Chapter Five Hundred And Sixteen – 516
Adamant Discord!
Skein of Fate!
The world bloomed open to Felix, a haze of connections that spread like spiders silk in every conceivable direction, but he rocketed down toward the depths upon a thread the size of an ocean liner. The water boiled behind him as he all but became the lightning he rode upon.
>
The shadow bubbled and shrieked, flaring outward in jagged spikes toward Felixs outstretched claw. He ignored them, focusing all his might, all of his Hunger upon the Creatures Essenceand the spikes and claws of shadow dissolved.
No! Impossible! the Creature howled, while the Fathoms body contorted into spastic knots.
Below, a glorious golden light filled the waters, as Vess lifted her hand one last time and sounded the connection between her and the Dragon. Felix still couldnt believe that, but it had given his Hunger time to mobilize itself, and beyond the surprise all he felt was gratitude.
I Am A Sliver Of The Night Itself! Heretics! Anathema!
A Willpower contested hissomething ancient and terrible and stronger than any mortal combatant Felix had ever faced. The cavernous face of the Creature loomed in every piece of the shadow Felix was devouring, and it raged. It bucked his Skill, refusing the pull of Felixs Tribute, but he had an answer for that too.
Title: The Call of Defiance Is Active!
+25% Willpower When Contested By A Foe Of Divine Or Greater Advancement!
Title: Born of Will Is Active!
What Is Beyond You, If You Have The Will?
Like the slow bend of heating steel, the Creatures Will warped under the steady increase of pressure. It may have been Divine, it may have survived countless Ages, but it was no match for an Unbound forged in the harshest of flames.
Your Will! How?
Felix offered no answers, only bore down harder, his Hunger roaring against the Fathoms unthinking pain. Shadow, ooze and Creature stripped from the Dragons hide, piece by foul piece, revealing soiled golden scales and a mane that floated limply among glittering, crystalline horns.
Release Me, Heretic! Whatever Pact You Have Sworn To The Primordials Will Not Save You From The Wrath Of The Divine!
You think I care? Felix shouted into the water, his Adept voice so powerful it blasted through his Sunken Ward. Chthonic Tribute!
The pressure redoubled, peeling the Creature from the Dragon to the sounds of shattering stone and snapping wooden beams; its hold on the Fathom was deep and thorough. Felix grimaced through the pain as his core space filled, packed fuller than ever and still there was more. The Creature, sliver of Noctis and whatever else, felt endless.
Do I even have the space?
I DO. EAT! his Hunger roared, and Felix could only oblige.
A deal was a deal, after all.
Foul Little Thing! Begone! The Creature hauled on its stretching tendrils, still bound around the Dragons forelimb, and slashed toward Felix. A clutch of searing icy crescents formed, launching through the water at breakneck speeds, and Felix regarded them with his Eye.
Engaged as he was, he could not eat the attack. Nor had he any intention of tanking it. Only one thing for it.
Strained and struggling with devouring the Creature, Felix still managed to force Mana outward and into the First Glyph on the blade at his hip. Surging up into his left hand, the crooked blade of his Inheritors Will slashed upward, igniting the glyph with power just as the crescents hitsplitting water, ice, and the darkness itself on the razor edge.
A cataclysmic reverberation tore through the water as empty space was carved into the wake of Felixs sword. Harmless, unshaped Mana split to either side of his weapon, the spell rendered into harmless vapor. The cavitation collapsed on itself, booming in every direction as the Creature stared at the sword in horror.
Herald. The word echoed from its empty face like a tolling bell, final and undeniable. Nym!
A brief, staccato howl of panic soundedand the Creature was consumed.
Felix recoiled from the last smoking tendril and, for a time, simply tread water.
> Beef said, breathlessly, before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he collapsed onto the shattered ground.
Master! No! The Lindwurms cried, their own Bodies twisted up as if in terrible pain. Their limbs had started to burn, somehow, their scales igniting as if from within as smoke poured in bubbling coils from their mouths. Heretic! What have you done?
> Vess shouted, conjuring her Spears around her like a halo of violence. >
> Felix said, forcing his voice to resound in the too-still water. >
You!
> Felix interrupted, lifting a single finger. >
The Lindwurms stared at him, not only pain but fear scrawled across their Spirits. One by one, the remaining five Lindwurms snapped shut their jaws, and banished the heat from within their breasts. Then they surprised him.
They bowed their heads, and words flowed from their lips.
"We surrender to your strength, monarch. We are yours, bound by Oath and Power. Upon our honor shall we serve, or else upon our honor shall we die."
