Unbound

Volantris' landing hit like a bomb.

The enemy had no chance. Ironclads, Golems, Elementals, and Corrupted died in a cataclysmic ripple of upheaved earth. Trees toppled, and enough dirt clogged the air that Gabby could almost ignore the people crushed into paste.

The Legion did their best to defend against it. Wards were erected, chitinous walls lifted to bolster their lines, and Wendell exploded the very ground, dropping it away in an attempt to fend off the waves of impact. Elowen mustered her power and thrust trees and falling stone aside around a cohort of Legionnaires.

The tidal wave crushed against them regardless. Dust followed, choking the air with splinters and uprooted plants. Hundreds died in a flash, despite their wards and Unbound protectors.

Then the levels hit. Foes dead, a torrent of partial XP rolled through the Legion, pulling gasps from injured flesh as power surged.

“Don’t get distracted!” Gabby heard one of the officers shout. “They’re not done!”

It was true. While Volantris had killed a great many of their enemy, plenty of Ironclads still stood. Boar Knights, Golem controllers, and a plethora of Elementals still filled their ranks—and they were advancing on the Legion, swiftly.

In the distance, Harn lifted his axes high, now engulfed in a bright silver flame. "Legion! Cut them apart!"

He led them forward, Legionnaires raging as their Skills flared. Nagafolk, Yttins, and Frost Giants pounded to the fore, their massive weapons pummeling the distracted and disheartened Ironclads. Shadow swirled, the night growing ever darker as the Corrupted rallied, their tendrils lashing into the Legionnaires' ranks as they pushed back.

Harn laughed. “Now this is a fight!”

So it is. Gabby swung her arms, her Luminous Raiment morphing to her Will. Golden spikes at least ten feet long pierced her nearest foes. Elementals died as their cores were sundered, the Golems cracked, and their mages shouted in dizzied alarm. I am sorry. You didn’t choose to be enslaved.

The mages shouted something, but she gave them no chance to finish. Her Brightblade cleaved them from crown to pelvis. They fell, and there were no others blocking her sightlines—she could see her enemy.

Ar’Vahn was running.

“Damn it!”

Already the puppet was disappearing into the trees, and as Corrupted and Elementals filled the space between them, the chances of Gabby catching up were slim.

The lightest of feet landed on her armored shoulders, and Gabby looked up from beneath translucent golden panels. Vess stood there, glaive in hand. “Run, Gabrielle, and I shall provide you clearance.”

Spears sprouted around the general, and Gabby grinned. “Nevarre taxi service, coming up!”

Gabby kicked off the earth, and they exploded forward, each step covering a dozen feet as she shoulder checked the first ranks of the Corrupted. Vess gestured, and her Spears dropped onto their numbers. What the weapons didn’t pierce were torn apart by the explosive storms within.

“We cannot let her puppet escape the border!” Vess shouted over the din of crushing metal and crackling lightning. “Facing Marzul outside of the empire’s restrictions is suicide!”

Gabby only gave a growling grunt of acknowledgment as her Brightblade shifted shape. She had no plans on letting Ar’Vahn go anywhere.

The Corrupted were seemingly endless. No matter how many died, more sprouted up from the darkest corners of the jungle, ready to leap into Gabby’s path without hesitation. Worse, the Elementals had returned, and they, too, opposed their advance. She gave none of them any quarter, even as her heart bled for the Elementals’ enslavement.

All the more reason to hate Marzul.

“Cataclysm Array! Break!”

Every one of Vess’ Spears joined into one, forming a massive weapon that sliced forward ponderously—yet its strength couldn’t be denied. Trees and hillocks burst from its approach, shattered even before the storm of lightning scattered the debris into a corridor of cleared rubble.

Gabby sped up, all but flying through the newly made tunnel before the monsters could regroup. Her eyes darted about, hunting for their target, but the jungle was so dark. The night had fallen here in earnest, slicking every rock and tree with a black so thick that it was like treading through ink.

