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 minutes later, slowly shifted, then reverted, then shifted back once more. It was probably a reflection of who was winning the fight between the daemons and the Unfettered, but she couldn’t be sure. At the very least, they hadn’t run into anyone after she slaughtered five companies of Apes.

“Can we take a break?” Scarlett muttered, “I’m hungry.” That was accompanied by a loud growl, and the subsequent sunset on her face.

Yuriko shrugged.

“Yeah, Recovery needs fuel.”

She nodded towards a door just a dozen paces away. Her perception pushed under the gap and checked. It was a patient’s room that also included a small toilet and shower. With kinesis, she twisted the shower handle causing the half broken showerhead to spurt out muddy water. It took half a minute before the water cleared up.

Yuriko barricaded the door once they were inside. The windows were closed and covered in filth. Her perception revealed open air on the other side rather than Void. Scarlett sat down after sweeping the dust from a chair.

“I only have some candy bars. Trail mix and chocolate, I think,” Yuriko muttered as she fished the bars from her pocket. She didn’t have a hip satchel here and while she knew how to stitch a spatial expansion runescript enchantment, she was only able to triple her fanny pack’s internal volume. She’d placed basic supplies there, a condenser canteen that could hold a fifth of a Ren, half a dozen candy/chocolate bars for quick energy, and a basic first aid kit.

She could sustain herself by drawing and converting Elemental energies into Radiance—though the practice was arduous—and she knew how to scavenge for food. Something she also learned in Shangria was a spell that could make Imperial ration bars of a sort. Anything that was biological in nature could be used as fuel for the spell, but it could only be woven as a lengthy ritual. Useful if there was nothing else to find, but far from being convenient.

She handed a couple of bars to Scarlett as well as the canteen. The smol girl scarfed down the offering, while Yuriko saw to stitching the torn clothes up. Scarlett had lost her mask, so Yuriko gave Scar her helmet and made due with a conjured domino mask for herself. She let her hair down though she kept it in a neat braid rather than her usual high ponytail, or her Lilibeth persona’s loose waves.

There wasn’t enough water in the canteen to really slake Scarlett’s thirst, and the environment wasn’t particularly humid. At this rate, it would take ten minutes for the canteen to refill and Scar’s impatience was palpable. After she finished a couple of trail mix bars, she slowed down on the third, but continued eating. She looked a bit guilty while Yuriko just smirked.

After the canteen was refilled and subsequently drained, Yuriko finished sewing up Scar’s costume. By that time, four of the six bars were finished and they’d taken a twenty minute break. She didn’t detect any soldier apes in the vicinity, but there was another problem. Desire’s position shifted abruptly from less than a league away to nearly five leagues. She got moved towards the north as well.

‘Dee?’

‘Yes, Master…oh. The shift was subtle. We didn’t move, but the camp was shifted. The landscape changed.’

‘Anything else?’

‘I hear activity, but nothing else.’

Yuriko nodded to herself, then said to Scarlett, “We have to move. Dee’s position, and I assume Brilliance and Speedrun’s, moved more than four leagues away.”

“Alright.”

They returned to the corridor and it was immediately evident what changed. There was no sign of the twisting nature of the daemon nest, and the hospital returned to normal. Relatively, anyway. Did the Unfettered defeat the daemons?

Now that Scarlett’s wounds were mostly recovered, Yuriko carried the other girl with her Animakinsesis and the two of them sprinted rather than proceed at a more sedate pace. She didn’t really care about what happened to her original prey, at least, not at the moment. There were other things that were more important, and if they retreated now, then she wouldn’t go out of her way to chase then.

Why they fought against the daemons was a more compelling mystery. She had little doubt that they could have just left. Was it pride? The only thing she knew about that group was their public actions and the one time she fought them. She’d been in her civilian clothes too, but she supposed a sunblade was just too recognisable.

The abandoned hospital labyrinth didn’t extend much further than another longstride, and the hallway just abruptly transitioned into the outdoors. They emerged into a cul-de-sac. The road underneath was barely maintained asphalt. It looked like the hospital building was just shorn off and a segment of road had just been built next to it.

The skies were bright and she felt Radiant light envelop her body. She sighed at the warmth, and even though her reserves were full, she pulled the light in anyway. Her hair gave off a soft glow that intensified as she imbibed more Radiance. She stopped only when she felt Scarlett wince at the glare.

The road wandered up a nearby hill, and the surroundings were covered by thick trees. The two of them followed the road, with Scarlett carefully eying the tree line. Halfway up the slope, she felt people enter her perception range. It was a small group of six, all armed with rifles and an assortment of melee weapons. They were clad in a rugged military style uniform, not dissimilar to what she saw in Astoria, but the patches and insignias were familiar but ultimately unknown to her. If Desire hadn’t identified them as Irvallans, she wouldn’t have guessed they’d come from there at all.

