Chapter Two Hundred And Ninety Five – 295
"Burn damn you!" Atar screamed, but the cage held firm.
The world was chaos around him. Growls and explosions, metal clashes and discharging Mana Skills, it was too much. Atar focused, pushing it away from his Mind. Mana spun, uncoiling from the center of his core space, lashing whips of flame that spun up into his channels with an alacrity he'd only ever accomplished once before: when he'd faced down a horde of Reforged in their final desperate battle for Haarwatch.
His Journeyman Tempered Aspects pulsed with the effort of maintaining his Imbued Sparkbolts, overlapped so that they created an even greater heat than usual. Still, the cage would not melt. Whatever had made it was strong, the ice Mana in the construct more than equal to the hottest flame Atar could produce.
"This isn't working!" he shouted.
"Get me my axes then!" Harn snarled. The man's busted and scarred face was more than a little terrifying to see, and the light in his eyes as he stared out at the spiked Arcid fighting Vess...
"Alister! You try! Vyne! You see his axes anywhere?" Atar let his Sparkbolts pull back as his teammate stepped in with a flash of blue Mana. Instead, he set the Sparkbolts flying at the Wretch that pushed against the defender's shield. The Imbued Sparkbolts cut through it, drilling deep into its carapace before lighting it from within.
Vyne sagged in relief, no longer having to push back the insectoid monster. "I'm a little busy!"
"Kylar!" Atar shouted. The man was only ten paces away, but the roar of battle forced him to actually use his Journeyman Tempered lungs. Kylar spun low, swinging his twin swords in opposing directions and severing the outstretched arm of a Ghostfire Simian. A final flourish ended it completely. "Find Harn's axes!"
"Find em yourself!" he cried back, already whirling through another set of dizzying sword Forms. "I've got my hands full!"
"Highest Flame, Urge of That Which Burns, keep me from killing these children," Atar hissed to himself. "Fine!"
Crown of Ignis!
Imbued Sparkbolt!
Imbued Sparkbolt!
Imbued Sparkbolt!
A coronet of flame blazed above him, showering his body with heat and the heady, omnipotent power of Fire. He felt something open within him, as if his core had become an endless wellspring of crimson-touched flame. Sparkbolts manifested around him, fist sized balls of fire that multiplied into dozens, all of the rotating tightly around the mage's body. He laughed.
"Step aside Kylar! Let me show you how this is done!"
The swordsman had barely dove out of the way when Atar unleashed a storm of fireballs onto the enemy. As if the Highest Flame itself touched the earth, Simians and Wretches charred to husks in the heat and elemental fire of his might. The touch of Primordial power, still tainting him after all this time, merely accelerated their demise. Indeed, it was the primary reason the few Reforged shied back, their ice armor actually burned by his power.
Then why won't it melt that blighted cage! Atar shouted wordlessly and the crown atop his head blazed ever brighter. "Find the damn axes, swordsman!"
"A-aye!"
Kylar scurried off and Davum with him as Atar and Vyne held back the broken tide of monsters. A'zek, that terrifying beast, he stalked through the enemy like a dark wind and was just as untouchable. The lesser creatures, Tier II Ghostfire Simians and Wretches, they fell to every swipe of his claws. The Reforged were another story, too strong and tough to be taken down by much other than overwhelming force. The chimera was strong, but its claws were not always sharp enough or quick enough to penetrate their altered Bodies.
But Atar's altered fire...that was enough. He fought down the mad laugh that bubbled from within his chest, as Sparkbolt after Imbued Sparkbolt whirled outward from his Crown. The Skill, a Blessing he'd received a long time ago, was a dangerous, double-edged sword. It could conjure more Sparkbolts than Atar could ever cast on his own, all of them potent and blazing hot. Yet the power of elemental fire was heady, and often threatened to overwhelm his Mind; even more so now that it was in Journeyman Tier.
He firmed his Will, pushing back another wild surge of mixed anger and amusement. He was stronger than his Skills. He was the master of his own power. As Vess danced against the slippery Arcid and the Reforged charged his position, Atar let fly hot, sweltering death.
The sunken tunnel became a charnel house, an abattoir set aflame, and Atar its mad tender. Still they came, more pouring down from above as they were called to the brutal battle against his team. The heat built, until all of them were sweating buckets from the sheer proximity, and the press of flesh alone was weight down their lone guardian.
Beams of blue force relieved the pressure, and Atar followed Alister's strikes with well-placed Sparkbolts that sent enemies convulsing backward from the agony of their insides burning up.
"Your god is potent," A'zek said from atop a pile of monsters. The harnoq had hamstrung and then disemboweled many of them, and his black form stood out against the orange vibrancy of fire Mana. "Such gifts are not given lightly."
Atar frowned. He shouldn't have mentioned the Highest Flame aloud, not around the Raven worshippers. Few people in the north had a good opinion of Urges. Still, he hadn't the time for regret, not when he saw the spiked Arcid slam Vess back into the tunnel walls. She hit with such force that the impact sent huge cracks spidering in every direction, and the heiress half-sunk into the stone itself.
