Unbound

‘Neath sun of gold,

And shadowed sky,

Fiends roar

Godlings cry

An ending then,

Of savage claw,

Fall the Light,

Rise the Maw.

Children’s street rhyme

by Pagewright Cario of the Carmine Tower

The sun set on Pax’Vrell’s capital city, until only the western-most edge of its rooftops were alight with sunfire orange. Thanks to its immense walls, the city below was draped in long shadows the color of purpled midnight, broken only by the mage-struck lamps that began to flicker along curving thoroughfares. Seated above all else on a spire of stone, the Scalebreaker Citadel and its thirteen Spear Towers were still awash in that lingering light.

Sat on the roof of the western-most tower, Felix stared into that light. He watched patiently, his chest burning with its own internal fire, while the distant orb dipped lower. Though an illusion of perspective, the horizon seemed to bend around the descending star, the landscape blurring where they met until the sky above was split by beams that painted clouds with softest pastels. Light slowly fled, replaced by shadows that spread from behind hills and distant forests to overtake the land. It was as beautiful a sight as it was common, yet Felix did not move.

He hunted a different sort of shadow.

Earlier the sky had dimmed and what Felix assumed was a solar eclipse obstructed the midday sun—yet none of the moons had risen. People across the city had gone wild, rumors flying as fast as words could be spoken, and the Daynes and Dragoons had spent much of the day assuaging fears. He didn’t know what they said, but the crowds had eventually calmed.

Nothing, he concluded with a grunt. Just a normal sunset.

Felix had been sure that the dark sun was a sign that the gods were looking to retaliate. After eating Siva’s Shrine and taking a chomp out of the Pathless—not to mention the pieces of Noctis, Vellus, and Avet he’d already ingested—he was certain they were against him. All but Avet, at least, though Felix couldn’t say the god of change was exactly on his side. He’d held himself ready to fight for hours now, holding tight against the growing ball of energy that percolated in his core space. Now…now he could address it.

He released his hold.

Congratulations!

You Have Achieved The Fourth Threshold!

All Primary Stats Exceed 5000!

The dammed up power rushed through him, flooding his dual cores before shooting down into his Pillars and back up through the woven roots of his Divine Tree. The opalescent bark flashed, each facet of its gem-like trunk filling with an indomitable blaze that advanced up into the branches. It lit the nebula of Essence that clung there like leaves, before spiraling outward into the vast network of gemlike roots that encased all of his core space.

WARNING!

Influx Exceeds Limits!

Brace Yourself, Ascendent.

Multicolored light pulsed in all directions, filling his channels before spitting out of his Mana Gates like prismatic jet turbines. Ropes of light shot from his right hand, looping through the air before crashing back into his neck. More still came from his left palm to his right knee. From his right foot to left elbow. Over and over, until all of his Mana Gates were flooded and he was encased in a constant stream of wild energies.

Felix stretched, unable to even bend his limbs as the loops of power forced him upright. The multihued rush baked the air and burned away the ceramic tiles beneath his feet, exposing wooden rafters that swiftly charred away. He hung, suspended by the whorls of energy spinning through him…and forced himself to breathe.

His Will and Intent grappled with the rivers of molten light, not so much resisting as guiding. He swiftly recognized he couldn’t overpower his own stats—but he could encourage them. It was like grasping at a raging river with his bare hands, but Felix persevered. Slowly the bounds of his might shifted, pulled taut by his Mind and Spirit as his Body groaned in greater agony. The loops tightened but did not slacken.

Damn it! Visualizing his core space was impossible—Felix’s inner eye was all but blinded by the rush of energy—but he could still call out. Hunger!

A dark rumble tore through the light, sending the stream of power skittering across his channels as something vast shifted below. A sleeping beast, hidden in the deep.

Food?

No. Felix grimaced as the whirling energy scoured him. Kinda! Can you help?

Hm. A Little.

With little fanfare, the creature within him that Felix called Hunger roused. She took a short, stentorian breath and every single one of his Mana Gates snapped shut at once. The loops of multi-colored energy splashed onto his skin, sizzling away before Felix thought to grasp them as well.

Empyrean Embrace!

Vestiges of liquid power poured into his mouth, slipping in an instant into the Mana Gate at the base of his skull—yet even that was like opening a door against a hurricane. Felix’s attention fell inward, through the spiraling pathways of power and into his core space, where the blaring light of his Fourth Threshold had traveled. It hadn’t grown less, and was in fact dozens of times brighter than before, but Felix witnessed several strands pull the entire mass lower…closer to the dark abyss below his cores.

Mm.

The strands of light were sucked into Hunger’s event horizon and consumed. A staccato sound like lips smacking against one another cut through the harmonic blaze like a sharp blade against bone.

Delicious.

She faded back to somnolence like a rumbling but dormant volcano…while above, the condensed power of his Threshold burst.

