Unbound

The voice of the gods crashed like thunder, and the Stormwardens appeared within the dark Tempest. Their limbs were like shadows, even after breaking through the stormwall, and slick darkness stretched up over their extremities as they thrashed the clouds to ribbons, as if they were fighting some invisible force. Their halo of lightning flickered between blue-white and a sickly bloody red.

"Oh no," Pit said, backing up. "We gotta get out of here, now."

With a deep scream, the Stormwarden fell back into the clouds.

"No!" Ondine shouted, reaching for the colossal beasts.

You Were Never Safe From Us, Unbound. Your Peace Was Always Rented, And Now Your Reckoning Is Due.

Shadowbeasts by the dozen burst through the tainted storm. They were immense, twisted apes with spiked clubs for arms and thorned tentacles upon their backs, and obscenely long serpents crossed with some sort of segmented bug. They tore through the cloud, huge as Manaships, accompanied by thousands of their miniature spawn.

"Princess, go for the Sanctuary!" the nearest wyvern bellowed before taking to the air, followed by dozens of his fellows.

"Protect the princess!" Rakia shouted at Scylla and Pit. "Come!"

She grabbed Ondine's hand and led her away, her sightless gaze no impediment to her sure steps. They flew off, Pit and Scylla following quickly after.

"What the heck is the Sanctuary?" he asked over the roar of wind as thunder and crimson lightning crashed around them.

"A fastness against the end of the world itself!" Scylla dodged a fallen tree, threading her slim body through its branches before it even landed. Pit plowed through it, shattering the trunk into splinters.

"Sounds good, where is it?"

"This way," Rakia called, her limbs flowing in strange patterns that seemed too slow for how fast she was moving.

The shadowbeasts were not far behind. They rose from the ground and dropped from the sky in equal measure. Slick and black, like crude oil given substance, it was clear that their malformed bodies were made for violence. Claws, teeth, and barbed tails lashed at them as they flew, tearing apart the earth and stone they passed. Aiming for their vital flesh.

Rakia slipped through them all, guiding the princess in her wake, and it was like the shadowbeasts couldn't touch her. Not until she touched them. A heavy, bent kukri was in her free hand, alight with sepia Mana and swinging with incredible precision. Where it hit, the howling crescendo that blasted through the blade ripped through liquid shadow, turning them into nothing more than piles of gibbering ichor.

More filled the gap, always more, as they reached the very edge of the wild garden atop the spire.

"Ascetic Mind Blast!"

Shadowbeasts all around them exploded, their forms torn apart by her mental assault. With the way cleared, the four of them dove from the spire and dropped toward the rest of Halcyon Hold. The shadowbeasts followed.

Pit swiveled his head, trying to keep track of every direction as creatures came upon both flanks. He struck at them, his Mantle flaring, driving lightning through their fragile bodies and destroying them instantly. Others he clawed or bit or smashed into with his wings, but it was like taking spoonfuls out of the ocean. The shadowbeasts came on, undaunted and unstoppable.

The Mind blasts that Rakia kept launching fired off in perfect spheres, pressing the beasts back every time, while her weapons blazed a path forward. But it wasn't enough, not alone.

Let Roar The Beast!

Pit cried out, his voice quaking the air and rolling through hundreds of monsters around him. Where it landed, it inflicted instances of Frightened and Stunned, driving them screaming from their midst or dropping out of the sky entirely.

Talon of Tumult!

His claws raked across the few who resisted his cry. Wherever he struck, creatures died, and Scylla was no different. Her basic attacks seemed to be like his, a bite and claw, though every strike she took seemed to well up with a white-green and golden light. Wind and light Mana, rousing to her command.

"Sundered Sunset!"

As if the setting sun shined down upon them, a golden radiance blazed for at least three hundred feet in all directions. The weakest shadowbeasts failed before it, burning away while the survivors were charred and injured. They had been perfectly prepped for Pit to stun them out of the sky.

“SKREE!”

"Beware!" Rakia cried out, her wings and the princess’ flapping hard to reverse direction. A massive insectoid lizard, equal in size to the Twilit Ape, landed before them. It stretched its mandibles wide, its throat buzzing as it lunged for them.

"Ascetic Mind Blast!”

"Calamity's Cavitation!"

Rakia’s mental blast did little more than make the insectoid monster lurch backward, but Ondine’s power burst a spherical chunk out of its hide. It twisted, skittering through across the rooftop fast.

In a half second, it was almost atop the princess.

Let Roar The Beast!

The monstrosity fell back before the riot of Pit's cry, its shadow flesh turning pale as status conditions took hold.

