Unbound

"You cannot have my power," it declared.

Vess tightened the crux of her two Spears. The blades dimpled the spirit's fur. "Why?" she asked.

"It will be twisted, abused. The skies will blacken, the seas will boil." The Grim stared at her with its dark, empty eyes. "The Divine are bad enough. I would rather my power vanish when the Ruin claims us. Let it remain untainted.”

“It cannot claim you,” Yin scoffed.

“It shall. For its bonds have been severed.”

Yintarion drew back, as if he’d been burned. That unnerved Vess more than the spirit’s eerie stare, but she put it all aside.

“We are going to stop the Ruin. It is our mission,” Vess insisted, and she tried to squeeze every drop of earnest truth into her Spirit. “To that end, I am here, vowing to fix the Dragoons and raise the Dragons once again."

"All alone?" it asked.

"Expand your senses, Grim. Do we look like we're alone?"

The Grim’s eyes went distant as it did just that, and Vess could almost track it. It caught Evie landing at their side, and then swept outside, where Beef and Hallow fought alongside Dragoons, villagers, Eidolons, and Chanters. She even spotted Archie weaving among the press of the terrible root monsters, molten blades spinning fast enough to hew through stone.

And beyond them all, they both saw Felix and Pit facing down the Janus Hydra without fear.

Grim hummed, every cell thrumming before her blade. It was not a happy sound, and it filled Vess with an unspeakable fear. "The Aria fades as the Threnody rises. Peace gives way to war and the soldiers approach the battlefield.” The Grim shook its head. "It is pointless. The Ruin will silence us all."

"Resistance is never pointless," Vess said.

Grim's small black eyes watched her, trapped beneath her spears. "I carry within me the fury of the Green Wilds, Dragoon. Even it will not withstand the Ruin. Not this time."

Vess dismissed her Spears before extending her hand. "You will," she said, "if you stand with us."

The small spirit regarded her and the golden worm laying on her shoulder by turns. "A strange turn of events. You intrigue me, human, and you too, Yintarion of the Cerulean Skies. I suppose I can bear one last bargain.”

The Grim Nightshade, Emissary Of The Green Wilds, Has Offered You A Bargain!

Take On A Piece Of His Power In Exchange For A Portion Of Your Significance For All Of Time.

Do You Accept?

Y/N

Yin and Vess traded a glance. As one, they chose yes.

"A wise decision. Or foolish." The Grim Nightshade ignited from within as it floated up, stopping only when it was level with their heads. It swirled with countless colors that faded between vapor, liquid, and crystalline form. "Consequences come for us all."

In a shower of light, the Grim split itself into two separate streams before slamming into their chests. Vess felt a powerful rush of chaotic emotion before her legs gave way. The last thing she heard was Evie’s shouts of alarm as a shockwave of power ripped from her and Yin.

Evie went silent, and the room went dark.

Blind Fighting (Common), Dodge (Common), and Relentless Resolution (Legendary) Have Combined And Evolved Into Stride Of The King (Transcendent)!

Level Is Retained!

Stride Of The King (Transcendent), Level 100!

The rhythms of Harmony and Dissonance flow in your wake, a tempered tattoo that is neither rushed nor delayed. You walk before the crowd, head bare and shoulders high, yet are mantled with regal grace. Where the King walks, all others follow.

Felix’s three Skills joined one another seamlessly once he started the process, their patterns merging with one another with barely a whisper of his own Will. It would have been startling, had he not been actively fighting the Hydra.

The beast bellowed in his face, Pit on its back with his sword across its chest, and more notifications overwhelmed Felix’s senses.

ERORR!

Master Tier Tempering Resuming!

Legendary Essence Detected During Formation!

[Essence Draught of Atlantes (Pure)]

Broken Path and Fatebreaker Titles Found!

Master Tier Bonus Added!

Unbound Nature Resonates With [Essence Draught of Atlantes (Pure)]!

Calculating Effects...

He dodged, devoting his attention to his Tempering. Something burst and showered him in warm fluid, but Felix’s Body moved now with barely any thought. He couldn’t afford it.

Choose A Feature:

Roam - Wander The Land

Prowl - Stalk The Land

Advance - Claim The Land

Knowledge flowed through him, faster than before. More urgent.

Roam - Wander the Land. A beggar moved village to village, holding nothing but the rags on his back and a long, rusted sword. He wandered, but he walked with a purpose. Flowers were smelled, fruits plucked from wild groves, and beasts were quelled where they raged.

