Chapter Two Hundred and Six – 206
The screaming escalated, accompanied by the sickening tang of Primordial fury. The chorister was already moving, running full tilt for one of the nearby tunnels. Felix's senses shifted into high alert, and he didn't wait.
Sovereign of Flesh!
Unfettered Volition!
Felix hurled himself over the ranks and landed with a graceless lurch amid the leadership. "I'm going!" He shouted in passing, moving too fast to stop. The Chorister of Siva was ahead of the column, which is why she made it into the tunnel before him, but Felix was right behind her as were the woman's Bronze Rank guards. Felix knew them by name thanks to his Voracious Eye, but hadn't spoken to many. But as the screams increased in volume, they didn't need to speak. All of them just ran.
Aslei's burst of speed was, frankly, insane. The woman was walking wounded in a way Felix had rarely seen from someone with so many advancements under her belt. Yet still, she zipped ahead of all of them down the winding tunnel. Her Spirit was filled with a terrible panic.
Felix wasn't about to let that woman out of his sight, because there was something else in the air. He flared his Manasight as he ran, spotting thick clouds of crimson miasma boiling through the tunnel. He tasted desperation and...anticipation. Cal shouted behind them and the muffled sound of jangling harnesses and chainmail filled the tunnel. They were following.
The path was only big enough for three people abreast with some room to spare for maneuvering. The ground, whipping beneath his legs, was covered in drag marks and blood. The selfsame claw marks he saw on the bridge were everywhere. Less than minute later, the tunnel opened up into a larger antechamber with a massive stone door. It was clearly once hidden, rough and uneven on the outside, but what caught Felix's eye was that it had been broken open completely by something very big. The Ghoul, he assumed.
The screaming had petered off, but it was replaced by the strangled howl of a familiar enemy. Felix didn't stop at the doors and rushed through, forcing his Perception to its limits to catch what might be ahead. The room opened up into an ornately carved chamber lined with weird, triangular pillars that paraded down the length of it. They held up an arched ceiling laid with triangular tiles he could just make out in the gloom. There were no windows, not so far beneath the earth.
Exploration is level 36!
Instead, Felix saw by the light of a hazy, red glow. Even without Manasight active it was clear, the Primordial miasma was thicker than ever, a carmine illumination that only highlighted the blood that smeared the room. Bodies were scattered about, or rather, pieces of them. In the center of the room, already grabbing at a weakly struggling Aslei, were ten Revenants.
"Hey! Over here!" Felix shouted.
Wrack and Ruin!
Wrack and Ruin!
Twin cannonballs of dark acid formed and shot off through the air, tearing through three of the monsters in quick succession. A wild, wordless howl followed and the remaining seven charged Felix heedlessly.
"Pit?"
"Screeeaah!"
A flash of light filled the dim room, and the monsters were faced with a horse-sized tenku. They didn't stop running, but three of them pivoted cleanly to attack the chimera while the rest kept on toward Felix. The battle was quick and painless; Felix had faced too many of their kind to even break a sweat on only four of them.
You Have Killed Manawarped Revenants (x4)!
XP Earned!
Territorial Quest Alert!
You Have Gained Contribution!
Pit's foes died only seconds after Felix's own, their bodies riddled with slashes and jagged spears of ice. By that point the Bronze guards had caught up and rushed into the room. Carefully, they surrounded the chorister; as much to protect her as to guard her. The woman herself was barely standing, having suffered a few grievous wounds across her chest. She coughed up blood that looked more black than red.
"Sa-save them," she whispered and gestured across the room.
Felix looked up. Along the far wall was a wide open darkness, a tunnel that lead into mystery. A massive round thing was lodged in the ground before it. The object was twice the size of a man and rust-red in color and it practically breathed out red vapor.
Voracious Eye!
Name: Scale of the Ravager King
Type: Artifact
Lore: Fallen from the Body of the Ravager King, this piece of his flesh is packed with Primordial Essence.
Felix snarled and was about to race for it, when the entire room shook.
"Didwhat was that?" Atar said, looking up nervously. Dust rained down from above and the ground shook again.
"Shh! You hear that?" Cal said.
Stilted cries and stifled moans were on the air. Portia and Cal rushed to the side, but Felix already knew what they'd find. He felt an emotional turbulence like a bonfire he couldn't see, but the heat of it burned at him.
Just beyond the nearest pillars, dozens of men and women of all Races were laid out. Blood streaked the ground, but many moved, if sluggishly. They're all of them hurt, their wounds filled with blackened blood while their skin was scaling over.