Dynast Shade Resists Status Condition: Stun!

Dynast Shade Is Afflicted With Status Condition: Frightened!

The creature sprouted wings that buzzed like a helicopter, and it leapt off the side of the low building it crouched upon, fleeing from Pit.

Let Roar the Beast is level 85!

There was little time to celebrate, for the tide of shadow would not wait for them. They ran.

Mantle of the Stormlord arced from Pit’s Body, sizzling any beasts that got too close. His Talon of Tumult and Maelstrom's Maw ripped apart the foe with every strike. But where his talons caught a glancing blow, the shadowspawn were inflicted with Confusion, forcing them to turn on their fellows as their eyes were filled with a tumultuous light.

It was useful, and Pit began to aim for parts of the beasts that wouldn't kill them immediately, turning their enemy to his advantage.

Talon of Tumult is level 92!

Maelstrom’s Maw is level 92!

Scylla's Sundered Sunset shone around them again and again, but as Pit and Rakia cleared the way, she shifted gears and started putting it ahead.

You Have Killed A Shadowbeast (x23)!

XP Earned!

You Have Killed A Shadowbeast (x13)!

XP Earned!

Talon of Tumult is level 93!

Droves of spawn died before their charge, and before long, the four of them hopped across another building, the shadows raging against their fellows, offering them brief respite.

Rakia threw Pit a relieved smile. “There isn’t much to go. The Sanctuary is there, through the archway and onto that structure.”

Pit eyed the way ahead. Shadowbeasts were everywhere and growing thicker, but if they flew most of the way, they could easily evade a third of them before having to dive into the thick of things. They could do this.

Which is, of course, when the Dynast Shade returned.

It crashed into them, cratering the building beside them and driving Rakia and Ondine into its side. Two more dropped as well, as if the creature had gone for backup.

Pit kicked off the rubble of the building and threw himself into the fray.

Nimbus of the Moon!

Pillars of moonlight struck from above, hitting at least fifty of the enemies around them and burning through the weakest of the spawn. The three Dynast Shades scrabbled against the rubble, mandibles snapping ineffectually at the searing beams of silver-blue moonlight.

Dynast Shade (x3) Is Afflicted With Status Condition Moonlit Affliction!

All three stumbled, their Agility suddenly reduced as their bodies were limned in ethereal moonlight.

Let Roar the Beast!

Let Roar the Beast is level 86!

Monsters fled or fell stunned from the air, and this time, the Dynast Shades, all three of them, resisted both status conditions. They screeched in pain, leaking ichor, but they were not daunted.

"Together, Pit!” Scylla shouted. “Sundered Sunset!”

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“Nimbus of the Moon!”

Two celestial bodies manifested on the field of battle, golden bloom cut through by silver beam and eradicating any of the lesser spawn that still lingered close. The Dynast Shades fared little better—they were cut through, burnt, and torn like tissue before the flame, until only their mangled corpses were left to litter the ground.

Yet in the distance, more of their kind charged.

Six of the insectoid lizards dropped from above, followed by two Twilit Apes, all of them screeching as they crashed a block away, among the bone-white buildings of the Halcyon Hold, heading for their direction. Heading for Ondine.

"Executioner’s Stormblade!" Pit cried, wielding Skyslane's riposte in his jaws. Wind and lightning wreathed his magical blade as it grew to forty feet, honing the edge until it sliced through shadowflesh without a tug of resistance. Tooth and claw broke beneath it as Pit whirled, wielding the sword with brutal efficiency.

Executioner’s Stormblade is level 49!

Executioner’s Stormblade is level 50!

Journeyman Tier!

You Gain:

+30 STR

+30 END

+20 VIT

No matter how unrelenting his fury was, however, the press of shadowflesh was too much. Pit and Scylla could only kill so fast, and the spawn and their progenitors piled atop them with a savage glee.

“Pristine Guardian: Wall of the Sound Self!”

A wave of sound slammed outward, wrapping around the two tenku harmlessly, but sweeping the monstrosities off their backs in a single, powerful pulse. Even the Twilight Ape that tried to crash its clubbed fist upon their party was held back by that wave, and a shield of light and warbling music held the horde at bay.

"Go," Rakia called. "I'll hold them back."

Thirty feet away, a pathway extended between the broken walls ahead. Pit looked down eagerly.

"We're not leaving you," Ondine cried.

"Yes, you are," Rakia countered. "Suggested Word: Survive."

Ondine's spine went rigid, and she turned, wings flapping to send her soaring ahead.

"Follow her quickly. The suggestion won't last long," Rakia warned.

