Lester Yong & Rosa Fontelera-Yong

CoESC Book 10-19.3: Eli'Theria

A gash appeared on the sludge creature’s face, turning into a grotesque smirk. Yuriko’s sunblade streaked towards its neck, and it bent backwards out of the way. At the same time, one of its lower limbs lashed upwards into a kick, well out of her line of sight. It was a good thing she didn’...

CoESC Book 10-19.2: Eli’Theria

The Furnace creature roared in pain, the first time it did in the battle. A moment later it carved out the piece of torso that had the mandala stuck on it, and flung it away. A chunk a few inches to a side bounced off into the distance, all the while trailing disintegration dust.

Yuriko pur...

Catch up time!

We'll be having a posting break from July 24-28 (next week!) and will resume regular posting on July 31. It sucks to have to take all these breaks but for sanity, it's necessary, too.

Thank you so much for all the good vibes from everyone.

Things have been getting better offline, than...

CoESC Book 10-19.1: Eli’Theria

The feel of the dreamscape was unmistakable, even if she wasn’t lingering in the uppermost layers. Yuriko’s Anima spread, but of course, there was nothing to see. Other than the threads connecting her to Fate and to those she knew and was entangled with.

She had a moment of confusion. W...

CoESC Book 10-18.3: Crucible

‘Eli can’t stay awake.’ Fri’Avgi said sadly when the Colossus’ glowing eyes faded back to mundane metal.

Yuriko shook off her surprise. The name had just come to her as though she knew it her whole life. Eli’Theria. An Ancient’s companion artefact much like Fri’Avgi...

CoESC Book 10-18.2: Crucible

The Colossus’ eyes, which were probably as large as her head, seemed to focus on Yuriko’s eyes. She could almost see the gleam of interest coming from it, but a moment later, whatever it was disappeared and the giant construct was again nothing more than runescript etched metal.

“Yuri...

CoESC Book 10-18.1: Crucible

“Whoa! Ancestors, boy! You got big!” There was a desperate edge to Balliol’s laugh, but his embrace would have been hard enough to make Heron squeak if he hadn’t grown much stronger. His tackle had almost knocked his old man over, but the armour he wore must have been well-balanced, as he...

CoESC Book 10-17.3: Arrival

“I see something. A structure,” Selene Nimdahl said when she reported back. The entire group was moving at a steady pace west, following the movement of the Radiant Sun’s reflection on the ceiling. Yuriko was at the centre, along with most of the others. The beastkin were at her left and ri...

CoESC Book 10-17.2: Arrival

The journey through the portal felt nearly the same as when they first went through the portal back in Synkrasia. It was the same feeling of time passing by, while they were stuck in a daze, well, at least, for most of the others. With Fri’Avgi out, Yuriko’s consciousness wasn’t affected by...

CoESC Book 10-17.1: Arrival

Machine gun fire and anti-air flak wasn’t a problem for Yuriko, but this was the first time many of her companions flew, and definitely the first time they came under fire. Edison, for one, had started shrieking in panic, Douglas was staring slack-jawed, and Darren had her eyes squeezed shut, a...

CoESC Book 10-16.3: Return

Crossing the Norrinth Empire, from the northwest part of it where they made landfall, down to its border to the Sanctus Kingdom, where they were to meet with an intelligence agent, took about ten days.

At first, slogging through the snow was exhausting. Yuriko ached to fly and carry everyon...

CoESC Book 10-16.2: Return

It was snowing throughout the next week. Harbourtown, which was just east of Lindorn, and set within the narrow bay the river flowed out into, was practically covered in white powder. Yuriko pondered the sea, which was half-covered with floating ice. The town was on the northern side of the bay e...

CoESC Book 10-16.1: Return

Yuriko didn’t know how much time she spent meditating. She had focused her efforts on trying to figure out how to convert Radiant energy back into Animus, or even ambient Chaos. Most of the Radiant energy she used actually came from her Essence core, which regenerated to its full capacity withi...

CoESC Book 10-15.3: A Promise Kept

The grey-furred blood ape sat on his haunches, with his hands raised up, palms facing them. Gwendith exchanged looks with the twins, and the soldier driving the car. The young man had a twisted expression on his face, however, and had a white knuckled grip on his gun.

“Don’t make a move...

CoESC Book 10-15.2: A Promise Kept

Gwendith’s aid mission quickly ran into trouble. Not two longstrides from the base, just as they were headed into the mountains, they were ambushed by the crimson apes. Sitting next to the driver of the transport, she grabbed her Animus rifle and raised it to aim. The weapon had been loaned to ...

