Chapter Three Hundred And Ten – 310
The earth ran red and the skies turned black. Ashen meadows split, torn apart by shifting stone and soil, bored through by drills of acid rain. Tooth and claw, blind but fierce, the Primordial-spawn did not stop. They were unending, impossibly strong, each dig and tear and gnash tearing a wound in his Body. Lightning surged, shredding the black sky and scattering the beasts, but they returned. Again and again, time without end. Felix soon lost track of where he was, of the difference between his limb and the pulpy appendage of a monster. There was only the fight.
In the end, he wasn't sure if it was the door or a monster that swallowed him up.
He hit the floor, hard enough that he knocked out a tooth. Fleshy, liquid heat followed him, ichor and worse, and his last thoughts were of how ruined his clothes had become.
Time passed. Felix wasn't sure how much, only that when opened his eyes, there was morning sunlight in them. That, above all else, was strange.
He sat up tentatively, expecting pain from savage wounds, but he was whole. His Heath, Stamina, and Mana were topped off, and even his clothes had repaired themselves. Felix let out a soft sound of surprise, startling the snoring bulk of chimera beside him.
Wha? Fight! Pit leaped to his feet, wings outspread and scraping against wall hangings and elaborate silver sconces. Where is the Enemy?
"We made it back," Felix said, intent on calming his friend, but was distracted by the wide windows along the hall here. Bright morning sunlight shone through the panes, all but obscuring a mountain-side vista. Trees were abundant, moving with a soft breeze, but it was no where Felix had ever been before. The leaves on the trees were black and gold, for one, and the trunk were a well-worn ivory. "Wherever 'here' happens to be."
Another step on the Path. The last, based on the pattern so far, Karys said. Are you alright, Felix? The last challenge was...you faced Primordial-spawn.
"Y-yeah," Felix said, forcing some calm into his voice. "I'm good. I'm probably the only person around with so much experience fighting the bastards." And even then, I almost died. He hadn't imagined it, the maws closing over his bloody and beaten form, overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of spawn in that blasted world. He shuddered, but cut it off, clamping his Will upon Body. He hadn't the time for weakness. "We made it through, that's all that matters."
A blue box appeared before him with a trilling sound, half expected but still surprising.
You Have Walked The Chosen Path(s)!
Congratulations!
You Have Received An Omen (x3)!
Again, three cards sat next to him on the patterned stone. Three tarot cards, backs designed with that same blue-white eye of flame, the steel of them clanged as he flipped them onto the bare floor.
Name: Omen of the Hermit
Benefit: +2 END, +1 PER, +1 VIT per level gained.
Name: Omen of Strength
Benefit: +2 STR, +1 END, +1 VIT per level gained.
Name: Omen of Death
Benefit: +2 VIT, +1 PER, +1 WIL per level gained.
The face of the cards were as he expected. Himself, shirtless, wrestling a Primordial-spawn to the ashen ground. Himself again, wearing hooded robes, peering out from behind the spray of a waterfall into a dark night. And the last, a dark figure in armored robes, hooked blade in hand and eyes of blue fire. He couldn't help but flinch at the face. It was his sister's. Gabby. Why? What does she have to do with this?
He chuckled at himself. Questions were pointless; he'd either figure it out or not. Hopefully before he died. Felix gathered the cards and stood up. Like the others, the cards went into Pit's saddlebags, clattering as he moved. He was forming quite the collection.
Six Omens, now. Karys whispered. What does it mean?
Felix's shrug turned into an arcing spasm as System energy thundered into his core. The wild song resumed, Dissonance and Harmony together, a tension driving between the grinding surfaces of his two cores. They sparked and flared, their touching edges shining brighter than the weaving ribbons below. Notifications popped into view of their own volition.
+34 STR
+31 DEX
+22 PER
+25 END
+42 MIG
+17 VIT
+38 AGL
Etheric Concordance is level 72!
Stone Shaping is level 68!
Shadow Whip is level 46!
Bastion of Will is level 73!
Deep Mind is level 61!
Armored Skin is level 74!
Wrack and Ruin is level 46!
...
Wrack and Ruin is level 50!
Journeyman Tier!
You Gain:
+10 INT
+10 INE
+...
Thanks To Your Experiences, You Have Accomplished A Skill Evolution!
Wrack and Ruin (E) has become Rain of Cataclysm (L)!
Level Is Maintained!
Rain of Cataclysm (Legendary), level 50!
