Unbound

"Close the gate!"

Felix hollered with all of his Journeyman lungs as the Dustwights threw themselves at him. He paid them little mind. They couldn't penetrate his Armored Skin, let alone his transformed hide, and his Blade of the Fang reaped them like wheat. The Wraiths were more of a concern, but that was why he was still running his Adamant Discord. He had to pulse the Skill to take care of the more powerful undead, but the rest were tossed about like leaves in a storm. The glut of galvanized links filled the tunnel with crackling light, each tie to the undead snapping in such quick succession it felt like he was inside one of those plasma balls you could buy at a mall.

Just way, way more violent.

Flesh burst and sand scattered with each pulse of his Skill, the Mana ebbing and flowing within his core as his regeneration replenished what it depleted. He could hold them back for a while, even with the extra effort he Wraiths cost him.

A plaintive warble came from within his Spirit, but Felix quashed the argument before it could begin. "I know you want to fight, but now's not the time!"

I am growing! the tenku sent.

"I know you are, but...there! See?" Felix's gaze flicked back toward the distant gate. The smallish section at the bottom had started to slowly close. "They're all in and closing up! Either you fly ahead without me, or stick around and we'll get in together. Your choice!"

Fine, Pit chirped. It was weird, hearing the sheer sulk in the sound.

Felix grinned, too relieved to feel bad. He dropped his Adamant Discord, and kicked off the stone. Cloudsteps formed beneath his feet, pushing him back ten and then twenty feet as he accelerated. Time to go!

A bellow like a dying, thirty-foot walrus shook the air. Stone dust drifted from above, and even Felix winced at the utter volume of the cry. He looked back toward the horde, and spotted another undead.

"What the actual fuck," he hissed to himself.

A huge, hulking creature on par with the largest of Frost Giants ripped through the horde of undead. Its body was covered in bone plating and cruel, hooked barbs along its shoulders, back, and the outside of its limbs. Many of them even glowed a deep blue and looked...almost crystalline. A face that was nothing more than a dark, iron skull roared at him.

It looked like a gladiator from hell.

Voracious Eye!

Name: Dustborn Behemoth

Type: Primordial Spawn (Lesser)

Level: 73

—

He'd barely had time to read the notification when the Behemoth tore through the crowd of undead. Sand and limbs flew in all directions, its barbed spikes catching and ripping through its alleged allies. The thing was fast too—Felix barely had time to bring his Fang to bear, but he managed. The Blade shimmered bright green and Felix brought the sword up in a diagonal slash across its chest and knocked the thing back a single step.

It didn't even flinch.

Still roaring, the Behemoth caught Felix in a devastating backhanded slam. Committed to his own attack, Felix had no choice but to take it head on, and he gasped as he was crushed into the roadway. The ground cratered around them both, and his gasp became a shout of pained surprise. Blood splattered from his nose and mouth.

Faster than Felix could track, the Behemoth swung down again. And again. Each time smashing him further into the crater.

Status Condition: Broken Rib (x3)

Status Condition: Internal Bleeding

Status Condition: Punctured Lung

The Behemoth opened its massive, iron jaws and roared in triumph. It slammed both fists down a final time, exploding the ground for twenty feet in all directions. Stone dust obscured the crater, and the cacophony of the other undead quietened to a low rumble.

"Ooh ow, my bones, ahh," Felix rasped, as he rose from the gel-like stone just outside the attack's range. The rock firmed beneath his feet, and he wobbled, holding his ribs gingerly. "I'm giving you shit, but that hurt a lot. So, uh, credit where credit's due."

"FEEEELIX!"

"Oh I don't like that you can all talk," he muttered. The Behemoth's muscles bulged, snapping through several of its bone plates, and it leaped forward. "Nope! Not today!"

Adamant Discord!

A cord of connection, larger and thicker than all the rest, snapped into place between them. Felix shoved, hard, and the kinetic force and lightning demolishes the Wraiths beside it. Yet the Behemoth was only forced back by a single, staggered step.

"See ya!" Instead, Felix was sent hurtling back with all the force he had mustered.

Felix grinned as the world was whipped into blurring shapes. Perhaps he could have fought the thing, but he wasn't willing to try. Not at the moment. With a grunt, he shoved his hand down onto the ground below, jamming his talons into the stone ramp as he flew. Four narrow furrows ripped into the stone, slowing him down until he jerked to a sudden stop just outside the gate.

