Unbound
Chapter Eight Hundred And Eighty – 880

Green light flashed through the air, faster than even Felix could track, and both Noctis and Yyero’s limbs were sliced off. They fell back, yowling and screaming in turn, only for more jets of pressurized seawater to streak across the sky.

Umbral Sculpting!

Water sliced through shadow, but Noctis’ conjurations layered over themselves as they failed, stopping the assault. An obdurate rage soared through both Vessels before their Spirits veiled. To Felix’s astonishment, the Empty Fowl and Rotted Lion tore off after the Dread, soaring ahead on dark wings. Felix was left behind, suspended on a thin bolt of lightning.

Sovereign of Flesh!

Felix flared the Skill, pushing his healing as rapidly as he could. His bones creaked as they mended, and tendons stretched across abused muscles. Beyond, where the sea had stilled, explosions of shadow and rot ripped at the waves as the gods tore into the acid waters. The Dread was not idle, however, for those intense jets of water did not cease and the Blood Beast’s barbed tentacles moved in whirling blurs, lashing out at the gods and their creations.

The tide was turning.

Just hold them off for a little longer, you crazy squid! Felix focused on Fiendforge. Securing his grasp upon it, he tried to steady the riot that tore through his friend's core spaces. Yet they needed more than simple steadying.

They needed a miracle.

Title: Boon of Bonds Is Active!

I need to give you more, he shouted into the dark. Please, you need to take it all.

At Felix’s center, streams of Essence, Mana, and significance surged forth from his center, flowing through his opalescent root-lattice and into the darkness beyond. There, in the shadows of the System, they struck the bundle of Links like rainwater through a sewer drain, splitting immediately into eight separate channels.

Some of which couldn’t accommodate his power.

No. Not all of them are Tier IV! But they all need the Boon…and I need them.

He strained, flaring his Title and pulling at whatever he could within reach. His Will trembled, shaped by his relentless Intent, as the smaller Links continued to refuse his Boon.

C’mon!

Distantly, as if it were a song playing in a distant room, words flitted across his awareness. Felix leaned toward the sound, trying to make it out as it repeated again and again.

The Stars Burn.

Stone Trembles.

Their Influence Is Yet To Be Determined.

The Influence Of The Fiend Resonates Within You!

A Boon Of Bonds Is Extended.

Do You Accept?

Are you kidding? Alister groaned beneath the weight of his collapsing gears. Yes!

Lightning burst through Alister's core space, leaping through him as his Palace of Champions struggled to lift the wreck of his Machine. Sudden strength surged through his limbs as his force magic jolted forward, propelled by that crackling blue-white light, the towers of his Palace shoving the gears back into place. The teeth caught, spinning as pistons were clamped tight with new copper, whirring into smooth action as the Machine came back to life.

Do You Accept?

ahh! say yes! yes!

“I already did, you damn bird!”

Flame screeched as he seized the red-gold fire that rained from above, growing huge and fat on it until he was a burning bird to rival even Pit's bulk.

this is incredible! the power—!

The Urge dove down into the Pillars that Atar held between his broken fingers, reigniting them as the cords burst outward in complicated knots. The mage seized them, obsidian bone against burning threads. It was complete agony, enough that Atar couldn’t even scream. It was all he could do to lift those cords in his trembling arms, his dark robes completely aflame.

Then the red-gold might reached him as well, falling onto his shoulders and igniting a wide diadem of flames upon Atar’s brow. Power surged within him, bolstering his arms and straightening his spine as the cracks in his flesh ignited with red-gold light.

He began to weave.

Alright, kid. Harn spat out blood onto the burning floor. Bring it on.

Power swirled through the Undercroft and Harn let it pool around him, spinning like a tornado of blue-white energy. With a practiced hand, he reached for it, holding it tightly as he sliced open his other palm with his axe. Blood poured forth, and Harn pressed both hands together until the blue-white light mingled with the silver flame.

It poured down over the bent and battered metal beneath him, sinking into its battered surface. Where it traveled, the metal rearranged itself, strengthened and polished until it gleamed.

