Unbound

Chapter Three Hundred And Seven – 307

Chapter Three Hundred And Seven – 307

Felix sank into murky green darkness. It swirled around him like water or oil, but it didn't feel like it. It felt light, like smoke, and his breath came easy. Yet when he flared his Manasight, he was almost blinded. Incredibly powerful Mana lay all around him, atop him, restricting him. He couldn't swim, could barely move his arms and legs at all, and he sank like a stone.

Why can't I feel it?

Felix drifted down, further and further, until the dim circle of light above him vanished altogether. A muted, ambient light drifted through the green, enough to illuminate his immediate surroundings, yet not enough to reveal what might lay beyond. He still sank, or thought he did, but saw no bottom to the pool. No features of any kind, save cloudy green.

Something moved. Something huge with hard lines and jagged edges, gone in seconds. Legs wriggled, or not legs, but tails. Fins. Things were in the dark, swimming through the oily liquid that breathed as easily as an air. Felix's heart hammered in his chest. His skin was covered in scales and his hands edged with talons, but an unnameable terror welled in him, overflowing into his belly and limbs as if all the energy in the world pumped through him, yet he could do nothing with it. He found he could move, slowly, as if he were truly underwater, but against a creature so massive it wouldn't matter.

"We have a Visitor?"

The sexless voice crooned around him, playing against his ears like the softest whisper. He shuddered, and then felt sharp claws crawl up his back. He gasped and struggled away, but there was nothing behind him. The green shimmered, and the murky depths were filled with confusing details. Steps. Thousands of them in all directions. An MC Escher print gone mad. He'd reached the bottom, and it resembled nothing more than the well, back in Naevis. A huge, mile-wide well filled to the brim with liquid Mana.

More shapes moved, vast things with no more detail than the lantern-like glow of their eyes. Too many eyes. Far too many. They crowded up around him, sharp silhouettes filled in shadow, jagged lines interrupted by the knobby protrusion of leg or claw or fin.

Urges...

The whisper came from his belt, from Karys, who sounded more horrified than ever before.

The Nym imprisoned Urges here.

A giggle. "The sword speaks the Truth. A fascinating thing, your sword. So...familiar."

Felix hadn't a clue which creature had spoken to him, as every single one (how many were there?) undulated around him in a dizzying collection of shapes and shadow. They were the size of mountains, yet small as bears or deer, smaller still. Nothing made sense. Eyes burned in the dark.

"A Nym!"

"Not a Nym. The Nym are Lost. And he wears stolen flesh."

"Something old."

"Something new."

The voices broke around him, a new one every time. Was it all one creature, or were there many? He tried his Voracious Eye, but it failed. Felix slowly, so slowly, drew his Inheritor's Will. Light bloomed from the Crescian Bronze, and he heard hissing from their bestial mouths.

"He holds the Hook!"

"Herald!"

"No! No! The Herald is dead!"

Felix's sword shivered in his hands, and though Karys didn't speak, words and ideas jolted through his Mind. Karys knew these creatures, somehow, or perhaps the sword itself did.

Urge of Fratricide, of Dealings in Blood

Urge of Rot, the Vile Touch of the Darkened Earth

Urge of Hollow Bellies, of Famine in Cold and Heat

Urge of Isolation, of Forgotten Letters and Unspoken Truths

Urge of Mayhem, the Madness of Turmoil

Urge of Spite, the Ill Will of Malice

Those names were spun from whole cloth directly into his Mind, as well as the sense that Felix didn't stand a chance against any of them alone.

Six Urges...Six forces that had once toppled an entire kingdom. The last had also been apart of his sword's information. The Urges swirling around him had been captured after a bloody war with the Nym, confined because they could not be killed. How could you kill an Urge, after all? They were forces of nature more than living flesh. Felix couldn't have killed the Raven, let alone these six.

"Ah, not the Herald, but he sees. He realizes our might," one of them hissed in satisfaction.

"Kill him. Devour him and leave not his bones. His strange face bothers us."

"Let meeee, let me bite and tear. I need it so," crooned another, the same who had whispered to him. "It has been too long."

