Chapter Three Hundred And Four – 304
Felix took a deep, calming breath, making sure Meditation flared as far as it was able. His Bastion of Will and Deep Mind hummed in the background, distant songs almost out of earshot. After the jaunt up the mountain, he was worried about using his Abyssal Skein again, but they would not make it across the devastated landscape without it. There were no places to really hide except for the stone lined reservoirs, and there was no way Felix was going risking a dive into that...soup.
It should be safe, Karys reassured him. The burrs in the pattern of the Skill seem mostly smoothed out. You must sound it carefully. Utilize your Intent, as you have been doing. It is the...the truest....
An annoyed grunt came from his blade. Another lapse in memory? Felix asked gently.
Indeed. I am a leaky sieve, Felix. I worry how much will be left of me in a month's time. In a year?
I'm sure they're a solution. We'll find it, he promised.
Don't waste your time on me. You have a Quest to complete. Go. Sound your Skill.
Felix nodded, though to anyone watching it would have been at nothing. He felt with his Affinity, pressed close to the strange song of the Skill, and with his Will-honed Intent, brought it to brilliant life.
Abyssal Skein.
The Void, or what felt like it, crept up and through his channels and poured from his hands and elbows, feet and knees, the base of his skull. It enveloped him like a satin cloak draped in oil, drawn from the darkness between his Skills as much as from the Skill itself. Aside from a painful twang in the melody, the Skill was steady, thrumming with a chill implacability that still made Felix nervous. The feel of oil against his skin was unpleasant and constant. He fought to ignore it.
He stepped out of the trees, keeping low despite his Skill. Abyssal Skein melded him with the world, not so much active camouflage as it was an insistence to the world that nothing was amiss. With each level the effect grew stronger, and now he was like a shadow flitting across the blasted terrain, darting between reservoirs and the plodding tread of Reforged and chittering Greater Wretches. The massive insects, easily as large as the Reforged, were strutting nearest the cliff and snacking on...something Felix didn't care to inspect. Monster remains, he hoped. He saw no others as he moved closer to the scaffolding, fully intending on climbing its huge edificeuntil he did.
A lone Arcid sat atop the lowest rungs of the wooden scaffolding, its body oozing around the crude logs like a tar pit given sentience. The thing resembled nothing as much as a pile of noxious jelly with metal bones inside, all of it lit from within by a venomous green fire. The fire rotating within that jelly, winking on and off as it spun. Felix quickly realized the fires were its eyes, and it saw everything around it, as evidenced by the small Mana Vole that dared come too close. The Arcid shot a stream of itself at it, striking the agile creature and enveloping it in its viscous goo. The creature withered and sizzled away in an instant.
Not good. Felix backpedaled before moving laterally, toward the lake. The problem, of course, was the ground was a squelching morass, filled with thick, pungent mud and ankle deep water that would prove impossible to stealth within. Even if he was completely and utterly invisible, Felix doubted it would help. Shit.
He looked up, gauging the distance to the cave. Felix could jump, that was easily within his power, but landing would be tricky, especially since he'd have to break through the thick scaffolding to access the Temple. It all but blocked off entry from anywhere save the very bottom, where the Arcid waited.
The plan, at least Plan A, was to sneak up into the Temple, open the Door and deal with whatever was inside. Just him and Pit. And Karys, he supposed.
The others didn't love Plan A, and truly doubted it'd work, so Plan B was developed. Felix wasn't a huge fan of Plan B for several reasons, not the least of which is it put his friends in danger. He was soundly outvoted.
Resolved to his next step, Felix crept closer, past the Reforged stomping once more across the terrain, and under the iridescent bulk of a Greater Wretch. He moved ever nearer the poisonous Arcid. Felix had realized what coated the creature, though his first guess had been acid. No. Pure poison Mana, so strong it was a thick liquid. A thickquid, if you will.
A slightly hysterical laugh bubbled up in his chest at that thought, and he fought it back. The Arcid turned toward him, its eye fires swirling, but it moved on. Nervous sweat beaded his forehead, his mirth vanished completely, and Felix focused.
