Unbound

Chapter Three Hundred And Nineteen – 319

Chapter Three Hundred And Nineteen – 319

Zara jolted awake, the darkness of unconsciousness banished in an instant of blaring Harmonics.

"Lady Zara? What's wrong?"

Several of the Haarguard stood by, clearly watching over her slumbering form. The Naiad swept her gaze around the small room, barely big enough to house two guards and herself, yet nice enough for all of that. "Where are we?"

"In Setoria, ma'am," said the same guard. "We got you to an inn as soon as the gates shut behind us. The Lord Hand's orders."

"I see," she said primly, peering out the relatively small window. It was paned with glass, which meant the inn they stayed at was far more expensive than it appeared, and it looked out on to a wide square that was absolutely teeming with people despite the late hour. All of them were shouting and hollering something, a chaotic mix of joy and frustration. A festival. "Have the Inquisitors arrived?"

"No. We have eyes on the Waystone, and not a single Redcloak has shown their face."

That was good. The Waystone, a manner of communication between cities, was the only manner in which the Inquisition could reach their Grandmaster. They had to stop them from reaching it at all costs. Zara stood, dark robes gathered around herself. Her face was serene despite the Mana drain by which she was still afflicted. "Then let us join these eyes. We cannot hope that the Inquisition will simply give up."

At that moment, it felt as if the world quaked, and a massive, dire chord was struck. Zara screamed, unable to help it, accosted by reverberations that twisted Harmonics into knots of discordant chaos.

Distantly, she was aware of feet pounded on the stairs outside her room, of a hand hammering at the door. Someone else entered, Thangle, and spoke, but the words made no sense. Her Affinity soared, trembling from the touch of that chord, and Zara could hardly breathe.

Felix! It's him, it has to be. She looked up, to the west, from where the sound was already fading. What has he done?

"Zara? Zara the others sent me! It's the Redcloaks! They're here!" The Gnome was tugging at her robes, his own white hair in wild disarray. "They've landed a Manaship at the Waystone!"

You Have Killed The Betrayer, He Who Has Fallen!

XP Earned!

You Have Gained 1 Level!

You Are Now Level 56!

+20 to STR! +22 to PER! +22 to VIT! +26 to END! +24 to INT! +28 to WIL! +26 to AGL! +29 to DEX!

+20 All Harmonic Stats!

You Have 105 Unused Stat Points!

Your Companion Pit Has Gained 2 Levels!

He Is Now Level 64!

+20 to STR, +14 to PER, +4 to VIT, +18 to END, +6 to INT, +12 to WIL, +32 to AGL, +34 to DEX, +10 to RES, AFI, REI!

Unite the Lost is level 14!

...

Unite the Lost is level 37!

Apprentice Tier!

You Gain:

+Reduction of Significance Consumed

+10% RES

+10% REI

Claws digging into stone and root, Felix arrested his long fall, clinging instead to the rough bark of a monstrously growing tree. It moved like a serpent, expanding by the second and sending him higher into the Temple, through shattered ceilings and sundered sediment. Around him, in every direction, stone collapsed or was bound by the fierce grasp of hungry roots. The Spirit Tree blazed with Mana and more, almost blinding to his sight even without Manasight, fed on the storm of potential he'd fed into its seed and whatever Merodach had contributed.

Twinges of System energy fluttered through himHarmony meeting the Dissonance of his [Cardinal Beast Core] and sparking into conflictbut Felix ignored it for the most part. After everything else, it felt like a love tap than the electrifying jolt it usually seemed. Now he was more concerned with the feedback he was getting from his external senses.

Voracious Eye!

Name: Atlantes Anima

Type: Spirit Tree

Lore: Spirit Trees are a rare and powerful organism imbued with elemental Mana dependent on their growth cycle. The one before you is in the process of attuning itself.

The Seed of Remembered Light had reached far above him, bursting from the top of the cliff and diverting the river itself. A torrent of water poured all around him as he clung to its bark, a roaring cataract in all directions, as the branches above spread out into the night sky. Far above, beyond steam and spray, Felix could see ten thousand stars become blotted out by rapidly expanding boughs and huge, palmate leaves bigger than his entire body. As it spread, Felix felt his awareness spread with it, riding atop the highest twigs as it soared into the heavens, and spreading down, down into the earth. Roots as thick as houses smashed through the cliff-face, charging into the slick earth and shattering those vile reservoirs that remained. Winds shook him, clouds wreathed his crown, the rumble of water fed him, as did the ants that struggled among his spreading roots. Felix was the Spirit Tree, and the Tree was Felixonly his immense Willpower, Intelligence, and Perception kept them separate enough that he didn't go immediately insane.