The soldiers were moving towards the ridge and were out of immediate sight, but not for long. Yuriko grabbed Scarlett’s arm, and the other girl yelped in surprise. She winced as the noise echoed up the hill and she felt the soldiers grow alert.

The lead scout used hand signals to the rest of their team, which prompted the one in the soldier in the middle to signal to another one beside them. That one touched a device on their chest, whether they spoke or not, Yuriko couldn’t tell owing to the fact that all of them wore some kind of gas mask. The effect of the mask, along with their metal helmets, sort of made them look inhuman and insectile, especially since the lenses were multi-faceted. She could also detect a slight pulse of energy that wasn’t electricity—she could see small runescript lines etched along the metal parts of their uniform as well as their guns.

A moment after the lead scout signalled, the squad quickly marched towards the ridge. They would be within sight in a matter of seconds and Yuriko didn’t have time to consider if they could actually attempt to hide, or if they should confront the evidently hostile soldiers directly.

A few options quickly presented themselves while Yuriko used her true body’s strands of consciousness to examine and consider more things over a longer period of time. First, she could attack them, then interrogate. Second, she could allow herself and Scarlett to be captured and brought to their camp. And third, she could simply disable or kill them, then leave them behind.

Hmmm, the second was too risky, and there wasn’t really any reason to do the third considering it wouldn’t take all that much time to accomplish the first. And she could examine the soldiers’ armament, too.

Well, she supposed it was a simple calculus after all. Scarlett had clasped her hands over her mouth. Her eyes wide, her gaze jumped towards the top of the hill. All told, the rise wasn’t more than twenty paces from the laboratory exit to the ridge, and no more than fifty paces away.

The lead scout reached the ridge. They were spotted almost immediately, having made no move to hide. Still, Yuriko had several mini-blades orbiting around her, along with another dozen floating high above, hidden from sight due to the Sun’s glare. Either way, the sight of the golden weapons caused alarm, and the scout jumped back. No sound escaped their mask. The others rushed up towards the ridge, weapons ready, but before they could reach them, Yuriko moved.

She jumped up and landed behind the lead scout, using her Anima to stop just a couple of inches above the asphalt. The soldiers didn’t hesitate and opened fire, barely giving any thought to their comrade who was behind her, and would inevitably get shot if they missed.

Oh—they had quick reflexes. The scout dropped prone, the movement begun the moment her shadow crossed his. They were out of the line of fire even before the other soldiers began shooting.

Yuriko’s hand snapped and caught the first bullet that would have hit her chest. Well, her condensed Anima around her fingers caught the bullet and absorbed all of its kinetic force, along with a hefty charge of esoteric energy. A rather familiar form, twisted out of balance and bent to whatever artificer’s Intent had made the gun and bullets. Radiance. Diminished so much that any other Magi that observed it would have thought it was the Light Element instead.

Curious.

She absorbed the Radiant remnant, washed away its attunement and subsumed it. Her Anima caught the other bullets just as easily. The metal pancaked against her Anima, having much less effect than it normally would have if it was infused with any other Element. Each soldier got several shots out in the couple of seconds she’d been preoccupied, then she enveloped them with her kinesis and clamped down hard enough that their helmets dented. Then she slammed them down on the asphalt, to join their comrade in supplication.

“Silence.”

Not that they were audible, Yuriko thought. Their masks were more than capable of muffling everything, but she was sure they had communicators to their base camp.

Ah, the devices tacked on their belts.

She gathered all of them in front of her, and raised the leader in front of her. Now that she had a tighter grip, they were male, shorter than she was, but about one and a half times broader. Her perception played around the straps of his helm and mask, and by the time Scarlett arrived, she managed to remove the straps of both helm and mask to reveal a man’s face, clean shaven with a square chin, moderately attractive, though twisted in a fierce expression as his mouth worked to utter a sound. He looked to be in his mid twenties and was definitely of the same ethnicity as the Irvallans, which, now that she thought about it, was similar to about a third of Astorians.

Astorians came in about three different flavours, or sorts. Those that shared similar features to her Da, being pale-skinned, light of hair and eyes, and were generally sturdily built. Another set were those that shared similar features with the Mishalas, those being delicate features, mostly heart shaped faces, and slanted or tapered eyes. Mishala skin tone was paler than Davars, and appeared more delicate, sometimes, if the light hit it right, somewhat translucent. Yuriko’s features were a midpoint between her parents, which also served to make her stand out amongst her cousins.

The last set were Astorians who had a darker skin tone, ranging from olive or bronze, like Heron’s, to midnight black. Those Astorians usually had a better baseline physique than the other two. The man in front of her shared features common with the Davars, even if he wasn’t all that tall, and she remembered most Karcellians, and Confederates, shared the same features.

“Now, tell me everything you know about your unit, your base camp and your superiors.” Yuriko commanded, and though the soldier tried to resist, his mind soon gave way to her Mien.