Unbound

Chapter Eight Hundred And Sixty One – 861

Deep beneath the earth, in tunnels where no sunlight had ever touched, an army slumbered. The Orders had posted their guards and scouts of course—diligent little soldiers, watching out for the evil Unbound that was in their midst.

Yyero had deemed it unnecessary.

His Plaguerats were sleepless and driven to a wrathful delirium that could not be surprised by any Lizard. They were more than enough to hold the tunnels secure. He made sure that the Order found his cluster of mushrooms on that first day, and had enticed them immediately with their savory bouquet. Rot was not all foul.

It was insidious, however. Having picked clean his growths, the Order could do naught but eat them with their meals. This led to a gleeful energy that bolstered their attention during their long search, and, upon digestion, an intoxicating numbness that lulled them to a dreamless, rejuvenating sleep.

Yyero preferred the silence.

He prowled the tunnels, a piece of himself hidden with Scathers’ malformed flesh. The Plaguerat did not have the best eyes, but its sense of smell was far beyond any mortal or monster.

I Did Not Expect You Down Here.

Yyero did not turn, for he could smell the dark that gathered at the edges of things. The tumurous mass upon Scathers’ back twisted and the skull that floated just inside its flesh confronted a flat shadow that slithered from the smallest of pipes. It gained volume and shape as it went, an inky balloon of slick gelatin that he knew was harder than any mountain. A long, serpentine shape slithered forth, propelled by thousands of Human fingers, until one end of it reared up and revealed its utter lack of face.

Noctis. The rat’s blank eyes rolled and its nose quivered. Why Have You Come?

I Do Not Forget. Do You Not Neglect Your Defense Of The Shining City? Yyero guided his putrid Vessel forward, until Scathers’ snout pressed close to his sister’s slick shadowflesh. You Smell Of Offal And Waste. The Northeastern Pipeways.

This Flesh Has Never Been To Such A Place.

No, But You Cannot Hide Its Stink On Your Spirit. The Entropy Within These Pipes Sings To Me, Sister. You May Hop Between Your Shadows, But You Carry The Corporeal With You, No Matter How Many Vessel You Burn.

The empty hole of Noctis’ face lifted up, as if it were looking down on him. Derision? For What?

Wasteful, Yyero growled. Your Power Is Not So Unlimited That You Can Shred Your Darkness For Fits Of Fancy.

And You, Brother? I Have Not Seen Much Of You At All.

My Vile Growths Line The City, As Requested.

Yet You Remain Here. She looked around as if for effect. This Is Where Your True Attention Lies, And Where You Too Burn Your Power.

I Seek My Vessel, Yyero snarled through rat teeth. True And Undying. It Is Mine.

Noctis inclined her head, suddenly magnanimus. That Is Fair. I Will Not Begrudge You A Measure Of Impatience. This Lizard Makes Fools Of Us All.

It Is A Testament To The Power Inside Of Him. Scathers licked its lips. I Long To Sup On His Spirit.

And To That End, You Too Burn The Aspects Of Your Creations.

The skull within flesh shifted, staring down at the Plaguerat upon which it grew. Scathers’ eyes were a filmy white and its mouth was open and drooling. My Plaguerats Give Themselves To Me With All Their Hearts. This, Yyero intoned, voice echoing. The tumor grew, pulsating across the rat’s back. This Is Worship.

Noctis made a sound deep in her throat that was halfway between a laugh and a choke. Worship. I Suppose For You It Just Might Be. She slithered her head up and over him, peering beyond the tunnel toward the nearest soldier, snoring away. For What Reason Did You Put Them To Sleep?

They Bore Me, Yyero said. Marching And Watching. Practicing With Their Paltry Weapons. The Sleep Empowers Them…And It Gives Me Peace To Work.

Noctis nudged a cluster of glowing mushrooms, newly budded along a damp rock. They were slimy to the touch, clinging among yellowed moss…and quite large. Touched by her shadowflesh, the whole of the cluster skittered aside, crawling down the tunnel and away from her reach. Very Interesting.

Why Do You Bother Me?

I Seek The Lizard As Well, she said. I Tire Of Fashioning Defenses. I Desire Blood…And If I Cannot Have Nevarre’s, Then I Will Take Whatever I Can.

Ah. Teeth sprouted along the growth on Scathers’ spine, bared into a reckless grin. You Were Always My Favorite, Sister—Even If You Are Not Blood.