Prowl - Stalk the Land. A hunter slid between the shadows of a city suspended from enormous chains, his quarry ahead of him. The streets were filthy and the hunter’s cloak was torn, but his weapons were oiled and sharp. He approached his quarry without sound, the city itself wrapping him in the cacophony of hawking vendors and creaking wagons. His weapon slashed and was returned to its sheath with the same motion, leaving his quarry lifeless on the cobblestones.

Advance - Claim the Land. Armored and draped with the tabards of countless captured lands, the knight rode a beast of unnatural size and shape through a burning field. Dozens of weapons stuck from his back and shoulders, swords and arrows and spears that had failed to end him. Their owners were behind the knight, laid low by the knight’s bloody gauntlets. The beast beneath him bellowed, a basso howl that scattered the warriors that waited in ambush. Together they charged.

The beggar was simple. Unhurried and without the worry of a greater cause. Felix found it the most desirable, even as he knew it wasn’t for him. His life—maybe at one point his life could have approached something like that, but not now. Vastly different than the beggar, the hunter was direct and unbothered by the world’s brutality, which had taken Felix a long time to do. His cold calculation was a balm to Felix’s own fevered tactics…but the hunter did not sing to him.

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The knight was strong and proud, unwilling to bow before the rules of others. He moved with a surety born of might and a confidence founded on victories piled behind him. Blood and fire met his enemies, and he gave no ground.

I choose Advance.

Congratulations!

You Have Absorbed The Essence of [Advance]!

Power settled in him, sparking off his Skill and pressing it until it sang a complicated melody within his veins. He moved, evading the slash of three bone scythes with barely an inch to spare. Sudden confidence burned in him, igniting Felix’s Spirit like a star. Unlike before, it wasn't a matter of speed, but of timing. Of Authority.

The King stepped, and all others followed.

He twisted and jumped, flipping over the sweep of a boulder-sized club to land atop a second vine-bound stone. His core sang with a buzzing, atonal harmony.

Astrum Ascendence!

Hand Of Calamity!

Wild Threnody!

Crystalized Mana surged along his crooked sword, sheathing it in dark tar that cut through rock and root with ease. The Hydra pulled back with a surprised shriek, and Felix landed nimbly in the ankle-deep water.

"Felix! What the heck was that?" Pit trilled, shock writ large across his bird face.

Felix watched the Hydra recoil onto itself, cradling its limb as glyphs flashed across its surface. "Skill combined and evolved."

"Oh no way." Pit licked his beak. "I'm gonna evolve a Skill then!"

"Is this the best time?" Felix asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Nope! You don't get to say that!" Pit leaped backward, wings flapping, and landed almost at the opening to the fortress fifty yards away. “Just keep it away!”

“You got it, boss.”

A pleased trill ran through Pit's Spirit before it plunged into sudden chaos. Power flared and focused on Felix's bond, the System's attention firmly focused on the Chimera.

Your Companion Has Chosen To Evolve Howl At The Dark (Epic)!

WARNING!

Energy Is Required To Evolve A Skill.

Energy Will Be Taken From Your Companion Until Either The Skill Is Complete Or He Has Perished.

Your Companion Has Chosen To Proceed.

Felix felt the world flex as Pit gleefully shouted his acceptance, and a deep bell tolled somewhere far away.

Evolution Has Begun…

Pit buckled as power coursed through him. Felix half turned, looking back in time to see lightning arcing off his friend’s feathers and fur. Pit…

Stride Of The King is level 101!

Felix dropped low atop the mossy island he stood upon, evading the Hydra as it attempted to tackle him to the ground. From below, he hurled his Mana into the earth and blasted the construct with pillars of hardened stone. The impact sounded like two freight trains colliding as the wriggling centipede was thrown off its feet entirely to splash into the swamp again.

“As great as it is to level my Skills,” Felix wiped cold algae out of his eyes and bashed aside the set of sharpened root-legs that stomped at him haphazardly. “I’m getting sick of you.”

Felix sheathed his hooked sword and set both of his clawed hands to the side of him before activating his new favorite trio. Crystalline claws of dark acid formed around his hands, spreading outward until they topped at three feet and burned in the wet air. "Come get some."

