Unbound

Felix shoved himself away, out into the open air as Kho landed in his spot. The mountain crunched, its sides shearing off to bury the already dead Dhavik. Kho stood there, eyes glowing purple-white, its fangs bared at Felix as he hovered in mid-air, held aloft by a single bolt of lightning.

"Come on then, kitty. Show me what you've got.”

Kho blurred, its body rolling forward as its immense musculature sent itself into a whipping somersault. Its tail moved faster than Felix could track, slamming into him and sending him down like a shot into the ground. The air screamed and the earth caved in where he landed, trees falling with gunshot cracks. Felix blinked, his eyes spotted with black.

Maybe you should take off that stupid belt! Pit sent between pants. This thing is tough enough already!

Felix's ears rang as he stood up, pulling free of the broken earth that tried to hold him still. His muscles were screaming at him, he was dizzy, and a warm trickling from his ears came back red.

Warning!

Your Health Has Dropped To 35%!

Above, beyond the broken trees of his fall, Kho and Pit fought in mid-air. The tiger was a whirling dervish, ice flinging from its every tail-spinning movement. Pit wound around it, evading it with an enviable Agility. Speed that was easily within Felix’s grasp if he just took off the Crucible.

"No. I can do this.” He just had to even the playing field. Adamant Discord.

The thing about Bonds was that they were between everything and everyone. Felix had witnessed countless examples of it in the past, but he'd never really thought about what it meant for the Skill. Mountain King Kho and Felix had a Bond now. More than that, it was a specific one. The thing had hit him. The tail and his chest were linked by the intensity and the significance of its attack.

"Yeah," he muttered. "Yeah, I can do that."

Lightning firmed in his grip as he reached up…and seized.

Mid-spin, Kho was jerked to a halt. A yowl of confused dismay turned into an agonized roar as its tail wrenched free of its body. Viscera fell below as the massive appendage fell to the earth, crushing trees and the mountain face.

The tiger fell as well, the ice it summoned falling by the wayside as it crashed into a cliff. Its legs scrabbled as it pawed at its broken hindquarters.

"Not so fast now," Felix said. The beast snarled, its Spirit surging with crazed hatred and visceral bloodlust. It leapt outward toward Felix, only to get intercepted by a falling meteor. One that was suspiciously shaped like a bus-sized Chimera.

Pit crushed the Mountain King to the earth, talons tearing at its belly before his sharp beak clamped over its armor-less back. Kho yowled, a mindless rage setting its fore limbs into a flurry of wild strikes, but Pit didn’t bother to dodge. Bloody fur and feathers fell, and Pit gave a single, savage tear. Kho’s spine came with him.

You have killed Mountain King Kho!

XP Earned!

The Realms Refute While The Crucible Rewards.

+25 STR

+25 END

+25 DEX

+25 AGL

+25 VIT

+25 PER

+5 WIL

Felix grinned as Pit stood triumphant over the Mountain King’s corpse. “That was clutch, bud.”

Pit spat out Kho’s spine. It had already started smoking. “That was a lot harder than it had to be.”

"A little bit," Felix admitted. “But worth it, I think.”

The Princes and their swarms had been small fry, earning Felix little more than a single point in a few of his stats while he wore the Crucible. By comparison, the Kings were on a whole other level. Both had been tough fights individually, but together they had been a menace. Dhavik and Kho had forced both Felix and Pit to expend themselves in new ways—a real challenge, without having to go into a slugfest with near-gods. It was a nice change of pace.

"It feels like the longer I act while wearing this thing, the more resistance builds," Felix tapped his belt. It rang with a pure, solid note. He settled onto a fallen tree, next to Pit and the smoking deposed King. The less he moved and fought, the less resistance he began to feel. "It seems like it'll reset eventually, but I was fighting hard to even punch at the end there.”

"Then, if you’re not taking that thing off, at least take a break.” Pit shuddered as he sat down, his rump shaking the earth enough to unsettle several downed logs. “However that thing works, it’s not just affecting you.”

Felix sat up straighter. He hadn’t considered that. "Really?"

"Yeah, everything's harder. Flying, fighting, my Skills are even slower at manifesting.” Pit whined. “It sucks.”

“Have you seen any gains?"

"Uh, let me see." Pit nudged his beak forward before blinking his golden eyes wide. "Oh. Beak and pinion, yeah. A bunch of stats…whoa all the physical ones. They jumped up by ten points each. Even my Skills jumped up by one or two levels."

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"Huh, would you look at that?" Felix grinned, rubbing his hand across his belt. The tool was proving more useful by the moment. His gains weren’t Skill based, but probably because he wasn’t using anything affected by the Crucible. "I wonder what’ll happen when I actually start shaping Mana."

Pit shoved a paw at Felix’s chest. "You heard Karys and Paxus. They said don't push it."

Felix waved a hand. "I know, I'm being careful."

"Are you? Because those fights were tough. If you took that thing off, it wouldn't have been."

"You kidding me? We fought worse than them while weaker than we feel right now."

"Yeah, but you got used to curb-stomping everything that came your way." Pit shrugged his shoulders more than a little sheepishly. "I guess I did too. I'm just saying it's nice to feel strong."

"It's nicer to be strong, though, right? Look at the stats we just gained from this fight. It's been a long time since something as simple as this has been able to move the needle."

"Yeah, I suppose,” Pit grumbled. “But why do I have to suffer?”

“What would Harn say if he were here?”

