Chapter Three Hundred And Thirteen - 313After an eternity, his feet touched solid ground.
HisFelix'sfeet flexed in his metal boots and greaves. His pants were, remarkably, utterly whole as was his tunic and jacket. Their enchantments blazed, almost overcharged, ready to repair or clean themselves at a moments notice. Felix held up his hands, saw unblemished skin and flexing tendons. Blunt fingertips, thin with a seeming of youth, Tempered.
I'm...me.
His Will thrummed into the ground, into the air, and he was no longer alone. A sword belt appeared at his waist in a bloom of green-gold light, the sword tugging his hip down. And from the forestforest?around him, a massive tenku charged at him. Felix laughed, and took the hit straight on, going down in a tangle of fur and feathers and reborn limbs.
Felix! Felix! Safe! You're back!
"Hey, hey buddy," Felix managed between Pit's frantic licking. "Glad to see you too."
I thought us...that was the Ruin, Felix. Karys' voice was a little muffled, as if it mattered if Felix was sitting on the blade or not. Regardless, he shifted it and cleared the hooked sword from its sheath. You survived the Ruin. That is so utterly impossible as to be...I have not the words.
"Not Ruin," Felix stated, thinking of the violet darkness. "Vellus...she may have actually been there. I certainly felt something from her. But they called it false. I think it was just a fabrication of the Path."
The Grand Harmony would never create such a Path. Something meddles in your progress, Felix.
"I'm pretty sure I know who." Felix took to his feet, glaring at the placid glade around him. "Vellus...and the other gods, all forcing her hand. But why? It's supposed to be the future, right?"
The future...Not even Seers can rightfully parse the paths of causality, Felix. The System called it 'That Which Could Change.' I cannot believe any of these are futures we must take as certain.
Felix swallowed, his mouth dry. He could still remember the feel of it, and false or not it had been horrifying. His Born Trait repeated, in excruciating detail, how he'd been taken apart, piece by piece, atom by atom. His Mind shied away from it, like a hand from a hot stove. He focused on the ground, on the small shoots of green that poked from the dark loam. With exacting motions, Felix took the memories and pushed them down, away, locking them into his Bastion where they could rot until he'd forgotten them entirely. The visions of empty darkness and swirling clouds faded, not forgotten but held at bay. He
"Violet clouds," he said with a jolt. "It was the same thing that attacked Earth, the shapes, the things in them." Felix took a deep, shuddering breath. "The Ruin would have gone after Earth?"
Pit warbled quietly in concern, but still sounded like a bird the size of an elephant. A breeze stirred the glade, making everything shake and shiver, but it didn't touch Felix. He blinked and extended his senses. The trees rustled in a wind he couldn't feel, and the dirt felt...hollow. As if it ended after only a few feet. "What is going on here?"
Felix ran into the woods, burning his Perception and Agility both. Still, he barely managed to stop himself before the terrain simply...stopped.
After thirty yards or so, the forest and blue sky ended in a sheer delineation. Beyond that line was a thick, cloying emptiness.
The Void.
"No, not the Void. If it was the Void, none of this would be here. It doesn't have trees, can't have them, I don't think." Felix clenched his jaw. He addressed the dark around him, the System or Path or whatever it called itself. "What is this? Where am I?"
New Title!
"What?"
Born of Will (Epic)!
You have remade yourself, held together by your foundation and sheer Willpower. You shake the heavens, Ascendant. For what is beyond you, if you have the Will? +100 WIL, VIT, END
Felix barely shivered as the System energy slammed into his core, but when it filtered back out and into his stats, it wrenched out a startled gasp. His Body thrummed with energyStamina, Health, and Manabut more than that: his Vitality had crossed the one thousand mark.
And, dear god, my Will hit 2010. Why wasn't that Title more than Epic, though? Felix felt another shudder wrack his limbs. I remade myself. That's gotta be worth a Legendary, right? Though that description is...suggestive.
Felix, I think I understand, Karys said. Pit had followed close behind, but had slowed long before the edge. Now he too peered over it, into the Void beyond. This is still part of the Path, but it is...separate somehow. All three Realms are intersecting here, I can feel it. I almost recognize it butno. It evades me. Yet it hums with importance.
"Still the Path. But I thought I was done with them now?" Felix tapped his lips, considering. "I didn't see a doorway though. So am I still in the last Path?"
As if in answer, the voice of the System rocked his microcosm.
Congratulations!
You Have Completed Your Path!
Choose One.
Path of the Survivor (From Survivor Title, Vitality And Endurance Above 500)
+10 Vitality, Endurance, and Perception Per Level
Path of the Slayer (From Giantslayer, Butcher, Frostbane, And Titanslayer Titles, Strength Above 500)
+15 Strength and Endurance Per Level
Path of the Ascendant (From Broken Path, The Shape Of Fate, and Fatebreaker Titles, Core At Ring Stage Or Higher)
+20 All Stats Per Level
The window before him thrummed with power, descending notes that never found bottom. Each one felt potent in a way Felix couldn't explain, but understood viscerally. He could sense them, though they were only words, as through a narrow viewfinder into possibility.
Path of the Survivor had him hidden from danger, hardy enough to live while everything around him died, yet smart enough to avoid the obvious fates. Felix was tempted by it, but for what else he saw. Loneliness, bleak isolation, hung about his neck like a weight. He would live through the worst, but be unable to help those he cared for; he rejected it immediately.
Path of the Slayer showed him a blood-soaked battlefield fully embroiled in chaos. Races and monsters came at him, armed and armored to the teeth, and all fell. It was a strength carved from the carcasses of his enemies, and Felix saw his own face radiating such savage glee it shook him to the core. Weapons leaped to his hand, axe and spear and sword and flail, all of them used efficiently. Brutally.
Felix recoiled from that Path of slaughter, quickly refocusing on the last.
Beyond the Path of the Ascendant were gilded cities and soaring archways. Skies of blue and gold spanned the heavens, and a new moon was rising. A red-gold moon wreathed in a ring of blue light. Felix's breath caught, as he saw himself, filled with light until his eyes, mouth, and fingertips radiated illumination. Wings, Pit's wings, spread from his back and they were somehow golden too. Undeniable strength oozed from his pores, a confidence to shake mountains, and a power to back it all up.
Felix pulled back before he lost himself.
"These are my Paths?" he asked no one in particular. "Karys, Pit, did you catch that?"
Yes, Pit sent.
I did, the sword vibrated.
"Three seems to be the System's favorite number, huh? Three doors, three times three Omens. Three Paths. Odd," Felix said. He calmed his breathing and slowed his heart, attempting to still his agitation and unease. He was only partially successful. "Survivor, Slayer, and Ascendant. All based on my Titles, it seems."
Such is the nature of the Omen Paths. Titles, Skills, and stats determine what you are offered at the end of things. Karys grumbled, twitching in his sheath. Any more I cannot say. Only that...the...Paths should not be as you have experienced them. They are unique, yes, but this...this is beyond strange.
The last sentences were spoken in a rush, as if he were forcing them out. Karys ended up panting by the end, exhausted.
Felix grunted. "I appreciate that, but it doesn't do me any good now. Is this how Paths were offered at the end of yours?"
Karys made an annoyed sound. I cannot say.