All things fall, you are simply there to see it done. Let rain your Will, and see that your enemies are washed away. Potency, density, and speed increase moderately with Skill level. Quantity increases with Skill level.
Influence of the Wisp is level 56!
Journeyman Tier!
You Gain:
+10 WIL
+10 INT
+...
Synergy Detected Between Influence of the Wisp, Mana Manipulation, and Fire Within!
Do You Wish To Combine Them?
This May Result In Severe Injury Or Death.
Y/N
Holy shit, he managed among the swirling sensations of potency. His core felt like a rung bell, a spinning maelstrom of sound and fury, worse than at the beginning with only the monstrous load of new stat points. Points of light drove into him, stabbing through flesh into his Mind and Spirit. Pain was dredged up by the power, and it was all he could do to breath through it.
Felix! You core isit's spinning! The weaving!
He gritted his teeth as the ribbons of light, typically as good as immobile, suddenly began to whirl about his cores. Tempered Skills were attached to them, Journeyman Skills all, and their colored ribbons wove beneath the stacked rings of his cores like a maypole.
Seize it, Felix! You mustn't let it coil!
Without thinking he listened to Karys, hurling his Willpower and Intent at the ribbons that tethered his Journeyman Tempered Skills to his two cores; one from each core per Skill. Their motion shuddered to a stop, and it felt like a mountain was grinding down on top of him. A panicked scream tried to worm its way from his throat, but the pressure trapped it in his chest, where it simply shook his lungs.
Hold it! You must guide the weaving, or else your advancement willah! Karys rattled in his sheath. Your Skills! Fire Within and Mana Manipulation! We need them!
I...can't hold...these and withstand...a Skill combination too, Felix thought at the sword. It was like pushing through molasses. Pit!
All of it had happened so fast, Pit hadn't been able to respond other than tilting his big head at Felix. But the bond thrummed with his pain, and the tenku knew that trouble was afoot. The world outside flashed with a brilliant white light, and the heavy weight of his Companion joined his Spirit. As Pit's Harmonic stats added to Felix's own, it was like a second pair of hands began to lift the mountain that was crushing him. They might still die, but for a moment Felix could breathe.
Felix!
Yes, goddamn it! Combine!
Clouds of Essence vanished in an instant, sucked into his cores along with the flood of colorless System energy. Cacophony resulted, wild noise that screamed toward his Skills and igniting each of them in a coruscating fire of blue-white and red-gold. With what Will he could spare, Felix hauled the three Skills toward one another, forcing their proximity in his core space until their vibrating patterns overlapped and surged with potency. Lightning shot up his spin, down his limbs, flame and ice in equal measure tearing at his nerve endings. He screamed.
Influence of the Wisp (R), Mana Manipulation (U), and Fire Within (R) Have Become Cardinal Flame (L)!
Level Is Averaged!
Cardinal Flame (Legendary) Level 57!
Blood calls to blood, and flame to flame. Take hold, Ascendant! Take hold! Increases internal Mana control significantly per level, increases external Mana control significantly per level.
The painthat pain, at leaststopped. His bones were jelly and Felix would have collapsed to his knees had his Will been a mote weaker; as it was, he firmed his joints with sheer desperation. If he fell, the mountain of his weaving would fall too, and something told him that it would be catastrophic.
Use your Cardinal Flame! Focus on the cables of your weaving!
Karys voice galvanized his attention, and Felix pushed through the fog around his Mind. His weaving shook, rippled widly with tension, but as his strange new Skill took hold his grip on it all felt tighter, more sure. As if his hands had been covered in oil, and he'd just rinsed it off for the first time.
Weave them, like so!
Karys flashed along impressions, similar to what Pit could do but less, but still enough to guide Felix. He twisted and braided the ribbonscables, Karys called themtwining them into a complex weave that was thicker than the giant trees of the Foglands. Within each cable, Felix could feel echoes of the song of his Skills, altering the texture of the weave depending on how they were placed.
Cardinal Flame is level 58!
Karys called out instructions, and even Pit joined in, gripping cables where Felix couldn't. Dissonance and Harmony roared all around him, energies at the opposite ends of the spectrum, yet both streaming from his cores and into the weaving. The mountain grew heavier with every twist and turn, each layer harder to complete than the last. Felix was barely aware of what he was doing, or whether he had followed Karys' increasingly strained instructions or if he had simply gone on instinct. His firm grip turned to a precarious balancing act by the end of it, a razor that he walked along, cutting himself all the while. Yet to fall off meant certain destruction. Felix wasn't sure how he knew that, but the knowledge of it coiled within him, immutable.