Congratulations, Autarch!
You Have Vanquished A Threat!
The Lindwurms (Moontouched Lindwurms) Have Joined Your Fledgling Nation!
I did it because you made a mistake. Felix bared his teeth, and at his center, his Hunger roared.
Relentless Resolution!
Cloudstep!
Felix hurled himself from his core space to find his Body already moving. Kicking off shattering platforms of Mana, Felix rocketed the last fifty feet to the bottom of the Breach, where hill-sized hunks of ice wove between the twisted statuary. He hit one of those hills, his landing blasting silt and rime in a floating explosion of debris, and revealing the desiccated husk of an ancient root.
He grasped it, and hoped his friends had gotten far enough away.
Unite the Lost!
A gargantuan surge of Essence and significance flooded out of him, pouring not just from the Mana Gates in his palms, but from all of them. He lit up, a torch of power in the darkest depths, while within him the faceless Creature screeched in sudden terror.
The Seal! No!
The Seal! Yes! Pit rejoined, bugling his joy.
Felix couldnt pay attention to their crieshe could only focus on hanging tight to the root. Power overwhelmed him, energies that he hadnt the first clue how to wield, but which were bridled and tamed by the soaring pattern of his Skill. Harmonies swelled, accompanied by the atonal rasp of Dissonance that curled through melodies and rhythm, seemingly without rhyme or reason. The root between his fingers swelled, flooded with sudden vitality as time itself sloughed from its ancient bark. Gold and silver sigaldry etched themselves to life, formations that looked grown rather than created by the hands of a person, and a vast blaze of once-hidden light burst forth from the floor of the Breach.
The Abundance Anima Has Been Restored!
Restoration In Progress!
30%!
Felix screamed, the flow of Essence and Mana and significance burning bloody furrows inside of him. Scorched and raw, his channels spat red-gold radiance and blue-white wrath as the weight of countless enemies and the mighty power of the Creature itselffrom the Ooze Behemothwas depleted.
70%!
85%!
The words of their phantom friend echoed through Felixs memories. Seek the center. Strengthen the Tree.
95%!
100%!
Congratulations!
The Abundance Anima Has Been Restored!
A sudden chorus sang out from high above them, and Felix fell back with a ragged groan. In the dark waters, far up at the edge of the frozen Breach, a glorious electrum ring burst to life. The chorus rang out, higher and more pure than anything Felix had heard beforeas if the Grand Harmony were extolling its very existence.
A flickering, too-tall man in white robes appeared beside Felix. His face was split in a broad smile and his Spirit sang with astonished joy. You did it! Paxus cheered.
Not done yet! Felix shouted back.
Of course! Press on, young Autarch. Ill follow your lead!
Felix stumbled forward, his legs suddenly refusing to work. Pit shrieked in terror as flashes of red sparked in Felixs vision. The Creature was going wild inside him. Not much time!
Green Shaping!
The Skill sputtered and failed, Mana sizzling through the riotous haze of power that still cloaked the Spirit Trees roots. I dont have the Mana to force through the interferencethat I created. Felix laughed, incredulous, as the Creature tore through something inside of him and blood poured from his nose. Gotta touch it!
Felix threw himself forward, powered just by his arms, but fiery, Mind-numbing pain made his Body spasm. He landed, inches too short of the root, but Felix stretched as a paroxysm of agony rippled across his entire being. He reached out his handand someone took it. Felix blinked up through bloody, floating tears to find Vess grasping his hand and elbow.
> she said, simply.
Nothing more was needed.
Together, they lunged forward, and Felixs hand made contact with the root.
Green Shaping!
Theurgist of the Rise!
Theurgist of the Rise is level 85!
He shaped the wood, inscribing an array hed made a thousand times before. In battle, to raise a town, and to support a friend. Now he scratched it out to save himself, and everyone within the Territory.
Siphon.
The Seal thrummed, the chorus rising to a fever pitch as the Abundance Anima sang out a paean to its glorious rebirth. Beside him, Paxus laughed, understanding swelling through his Spirit. The phantom laid his incorporeal hands upon the root as well, and the swelling chorus spun, pivoted on its head as the pitch and cadence flowed in a new direction.
The siphon array lit up, bright as the sun, and the waters boiled around them all.
Paxus shouted into the churning, turbulent waters. As without, so within!
The power of the Seal of the Breach flipped, turned inward. Into Felix himself.
He screamed, and Vess screamed with him.
