The seven claws of his Skill faltered, the threads of power nearly slipping from his grasp as Fiendforge failed. Felix diverted himself away from the agony of his wounds and the pressure of his regeneration, focusing all of his attention and Will upon the unique Skill. Fiendforge reignited, the pattern humming through a skipping Dissonance as visions exploded through his Mind.
He saw Atar standing amidst an inferno that sputtered while Alister struggled beneath spinning gears of copper and blue force. Harn was hammering away at an enormous suit of armor that creaked alarmingly above, and Archie staggered beneath the ringing bells of his tower. Evie was likewise heaving frozen chains atop her back, her skin rimed with ice. Beef strained his furry biceps, entropy pouring between his hands to clad scuttling legs with chitinous barbs, while Vess plied the winds beneath fog-drenched mountains as dawn's light sprang between her fists.
The Skill sang on, steady and sustained. Felix jolted back to awareness of himself, Fiendforge held tightly in his grasp and the gods on his tail. He juked to the side, lightning coursing between his arms as a five-foot-wide paw slashed at him.
Pity. He’s Awake, Yyero purred, his thick voice bubbling in his throat. He put his paw to his lion’s mouth, licking up the dark red blood that flecked it. I Was Just Getting A Taste For Unbound Flesh.
Felix bared his teeth. Below, there was furious fighting amongst the battlements where shadowbeasts and Horrors had climbed atop the Fiendstone walls. The Legion lashed out their powers, exploding in elemental confluxes amongst the horde. Stormlances, earth-shaking stomps, iron-knuckle blows, even the whirling dance of blades as all four Legions worked as one, slaughtering the enemy where they stood. Elowen flew among them, her own powers wielded with exacting precision and blasting holes in the enemy forces.
They were holding for now.
Avet Was Right! Yyero roared. The Bastard.
Felix swiveled toward the god. "What are you talking about?”
You Disgusting Ants. You Walk The Broken Path! And They, Against All Reason, Rise With You!
Noctis’ shadow swelled, followed closely by Yyero's Blightweave. Endless waves of shadowbeasts and Fungal Horrors arose from the lands outside his walls. The Legion met them, clashing in bursts of brilliant illumination as Skill met monster. Yet wherever the creatures died on the battlements, more erupted amidst his Legion, slamming back the brave defenders as they fought valiantly to defend the city.
"They breached the walls!" The cry was taken up as bells began to ring amongst the towers of Elderthrone.
They Breached The Walls, mocked Yyero. They Will All Die Because Of You, Nevarre.
Yyero slammed into Felix, checking him with a shoulder even as Felix snapped the Lion’s wing. It didn’t stop the god, however, as fungus grew over the bone, snapping it back into place. Yyero and Noctis surrounded him, flaying his flesh with shadow and decary despite his maneuvers out of their reach. They were always there, pressing him into each other's attacks.
Felix regenerated from the wounds they inflicted, but they were accumulating faster than he could recover. His Body strained, joints aching as he turned on tethers of brilliant lightning. He shook as he fought, Fiendforge and Sovereign of Flesh howling through his channels.
They Will Die Because Of You, Yyero snarled. Because You Dared To Think That You Could Lead Them!
"Invaders of this place!" cried a voice.
Felix's attention pivoted even as he blocked another slashing blow of Noctis' twisted ape. Paxus had appeared at the base of Atlantes, gleaming with a deep blue light as his voice boomed outward. "You are not allowed here! You shall be cleansed!"
“Spirit Cleanse” Paxus called out, and a pulse rippled throughout the city. “Clad The Dead!” S~eaʀᴄh the Nôvel(F)ire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
All at once, the Spirit Tree gleamed with power. A swell of peace settled onto Felix, calming his nerves and filling him with a sudden soothing assurance that victory could still be grasped. Atlantes' Spirit Cleanse aura shot outward, rippling against the horde and the gods themselves, tearing away a piece of their power but nowhere near all of it.
The ground throughout Elderthrone burst, filling with spiraling roots that pierced through the chests of shadowbeasts and Fungal Horrors alike. The branches above twisted, slapping the flying beasts from the sky. Ichor rained down upon Elderthrone, more dense than the acid that tried and failed to burn its leaves away.
Those roots that speared through the horde also burst in other places, creating cages of dark brown roots that burst from beneath the horde, trapping dozens of them in a constricting cage before they withered, drained dry by the Spirit Tree. Desiccated, they turned to dust, and the Atlantes gleamed with stolen power.
