Unbound

Chapter Three Hundred And Twelve - 312

Chapter Three Hundred And Twelve - 312

The Moon

The Silver Line, Between Two Dreams

The Path Continues.

Felix flared his Bastion of Will and held it tight as the Path shoved false memories and experiences at him. They piled high atop the walls of his Skill, amorphous lights that weren't precisely sinister, but which he knew would consume himself. He'd be lost in the 'him' that existed within these alternate realities. His sense of self and proper memories hung on, fully protected.

Feeling safer, Felix relaxed his visualization of the Bastion, and found dust forming beneath his feet. He was walking already, his body in the midst of motion as slick roof tiles formed in all directions. It was night and stars wheeled above his head, too bright and too strange, but there were four moons in the sky. He was on the Continent. But where?

Felix crept to the edge of the roof, clinging carefully to a line of brick chimneys. He could see the skyline of a great city, far larger than Haarwatch. It was dark but he could make out the opalescent white, sapphire blue, and emerald green of the buildings all around him, all of them at least six stories. Trees were everywhere, worked into the architecture in some places, often stretching higher than any building and festooned with glimmering magelights. Somewhere in the distance, bells began to toll the hour.

This feels a lot...calmer, than usual. Pit? Felix half turned and found the tenku standing awkwardly some ten yards back. Are you okay?

Fine, just uneasy, he sent. A ripple of disquiet rolled through their bond, and Felix was just as uncertain of its origin as Pit. Danger in the air.

I don't disagree, said a voice at his waist.

"Karys!" Felix whispered aloud before stopping himself. Karys, you're here. That's never happened before.

Mhm. It is either a sign of progress...or things are going to be worse than usual. The green-gold pulses of life Mana within the sword were dim, and Felix could feel Karys shielding the light as if he shuttered a lantern. It would do us well to move cautiously.

"Keep it moving, beefsteak!"

"That's not my namyow!"

Felix froze at the sound, but soon realized they were all alone on the roof. He stepped past the row of chimneys and peered over the edge. Down below, the street was paved with wide stones, though stubborn weeds stuck up through their crevices in many places. Lamps on black iron poles marched in a steady procession down the thoroughfare, which was wide enough to be considered a four-lane highway back home. Yet the streets were almost empty.

Except, of course, for the prisoners.

There were seven of them, all manacled and chained to one another, while three dozen armored guards marched with them on all sides. One of those guards, a man in dark crimson and gold plate armor, jabbed at one of the prisoners with a three-pronged spear. The prisoner growled in pain and fear, and Felix's eyes widened. It was a Minotaur. In fact, many of the prisoners were Races he'd never seen before, or even heard mentioned.

Voracious Eye!

Failed.

One of the guards jolted. "What'd you do?" he snarled at the Minotaur, jerking his chain. "Did you try to use a Skill?"

"If I could, I'd curbstomp all of you stupid RP weebs," the Minotaur growled. It turned into a pained whine when that trident was shoved into his side.

"Imbecile that you are, I don't doubt you'd try. If the collar isn't dissuading your filthy demon instincts, then maybe we go for a more...permanent solution." The guard held up the bloodied trident for emphasis. The Minotaur, much to Felix's surprise, trembled. "That's right. Fear me. And keep moving."

The group shuffled along, all of them cowed and shivering.

What the hell is this? He couldn't identify them, but the prisoners were a wild array of Races. A ashen-skinned Gnome, two dog-like folk an inch or so taller than the Gnome, an antlered man with heavy forearms, a bipedal crocodile, an Elf with some sort of feathered cloak, and the cowering Minotaur.

Those are elision collars, he noticed. They were devices designed to shut off the supply of Mana to someone's core. Panic gripped him at the thought, but the memories that hovered outside his Bastion whispered to him. False memories of close calls and first-hand experience with them that they only worked on lower Tiers, those beneath a Master. They'dat bestinconvenience a Master Tier, but not stop them completely. To do more one would need greater tools, and neither Felix nor his fake memories knew enough to speak on it.

The prisoners didn't need a greater tool, however. Even with his Voracious Eye blocked, their Spirits were easy to read even from four stories up. Three of them were Journeryman Tier and the rest were Apprentice Tier. Regardless, all of them felt strong, and would be stronger still if those collars were removed.

More than that though, something about each of the prisoners burned in Felix's vision. It was an itch in his eyes he couldn't scratch. He flared his Manasight, his Perception, Affinity, anything to alleviate it. There. He felt it. The thrum of a chord, one so large it should have shaken the foundations of the buildings around them. A glyph, like a complicated halo, manifested around each of them. He'd never seen it before, but understanding bloomed within Felix and Pit at the same time. A kinship.

