Chapter Three Hundred And Thirteen - 313
After an eternity, his feet touched solid ground.
HisFelix'sfeet flexed in his metal boots and greaves. His pants were, remarkably, utterly whole as was his tunic and jacket. Their enchantments blazed, almost overcharged, ready to repair or clean themselves at a moments notice. Felix held up his hands, saw unblemished skin and flexing tendons. Blunt fingertips, thin with a seeming of youth, Tempered.
I'm...me.
His Will thrummed into the ground, into the air, and he was no longer alone. A sword belt appeared at his waist in a bloom of green-gold light, the sword tugging his hip down. And from the forestforest?around him, a massive tenku charged at him. Felix laughed, and took the hit straight on, going down in a tangle of fur and feathers and reborn limbs.
Felix! Felix! Safe! You're back!
"Hey, hey buddy," Felix managed between Pit's frantic licking. "Glad to see you too."
I thought us...that was the Ruin, Felix. Karys' voice was a little muffled, as if it mattered if Felix was sitting on the blade or not. Regardless, he shifted it and cleared the hooked sword from its sheath. You survived the Ruin. That is so utterly impossible as to be...I have not the words.
"Not Ruin," Felix stated, thinking of the violet darkness. "Vellus...she may have actually been there. I certainly felt something from her. But they called it false. I think it was just a fabrication of the Path."
The Grand Harmony would never create such a Path. Something meddles in your progress, Felix.
"I'm pretty sure I know who." Felix took to his feet, glaring at the placid glade around him. "Vellus...and the other gods, all forcing her hand. But why? It's supposed to be the future, right?"
The future...Not even Seers can rightfully parse the paths of causality, Felix. The System called it 'That Which Could Change.' I cannot believe any of these are futures we must take as certain.
Felix swallowed, his mouth dry. He could still remember the feel of it, and false or not it had been horrifying. His Born Trait repeated, in excruciating detail, how he'd been taken apart, piece by piece, atom by atom. His Mind shied away from it, like a hand from a hot stove. He focused on the ground, on the small shoots of green that poked from the dark loam. With exacting motions, Felix took the memories and pushed them down, away, locking them into his Bastion where they could rot until he'd forgotten them entirely. The visions of empty darkness and swirling clouds faded, not forgotten but held at bay. He
"Violet clouds," he said with a jolt. "It was the same thing that attacked Earth, the shapes, the things in them." Felix took a deep, shuddering breath. "The Ruin would have gone after Earth?"
Pit warbled quietly in concern, but still sounded like a bird the size of an elephant. A breeze stirred the glade, making everything shake and shiver, but it didn't touch Felix. He blinked and extended his senses. The trees rustled in a wind he couldn't feel, and the dirt felt...hollow. As if it ended after only a few feet. "What is going on here?"
Felix ran into the woods, burning his Perception and Agility both. Still, he barely managed to stop himself before the terrain simply...stopped.
After thirty yards or so, the forest and blue sky ended in a sheer delineation. Beyond that line was a thick, cloying emptiness.
The Void.
"No, not the Void. If it was the Void, none of this would be here. It doesn't have trees, can't have them, I don't think." Felix clenched his jaw. He addressed the dark around him, the System or Path or whatever it called itself. "What is this? Where am I?"
New Title!
"What?"
Born of Will (Epic)!
You have remade yourself, held together by your foundation and sheer Willpower. You shake the heavens, Ascendant. For what is beyond you, if you have the Will? +100 WIL, VIT, END
Felix barely shivered as the System energy slammed into his core, but when it filtered back out and into his stats, it wrenched out a startled gasp. His Body thrummed with energyStamina, Health, and Manabut more than that: his Vitality had crossed the one thousand mark.
And, dear god, my Will hit 2010. Why wasn't that Title more than Epic, though? Felix felt another shudder wrack his limbs. I remade myself. That's gotta be worth a Legendary, right? Though that description is...suggestive.
Felix, I think I understand, Karys said. Pit had followed close behind, but had slowed long before the edge. Now he too peered over it, into the Void beyond. This is still part of the Path, but it is...separate somehow. All three Realms are intersecting here, I can feel it. I almost recognize it butno. It evades me. Yet it hums with importance.
"Still the Path. But I thought I was done with them now?" Felix tapped his lips, considering. "I didn't see a doorway though. So am I still in the last Path?"
As if in answer, the voice of the System rocked his microcosm.
Congratulations!
You Have Completed Your Path!
Choose One.
Path of the Survivor (From Survivor Title, Vitality And Endurance Above 500)
+10 Vitality, Endurance, and Perception Per Level
Path of the Slayer (From Giantslayer, Butcher, Frostbane, And Titanslayer Titles, Strength Above 500)
+15 Strength and Endurance Per Level
Path of the Ascendant (From Broken Path, The Shape Of Fate, and Fatebreaker Titles, Core At Ring Stage Or Higher)
+20 All Stats Per Level
The window before him thrummed with power, descending notes that never found bottom. Each one felt potent in a way Felix couldn't explain, but understood viscerally. He could sense them, though they were only words, as through a narrow viewfinder into possibility.
