Chapter Four Hundred And Seventy – 470
Felix pulled his hands out of the shattered cobblestone beneath his feet, wincing at every movement of his Body. With a final shove of his Will, he Stone Shaped the sigaldry back out of the ground around him, effectively sealing off his access to the siphon formation. He sagged in relief immediately.
He'd only intended to use Stone Shape to gradually raise a portion of the town by reinforcing the small plateau on which the settlement had been built. It turned out, however, that the pillars he made to ratchet up the bedrock layer just crumbled underneath the sheer weight. So Felix had to reinforce them, make them of sterner stuff as he'd learned to do with his Stronghold and Bastion of Will. It hurtso muchbut in a way that wasn't physical, at least not entirely. He'd lost track during the process, but the amount of Mana that had funnelled through him dwarfed any working he'd done to date. All of his Aspects were burning like ill-used muscles, but it was a manageable strain, one he'd handled before and knew would be gone before long.
In all honesty, Felix was proud of himself. Lifting an entire town was ridiculous, and though he was sure he could do it, he hadn't anticipated having to weave four Skills at once for that long. He'd even managed to use the Chant to do it too, not relying on the System's activation to access their power. That was the real achievement. That and the Skill levels.
Stone Shaping is level 82!
...
Stone Shaping is level 85!
Green Shaping is level 45!
...
Green Shaping is level 62!
Journeyman Tier!
You Gain:
+6 INT
+6 WIL
+6 PER
Rime Shaping is level 51!
...
Rime Shaping is level 63!
Auroral Forge is level 16!
....
Auroral Forge is level 27!
Apprentice Tier!
You Gain:
+10 INT
+10 WIL
+10 VIT
He'd even managed to incorporate his new light shaping Skill as well, though it had only been in brief touches. Felix could sense them, here and there, threads of hardened light that he'd woven into the tops of the newly-made walls, now twice as high and a glossy blue-black were the red-gold veins didn't glow. It was kinda cool.
I could make street lights with this combination, he mused, trying to think of anything except the ache in his veins. Glowing stones. Hmm. Ideas tumbled through his Mind, but none really settled. There was a good deal of Mana in his core that hadn't been his originally, and it was really distracting. Not as distracting as it would for others, since the various Mana types simply coiled and spun around each other before coalescing down into one of his two cores...instead of detonating inside of him.
Maybe that was being dramatic, but it was part of the warning Alister and Atar had plied Felix with when he'd told them his plan. Even Zara had called it foolish. She was convinced he'd survive, but siphoning Mana in such quantities had killed people plenty of times, let alone mixing dozens of Mana types together. When Atar and Alister started in, Felix just pointed out that it was they who gave him the idea, back when they'd traded sigaldry notes in Nagast. Back then, Alister had been eager to tell them how pitched, mass combat typically worked for Guilder forces, how a squad of mages would supplement their Mana for a single ally.
"Yeah but that's all the same Mana type. That's the point. Compatibility is the key, as well as keeping it to a reasonable amount," Atar had pointed out.
Felix had disregarded both of those options, but then he didn't see a way to do it without tapping more power than he had. Sure, the almost nine thousand Mana he had was a lot, but Felix ate through half of that just on his first attempt to push up the Low Side of the town. Only by drawing in the Mana of his volunteers had given him enough juice to accomplish an impossible task. He was Unbound. He could handle different Mana types, a butt load of power, and whatever agony got thrown at him.
Boy, had he been wrong.
That sucked. Felix had stopped counting when he'd spent somewhere around twenty thousand points of Mana on the working, instead focusing entirely on perfecting each layer beneath them. The pain was still quivering through his everything, but Felix forced himself to his feet and quested outward with his Perception. It worked though.
He could feel the layers below, the new blue-black stone that raised fully half of Bogfeld by about twenty feet and fully replaced the walls all around the town. Cracks and fissures were everywhere, stress points from where his magic upset the shape of the city, and more than a few empty structures were riddled with similar defects. He also spotted Zara leaning casually against the interior of an abandoned shop to his right.
"You're in a state," Zara said, approaching the empty window frame but not leaning out. "I told you so."
"Yeah yeah. And I told you I could handle it." Felix grunted, straightening his back. "Thanks for getting the water out first though. Probably would have cost a ton more Mana to do that otherwise."
"My pleasure, and a simple enough task."
"Why'd you do it from hiding, though?"
"It is easier to give you the entire credit that way. I had thought the added display would be beneficial to any future negotiations, since I imagine you plan to trade with the Menders, yes?" When Felix nodded, Zara folded her arms. "I did not anticipate you to sound multiple Skills at once, however. Your Skill with the Chant grows. How is your core? Your channels?"
"Feels like I ran broken glass through them, but I'm still standing." He twisted his head, feeling his neck crack and pop. "But it'll hold, now, whether its against monsters or tsunami waves."
"I would certainly hope so," Zara said, throwing a glance at the far off walls. They gleamed in the dawn's light, their glossy blue-black surface faintly glimmering with red-gold veins. "You replaced them entirely. Those are the same walls I saw in your Stronghold, are they not?"
