Unbound
Chapter Eight Hundred And Seventy Six – 876

Felix leaned back on his green cushion, fully back in the real world once again. "So. What do you think?"

Elowen was clearly at a loss for words. She laughed. "I still can't quite believe the scope of what you’ve achieved. Your core space is broader than any Grandmaster's I've ever seen, and I have been invited to view both Tern’s and the former Grandmaster Violet’s."

That peaked Felix's interest. "What did theirs look like?"

"Considering he’s your Chancellor in Levantier, I suppose Tern wouldn’t mind you knowing. The Grandmaster’s core space is complicated and dense, fashioned into a giant machine.”

“Oh?”

“It’s based on his many discoveries, it transfers his power around his core space in strange, almost arcane pathways. It’s a weird combination of technology and magic, and it surprised me to see it. Think of a car engine just a thousand times more complicated and filled with arcane bits and pieces.” Elowen folded her hands in her lap, lost in her recollection. “It was so interesting, you know? A lot of his core space is speculative. It works mostly because Tern believes it should.”

“I get that. I have a little solar system in my chest, and that doesn’t make a bit of sense.”

Elowen laughed. “Admittedly, Tern’s was fabricated based on what we know of the Nym’s technology. He built it on theory and research, only adding parts in that he was certain filled in the gaps of our knowledge. A great deal of technical detail is packed into his core space, and that is his strength.”

"Interesting. That's similar to Alister's core space," Felix muttered. "The guy idolizes Tern quite a bit."

"So I noticed," Elowen said with a smile. The expression didn’t last long. "The Grandmaster Violet…the bastard…his core space was unsurprisingly a tower. The Violet Tower, of course, with his Skills as the outbuildings. All of it floating above a copy of the city of Levantier.”

“A whole city? That’s a lot of detail to pack in. I’m Impressed.”

“You’d think so. I certainly did. When Tiir showed me his core space, I wanted to explore every inch of the place, yet he forbade it. I didn’t learn why until my third visit, when the Grandmaster Violet wasn’t so attentive. I slipped out of his Tower and dropped to the city below, and was met by disappointment. It was like a painting on the wall or an unexplorable backdrop in a movie. Extremely realistic-looking, even having angles and dimensions to it, but nothing was there. Really beautiful in its own way, but like the Grandmaster it was empty."

Elowen snorted, chains jangling. “Looking back on it now, I'm pretty sure that he created it like that in order to feel superior. The manipulative idiot wanted nothing more than to rule over Levantier. In his core space, he was elevated above the entire city—above the Continent itself. He was a petty man.

“Regardless, the space was still impressive. It was nearly as detailed as Tern’s, but those details were spread out over a greater area. All the rooms of the Tower were intact, even the library. And I’ll be honest, I stole some of the details from him—a fact that he did not entirely appreciate, but he considered a proper use of resources. The man was nothing if not devoted to the pursuit of power.”

"What was his core manifestation?" Felix asked.

"A sort of telekinesis, but a lot stronger. He could erect this beacon of force that spread outward, claiming control over an area with nothing but his Will."

"Hm. Was he as strong as you are?”

“In terms of pure Will and Intelligence? Yes.”

“Yet you were able to throw me around in our fight. That guy didn’t even try. Why is that?”

"Events from that day are foggy, but I recall that he did try. Then you burned him apart with the Chthonic Star."

"Oh," Felix said. "That's right."

Elowen sighed. “He was affected by Siva’s twisted Will…but I do not doubt that he joined eagerly. His lust for power was always there, even when we first met. I do have some fond memories of the guy, especially from the early days. There were a few months after I joined where he was simply a kind source of encouragement, while also remaining ruthless in his methods to keep power over the city, absolutely." She shook her head. "It's hard to reconcile those two personas. His attachment to Siva, that was his true self. I suppose that’s what I am saddest to discover.

“I’m babbling. Ignore me.” She shook herself. "Have you tried your Core Manifestation since Levantier?"

"No.” Felix folded his arms across his chest.

"Is it because of the Beast?"

"Basically. If I use it and that thing takes over again… I don't want to be near anyone that I particularly like."

Elowen folded her arms, mirroring him exactly. "As someone you seem to like, I appreciate that. Still, from what you told me, the thing is intelligent. Have you tried to reason with it?"