Can't believe that worked, he thought as he stared at his hand. His talons were a bright, cherry red and sizzled in the air. He looked at the Behemoth, who was only now recovering from the staggering shot of his Adamant Discord. Felix raised his still-sizzling talon and flipped the damn thing off.

Pit squawked in alarm and Felix hopped backward, ducking under just as the gates closed.

*KRAKOOOM!*

Through the split second the huge gate door was swinging closed, the Behemoth rushed forward. Its massive bone claws, hit the metal gate hard enough that Felix flinched backward and the damn thing dented. Someone screamed. Cracks spread across the inside of the gate, though it was closed, spreading wider and wider as the furious impacts hit one after the other.

"Out of the way!" someone shouted, and a man in golden armor and an orange tabard shoved his way toward the side of their strange chamber. Felix felt the whisper song of a Mana Skill, and the sounds cut off completely. A complex network of arrays ignited within the chamber, cutting off all sound and arresting the cracks before they spread. The man nodded at the gate. "There. Bastard is cut off."

Felix wiped a smear of blood from his nose. "Well. That was..." He paused and quaffed one of his heavier duty Health Potions before checking his Status. His ribs had mostly healed and the internal bleeding and punctured lung had gone away thanks to his accelerated Health regeneration when he held Sovereign of Flesh. It had eaten through a lot of his Essence, but Felix wasn't about to complain. With a sigh, he let his transformed skin fade back to normal. The cracked ribs would heal up eventually, but he sensed new people among them. Terrifying midnight scales and fangs weren't the best icebreakers.

The entirety of their company was contained in the long chamber, though it was a tight fit especially with the space the Frost Giants took up. Felix didn't sense another door or even passages beyond the walls of the space, but the wards could have been throwing off his Perception. It wasn't worth worrying about just then, so he sought out his friends instead. "How is everyone?"

Atar, Vess, Harn, and Zara were nearest him, and all four looked in bad shape. Wounds covered their exposed skin, and the in the case of Harn, his armor was dented all to hell. Zara especially looked bad, and Felix's nostrils flared in recognition.

"Shit, Zara—" he started, but she cut him off.

"I'm fine for now, as are our people. The efforts of the Claw have proven more solid than I hoped. Few were injured, and only a single death," she said. Felix felt the last word like a blow to his gut. He had feared it, but hearing the results of their fight was a burden he'd hoped to avoid. "I believe we have other, more immediate concerns."

The Naiad's eyes flicked sideways and Felix saw a young...deer-woman step out of the crowd. Around her were six Humans in similar armored robes in orange and gold. Both shades were almost precise replicas of how the Mana for fire and light looked to his Manasight. The deer-woman cleared her throat.

"Right. This is Fiammetta, a Disciple of the Temple of the All Burning Flame," Atar said wearily. "Fiammetta, this is—"

"A representative of the Territory of Nagast," Zara interrupted, a hitch in her voice. The way she was holding a hand to her side concerned Felix, but he didn't miss what she was doing. He nodded at the deer-woman.

"A pleasure to meet you," he said and activated his Voracious Eye. The woman was a Faun, a sort of deer-person in the same way Zara was a water-person.

Lore: Fauns are believed to be descended from nature elementals in the First Age, and often have characteristics in common with the bestial creatures of the wilds. A nomadic people, little is known of their deeper histories even to themselves. Much as Goblins and Hobgoblins are close cousins, many believe Fauns are closely related to Alseids, Nixies, and Naiads.

All in all, cool information that told him relatively little. She was level 61, had less than half of his own Health total, and hadn't yet fully reached Journeyman Tier. Why she was in charge was a mystery, as he could sense the others with her were all well into that same level of advancement. Perhaps, he thought, there are other considerations for leadership in the Temple.

"Nagast," the woman said, slowly. "I have heard of this Territory. It caused quite the commotion recently, did it not?"

"So I hear," Felix said, before shaking his head. His Mind spun, and his Deception flared within his core. "I'm Silas Veil, diplomatic representative sent on behalf of the Autarch of Nagast. The commotion you mentioned is exactly the reason we've been sent on this mission."

"And what mission is that?" she asked, her bright eyes peering into Felix's own. "And how did you access the Latticeways? All proper entrances are sealed."

