Chapter Two Hundred and Eighteen – 218

Chapter Two Hundred and Eighteen – 218

"So you recognize our majesty?" said the Arcid at the front. It was a small thing comparatively, barely bigger than a normal Human and colored like mud. Felix's Manasight picked out currents of dusty brown circulating around the creature, concentrated around its hands and skull.

Earth Mana. It's got a spell ready.

"I recognized your stench, yeah," Felix said.

All three of the Arcids stiffened, and their Spirits blazed with a restrained anger.

"You are one to talk, Fiend," said another, their voice more melodious than Mud. It was far taller and thinner too, like a stretched skeleton made of bright green metal. A sense of green-gold and brown Mana fluttered around its feet. "You stink of the vile, vicious power in this Nest. You're no different than the beasts you've killed."

Life Mana? Or...growth, related maybe. Nature. Felix Eyed the three of them. They were all nearly level fifty, and all of them were beyond Journeyman. Were they all Risi before as well? Like the Envoy?

"Did the Archon send you?" Felix asked, buying time. He could sense more of the Revenants closing in, maddened by the Broodmother's wrath. "How'd you get past the Wall?"

"Pfah!" the last of the three Arcids scoffed. It's voice was deeper than the rest, matching it's immense, spherical body. It was a gun-metal grey and looked like an enormous ball of overlapping plates, its arms and legs little better than short stumps. "The supposed ingenuity of the mortal Races is nothing before us."

"Nor the might of our Father," Mud continued. "Though you should know...I sense our Father's touch upon you." The umber-hued Arcid's eye flames flashed. "That should not be."

"You are tainted by the vicious filth of this place," Skeleton said, waving overly long fingers in the direction of the Broodmother. "Mixing such with our Father's blessed touch is...profane."

"Profane," Felix snorted. The sound stoked the ire in the Arcids' Spirits, and they took several steps closer. Felix eyed the distance between them, only thirty feet, and threw his senses out toward the horde. It was closing in, faster now. "That's rich coming from the Archon. The Envoy tried singing his praises too." Felix felt Essence and Mana surge in his veins in time with his own rising fury. "It didn't end well for him."

"You are an insect. You could never kill the Envoy!" The Orb rocked forward, but Skeleton held out a thin, green hand.

"Do not be foolish, 55390. Look in his hand," it's robotic voice admonished, staring pointedly at Felix's weapons.

Orb growled, like the sound of an engine misfiring, but the thin Arcid still restrained him. "We have better methods than brute force."

"Ah," Ball said, the word deep and sonorous in it's cavernous chest. It twitched in a slow laugh. "Huh huh, of course."

Felix gripped his Blade and Femur tightly, letting his power coil within him. His Will lingered around the etched patterns of his Skills, ready for his moment. But first he needed information. "Why are you here?"

"You think we'd allow you to claim Authority over us? Over our home? Pfah!" Mud sneering as much as it's immobile metal face allowed. "None of you are worthy."

They were too calm, too collected. The Envoy was insane, but it only made mistakes when it was worked up. Would the same be true for these twisted creations? Felix lifted his Blade and bone. "And the Archon is? Last I saw, he was cowering in his hole." Felix smiled, baring his fangs. "Crying over his pet wurm."

"You!"

"Enough! He has transgressed, all of them have," Skeleton intoned. Felix didn't like the sound of its (her?) voice, though it sounded eerily familiar. "Just like the abominations, he has hints of our Father within him. That will not do." Shedefinitely a sheflicked her over long fingers. "Activate the array."

Wait, what?

Those collections of dusty-brown and green-gold Mana surged down, into the ground, and it suddenly shimmered into a blinding brilliance. Light as fetid as a marshy sunset flushed the chamber as sigils crawled across the floor, illuminating the mesh of vines that covered everything.

Nothe array is the vines! Felix flinched before he started running. Oh no.

Mervin's Skill was screaming at him. Wading into the battle was not safe, but once Mervin had chosen to take that course of action, his Sentinel's Regard had quietened regarding the combative hordes of monsters and Inquisitors. Even when Teine had led them into the crater and had begun inscribing the massive crystal, it had remained practically silent. That had changed.

Mervin spun, looking up at the lip of the crater, but he saw no Revenants or Ghouls come to slay them. But he did see a wave of brilliant yellow-red light begin to shine from the roots that overlapped the crater's edge. The light flowed along the rootsvines?that clung to the side of the shattered stone.