Damn. This is useful.

Harn lifted his hammers and connected the Greaves to the Tasset in a few short strokes, before turning his burning hands upon the rest of his Armor. There was much to be done.

Yes, you stupid—Gah!

Evie fell, legs frozen, unable to move as the black chains dropped from on high. She flared her Strength, slamming her hands into the frozen floor and hurling herself forward, but it wasn’t far enough away. The metal links dropped—

Chain Golems, three of them, leaped forward. The first took the falling chains to its broad back, falling to their knees as the massive metal links speared through its Body. The others grabbed the rest of the black iron chains, securing them in their immense fists. Evie pulled herself away, but was scooped up by another’s massive arms.

Red-gold light surged through her, melting the frost across her legs in an instant. “Put me down, big guy.”

Wordlessly, the hulking constructs did so, before the others carefully handed her the unbroken chains.

Evie grinned. “Alright then.”

She leaped into the vaulted ceiling, carrying them upon her back.

“I answer for him! Yes!” Hallow said as she jumped into the fray. “Razorhail!”

Crystalline spears sank into the two ends of the Beetle’s broken leg, pinning their hollowed out sections to one another. Beef groaned in relief, no longer being torn apart as the Beetle floundered on its side.

“What did you agree to?” he asked.

“Wait for it.”

Beef gasped as red-gold light swelled within his chest and lightning burst from his arms and throat. “Holy crap! What do I do with this?”

Hallow’s crystalline face smiled. “Build.”

Beef gestured and chitin flowed, burning with light.

“What do you think?” Archie snapped as he leaped between the cables. He phased through the whipping cords, just barely avoiding the gunshot-like cracks as the cables gouged through the bell tower’s walls. “Yes!”

He sank into the earth before he canceled his Skill, sending himself rocketing upward into the ceiling, reactivating Primeval Drift just in time to slip through the final knot of bursting cables. His hands latched onto the half-woven Pillar, and he held on tight.

Shit! Now what?

Power rolled into his city.

Blue-white and red-gold light poured down the streets in a wave of luminescent fog, forcing the people to take cover. Then the fog hit his tower, filling the bottom and blooming upward toward Archie where he hung.

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His senses were filled with incomparable details, things he couldn’t describe, but mostly it was the taste of blood and a deep, unrelenting ache in his belly. The light filled him and ash blasted outward, cleared from the tower in a sudden burst. Until the bells above rang in a new jubilant pattern.

Vess smiled.

The Dragons leapt for her throat, but Yintarion roared, slamming into them and knocking them back against the jagged chasm walls. His Spirit soared, ferocious and protective, as his power fell upon Evie like a mantle.

Added to the might that fell from Felix’s twin stars above, it was like oil upon a flame. Blue-white wind whipped and rolled through her veins, igniting her armor with a blinding radiance as red-gold dawn's light filled her.

As Dragons fought, Vess reached out and continued to braid the storm.

Throughout all seven of his friends, the same message rang out. A declaration more potent than the power it promised.

Linked Hands Beneath Burning Stars.

Worlds Within Worlds Bound By Choice.

Let Sing The Bonds Of Fellowship.

The Fiend Grants His Aid.

The power melded with all of them at once, and Felix felt a shift as his Fiendforge locked into place. It was as if smooth angles had settled, their flat planes touching, squeezing all the tighter as power rippled through his friends.

Alister Knacht’s Tier III Link Has Become A Tier V Link!

Atar V’as’ Tier V Link Has Become A Tier VI Link!

Harn Kastos’ Tier III Link Has Become A Tier VI Link!

Evie Aren’s Tier III Link Has Become A Tier V Link!

Beefhammer’s Tier III Link Has Become A Tier V Link!

Archibald Ross’ Tier IV Link Has Become A Tier V Link!

Vessilia Dayne’s Tier IV Link Has Become A Tier VII Link!

The Stars Align.

Choices Made Manifest.

Rise Ascendants!

An unearthly cry cut through the storm and battle as hundreds of orange eyes blazed in the murky wave. Waters burst, casting back the Vessels of the gods and all their swaming forces. The Dread’s barbed tentacles lifted, and the acid waters of the Bitter Sea followed, cladding and extending them to incredible lengths.

