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Chapter 928
🕑 Added 2025-05-14 12:00:08 +0000 UTCThis is the end of Book 11!
I'll be taking a bit of a break to get the start of Book 12 ready, and that will start posting on Monday 5/26!
Enjoy!
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Space compacted as the Green Wilds sang to him through the Aestus Autus Anima, hurling Felix blindly through a wild kaleidoscope of color and textures. It pushed and prodded him, squeezing him through strange spaces as he lost track of time and direction. His senses were distorted by the flexing sound of lilting melodies and strident horns. Chaos intruded, cutting through the Harmony as Dissonance buzzed across the Green like a slashing blade.
Fire followed.
A wave of force hit him, hurling Felix forward through convoluted passages and intricate pathways. The path between the Trees of his Grove was temporary…a feature boosted only by the attention of the Grim Nightshade, and it was falling apart.
The edges of the Green strained and cracked. Empty darkness filled the gaps, flooding fire and force alike, blunting it even as it accosted Felix's limbs and tore at him in new, novel ways. Felix gritted his teeth, holding onto his sister with all his Strength. The forces hurling him about tried to rip her from his grip, but he refused to fail at this. The song twisted and broke. The world itself collapsed, but he held on.
All at once, Felix careened out into empty, humid air and down toward a glittering surface.
A lake.
He splashed down, carried at once to the very bottom, bubbles streaming all around himself and his burden. Gabby flailed, her eyelids fluttering. Felix gritted his teeth and kicked his legs, rocketing them both upward toward the surface. They broke through, the splash almost as big as their climactic entry, and Felix twisted in the waves, drawn by a violent inferno behind him. It was raging so hot that the lake was steaming all around him.
The offshoot of the Abundance Anima was aflame.
"Felix!"
A Manaship thrummed as it lowered toward him, and friendly hands reached down toward his treading in the dark water. Paxus, Pit, Evie, and Alister were all there. The force mage reached down to pull him up, accompanied by the sure grip of stone arms. Felix blinked water out of his eyes and Eagin smiled at him through his rigid face. Together, Eidolon and mage pulled Felix and his sister up onto the deck of the Manaship.
Eagin smiled at him as his stone hands eased Gabby from Felix's iron grip. "We have her, my Lord."
Felix let go.
Paxus stood nearby, wringing his hands and staring at the Tree. His form flickered, pieces of his legs and arms vanishing in time with the crackle of flames. He leaned over the gunwale and shouted at the sky. "Magus, save her!”
“We'll try!”
no promises!
Atar and Flame zipped by them, still a charred skeleton, and closed with the Spirit Tree. With a great heave, the pair absorbed the Mana from the trunk and branches, breathing in streamers of orange, red, and yellow flame. It left the Tree smoldering and blackened, but Felix stretched his Affinity. It was faint, but he could heard the distant thrum of the Green Wilds within its husk.
The sky was in far worse condition.
It was mid-afternoon by Felix's judge of time, but not by the look of things. Black clouds smothered every inch of blue, locking them into in a permanent twilight. Things grew worse as he followed those clouds to their source. Northeast, toward Amaranth, the sky was dominated by a column of dust and smoke hundreds of miles wide.
"The destruction is far less than we expected," Alister admitted, staring along with Felix. "A moon falling on the Continent should have demolished us even here. I don't understand it."
Evie raised an eyebrow. "You wanted us to die?"
"No. But it defies logic.”
“It wasn't a moon." Felix coughed up some water, and didn't care enough to wipe it away from his chin. "It's a prison for a god."
“Oh, right. That…well, I don’t know if that makes it better. How does that work?”
Felix didn't much care to explain any of it at the moment. He turned. "Pit, you all right?"
"I'm good enough."
His Companion pushed his head close and Felix leaned into him. "Did everyone make it out?”
“We caught Princess Ondine and the two Kobolds she was carrying. We made it through, obviously. Far as I can tell, everyone that survived the fight made it out. You were the last."
Felix glanced at Gabby. She was breathing, but still unconscious. "We didn't... Has anyone seen Vess or Yin?"
Evie knelt down and gripped Felix's shoulder gently. "No. Where is she?"
He closed his eyes. "I don't know."
Evie's hand fell away, and Felix couldn't bear to meet her gaze. His head was a mess. Too much had happened. Instead, he looked inward, toward the bundle of Links just outside his core space. The start of Vess' Link was still there, but it ended shortly after it began. Just as before, it wasn’t veiled or hidden, but neatly severed.
"I can't even feel her, Evie. She..." Something twitched. He sat up, glancing closer at the Links, but nothing had changed. Had he imagined it?
The Compact Is Compromised.
The notification blared in all of their senses, loud as a batterman's shout. Paxus and Eagin buckled, screaming as flashes of incandescent white flared around their heads. It sparked and spiked, an aurora of pain and sudden, terrible revelation.
Doom.
The Beast roused, its malformed snout pushing upward from the abyss, toward the blackened skies. Felix stood on shaking legs. Beyond the palace of Gharion and the rolling hills of the Territory, beyond even the monumental clouds of dust and deadly debris, a single dot shone through.
Pit stood up too. "Is that a star?"
"All the heavens are clogged by the moonfall," Alister said from Eagin's side. The Exalt was still bent, but his screaming had stopped. "We cannot see the stars."
It was nothing more than a speck, yet Felix's eyes burned at the sight, blue pouring across the deck in the dark. Ancient memories, ones that few could retain, flashed across his Mind.
"It comes," Paxus said through a gasp. "The Final Rest. The silence at the end of all things."
Evie rounded on the spirit. "What is it?"
"An echo across the Void." Eagin looked up, his eyes burning with recognition as they met Felix's. "The Ruin is nigh."
The End Of Book 11
Comments
James Skinner
Good ending! Enjoy your break, can't wait for the next book!
Greg Mat
Tyftc, wish it wasnt so short though lol. Also, at this point, we dont really need cliffhangers lol, we're addicted already ijs
David
Great book. Thanks for all you do.
Decibel790
Hell yeah, awesome book!!!
John goode
Is it just me or was Thais ch like really really short
kinglemur
Oh hell yeah next book starts the day before my birthday. That’s like the best present ever
kinglemur
Pretty sure he means two weeks from now
Zack Countler
Thanks for the chapter and the book! Let's buckle down and settle in, the ride's nearly over
Aaron Schwartz
Well. I probably should have guessed this before, but guess the last book will be called Ruin
Spleens
Monday 5/26..as in May 2026?
Jrn
Nice, tyftc. What a tease.
