Unbound

Congratulations!

You Have Leveled Up 32 Times!

You Are Now Level 157!

+640 to STR! +704 to PER! +704 to VIT! +832 to END! +24 to INT! +896 to WIL! +832 to AGL! +928 to DEX!

+640 All Harmonic Stats!

You Have 480 Unused Stat Points!

Congratulations!

Your Companion Pit Has Leveled Up 44 Times!

Pit Is Now Level 142!

He Gains:

+440 STR, +396 PER, +176 VIT, +484 END, +308 INT, +440 WIL,

+880 AGL, +880 DEX!

+440 AFI, RES, and REI!

He Has 2200 Unused Stat Points!

Two of them writhed on the ground, and Pit’s injured wings made wet snapping noises as the influx of power flushed through him. It healed faster than usual, and the tenku’s strangled hiss became far more relieved.

It wasn’t over.

ERROR!

90% Resources Diverted!

What?

Felix tried to push himself up from his knees, but it was like his muscles had been robbed of strength, even as liquid potency rioted throughout his flesh. It surged through him, searing as it hit every joint and bone, streaming like steam around the edges of his vision. His Body quivered, not unpleasantly, but far more of the power was sent hurling deeper. Beyond his core space, the hungry strands of his Half-Core Manifestation leeched up every scrap of power the System threw at him.

The pattern of the Skill grew, etching itself into the firmament between the Companions, yet still it remained largely incomplete. The Beast roared, disgruntled at the meal snatched away from it.

Felix panted, able to finally catch his breath as the vestiges of power filtered away. "Well that’s unexpected..."

“Did that stupid Skill steal my levels?” Pit demanded. He was sat across the room, head pillowed on his forepaws. “How’s that fair?”

Felix grunted, placing a hand on his chest. Even if the Half-Core Manifestation hadn’t taken the effects of their level ups—a thing Felix hadn’t known was possible—it would have drained them of everything else. The Skill was hungry. He could tell just by looking at the predatory curves of its pattern and by the way the Beast wouldn’t stop growling at it.

Stop that.

It Is Incomplete And Dangerous.

So are you.

The Beast went silent, though Felix could still sense him lingering at the edge of the abyss. The thing was, the Beast wasn’t wrong. The Half-Core Manifestation wasn’t right. Felix hadn’t even known making a Half-Core anything was possible, and this one took up so much power to use a single time it was almost unusable. If they hadn’t used it to kill the Paragon and reaped the benefits, it would have hollowed him of Mana and Essence in an instant. Or worse.

As it was, killing Kanad had given Felix a bit of a boost. Not as much as he’d have hoped, of course. The whole process with the Eye of Tumult had burned through more Mana and Essence than he expected. Perhaps it was the excessive Memories they’d viewed due to Lascalium’s interference, or just the sheer crazy instability of that place in the System, but when Pit had started the fight with the Emperor, they were on emergency rations of Mana and Essence. Now he felt…not whole, but stable.

Felix stood finally, grinding dust, stone, and fragments of skull beneath his heel.

Why Starve? There Is A Meal But Inches Away.

No. Felix knew what the Beast meant.

The Obsidian Tumult called to him, too.

More than just power, its significance was staggering. He lifted his left hand, manifesting the Exalted Bell. Its large, Crescian Bronze form was bigger than his fist, and the faceted obsidian handle was at least eight inches long. Writing was scrawled across the outside of it, but no matter how he flared his Magus of the Grand Design, Felix couldn't decipher a single line. It looked more like decoration than anything else, but something told him it meant far more.

And it wasn’t bonded to him.

We Could Bond It In An Instant. Merely Take What Is Ours.

No. People lived on the Tumult. An entire city had been built across its corpse. He would be killing them all the moment he consumed the Obsidian Tumult, casting their houses and entire cities off the side of the mountains into whatever waited below.

"No," he repeated aloud, forcing himself to take a step away from the Root brain. He would find another way.

“Felix. Did you find what you needed in the Tumult?” Karys asked. Paxus slipped free of Pit’s saddlebags as well, his miniaturized form hovering near the tenku’s shoulder.

“Yeah,” he said, holding aloft the Exalted Bell. His Memory touched on the visions he’d experienced. “More than expected.”

The Bell clattered dully in his grip as a spike of pain tore through his Spirit. It was sharp—sharp enough that he glared at the Beast, but the creature remained in the abyss. It stared at him with eyes as blue as his own—beyond him, into the dark.

Felix's Crown warmed against his temple, and the Chalice in his chest pulled at him, even as it burned. The Bell clung to his hands, heavier than before, as if it were aching, and the echo of it rattled through him.

He gasped, and Mana, Essence, and a small but not insignificant measure of significance drained into the dark, where his Links lit up like brake lights in rush hour. They were going crazy, each demanding gulps of potency—and not just them. The network of connections that spanned the infinite dark toward all the people of his empire was tearing fearfully at him, chewing up pieces of his power bit by bit.

