Unbound

Chapter Eight Hundred And Twenty Three – 823

between one backward step and the next, the dark flesh parted, and felix found himself in yet another new place.

"don't trust the beast, huh?" felix rolled his neck. it cracked and sent a shudder of relief through him. "i knew that already, grim."

he looked around. as if the blasted spirit tree hadn't been bad enough. now, he stood before a wide pit within which boiled a miasmic stew. it took him a minute or so to realize that he was staring at the remnants of a magic city, replete with soaring crystalline arches and beacons of strange energy. the center of the city, however, had collapsed entirely. that miasmic stew bubbled and sloshed, filled by the oozing trails that poured from nearby open windows and gaping doorways.

the remains of living things.

a primordial raged in the muck, biting through armored warriors that tried and failed to face it’s strange might. its body was wild and corrupted, the flesh grown too much across its bony frame.

fleshcurse. felix could almost see the crimson rot exuding from the primordial's body, infecting the ground and all things that lived within the radius of its power. the creature was mad, and whenever it wasn’t attacking nymean warriors, it was snapping at its own limbs as it writhed in the muck, demolishing more of the city as if by accident.

he flared emperor's vigilance. only a single line populated his sight.

name: primordial of vanished horizons

manaships appeared around him—or perhaps they had been there all this time—but now armies of the golden empire dropped from their decks. magi and warriors alike descended, riding chimeras and dragons as they sought out the primordial. song and magic coiled together, firing from their hands as one.

mad or not, the creature wasn’t stupid.

it vanished, letting the salvo of power demolish the vile muck instead. space warped, leaving strange trails of light that twisted across circular points in the air. felix frowned, eyes tracing across the landscape to find the thing, and only barely noticed it reappear...this time directly above the manaships.

it’s slipping through liminal space, he realized. across the horizon.

it slashed out, its limbs spreading farther than they should as its power broke through the manaships and the wards they contained. the sky exploded.

engaging with a struggle you cannot win is not valorous.

it is the binding of pride.

felix frowned at the voice of the beast once more. he very much missed hunger.

the scene shifted, moving hours, perhaps days later, as the nym bound the primordial within a mountain fastness. magical constructs leveraged the coiled, unconscious flesh deep within a familiar mana well, before lowering the entire structure into a dark chasm. as the circular seal settled over its top, felix spied others in the distance—not just two or three, but hundreds, all contained within a vault too vast to comprehend.

the nym had filled the interior of the mountain with more than one monster. prisons for creatures they could never kill.

you must listen, scion.

"what are you talking about, beast? they won this fight."

they did not end their enemy.

they merely postponed their own defeat.

again the vision switched without warning. another battlefield spread out before him, and felix growled at the casual destruction of an interminable war.

he stood before a tall city between two mountain ranges where a dark forest was toppled and deep crevices had torn the land. the city wasn't as big as he remembered, but felix could tell it was shelim. he knew those towers anywhere, and that meant—

a roar split the air.

felix narrowed his gaze, spying an army of magi that were currently facing down a massive creature. it appeared to be a cross between a prowling tiger and an armored dragon. it had too many eyes and far too many mouths, and its flesh flowed like liquid.

it was the unending maw.

"this isn't the same enemy, beast."

no. it is not.

a note crawled up felix's spine and he turned, just in time to witness the moons as they rose above the mountains. they peeked through the clouds, glimmering every so faintly as shelim’s fate unraveled. bronze, yellow, and silver.

felix bared his teeth at the sky. siva’s watching.

reject it.

seek another source.

“i don’t have the time!”

you are the scion.

we...

creation bends to our will.

around felix, the ruin flexed, its false image parting like curtains. felix saw a monstrous hand reach out toward a manaship, tearing through sigil, ward, and mage with ease.

they died, turned to smoke that poured into the black flame.

take their power, scion.

forge thyself anew.

new essences rolled through felix. motes of potency that sang of adept and master tier tempers...even a single grandmaster.

system notifications blipped into his vision, crowding him as much as the beast’s insistent monologue. pressuring him. as if—

felix’s eyes widened.

as if they were both afraid.

pieces clicked in his mind as the tempering visions settled into place, and felix’s heart pounded a rapid tattoo across the dark.

the beast was afraid. of what? felix swallowed. it’s afraid of the gods and the ruin.

it’s afraid of failure.

“no.” he swiped closed all of the notifications and the system flashed red at him. more came, pressed by the illuminated smoke that overtook the black flames of ruin. felix flared his will, shaping his intent into a blade that sliced the notifications in half.

they burst, sizzling back into essence and mana.

“i choose what i’m tempering,” he said. “and i’m taking [essence of undaunted sight]!

felix could sense a resonance with the essence, and with one feature in particular.

it has already failed your task.

it is flawed.

you do not know what you risk—

fuck off.

his emperor’s vigilance needed to complete its own pattern to push itself to grandmaster. it needed to become more of what it already was...and felix could see the path.

“an emperor must be brave,” he said, voice echoing around him. “he must have goals. but without judgment, all those goals and bravery will dissolve away. without judgment, there is no action. without action, there is no advancement.”

truth will lead me to my goals. the feature burned within him, humming hard enough that his limbs trembled.

all else is smoke and shadow.

“i choose verdict!”