Unbound

Chapter Eight Hundred And Sixty – 860

Felix jerked away from his core space, returning to his Body and the empty lands beyond the Pool. Felix’s hands were still wrist deep in the warm soil, and the sky was stil dead.

What happens at 100%? Pit asked.

I wish I knew. But I don’t like the sound of ‘Beast Awakened’ very much.

Something touched his fingers.

He jerked his arm back, a thrill of fear lighting up his spine as the earth rolled just for a moment—as if something were moving beneath.

Rising.

Felix blinked and it was gone. Not a single blade of grass was disturbed, and even the hole was gone as if he’d never dug it.

What the shit was that?

The silence within him was still there, impossible to miss now that he was aware of it. The silence beneath the earth remained as well, trapped under near-dead soil and stone. As far as Felix could tell, it was huge—like a cavern that stretched on for miles.

One way to find out, Felix sent back. He reached down and tore up a clod of dirt. He got no more than three handfuls deep before the sky buckled.

Winds howled out of nothing, and pillars of smoke scudded across the blasted horizon. The charred expanse of the heavens themselves bent inward, folding on itself before spitting out a metallic blue abomination. The Twins had returned.

Abyssal Skein!

Felix threw himself back, hugging his body tight to a line of tumbled boulders. With their incredible height and godly powers, he had little hope of hiding forever, but he clung to Abyssal Skein like a life raft.

He Avoids This Place, a male voice said, echoing from one of its angular heads. It had a mouth, but Felix couldn't quite keep track of it. It shifted across its strangely proportioned skull, the angles of its appearance sliding as if bound to a twisting kaleidoscope.

Why Would He Call Our Attention, Only To Run When We Sought Him Out? An Infuriating Cretin, a female voice asked from the other head.

He Is Chaos, Sister. He Needs No Reason To Upset Things.

Yet He Has Them, Brother, And They Are As Nonsenical As They Are Insidious. You Saw What He Did To The Coward. Who Knows Avet’s Motivations?

Felix sidled across the boulders on his elbows and knees, angling himself for a better line of sight. It wasn’t often he got to see a god arguing with itself.

Avet was the one who put the fire in the sky?

Any Of Us Would Have Done The Same To The Remnant, the male Twin said. The Pathless Made His Own End The Moment He Sided With The Nym.

What?

Felix drew up short. He had to have heard that wrong.

Betrayal Has Its Costs, the lighter voice said with a twitching nod. The Law Deems It So.

As Does Arrogance. Our Sister Has Proven That.

The Twins lifted one of their arms, and Felix took a moment to understand what he was seeing. A second arm was wrapped around the first, muscle and bone shifting like liquid so that their dozens of joints interlocked. Two hands, clasped tight, lifted at the end of the appendage and spread its too-many fingers. From between them, a light like a miniature sun flared, casting all of the world into shadow and burning heat. Felix bit his tongue to stifle his cry as he threw himself to the ground and the very landscape itself changed. The plains buckled and rolled, hills rising up where ashen flatlands had been and mountains flattening into enormous plateaus. A deep, disturbing Dissonance filled the still air—so thick that it rippled Felix's clothing like a stiff breeze as the blaze of light flowed like liquid flame.

Felix gasped, his chest burning and limbs spasming on the ashen ground. A furious roar thrummed within him, echoing with the Dissonance in the air. Desperate, he cast his vision inward, and saw his Divine Tree whipping about in a cosmic gale. His Skills shuddered, their patterns sounding with mad tones and riotous cadence. At the bottom, his abyss spun as fast as a top, its accreting edge red-hot.

He rose back up, and stared into the blinding radiance.

Unseen Beholder!

Notifications flickered past him, none of them forming but snatches of distant chords rippled through his Affinity. It wasn’t resistance so much as…overwhelm. The System wouldn’t show him the details.

Or it couldn’t.

Ultimately it didn’t matter. His Unseen Beholder let him see the gleaming object, and Felix’s heart clenched with recognition. He’d seen its like before—but not since he’d torn it out of Siva’s chest.

All at once, the Dissonance vanished. The Twins were standing now, their dual heads staring at the undisturbed plains, no sign of the buckling or collapsing anywhere.

Walk The Deadlands, Sister.

Seek Them, Brother.

Their words rang out in unison as the core gleamed through its fingers. We Will Find What Was Left Behind.

The Twins strode off across the destroyed terrain, their footfalls sending earthquakes that faded ever so slowly.

What was left behind? Felix swallowed, still unable to get past the piece of Siva he’d just seen. From who? Siva? No, that was a piece of her core. He ground his teeth. A piece I missed.

Felix?

Pit’s words echoed, unanswered as Felix stood back up. He peered after the disappeared gods, hunting for some trace of them, fearing that they had simply circled back and would pounce on him and Pit at any moment.