Carrion Nova! the Rotted Lion cried.

Entropic energy tore through the water, disrupted dozens of the tentacles, but not enough. They whipped through the air, crashing down at the gods. Noctis and Yyero easily avoided them, but the same could not be said for the monsters below. A thousand Abominations and shadowbeasts died in an instant.

Shadowflay!

Dark tendrils met the Dread’s own, slicing through the water before they crashed up against its obdurate flesh. The Dread screamed, and Dissonance spiked across the sky, forcing even the clouds to flee.

Kill It! Noctis demanded. Force It—

Before the faceless Vessel could move, water tentacles sliced through its Body. Yyero fell back, his own form now leaking bronze ichor and sprouting new fungal growths. The Dread did not stop there, however, and the moment Noctis sculpted a new Vessel it was sliced apart again.

Power crashed across the frozen wave, each clash between Divine and Blood Beast resounding like a collapsing mountain. Dissonance reverberated through Felix, echoing from his Links…and from the Dread itself.

What is this?

A howling rage tore Felix from his interior consideration, but not soon enough to evade the careening Lion that slammed him out of the air. They blasted back at a speed that was nothing short of dizzying. Fog ripped around them, tearing sound away with it as they broke past its barrier.

Felix clawed at the beast’s face, driving his talons deep into the god’s snout. Yyero roared, but there was no noise to accompany it, especially as Felix slashed into the monster's throat. Rotted ichor poured forth, whipping back as the wind tore at them. That was all he had moments to do as he smashed into the mountainside.

Driven deep, a boom ripped through the sky as sound caught back up with them. An avalanche of stone fell on Vessel and emperor alike, crushing them down into the mountain.

You Upstart, Yyero growled in the dark.

Felix pressed up against the mountain, but a deep weakness pulled from his limbs as more power than ever before siphoned away into his Links. Dissonance buzzed against his teeth. His Boon of Bonds was still powering his friend's rise.

Yyero's claws, unseen in the dark, tore through stone into scale and flesh, and Felix screamed even as his mouth was choked by dust and crumbled stone.

You Will Cease This Blasphemy!

Sonata of Dominance.

Stone parted as Felix reached for what Will he had to spare. He surged forward, carried by stone pillars that shoved from behind. Teeth bared, he burst from the rubble and caught Yyero's throat between his jaws.

Release Me!

Felix sank his fangs into the Rotted Lion’s fungal clotted neck before snapping shut and wrenching his head to the side. Yyero leapt away at the last second, gurgling even as he evaded Felix's Empyrean Embrace.

He wasn’t fast enough. New strength flowed into Felix as the tiniest bit of god was swallowed down into his core space.

“Gotcha,” he said, climbing out of the rubble.

You Ascend The Broken Path, Yyero gurgled, his throat already congealing with gilled mushroom caps, staunching the bleeding but feeding the enormous ridged growth that swelled with dark blood.

Felix emerged from the mountain, stumbling and bloody, but healing as Sovereign of Flesh rolled through his limbs.

"Yeah," he said. "What’re you gonna do about it?"

The Rotten Lion roared before leaping forward, his wings propelling him like a bolt of lightning.

Sonata of Dominance.

The fallen stone around Felix whipped forward, forming into clawed hands that slammed into the god of rot. It pierced Yyero’s broken flesh, ripping limb and wing apart and spilling his rotten blood onto the mountainside. The Rotted Lion yowled, pain and fury mingling into an unreasoning aggression. The god did not stop, slowly inching forward as he crumbled the shaping, while Felix’s power dwindled alarmingly.

"I said it before," Felix croaked between clenched teeth, "Elderthrone is mine and you are not welcome here."

His Will burst wide, held into shape by his Intent and amplified by his Authority as emperor. He found his people all around him, and among their Spirits was a swell of hope that sang to his senses like a healing balm. Reaching through that, buoyed by its power, Felix snapped his ethereal jaws upon the invaders within his city.

