Unbound

Chapter Seven Hundred And Forty One – 741

"Fuck you," Felix growled.

Title: Bondbreaker Is Active!

Your Oaths Cannot Be Touched!

The burr of his Nemesis Title fell away and the pain faded just as Felix swiftly rejected the restoration request and ripped his hand off the Altar. Chunks of ice came with it, and his fingertips tore beneath his claws, leaving a small splatter of blood on the Altar. Much to his surprise, however, the blood swiftly absorbed into the stone itself.

"Uh, that's not normal," Archie observed.

"No. No it's not," Felix banished the Title notification. "Siva probably booby-trapped her Altar somehow."

Archie backed up. "You're alright though, right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine.”

Quest Updated!

Origins Of The Breaking!

You have discovered your third Shrine to the gods! Unlike the others, this one was preserved and only recently demolished by your own hand. Within the Shrine of Avet you found a clue toward the origins of the gods and the war that changed everything. Find the others and uncover what was Lost, Ascendent.

3 of 7 Found

Reward:

+Varies

+Title

+Orichalcum Chest

The Quest was mostly unchanged from before, except for a few words acknowledging that he'd found Siva's Shrine and promptly broke it.

Felix frowned. "Look at the Altar, Archie. Tell me what you see."

The man didn't get any closer, but he squatted down and peered at the side of the sagging, box-like stone. "I see a bunch of people. A Minotaur, too. Lots of pointy ears and sharp teeth.”

“What are they doing?"

"Carrying things. Baskets of food, I think. That might be money, maybe. Or…looks like tree branches, I think."

"Are there any cages?"

"Jesus, yeah. Yeah, there are. People and kids. What the hell is this?"

"If I had to guess, it's a record of sacrifices."

Archie's eyes widened. "The blood, it soaked right up. Are you saying people were sacrificed to…give the gods power?"

"It sure seems like it." Felix walked over and knelt down beside Archie. The Altar was a bit too low for him. "There," he pointed at a figure in the center, three times larger than all the rest. It was clearly a woman, curves and all, but she was depicted as if she were part spider. Dozens of limbs stuck out and thin scratches were etched all around her, arcing into the distance and to wrap around each of the people that brought sacrifices. Threads, he knew. "That's Siva, all right."

Felix looked over the Altar more, noting the worn covers and slightly depressed top. "Same wear pattern as the other one. I saw similar carvings." He stood up. "What about the Obelisk?"

He walked over, running his gaze over the thing. It was taller than him by around a foot, each of its four sides about a foot wide at the base, tapering to about three inches at the top, where it came to a sharp pyramidal point, just like Avet’s and Vellus’. Well, just like Avet's. Vellus’ had been just about shattered. The shape of this one was crisp and clean—it had clearly lived a far easier life. Perhaps because the Dayne family had taken such good care of it, devoted as they were to Siva in secret. Or maybe Siva's power just preserved things better. It was pointless to speculate.

There were no cracks or missing segments, at least, just a slew of carved images across its surface. Images that seemed to be telling a story of some kind. What the story was, however, made no sense to Felix.

He ran his eyes over each plane of the Obelisk, affixing it in his mind before he recalled the crystal-clear image of Avet’s. His visit to the god of chaos' Shrine was just within the thirty day limit on his Born Trait. With a bit of effort, he held both in his head as he compared and contrasted the designs on them.

"They're almost identical," he said after a moment. "The phases of the moon up top here and these symbols indicating elements are the same. The sigil for blood is new, as is the one for necromancy. I don't know why they're here." Felix pushed his hand through his hair. "I'm missing something."

"Could be a code," Archie suggested. He walked around the Altar, giving it a wide berth and tucking his hands into his pockets. "Maybe there's a cipher we're missing."

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"Dude, of course." Felix cast about, looking for something that could provide him with further clues, but there was nothing. Everything that might have been in there had been destroyed during his altercation with the goddess.

"Hey, what about this?" Archie pointed to near the bottom, where it was the widest. "I don't know anything about all that magic writing stuff, but I've seen these around before in Birchstone. Those priests of Noctis, they'd scrawl it on buildings that wouldn't pay alms, you know? I think it means, like, fighting or, like, disagreement. If you got that scratched on you, it was bad. You had to go pay, or otherwise you got some unpleasant folk knocking on your door."

Felix looked at the symbol, which appeared to be a broken circle slashed by two parallel diagonal lines. On either side of it were a number of elemental pictographs. Ice, fire, earth, even air, along with what looked like teeth and claws. On the other side were a series of moons. Magus of the Grand Design flashed within him, drawing a connection between them all, even as it powered a leap in his thoughts.

