Chains Of Pride

"Rikona a-are you okay?!"

Makoto rushed to Rikona's side when he saw that she suddenly fell to the floor like that.

"Lerner, are you sure? Are you absolutely sure?!"

"Positive, if there's anything I'm confident of, it's my prognosis," Lerner resolutely looked to Rikona as she informed her. At the same time, there was an undisguised look of grief in her eyes.

If this was before Lerner came to be with the girls, she might not have been able to adequately explain what was wrong, but now she was sure. She was only sad that it wasn't so, her head hung down as this had never happened before, well in truth their entire race was still shrouded in mystery. One of their progenitors was now comatose for god's sake, how do you even move forward with that.

"Hold on, did I miss something here? What's in'essence?!"

Makoto was more or less confused by what was happening. Everyone's depression suddenly shot up.

"It's the name of the energy we wield." The one who answered him was Gin who also held a pained expression on his face.

"I-I thought that you guys called it pressure or aura or something, you mean it was called in'essence this whole time? How come you guys didn't tell me?"

Makoto was a little hurt that he wasn't made aware of this bit of information.

"It's not that we didn't want to tell you Makoto, it's just that it simply didn't come up. Before now, pressure and aura were sufficient to describe it whenever we spoke about it." Rikona tried to explain why he was unaware.

After all, he was still human, a Talium who was half-awakened would have an idea of how vital this energy was to them, even if they didn't know what it was really.

"What's the difference between the three of them? Help me to see how serious this situation is," Makoto demanded more info on this. He knew biologically he was an outsider, but he was in it for the long run, so he had a right to know.

Rikona nodded and said, "You're right, I should explain. Aura is the manifestation of our power as to what you see, the fiery looking energy light that surrounds us whenever we use our in'essence is what we call our aura. The weaker you are, the lighter and less discernible your aura looks."

"Pressure, on the other hand, is instead what you feel. It's that suffocating feeling that makes you feel like you can't breathe." She finished up to here so that Makoto could understand.

He gravely nodded as he listed to this, "So one is what you see, and one is what you feel, am I right?"

"A-Alright, I think I understand now, but wait, I thought you said you sent her back in time? If so, shouldn't her energy be back up to 100% or something?"

Makoto asked, still a bit confused at Lerner's diagnosis.

"You sent her back in time?!" Lerner eyes nearly popped out of her head when she heard this.

"Ignore him, he and common sense have been fighting since childhood," Rikona said to Lerner, slowly standing up.

She continued explaining, "I basically turned back time on her body and made all the injuries on her body not be there, to begin with. To put it correctly, she never had them, but it seems my powers weren't able to affect the time of pure energy such as in'essence."

The reverent look in Lerner's eyes only grew more intense, "She can turn back someone's time, she is so awesome!" As she said this in her heart, she looked back towards the sleeping Kura, and her heart sank.

Makoto looked towards Lerner and asked, "Lerner, even if her in'essence is drained, wouldn't it be the same if everyone else used it? Shouldn't it be recovered after a good night's sleep?"

Lerner immediately shook her head as she explained, "No, it's not the same, I can feel it a little bit at my current level. We can use a majority of our in'essence and be fine. Even if we only have 0.00000001% left, barring significant injuries, we'll be fine with some help."

Her little face turned serious as she continued, "However, going to a flat 0% should not be possible. Even big brother Gin said that our Blood Origin will place restrictions on us to leave some modic.u.m of in'essence, even an infinitesimal amount. We're not supposed to be able to go below that line, but if we do...uhm...i-it's."

"Death."

Gin finished it for her, he was a bit partial to Lerner. He was one of the few she knew that she didn't shy away from.

He was aware that death was a gloomy subject for her. Being the genius that she is, death was not really something that happened when she was involved, so she still found it to be quite a heavy subject. Even at the earlier battle, she only went as far as injuring or knocking out the association's men, no deaths came from her hands.

"Oh, but then what does this mean? I mean clearly, she's not dead." Makoto asked, this time, he put this for anyone to answer.

"If I had to take a guess, " this time it was Rikona who spoke. "I would say that her strength, coupled with my unorthodox methods managed to save her life, she'll probably remain like this unless we somehow manage to get her back some in'essence."

"And not just any ol in'essence either, her original in'essence. The first spark of it needs to be hers, and I think I know how to do it," stated Rikona with her resolve now found.

"Care to share it with the rest of us ?" asked Makoto.

"I will, and I do mean the rest of us. Gather everyone else, we need to make sure they know all the things that won't impede their growth and what the plan is from here."

…

'Chatter'

"Everybody quiet down, Master Rikona is coming." Yang Min took the initiative to quell the furore of the Taliums staying with them. The group consisted of everyone that went on the mission, which was practically everyone.

The remaining Taliums that were captured were all bounded and left with a certain regional director and one Numani, who was trying to crack the code of their controllers.

Clack, clack clack…

When everyone stopped talking, the sound of footsteps could be heard. The Taliums gazed as Kura arrived and stood in front to address them all. She watched as they all stared back with conflicting gazes.

This was to be expected, considering she practically used her pressure to oppress around half of them. The eyes that held respect were now tinged with fear and hesitation.

They were standing in the fully open space one would see when they just entered the building (the place is pretty big). There weren't that many of them, but Rikona felt like she was addressing the country.

"I wasn't nervous when I was n.a.k.e.d whilst being watched by a stranger, nor was I nervous when surrounded by several men armed to the teeth with armours and weapons. Yet you put me in a room with these people, and I'm already off-kilter" She sighed as she said this to herself.

"H-Hey everyone, I wanted to inform you all about what happened last night. After all, you have every right to know why...I uh...did what I did."

Rikona went in great detail about losing one's self, about the state known as 'The Fall' even how she succ.u.mbed to it and Kura's injury and current status.

She reminded them to always keep themselves guarded whilst still remaining prideful and why such values are not necessarily contradicting. The look in their eyes slowly changed, regaining that same glimmer it did in the beginning when she had saved them.

She even went as far as to bow at the waist to them all for her actions, and that she would never be that weak again.

"Regarding Kura's current condition, I will be doing my best to increase my realm from Core Invata to Supreme Invata, then I can tackle the Avartel realm. I think that if my power's increase, I will be able to return Kura her in'essence." Finished Kura.

"So that's what she meant," stated Gin in quiet contemplation

The increase in power Rikona experienced from 'The Fall' didn't remain. When she had found herself, the ascension digressed and returned her to the Core Invata realm. She didn't mind it though, the power that hurt her sister she'd instead not use, a fresh start to that stage would be for the best.

Makoto, who was beside him follow up, saying, "It makes sense, I just hope that her stepping into an Avartel's realm will be enough to help."

"So what do we do now, we hit one of their bases already, so what's next?" One of the older Taliums there, a middle-aged man decided to ask.

Rikona smirked in the older Talium's direction and stated, "Isn't it obvious? To strike them, to have my breakthrough to Avartel Prime, to make sure the metaphorical stick goes all the way in, we continue."