Unbound

Chapter Three Hundred And Seventy Nine – 379

Chapter Three Hundred And Seventy Nine – 379

Felix took off just as the next wave of ice-born giants charged. Chains descended, combining into spike-studded shields that stabbed and bashed in equal measure. The giants took the attacks head on, too dim to swerve or dodge, merely swinging their conjured weapons in roaring defiance. False Magda stopped them cold, every time.

Among the chaos, Felix flared his Agility and his Relentless Resolution. Water sprayed in his wake and the core space blurred into smearing shapes, yet his Perception and Intelligence worked together to easily keep up with his speed. Evie's strange protector moved as if she were in slow-motion, but the chain shields at her disposal flashed about at far greater velocities. Felix ducked and twisted through the maze of false Magda's assault, doing his level best to evade the protector entirely.

She was making that harder than he anticipated.

From beneath his feet, chains of ice erupted in geysers of frigid water. It was all Felix could do to redirect his momentum, skidding to a startled stop to dive out of the way as the chains appeared. They sprouted blades and spikes, each of the dozen metal strands flailing in separate directions, and way faster than Felix expected. Though he was only a mental construct, his body as false as Magda's own, he was solidly visualizedthat was how he could be there in the first place, how he could traverse his own core space. The drawback meant that, as two chains clipped his shoulders they drew arcs of blood that splashed into the water as he rolled, dodging another three.

Dodge is level 64!

...

Dodge is level 67!

Relentless Resolution is level 74!

Wounds clotted and healed as he ran, his overwhelming Vitality proving superior to Evie's conjured guardian, but the offensive was persistent. Chains followed him, forcing him to weave in twisted circles and patterns, jumping over and sliding under their sinuous lengths. His Garment was slashed to ribbons, and his skin was soon criss-crossed but welts and burning lines of crimson. He was stronger and more durable than Evie, but something about her defenses was transcendent.

How is this thing so strong?

She shouldn't have been able to contest him physically, or even mentally based on their stats. Felix outclassed her in every way. Yet as he ran for the deepening haze of her core, Magda was there, shields already bashing toward his skull.

Enough! Sovereign of Flesh!

Felix's skin transformed to scales as he punched forward, expanding as the muscles of his right arm ballooned with power. His fist met false Magda's shield with a cataclysmic crash, scattering the water for twenty yards in every direction...

...and hurling the false woman back into the hazy mist.

Felix recoiled from the strike, immediately cancelling his Skill, because the crash did not stop with the impact. No, the sound reverberated, spreading out around them like a gong, until the world around him shook. Water surged and splashed and ice-born giants fell over themselveseven the Skills hanging above them groaned in sympathy, raining chunks of ice and snow from their twisted bulks.

That's...not good. Felix grimaced but took off again, heading for the core. I can't afford to hit any part of Evie's core space. Another punch like that...

Felix was certain that he would shatter it all.

Magda was not done with him, however, and she came surging out of the mist once more. Her arms bore the same pointed shields the real Magda had held, her face the same stoic implacability, and Felix felt a spasm of unease as he sidestepped out of her way. Chains followed him, unfurling from her shields and her icy back like serpents, stabbing at his chest and arms and legs. Anything they could reach. More of his Garment was torn, but his skin was toughening up against the constant onslaught.

Armored Skin is level 77!

His Spirit shuddered, buffeted by each touch of her chains, and it became a scream of agony as one of her shields clipped his thigh. He tucked into a roll atop the churning waters, slipping free of her melee range once again and gasping in revelation. He could see itfeel itafter that brief moment of contact. There was a cadence to the creature's being, and it danced along his Spirit like a jet engine, tearing at his Affinity with a wild ferocity.

Grief. Pain. Felix licked his lips, resetting himself before the guardian. She's Evie's rage, personified.

The giants were still attacking, conjured by Evie's own conflicting forces to assault her core, and false Magda spun to face them as well. More shields of ice and metal rose, more forged tendrils of sharpened steel to bash and slash through their number.

The giants. Why giants? Felix watched carefully as his shallow wounds healed themselves. Evie hates the giants, and the giants...killed Magda. Shit. Who else would defend Evie's core, then?

She was unconsciously recreated Magda's death...and Felix felt a bone deep certainty that she would never let her sister lose. Not again.

