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Chapter 891
🕑 Added 2025-02-13 13:00:13 +0000 UTCEnjoy!
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“I thought this was a Limited Quest?” Pit asked as they walked through the upper levels of the fortress. “Just two people, it says.”
They had mapped out the first floor quickly, and decided to check the higher floors first. The four of them were spread out in the wide hallways, moving cautiously but with a swiftness Felix appreciated. He didn’t want to waste time in this place, tempting as treasure and knowledge might be.
“Yep. Two people. That’s why we had you both Converge with us,” Felix explained.
“Ah. Our bonds are so strong, we are one,” Yin rumbled, a pleased smile curling his long face. “A good plan, emperor.”
“Quite clever,” Vess agreed. She wore her Dragon helm now, its unpainted arcanite forming a fierce visage over her own as she assessed each chamber they passed. “I did not believe the System would be fooled by such a tactic, but I am happy to be wrong.”
The fortress had proven to be exceedingly boring so far—after the dramatic entryway, the chambers were all uniformly stark and severe. The only thing really remarkable was the size. The Fotress of Starlight’s Rise seemed to be designed to hold thousands, and as they explored the first floor they found numerous indicators of a once bustling home.
“Not that I’m complaining, but it doesn’t seem like all four of us are needed. There’s nothing here.” Pit sniffed a statue of some sort of giant pig. “Nothing but all these pigs. Did the owners have a thing for them?”
“No clue.”
The statues lined the hall they currently explored. The boar-like creatures were wide and angry looking, but that was all. Unseen Beholder revealed little else.
Name: Sculpture Of A Favorite Herd
Type: Art Piece
Lore: Commissioned by an unknown patron, these statues were made as a set and intended to show off the prized possession of the master of Starlight’s Rise. A herd of Olfin Boars were once worth entire kingdoms, after all.
“Expensive pigs. I guess they did like them.” Felix kept moving.
“Olfin Boars. Never heard of ‘em.” Pit prowled ahead of them, his large paws and lashing tail sweeping thick trails of dust in his wake. They were walking through halls that had not seen footsteps for Ages. It was a touch eerie. "What’s this creature look like? You think it’s a big pig too?”
“That’d be a first. Whatever it is, we have to hunt it down and kill it.”
“A creature that haunts this place. How long has it been here, alone?” Vess looked around, her eyebrows turned up as if saddened by the thought. “What could it be?”
“Not a pig,” Pit said sadly.
“Dead by the time we reach it," Yin rumbled at the same time. The two of them traded glances, one gruff and the other wistful.
“Oh, to have some pork,” Pit moaned.
"Yin,” Felix said, ignoring his Companion’s melodrama. “Do you have any idea of what came before the Nym? Beings that could have built here, between the Realms?"
"Not a clue," the Drake admitted, shaking his white mane. "There are more miracles upon this world than an immortal could ever count. And I admit, I did not study the deep histories as some once did."
Felix, for his part, was extremely curious. As they passed by room after room, following the flow of blue motes as they filtered through the fortress, he tried to gather clues to piece together what they might face. Yet all they spotted were more of those boar statues, small and large, set into alcoves throughout the upper levels. Occasionally there were other sculptures, the only decorations in that severe place that had stood the test of time. The other sculptures were more abstract and…creepy. They resembled nothing so much as twisted ribbons that knotted among themselves.
When they reached the top, they still had found nothing, and doubled back down to the entrance hall.
“Clearly, the Nym had a presence here,” Felix said. “According to the Quest, the Ruin ended that presence, and maybe this creature is related to that. It’s impossible to say. All I know is that we need to move, and to do that, I’ll do waht needs to be done.”
“My spear will see us through this,” Vess promised him.
Felix winked at her, and she smiled, flashing that dimple at him. He'd asked her and Yin to come in order to fool the Quest, true enough, but he could have asked Beef and Hallow instead. The Minotaur and his Graven Aegis would have been incredibly useful in a fight, but he was happy with his choice. A bit selfish, perhaps, but Felix supposed he’d earned a little of that by that point.
The Quest would reward the participants with a Title, experience, and Authority. All three of those were worth sharing with Vess, especially the experience. A Quest of this nature was likely to reward a lot of it, and he needed her to reach Master Tier.
"Look here," Vess pointed out. "These motes are increasing the further we travel, but their density gets incrementally thicker toward the floor.”
“Meaning what?"
“Follow me,” she said.
In moments she found the stairs to the lower levels and swiftly descended them. Following Vess' lead, they ignored every floor, trotting down the stone steps level by level. Slowly but surely, the blue motes increased in number, gathering thickly along their knees and shins. After the seventh floor, they began to move visibly, flowing very slowly downward along the stairs.
Felix also noted a distinct scent in the air. Corpses? It smelled similar to rotting corpses, and he hated that he could pinpoint the smell so easily. It made his hackles stand up. Yyero.
Yet there was no sign of the god. The scent was distinctly different too, lacking the certain sour strength of the god’s creations. This just smelled like decaying flesh.
By the time they reached the bottom, the stench had increased and the motes clung to the floor like a river of light pouring past their ankles. It shed a faint warmth, like submerging their feet in a hot bath.