Yet there was nothing. Less than nothing.

Felix. The ground—Look!

He spun around, and just as Pit had warned, the not-quite-lifeless ground had vanished—taking the deep silence along with it. In its place was the same blasted, ash-choked earth as everywhere else. A flat emptiness that contained neither song nor echo.

We need to get out of here, Pit said.

Perception flared, but Felix couldn't find a single trace. Neither the Dissonance nor the silence. He shook his head. Whatever it had been was gone. The image of the Twins and their burning light intruded on his thoughts. Or had it fled?

Felix!

"Fine," he said aloud. He pulled Abyssal Skeen tighter around his shoulders and slipped across the rocky ground. "But this isn't over."

Compared to their descent and the findings at the center of the Pool, their return was uneventful. The rift they had entered still stood among the place the Twins called the Deadlands, and beyond it remained the strands of Bonds that filled the deep, dark Pool.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

They slipped through.

Felix and Pit propelled themselves back up, Will and Alacrity more than enough to send them hurtling back to the river. From there they skimmed the top of the turbulent waters before diving down, deep into the dark, empty currents. Shadow stole their senses but never their Will, and in less than a minute they emerged with a thick splash—back in Elderthrone.

They climbed out, and in a flash of light, Pit separated. The two of them traded a glance.

"Well, that was easier than I expected," the tenku admitted. "Usually, we're attacked the entire way back.”

“I’m glad exterminating a goddess had at least one upside." Felix looked back at the Pool. Despite their recent exit, it was flat and undisturbed as a sheet of glass. There was no evidence of their dive, as even their clothes had shed the thick liquid the moment they were free of it.

A bell rang throughout the chamber, sparking waves of Mana from the fractal array just beyond the entryway.

Knowledge reappeared, bowing to Felix and Pit until his head nearly touched the ground. "Emperor Felix Nevarre, first of his name, Inheritor of the Nymean's Will, you have embraced the Pool of Halcyon Oaths and emerged transformed."

Title Upgraded!

Blessed of the Halcyon Oath XI (Transcendent)!

You have embraced the waters of connection in the Luminous Void and emerged whole for a third time!

Void Nexus has gained 10 levels!

Void Nexus is level 25!

Apprentice Tier!

You Gain:

+22 PER

+22 INT

+22 END

You Have Reached The Bottom Of The Pool Of Halcyon Oaths!

ERROR!

The Pool Of Halcyon Oaths Is Damaged!

ERROR!

The Pool Persists!

Rewards Earned!

New Title!

Chthonic Empyrean (Mythic)!

By traversing the full depth of the Pool, you have proven your commitment to walk the dark paths of deepest commitment. A Bond. As Siva was but a shadow of Veridaan, so too are Oaths a pale reflection of Bonds. The Void Nexus within you stirs as it reaches Apprentice Tier, Promising Greater Glories Ahead.

+Stabilization cost of significance is reduced by 25%

+Stabilization of all Passages are increased by 25%

+Size of Dark Passage rifts are doubled

Hell yeah, Felix grinned. “See, Pit? I told you using the Pool would pan out.”

Empire Established!

Crown Of Elysium Detected!

Title: First Of His Name Detected!

Prerequisites Exceeded!

New Title!

Empire’s Passage (Legendary)!

You have strengthened your connection to your people by traversing the very depths of your vows. The echoes of Veridaan call out through you, Scion, and from your center emerges a Bond none can deny.

+Apprentice Tier Increases Exemplar Limit From Nine To Thirteen!

+Limits On Passengers Greatly Reduced!

+Exemplar’s Gift - Allows all Exemplars to temporarily appoint their own Adjutants—three each—giving them the ability to expand the size, capacity, and speed of Dark Passage rifts.

"There, see?” Felix smiled at his Companion. “Mervin’s job will be a piece of cake.”

Pit sat back on his haunches in clear relief. "Oh, good. Scylla will be thrilled."

Felix was a bit concerned by the fact that the System was calling an error with the Pool, but he supposed he wasn't surprised. Either Siva had powered it or it was the center of her Divinity, and either way, with her gone there was a vacuum. Quite literally—the empty space at the center and the rift to the Deadlands proved that there was something wrong, now that the Goddess of Fortune was dead.

Felix chewed at his lip, thinking, "Knowledge, what do you know about the Deadlands?"

The memory construct froze, accessing, but it wasn't a movement of fear. Its eyes flickered side to side as if reading something no one could see, accessing its store of information, no doubt. In a moment, it unfroze, the Geist looking to Felix and holding out one of its small, clawed hands.

