Unbound

The world that was a Memory did not shatter.

It unraveled.

The bound and banished Ruin split at the seams, strings of its Memory broken into spooling wire. A healthy, sunlit landscape broke apart—fine one moment and tumbled, untethered lines the next. Empty white suffused everything, even Felix’s gaze, seeping through him like lens flares made physical.

This…is the Desolation…?

His Mind felt his own again, separate from Pit and the Whalemaw, though he could see neither of them nearby. He reached inward, hoping to find his Companion, but he was alone, and all around him there was nothing but pale absence.

Felix held up a hand. Already his pinky and ring finger had split, the black scales broken into horizontal lines above the first knuckle, and that empty white suffused him. I’m being unmade…

The thought was complete and whole in a way that held the terror apart from his Mind. He was in shock, or something like it, but couldn’t bring himself to care. He didn't have the time to waste. He swept his gaze around in all directions, but in addition to there being no Companion or Whalemaw, there was also no sign of the Ruin itself.

Then why did he feel it?

A presence coiled against him like a serpent juiced on its own venom. It rattled, tense as a bent spring, and filled with a scalding cascade of violent emotions. Anger, envy, and, most surprising of all, a deep exhaustion.

Exhaustion? His vision flickered. The wild, empty chaos was replaced by an expanse of bloody flesh and crawling flames of purple-black. He felt the freezing cold of it sapping his bones…and Pit!

His Companion was beside him, fully separate and fighting the terrified appendages of the Whalemaw as the Ruin’s flame chewed it apart.

Deep Mind is level 144!

Grandmaster Tier!

You Gain:

+500 WIL

+450 INT

+450 INE

His stats jumped, but Felix paid them little mind; instead, he was flabbergasted at his circumstance. He was in two places at once—within the Whalemaw and within the Desolation.

How?

Felix put his unbroken hand to his chest. He felt solid here in the unraveling confluence, but if he focused, he could feel the squish of rotten flesh beneath his heels.

Deep Mind is level 145!

…

Deep Mind is level 152!

Paragon Tier!

You Gain:

+700 WIL

+550 INT

+550 INE

Flashes of what was poured through him: a dark fire ripping through the Whalemaw's innards, dissolving its teeth and eyes, hunting for the cores that had vanished somewhere into the depths of the beast. Yet the Whalemaw held strong. Far more powerful than Felix expected, it chewed right back on the Ruin.

That was the source of its anger and frustration.

If the Ruin can be hurt, it can be killed!

Unseen Beholder is level 151!

Empyrean Embrace is level 159!

Void Sanctuary is level 150!

…

Void Sanctuary is level 168!

Your Tempered Mind Skills Have All Reached Paragon Tier!

Stats Have Been Consolidated!

You Gain:

+3400 WIL

+2500 INE

+...

Felix convulsed, pieces of himself flickering away into the kalaidescopic nothing. His Mind jumped, flinching between System messages and errant thoughts he’d long forgotten. Age-worn memories jogged along rain-swelled creeks, where he’d once thrown perfectly round rocks with his sister. He recalled the cold smell of the water. The shine of the early afternoon sun, hot against his back. The sunburn he’d gotten on his neck.

With a flash of hissing white, the memory was gone.

“No!” Felix’s eyes flared, both within the Whalemaw and Desolation. His body crackled with unspent might, Mana that poured from his channels until he blazed. “You don’t touch my Mind!”

Title: Born of Will Is Active!

Title: The Call of Defiance Is Active!

Title: Indomitable Is Active!

Title: Against Catastrophe Is Active!

The same Titles that had helped him against the Maw surged in him now—and the Desolation was pushed back by several, small inches.

Enough for his Temper to eke through.

Divine Core Detected During Formation!

[Core Of The Benighted Queen ]

ERROR!

The Core Has Been Altered!

Do You Wish To Restore Its True Nature?

Y/N

Yes! The process had already begun when the Beast had thrown itself upon his core space. The final layers of one of the Divine cores peeled back, smearing away into foul smoke. What was left was too bright to look upon but struck Felix with such a powerful glissando of notes that he almost wept.

