Unbound

The crushing stomp of Felix's landing sent a peal of sound through the massive chamber. The crystals above them flared with light and rang like giant bells, and Adamant Discord stormed outward, throwing the Archon from his feet.

Manifestation of the Coronach is level 53!

...

Manifestation of the Coronach is level 63!

The Archon Affected By A Crisis of Faith for 3 Seconds!

Willpower Is Reduced By 60%!

"How are you alive!?" the golden giant wailed, trying to stand again. He was annoyingly unharmed. The Archon's chest, where he'd before been torn by Felix's claws, had repaired. Instead there was a dark object half buried in it that Felix thought looked like a vicious dagger. The Archon's eye flames flickered toward the side, where Felix had carelessly hurled the Henaari. "How are they alive!? That was pure, liquid Mana! It should have melted the flesh from your bones!"

"Didn't even burn," Felix growled.

Sovereign of Flesh!

His skin rippled and flexed, changing faster than ever before. His muscles swelled, Strength and Endurance growing beyond their already ridiculous limits, and brutal spurs and spikes of bone erupted from his elbows and knees. Scales, small and large, colored the blue-black of midnight covered him instantly. Cyan and red-gold light limned him, edging the scales across his arms and chest.

Sovereign of Flesh is level 64!

...

Sovereign of Flesh is level 67!

Unfettered Volition!

Corrosive Strike!

Wild Threnody!

Felix's fists ignited with virulently green Mana as he rocketed forward, crushing hexagonal stone beneath every step. The Archon was already on his feet, but Felix's movements were lightning. His clawed fist smashed into the golden giant's torso, throwing the constructed man's body back another five feet.

Wild Threnody is level 55!

...

Wild Threnody is level 59!

Corrosive Strike is level 52!

...

Corrosive Strike is level 58!

"You've grown stronger, Unbound. How? What lies beneath us?" the Archon demanded.

"Nothing," Felix said and closed the distance. "Not anymore."

The wind roared, displaced, as Felix surged forward. The Archon met him, his own limbs now glowing with yellow-red sigils, the golden giant's speed suddenly increasing to meet Felix's own. Felix bared his teeth, now fangs, and struck. Blow after blow, Felix and the Archon traded them, pummeling at each other with strikes strong enough to tear through steel and stone.

Fire bloomed, lightning crackled. Their bodies moved too fast, and more than once the Archon overshot his mark. Yet Felix, with all the benefits of his Third Threshold, never did. His hits were precise and brutal. The golden armor was dented and split in several places, revealing an interior of shimmering yellow-red lights and wounds the gouted flame like blood.

"You dare too much, Felix! You will die here, along with all of your team," the Archon snarled.

"Touch them and I'll do more than kill you, Merodach!"

The Archon flinched. "That name? Where—how do you know it?"

Felix only grinned and closed once again.

Adamant Discord!

A net of lines caught up the Archon, hurling him up and into the ceiling atop a bolt of brilliant lightning. Yellow-red sparks attempted to oppose Felix's power, but failed. The Archon may have been a genius, but Felix wasn't the same as before. The weight of his significance had multiplied, and his Transcendent Skill finally lived up to its rarity. It was like...it was like gravity, but more. It was everything, all connections, from the smallest to the largest and Felix could access them. Seize them.

The Archon collided with the roof, shearing off giant, dull crystals.

Adamant Discord!

Another flare, another bolt of incandescent lightning, and the Archon hurtled to earth. Smashing straight through the falling crystals, bursting them all into a glittering rain, and right into the hexagonal flooring with the sound of a mountain exploding.

"Haah haaah," Felix panted. "You...stay down."

Felix! Pit warned.

A beam of white-hot light cut up from the crater he'd made, straight for Felix's face. Felix flinched back and pulled. He chomped his teeth over the beam just as it reached him.

Ravenous Tithe!

The heat was incredible, the pain worse. Ravenous Tithe shook, still held in his Bastion, but the Mana streamed into Felix's core without issue.

