Unbound

"Cloud Strike!"

Scylla twisted, paws flung upward from the ground. White-green Mana writhed forward, scattering a hazy fog across Marzul’s sight and a chill gale that threatened to lift her straight into the air.

The woman batted the tenku’s paw away and seized Scylla by the throat. Her sword pressed close. "None of you move."

Her stolen blade cut through feathers and fur as Scylla bucked, but Marzul held her fast in hands that were tinged a sickly gray-blue. Marzul rapped the tenku across the head with the pommel of her blade. "Enough struggling, beast. All of you, heal me…or she dies."

Vess gripped her Crescian spear, watching Marzul’s body language and Spirit. Both were in disarray, though it was hard to tell which was worse off. “Yin, go find a Mender.”

"Very well,” Yin growled. He flew off.

"Good," Marzul smiled, and her teeth were black. Small cracks had formed around her mouth and eyes, like parched earth. “You’ve still wisdom in your paltry Minds.”

"Once healed," Vess said slowly, "then what? What could you hope to accomplish?"

Marzul laughed, but it was the rasp of a file on steel. “I escape this wretched field. This horrid empire.” She spat, and the sword wobbled in her grip. Scylla panted. “I should never have stayed to squabble over its worthless remains. Had I left when I could, I would already have claimed the Sacred Necropolis.”

“Perhaps.” Vess noted the crowd around her. She shifted, the tip of her spear moving side to side and capturing Marzul’s attention.

“You cannot win this fight.”

“I won the last,” Vess said, her voice flat.

Marzul sneered, and those cracks on her lips spread. They leaked ichor. “I’m alive, Dayne. That is all that matters.”

“And had you left, I would never have faced you. Is that your fear? Facing me again?”

“You are a stain beneath my boot, Dayne. A gnat in my ear, like your mother.” Marzul flexed her grip, and the sword creaked in her hand. Scylla shook, her forepaws barely supporting her own weight. “Inconsequential.”

Vess didn’t take the bait. “Even if you’d fled the empire, do you think the gods would have left you alone? You stole from them, Marzul.”

“Theft. A proud tradition of the Divine. All’s fair upon the Continent, and advancement requires the greatest of sacrifices."

Vess’ lip curled. "As long as they're not yours, is that right?"

Marzul’s grin cracked wider. "So you understand. The Chant was never enough for me. I needed more."

"You had an empire…and you squandered it. For what?”

“You will never understand. Born in your privilege, in your palace, you would not grasp what it feels like to yearn for strength.”

Metal glinted around her—gold flashed from the barrier, Chimera bared their teeth, and Dragoons adjusted their grips on their spears. Vess didn’t need Affinity to tell that they were balanced on the edge of calamity—one wrong move, and violence would be unleashed. Scylla would die.

Vess took a half step forward. Marzul narrowed her dark eyes, focused entirely on her spear. “I know what it means to desire strength. I've raced after it all my life, but this is not the path forward. Not even for you.”

“You know nothing,” Mazul spat. “You claim to have a foot in this race to the peak? Yet you flounder near the finish line, while the Unbound take the lead! You are nothing more than a child chasing dreams. I’m glad your mother never saw you become this!”

Vess closed the distance in a blink of wind and blurring metal, her spear hurtling toward Marzul—yet the woman twisted, dodging the first serpentine strike before pressing her blade closer to Scylla’s throat. “I will kill her!”

"No, you won't."

A golden sword plunged through Marzul's chest, narrowly avoiding Scylla's head. It was huge, crossing the space between shoulder and hip, and the former Hierophant’s flesh charred beneath its dread heat. Hands spasmed, dropping sword and tenku both.

Scylla leapt away, and Marzul staggered. "You!"

Gabby stood over her. Effortlessly, she lifted the broken woman up into the air, pinned to her blade. "Me."

Gabby slammed the weapon to the earth, Marzul along with it. The woman screamed, but her last words were nothing more than squandered syllables.

Her voice cut off.