Aria of the Green Wilds is level 80!

Deep Mind is level 68!

...

Deep Mind is level 74!

Felix could feel his friends and enemies battling among one another, their fights only paused the shortest of intervals during the Spirit Tree's ascension. The roots he spread about hadn't killed themnot oneand that surprised him before he felt the Spirit Tree's utter conviction in the sanctity of life.

Of Choice.

Felix? A voice called to him, seemingly from far away. He knew it was Pit, but Felix couldn't pay it any mind.

Below him, he could feel his friends fighting. Evie and Kylar, fighting off a horde of lesser beasts while Harn battled an agile Arcid covered in blades. A'zek weaving among the greater threats in the horde, killing with precision from the moonshadows. Wyvora and Vess, struggling against that poison-attunded Arcid that had both of them covered in burns and weeping wounds. Alister, standing atop Atar's prone formstill living, but severely injuredhurling columns of force at a legion of ice-armored warriors. More than that, he could feel the monsters themselves, their strange thoughts and alien impressions. Fear and rage threaded with an insistent strumming at the back of their Minds, and urging to pushed them forward into battle. He could even sense the approaching forms of the Haarguard, Nevia, Davum, Vyne, and Kikri all racing toward the sounds of furious battle. Coming to help.

All of it was there, in him, below him. Apart and separate in a way the left Felix dizzy. He was tangled so close with the Spirit Tree, with its...not Mind, but presence. It spoke to him in song, strumming his Affinity so that thoughts and concepts flowed between them with lightning understanding. He could finally hear why the Tree had not killed, of Choices long torn away. Chains forced on unwillling Minds and Spirits, lashed to carry a burden none of them agreed upon. Marks hung heavy across the battlefield, metaphysical brands that had twisted every single creature the Archon had touched.

He could make it stop.

He could fix it.

Unite the Lost!

The Spirit Tree joined with him, amplifying his power through some mechanism Felix couldn't understand. He had no need to, not then, only for the power within his core to spread out through his channels and into the shuddering bole beneath his fingers. It's branches still grew outward, leagues in diameter now, and everything that fell under them was struck by Felix's descending light and song.

Harmonies silenced the night, breaking apart the fighting that had shown no signs of stopping. He could feel his friends pausing, mid-strike as their foes crumbled to their knees or were seized in fountains of brilliant radiance that spun from above. Stolen significance, great swaths of it, fled Felix's core space with a roar of transformed joy. Whatever he'd taken from the Urges had been transmuted in the process, turned from the fetid impulses they had embodied and become something lighter; refined, even. All of it poured out, into the Tree, into his enemies.

It washed them clean.

You Have Cleansed The Spirits Of All Within Ten Leagues

All Unwilling Marks Removed!

Felix's core space spasmed, all but empty, as the wide-scale work was almost finished. Almost, but not quite. He'd had enough of those who would impose their choices on others, enough of predators who sought only to use and exploit. He'd had enough.

Tyrant of Choice Activated!

All Thus Cleansed Can No Longer Be Unwillingly Marked!

His own Spirit soared, weights finally lifted from it, and within him he could hear a triumphant cry of a tenku. His Marks, those of the Raven, remnant Maw, even the one Zara placed on him; all of them shattered and were washed clean.

Hidden Quest Completed!

All May Rise!

Compassion is to be lauded, Ascendant. Rewarded. You have spent yourself, the very power you'd use to advance, on those who have sought your death. There are those that would call you a Fool, but it is the Fool who challenges the impossible.

Rewards:

+Title!

+Increased Authority!

+Skill Evolution!

New Title!

Transmuter of Burdens (Epic)!

You have turned to light the burdens all, friend or foe, by spending your Mana and accumulated significance, returning them the Choices that had been stolen from them all.

+5% Reduction of significance and Mana consumed in all future attempts!

+5% Completion bonus to Fiendforge!

Skill Evolution!

Unite the Lost Has Gained An Ability!

