Chapter Three Hundred And Sixteen - 316
The Temple was eerily quiet as Ifre stepped within. Torchlight flickered within, but she saw no torches, no source at all for the illumination.
"What happened here?" Tyrk said in a low tone. His slender forehead was slick with sweat. Ifre kept forgetting how young he truly was; she shook her head and motioned for silence.
The ground was littered with debris, but they had anticipated that after seeing the butchery outside. The scaffolding alone was a creation of creatures without regard for grace, aesthetics, or the ability to perform fine motor skills. What they had not been expecting, however, were the dozens of crushed alcoves, walls, and murals. Thousands upon thousands of years of history had been shattered and scattered across the floor of the Temple, in some places utterly unrecoverable. Ifre was aghast at the destruction, at the wanton disregard of history and artistry. The Henaari sought such things, reveled in them, and the damage to the Nymean Temple hurt her soul.
She made several sharp gestures and the three of them advanced, toward an open, green-metal door.
The Temple was empty. Her Perception and Skills could detect nothing living, so whoever had committed the atrocities above had left. They padded quickly down the spiraling staircase, its length lit by some sort of clever magic, intent on making their way into the very heart of the Temple.
Only there could they finish their duty.
Eventually the stairs opened up on a massive, circular chamber festooned with sculptural reliefs. Nymean magi, stars in their grips, fought back the noxious forms of several terrible Urges. That was clear to Ifre, she had seen its like before, though never Nymeans. Urges, however, were often depicted in many hidden sanctuaries around the Continent. Not all of them were as altruistic as the Endless Raven.
The Raven would draw immense power from this, she thought. The clan, we would be empowered many-fold.
The Matriarch had been right, but Ifre still didn't like it. Felix was an ally. He had helped her specifically, and others too, when he'd charged into the tunnels to face the Wurms. And then he and his team had taken on the Arcid's entire force. That was not something an enemy of the clan would do.
I will claim this place, for my people. But I will not kill him. Ifre set her hand upon the Dire Talon, still wrapped at her waist. Still pulsing like a heart. Let the Matriarch punish me, but I'll not do it.
The defiance had her breathing heavily, and her forehead beaded with sweat near instantly, but she was steady. Ifre would not be budged, not anymore. With a sharp nod, she stalked her way into the lit chamber, making sure to stay low. The Dire Talon throbbed in her hand, a powerful Blessing from the Endless Raven. It was a weapon designed to slay the clan's greatest threats, to end them with a single strike. She gripped it loosely, hoping it would not be needed.
Down the steps they went, until a circular pool of cloudy green water appeared. It was the center, the heart; from there Ifre could claim the Temple for the Endless Raven.
She crept upon it, her subordinates close behind. She made no sound, her Blessing disguising them all as shadows upon the ground, a power the Raven granted passingly few. The pool of green liquid bubbled slightly, as if something far below had moved or shifted. It struck a sense of dread within Ifre's chest, something primal that caught her breath. Slowly, she unwrapped the Dire Talon, forcing her fingers to cease their trembling.
"What have we here?" said a deep, rattling voice. "What an interesting Skill."
Ifre gasped in astonishmentwhere had it come from!?but her Body did not fail her. She spun, Dire Talon pivoted into a saber grip, and drove its preternaturally sharpened point straight up.
It sank halfway into the golden metal, and its noxious power discharged. The golden giant grunted and grabbed her wrist. With the ease of a parent dislodging a child's hand, it forced hers from the hilt of the Dire Talon.
"No," she whispered.
"A wicked weapon. But useless in the end." Crimson lightning spat out from its joints and tangled all three of them. She heard Tyrk and Isyk both scream in wretched pain, and only belatedly realized she too was howling. "But you three...I have a use for you. I tossed something into this pool a short while ago. For a bit the liquid churned quite interestingly, but now it's all gone still. I'm still not sure what lies beneath." The lightning stabbed and burned across Ifre's chest and face, holding her aloft like burning strings. "Do be sure to find out."
The strings were cut, and Ifre was dropped into a liquid that parted beneath her like smoke.
The moment Felix stepped out of the door, back into the liquid Mana pool, the System redoubled its efforts to reach him. Karys thrummed, his life Mana spiraling around Felix's form before sinking into the base of his skull. It soaked into his channels, boosting his handle on the Tiering Skills, and for a brief, important instance, let loose the notifications he most needed to see.
You Have Completed A Hidden Quest!
Walk The Omen Path!
You have used the Omen Key and survived. You have not only chosen a Path, but forged one yourself! All bonuses are doubled!