You Have Killed Ocalla Marzul!

XP Earned!

Only the sound of distant calamity and Gabby’s harsh breathing broke the silence. "Thanks for distracting her."

Vess inclined her head, finally setting down her serpentine spear. "It was my pleasure.”

An explosion rocked the world, washing up against the barrier around them and forcing the great trees to sway treacherously. Wood creaked, branches snapping as leaves rained down upon them from on high. Vess looked beyond them, unable to make out much other than the fact that the east had lit up as if the sun finally broke through the Ruin’s darkness.

Calamity was far closer than she had realized.

Felix.

The corpse regarded Felix with empty features. Pallid folds of flesh looked nothing like a face despite its many eyes, teeth, and the skull visible beneath. It pulsated, releasing a wave of Dissonance that rattled everything.

Even him.

“Gah!”

The force of it rocked across the earth, a tidal wave of pressure that stripped the ground of life for thousands of yards in every direction. What few godslaves, Elementals, and Dwarves remained were eradicated in a single, eroding blow.

WARNING!

You And Your Companion’s Health Have Dropped To 10%!

So fast. Felix gritted his teeth and stretched his Skills, trying to make up for the onslaught of pressure. His flesh healed, but his Essence was bottoming out. He was already scraping at the very bottom of the barrel. He needed a meal, and all of his easy options had just been annihilated.

Aside from the aura of Dissonance, the corpse made no sound at all. Instead it gleamed, its chest filled with those three blinding lights. Shadow, sunlight, and silver—the cores of dead Divinities.

The Twins turned, looking to Felix, pleasure writ large across their vile Spirit. A New Weapon. A Ruin Inspired By You, Nevarre.

One That Eradicates Even Primordials.

"Primordials can't die.”

Now They Can.

Felix bared his teeth. “You first, then.”

A speeding freight train crashed into the Twins, resolving instantly into the vile bulk of the Whalemaw. It seized one of their arms, the appendage filling its mighty mouth.

The dual god shouted aloud, surprised and in clear agony. Yyero! You Were To Hold This This Down!

Felix wasn't sure himself. Was the rotten god dead? Had the Whalemaw consumed Yyero entirely? It didn't matter. He rushed in, lightning trailing in his wake as he fought to take advantage of the Whalemaw's distraction.

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Pit chirruped across their Bond. Together!

The pair of them shot for the Twins' legs, bashing into their joints and driving them backwards. The Twins staggered, the Whalemaw sinking its teeth deep into metallic flesh. Yet the Divine were not so easily stopped. They hurled their arm into the great beast, a wave of pure physical pressure slamming the Whalemaw away from the god and pummeling it down into the nearby mountain.

Sundering Heavens!

Hundred-foot-wide pillars of force fell on the Whalemaw, staking its hide into the earth. A wave of blood rose up as Vellus fell, her hair a sheath of lightning that tore into the Whalemaw's putrid hide. Lightning struck the ten thousand eyes of the creature, blinding it as its blood rose up at Vellus' command.

Rage, Bloodstorm!

Felix and Pit cut through the space between battles. Blood below and pillars above, they threaded the needle as they closed the distance with the Twins. Felix grunted as he threw a series of blurring jabs into the Divine’s midsection. Metallic flesh only dented, but the dual god was driven back. Eager, Felix and Pit maneuvered in opposite directions, heading for the rift and the corpse…only to be struck by more of the force pillars, stopping his progress. He moved around them, trying to get away from the Twins, to get closer to the corpse of Veridaan.

Move Faster! the Beast demanded. Devour Them!

Working on it!

Again, the pillars blocked his way. They slammed home, not aimed for Felix, but to hem him in. Through the translucent blue Mana, he could see the Twins reach out to the corpse.

They pulled it into an embrace.

