Unbound

Felix drove them up the mountain with a single-mindedness that left the others gasping for air.

By the fifth mile through the Greater Mausoleum, Pit Converged with him to conserve his Stamina, while Beef ended up physically carrying the two Chanters on his wide shoulders. Evie and Vess both managed in their own way, one utilizing her Born Trait to lighten her every step (and reduce her Stamina cost), the other leaning into her Dragoon training. Vess’ confusing and powerful movement technique propelled her forward at a blistering pace—enough to match Felix’s own.

Harn, meanwhile, too heavy to carry and too stubborn to accept in the first place, simply muscled through. His Running Skill was Adept Tier, and despite being of Common rarity, the efficiency of his Stamina consumption was incredible. The man knew how to move.

Quick as it began, the Necropolis came to an end. Sprawling tombs and elaborate statuary were enveloped by fog as the Coil ascended, until the fog resolved into deep, thunderous clouds. As before, the Spiritual pressure of the Undermount increased, redoubling as their senses were swathed in moist cotton. Beef was driven to his knees, and the stone shattered under his weight. Evie, Harn, and Vess were not much better off.

“We have reached the Voidstorm!” Tzfell shouted over the crashing thunder and sudden, swirling wind. She clung to Beef’s rocky pauldron so hard her knuckles were white. “We must all of us brace for its judgment!”

Lightning skittered across the sky before blasting onto the steps ahead of them, narrowly missing Beef.

“Gather close! Behind me!” Felix commanded, stepping ahead of everyone else. He set his Affinity flaring through two of his Skills. One old. One new. “Adamant Discord! Storm Shaping!”

A chaotic tangle of connections appeared in his vision, threads of influence between storm, sky, and mountain. As he watched, the dim lines between Harn and the sky swelled into a brilliant bar. Felix reached out, grasping at the connection with Adamant Discord…and at the lightning with Storm Shaping.

A waist-thick bolt of electricity surged downward toward the warrior, but it was diverted at the last minute into Felix’s hands. Lightning coursed across his scaled hands and arms, burning away his Garment and exposing his spasming muscles before he guided it down and toward his open maw.

Storm Shaping is level 43!

“Felix!” Vess stepped close, only to be warded off by one of his midnight hands. “How much of that can you take?”

“As much as necessary,” he said.

The ascent continued, but this time it was like the world had turned against them. Bolts attempted to slay them where they stood while gale-force winds and torrential rain tried to rip them free of the mountain. His team hunkered low, using chains and axes, chitinous legs and conjured spears to anchor themselves stride by resolute stride. Each blast of lightning was timed randomly, but Felix saw each of them coming thanks to Adamant Discord. He stole them all, and while it didn’t hurt nearly as badly as the mega-bolt from atop the pleasure palace, they weren’t helpful for his already strained Body.

Storm Shaping is level 44!

…

Storm Shaping is level 58!

Journeyman Tier!

You Gain:

+30 EVA

+30 RES

+35 INT

The Voidstorm above eventually stopped sending any more lightning, and winds died down as well. Between one step and another, both vanished and his team passed into paved streets only faintly littered with fog.

“The Lesser Vaults,” Tzfell said. “Each a repository for the riches of the Highbloods. We will find greater guardians here, but they will remain bound closer to their structures.”

Harn removed his helmet, letting rivulets of water stream down his chest. “Makes sense. Guards ain’t useful if they leave their posts.”

To either side of the paved street towered beautiful structures that were far removed from the grim iconography of the Necropolis and the gloom of the Voidstorm. Pale yellow towers, crimson manses, and vibrantly blue fortresses abounded, their architecture decidedly Dwarven despite the hues. Wards filled the spaces between them, overlapping in so many places that the interference created a shifting rainbow of radiance that flowed among the Lesser Vaults like visible air currents.

The Serpent’s Coil continued, here and there flattening out into gently winding roads, splitting off into four, five, or even ten way intersections as each Lesser Vault was approached. In fact, as they jogged through the damp streets, it grew increasingly obvious that the Coil was lingering there.

