Unbound

Chapter Twenty Four - 024

Exploration is level 14!

The garden was immense.

The door behind him was built into a thick stone wall heavily carved into rigid geometric designs, but after a dozen feet in any direction, the stone was completely consumed by greenery. The uneven flagstones slowly but surely were devoured by the constant creeping of thick moss and small weeds, until it was less a walkway and more a rolling grassy path. Except less of a path and more a meandering suggestion. Plants of all sizes and colors erupted in all directions, wild and untamed. Sunlight even streamed from above, several rays shifting from moment to moment, but resolutely golden and bright.

What is this place?

Felix couldn't tell where the cavern ended and the garden began, but judging by the height of the unseen ceiling this place was easily a mile in diameter. And every inch of it was coated in growing things. Creeping vines flowed across the walls and the odd square pillar that rose from the ground. Flowering trees were grouped together, ones with odd tear shaped fruit the color of rubies that glittered in the sunlight. Tall sprouting weeds with virulently purple bell shaped flowers hung heavy, curving over the growths of small reddish blossoms that emitted small puffs of fire. In one section conical gourds proliferated, supported by thick moss and sharp coils of thorns.

It was so wild, Felix briefly entertained the idea that he had escaped back outside. Had he not noticed the darkness high above and several instances where plants had been pruned back or replanted, then he might have just kept on believing that. Unfortunately, he was certain that this was a garden, one maintained by whoever or...whatever was controlling the wurms.

Moreover, that bloody stench was stronger than ever here. It drifted in the air like an invisible fog, clinging to him like the world's worst perfume.

Ugh, it's in my mouth. Felix grimaced and stayed low, as both he and Pit began sneaking through the underbrush.

I need to find stairs or an exit or something. Felix strained his senses, attempting to see farther or hear better, pushing himself and his Perception. Meanwhile, he kept Analyzing everything that came within range. By this point, it was more than reflexive, it was damn near compulsive.

Analyze is level 19!

Hundreds of previously unknown plants, trees, fruits, even small minor insects filled the space immediately around him. The proliferation and variety of life was remarkable, and if he weren't so keyed up this place might be wonderfully relaxing. However, as Felix began reading the lore entries on the various plants around him, he felt a strange disquiet in his heart. Of the two dozen types of plant within range, all of them contained a variation of the same two phrases.

...affected greatly by the Blood Moon...

...enhances the effects of Dark Murmurs...

Just like those two herbs near the waterfall. Aram Leaf and Bellock. He shied away from a particularly sweet smelling blossom called a Entreating Lotus that apparently doubled the effects of Dark Murmurs. Dark Murmurs and Blood Moon. Both sound bad. It can't be a coincidence that nearly all of the plants in here relate to those two things, right?

Felix looked around with Manasight, watching that bloody mist curl around the garden, almost...caressing the plants.

Yeah. I gotta get outta here. The corrupted Mana was unsettling to watch, constantly moving and undulating around the vibrant green-gold shimmer of the plant's life Mana. He watched as it swirled near the base of the Entreating Lotus, before being sucked quickly toward the roots.

Oh shit. It's feeding them. Felix looked all around, his eyes suddenly seeing a sinister forest of dangerous plantlife. What is this all for?

"We fail you, master."

Felix stopped walking, gesturing for Pit to freeze. The voice was sibilant and high pitched, loud but muffled as if to suggest it came from some distance away. He focused his ears, listening as hard as he could. Somewhere ahead, he heard the creak of leather and scrape of metal.

"Sorry be we, master," another voice said, this one deeper and more rough, like two rocks rattling against each other. Again, the sound of metal and leather moving against each other as something moved up ahead.

They're just beyond those Gigantrees, he thought, nodding at Pit to keep going. They started skirting in a wide circle around the cluster of trees, moving as slow and quiet as they could.

"Endless sorryness--"

"Enough!"

The voice was a whip-crack, sharp and final. Felix stopped in his tracks, suddenly afraid they'd been heard. He couldn't see through the thick foliage and assumed the enemy couldn't either. He hoped he hadn't been wrong.

Stealth is level 19!

Whew. Still good.

"You are fools, but I am more the fool for spawning such wretches. Of course you cannot master the Elderscript, you've the mental capacities of an emberfly." Felix heard a heavy sigh, breathy and dry. The voice was commanding, a deep baritone that brought to mind an older man still in his prime.

