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Chapter 927
🕑 Added 2025-05-12 16:17:49 +0000 UTCThis is the penultimate chapter of book 11!
Wednesday's chapter will wrap things up and then I'll take a short break to get my bearings on the start of Book 12, and that'll start posting on 5/26.
Enjoy!
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"Are you fucking kidding me?" Felix held up his sword. “Is Noctis free?”
Nymean Authority Recognized.
Ouranic Bindings Still Hold!
Noctis is still chained up? He looked to the sky, where the yellow moon was surrounded by debris. She’s just…falling?
“Like I said, if I can’t have their power, no one cane.” Ocalla cackled, but she fell to her knees as power reverberated through her. Her light flickered, gold dulling. The wind sucked from her lungs and her laugh turned to a gasping wheeze. “Better…run, boy.”
The beam pulsated, pouring it’s blinding power into the moon even as it fell. Pieces of it vaporized in the distance—tiny explosions that ripped new craters into the moon’s surface.
The same choice again! Felix ground his teeth. His hands ached to rip the Hierophant apart—instead he threw all of his Will at the Chthonic Star at the beam that speared the heavens.
It fought back. The colorless light inside of it was consumed by a rapturous joy. Trickles of impressions filtered into Felix as the winds of its raging beams crashed against his defenses, the aftereffects burning away scale, skin, and muscle. The joy was relentless. It gloried in its purpose—
It’s purpose!
A glimpse of Memory filtered to him, of its earliest development and the hands that touched it, varied and strange. They forged it from the living Continent, imbuing it with a singular purpose. He saw then. Far more than just obliteration, Felix understood it intimately and completely in a single breath.
It was made to destroy that which was Divine.
You already have! he sent, screaming past the thunder of its beam and its giddy, intoxicated Will. You just destroyed one of their prisons!
Quiet. The winds that buffeted him faded though the beam still burned bright. The Will of the Chthonic Star noticed Felix. It trembled, as if digesting his words. The light pulsed, a final jubilation that stretched through every block and seam of its construction.
It was satisfied.
Artif4ct Det0nation Immin3nt!
"Oh, fuck." Felix leaped back, kicking the entire artifact forward with every ounce of Strength he had. It rocked, lifting up two feet at the edge before just enough for him to grasp it with his scaled hands and heave it straight off the tilted edge of the tower. Dissonance and Harmony reverberated through its metal as it flipped over and over, a gyrating top of coruscating light that seared inward, no longer firing into the sky but into itself.
Felix threw himself back, seizing his Sonata. Fiendstone walls stretched high between him and the scintillating Star. “Get down—!”
The Star imploded.
Empyrean Embrace!
His teeth sank into the colorless explosion beyond his shields as it roared like a thousand Dragons all at once. Crescian Bronze crushed together, sparking into a core of heat and light that seared through his Fiendstone like fire through paper. Waves of the explosion rushed into Felix, pulled inexorably into his maw despite resembling nothing so much as liquid magma. Mana and Essence scoured him, flooding his core space as steam poured from between his teeth. Significance followed, but it did more than burn, it scourged Felix—inside and out.
Warning!
Your H34th H#9 Dro99ed Beneath 25%!
Lay of the Unfallen is level 147!
Sovereign of Flesh is level 148!
Potency that rivaled the Divines thundered around him, chewing into En’cridhe and Fiendstone with equal ease. His scales twisted and shifted, torn and healed in the same moment as his Skills metabolized his newfound Essence and Mana to defend against itself. His Divine Tree groaned, its roots spreading as fast as its branches quested outward, tangling with the ephemeral streamers that clung and burned.
A final rush and the sound was gone, replaced by the soft groaning of stone against stone…and the distant thunder above. The sky flashed white and Felix threw up a hand, staring up as Noctis's moon grew ever closer. It had broken, pieces of it shattered away from the full orb, but all of them were falling down upon the world.
Wa3#ing!
M00nfall Imminent!
Eugh. Felix got back onto his feet, hand pressed to his gut. That tasted like shit.
His Perception flared.
Stride of the King is level 143!
Golden threads launched forward, all of the false musculature around the Hierophant’s Body arrowing toward Felix's unprotected flank. He twisted aside, but he might as well not have bothered moving. Sudden plants bound the woman's legs while bright flowers spat out poisonous darts into her face and neck. Veins pulsed across her temple and her face turned purple as she clenched her jaw against whatever poison was flowing through her body.