“This is useless. We can’t stay on the path, not if we wanna get to the top before we die of old age,” Evie said.

Beef leaned over a railing, staring down a narrow alleyway between stout structures and glimmering wards. “We need a shortcut.”

Tzfell clucked her tongue. “We cannot. It will draw the Arcane Sentries down upon us.”

“Worth the risk,” Evie decided. “I ain’t doin’ another race across…all of that.”

She gestured toward the Serpent’s Coil ahead, where they could see it split into four different roads, many of which split again, and again. Felix chewed his lip, thinking. “Are the Arcane Sentries fast? Strong?”

“Tier V and perhaps Tier VI creatures. They’re constructs built by our ancestors, and I don’t know their capabilities other than they are tough.”

“Evie and Beef are right,” Vess said. “We cannot tarry on these roadways. We must ascend.”

“Right.” Felix flared Abyssal Skein, refreshing the Skill across his allies. “Mount up or keep up. We’re not stopping till we hit the top.”

Felix leaped from the elevated Coil, landing on a strip of soft loam and brightly colored flowers. Inside, Pit peered curiously from behind Felix’s eyes as the world whipped by them at speed.

All these fancy houses. How many have magical treasure?

All of them, I’d guess. Felix leaped over a large urn planted with some sort of reed. We can’t check though. You know that.

Pit grumbled. I know.

Ahead, directly in their path, was a creature that looked like a wolf but made entirely of stone. A construct, clearly. Aside from being made from midnight veilstone, the wolf looked almost lifelike, if real wolves were the size of elephants. There was no easy path around them, as Felix sensed similar constructs around the sides of other vaults.

Felix glanced back. The others were following, but he had a sizable lead on them.

The only way is through.

Need my help? Pit asked.

No. I got this.

Felix flared his Agility, zipping ahead hard, and drove his bare fist into the stone wolf’s side. Cracks splintered across its torso and it let out a resounding yelp. The construct didn’t simply take it though, it moved with the strike, acting so fluidly that Felix had to focus to dodge its slamming claws. He did, but not the shock of earth Mana that surged out from the impact. Spikes of stone shot up, bashing into his chest and thighs hard enough to drive him back a few steps.

“Strong and smart,” he muttered, rubbing his chest.

The Sentry opened its stone jaws and spat out a gobbet of acid and flame. Felix grasped both, flaring Hand of Calamity and Cardinal Flame to divert the attack entirely. The combined Mana slapped into a nearby ward and sizzled out.

Hand of Calamity is level 75!

Adept Tier!

You Gain:

+5% MIG

+15 END

+5% AFI

“Three different elemental attacks. That’s impressive.” Shaking off the sudden boost to his stats, Felix set himself, shoulders squared against the crouching enemy. “I just need the one.”

Wild Threnody!

Stone Shaping!

The construct’s veilstone body was too strong for Felix to seize control of it, but that didn’t stop him. The Sentry lunged, a corona of power flaring atop its spiky ruff, but Felix met it head on. His own Mana flowed out, congealing into rock around his fist.

He caught the Sentry by the snout, while his second arm snaked around the construct’s neck. Felix twisted, and slammed the thing into the ground. Dirt, grass, and dust exploded into the air. The Sentry thrashed and Felix caught its hind leg before exerting all of his Strength against it. The limb tore right off, releasing a geyser of green, orange, and dusty brown vapor.

“Stop moving,” he said. “Your skin is tough. Where is your core?”

The Arcane Sentry laid on its side, panting heavily, all but broken and Felix hesitated. Its chest was glowing and it sounded…bad. More than bad. Discordant.

Voracious Eye.

Name: Arcane Sentry

Type: Elemental Construct

Lore: A construct built by the Dwarves of Ages past, each Sentry is a combination of at least three Lesser Elementals. The elementals are bound together with stringent Oaths and potent arrays to keep them trapped in the construct and dedicated to protecting their territory.

“Oaths?” He ignored the less relevant parts of the thing’s information, and focused on the lore. “Are you…trapped in there?”

