The three Skills exploded in a supernova of light and fire, releasing their own wave of untamed might. The Maw was thrown back, it's form disrupted until its oozing body was a mass of jagged spikes. It reeled in pain and fury.
WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!
A wall of shimmering light encased Felix's Skills, all of them, as trilling notes and strummed chords reached a stunning crescendo.
Congratulations!
You Have Tempered Your Mind!
You Have Formed: the Godeater Mind
+10 INT
+10 WIL
+5 PER
+25 ALA
Felix felt his mind expand, blooming like a flower in sunlight. Everything felt more, and each thought held such a weight as to be practically physical. His hunger raged at the base of his skull, pain shooting across his brain stem and flickering down his spine. Instinctively, Felix sucked in a breath, and the crimson energy that suffused his flesh was sucked into it. Suddenly, the Bloodbind locking his body failed, and Felix stumbled forward.
Without a second to lose, Felix ran toward the Anchor.
You terrible child! You'll ruin everything!
Felix crossed the circle, passing beyond the icy coating on the floor. Only ten feet away, a powerful force ripped him backward. As if a hook had been implanted in his gut, he folded in half and flew through the air to land on his ass just outside the circle again.
STAY!
Crimson power welled up within his channels, forcing itself into his muscles and sinews. Felix took another sharp breath and they too were consumed, Mana vapor devoured by his insatiable hunger. He stood back up.
YEAAARRGH! My Bloodbind--! The Maw's voice echoed across his flesh, sending quakes and tremors flinching through his entire body. Then I'll do it myself!
Felix felt the Maw flood his channels, snaking through his pathways like a malignant eel. He felt pieces of its purulent form plunge into him. These pieces were like spikes that began branching outward, vaporous veins and capillary-like formations that anchored it's power. Felix stumbled and stalled, his body only responding in jerks and spasms as the Maw's dominance was reestablished.
"Get out of me!!"
CHIRRRRUUUUP!
The hunger responded, eating away at the spikes in his body. But he couldn't keep up. The Maw was too old, too crafty, and still too strong by half. It sped up, traveling in loops through his pathways, at every twist and turn planting more root-like spikes to stop him. He didn't stop, not for long. Each pause was punctuated by another step, another inch forward.
You're too weak, Felix! You're a confused little boy in a strange new world, and you're weak! The Maw laughed, the buzzing dissonance of it still there, still jarring to his senses. I'll hollow you out and wear you like a coat. I meant to leave you somewhat whole, but you've gone too far. I'll break your Skills one by one until you've nothing left, until you're just an empty sack for me to puppet! I'll make do with a broken Vessel, and you'll beg to be released into death by the time I'm done!
"Why--" he grunts, taking a single step forward. "Isn't. This. Working!"
Felix flexed and pushed with his internal control, flaring his inner fire and sending it coursing down his channels. It barely made a dent, but was able to tear up a few more of the Maw's roots. He sucked in a breath, and more gaseous pieces of the Maw were consumed. Pit shrieked, a fierce attacking cry, and Felix felt reassurance through their bond. My hunger isn't doing it! Something changed!
Felix remembered fighting for his life on a rooftop, struggling to survive a brutal poison. He had fed the poison to his inner fire, burning it away, same as when he took a Draught or ate the Essence Stone. But now his hunger had separated from his core, moving to his head for some reason, and it wasn't working. It wasn't enough.
He needed more than Mana vapor, this time. He needed the Maw's oozing form itself.
Repressing his revulsion, Felix spun his core harder, pouring his Will and Alacrity into stoking that inner fire and sparking his azure lightning. He pulled, hard as he could, yanking more of the vapor through his channels and the barest, tiniest piece of the Maw itself. The fire flared purple where the crimson ooze hit the blue. Electricity danced at the contact point.
A...memory flashed by him, brief and dizzying. He faced off against an endless legion of bronze-armored warriors. Each armed with spears and swords that glowed with elemental Mana, mounted atop shrieking tenku and harnoq and wendigos. It was gone in a moment, but Felix grinned.
It had worked.
HOW DARE YOU!
A rotten, corrosive power surged through his channels, and Felix's grin disappeared as he was thrown bodily into the air. Straight up, Felix didn't stop until he hit a buttress that arced across the dome of the ceiling, crashing into it and breaking it apart.
You sniveling little THIEF!
Felix was blasted again, sideways this time, colliding with another support and shattering it. Felix felt something snap in his chest and a wet gurgle as his breath was forced from him in a wheeze.
Status Condition: Broken Ribs (x3)
Status Condition: Perforated Lung
YOU STEAL FROM ME!? Use my gifts against...You're not STOPPING!?
Gritting his teeth, Felix pulled again, and again, pushing through the pain. Tiny, infinitesimal pieces of the Maw's form were torn free and burned up. This time only bare flashes of memories struck him, images that went by too fast to recognize anything except the dominant impression of fire and blood. He started to fall.
The Maw growled and Felix's body rattled with vibrations. An immense pressure slammed him up against the ceiling, cracking the heavy stone of the dome and sending chunks falling below. Felix grew dizzy, the floor so far below him and his entire body being pressed upon, as if he were being crushed by Grimmar all over again. But his hunger was stronger than ever, sharper by the moment, a cavernous void in his being that demanded sustenance.
He pulled.
More memories flashed through his consciousness, flickering things that buzzed and broke into static after only a few seconds. Fire and blood and broken towers. Armies in bronze armor, opponents made of living rock and crystal, creatures devoured by the thousands. A jumble of violent, desolate imagery rampaged through his brain.
The Maw screamed again and dug itself deeper in his channels, pushing itself further, back toward his core. Its power buffeted Felix, pressing against his chest, his limbs, his neck; it crushed him ever deeper into the ceiling, until he feared he'd burst like a grape. He did the only thing he could. He pulled.
RARAAAAAAGH! Curse you Felix! I take it away! All of your gifts!
TITLE: GOURMAND IS LOST!
SKILL: LESSONS OF THE PAST IS LOST!
Blinding pain tore through him, head to foot. Fissures appeared on his skin, cracks that widened into bloody wounds that snaked across his abdomen. Felix tried to move his right arm, to stem the bleeding, but the Maw's power hurled it aside, and a bone-deep crunch and crack sounded as his right arm snapped again. Felix would have screamed had he the breath for it, and Pit cried out in sympathy. He felt feathers brush against his consciousness as the tenku tried to stem the tide, focusing on their wounds so Felix could fight back. It was all he could do to keep moving forward. To keep pulling.
And even though he was wounded and his Health was dropping fast, Felix took heart.
The Maw was getting desperate. It was losing ground.
Felix growled. This is my body! And in here, I'm the monster!
A piece far larger than ever before was ripped from the Maw's contorted form. It fell, screaming into his Fire Within. Teeth of fire and lightning chomped down on it. The glistening ooze of the Maw, that bloody, rotten corruption fulfilled some part of him that Felix could no longer restrain. His hunger raged forth, eating as much as he could.
Synergy Detected Between Mind Formation And Primordial Foe!