Chapter One Thousand And Thirty Six – 1036 |
When the light cleared, Felix found himself in…a corridor.
How novel. Felix stood up from the crouch he’d landed in. Wait.
It was constructed like any Nymean hallway, with hexagonal columns, alcoves, and statues like all the rest. It was all very normal, at least so long as he looked at eye level. Above that, things got weird. Everything was oddly shaped, as if the whole structure had been seized by a great hand before it was stretched upward like taffy. The statues were twisted and unrecognizable in their deformities, and the tops of the columns bent toward a ceiling that never quite peaked. Instead, it vanished into a textureless blue-white light.
Light flashed, and Pit took his place beside him. He stretched all four of his wings. “Freaky. But spacious.”
Felix hummed in agreement, eyes never stopping as he took in the details. "This reminds me of the Omen Path a little bit.”
"Then it sounds like we're in the right place.”
"I guess."
The two of them stepped forward at a steady pace, not fearful, but more than a little cautious. Felix’s experience in the Omen Path was intense to say the least. He imagined this place would be a step above.
He adjusted the Crucible around his waist, eager to find out.
Be Welcome, Felix Nevarre.
The voice echoed with thunder, and lightning chased down the columns before dissipating at the floor. A figure appeared at the very center of the circular chamber where the concentric rings gave way to an eight-pointed star. They looked a great deal like Castarius, the Primordial Urge of Starlight’s Fall, only far less feral. Long limbs and sharp, angular features dominated their immense, willowy frame, and big eyes sat above cheekbones that could cut glass.
We Have Been Waiting For You.
Felix stopped walking, setting his feet decisively. Pit did the same, but his body moved just slightly ahead. Ever the guard.
His Companion’s ears twitched happily.
“Who are you?” Felix asked.
I Am A Projected Manifestation Of An Authority Node Into The System.
"I'm talking to the System right now?"
You Seem Surprised. This Is Not Our First Time Communicating.
That was true. Felix could easily recall the last time he stood in an Omen Path and had demanded answers from the System.
"Karys, you hearing this? Karys?" Felix looked at his hip, but his sword was silent. "Paxus?"
Pit shrugged. The plant hung from Pit’s saddlebag, but it wasn’t even glowing. The pair of them were alone.
Apologies, Ascendent. Only Those Who Physically Access The Node May Take Part. The System apparition shrugged, but the gesture was stiff, as if they were unused to dealing with people. Such Is The Nature Of This Place.
“There’s an Authority node physically located in the Obsidian Tumult? How does that work?”
No. The Tumult Was Merely An Access Point For You, Ascendent. The System Is Not Tied There, Nor Anywhere. The Node Merely Bound Itself To A Place That Represented Who You Are Becoming.
Felix frowned. "The Tumult was a monster."
Some Might Call It A Protector.
Felix’s Mind flashed to all the images he’d seen. Mural after mural of the same story. “Etrionn’s protector…”
Just So. The Twin Of Etrionn, The Tumult Fought That Which Threatened Its Kin In Order To Allow The Walking City To Fulfill Its Own Potential.
Felix could see the parallels there in his own life. He didn't particularly like them.
"I bear this," he said, tapping the sword at his waist, "the Crown, and the Chalice. I have the Authority of the Herald of Elysium. Why not tie this experience there in Etrionn? Why bring me here?"
The Empyrean Halls Are On Etrionn. They Were Built Within The Striding Blessing To Honor The Lost Mentors Of The Nym, Ones That Sought Creation Above All Else. The apparition gestured around them. The Elysian Halls Are Here, Within The Tumult. They Were A Creation Of The Nym For The Nym. It Was Here That Authority Was Bent Toward War.
The Eye Saw That You Are Not A Man Of Peace, No Matter How Much You Desire It. The Aria Sings Within You, Felix Nevarre, But It Is The Threnodies Of War That Command Your Attention.
Felix supposed he couldn't argue that. His own history gave more than ample evidence, but he wasn't there for a personality test. "Where's the Exalted Bell? It's supposed to be here."
