Chapter One Thousand And Thirty Four – 1034 |
Abyssal Skein is level 116!
Felix and Pit flew through the floating islands, moving fast in order to dodge the occasional airborne creature. At first, Felix thought their biggest concern would be powerful monsters—and they were there, but their presence dropped off fast the farther south they ventured.
The islands were inhabited, home to villages and towns, many of which were sprawling affairs complete with warded walls, tall watchtowers plated in silver, and a great many copper domes. They gleamed in the early morning sunlight, and people bustled in every street. A few of the islands were occupied instead with luxurious manors, easily comparable to some of the lesser palaces Felix had seen in the north. Those were far more rare.
Abyssal Skein proved most useful to avoid anyone who happened to look up. The Crucible pulled at them while using it, but the Skill utilized the Void, which seemed to ease things somewhat. Felix didn't quite understand why, but perhaps it was because it bypassed the Corporeal, forcing the Crucible to work a little harder.
Along with the population came heavier traffic in the skies. Manaships charted courses between islands, mostly Skiff-class bearing one or two occupants, but some were larger. Those held armored soldiers, and they moved fast between the silver watchtowers.
Did they notice us? Pit asked after the third transport zipped by them.
If they did, they’re very good at pretending not to. Felix traced the ship as it docked at a distant tower. He checked the Eye and adjusted their course. Just keep moving southeast. I’ll handle any undue attention.
Complicating the traffic patterns were people flying under their own power. Some bore wings, but the majority appeared to have an air manipulation Skill that projected a whirling shell of wind around themselves. It was more than a bit unreal to see and a true pain. Remaining effectively invisible was great, but in a crowd, there was a chance that anyone could bash into them without warning. They almost succeeded twice.
The first near miss was with a skiff piloted by a young man and woman clearly on a date. It skimmed off of Pit's rear end in a way that nearly made the tenku squawk. But the ship floundered for a moment before righting itself, the man laughing off the incident and the woman cuddling up closer. They sailed off toward another island, clearly preoccupied.
Faster, Pit.
Ouranic Dominion!
Before long, the villages gave way to something far larger. More of a series of interlocked towns, each one filled an entire island, and several of the islands were chained together by elegant bridges made of a pale material. Something called floatstone. They were very impressive, and the greenish domes amid the preserved forests glinted in the sunrise. It was only as they traveled a bit farther into the low clouds that they found what this empire considered a true city.
Wow! Pit cooed. Look at that!
A mountain rose before them, a peak that wasn't floating—it lifted above the dark mist that obscured the depthless chasm below. The top was bathed in sunshine and the blue skies that so defined this strange floating empire. A city was constructed on it, one cut into the mountain at sharp angles, carving the remaining peak into an eight-sided star that rose up into a needle point.
There, skewered through its heart, was the Obsidian Tumult.
The corpse had been bent and folded, its limbs arranged through the city streets around it. Buildings were built onto them, attached with masonry far less elegant than the faceted geometry of the dark creature. It was on its back, though that was hard to tell at first. Too many thin, crustacean-like legs and heavy armored plates made its bulk almost indecipherable. But, as they drew closer, Felix spotted the head on the far side of the mountain. If it were anything like Etrionn, then that was their target.
“There,” Felix said with a jerk of his chin.
“Hmm. The air is getting busier,” Pit noticed. Patrols of soldiers flew around the city, some under their own power as before, but most in giant versions of the Manaship transports. Through the open sides, they spotted hundreds of armored men and women, all of them marked with a potent vapor trail of Mana.
“They’re setting up a blockade. They know we’re here.” Pit chuckled. “Time to get creative.”
He dove down, threading through the contrails of the transport ships and the frantic flight of armored citizens. A blockade was a good idea, but the city had clearly only received word of them recently. It was full of gaps that had yet to be closed, and Pit zipped through them before a net of crimson wards were etched against the sky.
“Hoo! Close one!” Pit chirrupped, his exultation swallowed up by Abyssal Skein.
His sword buzzed. "It's as I told you, my Lord. They are hunting for you already."
