Unbound

Chapter Four Hundred And Ninety Eight – 498

Paxus led everyone back down the stairs of the tower, and Pit goggled at the changes that had taken place. Where before the chamber had been chock full of tangled vines and choked off soil, now it was a cultured path lined with pink blossoms and the thick, rugged roots of the Spirit Tree.

This is much nicer, Pit thought at his Companion. Felix flashed a tight smile at him before returning his attention to the Nymean phantom. The tall ghost was speaking, talking about trees and roots or something. Pit didn't care to pay much attention. His primary concern was potential threats.

Pit snuffled at the ground. He smelled loam and violence, muted by thick sap and the rotting tang of sweet petals turned foul. The Stickmen had fallen, many killed by Pit and his team, but the rest felled by Felix's use of Unite the Lost. When the Spirit Tree returned to its senses, a great wave of spiritual pressure and Mana had shot outward from its trunk. Pit recalled the feel of it rippling across his fur and feathers. It had tasted like springtime rain and winters chill ice, all at once.

Mana Digestion In Process...

For the first time in a long while, a Skill was brewing within Pit's core. Recently, he had only gained minimal stat points from the various cores he devoured, and even that was giving diminishing returns. He'd long since lost the Gourmand Title that he and Felix had sharedresponsible for Pit stealing things like Cold Resistance and Poisonfire from his enemies. Things were different now, though. He wasn't sure if it was due to his Etheric Concordance or simply to the fact that Pit was now also a Primordial, and he didn't much care.

I wonder what Skill it might be? The possibilities filled him with excitement. Seeing Felix learn his new illusion spell had him champing at the bit for new abilities. Hopefully it isn't some plant Skill. That'd be boring.

They pressed down the stairs and through the network of ruined quarters. Many of those rooms were free of clogging plant-matter, and Pit immediately wandered through the unblocked chambers. They all smelled so tantalizing, like old pungent moss and grubs under wet logs, and he followed his nose through as many as he could enter. Sadly, he found little other than rotting furniture, the ground up shells of big beetles, and, in the last chamber, Isla pulling some of those Manalamps off the walls. Pit huffed in annoyance.

"What?" she asked, small face pinching around her tiny nose. "These are wondrous artifacts from another Age. They need to be preserved."

Pit cocked his head. "Have you found any food?"

"...No."

The tenku groaned and walked back out.

They moved on quickly from that space, the big Slithers carrying sacks that bulged with more of those lamps. Pit swore he saw a half-crumbled chair leg too, but he didn't care. He smelled a new flavor on the air. Felix, clearly sensing his Companion's distress, produced a number of large fruits that he called "Hot Watermelons." The sense image that came with the description was confusing, as the watermelon Felix recalled was green with stripes instead of a bright yellow with swirly black spots. Still, it tasted almost exactly like Pit expected: juicy, watery, and very spicy.

Pit ate all of them.

The team pressed on, down the next set of stairs and beyond the broken hall of illusions, or whatever Felix called it. The stairwell went deeper, as the phantom informed them. Round and round and round, their team drilled down into the rock below, the stone walls giving way to uneven bark. Pit was forced to shift back into his Dire Hound form, shrinking until he was the size of a puppy and more able to navigate the tighter confines.

"Tell me, spirit. Why do you remain visible? Is it due to the Companion bond?" Isla shuffled down the steps, boots splashing in worn grooves or clambering over uneven roots. Her face, however, remained impassive and steady, as if she were taking a stroll across a manicured lawn. Pit watched her, confused as to why she was putting such an effort into looking unaffected as she dogged the heels of the phantom.

"In part," he replied, his two tone voice sounding more than a little bored.

"Does the Chant play into it?"

"The Chant plays into all things. It is the Chant. A practitioner of your Tier should be intimately aware of that."

"Of course. I am simply attempting to determine where my knowledge and your own intersect and diverge. A great deal of information has been Lost in the Ages since your kind dominated the Continent"

"We did not dominate," Paxus said, more forceful than Pit had ever heard the spirit. "That is the point."

Paxus left her, floating downward faster than the Chanter could keep up while maintaining her dignity. Pit trilled a light laugh at the anger on Isla's face, but scurried down the steps when she turned the expression on him. Thankfully, he was quite fast.

"Honored Tenku."

Pit looked up. Everyone was a lot taller than him when he was a Dire Hound pup. "Hello, Nym."

"Call me Paxus, please. I would be honored if I could call you by your given name as well."

Pit shrugged. "I'm Pit. Nice to meet you, Paxus."

"You as well." The spirit walked with Pit for a while longer, silent but in a way that Pit actually liked. Since the Void, quiet was something that left Pit feeling more than a little unnerved. This silence didn't feel empty, however, but hummed pleasantly. It reminded him of Felix. "Might I ask for your Path?" he asked, after another turn of the stairs.

"I walk the Path of the Guardian Beast." Pit lifted his beak and thrust out his chest. "I was offered others, but its what I do. I keep Felix safe, in my own way."

"Truly? I know little of the Chimera myself, so I cannot say if that is uncommon or not, but I can understand the desire to protect those you care about." Paxus ran an insubstantial hand across the bark, his skin and bones shifting as if he were really touching it. "I am a protector as well. Path of the Verdant Warden."

"To protect your Tree?"

"Indeed. While she has a plethora of defensive measures, her nature limits her ability to remain free from all threats. I have raised Abundance since she was no more than a seed, gifted to me by the Empyrean Halls. She is more family to me than those of my blood."

