The moment Yuriko felt her mind touch the Ennoia, both of her bodies stopped what they were doing and focused. Her true body was just about to take a hot shower but she turned off the showerhead, put her clothes back on, and walked up to the roof to train. With any other Ennoia, she would have meditation on her bed, but with the sword? That needed movement. Or so she thought, anyway.

When she opened the gate to enlightenment, and as she suspected, other Ennoias were different from Radiance. Knowledge, concepts, insights…they flooded into her mind, wormed their way into her body…and for the case of her true body, clashed with already existing Ennoia of Radiant Flying Swords.

Destructively clashed, to the point where she suspected that both would eradicate themselves if she let it be. So she didn’t. The very first spark told her enough, and her true body focused on preventing the nascent Ennoia from influencing her.

Ennoias that came from the same branch, from the same root, didn’t want to remain separate. They wanted to merge, to become complete. Except, for some reason, the emerging Ennoia didn’t like the Flying Swords concept. They wouldn’t merge at all, not without an intermediary, and now, she found herself in need of another Sword-related Ennoia, and the knowledge that she didn’t quite get what she wanted. But it wasn’t as if she expected that.

…

Well, she did, come to think of it. Ah, annoying.

But she pushed the emotion aside and focused. She had to keep the emerging Ennoia from manifesting in her true body’s core and she had to focus all of her attention, true and incarnation, to channel it all into her body in Astoria, even if she was currently in the middle of a fight.

Very little was spared to her surroundings, just enough that nothing could quite get to her. Her incarnation body was only at 24% converted to her true body’s makeup, but it allowed her to enhance her mind, heart, skin, and most of her blood. Each of those was infused with her Radiance, but she was keeping that energy away from her Animus core.

Her new Ennoia would have to create its Essence to orbit around that burning sphere, and with the influx of knowledge, it was slowly building itself up.

Unlike Radiant energy, there was no corresponding ambient energy for swordsmanship. With the Ennoia of Radiant Flying Swords, her Radiance carried everything needed. She expressed her swordsmanship through Radiant sunblades, and the Colligia interpreted the influx from the sword.

With this new one forming in her incarnation body, there was no underlying energy support other than her Animus, and she instinctively knew that it wouldn’t be enough. The yet unnamed Ennoia would need more to properly express itself, and more to the point, use that energy to create the Essence Core.

Here, she had a choice. What would she use to build her Swordlight? Radiance was out of the picture because whatever else she put in the mix, even the concept of the sword, would be subsumed and all that remained would be Radiant. It was the reason her Ennoia was Radiant Flying Swords and not just Flying Swords, or Swords. The Radiance expressed itself as a sword.

It ran counter to what she wanted now. She wanted an Ennoia of Swordsmanship, in one form or another. Not that Radiance was bad or unsatisfactory, she mused, but because she wanted to be more. Simply embodying Radiance without anything else meant that she wouldn’t be anything more than Radiance. She wanted to be Radiance who could wield a sword. Radiance who could dance around the worlds, and other things yet to be named. She was sure that her incarnation body wouldn’t remain an isolated incident. She was sure that above Manifestation, maybe not the one above it but the next, would involve having more bodies. It was how the Chaos Duke fought. And Damien hinted at it when he mentioned the missing shards were once part of his greater whole. It was a glimpse of the future.

She also thought turning every incarnation into a perfect copy of her true body would be a waste.

So what should she use? Animus alone was not enough, but Animus could be anything she needed it to be. What was Animus to her? Her perception changed over time as she grew in experience and wisdom. It was, simply put, harnessed Chaos. It was the same kind of refined energy that Chaos Lords used, which, now that she thought about it, is why Ashley Gin could become the Songstress of Heartfelt Desire.

Animus was simply refined Chaos tuned to work with a person’s Anima, and holds the same kind of infinite potential that Chaos did. It wasn’t to the same extent as Ambrosia, but the principle was the same.

She briefly entertained the thought of infusing Elemental energies, such as Wind, since it was how her incarnation body used her Grasp. But…having to gather Elemental energy to fill up her Essence Core would be annoying, especially in energy-deficient areas. Animus could be refilled even if there was no ambient Chaos simply by converting Radiant energy, or any other kind of Elemental energy. The process took some time, but it meant she wasn’t beholden to a specific Element she’d have to parse out of the mass.

So, she used her Animus to create her Swordlight. With her true body occupied with keeping her Ennoias separate from the new one, her incarnation body had to do everything. The metaphysical connection between two bodies had its advantages and disadvantages, and the latter reared its head now.

She opened herself up to the Ennoia, allowed it to fill the pool of Animus she drew out from her core, almost all of it, actually. The Ennoia infused into the waiting Animus and slowly altered it to suit her needs.

What was the Ennoia? What was it called? Only when she knew could she understand, and only through understanding could she use it properly.

The Ennoia of the Bladeless Sword.

A shiver ran down her spine as she thought of the endless possibilities. Bladeless. No need to use something solid to cut. It was the basic interpretation that came to her. After all, she’d been using her Anima-reinforced fingers to act like a sword, so why should she be surprised to get something like this?