They're all Unbound? Karys gasped.

"Where'd they come from?" he asked in a low voice. This was supposedly a view of the future. Were more Unbound summoned?

Seven of them, butFelix. The summoning traditionally calls for nine. Thesethese could be

"The one's summoned with me." The realization struck him hard. His eyes narrowed. "Are they all from Earth?"

There is no way to tell, except to ask. I doubt it. That ritual...what little I remember pertains to casting a wide net, as it were.

Felix clenched his jaws. He had to do something, right? Isn't that why he was there?

The guards hauled the prisoners down the street, not caring if they walked or were dragged. To a man they wore dark red platemail, edged in gold, and on both their cloaks and breastplates was worked an upraised gauntlet, surrounded by a shield overtop a golden sunburst. Paladins of the Pathless, the false memories whispered. Felix "remembered" fighting them dozens of times, though the details were foggy. He knew they were strong, which he could read in their Spirit, but Felix also knew he could handle a couple squads without issue. The problem now was that he was looking at an entire phalanx escorting the Unbound to...where were they going?

He soon found out, as an alabaster palace appeared beyond the soaring arches of the city. It was above and beyond any other construction, lit up in the night like a beacon against the dark, glittering like a star fallen to earth. The Hierophant's palace, knowledge whispered. I'm in Amaranth. The capital of the Hierocracy. Another thought chased the first, like a fox into a rabbit warren. They're being taken to the Hierophant. If they meet her, it's over. All of it.

Certainty baked into his bones, thrust on him by the false memories, but it felt true all the same. Felix remembered hunting this group for weeks as they traveled to Amaranth, trying to find an opportunity to save them. His time was running out, now.

Pit chirruped. We help.

This is not real. You know that, yes?

"Yeah. But that just means we can find out what happens if I attack a bunch of Paladins in their home city, consequence free," Felix said.

Unless you die. Death here is just as final here as upon the Continent, Felix.

"Then I won't," Felix grinned and padded down the street. While he did, he checked his Status. Just in case.

Name: Felix Nevarre

Level: 52

Race: Primordial of the Unseen Tide (Lesser)

Omen: Magician

Born Trait: Keen Mind

______

Health: 4216/4216

Stamina: 6250/6250

Mana: 4405/4405

______

STR: 1686

PER: 885

VIT: 863

END: 1113

INT: 1253

WIL: 1676

AGL: 860

DEX: 930

______

BODY

Resistances: The Song of Absolution (L), Level 74

Combat Skills: Dodge (C), Level 54; Heavy Armor Mastery (C), Level 1; Blind Fighting (R), Level 44; Corrosive Strike (R), Level 51; Wild Threnody (E), Level 54

Physical Enhancements: Armored Skin (R), Level 65; Unfettered Volition (E), Level 59

MIND

Mental Enhancements: Negotiation (C), Level 21; Deception (U), Level 23; Meditation (U), Level 55; Bastion of Will (E), Level 74; Deep Mind (E), Level 61; Manifestation of the Coronach (E), Level 47; Ravenous Tithe (E), Level 72

Information Skills: Alchemy (C), Level 27; Tracking (C), Level 25; Exploration (U), Level 47; Voracious Eye (E), Level 63; Aria of the Green Wilds (L), Level 57

SPIRIT

Spiritual Enhancements: Dual Casting (U), Level 50; Manasight (U), Level 63; Manaship Pilot (R), Level 1; Oathbinding (R), Level 35; Etheric Concordance (L), Level 72; Sovereign of Flesh (T), Level 58; Unite the Lost (T), Level 13

Spells: Abyssal Skein (R), Level 49; Cloudstep (R), Level 35; Invocation (R), Level 42; Shadow Whip (R), Level 46; Stone Shaping (R), Level 68; Mantle of the Infinite Revolution (E), Level 49; Arrow of Perdition (L), Level 35; Cardinal Flame (L), Level 63; Rain of Cataclysm (L), Level 50; Theurgist of the Rise (L), Level 71; Adamant Discord (T), Level 69

______

Unused Stat Points: 0

Harmonic Stats

RES: 282

INE: 760

AFI: 412

REI: 224

EVA: 170

MIG: 255

ALA: 683

FEL: 244

Name: Pit (Companion)