"Felix!" Portia cried out. "Help them!"
"You cannot!"
All of them looked up, as two people in bloodstained robes disengaged from the pile of bodies. They hobbled to their feet, gruesomely wounded but their aura of authority was almost palpable.
"Elders?" Harn shouted, readying his axes. The sound of weapons being drawn was louder than the occasional tremors that shook the room.
Voracious Eye!
Name: Olivia Regis, Elder of the Protector's Guild
Name: Holt, Elder of the Protector's Guild
He couldn't see much of their information, due to artifacts or level difference, but he could sense their advancement. They were both in the Master Tier...and then they weren't. Elder Holt coughed and spat up blood, while Elder Regis supported him. They both looked seriously hurt, and their advancement was perhaps mid-Adept level at best.
Something had hurt both of them. Badly.
"You mustn't touch them!" Regis begged. "Their sickness is infectious! It will worm it's way into your core and teartear you apart!"
"Please," Holt said.
No one put down their weapons. None of them trusted the Guild, not anymore.
The room shook again, the the Elder's both flinched. Regis looked up and around as if something was going to pounce on her and Holt grimaced in pain.
"Did you try'n absorb the Scale too?" Harn asked. Felix could see silver Mana gather around the axeheads, but they didn't ignite.
"No! It's a death sentence to take in that power," Regis said, and her hands were shaking. "We warned them all, but they wouldn't listen. None of them." She gestured to the side, where the majority of the injured people leaned against the walls and moaned. Among them Felix could pick out a familiar style of robes in blue and red, and several pairs of dark sandals.
"Are those choristers? Aslei?" Cal turned to the Chorister of Siva, who was glaring daggers at the Elders. She nodded weakly at Cal's words.
Felix had heard enough. The people around him were writhing in near-silent pain, though their Spirits were loud enough to shatter ear drums. Desperate agony was being torn at by the red-hot violence of the Primordial miasma. He shoved his hands outward, feeling the heat lick against his palms and wrists.
Ravenous Tithe!
It's a lot, plus the ambience in the air. It makes his head spin, and he's forced to clamp down on the Echoes. It only drives them together, and the dark abyss in the center of his ring core pulls in the drained Essence even faster. His head cleared as the Essence drained away, the sudden urge to run and jump and fight dissipating like morning fog.
The victims breath easier, and the darkness is gone from their blood. Scales were turned to ribbons of light and smoke that he inhaled.
"How'd they get like this? Did they take the scale on too?" Cal asked, looking toward the Elders.
Felix shook his head. They'd been bad but this was like the people in the healer's ward, just super accelerated. "Maybe some of them. But it's the concentration of the miasma here that's the problem. The Primordial's power seems amplified this close to the Nest. And...that Scale isn't helping."
"It is pumping out more of it, I can almost feel it," Vess said. She closed her eyes and Felix could tell she was reaching out with her senses. She hissed and recoiled. "Foul."
"How'd you get here? With choristers, no less," Cal asked the Elders. They were leaning against one another, and both looked like wrung out dishrags.
"When the tower fell we were in the hands of the Inquisition," Elder Holt grated out. His voice was like gravel rolling over sandpaper. "We fought free and ran, but not without a cost. The choristry...they found us. Took us in despite everything. Been hiding down here ever since."
"And this?" Felix asked, pointed at the Scale. "Why the hell is this thing here?"
"They found it, scavenging in the tunnels beyond. Brought it here," Elder Regis said with a shudder. "We didn't know what it was at first, other than some sort of monster body part. But it should have decayed weeks ago. That alone was enough to keep us interested."
"Couldn't you feel this? The foul heat?" Vess asked, aghast. "Why would you want this near you?"
"Desperation," Holt said. "Us and the choristers. The monsters haven't stopped attacking us since we arrived. This Scale...it pushed them away. Drove off the small beasts and gave us much needed peace."
"It wasn't until later that they tried to absorb it, like a monster core," Regis added.
Felix looked at the slowly wakening choristers, and over at Aslei who was being treated by Portia. The woman was shuddering beneath Portia's magic, clenching her teeth so hard that blood was dribbling from her lips. Pit lingered near the woman, his tufted hears laid flat against his skull and suspicion in his big golden eyes.
"D-don't trust them," a whisper told him. At his feet a chorister in dark, blood-red robes trembled weakly. The Chorister of Vellus. "The sky is screaming, Blue-Eyed Fiend. And-and the earth is trembling."
