Kaede sat suspended in the midst of a massive energy web, a much vaster network than she’d ever fully controlled before. The ebb and flow of energy within the machine brought her information from all over Hakusan, and she would tug on strands to keep Hakusan with a well-balanced field.
In the back of her head, she knew that right now, even as she distributed energy, Mari was under attack and that technically she was in the midst of battle. It didn’t feel like that. For once, all of her energy was at work, and her entire being was in harmony with the machine. She hadn’t known what she was missing, being cramped in a Level 3 machine, until this moment.
It was perfection.
She’d been all off-kilter, and she hadn’t even realized it. Kaede had finally reached her full potential, and she felt