"Vess!" Atar shouted, before drawing deep on his Crown. The ornamentation flickered and dimmed, but almost fifty Sparkbolt spat out into the air around him. "Burn you, Arcid!"
Atar thrust his hands forward, and every single bolt sped toward the metallic abomination. Crimson light splashed against the monster, turning sections of its grey metal hide black as something caught fire. Black smoke poured from the Arcid, and the thing took a measured step back from Vess to give Atar a considering glare.
"Come and get me, then!" More fire rose at his command, his core blazing hotter than he could handle. Atar grimaced and forced the power through his channels, feeling them scorch and ache. "Field of Flames!"
The Arcid laughed. "You think this is enough? You think any of you are enough?!" In a flash, it tore through the area of fire, stomping over any beast that was in its way. It appeared before Atar before the mage had the time to more than flinch, and it brought down a heavy, spiked fist like a hammer.
Strength Ignition!
All of the fire around them was suddenly yanked into Atar's channels, its power rendered back into the Mana which animated it. Immediately, Atar's Strength and Endurance increased massively, determined by how much fire Mana he had spent in the last sixth of a glass.
It had been a lot.
Atar's muscles swelled with power, nearly ripping apart his battlerobes as he reached upward and stopped the downward strike with nothing more than his bare hands. At least, for a momentbefore the Arcid activated some Skill of their own, and his sure grip failed. The metal creature's limbs became frictionless, slipping free and dropping down and away from Atar. Then they thrust forward, faster than Atar could even perceive.
The blow took him straight in the chest, hard enough to send the fire mage flying.
He smashed backward into something that rang like a bell and was cold enough to burn. Dazed, he looked up, only to find Harn glowering down at him.
"Get up, Sparky! Keep fighting!"
Felix, Karys said.
"Yeah?"
What of your Transcendent Skill?
"Adamant Discord? How would that help?" Felix asked.
No. Unite the Lost. I can see some of your memories. I see how you have used it in the past. It is not a Skill I am familiar with, or had any idea could exist, but it is powerful.
"No," Vvim said. "That you have unearthed that Skill is...it is dangerous, Felix Nevarre. To yourself most of all."
"Will it save you?" Felix asked, already eyeing the strange, convoluted pattern of the Skill.
"Un-unknown," Vvim said. "That Skill...it drains significance, Felix. It drains that which you are to fuel that which has been. You...you mustn't use it. Not for this."
"Not your choice, Vvim," Felix said.
Unite the Lost.
The pattern surged with light, spinning into activity like whirling dervish, and vibrations shook through all of him. Felix felt lightheaded, suddenly, but he didn't stop. He willed the Skill at Vvim, at the connections he sensed between the Geist and the Tower. Something within him locked in place.
Then the pain began.
"AAAGGH," Felix screamed through his teeth. It felt like clawed hands were gutting him, as if a creature had reached into his chest and began scooping out everything that made him, him. It bypassed his pain resistance, the Song of Absolution utterly ineffectual against it's onslaught.
Felix! Pit and Karys cried in unison.
Trembling, Felix directed a stream of Essence down into the Skill. The tendril touched, and instantly his store was utterly drained. Every ounce of Essence was consumed as the Skill attempted to change Vvim's fate...and it was gone before it could even budge a single connection.
Shaking, Felix cut off the Skill.
Unite the Lost is level 14!
Unite the Lost is level 15!
Unite the Lost is level 16!
...
Unite the Lost is level 22!
He laid there, bent over Vvim's body, for what felt like hours. Felix's stats and Aspects, everything about him, felt strained and raw. As if he'd just barely avoided falling from a precipice at the roof of the world. He clung, bloody-fingered, to the ledge until he managed to pull himself back.
"It is...useless, Felix Nevarre," Vvim breathed. "Do not burn yourself up for this one. It is time." Vvim put a clawed finger to his temple and pulled back, extracting a brilliant light from inside his skull. It took only a glance for Felix to recognize that it was another Memory. "This is what you need to know. What this one can...give to you fully here. The Archon iswasa mortal. He was sealed to that armored Body. We were there, this one's family. At the trial."
"A criminal," Felix said.
The worst of criminals if he were to be bound against his will, Karys added. A punishment that would be a living torment.
"More than that. His crimes helped unleash the Greater Primordial that you know so well, Felix. And after that? His experiments cost many lives and souls. He perverted the Eidolons, the brave guardians given second life."
Karys gasped in horror. No!
"Yes. As punishment, his Mind was shredded and his Spirit bound to ageless metal of his own design. So that he would serve the Nym forever in the abomination he created."
Such a punishment was too light!
"So he was a Nym, too," Felix said.
"No."
"No? He waswas he a Geist?" Felix asked.
The Tower shook again, and Vvim's expression stiffened. "It...is why his crime was...so heinous. He was the hope of the War. His creations helped turn the tide of battle before we knew what they were. Nothing is so terrible as a hero...turned villainous."
"A hero? So he wasn't Nym, then what?"
"He is Unbound, Felix Nevarre."
The Tower shook, far harder this time, but Felix barely felt it.
"The Archon is Unbound."