The Bonds of Fellowship sang, and flickering visions hove across Felix’s sight.

Bloody battlefields, Dwarves, Golems, and mad Elementals. His people were in danger. The sky had blackened, and the moons were rising.

Empyrean Embrace!

The smoking remains of the emperor burst into gleams of light and poured down Felix's throat. More significance, Mana, and Essence poured into him, filling up, patching up the last cracks that his Manifestation had made—and he felt it start to siphon away immediately.

“Pit. You healed up?”

"Uh-huh. Already feeling better."

"Good. We need to fly.” Felix looked up, hands flexing. “Tumult, I'm very sorry about this."

Adamant Discord.

Sonata of Dominance.

Astrum Ascendance.

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Above them, flesh and bone rippled and poured across Felix's Will, shaped to his Intent and need.

He needed a tunnel, and it fought back.

Congratulations!

You Have Killed The Emperor Of The Sky!

Claim The Seat And Seat To Establish True Authority!

Felix swiped the notification away. As much as more Authority was useful to him, claiming it was effort he couldn’t spare. His people—his friends—needed him now.

The Obsidian Tumult Recognizes Your Authority, Herald!

Abruptly, all resistance faded. The bone, flesh, and stone all parted above him, as if Felix had driven a metal pole through sand.

“Pit!”

Together, they flew upward, propelled by wind and lightning. Layer after layer melted away before them, blasting through the palace above and straight into the sky. They arced past the teeming thousands of guardians that even now scrambled at the news of their leader’s demise. Others rushed into the palace, eager to find the culprit or perhaps simply to claim Authority. Felix didn't care. He blasted past them all, a bolt of lightning and hurricane winds that shot forward, hurling them from his path as he left the city behind.

The floating islands ripped past them until they were nothing more than a blur. Clouds burst apart behind them, punctured by their passage before cast off winds sent their pieces scattering in all directions. Sound vanished as they breached a barrier of mist, and only the cold touch of the wind could be felt on Felix’s scales.

He pushed faster. Pulled on all he could. A few times, something tried to stop him, but Felix wasn't sure whether it was a monster or a soldier. Everything burst, torn apart not by attacks, but the mere pressure of their travel as they plowed through all obstacles.

Far sooner than he expected, the caverns loomed ahead. Neither of them slowed, merely adjusted their movements.

Ouranic Dominion is level 128!

…

Ouranic Dominion is level 135!

Grandmaster Tier!

Pit Gains:

+300 AGL

+250 DEX

+250 END

Pit flew faster, his wings cutting through the air as if greased. He zipped ahead, diving through the cavern’s entrance and into the old pathways they’d once followed. Felix thundered just behind, terrifying the Kua-Noa where they huddled near the river before tearing past them. Chasms and bridges and winding, sunken stone revealed the broken Temple in quick order.

The gate was waiting for them.

"It's falling apart faster," Paxus warned.

Neither Felix nor Pit slowed an instant. They plunged into the gate and careened through the golden chaos within. The world flickered apart, scattering apart before squeezing back together and spitting them out into the churned, dusty soil of the Deadlands.

Felix groaned, feeling the strain of his Skill ever greater now that he stood within the weakening influence of this false Realm. They’d entered right next to the excavated canyon, same as before, only this time, it was silent and empty as the grave it was.

"Do we need to be careful?" Pit gasped.

"No time for it.” Felix unsheathed his sword. “Move!"

Adamant Discord!

“Ouranic Dominion!”

Lightning sent him ascending fast, puncturing the sodium clouds like a lance and scattering them. Pit struggled, his wings finding less purchase in the dead air, until he gave up with an indignant squawk.

“Screw this! Convergence!”

He vanished in a flash of light, joining Felix’s Spirit as Bonds crackled. A final blast of lightning sent them searing through the last of the sodium clouds and up onto the lip of the canyon. Felix balanced there, heels digging into the unstable earth as he slashed his sword against his forearm. Blood dribbled onto the ground, and the wind flung pieces into the canyon.

What are you doing?!

I’ll explain later! Adamant Discord!

They hauled across the ashen dunes, lightning blazing their way. Perfect recall had him making a beeline for their destination, but he made three separate stops to slice open his forearm. His blood sizzled, a vibrant red against the black ash, slithering like serpents deep into the dunes.

They found the exit gate exactly where they'd left it.

Felix skidded to a stop, ash heaving to either side of him in waves. “Made it.”

The white of Desolation coated it entirely.

Pit barked, his uncertainty shaking Felix as much as his own. What do we do?

