Millay Continent
Everything froze. Shain looked down and saw the guard and the swarming grey haze frozen in its pursuit to engulf all.
Or, at least that is how it seemed.
Shain stood with Cramnal next to him
"Rachel's connection to the realm is even more powerful than I remember." Shain watched as the Azmin Guard handled the second black knot on their path. He had lead the attack on the first. It had been huge and he thought, for a moment, that fate magic would fail him.
"Her connection is even greater than you could ever imagine. She is truly is the greatest Milana ever known" Cramnal answered as if it were something obvious. Shain felt as if his brother had shrugged with his answer.
"And her Antrunie,"Shain spoke nonchalantly, but Cramnal knew his brother was fishing. "Are they worthy of her?"
There were currently only two Antrunie: Rebecca and Struns.
He casually looked to his brother, but made no reply. They stood in silence for a moment longer then he straightened.
"Come." An arch opened before them and Cramnal turned to it. "We need to get started. They have this under control. They do not need our help."
As the two brothers stepped into the wood frame of the portal pink, yellow and orange light streaked across a tight battlefield. Another knot of chaos unraveling within the onslaught.
The Abyss
Rachel hadn't been in the abyss in many years and she instantly regretted this fact as she moved through the space beneath the continent of Smo. It had changed so much it was like a different realm.
She and the others moved through the oddly changing atmosphere with ease, they were strong, Rachel could not help but think of the few creatures that lived in these layers of magic and intent.
She would need to maintain her realm better than this.
She moved forward, keeping close to the ground of the abyss, using a unique teleportation skill she developed that utilized her sorcery, gravity, and air magics. It wrapped her in a thin, rapidly moving, current of air, used gravity to move in any given direction and sorcery to hold the magics together, feed them, and move her through areas that were too solidified.
Rebecca sat, like a princess, between two spirit beings as they carried her along on a thin sheet of spirit magic. Struns used brute force and bounded along as if the layers were nothing but air to blow back his hair.
Rachel could see in the darkness with her rainbow colored eyes but she still had her third eye open. As she moved forward she watched the thick oily bands moving about her. They sought them but avoided them at the same time. Perhaps it was due to her ability to phase in and out of dimensions, Rebecca's spirit beings, and Struns strength.
The entire situation was odd.
Currently she was actually phased between three dimensions. It was like having a line before you and straddling it. Rachel could straddle four dimensions at a time without much strain on her soul well.
She felt apprehension for the first time in a long time as she moved forward. She had never known of her realm being invaded in such a way before. Mis confirmed there were no records of anything similar in the past and the Milana memory was devoid of any such thing as well.
She looked to the others.
"Let's move faster. We need to resolve this now." They nodded and as she sped forward both Rebecca and Struns matched her speed.
Uta Continent
Emil, Anis, and Mis were sitting with their backs together, in a small heap, and breathing heavily. They had brazenly handled four knots in a row and exhausted themselves. Their sense of urgency had caused them to act irrationally and they only stopped when Rachel yelled into their minds.
Emil shifted and stood. The Alsyn moving to help him. "We are truly idiots." He shook his head as he watched two Alsyn ensure the knot was no longer a viable thing.
Anis smiled and shrugged. "We have to do the extreme to do our part. We are the weaker siblings brother. How do we leave our mark otherwise?
Emil nodded in thought. "If we need to leave a mark there are other ways Anis."
She shrugged again.
The Underside Millay Continent
Fate magic surged forth from Shain, surrounding darkness that had suddenly surged up from no where. The fate magic plumed as soul and healing magic fused with it and the darkness before the guard simply ceased to be as the magics roared forward and tore through it. Healers began sending healing magic to the core that remained. But no one could relax or acknowledge their exhaustion.
This fight was different. Somehow this knot fought back.
Dark tendrils rose from the ground and skewered some and dragged others away to points unknown.
Both Cramnal and Shain gritted their teeth at the loss of Azmin. But they did not have time for frustration.
Cramnal had to engage with the tendrils themselves and Shain engaged the black knot.
Even with the black knot destroyed the tendrils still attacked.
A door opened and the tendrils were pulled into the it. They were torn from their roots and dragged in. Cramnal high above directing portals and funneling power. Door slammed shut and disappeared just as others formed, opened and drank in.
There was a harmony between the brothers that neither ever thought they would have.
The Abyss
Rachel, Rebecca, and struns were covered in blood. Blood flowed from many cuts and open wounds on all three of their bodies. They sat, exhausted, each twitching ever so often.
Rachel spoke into the minds of the other two.
'I need to send you two back above.'
'A resounding no rocked through her being.'
She smiled.
'If you two do not go back who will give the others the locations. I will be fine.'
Again, a unanimous 'No.'
Rachel nodded in resignation and stood. Her arms raised, with great effort, and color began to swirl around them, grey and black tendril struck out at the movement and magic.
A dome of magic rose around them and moved under them, cutting the tendrils off. Rebecca and Struns rose, a bit unsteady on their feet and stood with her.
Rachel's rainbow third eye opened with a wild gush of power and the dome shone vibrantly and seemed to solidify. She took a deep breath and spoke to all of her siblings at once.
She had to protect and she had to move forward.
Her magic moved through the abyss like water through a desert and seemed to dissipate just as fast.
She sat down, her wounds healing, orange healing magic moving from her to heal the other two.
"We will sit here, rest, and then find whatever is attacking our realm."