Lester Yong & Rosa Fontelera-Yong

CoESC Book 17-13.3: Too Many Holes

The fallen soldiers weren’t all dead.

Only a half dozen had perished immediately from her attack and those that did were unfortunately struck in the heart, or she blew too big a hole in their sternum that the shock stopped their hearts.

A pity. 

But the more pressing thing was that the few who managed to live past the next couple of minutes managed to call for help. And since the company had fallen beyond her perception range, but obviously not beyond her tethered sun...

CoESC Book 17-13.2: Too Many Holes

‘I have less than half of my reserves left, Master.’  Dee greeted Yuriko mentally as soon as she and Scarlett landed in front of the Chaos Lord and the rescued captives. 

Yuriko took a couple of seconds to observe the prisoners, and the cousins in particular. 

Both of them looked dazed, though their physical wounds were mended. Their necks weren't collared, but their clothes were tattered. It was much the same with the rest. 

Desire was humming. Yurik...

CoESC Book 17-13.1: Too Many Holes

‘Where are you?’ Yuriko demanded.

‘Within the base, Master. The prisoners aren't in a good state. We're holed up in one of the rail cars. I'm healing them as quickly as I can.’ Desire answered. ‘The enemy is using a collar that suppresses outward energy expression to contain the prisoners. It also dampens their thoughts.’

Yuriko hissed in anger but quickly settled down. She supposed a tool to control was better than trying to break a prisoner’s spirit....

CoESC Book 17-12.3: Under a Fiery Rain

“So most of this requires visualisation and imagination? What, you just imagine you get stronger and you suddenly do?”

Scarlett's voice was filled with doubt and Yuriko couldn't help but chuckle.

“It is that simple…and complex.”

Scarlett's side eye only made her laugh louder, though she was mindful of preventing the sound from escaping their immediate vicinity.

“You're suddenly the mysterious teacher, huh?” She tilted her head...

CoESC Book 17-12.2: Under a Fiery Rain

The Tyrant, the Imperator, His Majesty, sat in repose in his meditation chamber. His mind trembled with far too many ideas, wrestled with conflicting thoughts and desires. It has been thus ever since he was Chosen.

His mind was a battlefield. Of strength warring against weakness, or knowledge against ignorance. Of his consciousness against another.

The battlefield was vast, but the light encroached against the darkness. The shadows of his former self slowly gave way...

CoESC Book 17-12.1: Under a Fiery Rain

A lot of things could happen in the blink of an eye. An artillery shell could cross more than sixty paces, a bullet could pierce a body, and Yuriko could put up a hex shield in that amount of time. Her Anima moved as quick as thought, and she not only put up a shield, she also enveloped her friend with ablative layers of tiny hex shields. All of her reach and triple dense volume of Anima was dedicated to both protection and evasion. 

At the moment the shells struck the ground in fr...

CoESC Book 17-11.3: Chase

If she had any doubts that the daemons were subservient to the Irvallans, then they were firmly put to rest with what she saw.

The other concern she had, of the Crimson Apes being coerced into being cannon fodder, weren’t quite put to rest. The pentapods were small enough that when the apes wore any sort of clothing or armour, they were well and truly hidden. Although the rigid way they moved would have been a giveaway. That was assuming the pentapods controlling them didn’t adapt t...

CoESC Book 17-11.2: Chase

It wasn’t the usual quiet, the one wherein the beasts in the field held still when a predator prowled. No, it was something else, something a bit more…primordial. 

It didn’t take Yuriko all that long to suss it out. She had experienced something like this before, and she knew that back in the Chaos Sea, the varied planes had a Will of their own. Why would she assume that interstitial space didn’t have something like that, too?

The feeling wasn’t identical to what sh...

CoESC Book 17-11.1: Chase

Phillip Keisinger yelled into his helmet microphone, “Imperator grant mercy!” his voice rang in his ear even as he heard his second, Juna Schiff, echo his words. He felt his stomach rise to his throat as he dropped altitude while twisting backwards. The glowing travesty of a sword swiped above, nearly beheading him, but from the way it subtly slowed down, just enough to give him that hair’s breadth of space, he knew that the anomalous empowered human was toying with him. 

Aby...

CoESC Book 17-10.3: Complications

Yuriko pressed her Mien against the man’s mind. Since her face was only concealed with a domino mask, one that altered the contours of her face, it didn’t hinder the process much. While the Mishala Mien worked through every feature, not just the face, having the most distinct part of her concealed still affected things. With her Regalia helmet on, most of the feelings the Mien evoked were admiration, fear, or other similar emotions. With her face bare, the emotion usually evoked involved ...