She didn’t see the hand that seized her ankles, but she certainly felt it. Gabby fell, feet whipped out from under her, her Luminous Raiment crunching against the pulped remnants of tree trunks. Vess was sent soaring.

Gabby recovered smoothly enough, fetching back to her feet with her weapon at the ready. Through the dark, she caught a flash of Ar’Vahn’s pale face. A woman laughed through him, while the stolen Imperator’s eye burned black.

Gabby swung her Brightblade, but that hand manifested again. Shadows caught the strike and turned it aside into the earth. Ar’Vahn clucked his tongue. "Your light is a pale imitation of what I once held."

The Dwarf thrust his palm forward, and the shadow of Marzul howled around it. Light bloomed in the heart of that darkness, but it was cold and harsh. It cut through Gabby, shattering the legs of her Luminous Raiment.

A stomp followed, but Gabby rolled free as her Raiment glitched apart. She banished it, lifting her Brightblade to catch a second palm that fell like a ten-ton weight. It sparked off of her wide blade, the golden light burning away the cold shadow.

Marzul's Dwarven Imperator bared his blackened teeth. "Just die!"

He did not see Vess’ Spear.

It dropped from above, falling like Damocles’ Sword onto the unsuspecting Dwarf. A single massive weapon, it sliced through his skull just as it burst—lightning boomed, spreading in wild ring.

Ar’Vahn screamed, choking as his flesh perished—the first true sound Gabby had heard from his throat. It soured, the pitch skyrocketing as Marzul felt the blow. The night shook around them, cracks breaking through the distant black.

You Have Killed Dav Ar’Vahn, The Sixth Imperator Of The Khadan Imperium!

XP Earned!

The Night’s Puppet Is Dead!

You Have Earned A New Title!

More Than A Vessel (Epic)!

By kiling Dav Ar’Vahn, you have rent a significant hole in the power of the Half-Divine Ocalla Marzul! You gain an increase in damage against the Half-Divine until she attains full ascendance!

Gabby swallowed, reading the notification. “You get that, too?”

“I did.” Vess yanked her glaive free of Ar’Vahn’s broken corpse. “Now we face the consequences.”

The sky lightened, and at first, Gabby thought those cracks in the night were widening. Instead, an explosion tore through the southeast, eradicating the black with a dawning blush of burning white. The volcano Elemental broke apart, releasing a streak of flame straight into the air.

Atar flew up, tattered robes flapping around his skeletal legs as power radiated off of him in waves.

“So it was him,” Vess said with a smile. “I had hoped so. This will be far easier with Atar’s aid.”

“Maybe.” Gabby grunted, her eyes never leaving the eastern horizon. “We’re not outta the woods yet."

The discordant sound of punctured ice and sheared stone scraped through their ears. Gabby winced, the physical pain outstripped by the assault on her Affinity. A

textureless black veiled the south like a curtain drawn closed.

The horizon darkened beyond shadow, and the jungle was consumed by it. Gabby flared her golden Mana, but Atar burned brighter, overflowing with stolen power. He was a white sun, and it pushed back the dark, but only so much.

I Will Not Fall Here. The voice vibrated through Gabby's heels. Not To You.

Pride, anger, and no little fear shook through Marzul’s Spirit, unmasked by any artifice. The dark did not part so much as ooze into the blaze of Atar’s light, and Gabby’s throat tangled with a curse and bile in equal measure.

Marzul was a nightmare. No longer human by any measure, her eyes and mouth were sockets of empty dark. She stood twenty feet tall, composed of pieces of starlit shadow held together by scraps of too-pale flesh. Her robes, once white and gold, were now leeched of all color and brilliance. Gray and leaden, they hung about her like chains.

She screeched, and the white flame buckled around Atar. The Thrill Of Defeat!

Status Condition: Dire Ennervation Is Active!

Duration: One Hour

Warning!

Your Stamina Has Dropped To 2%!