Cardinal Flame is level 59!
Cardinal Flame is level 60!
The cables grew thicker the further they descended, as if each revolution deepened their potency. Felix could barely hold on, monstrous Willpower or no, when the entire pillar finally snapped into place. Sudden music, a song of triumph and fire blared from the heavens. The infinite black of his core space quivered with it, shook to its foundations as [Thunderflame Core] and [Cardinal Beast Core] chimed against one another in perfect Harmony and teeth grinding Dissonance.
Cardinal Flame is level 61!
Cardinal Flame is level 62!
Felix panted, his Mind and Spirit wrung out dishrags, and Pit was right there with him. Together they had built something more than he had expected, a column of brilliant, woven lights that extended downward from the stacked, spinning rings of his dual cores.
A powerful foundation for the start of your Weaving Stage, Karys said at last. Too powerful by half for someone still in their Journeyman Tier, but then what else could I have expected from an Unbound?
Due To Vein Of Divinity, All Skills Woven Into Your First Pillar Gain One (1) Level!
Sovereign of Flesh is level 58!
Unfettered Volition is level 59!
The Song of Absolution is level 74!
Bastion of Will is level 74!
Ravenous Tithe is level 72!
Voracious Eye is level 63!
Adamant Discord is level 69!
Cardinal Flame is level 63!
Theurgist of the Rise is level 71!
Felix hadn't the energy to be surprised, but the message still took him aback. He peered at the Pillar, for the first time noticing a threading of black-crimson through the cables of its making. The black-crimson branched and spread like a root or a vein, identical to the same vein-like structure that extended up, between the abyss and his two ring cores.
You've...you've woven a Vein of Divinity into your First Pillar. Karys' voice was breathless with disbelief and excitement. Do you know what this means?
Felix gave his sword a weary smile, lifting himself ever so carefully out of his own core space. "Not a clue."
It means, if you can do the same with the rest of your Pillars, you'll have a Weaving Stage that cannot be bested by anyone short of Paragon status! Karys paused. That is, as long as you continue to Temper your Aspects correctly. The road ahead of you is not an easy one.
"Can't say it's been rainbows and sunshine so far."
The hall was just as he'd left it, though it felt larger with Pit nestled in his Spirit. Felix stood up on shaky legs and coaxed his friend out. Pit refused at first, and the worry across their bond made it clear why, but eventually the tenku was convinced Felix was fine. He emerged in a flash of light.
"Okay. That was...that was good, if unexpected," Felix said. He flexed his hands, poking at his Aspects and stats like a sore tooth. He hurt all over, but already it felt like injuries he'd sustained days ago instead of minutes. "One last set of doors, right?"
That is what I expect, yes. Your Path is clearly operating by threes. Three doors. Three omens. Three challenges. I only fear that your last door will be the hardest yet.
Felix opened his mouth to reply, but suddenly Pit trembled with the advent of his own stat gains. He could clearly see them in his notifications, and he was again impressed by the sheer amount of stats they were earning.
+29 STR
+42 AGL
+29 VIT
+19 WIL
+37 EVA
+22 PER
Pit's Bite is level 57!
Pit's Rake is level 61!
Pit's Cry is level 63!
Pit's Wingblade is level 68!
Pit's Frost Spear is level 70!
Pit's Poisonfire is level 50!
Journeyman Tier!
He Gains:
+10 VIT
+10 END
+New Skill!
Poison Resistance (C), level 1!
Pit's Flight is level 57!
Journeyman Tier!
He Gains:
+10 END
+10 AGL
+10 DEX
Pit's haunches quivered, his wings stretched, again smashing into sconces and wall hangings. Something, somewhere broke. When he pulled them back in, Felix realized Pit had grown yet again. He was nowhere near the size he'd been in the last doorway vision...thing, but he'd gained at least five inches of height and an equal amount in sheer width.
"You're massive, bud," Felix said to his friend. "Are you gonna just...keep growing? Is there an upper limit for chimeras?"
Pit shook his head, tossing the feathery ruff around his neck, and shrugged. Mother was big.
Felix nodded. She had been big, but smaller than Pit was now. He felt some hope kindle in his gut. "Maybe...we might be able to get out of this place, after all."
Pit growled wordlessly. Eagerly.
"C'mon, then," Felix said and started walking down the brightly lit hallway. "Let's see what else this place has in store for us."
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