Felix grunted as Pit tucked his wings into a steep dive, taking them closer to the city itself.
Down there, it was chaos. People were busy everywhere, some buying up produce in great bundles, while others hurried through the streets as if Primordial Spawn were hounding them.
Doors snapped closed, and the locks clicked, forming a percussive solo that was undercut by the rising thrum of personal wards. Sigaldry flared across walls and copper domes. They were afraid.
Warning!
A Threat Approaches!
The Emperor Warns All Citizens To Shelter In Place.
Do Not Fear, However!
The Threat Is Being Handled.
"I think they mean us," Pit said.
"I think you're right." Felix pointed. "Let's change direction."
They flew up, skirting the edges of buildings as they rose up along the belly of the corpse. It was powerful. He could tell so at a glance. Unseen Beholder only confirmed it. Just as dead as Etrionn, but Mana, Essence, and significance hung around the Tumult. It was as if someone had skewered a mountain atop this peak.
Delicious, the Beast rumbled.
No backseat driving.
They quickly spanned the Tumult’s belly and witnessed the heart of the city. Wide thoroughfares had been constructed, segmenting the Tumult’s underside into rigidly defined districts. Smaller inner legs were curled up, like a dead spider, and they, too, were used as the backbones of several soaring churches and cathedrals. Felix wasn’t sure what the difference was—not that it mattered.
The important part was that the air was chock full of soldiers.
Unlike the more common streets below, here lived the wealth of the city, if not nation. Companies of winged Sylphaen stood among hovering transports and floating platforms riddled with inscriptions. They were powerful, all of them, Felix could tell as much at a glance. Using Unseen Beholder on a living being might give them away, but he didn’t need it. The soldiers defending the city were outfitted in mithril armor inscribed with enough defensive arrays to stop an army. It was best to avoid them.
In short order, and with an unnerving amount of quiet flight between vigilant defenders, Felix and Pit made it to the head. There, a palace had been built atop the tilted neck and underjaw of the Tumult. It was sprawling place fit for an emperor, Felix imagined.
And it was built with a basement, he noted as they drew closer. Even from the outside, it was clear that the palace punched down into obsidian flesh. It was where they would begin.
More silver watchtowers were built here, though they were far more impressive-seeming, where they surrounded the palace. Guards filled several layers inside the silver structures, and more than once, Felix caught a glimpse of red-gold on weapons and armor.
Palace guards have orichalcum gear. Careful.
I’m being as careful as I can be, considering we’re flying into a heavily fortified citadel manned by thousands of potential enemies. Pit laughed. But yes. I’ll try to fly safer.
Felix rolled his eyes. I regret letting you learn to talk.
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As if you had a choice!
They circled, hunting for an opening in the admittedly formidable defenses of the palace. Heavy walls, gates, and warded pathways kept all access points tightly buttoned up, even to a flying enemy. Which made sense, Felix supposed. They were a flying nation; who else would know best how to defend against them?
Still, things were off. More than once, Felix spotted those soldiers in orichalcum armor moving about in quick marches. They blazed across the battlements, clearly heavily invested in Agility, but their movements seemed…heavy. Slow, at least in comparison to what they should be—had they decked out lower Tiers in expensive armor for the look of it? A show of force?
He was tempted to check, but kept his eyes to himself. It didn’t matter, in the end.
That company is changing out, Pit said.
Sure enough, a company of a hundred soldiers was at a side gate. The doors began to creak as they opened, stone and wood shuddering as thousands of pounds were moved. Before it was even fully open, the soldiers started streaming in.
Go for it!
Ouranic Dominion!
Pit rocketed forward, marshalling the wind beneath his wings into a concentrated gale. All sights of silence vanished as the air boomed, and the pair of them blurred forward. The gate was already starting to close, only open for a handful of seconds, but Pit didn’t stop.
Felix braced, clenching his jaw and preparing his Skills just in case—
They shot ahead, spinning sideways and clipping a wing, but they slipped through just as the gate slammed shut.
