Lester Yong & Rosa Fontelera-Yong

CoESC Book 13-20.1: Return

The new fetus died even before it reached the same progress as the one before it. Edward stared at the remaining vial of essence blood, and he cursed loudly. His rage and desperation overcame his good sense, and by the time he shook it off, his steward was dead along with half of his staff.
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CoESC Book 13-19.3: Seasons of War

“Another failure.”

Edward hissed as the mass of blood and flesh slowly withered. Temporal acceleration, his favourite trick, had failed him this time, and he had missed the point of no return, when the varied cells and energies were about to coalesce into an Anima. Instead, the dispari...

CoESC Book 13-19.2: Seasons of War

“No…no.” Edward moaned. “It’s wasted.” He growled at the…thing in the containment cylinder. It was a body, with golden hair and perfect features, but it was practically lifeless. If the spell circles inscribed in the device weren’t working, the thing inside wouldn’t even breathe...

CoESC Book 13-19.1: Seasons of War

The vial of blood was carefully kept in an ornate, spellwoven box. Roland Turner vi Ishodir carefully took the vial, which was just about the length of his finger and peered at the contents. The glass was opaque and covered in runescript patterns, many of which involved his grandfather’s Time A...

CoESC Book 13-18.3: Unexpected

The portal gate opened and two men stumbled through. Gunther Patrick winced at the pain on his left cheek, or rather, the fact that it wasn’t as painful as it should be. Burn wounds hurt worse than a goddess’s spurned anger, but the burning sensation was already fading. It wasn’t his self-r...

CoESC Book 13-18.2: Unexpected

She could feel every moment, feel them extend, stretching every split second and making them feel like minutes. The fabric of reality slowly tore and a jagged void lined with something darker than black took its place. She felt her Anima split as the fabric was torn apart. Her Animakinesis was wh...

CoESC Book 13-18.1: Unexpected

The second border fortress, Featherwood Stockade, was roughly twenty leagues northwest-ish of Twilight Hold. Yuriko simply had to follow the edge of the Sodden Plains to get there. At the moment, she was sitting on her heels next to a stream. From what she saw above, it would eventually join the ...

CoESC Book 13-17.3: Threats From All Around

Roland Turner vi Ishodir stood at the balcony of his palace’s highest tower. He gazed out and enjoyed the view of the Capital City, Ishoda, though he had a pensive frown on his face. The balcony was connected to a bedroom, though not his main one. It was the place he spent when he didn’t want...

CoESC Book 13-17.2: Threats From All Around

The humidity made sweat cling to Yuriko's skin as she waited behind a few trees. She had flown nearly fifty leagues east of the strip, on her first mission outside of sitting and waiting. After the last false alarm, she marched up to the fortress's leadership council and demanded they give her a ...

CoESC Book 13-17.1: Threats From All Around

“Accursed by all the gods and goddesses!” Edward swore as the scrying pool only showed empty hills and fallen trees. Yesterday, he scryed his clone and saw that it was about to engage the target. He’d hoped that it succeeded, but the emptiness of the scrying pool told him that his fears had...

CoESC Book 13-16.3: Holding the Line

The Radiant Sun was at its zenith, casting warm rays down over the lake. The rhythmic sound of the waves crashing upon the shore, the beaches, was more than soothing and Yuriko stretched her legs out on the lounge chair. This one was made out of woven, water-resistant fibres and was long enough t...

CoESC Book 13-16.2: Holding the Line

“The Chaos is clashing with his body,” Yuriko observed, and she perceived Monica nodding behind her. She tilted her head and took his arm into hers. 


The man flinched at the contact. His scales were smooth but there were rough patches closer to his shoulder. The transition bet...

CoESC Book 13-16.1: Holding the Line

The conference room was surprisingly light and airy. Yuriko could feel a breeze coming from the windows, and she appreciated the view of the lake towards the south, and the light coming in from the east and west. It felt as if she stood atop an isolated tower even though it was right in the middl...

CoESC Book 13-15.3: Outmatched

The caravan took the rest of the day to travel about ten leagues southwards. The woman who commanded the company, Captain Nuria Mendez, directed them towards a campsite, one that looked well used by the  Bresian Army. 


Yuriko looked over the waystation with a critical eye. Th...

CoESC Book 13-15.2: Outmatched

The moment Yuriko stabbed the elusive magus in the head, she saw his expression and it chilled her to her bones. It wasn’t fear, worry, or even anger. She had expected a dying man, one beset by the pain of being burned head to toe. 

