Unbound

Chapter Eight Hundred And Eighteen – 818

Void Sanctuary is level 125!

...

Void Sanctuary is level 133!

Grandmaster Tier!

You Gain:

+400 RES

+375 FEL

+...

Divine Essence Detected During Formation!

[Essence of Fettered Carapace]

ERROR!

Essence Has Been Altered!

Do You Wish To Restore Its True Nature?

Y/N

Yeah, yeah.Do it.

As before, the Essence resisted its change, but it stood no chance against Unite the Lost. Felix couldn’t see the [Essence of Fettered Carapace]—instead he could feel it, like a bundle of silver roots wrapped tight into a rough orb.

Not roots. Threads. Felix frowned. Oaths.

Unite the Lost burned it away, the calcified layers of the root ball splitting away from a gleaming center. Restoring it to what it once was, before Siva’s hands touched upon it. Potency thundered through him, moment by moment scouring the Essence within him.

Break away the influence of the gods, and it’s all Primordial.

Smoke and power pulled from the black around him, the heavy weight of significance closing onto his chest like a vice as the [Essence of Fettered Carapace] spun faster by the moment. As it did, the dark around him flickered.

Whoa, wait. Unite the Lost is pulling power from this monstrous shell. What happens if I use it up? Will it go away?

The dark around him thinned, and Unite the Lost stilled.

Emperor’s Vigilance is level 122!

...

Emperor’s Vigilance is level 123!

Divinity Has Been Shed!

True Nature Restored!

Primordial Essence Detected During Formation!

[Essence of Inviolate Hide]

Broken Path and Fatebreaker Titles Found!

Grandmaster Tier Bonus Added!

Primordial Nature Resonates With [Essence of Inviolate Hide]!

Unbound Nature Resonates With [Essence of Inviolate Hide]!

Calculating Effects...

Choose A Feature:

Sound - Ring The Bell

Stone - Hold Fast

Scale - Venture Forth

Felix reached out, grabbing at the Features before they could roll over him. He was done waiting for the System. The dark rippled, and he was somewhere else. ŗÃ₦ọBËs̩

“I’m on a wall,” he said, lifting his booted foot. It was metal and very familiar. “An orichalcum wall. Haarwatch?”

It wasn’t, though the wall felt exceedingly similar. He stood at the crenelated top, overlooking a landscape of tall, wind-sculpted rocks and deep chasms. Verdant forests filled those chasms, the shortest of trees easily hundreds of feet high and yet they didn’t come to a third of the wall’s height.

“Ready thyselves!”

The shout came from a figure down the wall. Felix blinked, suddenly aware that the wall was filled with robed mages. They were a variety of Races, but so many bore the horns and antlers of Minotaurs and Kobolds. Others, however, were dusky-skinned, bright eyed, and bearing ornate staffs made from twisting materials Felix couldn’t identify.

Nymean magi...

Sound - Ring The Bell, came that sourceless voice.

A white-haired Nym lifted a staff that looked to be made of dark blood. “The Twinslaves rise!”

Felix snapped his head back toward the green chasms. The canopy shook, trees bent and parted before a pack of rising monstrosities. Enormous, five hundred foot tall, ambulatory flower-things lifted fleshy stems and hurled boulders at the walls. They flew fast and hard, but they burst against sizzling wards, fifty feet before the red-gold orichalcum wall. Felix didn’t even feel the impact, but that was only the opening salvo.

Bells rang out, a clear warning as dozens of the strange flower monsters crawled out of the chasms. Malformed arms swiped through trees, the thorny vines that comprised them acting like wrecking balls as they stomped closer. They had no eyes, but their flycatcher style maws drooled and snapped as metallic blue vines shot outward and slammed into the wards.

“Do not be afraid. The walls cannot be climbed nor broken.” She patted the shimmering wood, and a ripple of Mana rolled from the contact. “Henaari-sung and Geist inscribed. These will last until the heavens themselves fall.”

“They’ll have to,” the Geist said from the side. “We cannot afford to lose more ground to the Weaver.”

Weaver. Felix licked his lips. “We’re fighting Siva?”

