Unbound

The Inquisitor howled in pain, and those Mana tendrils atop her aura flailed. She took the hit hard enough that it sent her flying into and through a plaster and wood second story wall nearby.

"Cal!" Evie cried out, but Felix couldn't see her.

DuFont stumbled, reeling from the blades in her face and the arm Felix still held. The Song that had buoyed her all this time faltered, a hitch in its beat. Felix dropped the arm and tore the Femur of the Envoy from his hip. His Blade of the Fang had been lost somewhere along the way, but this would do. He tilted the club sideways and flooded it with Essence and lunged. Felix's leg, half melted, gave out the moment he put his weight on it.

Adamant Discord!

Lightning flared and thunder boomed as the immutable threads of gravity launched him forward anyway. He slammed into DuFont, club braced, and pushed.

Adamant Discord!

Off-balance and wavering, DuFont still would not move easily. Felix poured his Mana and Essence into the Skill, flaring it with every ounce of his Aspects and stats. Yellow Mana bloomed, slamming into the buildings and street until the wood burst alight and the stone went red hot. Felix screamed.

Adamant Discord!

They became an incandescent bolt of dueling Mana, blue and yellow surging against one another until the alley walls shattered around them. They took off like a shot, Felix pushing with his club and DuFont bellowing. Down the narrow gullet of the alley.

"Raze!"

Deep blue and silver Mana sliced through the night, discharging into the dark. Lashing chain and twin axes buried themselves in the back of DuFont's legs. Armor sundered and flesh split before Evie and Harn's Skills, but Felix didn't stop his own Skill. No matter the pain.

Adamant Discord!

The both of them ripped past his allies, across the thoroughfare and through the wrought iron gate of another merchant's mansion. Felix hauled back, angling them higher, but the were moving faster and faster. DuFont rolled, her immense body attempting to blindly twist Felix from atop her.

"You're not escaping!" Felix snarled.

One wall, two, they plowed up a set of hardwood stairs and through the second story masonry. They skipped over a rooftop, shattering three chimneys in the process, before careening into some sort of squat tower. And right through it. DuFont let out a strangled scream as they emerged, and struck the Femur from Felix's grip. A bolt of lightning discharged in all directions and Felix was thrown backward, the club spinning into the night. The both of them fell.

"You-you've blinded me!" DuFont choked out. Felix's curved sword was still in her grip as they fell through the rainy dark. "Burning ashes! I'll kill you!"

Shadow Whip!

A cord of shadow caught at the Inquisitor, and Felix tugged, hauling himself onto her back just as yellow, gold, and a dark black Mana vapor coiled about her form. Felix grabbed the woman's gorget and clawed at her face. His own hooked sword met his claws, parrying a blow meant for the knives that still protruded from DuFont's eyes.

"Ascension of the Morning Star!"

Felix was inundated with a column of black and golden vapor that sparked into a massive, glowing blade above them. It dropped, like an executioner's promise.

Adamant Discord!

Lightning burst alight and sent Felix rocketing downward at an angle, still gripping tightly to DuFont's armor. She wailed in defiance, and the massive conjured sword hit the earth. An explosion of shadow, light, and heat Mana expanded outward, ripping apart mansions and parks and tiny, immaculate gardens. They were driven all the harder downward, into and through the roof of a massive mansion.

"UNF!"

Felix's Health was dropping too fast for Sovereign of Flesh to keep up. He tried to put the Inquisitor between him and the constant impacts but the woman fought against him, twisting in his grip and swinging blindly at him. They bulldozed through a parquet floor at an angle, out of one wing and into another. One house soon became two, then three, then four, a half dozen houses filled with masonry and woodwork, wrought iron and moulded bronze.

Armored Skin is level 62!

...

Armored Skin is level 69!

Sovereign of Flesh is level 56!

Still the Song of Fury sang unabated within her, despite the raking strikes and savage collisions. The blinded DuFont held onto him in turn, slamming into him with the butt of his hooked blade.

"That!"

*CRASH!*

"Is!"

*SLAM!*

"Mine!"

Adamant Discord!

Adamant Discord is level 57!

Rows of demolished blocks flowed in their wake. Lightning cocooned DuFont's ten foot frame as they emerged from a first story portico, smashing through no less than four columns on the way out. Felix gasped. They had come back, full circle, to the bulwark DuFont had raised. It still glowed a faint red-gold, the orichalcum of it's composition thrumming with System energy. His Skill dragged them toward it at breakneck speed.

"KEH! You want this? Take it!" DuFront grabbed Felix, driving the hooked sword against his back. Felix's talons slipped as some effect of the blade sapped the spells wrapped around him. She trapped his chest against her own. "Authority! Sing the Song of Seige!"

Activating the Song of Siege.

Ahead, the wall surged with light. Felix could feel it, far stronger than the Song of Fury within the Inquisitor, as dormant defenses came online.

"You don't deserve Authority, Unbound! It won't have you!" Around DuFont, her yellow heat Mana pulsed and flowed. It combated his own Skill and covered them with a cloying layer of intense warmth. "I'd rather die than let Haarwatch fall to someone else!"

Her spell flared and the heat Mana packed in around them. Felix's eyes bulged as they streaked toward the bulwark. Her Spirit was powerful, even with the dregs of her enhancement still running, even with two eyes blinded. Felix didn't bother with his Mantle of the Long Night; he couldn't compete with her Authority enhanced Spirit before, let alone now.

Adamant Discord!

He heaved on the threads upward, putting everything he had left into the action. With a lurching boom, they pivoted and shot straight up into the air.

Into the storm.