Ocalla trembled in rage. She spat, and a gobbet of acid fell on the vines, tearing through them before she pushed herself back up. Her threads had retracted, no longer reaching toward Felix, but instead pushing herself to her feet. The Kobolds stood ten feet away, trading wide-eyed glances with each other.
"Vile little wretches," she muttered. “Woven Sunsp—!”
A slash of pure darkness cut across the Hierophant’s back, as if the skin of the world had been peeled aside. Beyond it was a textureless black that Felix knew entirely too well. She fell, convulsing, as the slash vanished but the wound remained—from shoulder to hip, her back was laid bare.
“Stay down.” Ondine stood above her, a dark cast to her angular features as the golden radiance winked out.
"Holy shit," Kevin said.
"Get them out," Felix pointed to the Kobolds. "Take them to the giant Tree."
"I see it," Ondine glanced back at him. "What of you?"
"Go," he commanded. She nodded, spreading her wings. Blood flung outward, but she didn't flinch. Instead, she gestured to the Kobolds, who exchanged nervous glances before clambering into her arms.
"This is embarrassing," Shadow muttered.
Kevin pointed at the sky. "Would you rather die?"
"Hold tight," Ondine told them, squeezing them close to her side. "This will be fast."
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Pit looked up between the sky and his friends. Archie was strapped to his back and all the others were piling into the mana ships that had landed nearby.
Pit! The moon is falling.
What? How? Felix—
You need to run, Pit. His Companion's voice was shaky, but sure. Ondine and the Kobolds are heading your way. Get everyone out.
I don't want to leave you!
I’ll be close behind. Go!
Pit clenched his beak, spreading his wings and testing their strength. He could get to Felix fast enough. The injury on his back was healing slowly, but he could do it.
Chimera. Child of Harmony. The Grim Nightshade's voice was a soothing balm against Pit's troubled Spirit. The Tree will fall before the moon will.
Pit looked out back over the city toward where they had entered, toward the Spirit Tree. The leaves and boughs that had risen above the city skyline were wilting visibly. As he watched, a building-sized branch crumbled and fell.
If you wish for anyone to survive, there is but one choice.
The sound of beating wings caught his ear and Pit immediately spotted a figure with multicolored wings flying out of the broken palace grounds. She stumbled, losing altitude as she clutched to two ungainly figures. Pit loosed a trumpeting cry and leapt aboard the ship.
"Helmsman, get that Sylphaen and bring us back to the Tree. Now!"
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Air blasted across the tilted tower top, blowing back Felix's coat as the Sylphaen shot off into the distance. He hoped they'd make it, but he was already turning away from them, flaring his Perception to search around himself.
"Vess… C’mon, you have to be here.” His senses were a confusion mangle of flashing skies, roaring winds, and the tumble of loose stones as he climbed back up En’cridhe’s destroyed face. Worse, he had to fight his own rising panic. Only his incredible Will kept it in check.
“She couldn’t have died…I would’ve known.”
Yet there was no trace of her or Yintarion. He could only find Gabby, still caught in the knotted vine net that Kevin had woven between columns and fallen statues. Throat aching, he pulled his sister close. She was out and her breath was wheezing, but she was alive. That would have to be enough.
The sky flashed again as fire burned across the blue. The earth shook. He had to go.
Felix hauled Gabby onto a shoulder and spotted his Inheritor’s Will lying on the ground. It was wedged between two stones, and he reached down to grab it as a burst of rapid fire retorts jerked him to his feet. Vines and flowers exploded, poison and thick acid sizzling across the Hierophant’s body where she stood two dozen feet away.
"Fiend!"
“Shut the hell up.”
Sonata of Dominance!
Felix seized the stone, broken from its sigildry and power. The tower, the end creed, was nothing more than another source of materials. Rock softened and the woman sank down to her hips before he transformed the lot of it into Fiendstone.
“Do you plan to run? Hah! The moon is falling on this entire Territory!” The Hierophant twisted her hips, shattering through the opalescent Fiendstone as if she were breaking clay. She leaned forward on her arms and pushed herself out. "You cannot escape this fate.”
"Maybe not. But you sure as hell won't."
