Unbound

The Second through Fourth Layer proved no more challenging than the First. Felix tore through them with little effort—it had barely been more than a half hour since they had started. What’s more, there had been zero movement within his Sonata of Dominance. The Skill still stubbornly remained at level 124.

He and his friends had descended down the path, winding deeper into Mount Kestral with every step. Now they rested within another ward, Nymean statues upright and on guard. None of the Kept had managed to breach the ancient defenses, though that was mostly due to how few ever managed to escape Felix’s attention. Atar and Darius had been forced to employ a few attacks, but mostly they were silent watchers.

Mostly.

“How long is this going to take?” Atar muttered.

“Just be glad it’s going so fast.” Tern was seated, his notebooks spread out around him and his glowing, magic quill scratching out diagrams. “I’ve counted at least a dozen Tier VII monstrosities in that last Layer. I’d say I’m surprised he’s still able to fight at all, but the man did slay a goddess.”

Felix suspected they knew he could hear them, but that didn’t stop the whispering. He ignored them, anyway, and checked his core space once again.

Huh. He paused in surprise. So much.

Within him, Essence, Mana, and significance was packed tight within the bounds of his root-lattice. Though neither Hunger nor the Beast had yet stirred, Felix was leery about sending any of his potency into the dark abyss at his center. He feared strengthening it until he’d settled his Grandmaster Tier—and even then, he hesitated.

For now, his power was hung from the branches of his Divine Tree, filling it up like a dense canopy of leaves. It resembled nothing so much as an earthbound nebula, as ephemeral and colorful as a rainbow set with glittering stars. The results of all the Layers were there, shining within him, while his Sonata of Dominance hummed on down below. Unchanged, but perhaps not for long.

Do You Wish To Release The Fifth Layer?

Yes.

The nearest crystals burst, shattering once again as their containment failed. Horrors seeped from the cracks, swarming the chasm. Mana-warped Elementals, twisted abominations, and things that were half-Urge and half-beast, not to mention Primordial spawn—all rushed upwards in a horde of monstrous flesh that crowded out the chasm with their fierce and wrathful desire to breach the surface.

Felix engaged them all.

Their varied forms swirled, snapped, crackled, and roared, raging with elemental magics of all sorts. He met them all: earth for water to dry them out and seal them closed, fire to consume storming air, shadow to freeze and bind, and light to blaze through flesh. They fell by the handful and then the dozens, notifications of their deaths rattling across his consciousness, but Felix did not pay them any heed. His Skill, Sonata of Dominance, still sat unmoved. No matter that he fell through their ranks, slashing with elemental power—they weren’t a threat to him.

A great explosion rumbled from beneath, tearing through the earth in a cacophony amplified by the mountain itself, resembling nothing so much as a dozen skyscrapers imploding. Green-gold light welled up, nearly liquid in its thickness, and it swept into other crystals, smashing through the dark stone with punishing force. Rock gave way and crystal shattered.

WARNING!

An Active Breach Is Detected!

The Sixth Layer Is Compromised!

Far below, a chain reaction tore through the Wellspring. Monstrosities surged upward upon a tide of thickened light. They clawed at the walls or flew under their own power or undulated in viscous streams, all of them headed up—toward the city. Toward freedom.

Felix burned, shifting his Skill’s pitch through his Affinity and Intent until his limbs burst with unfettered might as he growled wordlessly into the chasm.

They would have to get through him first.

They were surrounded by darkness. It wasn't a true dark, however, but a blocking of the light by a league of monster flesh. Atar lifted a hand, rotating two Stars above his palm. Illumination filled their little bubble of safety, and beyond, he watched twisted limbs and blinking, bulbous eyes wriggle past them in a parade of horrors.

"Blighted Night," he whispered.

"Heinous beasts," Darius agreed. "There's no end to them, and they’re potent as well. At least Tier VII."

Elowen looked up, her antlers reflecting Atar's white flame until they seemed to glow themselves. "Equivalent to a low Grandmaster. How could anyone face them all?"

“He’s Unbound,” Atar said. What other explanation was necessary?

Elowen scoffed. “This is not the result of levels. I…I don’t know what this is.”

"You're more capable than you realize," Zara insisted, laying an ochre hand on the deer mage's shoulder. "You must push yourself beyond your limitations."

The Theron pursed her lips and regarded the shorter Chanter. "I suppose you're right. I am Unbound, same as him."

Elowen looked up toward the general direction of chaos and the roaring sound they heard through the layers of abominable muscle and bone. "Though I don’t know that I'll ever be able to do…this."

"This is not your path," Zara said. "You look ahead—a Seer, yes?"

Stolen story; please report.

Elowen nodded.

"Then what you must do is witness. You must press that inner eye beyond the now toward what may be."

"I have done that—far too often." Elowen shuddered, hugging herself. "The Ruin was at the end of every vision. It burned them away with... " She winced. "Something. I cannot remember, but each and every vision of the future is tainted by its presence. I cannot See around it or even near it.”

Zara's attention sharpened. "You said before that you sought the Ruin out. Is there a consistency in its appearance?"

"As I said, I cannot see the Ruin, or if I have, I forget it immediately. It's a hole in my memory."

Zara raised her hand, cutting Elowen off. "No, that's not what I mean. Can you see when it is coming?"

