Unbound

The Theron's body ignited as crystalline Mana poured out of her Gates, congealing above her into the shape of a massive book. Easily the size of a car, it was made of translucent purple and gold light. The pages within gleamed with an oppressive power that rammed down at him, splintering the stone beneath Felix's feet.

“Order Departs.”

Her Spirit flared, smashing at his grip on Adamant Discord. His handle on the connections loosened, and her power sent him flying back, off the ledge, and into the building beyond. He cratered the side of it.

“You cannot win,” she said, her voice a stentorian roar above her book’s power.

Felix shoved out of the cratered building, raining rubble off the side before he pushed to his feet once again. He looked back up at Elowen. The book above her had opened now, and the golden pages whirled as they spun. Her eyes blazed silver, and her antlers tangled with the same purple and gold light, as if she bore a halo—a halo that intersected with her Core Manifestation.

"The Tome of the Witness is the culmination of my power," Elowen said. “A record of all things yet to come. A glimpse into Fate itself.”

You Cannot Win, Nevarre. None Can Evade Fate.

Elowen thrust her hands to either side, and two smaller outbuildings were immediately and absolutely crushed beneath the force of her power. "Chaos Beckons. Hewn Trident."

People in the distance screamed, several falling from the rubble as their top halves were lifted into the air. Purple-gold light clung to the stone as it compacted, crunching into hardened tridents before they were layered over with crystalline Mana.

The tridents hurled at him, and Felix kicked off the roof, destroying it beneath him and propelling himself at Elowen with all the speed he could muster.

"Fate is for liars and idiots!" Mid-leap, he caught one of the tridents, only to spin and use it to shatter another.

Stride of the King is level 103!

Skein of Fate!

He reached out with his Will, grasping at the silver that draped across the Unbound and tore at it with all of his strength—and nothing happened.

A trident took him in the side, bashing him sideways into a nearby roof. He plowed through tiled shingles and snapped a weathervane before he fetched up against a minor spire. It groaned, pieces of its base pulverized into stone dust.

“Gah!” He pulled the trident from his side with a groan of pain, and blood followed. His Health had dropped—not by much, and it was already recovering, but he wasn’t impervious to the Theron’s attacks. And somehow, my Skill was blocked…just like with the mages, but worse.

Was it Siva’s influence? Or something else?

Foolish Unbound. Elowen appeared above him, still swirling with power, the book now open to a different page. You Will Fall.

The mages came at them with a fury that surprised Alister. Jaws of shadow and discs of molten light shot at them, battering down every barrier he could muster. Alister erected them in layers, spending his Mana wildly to keep the mages at bay and only affording a few offensive shots of his Grand Impetus or Pillars of the Domineering Sentinel.

His shields of force Mana could do nothing, however, for curses. Hexes slammed into them both, spoiling Alister's offensive Pillars and Atar's aim with his Sovereign Stars, sending them careening wildly into the bookshelves.

"Not the books!” Atar growled.

they will not burn!

Like a strange reversed cyclone, the fire and heat Mana of the white stars was pulled back into Atar's extended limbs. Not a single page was scorched.

eugh! recycled power tastes foul! give me greater fuel, and witness wonders, atar!

Twenty mages fought against them, and several floated from above as if held aloft by an invisible hand. Their Skills flared, but a wave of water swept into their ranks, knocking a few back into the shelving with crushing force.

Zara stepped forward, robes snapping in a gale formed of Mana vapor that spiraled around her. Her ochre skin shone slick with water, and her blue-green hair whipped about as if trapped in a gale. Aquamarine Mana pooled at her sides, becoming orbs of unfathomable depth. The mages screamed wordlessly and charged, their necks bulging with veins.

a strange power is flooding their core spaces. i can taste it. it burns without heat or flame, but it is not of my dominion.

One of the mages shouted, calling down a boulder-sized shard of ice before slamming it toward them.

"Greater Force Shielding!”

Alister's hands wove quickly, his Mana forming into three shields of force. Most of the ice hit and was deflected, until a hefty chunk impacted it directly. Shield after shield shattered beneath its weight and momentum, hurling Alister and Atar to the ground.

Greater Force Shielding is level 87!

“Guh!” Alister coughed, the taste of blood on his tongue.

they're getting stronger!

“Incendiary Vortex!” Atar screamed, and fire burst around them in a ring before sweeping outward, engulfing the mages in a cyclone of heat and flame.

It did nothing to stop the onslaught against them. More jaws of shadow, shards of ice, and discs of light came for them, undaunted by his vortex and unhampered by shields—until they were all caught up in an orb of water.

Every Skill vanished into its confines with barely a ripple…before it compacted, crushing them into nothing.