We Are Held By More Than Blood, Yyero.

He nodded. There was nothing else to add. It was an immutable truth that clung to his soul as closely as his own power. As undeniable as the Ages themselves. With Your Shadowbeasts, We Could Find This Lizard Easily.

If Only That Were True. His sister keened, a sound Yyero did not hear often from her. It was frustration escaping her Spirit like water boiling upon a heated stone. I Have Sent My Creatures Into These Tunnels, Hunting Every Inch Of Them—And Yet They Cannot Pinpoint The Unbound. Somehow, The Lizard Remains Elusive.

He Is Powerful, Yyero said approvingly. A Fine Flesh For Me To Claim.

Perhaps, said a new voice. If You Survive To Reach Him.

Yyero spun, an uncommon fear clutching at his spoiled Spirit. Scathers’ hackles rose and Noctis sprouted a dozen spikes as a clicking noise tapped down an adjoining tunnel. A tunnel that Yyero knew had not been there only moments before.

A skeleton draped in broken armor that perhaps was once white. Its ivory bones were green with growths of many strange things, but red and gold power bound itself together in ligaments of divine power.

His rat’s nose twitched. Avet.

The two gods were joined by a third.

What Are You Doing Here?

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Golden teeth smiled at them both. To Tender Aid, My Dear Siblings. A soft laugh slipped through his dead jaws. To mortals, it was a grandfatherly sound—to Yyero, it was a precursor to annoyance.

Speak Quickly, Brother Mine, he snapped.

So Impatient. It Is Not A Good Look On You, Lord of Decay. The skeleton clacked its jaws together twice. I Hear That You Are Having Trouble With Vessels. So Here I Am, Draped Within Mine.

The skeleton spread its arms wide, gesturing to its decrepit body. When Yyero and Noctis did naught but glower at him, the fool sighed. Do You Not Like It? I Found It Wasting Away Beneath A Fractured Grate. This Armor Was Once Quite Nice, You Know.

You Wear A Corpse, And A Broken One At That, Yyero sneered. Is This What You’ve Come To, God Of Change? Stealing Corpses To Peddle Your Small Will?

All I Am Is Due To Our Actions, Avet snapped.

Yyero grinned, tumor and rat in perfect sync.

Avet folded his dusty arms. This Is But A Mode Of Transit. A Talwing To Convey Me to You. To Warn You.

Warn Us, Noctis repeated. Of What?

Of Danger, he laughed. The Twins Toy With Siva’s Heart. They Plot Against Us.

The Twins Are Always Plotting, Yyero scoffed.

And We Know They Bear Siva’s Heart. They Showed Us, Noctis said. You Would Have Known It Too, Were You Ever To Set Foot InThe Deadlands.

Do You Not Recall The Last Time He Strayed There?

Bloody crimson flashed through the corpse’s eyes, and liquid gold dripped down its fanged jaws. Always One To Twist The Knife, Yyero.

Always One To Step Into It, Avet.

The light faded from the God of Change’s eyes as suddenly as a year’s ending. I Have No Interest In That Place, But The Twins Have Found It Quite Intriguing.

Yyero opened his mouth to deride the pathetic husk before them, but a slick shadow tendril forestalled his words. Why? Noctis asked.

Avet inclined his skull. The Dig. For What, I Do Not Know. But Is It Not Curious That They Use Siva’s Heart To Light Their Way?

Yyero and Noctis exchanged glances.

They Would Not Dare, he muttered.

We Are Bound Together By Law, Noctis said. I Trust Them.

Indeed. But Do They Trust You? Avet asked. They Are Off, Plumbing The Deadlands, And Leaving You To What? Defend The City? Protect Their Vessels? He leaned closer. Do You Know If You Can Even Withstand An Assault?

We Are Gods, Yyero intoned, his voice so loud it shook stone dust from the tunnels. The Gates Are Protected By Our Power. None May Come Here That We Do Not Will!

None? Truly? He turned to Noctis. Tell Me, Sister. What Happened When You Went Up Against A Paltry Army Of Chimera?

Though she had no mouth, Yyero heard a sound not unlike the grinding of teeth from the goddess. What Is Your Point?

Felix Nevarre. The sound of that name was like a spike of ice across his spine, and Noctis loosed a savage growl. Avet, the bastard, merely grinned. You Couldn’t Stop His Allies. What Hope Do You Have Of Stopping Him When He Arrives?