Felix flexed his Manasight, trying to pierce the greenery. Earth brown and life green Mana streamed all around him, but he focused, applying his intent to see beyond as he did in his cell. It was far easier now that he had reached Apprentice Tier, and slowly the image of three figures resolved, though they were still fuzzy around the edges. Strangely, all three of them were oddly muted, painted in grays, as if they'd been leeched of something vital. While the wurms were a pale ochre touched with stripes of vibrant orange, these figures' only spot of color were the ribbons of bright crimson pulsing up and down their spines. The sight of them tasted spoiled, like meat left in the sun.

Two of them were kneeling on the ground, one big and bulky and the other slimmer and shorter. Both were draped in silver-brown slabs of Mana, and Felix somehow instinctively knew it was metal.

Armor? They're wearing armor.

Then he saw their master. It was pacing, it's body flowing like liquid smoke in his Manasight, shifting and twisting without ever truly dissipating. Twisting veins of bloody Mana traced out its limbs and spine, collecting together in its chest and radiating back up its neck and face. Eyes like mini suns burned as they regarded the two kneeling figures.

Holy shit, what is THAT? Felix could sense the being's power now, a cresting wave of force that filled the garden. His Manasight had picked out pieces of it, seeing them as clouds of corrupted Mana that swirled around and fed all the plants, but it was all coming from this...thing. He was suddenly struck with a deep and abiding fear of this creature. It was unlike anything he had seen before.

"You are both lucky that I have more interesting toys to play with," the figure continued, an edge of terrible glee in its voice. "Ones made of much stronger stock."

The dread figure raised its hand and gestured vaguely upwards, it's limb curling smoke veined with pulsing red.

"The Hoarfrost has gifted a bounty upon us, though they know it not," the creature sneered. It moved as if it were pacing, getting louder and softer by turns. "Settling into Shalim means the Coldwrought Children have entered my domain, an idiotic gamble had they actually believed me still living." It laughed. "I'll show them! Oh yes! I have set the bloody bait. Now I only wait for the snap of the trap!" The two kneeling followers dutifully laughed, their reaction too delayed to be genuine.

"W-we caught prey..is good, yes?" The slender one shifted its head up, looking at its master. "More of the shadow crawlies, a-and a chimera--"

"Bah! Mindless Rockstrikes! Useless to me! But...a chimera, you say?" The master thumbed what Felix supposed was it's chin. "Rare creatures, despite what the ilenii profess. Perhaps we can make use of that one."

Felix swallowed, looking down at Pit. The tenku's feathers and fur were ruffled up, his wings tucked close and body low to the ground. Pit could feel the awful vibes coming off this master creature, same as Felix. Electric fear snapped down his spine, tingling his back and shoulders with pinpricks of gooseflesh and hot nerves.

"Hm? Where is Helga? Where is my dearest child?" The voice pitched louder suddenly as it called out. Felix and Pit backed away, slowly, moving as carefully as they could through the thick underbrush.

Stealth is level 20!

Distracted by the swirling presence of the creature, Felix had no warning when the earth beneath him bucked and rippled, throwing him to the ground. Earthen Mana pulsed like a disturbed pond, the ground flowing so smoothly it was more liquid than solid. Within that flowing liquid, a near literal bonfire of orange fire Mana blazed, stretching across the majority of the garden before circling back toward the creepy voice. Something absolutely huge surfaced nearby, the sound of it breaking ground like an excavator biting into rocky soil.

"My sweet, you have returned to me," the voice crooned. Felix shook himself and started moving again, heading away from the voice as quietly as he could. The overgrown greenery proved to be a mixed blessing; it was perfect cover, but moving through it was challenging while remaining silent. His heart hammered and his skin was coated in a sheen of sweat despite the relatively cooler temperature. He focused on controlling his body, creeping forward at a snails pace. He couldn't Analyze that thing at this distance, but Felix knew it could squash him like a bug.

Breath Control is level 15!

Stealth is level 21!

Felix could barely hear the voices now, the distance stretching farther as the seconds ticked by; in fact, just as he passed another lone stone pillar crawling with ivy, he saw a rocky wall with an open passageway. Then he heard that voice, much louder than before.

"No! Here?" It asked, incredulous. "What bliss! We have a visitor!"

With a cacophony of groans and cracks, greenery all around Felix suddenly pushed away from him, bending back like opening a book. A few of the less flexible trees were snapped in half or ripped straight out of the ground. Felix froze, his shoulders tight and eyes wide. He was exposed. He slowly turned around, and could finally see the owner of the voice.

