Unbound

Chapter Seven Hundred And Twenty Nine – 729

Fiendforge is level 99!

…

Fiendforge is level 116!

Master Tier!

You Gain:

+Decrease Significance Consumed In Forging!

+500 REI

+300 EVA

Congratulations!

You Have Formed: Crescian Colossus Body!

+500 STR

+400 VIT

+400 END

+300 AGL

+200 DEX

Congratulations!

You Have Tempered Your Mind!

You Have Formed: Vaulted Night Mind!

+500 PER

+400 INT

+400 WIL

+300 INE

+200 ALA

Congratulations!

You Have Tempered Your Spirit!

You Have Formed: Symphonic Spirit!

+500 WIL

+400 INT

+400 RES

+300 AFI

+200 INE

Felix woke to an immediate agony that seized his entire Body. Remnants of power threaded across his core space, tingling as they were integrated into his Skills, cores, or otherwise sucked up by his ravenous Hunger. His Mind and Spirit were no better, each aching as if from a hundred wounds.

Cautiously, he sat up. Or at least he tried to—the Strength of his new Body propelled him up onto his feet and very nearly back onto his face, were it not for his increased Agility as well. His entire…everything felt like it had grown. Expanded beyond any realm he’d known before.

He brought up his stats.

STR:8064

PER:6051

VIT:5474

END:4314

INT:5957

WIL:10873

AGL:4626

DEX:3892

Harmonic Stats

Resonance (RES): 4703

Intent (INE): 7892

Affinity (AFI): 13470

Resilience (REI): 7686

Evasion (EVA): 4800

Might (MIG): 3100

Alacrity (ALA): 3500

Felicity (FEL): 10112

“Holy fucking hell,” he whispered. “My stats…how long was I out?”

Long Enough.

Frowning at the ghostly silhouettes nearby, Felix opted instead to flare his Sovereign of Flesh. His Body sheathed itself in thick, midnight scales that clinked like metal across his chest and arms, and his claws grew to proper ebon talons that he slammed into Siva’s stupid face.

She flinched…and the barrier flexed.

You Are A Fiendish, Awful Child. You Will Not Take My Aid, Will You?

"What gave you that idea?” he sneered, looking for a new angle of attack. If he could break through the barrier—

I Can Halt This War. Stop My Little Brother From Attacking You And Yours.

"You mean the one that defaced your Shrine and is stealing power from it now? Yeah, I'm sure he'll listen."

If You Refuse To See Reason, Nevarre, Then You Must Witness The Truth.

In a sudden flash from the ghostly silhouette, Felix's Mind was cast back as the world rippled around him.

It shattered.

He saw.

The shattered pieces of the world reassembled into a desperate battle. Felix stood, bodiless and invisible, among the bloody and dying. Armored men and women of all Races struggled against one another while gleaming golden explosions flared across the battlefield. Paladins, Inquisitors, and Priests tore through the ranks of the Dragoons and the waxy-faced creatures fighting at their side.

Bodies piled atop the field, stacked like morbid cordwood.

Vess!

She was there, fighting alongside her father. Her glaive moved fast, as did her newly evolved Galebound Glory—each one fouling dozens of attacks aimed at her people. Yin flowed through battle just ahead of her, along with Pit, the both of them leading the charge. The Drake’s jaws unleashed shimmering winds and cloying darkness upon the enemy while Pit crackled with an aurora’s might, fighting against hundreds as blood steamed from his sides.

The golden army was unrelenting and barely phased by their combined might. Their Bodies never stopped, even when Blinded, and that Divine light turned away blade and spell with increasing ease.

Blood ran down Beef's snout, but he fought, swinging his hammer with blasts of blackened-green energy. The Risen around him fought just as ferociously, while a piece of his shoulder fired crystalline swords into anyone it could. Many of his Risen were gone, but even as Felix watched, Beef reached out and pulled several more from the dead enemies.

Paladins in giant mech-like Mana armor came for him, crushing the newly Risen like bugs beneath their heels. Their massive golden swords sheared through the dead and living alike, chitinous barriers barely halting their advance, until Beef met them head on with his Bedlam. Sparks struck, and they were evenly matched, three blessed Paladins against a lone Minotaur.