"Mhm." He could feel the Knights coming out of their fortress now as the arrays finally deactivated completely. Gallants and Claw mages alike were panting ragged, and more than half had been laid out on the ground. He could hear their steady breathing, which was a relief. "Damn, I thoughtthey were more tired from the monsters than they let on."
"They wouldn't let down the Fiend." Zara shrugged. "They are in better shape than you are right now."
Felix couldn't only grimace at that. "They pushed themselves hard. Those Fathom spawn were nasty customers. Oh, did you take a look at the Nettle sample that we saved? What did you think?"
Zara glanced back at the Knights that had started filling the square not two blocks distant. They had no line of sight on her and Zara could make herself all but invisible, even to Felix at times, so she didn't have anything to worry about. "It was corrupted. Manawarped, as your Eye revealed to you. Such a state increases a target's Strength, Endurance, and Vitality at the expense of Intelligence and Willpower. There are stages of the condition, each one worse than the last and just as hard to cleanse from oneself. Manasoaked, Manadrenched, and Manawarped."
Felix recalled the big scorpion in the oasis had been Manadrenched. A slightly foggy memory of that creature's huge claws and tough exoskeleton. "How does it happen? Is it a disease? Or is there a Skill that'll inflict it?"
"It is a condition, but not one that affects the mortal Races, only monster Types. When a monster does not Evolve as it should, the Mana overflows their core and floods their Bodies, leading to unexpected alterations. This can result in the earliest stages, and progresses with each botched Evolution or even a refused Evolution if the monster is willful enough." Both of them could hear the Knights clomping closer, but the steps were slow. Unsure. Zara shifted her stance. "However, it can also be inflicted by a greater creature, one that is in control of a horde and has direct influence over such Evolutions."
"The Fathom."
"I would assume. The dark, mucus-like tendrils on the Draktopi and this Nettle are practically identical. Even the Depthwurm bore a strangeness to it, its aggression far outsizing its ability."
"So the Fathom is spreading. We need to talk to the Deepking. He should know more about what's going on down below." The guy was fighting against the Fathom in some sort of war, according to what he told us last time. I just hope the Naga are still okay.
Zara waved a hand. "Of course. We also need to traverse the gate in Haestus Temple, Felix. Do not forget that."
"Right. Yeah I didn't, it's just..." He looked over the town of Bogfeld, broken buildings still shiny with wet.
"Worse than this will happen in Nagast if you do not return, Felix," Zara pointed out.
"I know." Felix sighed. They had to move on, no matter how guilty he felt about flooding the Ghreldan Hills or thrusting this little town into a watery warzone. "I just need to settle up a few things, let our people rest, and we can make our way outta here."
"Very well."
"Prioress Kartez."
The man approached Alessa not twenty minutes after doing the impossible, floating to her position along the Redoubt battlements as if it were as effortless as a morning stroll. Down below, she could make out the Knights that had been sent to bring him back where scrambling across the square, calling for the gates to be reopened. The man had apparently taken off without their leave, or some such. Blue-white lightning crackled from his limbs, but not so much as to appear hostile. Instead it ruffled his clothes and made his eerie eye shine.
"Mr. Nevarre. Are you not tired after...everything?" She gestured toward the still-drying expanse of Bogfeld. Words could not do justice to what she was feeling, but awed and small were among them.
"Oh sure. Who wouldn't be?" The man shrugged away the question and Alessa's curious gaze. He certainly did not look tired. "I know we have not had much time to talk, one on one, but I do believe we made an agreement."
"Oh?" Alessa asked. She appreciated that the man floated at her eye level, refusing to loom above her very normal Gnomish height. "What agreement was that, Mr. Nevarre?"
"Well, it was with Dahria, actually." He pulled free a glass bottle, within which a bright red liquid sloshed. "Would you like to speak further on it?"
Alessa smiled. "I would, yes."
Dahria watched the Prioress walk down the battlements next to the Autarch, somewhat dumbfounded.
To be alone with such a powerful individual was dangerous in the extreme. She felt as if she should gather all the Menders to walk with the Prioress, or perhaps cajole the Knights into guarding her. Yet none of them could raise an entire town from the flood, even if they had all worked together. What, then, could she do?
"You look tense."
"Ah!" Dahria spun, finding a woman with pale hair and fair skin staring at her. "By the Light you startled me."
"My apologies, truly. I did not intend to frighten you."
"Frighten? No. Of course not. I was simply...otherwise engaged." Dahria drew in her pale robes, similar in color to the woman before her actually, and lifted her chin. "How might I help you?"
"It is more of a question on how I might help you, dear lady." The woman inclined her head and Dahria spotted a glinting tiara among her platinum curls. "I am traveling with the Autarch, and I noticed that your Menders are seeing to the sick and injured. Your Skills with Herbalism are quite impressive. I too have talents that lie in such an arena, and I would love to extend them to you all during our stay."
"Oh!" Dahria gathered herself at hearing she was a companion with the Autarch. Much as she feared his power, she could not deny it. "That is quite generous, Lady...?"
"Isla. Simply Isla is fine."
"Isla, then. How might you be able to help?" Dahria gestured to the regal woman and they both started walking down the steps toward the triage tents below.
"Simply show my your worst patients, and we shall take it from there."
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