Unbound

An explosion shook the ground beneath Felix as he fled through the sky.

“What in the—?”

A pillar of golden light burst upward, tearing through the purple darkness that had descended around him.

Gabby!

This time, his sister wasn't clad in her Luminous Raiment; it was just her and her Harn-forged armor. Standing well over twenty feet tall, she moved swiftly, leaping from the walls of the fortress to take on multiple Vessels at once. She landed on a gibbering Ettin clad in metallic blue, crushing it with a single blow.

The godslaves rushed her, piling atop her—and Gabby started laughing.

“Luminous Raiment!”

Her body burst into light. Golden radiance, brighter than ever before, expanded from her chest and hurled the godslaves back. Interlocking plates slammed together, rerebraces, breastplate, and innumerable linkages snapping into place and catching the most tenacious godslaves between them. They died, crushed into sizzling paste as she swung her armored arms, killing all those that stood within reach—and her reach was mighty now. Fifty feet tall if she was a foot, the Luminous Raiment held her new, massive Core Manifested form within its bounds.

“Brightblade Crescendo!”

The Crescian Bronze hilt blazed in her hand, grown with her Wrath of the Gigas, and her Skill transmitted through her Raiment like flame through gasoline. A greatsword formed, sixty feet long, twenty feet wide, and as bright as the sun at noon.

She swung, and death followed.

The enemy was slaughtered, but the Vessels did not stop. Divine power flowed unceasingly as a river down a mountain, and it struck surviving godslaves one after the other. Blood, rot, and force by turns focused before the fortress, scattering across the walls—but it was the Ettins that came for Gabby.

The Vessel of Twins rose up, expanding until it was far larger than before. The force armor of the Twins clung to its limbs as if in dark echo of Gabby’s power. She cleaved into it, and the dual-headed Ettin caught her blade against its side. It sizzled, burning force Mana apart, but not before the Vessel brought its spiked fist down onto the Brightblade.

The weapon shattered.

Gabby fell back, cursing in a giant’s voice. “You little bastard!”

The Vessel cackled with one of its heads, while the other gave a guttural cry. “Thief of the sun! You hold power you are not worthy of!”

Its arms lifted and dropped, heavy with flanged plates of force—and met the jaws of a chitinous beast. The Vessel screeched in an alarm that turned into panicked agony as those jaws tightened and flexed. Its arm was torn free at the shoulder as a cascade of Elemental Mana ate through the blue force.

Felix gasped. What is that?

The chitinous beast was intensely strange, and it boiled with a variety of Mana like a walking factory. What looked like pieces of ice, earth, flame, and congealed wind was bound together within a chitinous exoskeleton. Six angular legs braced against the jungle floor, tearing through trees and rock with ease as its massive foreclaws latched onto the grown Vessel with titanic Strength.

It dropped the Ettin’s arm and roared, its eyes burning blackened green. Its Spirit quaked with enough power to give even Felix pause. Its voice was an avalanche, a wildfire, a tidal wave, and an earthquake. It tore through the Vessel like tissue paper, sundering the Ettin in two.

"I can combine and wake up my Exults now, jerks!" Beef howled from its shoulder, Hallow's crystalline form anchoring him in place. "And they're mad as hell!"

Lightning arced toward him, blood spearing in its wake, and Felix could no longer worry about his friends.

FIEND! Vellus’ voice was teeth against steel. BUTCHER!

He yanked himself aside, shaped wind beneath his feet and lightning in his fist—together, they were just enough to dodge the mad goddess. She chased him, a stormfront of red only inches from Felix’s boots, lightning biting his heels.

“Mantle of the Stormlord!” Pit screeched as he intercepted the goddess’ might. Lightning diverted through his Mantle, discharging through all four of his wings—but not harmlessly. Wounds burst open along his back, and handfuls of feathers were charred beyond saving, but Felix and his Companion sped free, gaining precious moments ahead of the bloodstorm. Vellus yelled, her words unintelligible but loud as thunder, and she followed their winding path.

They drew Vellus farther out, away from his allies and their desperate fight below. Is this far enough?

Pit rolled to the side, evading another bolt of lightning. I hope so! We can’t evade her forever!

It was all too true, yet Felix hadn’t a better idea. The Empyrean Regalia was potent, and it helped his people stay alive, but it wasn’t enough to hold back the Divine. Not with them unleashed.

