Ice chains snapped and popped, while the Arcid started to twist violently. Atar backed up, his drained Mana and Stamina no match for the creature. The others would take care of it. He needed to get back to the cage. Only his flames had any effect on them.
The sound of pulverizing ice brought him up short. Atar gasped and looked back at the cage to find it shattered into pieces, and a stumbling Nevia holding onto one of the bars. She'd clearly drained all of her Mana, but her power over ice Mana had sundered it completely.
"...I weakened it for you," Atar sputtered.
More ice burst, and this time the Arcid stood up, slipping past Evie's binding chains as if he were oil instead of metal. Though its face was merely an elaborate armored helmet, Atar could tell it was angry beyond measure.
"Y-you" it spat as it drew itself to full height once again. "You dare!"
"Yeah. We dare."
Harn, his helmet and axes returned, stepped free of his broken cage. Silver fire flared along the length of the weapons, as bright as the moon. The Arcid took a single step back.
"Time we had a talk, Slippery." He spun his axes. "One on one."
The Tower shook.
"What is that?" Felix asked Pit. He was cradling the small, frail body of the Geist, having lifted him gently from the hard ground. There was a flash of light and Pit manifested once again, though the stone Ogres took up a lot of space in the room.
Enemy, Pit sent. He sniffed the air. Smells of...wind.
"The air-attuned Arcid," Vvim said with difficulty. He hadn't passed out, like Felix assumed, but he was weak. Alarmingly so; his voice sounded like he was pushing mud through a straw. "Your distraction did not hold it."
Evie. Were they all okay? He fought back the urge to rush out and find out. He had to finish this first. "C'mon, Vvim. You gotta come with me. Can you walk?"
"This one...cannot, Felix. The Tower is too damaged."
"Why does that matter?"
He is connected to it, Karys said in realization. His Mind and Spirit are tethered to it, like an Eidolon.
"Your...sword is correct. This one is...nothing more than the Tower itself, and it is falling apart." A wracking cough took him, until he was trembling and even paler than usual. Felix held on, trying to be as gentle as possible. "I...it is how we have survived so long. This one waswas never so powerful as our brothers and sisters. But to escape the Ruin, this one bound Spirit and Mind to the Tower in hopes that it's mighty enchantments would survive the ending of our world." He shuddered again, and Felix realized the ancient creature was laughing weakly. "It worked too well. While so many of the family burned away, scoured from the world and memory itself...this one remained. For far too long."
The Ruin. Felix's breath quickened as his Mind shied away from something, a Memory. He realized he was sweating, panting, and the Geist was watching him with rheumy eyes.
"Yes. You saw the briefest glimpse of it. This one's Memory, bore a piece of the Ruin when it struck in Ages past. Your Mind struggles to grasp its true nature...even through Memory, it hoards its secrets jealously."
"Is that why I'm missing time?" Felix asked. "Why I can'tI don't remember the ending of the Memory you sent me."
"The Ruin cannot be seen or recalled, not unless it has touched you. And unless you are blessed or cursed by fate, that touch will unmake you regardless." Vvim shuddered again, this time in fear. "Were that this one was unmade, all those Ages ago. This one had hoped to...convince you to sunder those connections with your sorcery when we first met," Vvim said. His breathing was wet and thick. "It is not often one's life is ended by irony."
Felix wasn't in the mood for jokes. Instead he flicked through his Skill list, wondering if any of his abilities could stave off the old man's demise. He had too much information to die here. About the Ruin, the Nym, all of it.
"What if I use Stone Shape to rebuild the Tower? Would that keep you alive?"
"It is more than that," Vvim said. "The Arcids have struck at my connection itself. It's just a matter of time, now."
Felix clenched his jaw and Pit whined. The tenku shuffled his feet, unsure what he could do to help.
Felix, Karys said.
"Yeah?"
What of your Transcendent Skill?
"Adamant Discord? How would that help?" Felix asked.
No. Unite the Lost. I can see some of your memories. I see how you have used it in the past. It is not a Skill I am familiar with, or had any idea could exist, but it is powerful.
"No," Vvim said. "That you have unearthed that Skill is...it is dangerous, Felix Nevarre. To yourself most of all."
"Will it save you?" Felix asked, already eyeing the strange, convoluted pattern of the Skill.
"Un-unknown," Vvim said. "That Skill...it drains significance, Felix. It drains that which you are to fuel that which has been. You...you mustn't use it. Not for this."
"Not your choice, Vvim," Felix said.
Unite the Lost.
The pattern surged with light, spinning into activity like whirling dervish, and vibrations shook through all of him. Felix felt lightheaded, suddenly, but he didn't stop. He willed the Skill at Vvim, at the connections he sensed between the Geist and the Tower. Something within him locked in place.
Then the pain began.
"AAAGGH," Felix screamed through his teeth. It felt like clawed hands were gutting him, as if a creature had reached into his chest and began scooping out everything that made him, him. It bypassed his pain resistance, the Song of Absolution utterly ineffectual against it's onslaught.
Felix! Pit and Karys cried in unison.
Trembling, Felix directed a stream of Essence down into the Skill. The tendril touched, and instantly his store was utterly drained. Every ounce of Essence was consumed as the Skill attempted to change Vvim's fate...and it was gone before it could even budge a single connection.
Shaking, Felix cut off the Skill.
Unite the Lost is level 14!
Unite the Lost is level 15!
Unite the Lost is level 16!
...
Unite the Lost is level 22!
He laid there, bent over Vvim's body, for what felt like hours. Felix's stats and Aspects, everything about him, felt strained and raw. As if he'd just barely avoided falling from a precipice at the roof of the world. He clung, bloody-fingered, to the ledge until he managed to pull himself back.
"It is...useless, Felix Nevarre," Vvim breathed. "Do not burn yourself up for this one. It is time." Vvim put a clawed finger to his temple and pulled back, extracting a brilliant light from inside his skull. It took only a glance for Felix to recognize that it was another Memory. "This is what you need to know. What this one can...give to you fully here. The Archon iswasa mortal. He was sealed to that armored Body. We were there, this one's family. At the trial."
"A criminal," Felix said.
The worst of criminals if he were to be bound against his will, Karys added. A punishment that would be a living torment.
"More than that. His crimes helped unleash the Greater Primordial that you know so well, Felix. And after that? His experiments cost many lives and souls. He perverted the Eidolons, the brave guardians given second life."
Karys gasped in horror. No!
"Yes. As punishment, his Mind was shredded and his Spirit bound to ageless metal of his own design. So that he would serve the Nym forever in the abomination he created."
Such a punishment was too light!
"So he was a Nym, too," Felix said.
"No."
"No? He waswas he a Geist?" Felix asked.
The Tower shook again, and Vvim's expression stiffened. "It...is why his crime was...so heinous. He was the hope of the War. His creations helped turn the tide of battle before we knew what they were. Nothing is so terrible as a hero...turned villainous."
"A hero? So he wasn't Nym, then what?"
"He is Unbound, Felix Nevarre."
The Tower shook, far harder this time, but Felix barely felt it.
"The Archon is Unbound."