Chronicles of the Exalted Sun Child

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 sunblades, Yuriko didn’t notice until she saw several armoured vehicles careen down the road.

There was one in the lead.

A light brown coloured thing, all angled and sharp. It had six wheels, each one about half a pace wide. There was a light machine gun emplacement on the roof, and a soldier manning it. They pointed in her direction…

No, at the rift and the stairs. Yuriko hastily interposed herself just as the soldier opened fire.

Whsss! Whss! Whsss!

Ptang! Ptang! Ptang!

Hex shields caught and deflected the fusillade of bullets while Yuriko hovered in midair, directly in front of the stairs, the rift, and the rescued prisoners. Some of the Altered Humans flinched at the sound, but most were still out of it. Scarlett stood at the base of the stairwell, and ushered the others to climb. It was a good five or six storeys up, not something that could be done quickly even if they were in good condition.

Yuriko pulled her sunblades to her position and set them to deflect incoming bullets.

Or the rocket that was just launched from one of the cars behind the first one. Her blade sliced it out of the sky and it exploded with a deafening bang. She negated the shockwave as it reached her, but the fallen soldiers had no such luck.

Then, the lead car didn’t so much as slow down as it ploughed through the wounded and dead. At the very least, the ones that were just run over weren’t squished, even if they probably got more broken bones over the whole affair. Still, why would the armoured cars insist on coming closer…?

Ah, that was why.

The doors opened and infantry rushed out of the vehicles, all of them shooting at either her or at the escaping prisoners. She intercepted most of the projectiles, leaving only those that would have missed alone. Which turned out to be a mistake since some of the bullets had been infused with guiding Intent. She managed to parry those before they hit anyone, thankfully.

Then, her sunblades slammed into the armour panels, and were neatly deflected by the current of Occult Resonance that ran under the surface. A second pass with a more directed application of force allowed the sunblades to pierce, then consume and propagate.

Baboom! Baboom!

Once unleashed from her hold, the Radiant energy overtook the circuitry used by the Occult Resonance gear, and promptly invaded the cars’ power source, the consumption of which led to the explosive results. Only two cars had closed in, and she saw another two angling away from the road. Thankfully, the buildings obstructed line of sight, so they couldn’t just shoot from beyond her current range. Unfortunately, they were providing targeting data for an artillery strike.

Wheee!

The high pitched whistling sound of a falling shell reached her Anima perception and she sent a hasty Invisible Edge to intercept the shell.

BOOM!

Which promptly exploded not a hundred paces from her position. She sent a sunblade to harass or kill the soldiers that exited the cars, though she only devoted a trio to do so. Half a minute later and all of the soldiers were down, either incapacitated or dead.

“Li—Regalia, we’re almost through!” Scarlett yelled from the top of the stairs. Yuriko nodded even while she kept an eye towards the skies and the circling spotters. Letting them shoot at her, at the others with impunity irritated her, and while they were out of her sunblade’s range, she did have a long ranged trick.

She scooped up several flattened bullets with her Animakinesis, then smooshed everything into a loose sphere, then squished it harder until it was no different than a steel bearing, save that it was made of lead. She gathered more of the things, and formed three more spheres. She couldn’t spare the strands of consciousness to make more than that.

Yuriko eyed the distant armoured cars, lined up her shot, and accelerated the ball bearing towards it. For a moment, she pushed most of her Anima reach into the process, though not all. Otherwise, her own defences would have been compromised.

Krakoom!

The sound was akin to thunder and the shot left a vapour cone. The shockwave slammed dust and dirt back into the ground, and shattered some of the glass windows. The ball slammed into the armour plate, but didn’t penetrate. In fact, the shot was deflected off the angled defences, but enough of the kinetic force transferred to the vehicle to knock it over sideways.

Krakoom! Krakoom! Krakoom!

Three more shots. Two to the same number of armoured cars, and the last one towards a group of fliers in powered armour that was approaching her position. She didn’t hit them, of course, but they scattered from her attack.

Scarlett jumped into the rift, the last one of the lot. Yuriko gathered her sunblades to surround her as she flew towards the portal. And while it wouldn’t delay them much, she slammed the blades into the makeshift stairs. After the stairs collapsed, she crossed the rift and wound up flying a few inches above the bunk bed's mattress.

Scarlett, Desire, Brilliance, and Speedrun, along with the still dazed Altered Humans, were gathered a dozen paces behind the rift. But that was the extent of it. She couldn’t blame them considering they were in the midst of a desert.

She glanced around and noted the tall mountains far in the east. She couldn’t see much in the other directions, but if she flew up, she could probably spot a city, a road, or some other landmark. It was just past noon, from her time sense, which allowed her to determine the cardinal directions, and the Radiant Sun scorched the air above the sands.