The Song of Absolution is level 75!

...

The Song of Absolution is level 82!

Adept Tier!

You—!

Desperately, Felix shoved that into his Bastion as well, relaxing his Will enough to see his Skills all but combusting with bated revelation. He clamped down, unable to handle it. Not now. Hold on.

The Archon bellowed in rage.

Just hold on.

The golden giant emerged from the ground a fraction of a second later, accelerating toward Felix like a bullet train. A massive clawed hand manifested above him, spun entirely from flame, and slashed down at his position. Felix dodged, leaping aside and then forward, his own Skills burning across his channels.

Dodge is level 55!

...

Dodge is level 63!

Unfettered Volition is level 60!

...

Unfettered Volition is level 64!

Corrosive Strike!

Wild Threnody!

Acid drenched scale met flame bright metal like two tractor trailers crashing. A wave of concussive force swept outward, scattering bits of stone and crystal that surrounded them.

"You're done!" the Archon howled. His golden body flashed with new yellow-red sigils that appeared in sweeping lines. The pressure of his Spirit and Strength nearly doubled. Felix grit his teeth, shifted his fist, and gripped the Archon's hands with his long, ebon claws. He tore into them.

"I haven't even started!" Felix shouted, and forced his arms up and back.

Mantle of the Infinite Revolution!

Cardinal Flame!

The bestial Arcid howled, its strange fur and metal flesh parting beneath Evie's chain. It tore at the bladed weapon, furious, more animal than thinking creature. Evie was thankful for that. She'd have been dead twice over if its reasoning matched its Strength and Agility. As it was, she was still hard pressed.

Bindings of the White Waste!

Chains of frost burst upward, snagging the Archid by the arms and legs. It resembled nothing so much as a Hoarhound mixed with a Frost Giant, then armored a little like an Arcid, and it responded to her restraint by tearing at its own flesh.

Bindings of the White Waste is level 62!

"Disgusting," she hissed. Her chain was twisting, spinning for momentum while she manipulated the mass of it with her Born Trait. With a final flick, she brought it down. "Die!"

Its shoulder snapped beneath the blow, almost shearing off completely. Which should have impaired the monster, but it only freed it from her Bindings. It lunged at Evie, metal jaws agape.

A dark shape slammed into it from the side, bringing it hard into the sludge at their feet.

"A'zek," Evie panted, wiping at the blood in her eyes. "Kind of you to join in."

The massive harnoq tore the bestial Arcid's throat out with a single, savage heave. Dark ichor poured into the sludge, fouling it further, and the chimera spat. "Vile things, these creatures. They taste of unclean promises."

"Huh," Evie pulled her chain, letting it coil about her arm and shoulder. "Gross."

A huge noise came from up above, and the timbers at the side of the cliff trembled. The sound of combat stilled for a brief moment, before it resumed with even more of a rush.

"Felix's still fighting," Evie said with relief. "I had worried—"

"Come, Chain Maiden, we've allies to aid." The harnoq bounded off, toward the furious conflict at the other end of the encampment. Evie was right behind it, muttering.

"I'll 'chain maiden' you."

Still, she ran even faster than the chimera, skimming over the surface of the muck and unspooling her chain as she went. Harn and that Kylar guy were fighting the Arcid of Blades, while Vess and Wyvora were caught up against the poison one. As she ran, she saw more Tier I beasts emerge from the forest, all of them looking to hit Harn first before sweeping over the rest of them. She didn't know where A'zek was going, but it wasn't a choice for Evie. She veered off, toward the horde.

Felix! The explosion up above sent a thrill of joy through Vess' Spirit, and she was too tired to mask it.

"You hear that, creature? Your master fights for his life at this very moment." Wyvora circled the Poison Arcid before Vess, the both of them with spears at the ready. The Henaari spat at the gelatinous creature. "You will die here, at the base of this cliff, in the mud."

In response, the Poison Arcid simply lashed outward with barbed tendrils of its vile green. Vess leaped up and over the attack, kicking off the cliff and running along its face for several long strides.

