Chapter Six Hundred And Forty Five – 645

Chapter Six Hundred And Forty Five – 645

Monster! Master Tier! Evie howled, her voice nearly drowned out by the thing that followed her.

Their responses varied. The Chanters were busy at Harns side, hands glowing as they applied some Skill to the unconscious man. The Eidolons were already on their feet, arms lifted in defensive postures as they advanced toward the beast. Hallow flowed onto Beef, forming into his breastplate as he gripped Bedlam in his meaty fists. ArchieArchie backed up, putting Yintarion and his core between him and the threat.

Felix moved.

Behind me! he shouted, interposing himself as Evies shield failed. Lightning blasted him, coursing across his chest and arms and burning away half of his Garment. The beast followed, jaws open but already snapping closed onto his exposed head and torso.

He grabbed its jaws and stopped it cold.

Cardinal Flame! Felix growled, and red-gold flame fountained from his mawright into the monsters gullet. It rampaged through its insides, bashing aside crackling electricity and flooding the beast with a ravenous inferno.

Cardinal Flame is level 100!

Master Tier!

Felix gasped as power flooded through him, bearing down on his core space from the System itself. He threw aside the writhing Bethir, letting it crash onto the ground as he grappled with his pouch.

Eidolons! Beef! Kill it!

You Gain:

+20 WIL

+15 INT

+...

He unsealed another Essence Draught and threw it back, downing it in one go. The Spirit Fruit derived concoction burned as it went down, setting the back of his throat ablaze as his core answered with its own raging storm.

Legendary Essence Detected During Formation!

[Essence Draught of Atlantes (Pure)]

Broken Path and Fatebreaker Titles Found!

Master Tier Bonus Added!

Unbound Nature Resonates With [Essence Draught of Atlantes (Pure)]!

Calculating Effects...

WARNING!

Felixs head jerked back as the System sent a jolt of liquid agony through his center. Words unfurled across his Mind, but only after a second of focusing could he make them out.

Your Essence Draught Is Influenced By The Mote Of Frenzy!

Calculating Effects

Shit.

Choose A Feature:

Sonata - A Flame Among Fields

Symphony - The Inferno, Unrelenting

Syncopate - Let Rage The Stars

Insight blossomed within him, unbidden. The Features resonated within his chest, unfolding from words to vivid, pulsating images of flame. Those images seared through him, intensifying beat after beat, as violent energies speared through his center. It hurt far more than the previous Tempering had, and Felix retreated down into his Void Sanctuary.

Walls of opal rose around him, blocking away the fire in the skybut it was unable to block the sheer sense of havoc. Above him, the midday heavens had turned to sunset, filled as they were with rays of chaotic light.

The Mote of Frenzy was going wild.

The second sun stabbed through his opal forest, igniting it into a glowing forge that gave birth to vivid streamers of elemental power. These ribbons of shifting primal energies rippled above the horizon, stretching high enough that Felix could see them over his citys walls. His Void Sanctuary flexed, bending inward toward those ribbons as if sucked inand the walls trembled.

Void Sanctuary is level 101!

Deep Mind is level 81!

Felix clamped on it, his Will throttling the agony while Affinity identified the rarified strains of Dissonance and Harmony within the chaos. His Intent shaped it away from his center, and those images within clarified.

Sonata - A Flame Among Fields. Images of light came with it, but they were far off. Pinpricks in a blanket of darkest velvet. In a rush, one light grew until it dominated all of Felixs vision. A star, picked out in red-gold and filled with a sound that stung his ears. Flames jumped from its surface like prominences off the sun, wisps of plasma that curled back inward, unable to reach far beyond its glowing halo. Understanding flooded him, the images pulsating into a song that filled his Mind. To choose Sonata was to choose self-reliance and isolation. A single star, cut off in the endless vacuum of space.

Symphony - The Inferno, Unrelenting. The image changedor perhaps Felix did. Things shifted, the blank Void now filled with an unending sea of red-gold flames. All around him was more of the same, as if millions of stars had been drawn into orbit with one another, so close that they seemed one continuous whole. Again, understanding came: Symphony was the many working as one, toward a singular goal.

Syncopate - Let Rage The Stars. The images burst, thrust from Felixs viewpoint as if he were rushing through a field of neverending galaxies. The flames burned colder, faster, and alien. He could tell that this Feature meant change, and perhaps change would elevate him toward a new, distant horizon. Change and versatility at the risk of losing the Skills power.

