Chapter Four Hundred And Eighty Two - 482
The Mountains That Howl were strangely named. While they did howl, they most certainly were not mountains. Where the Tangle ended, the ever-descending lake floor dropped dramatically, resolving into a sheer cliff that opened into dark water. The drop alone was a little unnerving, but what made it worse was the ripping current that ravaged the edge of that cliff. They swam closer, and Felix could perceive a twisted rippling that broke up the dark abyss before them.
> he asked Toa'ut.
> Isla offered, speaking over the slow-talking War Naga. >
> Tao'ut intoned. >
Felix focused his Manasight, though it was difficult to separate water and shadow from itself. Slowly, the glowing brilliance of the Mana currents resolved into distinct patterns. They flowed in tight circles, spinning around a central point that was at least thirty yards across. Their mouths were open and undulating through the dark water, moving with the ponderous motion of a whale, and descending somewhere far below that was not so much shrouded in shadow as drenched in a vast distance. They're massive cyclones, he realized. Whirlpools.
Felix looked out and perceived hundreds of them, cutting the emptiness with a furious chaos.
Manasight is level 73!
> he said, before explaining it all to his friends.
> Beef asked. He looked askance at the depths before them and rubbed his arms. The water touched them but didn't at the same time, so the fur along his bare biceps was dry and fluffy. >
Pit chirruped thoughtfully. >
Lavix shook her head. >
> Vess added. She leaned forward on Lavix's back, peering into the dark as her own eyes flashed with a prismatic light. >
Felix scratched his chin; his beard was growing fuller now, and his claws felt good against his skin. >
> Toa'ut said.
Great. >
> Rou'd said, the third of the leading trio. Pit was nestled nimbly atop his back, fish tail banished, and Homunculus Hallow clung to the tenku's saddle like a barnacle. >
> Isla asked.
> Toa'ut shifted, creeping closer to the edge of the cliff. >
Felix swept his attention back to the Tangle behind them, unable to spot much beyond the prolific fronds and the overwhelming presence of life Mana. He didn't doubt that the ambush they'd slaughtered would be found eventually, and with the Den so close they'd be swarmed as soon as they were. The War Naga were already staring into the dark with eager expressions on their dour faces, Spirits apparently alight at the idea of challenging themselves in the wild currents. Vess was right there with them, leaning forward as if she wanted to leap off Lavix and tackle whirlpools on her own. Beef was worried, Pit and Hallow curious, and Isla considered the cliff with something akin to disdain on her face.
> he asked the Chanter. There must have been something in his tone, because Vess tore her eyes from the drop to stare at Isla as well.
> Isla set about rearranging her skirts. >
Felix pursed his lips, but ultimately nodded. >
With far more deliberation than Felix had expected, the War Nagas slipped off the edge of the cliff and swam out into the raging current. Immediately they were caught up, pulled sideways and down as they navigated the very edge of the nearest maelstrom, but Toa'ut and his warriors undulated powerfully, their thick Bodies forging a path through the riptide.
> Pit shouted. He had to fight to keep his wings closed against his sleeker Body, something he clearly found harder now that he'd reduced in size a bit. >
> rumbled Rou'd. >
The floor of the area was slowly revealing itself, layer by layer as the occluding Mana was thinned and dispersed by the howling currents. Now Felix heard the sound of them as well, and there was definitely something wrong with the sound. It was dissonant, though not in the same way as his core space or a cursed Primordialinstead it was like the Harmony all around them had been twisted ever so slightly out of tune. Soon, Felix spotted why.
The vortex that they rode the edge of was composed of deep water and shadow Mana, all swirling down into gargantuan gaps far below. Those chasms split the earth but were not emptywere, in fact, utterly filled with wriggling growths. They looked slick, like slime given life, the same dark-blue ooze that Felix had seen on so many of the Fathom spawn. As they pressed further, slipping skillfully from one vortex to the next, he could see that the ooze carpeted the lake bed. It was clearly not restrained to the bases of the vortexes alone, spreading up and across the rocks like an infection.
