Unbound

Wild Threnody is level 50!

Journeyman Tier!

You Gain:

+5% RES, MIG, FEL

Lightning consumed the Blight, tearing from it's throat and lighting up the former chorister's insides. His friends leaped away, bowling through the encroaching horde while smaller, foot thick bolts of electricity arced outward, lighting up the Revenants nearby.

You Have Killed The Pride Of Blight!

XP Earned!

Territorial Quest Alert!

You Have Gained Significant Contribution!

The Blight collapsed to the ground, a lump of charred meat and blackened scales. A flicker of other kill notifications came in, Revenants dying by the dozen, but it was all Felix could do to keep standing. His core was rioting, a blue-white flame that was barely flickering. His Essence had dropped precariously as well, and the pain of their upset balance burned through his gut.

Pit let out a worried squawk, but they weren't the only ones in pain.

The two Scales that had emerged were pumping out that dire vapor while he fought, and now their production seemed to kick up a notch. Towers of crimson fog poured from them, more like volcanoes than smokestacks, and people had started to succumb. Felix saw Acolytes fall to their knees, clutching their chests and throats as the corruption turned the air to soup.

No no no. Felix spun, terrified.

Atar had already fallen, grimacing even in unconsciousness, and both Evie and Vess were close behind. Bodie and Harn, Cal and the Elders, all of them stumbled to their knees. Felix's dumb, stupid Tempered eyes could pick out scales forming even on their advanced Bodies.

"Vessilia!" The Hand shouted, appearing at her side in a blur of wind that barely stirred the thickening air. "What is happening? Fiend! Do something!"

Ravenous Tithe!

Huge chunks of the miasma was pulled into Felix, thundering through his channels and into his core. But it wasn't enough. It was like air: there was always more to fill the gap.

The Shadow Hounds, which up til then had been fighting off a sizable pack of the Revenants, flickered and died with ghastly howls. The Revenants let loose their own cries, but it was one of triumph and bloodlust. Mouths eager for the slaughter.

The horde charged.

"Reed! Take them all! Get them out of here!" Felix said.

Even the Hand seemed a bit woozy, but he held his ground. "By myself? What'll you be doing?"

"Something stupid, probably."

Reed paused, just long enough to give Felix a begrudging nod. Then he conjured some sort of spinning vortex of air Mana; the thing twisted on itself, shaping into some sort of concave disc and the Adept grabbed Vess and the others in rapid succession. All of them were tossed onto the disc.

"Keep them off my back, Fiend," the Hand demanded. "I can't carry them all and fight off an army!"

"Don't worry," Felix grunted, watching his Mana regenerate as the horde closed in. "They're here for me."

The Broodmother screeched again, and whatever primal magnetism Felix held over the Revenants redoubled. The monsters were tearing each other apart to get to him. The nearest Scale was to his right, and those Primordial Spawn that weren't headed directly for him where swarming around it. Even as he watched, a Revenant screamed in pain and pleasure as its body tore itself apart...and rebuilt into something larger and more vicious.

That's how the Ghouls are being made. Felix ran forward, flaring his Unfettered Volition in spurts. His Mana was still recovering from his last burst. All this Essence, concentrated. Its forcing them to grow. To mutate. He spun aside, dodging several swipes toward his chest and thighs while lashing out with his own claws. Just like the choristers.

Ravenous Tithe!

More Essence streamed from around him, accompanied by a relative trickle of ambient Mana. His core throbbed with imbalance, but there was little he could do while his Mana still hadn't recovered. He zipped through the charred remains of the Blight, retrieved his Blade of the Fang and unsheathed his Femur of the Envoy. Well, one thing.

A torrent of Essence poured from him and into his weapons, and Felix swung them about like a wrecking ball. His Strength, Endurance, and Agility combined with the preternatural durability of the weapons to devastate those Revenants near him. They were all, at best, six or seven levels below him and Felix's stats were well beyond the norm. Flesh ripped and bones snapped beneath his onslaught, teeth and claws and thick, pungent ichor sprayed in gruesome fountains with every swing. Felix was death incarnate to the Revenants.

Experience and Contribution streamed across his vision, but the enemy never stopped. Out of the swirling mists more and more gnashing teeth came howling, all of them piling over one another without care or concern for survival. Felix could sense it in their stunted Spirits: rage, hate, and an all consuming need to devour him.

Influence of the Wisp!

His Mana had recovered, enough for a few castings. Blue-white fire limned the bodies of dozens of Revenants, each of them freezing in place as their scales and flesh and fats were turned into fuel for his Skill. Dropping his shoulder, Felix rammed through them.

The Scale! It was close, maybe fifty more feet. He could feel the infernal heat of it.

Influence of the Wisp!

The next group froze as well, and Felix wasted no time with killing them. Instead, he gathered more of his Mana and, ignoring the riot of pain that clenched his core, he sent it surging out of his channels.

Stone Shaping!