Wall Run is level 62!

As she did, Vess summoned another set of silver Spears from her Skill. Air Mana streamed from her sore channels, congealing with a touch of metal Mana.

Spear of Tribulations is level 74!

She leaped from the vertical face of the cliff, arcing through the air, and sent three Spears speeding downward. They struck, just as Wyvora severed the vile green whip.

"Seven Tribulations!"

They exploded, blasting chunks of the Arcids body outward and splattering it against the muck. "Now, Wyvora!"

The Farhunter's hooked spear glowed with brilliant green-gold light, life and light Mana woven tightly together, until another spear tip laid atop the old. She thrust, stabbing deep into its revealed chest. The Archid screamed, a sound like a boiling tea kettle.

We can finish this!

Harn bashed the Arcid's blades from the air, trying and failing to sever the chains that secured them. His own enchanted axes weren't enough, and Raze was being deflected somehow.

"Damn thing is usin' my metal Mana against me," Harn groused. "Kid! You still alive?"

The Apprentice Tier swordsman gasped in response, his narrow blades a thin defense against the legions that had emerged from the woods. Ghostfire Simians, Prismatic Wretches, even some Hoarhounds, all coming in for the kill. They had emerged from the only approach, which narrowed their advance but the swordsman had been their only opponent for at least five minutes. Harn was impressed he was still alive at all.

"I can't hold them much longer!"

"Bindings of the White Waste!"

The advancing horde froze in place as chains of purple-white light speared up from the mud.

"Breaking Wheel!"

A rigid circle of spiked metal dropped from above, crashing into the front lines and smearing their bodies into the earth. Gore and mud fountained beneath it's weight, and Evie descended from the air above. She skidded to a stop before the stymied horde, grabbing her chain back. More monsters appeared from the woods, more than they could hold just the three of them.

"Don't just stand there, swordboy! Kill!"

Harn would have laughed, had the Arcid not used his distraction to attempt a backstab. Harn's armor deflected the blow, but it still hurt.

Descent of the Barbarian is level 76!

Rage poured into him, his armor bulking up around the wound, and Harn swung a backhanded blow at the Arcid. The metal construct took it to the chest but skipped back, blunting a lot of the force. Harn didn't care. He advanced, axes blazing.

"You think you know violence?" Harn growled. "I'll show you violence."

Armored Skin is level 69!

...

Armored Skin is level 75!

Adept Tier!

You Gain:

+15 END

+15 VIT

+200 Health

Strength against Strength, Felix broke the Archon with every blow. And with each breath, the Archon repaired himself, those flowing yellow-red sigils burning with power. Adamant Discord smashed him into walls, shattering the murals of the Urges' capture, burying the bastard in tons of rock. But the golden giant would emerge, again and again, ready to fight.

Felix obliged.

Claws slashed. Mana burst and ignited. Everything they had was brought to bear against one another, filling the huge chamber with sound and fury, and leaving almost none of it untouched. At some point Felix spared a thought for the Henaari he'd saved, but he couldn't find them. Then thought of them was driven from his Mind, as the Archon came at him once again.

"Enough!"

Felix skidded to a stop, his claws dripping with the red-gold fire of his Cardinal Flame. He regarded the Archon, beaten and battered, hunched over another wound in his metal gut.

"You've grown powerful. Too powerful. Why are we fighting, when we could work together?" The Archon glared at him, his eye-fires bright. "The gods have wronged you, just as the Nym have abandoned you, yes? We are Unbound. Together we would be unstoppable."

"Wow," Felix said through his gathering breath. "You think I'd believe that?"

The Archon's helmet deformed into a grin, and a spray of crystallized power shot forth from the Archon's feet. Felix stepped back but it had already formed a cage around him, a lattice-work of solidifed power that began to squeeze.

"I said 'enough,' and I meant it," the Archon hissed. "Goodbye, Felix Nevarre."