All around the city, the Legion rallied, their Skills called out into the storm-dark. Shadows and Horrors fell back as Paxus strode out from the trunk of the Atlantes. He lifted his hands, and a blue-green light burst from him, radiating through the trunk of the Spirit Tree itself. His voice echoed in the air, heard from miles away.
"Fly, Children of the Grim Nightshade!"
Specks flew from the branches, swooping down from above on wings as varied as the colors of their scales. The Hatchlings flew unaccompanied by Yintarian or Vess.
And they were glowing.
Pit!
“Let Roar The Beast!” Pit shrieked, his voice rising as he took up the lead ahead of the Hatchlings. The shadowbeasts fell back from the bus-sized tenku, dazed by his cry, but it was clear that the Horrors did not feel fear. Pit dove down, Hatchlings following behind. "Nimbus of the Moon!"
Beams of silvered moonlight tore through the storm clouds, obliterating the enemy wherever they struck. Direct hits burned them to ash and wreathed the rest in bright moonlight. The shadows faltered, the monstrosities moving far slower, allowing the Legion's weapons to cut into their hides. Pit swooped low, Hatchlings following, releasing their breath weapon like streamers of molten light. Soon they were smeared into puddles of boiling ichor.
Felix laughed, his skin re-knitting. "You can't stop us like this!" He ripped through with a roar, his claws tearing through Noctis' Vessel and jamming his thumbs into Yyero's eyes. "Not here!"
He tore outward, and the Rotted Lion screamed as it was blinded.
Umbral Sculpting! Noctis bellowed, seizing the dark as she shaped more beasts from her power. The act, however, was more than her Vessel could stand, and it shredded itself to pieces.
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Bloody shadow rippled the air, and Noctis leaped away.
She reappeared as a ripple of crimson shadows, engulfing a hulking bird that flew by, a shadow bird with the face of a humanoid woman. A face that collapsed the moment she embodied it.
You Are Strong, Child, she said. But Are You Strong Enough? Umbral Sculpting!
A swarm of shadowbeasts surged up toward Pit and the little Dragons, claws outstretched and fangs bared.
Carrion Nova! Yyero roared, and a blast of decaying energy ripped downward.
Sonata of Dominance.
He reached out, his Will hardening, vibrating along the shape of the air as he hardened it into a shield. The entropic energy ripped across it, splintering the air as it was diverted sideways and away from the flock.
It did nothing, however, to stop the shadowbeasts flying up at them.
Felix kicked away from Yyero and once again shaped the air, this time setting it to burning in a grid of light just below the Hatchlings. The shadowbeasts hurtled through it and were sliced into pieces as their foul flesh sizzled.
Sonata of Dominance is level 131!
Impressive. Truly, You Are Strong. Noctis reached up and crimson lightning speared down into her clawed hand, forming into an almost solid pillar of bloody light. From the dark clouds above, creatures spawned, forming into huge, undulating serpents riddled with spikes and barbs along their cratered flesh. They opened jaws the size of buildings and screamed above the acid storm.
But The Gods Are Beyond Strength.
Sonata of Dominance!
He flared the light, bursting it within the shadow and forcing one of the immense worms askew. They crashed into the cliffs just outside his stronghold, raining rock upon the district below. The rest, however, were barely phased.
The Wellspring had taught him much. He needed to face them with their own might. Felix folded his power toward shadow.
Title: The Call of Defiance Is Active!
+25% Willpower When Contested By A Foe Of Divine Or
Greater Advancement!
His Will and Intent slammed against Noctis's own, shadow against shadow. For a single, beautiful moment, he overpowered her—and in that moment, Felix split the worms around him in half. They burst, dropping hot ichor down upon his city.
Carrion Nova!
The blast of rot hit him again, catching his legs and feet, fouling his concentration. His shaping sputtered out.
Reign of Vellus!
Crimson lightning blasted down, striking Felix in the chest and hurtling him to the ground. He cratered a market square far below, but the dust had not even begun to rise before a second bolt struck him. Then a third, until it was joined by a dozen more, until a solid pillar of electricity connected Elderthrone and the blackened clouds above.
You! Rejected! This! The broken goddess screamed against his Mind. NOW! TAKE IT! ALL!
The earth was destroyed, streets torn asunder and buildings crumbling beneath the kinetic force and unrelenting heat. Felix, at its center, put his arms up against the power. He shoved against it, the earth breaking beneath him, trying and failing to seize the lightning away from Vellus herself.
