Power buzzed all around him, as if a thousand angry hornets waited just beyond sight. It lingered among the cores, not yet drawn into the ritual, waiting only for him to draw it into himself.
Oddest of all, Felix could sense the ritual's strange lattice of Mana all around him, a delicate construction that he didn't understand in any significant way. But he knew, somehow, that it would be easy to pull in the power of the monster cores, that it would take only a thought to begin a near instant process.
But he had a better idea.
Ravenous Tithe!
Ravenous Tithe is level 9!
...
Ravenous Tithe is level 14!
His core shook with an earsplitting groan as what looked like thousands, upon thousands of gallons of monstrous essences streamed through his channels and into the infinite sky above his burning flame. It seemed less infinite now that it was filled a melange of crackling energies, many of which were straining and struggling against one another. Like angry beasts in a cage.
The sky pressed low upon him, but the fire of his core didn't care. It flared, a corona of brilliant lightning spider-webbing up and into the essence clouds, like a storm in reverse. Immediately, wisps of power were sucked into his core, sending gouts of incandescence out toward Felix and his gathered Skills. The energy flowed past him and he was untouched, but the same was not to be said for his sundered Skill.
The wild vibrations he fought against suddenly quieted, and somehow Felix could feel the nourishment the monster essence brought to his Skills. Bolt after bolt erupted from his fiery core as more wisps were transformed into an incomprehensible, healing light. Felix felt an uncontrollable laugh bubble upward, his Willpower slackening in just the slightest while his Intent held still to his desires. Rory had been quite specific about the importance of Harmonic Intent. As far as Felix understood things, it was all that was shepherding his disparate Skills into a unified whole. Each burst of rarefied light sent waves of energy pulsing through the amalgamation of Skills, forging new patterns of light that spread over the entire mass like wildfire.
That laughter died away only a moment later, as the monster essence was suddenly yanked away from his fiery core. Felix could barely see past his blue-white flames, but he knew with a profound certainty that things were not as they should be. Instead of the essence being subsumed and transformed by his fire, it was being directly siphoned by another Skill.
Bastion of Will?
The complicated pattern of vibrating light was flaring with a firestorm of power, a steady stream of essence pouring into it like water down a drain. Worse still, Felix could feel none of its supposed strength. Whatever was happening, the potency of the monster essence wasn't being absorbed by him.
But that makes no sense, he murmured in dismay. What else except--
A detonation rocked his core, so extreme that his Skills flared in sympathy, a sudden, symphonic melody. Instantly, he knew it came from his Bastion. Without moving an inch, Felix's mind fell deeper within himself, dropping through darkness and into a blue, summer sky. Below him spread a squat, square fortress built of unnaturally dense stone the color of smoky obsidian. A massive crack ran up and across the central tower, splitting the construction nearly in half. Felix gasped in horror.
Oozing from the breach was a monstrous being, one he had thought long weakened. It's twisted shoulders squeezed from the deep fissure in the tower, and it's massive, ungainly head roared in blistering rage and a familiar, awful hunger.
Free! Free!
Even as Felix catapulted downward, monstrous essence swirled in the air around his Bastion. Great, opaque clouds of flashing violence twisted and spun, pulled toward the Maw's open gullet. Its almost anemic seeming body, horror that it was, began to fill out and gain muscle mass as he watched. The Primordial was nowhere near its original power, but it was more than enough to pull itself free from the final wreckage of the tower.
Sweet sustenance, Felix Nevarre! The Maw clawed its way forward, stretching on the crack flagstones of his inner bailey. It cackled madly, turning its insane eyes up toward his falling form. Now let us test this devilish prison of yours, hmm?
The Primordial blasted forward, leaving yard long furrows into the stone itself. With a resounding crash, the Maw collided shoulder first with the outer wall. The entirety of his Skill shook with the impact, and Felix reeled as if hit by a humongous pillow of air.