Bladeless also meant that anything could be a sword. Anything. Her movement. The wind created by her moving her hand. Her shadow? Maybe even the sound of her voice?

Bladeless.

A transparent Swordlight was borne from the combination of her Animus and the Ennoia borne from the Realm of Ideals. When she spun the Swordlight into Essence, she wasn’t all that surprised that it didn’t form into a sword shape. Rather, it followed the same convention as her Animus Core, and her Radiance Core to form a sphere. Swordlight Essence and Animus Core orbited around each other with the centre of her Anima, and she felt the world shiver around her.

In her true body, once the process was complete, Yuriko wondered if she could use the other Ennoia as well as her original. She hadn’t tried with her incarnation body simply because the incarnation lacked enough refinement and Radiance to create that core, and without Radiance and an excess of Animus, it was hard to make sunblades.

Yuriko closed her eyes and drew on the knowledge contained within her incarnation’s mind, and applied it to her true body. She lifted a finger and allowed the Ennoia to guide her, and with a casual flick, the roof suddenly bore a gash that ran from her foot all the way to the edge. Then it cut through the walls of the building across the road, and through the thankfully empty hallways, and then out the other side, where it went on to cut through three more buildings until it stopped at the range of her Anima reach.

“Wicked.” Yuriko grinned, though her mood was tempered by the fact that she could have accidentally killed someone innocent.

Well, that answered that question, but she also knew that the attack had been borne by her Anima, even if it was only in her perception state. If she actually had the corresponding Swordlight…ah, well, that was what her incarnation body was for. It was a shiny new toy for her true body, but for her other body, it would be her primary weapon.

“What would happen when I combine my incarnation with my true body?” she murmured, but also knew that it would be unlikely to happen considering the distance between the bodies. She still didn’t know exactly where Astoria was in relation to her true body. She couldn’t even point in a direction. Ah, and she couldn’t split her incarnation off after fusing, not at her current Anima strength.

She mused as her mind raced upon the possibilities of the new Ennoia. Bladeless Sword. She thought it meant it could cut with anything as if wielding a sword.

She wondered if it could also mean that she could cut literally anything…Severing Shard. It leaned heavily into the Fifth Phase. What would it take to make it come true? What…

Her incarnation body jolted from her reverie and her true body, fully immersed in the experience, felt the same. Thoughts scattered into the winds, and irritation filled her veins.

“You broke my enlightenment,” she said spitefully, though technically, that wasn’t really true. She glared at the humongous pile of squigglies trying to get to her.

She called upon the Ennoia and threaded a stream of Swordlight to her fingers. She swung her hand with careful ease and felt her Swordlight disperse into the wind her hand caused to move. From there, it spread out into a tempest and cutting edges, and then, the squigglies were pulverised.

“Amazing…”

“Scary…”

“Hot…”

Yuriko blinked and turned around. That had been three voices. Two familiar figures stood next to Weavemaster and they were surrounded by crushed, sliced, and stomped squigglies.

“Ah, hello. I didn’t expect to see you today,” Yuriko said casually before she turned back to the rift. There were more squigglies pouring out, and another pile behind the portal. Her Anima perception allowed her to see that the flayed bodies and the ritual circle were intact, and probably what was keeping the rift open. She didn’t want to disturb the bodies, knowing that the police liked to record everything, so she did the next best thing and simply slashed the connecting lines between them. The ritual, which had been subtly powered by the blood, slowly lost its light.

But the rift didn’t close.

“Huh, not enough,” she muttered.

“What isn’t?” Lightfoot appeared next to her, though she kept on her tiptoes, understandably wary. Yuriko spared the young woman a smile.

“The rift didn’t close. I hoped breaking the ritual circle would do the trick, but apparently not.” She wiggled her fingers and cut apart the squigglies coming out of the hole.

“You do that so easily,” Lightfoot muttered. “You were toying with us before.”

Yuriko smirked, but shook her head. “I only learned this recently,” she admitted.

“Really now?” Lightfoot’s eyes narrowed.

“Well, I’ll have to break the edges, I guess,” Yuriko muttered. “Hope it closes that way…”

“Wait! Don’t!” Soundwave yelled, clearly eavesdropping. Weavemaster had taken a couple of steps away. “If you’re not sure, your actions could make things worse.”

“What do you want to do then? These things aren’t going to stop,” Yuriko pointed at the squigglies, who were still squeezing through.

“HAH!” Soundwave yelled and the shockwave generated pushed the daemons back through the rift. “We’ll need to quarantine this area. Scientists should be able to close this safely,” he said with as much conviction as he could muster.

Yuriko shrugged. “Alright, it’s your problem.” She turned around to leave, but Lightfoot reached for her hand. She let the other woman, who then bit her lip, thick with uncertainty. “What is it?”

“Do you mind if we have a proper talk?” The woman asked.

Yuriko looked at Soundwave who was nodding enthusiastically even as he used his voice to continually push back the daemons.

“Huh, I guess I can spare an hour or two.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep