Yuriko could feel her presence, separated from the material plane by a thin veneer. Desire wasn't in any of the other major layers, but rather, in the spaces between. Not quite the emptiness of the Void, but rather in thinner spaces that had a bleedthrough of varied energies. There was more ambient Chaos there than here, actually, and Desire could more easily sustain herself by periodically staying there for a few hours a day.

Harakin looked somewhat distraught, and Yuriko paid more attention to what the ex-thrall was saying. She frowned as the words registered.

"...please…help us…stop…the Master…" the words repeated several times, amidst a smattering of gibberish. But that shouldn't have upset Harakin so much, right?

Yuriko walked up to them and touched her friend's shoulder. "What's bothering you?" She asked softly. Her voice cut through the ex-thrall's muttering and the man stared unblinkingly up at her. Then, he shrieked and fell back.

"Huh?" Yuriko mumbled while Harakin jerked back. The ex-thrall tried to scramble away, but he hadn't quite recovered from being fatally shot.

Her friend shook her head and said, "Let's go…I…" Her face was paler than normal.

"Sleep," Yuriko commanded the ex-thrall, who wasn't even able to put up any kind of resistance. He fell back and lost consciousness. "Bril, Harakin and I are leaving," she channelled her voice to only reach the girl's ears, and when she received a reply, she picked up Harakin with her kinesis and flew.

"Unfettered," Harakin murmured before she started shaking hard enough to pierce her lips with her teeth.