At the very least, the desert wasn’t completely composed of sand dunes, and she was pretty sure that they were still in Northern Astoria. Well, truthfully it was more a guess.

There were no deserts mapped in Southern Astoria, just thick rainforests, jungles, and marshes. There were also no tall mountain ranges in the south, just the land bridge between the continents.

So, if they were still in Astoria, then logically, they should be in Northern Astoria, and hopefully, still within the Republic of Astoria. There was one good way to check.

Yuriko fished her smartphone from her pocket and unlocked it. Huh. She opened the browser and inputted ‘current location’ in the search bar, grumbled when she had to toggle on the location services widget, and hummed in satisfaction when she found out she was correct. Ah, and the mountain range was the same one as the mountains that crossed the landbridge. It just extended almost all the way up to the arctic regions of Northern Astoria, and bisected the Republic into two asymmetrical halves. Well, more like a quarter part and the rest of it in the eastern region.

She adjusted the map to show a wider area, and spotted the nearest city, Naradon, City of Wishes. City of Vices, more likely. Yuriko only knew of Naradon City through television shows and movies, and even though it was the middle of the day, she imagined she could see the lights glitter from the multitude of billboards, light shows, and other decorations. Or perhaps it was the light reflected from glitter, shiny mirrored surfaces, and the tall glass covered buildings. If she flew high enough, anyway.

A hundred paces up and she saw the glittering city, southwest of their position, probably a hundred longstrides away. Even more importantly, she saw a strip of black road to the south, less than two longstrides from the portal. It was both a good and bad thing. Easier to reach the city, and perhaps take a plane to return to Neo Prism, but it was that much closer for the invaders to reach from this hole in the canvas of reality.

But where were the other rifts? Where did they reach? She spun around in midair, but didn’t spot any of the tell tall signs of the things. Given how open and flat the desert was, they would have stood out. Sorta. The ground wasn’t just sand, after all. It was cracked dirt, salt flats, and dust, all at once, with nary a tree in sight. Plenty of straggly bushes, and the odd cacti, perhaps.

Thankfully, the road wasn’t deserted. She could see dozens of cars, as well as several buses, plying the route. They could flag someone down. Or she could call for help, she supposed.

She descended back to the ground, next to Scarlett and Desire just as she was contemplating who to call. She was in her Regalia persona, and so, couldn’t contact Pixel Fairy. She could try the Protectorate, but only through Brilliance and Speedrun. But the cousins were still somewhat out of it, with both staring duly out into the desert. Bril reached up and absently caressed her neck, then shuddered every couple of minutes or so. What manner of abuse did they suffer while she and Scarlett had been stalled in the daemon’s nest?

She only had one real contact at this point, who she could rely on—probably—to help her cape persona. Lilibeth’s grandfather, and through him, probably Alexis Dunn. She checked the smartphone’s signal strength, determined that a call would likely connect, then selected the latter’s number. The phone started to ring for several seconds, before the man answered.

“Miss Lawson, to what do I owe the pleasure?” Alexis’ voice was flat and somewhat cold.

“Dr. Dunn,” Yuriko answered. “This is Regalia.”

“Ah, I see. Perhaps you should use a different number for your elicit activities?”

Yuriko rolled her eyes. “It is somewhat of an emergency.” She pressed the mute button and said to her friends, “Start heading south. There’s a road just under two longstrides away. Hurry. Trouble’s following us.”

She’d left a sunblade on the other side of the rift, and while there was some temporal distortion, they were on the more advantageous side, for now. And she detected a squad of fliers suddenly entering her detection range.

Most of the tethered sunblades she used had already expired, so she conjured half a dozen more. Then, she flew around to the front of the portal while unmuting the call.

“Pardon me.”

She heard Alexis sigh. “I see. What manner of emergency are you in? Did the lead to the Unfettered pan out?”

“In a way. I found them in Interstitial space, but they weren’t alone. Instead, I found daemons, as well as a human army.” She paused for a moment, then added, “Do you remember the bridge?”

“How could I forget?” Alexis said sharply, then he gasped, “Again?”

“Yes. In the thousands. Perhaps more. Well equipped, and in control of the daemons. The Unfettered were harassing them,” Yuriko grumbled. “Which means I may have to put my grudge aside. For now. But more importantly, the army abducted several Altered and used some kind of ritual to finish the bridge. Except, there are many, many exits.”

“I see. And what do you want me to do?” he asked, coming to the heart of the matter.

“We rescued them, of course, but we’re stuck a hundred longstrides from Naradon. If you could arrange for transport back to Neo Prism, that would be much appreciated.”

“I shall ask Mister Lawson for his help,” Alexis said drily.

“Ah, I have to go. I’ll call back once I…once we’re in Naradon.”

Yuriko hung up before he could reply. It was only polite to give challengers her attention, after all.