"Not strong enough,” Zara announced, turning her bright blue eyes on their enemy. “Stand, my friends. Felix has the Unbound.”

Power bloomed from her fists, looping into potent streamers. “We shall handle the rest.”

Elowen advanced on him again, moving now with a surety Felix could not quite place.

He leaped into her guard, slashing at her with his Inheritor's Will, only to miss by the barest of margins. The very wind of his weapon’s passage tore furrows into her robes, but she remained unharmed, even as he struck again. Elowen kicked out with a powerful leg, catching Felix on the inside of his knee with her sharp hoof. It hurt like hell, and if he were standing on real ground, it may have dropped him.

It was a good thing he wasn't.

Adamant Discord!

Lightning burst in his wake as he struck again and again, moving through Owl, Falcon, and even Eagle sword forms against the Theron mage. Every move, every style, she evaded almost perfectly, as if she had studied the blade her entire life…or she knew exactly where not to be.

"You cannot defeat me. I can see what you'll do before you do it," she said. "The weave of Fate is an open book!"

"I don't have to defeat you," Felix said, backing up out of the Theron's reach as she feinted with a kick. He clucked his tongue, disappointed in himself. "I just have to beat the parasite attached to you."

Her eyes burned silver. "You cannot defeat a goddess!”

Felix’s felt his own eyes sear with a brilliant blue. "Watch me."

He drove forward, fighting for all he was worth. Magic spiraled around them, Felix's lightning-coated hands and sword meeting Elowen's telekinetic barrage over and over again as they sped across rooftops and down the sides of outbuildings.

More than anything, Felix fought against himself. He had a way to end the fight, but it was too final—the chance of killing Elowen was too great. She wasn’t lost yet. Siva had her clutches dug deep, but there was a chance he could save her.

He wouldn’t give that up.

I need to sever her Oaths. Felix dodged another projectile. Now.

Skein of Fate!

This time he did not try to slice into the protected threads around the Unbound, but instead expanded his awareness. He took several strikes immediately to the face and chest, but his body was made for it. His Health dropped, and blood tore from the Mana-clad trident Elowen wielded, but he left his movements to his Stride of the King.

He delved deeper, once again making himself aware of the silver cords that filled the entirety of Levantier. Hundreds of thousands of them spun away in complicated spools and strands, gathering like rivers of glittering silver. Many close by wrapped around the tower, stretching between structures as if they were holding them up.

Stride of the King is level 104!

A hoof caught him in the gut, forcing Felix back several steps.

"You are not paying attention," Elowen said, a frown on her face. "Where were you?"

"Oh, you can't see that?"

She ground her teeth and slammed her hands together. The roof beneath him exploded, slamming him within a sandwich of tiles, stone slabs, and wooden beams. Felix grunted as the high-quality materials deformed around him, jamming into his sides with pain but little impact on his health. Still, it trapped him for a moment.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Fuck it. Skein of Fate!

He followed the river of silver up, all the way to the top of the primary tower, where the violet lights shone brightest. There, the threads wound together like a knot the size of a house. Words rose from recent memory, crisp and sharp with Zara's voice.

"They've ancient artifacts designed to act as a proxy for these sort of bindings. It allows a limited type of Oath to be tied to the artifact instead of people."

An artifact. He could break an artifact.

Adamant Discord!

Felix exploded upward, blasting through the debris that trapped him and rocketing into the sky.

"Where are you—? No, you can't!" Wind roared as Elowen followed in hot pursuit, her robe slapping wildly beneath her magic. "Don't touch the Girded Vow! You can't grasp the ramifications of your actions. The end of all things is coming, Felix! Siva is the only chance to stop it!"

This time, it was clear to Felix that it wasn’t the goddess speaking, but Elowen herself. It was also clear that she truly believed it. "I know the Ruin is coming. I'm fighting it, too!" he shouted back as he drew level with the Tower. It gleamed with wards, the sigaldry visible as it shimmered with protections to prevent his entry. He looked between it and the Theron. "Siva is a snake!

“She says the same of you! Prove her wrong. Join me!"

Her words were earnest, and tears filled eyes that were now a boring, muddy brown, without a hint of silver. She was terrified. "I've seen it, Felix. The sky turns to black, and the moons fall from the heavens as the Ruin burns across the whole world. Everything will be gone. I didn't want to believe it. I struggled for months to prove that it was a nightmare that plagued me, but it isn't. It's a true Seeing…but it can be changed. If we unshackle them, they will stride from the skies and shelter us. Help me release the gods, and they can save us all."

Felix stood at the brink, staring Elowen down while holding on to a shred of lightning. He was suddenly tired. "They're liars, man. Every one of them. They don't care about us. The Pathless is the reason the Ruin is coming at all."