Path of the Survivor had him hidden from danger, hardy enough to live while everything around him died, yet smart enough to avoid the obvious fates. Felix was tempted by it, but for what else he saw. Loneliness, bleak isolation, hung about his neck like a weight. He would live through the worst, but be unable to help those he cared for; he rejected it immediately.
Path of the Slayer showed him a blood-soaked battlefield fully embroiled in chaos. Races and monsters came at him, armed and armored to the teeth, and all fell. It was a strength carved from the carcasses of his enemies, and Felix saw his own face radiating such savage glee it shook him to the core. Weapons leaped to his hand, axe and spear and sword and flail, all of them used efficiently. Brutally.
Felix recoiled from that Path of slaughter, quickly refocusing on the last.
Beyond the Path of the Ascendant were gilded cities and soaring archways. Skies of blue and gold spanned the heavens, and a new moon was rising. A red-gold moon wreathed in a ring of blue light. Felix's breath caught, as he saw himself, filled with light until his eyes, mouth, and fingertips radiated illumination. Wings, Pit's wings, spread from his back and they were somehow golden too. Undeniable strength oozed from his pores, a confidence to shake mountains, and a power to back it all up.
Felix pulled back before he lost himself.
"These are my Paths?" he asked no one in particular. "Karys, Pit, did you catch that?"
Yes, Pit sent.
I did, the sword vibrated.
"Three seems to be the System's favorite number, huh? Three doors, three times three Omens. Three Paths. Odd," Felix said. He calmed his breathing and slowed his heart, attempting to still his agitation and unease. He was only partially successful. "Survivor, Slayer, and Ascendant. All based on my Titles, it seems."
Such is the nature of the Omen Paths. Titles, Skills, and stats determine what you are offered at the end of things. Karys grumbled, twitching in his sheath. Any more I cannot say. Only that...the...Paths should not be as you have experienced them. They are unique, yes, but this...this is beyond strange.
The last sentences were spoken in a rush, as if he were forcing them out. Karys ended up panting by the end, exhausted.
Felix grunted. "I appreciate that, but it doesn't do me any good now. Is this how Paths were offered at the end of yours?"
Karys made an annoyed sound. I cannot say.
"Right. System restrictions." Felix rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying to let his body calm down. He'd run from door to door with barely enough time to think. He'd been torn apart, goddammit! Felix paused, his Mind lurching in pain as the memories tried to escape his Bastion. Calm.Breathe.
Meditation is level 56!
...
Meditation is level 58!
Deep Mind is level 62!
He had three Paths, each of which offered him a promise. Survival at any cost, with per level bonuses to his Vitality, Endurance, and Perception to increase his defenses. That one didn't appeal to Felix. He'd had enough of taking a beating and hiding. But did that mean he wished for the second Path? It was brutal and bloody, offense at the expense of his humanity. What he saw through the Path had been too gruesome by far, and Felix had more than once torn into an enemy and exploded them from the inside.
That left only the final Path, one that had more than a little touch of Divinity in it.
The Path of the Ascendant was superior to the rest, clearly. It offered an insane amount of bonus stats per level, and the future it promisedif that is what he sawwas remarkable. Powerful. Beautiful. Neither running nor brutal slaughter, but rising above. How could he choose anything else?
And yet...Felix couldn't make himself choose it. "This feels too easy."
Easy? Pit warbled. What's been easy about any of this?
"That's my point," Felix growled. "I've chosen all three doors each time. First it was because I didn't know what to choose, and then because I didn't want to miss out on the Omens. The System itself said I chose the hardest Path each time. So why only three? If my Paths are based on my Titles, Skills, and stats then I should have more, right?"
The others didn't answer him, but it didn't matter. Felix knew he was right. Something was wrong. He looked all around him, but the terrain and strangeness of the space was too off-putting. Everything seemed wrong on his island of green in the Void. Felix closed his eyes, centering himself, and immediately felt it.
Pressure.
Something was pressing down on...him? On the glade? Perhaps on the whole liminal space itself. Yeah. That's what it is. And I know this pressure, the taste of it. He'd felt it, not too long ago.
"Vellus!" he shouted into the dark. "Get away from me!"
The pressure quivered once before redoubling. The trees around him groaned and bent, like a giant hand was compressing them all, and Felix felt a sharp pain behind his eyes. The blue window showing his Paths flickered and glitched, static running across it in waves. When it cleared, there was only a single Path shown.