One step after the next.
There was only a small gap between the surprising bulk of the Arcid and the damaged cliff, but he could fit. Barely. The Arcid's Spirit was strangely opaque to him, as if it had little in the way of emotions, so it was even more of a gamble that the thing wouldn't move into him, even accidentally. Felix padded closer.
Pit chirruped worriedly.
Please keep me away from that...thing, Karys whispered. It is foul.
Felix felt that nervous laughter again. His sword didn't want to get dirty. Concentrate. He stepped onto the first log, just another shadow in the night. The Arcid was only an arm-span away. He stepped again, this time bringing himself up and onto the same level. Now the thing was inches away, and instinctively Felix sucked in his stomach. His body was lean, for the most part, but he was willing to do anything to be thinner at that moment.
Another step. Another
Something cracked.
It was barely anything, just the slightest scrape of his boots against the shaven log, the faintest of sounds. Yet the Arcid's dozen eye fires centered on it like he'd set off fireworks. Felix froze in place. If he were found out now, reaching the Temple would be impossible without a long, drawn out fight. And if the Archon were here...
The Arcid burbled, its gelatinous casing swirling. The metal bones within, hunks and pieces of an enormous skeleton, they jabbed out still covered by its coating. The bonesfinger bones, he realizedprodded the log that cracked. Pushed at it, tested it. The Arcid didn't sense Felix, but it knew something was wrong. Felix cast about, moving only his eyes, thinking furiously for a solution, for aa scapegoat.
Breathlessly, Felix moved his foot again, this time pushing it closer to the poison-coated hands than ever before. A small stub of bark, mostly shorn, hung from the top of the log. With a deft tap of his boot, the bark snapped. He jerked his foot back, just in time to avoid the lightning fast slap of caustic poison atop the log. The hand felt at the bark, pulled it and consumed it until it withered into a dark wisp of nothing.
The Arcid moved back, settling into its old position once again.
Felix was tempted, oh god, was he tempted to make a run for it then. But he held his ground, watching the creature, waiting. The Arcids were almost always smarter than Felix anticipated, and more powerful. This one was likely no different.
Seconds passed, minutes. Just as he was considering it time to move, the Arcid snapped it's foul tendril outward, spearing the area all around the broken bark...which was a hairsbreadth from his boots. Felix clenched his jaw, but refused to move as the Arcid pulsed and poured itself into that area, twitching like a bowl of evil jelly.
Then it was gone, retreated back to his position again. Its eyes spun about watching the desolate approach to the scaffolding, satisfied it was alone.
Felix didn't breath, he just moved. Affinity and Intent paired to his Will, he sounded another Skill, layering its song atop Abyssal Skein.
Unfettered Volition!
His feet were the wind as he moved, all but dancing up the logs, across the faint traps laid out on them. Easy to see, easy to avoid with his Manasight flaring along with everything else. Then Felix reached the top, and the stone opened up, revealing the warm, yellow light from inside the Nymean Temple. It spilled into the cavern where once it was utterly hidden, and even from a distance Felix could tell the sigaldry around the entrance was slashed apart. He had been right. The Archon had entered the Temple after all.
He crossed the pockmarked cavern with little difficulty. The way was empty, and not even the waterfall was there to detract from his focus, diverted as it was to the west. Even its roar was muted. He stepped over the slashed sigils, hand firmly on the hilt of the Crescian Blade.
The alcoves were all smashed, the murals once depicting various Nym with wild creatures defaced or blown out entirely. Felix slowed down, unwilling to rush at that point. If an ambush were to happen, it would be now, when there was no place to take cover. He stepped carefully, avoiding the scattered debris with as much care as he could manage.
The Temple was the same as before, minus the damage, a long hall fitted with four doors, each surmounted by a star. The rear of the hall ballooned into a circular chamber, one that was dominated by a raised dais, in the shape of a nine-pointed star. As he drew closer, he made out other recognizable details. The dais was made of a lighter stone than the floor and hexagonal pillars, and was about twenty feet across, tip to tip. The face of it was carved with convoluted lines that criss-crossed the surface in seemingly random patterns. It wasn't an inscription, or any sigaldry Felix had ever seen before. It was, as he'd assumed once before, purely decorative.