The Janus Hydra charged and Felix juked to the side, raking his claws against its sides while evading its trampling legs. Pieces sheared off of the beast and began to writhe in the waters before Felix could change direction, but he had a use for them as well.

Chthonic Tribute!

The nascent Rootclones couldn't resist him. They were torn apart, turned to dark smoke that Felix snapped up and set to patching his innumerable wounds.

The Hydra trembled as it watched him eat its weird children, Spirit full of that same fear Felix had felt before. It lunged for Felix again and again, whipping its immense centipede-like body around and trying to trap him—or smash him into the trunks, boulders, or into murky pools. Felix denied it and shaved more pieces of its unending torso away.

It’s relentless, but I’ve got plenty of Stamina left. The real problem was how much it was tearing apart the fortress to heal itself. I need to end this now.

The creature's dual stone faces glowed, their empty sockets and open mouths flaring with glowing liquid Mana and a clarion call of rage. Sigils shone bright across its human-like torso, trailing back across its long, unnatural Body.

Astrum Ascendence!

Voracious Eye!

Manasight!

Felix had never tried that particular combination before, but funneling his cosmic flame through his observation Skills was easier than he expected. It changed them both, altering how they interacted with the world as details he'd overlooked suddenly became overwhelmingly apparent. The song of cosmic flame speared through vine, swamp, and stone to the very heart of the Janus Hydra.

Voracious Eye is level 97!

Manasight is level 98!

Astrum Ascendence is level 99!

It's core. Felix blinked as a shape manifested within the swirling light at the Hydra's center. No freaking wonder it's so strong!

The Janus Hydra was built around the core of a Dragon.

Felix didn't realize he'd stopped moving until the scythe came for his throat.

Stride of the King is level 102!

"I know what to do," he muttered, kicking backwards just ahead of the Hydra's attacks. "Pit! I know—!"

A roar tore through the swamp like a bomb, blasting aside trees and water until the air was full of shredded pulp and misted mud.

Congratulations!

Evolution Complete!

Your Companion’s Howl At The Dark (Epic) Has Evolved Into Let Roar The Beast (Legendary)!

Level Is Retained!

Let Roar The Beast (Legendary), Level 84!

You are mighty and proud, and all that hear your call will feel that fact in their bones. Inflicts the Frightened and Stunned Status Condition on all enemies, even those without traditional ears.

The Hydra froze, its many legs stilled for the first time…before beginning to twitch violently. The Status Conditions weren’t holding.

Now, Felix! Pit cried.

Stride of the King!

Felix hurled himself across the dozen yard distance between him and the beast and landed on its rocky hide just as it threw off the two Status Conditions. The Hydra roared, a weak counterpoint to Pit's new Skill, and Felix dug his claws into a seam between boulders. The Hydra bucked, hurling them both through a grove of trees as it tried to scrape Felix off. He clung on, a barnacle on a great blue whale.

Astrum Ascendence!

Green Shaping!

Crystalline lattices poured from his hands before branching off into the Janus Hydra's body, slipping through cracks and chasing along moss and vines.

"Grow!" he commanded.

With a horrendous, painful act of Will, Felix tore open the beast's back, and an entire goddamn tree exploded out of the thing's abdomen. It split open, wood rotting as foul water surged from within like dark ichor, and Felix punched his fists deep into its crevasse.

Hand of Calamity!

Vines and roots and weeds burst under pressure, even the rocks slagging beneath a torrent of dark acid, until they all exposed a mass of waterlogged crystal bigger than his torso and covered in shifting sigils.

Felix ripped it free.

You Have Defeated A Janus Hydra!

XP Earned!

The Hydra fell limp beneath him, collapsing into the fetid waters with a muffled boom. Felix stood and held out the crystal core before himself. It was such a vibrant, swirling yellow that a part of him was positive it tasted like a lemon drop, but he shoved that voice aside.

"It's dead?" Pit asked, trotting closer. He shoved his beak toward the thing's sculpted faces, nudging them. "So easily?"

Felix considered the core, turning its faceted shape in his hands. "We're both covered in blood, Pit. Easy didn't exactly come into it—"

The core flared ignited without warning, becoming a pillar of burning light that blasted into Felix so hard that it was a full second before he realized he was no longer standing on the ground.

He was in the sky, gripped by the spectral claws of a colossal—and brilliantly yellow—Dragon.

VIOLATOR! it cried out.

Moments before they both smashed through the walls of Fortress Fenwald.

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