Unbound

"A dragon. A true and real dragon? You are sure of this?" Vess asked. Her voice was calm and measured, but her Spirit flared wildly with strange passions. Anger for sure, and a touch of hate even, but encompassing all of that was a fierce hope.

Felix pulled back, squeezing shut his Affinity once again. It always felt like an intrusion, listening to someone's emotional state. With strangers and enemies it was a tactical advantage; with his friends, it was an invasion of their privacy. Still, Darius' parting words clung to Felix's Keen Mind, remembered with crystalline clarity.

"...do not let her risk herself for fruitless vengeance..."

Dammit, Darius. Is this what you meant? Felix's attention was recaptured by the the Deepking's slow nod.

"We...do not know much. Only that it is nestled deep within the Khasma. Spreading it's vile corruption along the tides." The Deepking heaved a rattling breath, a wheezing bellows the size of a city bus. "The dragon hides, fearful of our true might. Instead it sends minnows to nip at us, until we are bloody and weakened."

"The tactics of a coward," Garox said. He slithered off the alabaster arm and touched down upon the surface of the steaming water. He did not sink, and Felix could see a thin layer of Mana hovering around the scales of his underbelly. "Were we able to push our warriors into its lair, this fight would be over. But it keeps us on the defensive, constantly threatening our Temple where the future of our people resides."

"Well then. Sounds like we're going to need an idea of the area and a battle plan. Vess?" Felix looked to his friend. "What can you tell us of the enemy? You're the resident dragon-expert."

“Yes, yes," Isla said, patting Vess on the arm in a fond manner. "The Lady Dayne and I have had extensive conversations about the matter. What was it you said, my dear? About this Fathom?”

Felix witnessed a slight tension pulled back at Vess’ shoulders, like a puppeteer’s string. She took a breath before answering, her eyes fixed firmly forward. “Only that it seemed clear it is of the draconic Type and quite powerful. The Depthwurm was a corrupted form of the Lindwurm, a common and powerful foe we sometimes see in the hills around Pax’Vrell. They are leaders in their own right, though you often see them dominating a horde of wyrmlings at best.” She shook her head. “This Depthwurm was moving with purpose, as was the Slaughter Nettle. The insight we have into their motivations suggest a greater Mind is directing it. From the signs...I fear it may be a Tidaldrake.”

“A what?” Isla gave him a look, like she didn’t trust him to tie his own shoes.

Hooves, Felix corrected himself. Whatever.

“Nevermind,” Beef muttered. “But I dunno what a Tidaldrake is, though.”

“A Threat to any Territory, operating typically at the high Master stage, with the capability to command thousands of its lesser brethren. They hold dominion over the waves and the reed, with a command of magic that is unshakeable.” Isla’s face was creased by the smallest of frowns. “The Tidaldrakes died out however. Hunted to extinction, if I recall, six hundred years ago.”

“That is what the records indicate, yes,” Vess admitted. “So it could be we are dealing with something entirely different now. But if you are right, Deepking, then we are facing a foe that is at the very least comparable to a high Master. No dragon could command such potent underlings were they not far stronger.”

“The past stirs as Ruin descends on us all." Isla patted Vess on her shoulder, managing to appear both concerned and condescending to Felix. “The Grand Harmony will sing what must be sung, and oft times it is the old that resounds within the strains of the new.”

"Uh, yeah. Sure," Beef said. "But like, what's the plan?"

Vess turned to Garox. "Do you have maps of the Khasma and the way there?"

"We do. The deeps shift often, but most paths are well-worn. I can take you to them."

"That would be appreciated. My thanks, Garox." As the Spirit Naga bowed, Vess looked at the others. "We need to prepare ourselves for travel and combat beneath the waves. What resources do we have to handle that?"

"I have Sunken Ward," Felix said, and didn't miss the sharp look the Deepking gave him—he just ignored it. He had stolen the spell from them, but he'd stolen a lot of things. "That will protect us from the pressure and temperature of the water. But maneuverability will likely be an issue. I'll be fine, I think, but I don't know if you all will. Pit? You did some swimming since your Evolution, right?"

"Yup! I had to fish you out of the sea," he chirruped brightly. "It was hard. You are heavy though, so I think I can do better on my own."

"I think I got Swimming down," Beef said. "Your training got me to Apprentice Tier with it."

"Down won't be an issue. You're almost as heavy as him," Pit said, jerking his head toward Felix. "Up might be worrisome."