He racked his brain, but every blow he attempted to strike against the gods was foiled. Sonata was dispersed, Adamant Discord was too little to affect the whole of even a single god, and even his hunger could not put a dent in them.

Between the raking strikes of Vellus, Felix attempted Empyrean Embrace twice. Both times he’d snatched small bits of Essence and Mana, but that was all. His Authority bounced off of the Divine. This fight was nothing like facing down the Pathless or Siva. The Pathless had been weakened, and Siva had still been partially bound—and Felix didn't exactly have a giant pit of ancient Primordial goo to dissolve the gods.

Worst of all, they knew it.

This Is All Your Doing! The bloodstorm was wild, enraged, and her every word spat between lips a mile wide, formed of jagged lightning and dripping blood. I Wished Only To Aid You, Felix Nevarre! To Stop This All Before It Could Happen!

Lightning tore across Felix's back, too fast for him to shape it away.

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Warning!

Your Health Has Dropped To 45%!

Pit flew close, but his Mantle didn’t channel away even a small fraction of Vellus’ might. It bent around the Chimera’s wings and struck true.

Warning!

Your Health Has Dropped To 25%!

His Chalice warmed in his chest, soothing his Body, and Sovereign of Flesh intensified, healing him all the faster. Sovereign of Flesh cleansed charred scales and knit rent muscle, but Regalia or not, his Essence stores were taking a beating.

Adamant Discord!

Felix seized the Bonds attached to the massive goddess. He pulled her to the side, forcing her dozen hands to go wide as they swiped past him. They crashed into a mountain instead, shearing through its side.

Warning!

Your Mana Has Dropped To 10%!

It climbed back fast, but Felix couldn’t manage moves like that too quickly. He hung, tethered to the sky by a spitting bolt of blue-white, and watched as Vellus turned back to him. She pulled against Felix's grasp, breaking free as his Mana drained, before leaping back up from the mountains to ascend the heavens. She shot for Felix, an arrow cast into the clouds, but crashed into the sharpened joints of another.

Leave This To Me, Sister. You Are Not Fit For This Fight.

Bronze crashed into the goddess, smashing her down into the mountain. It collapsed beneath her weight, and blood burst across its snowy peaks.

You Do Not Choose For Me, Yyero!

And Trust Your Judgment? The god of rot laughed, his voice sickly and bubbling, as if he were gargling some sort of thick liquid. Your Madness Is A Liability, Wretch! Leave! Go And Kill The Fiend’s Army!

Vellus wailed, and her fury was only half directed at Felix. She melted into a wave of blood that roared down the mountainside…directly toward his people.

"No!" Felix hauled on lightning, shooting forward. Pit flew ahead, his own beams of moonlight crashing down into the waves of blood. They boiled where they struck, but they didn't stop anything. A tidal wave of blood bore down on the chitin fortress, enough to drown every member of his Legion.

“Pit! Get to Beef and Elowen! They need to—!” Felix crashed into bronze flesh, driving his teeth straight through his lip.

Ah Ah Ah. Yyero’s bronze limbs cut off the entirety of the west, and the god laughed. Mad Bitch. She Could Never Fight On Even Terms, But Then Again, Mortals Don’t Fall Into That Category.

The blood rushed ahead beyond the rotten bronze, a tidal wave that smashed into Beef’s Risen beast, overwhelming even its combined Elemental hide. Blood drowned its Mana flows, crashing against the godslaves at its heels. They and the Vessels died, slaughtered by Vellus’ careless hand. It was a cold comfort as Felix watched, horror mounting as Gabby and Beef both ran back to the walls, leaping over them even as shouts rang out. Beef hurled his might up into the fortifications. The chitinous wall lifted up higher, thickening by dozens of feet.

She’ll Crush Them All. There Is Nothing That Can Change That.

The earth exploded, falling away beneath the blood tide, and barriers of purple gold diverted her. Vellus burned with lightning, and the barriers flashed, eroding its strength as blood surged from the man-made gullies and hauled itself up against the chitin, which slowly began to fall.

They’ll Die, And You’ll Watch, Nevarre!

Sonata of Dominance!

Astrum Ascendance!

With a gesture, walls of opalescent Fiendstone rose up, cutting neatly through the blood tide. Waves crashed against them, crushing pieces of it that Felix shaped back into place frantically, bolstered by Beef and Elowen’s efforts—and even Wendell’s explosive charges.