CoESC Book 17-10.2: Complications

It took a couple of hours before Scarlett was able to walk without wincing with every step. The wound across her torso cut all the way down to her ribs; if not for her Anima, the bones would have shattered instead.

Scarlett sighed when Yuriko helped her back on her feet, then blushed at the returned smirk. They were still lost in the labyrinthian hospital, and things had been quite odd for a while.

An hour ago, the gently twisting maze reverted to its previous form. A few minute...

CoESC Book 17-10.1: Complications

Self healing was easy, Yuriko thought as she sent her Anima into Scarlett’s body. The smol girl’s Anima was slowly recovering, but it was easy enough to suppress. For the moment anyway. The act was profoundly uncomfortable, and it showed by how she squirmed and groaned.

Healing another, on the other hand, was far more difficult, especially since she didn’t have any techniques, Ennoias, or spells that could actually heal efficiently. Well, she knew enough Arcana Weaving to cobble ...

CoESC Book 17-9.3: Intrusion

Well, there was no reason to stick to subtlety. No reason to pick a fight either, Yuriko mused. So that left just rushing past the Crimson Ape company and hoping that she’d find an exit beyond. If they were heading in that direction, then they were probably heading somewhere. Whether it was an exit to a staging ground, another nest, or possibly an actual battlefield was largely immaterial. She needed to bring Scarlett to some modicum of safety, preferably within reach of Desire’s healing ...

CoESC Book 17-9.2: Intrusion

“Dee, where are you?” Yuriko muttered, but the connection between them was muffled. The daemon nest… the incarnation trap, somehow hampered mental communication of sorts. She thought to cast the Connection spell, but while she and Scarlett escaped the initial room, her sunblade was still there, slaughtering daemons. More of which were popping out of the black rimmed portal at a rate of one or so every couple of seconds. Mostly Crimson Apes, actually. 

The Apes were excellent ...

CoESC Book 17-9.1: Intrusion

As soon as she stepped through the gap, Yuriko felt the timestream grow turbulent. Her anchor was her true body and that would have been a good thing, normally. Interstitial Space flowed with a difference in time dilation, or compression, but she never expected both to happen within subjective seconds of each other, nor for the switching to be so disorienting. 

The moment they stepped through, she felt the dilation ratio to be one to two. Two seconds passed in Interstitial Space fo...

CoESC Book 17-8.3: A Hunt for Satisfaction

“Should we be doing this in costume?” Harakin asked softly as they alighted. 

Yuriko shrugged, “It’s not as if we can change to civilian and back without drawing undue attention.”

They landed next to the main road, actually, the only large thoroughfare across the town, if it could actually be called that. Sillyputty’s main avenue crossed two-thirds of the town before it split into a Y-intersection. One leg went up north, presumably towards the Republic’s border,...

CoESC Book 17-8.2: A Hunt for Satisfaction

Yuriko awoke the next morning just before dawn, though it was not by her design. Rather, she heard the insistent ring of a call from her smartphone, the tune a rather upbeat melody that eventually grated on her senses the longer it played. 

She blinked at the ceiling for a couple of seconds, then grabbed the phone with her kinesis. The number displayed was Alexis Dun’s, and she thought he wouldn’t call in the odd hours of the morning unless it were important. Less of an emergen...

CoESC Book 17-8.1: A Hunt for Satisfaction

Farsight is a finicky technique to use, Alexandria idly thought. But it was a good thing that it was folded into her Truth. It was an integral part of her Martial Path after all. However, Farsight wasn’t just the ability to look at things far away, which would have made it little better than a telescope or binoculars. Not only did she need to see from longstrides away, she also needed the capability to see beneath the surface of things, and to determine what was hidden. 

As such,...

CoESC Book 17-7.3: Contact

The odd feeling of distress faded away after a minute or so, all while Yuriko tried to figure out where it was coming from. Meditating to enter the dreamscape wasn’t feasible, considering her true body wasn’t in a place of repose. 

Rather, she was standing back while her companions were busy wiping out a flood of giant scorpions that had metal and crystalline tails, the tips of which fired plasma beams. She might have called them lasers, after what movies she saw in Astoria, bu...

CoESC Book 17-7.2: Contact

With a scream, Brilliance dodged out of the line of fire and reflexively threw a hardlight punch at the flier. She didn’t know if she actually hit, or if there had been a cry of pain if she did, since she had spun away from the gun’s trajectory on instinct, and gone behind cover. 