Flesh and metallic blue bound together, their surfaces rippling as the corpse sunk into the Twins' outstretched limbs and chest. The Divine pulled inward until the nightmare shape of Veridaan resurfaced across the Twins’ back—there it clung, an amalgamation of horror composed of three figures: the Twins and the corpse of Veridaan. All at once, their power skyrocketed, rolling away from them to crash against the ground.

We Learned Early On That We Could Not Take On Too Much Of The Cardinal Beasts. The Twins peered at Felix now with both of their heads. To Do So Was To Become Them. It Became Necessary To Break Them Up. Separated, Their Power Was Far More Manageable…But There Was A Way Around It All.

The Twins groaned, their bodies bulging as the corpse fully incorporated itself, settling against their back as its limbs threaded with their own. Myrrd Was The First To Test The Limits—to Truly Ascend.

Felix flinched as his vision was suddenly dominated by blue and white boxes.

The Realms Resist, But The Crucible Rewards!

All Of Your Tempered Skills Have Reached The Zenith Stage Of Evolutionary Potential!

Be Sure To Watch Out For Opportunities To Evolve!

Felix could have slapped himself. He'd forgotten about the artifact around his waist entirely.

"No time like the present," he muttered. He reached for the buckle, twisting it as the cables snapped free with a hiss. The Crucible fell from his grip, crashing into the earth hundreds of feet below. All at once, every single one of his Skills expanded, as if Felix had been stretching toward the heavens and suddenly found himself free of gravity. His Aspects felt unnaturally light, as if he'd been laboring under those restrictions for months instead of days.

Felix grinned, and Pit squawked in clear joy as his own Skills came easier to him as well. Without a word, they rushed in, fists smashing against the pillars of force. Pieces chipped away, enough for the pair of them to slip through. Felix was faster than before, and Pit commanded the winds beneath his wings like never before.

Sonata of Dominance!

“Nimbus of the Moon!”

Together they hit the Twins, their powers searing into metallic skin. Moonbeams and lightning and the endless barrage of Felix's midnight fists gave the Twins no rest. The blue flesh shattered, and the Twins fell back, shock glaringly obvious across their Spirit.

What Is This? they gasped.

Their footing ruined, Felix pressed his advantage. He drove his fists into the Twins again and again. Now that the Realms weren’t dragging at him, Felix threw punches faster and stronger than ever before. Metallic flesh dented before his onslaught, the Twins’ strikes bent aside from Felix's twisting kicks.

And worse.

“Half-Core Manifestation: Stormwrought Strings!”

The Manifestation seared through the Twins' weakened Body, bursting apart their flesh in great fountaining gobbets. Yet it left the corpse on its back unharmed.

Ichor poured down metallic skin, a torso slick with fluid as teeth gnashed at him. The Twins swung for Felix, but he couldn't be caught. The Divine’s power flared as their Body shifted, formed into spikes of force-Mana all around to fend off Felix's blows. They speared into his path, and he only narrowly evaded them.

“Nimbus of the Moon!”

Moonlight scoured the Twins' faces, forcing the dual god to flinch with both of their heads. Embarrassed rage drove their Spirit, and they flared their might, blind as they swung. The corpse on their back lit up.

In the distance, Felix heard a scream. Mauvim!

"Felix! I cannot hold it!" The array careened out of control, the flickering gold and silver light shuddering as a second explosion ripped through the interior of Felix's Authority's Consequence. The pillar of gold and silver flickered out, the manacles giving a resounding crack that shook the air like thunder. The shackles across the Twins' limbs and neck fell apart, their pieces dissolving into worthless smoke.

Cry Havoc, Corpse! Loose The Bonds Of Eternity!

Power roiled across the Twins' back. The corpse, stitched into their flesh by stretched tendons, blazed the three cords within its body. They pulsated like individual hearts as streamers of energy flowed into the Twins to join with their own core. Pressure spiked, and a shockwave ripped out of the dual god as power flooded them, igniting their core. All four thrummed in tandem, Mana and significance pooled in their bellies, looping through channels as big as rivers. The Twins vanished.

Pit, move!

Above them, the god reappeared, filling the entirety of the night sky.