"What?" Elowen jerked back. "Impossible.”

“The gods will tell you anything to be free.”

“No–I can't—I won't—" Elowen lifted a hand to her head, shaking it as if her thoughts were burning her. "That isn't right. No!"

Felix had only a second to register the second voice overlapping Elowen's before silver blazed and all six-foot-something of deer mage came crashing into him. He braced, but he didn't expect her to throw him. She spun, hooves hitting the wards of the Tower and flaring them a brilliant orange before she hurled Felix down with all of her might.

Less than a second later, he slammed into the nearest tower a thousand feet away. He crashed into the panels of purple Mana that decorated its sides. The transparent panels sputtered before repairing themselves, and Felix jerked in pain as it yanked Mana straight from his channels. Sigaldry flashed, embedded in the walls as it fed the complicated magic laid within, and he immediately understood. The panels were more than decoration. It was a method for drawing in power, both ambient and from the Vent.

Amateur hour. Empyrean Embrace!

With a burst of luminescent smoke, an entire section of translucent panel exploded and poured into Felix's open maw. Sigaldry sparked out as his stolen Mana and much more returned to him, while his Hunger roared in pleasure.

The Arrogance Of Mortals. It Tastes So Sweet.

Elowen stared at him in shock. “I didn't... I couldn't see that happening. My Core Manifestation has never been wrong before. How did you do that?"

Felix leaned against the wall, his heels hooked onto the sill of a wide window, and he smiled up at her. "Trade secrets, I'm afraid."

"No," Elowen said. "No, that's impossible." She seized the book above her and flipped through its pages. "I merely must look further. Further."

Her Core Manifestation burned in the early morning sky, a second sun of gleaming violet and gold. "Yes!"

She thrust her hand downward, and her Tome bloomed until it was blinding. Debris from thousands of feet around lifted into the air, surrounding the Theron with a halo of crystalline power and jagged shrapnel. “I can See now. Your nature evades my Tome, but it leaves an echo!”

An avalanche of debris erupted from around Elowen, careening toward Felix in a stream so densely packed it was practically solid.

“Don’t trust everything you see!” A burning light of Felix's own poured from his channels, a pair of massive, clawed hands and forearms manifested to either side of him. Purple fists and red-gold spikes met Elowen's attack—and obliterated the projectiles with a single, mighty swipe.

Adamant Discord!

Felix hurled himself into the breach, Core Manifestation swinging. Masonry and metal shrapnel dissolved beneath his might as lightning coursed across bared teeth.

A shield of gold leaped ahead of him, but it could not stop his ascent. Felix shattered it and all the layers beneath as he blurred up and drove his scaled fist into Elowen’s gut. She hurtled backward, but Felix clasped her tight with his summoned arms.

“Release Me!”

They rocketed back, through tower walls and wards of potent magic, shattering them all as his Core Manifestation unleashed its fury. Stone broke, metal shredded, and even Elowen’s Tome of the Witness rang out as it was struck, releasing a steaming cloud of volatile Mana in all directions.

Stride of the King is level 105!

Elowen grabbed at Felix’s face, her fingernails digging into his left eye and cheek. He gripped her neck and drove his fist deeper into her diaphragm, driving breath from her lungs. He reoriented with a flash of lightning, driving them down.

The world became a riot of collapsing structures and flashing wards.

They hit a hard, smooth surface, and Elowen twisted, kicking him off, her hooves catching him in the chest and hurling Felix back dozens of feet. He twisted, landing on his feet before skidding to a stop, right in the center of a familiar room.

Mages surrounded them, staring in shock while wards blazed crimson around sensitive glass-like equipment covered in sigils. He knew the place. He'd been there before in a memory. Felix turned, heart hammering.

It’s right there…

The Chthonic Star.

It was already up and running. The framework above and below spun so fast that the air whined and wavered with heat distortion. In the instants he watched, the star shapes in orichalcum, mithril, and Crescian Bronze blurred into a metallic circle. A blinding light blossomed within.

"Elowen, what is this?"

Tower Master Tiir stood there, only feet away from him, his robes charred and face bloodied. A very surprised Tern was suspended on the wall behind him, bound within a complicated array. The Elf struggled mightily, biting against his gag, but could do little other than wriggle ineffectually.

The Theron mage stood. “He’s another Unbound—and he's against us.”

"Blind gods," the Tower Master swore. "You will not stop us. Not you, nor Tern. This is what must happen, for the good of all!"