Pit eyed him suspiciously. “Something annoying about training?”

“Something like that. We got the Crucible, so it’s time to take advantage of it while we can. Time's running out."

Pit groaned. “Don’t remind me. That stupid comet looks bigger already.”

Felix walked from the fallen trees, pointedly ignoring Ruin in the sky while climbing up an upthrust stone he hadn’t shattered. Instead he peered down through the increasing winter winds. Snow flurries limited his sight and his Crucible-hampered Perception didn’t help—still, it would take a lot to hide the pulsing Domains down below, separated by a ridge between the two mountains. Two chasms broke the stone there, each filled with a liquid sheen. One of purple-white and the other a mingling of orange and virulent green.

"I'm checking those out."

"Okay. Wake me up when you’re done." Pit was asleep almost before the words left his beak.

Felix smiled and stepped off the cliff. The fall was only forty feet, something easily done with his stats, but no matter how he flexed his knees on landing, the impact was like a shock through his spine. He rapped his knuckles against the Crucible irritably. “Fine. I’ll be more careful.”

King Kho’s Domain rippled before him. A distinct, nearly palpable power resided within, one that reminded him strongly of the twisted dungeon that once was below Haarwatch. The portal gave him the sense that something had turned sour—likely the Manawarping he’d seen across all the Princes and Kings. This close he could feel a lot of presences just beyond the Domain's barrier. Monsters. Many of them formidable, almost Princes if he were judging on power alone. Still, every single one shied away as he stepped up to the portal.

Felix frowned. Full Domains were different from Nests, more permanent, with a great deal of significance buried in them. He wasn’t exactly sure of the mechanics—a powerful monster just had to exist in a single location for a period of time before their Mana and Essence started cocooning around themselves. This one had clearly built for a long time for the creatures within to be the rivals of Princes, and Felix had no doubt that if he gave it enough time, the Domain would spit out another King.

“Can’t have that.” He wasn’t sure what was within the Domain, not without entering it, and he didn’t have time to find out. “Let’s try something new.”

He put his hand just at the edge of the Domain, fingers trailing across the liquid barrier. He didn't press through, but immediately he felt a resonance. Not through a Skill or his senses, but through the belt around his waist. It shook, as did the dual pieces across his temple and chest. The Crown and Chalice were resonating with his Crucible.

“Oh that’s very interesting.” He flared Adamant Discord. There was a thread connecting the three items, each one bound to the portal before him. He’d never noticed it before, but with the Crucible on, Felix could pick out the thick Bond his Empyrean Regalia had with…well, he supposed it was the Realms itself. “Mind and Body. Cognitive and Corporeal. Damn, is it that simple?”

Moreover, the Crucible had three Bonds extending from it. Here, so close to the Domain, he could see them clearest as they sank into its liquid surface, but those Bonds seemed to spread out everywhere. They were what held him back, adding resistance to even the simplest of movements. A tight, irrefutable connection to the world around him…and the Domains specifically. “Domains are tied to all three Realms? I’d always thought they were just little bubbles clinging to the edge of the Continent.”

That’s what he’d been told. Yet here before him was proof that they were more than that. The Realms were strange, but he was learning that everything was connected. With a Domain, that connection was more apparent than ever.

"Huh. I'll have to explore that later. For now…"

Empyrean Embrace!

Ethereal jaws clamped down on the liquid door and there was no resistance. His Skill sank into the Domain, spreading outward with such a rapid rush that Felix nearly staggered, as if he were falling into a great chasm. He caught himself, sudden vertigo fading, just in time to notice the presences he’d noted before had all vanished. A great thunder sounded, as if far off, and with a mighty roar the entirety of the Domain collapsed.

Hundred, perhaps thousands of monsters as well as crafted terrain, structures, even entire biomes were broken down into a single, heady torrent. Essence, Mana, significance—all of it poured into Felix.

He fell back, the momentum of that much power and his Crucible restricted Body unable to stand still. His muscles tensed, steel beneath his midnight scales, and the tendons in his neck stood out like cables.

Then it was over, leaving him panting.

Empyrean Embrace is level 136!

That was easier than I expected. It seemed Empyrean Embrace, like Adamant Discord, was equally unaffected by his Crucible.

At his center, the Beast arose.

More, Scion! it called, glorying in the power that poured through them both. We Must Be Strong Enough For The Reunion!

The reunion of what? Felix had asked the question a dozen times now, but the Beast still refused to answer. He guided the power inside of him, giving the Beast his tithe, while directing the majority to his Divine Tree and dual cores. Answer me, dammit!

The Beast’s words faded to pleased grumbling. Growling himself, Felix leapt to the other side of the ridge and repeated the process on that Domain as well.

This time, the Beast remained silent.

Empyrean Embrace is level 137!

Devouring Dhavik’s Domain was just as easy as Kho’s, though he was a bit more braced for the rush of power. What he wasn’t expecting, however, was a notification.

Title Upgrade!

Rigorous Regicide II!

You have killed two Mountain Kings, a feat unprecedented since their rise. Their power now flows through you, tangling with the storm…and all those that stand below them.

+Increased Animosity From The Beasts Of The Sunsend Peaks

+Increased Perception For Tracking Kings And Below

Immediately, Felix’s Perception pinged off of a dozen signals. The sensation of Princes and their needling swarms grew sharper, but he shoved them away. Instead, he focused on a singular presence across the mountains, distant but distinct.

“The last King,” he muttered. “That way, Pit!”

They soared off, into the storm.