I'm sorry for this, Evie, Felix thought. He knew what he had to do...he just didn't like it.

Cardinal Flame!

Felix Mana rolled into the core space, crackling with lightning and burning flame as it raced toward the charging giants. Sigils of rage and strength branded themselves into the icy behemoths, and the Essence Draughts that made them up ignited into violent flame. The giants roared and pressed forward, the lot of them moving far faster than they had before. Magda said nothing, but she raced to meet them. Massive chain-forged shields rose from the waters, bashing into her frost foes with abandon.

Distracted, there was nothing to stop him from taking off into the wintry haze, speeding atop the freezing waves.

In order for Felix to fix this, Magda had to fail.

The haze continued for some distance, occluding his Perception but not his Affinity. He could hear the pulse and snap of Evie's core, always just ahead despite running what felt like a half mile atop frigid waters. At the very least, there was proof of his journey. Beneath his feet the waves had iced over in odd, floating sheets, each growing larger and larger until the haze cleared and Felix found himself standing atop a huge, storming swell...that was utterly frozen through.

Whoa.

Smashing up through the eternal ice, a gargantuan chain loomed ahead of him. It stuck up at an angle, extending somewhere into the misty sky above and deep into the bitter black below. Each link that composed the thing was hundreds of feet tall and coated in dripping hoarfrost. Icicles connected entire links with striated sheets of once-melted Mana, while smaller chains filled the vast spaces left behind. Shapes were in those complex, tangling intersections, forms that resembled architecture in its most rudimentary form. Bitter cold pulsed from its shape, and apart from a faint, almost imperceptible vibration there was only utter stillness.

There, atop another wave and beneath the frozen core, stood a figure.

Evie!

Felix leaped, shattering the ice at his feet and soaring the sixty feet or so to Evie's side. A flare of his Will slowed him down, letting Felix skid to a more gentle stop next to his friend. A friend that he realized was completely encased in ice, until she was no more than a suggestion of a shadow within it.

Just like Atar, he realized.

Fiendforge!

The sensation of gripping the world returned to him, though this time it burned him far more readily than Atar's ever had. A numbing chill spread along his phantom hands and visualized hands as he pressed against her core space, the sheer cognitive dissonance of being in two places almost overwhelming his Mind. His Will and Intent, however, were not just for show. Felix steadied himself, and focused.

There are cracks everywhere. The core is fused solid and the Skills barely move. He could see the giants still assaulting Magda, a constant wave of power that resembled nothing more than energy attempting to flood Evie's core, just as it did Felix's own during a level up. How do I fix this without breaking it all apart?

Felix pressed ever so gently as his Skill pulled Mana, and Essence, and significance from his own core space. The power flowed into Evie's core, swirling around her space like an invisible maelstrom.

Maybe she knows, he reasoned, and funneled his power into the block of ice before him. Much as it had with Atar, Felix's memories of Evie paved the way for his Fiendforge. He pulled the ice away from her form, chiseling the negative space away from the person he knew lay within. It happened far faster this time, owing perhaps to the levels he'd gained in the Skill.

Fiendforge is level 9!

Then it was done, though he held lightly to the Skill just in case. Evie collapsed to the ground, her armor-encased limbs unable to bear her sudden weight, but she was moving. She coughed, and lifted her hands in confusion before staring up at him.

"Felix?" she asked, her voice breaking mid-word. She rallied and looked around. "Didn't expect you in my core space."

"Didn't expect to be needed," he said. "I'm here to help."

"Help?" Evie stood on shaky legs and looked closer at her core. "...Shit."

"That's what I said," Felix said, though it came out more deadpan than he wanted. "Is it normally this...still in here?"

"No, Avet take me," Evie said, the fear in her voice clear. Her cheekbone became a faceted, crystalline shard of ice though it faded quickly back to flesh. "My core's empty."

"Empty?" Felix looked again, flaring all of his senses. "I can sense power here. Mana and Stamina in the ice. Isn't this normal?"

Evie was sweeping her eyes left and right, almost frantic. "No. No, it's not. She's gone."

It clicked. "Magda. She's part of your core?"

Evie looked at him, guilty and worried. "For a long time now. She...she keeps me safe, Felix."

Felix grunted. "So I've seen."