"It's war," he said. "War between the gods, the elementals, and the primordials." Felix knelt, putting his hand on another symbol that sat lower than all the rest, but was almost twice as large as any other. It was a series of four dots arranged in a diamond, with thin lines etched between them, as if to make a star.

"What does that mean?"

"It's... that's... the star makes me think of the Nym, but it's not actually a star. It's just the dots connected like one." He fixed it in his mind. It felt important. He didn't have a clue what it meant, but that wouldn't stop him for long.

Felix stood up and dusted off his hands. "Well, this gave me more information, but I'll need to search the next Shrine to find out more."

"There's one to Noctis in the Red Shield Hold," Archie said. "But I don't think going back there is a good idea."

"Probably not," Felix admitted. "But I'll have to go to worse places than that to complete this Quest." Like Amaranth, he thought to himself. Felix kept that particular thought to himself. No need to worry anyone else about that particular journey.

"That sounds a lot like you'll need me to fight more giant monsters," Archie said with a frown.

"If you want to survive, you're going to need to fight, and that's going to get a lot worse before it gets better, man. But I have good news." Felix called up his Boon of Bonds Title and flicked it toward the other man. "I can help you out even more now."

Archie read the notification and his eyebrows climbed nearly to his hairline. "You can share a portion of your power with me? What does that mean?"

Felix shrugged. "I think I'll be able to help you guys Temper, maybe even evolve Skills. The Link is a sort of formalized connection between us, making it easier for power to transfer over. It's why Beef and the rest are a lot stronger than they were a couple months back. I gave them a big shot of Primordial, straight to the core."

Archie stroked his goatee. "Sounds like a cheat.”

“I mean if you don’t want it—”

“No, I'm not knocking it. I could use a shortcut. All this quiet contemplation and mindfulness and combat bullshit is wearing thin. You want to throw me some extra juice? I'm in."

Felix grinned. "Good. I just need to form a Link with you."

"I don't have one already?"

"Nope."

Archie narrowed his eyes. "How does it work?"

"No clue." Felix laughed. "But I can try something if you'll let me. I need your permission first."

Archie frowned and opened his mouth, only to stop, close it, and bite his lip. "This isn't, like, a sex thing, right?"

"Jesus! No! You idiot.”

“I'm just asking! Look. Someone says they want to link with you. I'm just, you know..."

"It's okay. I don't need to hear any more of that. I don't know how exactly it’s gonna work, but it’ll probably hurt."

"Ugh. Alright. Let's get it over with."

Felix knelt on the ground and reached inside of himself, to where the bundles of connections existed atop his Void Sanctuary. His Linked friends were easy to spot, not by any visible difference, but by a certain ineffable sensation. A vibrancy. The strand of connection to Archie was similar to Beef's, if smaller and duller, and he grasped it firmly. “Brace yourself."

Archie tensed up and closed his eyes.

Felix pressed his hand against Archie's chest, nearly covering it with his dark claws, and willed a portion of his power to the man. There was a large amount of resistance, like shoving peanut butter down a garden hose, but Felix's Will and Intent were not to be denied. Inch by inch, a piece of his Mana, Essence, and significance flowed through their connection, until, with a pop, it swirled into Archie's core space.

The Delven gasped and stumbled backward, nearly tripping on the broken flooring as he went. Felix watched him cautiously. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah." Archie looked down at his chest, feeling at it like he expected a wound to be there. "That hurt. Still hurts, damn it. Feels like the worst heartburn I've ever had.”

“Did you get a notification?"

"No, all I have..." Archie blinked. "Oh, there it is. 'Do you accept this power,' it says. Fuck me, yes. I'm not doing this again. Oh." Archie swiped at something, and a notification rotated into Felix's view.

Attempting To Establish Sympathetic Link...

Tier II Link Already Established.

Essence Redirection Allowed.

Tier II Link Advanced To Tier IV!

Huh. The others were Tier III, and the Primordial's power only boosted them to VI. Does that mean I'm stronger than the Primordial Withering Dust when I first met it?

“Oh, oh jeez. That feels weird. The heartburn's gone, but there's something in my core space. This, uh..." Archie had closed his eyes, but opened them now, and a look of confusion twisted his face. "It's a light?"

"Yeah, that’s my influence. It shouldn't affect you too much, since you didn't take that much power from me.” I think, he amended silently.

Felix stood up. He was happy it had worked more than anything else, and wasn't about to worry about all the tiny details. "Now I can boost you up when the time comes. I want to test it out the next time one of you is at the edge of some breakthrough, or Tempering. So, make sure I know about it."

"Glad to be a guinea pig," Archie said, sarcasm just about dripping from his teeth as he rubbed at his chest. "If there's nothing else, though, I'm going to bed. I've only been up a few hours, and I'm dead tired again."

"Actually,” Felix said with a lopsided smile. “Do you think you could help me with one last thing?"