Unbound
Chapter Eight Hundred And Ninety Five – 895

Name: Omen Key

Type: Path (Enhancement)

Lore: Omens are our destinies unveiled, hints at futures yet to come and strength yet to unlock. Not all attain their destiny, but all meet their Chosen Fate. This is the Key to your Path. Walk boldly or not at all.

The blood-red light of the Seal vanished, plunging them into darkness. Yin growled something guttural, and his diamond horns shone with a soft morning radiance.

"Thanks, Yin." Felix held out the box to Vess. "Take it."

She stepped back. "You cannot give this to me. It is too much."

"Are you kidding me? Who else should I give it to?”

“One of the Unbound. Tactically, their growth is more important than mine."

"I'm gonna stop you right there. First off, they're not here. They didn't earn this. And if I know anything about the System, that matters. This was a Unique reward, tailored to us."

Vess stared at the Omen Key, her gaze caught somewhere between eagerness and anxiety. "The Unbound are more worthy to advance their Omens. I am merely happy to help."

"Nope! I'm not gonna listen to you talk about yourself like that. You've done too many incredible things to think you aren't worthy of an Omen Key. Not only have you fought incredible enemies far beyond your own power, you've won. You were the first to bond with a true Dragon in an Age. Hell, you revived a portion of the Dragon Race! Not to mention driving out your longtime enemies from your ancestral home. Vess, you're a hero and a force to be reckoned with—and I wouldn't have stopped Castarius without your Matriarch's Lament to throw his Spirit into disarray. His guard was too complete. His regeneration too swift. You've more than earned this."

Felix pushed the open box toward her once more. "Keep it. Maybe you aren't ready to open the door that it goes to, but keep it until you are."

After a long moment, Vess licked her lips, staring at the faceted crystal Key for nearly 30 seconds before she lifted shaking fingers and gripped it tight.

"Very well," she said. Behind her, Yin danced about his long, sinuous form, wriggling as giddy as a blaring giddiness shot from his Spirit.

"Yes, little Dragoon. The emperor is right. You deserve this."

Vess grinned at them both. "All right. I stand no chance against the both of you united." She tucked the Key away.

"It's good that you recognize that, little Dragoon.”

“What did you get, Felix?" Pit asked, sidling closer.

Felix turned his attention to the other item in the small black box. Unseen Beholder.

Name: Carved Bronze Sheet

Type: Trash

Lore: A piece of something greater.

“Well that’s…disappointing,” Pit muttered. “I thought this was supposed to be Unique?”

Felix had the same thought. The hammered piece of bronze was unremarkable at first glance. Second glance, too, at least until his head began to hum. Felix frowned, touching his temple. The Crown of Elysium vibrated in a way he'd experienced before. It was resonating with the presence of Crescian Bronze.

Felix lifted the sheet of metal up to the light shining off of Yin. Twisting it this way and that, he could feel the faintest stirrings of a foreign will in the flattened sheet, but it was nearly non-existent. That alone was unlike any piece of Crescian bronze he'd ever touched. All such metal contained its own will. It was one of the reasons why it was so valuable, why it conducted mana so well, and why it was so hard to work.

Felix turned the sheet over, finding the back of it to be as covered in punched patterns as the front. The markings resembled sigils, but only superficially. None of them read clearly, and it certainly wasn't an array. It was as if someone had started writing a dozen different sigils only to stop partway, sometimes half, sometimes no more than an eighth of what might have been the original sigil.

He wasn't sure what any of it was supposed to mean, and his unseen beholder told him very little. "Who would make this?" he wondered.

Prerequisites Met!

Nymean Bloodline Detected!

Omen Path Completed!

Bound Empyrean Regalia Detected!

The sheet twisted, its dimensions shifting sideways until it formed a disk. That disk itself curled in on itself, bending in Felix's hands until it joined, turning into an orb the size of a baseball. Without needing to check, the item information reappeared, now entirely different.

Name: Eye of Tumult

Type: Path (Enhancement)

Lore: All Paths come to an end. Seek the last resting place of the Obsidian Tumult and summon forth your courage, magus. You shall need it.