WARNING!

He could only choose.

Syncopate was a risk, and while Felix gambled on the battlefield, he couldnt stomach it now, at the cusp of Master Tier. Sonata had potential, as it spoke to his increasing personal power and self-reliancebut it also twisted his gut to consider. Felix wasnt alone, and if he had any say over it, he never would be again.

Understanding chased the torment in his core, a whirling tangle of meaning that sank into his Mind with a sudden insistence. Out of all the choices, one spoke to Felix the most. Symphony was Sonatas opposite, even as it encompassed pieces of its message. They were not mutually exclusive. One could rely on themselves even as they leaned on another.

I choose Symphony.

Wild Mana surged through Felixs core as the power of the Essence Draught and Mote combined into something altogether more. A song began, something between an atonal buzzing and an orchestral swell that stabbed at his eyes and heart. Pieces of him, Skills within his core, took up the song. They thrummed in tune with it.

WARNING!

Dissonance Detected! May Result In Deterioration Of Skill Patterns!

ERROR!

Mote Of Frenzy Is Volatile!

Within his chest and without his conscious Will behind it, another Skill engaged. Its pattern hummed to insistent life, releasing a single, piercing note that cut through the dross. A large measure of significance drained from him, funneled through the Skill and into the spinning rings at the very center of his being.

The Mote of Frenzys chaotic power and the shrieking burr of Dissonance were folded together and, for a moment, melded completely with a vast, interconnected song that Felix couldnt comprehend.

Harmonic Resonance Preserved!

All Is Not Lost.

Unite the Lost is level 75!

Adept Tier!

You Gain:

+Reduction Of Significance Consumed Per Use

+5% RES

+5% INE

Like a door had been opened in his Mind, Felix suddenly grasped a fraction of what occurred. The Dissonance and Harmony produced by his cores had rioted, reacting to the Mote of Frenzy and the Tempering of his Cardinal Flame. Now, however, Unite the Lost worked to correct it all. More than thatit was changing things.

Patterns shifted, turning back on themselves into new waveforms, new shapes. For a brief, utterly insane moment, Felix heard a song unlike anything else. Not Harmony or Dissonance. It sank into his senses like bliss incarnate, fading after less than a fraction of a second, and taking with it all memory of its rhythm.

It vanished, but its effects remained.

SYNERGY DETECTED!

The Skills Auroral Forge, Mantle of the Infinite Revolution, and Rime Shaping Have Synergy With Cardinal Flame! Do You Wish To Evolve Them?Warning! Evolution May Result In Death And Cannot Be Stopped Once Begun.

All Choices Have Consequences.

Continue? Y/N

Felix didnt hesitate. Yes!

Evolution In Progress

System energy flooded his core, pouring in from the darkness outside of himself, and it was a familiar torment. A tidal wave of colorless radiance slammed into his spinning rings before exploding back out in a collection of near-solid beams of pure potency. Cardinal Flame, Auroral Forge, Mantle of the Infinite Revolution, and Rime Shaping were all ignited with the light of a dozen sunsjust as they collided with one another. Yet instead of annihilating one another, the power they exuded grasped and pulled, merging their patterns into something entirely new.

Evolution Complete!Level Is Averaged!

New Skill!

Astrum Ascendence (Transcendent), Level 90!

By dint of Will, deed, and Temper, you have bound the song of multiple elements together. Seized from the heavens, the fires of the astrum heed your callbut they are not the flames you once knew. Increases control over the elements of cosmic flame per level. Increases internal and external Mana control greatly per level. Skill consumes Mana and Essence to function.

WARNING!

Skill Must Reach Level 100 Before Fully Tempering Your Spirit!Failure To Comply Will Result In Sundering Or Death.

Fiendforge is level 69!



Fiendforge is level 73!

Shaping Array Is Maintained!Due To Unite The Lost, No Damage Is Suffered To Remaining Array!

Astrum Ascendence (T) Is Added To Shaping Array!

The new Skill thrummed, a piece of its pattern sounded in the depths of his core as it settled into place. The vibrations set fire to every single one of his nerve endings, igniting an agony so severe that it passed beyond definition. His vision went whitebefore being filled entirely by the dizzying light of cosmic nebulae. It filled Felixs Mind, Spirit, and Body in equal measure, rolling most severely through the other Skills in the Shaping Arraybut then it ceased.

And silence reigned.