They dropped, their conjoined limbs leading the way. Primordial Slaughter!

The Skill screamed against the air, so fast that the Realms themselves buckled beneath the movement. The Corporeal split, chasms stretching away from the Twins’ fist, streaming outward with a break in the deepest of harmonies.

There was no way to dodge it.

Felix fell back, his leg severed and his torso cleaved open.

Sovereign of Flesh!

His Essence marshaled within him, stitching his most vital pieces back together. Pit!

The tenku tumbled, a pile of feathers and blood. So much blood. Felix reached out, Adamant Discord burning on his lips. Lightning slithered outward to halt his friend's fall. Time slowed. Bonds sprung up all around him, a spider’s web of impact and causality, and yet Felix knew which ones to seize. Several leapt to his hand, most notably the vast Link between them. Lightning cracked, and steel lines swept across the intervening space. Felix forced his hands closed around as even more Bonds sprung up in every direction.

ERROR!

Adamant Discord snapped out of reach, the song of it souring into something dissonant and cruel. The Bond he’d seized went slack, its lightning fizzling out. Felix spat blood, the pain of the failed Skill rebounding off the protective coating of his Regalia. Body and Spirit hummed, shielded from the worst of its harm.

The Skill recovered, the patterned melody pulling up from its caesura and into a rising beat. Bonds scattered in all directions, blue lines firming up before Felix’s very eyes. A singular Bond dominated his view. It was beyond vast, staining his world in shades of azure, and littered with a million lesser lines tangled around it.

It was as if he were back within the Tumult. Felix twisted, his eyes flicking sideways by the smallest of degrees, following the Bond to its source.

To the Twins.

No. Felix’s heart thundered. Their back.

Scion! the Beast raged. Allow Me Free Reign!

Slowed perception of time or not, Felix still fell. As did Pit. He blinked, long and slow. As time resumed its insane speed, the wind roared in his ears, and the ground rushed to meet them.

SCION—!

Go for it.

With a bellow of pent-up wrath, the Beast rose from the abyss, its claws alone smashing through Felix's core space. They plunged forward, seizing Adamant Discord between them.

Wake, Ancient Flesh!

The Companions fell, lightning spinning off of Felix's limbs like the wake of a speedboat, and nothing happened.

Pathetic. The Twins adjusted their limb, and it was sheathed in an incandescent, colorless power. They spoke a Skill, but their words howled so loud that Felix couldn't hear them. The hand dropped like an executioner’s axe.

Wake! the Beast cried.

The Twins' arm jerked to a stop. Muscles bulged, and veins twisted beneath metallic skin. The arm wouldn't listen. The Twins recoiled, or tried to—they could not move. What Is This? What Have You Done!?

From their back, a thousand eyes ignited, and teeth crawled from folded flesh.

As The Scion Said, the Beast thundered, its words ripping from Felix's falling lips. Primordials Do Not Die.

The corpse sank its teeth into the Twins' necks. The dual god screamed in horror as the other head on its shoulders was ripped clean off.

The lone Twin fell back, power swelling against itself, but all four cores were tangled. Significance stilled, muddled by the knotted pull of Wills. Mana looped through metallic flesh, burning the correct pathway by sheer force of Intent as the Twins shouted something incomprehensible.

The corpse ground its fangs together. The once-dual god’s shoulder withered, their neck fountaining with ichor.

Be Gone! The lone god cast their power out, and the corpse screeched.

The folded flesh broke apart, riding a wave of Divine rejection. Limb, belly, and bone uncoupled from the metallic blue, and the stolen corpse tore away. It fell back and stripped a god bloody.

The lone Twin cried out. Their agony was enough to sunder the earth, splitting clouds above and mountains below into striated cracks. They smashed into Felix's Authority's Consequence. The trees shook but held.

Now, Scion!

Felix was seconds from impact, but he knew what to do. The only thing he could—the thing he was all but made to do.

Empyrean Embrace!