Felix pondered that, thinking back on the visions he had during his Tempering. A flash of perfect recall stole over his Mind before he could push it away. He could still feel the terrible pain the Beast had inflicted upon him over and over again as it spoke its troubling words.

"I'm not so sure that reason is the answer,” he said at last.

Thunder boomed through the chamber so loud that it was like an explosion had gone off.

A Threat Approaches!

Felix was on his feet in less time than it took for him to read the notification. He burst out into the hall, shattering the doors in his hurry. There, Zara, Pit, and the Chanters were sliding out of the weaving chamber.

"Go back," he commanded. "Keep watch on them. I'll handle this."

"Yeah, you heard him, Zara," Pit shouted, before the two of them raced off, Elowen close behind.

"Be careful," Zara screamed at their backs, but Felix had stopped listening. All of his attention was bent on his city, as alert after alert skewed across his Authority.

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A Threat Approaches The Western Walls!

A Threat Approaches The Southern Walls!

A Threat Approaches The Eastern Walls!

Elowen moved quickly, but she was falling behind—until Pit scoopeed the Theran mage up onto his back. She shouted in surprise, but held on tight.

"You're too slow," Pit said by way of explanation.

That, however, was the last Felix paid attention to either of them.

He ran through the halls, shattering the floor with every footfall, until he leaped into the spiral staircase at the center of his Stronghold. Lightning blazed, hurling him upward as he hauled back, and in less than a second he reached the top, slowing only to command the doors at the very apex to open. The access tunnel at the center of the Bastion of Atlantes split, releasing him into the open air beneath the Spirit Tree. There he witnessed chaos.

A Threat Has Come.

The Divine Are Here.

Two moons hung low in the sky as black clouds towered high above, flashing with crimson lightning. The moons were bronze and dark yellow, gazing down through the dark at his city like baleful eyes.

Felix hung in the air, wreathed in blue lightning, as he saw the familiar oil-slick shape of shadowbeasts rushing his city walls. Nightmarish, Fungal Horrors rose up too, an entire wave of bipedal monstrosities that rushed from out of the forests, while literal waves from the Bitter Sea slammed into the Bitterward. Swells crashed across root and hill, easily thirty feet in height as they surged towards Elderthrone.

Godtouched monstrosities. People were down there, fighting against monsters and exposed. They’ll die!

Felix blazed on the back of a bolt of lightning, hurling himself to the west, even as he reached for his power.

"Sonata of Dominance!"

A wall of earth and stone ripped up through the dark forest, a hundred feet high and half that thick, just as the wave crashed against it. The sea’s momentum shattered, but the wall was not unscathed—parts of it cracked and sloughed away from the sheer force of its impact. Shadowy monstrosities within the waves were dashed upon his wall, crushed into bloody pulp. Notification after notification flitted across his awareness, deaths by the hundreds, each bearing paltry experience that he promptly ignored.

Working swiftly, Felix reinforced the wall with braces of Fiendstone. Supports were far easier to craft on the fly than making the entire wall Fiendstone all at once. The moment the last of the braces manifested, the cracking stopped—it would hold, for now. He turned, sweeping his attention across the monsters, attacking his people outside the Bitterward. He knew them there, just as he knew almost all of the Legion.

The Hobgoblin grandmother Heva, her team of Cade, Merk, Stellis, and a number of others who had gathered together, all of them hurling power at Fungal Horrors that arose again and again from the earth in inexhaustible waves.

With a flex of Will, Felix dropped upon the rotting hordes, exploding dozens as he cracked the earth and send blue-white lightning flashing outward. The creatures clicked and groaned as they regarded him before lurching into an attack.

"I have no time for you," he said. Adamant Discord!

They were all seized in bonds of lightning and hauled toward himself. Felix adjusted the pull, alternating his Intent between push and pull, until he’d conjured a violent cyclone around himself, shredding their bodies and ending their disgusting lives. Spores burst in all directions, forming a cloud around him, but Felix was not done. He seized every piece, their light blue connections clenched in his outstretched claw.

"Empyrean Embrace!"

He devoured it all.

