Chapter 699 (Patreon)

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ToC


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Legendary Essence Detected During Formation!
[Essence Draught of Atlantes (Pure)]

Broken Path and Fatebreaker Titles Found!
Master Tier Bonus Added!
Unbound Nature Resonates With [Essence Draught of Atlantes (Pure)]!
Calculating Effects...

Choose A Feature:

Amalgam - Blood Of Many
Kindred - Blood Of One
Disjoin - Blood of None

Blood? Felix stared at his options in mounting confusion, as System energy roiled within his core space. Why would blood be part of Adamant Discord?

Understanding came next, at least in part. It flowed up from the System as its energy pulsed through his dual cores and Divine Tree. The opalescent branches rustled, and Felix knew.

Amalgam - Blood of Many. An inhuman being with hundreds of arms rose into the sky, wreathed in pale lines that tangled with every one of his limbs. It pulled and more arms sprouted, each unlike the others yet all manifesting their own threads that bound them to the body. Lightning played across their ever expanding flesh.

Kindred - Blood of One. A tree flowered, birthing many legged blossoms that reached up into the sky, supported by a trunk that grew without end. A single tree, a unique behemoth. Yet beneath it spread a vast network of roots, spreading far and wide. In fields and glades, on mountainsides and in river basins more trees just like it grew out of the dirt—all of them different, yet they flowered just the same, each struggling to grasp the sun.

Disjoin - Blood of None. A gleaming Crescian Bronze blade hung above a city, bigger than the mountains that surrounded its walls and as sharp as the deepest winter night. The edge gleamed in the remnant light of six shattered moons as their pieces rained down like distant fire.  It spoke of endings. Severance. Catastrophe.

Visions assaulted Felix’s Mind in a way he hadn’t experienced since his Omen Path. The creature with hundreds of arms, the trees covered in flowering monstrosities, and even the massive sword; all of them were more real to him than the construct that writhed twenty feet away. He could barely see the Hydra now. The three Features loomed before him like titans, like—

“Felix!”

A scythe stabbed through Felix’s gut, and the Features vanished like a dream.

He lurched back, vision unnaturally clear as the Hydra loomed over him. Felix hurled himself back and the scythe blade pulled free of his abdomen with a wet sucking sound, accompanied by enough pain to nearly force him to his knees. He kept them though, his Song of Absolution blaring through his center and numbing him to almost everything.

ERROR!
Master Tier Tempering Process Has Been Interrupted!

Felix gasped, scrabbling to hold onto his Temper as it wobbled on the precipice. He was afraid but mostly confused—he’d been injured while Tempering several times, and this hadn’t happened. What was different now?

The Hydra came for him again and Felix clamped his Will and Intent around the Essence Draught that still surged in his cores. Miraculously, the visions returned, but their terrifying potency clouded his sight. The Hydra attacked, and he dodged away from the terrible air pressure that preceded it—but the jagged edge of stone scraped a bloody furrow across his left thigh.

Dodge is level 102!

The visions wavered again, rebelling against his Will. Pit! Can you distract it?

I’m trying! On the other side of the construct, the enormous Chimera was wielding the Riposte like a madman, striking at the Hydra’s legs and body with abandon. Pieces flew off in all directions, but the beast remained focused on Felix. It’s like it hates you!

Felix unsheathed Inheritor’s Will and fell into the Third Form, which emphasized strong, sweeping movements and powerful strikes. Perfect for dispatching larger groups of enemies…or to deflect the attacks of a single huge one.

A flurry of bone and stone came at him, and Felix flared his Relentless Resolution to its utter limit. He moved, keeping just ahead of its advance despite the bloody hole in his gut. His movement Skill translated his thoughts into direct action but if he were to complete his Temper, he needed more. He couldn’t Temper and move, let alone fight, but he had no choice. He would not give up Adamant Discord, even if it cost him a limb.

Relentless Resolution is level 99!

Felix gave himself up to his Skill, letting it sing within him as his Mind skipped inwards…and the titanic vision rose before him.

Don’t think! Felix ran, his legs moving without his conscious Mind behind them. Feel!

Bereft of time, he tried to seek the Feature that resonated most with his Skill—but there was too much interference. His Body and Mind were split, each part frantically expending itself and leaving him with little to burn.

What do I know? He ducked, dove forward, but it was like his Body was only half his own. His actions felt distant and disconnected. Felix shook himself and refocused. The Features are about binding a bunch of things to myself, roots growing gross flowers, and chopping a city in half.

No, that was too simplistic. He spun behind a tree, jumping high as scythes chopped the twisted trunk in twain. Kindred was about the roots…binding things and growing his influence? It said connections were deep and hidden, but it covered more ground than Felix could ever imagine. The sword…it suggested that connections were a tool. A weapon.

Felix kicked off the trunk behind him and catapulted himself forward, just ahead of a wrecking ball of root and stone.

Weapons could be forged…or broken.

