Swept

Everything froze. Rebecca 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.

Rebecca was of a race of spirit beings, she had been able to control other spirit beings since her birth, or creation, depending on how you looked at it.

She could maintain an endless number of beings within her soul sea because it was connected to her personal spirit world. Her soul sea was that dimension and that dimension was her soul sea.

They were two separate places but one could not tell where one began and the other ended.

And yes Rebecca had a soul sea. She was an Alyanna. They were a race of spirit beings that were born in unique instances when dark and light were in perfect harmony. Of course there were other criteria for the successful birth of an Alyanna but the most important criterion was that harmony, or chaos, between dark and light.

They are a race of spirit beings that thrive in both spirit realms and realms of the living. They are also unique in that they have soul seas while most others have soul wells.

Rebecca had six spirit beings in play, not including herself. Two of them controlled time and both had slowed time so much that it seemed to have stilled completely.

A third moved suddenly and the grey haze trembled as if it wanted to break free of the hold time had on it. The haze swirled in place, shuddered once more, and then was no more.

The fourth and fifth spirit beings were the serpent and beetle she acquired from Rachel. They used soul magics on a knot of darkness that hovered on a hill just before the guard. As the soul magic struck the knot shuddered.

Rebecca spun a web of shimmering emerald threads of power. She extended a hand towards the knot and it was covered by a gossamer web of translucent emerald. The web sunk into the knot and tightly wrapped around its core. As it tightened it injected power into the core and the mass surrounding it began to solidify, shatter like glass, and crumble into fine dust particles.

Shain stood high above Rebecca. Cramnal was next to him and two beings directly behind Shain. They were what one may call genies. One was blue the other green. They were muscular with milky grey eyes and long jet black hair. They did not have legs, in their current forms, as their bodies, below the hips ended in shallow pools of smoke the same color as their bodies.

They were powerful Alyanna who swore themselves to Rebecca.

"She is even more powerful than I remember her." Shain watched as Rebecca handled the second black knot on their path. He had lead the attack on the first and his brother had to essentially come to his rescue.

"She is more powerful than you could ever imagine. She is an Antrunie" Cramnal answered as if it were something obvious. Shain felt as if his brother had shrugged with his answer.

The Antrunie were chosen by the Milana, and blessed by the realm, to be the Milana's special guard. The Milana could choose anyone for their guard but only those blessed by the realm were Antrunie.

There were currently two Antrunie

"Come." An arch opened before them and Cramnal turned to it. "We need to get started. Rebecca has this under control. She does not need our help."

The two Alyanna looked appraisingly at Rebecca before following the two brothers through the arch.

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. Normally moving through the abyss was like swimming in a warm swiftly moving river, but now there were portions similar to the lake above oily, then viscous, then almost solidified.

She moved forward, keep close the ground of the abyss, using a unique teleportation skill she developed using 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.

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 her but avoided her at the same time. Perhaps it was due to her ability to phase in and out of dimensions.

Currently she was actually phased to three dimensions. It was like having a line before you and straddling the line. Rachel could straddle four dimensions at a time without much strain on her soul well.

Rachel 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.

She was apprehensive but she innately knew what she needed to do and that she could do it.

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 Struns almost physically stopped them.

Struns sat above them watching the area and feeling frustrated. Because he was an Antrunie he had a unique connection to Rachel and that connection was always strong no matter where she was or the realm she was in. Now that connection was so weak and he felt it would break.

Struns was a Yarril and they were born with an inclination to either being bodyguards or assassins. Struns was born with inclinations to both. In terms of the Yarril it was akin to being a hermaphrodite. He watched the area with both the eye of a bodyguard and assassin. He was told to protect the three siblings, and he loved one of them dearly, but his loyalty to Rachel was etched in his soul well and was a binding promise between them.

'Rebecca.'

'I know.'

'Will you be able to go?'

'Yes. I am done here and I can leave some of my guard here with Cramnal.'

'Tell me if you need me.'

'Of course.'

Struns was only slightly relieved.

He felt Emil move to him. "Thank you for stopping us." Struns nodded as Emil paused. "Is something wrong?'

Struns smiled. Healers were annoyingly perceptive. "I don't know. Rebecca is going to her now." He thought for a moment. "Our connection to her is weaker than it has ever been before."

Emil nodded in thought. "If you need to go to her do not hesitate."

Struns' eyes subconsciously moved to Anis.

Shain's arms whirled through the air. He was a fate manipulator and he was good at it. With fate manipulation he moved the pieces to try and have Anis made the new Milana. With fate manipulation he kept his brothers from finding out his plans and through fate manipulation he ensured Sublyme and Althius were fully on his side.

Fate magic surged forth from him and the darkness before the guard simply ceased to be. 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 guard members. 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.

Two pools of smoke formed, one blue and one green. Rebecca's two genie type Alyanna rose from smoke pools. Smoke spread out quickly and the tendrils began to wither and turn to dust.

A door opened and the dust and few tendrils remaining were pulled into the door. It slammed shut and disappeared.

Rebecca materialized in the abyss and her eyes immediately focused on Rachel. She could only teleport like this because of her connection to Rachel. Before she understood the situation her body lowered and she moved toward her.

Rachel had her back to Rebecca. She was covered in blood with blood flowing from many cuts and open wounds on her body. She sat in a pool of blood and every so often she subtly twitched.

Rebecca was at her side in an instant. She knew Rachel could quickly heal herself so she was confused by what she was seeing.

"Rachel?"

Rachel's body started as if she had just been startled. Rebecca was even more confused. 'Rachel did not sense me?'

"Go back Rebecca. I will call when I am ready. When you come back use one of these points. Give the locations to the others as well."

Before Rebecca could respond she was standing next to Cramnal.

She looked at him blankly for a moment. Then told him the locations given to her by Rachel.

'Struns.'

'Do you need me?'

'No. I went to her and she sent me back. She was hurt and not healing herself and she did not sense my approach.'

Struns was quiet for a long moment.

'Don't do anything Struns. She will just send you back too. Continue protecting Mis and Anis until she actually calls us. Go to this location on the continent.' Rebecca sent an image of the location just as Rachel showed her.

'We will follow her previous plan and make a diamond formation. How far are you from the location?'

'We are not too far away but there are two more black knots between us and the location.'

'Good. It will take us some time as well. We have to take care of five knots first.'

'Five?!?'

'Calm down. We have more people than you. We can easily handle five of these things.'

'Even with all their surprises?'

Rebecca laughed. 'Even with their surprises.'