Felix hooked his foot on his Inheritor's Will and kicked it forward—
Straight into the Hierophant’s chest.
It sank to the hilt. She fell forward, eyes wide and mouth stretching silently.
Adamant Discord! A bolt of lightning yanked the blade back and it landed in his outstretched hand. “Die mad, bitch.”
You Have D((#@)(($$% 7H3 H!3R)%*#!
@(#4 (*44&!
Sonata of Dominance!
Adamant Discord!
Felix rode lightning across the sky, the wind roaring at his back to push him faster and support Gabby's armored bulk. The sky pressed low, and Felix could almost feel the moon pressing down against him. He didn’t dare look up. The Tree loomed in the distance, miles away across the city.
Focus! He flared his Perception, gathering everything he could around him. The Hierocratic fleet were few and far between, but what ships he saw were headed in every direction, eager to escape. His own people were fleeing, many of the ships already having reached the Tree, which was falling apart rapidly. Branches and boughs withered to dust as a torrent of house-sized leaves fell to the earth.
W4RNIN6!
M00nf411 Immin4nt!
Evacuate The Territory.
The sky went black and a deep cold settled over him as the sun itself was blocked by the falling moon. Felix flared across an unnatural night, his lightning brighter than ever.
Scion. The Heavens Are Broken.
Against his better judgment, Felix glanced up. Immediately, he knew something was off. The moon…it wasn't an orb at all, but a strange disc that crumbled at the edges as it fell. Like a plate knocked down from a distant shelf. Flashes of chains seared across his vision, and a deep darkness stretched the breadth of its cratered surface. Orb or disc or inch-thin plate, it didn't matter. The size alone would punch a hole through the Continent.
Felix jerked to a sudden stop. "What will that do to everyone else?”
You cannot stop it, Emperor Nevarre.
People are going to die everywhere, Grim.
Felix stared at the strange, twisted moon as it fell. The sky sparked, flickering and stretching in ways that the world was not meant to act. Nature itself will be destroyed.
The Green Wilds will sing on, the Grim said. You will not. Run, Fiend.
The Beast roused within him, flexing within the abyss at Felix's center. Scion. Can You Not Feel It? The Beast stretched itself upward through his center, as if reaching to the sky. The Cardinals Fall To Us.
A sharp ache pull upward through the roots and trunk of Felix’s Divine Tree. We Do Not Bow To The Divine, Scion. Face The Fallen.
Conquer It.
His Core Manifestation tore at his center, the strands of its woven tapestry pulling at his Aspects. Felix licked his lips. He could call on it. With the Beast to help and two of the three Empyrean Regalia—Could he stop the moon?
Gabby groaned. The moon exploded, pieces of its yellow surfaces flooding with a limitless shadow.
"Fuck." Felix clenched his teeth. His decision was made for him.
Adamant Discord!
He shot off again, lightning and wind swirling around him in bright bursts. The air itself screamed, buckling around him. He skimmed lower, his free arm aching as galvanizing bolts arced from his scales. Lightning skittered off rooftops, setting fires and bursting stone walls.
The sky ignited.
A fireball surrounded Noctis' moon, the yellow now engulfed in blazing red flames. All around him, the heat built to bursting. The city turned into an inferno. Felix shot over the outer walls just ahead of a wave of fire and force that split Amaranth apart entirely.
A roar beyond sound reached him even at his speed, shaking across more than just the world, but through his Spirit, Mind, and Body all at once.
The Tree!
He flared Adamant Discord with all he had until his palms were cut by the searing connections all around him.
The wave hit.
Felix was torn, his hands crushing through Gabby's armor just to maintain his hold as they were hurled forward. They hit the trunk of the Tree. It splintered beneath them, smashing his face and shoulder into unyielding bark—before it and everything else was ripped asunder entirely.
Comments
David
Far out. Great description of that escape, I could see it! Yeah will Vess pop up where she left. If so, that ain’t good.
Patrick Sullivan
One hell of a chapter!!
Aaron Schwartz
Holy shit…. Vess didn’t just get a break in the middle of a fight. She got freaking invincibility frames! Also, since we know next chapter is the last one of this book, I’m guessing we’re not gonna get to see her path until the beginning of the next one
Apollo
Vess better get one hell of an upgrade. She’s gonna come back to just destruction