A roar filled his ears, a screaming that resonated from all across his city. His Perception flared, and he witnessed the Legion falling back as shadowbeasts overwhelmed them and Fungal Horrors leaped the walls. He saw the Hatchlings breathing out their magic, but Horrors leapt atop them too, dragging them to the earth. They fought furiously, Fafnir leading among them as she ripped them apart.
You will fail, Nevarre! Noctis told him, beyond hearing. Her sibilant words slid between the thunderous waves of crimson. If Not Here, Then Upon The Fields Of Amarath!
Felix raged.
Adamant Discord!
Blue lightning met crimson, blasting it upward as he struggled from his back onto his knees. "You will not stop me here!"
He rose up, planting a single foot beneath himself. The earth splintered, cracks running deeper into the collapsed street, but it held. Felix shoved upward, blue shoving away red.
Shadowflay!
Tendrils of shadow ripped against him from the side, slicing open his withered legs, splitting tendon and muscle down to the bone. Yyero landed beside Felix with a crash, and the Rotted Lion with eyes weeping bloody fungus grinned a savage grin.
Carrion Nova.
Felix's back exploded, scales torn free and his spine twisted. Blood splattered the shattered cobbles.
The lightning went out. The night went dark.
You Cannot Save These Mortal Wretches, Yyero hissed through bared fangs. Not Your Legion Nor Your Pet. Not Even The Strangers Of Your False Empire. And Why Would You Want To?
He stalked around Felix’s prone form, footfalls squelching. Why Expend Yourself For These Worthless, Impermanent Creatures? You Are Mighty, Felix Nevarre. There Is No Denying That. Why Else Would We Challenge You So? Yyero chuckled. Like Calls To Like.
Felix wheezed breaths through broken teeth and split lips. He could barely see, and his limbs refused to move. Sovereign of Flesh sang in him, but there was too much to fix all at once. Essence burned through him in great swathes, and it was excruciating beyond measure.
We Recognize A Threat When We See It. Congratulations, Yyero purred. In Another Time, You Could Have Been An Equal—Were You Not So…Flawed.
Screams echoed across the city, but to Felix they were felt rather than heard. His Spirit shook, those blue lines vibrating across his slowly repairing vision. Pain and fear filted across those connections—too much to bear.
You Devote Yourself To These Pathetic Beings…To A False Empire Of Glass And Sand, Liable To Shatter Beneath The Slightest Blow And Crumble At The Weakest Breeze.
You Are A Fool.
Yyero's claw slammed into Felix’s back, crushing him to the earth. He gasped, his vision going fully white as things popped and snapped that he’d never felt before.
Fiendforge shook.
Fire, light, mechanical structures, all of them trembled across his Links. He could no longer see his city—yet the peril of his friends filled his senses like water in a cup. Their Pillars wobbled and panic shouts ripped through his Spirit, as pain and uncertainty wafted in both directions.
I have you, he promised, holding tight with whatever Will and Intent he could muster. Sovereign of Flesh roared within him, a crescendo to answer his resolve. Finish the weaving. I have you!
Let It Go, Yyero whispered in Felix’s ear. Let Them Fall.
No!
With a flare of Strength, Felix heaved his broken Body upward, though his vision was clouded by blinding pain and foul rot. The Rotted Lion was thrown back, and Felix sprang to his feet as he reached for Inheritor's Will.
The gods were faster.
Yyero seized Felix in his jaws, snagging his right arm before it could pull the sword free from his waist. Teeth crunched, and Felix screamed.
Let It Go, the Lion commanded again. LET. THEM. FALL.
“I rise with them!” Felix shoved his talons into Yyero's snout and ripping upward, shattering teeth and tearing open the monster's jaw. He lurched away, Sovereign of Flesh singing in his veins. “And you will not stop me—”
Blackened green energy flowed up from around the city, pulled into the Rotted Lion like blood into a heart. Yyero’s jaw healed itself, bone and sinew crawling like maggots across his shattered visage.
We Do Not Need To Stop YOU.
Noctis’ razor-sharp tendrils hit him, splitting open his chest. Felix screamed—and Pit screeched, an echo of his pain half a city away. Fiendforge tumbled out of his reach.
The goddess laughed. I See Them, Brother! The Bonds Of Fellowship!
Shadows flowed from her in a tide and bloody lightning rode its edge like seafoam.
Let Us Sever Them.