The woman looked up from a projected display on a handheld Belais crystal. It showed a windswept coast filled with immense, floating islands above a storm-tossed sea. Creatures swarmed across the waves, so many that Felix could barely see the water. “Who else? The Twins are occupied on the southern front thanks to the Hyrellian Accord, and Yyero is caught against Khalheim’s might.”

“The giants and the cold will keep him from coming this far east,” the Geist said.

“May the Shield remain Unbroken.”

Twins in the south? Felix looked between the chatting mages. Was that where I was in the last vision?

“I heard Vellus was defeated,” said a wide-set Dwarf. “The waveline said her moon’s gone.”

The Geist scoffed. “Moon’s can’t just be gone.”

“Are you suggesting that the Empyrean Halls lied to us, Vvar? There have been reports of tidal surges across every coastline. You know blood Mana, magus. Feel it for yourself.”

“I—” Vvar frowned and his whiskers twitched uncomfortably. “That could be caused by a number of phenomena, Lohar.”

The Dwarf rolled his eyes. “Can’t ever admit you’re wrong.”

“You—”

“None but the Divine,” the Nymean woman interrupted, “could destroy their own moons. Blood magic hasn’t failed altogether, and the tides still function outside these walls. That means Vellus cannot be dead.”

“Wait. What happens if they really do die?” Felix asked.

“An end to magic,” Lohar said, grimly. “Some say an end to the System itself.”

What.

“Don’t scare the boy,” Vvar snapped. “First Thressil and now you.”

“I only speak the truth. We choose to fight this war, and we must accept its consequences.”

A reverential silence unfolded across all who heard the Dwarf’s words. The Nymean woman held a hand to her heart. “We fight this war so that our descendants may live free of it—for us that have only ever seen war, I imagine losing magic will be far less alien than a world of peace. Yet it is a price I would gladly pay, a thousandfold, to see this all end.”

“Well said.” Thressil set down another sword, still glowing cherry red. “But you forget that there is another force that could eradicate the moons.”

Vvar groaned. “Not this again—”

“The Cardinal Beasts.”

“And you forget that the Supreme Primordials were destroyed before this war was even a twinkle in the eyes of the Divine. The Cardinals are dead.”

Primordials Do Not Die.

Felix started.

“Are you sure you’re alright... Apologies, but I did not get your name.”

“Felix,” he offered. Felix scanned the woman’s face and the others. None of them seemed to have heard the voice. He wasn’t even sure if it had been Hunger or the new presence inside of him. “And yeah. I’m good.”

“I’m Rinella. Make sure you eat that—our cook isn’t from Elysium, but quite skilled. You’ll feel better after.”

Felix took a cautious nibble and the flaky pastry crumbled into his mouth like melting butter. “Holy crap.”

It was beyond delicious. The meat inside was tender, seasoned with something that tasted like the first warm day after the spring rains had passed, plus some sort of caramelized onion. He ate all of it in two large bites.

Sevenna Pastry Consumed!

+85 VIT

Duration: 1 Hour

Felix almost choked. I can get food buffs in a Tempering vision? Nevermind full conversations with people long since dead and gone. It all felt like the Memories he’d infiltrated before. But who’s Memory? Not Siva’s, surely.

He scowled. Right?

The walls shook again, but far harder this time. Vapor poured off the wooden planks like sparkling dust, cutting off every conversation in the hall. Felix glanced between the walls and those around him. “Was that supposed to happen?”

“...No,” Rinella said slowly. “It is not. Vvar, Thressil. Check the northwestern relays. Check for strain on the tertiary orbitals.”

“As you wish, Grand Magus.”

Others stood along with the Geist and Theron, activity returning to the many occupants of the strange bunker. They gathered gear, weapons, and a few extra pastries for the trip as other groups started to break off and pass through hidden doorways.

Rinella smiled at Felix, as if to soothe him again. “A common enough event. The foe is monstrous and legion, but they are no match for our fortifications.”

“Even if they require some maintenance, time to time,” Lohar added.

“True enough, my friend.”

None of them noticed the crack that had formed overhead, nor the clawed hands that uncoiled from within...and struck like serpents.

Vvar, Thressil, and three others went down, their blood pouring onto the shimmering wooden floors in thick gouts as they stared, uncomprehending at the dozens of malformed appendages emerging from their broken chests.

Pale, white, and twisted.

“Siva,” Felix hissed, before hell broke loose.