Tiir slammed his hand upon one of the glass surfaces, and a cascading array of sigaldry ignited. The Star groaned, and a deep song rose from the depths of the earth, straight into Felix's bones. He felt it, rattling his teeth. The power of it shook him and everyone in the room, but Felix knew it in a way none of the others could have ever. It was tapping into something primal, and all of his instincts screamed at him to run as fast as he could. But he couldn't.

He wouldn't.

Felix tasted Dissonance on the air and something else, a thing he'd felt several times before. The Authority of a Primordial. The Chthonic Star was tapping into it.

"Die!" Tiir bellowed.

A near-invisible beam speared toward Felix, so wide that there was little hope of dodging it, and all he could do was bring to bear his Inheritor's Will. Crescian blade met the beam and forced it aside as a glyph ignited above the sword’s guard.

Etheric Division Engaged!

Authority Contested!

The beam split around him, cut by the edge of his Inheritor’s Will and bolstered by his own Authority. Yet it wasn’t enough. Whatever the Star did, it was overpowering him. Felix’s significance wavered beneath the enormity of the beam as it tried to force itself over him. To impose itself over his very existence.

“Not…gonna…happen!”

With a strained bellow, Felix wrenched his blade to the side and fell through the brief gap in the Chthonic Star’s beam. He hit the ground as it raged, only feet above his head. Incredible agony tore through him, and he glanced down before his brain could tell him not to; he witnessed charred ruin, his left arm and leg completely severed.

The beam blasted outward into the distance unimpaired. But he wasn't dead. His eyes darkened as he blinked.

Warning!

Your Health Has Dropped Below 10%!

He couldn’t focus on that, though, because the droning alert was subsumed in the strange hum of the Star’s beam. It buzzed.

Listen.

It roared at him, and Tern screamed something as Elowen grabbed the front of his shirt, gesturing at Felix. He couldn't hear them. He couldn't listen. His lost limbs blazed with agony, but Felix cut that from his attention. His Will sheared the pain free, entombing it within his city of stone. In its place, there was a buzzing Dissonance that drenched all things, blocking the Harmony of the world like a slick of oil against water.

Listen.

The purple chamber faded, his vision blackening at the edges as he became nothing more than ears. The songs ran through him, chaos in tempo and form, but he dove through their notes, splitting the sound from silence as the darkness inside him met the darkness without.

The Song Of Silver.

It crooned at him like the promise of peace.

Of honor untarnished.

Yet it was stained with blood.

The Binding Of Pride.

There. An artifact planted into the floor of the purple chamber. A crown of tines inscribed by hands more ancient than any still living, steeped in powers none truly understood. None but the beast inside of him.

Devour Them All.

Skein of Fate!

His Will slammed into the artifact, shearing into its esoteric construction like a stick through the spokes of a bicycle. It lurched, and though he heard nothing but stained silver, he was aware of screaming.

"I’m burning up!”

“My eyes! My eyes are…”

“The Girded Vow! It's... he's breaking it! Stop him!"

Hands grasped him, but Felix was beyond them. It was the artifact, the Girded Vow, that caught his full attention. It fought back, lashing at him with bindings, as if to tie him down and crush his spirit under their weight.

Title: Bondbreaker Is Active!

Oaths cannot affect you unless you allow it.

He threw them off, gathering them all within his blackened palms.

Empyrean Embrace!

The artifact sundered, splitting with a tumultuous crash that burst the purple floor beneath them and sent everyone to the ground. The Girded Vow exploded upward, no more than silvered shrapnel that buried itself into enchanted tables and warded walls.

Felix's eyes cleared, his vision recovering from an endless corridor of shadow, only to see Elowen racing at him. Silver stained her eyes, and her lips were curled back in a snarl, but both vanished suddenly. She collapsed as silver threads snapped away from her body and landed beside a bent tine of the Girded Vow and moved no more.

Tiir, however, leaped onto Felix and grabbed him by the front of his shredded garment. "Why? What Tower do you work for?"

Felix spat in the man’s face.

Tiir bellowed and threw him, but Felix was clearly heavier than the Tower Master anticipated. He grunted in surprise, and Felix only skidded five feet away, just beneath the still-spinning frame of the Chthonic Star.

The Tower Master stood, licking blood from his lips. "Don't answer, then. We can recover from this." He adjusted his burnt and bloodied robes. "Go to your grave knowing you have accomplished nothing."

Felix wheezed a small laugh. "You first."

He kicked the Chthonic Star and nearly lost his other leg as it buckled. The beam roared, spitting invisible might slantwise through the Violet Tower walls…and right into Tower Master Tiir.

Felix hurled himself sideways and grabbed onto Elowen's prone form as wards burst, mithril melted, and the Tower quaked—just an instant before everything blossomed into flame.