Unbound-Chapter Eight Hundred And Ninety: 890

They reached the port city faster than Felix had anticipated. The massive island, floating in the night sky, was filled with blue motes that illuminated it like a halo of blue-white light, similar to his own lightning. As his fleet of Manaships drew closer, Felix was struck by the sheer size of the island. While many of the floating rocks they had encountered were quite large, this one was akin to a mountain range. At its very center was the port city, reminiscent of one they had encountered in the past.

A massive circular gate was bored through the mountains, which clung in a ring around the city far beyond. Buildings lined the walls of the bore, visible as the Manaships passed through, a channel large enough to contain every single Manaship abreast, though they only passed three at a time. The distant structures were all dark, with flat roofs and elaborately carved walls hemming in excessive staircase-streets between them. The only lighting in evidence were the blue motes that floated around them like a field of stars. What’s more, all of the structures were in better condition than the ruins they’d spotted on previous islands, with very few of them pocked or cracked.

A second circular gate followed the first a mile in, and beyond that was the port city itself. Docks lined a huge, scooped out basin that was filled with motes and shadow, and those elaborate, swirling carvings covered every piece of stone. Even the mooring posts were detailed, littered with designs atop their functional sigaldry. His people murmured in wonder and awe as they passed into the city proper, their ships barely making a dent in the vast emptiness—an army five times their size would have fit easily into the docks alone.

Those look like shopfronts. A smithy here, a cobbler there. A great many inns and taverns, based on the designs alone. The place truly was a city, complete with wide, smooth-paved thoroughfares that led deeper into complex, labyrinthine streets. The buildings themselves were tiered, rising as they went back, each layer built into the mountains behind, much like Haarwatch. Felix checked his map. Yeah. There’s the exit.

The exit rift was situated almost at the peak, located just beneath a massive fortress that jutted over the city like a dark sentinel. There, the blue motes gathered into a veritable stream of radiance, flowing in constant dizzying patterns across the mountain-struck sky.

The damage of time and weather was nonexistent here in the heart of the city. In fact, as they drew near their exit, Felix realized that were it not for the lack of wooden doors or glass in window casements, it looked as if the residents had only just left.

"Sir, there seems to be a problem," the First of Arclight gestured at the expanse of dark stone, shaped into a circular gate. "It is not responding to our power."

The woman who spoke was one of his thirteen Exemplars, and she should have been able to open the way out. Entering the Void Nexus was a far greater challenge than exiting it. It only required a single member to open up the way out as the Dark Passages wished to expel them from its clutches. Felix likened it to a sort of pressure, and the Dark Passages were eager to relieve it.

He reached out his own hand, claws curled. Void Nexus.

Blue motes swirled more energetically, as if blasted by an unfelt wind. Though the Skill mustered within his core space, the rift did not open.

"That's a problem," he said. "Florian, dock the ship and spread the word. We need to investigate this city. The answer to leaving has to be here."

It wasn't until Felix approached the exit gate that he realized the blue motes had not merely collected into a stream of lights, but into circular currents that roiled around two enormous blue stars. At least a dozen feet in diameter, they shone like sculptures made of light so thick it was almost crystalline, and they flanked the edifice through which the final rift should be opened, where the Dark Passage ended and their destination lay.

Huh. They aren’t made of Mana or Essence. Felix reached out, feeling the heat from the spiky shapes. It was enough that he could feel pain through his resistance Skill, Lay of the Unfallen. I’m so tempted to eat these.

That would have to wait, however.

As people explored the city below, Felix stood before the gate and pondered. It was locked somehow. He reached out, tapping the solid stone of the mountain. It was dull, thudding beneath his knuckle, and even when he hit it with greater strength, it didn't crack.

Let's try this again. Void Nexus.

The stone rippled, a wave of distortion following his hand as it flickered with darkness beyond the night that surrounded them. The stars flared and flickered, their lights guttering before resurging as the Skill faded.

Again. Void Nexus.

The stars dimmed and the shadows thickened across the stone. It fought back, but his Willpower and Intent were hammered into an opening already—he just had to widen the crack.

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Void Nexus!