Wha–what the hell is this?

Divinity Has Been Shed!

True Nature Restored!

Primordial Core Fragment Detected During Formation!

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

[Partial Core of Kohsara]

Broken Path and Fatebreaker Titles Found!

Grandmaster Tier Bonus Added!

Primordial Nature Resonates With [Partial Core of Kohsara]!

Unbound Nature Resonates With [Partial Core of Kohsara]!

Calculating Effects…

Choose A Feature:

ERROR!

You absolute tool! Felix swung at the Desolation’s tendrils in his back, twisting out of the way, but it was pointless. His fists swung clean through. Besides, the damage was done.

It had devoured his Feature.

Yet…Felix blinked. His Mind felt steadier than ever, and he could cleanly delineate between Desolation and Ruin, for all that they felt the same. He was floating in the endless chaos, and he stood within the Whalemaw as it burned apart.

His Mind held fast. The stats and the [Partial Core of Kohsara] had anchored his Aspect more than expected.

Kohsara… He’d heard the name only recently. The Supreme Primordial of Storms. The Cardinal of the Living Spark.

That sealed it. A piece of them had been in Noctis. They truly had mutilated the Cardinals to ascend.

A twinge caught his attention, and Felix wanted to slap himself. With the immediate agony gone, he’d gotten distracted. Calmed or not, power still flooded through Felix.

Empyrean Embrace!

Essence, Mana, and significance flowed into his veins from the Whalemaw. Pit had activated the Skill, and the big tenku was hustling Felix’s sluggish Body through the narrow confines of the Whalemaw’s innards, even as resplendent smoke poured into Felix’s open maw.

“Thanks, bud.” He didn’t care if his Companion could hear him. His fingers and toes had been reduced to nubs by the ceaseless unraveling, but the influx of potency slowed the unmaking.

Significance was burning to keep him alive. Desperate, he reached for his Skill again, flaring Empyrean Embrace. A heady rush poured into him, stolen from the Whalemaw in greater gouts. But it only slowed things down.

He needed more.

Paired to that thought, a warm, familiar weight settled against his brow. Immediately, it surged with soothing heat that spread rapidly across his Mind. Reality rippled, cast outward in disruptive flows that struck at the unmaking—and slowed it to a near halt.

The Crown Of Elysium Sounds For Thee.

The song of the Regalia cradled his Mind, bolstering the effects of his near-Temper to greater heights. More than that, it speared through his Mind, a lens held against his Perception and Affinity both—and the Desolation broke apart.

The white split wide. Unmentionable infinities split open before him, flickering across his mind in ways Felix could not understand. A kaleidoscope of patterns fell into one another, fractal structures that bloomed and collapsed by turns, spinning at right angles to one another even as they intersected and burst. It was frenetic, a vision he couldn’t hold together even with Paragon Mind, and he understood why he’d always only perceived it all as endless empty white. This was too much.

The Crown flared again, holding him fast and protecting the ground he stood upon with relentless fidelity. The insanity bounced off of his Mind, held at bay, but did nothing for when his flesh suddenly loosened. Pale absence cut across his legs and forearms, lines that dissolved by slow measures into the cascade of infinite color and shapes.

His Skill surged, fighting to heal the damage, to evade it or simply endure—but it was no use. The Desolation could not be fought that way.

But it wasn’t the end.

Sovereign of Flesh is level 156!

Stride of the King is level 155!

Lay Of The Unfallen is level 163!

Your Tempered Body Skills Have All Reached Paragon Tier!

Stats Have Been Consolidated!

You Gain:

+3700 STR

+2800 VIT

+...

Divine Core Detected During Formation!

[Core Of The Child Who Would Be The Sun]

ERROR!

The Core Has Been Altered!

Do You Wish To Restore Its True Nature?

Y/N

First Noctis, now the Pathless. Felix grimaced as his toes began to unravel. Yes!