Felix's mouth went dry. It's the same Type as the Omen Key. He read through the Lore another time. All paths come to an end?

Turning the object over in his hands, he noted that the orb was seamless now. The pieces of Crescian Bronze had melded together, and the previously incomplete markings now formed curious, almost sigil-like patterns across its surface. Yet, they bore no resemblance to the sigaldry he knew.

"Is there a second stage to an Omen Key?" he asked.

"What?" Vess asked, tearing her eyes away from her faceted prize. "Would you not know, from your previous foray into the Omen Path?"

"That's not what I mean," Felix replied, swiping the item's information and sending it to the other three.

Pit tilted his head in confusion and shrugged, clearly unimpressed. Vess bit her lip, as unsure as Felix himself. Yin, however, had a very different reaction.

"This... Emperor, you have earned a reward worth more than most kingdoms," he said, his voice filled with awe.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Is it what I think it is?"

Yin nodded. "Even in my time, few ever found their Omen Key, but far fewer were granted this final step down their Path. It was known that they would not appear as uniform as Omen Keys are. Instead, it was a cipher, tailored to the person that earned it. To their Path. This Eye of Tumult will lead you where you need to go. More than that, I cannot say."

Obsidian Tumult... That sounds really familiar. He studied the orb, noting how the patterns carved into it not only formed those semi-sigils, but also a continuous looping line across the entire surface, each marking connected to the next. The entire object had a certain heft to it, one that was not accounted for by metal alone. As he rolled it in his hands, it almost felt like there was a liquid inside, which should have been impossible. The bronze sheet had been empty, but the way the weight of it shifted as he turned the orb, Felix grew certain that something was within.

You Have Claimed Authority Over The Fortress Of Starlight’s Rise!

Do You Wish To Extend Your Authority Over The City?

The notification forced him to tuck the orb away into a side pouch. The moment he did so, the black metal chest vanished, and a ripple of light slipped across the Seal beneath his feet.

Felix focused on the notification. Yes. Extend away.

A certain awareness slipped over Felix, rolling outward across the fortress and the city beyond. Just as with the cities and Territories he’d claimed previously, a new sense blossomed within him as pathways across the port city opened up for the first time in Ages.

The City Has Fallen.

What Is Your Choice?Forsake Or Unite?

No matter how many times the System asked, his answer would always be the same. Unite.

Power fled his core, ripping through his channels and into the Seal before him. Mana, Essence, and a solid chunk of his significance, until the sigaldry glowed a brilliant white-blue and red-gold. The world itself flexed, bowing out at the edges of Felix’s vision, before steadying into something more.

Aja Nadir!

The City At The Edge Of Night!

Fallen No More!

Beyond the mountain fastness, Felix felt the city shift as if it were shedding a moth-bitten cloak. The buildings smoothed, their pocked surfaces replenished as new growth flourished in barren gardens and across rusted iron trellises that were now spotless. Flowers bloomed in the dark, and the sky itself lightened as those massive stars of blue fled the rift exit to merge into one and rise far above the docks. It flared, shining with new light, as if it were a miniature sun.

His Authority experienced it all.

Felix pulled himself back, focusing on his own two feet and the people around him. “It looks like the way out is clear.” He rubbed his hands together. “Now, let’s take the treasure of Starlight’s Rise.”

Authority Recognized!

Just beyond the chamber in which Castarius had been imprisoned, they found a pair of wide doors. They were warded, the patterns of it quite similar to the Seal that dominated the center of the room, but these doors responded eagerly to Felix's newfound Authority.

Inside, they discovered a number of rooms that resembled apartments, though their furnishings had long since rotted to dust. Most intriguing was at the very end of the hallway, where it split at an angle, leading to two separate chambers fronted by distinct doors.

One door was carved to resemble wings folded over one another. The join in the center, denoted by carved stone feathers that layered across each other in a delicate pattern, made Felix a bit terrified that it would shatter if he pried at the door with any amount of Strength.