“Emperor! Emperor Nevarre!” Heva cried, while a number of Legionnaires saluted him.

Felix growled at them all. “Get behind the walls!” He looked up. “There's worse on the way.”

The lot of them scurried off, their Spirits once flagging with fear and weariness suddenly bolstered by a familiar ripple of rising song. Hope. Felix had seen it before, but he wondered if it would be enough, this time.

Well Done, Your Imperial Majesty.

The voice boomed from above. Storm clouds riddled with crimson lightning, where a monstrosity made of rotting flesh and fungal growths flew on two massive wings. A sickening light limned its animalistic body and a gleaming halo surmounted its lion-like head, festooned by sprouting mushroom caps and blood slick horns.

“Yyero,” Felix snarled. He shot back up into the sky on a bolt of lightning.

A dozen shadowbeasts dropped from the sky, interrupting his ascent. Their slick flesh was almost invisible against the storm, and their claws moved fast enough to shred his tunic and jacket entirely. Lightning burst, savaging a handful of them as they kicked at his chest.

Felix pulled to the side, lightning crackling around his left limb, before he unlimbered his Inheritor’s Will and slashed through them in one strike. They burst into oily smoke, but the blade skittered and sparked as the claws of another shadow forced him back. This time Felix was sent flying, the force of the parry vibrating through his wrists and shoulders.

He tracked it as the creature flew upward to join Yyero. It was smaller than the God of Rot’s putrescent beast, but just as awful. It bore no wings, simply undulating in the sky, wriggling its many limbs as mandibles clacked before a yawning hole where its face belonged.

“Noctis.” Felix narrowed his eyes. “You guys are idiots for attacking me here.”

You Will Need To Do Far Better Than That To Pierce Our Hide, False King!

“Oh, believe me, I can,” he growled. “Just ask Siva.”

The faceless serpent’s laugh was punctuated by thunder as bloody lightning coursed across the sky behind them. Yes. Imagine My Surprise When You Devoured Our Sister. And Imagine My Delight When You Devoured Her Moon!

Felix, hesitated. The conversation wasn’t going how he expected.

Don’t You See, Little Lordling? This Is The Punishment For Godslaying!

A roar pulled his attention to the side as waves screamed from the west. The Bitter Sea rose higher than ever, now more than forty feet, and they slammed into his wall. Stone broke off in great sheets, the cracks deepening. Felix needed to reinforce it all.

No. We Can’t Have That.

Felix threw himself backward on a cable of lightning, narrowly evading the lion's claw that slashed where his neck once was.

You Do Not Get To Stop This! That lion’s face twisted twisted into an unnatural sneer. Blood poured into the fungal growths across its skull and mane. You Destroy The Moon Of A Goddess, And You Suffer The Consequences! It Is Your Fault The Tides Of This World Are Unmoored!

Adamant Discord!

Felix hauled on the connection to the walls he had just created, shooting towards them once more as Sonata of Dominance mustered within his chest. The song of it burst forth, cladding pieces of his wall in Fiendstone. But only pieces.

Noctis laughed, her undulated form slamming into Felix and forcing him down. He shot to the earth, smashing through building after building of his city before cratering the streets. The gods followed him down, wrathful and gloating by turns as their dark power fueled their might.

Sonata of Dominance!

Stone shot back upward from the crater, spearing toward the Vessels as they dropped. It missed, of course, but hitting them was never the point. The gods flew away and Felix rose in their absence on a pillar of lightning; straight up into the sky until he was just beneath the canopy of Atlantes.

Shadow and Lion were not so easily fooled, however. Their limbs closed in fast, striking across Felix's chest and face with such incredible speed that he couldn't even consider blocking them. He merely took the punishment upon his scale and flesh, dripping blood from every blow that struck him.

To the west, his shaping began to fail as the water broke through. You Are Ours, Nevarre, Yyero hissed through his Rotted Lion. Leave The Children To Play Amongst Themselves.

Below, the forest erupted with vile creatures that were part flesh and part rotting vegetation. Like the mushroom men that had attacked Haarwatch the previous year, they were meaty, armored, and possessed a variety of disgusting forms. They tore into his defensive teams, their bulk overwhelming the Legion.

"No!” Felix bared his teeth. Empyrean Embrace!