Again, the core peeled away, its impurities rendered into foul smoke that ejected from between his bloodied lips. In its place was a green-gold cascade of liquid, jewel-bright and flowing in patterns he could barely track.

Divinity Has Been Shed!

True Nature Restored!

Primordial Core Fragment Detected During Formation!

[Partial Core of Orrinahla]

Broken Path and Fatebreaker Titles Found!

Grandmaster Tier Bonus Added!

Primordial Nature Resonates With [Partial Core of Orrinahla]!

Unbound Nature Resonates With [Partial Core of Orrinahla]!

Calculating Effects…

Choose A Feature:

ERROR!

He gritted his teeth so hard he felt a molar crack. Felix twisted, his Mind whirling from the sudden movement and his Body and Spirit nearly turning themselves inside out. He gagged, unable to twist free of the Desolation that clung to him as avidly as a leech.

His Feature was gone again, and he’d absorbed the [Partial Core of Orrinahla]. He knew that name, too: The Supreme Primordial of Growth and Cardinal of Renewal’s Rise.

They carved the Cardinals up. The thought invaded him, setting his senses to riot as it conjured fragmented Memories of foul scent and texture. Split up their carcasses like butchers and passed them around.

His throat constricted, and the Realm around him flexed in upsetting dimensions—yet he held on. As before, his stats and partial Temper steadied him more than expected, with the partial cores adding their own unique weight.

His chest burned. Sang.

He was not alone.

The Wellspring Chalice Sings For Thee.

As if he’d downed a boiling pot of soup, heat clawed at his chest and back. It thrummed through him, spreading further than his Crown while also joining in on its song. A two-part harmony flourished, incomplete, but potent as the unmaking tendrils of Desolation retreated once again.

It wasn’t a solution, though. The tendrils returned, only this time through avenues he couldn’t see—but he could hear them. They sang discordant solos, a series of disparate melodies that clashed like swords inside of his soul. His Affinity burned to hear it, recoiling even as Felix strained to take in every nuance and hunt for that single opening.

It flickered, faded, moments before it would rise. There! Astrum Ascendance! Sonata of Dominance!

Cold fire surged through him, pouring across his Spirit and bolstering the Sonata that wove sound awry. It interrupted the unmaking—but only for an instant.

It was enough though, to set off his true goal.

Astrum Ascendance is level 152!

Magus of the Grand Design is level 150!

Adamant Discord is level 172!

Your Tempered Spirit Skills Have All Reached Paragon Tier!

Stats Have Been Consolidated!

You Gain:

+3600 AFI

+2900 WIL

+...

Divine Core Detected During Formation!

[Core Of The Argent Weaver]

ERROR!

The Core Has Been Altered!

Do You Wish To Restore Its True Nature?

Y/N

Finally. The rest of Siva’s might. Felix growled. “You’d better work this time!”

In a flash, the core was stripped clean, and Felix pulled in a tight breath. Revealed beneath the dross of Divinity was an intricate knot of pulsating lines, none of which intersected the others. It spun, the lines themselves rotating in their own, unknowable pattern as new shapes formed ceaseless within its weave.

Divinity Has Been Shed!

True Nature Restored!

Primordial Core Fragment Detected During Formation!

[Partial Core of Veridaan]

Broken Path and Fatebreaker Titles Found!

Grandmaster Tier Bonus Added!

Primordial Nature Resonates With [Partial Core of Veridaan]!

Unbound Nature Resonates With [Partial Core of Veridaan]!

Calculating Effects…

Choose A Feature:

ERROR!

Nope! Fuck that. Felix hurled every ounce of his Will and Intent at the System, at the Ruin itself. The Chalice and Crown gleamed and thrummed in equal measure, and he matched his Will to their resonant tone. The Ruin shuddered, Desolation’s grip peeling back from his chest.

And in his bare left hand, there blazed the promise of gold—Felix lifted it high and brought it crashing onto his center. It rang out, a clarion call that shook through his Spirit.

Desolation scattered for only a moment, but it was enough.

Choose A Feature:

Living Spark

Renewal’s Rise

Unseen Tides