Scylla nodded and took off, close on the heels of the Unbound, but Pit lingered. "I can help you.”

Rakia smiled, her white eyes crinkling. Shadowbeasts crashed into the wall of light and sound that surrounded them, and already cracks had begun to form. "Yes, you can. She must see the end, no matter the cost. Keep her alive, Primordial Chimera. Swear to it."

Pit swallowed. "I will."

With a frustrated bugle, he turned and ran after them.

The tunnel slipped through a segment of broken wall before extending hundreds of feet beyond, forming a sepia and white archway around them. Tooth and claw smashed and scraped against it, as if it were driving the creatures rabid. Ondine flew at the fore, Scylla close behind, and Pit caught up quickly, gathering both of them in his arms.

Ouranic Dominion!

They shot forward as fast as he could manage, Scylla letting out a screech of alarm and Ondine stoically silent, her eyes clouded.

It wasn’t long before they reached the edge of a once-beautiful cobbled square, surrounded by tall, fluted columns that held the broken remnants of statues. The sky opened up, and crimson lightning tore from above.

“The Tempest,” Scylla said in dawning horror. “Look!”

Bloody light surged alongside gale force winds, threading across the Hold’s buildings and ripping up anything that wasn’t secured. The calm oasis that the palace had long resided within was collapsing, the storm’s eye winking shut. Trees around them shook, and the smaller islands pushed into one another with tremendous detonations. In the dark, Pit could still see the silhouette of their crumbling forms as they rained ruin upon the Halcyon Hold.

Around them, the tunnel cracked, its light and sound splintering into the unformed chaos of battle. Shadows began to leak through. Pit’s Mana dipped immensely as he pressed his flight Skill for all it was worth.

Ouranic Dominion is level 88!

A scream rang out behind them before cutting off. The Wall of the Sound Self evaporated into nothing.

Ondine gasped and spun in Pit's forepaws, her eyes wild. "What has she done?"

"What was necessary, your majesty," Scylla shouted from beside her. She pressed her paw into the princess's shoulder. "We are nearly to the Sanctuary! Do not make your Guardian's sacrifice be in vain."

Pit didn’t see Ondine’s face, but her Spirit wailed.

Crimson lightning struck around them as they skidded to a stop near the fluted columns ahead, and ivy burned with bloody light as a fire caught upon the brush. Crimson lightning crackled across the ground, conjuring shadows that congealed from the rubble.

"More are coming," Pit warned.

"There! The Sanctuary is through those columns," Ondine said, her voice firming. Tears streamed down her face, but her jaw was set.

Shadows welled between them and their goal. Pit flared his Ouranic Dominion, surging forward—directly into a shadowy rift.

“Pit!”

He kicked off a fallen wall, wings flapping mightily, and flew just barely over the edge of the dark tear in reality. More appeared, and Pit twisted, wings smashing into rubble and body tumbling forward as he narrowly avoided holes into a dark, textureless black he found hauntingly familiar.

“That’s the Void!”

Ondine, however, crawled from his arms and looked at them with a different sense of dismay. "Those belong to the Stormwardens!”

Even as she said it, a tentacle of red-veined shadow rushed outward, slamming toward the princess. Pit tackled her out of the way, flapping hard to evade its attack.

Ouranic Dominion is level 89!

The rift closed, the tentacle disappearing along with it, but in the distance above the tallest of spires, one of the Stormwardens pushed out of the Tempest. Bigger than big, its flesh had lost all color, becoming as slick as shadow and veined with a deep crimson. The greatest change to its huge body was that, where there were once two sets of three eyes, now there was only a massive, yawning hole, a cavern where a face should be, and its infinite depths pulsated with bloody striations.

"Blasphemy!” Scylla screamed.

“What have you done?" Ondine demanded, as another tendril opened up before their path, blocking them from the Sanctuary entrance.

The Stormwardens Are Visitors In My Domain, False Princess. They Have Not Earned The Right To Walk My Path.

And Neither Have You.

The tentacle swung for them again, but Pit moved out of its way, though it clipped his lower wing and sent him spinning for several dozen feet before he mastered himself.

"Scylla!”

She pushed away from Pit, flapping her wings as she mustered her Skills. The Sundered Sunset's golden sunlight burned across the shadowy tentacle, sizzling its flesh and eradicating the shadowbeasts that crowded around them.

It did less than nothing to the tentacle itself.

You Cannot Fight This.

Not You, Guardian Beast, Nor You, Unbound.

My Love Once Gave One Of Your Kind A Choice, Tried To Bind Him With Promises And Goodwill, And What Did She Receive For Her Altruism?

Lies And Indignity! The Teeth Of A Betrayer!