There was no answer. Of course there wasn’t. So Felix shoved his fingers carefully into the side of the Sentry, and with a grunt ripped free a chunk of stone from the wolf facade. Within was a cage, but not a ribcage, a literal cage inscribed with bright sigaldry. Inside of that cage were three swirling lights: Lesser Elementals, one of flame, one of acid, and one of earth.

Adamant Discord.

Skein of Fate.

Electric blue connections popped into his awareness, a great web of things that he ignored about ninety-nine percent of and focused on the construct before him. The earth elemental was tied to the stone skin, the fire element was tied to the sigaldry directly, while the acid elemental was linked to a river of green power that circulated throughout. All of them, however, were bound to a core of beaten metal by three silver wires. Those he saw with his Skein of Fate. Those were Oaths.

They’re so thin. They were anemic compared to the Oaths his people had sworn to him, like thread next to a steel hawser. They also floated up out of the Sentry, traveling some distance away before vanishing behind the corner of a nearby structure. Dissonance wafted off of the Oaths like a bad stink. Through his Skein of Fate, he could tell that the Oaths were not given in good faith. “You were tricked into this form, weren’t you?”

The three lights surged, and the wolf tried to snap at him again. Pit manifested from his Spirit, landing atop the Sentry’s head and pinning it. The Oaths shined brighter and brighter as the construct struggled to attack. The sound of Dissonance stained the Harmony all around them, a buzzing roar among a trumpet blast.

Felix reached down and with a minor effort snapped the Oaths apart.

The Arcane Sentry went rigid. Whatever power was animated its stone form vanished, as did the lights within its eyes and claws. Without fanfare or display, the three Lesser Elementals zipped off into the distance. Free.

You Have Defeated An Arcane Sentry!

XP Earned!

New Quest!

Break the Bonds!

Sever the Oaths the Lesser Elementals were tricked into and free them from their imprisonment! Find the source!

Rewards: Varies

“Huh.” He accepted the Quest.

Vess and the others reached him moments later as Felix stood, dusting off his knees. “These things are slaved elementals.”

“‘Kay,” Beef said, breathing hard. “That’s…bad, right?”

“It’s not great. But I got a Quest.” Felix told them the gist of it. “We find this source, we could maybe put all of the Sentry’s out of commission at once.”

“And free up our path,” Harn said. “Good plan.”

Evie shrugged. “Where’re we goin’?”

They started running again, and soon enough they found another Arcane Sentry. Two of them, in fact. Felix stopped just shy of their position and flared Skein of Fate. Now that he knew what to look for, he could make out the silver gossamer that floated away from both of their stone bodies.

“This way,” he whispered, and took them off to the right.

Across gold-worked platforms, obsidian pillars, and sapphire studded archways Felix found more and more of the Arcane Sentries. They prowled their lonely posts aimlessly, their attention trained to their own vaults and no others, making sneaking through a relatively easy task. It was just slow. Still, within twenty minutes, they came upon a cliff that overlooked a large depression in the mountainside. Inside of it was a large octagonal building with bronze pillars built on top, creating a deeply shadowed portico. The pillars were draped in a thick silver canopy of gathered threads as the Voidstorm thundered far above.

“The threads all lead…here,” Felix said, not quite believing his eyes. Below, just ahead of where the silver threads all joined together, was Archie.

He was surrounded by six Dwarves…each of them surrounded by an aura of intense power.

“Grandmasters,” Harn said in alarm.

“No. No, but they are very close. Too close.” Tzfell cowered low behind the edge of the cliff. “They have him cornered.”

As they watched, Archie tried to dive into the ground…only to be forced back by a pair of Dwarves that shimmered with dusty-brown Mana. Archie backed off, until he was up against the octagonal building where the Oath threads all gathered.

Above, Vess clutched her partisan. “We need to do something.”

“Do what?” Harn asked. “We go down there, not all of us are comin’ back out.”

Felix crouched atop the cliff, thinking, but his time for that was running out. Then he caught movement out of the edge of his senses. Focusing his Perception, Felix slowly smiled. “I have a plan.”

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