Unbound

Breathe in. Focus.

Felix let his Perception seep inward, blanket his skin, his muscles, his blood and bones. He felt his heart stronger now than ever before in his life, an engine pumping relentlessly in his chest. He felt at the portion of his physical body that held his channels and core, a strangeness to his Body that nevertheless felt more natural than anything he'd known on Earth. But his Perception only went so deep; to sense the rest, he divested himself of his Body and flared his Affinity. He quested within his Spirit.

His core and channels were of the Body, but they also existed beyond that, above it, within the realm of the Spirit. The border between the two was distinct, yet also muddled by ten thousand strands of commonality. Felix traced them, his Affinity plucking against every string, every tie and bond between Body and Spirit. Along those strings, into the core, there waited his power. Spun upon a ring of thickened flames, it hummed in the pregnant darkness, a hollow star in his strange solar system. Felix systemically inspected his core, his Skills, their revolution around his false son. The music they made as they vibrated at and among one another. All of it.

Intent. Affinity. Guide and Listen.

Felix didn't actualize himself within his core. He was told he didn't need to, that it would only slow him down. Instead he used his Intent to seize his Mana and send it surging along his channels, shaping it all the while to the beat of his chosen Skill. It was like pushing molasses by blowing at it with a straw. Affinity extended, he sounded the Skill's pattern, agonizingly mimicking the unique vibrations imprinted within his core. The Mana along his looping pathways buzzed and transformed, its hue altered from a blue-white to a virulent green. He released.

An orb of darkened Mana shot forward, only to splash harmlessly against the wooden golem before him. The golem, for its part, rocked slightly back.

"Success!" Felix crowed. He pumped a fist into the air. "Take that, Pinocchio!"

It was weak and almost completely useless, but it had worked! Since his embarrassing flub against the Ghoul, it was also the first time he'd been able to manifest anything outside of his channels at all. This version of Wrack and Ruin wouldn't stop a charging mouse, but it was a step forward. And it was far easier without the Echoes of the Maw interfering. Still a pain in the ass though.

"Open the gate! Open the gate!"

Felix's heard shouting from beyond the walls. His Perception had grown enough that it wasn't much of a chore, though he often kept it reigned in to prevent overstimulation. Shouts though, especially shouts like that, they cut right through the noise. This person was terrified.

Shouting for Pit, Felix sped toward the exit and whipped open the warehouse door. Beyond was the courtyard and hundreds of people milling about in a panic. Shouts were escalating as the sound of pitched battle bled into their camp.

"Open the gate!"

"Revenants approaching!" Shouted a guard while lifting a large, heavily constructed bow. "Fire!"

A wave of arrows cut through the air like thunder, and now Felix could differentiate the squeals of the Primordial spawn. But apart from them, there were others.

Pit!

Swooping from above, the dark tenku snatched Felix from the cobbles and pumped his wings with a mighty heave. Wind buffeted the cobbles, strong enough to throw a few Untempered folk onto their asses, but Felix didn't spare the time to feel sorry. As they shot over the wall, he focused instead on the wave of rust-red scales that was descending on a group of fifty men and women. They were all of them ragged and bloody, an amalgam of desperation that had grown depressingly commonplace.

Drop me, bud!

They were nearly fifty feet up, but Pit didn't question the order, he simply opened his talons and Felix plummeted to the earth.

Sovereign of Flesh!

Reign of Vellus!

A painful wave of transformed flesh subsumed his consciousness for the briefest of instances, clearing by the time a burst of crackling blue-white energy shot downward. A burst of kinetic energy, coupled with searing lightning, hit the leading edge of the Revenants like a tidal wave. Red scaled flesh flipped ass over teakettle, though few weren't able to immediately regain their feet. Just in time to witness Felix hit the cobbles like a meteor.

*KATHOOM!*

The Revenants hissed in hate and hunger, their Intent as clear to Felix as if they had shouted it.

Wrack and Ruin!

Wrack and Ruin!

Influence of the Wisp!

Blue-white wispfire flickered among dozens of the Revenants, freezing them in place as the Enthrall status condition caught them. More still were mowed down by the twinned orbs of sizzling acid, big brothers to the Skill-less attempt earlier. The acid magic ate through Revenant after Revenant, tearing limbs and boring holes through abdomens with little care. Still the Revenants came at him, heedless in their fury, and Felix looked behind him.

The ragged group had made it to the gates of their camp, but they were entirely too close. The guards wouldn't open the gates with a horde so near. He had to change that.

"You want me? Come on!" Two identical whips of shadow formed in either hand, and he heaved to the left and then to the right. Each swipe took several of the monsters off their feet and at least did a little damage.

Stone Shaping!

A wall of stone spikes shot up along the path of the whips, scattering their dark Mana and impaling another dozen abominations. Black ichor ran like water. Notifications for Contribution rolled in.

Only forty left. He glanced back at the gates, which were just now opening up. I can do this.

Ravenous Tithe!

The dead among the enemy exploded into greasy black smog, liberally streaked with a ruby luminescence. It hurtled toward Felix, but he was already moving.

The Revenants did not last long.

Shortly after, the gates opened once more to admit Felix and Pit both. They were covered in black blood and they were mussed from battle, but neither of the bore significant wounds. He'd kept the horde busy while the refugees had fled safely into camp, bating them close enough for the Tin Ranks to land their arrows and ranged Mana Skills. The Revenants didn't leave him, not once, practically glued to his side. Pit rained down Frost Spears and Wingblades, slicing them apart over and over.

"Ugh, heartburn," Felix muttered, rubbing at his chest. Pit cooed and nudged him with his giant head. "I'll be fine. Just more Maw power. Gotta cut it off."

Bastion of Will!

Around his core space, diaphanous strings of crimson power drifted like questing snakes. With a flex of his Skill, he severed their heads and sent them recoiling until they drifted harmlessly above his core. From above, the crackling nebula of Essence released another two ruby-red drops of glistening light; they joined with the others that swirled in counterpoint to his spinning ring core.

Good enough, I suppose. It felt...not bad, but not good. Heartburn was a joke, because it was more like the ache of punished muscles, an ache that promised greater strength in the future. But did he trust that strength?

As the gates clattered shut behind him, Felix looked out at what he expected to be a gathering crowd. Instead, it was a ring of armored soldiers, spears leveled against the twenty two refugees. For the first time, Felix got a good look at them, letting his Voracious Eye do its thing. Most of them were Humans, Untempered and heavily wounded, but one caught his attention; she was hanging nearly limp from a burly man's arms. Blood dripped from her lips and ears, black and red intermingling.

Name: Aslei Tunn

Level: 42

Race: Human

[email protected]//

Corruption Detected.

It was the Chorister of Siva. Her silver robes were torn and bloody, stained black in some places. She was far worse than her escort, all of whom alternated between fear of the guards and concern for the chorister. "Please," she was panting. "Help us. We've found the Nest."

"What?" Cal demanded, striding through the crowd. "Where?"

"Please," Aslei gasped. More black blood poured from her nose and trickled down from her eyes. "They're all dying."

"She's packed to the brim with that Primordial Essence," Portia declared. They had moved the Chorister and her people into one of the smaller structures nearby. It had only four cramped rooms abutting the main area and was less than fourteen hundred square feet, but it sufficed. Her people were split up into two groups and being watched. The Chorister, meanwhile, was laid out on a cot they'd salvaged from somewhere. Portia gestured helplessly to the woman's bloody nose, ears, and mouth. "You can see some scaling on her neck and hands, and her Night cursed blood is turning black. That's more advanced than I've ever seen this before."

"How'd it get this bad?" Evie asked. The whole crew was there, which made for more cramped space than normal. Atar, Evie, Vess (and the Hand), Harn, Cal, Portia, even Aenea had been brought in. Everyone except Zara. "I thought it didn't hit those that're Tempered?"

"It doesn't affect you as much," Portia clarified. "Or need I remind you that your friend here was similarly affected?"

Evie waved her off. "My point is, she is way more'n me or Atar. Priest lady is Adept, at least."

"A valid point," Vess agreed. The Hand beside her shifted, uncomfortably Felix thought. "What could affect someone so strong?"

Felix knelt down until he was about eye level with the unconscious woman's bleeding face. He could sense the power lingering around her, corroding her Mind and Spirit the same way it was eating through her Body. It...sang to him. "She took it in."

"What?" Cal asked. "What d'ya mean?"

"I don't know how, but there's more Essence roiling in her than I've seen in any of the Revenants. Either she did that to herself, or the Nest is so densely potent that it infected her." Felix shook his head and put his hand out, hovering it just above her chest. "She won't last long like this. I can feel it."

"So what? You're just gonna take that into you?" Harn growled. "That's dumb. Then you'll be dyin', kid. Cal, tell him that's dumb."

Cal was looking at Felix and her gaze didn't waver. "Aenea? Can you concoct something that'll save her?"

"I—I don't think so," she admitted. Her voice sounded a little sour. "Not in time. I've never seen this before, and the boy is right. She is dying."

"And with it, knowledge of the Nest," the Hand rolled his eyes. "How contrived."

"Excuse me?" Cal said.

"Don't you think it strange that none of her people know the Nest's location? That it's all in this one sick chorister? That she made it here, to the one place where her affliction might be cured?" The Hand looked at all of them and scoffed. "Don't tell me you're all so foolish."

"Pbbtthh," Evie elocuted.

"How...expected," the Hand drawled.

"Who cares," Felix said. He put his hand out again, feeling the wafting warmth of Essence emanating from the chorister's chest. "I can save her. And I will."

Ravenous Tithe!

Like called to like, and Felix pulled at its Temper. The Conductor—The Way Between. He was the way, the rod for the levin bolts of crimson Essence to escape, to seek the greater pairing. Because even when compared to the chorister, Felix's being was inundated with more Primordial Essence; it was part of him, and he claimed it.

The wind howled in the small room, air displaced so hard that the corrugated metal walls rattled violently. He could sense his allies' concern, the pungent tang of their anxiety, even the roadflare of distaste well on its way toward hate. But he didn't touch those, didn't steal them from the air. His Mind and Spirit were bent only upon Essence. He tore it from the chorister, from the air around them, from the pooling puddles of black ichor. It was his, alone.

Mine.

Ravenous Tithe is level 57!

Ravenous Tithe is level 58!

Red hot and screaming, the potency of the Essence seared Felix's channels as it invaded him. But his Hunger pulled at it all, draining everything he could from the woman in a torrent of bloody vapor. With a choking gasp, the chorister woke. And vomited a stream of foul blood right onto Felix's boots.

"Eugh."

Vess leaned forward and helped the woman into a sitting position as Aenea stepped forward with a set of odd metal and glass tools. Chuckling, Evie handed him an oily rag. "Thanks," Felix said wryly.

Whatever the Alchemist did, by the time Felix was done cleaning his boots, Aslei looked far more stable with a flush of color to her cheeks. She was fair of hair and eye, though in the gloomy confines it was hard to tell exactly what color and Felix didn't particularly care. As long as she's not foaming at the mouth or growing scales, we're good.

"Chorister Tunn," Vess began. "We need you to tell us about the Nest."

Aslei's face...shifted, somehow. It was gone in a flash, but Felix didn't imagine it. He could see it still in his perfect recall. It was as if something had quickly and violently moved beneath the surface of her face. Her confused expression melted into agonized despair, and her Spirit matched it.

"Where are my people?"

"The ones you arrived with are safe, but secured," Cal stepped forward and folded her arms. "Before we talk about them though, we need to talk about the Nest. You said you know where it is. Tell us."

"I do, I do know where it is," the chorister breathed. She looked around herself, meeting the many eyes upon her. "Please, if I tell you, you must save them. They are dying. We all are."

"We cannot save anyone if we don't know their location," Cal growled. "Where. Is. The. Nest?"

"It was—it is beneath the primary pump station, near the base of the Eyrie. But you must understand! There are thousands of them, thousands! And more than the beasts. There are giant abominations and lean coursers. They are changing, quicker than we ever thought possible!" The chorister spat with every word, her gaunt face growing more severe by the word. "We tried! We tried to stop them! But the air is poison, and our blessings do nothing against it."

She touched her face and looked at the crimson blood that coated her fingers. Her eyes widened. "Why—why is it not blackened? Why am I not dead?"

Felix leaned forward at met the woman's eyes. She flinched back. He hadn't expected that. "What happened?"

"We couldn't stem the tide. The abominations found our redoubt, the faithful's last stronghold against the redcloaks and all that sought—" she stumbled over her words, and her tongue touched the corner of her mouth. Blood was there, and she winced. "They came for us. We were desperate. The Choristers they...we...all of us used them," she admitted. "Mighty shards of power, shed by the beast. So—so incredibly potent! If we could but pull in such strength..!"

"And it tore you apart," Vess whispered in horror.

Felix had heard stories of people ruining their foundations by absorbing monster cores, the impurities within them creating flaws and fissures in their Formations. That was the work of months and years, not days, and the attention of those in the room sharpened just that much more.

The chorister had the grace to look ashamed. "Yes. The other Choristers they...they changed. The weaker of our people died. It was gruesome to behold."

"Changed how?" Portia asked, but her hand was already at her mouth. She'd seen more than most.

"They became foul creatures...less than Human but more than monsters," Aslei shuddered, and just for an instant, Felix saw it again. That...ripple across her features. "They are—I believe they can be saved."

Felix frowned. The woman's Spirit had quailed at those words, a tortured diminution that drifted into staccato bursts of...something. She was lying. To herself, or to us?

"What were they called?" Cal asked. "These shards?"

"Scales of the Ravager, though all other information was hidden from us," the chorister swallowed nervously.

Scales of the Ravager, Felix groaned. That asshole. Couldn't just disappear, could he?

"And ya...absorbed some of one?" Harn looked at her askance. "Haven't ya felt the corrosion in the air? What possibly could convince ya to so somethin' like that?"

"You've not faced what lies beneath. You cannot claim you'd do differently," Aslei shuddered and wrapped her arms around her legs. "I took its power within me and...it broke me. My core is stained, I can feel it now. Whatever you did to me won't cure that." She looked back up, this time finding Felix's eyes. "But if you can find my friends, my family, perhaps you may bring them back from the brink."

Her hand snaked out to touch his own, but Felix recoiled. Something about her—

"We have to move. I know where she's talking, and it's a good two hour's walk from here. Less if we hurry up," Cal clapped her hands and started barking out orders. "Harn, gather the teams and tell Bodie to prep our defense forces. Atar, get the inscriptionists and fledgling mages. Evie reach out to the Coldfires and let them know I'm looking for them, okay? Aenea—"

On it went, and Felix could feel the thrum of excitement as folks raced from the room. The Alchemist helped the injured chorister to her feet and plied her with a number of Healing Tonics. The Essence in his core roiled, unsettled or perhaps eager; Felix was unsure. What he was sure about, however, was that he didn't trust the chorister.

Voracious Eye.

Name: Aslei Tunn

Level: 47

Race: @>>#$

[email protected]//

Corruption Cleansed!

[email protected]

Anomaly Detected.

She was hiding something.

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