Felix smiled, but evaded the question. "Trade is of interest to us. Perhaps more...but I believe all else would be better discussed with your Council."

The Faun's expression tightened and her Spirit trilled. Wariness and excitement flared beneath her agreeable facade. "Of course. Devoted Tem?"

"Aye, Disciple," said one of the golden armored warriors, before he walked over to join the man that had enacted the wards. Felix's Perception flared, and he spotted thirty-two of them interspersed among his Claw. Shifting very slightly on the balls of his feet, Felix prepared himself for whatever these warriors were going to attempt. The two warriors by the gate held their gauntleted hands over a rotating Mana construct that had extended from the wall. "By your leave, Disciple."

"Let us rise," she said. Her voice and Spirit were matched in relief and joy as she grinned at Felix. "I believe you will enjoy this, Representative Veil."

The ground lurched beneath his feet. A series of startled oaths tore from his Legion, even more so when the odd sensation of movement began to press at them all. Felix felt a touch of nostalgic wonder as he realized he was in a giant, industrial elevator.

"Mind the sides," a few of the warriors said, shepherding folks away from the now-moving walls.

"A lift?" Vess asked. She peered at the walls and the complex, flashing threads of sigladry that fluttered past them with gathering speed. "The power required to move so many at such speeds is considerable. How do you afford it?"

"These lifts are not available to the wider populace," Fiammetta said. "The cost of their operation is handled entirely by the Temple."

"Because the populace doesn't know about the Latticeways," Atar said, grimly. "Why not?"

"It is not my place to question the orders of the Matrons, nor the Council of Masters."

Felix kept his face mild, but his Spirit rumbled. He didn't like the feeling the Temple and Council were given off already. If they're as corrupt as the Guild and Inquisition....

Either way, Felix was not going to be caught unaware ever again.

The elevator sped up, powered by a prismatic swirl of Mana types but primarily deep blue water and lighter blue force Mana. Felix thought that strange, especially in a desert, but the thought stalled out as they emerged into the light of day.

"Siva's Grace," Vess gasped.

"It's beautiful," Evie said.

Harn grunted. "Eh."

The walls of carved metal and stone had vanished, replaced instead by a sheath of transparent crystal. Through the crystal, Felix could see the Expanse spread out in almost every direction, save for directly behind them. That was dominated by a craggy tract of a mountain, barely lit in the pre-dawn dark. They rose along an elevator shaft fastened to the outside edges of a huge edifice, so big Felix couldn't get a good sense of its true dimensions. Instead, his vision was arrested by the dark night. Stars wheeled in the black sky, brighter than they had appeared from the desert's sands—thick swathes of distant fire that paled in comparison to the moons already dominating the heavens.

Yet all of that was distant, and frankly hard to see through the crackling sandstorm that surrounded them.

"The Cursewinds?" he asked in alarm, but as they rose through the storm he realized it bore none of the torpid aggression he'd sensed before.

"No, these are the unique defenses of our City of Embers," Fiammetta said proudly. "The single greatest Blessing ever bestowed upon our people. It protects us from the dire Cursewinds, and repels those who have...less than honorable intentions with Ahkestria."

The sandstorm was thick with earth Mana, but even more so it was filled with searing flashes of fire. It felt hot and protective to Felix's senses, and the Mana would have been blinding to him only a few months prior. Now his Manasight picked out the strange flows of power swirling around them, enough that he could tell how utterly complex it all was—the storm was a tightly woven net that rarely repeated any sort of pattern, except for occasional knots of earth and fire and purple augmentation Mana. Even those were sporadic and appeared randomly in the swirl of dire winds and corrosive sand granules.

"I have never stood so close to it," Atar said from beside Felix. He coughed. "It's beautiful."

"The Highest Flame Blessed us all with its creation, and the Matrons maintain it daily with their mighty power," Fiammetta said. The Faun looked at Atar and pursed her lips. "You are quite fortunate that a neophyte was cleaning near the Altars of Ancients when you activated the messaging array. Luckier still that the Matrons deigned to send us to greet whomever had lost themselves on the Causeway. Perhaps the Highest Flame has Blessed you more than you ever acknowledged."

Atar smirked. "Perhaps."