Felix steadied his breathing, letting his Mind whirl through ideas. Quick as a blink, he inscribed sigaldry into the air, scrawling the same array he’d made twice since Etrionn. Yet, before he could finish it, the Desolation flared, loosing arcs of energy that burned through every attempt.

“It’s not allowing it,” Felix muttered through his teeth. “Can the Desolation think?”

What else can we do?

He wasn’t sure. Sigaldry was all he knew that could stabilize their way. It was what made the Shadowgates function so much better than Dark Passages. Felix blinked at his gate. A Shadowgate.

Of course!

Atlantes, he called. Not so much through his voice, but through the connection within himself. From a terrible distance away, his Elder Spirit Tree stirred, its awareness focusing on him.

Can you find me?

A trembling leaf of uncertainty.

"I'm here, at a gate,” he said aloud. “The Desolation blocks me. I need you to connect us to the Shadowgate network. Can you press your roots through it?"

A tumble of images rolled through Felix. Foxes hesitantly sniffing at unfamiliar dens. Roots questing through dark soil toward a cold object. Hesitance. Uncertainty. Atlantes was unsure, but it would try.

Several things happened at once. The Atlantes pressed itself toward him, angling through dimensions Felix couldn’t quite perceive. A burgeoning song lifted through his ears, vibrating against the back of his teeth.

The gate burst.

Felix threw up his arms, and the black ash erupted, tossing him back almost twenty feet. The white of Desolation rippled, pieces of it pushed back by a wild green-gold. He gritted his teeth, peering into the blemish. The green-gold wasn’t pure—it was streaked with dozens of other colors, some he couldn’t even name.

An image of spreading branches poked at his Mind, and Felix gave himself over to the Atlantes. Immediately, Essence and Mana and significance funneled from Felix. Faster than through his other Links, it poured toward Atlantes, toward the benefit of empire and the power of his Grove. The way opened wider, enough for Felix to stick a hand in, but he needed more.

"C’mon! C’mon!"

The Desolation rebounded. As if sensing intrusion, it flared itself, spreading as the gate broke its boundaries. No longer a rough oval, but now breaking open like an egg. Cracks split the world into fine webbing in all directions. The light of his Grove vanished, while the Deadlands all but dimmed his connection, as Atlantes faded further away.

“Dammit!” Felix punched the earth. Ash exploded upward. The hard ground, more than four feet below, cratered beneath his fist. His knuckles were broken, but they mended as he stood, the pain clearing his Mind.

None of it was enough, and his people were dying. He could feel them now, the proximity to the gate cruelly strengthening his Links.

His Grove was the key. He knew it. The Shadowgates all relied on the same sort of network. All gates did. The Dark Passages were simply wild, and this was raw, but all of them were connections.

Felix tried to seize his Links through the gate, to find some distant connection, but he could no more hold his Links than he could touch the sun. They needed something more tangible.

A flash of light jolted him. Felix whirled to the side as a Pit formed on the ashen dune.

"Felix, what about this?" With his beak, Pit pulled a thick, gray vegetable from his pouch. Felix's eyes widened. It was the Root of the Abyssal Soil.

"Remember what it did in Etrionn?" Pit asked.

Felix's eyes widened. The Roots of Abyssal Soil had rejected the Desolation. Like oil and water, they’d been repulsed by one another, so much so they couldn't interact.

Felix took it from his Companion, turning over the small piece of Root in his hand. "Rejected by the Desolation," he muttered, "but they clung to Spirit Trees like kindreds. They formed a root brain." He held it up. Though it had been severed from the rest of itself, Felix could hear music in the deep striations of its matter. Growth and harmony called out to him. The same sensation that called from the other side. A connection that could not be denied.

"Pit, you absolute genius." Felix reached out, pulling on his cores.

Sonata of Dominance!

Astrum Ascendance!

He drew on the Green Wilds, every element within the Root that called to his Grove, to call to harmony and growth.

To open a pathway.

Atlantes resurged, a sudden awareness flooding Felix's Mind as the gate broke open. A burst of color that shouldered away the empty white.

“Now, bud!” Pit re-converged into Felix, and they leapt into the gate, hurling through stretching terrain that flickered across his eyes in a strident pulse. It shook through Felix as places he once walked on the Continent burned across his vision, interspersed with the opalescent expanse of what could only be his Void Sanctuary.

Felix and Pit fell through a maelstrom of unceasing visions, buffeted on all sides by a caustic, riotous chaos.

Atlantes nudged him, and a single word flickered through his mind. Choose.

Not even Atlantes’ grasp on it was enough. The images flashed by without pattern or pause, only barely held at all. It was too much for his Grove. Felix marshaled his Intent, honing it into a blade—a grasping claw that scoured against the visions with sparks of illusory fire.

He knew what he needed.

"Jaast." He forced the vision of its jungles through his Intent and Will. "Give me Jaast!"

Felix reached out and seized.