CoESC Book 10-15.1: A Promise Kept

A loud boom shook the air as a plume of dust shot up high into the skies. It was thick, brown, and billowing, obscuring nearly everything within its ambit. Spurts of golden Radiance flared near the bottom along with spotlights of darkness so black it drew in a corona of white.

Yuriko danced...

CoESC Book 10-14.3: The Living Monument

For the past several days, Gwendith had felt disquiet every time Yuriko set off on her patrols. She and the others were stationed in one of the forward outposts and with them were a couple of companies of infantry and field artillery. They held a commanding presence on a hilltop, with a clear vie...

CoESC Book 10-14.2: The Living Monument

A few more days passed since the prototype weapons were put to use. In response, the daemons raided in bigger groups, but that also made them far more visible.

Yuriko intercepted dozens of raids a week and slaughtered hundreds of crimson apes. She made a habit of spreading her perceptive au...

CoESC Book 10-14.1: The Living Monument

Yuriko sighed as she reviewed the carnage. The crimson apes managed to make it into the outpost, and she hadn’t noticed until it was already well underway. She was only here to join her friends, as she’d spent the last couple of weeks patrolling the entire length of the Karcellian mainland. 2023-06-26 14:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post

CoESC Book 10-13.3: Highlands

Harris Carron pulled the trigger of his bolt-action rifle, half wishing that he had been issued one of the new assault rifles instead of his buddy, Morton Cole. That worthy had sprayed all of his bullets in less than three seconds and had probably not hit the charging daemons more than a couple o...

CoESC Book 10-13.2: Highlands

“Where have you been?” Yuriko’s sharp tone took Casper Nichols aback, and he answered instinctively.

“Across the ocean and inspecting the…wait! Why are you asking me that?” His eyes grew wider than seemed humanly possible, though since he was facing her, nobody else noticed.

CoESC Book 10-13.1: Highlands

By the time a huffing Gwendith managed to arrive on the hilltop where the army had set up, the battle was already concluding. She stifled her irritation as she surveyed the utter devastation her beloved had caused.

There were clouds of ash from the disintegrating daemon apes, as well as a f...

CoESC Book 10-12.3: Daemon Hunt

A couple of hours after dawn found Yuriko and her team in the town hall along with several of her students. Douglas Hart had an expression that was between excitement and trepidation, and it looked like he didn’t know which one to wear. Darren Worrington was there, too, wearing a trenchcoat and...

Health Break!

We've needed a lot of these with all the things that have been going on offline.

We'll be having a posting break next week from June 19-23, 2023. Regular posting will resume on June 26, 2023.

We're hopeful that things will improve offline in the coming weeks though so please cross you...

CoESC Book 10-12.2: The Daemon Hunt

The eastern coast was several leagues away from Fordja, more than twenty, actually. But Yuriko felt there was little need to hurry there. The aircraft penetrated deeper into Karcellian airspace and whatever they were dropping were also falling closer to the city.

Boom! Boom!

...

CoESC Book 10-12.1: The Daemon Hunt

“Where have you two been?” Gwendith asked sternly with her fists on her hips. She stood just outside the cottage’s front door. Yuriko and Heron only reached Fordja a couple of hours after dawn. Gwendith’s gaze shifted between the two of them and her eyes narrowed when neither of them met ...

CoESC Book 10-11.3: Shards

Heron would have wanted to meditate too, but looking at Yuriko sitting with her back against the oak tree, her Anima boiling around her frame, and completely oblivious to everything around her, he couldn’t.

Midnight had passed, and honestly, he was sleepy. He bit his lip to keep his consc...

CoESC Book 10-11.2: Shards

A strange sensation filled Yuriko’s mind. It was pulling at her, down into dreams. She knew that if she succumbed, she’d fall asleep. Then who knew when she’d awaken?

Not yet. Not yet.

She glared at Casper Nichols, who flinched and scooted away, all while his bunny ears lay flat...

CoESC Book 10-11.1: Shards

“Five thousand years...” the rabbit/bunny/hare man growled. He was still in his seated meditation pose, but floating a good pace above the ground. “So much time spent Shaping this forsaken fragment, and now, you…Ancient, you come waltzing in, and upset the balance.”

Yuriko stared ...

CoESC Book 10-10.3: Nexus Point

A big portion of Northern Lindorn was burnt to the ground. After that first night attack, several more followed. At least, that’s what Yuriko later learned. At the moment, she had travelled to the Karcellian capital and was feeling out that bump of direction that Damien’s awakening had highli...