Gwendith’s Anima reach had grown to ten and a half paces, but she could hardly quantify it like that. Her Anima was so flexible that she hardly saw any point to keeping its shape into a perfect sphere, even if that had been possible. Unlike Yuriko, her perception aura, and her Anima really, had a hard time penetrating through solid surfaces. She could stretch herself farther than Yuriko could, however—all other things being equal, of course. She was also far more subtle than her Radiant, golden glowing goddess. 

Gwendith could stretch her Anima tendrils to fifty five paces away, exactly five times her normal reach. She could use her Ennoia through it and it was almost colourless. Well, it had a slight bluish or pinkish tinge depending on which side of freezing she wanted it to embody. 

So, as they fled the apartment with most of their things stuffed into their backpacks, she was the designated scout. Ryoko, Devotee, and Elsie trailed behind her, which was somewhat amusing, considering that, by Anima strength, Devotee was of a higher level. Gwendith was an Ancient, though, and past experience told her that she was stronger than those of her rank. Besides, Devotee, as he was now, was little more than a brute. None of his skills and techniques could be used easily in this barren region. Sure, he could go in a blaze of glory, but he’d be dry right after. 

She extended her tendrils as far as they could go and made sure they were at room temperature. That meant that her Anima was practically transparent, with little swirls of blue and pink every now and then. Most people who saw it typically dismissed it as a quirk of light, and more importantly, the city’s thermal vision cameras wouldn’t pick it out. 

She swept her Anima tendrils around corners and across intersections. She could split her attention roughly three ways and still be able to function normally, so it was just enough to watch their rear, up ahead, and to the left or right. 

There was a squad of those corpo goons just around the corner, roughly ten or so paces back. They were moving fast though, and would reach the turn in a couple of seconds. Gwendith pulled water vapour from the air, directed it towards the floor, and flash froze a patch just as the goon second from the front, landed his foot on it. She coated the bottom of his foot in ice, too, covering the grooves that would have given him traction. When the two icy surfaces met, she allowed the surface to melt, just enough to make it absolutely slippery. 

“Whoa!”

The man slipped and fell into a forward split. She directed his foot to hit the heel of the man in front, which threw off his stride. Then, as the group skidded to a halt, she evaporated the ice to remove all the evidence. 

The delay allowed her to lead the others away from the contact zone, and they were out of sight by the time the goons managed to continue. That probably bought them another five minutes or so, but she hoped that none of them were supported by a REI-spacewalker, otherwise the security cameras would track them down. 

When she mentioned as much, Elsie shrugged. “I don’t detect any intrusions. But someone much better than me would be able to bypass the counter-intrusion programs easily.”

“That’s a non answer,” Gwendith muttered. 

“That’s all I can give you.” 

“Should I fog up the lenses?” she muttered to herself. 

“We could also be tracked that way, but at least it might buy us some time.” Elsie offered.

Gwendith nodded and did just that. The security cameras were mostly situated in the intersections, and she could reach those even halfway across the halls. There were a few cameras hidden in the nooks and crannies of the halls, most pointed towards apartment doors. Those things were small half-spheres plugged into the ceilings or high on the walls, and all she had to do was pull in moisture and have them collect on the domes, then she’d bring them down to nearly freezing temperatures. They fogged up quickly. 

Controlling water with her Anima was rather easy for her, but not to the point where they just moved to her Will. It was more like using a hundred or so little dippers across the air then ferrying them to where she wanted the moisture to go. She could also use her Ennoia on the water vapour, heating them up or cooling them down, and once they were affected, it was easier to manipulate them with her Anima. It was as if the particles shone brightly to her sight at that point. Hmm, perhaps she should try to touch upon the Ennoia of Water? Just like Knight Dominus Jiro Segawa, huh? That frightening old man carried an ocean in his pocket. 

Yeah, she should try to touch that Ennoia. Water was a good way to conduct heat and cold—better than air anyway. So how would she go about it? The Eternal Tower was supposedly a place to develop Ennoias, according to Nathan Quint and the others of his circle. They had forgoed claiming the Fragments of Truth that had been in the rewards list, for the Tower Entry Tokens. But she was sure that she wouldn’t find any treasures here, in Dragon Fall City. The was the ground floor, the lobby, of the tower, and was just a staging point to anyone who wanted to climb or delve. She also wasn’t sure which one she needed to do, but for that, she could leave the decision to Yuriko. 

Fogging up the cameras was easily done, as well as scouting ahead. There were a couple of close calls before they reached the next lift lobby, but they didn’t take those. Instead, they used the stairwells.

Devotee carried Ryoko on his back, much to Elsie’s confusion. 

“What…?”

“Jumping is faster,” Gwendith stated.

“Are you crazy?” the other woman gasped, but Gwendith just smirked.