Power washed through him, a crucible of pain but not a scourge. It sank into his core space like water into parched earth, until everything gleamed with a faceted radiance…and the song of it turned to brassy brilliance.

Due To Reaching The Fourth Threshold Before Level 250,

You Have Earned A New Title!

Boon Of Bonds (Mythic)

You have grown beyond your humble beginnings until you have touched the very edges of the heavens. The Divine Tree within you has begun to flower. You may choose to share a portion of your power for a short time period, granting a Boon to any with a Tier IV Link or greater.

Felix opened his real eyes in shock and stared at the notification hovering before himself. “Boon of Bonds…”

It reminded him viscerally of the Primordial of Withering Dust, when Felix had been forced to share a portion of its power with his friends or else explode. It had happened again too, just the day before, when Vess had somehow tapped into their connection to push herself into evolving her Spear of Tribulations.

She said that the System spoke to her…what is happening here? The System had only spoken to him once before, during his Omen Path, and it had nearly laid him out. Is this just formalizing how I can push power toward my friends? How much power? Is it Mana, Essence, or significance? All three?

He made a mental note to test it later, especially when folks were Tempering. If they could help him stabilize, then Felix imagined he could do quite a bit more. He reread the Title.

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The Divine Tree within me has begun to flower. That’s suggestive.Felix sent his Perception questing back down into his core space. His Tree was glowing with newfound power and the nebula leaves were swirling like galaxies of stardust, but he saw no flowers. He didn’t even have any Memories or Essence Motes clinging to the branches. ‘Touched the very edges of the heavens.’ Is this saying I’m close to becoming a god?

He didn’t feel like a god, though Felix couldn’t deny that there was a strength in him now that surpassed anything he’d known before. His stats, which had soared after he Tempered himself to Master Tier, were truly immense and had only gotten better when he’d leveled up twenty-five times after the Pathless’ death.

Slowly, he flexed his hands and worked his joints, bending at the knee and waist without putting any undue pressure on the charred structure below him. The ease at which he moved was significant, even compared to after he’d pushed his stats so high. Still, powerful growth or not, he didn’t feel like a god.

Carefully, Felix lifted a leg and kicked. The slow extension drew his muscles so taut they released an audible crack that nearly unbalanced him. He pivoted, Agility and Dexterity and Perception all flaring at once, and remained standing atop the sloped tower roof with little issue. Felix marveled at that; he felt more centered than ever before, as if nothing could knock him over.

Scratch that. This feels incredible. He flexed his arm and his muscles felt like coiled steel springs. That kick was slow and weak. What if I punch with more Strength? He considered the Citadel around him. Probably not toward anything.

Instead he leaned back and focused on the darkening expanse of the sky above. He twisted back onto his right leg, pivoting his hips and shoulders as his muscles tightened even further. With a hard grunt, Felix threw a single jab upward. The air boomed with thunder, blasting into the sky…and he was hurled downward.

Through the tower beneath him.

In a fraction of a second, he came to a sudden, painful stop as metal groaned in protest. Felix sat up, staring at the wooden beams and stone arches he’d torn through on his descent. He’d fallen at least forty feet in a blink, all from the recoil of a single punch.

“Holy hell.” Felix looked down. The patterned, pinkish metal had dented around his body, forming a perfect silhouette like a cartoon. A slightly hysterical laugh bubbled up and he shook his head. “Brace myself better when I punch. Got it.”

He pulled up his Status Sheet.

Name: Felix Nevarre

Level: 99

Race: Primordial of the Unseen Tide (Greater)*

Omen: Magician

Path: Cardinal Fiend

Born Trait: Keen Mind

______

Health: 35078/35078

Stamina: 33122/33122

Mana: 34826/34826

______

STR:10064

PER:7622

VIT:7045

END:5634

INT:7457

WIL:13206

AGL:6071

DEX:5705

______

BODY - Crescian Colossus (Master)

Resistances: Lay of the Unfallen (D), Level 124

Combat Skills: Heavy Armor Mastery (C), Level 15; Wild Threnody (E), Level 99

Physical Enhancements: Stride of the King (T), Level 102

MIND - Vaulted Night (Master)

Mental Enhancements: Deception (C), Level 49; Meditation (U), Level 80; Negotiation (U), Level 50; Deep Mind (E), Level 97; Manifestation of the Coronach (E), Level 80; Quiet Cacophony (E), Level 34; Empyrean Embrace (T), Level 120; Void Sanctuary (D), Level 124

Information Skills: Alchemy (C), Level 72; Tracking (C), Level 44; Exploration (U), Level 82; Ephemeral Evocation (E), Level 48; Aria of the Green Wilds (L), Level 108; Emperor’s Vigilance (T), Level 111

SPIRIT - Symphonic (Master)