You Will Be The Body My Love Has Lost—A Vessel To Piece Her Mind Back Together—You Will Not Deny Me This!

Noctis' voice rumbled in the storm, louder than any thunder, as crimson flared through that vast, unending cavern of a face. Between her dire words, however, Pit could feel another presence, one that resonated equally with the threads of Divinity in his core space.

Vellus. She’s here.

He couldn't hear her, but he could see her influence skittering among the hordes: red veins of bloody lightning and a lingering sense of sadness.

"I'm not going anywhere with you!" Ondine spat.

So Be It!

All Choices Have Consequences.

"Nope!" Pit grabbed both Scylla and Ondine within his paws once more. Ouranic Dominion!

Air Mana marshaled beneath him, and his Agility flared as he evaded the literal wave of shadowbeasts that fell upon them just as rifts opened up on all sides. Tentacles rushed through, each the rough diameter of an office building, their lengths swinging through the Hold in an effort to snatch them up.

Scylla fired off her attacks, burning the creatures around them, and Ondine did the same, her power reaching out and collapsing spherical chunks from the horde at their backs. But it wasn't enough—A Noctis-fueled Stormwarden was too much. It smashed and bashed into him, the tentacles getting closer with every roll and pivot he was forced to take, inching closer as he approached the Sanctuary’s entrance.

The terrain around them was obliterated, obelisks toppled, and rotundas shattered as the massive tentacles swung through the Halcyon Hold. The bone-white stone had survived the Ages, but it could do nothing against the violence of the gods.

"We're here!" Pit cried and dove fast, slipping between the columns and arcing toward a shadowed gap into the deeper earth. “Hold tight! I’m gonna speed up—”

The only warning was a whistling before a tentacle cratered the earth before them. A low tower collapsed, crushed through the sundered earth as the Stormwarden’s limb withdrew.

The entrance to the Sanctuary was gone.

Ondine skidded to a halt as a second tentacle dropped. She threw up her hands, and the Sprites around her surged, tossing her back and out of the way. The tentacle hit, throwing all of them off their feet as the island beneath them lurched and began to split apart.

"We're definitely not getting in there!" Pit flinched as the tentacle vanished, dissolving into another rent of shadow.

You Have No More Paths To Tread, Unbound. The Stormwarden burned on the horizon, its no-face yawning like a black hole. Crimson lightning ringed it, bending across its surface like twisted rivers of blood.

Do Not…Toy With…Them, Beloved.

Pit swallowed. Vellus!

Rest, My Love. I Will Snare This Vessel For You.

Tentacles lifted, tens of them that stretched upward into the sky. Midway, they vanished into dark rifts, only to emerge a hundred feet above Pit and the others, poised to strike.

Deliver Yourself To Us, False Princess, Or I Will End The Rest Of Your Guardian Beasts.

Ondine was sweating, and her hands were shaking as the Sprites circled her bright wings. “I will not become your Vessel.”

You Have Little Choice In The Matter.

All You May Decide Is Whether Your People Survive Or Not.

“And what about the Ruin that is coming? How will my people fare then?”

The Stormwarden flared with crimson lightning. That Is Up To Them. It Is Long Past The Time For Mortals To Be Put In Their Place. The Ruin… I Welcome Its Cleansing Flame.

"You're just as crazy as your lady friend," Pit said. "If Felix were here, he'd bite your goddamn head off."

But He Is Not, Little Pit.

Instead, He Is Dealing With Far Worse Things Across The Continent.

Pit panicked. "What are you talking about?"

Noctis laughed. Die Ignorant!

Her tentacles dropped, screeching towards the earth. Pit flared Ouranic Dominion, and all of them scattered, ripping through the shadowbeasts around them, but there were too many. They couldn't move fast enough.

He did not expect the salvo of brilliant bolts to hit the corrupted Stormwarden…and neither did Noctis.

Who Dares—?

"Stand down, goddess, or be destroyed!"

Pit gasped, spinning in place as he tore through more shadowbeasts. "Vess!"

Nine sleek Manaships split the tainted Tempest upon their prows, their sails gleaming with ethereal light and bursting with power. The corrupted Stormwarden screamed as its hide was punctured by hundreds of attacks, and the tentacles withdrew from the rifts to block their assault.

Kill Them!

The shadowbeasts lifted off, the vast horde wheeling across the sky toward the advancing Manaships, only to be met by a second army streaming from the clouds. Thalgrym roared at its head, and thousands of flying soldiers behind him joined in: Chimera, Korvaa, and Sylphaen, all of them armed to the teeth.

"Defend the Princess!"

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