“It moves swiftly,” Vess pointed out.
The river had a current now, and it flowed through a labyrinthine hall, leading them unerringly toward the center. There, they found a chamber surrounded by four open archways and filled with a spiraling galaxy of blue-white motes. It was in the shape of an eight-pointed star, and at its center, hidden by a layer of rock dust, was the faint impression of a fractal Seal.
Felix leaned over it, brushing his hands across the surface and squinting through the motes. The Seal barely glimmered on the ground, gray on gray, but he traced the outline of it. "There seems to be four points of input. The empty spaces. You see them?"
"I do," Vess said.
"I need all of you to stand on each one."
His friends listened without further questions, and Felix took his spot as well. "We're going to have to funnel our power into it.”
“Our Mana?"
"No. Unfortunately not. Significance.”
Yin and Vess traded alarmed looks. "To do that would be to destabilize all she has worked for," the Drake protested. "You would be stripping her foundations."
"I know. Yin. That's why I'm going to provide it for you."
Vess's eyes widened. "Boon of Bonds."
Felix gave a tight nod. "Is everybody ready? As soon as the power passes through you, I need you to push it out of your channels and through the Mana Gates in your feet. Alright?"
Yin gave him a scowl as if that was the most obvious thing, and Pit chirruped seriously, ears laid back.
Here goes nothing.
Title: Boon Of Bonds Is Active!
Almost at once, significance poured through his Links, thundering into Pit and Vess and from Vess into her Companion. Felix had not been sure if that would work, but the power flowed more freely than it had with anyone else, save Pit. With remarkable ease, the three of them shunted the significance he fed into them through his Title down and out of their bodies and into the floor.
The Seal ignited. A greenish-blue light filled the ground like a pitcher being filled with water until a symbol formed at the very center. It resembled a monstrous face leering through its massive fangs and snake-like tongue. The moment it completed, a deep bell tolled.
The Entrance Has Been Opened.
Proceed Challengers.
The sound of the announcement shook the room until dust rained from the vaulted ceiling. The Seal itself split, opening in spiraling sections that dropped down into the ground until it formed a staircase leading into the depths. Those blue motes dropped, falling into the entrance in a hazy river of light.
Felix cut off his Title and his friends groaned. Yin, most of all. "That felt like molten lava in my veins," he said. "But it seems to have worked. Allow me, little Dragoon."
The Drake hopped down the spiral steps, taking point. Felix followed, flanked by Vess and a transformed Pit. His small Dire Hound form was more suitable for the narrow confines of the staircase, and he rushed ahead of Yin, his golden eyes bright against the blue.
“Blind gods, it smells,” Yin complained.
The scent of rot grew stronger with every step, forcing all of them to adjust their breathing. It was thick in the air, clinging to their lungs as if it were leaving a residue with every inhale. It took no more than ten minutes to reach the bottom, but judging on how far they’d already descended, Felix supposed they were deep in the mountain now. The motes gathered here, pooling into a knee deep swirl that filled yet another star-shaped chamber. Unlike the last, this place was hundreds of feet wide, and had no archways or doors, just solid walls devoid of even decoration.
A squealing howl was their only warning before the far wall exploded into shrapnel.
Sonata of Dominance!
Felix shaped the stone away, splitting the vast majority of it around his team harmlessly. Through the breach, enormous monstrosities charged on burning hooves. They were lit up from within by blue-white light, nearly indistinguishable from the waves of motes that scattered before their frenzied rush.
“I knew it!” Pit crowed. “Pigs!”
They looked like elephant-sized boars, covered in spines across their shoulders and possessing four enormous tusks. Despite their bulk, their skeletons were visible, lit up from within like glowsticks as blue-white light poured from their squealing maws.
The ground thundered, as two dozen of the beasts came for them, eating up the distance in mere moments. Felix stepped forward, but Yin was faster.
“Prismatic Cyclone.”
A wave of brilliant light, so bright that it was almost blinding, ripped through the enormous boars, tearing them from the earth despite their clear, monstrous bulk. They were all of them spun up violently into a cyclone that roared louder than their voices could ever manage. Yin roared, and with a lunge of his neck, the monsters were cast upon the walls, their Bodies broken.
All at once, the blue light within them guttered out.
You Have Killed A Manawarped Olfin Boar (x36)!
EXP Gained!
You Have Defeated The First Wave!
Do You Wish To Descend Further?
“Shit,” Felix cursed as the scent of rot grew heavier all around them. “Those were Primordial spawn.”
Comments
Mitchell Meyers
Hes gonna find that other unbound here aint he
kinglemur
I hope this primordial snack boosts Felix’s absorption of the veridaan skull fragment
Alon C
Was about to post this exact thing
Nathan Emerson
Typo All I know is that we need to move, and to do that, I’ll do waht needs to be done.”
Deonte
What primordial we thinking it is?
John
Honestly didn’t expect Felix to explore ancient ruins like these or for there to be another primordial there. Cool!
Johnny Wylie
Tftc! Felix about to snack on another primordial. Yum