Rewards:
+6 Levels
+30 All Harmonic Stats
+2 Titles
50% XP Penalty In Effect!
+6 Levels
+3 Levels
Congratulations!
You Have Gained 3 Levels!
You Are Now Level 55!
You Gain:
+60 to STR! +66 to PER! +66 to VIT! +78 to END! +72 to INT! +84 to WIL! +78 to AGL! +87 to DEX!
+60 All Harmonic Stats!
You Have 90 Unused Stat Points!
Pit Has Gained 6 Levels!
He Is Now Level 62!
He Gains:
+60 to STR, +42 to PER, +12 to VIT, +54 to END, +18 to INT, +36 to WIL, +96 to AGL, +102 to DEX, +30 to AFI, +30 to RES, +30 to REI!
Beside him, Pit screeched in triumphant agony, his being wracked by incredible power. Felix could barely think, could only notice that Pit grew once more and his piercing cry become something of a shattering bellow. His own Body, his Mind and Spirit too, surged with a sudden, terrible potency.
The notifications continued, unabated.
New Title!
Coronation of the Wild Song (Transcendent)!
You've forged a Path from the very threads of Harmony and Dissonance! A crown from the fields of Creation itself. Hope that the benefits outweigh the consequences of your actions.
+10% INE, AFI, ALA, and FEL.
+20% Leveling Bonus to all Skills touching on the Wild Song!
New Title!
Forge Of Cardinal Thunderflame (Unique)!
You have forged a Path of your own and as such are the first to ever use it! The forge of your cores and the hammer of your Will has fashioned a Path, one that will shape the future that you make. Be wary, Ascendant, for naught is set in stone.
+5% Completion Bonus to Fiendforge!
+New Skill!
New Skill!
Fiendforge (Unique), Level 1!
You've proven yourself capable of Forging Paths from the threads of Harmony and Dissonance both. This Skill lets you do the same for others, but the learning curve is great. Dare you tempt fate again? Risk of failure decreases per level, risk of permanent damage to core decreases per level, speed of Forging increases per level.
At the same time his cores rang with the glory of System energy rushing in, Felix felt the woven pillar beneath his horizontally stacked cores thrum in sympathetic vibration. And then that thrum became all he could hear. It became the world itself, as the pillar boomed beneath everything, lifting up his cores and providing an ineffable heft to the space. An incredible importance hung about it, the woven ribbons of light and power, braided like a Maypole and filled with a dark thread of buzzing Divinity.
The gains are always greatest on the First Pillar. The next come with less significant boosts, but cumulative, Karys provided helpfully. Your significance waxes bright, Felix.
"Let's just hope its enough," he gasped back, but clamping his Will upon his Tiering Skill had become vastly easier. He had to move. It had been bare fractions of a second since he'd stepped from the Omen Door, but the Urges had noticed him.
"He comes again! Gone a moment, but pulled back!"
"GET HIM KILL HIM GET HIM KILL HIM!"
"He's mine!"
Nightmare shapes roiled through the green murk, heading for him.
Convergence!
White light blinded the Urges for a critical moment, allowing Felix to hurl himself upward and between the gargantuan maws of two opposing monstrosities. Leviathans both, their forms were hazy and unclear, save their predatory shape. Felix twisted between them, going so far as to push off the immense snout of another as it dove downward at their group. He felt stronger and more graceful than ever before in his life, and his thoughts and senses took in so much that everything moved in slow motion. He felt...
Congratulations!
You Have Achieved The Third Threshold!
All Primary Stats Exceed 1000!
Title Updated!
The Broken Path (Legendary)!
The path narrows, crumbling, but your step is sure and inexorable. Behind you lie the corpses of all those that would follow you, and ahead the grasp of the multitudes in your way. The path is a sword's edge, and the only way forward leads up a mountain of bodies. Ware the fall, Ascendant. +10 Journeyman Tier Bonus (Body, Mind, Spirit), +20% Adept Tier Bonus (Body, Mind, Spirit), +30% Master Tier Bonus (Body, Mind, Spirit)
Requires: All Primary Stats Exceed 1000, Level Below 120, Lost Race (Primordial of the Unseen Tide (Lesser))
Due To Reaching The Third Threshold Before Level 100, You Have Earned A New Title!
The Call of Defiance (Transcendent)!
The Divine and Primordial alike could not stop you, nor the amassed servants of men. When the world pushed at you, you pushed back. When it bled you, you armored your skin. It told you to fall, and you denied them.
+25% Willpower When Contested By A Foe Of Divine Formation Or Greater
+5 Levels To All Mind Skills
Negotiation is level 26!