Or perhaps he wasn’t feeling much pain at all. S...

CoESC Book 13-15.1: Outmatched

The barrier dome was visible for longstrides around and the strike force zeroed in on it immediately. Steelds flushed with Elemental energy kicked off against the ground, propelling itself and its riders several times faster than their normal speed. 


Dust kicked up from the poundi...

CoESC Book 13-14.3: Outnumbered

Yuriko looked at the falling mountain with not a little bit of consternation, as well as a hint of smugness.

‘If that rotter thinks this will defeat me, he’s delusional,’ Yuriko muttered to herself. The falling mountain came swiftly, but not as fast as her ability to burrow underneat...

CoESC Book 13-14.2: Outnumbered

As the elemental mists around the Ishodir Battalion shifted away from concealment, sharp eyes above the clouds immediately spotted the difference. Hesitation lasted only for a moment before the Ib’honara scout flipped over and flew south as if all the hounds of the Abyss were after him.

...

CoESC Book 13-14.1: Outnumbered

Edward Turner’s clone, or Eddie as he liked to think of himself, smiled with smug satisfaction when he saw the quarry flying a few longstrides away. Farsight gave him a clear view of her expression, and the satisfaction he felt when he saw her surprise, and what he imagined to be despair, cross...

CoESC Book 13-13.3: Itching to Fight

“What do you mean you found other Ancients?” Yuriko asked, barely parsing through Gwendith’s flood of words and emotions. The spell made use of the threads connecting them by widening the passage, and as a result, Gwendith’s thoughts and emotions, especially when they were this strung up,...

CoESC Book 13-13.2: Itching to Fight

Yuriko managed to return to the caravan after a few minutes, though she did have to fend off several obsidian arrowhead volleys. She couldn’t find the elusive Magus this time and she didn’t want to attack with her full arsenal lest the refugees get caught in the blast. So she moved away from ...

CoESC Book 13-13.1: Itching to Fight

The work to gather enough Elemental cores to exchange for a Tower Entry Token plus an Exit Token took weeks. Gwendith did the arithmetic. Elemental Cores averaged roughly ten merits each, and they needed forty thousand, one token for each group, and another three thousand for the exit tokens. Tho...

CoESC Book 13-12.3: ...Rescue

The next few days passed in both a blur and what seemed like a crawl. Yuriko spent them cooped up in the estate. The city was in turmoil, though she only watched from a distance. News was brought by Juan Carlos and his staff and it wasn’t anything good.

The girls she rescued, along with ...

CoESC Book 13-12.2: ...Rescue

Yuriko held herself ready, waiting for her wily foe to return. Her sunblades were ready to explode with all the Radiant energy they held. The the explosion and damage wouldn’t be as powerful as using Radiant Lance, it had the advantage of being easy to use, and there were dozens of sunblades at...

CoESC Book 13-12.1: ...Rescue

A heavy feeling of foreboding overcame Yuriko’s senses just as she flew closer to her target. She could see a small country manor through the light of the Half Moon and the twinkling of the foreign stars. The manor itself was about a third the size of the Abad family’s main house, and it had ...

CoESC Book 13-11.3: Search and...

When the golden light faded away, the Golems had been blown away from the portal gate. The Metal Golem, Fire Golem, and Ice Golem were past her perception range, but the mocking trail across the undergrowth told where they ended up. The Earth and Wood Golems were still in the clearing, but both w...

CoESC Book 13-11.2: Search and...

There were roughly a dozen guardsmen scattered across the clearing, along with half the amount of carriages. 

‘Most of them must have gone inside already.’ Yuriko thought, since those carriages could carry four people comfortably, or six to eight packed in. ‘How many did t...

CoESC Book 13-11.1: Search and...

The clearing was filled with Steeld carriages, collapsed guards, and Magi. Yuriko didn’t think they were the ones using cooperative spells, as they were too far from each other. She ignored the guards on the ground but kept some strands of consciousness trained of those still able to move and t...

CoESC Book 13-10.3: Uprising

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the threads didn’t lead her directly to the city. Even more of a surprise, it wasn’t towards the east either, but closer to the north-northeast. The Radiant Sun had disappeared beneath the Veil… no, there wasn’t a Veil within sight here, it was a different term tha...

CoESC Book 13-10.2: Uprising

The teens and younger kids looked at her with a mix of trepidation and hope, and when she spread her Tranquillity, the stressed and weepy faces eased into serenity. 

“Gather round and follow me,” Yuriko said, even as she removed her bodily restrictions. The Anima reach would...