Level: 56

Race: Chimera - Tenku

______

Health: 2040/2040

Stamina: 1520/1520

Mana: 3548/3548

______

STR: 290

PER: 384

VIT: 428

END: 308

INT: 472

WIL: 662

AGL: 736

DEX: 636

______

Bite (C), Level 57

Rake (C), Level 61

Cry (R), Level 63

Skulk (C), Level 49

Etheric Concordance (L), Level 72

Wingblade (U), Level 68

Frost Spear (C), Level 70

Cold Resistance (C), Level 34

Poisonfire (R), Level 50

Flight (R), Level 57

Poison Resistance (C), Level 1

______

Active Titles:

Survivor III

Butcher III

Unconquered

Face the Charge

Bulwark of the Innocent

Pactmaker

Work Horse

Blind Pugilist

Hero

Iron Will

Apprentice Magus

The Broken Path

Cage The Beast

Voidwalker

Indomitable

Unleash The Beast

The Shape of Fate II

Blessing of the Lost

Fatebreaker

Frostbane

Architect of the Rise

Cardinal (Major)

Save the Lost

Thief of Fate

Tyrant of Choice

Against Catastrophe

Stigma of the Chosen

Partially because he was holding back those false memories, Felix could see his true stats and Skills. Thankfully. He also saw Pit's, and both of them just about blew his mind. Felix's Strength and Willpower were reaching new, insane heightsboth over sixteen hundredand his Intelligence and Endurance wasn't far behind. In fact, his Dexterity was close to a thousand, while Perception, Vitality, and Agility weren't far behind. How much longer until he crossed into the Third Threshold? If he was lucky, not much longer at all.

Still, he had enough to handle these idiots.

The Paladins were moving fast, but Felix easily kept pace. His Unfettered Volition made traversing the damp tiles easy, and his Manasight kept track of the Unbound even when he had to break line of sight due to the variety of architecture. Felix bolted over roofs, across bell towers, atop porticoes used by relaxing citizens. He had wrapped Abyssal Skein around himself and Pit was Converged within his Spirit; there was no chance he'd be spotted.

Somewhere along the line, Felix saw more enemies join into the procession. These wore platemail and cloaks as well, but their armor was white enameled and emblazoned with a sunburst. Inquisitors, he sneered. Good. We can fight them too.

Pit almost vibrated with restrained anger and glee. He always was a violent bird.

They surged ahead, leaping over rooftops in an effort to outpace the growing procession. Yet before he could, they had entered a wide, four-way intersection with a small fountain shaped like a fish. The Paladins slowed, suddenly cautious, and Felix saw why. Men and women were stepping from the other roads, at least three in each street, all of them bearing weapons.

"Halt, dogs," one of the men said, a burly Dwarf wearing a cloak over heavy armor. "Free your charges into our care, or else die."

The leader of the Paladins scoffed. "You dare challenge us? In Amaranth itself? Brigand, you are a fool."

"Only fool I see here is you," said a melodious voice, one he recognized.

Zara!?

The Naiad stepped from the left side, and instead of a weapon she suddenly blazed with aquamarine light. All around her, every single cloaked figure did as well.

"Sorcerers!" cried an Inquisitor. "All of them! Fire! Trackless forfend, fire if you wish to live!"

Chaos reigned.

Spells and song and burning light shattered the false peace of the night. Screams of hate and pain and fear echoed through the streets as people died by the handful. The six Chantersfor what else could they bethey tore into the company of Pathless devotees while weapons and Skills of fire and light Mana bounced harmlessly off the Sorcerers' protections. From above, Felix saw the zealots grow desperate and then clever: under the cover of blooming flame, a number of them grabbed the chained Unbound and dragged them off into a side alley, barely wide enough to manage the Minotaur's huge horns.

Felix grinned and leaped across the street, Abyssal Skein still wailing within him. He landed hard on the opposing roof, but no one would notice the noise in the cacophony of battle. He raced ahead, but found himself slammed into the tiles, hard enough to shatter them. A Spirit unlike any he'd felt before pressed down on him, so hard he could barely breath or even think.

"This is all the Cantus sends? Six meagre Master Tiers?" someone said softly, yet loud enough that Felix felt it it shudder through his entire Body. "Can you not at least deliver a challenge?"

From his position, Felix could just barely see over the edge of the roof, backwards and down into a narrow slice of the intersection. The Paladins and Inquisitors were regaining their feet, and the Sorcerers stood staring off to his right. He could see Zara, and she was paler than he'd ever seen her before.

"Hierophant," she hissed, baring her shark-like teeth at the unseen interloper. "Your plan will not work. Even chasing them as you have has lost time. It is almost upon us!"

