Chains Of Pride

"Don't quit! You're almost there!"

Boom!! Booom!!! Shu shu!!

The clouds above rolled as Rikona extended her Avartel level power to pressure the 5 people who were still undergoing their breakthroughs.

A few hours ago…

"Great, just like that, keep meditating. Xiao Yu, you've been firmly rooted at the barrier of your bottleneck for some time, keep circulating your energy so that you're at your peak for the breakthrough."

Rikona kept pacing back and forth, her senses were perpetually extended to the 5 Geneses before her.

"This plan is risky, but necessary, anything less and we'll be pigs to the slaughter in a frontal assault, and we can't keep hiding like rats damn it! We are Taliums/!" Rikona's thoughts were continually running on the offensive they would soon have to launch.

Fwoosh!

A gust of air briefly rushed off of Gin , Zutto Shu, and Yang Min.

"These three really became close," Rikona then turned her attention to Minayatsu Lerner and Hokori Nehone.

"I hope these two are able to catch up, well, if my plan goes as planned, everyone barring Nehone should be at the same realm," Rikona didn't have to wait long, as a few hours later they were where they needed to be, the b.a.r.e minimum required to touch the barrier

Normally any breakthrough required far more than this. To begin with, their in'essence was terribly lacking, it was nowhere near dense enough and was lacking in quantity as well.

Who would have thought that Rikona's plan to help them breakthrough, would include, 1. Reach the bottleneck through intensive meditation for nearly two days straight and then 2. Bombard their bodies and energies with all the pressure of an Avartel!

Only 2 steps and it nearly killed them! Or at least that's what it felt like. The idea was ingenious and wouldn't work under normal circ.u.mstances. In actuality, the endeavour was terribly risky and it actually failed during practice a few times before, and even then, the pain was nigh unbearable.

Basically, what Rikona wanted to do was to sync up the time when they were circulating their in'essence for the attempt to break their bottleneck, along with the full charge of her pressure! The risk was high but the return was great.

The times they failed in practice, when Rikona was using considerably less energy, ended up with Gin and Xiao Yu coughing up blood with their inner organs churning from shock. They needed to be healed through their own power along with Lerner's help.

A few more injuries later. They were finally able to sync up the time their energies crashed into the barrier with the release of Rikona's own power, of course this was considerably lessened for the practice..

As of now, it was time to begin. Rikona stared them down, because she advised much earlier, they never left their meditative state. So Rikona calmy injected her thoughts into their minds.

"Alright guys, it is now time to begin. Your energies have been circulating non-stop for a while now, so just like we practiced, start the attempt on 'go'. Because last time, some of us..." She looked at Gin and Xiao Yu as she spoke, "went on three instead of go."

Gin slightly fidgeted when he heard this in his head, but that was the end of it. Rikona started the count in their minds, "1, 2, 3, GO!"

Vwoosh!!

The energy whirling around inside started to affect the surroundings. The air became thick like a viscous liquid, and Rikona didn't waste time as she channeled the release of her pressure and energy perfectly.

After which, she mercilessly bombarded the weight of it upon the five who sat before her just as their congregation of power smashed into the barrier keeping them out of the Invata realm.

"Now!!!"

"Urkh!!"

"Ack!!"

"Nrgh!!"

Different grunts of exertion sounded out as they felt the pain that wracked their bodies. This was never going to be a painless endeavour and they understood that from their painful crash course practice.

The minute their energies touched the barrier, Rikona's tyrannical own crashed into them and the energy that they charged up for so long.

The resulting clash caused the normally perdurable barrier to shake and tremble. This was the only time that they felt the barrier tremble and it now gave credence that the witch's pla- ...uh Rikona's plan, could work.

"Fight through the pain! We've reached the point of no return!!" Rikona's expression turned grave as she looked upon their pale faces.

This method was rough, unrefined and unprecedentedly dangerous, but there was something about a lack of time and an impending danger that awakened the potential that lay within oneself, and Taliums were no exception.