The System pursed their lips, looking off into the distance. Can I? No, I Suppose Not. They refocused on him. You Have Been Allowed Enough. Is That Your First Question?
Felix could hear the Intent baked into the last two words. There was a weight to them. "How many do I get?"
This Node May Only Support Three.
"Three? That's bullshit," Pit complained.
"Language, bud. But I agree.”
Such Are The Limits Of This Place. Of The Laws Themselves. They Bind Us As Surely As Gravity Holds You To The Earth. Three Questions Remain. Ask them, And Your Time In The Tumult Will Be Concluded.
Somehow, Felix doubted it would be that easy. "What are the guidelines? And that doesn't count."
The System projection smiled. It Does Not. You May Ask About Anything. I Will Answer To The Best Of My Ability.
Translation: he better make his questions count and not ask something too easily explained. "Anything," he muttered, thinking hard already. He had a few questions on deck, but which one was most important?
Ask about the Ruin, Pit sent to him through their Bond. How do we kill it? No, how do we become a supergod? No wait, how about—
I've got it.
Felix took a breath. He needed confirmation. This, if answered right, would lead him in the direction he needed to go. "Why did the gods claim their Divinity?"
The System smiled. Why. A Fascinating Choice. Stand Fast, Felix Nevarre, And Bear Witness.
The world shattered and reformed.
Felix wobbled, his balance upset for a single instant, before his feet trod on solid surfaces. Before him, laid out thousands of feet below, was a land wrought in turmoil.
You Stand Above What Mortals Call The First Age.
Beneath them, the landscape shifted and churned as elemental powers burst and broke in tempestuous swellings. It was pure chaos, as if the planet had rioted against itself. Forests lifted from the earth and crashed into mountains, while seas of bitter liquid crashed against the steaming geysers of unrelenting magma.
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Felix took it all in, absorbing each piece to his impressive memory, and immediately spotted incongruous detail. He frowned. Some parts of the world appeared to glitch and fizz, their features uncertain, as if they couldn't quite be rendered.
You Are Correct. The System responded, though he never spoke his thoughts aloud. What You See Has Been Reconstructed By The Memories Obtained By The System In Days Long Since Gone.
“They’re flawed, then?”
Those Lands Are Beyond Our Focus. Your Question Lay Here. Follow And Behold The Truth.
The world blurred, and Felix found himself standing inside an encampment. Beautiful stone structures rose up all around him, well-crafted and even modern by Continental standards. Glass sat in window casements, and lights lit the streets, though they were braziers of burning flame instead of magic.
The Gods Were The Children Of Slaves.
Figures in simple rags stumbled through the streets around him, trudging into buildings that he could only assume were workhouses of some sort, even spreading out into farmlands that stretched on forever. The chaos that afflicted the rest of the world in the First Age seemed to be tamed here. Perhaps it was by the tall stone walls that gleamed with inset patterns of dark metal and the telltale wisps of Mana.
Their Slavers Were Ancient Creatures Whose Names Have Been Lost To The Ages. In A Tale As Old As The Realms Themselves, They Bent The Weak Into Service For Their Benefit.
Wide creatures with multiple limbs stood over the slaves, many of them bearing weapons that glittered with deadly promise around their varied wrists. Slaves toiled ceaselessly as time seemed to speed by in a blur, dead by exhaustion or else killed on a whim by the strange creatures.
Many Perished. The Numbers Are Unknown, But Always They Were Replaced. Brought From Distant Lands To Serve.
Felix pinned the slavers with his sight, flaring Unseen Beholder, but it didn't work. Their foggy, unsure forms gave no resistance at all, but the Skill still brought back nothing.
"These all look like Humans.”
The System didn’t acknowledge him. Brought From The Very Edges Of The Grand Harmony, Their Slaves Arrive In Batches Of Nine. Always Nine To Replace The Old, The Infirm, And The Dead.
“The edges of Harmony…nine at a time…?” Felix swallowed, his Mind connecting the dots before his mouth could figure the right words. “No way.”
Thousands spread out around him in that field, from young children to white-haired grandmothers. All of them…were Unbound?