"And we would not have chased them had your kind not interfered, heretic!" The Hierophant's bellow was louder than before, so much that the tiles around Felix shook wildly. He felt something wet trickle from his ears, and all sound cut out for several seconds. Paralyzed, Felix could do nothing as he felt his eardrums repair themselves. "Pathless would reward me! I will end you, and all that you represent!"

"I welcome the attempt, Coward in White!" Zara didn't wait, but unleashed a series of green-blue strikes that turned the air itself into a boiling liquid, hot enough that Felix screamed in pain at a distance. The Hierophant fared worse, and the Spiritual pressure on him abruptly dropped.

Felix surged to his feet, Unfettered Volition thrumming manically, but froze. He could help. With his stats and Skills, and with Primordial Skills like Ravenous Tithe and Sovereign of Flesh, he could maybe put a dent in this Heirophant he'd heard so much about. He knew he could take out the other Paladins and Inquisitors, his false memories told him as much.

A door, limned in red-gold light, appeared at the edge of the roof.

Below, that Minotaur bellowed in pain and fear. Others joined in. They were hurting, and Felix could help them.

It's not real! Felix!

He could...he could see more. There was more to find out!

Run! Felix! The Door!

Felix soaked it in, everything he could. The strange harmonic powers being used, the abilities of the Paladins and Inquisitors, the feel of the Hierophant. If only he could see her face! Just a few steps

"There! Atop the roof!"

Fire followed the call, igniting the night with the heat of a forge. Felix shied away, nearly slipping on the broken tiles. The door flickered.

"Goddamn it!"

He ran, just ahead of another fireball, leaping into the dark.

The Sun.

Beyond The Dark, The Light Awaits.

The Path Continues.

The Bastion shook, assaulted on all sides. Light battered the gates, the walls, burned the forest and the greens beyond the dark stone. It held. It barely held.

More memories, more false life piled atop Felix's own.

He landed in a crouch upon sandy soil. His back felt charred, and for a brief second he couldn't remember why. His Bastion quaked, and he couldn't remember.

"NO!" Felix's Will pressed back, hurling the Path's lies away from himself.

Mind settling, Felix blinked at the heated dust in his eyes. The sun baked him, and even through his resistance he could still feel the intense heat. Felix stood and was greeted by golden dunes and the red-orange bluffs of windswept buttes in the far distance. Closer to hand, however, was a wild sandstorm that dominated the southern horizon.

"Karys? Where's Pit?" He turned. "Karys?"

His friends were nowhere to be seen, but columns upon columns of crimson-armored soldiers were marching into that sandstorm, polearms and banners raised. Banners that included a crimson fist atop a shield and sunburst, as well as a white tower overtop three sunbursts. More Paladins, he thought. The other banner wasn't familiar, and Felix worried too much to search his false memories for clues. One wrong touch and those memories would overwhelm him, and he'd lose himself.

Atop a dune himself, Felix watched in tired curiosity as the leaders of the army raised their arms up in wild gesticulation. Sunlight streamed down from the sky, briefly focused into a beam of incandescent glory as it fired into the sandstorm itself.

With mute astonishment, Felix saw the sandstorm rip apart as beam after beam fired into it. Then it was gone, millions of pounds of sand drifting back to earth.

"Holy shit," Felix said, his extended Perception almost feeling it like ten thousand gritty points of pressure. He recoiled, reeling his Perception in. When the dust cleared, he already saw the columns of Paladins marching forward, but now it was toward a massive, floating city.

He

The world upended.

Sound and fury scaled his Bastion, reaching grasping claws over the edges of the battlements. Felix strained to keep them at bay.

Lightning from a clear blue sky.

Thunder rolled. An earthquake shook everything.

He stood on streets of a city painted blue and gold. Massive windchimes stirred, struck, resounded to the screams of butcher's work. Red-armored Paladins stalked the streets, putting to sword and flame anyone that crossed their path. Their faces were hidden behind metal, Human-like masks, but no mercy was in their dark eyes.

Felix knew, as the weight of memories crushed his defenses, he knew that he was too late. They had taken Maseille. In the sky above, a massive gout of flame struck against a hardened beam of light, and the backwash of their conflict shredded roofs from houses. Felix ran, already summoning his own power.

Cardinal Flame!

Red-gold fire bloomed in his hands, chased by hair-thin tendrils of blue-white lightning. He cast it out, shaping it with his Intent and fueling it with his Affinity and Will. Mana poured from his channels, a torrent of liquid flame that struck the Paladins and melted their armor to their flesh and bones.

A door into a burning hut gleamed. Called to him.

He shaped it again, and it hunted. It consumed them all.

"AH!"