"Precious little, your Imperial Majesty.” An illusory series stack of tomes appeared above its hands and rose straight to the ceiling. “In your collection, the term 'dead lands' (disambiguation) is referenced in nine thousand, four hundred and eighty-two different tomes, many of which are quite different. However, it is only mentioned as a proper noun in sixteen of them." The books flickered one after the other until they disappeared. "Do you want me to list them for you?"

"Give me the shorthand rundown," Felix said. "What do they have in common?"

Knowledge hummed to itself. "Deadlands is most often referred to as a place where souls are destroyed, or where the Song is stilled. One particular tome refers to it as a poetic fiction to indicate the Lost knowledge we once held. That one is clearly fallacious."

"Where the Song is stilled," Felix looked at Pit, who bobbed his head.

"Yeah, I can see that too. Did that one mention more about the Deadlands? Or about the gods?" Pit asked.

Knowledge's eyes flickered as if it were reading once more. "‘The stillness is a baited breath between chords that could never be struck, a place of deadly forbiddance.’ That is the only line in that particular tome about the subject."

"Huh, sounds about right though," Pit muttered.

"Is that it?" Felix asked.

"That is all I can find on that particular term."

Felix thought through what they had seen—and what the Twins had said. That bright light—a core of some sort—was too familiar to not be associated with Siva. Unless the gods all carried around a similar chunk of power, that was a piece of the Goddess of Fortune that Felix had missed.

His eyes opened wide. "Or it’s something I never had in my reach.”

"What are you talking about?" Pit asked.

“When I fought Siva, I wasn't fighting all of her. There were parts still up there." Felix pointed to the ceiling and the sky beyond the stone. "I thought when I destroyed her moon that I'd gotten everything. The System even announced her death.”

“Wait, why did you think you fought most of her? I thought the gods couldn't manifest down here. Wouldn’t that mean lots of her stayed behind?" Pit waggled a paw at the construct. “Knowledge, back me up on this.”

"It is true. The Divine are prevented by Ouranic Law to manifest upon the Continent. I can find several references to back up this assertion."

Pit chirruped curiously. "Do you know why? Did the book say?"

"No," Knowledge said with a powerful sense of finality.

"Okay, geez.”

“That Law isn’t complete though. I loosened her chains," Felix said, drawing the Geist’s attention. "So that she could manifest more fully in Levantier. So I could fight her."

Knowledge turned sharply toward him. "That is forbidden!"

Felix took a step back from the small figure. The construct had never raised its voice before. "Loosening her chains is forbidden? Why?"

"The Laws bind them, keeping us safe," it said, eyes glowing brighter now with purple, gold, and a deep, verdant green. "The chains hold the Compact. Never can they be loosened, cut, or cast off. If they are, then Judgment falls upon us all. Consequence."

All at once, the memory construct froze, its eyes ceasing their deep radiance. Knowledge bowed. "If that will be all, Emperor Nevarre."

Without another word, it vanished.

Felix and Pit shared an incredulous look. "What the heck was that?" the tenku asked.

"A warning," Felix was sure of that. "The Compact, whatever it is, must have something to do with why the gods are trapped on their moons. I have a Quest about those, but it involves visiting their Shrines. I can't do that right now. They're either too far away, or in enemy Territory."

"Well, we’re headed to En’Cridhe right? Isn’t that the Pathless’ Shrine?”

"That's a good point, but I have a feeling that once we reach the center of Amaranth, it's going to be a bit too late to put together a plan. We're going to be flying by the seat of our pants."

"What else is new?" Pit said with a nervous laugh. "Hey, the fact that you were able to loosen the chains at all, that's gotta mean something, right? Did it have something to do with what the Twins said? About how the Pathless sided with the nym?"

Felix frowned, rubbing at the bridge of his nose. "I don't know. Everything I know about the Pathless says that he wouldn't have done something selflessly. There was an angle that he had been working. There had to have been.”

“Maybe…” Pit’s ears twitched. “He was called the Coward right? And the Remnant? Maybe his angle was trapping his siblings?”

“That…makes a lot of sense.” Felix dropped his hands from his face. “But did that mean the Nym were the ones who trapped the gods?"

He recalled the system notice when he'd loosened the chains.

Authority Recognized, Inheritor!

Felix Nevarre, He Who Bears The Sword And Crown!

The Chains Around Siva Are Loosened.

He lifted up his sword. Inheritor's Will gleamed in the light of the chamber. If the sword and Crown could do that, then that suggested the Nym were behind their binding in the first place.

“That must be it,” he muttered.

"Okay," Pit said. "Does that change anything?"

"Maybe not, but things are starting to line up. And if we can scrape an advantage out of this knowledge, then I damn sure will." Felix sheathed the blade with a single sharp motion. "No time to rest anyway.”

“What's next?" Pit asked.

"Surprise inspections. Then we're going to put Fiendforge to use."