Between swirling maelstroms, Toa'ut and his warriors sped without time to pause or calculate their chances of getting yanked into the depths. That first incredible dive had given them enough momentum that kept them just out of reach of the Depthwurms, though not even their speed would have been enough had Felix's team not laid down suppressive fire.
Still, Fathom spawn fell upon them. Hatchlings riding Amphitere, Broodvipers atop Drakin, and entire pods of Draktopi survived the culling of the vortexes, too many for Felix to accurately count. Enough that their strange shrieking coalesced into a wildly upsetting chorus that pummeled at Felix's Mind. A strident, atonal note shivered through the ooze around all of them. Meaning danced at the edge of his awareness, hot and coppery on his tongue like blood. It was violence, stoked and stacked until it blazed in the Spirit of everyone Fathom spawn arrayed against them. Madness shone in the Hatchling's wide, white eyes as they thrust their crude tridents after their quarry. Levin bolts sizzled outward, deflected by shields of green-gold luminescence, shields that drove that madness to greater heights.
Chthonic Tribute!
Felix snatched the song out of the air, grasping at the threads he could barely sense among the horde. A connection to a greater Mind, trembling through the ooze that adorned each and every one of the Fathom spawn, and it resisted his grasp. The song was violence and madness, but it was almost automatic; a threat response that consumed the horde entirely, echoing off the ooze upon them as well as below. Felix gathered all of the threads he could, every single one within range of his Affinity, and pulled.
Chthonic Tribute!
All at once, the ooze in a three hundred yard diameter turned into flashing, bitter smoke and raged toward Felix's channels. The horde faltered and flailed, screaming with incomprehensible pain. They fell into the rolling cyclones, carried mercilessly down below where even the monstrous polyps were recoiling from Felix's terrible blow.
Chthonic Tribute is level 87!
The Essence and Mana of the ooze hit Felix like a truck, spinning down into his core space like molten glass, just as scalding and twice as bright. He grasped at it tentatively, amazed at the sheer potency that wafted from it all. Connections flourished and thickened, links to the ooze's source that firmed with each passing instant. It sang, a new, strange chord in Felix's ears...that immediately twisted out of tune.
Something noticed him.
That Mind shifted, orienting on Felix for the first time. Focusing. A great, bitter rage ripped across their newfound link, as nightmarish as any Primordial he'd encountered. And just as strong.
Bastion of Will!
Felix frantically sounded his mental Skill just as that titanic presence came crashing down on him. It hit with all the weight and fury of a tsunami.
Bastion of Will is level 88!
...
Bastion of Will is level 90!
Blood burst, his Aspects groaned, and something within him smashed and crackedbut his Bastion held firm. A roar of frustration ripped across the stolen connection, detonating along a colossal distance as it raced for Felix's head. Every instinct Felix had screamed not to let that sound reach him, and he flared his Cardinal Flame with all of his might.
Cardinal Flame is level 85!
Grasping the remains of the ooze within his core space, Felix shoved the lot of it into the greedy depths of his Hunger. All of it, all at once.
The connection sundered, torn apart by the force of the dragon's own roar, and Felix recoiled back onto the hard scales of his War Naga ride.
> Beef was shouting. His arms were held wide, waving his chitin-shaped war club above him. >
Felix suppressed a groan as he leveraged himself back to a seated position, and cast outward with his Perception.
The remains of a Depthwurm spun listlessly in the near distance, and the water all around them was clouded with dark ichor and bits of flesh. Most were caught up in the maelstroms around them, sucked down to the lake bed, where he could dimly sense the ooze was rapidly regrowing. Two of their escorts were missingdead, he suspectedand half of those remaining bore weeping wounds that clouded the swirling currents. What's more, they were still well within the maze of howling vortexes, though they'd found a spot of calm. The chase had eaten up several miles perhaps, but they had a great many more to go.
> he cursed.
> Vess asked as Lavix swam closer. >
> Isla stated. She looked at Felix, her hair floating in the water yet untouched by the wet. >
With a dim trilling noise, the System shoved a static-strewn notification before Felix's eyes.
> he said. >