A beam of light hit him. Once. Twice. Claws that rent his back open, hot and wet and achingly cold. Felix lurched away from it, sending fire into the skies, calling down acid, but whatever it was had an Agility far higher than his own. It struck, again and again, always at his back, always out of sight. His Health dropped fast. Too fast.

He ran, flaring his Unfettered Volition, burning his Agility, hurtling through the doorway. Into the black.

The World

End It All. Begin Again.

The Path Ends.

Felix landed among dust.

Not sand or soil. A fine dust more akin to ash. He looked up. The sky was blackened and boiling, clouds spinning in unnatural formations, fleeing the rising sun. Fire burned down his back, and he couldn't remember why. His Mind shook, and his Spirit quailed. Thoughts and memories were pouring into his Bastion, unable to be stopped. They were an avalanche, a flood, too much to stop and none of it solid. It slipped past him.

He watched the sky, watched the sunrise on a blasted land, and accepted his fate. This was the end. He couldn't stop it. He had tried for so long, and there was no one left. He was Unbound, and Fate would see him dead.

NO!

The sun burst.

It was fire and greedy tendrils, following in the wake of monstrous figures he could just barely see. Mountains were crushed, and seas boiled with their movements. They were more than large; more than physical.

Six moon hung in the sky, and the bloodiest hung closest.

"All is as it must be! Let it no longer be on us! Let us be free!"

Felix heard the voice with his bones, it was so loud, so pervasive. The exploding sun-that-was-not changed, darkening to purple and black, into clouds of hungry darkness streaked with opalescence.

"Let Ruin have it!"

It came for him, and at their back ride the gods. He knew them now, the shadowed giants. Not dead, not dead at all. Free. They pushed the Ruin into the Continent, riding behind it upon chariots of starlight and the infinite cold of the Void.

Fear coursed through his veins, and he tried to run. But lightning burned him, seas of blood drowned him, and the relentless force of the tides pulled at him. He was seized, body and soul.

The Ruin was coming and he could not move.

"It is but a shadow of itself, but it will end you just the same." A familiar voice said. It hardly sounded mad at all. Then it laughed, and he heard it. The terror. "I wish it had not come to this, Felix Nevarre."

Felix

"I am given no choice."

Nevarre

Her hands were pushed, forced atop his body, squeezing. Other limbs, other figures layered atop herVellus'form. Monstrous creatures, all of them surmounted by halos of immutable power.

Divine power.

"The Unbound cannot be allowed," they intoned. A hammer striking an anvil.

The violet dark took him.

He was unmade.

The world shattered.

The World shattered, its flame snuffed out. Screams and cries and joy and laughter and all things that were and could and should have been. Everything that he was, is, could be: unmade. Body, Spirit, his Mind last.

That last of all.

Brilliant lights shone to him, whoever he was, true lights. He knew some were false, some too dim to be real. Memories, he knew. He clung to them. Tightly. Too tightly.

Just let go, the voices whispered. They were legion, one voice and ten billion, all at once. All different. All the same. Just rest. You deserve rest. Let us in and rest.

Tired. He was SO tired.

Of fighting

and

hurting,

but Memories sparked, and he recalled,

p e r f e c t l y

the moments that weren't fighting. That weren't hurting, few though they were. Of eating around a campfire with friends. Sitting in the Wall, figuring out sigaldry with that man...Hector! It was Hector! Of a woman's green eyes and laugh. Of another's darker eyes, and a dimple he could never forget.

Of danger. They were in danger. HeNo.

He wasn't done yet.

Let go...

NO! I REFUSE!

DO NOT FIGHT! STOP!

A wave of lethargy poured over him, so much that the sparks of light dimmed and faded. But he wouldn't be denied.

Let go! Release yourself!

His Will engaged, he grabbed at those motes of light, his Memories. And others. Other lights. Things that didn't seem familiar until he held them close, where they clung to each other like constellations. More. More. His Will was iron! Mithril! Crescian Bronze! It was absolute and he would not be denied.

Cores and Skills, sparking sound among a chorus of chaos. Threads, cables of light, he grasped them tight. Most of all them. They shivered at his touch, and clarity surged into his Mind and burgeoning Spirit. A dark crimson vein, a thread within the cables, it sang.

He cannot!

It is not allowed!

HeFelixwould not be denied.

From that core, he built outward, pulling inward. All that he was once and would be again. False Ruin had struck him, but it was a crucible, a forge from which he would emerge as more.

He was unmade.

He was reborn.

Felix drifted, fell, flew through the doorway.

The final threshold.

The World shattered. The World was remade.