Unfortunately, the stairs didn’t have an empty air column, but rather, folded around landings. It was a simple feat to just leap from landing to landing, with quick pivots and wall bounces. Gwendith managed it easily enough, thankful of the forced aerobic training Yuriko had all of them do. Elsie yelped as she tried to keep up, but Gwendith eventually had to tether the woman along with her Animakinesis. She couldn’t lift her, but she could pull and guide the other, preventing her from crashing. This way, they went down the stairs all the way down to the 150th, where they had to cross over to another lift lobby to access another set of stairs. The mega buildings didn’t have stairwells that crossed more than ten floors at a time

They went down five such stairwells in less than a minute. The last set of stairs only went down five levels but that was because it led out to the 101st Shopping District. 

“Where are we headed, by the way?” Gwendith asked Elsie, who she ended up carrying anyway since the other woman was too slow. The woman wasn’t that heavy, maybe sixty Jin? For Gwendith, that was like carrying a pillow. She might not be as physically strong as Yuriko, or even Heron, but she was still strong. Her own pride wouldn’t let her be weak forever. 

“A safehouse in Junktown,” Elsie muttered. “Corpo goons don’t go down there much. Even if they do, there’s literally leagues of uncharted space on the surface, and just below it.” 

“Alright.”

Gwendith sighed. Those two were supposedly wanted for murder, but it was self-defense. But she’d read through too many lines in REI-space to know that it wouldn’t fly. Through its veneer of luxury and order, Dragon Fall City was just as ruthless and power-driven as the Northern Barbarians. At least they weren’t sexist. 

Once they reached the shopping district, they slowed down and walked. Running and bouncing off the walls would only draw needless attention, and while Gwendith didn’t mind fighting, she’d rather not get innocent bystanders killed. The floor was filled with shoppers, tenants, and gangers…and also corpo goons. 

She spotted several squads stationed around the place, and they stuck out in their powered armour, and openly carried assault rifles. She could see their heads turning to and fro, but as soon as her group exited the stairs, and came close to the balconies that overlooked the five floors of the district, heads turned. 

Swearing softly to herself, Gwendith spotted the security cameras well out of her reach, as well as the dozens that were within reach. She just didn’t have the tendrils to handle all of them at once, and now, they were made out.

“Move,” she commanded, and the other three obeyed. 

She led them south, seeking another set of stairs, but her path was obstructed. Her Anima perception tendrils brushed up against a group of goons, quickly marching towards them. Another group was behind them, and both would converge in about half a minute. On the 101st floor, another group was hurrying towards the stairwells. 

“Jump.” 

She grabbed Elsie and held her in a princess carry while Dev did the same for Ryoko, then both of them leapt over the balustrade. She aimed at one of the decorative poles, stuck the landing, and bounced off. At the same time, three tendrils, each headed towards the three corpo goons, struck. She split the ends and had them all touch their guns, specifically the chamber and magazine. Then she froze the cartridges. No way would those things fire now. She was rewarded with the sound of empty clicking as the goons tried to suppress them with gunfire. 

As soon as they landed on the ground, they dashed towards the stairs that would lead them into the industrial zone. She did the same trick with the pursuing goons, tripping them all up by making them slide on ice patches. She was meticulous enough to remove the patches afterwards.

They made it into the correct stairwell soon afterwards, and they raced downwards. They must have crossed twenty or so floors before the well ended and they had to move to the next set. Gwendith had spent the first week familiarising herself with the tower’s layout. It has not been easy. Each floor was roughly a square longstride, or a million square paces. There were leagues of hallways, and hundreds of rooms. Still, she knew where each connecting stairwell was, where all the lift lobbies and which floor they led to. So now, when they needed a quick exit, there was no hesitation. The only way the corpo goons would catch them now was if they anticipated her route and set up an ambush ahead. It was unlikely, but her Anima perception ranged ahead anyway. 

And she was thankful that she did, since just outside the sixtieth stairwell exit, one of the floors that had a lot of restricted space, and only had a couple of paths, was a battlegroup of heavily armed men and women. Well, if they want a fight, that’s what they’ll get. She was still unsure what brought this about, but she had an inkling it had to do with Yuriko. Well, it’s always her lover who was the root of Chaos, wasn’t she? Gwendith chuckled. 

So when they burst into the lobby, her Anima had already preceded her. This time, she did not freeze the bullets. Instead, she hardened the exit points and redirected the heat, and the blast sideways. 

The result, their guns exploded in their hands and often, the bullets slammed towards their own bodies instead of out the muzzle. Three dozen corpo goons were then stunned from the exploding firearms. 

Devotee unleashed his fury. He dropped Ryoko next to Gwendith, then charged into the fray. His hands extended outwards, and his fingers emitted plasma claws that were nearly a pace in length. Then, he cooked the rotters in their own shells.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep