Unbound

Felix blinked as the Intent vanished. It had been far easier than he expected. His own Intent had broken the honed edge of it into harmless pieces that dissolved into the ambient Mana. The Aurochs, however, neither stopped or even slackened their pace. They thundered by, still stampeding away from whatever had so frightened them.

The Tier II beasts were being taken down, but there were so many. At least four hundred, all of them rampaging east, through the forest and...into Haarwatch.

...You cannot coddle them...

Perfect recall let him almost hear Zara voice again, and Felix scowled. This was the second horde he had fought, the second heading east for the city. It was unlikely to be a coincidence, not with how his summer had been going. No, Haarwatch should expect to see more and more of these...unless someone stopped them.

An Aurochs ran by, a little too close to the group, and Felix flared his Adamant Discord. The beast was hit by a blast of kinetic lightning, forces that lifted and hurled its shelled body up and over it's own herd.

You Have Killed A Shelled Aurochs!

XP earned!

A soft trilling sound rippled through his Affinity, and Felix saw the Haarguard flash with a brief pulse of System energy. The Grand Harmony was swirling around them all, as they leveled up from this encounter. The sharper pings of Skill levels cascaded like chimes, coming from his friends as well.

Strength from adversity, huh Zara? Felix clenched his jaw. But too much adversity doesn't grant you strength. It kills you.

He wanted the Legion to grow stronger, but what would they do against so many Tier II beasts? More than just the Legion was at risk now. They would surely die, and the Aurochs would end up within the city, where they'd kill even more. The Aurochs would annihilate what little remained of the Wall Quarter. Unless they completed the Wall and restored its reserve of power, Haarwatch was practically undefended.

If I have the power to stop it, I'll stop it. No more deaths.

Influence of the Wisp!

Stone Shaping!

Mana poured from Felix, a torrent to dwarf the amount he'd used to build the battering rams. Colored violet and orange, it swept outward in a flash, leaving behind a blue fire on the Aurochs. They were instantly Enthralled, their Willpower overwhelmed by Felix's own, and froze in place. A second wave of dusty brown Mana sent a series of stone spikes upward, piercing their skulls in a single, precise casting.

You Have Killed A Shelled Aurochs (x342)!

XP earned!

Influence of the Wisp is level 48!

Influence of the Wisp is level 49!

Stone Shaping is level 58!

Not today.

"Blind gods," the Orc whispered. Davum, according to Evie's Analyze. She was bad with names. His tusks at least were neat. They were white and shone in the dappled sunlight. "He killed them all. With a single spell."

"Two spells, actually," Atar said from some distance away. He glanced over his shoulder at the falling monsters, and Evie bet he was using some weird mage Skill. "Fire, earth, and...augmentation. Yes."

"Interesting," Alister added. He had sheathed his rapier and was shouldering his pack again. "Didn't know he used augmentation magic."

"Kinda makes you feel pointless," Nevia panted, and only her friend Kikri kept her standing. She was particularly slender for a Dwarf, Evie noticed, and seemed to have low Stamina as well. "How does he even have that much Mana? I'd keel over tryin' to affect that many targets."

"He cheats," Evie said with a crooked smile. Not really an answer, but good enough by her estimation.

"He isn't cheating, Evie," Atar said in his "professor" voice. "In fact, I think I've figured out how it works. See—"

"Twin's teeth, I'm bored already," Evie complained, before pointing the guards at something else. "Ooh look!"

The Auroch corpses that littered the trampled forest turned to sudden, sparking vapor. It was very different than the usual black smoke of a monster decomposing. If Evie were forced to describe it, this was...it was like a house fire, smoke and all, trapped and funnelled. It sped toward Felix and just...vanished.

"Did he just—" Kikri started.

"Yeah."

"How di—"

"Don't worry about it," Evie said with smile and a shrug. She slung her arm around the Elf. "We'll never get to use it anyway. We're not cheaters, yeah?"

"...Right," Nevia said in a distracted sort of way. She looked from Evie to Felix to Atar. "But wasn't that Mana? And what was—"

"Good at questions. Not so good at listening," Evie said with a dramatic shake of her head. She looked at the Dwarf and Elf with the patient eyes of an elder, for all that she was easily five to seven years younger than either of them. "Trust in my years of wisdom. Nothing good comes from asking Atar to explain stuff, anyway. At best, you'll just fall asleep."

"Hey!"

"Ooh, bridge is up!"

They continued onward, though Atar and Alister took cuttings of the Orphale Trees. Felix admitted they were super interesting, and regretted not having the luxury to really investigate all the strangeness in the Foglands. From hidden monsters, house-sized mushrooms, and carnivorous plants, the place had it all. And that was just in the first few miles.

Another hour passed and the ground got increasingly rocky, with trees growing more and more sparse as the land rose and dipped. It was easy going for Felix and those that were more martially inclined, but the mages were puffing fairly quickly. Harn set a steady pace that kept them going but didn't lay them out. Last thing they wanted was to run into something and have people with spent Stamina.

Atar bemoaned the loss of the avum, but Felix was happy to no longer worry about them. Advancing with just a few people was considerably easier, though the Foglands was sure to throw more curveballs at them. Felix had no doubt of that. He let Harn take the lead and lingered in the rear with Pit where he could oversee the entire team.

Pit's Bite is level 51!

Pit's Rake is level 52!

Pit's Wingblade is level 62!

Pit's Frost Spear is level 65!

Pit's Flight is level 44!

He checked and accepted all the Skill gains for his Companion, and Pit chirruped in pride. The little man had done a great job on the field, effectively keeping the Aurochs from hitting their relatively weaker allies. Their weakness did raise a few questions for Felix, though he would be the first to admit his sense of power was a bit skewed. Maybe he—

"Felix?" Harn called from the front of the line. "Come take a look at this."

Felix scratched Pit's neck and walked ahead, pushing his Agility and Dexterity just a touch so that he could pass through the others quickly. It was getting easier, using varying levels of his stats instead of going all out every single time. It was one of the things Rory had harped on during his training. Control. Power was the currency of the Continent, but without control, you were no better than a monster.

Felix had been a monster long enough.

In seconds he reached the head of the line, coming abreast of Harn as the man stood atop a rocky lip over another shallow ravine. It even looked familiar, though they had passed a dozen such furrows so far.

"What's up, Harn?"

The man had taken off his helmet and held it under an arm. "I think you want to see this. Come on."

Harn called a halt and the two of them went down the steep side of the defile. It was easy for them both, and in short order they stood at the bottom, near a tumbled down cliff face. A single, triangular obelisk jutted through the uniform stones and weeds. Felix sucked in a breath.

"Shrine of Vellus," he growled.

"Hm, thought as much. I spotted this obelisk glintin' in the sun. Seemed to match your description of the place." Harn walked closer, and kicked a few stones.

"Careful, I don't know—" Felix stopped as if he'd run into a brick wall. Two steps in and his body has all but seized up—he was unable to get closer to the Shrine. "What is this?"

System Alert: Access Denied

Bearer Of The Thief of Fate Title Is Barred From All Divine Locations

Primordials Are Barred From All Divine Locations

"Whoa," Felix gasped, reading the gilt-edged notification that dominated his vision. It came with a sound like a holy choir calling down judgement, thunder and horns and fury.

Harn spun around. "What? What happened?"

"Notification," Felix croaked, before stepping back. He took a breath, now that his body was no longer seizing. "I'm barred from getting any closer."

Harn stepped back, giving the Shrine a dangerous look. "Because of what you did?"

"Yeah, I'd guess so." He'd earned the Thief of Fate Title when he had stolen a piece of Vellus' Divinity in a last ditch effort to survive. She hadn't liked it. "My Race too."

"Hm, makes sense," Harn grunted. "Primordials—most of em, leastwise—are nasty customers. Makes sense that holy grounds are forbidden."

Felix tilted his head and flared his Manasight. There was a...strangeness to the Mana in that place. Like it was slowing down, freezing. The flows eddied in odd ways as they moved across the ground and breeze, each of them swirling and churning through the space, moving close to but not touching the Shrine itself.

Something inside of him stirred, and Felix placed a hand on his chest.

"What is it?"

"My core space...hold on, let me check," Felix said. He dove his senses down into his core, where his stacked rings of flame spun in opposition. They looked fine, as did the Skills revolving around him, and the ribbons of light braiding beneath it all.

The growth, however, the piece of Divinity that he had stolen from Vellus, that quivered. Felix pulled himself closer. It resembled roots or veins and was a dark crimson, threaded through with pulses of colorless light. It shook, pulsing like a heartbeat, while those lights flowed up and down its branches in a slow and steady pace.

The Shrine, he realized. It's reacting to the Shrine.

The growth felt...heavy, a significance he hadn't appreciated before. Seeing it matched up against the destroyed Shrine, the way Mana was flowing, it weighed on him. He flared his Adamant Discord and could feel a pull, as if it were exerting a strange sort of gravity. It meant...something, he was sure.

Maybe it's just a Geiger counter for Divine radiation? That made sense. At the very least, that made avoiding such Shrines in the future easier.

He returned to the real world.

"Well, I can't get closer to it, and I'm not sure I want to try," Felix said. "Better to leave god stuff to the gods. Right?"

Harn chuckled. "A good attitude to have, were it several weeks ago. Bit late for that, kid."

"I can't argue with that." Felix smiled, though he didn't feel it. "Regardless, we should move on. I don't want any of the others stumbling on this. I've no idea if that bloodgate works both ways or not."

Not too long ago, the bloodgate was what brought him out of the Void. He'd hate to find out later it could send folks back. No one deserved that.

They traveled only a bit farther after that. When the last rays of the sun dipped below the mountains they had started to climb, Harn called it. They found a shallow cave, one that smelled of nothing more than dirt and the bare wind, and started to unpack.

"Why not press on through the night?" Alister asked, echoing a sentiment from the Haarguard. They seemed somewhat annoyed to be stopping with so much ambient light still available. "I was told this Quest is somewhat time sensitive?"

One of the guards gasped, and Felix could almost hear their Minds start whirring.

"Time's not on our side, that's true enough," he rasped, giving the noble a hard look. Alister grimaced and inclined his head in apology. "But the dark ain't friendly, least of all here. I'll not have you all caught unawares in the night, fog or no."

Setting up camp was extremely simple when everyone was vaguely superhuman. The ground was easier to sleep on and everyone required a bit less sleep anyway. To give himself some space, Felix used Stone Shaping to dig a bit deeper and added a hook to the tunnel so that they couldn't be seen directly from outside the cavern. He wanted to close off the cave completely, but was thankfully stopped in doing so when Evie pointed out they'd all probably suffocate. Harn had brought a few wardstones to obscure their presence, at least a little, so it was largely unnecessary anyway.

No fire was allowed, the usual precaution for exploring hostile lands. They had trail rations with them though, so food wasn't an issue. A sort of salted meat, bread, and plenty of water. It wasn't particularly tasty, but then Felix didn't need food that much any more. He still needed some of course, but his Vitality made him extremely resistant to both hunger and thirst, so for the moment he left the rations for the others. He'd also eaten all that Mana and Essence from the Shelled Aurochs, so his needs were met.

While the others ate and settled in, the guards continuously cast pointed looks at one another. Felix noticed it early on and knew why. When it didn't stop, he decided to nip the gossiping in the bud.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

Kikri and Davum, who were trading glances above Felix's head, started in surprise. They looked at Felix, then at the others sitting nearby. Davum nervously tapped his tongue against his tusks. "There is a Quest?"

Exactly what I thought. "Yes. It's my Quest."

"Quests are both rare and almost always difficult," Kikri began. She too looked nervous. "We—"

"We weren't told it was a Quest," Kylar whined over the Elf. Well, not whined exactly, but it felt that way to Felix. The man had a definite sulk to his voice. "I—we would have appreciated some honesty."

"Honesty's got nothin' to do with it. You're guards, yeah?" Harn grunted. When the swordsman nodded, Harn leaned forward. "Silence means less lips to flap the truth of things. You weren't told, because you weren't trusted."

Kylar tried to surge to his feet, but his cousin Vyne held him down. The others just looked like their parents had yelled at them.

"The plan was always to tell you once we'd made camp," Harn continued. He jabbed a thumb at Alister. "Knacht just spilled the beans a bit early."

Evie clapped the noble on the back. "Good job, fancy pants!" She looked at everyone else and sat down among them. "Now that no one can go runnin' back to Haarwatch, and all the snoops have been left behind, how's about we talk about that Quest then. Eh Felix?"

Felix smirked. Leave it to Evie to vaporize tension, just by being herself.

"It's dangerous, I'm not gonna lie," Felix began. "But that's on me. I don't expect any of you to take on those dangers, not fully. It's my Quest, and I'll see it through."

"That a load of guano, Felix, and you know it," Evie said, and was echoed by Atar of all people.

"We're here to help, not sit in the back while you investigate an ancient magical artifact alone." Atar brushed a stray lock from his forehead.

That made a lot more sense.

"Atar means well," Alister said, only to receive a sour stare from the fire mage. Alister merely patted him on the head. "But yes, we are here for you, Felix."

Vess merely met his eyes and nodded.

Felix coughed, clearing his throat for some reason, and smiled, at all of them. Even the Haarguard. "Right. Well, then let me explain."

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