Mark Cleansing And Immunity - Use of Unite the Lost on a target will cleanse them of all Marks and make them resistant to further tampering. Effects increase with level.

Aria of the Green Wilds is level 81!

Wild melody shook the Foglands, more gorgeous than he could comprehend, and Felix's Mind went blank. He trembled, Tree and man, as two beasts within him held him tight. One dark and hungry, the other of light and wing, the both of them anchoring Felix as chaos stormed into his channels. A flow of...something, flooded back toward Felix from the horde beneath. It hit the Treehimand sank back into his channels and core space. Into the dark places between Skills and Cores and Pillars, where the significance of the Urges once dwelled...and restored that lost weight. Restored it and so much more.

"What?" he gasped, jerked free of his communion with the Spirit Tree. Of those two beasts inside. "I spent it..."

Yet significance had returned, two-fold. Everything he'd given had been repaid, and then some.

Unite the Lost is level 38!

...

Unite the Lost is level 49!

New Title!

Savant of the Green Wilds (Epic)!

You have raised a Spirit Tree from Seed to Elder Tree! A remarkable achievement seen all too little!

+15% Effects and harvests from all flora attended by you personally.

Vess drew up short, her spear inches from piercing the Arcid's vile form, when it simply...melted.

"What is this?" Wyvora hissed. "What is happening?"

A sound rang out, a chord so deep and powerful it almost turned her bones to jelly, and Vess flinched away. Rays of light stabbed from above, drawing her attention up, to a woven darkness that blocked out the stars themselves. Vess was confused a moment before the light revealed far off branches and leaves, sparking a series of new questions. Yet all questions died, unasked, as the Arcid was subsumed by that light. The entire battlefield was, spears of radiance that hit every single one of their enemies and stopped them all in their tracks.

"It is Felix," Vess said, a certainty growing within her. Her Affinity thrummed with the truth of it; she could feel him, somehow. "He won."

Wyvora didn't speak, but stared in commingling fear and hope. Vess felt both as well. Hope for them all, and fear for what may have been lost already.

You Have Been Cleansed Of All Unwilling Marks!

Rejoice!

"I was Marked?" she asked in mounting horror. She could see a shape wash away, looking like an unraveling knot. It was gone in moments, faded. "By whom?"

"Vess!"

The Henaari pointed with her hooked spear at the fallen Arcid. The light had vanished, leaving behind a perfect circle of new growth. Moss and grasses rose above the otherwise unending fields of mud, at at its center...

"Siva grant me your grace," she whispered. "Felix. What have you done?"

At some point, Felix had let go of the Spirit Tree. Instead of falling, however, he had simply slid down its sprawling length. The memory of that was hazy, distracted as he'd been. The curve of the gargantuan plant had led him deeper into the earth, past cracked foundations and into chambers Felix hadn't known existed. Now he was in a deep chamber that had clearly been carved from the bedrock, and in the Nymean style. Far above, the sound of falling water dominated, but not a lick of that moisture was reaching him.

Felix stood, insides still buzzing with the accumulated power he'd received, and had to lean on the Tree for support. Moving felt...weird. He wasn't huge anymore, as he'd been while facing the Archon, and his skin had returned to normal, but he felt alien in his own Body. Like he was simultaneously too slow and too fast; likely a result of his Agility being a touch lower than his Perception, and the both of them reaching above a thousand points. But the gains of nebulous significance pulled too, an internal weight that drew everything inward.

"Karys? Pit?"

A flash of light manifested in his tenku Companion, now bigger than any horse or oxen Felix had ever seen. Still not quite as huge as he'd been in that one vision. Burns marred his feathers and fur, dark patches that oozed blood and charred flesh.

"Oh god, are you okay?"

Pit winced but warbled assurances. The chimera's Health was increasing slowly from the depths the Archon had pulled him to; just the thought of that bastard made Felix's blood boil all over again. He breathed sharply through his nose, mastering his anger, taking solace in the fact that the Betrayer would never bother anyone ever again.

Abruptly, Pit perked up. His triangular ear swiveled, tilting toward their right. The Mana glow of the Spirit Tree roots behind him made seeing much else in the chamber difficult, but Felix had reached the Third Threshold. He flared his Perception, accessing the full potential of his stat, and the room shifted into abrupt focus. Shadows became thinner, details more pronounced, and his eyes were drawn to the lone exit from the partially collapsed room. It was a trefoil archway without a door, opening up into another, even darker hall.