Authority spread from the woman as swift as a gale, crushing Gabby to the earth under the weight of pure ennui. Her Brightblade shattered, scattering away as the Skill itself tumbled from her grip. Gabby would have cursed had she the breath. It was all too similar to a Skill she'd seen before, and Vess clearly thought the same.

The general cried out. "Yin!"

In the distance, the Wyrm and Grove Wardens fell from the sky. Chimeras, Dragoons, and the mighty Legions, all were toppled by Marzul's unmitigated power. The battlefield was squeezed into silence, their Spirits cowed and their Stamina sapped to almost nothing.

Except for Atar.

"Astrum Revelation! Stars of the Sovereign!"

A crown of white flame erupted around Atar, ringing him once, twice, then three times. Each ring larger than the last, they poured heat and light into the dark, beating its gelid touch back. Three dozen four-pointed Stars appeared around him, trapped within the circumference of the rings, and with a gesture all of them spun free. A wild constellation of power ripped outward, tearing into Marzul. Shadowflesh burned away, and normal skin sliced free in flaps dry of blood or ichor.

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Marzul didn’t even move. The Night’s Balm.

The thick dark flowed into her, healing her flesh immediately. Real skin was replaced by starlit forms, and the rest of her was coated into a material that clung to her limbs like silk.

She laughed.

Without Nevarre, You Are All Just Children. Even Weakened By Your Pitiful Empire, I Am Too Much For Any Of You. She lifted her hands, and her lengthy fingers were tipped by nails of starlight. I Should Have Ended This Long Ago.

Vess cried out something Gabby couldn’t understand—-it was all she could do to push up to her knees. Atar rushed forward again, a stream of blinding white aimed for Marzul's heart.

A mouth of empty dark opened as if to swallow the sky.

Core Manifestation: Siren Of The Night.

Chapter One Hundred And Nineteen:

The quiet crystallized, and the night froze. Vess was unsure of what had happened, but then again, she was unsure of everything. Her Mind was muddled, her Spirit pressed close, but her Body fought, running confused limbs over crushed earth.

How had she fallen?

Vess’ lifted her gaze, and in the sky hung a moon. It swirled above them, too close to be real—too tangible to be an illusion. It rose above Marzul like a halo, outlining her head and shoulders with pale yellow striations and distant asteroid scars. The night clung to it, anchored it, drenching them all in a liquid black that pressed Vess further into the earth.

The Manaships had fallen. She couldn’t tell if they’d crashed or not, but they were no longer above, and the ground shook with distant tremors. Everyone was stretched out, even her foes.

All save Atar.

The mage was a streak of white in the air—frozen no less than fifty paces from Marzul’s chest. His face was locked in a snarl, and despite the heaviness that weighed them all down, his outstretched hand twitched.

Pathetic. Marzul’s arm blurred, dropping onto the mage’s back like a thunderbolt. The white flame crashed into the earth, exploding in a plume of light that snuffed out almost immediately.

He didn’t get back up.

Vess fought with everything she had to move as Marzul breathed deeply, the night itself expanding with her inhale. Your Consequences Are Due, Little Children.

Perish.

Marzul lifted higher into the sky, that inhale becoming something more than breath. She expanded, stretching into the dark as the moon congealed into something more real. Her Body split, the flesh that held her together dissolving almost entirely until there was only her neck and face. All else was starlit shadow, backlit by an ominous purple-pink.

The moon kept growing, drawing in the night around them.

She’s…ascending? Vess searched the sky. The moon’s power joined with her, knotted strings dangling from above and around, bright yellow and vibrant pink. They sank into her, and Marzul grew deeper than ever as she rose higher and higher, her empty eye sockets burgeoning with new light.

Where are the chains?

Vess clenched her fist hard, her arcanite gauntlet scratching against itself. The moon kept solidifying…and those knotted strings thickened into the chains she’d hoped to see. They snaked around Marzul’s limbs, limp as rags, but unmistakable. The Empire's restrictions were still holding onto her, and the System was just behind.

Did she know? Vess was uncertain, but they had only moments before she advanced beyond their reach.