She raised an eyebrow, as her form flickered with ice again. She cried out, staggering. Felix reached out to help her, but Evie put out her hands, warding him off. She stood on her own. "Whatwhat're you talking about?"

"Your version of Magda is preventing the Essence Draught from reaching your core," he explained. "It's preventing everything from reaching it...and that's bad news, because your core is trying to advance."

Evie paled, skin flickering between flesh and ice. "Advance...? To the Ring Stage?"

"Yeah. Your core space isn't doing great right now, and your Body...can you stop her? Tell her to stand down or something?" Felix asked.

"Stand down? She's my...she's my protector. I don't control her," Evie said. There was a smallness to her voice Felix had never heard from her before, stripped bare of sarcasm and battle lust. "I can't."

"You have to. Can't you feel it? The pressure?" Felix certainly could so long as he focused on it, like a constant tugging on his soul. Only his Bastion of Will and Relentless Resolution kept him affixed in place, largely unaffected by the vacuum of Evie's power. "It's collapsing on itself."

Evie blinked, eyes flicking between her core and the hazy barrier just beyond them. Tear glistened there, but Felix didn't mention it and neither did Evie.

"Fine," she whispered. "Let's fix this."

They traversed the barrier of fog and frozen waves, following the sounds of battle as it raged. Felix's Perception picked up the enormous shapes of Frost Giantsthe smallest of which were now thirty feet tallbattering uselessly against the utter and absolute guard of a woman made of ice and chains.

"Magda," Evie whispered. Her face twisted between sour guilt and sorrow.

"You need to stop her," Felix said again. "This is your core space. You're in control here."

Evie snorted softly. Fear and other, more confused emotions tangled in her Spirit, so loud Felix couldn't help but hear them. Still, the woman ran forward, her feet splashing through the ankle-deep waves.

Brave, Pit sent across their bond.

Yeah bud. She is.

"Mags! Stop!" Evie shouted, skidding to a halt before the hulking form of her sister. A head made of ice and hard, steel angles tilted at Evie in confusion. "It's me. It's just me..."

Without a change in expression, false Magda swung her shield at her sister. Evie rolled aside, springing up from a tumbling handstand to her feet, just barely evading the conjured shields as they bashed into the water behind her.

Felix watched, unsure how to help. He couldn't attackhe saw what happened when he struck parts of Evie's core space. Even with holding his Fiendforge loosely about them all, Felix dreaded that exerting too much force would shatter her core completely. Meanwhile Evie dashed about, uncoiling her weapon and warding off blows, but she clearly could not bring herself to hit her sister. Real or not.

"You need to return to my core! It's falling apart without you in it!" the agile fighter shouted. Beyond them, the giants had not stopped their advance. Enormous, hulking brutes stomped toward them all. "Let...let them in!"

NEVER!

The words smashed into Evie like a hammer blow, and even Felix was pushed back by it. They seemed to emanate from false Magda's form, but also reverberated from all over the core space at the same time.

"What the hell! How can it speak?" he shouted.

"I don't know! She's never!" Evie screamed back. Her face had broken along her left jawline, revealing sparking ice and steel beneath. "Get the...get the giants in, Felix! Help me!"

"On it!"

NO!

Chains wove through the water, arcing toward Felix's position, but he was already on the move. Evie deflected more of the attacks, drawing Magda's fire as Felix flared his Agility and Relentless Resolution. He sped across the surface of her core space, his passage barely kicking up any spume at all, focused entirely upon speed and evasion as the very waters turned against him.

Ice spiked, shooting upward to spear at his body with razor-sharp formations. Felix tanked them, letting the magic shatter against his Armored Skin. It hurt and his Health dropped, but he could handle it and barrelled through it all. Which was when he ran headlong into the descending club of a thirty-foot Frost Giant.

Adamant Discord!

The spell burst from Felix before he could stop himself, electric force blasting aside the tree-trunk sized weapon that came for him. So strong, in fact, that it sheared right through the giant's hand and forearm, resulting in the collapse of a small hill's worth of ice and Mana.

"Shit!"

Yet the core space didn't quake. If anything, the pressure on his Fiendforge lessened.

Kill the giants! chirruped Pit.