Severed.

The last was tempting, as it might solve his current issue. If he could sever the monster’s link to Fenwald then he could pull it all apart. But where would that lead him? What lay down that path? And why did it curdle his stomach to consider it?

The Hydra careened forward, plowing through trees and shallow pools to crash into Felix’s body mid-air. He was knocked off course, blasting through two trees before he came down hard into a half-rotted stump and slick mud.

Shit! Think faster!

Amalgam—amalgam was taking different parts and binding them into one whole. Wasn’t that what he did now? People turned into nations, nations into empires. That’s what he sought, right? Kindred though…it spoke of a deeper bond, a Link maybe, like what he had with his closest friends. It didn’t consider separation, or binding pieces together by force. All was one already.

Kindred. Family. What was—

VIOLATOR.
TERRITORIAL MEASURES ENABLED.

A familiar surge of magic roared through the swamp, and the part of him that fought burned with a sudden need to flee. Felix gripped hard on the Feature visions before him, and ran.

As if bombs had been placed below, the water exploded into geysers of foul liquid, while fast moving streams lashed wildly in a circle. Trees, stone, and an entire swampy island were cut clean through. Felix escaped, but only just as the water jet sliced off a length of his coat.

Stay back, Pit!

I wasn’t planning on charging in! Pit sent. Are you okay?

Nope!

He moved. Relentless Resolution sang in his limbs and chest, a complicated melody that buzzed through sweeping, orchestral refrains. It still wasn’t enough. A club smashed into him, grazing his shoulders and thighs. Scythes slashed and sliced, drawing blood through scales and flesh, but he kept moving. He took the hit but the pain was inconsequential.

He couldn’t stop.

Blind Fighting is level 99!

Felix jerked away from a root that would have pierced the back of his head, catching a club across his shoulder for the effort before diving into a short roll and deflecting a bone scythe into the earth with his sword.

Blind Fighting is level 100!
Master Tier!
You Gain:
+100 DEX
+100 PER
+100 AGL

Armored Skin is level 100!
Master Tier!
You Gain:
+100 END
+100 VIT
+100 EVA

The stats of each Skill ripped through him as System energy flowed into his core and refracted back into his Aspects. He felt a touch faster, tougher, and more aware all at once. He inched ahead of the Hydra’s assault, blood trailing behind him like gruesome ribbons.

The choice couldn’t be more clear. His movement became something more than simple cause and effect. Even to his own Perception, he blurred. The Skill is about connections on a level deeper than anything else I can name.

It’s about unity.

The Hydra pounced, and Felix chose.

Congratulations!
You Have Absorbed The Essence of [Kindred]!

Power flooded into his core space, crashing through the cage of his Divine Tree like waves across a latticed sea wall, before they impacted his spinning cores. Blue-white and red-gold rings flared with heat and light, spitting vibrant sparks as the power was absorbed…and reflected back.

Right into Adamant Discord.

A surge of Harmony and Dissonance assaulted his Skill, setting the blue planet to spin wildly. The vision of his Features were gone, replaced now by the sheer bounty of thin blue lines that he perceived. Felix gasped, unable to catch his breath as the world opened up to him…and the Janus Hydra went mad.

“No you don’t!” Pit screeched, before throwing his entire body into the man-like torso of the construct. Deadly, flailing limbs found no purchase on Chimera or Primordial Nym and tore deep trenches into the soggy earth.

VIOLATOR.
TERRITOR—

“Enough,” Felix said, righting himself. “Adamant Discord.”

Bolts of lightning surged in every conceivable direction, blasting away water, earth, and monster with equal ferocity. The Hydra roared, caught up in sudden bands of unbreakable force as lightning scoured its wriggling body and a monstrous gale shook the swamp. Felix caught club and scythe, enduring the brutal force of their attacks as blood spewed from his wounds, but he bound them tight with ties of crackling connection and thrust his crooked sword into the air.

“Astrum Ascendence. Wild Threnody. Hand of Cataclysm,” he intoned into the stormwinds. “Adamant Discord.”

Tar-black acid infused with near-solid lightning surged through his hand and onto his blade, extending its curved length into a brutal arc of hissing death.

He slashed.

The entire left side of the Hydra was obliterated as acid and lightning landed—as was a swath of swampy forest ten feet across and nearly fifty feet long.

Wild Threnody is level 98!
…
Wild Threnody is level 99!

Hand of Cataclysm is level 93!
…
Hand of Cataclysm is level 95!

Astrum Ascendence is level 95!
…
Astrum Ascendence is level 98!

Relentless Resolution is level 100!
Master Tier!
You Gain:
+100 AGL
+100 DEX
+...

The Hydra dropped to the earth as Felix finished his attack, still very much alive and momentarily free of its bindings. Felix downed another Essence Draught and faced the Hydra without fear. “I did it once, you bag of rocks. I can do it again.”