Ahead of him, the overgrown floor buckled and rippled into a sludge forty feet in diameter. Revenants and three newly minted Ghouls stumbled and sank to their hips and knees, respectively, before Felix dropped the Skill. The stone solidified, trapping them for at least the moment.

Unimpeded, Felix jumped. He cleared the sunken grasp of the Ghouls and landed, Fang first, onto the side of the massive Scale. The Blade sunk into the ten foot tall ovoid, but only a few inches. Felix could feel the Essence he fed into the Blade pushing back at the Essence burning within the Scale. With a mild grunt, he lifted himself atop it, confident the Essence running through would handle his weight. Revenants and Ghouls began to rip themselves up from the shaped stone, several of them growing bulkier as they struggled.

Felix swallowed, mouth dry in the utter heat pouring off the Scale. He easily recalled the feelings the last Scale had put him through, the pressure and pain. Yet from that height, Felix could see the Hand retreating, his friends trailing behind on a floating gurney. Bad for you, and it's killing them. Don't hesitate.

Ravenous Tithe!

Felix and Pit screamed, their voices unified in agony as a hurricane of Primordial Essence screamed into his channels. The corrosive power burned him from within, a sanguine flame that did not stop, could not stop. The Scale beneath him ripped itself apart, sublimated into luminescent vapor that thundered into Felix, and even when his Blade fell away he remained, floating. Held up by nothing but a storm of power.

The Spawn screamed all around him, the Ghouls and Revenants alike clawing at their flesh, digging into their own chests. Only part of him noticed them at all, and soon even that part was subsumed by the tumult within.

Essence poured from his channels, a raging, ceaseless influx. It gathered above his core as it did before, a cloudy nebula above the sparkling solar system of his core space. Again, thankfully, the abyss within the center of his ring core tore the lion's share from him, consuming all that it possibly could. Felix became a conduit for the Essence, and it didn't care that his skin began to tear and his eyes burned a brilliant, blinding sapphire, or that his fangs lengthened and sharpened. The blackened armor across his body thickened, heavier scales growing atop the old along his back and shoulders, while the bone spikes at his elbows and knees curved, darkening from a yellow-white to a slick ebon.

Then it was over. He fell.

Territorial Quest Alert!

You Have Gained Significant Contribution!

Territorial Quest Alert!

You Have Gained Significant Contribution!

Territorial Quest Alert!

You Have Gained Significant Contribution!

Song of Absolution is level 58!

Song of Absolution is level 59!

Song of Absolution is level 60!

Notifications of Contribution continued, ceaselessly, and Felix banished them. His core shrieked at him, recoiling from the fount of Primordial Essence in a crescendo of noiseless sound. But Felix stood from his crouch, blinking past the pain, and saw a killing field. Tens of Revenants and Ghouls were laid out around him, dead. They were barely recognizable and looked like they had been wrung dry of everything, all moisture and mass torn away from them. Stolen.

Holy shit. Pit let out a whistling whimper. Buddy, you okay? Pit trilled weakly, pained but managing.

How had he stolen from the Revenants? He hadn't targeted them. Ravenous Tithe had never forcefully drained something he wasn't actively claiming. It was part of its description, even. So how—?

Links, he realized. Connections. The part of the Maw that resided in the Scale resided in them as well. Somehow the Scale amplified my Skill, and the link between them and the Maw was enough to do the rest.

Felix looked up and saw the more Revenants were coming, but the other Scale was close. Nearer the Broodmother than Felix, but close enough.

Unfettered Volition!

Teine skidded to a stop at the crater's edge. Lightning coursed across the battlefield, followed by golden swarms of offensive projectiles and the bitter howling of mad beasts. Teine ignored it all, instead staring down at the center of the ruptured floor. The Belais Crystal shimmered purple in the red haze, though the fog was thinner here than elsewhere. The Fiend had accomplished something.

But he cannot defeat them all, Teine thought as he slid down the jagged edge of the man-made chasm. If this array activates, none of us stand a chance.

"Everyone! Pour your Mana into this crystal!"

"Sir?" Mervin asked, but Teine only gestured violently at the misshapen mineral deposit before them.

"Wind Blade!" A ripple of air Mana tore from his channels, hitting the crystal and sinking into it without a whisper of sound. The purple glowed a little bit brighter. "Fire whatever spells you have! I want this glowing like the sun!"

His people asked no further questions, just unleashed a barrage of Mana Skills on the crystal. It soaked up everything that came its way, the perfect receptacle for Mana; Teine regretted the choice he was being forced to make.

Regardless, he stepped closer to it and pulled a golden inscription stylus from his pouch. With a sure, deft hand, he began to inscribe sigils upon the stone's glossy surface as fast as possible.

"Kill it!" DuFont screamed, bringing her hooked blade down upon another slick tentacle. They had been attacking at range, but the Broodmother had not been content to let them bombard it in peace, the wretched thing. Ghouls and Revenants had also rushed them, but not as many as Eliza had feared. They seemed preoccupied with whoever had caused that explosion.

