Chapter 368: The Drag Spreads

The breach team had barely locked up for less than a day when the next crack formed.

Lucifer was below in the lower strategy hall with Aeloria and Nyx, discussing their final approach routes into the hidden sector, when the emergency channel from the kitsune territories opened without warning. The voice on the other end was clipped, strained – the sensation of the ground underneath them both being torn over and over.

"Francisca is down. The seat is fluctuating identically to Remu’s. The courts have the outer wards held, but the pull is intensifying. She requested your presence."

Lucifer was already moving by the time the channel closed.

The kitsune courts had always possessed a lighter, more airy glow than either the vampire capital or the dragon ranges. But that glow was failing now. A few of the floating bridges between the main pavilions flickered in and out of solidity while trails of residual foxfire snaked through the air. At the very center of the main court, Francisca knelt on the polished stone with both fists planted against the ground ahead of her, her seven golden tails whipping behind her in errant waves.

The authority around the kitsune princess rose and fell in unsightly cycles, one moment compacted neatly within her frame before suddenly narrowing to the point the air around her turned colder. Two of her senior attendants held partially completed containment charms near Francesca’s shoulders, charms which continually split at the seams.

Francisca lifted her head when Lucifer landed. Her eyes were lit with strain. "It started less than an hour ago. I experienced thesame sensation described by Remu – like there is now something on the other end of the seat which is siphoning through me. I am able to hold it for the moment present, but I fear if the swings widen further, I am not certain how long the seat will remain rooted."

Remu arrived only moments after, the residual mark of her own recent crisis still clinging to her. She took a single look at Francisca before her face became a mask of determination. "It is the same drag. I can sense it from where I am. The harvest is not exclusively affecting the old witch seat. This pull reaches through every replacement which have inherited a harvested connection."

Aeloria fell into step behind Lucifer in the court. Her silver streaked hair was ruffled by the errant foxfire. "The siphon is widening. The orb has grown unsatisfied with the initial crop, and has begun feeding through the replacement seats as secondaries."

Nyx’s living darkness lapped at the edge of the stone platform as she surveyed the fluctuation. "If Francisca is feeling the burden now, the others need no longer be far from following. The process is accelerating. Rhazor. Dera. Anyone else who carry a seat which has previously belonged to one of the harvested generation. The harvest is becoming bolder."

Lucifer dropped to one knee before her, his hands resting flat against Francesca’s shoulders just as he had done to Remu. True Divine authority sank into the unstable lattice of the kitsune seat, bracing the local root against the distant pull, forcing the drag to fight back against him directly. The pull was cold and steady – like a fraction of the connection had already claimed by the orb and refused to relinquish.

Francisca gritted her teeth through her resistance. "Whatever you are accomplishing, continue. The sensation of pulling has simply dropped from absolutely unbearable to merely unpleasant."

"It will not prevent the drain," Lucifer said. "It will simply prevent the seat from unbinding from you as we deal with the current situation. The true wound must be cut from the source."

He held the anchor in place until the worst of the fluctuations had passed. And when he finally withdrew his presence, Francisca remained kneeling on the ground, breathing deep but her tails still shaking. What little remained of the court’s atmosphere had calmed enough for the floating bridges to stop flickering.

Remu crossed her arms over her chest, faint witch script lighting her forearms as she glanced at the remainder of the court. "Two seats in two days. If we wait for a third, we may not have a final opportunity in completing the breach preparations. The harvest is growing increasingly aggressive in damaging the replacements."

Aeloria glanced off into the distance of the hidden sector. She did not need sight of the metronome’s pulsations through the sealed universes for her to feel them rattling her bones. "The being did not lie when it said the process would extend. Every new fluctuation is the orb feeding stronger against the new replacements. Our window is becoming smaller than the final interval we used in locking the team list."

Nyx’s black eyes narrowed. "Then we stop treating the conclusion of the preparations as a neat series of inspections. We tighten them. The team is formed and the route known. Every hour we spend polishing the details are an hour Francesca and Remu spend being fed from."

Francisca shoved herself up from her knee to her feet one-handed. Her voice was hoarse but her determination stood clean in the words. "If leaving soon for the breach team, then I should not stay waiting for the next swing. My seat is already experiencing drag. I would rather apply that strength to use as attack than wait patiently for the drag to end."

Lucifer watched her for a moment. Then he nodded. "You will join the breach force. Remu is already participating. If any other seat begins to fail in a similar capacity, we will pull whoever in or strengthen them while en route. We have passed the point of preventing new generations taking part for their own safety. We have already allowed the lines inside them."

Aeloria made no attempt to object. The woman currently in question had the presence of the real thing currently kneeling on the court stone before them with nothing but the aftershocks of a seat-level drain to breathe past.

"Then we update the schedule," she said. "We complete our final preparations to a critical degree by the next full cycle of the metronome. After that, it is time to move. No further pauses should be required unless a general breach of the realms take place in situ."

Nyx’s darkness curled tighter around her boots. "Excellent. The faster the quicker it finishes."

Lucifer gave a last lingering look at both Francisca, Remu and the still failing light of the kitsune court. The harvest was no longer only a threat to the old chained generation. It was already reaching into the lives of the new ones being carried.

The breach could not halt for perfect preparations.

The drag was spreading too fast for that to be effective.