Spiritual Enhancements: Manasight (U), Level 98; Manaship Pilot (R), Level 46; Multi-Cast (E), Level 90; Last Cry Of The Chthonic Host (M), Level 5; Exalted Conjunction (T), Level 98; Sovereign of Flesh (T), Level 118; Unite the Lost (T), Level 95; Fiendforge (Un), Level 116

Spells: Abyssal Skein (R), Level 99; Illusory Double (R), Level 55; Shadow Whip (R), Level 74; Labyrinthine Wing (E), Level 2; Arrow of Perdition (L), Level 52; Cardinal Flame (L), Level 99; Rain of Cataclysm (L), Level 76; Skein of Fate (L), Level 81; Adamant Discord (T), Level 97; Astrum Ascendence (T), Level 115; Magus of the Grand Design (T), Level 107; Sonata of Dominance (T), Level 115

______

Unused Stat Points: 450

Harmonic Stats

Resonance (RES): 6370

Intent (INE): 9892

Affinity (AFI): 12313

Resilience (REI): 11020

Evasion (EVA): 6228

Might (MIG): 4350

Alacrity (ALA): 4928

Felicity (FEL): 10908

Felix’s laughter burst free from him as he saw his Strength score. “It’s over ten thousand. No wonder I punched myself into a tower.”

His stats had grown by incredible leaps and bounds in the last few weeks, let alone the last few days. He stood head and shoulders above where he had before they’d entered Pax’Vrell, thanks in no small part to the gods.

How’s that for irony? Still, can’t say I’m displeased with twenty five levels at once. He double checked his sheet. And four hundred and fifty free points. What to do with them?

It was a lot of stats, but at the same time, not nearly enough. At best he could push his Agility, Dexterity, and Endurance closer to the rest…but would that matter? All of his stats were useful, but in the end it always came down to his Willpower pitted against someone else’s…and almost all of his remaining opponents were Divine.

That made the choice a lot easier.

WIL:14706

All four hundred and fifty went into Willpower. Thanks to various bonuses and Titles, that amount went further than he expected, and Felix could feel an ephemeral sensation in his Mind and Spirit. It flexed like a vast hand and, for a moment, he felt as if he could do…anything.

The feeling soon faded, but the memory of it was a bit unnerving.

No matter what that Title told him, he wasn’t a god—not by a longshot. Thinking otherwise was a great way to get himself killed, and Felix had too much to do before he’d allow death to have him.

He pulled up Pit’s Status.

PIT:

Name: Pit (Companion)

Level: 96

Race: Chimera - Tenku

______

Health: 11954/11954

Stamina: 13343/13343

Mana: 11336/11336

______

STR: 3040

PER: 1824

VIT: 2390

END: 2364

INT: 2916

WIL: 1975

AGL: 3860

DEX: 3422

______

Executioner’s Stormblade (E), Level 48

Gloaming Shroud (E), Level 49

Let Roar The Beast (L), Level 84

Maelstrom’s Maw (L), Level 90

Mantle of the Stormlord (L), Level 62

Talon of Tumult (L), Level 90

Tempest Fugit (L), Level 84

Exalted Conjunction (T), Level 98

Mercy of the Thorn (T), Level 49

Nimbus of the Moon (T), Level 82

Ouranic Dominion (D), Level 75

______

Unused Stat Points: 0

Pit's Harmonic Stats

RES:1321

INE:943

AFI:2697

REI:2075

EVA:1366

MIG:1211

ALA:1132

FEL:1342

“Looks like he already used all his extra stat points.” Felix checked his memories. The Chimera had earned eleven hundred free points from his recent level gains, and unlike Felix he hadn’t focused it all in one place. “Split things between Strength and Intelligence. Huh. Well, that’s his decision.”

Pit was more than capable of making those himself.

Felix stood up, brushing off splinters as he considered the hole he’d torn through the tower’s roof. With a measured leap he shot upward, landing with a rough creak on the remains of the roof. Above, the sky finally lost what little daylight remained. It was a rare moonless night and the darkness was thick across the city, but there was more than enough starlight for Felix’s eyes to see.

He unsheathed his Inheritor’s Will from his side and lifted it into one of the guard positions he’d learned. Gaining so many stats was great, but as he’d proven, it made his movements unpredictable. He needed to practice.

Felix slid forward, foot trailing as he executed a sharp thrust with his blade. The air rippled and a blast of wind tore across the roof, ripping up several more ceramic tiles and flinging them out into the night. He dialed it back and shifted into a sweeping slash that did little more than kick up dust. He pivoted, moving on the balls of his feet as he shifted through the movements of the Owl Form, first of the Sword Forms he’d been taught. Each step was precise, his muscles taut but not coiled, as he tested his new limits.

There was a time to rush, and there was a time to linger. In this pause between battles, he practiced with his sword atop the tower, and thought of only one thing.

One god down. Six to go.

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