Evie joined him, chains whirling against golden plates as crescents of silver flame broke them apart. Harn charged, bashing through the gleaming weapons. The battle surged on.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

The Eidolons and the Chanters were there too, fighting with every tool at their disposal. Wards leaped between Dragoon and Hierocratic spells, blunting explosions of light and fire even as they were shredded apart, giving the soldiers enough time to rally behind the enormous stone warriors that pummeled through ranks of the enemy.

Even Archie phased through the field, fighting and bleeding, protecting people from errant strikes and dire countermeasures. His daggers stabbed and sliced at joints and throats, but his weapons couldn’t do much against the golden light of the Pathless.

The Hierocracy was too strong, too numerous.

In the distance, a familiar voice cried. “Advance!”

Gabby…!

An explosion shook the battlefield, throwing soldiers from both sides to the ground as a plume of golden dust rose high into the air. The field fell under a gleaming shadow, and a woman strode from it, covered in a liquid light so bright it surpassed the sun.

“Vessilia Dayne! I’ve come for your head!”

Reality collapsed and he was yanked back through it as it reassembled, like a window shattering in reverse. He jolted and was standing once again outside Siva’s Shrine.

Felix's heart pounded. His friends were in trouble, and his sister was targeting Vess. He licked his lips.

They Will Die. SHE Will Die. Their Enemy Is Legion And They Cannot Break My Brother’s Blessing.

The Hierocracy Will Soon Reach The Walls Of This City. They Will Burn It Rather Than Let You Have It.

You Can Change It All With A Single Word.

I Can Help Them. I Can Grant Them Power To Contest My Brother’s Golden Might. It Would Push Your Closest Allies To Master Tier.

I Can Save Her.

Become my Vessel, Felix Nevarre, And Together We Can Do Mighty Things.

Felix grimaced and looked away. He couldn’t bear to think—

Oh?

On the floor, right where the wall once met the floor before it had been destroyed during his Tempering, were a series of looping indents in the stone. Sigils… pieces of them at least, striking through the Shrine’s barrier. They were inactive and dull, but Felix felt a kinship with them that he couldn’t explain.

Within his aching chest, Adamant Discord began to hum.

The Seal of Pax’Vrell...the real one, not the false overlay that the Hierophant created.

Imagine, Unbound. With My Aid, You Might Even Free Your Sister.

"And enslave myself," he snapped back at her, keeping his eyes down. His Mind whirled.

A Partnership. A Bond, Much As Your Chimera Enjoys.

The Benefits Would Dwarf Your Mortal Understanding. All I Would Require Is An Oath Of Noninterference With The Divine.

Felix’s head snapped up and he stared into Siva’s four, glowing eyes in disbelief.

Become My Vessel, And You Shall Never Fear The Divine Again.

You Will Become Untouchable.

A Man Without Equal Upon The Continent.

A King Of Kings, Nevarre.

King... Could that work?

From a pouch at his waist, Felix pulled out two bronze items. Artifacts that once contained Authority over this and many other Territories in Ages past. Fragments of the Crown of Elysium.

Your Power Would— Siva faltered. What Is That?

The fragments gleamed with their own bronze light. Siva hissed, her eyes sharpening into dangerous slits.

Nym.

Felix thrust the two pieces down and was met by a prismatic hand of woven silver threads. It stopped him, holding his wrists as he pressed down with all of his Strength.

“Get…off of…me!” Felix roared, and flared his Will and Strength together. Slowly, he pressed through Siva’s power, trembling as his incredible stats contested against a weakened goddess…and won.

The crown fragments touched the Seal, and an overwhelming force thundered through his Mind.

OURANIC BARRIER ENGAGED!

SUBORDINATE SEAL IS ACTIVE!

AUTHORITY REQUIRED!

Subordinate Seal… That’s the Hierophants fake overlay. It’s still blocking access to the real thing, even when I can touch it directly?

A song churned in the distance as the System weighed him.

SUBORDINATE SEAL REJECTS YOU!

His hands were blasted back, nearly dislocating his shoulders. The force against his wrists vanished and the goddess chuckled in amusement.

I See. It Is Incomplete.

Felix pressed the two pieces together, but they wouldn’t fit. He pressed them to his brow, but again there was no result.

Put Down That Broken Crown.It Is A Useless Artifact From A Race Of Fools.

It Cannot Aid You.

Only I Can Offer You What You Need, Felix Nevarre.

A silver hand once again formed out of silver threads, hovering just before Felix like a wriggling mass of eels.

I Will Grant You Power Untold.

All You Must Do…

Is Take My Hand.

“Nah,” he said. “Hard pass.”