Something struck at him, too fast for even his Perception to track. It passed through his chest harmlessly, but Felix screamed. Bubbles rose as he convulsed in pain, and Mana, torn straight from his channels, swirled in the green depths. Like blood in the water.

The others came.

Unfettered Volition!

Adamant Discord!

Felix flared his two Skills, putting everything he had into them. Barely, just barely, he evaded two converging claws, and the lines of connection around him tightened. He pulled, yanking himself out of the way of another two attacks, these with spines the size of spears. Bubbles trailed him, as did the Urges. They came at him again, and again, each time he was hit more and more. Every hit left him physically whole, but his Stamina and Mana drained so fast not even his regeneration could keep up.

Pit cried out, the first sound he'd made since they'd fallen, but his call was cut short. Something burned in his chest, a warmth that is more than his bond. Painful. "Pit!"

There was no response.

The creatures, all chitinous limbs and segmented bits, struck again with a slashing leg covered in twisted spurs. It passed straight through him, but his Spirit screamed and his Mana dropped by a hundred points.

Karys shouted, though his voice grew fuzzier by the moment. Felix! Felix...Use the...key..! Where..use the...how...? It faded, no more than a buzzing at the back of his Mind.

The key?The Omen Key! Felix fumbled at his waist as he dodged, hauling himself through the liquid Mana. He tried to go higher, but each time the implacable Urges blocked him.

Panting, straining, he pulled out the Omen Key. He'd had it tucked in his waist band along with one other item he couldn't part with, for safekeeping. He jabbed it into the air, somehow finding a piece of it that stuck, then turned it. A Door in the green nothing around him opened, one that led into a crystalline darkness far more complete than where he resided. The diamond-like Key vanished.

"He flails! He is mine!" cried the hungry voice. A leviathan the size of cities roared from the murky depths, teeth gleaming and eyes of orange and red spinning with madness.

Adamant Discord!

Lightning surged, struck, and Felix heaved with all of his Strength. He shot into the open door, landing barely inside it as jaws swept by his former position. Waves of awful, thickened Mana slapped into him, still touching him, still affecting him, and Felix scrambled backward.

"Where! Where has he gone?"

"What have you done with him!? I'll kill you!"

"Vanished! A trick!"

A wailing scream tore through the green depths, one taken up by five other throats, but none of them came at the door. None of them seemed to even notice it.

"Just like the Raven said. Urges can't even see the Omen Door," Felix breathed. He took to his feet, though he found his legs to be shaking so hard that doing so was a challenge. He dared to take his eyes away from the deadly trap he'd just evaded, to look deeper into...wherever he had found himself.

Behind him, the Door slammed shut.

Felix was in a dark place.

No. Not dark, he realized. Just poorly lit. Yet for all his trying, his Manasight could perceive nothing more than his eyes saw. It was a narrow hallway, floored with stone and walled with panels of wide, golden oak. It was simple, unadorned, rustic. A thin carpet covered the flooring, leading the entire length of the windowless hallwayperhaps sixty feetbefore ending at a much wider chamber. The light was brighter there.

"What is all this?" he asked.

Your Path, Felix.

"Karys!" Felix only just realized he was still holding his sword. "Are you okay? You were acting strange out there."

I felt strange, that is true. As if the fuzziness in me had grown, multiplying rapidly. II fear I was being unmade in that liquid Mana.

"Jesus," Felix said, then jolted in remembered fear. "Pit!"

There was a flash of light and Pit manifested in the relatively small corridor. His bulk filled it almost completely, but Felix didn't care. He threw himself around the tenku's neck, laughing in relief. "You're okay, too!"

Pit warbled in confusion. Where are we? Remember pain and burning, and then nothing.

"In the door the Omen Key opened, I guess." Felix glanced around the now-cramped passage. "Wish it was a bit bigger in here, but I can work with it. You sure you're okay?"

Pit thought a moment, then nodded his giant horse-sized head. Or was he bigger than that now? In the cramped confines the tenku seemed enormous. Felix licked his lips, aware that he was distracting himself. Stalling. He'd used the Omen Key because Karys had said so, but also to escape. Yet...