It was nearly ten feet tall and covered in plates of tarnished golden-hued armor. Sunbeams played across it like a halo of light, and an errant breeze stirred the tattered cape at its back. The armor was layered with plates of various sizes, smaller and more intricate at the joints, and covered the entirety of its body; Felix couldn't see a single piece of exposed flesh or even hair. Twin red lights burned in its dark visor as it gestured at his side. There, the massive car-sized head of a wurm protruded from the ground, it's four-way mouth splitting open into a gruesome sort of smile.

"When my dear sweet Helga told me of your capture, I couldn't believe it!" Its shoulders creaked as they shook in a mimicry of laughter. "A Human, here! In the Foglands! How exotic." The armored giant gestured again, this time at Felix himself.

An impossible force held him in bands of invisible iron, and Felix was lifted bodily from the ground. He was pulled through the air quickly, levitated in a manner that Felix found both terrifying and strangely familiar. Jostled, he was deposited into the arms of the two armored lackeys, who gripped him in callous hands made of leather and iron. Felix grunted in pain, and saw that the two figures were similar to their master, though encased entirely in black iron armor. They only came up to the giant's chest, but were still far bigger than Felix himself.

It was all he could do not to retch. They smelled like death, blood and curdling corruption oozing into the air around them.

The golden giant flexed his immaculately jointed hand, releasing the Skill it had used once the lackeys were holding him. The fingers were completely encased in the tarnished armor, tiny golden plates covering every joint and seam. As the Skill deactivated, he noticed a reddish electricity sparking around the golden giant's fingers. His eyes opened wide.

It's like Tides of Vellus...but his control is insane.

"My, my, my," whispered the giant, his voice breathy from beneath his gargantuan helm. Its armor made it look like a knight had been sealed alive in their armor. "How did you get all the way out here? And into my tunnels too? My Helga says you were slaughtering poor Rockstrikes in the upper caverns. Chasing some levels, were you?"

The armored hand never dropped from before him, but also never quite touched Felix. It flexed and twitched ever so slightly, almost as if turning the pages of a book.

"Just got lost, is all," Felix offered, watching that golden hand warily. He took the moment to Analyze the giant.

Name: ERROR

Type: Archon

Level: ???

HP: ?????/?????

SP: ?????/?????

MP: ?????/?????

Lore: Golden guardians of the Nymean people, Archons were the last defense against calamity. It was not enough.

Strength: Unknown

Weakness: Unknown

Error? Nymean? What is with this race? And that's the first time I couldn't see someone's level. This is bad.

"Lost? I too, have been Lost." The archon sighed like a bellows. "It is a grave sadness in your soul, a diminishing that lingers like a riven limb." It tilted its head at Felix, curious. "You...are familiar with such exile, are you not? I sense a kinship here."

The archon loomed over him, fixing Felix with its glowing ember eyes.

"Why have you entered my Domain, ileni?"

Felix felt drawn to those eyes, like a moth to flame, and he felt his thoughts stutter and twist dangerously. The thread of his mind felt taut, yanked and unspooling into those unending fires.

Mental Resistance is level 22!

Felix felt the grip on his mind slacken, ever so slightly. He rasped out the first thing that came to his head.

"I'm exploring! For the Endless Raven!"

The golden archon tilted back, its fiery eyes growing incrementally wider. The mental pressure on him almost disappeared entirely. "You claim the right of Wander, ileni? You have not the mark nor the badge of the Seeking Eye, unless you hide them most cleverly."

"Oh uh, wait, in my bag," Felix extemporized, an idea already blooming even as the lackeys gripped him harder. "I have my necklace, ugh, in there."

After a nod from the archon, the smaller of the two lackeys started rifling through Felix's satchel. It roughly shoved aside his waterskin and threw some half eaten rinds into the bushes. Felix Analyzed him and his companion while waiting.

Name: Arcid #54768

Type: Archonic Construct

Level: 35

HP: ???/???

SP: ???/???

MP: ???/???

Lore: A bastardization of life and magic, it has no soul yet it screams in eternal torment.

Strength: Unknown

Weakness: Unknown

Name: Arcid #54772

Type: Archonic Construct

Level: 35

HP: ???/???

SP: ???/???

MP: ???/???

Lore: A bastardization of life and magic, it has no soul yet it screams in eternal torment.