Deception is level 28!
Meditation is level 63!
Deep Mind is level 67!
Alchemy is level 32!
Tracking is level 30!
Aria of the Green Wilds is level 62!
Voracious Eye is level 73!
Exploration is level 52!
Journeyman Tier!
You Gain:
+7 INT
+7 END
+7 PER
Manifestation of the Coronach is level 52!
Journeyman Tier!
You Gain:
+5% VIT
+Rallying Cry Bonuses To Regeneration Increased By 10%
+A Crisis of Faith Penalties To Willpower Increased By 10%
Bastion of Will and Ravenous Tithe bucked in his control, fighting against the cage of his Will, and in the fury of the System's onslaught he almost let them. But his stats were so much more, Primary and Harmonic, and he soon clamped back down upon them both.
Primary Stats
STR: 2086
PER: 1094
VIT: 1700
END: 1730
INT: 1516
WIL: 2290
AGL: 1033
DEX: 1147
Harmonic Stats
RES: 482
INE: 1866
AFI: 1286
REI: 584
EVA: 330
MIG: 455
ALA: 1475
FEL: 571
A massive tail, wide as a city block, swung through the haze. It took Felix full in the face, sending him hurtling down, down, down into the tiled floor of the Mana pool. Stone cratered, shattered in concentric rings that exploded in waves of catastrophic force. Shards blew upward, moving through the liquid that was like smoke, trailing bubbles behind them. Felix coughed up a streamer of vibrant blood, practically glowing with the System energies that still coursed through him.
Yet because of those energies, because of his Third Threshold, his wounds knitted before the Urges could reach him.
Unfettered Volition!
Felix shot back upward, a leap or swimming stroke propelling him into the murky depths. Jaws snapped and crashed all around him, claws seeking his flesh and life; but he was too small, too fast, too strong.
Adamant Discord!
Pivoting himself, Felix shot back downward, through the closing jaws of another Urge to slam, meteor-like, into it's damn skull. The Urge convulsed in surprised pain, its Spirit blaring it to the world, and crashed into the tiled floor of the well. Smoke and liquid swirled, parted, sloshed until silty debris made vision an impossible thing. For all his stats, terror welled up in him. It was all he could do to focus, while the beast below him writhed. He ran along its length, the liquid Mana still parting before him like smoke. Felix held an oversized card in his hand, its face brilliant with golden inlay, a sun that banished the dark to the farthest corners.
"'Beyond The Dark, The Light Awaits,'" Felix gasped.
"What does he say?"
"Only foolishness! He has attacked us! Us!"
"We end him!"
Felix bared his teeth, and from his waistband pulled the other object he'd been careful to keep with him. A feather as long as his forearm, black and night and crackling with potency.
"Mark of the Raven!"
"That upstart!"
"He invokes!"
The sibilant words overlapped, mixed with the rushing of waters as they came at him again. At his side, his Inheritor's Will burst into vibrant, green-gold light.
On me!
A figure of blazing Mana surged upward, looking exactly like Felix and lighting up the strange, dark waters. Green-gold light bounced off bony, bulbous forms, creatures of sinuous strength and terrible, nightmarish shapes. Almost all of the Urges hissed and plunged after Karys' phantom.
You...have...seconds only.
He'd make them count. The feather in his hand ignited, bringing a brilliant light to dark depths. The Urges that hadn't followed the phantom, the Urge of Rot and the Urge of Spite, convulsed, driven backward by the pure, white light. Holding the Nym statuette aloft, he cast Cardinal Flame through its enchanted substance. Red-gold flame erupted in a ring around him, worked by his Will and Intent until it formed a series of massive glyphs, each and every one the same as the last. He had seen it before in many places, even among the Archon's twisted works, but his was different. Changed by his experience with the Theurgy of the Rise, a combined form of siphon, life, and connection.
He called it Devour.
Driving his sword into the tiled floor, Felix reached into his pocket and hurled a stack of metal cards into the array he'd built. Each Omen card was snagged by a glyph, snapping into the sigils' centers as if magnetized. The cards lit with the same red-gold flame, an incandescent glow that grew all the brighter as the Omens truly ignited.
Affinity seized the threads that connected him to the Urges, threads of want and hunger, and he tied those into the array. His Intent and Will did the rest, directing a massive tide of Mana from his channels out into the well. It flowed from him in waves of almost-liquid vapor, thickened and potent and split into nine different streams in a circle.
The phantom faded, and Karys trembled in the ground, but Felix was ready. The Urges screamed, those closest already rounding on him. Those above charged as well, until all six came at him, maws agape.
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om