"Karys, when someone has finished their Path when using an Omen Key, are they brought right back to where they started?"

Yes, of course. Why...Oh.

"Yeah," Felix sighed. He had bought them some time, but how much? "What're the odds I'll be strong enough to fight six Urges when I'm done here?"

...I cannot say they are great, Felix. Little can be shared of Omen Keys and their effects, as each of us walks a different Path. The details I cannot share. I am not allowed to do so.

Felix frowned. "The System is stopping you?"

Yes. It is part of the process. One's Path is a personal thing, shaped to you, by you, for you. It cannot be understood by another, not truly. I imagine that is why the System forbids speaking of them.

Pit let out a worried warble. His big golden eyes watched everything around them in concern. Felix patted him on the neck.

"We just have to move forward. That's all we can do," Felix said, half to himself. "C'mon."

He started to squeeze by Pit, chafing at the lack of room in the hall, when the whole place flexed. That was the only word for it. The corridor bent and shook, flexing like a muscle, and when it was done the hallway was twice as wide as it had been.

"That's...weird. But convenient."

Now Pit had no trouble turning around and could even walk by Felix's side. Cautiously, they traveled the length of the hall, until it opened up into a wider chamber. As he'd noted, it was filled with bright light, owing to the rotating chandeliers above them. There were three of them, and each one was connected to a series of gears and pulleys, twisting the fixtures into a slow waltz above their heads. The chamber itself was nicer than the hallway, but still paneled with that golden oak from floor to ceiling. A nicer but equally threadbare rug laid here, its designs so faded by footsteps that it could have been roses or the tangled limbs of a horrible beast.

Dominating the wall, however, were three doors.

The First Choice, Karys intoned. It had the smack of ritual to Felix, and he could practically hear the capitals the Paragon was using.

"The First...How many choices do I have to make?" Felix asked.

As many as the Path demands.

"What's the point?"

To find your Path.

"I thought this was my Path?" Felix asked.

Yes and no. It is the manifestation of the Path your destiny lies upon, but the road chosen is your own. At each juncture a Choice must be made, for good or ill, that will Reveal the true power within your Omen.

"That...is less helpful than I wanted," Felix said with a frustrated breath. He remembered well what Elders Regis and Holt had said to him, and it lined up well enough with what Karys was saying. He stepped closer, inspecting each of the doors in turn.

The first door was a pale white, chipped at the edges of its panels. It looked like any exterior door in any moderately well-off home back on Earth. Voracious Eye told him nothing, other than it was a door and it was made of oak, same as the wall paneling. It had a lever style handle made of shiny brass.

The second door was fancier, with more panels and fluting along the edges. Three windows marked its top in an uneven pattern, but the glass was frosted and scratched to hell. So was door itself. It had once been painted a dull red, but time and scratching had revealed a greyish wood beneath. The latch and lock were steel covered in chipping black paint.

The third door, the last door, was altogether different. There were no panels, no windows, and no latch save a simple rope nailed to the planks. The door itself was made of six wooden planks crudely nailed together, and some didn't even reach all the way to the top or bottom, leaving a gaps that were filled with darkness. Felix peered through those gaps, not expecting much, and he was right. He saw nothing, just unremitting shadow. Pondering, he walked back to the center of the room, where Pit stood warily.

"So I just...pick one?" he asked.

So it seems.

"But I have nothing to go on, just different types of doors," Felix said. He felt frustrated. "I'm not 'Choosing my Destiny' based on which door I think is the least shitty."

I...I think you should think on the doors longer, Felix. I do not know that you have seen them, truly.

Felix tapped the hilt of his sword thoughtfully. His friends were fighting against the Archon's forces as he stood there, looking at doors. Felix had to get out, and fast. Only, when he did leave the Path, he'd be back in the mix with six Urges. He ran his hands through his hair and groaned before slumping into a sitting position.

"All I have are the options in front of me," he muttered. "Everything else I...they'll make it. They're strong enough."

They had to be.