A spear of crystalline Mana shot forward, so fast that had he still been Human, Felix wouldn't have even seen it move. As it stood, Felix wasn't Human. Not by a longshot.

Felix seized the spear in mid-air, stopping it an inch before it hit his chest. With a flex of his enormous Strength, he shattered it and the cage around him.

Ravenous Tithe!

And then he ate it all.

"Im-Impossible," the Archon stammered, backing away. "You cannot break—you cannot absorb solidified Mana!"

"Can and did, Archie," Felix said. He walked forward, flaring his Sovereign of Flesh as his minor wounds began to rapidly repair. "I walk a new Path now."

"A Path?" The Archon's eye-fires blazed brighter, but the Spirit Felix could feel everywhere trembled in fear. "No. No, you can't. I saw no Omen Key!"

Felix didn't care what the bastard believed. They were too evenly matched, even after all the bullshit he had just gone through, the bastard was augmenting himself too powerfully to overwhelm. Not as he was. Felix grabbed the swirling mass of Essence within his core space, that thickened potency from the Urges, and fed it into his cores. His Intent shaped its direction with relative ease, his Will reinforcing it.

Sovereign of Flesh is level 68!

...

Sovereign of Flesh is level 72!

His muscle and scales pulsed, expanding, growing with every step he took. Felix felt the power within him as the significance he'd stolen from the Urge of Mayhem blossomed within his Skill; a revelation of turmoil and struggle. To be Sovereign, one must know turmoil, must be tested by it. Conquer it.

Sovereign of Flesh is level 73!

Sovereign of Flesh is level 74!

Blue lightning and red-gold fire scintillated across his shoulders and chest, down his limbs and across his neck and face. Felix grew, until his Body was the equal of the golden giant himself. His eyes, he knew, were bonfires of sapphire flame.

Unfettered Volition!

"RUUAAAAGH!" The Archon roared as he burst alight with his own strange abilities, flames and sour fumes coiled within his already-repaired armor. He charged at Felix, meeting him halfway with claws of flame.

They met, tooth and claw against profane sigaldry. Golden armor against midnight scale.

The Archon was blasted back, chest torn apart by Felix's upward swinging talons. A conjured Shadow Whip snagged him, however, yanked him back to be met by Felix's thunderous blow. The Archon's right arm was torn completely off, golden metal and strange forged pieces shearing and pinging off the walls. The golden giant screamed, engulfing his entire body in a sheath of white hot flame. Felix jerked back, scorched by it.

The Archon...ran.

He was so surprised by it that the Archon was able to make it all the way to the stairs before Felix acted. Felix blurred after him, his speed so much greater than it used to be, reaching the stairs only a half-second after his foe. Still, that meant the Archon had already disappeared up the curve of the stairwell, forcing Felix to reach ahead with his senses as he ran, lest the bastard ambush him or—

Felix almost stumbled before he grinned. He reached out, sending his bountiful Mana ahead of him in a dozen tendrils of Intent. The Archon was just up ahead, running like mad, right before a series of rocks on the steps.

Grenades.

Felix detonated them and the stairwell filled with light and thunder, followed by a crash of metal on stone. Felix rounded the corner and wasted no time. He leaped atop the staggered construct, leading with and overhand blow. It hit him, driving the Archon to his knees.

“You vile boy!” He twisted to face Felix, his single remaining arm blazing with Profane Sigaldry in an array more complex than anything he’d ever seen. The force of it sent Felix back down a couple steps. “You are facing someone who has spent Ages plotting his revenge! My Mind may have been broken, but I’m remembering! You! You have helped me remember!”

The fire intensified, until the heat was too much to bear. Felix snarled and backed up more steps.

“I was a living god to the Nym! A being capable of wonders they could not believe nor understand! They trembled before my might, my unrivaled intellect!"

Felix! He draws on unstable power! His core quivers with it! Karys buzzed at his waist. He cannot hold that much Mana!

