Unbound-Chapter Nine Hundred And Sixty Five – 965

“Drink,” Evie demanded, tipping a glowing stone vial. Yin held her jaw in his scaled claws, forcing her lips open as the steaming draught poured in.

Vess shook and coughed, shoulders slamming into the broken tiles as she sprayed a cloud of sizzling Mana everywhere. Evie clamped a hand over her mouth, forearm muscles tensing like steel cables. A whirlwind scoured the room for five feet in every direction, encompassing Evie and most of Yin in its caustic gale.

Gabby backed up, shoving Archie and Beef as the ground fell away. The walls followed, consumed by the crawling nothing that stripped stone, plaster, and tile. “Keep her moving!”

Evie’s head snapped up. “She’s seizing!”

“We don’t have a choice!” Gabby stepped through the gale, squinting against the power where it tore at her face. Bloody wounds criss-crossed her skin, but she leaned in and scooped Vess up. “C’mon!”

She led the others back, through the increasingly narrow corridor as the deconstruction spread. The floors peeled after them, almost chasing Beef’s hooves as he clattered back. The walls split like overripe fruit, pulping wood and stone substructure before it was all subsumed by a thick, textured shadow.

“There’s more space in here,” Archie said. “Set her down.”

Gabby put Vess on the ground and stepped back as Evie and Yin took her place around the downed Dragoon. The winds still whipped about, scoring deep lines in the star-shaped tiles, but at least it wasn’t cutting into everyone else. They’d arranged themselves around the chamber, which was about ten times the size of their arrival point, if built in similar fashion. Gabby took it all in, scanning the area for more instability, but everything from the thirty-foot high murals on four of the six walls, it was unremarkable. The ceiling was vaulted, the corners of the hexagonal room were supported by enormous fluted pillars, and they way they’d come…

Gabby set her jaw. Jagged edges of static flared and popped, glitching across reality and turning the corridor into a black hole. A hole that was steadily expanding into their new room.

The unstable Mana was devouring the Omen Path.

"What do we do?” Kevin turned, his voice too high and his hands sparking with green-gold vapor. “I can—I can summon plants. Will that help?”

“Couldn’t hurt,” Shadow said, lifting his dark bow. “All I can do is blast it.”

“Don’t do that,” Ondine said. “Either of you. This is a wildfire. The instability isn’t going to be solved by giving it more fuel.”

Vess shouted wordlessly, her back arching, and the gale around her intensified enough that Evie had to leap back. Her reddish-silver armor was unscratched but it was smoking as if it had been held to a forge flame.

“Noctis’ tits! What’s she Tempering?”

“Her last Skill,” Yin said, still curled around his Companion. The wind seemed to melt around him. “She is nearly there.”

“She better move quick,” Evie snarled, grabbing at the spiked chain at her waist and surveying the encroaching destruction. “We gotta get outta here.”

“How?” Archie slapped the only wall that wasn’t covered in a mural or splintering reality. “There’s no damn door!”

“She holds the Omen Key.” Elowen had leaned down, inspecting the tilework in the center of the room. “This place is as much a construct of the holder as it is of the System. It falls without an Intent to bear its weight.”

Gabby tilted her head just enough to realize the tiles were a mosaic depicting an upthrust spear surrounded by swirling, radiating lines of colorful glass. “What do we do?”

Elowen stood up. “We replace her Intent with ours. Everyone, take in the details of this chamber. You must lock them in your Mind…and then you must visualize it. Force your Will and Intent to hold it in place.”

"I'm trying but—" Beef stumbled forward, knees cracking the floor as he fell, hammer crashing with almost as much weight. He screamed as a halo of necormantic Mana surged around him.

“Step away!” Hallow warned as Kevin and Archie rushed forward. Her crystalline form bulged into sharp, glittering spikes that expanded and retracted in chaotic patterns. “He is Tempering his Spirit into Master!”

“I tried to hold it! I—” Beef’s eyes rolled into the back of his head and he collapsed completely, with only Hallow’s spikes preventing him from faceplanting.

Ondine grunted as a storm rattled across her wings. "Damn it. I think I—”

Her words cut off, her voice choked by a sudden spasm. However, unlike Vess’ constrained cyclone and Beef’s roiling pillar of death magic, the Sylphaen had no Companion to dampen her might. Ondine grunted and her wings swept outward, releasing the storm on them all.

It tossed them all back, save Gabby and Evie, as stormwinds and crackling lightning scoured the entire chamber. The Kobolds, Archie, and even Elowen were lifted bodily from the ground—and thrown toward the devouring instability.

Gabby grunted, tanking the pain and impact in an instant, before she moved.

She snagged the Kobolds first in her left hand and hurled them back, where Evie caught them with a decidedly unladylike curse. Archie was next, and she nearly missed him, but the man was good on his feet—or off them. He phased through the air, flickering in strange, liquid ways before he hooked his fingertips into the edge of her pauldron.