The room shook again, more than before. What was that?
"What are you talking about? What's shaking the ground?" Felix asked.
"Pride," the chorister laughed breathlessly. "A Blight runs beneath us. And a stamp in the sky, in you." Without warning, her hand snapped to his sleeve, gripping it with more strength than Felix would have expected. "The Bloodmoon is coming, Fiend. Find them all."
"BloodFind what?"
The chorister's eyes met Felix's, and despite his Perception and Manasight, he couldn't make out their color. "You know." Her hand dropped from his sleeve and she slumped backward, eyes drifting away.
"I know? Explain, please," Felix asked, but the chorister wouldn't meet his gaze or say anything. "Shit."
Right. Almost forgot Choristers of Vellus go insane, Felix huffed as he leaned away from the woman. Near to him, Atar leaned against one of those triangular columns and wiped sweat from his brow. He was looking more and more pale. "Are you okay, dude?"
"I'mNo. I'm not. The heat in here burns me, worse than the scorching sands of my home," he practically panted. "It feels...It's like being back in the Domain."
Felix clenched his jaw. Atar was likely more sensitive to the feeling than others, but he could see sweat beading on the skin of all the Tin Ranks and quite a few of the Iron Ranks too. They didn't have much time.
"I have to take care of that," Felix said loudly, pointing at the Scale. Cal and the Elders pivoted to him, and he saw Regis flinch at the sight of his scales and bright blue eyes. Holt's look was far more calculating. "Everyone's gonna start feeling it's effects soon."
"Do it," Cal ordered. "Harn help him."
"What? No, you cannot," Regis protested. "I don't know what the boy did before, but if he tries it against the Scale he'll shatter his foundation oror worse"
"He'll be fine," Cal insisted, but even her eyes looked worried. Felix didn't have time to reassure her.
"Harn, let's go."
"Aye." Harn and Felix started at the Scale, but the room shook again, and more dust tumbled from above. A few tiles, triangular, fell from the ceiling and pinged onto the ground. The area was scattered with them. Felix picked it up. It was a triangle, but etched on its surface were tiny, nearly invisible sigils that Felix couldn't quite parse. And in the center was a three pointed star.
"You gotta be kidding me," Felix muttered and held up the star for Harn to see. That was a Nym star, only found in structures the Nym has made. "Is this a Nymean ruin?"
The ground trembled again, then again, faster than before. Again, and again.
"He's returning," Elder Regis moaned. "I didn't thinkthere's nothing left here for him!"
"Who?" Cal shouted, behind her Bodie mobilized the Ranks, getting them into defensive positions. "Who's coming?"
"The Chorister of Yyero," giggled the Chorister of Vellus. Her giggle became a full-throated laugh that was as mad as Felix remembered her to be. "Careful careful careful! The Pride of Blight returns!"
From the darkness emerged a hulking form, a creature nearly as big as a Ghoul and only tangentially Human. Felix recalled the chorister and recognized his facial features...somewhat; the rest of him was warped and ballooned outward by the muscle and glistening scales that coated his malformed Body. Two tree trunk legs thumped into the room, barely covered by the brown robe of his order, and a pair of thick, muscled arms leaned onto the ground. A second, thinner pair of arms extended from beneath the larger, their skeletal fingers tipped with vicious talons. The creature sniffed the air and flashed teeth far too large for a human's mouth.
Voracious Eye!
Name: Pride of Blight
Type: Primordial-Spawn
Level: 62
--$(#
ERROR!
For the first time in a while, Felix's Eye couldn't see the details of a Primordial-Spawn. But the specifics didn't matter, not even the man'screature'slevel. More important was the advancement Felix had felt...which was pushing damn close to Master Tier. The red miasma began to swirl in the air, thickening into a hurricane of shimmering power.
"High Adept," Reed called out. The ring of steel was sharp in the silence, and the Hand walked forward through the company. "Do not take this thing lightly."
"I'll keep that in mind," Harn grunted and his axes burst into silver flame.
Behind them sounded a keening roar. The hurricane of miasma struck from above, smashing into their people and scattering them in all directions as it poured onto a single person. The Chorister of Siva buckled and warped, her flesh ripping as something scaled and toothy tore from her pale skin. The miasma poured into the rents in her skin, healing it as she grew to the same impossible dimensions as the Blight before them.
"I fucking knew it," Felix growled.
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