Chaos shook the outside and inside alike as residual wind ripped through the interior. The soldiers spun, Skills flaring into defensive domes and gleaming crimson blades…yet none of them saw the pair.
Abyssal Skein is level 117!
Thankfully, a great deal of the palace was built on a scale meant to impress, and Pit could almost lose himself in the elaborate ceilings. Felix had no idea if the emperor here was some sort of enormous giant, but the doorways were fifty feet tall and half that wide, while the ceilings stood double that height. Pit had plenty of space to move as they investigated the opulent residence.
Felix pulled free the Eye and the golden thread led them onward past many more guards. Servants scurried about, some with food, some cleaning implements, and others with weaponry, but they seemed to be hustling towards guard stations. Either way, the pair remained unseen, even as Ouranic Dominion marshaled the air to speed them on their way.
Abyssal Skein is level 118!
Abyssal Skein is level 119!
The Eye led them without fail down twisting steps into the lower levels of the palace, skirting the areas that Felix assumed belonged to the emperor. He had no interest in fighting anyone while he was there. If they could get through without a single death, then all the better.
What if they get in our way?
We don't have time for mercy either, Pit.
The tenku sighed. Right.
Soon enough, they descended into an area that was only barely maintained. Dusted and swept, it lacked the pristine shine of many other parts of the palace—this was not meant for visitors, at least not regularly.
At the end of a short hallway, they found a door.
It was a golden gate etched with obsidian and silver in impressive amounts. It also featured a familiar scene. On either side was carved a rearing beast, one dark and one light. Etrionn and the Tumult. Between them were a series of stars right along the seam of the doors, and right out above it in sigaldry similar to what he found in Etrionn was some sort of label, one he couldn't read. Yet even as he glanced at it, the sword warmed at his hip, and the sigils rearranged themselves into English.
The Elysian Halls.
"Huh, I can read."
"Congrats," Pit whispered.
"Go. We're headed in there."
A few more guards were standing outside the golden gates, but they made not a single peep as the pair of them slipped close.
Quiet Cacophony!
The Skill, used rarely, flowed out from Felix’s palm like a whisper. He’d learned it from defeating a Forge Knight back in the Hoarfrost and his...unique nature ended up twisting what was meant to be a rallying cry into something quite different.
Galeguard (x2) Is Afflicted With Instances Of Disorientation, Disquiet, and Disgust!
Duration: Two Days
The guards staggered, one going so far as to drop their halberd. The other spun toward them, weapon levelled unsteadily at their ally. “Who is that?”
“It’s me, idiot! Can’t you maintain…” He buckled, clutching at his gut. “Gah, it feels like I’m falling apart!”
“Get back!” The suspicious guard stabbed at the other, halberd screeching off of orichalcum armor.
“Don’t touch me with that! You—You’re turning on us? You—” He shook his helmeted head, as if bees were stuck in there. “I heard you! You are going to kill the emperor!”
The man shouted and struck aside the halberd before they both fell in a tangle of limbs.
Neither of them noticed the gate behind them quietly closing shut.
Felix and Pit stood on the other side, wide-eyed.
“They’re stuck like that for two days?”
Felix gave a helpless shrug. “It’s stronger than it looks, I guess?”
Abyssal Skein is level 120!
…
Abyssal Skein is level 124!
Quiet Cacophony is level 35!
…
Quiet Cacophony is level 68!
Journeyman Tier!
You Gain:
+50 WIL
+25 INT
+25 ALA
Felix frowned. That was quite the level jump, yet it had affected the guards so easily. What was going on?
“Uh oh, Felix.” Pit waggled a paw. “Abyssal Skein is gone.”
Stranger still. Felix tried to reapply it, but it refused to manifest beyond his channels. Something was blocking it. Nothing to do about it. Just use our bond instead of talking.
Luckily, there was no one in the Elysian Halls. And, in fact, judging by the dust that coated the ground, no one ever walked into this place.
A notification trilled before him.
Authority Map Updated!