Before Elowen could answer, power cascaded through the dark, splitting monster flesh into bloody ruin as great swaths of their number vanished entirely. More replaced them from below, bulging and wriggling through the voided tunnels of their brethren as they eagerly sought release. But around them, the Nymean barrier flexed and flared, spitting sparks around the statues as the monsters swarmed.

"This isn't good," Alister muttered.

"I would say not," Atar said, burning the creatures that drew too close. His Stars passed right through the barrier thankfully, and the explosions they set off hurled the monsters back, but it wasn’t enough. Soon they had more than filled the pockets that Felix had created and began to spill outward…into them.

The barrier bulged inward, flaring a bright, cherry red.

Atar backed up. "Now would be a good time to test out that Legendary shield of yours!”

“Bulwark of the Steadfast!"

A shimmering blue dome swept outward, pressing against the Nymean barrier. The statues flashed, but the magic swirled, accepting Alister's Mana into its own ward, reinforcing it. Atar grunted in surprise and Alister gave a giddy laugh.

"It's working!" His elation faded swiftly, however, and he grunted in pain. “Oh Night, it’s working.”

Atar grimaced. The impacts of the beasts outside the barrier were being transferred to the man, and muted or not they were mighty. The monsters crowded closer as pressure was applied to them from above, below, and the sides. Soon, the barriers sparked once more, driving Alister to his knees.

"Order Departs!"

Elowen's purple-blue power pushed outward as well, mingling easily with Nymean wards as her will thrust itself outward, steadying Alister's Skill.

"The wards are accepting our might as their own," Tern pointed out. "All of you! Funnel your Mana into them!" The old Elf followed his own advice, pouring a liquid stream of power into the statues directly. The wards bloomed, new ripples of incandescent color filling the air between them and the horde.

Zara followed suit, her water shield rising to mix with the others with the sound of roaring surf. Darius, however, merely grunted, "My magic will not shield you, but if Atar's spells can get through, then... Wind Blade!"

White-green crescents launched from his swinging sword, slashing a deep furrow into a monster as it undulated past. He pivoted, bringing his sword across again and again. Each time he gouged a bit further into the creatures’ thick hides. Soon enough, Atar joined him with his blazing Stars of the Sovereign. Neither of their attacks killed the beasts, but they relieved the pressure, if only a little bit.

Until an abominaton of burning blood and thick, tar-like flesh fell atop of their shields.

watch out!

"Incendiary Vortex!" Atar shouted, and a storm of white flame seared at the sticky substance. It burned beneath his power, shielding his Alister and the rest from its deluge as the monster’s body washed over the Nymean statues.

Still, his friends cried out in pain as the barrier flexed, its pressure and heat searing into them. The abomination’s power spilled through the barrier as it fell apart, and it was as if the very air caught flame.

atar, we must—!

"I know! Pyroform Undying!"

The Skill took hold in his chest, white flame rising from the obsidian nest within his core space as Atar allowed the Urge to bind once more to his Body. Flesh burnt away, consumed, turned into raw power as his bones were unveiled. Deeply inscribed arrays gleamed like crimson embers atop his skeleton, the marks of sigildry glowing beneath a layer of black char as white flames shrouded his limbs.

“I’ll take it all, thank you!” Atar embraced the heat and fire, his unique Skillset pulling its Mana directly from the air. It scorched him, overwhelming the white flames with a tinge of bloody crimson.

WARNING!

All Guests Of The Warden, Step Onto The Lift!

Descent Is Authorized!

Behind him, a section of the floor lit up, revealing the glyph of House Navar.

"Back up, all of you!" Darius shouted, but none were able to move. They were all crippled by pain or pressure or both. “Fah! Disc of Earthly Burdens!”

White-green Mana flashed before a concave disc of power scooped every single one of Atar’s allies. The mages, consumed by their pain, fell back toward the warrior—all save Atar. He remained at the edge, hurling fire as he marshaled the bloody flame away from his friends. Still, it soaked into the statues.

They began to melt.

"Atar," Alister shouted, "get back!"

The wards exploded.

There was a flash of light and a feeling of immense pressure, and the next several things Atar knew was pain. His bones creaked as they bashed against stone, the naked expanse of his ribs, spine, and skull soaked in burning blood and foul viscera.

“Descend!” someone yelled.

The world lurched again as the lift dropped, all of them falling now, faster than ever before. A new, stronger shield locked around them, encasing them in a transparent crystalline tube that plunged into the mountain.

“Are you—ahh!” Alister rushed to Atar’s side, but hissed when the blood burned at his hands.

"Stay back," Atar warned through clenched teeth. "Flame, can you consume this stuff?"

you underestimate me.

The burning, bloody tar vanished into his bones, and for just a moment, Atar felt relief. Then he jolted in pain, and a sudden, vicious energy coursed through his center. It rioted across every inch of his channels, scalding flame itself. The pain was incomprehensible and maddening; burrowing worms through flesh that was not there. Atar screamed, and above, a very human voice roared as if an answer.

"A madness burns in that man," Tern muttered, looking up. "This is…no Grandmaster can face this."

Monsters vanished above them into sudden smoke, teeth snapped out of the horde before vanishing as if they never were, as quick and as devastating as a lightning strike. Felix was letting himself loose. Atar could feel it beyond the pain.

yes! consumption! that which binds! he who consumes!

What are you talking about?

feel it, atar! let the sensation roll through our empowered bones. this is our destiny.

Something did billow across his body then, something hot and heavy and deeply unnerving—a binding coal flame, burning with newfound kindling. It grew.

It raged.

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