It washed them clean.
You Have Cleansed The Spirits Of All Within Ten Leagues
All Unwilling Marks Removed!
Felix's core space spasmed, all but empty, as the wide-scale work was almost finished. Almost, but not quite. He'd had enough of those who would impose their choices on others, enough of predators who sought only to use and exploit. He'd had enough.
Tyrant of Choice Activated!
All Thus Cleansed Can No Longer Be Unwillingly Marked!
His own Spirit soared, weights finally lifted from it, and within him he could hear a triumphant cry of a tenku. His Marks, those of the Raven, remnant Maw, even the one Zara placed on him; all of them shattered and were washed clean.
Hidden Quest Completed!
All May Rise!
Compassion is to be lauded, Ascendant. Rewarded. You have spent yourself, the very power you'd use to advance, on those who have sought your death. There are those that would call you a Fool, but it is the Fool who challenges the impossible.
Rewards:
+Title!
+Increased Authority!
+Skill Evolution!
New Title!
Transmuter of Burdens (Epic)!
You have turned to light the burdens all, friend or foe, by spending your Mana and accumulated significance, returning them the Choices that had been stolen from them all.
+5% Reduction of significance and Mana consumed in all future attempts!
+5% Completion bonus to Fiendforge!
Skill Evolution!
Unite the Lost Has Gained An Ability!
Mark Cleansing And Immunity - Use of Unite the Lost on a target will cleanse them of all Marks and make them resistant to further tampering. Effects increase with level.
Aria of the Green Wilds is level 81!
Wild melody shook the Foglands, more gorgeous than he could comprehend, and Felix's Mind went blank. He trembled, Tree and man, as two beasts within him held him tight. One dark and hungry, the other of light and wing, the both of them anchoring Felix as chaos stormed into his channels. A flow of...something, flooded back toward Felix from the horde beneath. It hit the Treehimand sank back into his channels and core space. Into the dark places between Skills and Cores and Pillars, where the significance of the Urges once dwelled...and restored that lost weight. Restored it and so much more.
"What?" he gasped, jerked free of his communion with the Spirit Tree. Of those two beasts inside. "I spent it..."
Yet significance had returned, two-fold. Everything he'd given had been repaid, and then some.
Unite the Lost is level 38!
...
Unite the Lost is level 49!
New Title!
Savant of the Green Wilds (Epic)!
You have raised a Spirit Tree from Seed to Elder Tree! A remarkable achievement seen all too little!
+15% Effects and harvests from all flora attended by you personally.
Vess drew up short, her spear inches from piercing the Arcid's vile form, when it simply...melted.
"What is this?" Wyvora hissed. "What is happening?"
A sound rang out, a chord so deep and powerful it almost turned her bones to jelly, and Vess flinched away. Rays of light stabbed from above, drawing her attention up, to a woven darkness that blocked out the stars themselves. Vess was confused a moment before the light revealed far off branches and leaves, sparking a series of new questions. Yet all questions died, unasked, as the Arcid was subsumed by that light. The entire battlefield was, spears of radiance that hit every single one of their enemies and stopped them all in their tracks.
"It is Felix," Vess said, a certainty growing within her. Her Affinity thrummed with the truth of it; she could feel him, somehow. "He won."
Wyvora didn't speak, but stared in commingling fear and hope. Vess felt both as well. Hope for them all, and fear for what may have been lost already.
You Have Been Cleansed Of All Unwilling Marks!
Rejoice!
"I was Marked?" she asked in mounting horror. She could see a shape wash away, looking like an unraveling knot. It was gone in moments, faded. "By whom?"
"Vess!"
The Henaari pointed with her hooked spear at the fallen Arcid. The light had vanished, leaving behind a perfect circle of new growth. Moss and grasses rose above the otherwise unending fields of mud, at at its center...
"Siva grant me your grace," she whispered. "Felix. What have you done?"
At some point, Felix had let go of the Spirit Tree. Instead of falling, however, he had simply slid down its sprawling length. The memory of that was hazy, distracted as he'd been. The curve of the gargantuan plant had led him deeper into the earth, past cracked foundations and into chambers Felix hadn't known existed. Now he was in a deep chamber that had clearly been carved from the bedrock, and in the Nymean style. Far above, the sound of falling water dominated, but not a lick of that moisture was reaching him.
Felix stood, insides still buzzing with the accumulated power he'd received, and had to lean on the Tree for support. Moving felt...weird. He wasn't huge anymore, as he'd been while facing the Archon, and his skin had returned to normal, but he felt alien in his own Body. Like he was simultaneously too slow and too fast; likely a result of his Agility being a touch lower than his Perception, and the both of them reaching above a thousand points. But the gains of nebulous significance pulled too, an internal weight that drew everything inward.
"Karys? Pit?"
A flash of light manifested in his tenku Companion, now bigger than any horse or oxen Felix had ever seen. Still not quite as huge as he'd been in that one vision. Burns marred his feathers and fur, dark patches that oozed blood and charred flesh.
"Oh god, are you okay?"
Pit winced but warbled assurances. The chimera's Health was increasing slowly from the depths the Archon had pulled him to; just the thought of that bastard made Felix's blood boil all over again. He breathed sharply through his nose, mastering his anger, taking solace in the fact that the Betrayer would never bother anyone ever again.