Take It From Him Now!
Gabby burned with shadow, her light blinkered to darkness, and she blurred forward. The Hierophant thrust her hand out, sending a wave of golden threads at Felix.
They never reached him.
It was hard to tell at first, but color leeched from the luminous shadows around Gabby, and the golden glow turned grayscale in a whispered instant.
The world slowed. Stopped.
Crumbled.
All at once, Felix was no longer atop En’cridhe. Instead, he stood before an enormous wave, frozen in its ascent, its dark green depths still flecked with white foam. He was outside Elderthrone—a full day before.
A Memory. One of my own.
Felix pivoted and jolted back. His sister was still there, somehow—she’d frozen in place of course, but her armored hand was mere inches from his neck. Black vapor streamed from the joints of her plate mail, shrouding her features until he could barely make out the shape of her nose.
“Emperor.”
A creature swam up from the deep within the green wave, rotating around Felix. It was just as he remembered it, huge and monstrous, a bulbous body surrounded by hundreds of barbed tentacles obscuring its true shape. Dozens of eyes stared at him out of the occluded waves, each a bright orange circle of light larger than his head.
The Dread.
"…Right. You called for me, and I answered.”
“Yes." The voice was waterlogged and sibilant, almost too garbled to be understood, yet it carried a punch of intent that could not be mistaken. Felix could hear it directly in his Mind.
"Why?" The voice came from all around them. It was Felix's, but it hadn’t come from the him that stood there now. Understanding dawned, filtered through the rush of Skill at his center. The Memory was speaking. A day ago, he'd met the Blood Beast, curious as to why it wanted to speak. It never had before, though it always remained close to Nagast's western shores. The last time they'd come close to communicating was when it had almost killed a ship full of Chanters.
The Dread's body rippled in the water, pieces of it fluttering open and closed. Gills, most likely, but they were covered in teeth. Everything was covered in teeth.
"The gods will not cease.”
“I'm aware of that." With every word, Felix slipped into the Memory, becoming the him of the past. Gabby faded further, ghostly and out of phase.
"This is only a portion of their might.”
“I know." Their conversation had gone on like this for quite a while. The Dread had a stilted way of speaking, as if pushing out thoughts was very difficult.
Eventually, the Dread shivered. “Behold.”
The Dread moved its tentacles, revealing thousands of dark corpses in the green water. Godslaves. They were in pieces, ichor still clinging to them like smoke, but there were hundreds held in the Dread's barbed limbs. Thousands more were suspended in the still water like flies in amber.
"You killed all of these?”
“Yes.”
“I appreciate it." Felix paused. "Why did you help me? Is it just because I inherited the Maw's power? Because you were a Blood Beast?”
“Yes. No." Hooked tentacles clenched. "I once lived."
Felix knew that. The Blood Beasts had all been corrupted Geist, a Lost Race of ermine-looking folk that were the architects of many of the Golden Empire’s marvels. They’d been the ones to take on the incarceration of the Maw, building the Labyrinth and all the traps to keep her locked up. And they were the first to be corrupted by the Primordial’s flesh curse, turned into monsters.
He knew the revelation the Dread was about to drop. Still, the Memory kept moving on.
"You’re a Geist.”
“I am Ssev."
The revelation was still as shocking as it had been the first time. Ssev, along with their Nymean partner, Lhel had been responsible for waking the Unending Maw from her Ages long slumber. The other Blood Beasts were Geists meant to guard the Labyrinth across the Ages, but if he were Ssev, that meant he was infected by the flesh curse at the very beginning. The very first of the Maw’s “children.”
"That’s…heavy,” Felix had admitted. “Why did you save Elderthrone?”
“Because you saved my brothers."
Felix shook his head. "I didn't save them. I killed them."
"Yes," the Dread said, bubbling and burbling. "Saved.”
Felix of the past had been unsure how to handle that, and now Felix backed away. His current self desyncronized as he did, leaving behind an echo of himself—a puppet, still dancing on Memory’s strings.
Felix had brutally murdered all of the Blood Beasts during his time in the Foglands. He felt zero remorse for the first of them, the Seven-Legged Orit, who had killed Pit’s mother and nearly devoured his friend. That thing had been vile and cruel; whatever Geist it had once been was lost entirely to Primordial madness. What pricked at him then—and now—were the two Bloodtainted Guardians that had tried to kill him outside the Maw’s prison. Though they’d been twisted into monstrosities, they’d still been trying to keep the Maw contained. Felix couldn’t fault them for that, not entirely.
"...me more about the Maw,” his echo said. “Was she once Veridaan?”
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“Once a Cardinal, yes."
His past self closed his eyes, clearly shocked. "The Maw was corrupted, but she's dead now too—No.” Felix frowned at the fear he saw in his own face. “Changed.”
“You.”
Both Felixs flinched. The Dread moved closer until only a thin layer of water separated them. A tentacle jabbed at him, and Felix started. Orange eyes fixed on him, not his echo.
"You hunger."
His Memory flickered. Felix lowered his stance—unsure where things were going. "Yeah, I do."