Crown fragments in either hand, he punched down into the Seal, and a stentorian crack ripped through the earth as the ground below him cratered.

OURANIC BARRIER ENGAGED!

SUBORDINATE SEAL IS—

The Seal remained untouched, but a tone rang out that cut through the Hierophant’s Authority. It screeched, its measures stilled.

STOP!

He pulled his hands back and punched again. Silver hands tried to stop him, but they were cast aside by a burgeoning light from his fists…and his hooked blade.

Hail Inheritor!

Improper Resonance Detected.

You Hold The Crown.

The Nym Answer.

Wha—?

Congratulations!

You Have Received A Temporary Boon!

Willpower Bolstered Against Territorial Enthrallment!

Felix’s fists shook as a rarefied vibration thrummed through the fragments, spiraling up his arms and down into the Seal before him. Harmony rang out, a complex symphony that filled his chest and soothed his aching Aspects all at once. Dissonance came below, a counterpoint to the uplifting rhythms, deep and asynchronous and packed with an undeniable power.

Cease Your Meddling!

Silver hands found his throat and lifted him up with immense Strength…but his fists were connected to the Seal now and would not move.

Enough You Petulant Whelp!

The Nym Are Lost!

They Will Remain So!

Stop, Or I Will End You!

Silver threads wound around his head and arms, tightening until they cut into his scales and drew dark blood from the flesh beneath. The silhouette flashed, it's form sharpening into something far more ferocious and unnatural. Her true form. It burned into his Mind.

The Song of Absolution is level 101!

...

The Song of Absolution is level 122!

Void Sanctuary is level 109!

...

Void Sanctuary is level 124!

“If…you could kill me,” Felix choked out. “You would’ve done it already.”

Empyrean Embrace!

His bolstered Will latched onto the threads that covered him and tore them apart, turning them into brilliant silver smoke that poured into Felix’s open maw. Essence and significance flowed within him, filling his core space to bursting as he fell back to the ground.

Synergy Detected!

Armored Skin (R) Resonates With The Song Of Absolution (L)!

Do You Wish To Combine?

Yes!

Power stolen from Siva flowed out of him, fueling the combination with such speed that Felix was startled.

More, however, was always better.

Empyrean Embrace!

Siva shrieked as Felix’s Master Tier Skill tore at her barrier and her projection just beyond it.

You Are Not Allowed!

Felix didn’t bother to respond. Silver smoke poured into him, pouring into his core space only to be funneled directly into the swirling Skills in his chest.

“Watch me!” he snarled.

He lifted his hands, suddenly free from the Seal, and slammed them home again. A spark of multicolored Mana sprang from the contact, and the Shrine pulsed.

Siva screamed.

Shadows crawled across the Shrine beyond the barrier, familiar shapes he’d seen before. With Avet. Siva was trying to transport her Shrine away.

“You’re not going anywhere,” he said. “Empyrean Embrace!”

He flared his empowered Will, focusing his Intent into a sharpened claw that he latched onto the barrier and everything beyond. The true Seal ignited with multicolored light, lines tracing back beyond the barrier and into the Shrine itself, where stone turned molten and the silver pool boiled.

Felix roared, and the shadows pulled inward and vanished with a deafening boom. Siva was gone…but the Shrine remained.

Combination Complete!

Armored Skin (R) Has Combined With The Song Of Absolution (L) To Become Lay Of The Unfallen (D)!

Level is maintained!

Lay of the Unfallen (Divine), level 122!

You have withstood the blows of Divinity and emerged, scarred but alive. Again and again you have risen from mortal injuries, unrepentant and undefeated. A chorus of Harmony and Dissonance sings in your blood, and it is the song of triumph. All resistances doubled. Protection increases slightly per Skill level.

New Title!

Nemesis of the Silver Weaver (Divine)!

Your actions have earned you the immortal enmity of the Goddess Siva! Beware! Factions friendly to the Goddess of Fortune will regard you with increased distrust, and all Oaths sworn to you are sundered.

ERROR!

Title: Bondbreaker Active!

Your Oaths Cannot Be Touched!

“Nemesis?” Felix scoffed. He stretched his shoulders and felt something pop in his spine. “Get in line.”

Ahead, a complicated array spread across the floor, surrounding the pool at the center like an open flower. He reached out, but no invisible wall met his fingertips. The barrier was gone.

Beyond it all, the Shadowgate loomed.

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