A moment later, a bright flash lanced through where she had been and vaporised the leafless branches, leaving ashes and dust behind. She yelped and sent finger-width beams back, not even sure if she h...

CoESC Book 17-7.1: Contact

The pain took Yuriko’s senses for all of five seconds, but that was long—too long in the midst of battle. Her Anima had reflexively tightene

The pain took Yuriko’s senses for all of five seconds, but that was long—too long in the midst of battle. Her Anima had reflexively tightened around her incarnation body, while her true body jerked to a halt. Both bodies shared her consciousness, and there was no true distinction between them; however, most of the time, she kept her attenti...

CoESC Book 17-6.3: Advent of Conflict

Yuriko’s hair was braided and tied into a bun; otherwise, it would have flowed out of her helmet in her costume. It wasn’t as if she cared t

Yuriko’s hair was braided and tied into a bun; otherwise, it would have flowed out of her helmet in her costume. It wasn’t as if she cared too much about hiding her cape identity, but it felt like it was all a game—and what was the fun in not breaking the rules? Even though her body shape and features were distinct enough that she could b...

CoESC Book 17-6.2: Advent of Conflict

It took the work of another couple of minutes to knock out the rest of the gangsters, but unfortunately, the ones she didn’t use her Mien to

It took the work of another couple of minutes to knock out the rest of the gangsters, but unfortunately, the ones she didn’t use her Mien to force them to unconsciousness didn’t remain incapacitated. 

The first ones she hit on the chin, at the stairwell near the fourth floor, stirred and struggled to their feet, muttering curses sh...

CoESC Book 17-6.1: Advent of Conflict

Yuriko felt like she should rush in and rescue the captives as quickly as she could. They weren’t in immediate danger, however, so she coole

Yuriko felt like she should rush in and rescue the captives as quickly as she could. They weren’t in immediate danger, however, so she cooled her heels and took in as much information as she could first. Alexis and Lilibeth’s grandfather said that RuiNation kidnapped people to run their eugenics program, or in blunter terms, an Altered Human ...

Update: We're back!

We'd like to think that the restoration of internet connectivity would be faster or easier by now but clearly we were wrong. Or maybe there were simply too many places that needed addressing more urgently and mobile data wasn't as reliable a backup either this time around.

Anyway.

We're back and the chapters that were due last week will be uploaded within the day. Completely outside our regular postings but it is what it is for now.

-L&R

Apologies for the Delay

We've been plagued by ko internet connectivity since last week, and while the chapters have been written, we're having trouble editing and posting. As soon as we fix the issues, the chapters will be uploaded. Apologies for the wait.

-L & R

CoESC Book 17-5.3: Crimson Hunt

Purple Iris was located in a five-storey building on Sunset Plaza near the eastern end of Altalon, a few blocks west of the Santana River an

Purple Iris was located in a five-storey building on Sunset Plaza near the eastern end of Altalon, a few blocks west of the Santana River and about a hundred paces from the Altalon-Winderfield Avenue that led to the eponymously named suspension bridge into the island. Thankfully, there was a parking lot nearby that catered to the chocolatier along ...

CoESC Book 17-5.2: Crimson Hunt

Ericka Stevens practically bounced on her seat as her cousin, Arthur, drove his pickup truck down the highway. They were but a few minutes a

Ericka Stevens practically bounced on her seat as her cousin, Arthur, drove his pickup truck down the highway. They were but a few minutes away from Greenwood National Park. She hadn’t been there in ages, and certainly not after she Altered. She could hardly believe that just a couple of weeks ago, she was nothing more than an ordinary schoolgirl...

CoESC Book 17-5.1: Crimson Hunt

Yuriko checked out of the hotel in a strange mood. The talk with Lilibeth’s—her—grandfather took most of the morning, and if the old man had

Yuriko checked out of the hotel in a strange mood. The talk with Lilibeth’s—her—grandfather took most of the morning, and if the old man had stopped tiptoeing around the issue, they might have been done in half the time. 

There was a thread connecting Benjamin Daublin-Lawson to her, but the connection was muffled and a bit te...

CoESC Book 17-4.3: Borrowed Knife

Her Anima perception spread out towards the door, though she didn’t push past the barrier and directly touch the surprise visitor. Instead,

Her Anima perception spread out towards the door, though she didn’t push past the barrier and directly touch the surprise visitor. Instead, she used her perception aura to gather light coming from the peephole and directed it towards her eyes, basically allowing her to look through as if she were standing right there. It wasn’t a new trick, ju...