"Eh, I'll be good."

"We shall provide you with an escort into the deeps. Twelve of our strongest warriors will accompany you, to carry you into the abyss and fight alongside the Returned God," Garox said. All at once, the crowd of Naga that had gathered let out an undulating, sibilant call. It crawled across the chamber like a thing alive.

"Thank you, that helps. Every advantage will likely matter, if this Fathom is as powerful as you suspect," Felix said. "Anything you can provide is welcome."

"Garox, show them the chamber of the slain detritus," the Deepking commanded. To Felix, he bowed. "I will personally select the warriors to accompany you while you prepare yourselves."

With a final, imperious nod, the unthinkably huge serpent slipped back under the surface. Vess traded a look with Felix, her nostrils were flared and brow drawn down. "Slain detritus?" she asked.

Felix looked to the Spirit Naga. "Yeah, no clue. Garox?"

"You are not the first non-Naga to breach the Temple walls. For years uncounted we have been assaulted by the mad and the foolhardy." Garox gave a boneless sort of shrug. "We have stored all of their effects in our vault."

"Effects? As in weapons and armor?" Beef asked, his voice rising in excitement. "I know a treasure chamber when I hear it!"

Garox gave another motion of his head and shoulders, too liquid to be a Human gesture. "Perhaps. It is of no use to us. But I shall lead you there, if you are ready, Returned God?"

"Yeah. Lead on, Garox."

They left the Shadowgate chamber and the Chapel of the Eye too, quick on the heels of Garox. Before he did, however, Felix noticed a few of the Nagafolk were getting a little too close to the Shadowgate's doors, and he flexed his Authority. The chamber slammed shut, the metal and stone doors locking and sealing with a flare of blue sigaldry. Naga warriors hissed and fell back, startled, while Garox turned to gaze upon them all with a flat-faced glower.

"Attend to your duties," he commanded. The Nagafolk scattered, wriggling off the stone island and back into the water. "My apologies, my Lord."

"Mhm. Let's just get going," Felix said.

He fashioned a boat out of ice, more than happy to let Beef recover his Mana, and they followed after the winding path of their guide. Hallow's secondary form, the Risen Multipede, followed beneath them. More labyrinthine hallways met them, all twisted and turned askew, half submerged in a way that Felix doubted was an accident. He spotted more than a few places where the stones didn't join so nicely, where thick mortar and smaller bricks had been wedged into place to prevent too much water from entering the Temple. It was clear that the Nagafolk had put a great deal of effort in maintaining their home, not having much magic to hand or even the proper Authority to initiate the Temple's restoration arrays.

In many places, statues were piled together and holes were burrowed through them, leaving areas honeycombed by porous nests. As they passed one of the many, Felix could sense smaller Naga within, children or adolescents, currently crowded close to larger forms. Their mothers? Do snakes have maternal bonds? I guess they're not snakes though, just like Pit isn't a raven or a fox despite his shape. Just more people.

"Creepy," Beef said as they passed the eyeless visage of a Nymean statue.

"Nests," Isla said. "This is your hatchery?"

"No. Our hatchery is protected on a deeper level. Those outside of it are capable of defending themselves." Garox let a soft, disconsolate grumble rattle through his chest. "Even if all they can do is flee."

"I imagine even your children have teeth," Isla said. She looked at Garox's wide, humanoid back and Felix saw a sharpness there that he didn't understand. "And scales enough to withstand an Apprentice Tier's strike."

Garox didn't answer for a bit, letting the rush and gurgle of water fill the silence. Felix looked to Isla, but other than keeping her gaze fixed on the Spirit Naga, she gave nothing away. Finally, as they rounded another corner and entered a narrow corridor filled with snapped columns, Garox spoke.

"You fear us, Lady Isla, and our bestial nature. I have seen such attitudes before, and I assure you that you are wrong. My people are predators by our nature, but we do not kill without reason or for the bloody joy of it. I know those on the surface think us monsters; long have I heard the legends they tell of my people. But we think, and feel, and we protect. Just as any." Garox wound to a stop next to a relatively small doorway carved into the shape of a six-pointed star. "We have arrived."

The door lifted, sliding upward into a recessed slot as the water outside the chamber rushed inward, swiftly filling an empty, low-lying area. Beyond the gurgling tide, Manalights bloomed across the room, piles of metal gleaming in the sudden brightness.