He was thrown bodily from the Skill, landing with a teeth-jarring crash upon the surface of his core.
"What the hell? WHAT THE HELL!" Felix blazed with a fury that felt like liquid magma in his gut and veins. The evolving Skill behind him trembled beneath his gathered Will, still held together by little more than hopes and wishes. The rage almost masked the acute distress that suddenly speared through his head and heart. His Willpower quaked.
Though he couldn't spare the attention or time to open his true eyes, Felix knew the sigil array had only moments left of its life. The framework of Mana that had allowed him to absorb so many cores at once was failing, as it no longer had enough magic to power itself. After all, it had accomplished its purpose: he had absorbed twenty monster cores, supposedly more than enough to handle his Skill evolution. Rory was likely pleased, happy to have had the sundering ritual work. How would he have guessed that a Primordial asshole was stealing all of that potency for itself?
Felix's Willpower strained like never before as he held it all together, despite the fact that the evolving Skill was now pulling at him, attempting to draw power where none was available. Except...Felix gasped as he felt something tear loose from his chest, projected mental construct that he was. A bright red light, pulsing with vitality, was ripped from him and sucked directly into the evolving Skill.
Ugh! What--?
Another light was wrenched from him, this one a flickering yellow and far larger than the red. In quick succession, a blue light followed after, easily double in size again. Felix knew, near instantly, what it meant. He could feel his Mana total dropping, dozens of points at a time, his Health and Stamina matching it at only a slightly slower pace. Absent of any other power source, the System was stealing his resources to power the new Skill.
Another burst of shimmering lights were snatched from his chest, their exit a lacerating counterpoint to the awful strain as the Skill quaked ever greater. The vibrations were returning now, nearly shaking itself apart and only held with the barest shreds of his brutalized Willpower.
That molten wrath returned, searing his guts as Felix watched his Health, Stamina, and Mana drop with every breath. His throat burned at the loss, at the pain, at the cruel, bullshit agony of everything. As if in sympathy, his visualized core around him trembled as well, the dense darkness shaking like a living thing, like...
Like it was vibrating.
Felix seized upon that thought, flaring his anger ever higher as his blue-white core fire responded. It burned higher and higher while that strange lightning crackled outward. His Skills resonated, each of his two dozen abilities letting out a series of pure, penetrating tones.
His Skills blazed with light, their patterns flashing and pulsing like the veins of beings of light and sound. But loudest of all was the evolving conglomeration of Skills before him, their tones nearly seizing his muscles with their proximity. But, more than that, Felix realized a fundamental truth.
Manasight is level 41!
Fire Within is level 35!
...
Fire Within is level 38!
The Skills he was so desperate to combine matched with one another, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle too big to comprehend. Their waves paired, crest to trough, a collection of notes that created a strident harmony. That harmony resounded through his core, creating ripples that flushed his inner space with sensation and emotion both, echoing off something beyond himself. A vibrating source from without. With an almighty roar, Felix pulled on that vibration all around him, and like he was drawing a massive bow across strings, a wild, aching melody sounded. Flashes of electric blue and a bright, luminous gold sparked through his entire core, lighting the darkness. He pulled again, using what little remained of his Intent to squeeze the sounds from his gathered Skills.
A hesitant, haunting series of notes burst through the darkness, churning it from within. Then it escaped him, the harmonics sounding on their own as they gathered speed. A cascade of blue and gold sparks burst across his core. Something powerful, something vital was being siphoned off into his evolving Skill, and it scintillated with a growing light that soon turned blinding.
The vibrations, the music, swelled into a triumphant crescendo.
Evolution Complete!
You Have Formed A New Skill!
Skill Level Has Been Reset!
Unfettered Volition (Epic), Level 1
You are Will incarnate. Nothing can contain you, nothing can stop your Will made manifest. Consumes Mana and Stamina when activated. Speed is increased by a small amount with level. Mental strength consumed reduces a small amount per level.