“Gah! Pull me in!”

Ellowen, however, was too far gone. She tumbled toward the edge, glitching static flaring around her robes, but that purple-gold radiance around her intensified to near blinding levels. The jagged rim of reality flexed and flooded with sparks before it kicked her back, the Theron mage jerked forward on a wave of hazy telekinetic force.

She crashed into the ground, rolling sideways as her robes tangled around her hooved legs. Lightning sparked across the tiles, spat from the storm around Ondine’s outstretched wings.

“Jesus, Ondine!” Archie dropped off of Gabby’s shoulder like a deranged parrot. “Anyone else want to fuck off into your mind palace while we do work?”

“Archie!” Elowen glowed with purple-gold light and rose back to her feet. “Focus your Intent!”

Over Gabby’s shoulder, the destablization had only grown stronger. Whatever Elowen had done caused a sparking fizz to develop along the crumbling edge, and it was moving toward them fast.

Shit.

“Does anyone else feel like they’re Tempering?” the mage asked. “No? Good. Hallow! Forcefeed Beef a draught. I’ll handle the princess.”

Elowen focused, lifting her hand. Her Skill punched through the storm, tearing open the pouch at the woman’s waist and lifting a sleek stone bottle to Ondine’s lips. “Gabby, Kevin, Shadow, Archie, Evie. It’s up to us to fix this place. Visualize it!"

Gabby squinted, trying to focus her Intent, but it was like setting a plastic straw against a falling brick. Her physical stats were incredible, but her Will and Intent were lacking in comparison. Once, they'd been bolstered by the Pathless, but since his death she’d dwindled—like a circus tent with most of its supports removed.

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You can’t do this alone. Imara leaned over her, her shadow blocking the light.

Shut it! Gabby tried to shunt the voice away, but she might as well have tried to kick the wind. Her Intent wavered even further.

Can you? You know this isn’t right. These heathens beside you…let them die. The shadow pressed closer, and Gabby could have sworn dark claws clasped around her shoulder. They have led you astray down a false path. The Fiend and his allies must die. They are a threat to all we hold Right and True in this world.

No!

They will turn on us. Act first! Their greatest warriors are in pain. Distracted. Weak. Strike them down. The Fiend will stand no chance against us without his friends.

The claws tightened.

Do it!

Gabby bared her teeth as the glitching corruption as it crawled toward her, now only a dozen feet away. Imara was a weight on her back, eclipsing the light inside of her core space like a dark moon. She had to shake her off, but it was impossible. The Bargain was too strong. She—

A hand grabbed her forearm and Gabby nearly screamed. It was small, furry, and green-gold. "We got this," Kevin said with a tentative smile. "It's not real, right? It's only what we make of it."

Gabby looked up beyond the Kobold to the shadow that loomed over him, claws reaching for the young guy’s throat. "Yeah," she said, gritting her teeth. "It's only what we make of it."

Kill him!

Intent flared, Willpower pushing through Imara’s voice even as it howled in the back of her Mind. She sought out the deep well of need inside her and golden light flared, sparking through her channels. The chamber, she intoned. Whole and safe.

Light rolled from the pair of them, Titan and Kobold, and the ground ceased to fuzz. The star-shaped tiles settled, a solidity that spread from them inch by inch.

Shadow stepped close, hand on his brother's arm, and another Will joined theirs, pressing the chaos back. Evie was there right after, her chain slack in her hand and her eyes almost glowing a bright purple-white. The weight of things shifted, and for a moment, Gabby swore she could see blue lines light up the dark.

Kevin cheered. "We're doing it!"

Gabby found a smile. "Yes, we are."

Elowen stood at the edge, holding the deteriorating rim of their chamber from blasting apart entirely. She shook with the effort, her body straining, eyes running red with tears of blood. Gabby reached out her Will and Intent, visualizing the floor as it was, and the cracks repaired themselves. Walls folded back, piece by piece, only to fall again as the instability flared.

Suddenly Archie was there, on Gabby's other side. He grabbed her hand. "If this is how it works, then let's just do it."

Relief flooded through her, and the brothers gave a ragged shout, their efforts redoubling against the ground. It spread faster, spearing outward to capture where Beef, Ondine, and Vess were locked in their own private battles.

A humming began, deep and resonant, from the depths of a Dragon's chest. It was joined by a crystalline chime, a soft voice that sang counterpoint harmony to the Dragon, as Hollow joined in. It fused with the rest of their Intent and Wills, filled to the brim with their own power, and Gabby saw those blue lights thicken into pillars before they vanished entirely.

Elowen sagged in sudden relief, her breath a ragged gasp. The chamber steadied.