The darkness lightened, pulled into Marzul at a greater pace. The weight against Vess’ Spirit lessened, enough for her to sense something other than vast ennui. Her eyes flicked up to Marzul, where the woman stared into her new moon with a rapturous expression cut into her empty face.

She was distracted.

The rate of absorption sped up, and Vess feared there wouldn’t be much time left before Marzul was unassailable as a true god.

"Soulflight Union!" she spat from between her teeth.

From across the battlefield, Yin vanished in a dim blur at the same time a familiar heaviness settled onto her Spirit. Converged, their regeneration ticked upward, and their Harmonic stats soared.

Status Condition: Dire Ennervation Has Expired!

The Thrill of Defeat broke apart, and Vess cast it off from herself. She pushed on her glaive, leveraging herself to her feet.

I cannot muster enough power for flight, little Dragoon. We cannot reach her.

And yet we must.

Your wings alone will not suffice.

No. Vess’ knees buckled, but she adjusted her grip on her glaive and kept standing. Barely. Thankfully, we are not alone.

“Voice of the Vaunted.”

Her Skill sounded, resonating through her throat with a bevy of riotous emotion. She spoke sounds rather than words, but joy and determination rolled through the syllables, flooding the woman at her side.

Gabby gasped, blinking away the terror that had scrawled across her Spirit. The weakened Thrill fell away, and she shuddered on her hands and knees.

“Can you stand, Gabby?” Vess asked.

The giant woman did just that, merely wincing at her mangled leg. "What's the plan?"

"Throw me."

Gabby laughed. "Stupid plan."

Gabby seized Vess by the back of her armor, her enormous hand more than enough to grasp the entirety of her cuirass.

Vess leaned back into it. “Aim true.”

Gabby smirked. “Go kill that asshole.”

Her muscles bulged, armor creaking as Gabby wound back and flared her Strength. She gave a cry of pain as her leg twisted further, but her arm did not falter. Gabby hurled Vess into the sky, glaive leading the way.

Yin!Together!

“Draconic Legacy!”

The Wyrm leapt from Vess’ Spirit at the same time her own Body blurred away. Power swirled, congealing with wind and steel as a spectral Dragon appeared in their place, replete with bat wings and a crown of horns.

They roared, and Marzul’s attention snapped down at them.

Vess marshaled the power that had been building at her center, Yin’s Spirit joining in. “Core Manifestation: The Matriarch Returns!"

The spectral Dragon turned to flesh mid-flight. A true Dragon, ancient and terrible. It manifested in the sky, only paces away from Marzul.

Impossible!

Teeth the size of spears tore into her expanding flesh, ripping through the night. Marzul cried out. Pain, true pain, assailed the near-god’s senses.

The Matriarch’s Bond Is A Boon To All Kindred! the System trolled, just as light burgeoned from Vess’ conjoined flesh. It spread outward, rippling across the battlefield and sinking into the downed Legion…but most of all, it joined with the Grove Wardens.

A chorus of howls joined Vess and Yin as a field of crystalline stars flew from the ground. Dawnfire pierced the black, arcing across the night to strike into Marzul. The Wardens’ flames intensified, scouring through starlit flesh.

"Matriarch's Threnody!" Vess roared, and the Queen of Dragons roared with her—wings snapped like thunder, and that dawn’s light blossomed across her crown of horns.

Ocalla Marzul, Half-Divine Of Shadow, Is Afflicted With An Instance Of Ennervation!

Duration: Three Heartbeats.

“Eyes of the Basilisk!”

Ocalla Marzul, Half-Divine Of Shadow, Is Afflicted With An Instance Of Dragonfear!

Duration: One Heartbeat.

“This is for my mother!” Vess roared. “Horizon Breaker!”

The Matriarch reached for the sky and sundered it. The shadow was ice beneath a bonfire. It cracked, and Marzul's ascending flesh broke along with it. Wordless rage tolled from her unnatural throat, thrashing the air as the moon above her flickered.