Both Daur and Rutger were beside her, flanked by Initiates and Acolytes, all of them firing their light bolts into the mass of fang and flesh. The Broodmother had writhed beneath the onslaught, parts of it blackening and curling as fast as it healed itself. But then something had changed, and now their hits were accumulating.

"Keep it up! The creature cannot withstand forever!" DuFont defended against another two appendages that swung from the main mass. Explosions of heat dessicated the limbs before they reached her, but it was the hooked blade in her hand that severed them. It was an invaluable weapon, doing far more damage than the Inquisitor's own fiery blades despite their heavy enchantments. She bisected another tentacle, releasing a foul wave of ichor that she boiled to steam with her heat Mana.

The Broodmother let out an earsplitting bellow, high and low notes mixing into a buzzing cacophony that even DuFont's Body struggled to defend against. Hundreds of her Acolytes fell to their knees and were immediately cut down by Revenants and Ghouls. There was an almighty squelch and the egg factory shifted; the creatures body was trying to tear itself from the ground, reaching for something out in the battlefield.

"It's moving!" Rutger hollered. "Focus fire!"

Another volley of light hit the beast, and it screamed again. Yet more Acolytes and Initiates were stunned, but DuFont would not be diverted. They were close. It was almost dead!

"Don't stop! Die if you must, but don't stop!"

Felix cut through the Revenants; hot knife meet butter. His Fang and Femur spun in a wild dance of death that plowed through their resistance, but mostly he simply avoided them where he could. The Ghouls nearer the second Scale were far more stable, having had more uninterrupted time to develop. Felix skirted them as much as he was able to; they didn't matter, not if he was right.

The Broodmother screamed in a poor imitation of the Maw's discordant rage, and he could feel energy surging through the horde just as white armored figures stumbled to their knees. Felix didn't bother to help them; they were too far away and the Inquisition had too much blood on their hands already. Let them reap the blood they had already sown.

Still, the boosting effect of the Broodmother had given the Ghouls nearest the Scale a leg up on speed. He was forced to expend more Mana to divert them, trapping them with Stone Shaping and Shadow Whips, burning them with Influence of the Wisp. They were not defeated, but Felix was able to slip through. He reached the second Scale.

Ravenous Tithe!

The surface of the Scale was molten, and Felix could practically feel his Song of Absolution gaining potency as it fought off the heat and pain. His sturdy, scaled flesh began to sizzle. But as the Scale dissolved and turned to luminous steam, Felix could feel the Essence echo within him with each passing second. Crimson cords that tied to the ruby blob atop his ring of flames, that reached out into the world and tied together the Primordial Spawn as well. Not just here, but everywhere. Through the dark tunnels and above, in the first chamber where he sensed the Iron and Tin Ranks faced off against a renewed assault, and above that, in the streets of Haarwatch. Felix could feel them, like a phantom limb, just as he experienced their rage and hate as his own.

Felix grasped along those connections, drawing them in as much as he drew in the Scale, and power flooded him. He choked on it. It burned him, threatening to hollow him out with every passing second, but still he pulled.

Yet it wasn't enough. They were too far, too spread out. The Ravager King had been so close, the Maw's Essence that animated him readily available to Felix's Hunger. It wasn't enough.

Ravenous Tithe is level 59!

...

Ravenous Tithe is level 64!

Song of Absolution is level 61!

Song of Absolution is level 62!

Fire Within is level 61!

...

Fire Within is level 63!

Pit pulled alongside him, devouring more and more of the soup of Essence, Mana, and ineffable potency Ravenous Tithe consumed. Pain tingled between them, as strong as the exhaustion that hung heavily over their heads.

Etheric Concordance is level 63!

Thanks...bud...

The Scale was gone, eaten entirely, and Felix crouched on the vine-strewn ground as he tried to settle it all in his veins. Together, Pit and Felix both hiss out one breath after another, muscling down the Essence that felt like it wanted to disgorge itself at any moment. That hungry cyclone in his core, however, slowly eroded that feeling of fullness. He knew it'd dissipate eventually...he just wished he knew where all the Essence was going.

Pit trilled in sudden alarm, and Felix snapped his weary head up, fearing an attack. Instead what he found was the mummified corpse of a Ghoul only inches away. Around him, hundreds of Primordial Spawn had fallen, drained of the corruption that animated them. Felix checked and dismissed the notifications for Experience and Contribution that flickered through his vision, noting the increase in several of his Skills too.

Another discordant screech from the Broodmother, but Felix barely felt it. He rose to his feet and picked up his discarded weapons. Bone and Blade, he turned to the beast, still protected by thousands of Primordial Spawn. He could sense another, final Scale, but not its location. The Scales were clearly providing the power for the Revenants, and if he cut them off then he'd take care of the Nest.

He just—

"Well, how interesting," a voice buzzed. It was the sound of a hammer on an empty steel tube. "So you are the Fiend."

Felix spun, and Pit quailed within him. Striding from the thinning haze were three armored forms, unknown to him yet unmistakable.

"Arcids," he snarled.

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