It was all he could do not to retch. They smelled like death, blood and curdling corruption oozing into the air around them.
The golden giant flexed his immaculately jointed hand, releasing the Skill it had used once the lackeys were holding him. The fingers were completely encased in the tarnished armor, tiny golden plates covering every joint and seam. As the Skill deactivated, he noticed a reddish electricity sparking around the golden giant's fingers. His eyes opened wide.
It's like Tides of Vellus...but his control is insane.
"My, my, my," whispered the giant, his voice breathy from beneath his gargantuan helm. Its armor made it look like a knight had been sealed alive in their armor. "How did you get all the way out here? And into my tunnels too? My Helga says you were slaughtering poor Rockstrikes in the upper caverns. Chasing some levels, were you?"
The armored hand never dropped from before him, but also never quite touched Felix. It flexed and twitched ever so slightly, almost as if turning the pages of a book.
"Just got lost, is all," Felix offered, watching that golden hand warily. He took the moment to Analyze the giant.
Name: ERROR
Type: Archon
Level: ???
HP: ?????/?????
SP: ?????/?????
MP: ?????/?????
Lore: Golden guardians of the Nymean people, Archons were the last defense against calamity. It was not enough.
Strength: Unknown
Weakness: Unknown
Error? Nymean? What is with this race? And that's the first time I couldn't see someone's level. This is bad.
"Lost? I too, have been Lost." The archon sighed like a bellows. "It is a grave sadness in your soul, a diminishing that lingers like a riven limb." It tilted its head at Felix, curious. "You...are familiar with such exile, are you not? I sense a kinship here."
The archon loomed over him, fixing Felix with its glowing ember eyes.
"Why have you entered my Domain, ileni?"
Felix felt drawn to those eyes, like a moth to flame, and he felt his thoughts stutter and twist dangerously. The thread of his mind felt taut, yanked and unspooling into those unending fires.
Mental Resistance is level 22!
Felix felt the grip on his mind slacken, ever so slightly. He rasped out the first thing that came to his head.
"I'm exploring! For the Endless Raven!"
The golden archon tilted back, its fiery eyes growing incrementally wider. The mental pressure on him almost disappeared entirely. "You claim the right of Wander, ileni? You have not the mark nor the badge of the Seeking Eye, unless you hide them most cleverly."
"Oh uh, wait, in my bag," Felix extemporized, an idea already blooming even as the lackeys gripped him harder. "I have my necklace, ugh, in there."
After a nod from the archon, the smaller of the two lackeys started rifling through Felix's satchel. It roughly shoved aside his waterskin and threw some half eaten rinds into the bushes. Felix Analyzed him and his companion while waiting.
Name: Arcid #54768
Type: Archonic Construct
Level: 35
HP: ???/???
SP: ???/???
MP: ???/???
Lore: A bastardization of life and magic, it has no soul yet it screams in eternal torment.
Strength: Unknown
Weakness: Unknown
Name: Arcid #54772
Type: Archonic Construct
Level: 35
HP: ???/???
SP: ???/???
MP: ???/???
Lore: A bastardization of life and magic, it has no soul yet it screams in eternal torment.
Strength: Unknown
Weakness: Unknown
Dumb names. How about Slender and Big Boy? His thoughts were spinning madly, still reeling from whatever the Archon did to him.
The sound of something ripping marshaled Felix's thoughts, causing him to gasp. "Hey! Hey!"
Slender dropped the stachel back against Felix's thigh, and held up a small medallion. It was the Farwalker's Friend, the necklace he found with the Henaari's belongings. The Arcid handed it over to its master, who took it delicately in hand. The archon vaguely gestured for his lackeys to drop Felix, and they did so immediately.
"It has been a long time since I have beheld a Farwalker. You are...shorter than any Farwalker I've seen before. Though admittedly, it has been a few centuries. Why did you not proffer this to my guards when you arrived?"
Felix swallowed as he climbed to his feet, his throat suddenly drier than it was in the lava room. His mind flipped through everything he knew of this world, of the Henaari and--
That's it!