Those enormous eyes blinked wetly at him, a hundred at a time. "I remember finding her. I remember so much." Suddenly Dread was talking to his echo again. There was a pain in the Dread's voice that Felix couldn't begin to piece together. It was large, like a horizon on the sky he's never seen before. He'd heard these words already, but they shook him.
"You don't have to—No.” Felix forced a hard breath from his nose. “You rejected that offer before."
"Yes," Ssev once again pulled away, deeper into the green dark. "I do not wish to be anything. I only wish for my end. To return to my family in the Ethereal."
"The Beast though. Can it be trusted?"
"You cannot control it all. The Cardinal is split. You cannot hold the Tide alone." The words took effort to come out of the Dread. Its body rippled and shook, racked by spasms. Several of its barbed tentacles crushed the phantom dead it had once held. “Seek the One.”
"You never answered me before. What is the One?”
"You are split.”
“We're talking about the Beast, not me."
"Yes," the Dread said. "Oneness. Blood. The last spilt upon ancient Tides that still shake with its waves."
Ssev fixed Felix with every one of its lantern eyes. "The Chalice. I can feel it."
Felix took a half step back, his heels touching the edge of something he couldn't identify in the dark. “It burns at me.”
“Yes. Do you know the Regalia’s purpose?”
“To protect the Golden Empire?”
“It is a weapon, but it is empty. That which grants you strength is fuel to the Empyrean Regalia as well."
Felix blinked. “Bonds?”
Brilliant orange eyes fixed on him, all of them, all at once. "You're binding it now."
The dark glitched, the Dread shifting places as the green wave rose up and fell again. Light swirled around Felix's chest. "This is a Memory. I keep losing myself…”
Felix put a hand to his chest and winced, the heat gathering there too much. "You’re right here.”
“I fed myself to the Chalice then. Primed it."
Felix swallowed and nodded. "Reduced its cooldown to a single day."
The heat increased, searing into him. The light around the frozen Titan brightened as well, her form solidifying. The Memory was starting to fade.
"Fiend, listen. Before this Memory fades, do not let the Beast seize it.”
“You said I had to give up control!”
“No. I said that is the price—I never said you couldn’t haggle.” The Dread began to fade, its shape losing cohesion in the dark. “You are the sovereign of your Body."
The Dread’s tentacular mass shunted forward, swirling down into the Chalice that formed from planes of jagged light against Felix's chest. It was pressed into him, caving in his flesh as if tearing its way through his heart. Pain poured around it, followed sharply by the stretch of barbed tendrils and a single unblinking eye.
"Rise, Fiend."
The world burst apart. An explosion of power expanded around Felix, surrounding him in a swirling blossom of liquid Mana. Gabby was thrown back and the golden threads of the Hierophant were drive down into the tower’s High Tier stone.
“Impossible,” Ocalla shouted.
Yes! cried the Beast from deep within. Rise! Rightful Scion Of The Unseen Tides!
Felix gripped the Chalice tight.
RISE!
All around him, the Divine howled, pushed back by a force that thrummed from Felix’s Spirit. It tore at their dimmed forms, and the flesh of their conjured Vessels rolled like condensation on a window.
Stand, Titan, Yyero demanded in a thick, panicking voice. Do Not Let The Fiend Claim It!
Gabby struggled to her feet, the shadow replaced by a burgeoning bronze—only to have that light gutter like a candle in a gale. She stepped forward.
Do You Wish To Bind Yourself To The Wellspring Chalice?
Y/N
Felix clutched at his chest. Yes.
The Chalice flashed and sank the rest of the way into his chest. Heat flowed through him, a humid warmth that filled his body to the brim. Earthen scents blossomed from his pores and a rush of vitality roared through his blood. He took a breath, and it was like he would swallow the world. He exhaled, and fire flooded from his lips as a cloud of Mana congealed around his head and crown.
Name: Wellspring Chalice
Type: Empyrean Regalia (Enchanted)
Lore: Once borne by the rulers of the Golden Empire, the Wellspring Chalice is far older than the Nym. Grown within the heart of Creation itself by the first Elemental Lords, it echoes with the deep strains that once molded all three Realms. It is a symbol of the connection between all living things.
Threnody's Wrath XX - The riot of flood and fire is greatly empowered. All Body Skills that touch upon Threnody’s violence are twice as effective.
Aria's Caress XX - The vigor of root and rock is greatly empowered. All Body Skills that touch upon the Aria's protection are twice as effective.
Sated Surety XX - Food and drink are no longer required for you to live. You draw sustenance directly through the Chalice itself.
Empyrean Regalia Set Piece - 2 of 3 - Effects will accrue when two and three set pieces are bound to your Aspects.
Set Effect 1 - Vital Aegis
Set Effect 2 - Unknown
Power flooded through his body in ways Felix couldn't comprehend. It condensed, pooling against the branches of his Divine Tree before dripping into its opalescent trunk. It gleamed through the roots, shimmering as it sank into the very base of him, where his Pillars sat among the obdurate crystals. Significance steadied him, filling his Body with a depth and density he couldn’t put to words. He breathed in and the bindings around his flesh suddenly felt like gossamer threads.
"Beast!” Felix reached into the Challenger's Sea at his center. "Let's fuck him up!"
The last monolith shattered beneath Felix's Will, and the dark water split asunder.