A Paltry Stopgap.

Yyero laughed and swung a fist a hundred feet wide at Felix. He aborted the shaping, his attention consumed by the arcing path he carved over the god’s burnished knuckles. The sheer wind of its passage sent him hurtling sideways, untethered by Bonds or shaped air, and by the time he reoriented, the Fiendstone he’d erected had begun to erode. Inside the fortress, his people were fleeing back, falling to the caves just beyond.

Will You Be Able To Keep It Up As I Bleed You? Yyero’s twisted visage bent at right angles, all teeth and pockmarked wrinkles. What Of When You Perish?

“Siva tried that.” Felix spread his arms, his black armor thickening on chest and shoulders as lightning crawled across him. His Health was crawling back toward full. “I’m still here.”

Yyero's pinched expression soured even more. You Are A Stain We Should Have Scrubbed Clean Long Ago!

His rotten, angular limbs pulled inward, twisting against himself as a great swell of Harmony surged. Felix braced, Pit flying circles at his side, but the god did not attack them. His power shot downward, hitting the land. It flooded over the godslaves that still lived, lifting them up in a wave as inexorable as the blood tide. Yet it didn’t rush to his allies—instead, it expanded godslave flesh beyond their bounds, driving a fetid fungus through the half-dead creatures. It spread, slick growth clinging to each other as corpse and near-corpse rose again into hundreds of amalgamated horrors.

You Endure All Too Well, Yyero said into the soft caesura between his Divinity’s reach. Yet You Cannot Be Everywhere, Fiend.

The horrors screeched and jerked, their Bodies held up by strings of rot and fungus. They swelled further, now easily fifteen feet tall apiece, and fell onto all fours as they charged. Dead rat, blood clone, and Ettin alike had joined, their grisly galloping feet bringing them to crash against the Fiendstone walls. They ran straight up them, plowing through the discharge of thousands of Skills that tried and failed to drop them. Blood rose up behind them, carrying the Evolved godslaves up and over the walls entirely as lightning skewered the battlements.

They were being overrun.

Shaping failed, hunger stymied, Felix only had one answer—and it lay within his Regalia.

Set Effect 2 – Authority’s Consequence – Activated!

Authority’s Consequence – Empower the Bonds of Spirit. You are the throughline where the land meets mortality. To stand upon the Seat and Seal is to sign a Compact, a Choice to hold fast the integrity of all that falls under your influence. For a limited time, you may choose to forge a shield against calamity, bolstered by your accumulated Authority and significance. The shield can be moved at will, but it cannot be broken unless outmatched by another’s Authority. When the time limit ends, the accumulated damage stopped by the shield is transferred, fully, to your significance.

Authority’s Consequence Resonates With The Atlantes Grove!

The world groaned as something deep inside of it sang out in a glorious chorus. Deep bells sounded, their low tones turned to the creak of wood and breaking stone. The Green Wilds, savage and serene, rose up beneath his people—and the Atlantes Grove answered its concerto.

A series of thin shoots lifted out of the dirt, expanding before Felix’s eyes as a bounty of Mana, Essence, and significance funneled through his Regalia and into their green flesh. Youthful bark thickened, and roots spread, anchoring the vast stretch of trunk that expanded dozens of feet in a blink of an eye. All at once, the shoots became a shield of massive trunks that exploded toward the charred skies, and the empowered godslaves were hurled back.

Fiendstone shattered, broken by root and branch, churned by the blood tide—yet its thunderous current could do nothing to sear the growing trunks. Lightning crashed but could not mar its rising roots where godslaves and Vessels alike were wrecked. The roots grasped deep into the earth, beyond bedrock, and the swelling trunks collided.

Bark crawled across them all, splitting the Evolved enemies that were unfortunate enough to be caught between the trees. A massive canopy lifted into the sky, massive green-gold leaves that held out the blackened heavens.

With a thick, muted boom, his allies were completely sealed away.

"Felix!" Vess’ distant voice was unmistakable, and despite Yyero’s growl of rage, he couldn’t help but close his eyes.

“Pit!” Scylla cried from near the canopy, her own Spirit trembling.

Both of them were somewhere behind the shield of swirling Authority, invisible but as present as a pair of burning flames.

“Stay back.” Felix’s mouth thinned into a grim line. "We won’t be losing anyone else."

Pit nodded, his Spirit in complete alignment. "This is our fight."