Chains Of Pride

Gin had some idea why Rikona sounded as fl.u.s.tered as she did. He just didn't want to test out his theory so he just called out the Taliums by giving them some bullshit reason and hoped to God they bought it.

Within the dust cloud, Rikona breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that they left.

Makoto said after some time, "You know, you could have just erected a barrier instead of pinning your hopes on the dust that's beginning to clear up."

"Why didn't you remind me you jerk?!" She asked in a fit with her face puffed up.

"It was fun watching you get fl.u.s.tered, and besides, my main man Gin got my back, I know that," Makoto replied proudly with a smile on his face.

"What, you got a man crush on him now?" Rikona asked. "When did you two get so close anyway? There was a time he couldn't stand you."

Makoto raised an eyebrow at this, "You really wanna ask that? Right now? If you hadn't noticed we're still connected down there. So why don't we find some clothes in all this mess and head down to the river lake to take a bath."

When Rikona looked down and saw that Makoto was right, her face flushed red before she slid away glaring in his direction.

"Hahaha, hey I was just hanging on for dear life y'kno. Can't kill a guy for wanting to live after all." He laughed off the embarrassment for both her and him before he was able to find a few clothes for himself, though they were ripped beyond recognition.

By now, Rikona had erected an opaque barrier in their general location as they fished out any clothes they could. She desperately needed a bath as well, and she couldn't operate unless she received one.

"Everyone, I'm sorry about what happened, I'll fix...this, when I'm all fresh and clean," Under the influence of her power, she was able to easily lend her voice to everyone present. "We'll hold a meeting after that as well so be ready, I'll see you guys soon."

As soon as she said that, all the Taliums just saw where the barrier shrink before it closed up into a ball and floated away, carrying Rikona and Makoto along with it. Most likely in the direction of the river.

Numani watched it with a complicated expression, "Huh, deja vu…Oh yeah! Gin you a.s.s, you lied to me! The barrier's fine, why the fudge did you do that?!"

"Because he wanted to cover up for someone, leave it that," Yang Min walked up beside her, before she looked around and saw what she wanted to see.

Machyal was being held by one of the Taliums. Seems everyone here knows his level of importance to the sisters and their plans, so as much as it hurt them to do so, they had to save him.

When he sensed Yang Min's gaze upon him, he simply offered a smile in return. She looked away in irritation, "Ass."

…

Rikona and Makoto had finally finished bathing, and was now returning to ground zero as Makoto called it.

"Ah, nothing can beat a good bath in a river." said Rikona stretching her limbs as she walked back.

"Can't complain there, by the way, how are you gonna fix that mess you made when you broke through, and do they have to be so violent?" Makoto asked.

"Not really, in the earlier stages, a Talium may find it hard to control themselves and their powers can spill out. After a while the process can become a bit more tame, it's just that, our current occupation at the time didn't allow me to prepare and by the time my head wrapped around what was happening it already went bad, so we had to roll with it," She shrugged as she said this.

Makoto nearly tripped when he heard this, "We had to roll with it?! I nearly flew off to the moon, you only needed to fly to the sun and get stronger."

"Why are you comparing me to su- forget it, and you'll see how I go about fixing the building. The old place has really grown on me you know." Rikona said.

"As much as I love bathing in a river with you, I yearn for the day we can set foot in a city without being recognised, short of scurrying around like a rat." Makoto offhandedly said.

Rikona's expression turned grave when she heard this, "Don't worry the day will come, we just need to uproot a certain weed first and then we'll be able to walk free like we deserve."

By the time they finished talking, the open space that held the building came into view. Some of the Taliums were looking through the wreckage to see if they could find anything of use.

Rikona apologised when Makoto and her came into view, "Hey guys, I'm back, once again really sorry about the explosion. I kinda blew up like a bomb."

"Yeah she did," Makoto said with the lenny face.

After a healthy knock to the side of the head, she continued, "I'm gonna need everyone to clear the site and I'll also need you to put back anything and everything that was there before."

After following her commands, they cleared the wreckage area. The bronze, somewhat golden aura began to effuse from Rikona. The chains materialized from behind her as the air in front began to distort.

She called upon that familiar bronze instrument to this plane, once more. By now, everyone was familiar with Rikona's construct.

The tick-tock sound it made as the gears and wheels turned, would make one think of a clock, undergoing its design.

"Perennial Mechanism."

"No matter how many times I see this, it never gets old." Unexpectedly Machyal took the liberty to comment upon Rikona brandishing her power like that.

"You should be lucky that lady Rikona still has a use for you." The Talium that held him sneered. He felt disgusted by Machyal, but he had to bear it for now. Yang Min had ordered for one of the Taliums to make sure he was safe.

"If it wasn't for her, every single Talium here would tear you limb from limb. So just shut up and as hard as it might be, try to be less of a tumour."

"Backtrack."

Rikona uttered that one word and once again, the gears began to turn in an indiscernible fashion as it hovered over the wreckage.

That same strange fluctuation wafted from it once more, when the Taliums saw it, they felt as if they could experience the vestiges of time within its power.

When the bronze glow fell upon the wreckage, it began to float and started flying in all directions.

Everyone could witnessed something akin to time being wound back. The very sight of it was dazzling and placed everyone here in a trance.

Backtrack was not a move Rikona used a lot. For one, it drained in'essence a lot, the drainage of in'essence increased with the scale of the area she was rewinding and how far back in time she planned to return it to.

Secondly, the mental drain was no less, her Blood Origin had given her the knowledge of the temporal rules she had to adhere to while doing this. All in all, backtrack was heaven defying, but it was also fair enough that it was not easy to execute in the least.

Even now, when her reserves had clearly increased with her energy had gone through quantitative and qualitative improvements, the burden, though not as intense, was still there.

Fwoosh!!

The last connection was made and the dilapidated building returned to its previous shabby glory.

When everyone saw this, they couldn't help but let out cheers at the newly bui- the repaired building.

She even took the time to repair the ripped clothes that she and Makoto were wearing. If you're gonna fix a building, why leave the clothes out of the equation?

Rikona wiped off the sweat that adorned her forehead as she looked at Makoto who stood a bit behind her.

He walked up and held her hand as he led her into the abode she had restored. As Rikona watched the Taliums returning to the building a rush of warmth filled her heart.

"These people stuck with me and placed their hopes in me even though I've wronged them so many times. They are much more than I deserve, I will make sure they don't regret this, we will not be living like this for long." These were the thoughts running through her head until her eyes caught something particular.

It was Gin, in his arms was...someone. Was someone hurt? No, it…it was Kura. Rikona could only make out the vague silhouette, but Gin was quite perceptive. Instead of bringing her over, he decided to put her back in her room.

Rikona's heart took a leap when she saw this. She quickly quieted her fluttering heart as she knew she would have to face her sister eventually.

Another view caught her eye, it was a Talium who was returning Machyal to his isolated cell. She had an idea of what to do with mister regional director over there.

Rikona allowed Makoto to lead her on, returning home. She now had a lover, an actual lover, and not one just for the flesh, but for the heart itself.

However, she had work to do, and she had to make sure to achieve the goals she had set for herself. Let's see what new things being an Avartel would bring to her plans, hopefully it involved her sister.