Enslaved For Their Aptitude For Physical Labor And Survival Amongst The Harsh First Age, Their Lineage Was Strong, And In Their Offspring, That Strength Compounded.
This Was One Of The Creature’s Many Mistakes.
All around him, the vision flashed. The fields caught flame, and the fine city behind him turned into a pillar of smoke.
They Killed The Creatures And Paid The Cost In Blood. All But A Handful Were Eradicated.
Nine shadows strode from the flames, hunched and bleeding. Broken, but free.
They Were Free, But They Were Not Safe. The World Of The First Age Was Far Crueler Outside The Creatures’ Protections. The Wild Threnodies Sang Louder Than The Aria In Those Ancient Days.
Molded By Their Choices, These Nine Rose To Savage Power. They Fought Elementals, The First Lords Of The Corporeal Realm, Establishing Territories Of Their Own And Forcing Their Defeated Foes To Submit To Their Growing Authority. Even The Primordial’s Kin Were Broken By The Nine, Shredded And Used To Advance Themselves Ever Further.
With Every Conquest, Their Power Strengthened, Until Their Individual Authority Hung Like An Iron Hand Upon The Scales Of Balance.
Images of war flickered past Felix’s gaze. Titanic battles moved in ways he could never imagine. Power was used, Mana spent, but it flowed in strange patterns he couldn’t recognize. The silhouetted forms of the nine survivors grew more complex as their strength accumulated, but always their power was strange.
The fights ended, leaving Felix standing within a dark expanse. It wasn’t the Void, but it had a touch of its influence. He could see structures around him, but they were all vague, mere outlines and suggestions.
Eventually, Across Slow Millennia And By Unknown Methods, The Nine Fought And Killed Their First Cardinal.
The dark vanished as something vital was pulled out of the world around him. Felix pressed a hand to his chest, a pressure tapping against his heart.
Aatansii, Supreme Primordial Of Rot, Cardinal Of Inevitable Decay Fell.
Something vast moved past Felix. A presence similar to one he’d experienced only a few times before, but amplified beyond imagining. Eyes sprouted from the darkness, but they did not see. They couldn’t, for they were already gray with death.
Larger than reason could imagine, the thing broke apart, torn into by a flurry of scavengers. The nine dug through its flesh, discarding almost everything in their haste, until they reached a star that burned at the Primordial’s center.
They sheared it into pieces.
With Its Power Split Amongst Them, The Nine Grew Ever Greater. Even Segmented Into Nine Equal Parts, The Core Of A Cardinal Beast Pushed All Of Them Into A Place Beyond Mortality. They Became Half-Divine, Above All Else On The Continent.
Yet That Was Not Enough.
For They Still Stood Far Below The Cardinals Themselves.
Beyond Strength. Beyond Mortality. Beyond All Things But Power Itself. The Cardinals Cannot Die…And Yet They Did.
Empowered By Their Cardinal Sin, The Nine Slaughtered Orrinahla Next. A Pair With Aatansii, Deeper Than Kindred, The Supreme Primordial Of Growth and Cardinal Of Renewal’s Rise Could Not Contend With The Power Of Decay.
Kohsara Fell Next. Torn From Their Throne, The Supreme Primordial Of Storms Put The Nine Through A Great War For Their Trespasses. They Nearly Died, But In The End, The Cardinal Of The Living Spark Was Riven From The Realms.
Last Of All Was Veridaan. The Supreme Primordial Of Oaths. The Cardinal Of The Unseen Tides.
Felix turned around, still surrounded by the dark. “How did these fights go down? Why can’t you show me?”
The Battles Were Not Seen. Only The Outcomes Are Known. The Memories…Are Lost To The System.
The Last Cardinal Fled And Was Harried By The Nine Until They, Too, Vanished Entirely.
Felix touched just below his sternum. Not entirely.
As if conjured by his thoughts, a new Memory filled the darkness. It was wavering and unsure at the edges, but it firmed around him until Felix was plunged into a deep, endless ocean. He flailed, treading water as a vast monstrosity sped toward him.