He hadn't come for the empty dais.
Beyond the raised star, a massive set of double doors made of dull green metal and covered in carvings of a different sort. On each door, facing toward the center, was a Nymean figure, wearing elaborate robes and holding stars in their hands. Each star had nine points, much like the raised platform. At the center where they would open up, there was a raised relief of jagged tree-like objects. Lightning, maybe. But there were many, all bursting from one point and surrounded by a much more elaborate eighteen-point star. Sigaldry surrounded these figures, covering every available space on the metal doors. Unlike before, he could actually read them this time, though it was a pain to translate through all the permutations. It said the same thing, repeated over and over.
Secure We Those Below,
Held Within The Gelid Home
Iron Struck And Fire Scourged,
Faster Sank The Stone
Three And Three And Three,
Want and Need and Crave
We Open For The Inheritor,
Neath Thy Metal Stave
Stand Ready, Be Quick, Skill Be Fair
Listen Not, See Not, Speak
Beware.
Beware.
Beware.
Felix swallowed the fluttery feeling in his gut. Meter is kinda funky. Why does it feel more intimidating when it rhymes?
A secondary set of symbols lined the floor in front of the doors, inscribed in an arc and leading up the walls and around the frame. At the very top was a single character that looked like a precise 'V' cut with flowing lines and hash-marks.
A warding, and still active. If I'm wrong about this, I don't think I'll have time to be mad. The last time he'd walked too close to these doors, green lightning had almost fried him. He unsheathed his Crescian Blade.
Trust, Felix. This is the key, and yours the hand meant to hold it, Karys said.
Yeah. Well. Here's goes nothing.
Felix stepped forward, over the line of sigils. The ward pulsed, once, andnothing. No lightning. The ward had immediately gone dark. Step one, successful, he thought.
He moved to the door, tentatively reaching out to the dull metal surface. Again, no lightning, and his fingers touched the cool metal, felt at its raised sculptures. There was no handle, so Felix pushed against it. The eighteen-point star above lit up without warning and Felix made to jump back, but his hand was stuck fast.
"Shit!"
Wards Breached
Temple Defenses Failed
Analyzing...
Unbound Detected.
Nymean Detected.
Primordial Detected!
Countermeasures Deployed.
Shit! Felix flared Stone Shaping, trying to move the metal, but the door was impervious to his spell. The Mana slid off of it ineffectively. He pulled, straining his Strength against the hold it had on him. Karys!
I am trying!
Inheritor Status Recognized
Inheritor Status Supersedes All Bloodlines!
The star above him dimmed, and the voice inside his head shifted its tone entirely.
Welcome Inheritor.
Internal Containment Breach Detected
Do You Wish To Access Containment Unit #135?
Almost in unison, Karys and Felix both answered. Yes.
With a sound like the groaning dead, the doors opened, pulling away from Felix's now-free hand. Beyond the threshold, the tiles continued, but each one was a complicated design of geometric points. Eighteen-point star tiles, contained within a hexagon. Six steps in, all detail faded to darkness, one that not even his Manasight could penetrate.
Wards. Wards upon wards, Karys said in an astounded voice. I have never before seen so many layered in once place. What threat does this place hold?
So involved was Felix with that first step, that it was only Pit's panicked shriek alerted him to danger. Without questioning his Companion, Felix leaped aside, rolling to his feet in a smooth tumble. He came up holding his sword and lightning crackling in his left hand, but still, he wasn't ready for what he saw.
"You sensed me. I am impressed," said the Archon. He loomed in the broken Temple, filling up the space like a living wall of golden metal. "I suppose the reputation you've garnered is not entirely unearned."
Felix's eyes boggled. Where the hell did he come from?
I do not know! Karys sent, buzzing in his grip. I still cannot sense him now!
"Thank you for opening the Door, Nym." The Archon's helmeted face deformed, the bottom portion stretching wide in a grim facsimile of a smile. "I have been waiting for you."
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