"CAL! You got it?" Felix shouted, looking back along the street. A figure, far down the block atop the gold-red bulwark, raised its hands. Crackling energies wreathed her, enough for him to recognize her and two other figures beside her. Cal bellowed into the night.
"None of you are allowed here!"
The streets around them lit up, what remained of the street lanterns flickering to a bright yellow radiance. The monsters that survived trembled, suddenly stricken by a weakness none of the mortals felt. The Apollyon, struggling to stand, fell prone once more.
Felix could hear that strange, terrible music, near twin to the concerto that hummed in his core space. It wreathed the monsters all around him, and was especially potent on the beast beneath him. Felix leaned forward and forced his fist into the Apollyon's chest. Metal groaned as his Essence-fueled claws bypassed its armor.
"I know you're in there, Archon," Felix hissed, twisting his talons. He felt the edges of a large, lumpy core and gripped it. A tingling sensation surged up his arm, like pins and needles but involving more fire.
"NYM!"
The shout was immense, greater than ever, and a wave of yellow-red vapor swirled out of the Apollyon's injuries. Felix took a single, careful step back, releasing the core. But he didn't flee.
He was done with that.
"You live...no, you thrive," the Archon observed. Felix felt his skin crawl at the thought of the golden giant's eye-fires on him. "Feeding on these insects' emotions and hope...Typical. It will not save you."
"I'm pretty sure," Felix worked some spit into his mouth. "I'm pretty sure this makes me three for three, Archie."
A well of hate and fury rose from the Apollyon's twitching, fragmented body. It resonated in the yellow-red Mana cloud, a quivering. Then it suddenly smoothed out, unnaturally so; like a pond going glassy still.
"Why do you bother with them, Nym? Mortals cannot halt me, not forever. I am ageless and unrelenting," the Archon said with a reasoning tone. "Ah, but there are no Nym to aid you any longer, are there?" It's voice turned smug and satisfied. "You are alone."
"No," someone said from the side, and Felix saw Vess step from the rubble. "He is not alone."
"Aye, ye face all of us, ye smoky bastard," Rory added.
Voices large and small joined in, all of them shouting. Felix felt the threads between him and those around him swell into thick, braided cords of connection and could not help but feel his skin prickle.
"How sweet," the Archon crooned, before violence flooded his Spirit. "But ultimately meaningless. Today is not the end, Felix Nevarre, last Nymean of a dead empire. It is but an opening salvo in a game far too advanced for you to even underst"
"Game on, then," Felix interrupted. "Cal!"
That discordant harmony swelled around them, pressing inward on the Mana vapor. The voice of the Archon crackled and stretched, straining.
"Haarwatch rejects you, Archie," Felix said. "Bye."
With a screech, the cloudy projection of the Archon was crushed from existence.
A ragged cheer sounded from his people, and Felix gave them a shaky smile. He was beat, but he didn't let them see it.
"Felix!" Vess shouted to him, but he held up a hand, begging for a moment. He knelt. Beneath him, the Apollyon sagged in abrupt exhaustion. Felix's Voracious Eye confirmed it's Mana was utterly spent, and it's Stamina was draining fast as it fought against whatever Cal was doing. Its connection to the Archon was clearly cut, and Felix knelt down again to grab at its core. He was hungry.
Ravenous Ti
Felix felt something tremble in the core. It was faint, more like an echo than anything else, but he...What is that?
It felt cold and alone. Lost.
Lost.
Felix groaned, feeling the tug of his Affinity and a swell of Intent. But he surrendered to it, as he had previously. The Skill was a mystery to him, but it felt important.
Unite the Lost.
Essence and Mana poured from him, the majority of what he'd taken that night, and into the Apollyon's giant frame. Metal shrieked and fell away, corroding in strips and crumbling apart. Ichor swirled and boiled, evaporating so fast Felix almost doubted it had existed. From within, something else began to take shape, until the metal shell beneath him collapsed completely.
Unfettered Volition!
Felix kept his feet, riding down the rotting panels of metal as a figure was born from the corpse of the old. It was much smaller, but still at least twenty feet tall. A Risi, a Frost Giant, stumbled out from below, naked and terrified.
A gasp of alarm swept through those watching, but Felix held up his hand to stay their attacks. The Risi's Spirit quaked with terror and bewilderment; it turned and ran. Back along the path of ruin it had made. Back, he assumed, to the Foglands.
Zara dropped to the ground, limping and bloody. "What have you done?" she asked, her voice colored in equal measure by concern and trepidation.
Felix regarded her calmly. "Where've you been?"
She ignored his comment as he had her own. "You're letting it go? What if it rejoins the Archon?"
Felix regarded the vanishing creature, feeling its Spirit. There was neither anger nor retribution in its troubled Aspect. "I don't think it will. And I'm...I'm tired of killing things." Notifications flashed in the corner of his vision, not yet addressed. "And I have a feeling tonight is far from over."
"No," she agreed. "We have a lot yet to do, Unbound."