He Is Mortal, Noctis insisted. He Cannot Overcome Us Together. The Ritual Must Be Protected, So That All Of Us Are Free.

Speak For Yourself, Sister. I Stand Here, Beyond Your Chains. Avet’s grin gained more teeth, shaped from crimson power. You Could Always Follow My Path.

Yyero, if he had lips, would have twisted them in disdain. As it was, his Spirit roiled at the thought of becoming anything like Avet. The god seemed to notice, because he laughed.

Defenses Waste Your Power, Laying Upon Themselves For An Attack That Hasn’t Come. Why? You Snatched The Unbound Out From Under Nevarre’s Nose. Why Isn’t He Here?

He Is Afraid, Yyero said. It was as simple as that. The Boy—

No.

Noctis shook her empty face. Nevarre Is Insane. He Follows Incomprehensible Whims. He Is Slaved To Those That Serve Him. Avet…Has A Point.

He Is Simply Instigating Chaos, Yyero snarled, and his voice bubbled like thick sludge as he turned on the pathetic god. You Do Nothing That Is Not In Your Own Self-Interest. How Does This Benefit You, God Of Change?

Avet put a bony hand to his chest and dropped his jaw as if gasping. I Am Simply Looking Out For My Siblings. Blood May Not Connect All Of Us, But Our Bonds Go Deeper Than That.

Is That What You Said When You Hamstrung The Pathless?

Avet dropped his hand, his voice flattening. I Gave Him Mercy. Nevarre Would Have Finished Him Regardless, And He Would Have Learned All The Secrets The Pathless Knew.The Coward Was Never One For Pain.

Noctis nodded at that. He Was Poised To Tell The False Emperor All He Knew Before We Intervened.

The Law Would Have Prevented Him, Yyero insisted.

Ouranic Law Only Covers So Much, Avet shot back. Our Compact And Our Power Can Be Sussted Out. That Boy Is Smarter Than You Lot Realize, And I Don’t Know If You’ve Noticed, But The System Is Helping Him.

Yyero narrowed his eyes. Helping Him How?

Quests.

Both of the gods went still, as if they'd become statues rather than living beings. System quests weren't just dangerous—they were anathema to the Divine. Yyero had been on the wrong end of them many times before. At the hands of a far different enemy.

We’ve Known Of His Quests Since He Rose To Our Awareness, If Not The Content, Noctis said. Do You Know More?

Not As Such.

He Will Fall.

And Yet He Does Not…And His Allies Rise With Him. Avet shook his head. Don’t You See? They Will Challege Us. Not Just One Unbound, But An Entire Nation.

The corpse dripped molten gold from between his crimson teeth, and a crown flashed above his head. The Nym Rise Again.

Yyero scowled, but he could not deny that Avet's words stirred something inside of him. It was foreign, like a stranger he’d seen only once in his youth, now come again into his life. We Have Broken The Path. There Is No Way For Him To Ascend—

He Will Devour You All. Avet's golden teeth gleamed in the sickly light of Yyero's mushrooms as pieces of his paltry Vessel fell apart. He Gathers His Power Now. If You Wait, You Will Fail.

He looked between them as crimson and gold bled away into darkness. You Will Never Get Your Vengeance, Noctis.

Unless You Act.

The last remnants of Divine power leached away and the corpse crumbled as bones powdered, leaving only his words to echo in the dark.

Rat and shadowbeast considered the dust, each lost in their own thoughts. Yyero felt that stranger again, the emotion that stabbed at his Spirit like broken glass. He recognized it, this time.

Fear.

The Lizard Is Nearly In Our Grasp, Yyero said after a moment. I Will Not Lose Him to Nevarre’s Blasphemy. Sister, he looked at the Shadowbeast, What Say You?

The Twins Will Be Furious.

I See That As A Boon. Avet Was Right. They Profit While We Languish, Waiting On A Strike That Has Not Yet Come. We’ve Dallied Among These Fools For Too Long.

Noctis nodded. When The Twins Have Their Vessel, They Care For Little Else.

So Do You.

Yes, she said, but bloody lightning dripped through the endless emptiness within her face. But I Crave That Child’s Death. For All He Has Wrought.

Destroying Nevarre With You Will Be A Joy. Yyero's rat convulsed, the growth upon its spine crawling back into its open wounds as the god withdrew his power.

Beside him, Noctis shuddered, her serpent's flesh rippling with strange pleasure. And His Little Dog, Too.