Empyrean Embrace!

All at once, every single monster died.

Carrion Nova!

It exploded between Felix and Yyero like a bomb held close to his chest. Felix leapt out of the way, the rot dissolving scale and muscle, yet he avoided the worst of its blast. He pulled the mountain down, shaping it into rivers of clutching hands that tore at Yyero's wings and limbs.

The god panicked within his Vessel, as the stone hands would not relent no matter how many he destroyed.

“Get buried, asshole,” Felix snarled, before clutching the Rotted Lion. Stone hands entombed the god of rot, yanking him deep into the mountain.

A dark chuckle pulled Felix's attention upward, where Noctis' form, now entirely different, a winged centipede with an empty face, laughed at him.

Yes. It Is Clear Now! You Dwindle And Flare Like A Bonfire In A Hurricane. Noctis’ empty face twisted, and Felix could somehow tell that she was grinning. I See You, Nevarre.

Crimson lightning crashed behind her, slamming into the Dread as it fought atop its waves. Water swirled upward in immense cyclones, spiraling from the surface of the wave until it coiled around each bloody bolt. Lightning sparked, quelled within the acid, until even portions of the black clouds were pulled down into the confluence. The sea itself was fighting the Bloodstorm.

Behind and above, a new cry was taken up, a shriek of joy that rattled across Felix's bond.

They've come!

His Companion flew from the base of the Atlantes Anima, fur charred but screeching in triumph. Behind him, an army flew out of the Bastion on feathered wings. Thalgrym and the Guardian Beasts bellowed into the air as wind, lightning, and flame burst around them like streaming banners. They charged.

Umbral Sculpting!

Shadowbeasts condensed from the darkness, emerging wet and screaming, webbed wings soaring toward the Chimeric horde. They didn’t even reach the first wyvern; blue bolts of force Mana blasted through their swarm, tearing them apart by the dozen.

Then the Chimera and Hatchlings were upon them.

Pit reached out through their bond. I'll take this!

Fiendforge vanished from Felix’s grasp, and his Companion screeched internally as it settled on his Mind and Spirit.

Go! Fight them! Pit sent. I got this!

Freed of his burden entirely, Felix hauled on his connections in every direction at once. Lightning exploded from him, searing through his space like the birth of a star. Noctis was blasted back, her Vessel torn to pieces in the space of an instant.

GAH! Another Vessel in a flash of bloody shadow—a winged horse with dagger-sized fangs. Where Does This Strength Come From?

It Doesn’t Matter! Yyero burst from the mountain, torn and bloody, his wings hanging limp at his side. Carrion Nova!

Felix dodged aside, nimble and free now that he was no longer weighed down by the force of his Fiendforge. He evaded the eruption of entropic energy as well as the Shadowflay that sliced in his wake.

Sonata of Dominance!

Shadow met tendrils and his Will crashed against Noctis’ own—and his Title engaged once more. Boosted, his Willpower hurled the goddess’ power back.

Die, Nevarre! Yyero raged, his wings clotted with gilled mushrooms and dripping spores. He leaped from the mountain, fangs bared, only to be caught up by tendrils of shadow.

Out Of My Way, Sister!

No, Brother. We Have What We Need.

She turned her empty face upon Felix. Her Spirit was pleased for some reason, and Felix didn’t like that at all.

Leave This Wretch To His Paltry Kingdom. It Shall Be Ours Soon Enough.

With a savage slash, Noctis tore open a hole in the sky. The edges of it wavered like heat haze, but the inside was a rippling pool of pure, inky black. Come, You Fool!

Razor tendrils whipped across Yyero’s chest, hauling him despite his roars. We Can Finish This!

They both vanished into the pool of shadow before it winked shut.

"Oh, no," Felix growled. "You're not going anywhere."

Even without Adamant Discord active, he could feel a connection forming between him and the gods. Wrath and hatred boiled through his Spirit, resonating with the fleeing Divinities, until the blue lines hardened into ten-foot thick cables.

A Bond of Enmity Has Been Formed.

Felix seized it and tore open the dark.

He followed them through.