Now that the Paragon mentioned it, Felix could feel it too. A wobbly buzzing within his Affinity, scratching frantically around the connection Felix could still feel between the two of them. Flashes of what he'd seen in the Memory of the Archon came back to him, of the strange rod Merodach had displayed, and of the awful pulses of power he'd used. He could feel something at the Archon's center shudder with every uptempo of dissonant magic, the Mana he gathered opposing directly against the Harmony of the world.

Felix tried Stone Shaping but the stairwell refused to bend to his Skill, and Shadow Whips melted in the intense heat. He cast about with his senses, looking for something, anything that he could use.

Then he saw it, sitting between the Archon's feet.

On it!

"Pit! No!"

Convergence!

A blinding flash of light filled the air, so bright even the Archon shouted in alarm. But nearly as much as he did when all three tons of Chimera manifested right on top of him.

"SKREAAAWW!"

Emerald fire covered Pit's huge expanse as he bit down onto the Archon's helmet-face. The Archon screamed in hideous pain, born backward by Pit's enormous bulk.

Pit's Poisonfire is level 51!

...

Pit's Poisonfire is level 68!

Pit's Poison Resistance is level 2!

...

Pit's Poison Resistance is level 22!

They both slammed into the stairs, both aflame, struggling against each others' weight and magic. Pit's Health descended rapidly as his Vitality was eaten away by the Archon's terrible, yellow-red power. Felix shied back, the atonal burr of that power too much for his senses.

"Pit!"

The plan, Felix! The plan!

Breath hissing between his teeth, Felix lunged forward, grabbing the object from the steps at the same time he unsheathed his Inheritor's Will.

Wild Threnody!

Arrow of Perdition!

Unfettered Volition!

His Crescian Blade ignited with a golden-azure glow as he channeled the Mana of his Arrow into its edge.

"Pit! Convergence!"

The tenku's weight vanished from the surprised construct, and Felix dove forward, bringing his blade down. Straight onto the dark dagger in his chest. The both of them slammed home, and the Archon howled as the physical core at his center splintered.

You do not deserve this Body! Karys shouted while Felix gathered all of the significance he could, and slammed it into his Skill.

UNITE THE LOST!

A huge, massive amount of power from the Urges siphoned into the Skill, fueling it. Chords of majestic Harmony clashed against descending Dissonance, both of them bursting against the other, separate but matched in might. Felix gritted his teeth, forcing the Skill and Wild Threnody and Arrow of Perdition all at once, his Mana dropping too fast for his regeneration to match.

"No! You—!" The Archon's choked howl met Felix's Will and shattered apart, unable to withstand even a second of it. Not when it was backed by the weight of six immortal Urges.

BEGONE!

The golden body rent, split beneath his Blade. Flesh and blood was spun, whole cloth from sheer power, spooling upon the steps just above them. Feet and legs, torso, chest, and arms. A man, full grown. A familiar face that gasped with his first true breath in Ages. He fell to the stone steps, screaming all the while.

The Unbound that became the Archon was whole once more. Beneath Felix's Blade, the Archon construct fell, finally limp.

"Merodach, Son of Anatu Son of Tamzi," Felix panted, blood running from a wound on his scalp and cheek. He left his Blade in the construct's chest. "Eat shit."

Merodach's newborn eyes widened in surprise and fear as Felix slammed into him. In his free hand was the object he'd snatched from the stairs, the Seed of Remembered Light. He grabbed the man's face with a brutal, ebon claw and shoved it straight down his throat while slamming a chunk of potency from the Urges into it. Power enough to see it grow.

And grow it did.

Roots exploded from Merodach's gut, branches and bark spiraling upward to smash against the delicately carved ceiling and walls. Felix leaped back, but it wasn't enough, he was caught up in the titanic growth that speared upward into and through the rocky ceiling. Through the entire cliff.

Aria of the Green Wilds is level 63!

Aria of the Green Wilds is level 64!

...

Aria of the Green Wilds is level 79!

Adept Tier!

You Gain—

Felix could only clamp onto his Bastion as he tumbled back, while the Nymean Temple—and the cliff that housed it—were torn asunder.

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