Gabby looked up, and where there once was a broken hole in the chamber, it was now filled with patchwork slabs of colorful stone. All of them stepped back, some falling to their knees from the effort. Evie was sweating, Archie was massaging his hands like their pained him, while the twins had tears in their eyes but pride in their Spirits.

The unstable Mana was locked out, but she could still feel it crash against their improvied bulwark.

"Good job," Archie said begrudgingly.

"Thanks."

"Don't get used to it." He walked away, over to Beef, helping the kid back up to his feet. "You good?"

"Yeah. My Spirit's Tempered now."

"That was fast."

"Soon as you guys ended…whatever that was, everything fell into place.” Beef shuddered and Hallow reached up to pat his cheek. “It felt awful before that, though.”

“The unstable Mana was affecting you?” Elowen asked, voice sharp.

“Seemed like it? But my Tempering wasn’t really complicated. Never is, really."

All at once, the lightning storm around Ondine faded, as did the hurricane across Vess and Yin. They sagged back. Vess was still on the ground, but breathing steadily. Ondine dropped to her knees as her wings folded inward, cradling her body as she keened in a very particular sort of pain. Sorrow was laced through her song.

Gabby remembered hitting Master. It had come with some odd visions. What had she seen in her Tempering?

A resonant gong rattled through her and she swooned, head swimming without warning. She wasn’t the only one. Elowen and Ondine did as well. They all looked at each other, expressions dark. It was more of a feeling than a sound—a certainty in Gabby's gut. Something had changed.

Vess stood on shaking legs with the aid of Evie and Yin. She looked around. "I am so sorry. This is all going wrong."

Beef waved her off. "It's not your fault we Tempered.”

“Yes.” Elowen smoothed her robes. “When we're on the edge and you're into an Omen Path, you can expect some turbulence.”

"I know, but as soon as I met Evie here, I intended to avoid it. If it were just me, I would deal with the consequences. As it stands, all of you have to suffer with me."

"What are you talking about, lady?" Shadow asked. "We blazed through our Doors just fine, and if you hadn’t noticed we just repaired this place.”

“Not easily,” Kevin admitted.

Shadow shrugged that detail off.

Vess shook her head. “Things are going to get far more difficult now. I can feel the weight of this Omen Path on all of my Aspects. It is…different than before."

"Oh." Elowen stepped forward. "That’s what happened. You've fully Tempered to Master."

"Yes."

Gabby frowned. "Why does that matter?”

"The Omen Path tailors itself to the person who holds the Key, right?"

"Sure, like an instance dungeon," Beef said. Kevin and Shadow nodded along, immediately understanding.

"So then, the stronger the person..." Gabby started.

"...the stronger the Omen Path," Vess finished. "We still have the final Door ahead of us and it was always going to be difficult, but now I fear it will be deadly. Especially to those of you who have not yet reached Master."

Beef shrugged, clearly unconcerned. "I'm nearly full Master Tier myself. That was my Spirit I just got through. I just got my Mind left."

"I have a Master Tier Body already," Archie admitted. "And I'm a single level from reaching the same in Spirit and Mind."

Elowen smiled. "I've been a Grandmaster for a while.”

"And we're Masters ourselves," Kevin said, gesturing to him and his brother. “Though Shadow’s in spitting distance of Grandmaster."

“Oh.” Vess glanced at them all. “Evie?”

“I ain’t Master, but I’ll kick anything’s ass that needs it.”

Ondine put a hand on Vess' shoulder. Tears streaked her face, but her jaw was set. "We'll be ready for whatever this Path throws at us. Together."

A smile ghosted across Vess' face. She put her hand over the princess's. "Together."

Bells rang out. Light filtered through the cracks in the walls and tiles like errant sunbeams, but nowhere was as concentrated as the center of the chamber. The mosaic glowed, light from within as the entire circular section rotated, until the tip of the spear pointed toward the blank wall. It locked into place with a resonant boom, a mountain of cymbals crashing against one another, and the light leapt forward.

A deeply crimson wooden frame lifted from the bare stone, rising from unseen depths to frame a section of wall that was no less than thirty feet wide and twice that in height. Massive slabs of pale blue and white stone were next, rising in the same fashion only to anchor themselves to the frame with bright, brassy hinges as tall as Gabby herself.

“Open,” Vess demanded, and surprisingly the door obeyed. No Mana or blood required.

The doors rumbled like earthbound thunder and released a spark of radiance from within. Shifting light glimmered beyond its threshold, as if dappled shadow and sunshine had formed a physical barrier.

Vess intertwined her hands with Evie and Ondine before meeting Gabby’s gaze. “As one.”

All of them stepped forward—and Gabby smashed head first into solid stone.

“Eugh,” she rubbed the bridge of her nose and came back with blood. “What the hell?”

She remained in the chamber. The door was gone. Vess and the others were gone. Gabby was alone.

They left me…?

With a scattered roar, the room behind her disintegrated.