The earth parted easily against Yuriko’s Animakinesis, with the stones being ground to dust and tossed to her back. She only allowed her Radiant to consume part of the matter, allowing it to inflate her core and physique. Recovering from the incarnation split was going well, but it had only been a couple of days or so. She estimated she still needed a couple of weeks to recover her Anima reach, but she noticed the rate at which she expanded was growing.

The benefits of experiencing something new, she supposed. Recovering the number of her strands of consciousness would not be so easy, she felt. There was no indication so far that she would just be able to split off new strands. She could feel that if she pushed, she could do so, but it would be at the expense of growing her Will and Intent. While being able to focus on more things at once was useful, Will and Intent were necessary to grow to the next Stage. Besides, strands of consciousness would split naturally over time anyway, as long as she was not at the limit.

Ten strands had gone with her incarnation, leaving eighty-six with her true body. She dedicated another five to observing the state of the incarnation, fascinated by the exchange of information, while the rest of her consciousness focused on the here and now. Her cheeks heated at the thought of exposing her body to others she was not intimate with, but she could feel her Mien practically bursting with excitement at the thought. Unlike her Anima, Animus, Ennoias, and strands of consciousness, her Mien was not split between the bodies. It was rooted fully in both. That had been an unexpected benefit, though she was wondering what liabilities it had.

Well, for one thing, she realised that if neither of her bodies indulged in pleasures, both would crave it to the extent that it was warping her thoughts. It remained to be seen if satiating one body would satiate both. Woe to her if both must be satisfied independently.

She could also enthral people from Astoria with the full might of her Mien, but it remained to be seen if she ever wanted to. Her troubles with the rental payment could easily be solved if she asked someone for the Torries. They would gladly give it to her in exchange for nothing more than a smile, but it felt…dirty to do so.

There was also that green film that covered her dreamscape body. It seeped out from the threads that connected her to a multitude of people. She figured out that it was likely from her Mien, but she had no idea what it meant, what it could be used for, and how it was accumulated. She hadn’t touched it yet, figuring that doing so while she was in the midst of hostile territory would be the height of foolishness. She didn’t sense any malice, but she did feel a lot of desire…a hunger for the greenish film.

Whether she could incorporate it into her Anima or harvest it for something else she needed to find out. The film was slowly thickening, too, and it might smother her dreamscape senses.

She’d been digging for a while now and actually hadn’t slept for the night. It made for an odd interaction with her incarnation, who did sleep. Her incarnation self dreamt of what her true body was doing, before transitioning to dreaming about her daydreams. It was an odd feeling and gave her some insight into how dreams and sleep affected her bodies.

Simply put, her true body didn’t need to sleep, but she still did out of habit. Her incarnation sleeping was enough to feed that urge, and after she woke up the next morning, both bodies were as refreshed as if she took a full night’s sleep. Her incarnation body, being only 12% Ancient flesh, still needed sleep. Ah, 13% now.

She absently noted Madeline’s prattling while she arranged Yuriko’s pose for the session. They’d swapped out the towel for a blanket that she was supposed to clasp to her breast. It was white and long enough to cover her feet, but she was also supposed to stick her leg out of the opening. Essentially, she exposed her arms, most of her back, the top of her bosom, and some of the side, as well as her right leg. Her hair was a bit more wavy than her true body’s, not to mention a lot shorter. It still took on her golden glow, just that it wasn’t as obvious in the daylight.

At least, she didn’t think it was obvious.

“I love the colour of your hair!” Madeline gushed as she arraigned the locks to fall across Yuriko’s left shoulder. “Wherever did you get these done?”

“It just turned out that way,” Yuriko answered softly.

“Hmph, fine, keep your secrets!” Madeline giggled. “How long can you hold this pose?”

Yuriko sniffed. “As long as I have to.”

Holding still was incredibly easy even without using her Anima kinesis. Even before her Mien grew easier to control, Yuriko’s training afforded her incredible body control. She could hold herself aloft simply by supporting her body weight with her fingers. Holding still was as easy as breathing.

“Oh, then you’re a more valuable model than I hoped,” Madeline nodded. “Either way, I think we’ll do two poses for this session: that one, and another where you show off your wonderful back muscles.”

“Oh. Uhm, wouldn’t your students require the entire class to finish their sketch?”

“They would, but, ah, do you mind the students taking pictures?”

Yuriko shook her head. “As long as I see it and approve, I guess.”

“Of course, the students know proper protocol, don’t worry. Ah, if we go for nude modelling, photos or videos will be strictly prohibited. “

“I understand.”

Yuriko didn’t really mind showing off her body since she did work hard for it. More to the point, she realised that her Mien craved the exposure.

‘I wonder if images of me will serve as an anchor for the Mien to affect someone.’ She’d certainly left enough images and movies of herself back in Irvalla when she tried to teach the Karcellians how to form an Animus core. That might explain why she had so many threads around her dreamscape self, come to think of it.