Yet the chains of its power snagged her tight, even as she lashed against the Matriarch's jaws. You Will Not Kill Me! I Am Eternal!

"Brightblade Crescendo!"

A javelin of golden light cut through the dark, sinking into Marzul's exposed chest. Her mouth stretched into a silent scream.

From the ground, Gabby crowed, "And that's for me, bitch!"

The night burst, shattered glass that crumbled into drifting midnight snow. Marzul convulsed, her face spread wide into a bright grin, as her eyes flickered with the faintest of gold. I Will Not—She stretched, her claws raking at Vess’ snout. Release!

Vess’ jaws met with a meaty clack, and the Half-Divine’s fight vanished.

You Have Killed Ocalla Marzul, Half-Divine Of Shadow!

XP Earned!

The corpse fell from their mouth—ejected by a dissolving spume of black fog. Vess and Yin followed, flying to the earth before separating as their Core Manifestation ran its course. Glaive in hand, Vess leveled it on the smoking corpse, ignoring her exhaustion or the bloody wounds that stretched down her face and legs.

Atar scrambled back, coughing and returned to his gray-skinned self. He stood. “You—you did it?”

The mage sagged, and his white hair fell limp around his shoulders. “Blood and ash.” He looked up, eyeing Vess. “You’re a Dragon now?”

"Sometimes," Vess allowed.

"Always," Yin corrected.

Gabby limped closer to Marzul’s Body. "Are you sure she's dead?"

"The System said she was."

"You think I trust the System?"

Marzul's corpse lurched. Atar ran back, white flames guttering around himself in an aborted ward. Vess simply hurled a Spear into it, pinning it to the ground as Yin bathed it in Dawnfire and Gabby chopped into it with an axe made of solid light.

A tense moment passed before the corpse lurched again, bucking against their weapons. Her chest split with a sigh of fetid air, and a core of purple, black, and vibrant pink slithered out. It pulsed, a presence that drew Vess toward it, even as it repulsed her Affinity. The shattered darkness drew toward it fitfully, a lodestone to iron filings, as the sky returned to its eternal twilight.

The Thrill Of Defeat Has Expired!

Core Manifestation: Siren Of The Night Has Expired!

Vess dragged in a breath. The earth unfroze all around them, the Half-Divine’s Skills fully cancelled out. Still, right there around the smoking corpse of Marzul, the dirt and stone froze in unsettled patches.

Congratulations!

You Have Earned A New Title!

Godslayer—

ERROR!

"No," Vess whispered.

A wave of power erupted from the core, throwing Vess and Gabby back onto their backs. A beam of pinkish light skewered the sky, straight into the purple-black comet that had descended far closer than Vess realized. It burned like a second sun, and the pink arced across the dome of the heavens.

Oh, Brother… A whisper rose from Marzul's empty corpse, and it did not sound like the Hierophant at all. Wreak Your Vengeance.

Break Them All.

The Ruin flashed, and power ripped downward. Vess fled, pulled back by Yin. The Wyrm howled, and everything became tumbling purple chaos.

Others were not so lucky. The earth cratered, and that chaos expanded, bursting the ground in jagged streaks in every direction. Legionnaires died, Chimera collapsed, all of them turned into a screaming haze. Bodies charred and dusted in the hot wind, and Yin rolled over Vess, panting heavily.

Through his tangled limbs, she saw the heavens. They had split apart, revealing three moons high in the sky beneath the Ruin’s comet. Far closer than any moon had been before.

A fissure split between them, and fingers split its purple-pink edges. Three sets, each more horrific than the last, crawled through.

The sight shook her, and a pulse of pressure laid out the moaning survivors.

No.

A metallic blue hand that looked like two had been half-melted together thrust fully from the rift. This Death Is Not Your End, Little Sister.

Marzul gasped, and the core of Noctis sucked back into her Body.

A Reward For Opening The Way, Marzul.

“Blind grace,” Vess cursed.

WARNING!

Ouranic Bindings Are Failing!

WARNING!

The Divine Descend.