Pit nodded. He understood that completely. "Felix...Felix can protect himself. He's Unbound, and a strong one. He protects the team, his army, even his enemies if they let him." Pit snorted, wrinkling his soft snout. It was always a little odd to not have a beak. "He protects everyone, but no one protects him. That's my job."

Paxus smiled, and it was a handsome thing, despite the all-blue eyes. "I commend you, Honored Pit. Defending those you love is a noble Path. To speak frankly, it is the only reason I still live."

"Oh?" Pit hopped over a thick root. "What happened?"

The phantom waved off the question. "The Creature's final strike should have killed us all and broken the seal. I cannot remember the details, but the power in that abyss is not to be underestimated. Yet somehow I stand, not whole, but cognizent of my own existence. That is more than I can say for the magi that once lived here." The spirit looked up, back toward the living quarters, perhaps. "I doubt they ever saw true daylight again."

Paxus sighed. "It was quite nice, my Body. Formed during my training in the Empyrean Halls and touched by the magic of that place. Not as sturdy as some of your folk, perhaps, but I miss it. Perhaps I will grow used to my new circumstances after a while, but I am finding it...frustrating to be unable to touch."

Pit blinked. "My Companion is good at getting new Bodies for people. We have a Karys in a big metal shell, now."

"A Karys?"

"A friend," Felix interrupted, appearing from nowhere to rub one of his big hands over Pit's crown. Pit let out an bark of surprise before it devolved into an uncontrolled growl of contentment. He only barely listened to the rest of his friend's words, focusing more on his sharp claws and the wonderful scratching. "Are you...able to move to a new Body?"

"I am unsure. I clearly sacrificed my original to retain even a shred of my other Aspects here in my Companion's demesne. Pieces of me, of my Companion, are locked within the corrupted seal. Were the other Trees freed of the Creature's influence then I would know more." The big gardener clenched his jaw and shook his head. "That, I fear, is too much to ask of even you, Lord Unbound."

The scratches stopped, and Pit blinked. Felix looked pensive as the phantom floated on ahead of them.

They kept walking. There were no vines or tangled growths, but the roots themselves split and multiplied, all the same color as the Spirit Tree itself. Eventually, the temperature dropped and the stairs grew wet beneath Pit's paws.

"We are here," Paxus intoned. His voice continued to sound strange to Pit's ears, as if he were speaking in two voices, each in perfect sync with one another. "These are the lowest levels, and that," he said, gesturing his white-sleeved arm forward. "Are the root tunnels."

The landing at the bottom of the spiral stairwell was not particularly huge, but it was more than enough for three times their number to stand comfortably. The bark-covered walls flowed and split here, opening up into three separate doors that were easily double the dimensions of the silver ones above. Pit sniffed, tasting the damp in the air.

"They go out into the water?" Felix asked.

"Yes, but they arewerequite safe. The root tunnels connect each of the Abundance's Bodies, allowing our people to travel swiftly between the stations while observing the Breach." The phantom approached a golden door inlaid with polished blue gems. The door depicted a huge tree, with wide branches that spread outward across a wavering landscape. "I can feel through her that the other Trees are still injured and possessed by the Creature's foul touch. Abundance's Perception beyond this tower is limited, but she warns that there is no guarantee of safety in these tunnels."

"Better this than swimming through the open water," Vess said. "The spawn are too many here. Do these tunnels draw us closer to Khasma?"

Paxus inclined his head. "They do. Lord Unbound, you saw Abundance's Memory. Do you recall the layout of her Bodies?"

Pit felt a twitch from inside Felix, but it was swiftly suppressed before his Companion spoke. "I do. Based on the directions we were headed, that'd make us south of the Breach by a good margin."

"There about, yes. We are six leagues from the Breach itself. The seal we grew was a complicated one, requiring a great many offshoots to provide stabilization to the array." Paxus held out a slender hand, and blue-green light kindled above his pale palms. "The Trees at the very edge of the Breach carry the greatest of the load. Even now, they're still maintaining a piece of the seal. She can feel that much."

"The dragon's in the big hole, right?" Beef asked. The big bullman was still walking pretty gingerly and had discarded his conjured chest armor. "What's the plan then? Just...just jump in and duke it out?"

"That would be foolish," Isla said. "The Fathom is Master Tier at least, and if the ooze is indeed a hallmark of this Creature you speak of, then we must anticipate that the Fathom has gained strength from it."

Paxus' dark blue eyes widened. "A dragon has fallen to the Creature?"

"I don't think so. You said the seal is still working, right?" Felix asked.

"It is. Barely."

"Then, at worst, the Fathom has found some use for the ooze. Maybe this...Creature..." Felix barely stuttered this time when he said the name, and Pit sent a pulse of support along their bond. "Maybe it releases this gunk passively and the Fathom is using it. Why else would it be here, in a prison made for some nightmare monster?"

"That is unlikely. All those that attempted to use the Creature's power died, whether they meant to strengthen themselves or simply cleanse it from an area." Paxus gestured to Felix. "Only the Lord Unbound here has ever survived such an occurrence, through a confluence of Skills and capabilities that I cannot believe. That you have Unite the Lost is an astounding thing, and I do not expect even a mighty dragon to claim the same."

"We need to talk about that in a second," Felix said. "But you're right. I do have a set of abilities that are custom fit to take the Fathom down a notch. If we can get close enough, I might not need to step a foot into that Breach at all. These tunnels will be our ticket in, and out, if we're lucky. Everyone ready?"

Shoulders squared up and spines straightened as Felix panned around the room. Pit trotted up to him, shifting casually back into tenku form to receive a set of vigorous scratches. "I'm ready. Let's go eat some monsters."

"Damn right."

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