She held hope and faith in their abilities.

A few more hours passed, which meant they were comfortably in the 3rd day of their 5 day deadline.

[Current Time]

"Don't quit! You're almost there!"

Boom!! Booom!!! Shu shu!!

The clouds above rolled, as Rikona extended her Avartel level power to pressure the 5 people who were still undergoing their breakthroughs.

Massive fluctuations took place in front of them as their location of the constructs were already chosen and would soon be called upon.

Kwish!!

A cool swirl of energy awashed Nehone's body. He opened his eyes which revealed a scarlet flash of energy fired from his eyes. This all happened in a flash and his eyes returned to normal, save for his iris which now revealed a scarlet glow, and the colour of his hair even deepened.

"Success!!! Lady Rikona I did it, I'm a Core Genesis now!!" He exclaimed.

"Quiet! Read the roo...eh, the forest. The rest are still undergoing their breakthroughs!" She chided him into keeping quiet.

'Oh sorry!"

"It seems that energy that he wasn't using before has caused some fundamental mutations in his in'essence. I hope I'm not raising a monster, then again, it could be what we need right now," Rikona thought to herself.

She still put a smile on her face as she looked at him and offered her congratulations.

Boom!! Boom !! Booom!!

Explosions that came in concert drew Rikona's attention once more. After calling Nehone to her side to sit down and familiarise himself within his new stage.

…

"A-Alright guys, according t-to big sis Rikona, we need to move out now. I have scrambled the signals of the satellite they have over us, so we can move unhindered," the Talium speaking was none other than Numani.

She was never one for talking to to a huge group, so talking a number of 60 something Taliums was quite a challenge for her.

Luckily, Rikona who possessed great foresight knew that something like this could happen, and chose another Talium to help her. He went by the name of Haven Fremon.

Fremon was a Talium that was with the girls earlier on, he was one of the first that was captured before the girls had hit any bases. Currently he was only a Core Genesis, which was considered pretty good.

"Don't worry guys, Numani's skills on the computer is godlike, she's like the queen of all nerds or something," Fremon pointed out.

"Hey!" A shout of retort of Numani caused the Taliums who were listening to them to laugh out, easing the tension in the room.

He continued, "And you all know Lady Rikona who's simply...God-Like." Fremon could see their eyes twinkling when he mentioned Lady Rikona. She really was charismatic.

"Where is lady Rikona?" One of the Taliums asked.

"Lady Rikona took a few Taliums with her to take care of a task, that's a bit dangerous and risky, so we ha-"

"I'm willing to risk my life for Lady Rikona and our goals, why weren't we give a chance?!" Another Talium blurted out.

"Yeah!! That's right!"

"I'd lay down my life to protect her!"

A tumult of noises flared up as the Taliums started to talk and shout about Rikona's actions.

"G-Guys, calm do- Wait a minute! Son of a bitch!" Fremon became quite fl.u.s.tered at how quickly the situation spiraled out of control.

'Fwhheeeeee...'

A long piercing whistle cut through the noise and silenced everyone, some even covered their ears to help offset the screeching discomfort. All the Taliums looked to the front where they saw Numani, who was now taking her two fingers out of her mouth.

"Big sis Rikona and big sis Kura only ever did things that guaranteed the best chances for success for us so that we can be free," Her soft voice broke the silence that she had just created.

"They try their best to lead us, but they are still like us. They've made mistakes and can also be hurt, emotionally and physically, they are not invincible. Big sis Kura is in a coma for god's sake!" Numani's voice started to pick up strength as she continued.

"The least we can do for Rikona right now, is to at least do what she says with the intention that she has our best interest at heart."

Fremon looked at her and couldn't help but comment, "Well said!"

At this point, the Taliums began cheering in unison once more. They would let the Association know what terror really is!

Numani finished it up by saying, "In the words of big sis Rikona, let's wreck their shit!"