Chapter Two Hundred and Eighty Five - 285The sound of joyous, gleeful cawing faded as Felix's everything erupted with potency. Green-gold radiance surged into his channels and core space, spearing through the dark void between his spinning Skills, drenching it all in its sap-like consistency. It swirled, even as it spread, pulled inexorably toward his center until it reformed into an orb of brilliant, vibrant fluid.
Felix's core space shook, twisted with a hollow pain that made both him and his Companion startle. Pit's screech were accompanied by Felix's shouts.
His hunger, the dread abyss that dwelled between his stacked cores, it called for the Eidolon's power. The sound of gnashing teeth, of rumbling guts filled the space. The abyss had locked onto it, and there was no stopping its momentum. It flashed forward, a bullet into the dark, already stretching and pushing into the inky maelstrom at his center. The orb of power shredded apart, too fast and too slow, like a predator enjoying its meal.
No! Not this!
The dark pulled, but Felix pulled right back. Steel-like cords of connection formed between his consciousness and the orb, blinding in their radiance, and his cores sang in a cacophony of discordant harmony. As Felix raged, so did they.
You are mine! And you! Will do! As I say!
Title: Tyrant of Choice Engaged!
You Have Rejected The Rest Of The Eidolon's Potency!
The Endless Raven Is Amused!
CAW!
Invisible claws slipped free of the green-gold power, and whatever laid within that abyss howled with an impotent fury that Felix no longer cared to hear. It cut off as easy as a door shutting in a room, his Bastion of Will blazing in the near distance.
Bastion of Will is level 70!
Bastion of Will is level 71!
Nymean Artifact Detected!
Substitute For Sacrificed Potential Found!
Potency Rerouted!
What?
Above the dark abyss, the root-like branch of Divinity resonated like a struck tuning fork. Waves of power hit and were enveloped within his [Thunderflame Core] and [Cardinal Beast Core], before being flung back out, this time a blue-white and red-gold arrow that shot toward Felix and his captured orb.
He and the Eidolon's power, its dang soul, were hurled out of the core space. They traveled backward, spinning through his channels at a breakneck pace, until they hit and burst from Felix's own left hand.
The same hand that held tightly to his Crescian Blade.
Inheritor Status Acknowledged!
Array Unlocked!
Suddenly himself again, Felix watched his hooked sword ignite in a storm of green-gold light and sloshing liquid Mana. It spun around the hilt and blade itself until it coated it entirely, and the array near the guard lit up, followed by a second one just above it. A new one. It sang to Felix's senses, almost overwhelmed by the vibrations of Mana and his own cores.
The liquid Mana sank into the weapon and disappeared entirely.
As if strings had been cut, Felix sagged and his arms fell limp. Blinking rapidly, he saw his Stamina, Mana, and Health had all been reduced to just below ten percent. The remnant Status Condition that blinked immediately away told him why.
Status Condition: Aspect Drain (Major)
Aspect drain? To say that was alarming was putting it mildly. Felix felt at this Aspects, but Body, Mind, and Spirit all felt hale and unchanged. His internal snapshot of his condition matched his current reality. So what drained?
A flash of emerald radiance called his attention to his Crescian Blade. There, above the hilt, were two elaborate glyphs etched into the metal. They glowed with an intense light that lasted only a few more seconds before the light, and the glyphs themselves, faded from the blade.
Voracious Eye!
Hoping for something, anything from the glyphs, instead Felix was surprised by an entire block of text he'd never before seen from the weapon.
Name: Inheritor's Will
Type: Weapon (Long Blade) (Enchanted)
Lore: A weapon known by many names, it was once an instrument of the Herald herself, used to defend the Golden Empire from those that would wrong it. It is made of Crescian Bronze, a material stronger than orichalcum and mithril, yet lighter than both and more welcoming to enchantment. Its function as a key to access Nymean Temples is known, but all else is a mystery.
Etheric Division - The first of several arrays. The blade may cut through spellforms and Mana formations at the Inheritor's request, but it is gated by the advancement of the Inheritor.
Etheric Unification - Nymean power resonates with the Blade, drawing toward itself other sources of Nymean sorcery.
Aside from the fascinating bit of history and strange enchantments, the substance of the weapon had been refined in some small way. It looked cleaner, sharper. Newer, almost. There was a vibrancyjust the faintest blushand on the pommel of the sword was a crystalline shape. A two pronged star that looked much like an elongated diamond.
Two star ruin...Felix looked up and around at the broken well. Did I absorb the power of the settlement?
He checked his Local Authority, and it was still intact, and there were still greyed out commands and inaccessible sub-menus. Only now, the [Access Vault] option was entirely absent. Pit let out a curious chirrup.
"Hm? What do you mean, 'you feel something?'" Felix asked. But then he did feel something, the supremely satisfying and borderline painful sensation of waking after a very, very long sleep.
Who...where am I?
The Eidolon's voice was strong and deep, if not quite as deep as it was within the construct. Felix froze, as at first he thought he'd gathered another companion in his head, a new, far less menacing Maw for him to deal with...until he realized the voice wasn't coming from his core space at all.
It was coming from the sword. It wasn't his Aspects that drained.
"Hey there, Karys Taiv," Felix said and smiled tentatively at his faintly glowing sword. "How're you doing?"
I...am alive?
"Technically speaking, no, probably not," Felix said. Pit chirped his agreement. "But you're not dead either. Or consumed to fuel the hellbeast that may or may not be living inside of me."
W-what?
"Not important right now." Felix lifted the swordInheritor's Will, apparentlyuntil it was eye level with him. "Somehow your...everything, got transferred to my sword. The Herald's Hook, as you called it. I don't know why, exactly, though I have an inkling on the how."
The Eidolon was quiet. You took everything. No...No I recall the voice, the absurd crowing. Something interfered when I attempted to gift you my Aspects. I can see it now. Yousomehow, Felix could sense the ancient warrior looking at him in surpriseYou rejected my power, for all that it would have elevated you even more. And the System found your blade instead. That is...I had heard the Unbound could be the greatest among us, but to pass on such power...I am humbled, Felix Nevarre. Truly.
Felix found himself gritting his teeth as the Eidolon went on. Of course his efforts at decency, at not eating another person's soul had caused him to lose out on more power. Except that wasn't entirely true. He recalled bits of the guardian's power draining into him. As if the System was waiting for him to make that connection, he received a notification.
You Have Absorbed A Portion Of Eidolon Exult Karys Taiv!