Though the Hydra had already started to regenerate, for the first time, a rapid tattoo of fear rolled off the construct.

Legendary Essence Detected During Formation!
[Essence—
ERROR!

Synergy Detected Between Master Tier Skills!
Blind Fighting (Rare), Dodge (Common), and Relentless Resolution (Legendary) Can Be Combined.
Do You Wish To Proceed?
Y/N

Felix bared his teeth, and the Hydra undulated backward.

“Hell yeah.”


* * *


On The Wing is level 91!
The Fang of Havoc is level 89!
Spear of Tribulations is level 93!

Vess skidded aside from a sharpened edge of air Mana, deflecting it with two of her summoned Spears…and losing them both as the spell tore them apart.

“Strengthen your Skills, Dragoon!” the spirit said, its voice neither mocking nor angry. It spoke as if declaring a simple truth. “Or you will not survive what comes.”

Evie hurled herself against the spirit, using her chains and Born Trait to send herself flying off of Vess’ moving Spears, constantly altering her mass and trajectory. She came at the Grim from new, unpredictable angles to punch at it with spiked ice gauntlets or red-silver throwing knives. Bonds of Dominion clung to the Grim as often as she could activate it, holding onto the spirit and allowing them all to deliver at least a few glancing blows.

It was the only time any of their attacks actually landed.

"This fucking thing," Evie panted, "is pissing me off."

Vess considered their foe. The Grim was bleeding, but its wounds did not seem to affect its battle capabilities. It blazed with wild, elemental magics and watched them with its impassive, blaze gaze.

“Then be better, Human.” Its tiny head tilted. “And dodge.”

Projectiles speared in every direction, swarms of air and fire wrapped around a core of ice and stone that screamed as they tore through the sky. Fast as lightning, they came for Vess and her friends, seeking their heads and hearts with an unerring ferocity. Vess’ feet blurred, kicking off manifested Spears as her spectral wings flapped hard.

On The Wing is level 92!

The spells missed her by the narrowest of margins, though the flames burned pieces of her hair. Yin and Evie shouted, but Vess couldn’t focus on them—they could take care of themselves. All she had was required to be spent against the Grim, for the spirit wasn't holding back in the slightest. Every single strike it took was a strike to kill.

A thrill of battle rose in Vess, driving her senses to the limit as she brought her partisan and Spears against the spirit again and again. Vess skipped across the sky, her wings allowing her to move in ways contrary to normal perception. The Grim, however, seemed to anticipate her every move. He caught her spear as she thrust downward between two toes of its tiny paw.

"This is not enough," it said.

"Adherence of Ophidia!"

“Tooth and Claw!”

Dragons of water spun from every direction, pouring toward the Grim as if a dam had burst, just as two chains swung in from oblique angles. The spirit was surrounded and bound to take at least one injury, but somehow it blurred and shifted through space to avoid the attacks of all three of them by the slimmest of margins.

Vess couldn't track it, except for a moment as she came close and the Grim stood still. Her Spears, Yin's draconic water, and Evie's chains flowed a hair's breadth from its hide. Hurtling through the air, Vess angled herself mid-step, shifting her partisan to strike.

Tiny tail met her spear and the weapon bowed, rippling back toward her hands…before it exploded in half.

Damnation!

On The Wing burned within her core space, surging through her Body as she moved back, pressing her footwork to an extreme. There was something about the Grimm, about the way it sounded whenever she drew close to attack—it was fouling her Mind. Evie closed with it again, but now that Vess had noticed it, she heard it swell with every strike of her chain. The odd harmonies of the Green Wilds seemed to spike an instant before Evie swung.

It is doing more than simply throwing spells at us. But what? Vess circled, desperately searching for an opening.

"It is too much for us alone," Yin said to her, before landing on her pauldron. The Wyrmling was tired, but his eyes still burned fiercely. “We must work together, little Dragoon."

Vess nodded and blurred forward, skipping to the side as the wings on her back beat harder and harder, driving her with greater speed.

On The Wing is level 93!

She could feel them growing, gaining more substance than ever before as her Skill rode the cusp of becoming something more. The Grim's eyes were dark and empty, but it watched her, tracking her every movement as if entranced. Vess landed among her floating Spears and kicked off. “Evie!”

"Bonds of Dominion!"

Chains seized the Grimm once again, halting it for a half moment.

"Now!"

Vess spun, catching the Grim with a spinning downward kick just as Evie canceled her Skill. She slapped Vess’ leg as it passed, sending all of the mass in her chains directly into Vess’ heel.

The Grim gave a surprised grunt as it was sent hurtling downward through the roof of the fortress’ lone turret. An explosion of air and stone dust shot out of every open window, and shingles blew off in all directions.

Vess landed a heartbeat later, knees first in the crater the mouse had made, and manifested two silver Spears. She slammed them into the stone floor, trapping the Grim beneath two razor-sharp blades.

"It is time to bargain, Grim."