Dark, save for a flash of green-gold light.

"Karys?" Felix called out, but heard no response. His sword had been left, buried in the chest of the Archon when the Spirit Tree had taken root. Had he fallen all the way down here? Pit took off into the dark, and Felix was close behind.

Beyond the archway was a series of interconnected rooms, four or five of them maybe, but Felix only had eyes for a suit of armor piled carelessly upon the flat, dusty stone floor. The Archon's old body, now utterly inert and dark, laid in a broken heap with Felix's sword still stuck through its chest. Felix and Pit reached it in a flash, moving so fast the air clapped like small bits of thunder.

"Karys? Are you still in there?" Felix asked, inspecting his sword. He wanted to pull it out, but their plan had involved the Paragon leaping into the Archon's damaged core, to force Merodach out in case his Unite the Lost didn't work. If he pulled it out now, would Karys be damaged? Felix's Manasight caught hold of a vague impression, green-gold and fading, gathered around the very edge of his sword and...and within the depths of the armor.

"Karys," Felix said. "Hold tight."

Unit the Lost!

It took only the barest hint of his redoubled significance, though Felix wasn't sure how he could tell. He felt it leave him, traveling along with his Mana into his Inheritor's Will and the Archonic Construct. Green-gold vapor sparked and ignited, catching along the surface of bronze and golden metal. A flame at first, then a steady fire manifested within the hooked sword and the armor both. He fell back, short of breath and seized with a sudden exhaustion. Pit caught him, strong enough to hold up his bulk.

Felix, the fire spoke, clearly confused. What happened? Did we?

"We did it. The Archon's dead," Felix said.

Glorious victory, Karys breathed, sounding more exhausted than Felix. I feared your mad plan would not work, but it must have for us all to still be standing here.

"Yeah. He was a pushover once I got him out of his armor," Felix said. He got his weight back under his own legs, patting Pit affectionately.

But II almost perished. I can feel it. Why am I not dead, Felix? Karys voice increased in concern with every word, as if the Paragon were reading a report that set his teeth on edge. What have you sacrificed for me?

"Not a sacrifice, man," Felix smiled. "Just a little significance. What else are friends for?"

I...thank you, Felix. My...friend.

"You seem like you're in the Archon's old body now. Can you stand up?"

No, unfortunately. This form was well and truly mangled by someone. I see several repair functions buried deep in this core, but even that is flawed. Broken. It will take some time to repair. Karys' voice shifted, now coming from the sword within his own chest. But it appears I can split my attention.

"Oh, that's handy." Felix gripped Inheritor's Will and pulled it free. It rang as he lifted it, a crystalline chime. Green-gold Mana sparked across its hilt and edge. "You're still portable."

An...interesting designation, if apt. I will set part of my Mind to work on repairing this body, if you do not object.

"No, no, repair away."

Thank you. It will be difficult. On the one hand, your Skill cleansed this form of that nasty Profane Sigaldry. On the other, that means I shall have to spend some time inscribing it anew. I still recall much of the Eidolons.

Felix nodded, happy that his friend would have a body once again. Perhaps it might even help with his fading memories. He hoped so.

Without warning, a jolt of pain shot through Felix's Mind and Spirit, echoing only faintly into his Body. It was his Bastion, still containing his Skills but straining. Pressure waxed and waned within it, only occasionally crossing over into pain, but Felix knew he had little time. The Adept Tier was calling for several of his Skills, and there were still vast quantities of Essence and Memories he hadn't yet processed from his Devour Array.

What's this? Pit sent.

The tenku stood atop a glittering series of lines engraved into the smooth stone floor. Not engraved. Inscribed. It's an array. The most complicated one I've ever seen. Far and above the complexity of the Eidolon, loops and whorls of inscribed glyphs and sigils spread outward in ever-widening patterns of what looked like silver metal. He stepped closer, yet the moment his foot touched the first line of the array, a golden-bordered window appeared with a trilling note.

Authority Recognized, Inheritor!

For Defeating A Local Threat, Seven Territorial Threats, And Raising A Legendary Ranked Spirit Tree

You May Lay Claim To The Lost Territory Of Nagast!

Do You Wish To Establish Your Authority?

Y/N