The mountain around them groaned, shivering with tremors that set his people to shouting. They ran from buildings, many covering their heads as pieces of rock tumbled down the avenues. If I break these stars, I can open the way.

He reached out for them, but at the same time, a queasiness sank into Felix’s belly. The rift bucked in his grip, unable to free itself from his Will. The stars dimmed, their crystalline prongs ringing with a sharp hum…and a certainty entered his Mind.

Is that the trick of it? He cut off his Skill. The tremors stopped and the light brightened. Clever.

If he were to break the stars and force the rift open, something cataclysmic would happen to the mountains around them. He knew it as if it were written in front of him, a warning stamped into his Mind and Spirit. The collapsing mountain would mean the rift would open for only a moment, while behind him his army would die and the Dark Passage itself would be damaged.

That cold certainty made him turn back to look at the thirty Manaships spread out among the docks. He couldn't risk his people or the Dark Passage. His army needed to get out.

As if in response, the giant blue stars pulsed, and familiar System energy rolled into him from the dark.

New Limited Quest!

Limited?

Cleanse The Dark. Claim The Light.

The Dark Passages were not always abandoned. You stand within a city where people once lived and worked at the edge of the Void. Abandoned since the Ruin’s last true advent, this place has existed long before the Nymean Empire rose in the Golden Age. A fortress built not by the Nym, but by something else. The Dark Passages were once home to those beings. If you wish to restore that home and claim its power, you must find and kill the creature that haunts the fortress, locked behind the Flesh Gate.

Rewards:

Title

EXP

Increased Authority Over Dark Passages

The Treasure Of Starlight’s Rise

NOTE: This is a Limited Quest. Up to two beings may take part.

Treasure? And a creature that haunts this place, possibly related to beings that preceded the Nym? Felix made a face. Why’d it have to be called the Flesh Gate, though?

He hopped down, dropping a hundred feet to land amongst the smooth streets of the strange city. At his request, most of his people had remained aboard the Manaships, but the Claw were spread out around him. They looked up eagerly, watching Felix’s face for what was clearly a new development.

“Sir?” a Fist named Vada asked.

“Go and ask Lady Dayne to meet me at the fortress,” he said. “And tell her to bring Yin.”

“Yes, sir.” They rushed off, and another cleared his throat.

“My Lord? Have you figured out a way to leave?”

“I have. Get everyone back on the ships and be ready to leave at my signal.”

“Aye, sir.” ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com

Every member of the Claw rushed to do his bidding, one Talon telling the next, and in moments the streets of the port city were empty. At least until Vess alighted next to him, her spectral wings fading as her feet tapped to the ground. Yintarion was not far behind her, swimming through the air, just ahead of Pit. His Companion had been the first person he’d contacted after the Quest popped up.

“What's all this, then?” the Drake asked.

“Does it have to do with our exiting this place?” Vess set the butt of her glaive into the stone. “Vada seemed quite intense when she reached us.”

“It does. I'll explain on the way.”

Together, the four of them rose up, following close behind Felix as he approached the dark fortress. It was a squat thing, heavy and built for defense as most fortresses were, but without the usual grace Nymean architecture possessed. It looked out of place among the sprawling port city, but if the Quest were right, then perhaps the fortress was far older than all the rest.

The entrance to the fortress was located at the end of a short bridge, accessible by a winding road at the mountain’s midpoint. Their group bypassed all of that by simply flying to it. There were a few wards to keep people away, but they slipped around his team as if they didn’t exist.

Challengers Detected.

They assembled before the great doors of the fortress. They were carved out of blue marble, heavily veined with white, and featured countless stars set against a mountainous terrain. There were no latches or handles in evidence, and the doors were fitted so precisely Felix couldn’t detect a gap between them and the fortress around them.

Do You Seek To Enter The Fortress Of Starlight’s Rise?

Felix shared a glance with Vess. She adjusted her grip on her glaive and nodded. As one, they flexed their Spirits.

Convergence.

Yin and Pit vanished in flashes of light.

Felix cleared his throat. “Yes. We seek to enter.”

Assessing…

Limited Quest Detected.

Assessing…

Felix clenched his jaw, hoping his plan worked.

Access Granted.

Descend, Challenger.

The two great doors swung outward, and they were beckoned into the dark.

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