He knew this place.
Siva, twisted into a winged shape he found upsettingly familiar, struck a dire blow against the monstrosity. Veridaan. Pieces of the Cardinal split off as a rift opened up, and they fled from the goddess.
Your Memory Is Noted, Felix Nevarre. It Will Be Saved.
The water vanished, and he stood among the mountains. Below him, monsters raged across a valley.
Unable To Claim Veridaan’s Core, Her Presence Spread Amongst The Lesser Primordials And Their Spawn. They Fought Against The Nine, And It Was A Threat They Could Not Allow.
The Flesh Curse Was Their Response.
Twisting Their Forms Beyond Cooperation, Everything That Bore A Primordial’s Touch Was Driven To Madness. It Forced Them Against All Others, Flogged Onward By Their Eternal Hunger. A New War Emerged, One That Distracted All The Realms From The Nine’s Ascension.
Alone And Uncontested, The Nine Crowned Themselves Divinities.
Felix frowned, counting on his fingers. Vellus, Noctis, Siva, Yyero, the Twins, the Pathless, and Avet. There were only eight gods.
Who was the ninth?
At some point, the mountains had vanished. Felix once again stood high up in the air, as if suspended from an airplane. The landscape was calmer now, more settled. In several places, he spotted towns and cities surrounded by the gleam of wards.
Far more concerning, however, were the silhouettes at his side. He stepped back, trying to make out their blurred forms as he counted them again. Slowly, as if swimming through a thick haze, they came into focus.
Vellus, with her blue lightning scars across her arms, leaned over the railing of this ancient, strange balcony. Noctis, a stout woman without a face, hung close, her hand wrapped possessively around Vellus' waist. Yyero was a willowy figure, all but oozing an air of foul rot like a cloak, and he sneered at what could only be Avet. The god of chaos was in the flesh for once and looked far more powerful, though his smirking grin was still clad in gold. The Twins stood apart, covered in metal armor that fit their joined bodies like a glove.
Siva leaned close, whispering something to Avet that made him laugh. She lacked the orb of gold in her chest, but she still wore a silver gown and the wings of a Sylphaen. Her wings, too, were familiar, as instead of feathers, they looked like pale hands wrapped around themselves in grisly patterns. The Pathless was there, glowing with golden light, just enough to obscure his features.
Wait. I’m not—I’m missing something…
His Perception twinged, and Felix tilted his head. Out of the corner of his eye, a hazy figure stood braced against the railing. Taller than the Twins and broader than the Pathless, they were a mountain of a being too big to be easily missed.
Felix stepped closer, blinking the haze from his eyes. Unseen Beholder!
His gut lurched, as if he'd stepped off a staircase thinking there was another step. Same as before, the System gave him nothing.
The blur turned. It said something.
What? Preposterous! Yyero turned, and his putrid eyes widened. You! How Have You Come Here?
The god slithered forward, and a blast of power knocked Felix down. His flesh burned, coiling with rot that cut off the screams that tried to climb out of his throat. Too soon, Vellus was on him. Her scarred fists struck him as lightning burned into his face and chest.
Felix rolled away, barely evading the axe of metallic blue that cut into the stone platform. The Twins frowned, their dual regard as intense as a stalking tiger.
“System!” Felix called. “Get me outta here!”
Avet rushed forward, his features twisted into a savage snarl as he seized Felix by the throat. Yet he stopped a moment later, confusion collapsing his expression. This Man—He’s Both Primordial And Mortal.
Impossible! Yyero cried. A Trick Of The Enemy! A Twist Of Our Curse!
No. Avet stopped fighting. He backed away. I Know Him.
The god blinked, his eyes seeming to clear of a haze of his own. Felix?
Without warning, Avet was hurled aside by the shoulder of a blurry monstrosity. The wide figure flickered, his features swimming into view. It Doesn’t Matter Who He Is. He Stands Where No Others Are Allowed. That Means He’s A Threat. A massive, muscular man with bright red hair and a dark gaze loomed over Felix. That Means He's Dead.
With a single strike, too fast to track, it all went dark.
