The Essences of Bort and Conductor combined spun a bridge of luminous power that speared from Felix's core down, down into the null space. A bolt of liquid lightning.
"What? No!" Vellus cried.
He embraced it, and the power inundated his restrained form. A heat grew within him, terrifyingly strong, and Felix felt Vellus' growing horror grow along with it. The ruby red pieces above his core collected faster and faster, torn from the liquid vortex at a speed far faster than Felix had ever seen. What he'd called Echoes of the Maw flitted out and hit him like tiny detonations, chunk after chunk of shining crimson congealing together. Building something.
"What have you done?!" Chains rattled and slithered, shattering stone and diverting the course of crimson rivers. "It will be your end!"
The ruby formation had been growing all this time, unnerving Felix. He couldn't keep the terror from riling his Spirit, caught between the divine mountain and whatever fresh nightmare the Primordial's last gift had in store. Vellus' madness thundered, quaking his entire Body with her rage, but she moved as if in slow motion. She couldn't stop him. Pit trumpeted and Felix felt a single word across their bond.
Brace!
Contained within that maelstrom above, the last piece of Maw flitted out and hit him. Immediately, an expanding ripple of Primordial potency blasted outwards. It hit and passed through every one of his Skills, and Felix felt his everything shudder with the impact. Then it reversed course, collapsing or perhaps imploding, rushing through his Skills and core space in a blink.
WARNING!
SEVERE DEVIATIONS DETECTED!
SKILLS MAY BE AFFECTED!
ASPECTS W!## $0--
BE W4R#$!!
Out of the implosion, a glistening ring of thick, viscous liquid formed above the blue-white fire of his core, spinning in counterpoint.
"You've...No no! You cannot!"
"Already did," Felix screamed felt like he was gonna throw up. "Jerk!"
Vigor flooded him in a constant stream. The new ring began to spin faster than before, and Felix willed his original to match it. The abyss within it howled, a sound it had never made before, as the two cores created a greater suction than ever before. The Essence, Mana, Profane energy, all of it was devoured.
ERROR!
CRITICAL ERROR!
CALCULATING NEW!
ER%0R!
What remained was a steady, incomprehensibly intense pull that somehow acted as a counter-force to the all-encompassing draw of the threads around him. Including the goddess' own. Felix shifted in the null space, for the first time since he'd arrived. He gasped, reveling in the sudden freedom just as that heat crescendoed into a fierce, clawing corrosive feeling that he knew all too well.
"No! What you're doing is madness!" Vellus' voice was rage turned to agonized terror. He was no longer moving toward the mountain, but it trembled as if it would reach for him. "You tread upon a forbidden Path! Do not do this!"
Pit cried out, fear and iron resolve mingled in his sense-projection. Doubt filtered through Felix, but he was more than sick of others choosing what he should do. He threw his Will behind his Companion's, and the suction of his abyss multiplied. His Affinity spread, wider and wider, until it felt like Felix held the entire city in his Mind and Spirit. He could sense it all, every single mote of Essence that floated above or clung to raving Revenants. All of it.
Mine, he said. Not a statement. A command.
As above, so below. It was drawn into him, breathed into his flesh through channels worn so bloody they were little more than suggestions. Essence filled every inch of his core, a storm of amorphous energy that each and every one of his Skills. Those Skills blazed anew, shimmering strangely since the Primordial ring's formation. Everythingall of itswelled and ignited, an illumination that was all the colors of the spectrum.
What...what is this?
It felt like nothing ever had. There was no pain or pleasure, it was simply a profound sense of strength. Of resilience. Those threads that constrained him moved freely, still connected, still pulling at him with the weight of worlds, but...changed.
Race Upgraded!
Your Aspects Have Been Permanently Altered!
You!
Turbulence cut off the System as the mountain that was a moon hurled a thunderstorm at him. Lighting struck into the null space, while gale winds and piercing blood rain stabbed into him. Felix cried out, his Body torn, bleeding, and burned.
Have A
"You cannot do this! You doom us all!" Vellus thundered. More of the goddess' power heaved itself toward Felix, enough that he doubted he'd survive it's impact. He tried to flee, to will himself up and out of the null space through the gap he'd opened. The moment he attempted it, Vellus' aura thickened with eddies of insanity, enough to send Felix stumbling. "We must save them!"
Title Change!
Cardinal (Major) (Legendary, Scaling)!
Primordial Nym! You Have Embraced the Legacy of the Unseen Tide! Your Power Grows And the Path Before You Trembles! +15% to All Stats.
The power that had been swirling among his core speared downward once more, guided by a swooping tenku, and struck Felix in the chest. His nerves seized and his muscles clenched as they expanded, but more than anything Felix's Mind felt raw. He...expanded in ways he wasn't sure how to explain, while a raw and dangerous potency came alive within him.
"You've corrupted yourself, Felix Nevarre. Become a beast! The Primordials have Lost so much, it is not a Path to tread!"
"Enough!" Felix shouted. His Affinity and Intent, strained already, made a final appearance. "I Choose this! Not you!"
Ravenous Tithe!
Felix reached out toward Vellus' oncoming storm of blood and thunder, seeking to claim it. The goddess resisted, pushing back against his Will like the force of nature she was...but Felix wasn't so easily budged. Not any longer. For a seconda brief, unbelievable secondFelix held his ground.
And he devoured.
The feel of a living storm tore through his channels, though it all felt muted, and perhaps that made the difference. He'd taken a bite out of the stormfront, but the rest of it followed swiftly after, already cutting into him. Felix didn't think, he acted on his training: he took goddess' stolen power and fed it to his core.
Everything...stopped.
In the null space, sound vanished. Wind, rain, lightning, all of it disappeared. A titanic, pained gasp shook him, but then even that was gone.
"An-anathema!" Vellus said in an agonized whisper. Felix couldn't see her, but she sounded close enough to touch. "All ch-choices have consequences, Felix Nevarre. Beware."
The grip upon his soul vanished utterly and completely, like popping a soap bubble.
Vellus was gone.
The null space retreated, and his core reasserted itself around Felix. He floated, bathed in multi-colored light that wavered as his Skills revolved around his two spinning core rings. Ribbons of near-blinding light extended from his blue-white core to his Tempered Skills, and as he watched a series of ruby-red tendrils reached outward, as if questing for Skills of their own.
Without warning, Pit barrelled into Felix, wrapping his fore limbs around his Companion with a fierce joy. It radiated between them like a light of its own, warm and golden, and...
...and it wasn't coming from them.
They both looked up. In the distance, a massive wave of iridescent energy was racing toward his core. From all directions. A tsunami of System energy; and he was chock full of Primordial Essence, its antithesis.
"Oh, what the hell," he complained. "More?"