Let go, Felix...

Let us innnnnnnnn

But then it was gone, and Felix fell to his knees. The ground burned, scorching his trousers, and the pressure threatened to crush him to the earth. Something sank into him, less like fingers and more like the raking claws of an uncaring giant; within his core, his very soul, something was taken.

In his Manasight, everything around him was yellow-red, a vapor so thick it felt almost solid. Yet from within him, his Fire Within detected a similar radiance that was yanked from his channels. It was agony similar to the ravages Essence took upon his pathways, and it just kept going. It felt like his soul was vomiting up every bad decision he'd ever made in his life. It burned and stabbed at his core, splashing from Felix before soaking into the array beneath his knees.

Like...calls to like, Felix managed. Profane Mana...how'd it get...inside me?

But then he saw it, as more was seized and ripped free. The yellow-red Mana had somehow dwelled among the Primordial Essence, masked by the crimson corruption so thoroughly he had never sensed it. His Manasight, now fully cognisant, felt only hate and spite and an unbridled fury as it scoured his channels and spat out into the world.

That fury, he panted before another wave of fouled Mana spewed from his skin. It wasn't...it wasn't the Essence at all.

It was the Archon.

The arrays dimmed beneath him. Felix collapsed. He'd fought so long against the pull of it that his muscles seized the moment it disappeared. His Health, Stamina, and Mana had all taken a big hit; none were above half. Felix flared his Meditation and focused on recovery. Essence burned, enough that he was going to have to take another bite before long.

Ah, quite a lot, rumbled the Sphere. Its voice shook the space between Felixs bones even from a distance. As expected of our great progenitor.

"Our Father-Master has seeded this realm with all the tools we need to complete our Trial," Skeleton intoned. "It is only on us to make proper use of them!"

Felix turned back to them and saw a curious thing: the three Arcids, so different in dimensions, standing before a floating, shifting polyhedral of familiar energy. Yellow-red Profane energy, stolen from him andhe looked aroundstolen from all around him. From sixty feet away, he could feel a coiled malice within it. Carefully, Felix leveraged himself back to his feet.

"The Fiend lives!" Mud announced. He almost sounded impressed before he noticed something else. "As do the abominations...That is unexpected."

Around them, Felix could sense the amassed Revenants and Ghouls recovering. Their Spirits felt confused and angry, but the flavor of the emotion was strangely muted. Toothless, almost.

"Something else animates them," Skeleton hissed. "Something ancient."

"Irrelevant," Sphere boomed. The massive Arcid rolled forward, until its stubby arm rested atop the shifting shape of energy. "They will not survive the next."

His resource pools slowly ticked back up, and Felix felt better than before. Clearer. More calm. Pit chirruped curiously, but Felix hadn't the time. He squared himself against the Arcids, ready for violence.

"Oho! The Fiend has changed his mind! No longer the prey!" Mud laughed, a little too boisterously. "He wishes to play the predator!" With a curt gesture, a tiny portion of the gathered power zipped into the three of them. Their metallic bodies were limned with a fiery light, almost blindingly so, and Felix gasped. To his Voracious Eye, they rose from High Journeyman to High Adept in a span of seconds.

Below them, the array relit, but this time it formed a series of four, interconnected script circles. Where they overlapped was where the Profane energy hovered.

"They are all prey, baring their false fangs," Skeleton said, her thin hand joining Sphere and Mud's above the energy. Power hummed in the air. Felix charged.

Unfettered Volition!

Reign of Vellus!

Before his kinetic lightning could reach them, the energy surged into the array. A cascading wave of violent, angry, hateful power flooded the earth, sweeping over and through Felix like a relentless tide. His charge was stymied, his body lifted and thrown backward. He hit the front ranks of charging Revenants and tumbled through them as they were all tossed by hurricane force winds. Felix saw a mad collection of scales, claws, and white-enameled armor all pitched into one another.

"Authority is wasted on you mortals," the three Arcids shrieked in unison. The three of them raised their other hand up, pointing at the Broodmother. Power diverted from the array at their feet. "None of you deserve such power!"

Another surge built, a wave so powerful that Felix could feel its screaming edge.

"We shall remove the temptation."