Yeah, I figured that out! The giants, or the manifestation of power that was shown as giants due to Evie's...imbalanced state of mind, they were what was causing the pressure. It was the Essence Draught and the System itself. But what if all that power wasn't there anymore? What if...!

Sovereign of Flesh!

Felix's body shifted and grew, thews swelling with muscle until he was the same hulking monstrosity that had fought the Archon to a standstill. He leaped, talons leading the way, tearing into the ice-born giant's massive chest...and out the other side. Felix landed with barely a splash, already moving onto the next enemy. Yet before the dead Frost Giant could dissolve back into another iceberg, he grasped it with all of his Willpower.

Chthonic Tribute!

The inert power in the ice was pulled into his channels. There, Felix held onto it as he moved down the line, refusing the hungry pull of his abyss.

Adamant Discord!

Lightning force ripped through the next giant, and his claws took the leg off a third construct of power. The wavy, liquid power of the Essence Draughts flowed all around him, dragged in his wake as it all thundered into his core space.

Evie nearly stumbled when she realized Felix was attacking the giants. She didn't understand it, nor why he was eating them like he did out in the real world, but she hadn't the time to figure it out. Her sister was taking all of her attention.

Not my sister! she reminded herself for the tenth time. Magda would never be. So. Damn. Stubborn!

Each thought was punctuated by Evie's chain meeting a shield, each one varying in size and style. Kite, buckler, tower, each one wielded with contemptuous ease by the Golem that faced her. Every attack Evie made was countered expertly.

The chains that her supposed protector had been using were absent, at least. A quick glance showed themall of themwere focused on Felix and the giants.

Gotta keep her busy until he can do...whatever he's doin'.

Reducing her weight with her Born Trait, Evie jumped up and over her false sister, shifting the heft into her chain and flicking it sideways over Magda's head. Evie flew up, then jerked suddenly to the left, just barely dodging an overhand swipe of the creature's shield. Evie landed nimbly, rolling in the water to disperse the impact, and barely evading Magda's counterstrike.

YOU LEFT ME!

Evie stumbled back at the force of Magda's scream too stunned by the words to cope with dodging. Twin shields bashed into her, hurling her body backward and straight into an approaching Giant Felix had missed. Straight through, in fact, shattering the creature's icy form before she burst from the other side and splashed into the waves.

Gasping in pain, Evie leveraged herself up, only to find Magda there, double shields already descending.

Scorpion's Tail!

Her chain stabbed into the ground beneath the water and suddenly contracted, collapsing into its travel form and dragging Evie out of the way. She skidded back, just as a geyser erupted where Magda struck.

You are stronger.

Zara?! The Naiad's voice sounded close but Evie had to whirl to find her. Through her dripping hair, she saw the Sorcerer hundreds of strides away. Why is Zara here too? What the hell are you on about?!

You can overcome this. Stand, Evie.

You think I was gonna take it lying down? She hissed, and surged to her feet. A charge, chain lash and yank, pulled her to Magda. When the woman tried to strike with her shields, she altered her mass again and threw her chain, swinging her away from the blow.

Stand and face her.

Evie was getting winded. Her endurance had never been terribly high and already her stamina was burning low. Each exchange had her panting, avoiding all harm but affecting no change in her sister. She stood there, implacable and unfazed.

YOU LEFT ME AND I DIED.

Youre not my sister, Evie whispered. She looks just like her...

I AM ALL THAT SHE WAS.

No youre not! Youre just some ice monster I made up! Mags would never talk to me like that!

YOU LEFT ME TO DIE. Magda walked forward, each step ponderous and sending waves of water surging in all directions. YOU LEFT ME AND THE GIANTS KILLED ME. IT IS YOUR FAULT.

No!

Evie tried to scream but the words only came out as a choked gasp. Magda was before her now, looming like judgement itself.

I AM DEAD AND IT IS YOUR FAULT.

Images of her sister ripped through Evies Mind, memories of their youth in the slums, of when Magda joined the guilders, of the day Evie herself joined. Pain lanced across Evie's heart, her soul. She fell to her knees.

A frost encrusted shield lifted into the air.

More memories came. Of their battles, of arguments, and of Evie leaving Magda in the Frost Giants camp. Of her embracing Cal. Evies Spirit wrenched, overcome, and she only stared blankly as a second shield joined the first.

They dropped, descending like an executioner's axe.