Felix frowned but ignored their banter. There was history there and he didn't care to piece it together, not now. If Atar wanted to share he would do so later. Instead, Felix's attention was taken by the glimpses of the Scorched Expanse he could make out beyond the storm. The dunes rippled, carved by winds and painted by soft moonlight and blue shadows. They were frozen waves, like Evie's core space. A huge sea, like how Klzix had described it being in the past.

Did the Primordial cause the sea to dry up? If so, why? And why hasn't it shown its face yet? That last part was frustrating Felix more and more. Not that he wanted to go head to head with another Primordial, but the fact that he had no idea what the creature wanted or planned to do. Add in the fact that it was hunting him specifically, and it was all Felix could do to keep his skin from crawling right off. The direct clashes he could weather but his people getting caught in the crossfire was unacceptable. And now we have the Behemoth. That thing was strong too. If this Primordial sends more of them, then we're screwed.

He drummed his fingers against his thigh as the elevator rose higher and higher, and the storm outside intensified. The light of the moons could no longer penetrate the covering, but Felix noted a steady glow from their rear. He turned toward the cliff face they climbed, and was surprised to see the rock give way to gargantuan crystalline shafts of solid Mana. A ripple of awe went through the Claw, while the Temple Guards all smiled.

"Now that's impressive," Harn said.

Felix could tell now that what he beheld was a mesa, a huge table of stone in the middle of the desert. Except the top third of it was composed entirely of solidified Mana, all of it colored the deepest blue and a vibrant green-gold. Water and life Mana surged through his Manasight, smelling of old stories and petrichor and tasting of a long nap on a summer's evening. People around Felix, especially those with higher Mana pools, found themselves wobbling on their feet from the sheer immensity of pure Mana before them.

Then they rose higher, and crystalline pillars were clearly delineated from the bulk of the mesa; each pillar supported a stone platform, which in turn supported another and another. Clusters buried in stone that was utterly beyond Felix's ability to affect with shaping. He couldn't even tell what Tier it was, only that his efforts would likely shatter the teeth of his Skill. And atop it all, came the City.

Ahkestria, City of Embers.

The lowest layers were obscured by thick granite walls, but the elevator rose rapidly past them. Atop those, there were four other layers that were more open to the skies and sun through a series of clever passages and skylights. Buildings hewn from the rock itself filled the layers, extending in deep, complex neighborhoods and filled with the dim lights and thin cook fires of people only just waking up. Up and down the streets, solidified crystals of orange and gold seemed to grow naturally all around the city.

"Fire and light Mana, solidified by the tireless efforts of our powerful ancestors," Atar said with pride. His face glowed with a measure of happiness at seeing his home—it was nice to see, even if it sent a pang of jealousy through Felix's chest. His own home had never felt quite so far. "Those crystals are more precious than anything in the wider Continent, you know. Even here, they would have been hoarded if they could be moved without destroying them entirely." Atar laughed, and the happiness shifted into a faint bitterness. "So the Council decreed that they were to be used to spread light and warmth throughout the city. A boon, they call it, ignoring the fact that the light does not reach all layers of Ahkestria."

"What?" Felix asked, but the fire mage just clenched his jaw.

"It is what gives the city its name," Fiammetta said. The pride in her home was also clear, but it burned like a sun next to Atar's moon. "The City of Embers, glimmering through the night. Beacon of the Scorched Expanse."

"I'm thinkin' all the fires help too," Evie pointed out.

They had reached the very top layer, the one exposed to the sky above, and huge golden braziers were placed around towering edifices of crystal and stone. Soaring structures surrounded this area, many of which were contained but high walls and clear defensive structures. Felix found that odd. Those braziers burned with bonfires that lit everything. Felix could almost imagine the heat they threw off. In the far distance, perhaps miles away, the swell of what must have been a palace dominated the skyline. Its very tip was alight with flame as well, and this one fluttered against his senses with more than just heat.

Exploration is level 65!

The elevator slowed and came to a soft, hissing stop.

"Welcome, envoys of the Territory of Nagast, to Ahkestria." Disciple Fiammetta spread her arms and stepped toward another metal gate as it opened into the city. "May your Flame burn in the Night."

She gave Felix a slight bow. "If you would deign to follow me, I shall arrange quarters for you and your people."

Felix pasted on a smile and nodded back. "Lead the way."

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