Path of the Ascendant (From Broken Path, The Shape Of Fate, and Fatebreaker Titles, Core At Ring Stage Or Higher)
+30 All Stats Per Level
"No," he hissed, and lashed out with his Will and Intent. It smashed into the pressure like a hammer into steel, denting it but leaving it whole. The hands of the divine pressed again, dropping Felix to his knees, all but pressing his face into the Path window.
Convergence!
Pit screeched the word and vanished in a flash of light. His presence drenched Felix's Spirit, and sent all of his Harmonic stats soaring to new heights as they combined with Pit's. With a roar, Felix refused to be bent or broken.
He refused!
Tyrant of Choice Is Active!
Thief of Fate Is Active!
Indomitable Is Active!
Against Catastrophe Is Active!
The Vein of Divinity within him hummed, spreading a intense heat throughout his First Pillar and core space. Everything within Felix, all of his Skills and Aspects and Titles, they ignited into a conflagration of furious Will and Intent. He would not be bullied or pressured, forced or coerced into being a slave to the gods. For he saw now what it was Vellus had wanted; she was in danger, had said so herself, all the gods were and they needed him to survive.
Him, and the other Unbound out there.
Once more, he refused. He denied them. His Titles of defiance all activated by Will, shaped by his razor sharp Intent. He sliced upward, through the pressure, through it all. A scream tore through him like a thousand cut harp strings, like a detonating mountain, like an ocean boiling. It bellowed, and then went utterly silent.
And in its place, Felix could feel the threads of possibility surrounding him. Enveloping him and Pit both. There wasn't just a single choice, and not three either. So many were there, hidden from them.
An Unbound was not held by the rules of the worldnot trulyand Felix was held by nothing unless he Chose it. With a sharp gesture, he tore away the veil of obscurity, baring the System before him in all its majesty. The black resounded, filled with a choral glory. A concerto thundered, pure and powerful enough to shake the heavens. It was there, and then it was gone in a second. Yet it burned in Felix's Mind, indelible.
Another blue window appeared, this one far, far larger.
Congratulations!
You Have Completed Your Path!
Choose One.
Path of the Devourer (From Ravenous Tithe, Thief of Fate)
+20% Essence Gain Per Foe Devoured, +20% Skill Gain Per Foe Devoured, +5 All Stats Per Level
Path of the Unconquered (From Hero, Unconquered, Face the Charge, Bulwark of the Innocent, Indomitable, Iron Will, Work Horse)
+15 Endurance, Strength, Vitality, +5 Agility, Dexterity, Perception Per Level
Path of the Cardinal Beast (From Cardinal (Major), Unleash the Beast, Cage the Beast, Sovereign of Flesh, Voracious Eye, Ravenous Tithe, Race: Primordial of the Unseen Tide (Lesser))
+50% Essence Gain Per Foe Devoured, +50% Skill Gain Per Foe Devoured, +7 All Stats Per Level, +5 Levels To All Primordial-Touched Skills
Path of the Ascendant (From Broken Path, The Shape of Fate, Fatebreaker)
+30 All Stats Per Level
Path of the Bond (From Pactmaker, Etheric Concordance)
+10 Affinity, Alacrity, Felicity, +5 Willpower, Intelligence, And Agility Per Level. Greater Benefits To/From Companion. Decrease XP Penalty By 5%.
Path of the Survivor (From Survivor, Vitality and Endurance above 500)
+10 Vitality, Endurance, and Perception Per Level
Path of the Scholar (From Natural Scholar, Aria of the Green Wilds, Voracious Eye)
+10 Intelligence, Perception, And Dexterity Per Level.
Path of the Slayer (From Giantslayer, Butcher, Frostbane, Titanslayer)
+15 Strength and Endurance Per Level
Path of the Magus (From Apprentice Magus, Iron Will, Spellslinger, 3 Epic Rarity or Higher Spells)
+10 Willpower, Intelligence, Intent, And Resonance. 5% Leveling Speed Increase For All Mana Skills.
Path of the Archmagus (From 3 Legendary Rarity or Higher Spells, Intelligence and Willpower over 500)
+15 Willpower, Intelligence, Intent, And Resonance. 10% Leveling Speed Increase For All Mana Skills.
Path of the Cardinal Theurge (From Cardinal Flame, The Shape of Fate, Fatebreaker, Broken Path, Cardinal (Major), Intelligence and Willpower over 1000, Theurgist of the Rise, 1 Transcendent Rarity or Higher Spell, Cardinal Beast Core, Thunderflame Core)
+15 All Spirit Stats, +10 All Body Stats, +5 All Mind Stats Per Level. Increase XP Penalty To 50%.
Path of the Void (From Voidwalker, Abyssal Skein, Presence Of Void Elements In Core Space)
+10 Willpower, Alacrity, Agility Per Level. 50% Protection From The Void. All Stats Doubled While Within The Void.
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