"Holy crap," Beef whispered.

"Those are corpses hung upon the walls," Vess pointed out, and sure enough they were. Chalk-white skeletons wrapped in still-gleaming armor hung from twisted metal spikes that had been driven into the ivy-strewn walls. That ivy also grew across the bodies, and in some cases fully encased them. "A great many corpses."

"The remnants of all those that thought to hunt our halls for treasure, or trophies," Garox said, and this time there was a guttural growl in his voice. "We protected our own, and now they are part of the treasures they sought to claim."

"That makes sense to me." Pit hopped out of their ice-boat, landing nimbly among the piles of discarded armor, coins, and strange objects. He trilled at Felix. "C'mon! I want to look around."

Felix shaped more ice into a rigid mooring around his craft, essentially freezing it all together into a thick shelf and attaching it to the raised stone flooring. Done, he gestured to Vess, letting her exit first. Beef, Hallow, and Isla followed.

"I shall remain with the boat, Michael." Hallow's Multipede form reported, cresting the waters with its blunt face.

"Cool," Beef said, before whispering to Hallow's Homunculus on his shoulder. "Can you stop? I told you, my name is Beefhammer now. Or just Beef. That's cool too."

"I am sorry, Michael."

"Ugh."

Their group more or less scattered across the chamber, walking through the haphazard paths between piles of cluttered and disjointed loot. It was clear to Felix that the Naga hadn't truly sorted these items, preferring to throw them and their former owners in and let time sort it all out.

"This is a lot of gold and silver," Beef said to Felix. He was whispering, but a whisper from a seven foot bull-man wasn't as quiet as Beef thought. "Do we just like, take it? We could buy so much stuff."

"We have zero ways to carry any of this," Felix pointed out. "Maybe when we get back, I'll see about taking it with us through the Shadowgate."

Felix's Voracious Eye was going wild as he panned it around the room. Every other item was enchanted, and while many were broken or busted weapons and armor, there were just as many exceptional pieces. His friends started rummaging through the piles, pulling items up to glint in the Manalights. Beef was quick to grab a large, spiked war club made entirely of a green metal called High Serpentine.

"Ooh, this I can use," he said happily. A moment later, chitin flowed across its length, shaping into his usual jagged maul but now adorned with numerous spikes along the back. The kid gave it a few practice swings and couldn't stop grinning. "Awesome. This counts toward my Bludgeoning Mastery too!"

Earthly steel was a Tier I metal as far as Felix could tell, and it took high concentrations of different Mana types to push ore from Tier to Tier. High Serpentine, according to his Eye, was a Tier IV metal. Easily better than any materials they had found back in Nagast, though apart from a durability array it boasted no further enchantments.

Vess moved among the piles methodically, using her spear to sort through the build up of centuries of invaders. Pit was cooing whenever he found something vaguely magical, but kept flitting around without settling. Hallow was moving swiftly among the piles, ignoring the gold and softly glowing artifacts all around them while she hunted for...something. Felix put the creature out of his Mind, focusing instead on what he could find. After some searching, however, he found some good things.

Name: Spikeshot Cuff

Type: Accessory (Enchanted)

Lore: A twice-forged cuff made of Tier III High Steel, it has been enchanted to summon a spiked ball of metal Mana that can be thrown. There are ten charges.

Refinement III - Refines any Mana placed into the Cache, turning it into metal Mana.

Cache II - Retains attuned Mana, enough to provide ten charges.

Name: Pendant of Quick Guard

Type: Accessory (Enchanted)

Lore: Crafted by an unknown hand in an unknown Age, these Pendants create a dense shield around the wearer that has some limited regeneration at the expense of pulling from the wearer's own reserves. The shield reduces damage received, but once it suffers a strike above Adept Tier, it will shatter the pendent completely.

Shielding IV - Generates a shield of unattuned Mana that clings to the wearer's Body.

Self-Repair II - Absorbs ambient Mana to repair itself

Internal Draw III - Absorbs Mana from wearer's core to replenish the item

Name: Bottled Smoke

Type: Container (Enchanted)

Lore: A vial that contains such dense smoke within it, that it appears to be filled with a solid. When opened, the vial will release such a quantity of thick, gray smoke that it will obscure a large area from view. One time use.

Name: Glamulet

Type: Accessory (Enchanted)

Lore: An amulet made of coldforged iron and rivets of brass. It's crude appearance is deceiving however, as it is packed with dense sigaldry. There are three arrays, all of which form a complicated formation that focuses on illusions centered on the self. Effects last only as long as the wearer can fuel the amulet itself.