Felix’s frown smoothed into a delighted smile as he opened his Authority Screen. "It seems my Authority over Etrionn gives me some perks." He turned the screen towards Pit, showing him a complete map of the Elysian Halls. "Let's get going, dude."
Unlike Etrionn's corpse, this was not a maze of misleading hallways. It was all controlled. A number of sigils were marked into the walls, creating a strange array Felix couldn't quite parse but was decidedly not Nymean in origin. It was piecemeal, clearly a working that stretched over the entire Hall, and no one section of it gave Felix any real clue as to its purpose. Without the map, they would have still had a rough time—the place wasn’t magically switching around, but it was huge and warren-like. Not to mention, the Eye continuously pointed in straight lines, now that they were so close. They would’ve been forced to wander the hallways if they’d only had the golden thread to follow.
The map and thread together led them down hallways, through corridors, and into chambers too vast to be contained within a single enormous skull. It was clear this place also used Domains in a similar fashion as Etrionn. It was Nymean technology, one that, based on the structures across the city, this empire had not managed to replicate. There were many named rooms on the map, though when he visited them, they contained nothing. A Skills Library was noted, but much to Felix's dismay, it was entirely empty. And there was no evidence of a Core Manifestation Record Room at all.
It made sense. This empire had been in control of the Elysian Halls for potential Ages—they would have stripped it of anything of worth long ago.
To that end, a few of the rooms seemed to be altered, with modern furniture placed among antiquated architecture. Felix wondered about that—there were no footsteps in the dust, save theirs. Then he remembered all of the flying. If people were hovering around all the time, then it made sense that they would move through here without a trace. Which meant that people could be in the Halls, and Felix wouldn’t know.
He glanced back and noted the very wide and sloppy trail they were leaving before shrugging. Nothing to do about it now except go forward.
He did speed up a little, though.
Interestingly, the murals on the walls were left intact. Preserved, in fact. He saw them throughout the hallways and chambers. Always a similar story, though every place was different. The story was of threats approaching a gleaming golden city.
No, not gold, but Crescian Bronze.
Etrionn walked the world in these murals. As these threats attacked it from below and above, bringing fire and death upon the growth and peace it trailed in its wake, the Walking City seemed unconcerned in every single instance. It was never harmed.
The Obsidian Tumult was always there.
It rose out of the terrain again and again, bursting mountains and sundering fields as it attacked armies and monstrous foes alike, tearing them apart with tooth and claw. It was joined in later murals by sleek Manaships and flying figures clad in robes and armor.
"Elysians," Paxus said. The man had been quiet most of their journey, his small body merely spinning about as he took in it all. "The elite of our people, those who fought beside the Herald herself."
Felix trailed his hands on the murals, running them across Etrionn and the Tumult. Something about the obsidian thing was arresting. It was like a dark reflection of Etrionn. A violent appendage, but an ally. The Tumult was a creature that bore violence so others wouldn't have to—to kill and lose in place of everyone else.
Perhaps that was why Felix had been hearing powerful Threnodies of War throughout the corpse. They plucked at his attention, barely audible to his Affinity unless he concentrated. They rolled through his veins, increasing his heart rate.
Felix left the murals behind. Following the Eye's golden thread, they eventually found the bottom of the skull. More than a few times, they had heard the faint whirl of distant wind, but they saw no one on their entire journey.
The Eye pulsed, indicating that his destination was close as Felix stepped off the stairwell. He turned a corner and nearly cursed as he ducked back.
"What is it?" Pit asked.
Felix flared his Perception. Around the corner, the golden thread continued on, going past gold and obsidian doors…where two guardians stood. Men, from what Felix could tell, bound in orichalcum armor, and each wielding a sword that was almost a foot wide and six feet long, also made of orichalcum. They gleamed with power, power that Felix didn't need Unseen Beholder to identify.
"Two Paragons.” Felix licked his lips, but he couldn’t help but smile. “I don’t think tricks are gonna work here. It's about time we test out how much we've grown, Pit."
The tenku grinned. "Finally."
As one, they stepped out into the open.