"DuFont!" Felix screamed into her face. "I Challenge you!"

"No! You cannot take this from me!" DuFont twisted and kicked. Her knee caught the edge of his hip and Felix tenuous grip slipped completely. They split apart, both of them still ascending.

Felix rolled, his body still wreathed in lightning. The both of them had almost hit the cloud cover and the rain had become all but impenetrable. DuFont was slowing but still rising, and her form glowed with a yellow radiance like the sun.

"This is mine by right! No demon from beyond the Void will claim it!" she screamed, and a sphere of blinding luminescence formed atop her hands.

Adamant Discord!

Lightning crackled around Felix's fists and he flew toward the Inquisitor. Two metal objects ripped from her back, stuck there all this time, and spun through the dark. DuFont howled, and her entire body became a pyre of yellow Mana vapor.

"The Void can have you back!"

Two silver axes slapped into his palms, and Felix flooded them with Essence and golden-blue Mana just before he struck.

"Fall of Nova!"

Yellow light enveloped them both.

Cal limped from the wreckage, just in time to see the sky explode. Yellow Mana turned the night to day and burned the clouds themselves. A cataclysmic gale hit the streets below only seconds later, and the air became a squall of lumber, tile, and fractured stone.

"Harn! Evie!" She couldn't see anything in the whirlwind. "Are you—"

"We're here! Alive!"

"Fer now!"

Cal sagged against the quivering frame of the upper story. Above, the raging inferno of heat Mana filled the sky, all but clearing it of the storm. So hot that the puddles she could see on the streets below began to visibly evaporate.

Felix.Did it work...?

The Song of Absolution is level 67!

...

The Song of Absolution is level 70!

Armored Skin is level 70!

...

Armored Skin is level 72!

Sovereign of Flesh is level 57!

...

Sovereign of Flesh is level 60!

Wild Threnody is level 52!

...

Wild Threnody is level 56!

Arrow of Perdition is level 35!

...

Arrow of Perdition is level 39!

Mana Manipulation is level 51!

Shadow Whip is level 41!

Adamant Discord is level 58!

Felix hung in the naked sky, wreathed in lightning, held aloft on invisible tethers. Behind him, the Bloodmoon shone a vivid crimson, and all around were the vast swath of stars in a world without any real light pollution. Thousands of feet below, he could see the flash and flare of active magic and the steady flow of ambient Mana. It was peaceful this high up, like a calming breath between screams.

He twitched. Energies—System and otherwise—surged and flickered across and through him, varied in their influence and provenance. Skill ups filed across his sight, notifications he saw and accepted without much thought or concern. He'd almost died, again, and on the Continent that meant growth. At the end of them all were several trilling blue boxes that filled his ears and vision.

You Have Killed Eliza DuFont!

XP Earned!

Felix panted, his skin shredded and scales stripped. Blood dribbled down his chest and arms, baked black all along his front. In one hand he held the melted haft of a silver axe, and in the other, a bronze weapon, hooked and bowed more like another axe than blade. The Crescian Blade. His sword.

Authority Has Changed Hands!

Felix's tired eyes looked up, eyeing the other body among the stars. It twisted in lazy circles, suspended just as he was, though it was straining his Aspects to hold it. DuFont's Body was charred and desiccated, still glowing with remnant heat and the trailing wisps of Mana vapor. She was dead. Finally.

Congratulations!

You Have Been Granted Territorial Authority!

Do You Accept?

Y/N

Yes, he thought, wearily.

Authority Accessed—

ERROR.

Shit, he groaned. Shit shit shit.

Unbound Detected.

Primordial Detected.

Authority Restricted!

Limits Engaged!

Felix all but screamed as he felt an incomprehensibly vast hand clamp down upon him. His Aspects were squeezed and crushed, constrained by that immense grasp.

Aspects Outside Safe Parameters.

Core Stage Beyond Tier Limits.

Primary Stats Far Beyond Tier Limits.

Contacting Regional Authority...

...Regional Authority Unavailable.

Binding Limits To Target.

Felix shook, his breath pressed from him so all he could manage was a harsh wheeze. The melted remnants of Harn's axe fell from his trembling fingers, and his Skill failed him. Lightning cut out, dropping DuFont's mangled body into the dark city, thousands of feet below. Felix remained, held aloft by something else.

Ribbons of inexorable light wound around him, almost too fast to perceive, yet languid in motion. Golden-blue light surged along their length, Mana that hummed with the strident march of the Grand Harmony. Each layer crushed his Aspects just a touch more, splitting skin and muscle, bone and tendon. His Spirit and Mind felt stripped bare, naked under the touch of the System's Authority.

His Bastion quivered.

Bastion of Will is level 69!

Deep Mind is level 57!

Get off of me!

Felix's Willpower surged beneath the winding constriction, hammering at it. The ribbons didn't so much as tremble beneath his onslaught. He raged and stretched himself, pushing with everything he possibly could.

You Are Bound By Oath Of Authority.

You Cannot—

ERROR.

GET OFF OF ME!

Title: Tyrant of Choice Active!

Oath Unbound!

You Have Made Your Choice!

Authority Rejected!

All at once, the restriction fled Felix and the golden-blue System lights vanished completely. Felix gasped, part in relief and part in agony.

Territorial Authority Seeking Nearest Challenger!

Felix fell from the sky, his form flickering with brilliant blue-white lightning. Take it, Cal. His Will hardened, though he shuddered as he felt the threads pull him along. I don't need it. I just need...a little rest.

A basso roar shook the night, from entirely too close.

Just...one more thing. He angled his descent, turning into the wind, and lit up the night.

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