Faux Mask III - Generates illusions around the wearer's Body

They weren't weapons or armor, but Felix had little need for either of those things. What he needed were options. The Pendants of Quick Guard weren't even for him, but for the others, though he'd found seven of them in total so it wouldn't hurt to wear one. He rooted around for more items of interest, but there wasn't much that either wasn't whole or didn't work with his "build."

But a lot of this would be handy for my people. There's a lot here. Bows. Swords. Axes. Armor sets. Some are even complete. Not to mention all the metal we could melt down and repurpose in our Forge. Felix smiled. Sticking around is already paying dividends.

After doing a rough catalogue of what was there, Felix met his team back near the ice boat. Beef had gotten a red-gold orichalcum helmet in addition to his club, one that apparently molded to his head-shape as the metal fit smoothly up and over his horns until they were entirely coated. It even had a neck guard that wrapped around him like a gorget. He gave Felix a thumbs up. "This helmet is so cool. It gives bonuses to Strength and Endurance, and even has a Skill!"

"Oh? What Skill?" Vess asked.

"Uh, Madman's Assault. Some sorta headbutt attack."

"I see why the extra Endurance is required, then."

Beside Beef, Hallow stood perhaps two inches taller than she once was; her Body was still rocks and crystals all jumbled together, but a series of new crystals stuck up from her shoulders like spiky armor. Additionally, a Girdle of Shifting Movement was wrapped around the Homunculus' waist, a strange splash of embroidered black on the otherwise rocky figure. Apparently it granted a small bonus to Agility.

Vess had found one of the most interesting items. She too had ignored the armor and weapons, and instead focused on finding something that would truly compliment her fighting style. What she found was a strange metal basket with straps on one side so that it could be worn like a backpack. Inside the basket, slotted cleverly between metal segments, were thirteen dinner plate-sized bronze discs. Each one was thoroughly inscribed with an array, and Felix spotted the similarities to his Glamulet right away, as well as the differences.

Voracious Eye!

Name: Sling Salvo

Type: Thrown Weapon (Enchanted)

Lore: Discs made of High Bronze and inscribed with a duplication array. Each disc thrown will create duplicates that spread out and strike your target. Each duplicate does half as much damage as the original, and are destroyed upon impact. Mana for duplication must be metal attuned and infused into the discs before they are thrown.

Duplication Barrage II - Creates 1-3 duplicates per disc

"Wow, that's fascinating," Felix said, studying one of the discs. He flipped it over, tracing the fine sigaldry that radiated outward from its center.

"It will be of use when we see another swarm of Fathom spawn," Vess said, taking the disc back and securing it in its basket. "Increasing our wide-scale damage seems the wisest course of action at this point."

"I agree. The Fathom is still a concern, but we have to get through his hordes first, right?" A feathery head jutted right into Felix's shoulder, failing to push him back, but still interrupting his conversation. "I'm talking, Pit."

Felix's words trailed off as he saw his friend. Pit had a glass belt dangling from his beak, which he waggled in Felix's face. "Mmph mmmph mph!"

Felix took it from his Companions mouth, running his hands over the smooth segments of dark-blue glass. "What?"

"I asked, 'what is this?' I don't have Analyze."

"It..." Felix laughed, hesitated, and read his notification again. "It's a belt that transforms your lower half into a 'glistening fish tail.'"

Pit sat back onto his haunches, but his ears pricked forward. "OH! That sounds really useful. Will it make me swim better?"

"Yeah, probably?" Felix's chuckle was cut short by Isla's arrival. She was busily adjusting several pouch-covered belts around her waist, a bandolier more pouches, and a short arming sword. "Whoa, what did you find?"

"Items of interest. This sword will do nicely if I'm required to expend myself during this outing."

"And what's in all the pouches?"

Isla adjusted the coronet in her hair and smoothed her fine silk skirt. "Contingencies, Felix."

Felix shot a glance at Garox, still waiting patiently at the entrance perhaps twenty yards away. "What does that mean?"

"It means I do not trust these serpents, and neither should you." With that, Isla brushed past Felix and returned to their boat. Felix motioned to the others and climbed in after her.

"This discussion isn't over," he promised, before raising his voice. "Garox. We're ready to leave."

"Very well, my Lord."

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