Strength: Unknown

Weakness: Unknown

Dumb names. How about Slender and Big Boy? His thoughts were spinning madly, still reeling from whatever the Archon did to him.

The sound of something ripping marshaled Felix's thoughts, causing him to gasp. "Hey! Hey!"

Slender dropped the stachel back against Felix's thigh, and held up a small medallion. It was the Farwalker's Friend, the necklace he found with the Henaari's belongings. The Arcid handed it over to its master, who took it delicately in hand. The archon vaguely gestured for his lackeys to drop Felix, and they did so immediately.

"It has been a long time since I have beheld a Farwalker. You are...shorter than any Farwalker I've seen before. Though admittedly, it has been a few centuries. Why did you not proffer this to my guards when you arrived?"

Felix swallowed as he climbed to his feet, his throat suddenly drier than it was in the lava room. His mind flipped through everything he knew of this world, of the Henaari and--

That's it!

"I'm on a...secret...mission. I am to find a lost Temple of the Nym, said to be in this mountain range," Felix lied, as glibly as he could.

Acting is now level 2!

"Hmm, and how did you discover this so-called Temple?" The archon stroked a thumb along its golden mouth-guard...the closest it had to a chin, Felix supposed. "Farwalkers are brave and wily, but not so foolhardy as to venture into the Foglands on bare speculation, mm?"

Felix felt the mental pressure again as the archon's eyes shimmered a deeper red. He squirmed against it, unable to get free entirely, but able to slip past the worst of it.

Mental Resistance is level 23!

How is it doing this? This mental pressure was unbearable and exhausting, despite his rising resistance. Felix opened his mouth, but was overcome by a wave of ennui. He suddenly questioned why he'd ever want to waste his breath lying, not when the truth was so much simpler. He could just spill the beans and it'd be over. The pain would go away and he'd be free. Just let go, and sink into the abyss.

Let us in~

NO. GET OUT OF MY HEAD!

Mental Resistance is level 24!

Mental Resistance is level 25!

Congratulations! You Have Reached Apprentice Tier in Mental Resistance!

You Gain The--

Felix pushed the notification away, focusing his swimming vision on the golden giant trying to break his mind. The archon's eyes were points of vile flame, burning in the darkness of its helmet like the last guttering torch before true night fell. He licked his lips and steadied his breathing.

"The Henaari told me of it."

Breath Control is level 16!

Acting is level 3!

"Hm, intriguing." The golden giant leaned back again, Felix only then realizing how close the metal creature had loomed. "Your mind is strong, and your will is not weak either. You speak of things that you have no knowledge of, yet I find your words compelling. You are an enigma, ileni." Felix gulped, his hands shaking despite the tight grip of the Arcids. The metal monstrosity idly pet the enormous wurm at its side, golden metal rasping as it slid over its rocky carapace.

"Now, I have been patient. I have listened to your fumblings and childish acts of wordplay and it has amused me. But my humor thins by the second, and so I will ask you this once only." The archon turned fully toward Felix, its entire body a threat of imminent violence. "Answer me truthfully and you will have a just reward. Lie to me and, well, you shall experience horrors beyond your comprehension." The massive wurm next to him snapped its four-way jaws, globby bits of drool splatting against nearby ferns. The archon leaned forward, its torso somehow crossing the gap between them like a dark mountain.

"How do you know of the Temple?"

This time the pressure was like an avalanche, subsuming every bit of Felix that wanted to lie or obfuscate the truth. He gasped, his mind floundering in an ocean of pain and darkness, and the denizens of the deep began to erode his thoughts. A sick, cloying corruption oozed over him, a smell that tasted like violence and desperation, the color of hunger and hate. The ground dissolved beneath him, the air boiling away, and even the light deigned to shine elsewhere. He was sinking into blood and acid, hate and darkness, and there was only one way out.

"I-" he struggled to push the words through his chest. They stuck like burrs, tearing into his heart and lungs. "I've been there!"

With a sudden twist, Felix flourished the hooked bronze blade. He held it out between him and the golden giant in a way that he hoped was threatening, but suspected only appeared desperate.

"Ha! You draw your weapon on me?!" The archon thundered, his eyes flaring into torches of flame. "I've withstood the countless blows of a cataclysm, you've no--"

The archon paused, his eye-fires fixed on the sword Felix held.

"That is a Crescian blade...and those..." The golden giant stepped backward, as if struck. "You-" it gasped.

"You are Nymean."