On the right, the door was far more practical. It was stout and marked with geometrical designs that reminded Felix of the Dwarves. The figures carved into the top of the door, just below the lintel, were also vaguely dwarven, their proportions wide and heavyset, their features blocky and almost unfinished.

He let Pit pick the first door to check. Unsurprisingly, he picked the one with the feathers. A ward held these doors closed as well, but it opened the moment Felix decided it should, swinging on ghostly hinges to reveal a short set of stairs. Beyond the stairs was a wide-open room filled with racks and shelving and piles of glittering valuables.

"An armory," Pit said, nearly hopping as he slipped between the shelves.

“More like a treasury,” Yin corrected, eyeing the piles of gold and gemstones inside some chest.

The four of them took a look around, finding weapons and armor of quality make, though none were of more rare materials than mithril. Their designs were elegant, as if formed of water or wind captured by a master artisan. Every suit of armor and weapon they found was the work of an artist. They were beautiful as well as functional. All told, there were perhaps three hundred weapons and twice that number of armor pieces.

For a brief moment, Felix entertained the possibility that the Exalted Bell might be within the treasure chamber. Unfortunately he was not so lucky.

They did, however, find that a number of the suits of armor were barding. Specifically, barding that, according to the pictographs carved above their storage area, were intended for Chimera.

"Now this is useful," Pit exclaimed, moving between the shelved suits like a kid deciding which candy he wanted to eat first. "Look! This one enhances your speed a little, and this one reduces some damage. And—oh my goodness! These have auras! Fire and frost and wind!"

Pit practically vibrated as he explored the shelves. "Scylla's gonna go nuts over this!”

"I don't doubt it, buddy."

Inside the other chamber, however, there were far more fascinating finds. The room was perhaps designed by dwarves, but Felix didn't think so. He glanced at the door again. He was certain that what he mistook for dwarves were instead the occupants of the room beyond.

"Eidolon Exults. Grace and Gale," Vess breathed. "There must be two hundred of them here."

The Exults lined the walls, each sat within an alcove marked by beautiful carvings in geometric shapes. A mosaic on the far wall depicted a magus lifting her hand surrounded by the upthrust weapons of stone Exults. There was one problem, however.

None of the Exults were functional.

After much poking and prodding, his party couldn’t get any of the Eidolons to awaken or even respond to their provocations. There was still power in them, but it was a thing rooted firmly in their Bodies. Those held strong—it was their Minds and Spirits that seemed to be stripped bare. Those were no more than a thin varnish holding the ancient constructs together.

It was most apparent in the sigaldry on their chests. Normally a bright constellation of glyphs bound with memories, some were marred but the others were simply faded. Felix tried to use Unite the Lost to fix them, but the problem wasn't the Ruin. Time itself had turned on the Exults.

“We should still load them onto the ships,” Vess said. “I am certain there is a use for them all.”

“Really?”

"I am sure."

Felix nodded. "Okay, I trust you. Then we need to get people down here to move everything. Pit, race back to the flagship and organize a team of porters."

“On it!”

Pit vanished in a flash, his wings cutting through the air as he raced back out of the fortress. Felix turned over the Eye of Tumult in his hands, pacing before the stoic visages of the Exults. There was so much to accomplish, and the list kept getting longer. During their exploration of the armory and the Exults' staging ground, he had received a notification that he'd tried to ignore.

New Quest!

A Record Of War

Seek out the remains of the Obsidian Tumult and return the Eye. Walk with courage.

Rewards:

+???

Something to look forward to. After the battle, at least.

He tucked the Eye into his jacket again, but paused as another notification appeared before him.

Absorbing The Skull Fragment Of Veridaan.

Progress: 15%

Felix froze. Immediately throwing his awareness down into himself, he fell into his core space. Dropping to the roots of the Divine Tree, where the fragment was still bound. Beneath it, however, the abyss churned. Felix could still sense Zara’s Challenger's Sea holding in place—yet there was the sound of a rock slide shearing from a mountain's face. Another binding fell apart, and the abyss roused.

The beast took a deep breath before it drifted away. Slumbering or, most likely, waiting.

Felix blinked back to awareness. He caught his friend's eyes.

"We need to move. Now."