‘Ah, I’m out.’ Her Animakinesis burst through the mountainside and she found herself roughly a longstride above the valley. She’d subconsciously dug upwards since her lovers were probably inside a megabuilding. Huh. It was midday, and she stretched as the Radiant Sun warmed her body up. Fluffington woke up from his long nap and he rubbed his snout on her neck. She reached over and scratched between his ears.

‘I’m a bit too far east, I think.’ She left her Kanegawa Bladedancer in District One. She hoped it was still there.

Bzzzt!

Blinking in surprise, Yuriko felt her Autowatch vibrate as it received hundreds of messages and notifications. Her phone…Autotab did the same thing, as well as the visor. She could see the connecting thread thicken as data poured in, and she contemplated cutting the connection to stem the flow. But then again, it would still happen once she stopped interfering.

She fiddled with her tab and swiped away all of the messages, most of which came from strangers. She frowned at the contents. ‘What in the Abyss?’ She had opened one and it contained a picture of a grotesque phallus with the caption, “You know you want this!”

“Ew,” Yuriko muttered. It was bigger than Heron’s but it was also clearly artificial. It had ridges, bumps, and looked like it vibrated. The owner apparently wasn’t a fan of hygiene as the top was covered in coarse fur.

Most of the messages were propositions. Most offered ACs while some were practically demands for her obedience and submission. She tossed most of them into the spam folder, configured the settings to do so for any such message or call, and looked for the messages that actually came from her companions.

Gwendith: Yuri, why haven’t you cast True Connection lately? I’ve missed you.

Heron: Been busy lately, contact whenever you need. I will answer.

There were several messages in the same vein, and Yuriko couldn’t help but smile, a bittersweet taste at the back of her tongue. She had forgotten to call, preoccupied as she was with her training. Severing Shard was close to being a complete Phase, and all she needed to finalise it was to incorporate it as the Fifth Phase. This meant the stances and resonance must be able to interchange and flow into or out of the other stances from the other Styles. The concept of cutting, of severing lingered just beyond her grasp, and had it not been in slight contrast to Radiance, she would have grasped it already. After all, Radiance burned and consumed whatever it touched, it did not slice, sever, chop, cut, or carve.

Still just like a blade, if she tightened and narrowed a blade made out of Radiant energy, wouldn’t the effect be similar? Hmmm, but the thing was, she managed to slice something so finely that when she pushed the edges back, it was as if they had not been cut at all. Anything she cut with Radiance would not fit back like that. Huh, a conundrum. Then, perhaps she only needed to keep refining the edge?

She sent messages to her lovers, and the rest of her companions. She spent another moment dipping into the dreamscape to follow Desire’s thread. The Chaos Lord had not finished her ascension to Viscount, but she felt that the girl that had once been Ashley Gin would be done soon. The question would be how the Chaos Lord could return to her without spending years travelling. Perhaps she could use Fri’Avgi to cut into Primal Chaos and tug Desire through it?

The membrane protecting this layer of reality would be a problem though. It would be hard to cut through, and even harder to repair afterwards.

Hmmm. If she cut it with Severing instead of Radiance, would it not be easier to repair the damage? Ah, another reason to focus. She would have to relegate touching the Ennoia to her incarnation, however. Though if she waited to grasp the entirety of the Ennoia of the Sword, it might take longer than the time she had left. Perhaps she should focus on the Ennoia of the Severing Blade instead, then work on expanding it too? Taking Ennoias in bite-sized chunks might be faster than swallowing it whole, huh?

But it would only take reaching for it in her incarnation body. There was no reason to be hasty, and the more complete the Ennoia, the less she had to work on it. Already, she could call upon it without making the touch official, and she had not detected any foe that would need that kind of power. While the two she watched brawling in the skies were strong, that was only in relation to the strength of her incarnation body.

She was already making her way towards where she left her motorcycle. She missed riding the thing, especially since she had to bear with using the rickety scooter Lilibeth owned. She should upgrade her ride as soon as she can.

Now, why were all these people sending her salacious messages? She sent an email asking Heron and Gwendith, and when she received the reply, she snorted in annoyance. Those cretins dared hunt her beloved? Blood will flow.

She was halfway down the mountain when the class began. Yuriko had been hidden behind a curtain that was set up around a short platform at the front of the class. She had shed all of her clothes including her panties since it would show when she extended her leg out of the blanket. She got into her pose and kept her expression flat, head tilted slightly back so that she appeared to look down on her audience.

“…our model for today is Miss Lilibeth Lawson. You may take reference photographs, but you will have to show them to her before you can proceed. All normal rules apply, and you may begin when ready.” With that, Madeline pulled the curtains apart and Yuriko felt the gaze of nearly twenty young men and women land on her form.

Almost immediately, she felt twenty threads reach out and attach to her Mien. Oh dear.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep