Silence - Chapter 02

He was wrong.

It was way more than six.

They were impossible to count as they flew toward him deceptively fast; not only were they practically invisible, they didn't move like natural creatures at all. Their wings flapped rarely, but they sped up and slowed down abruptly, as if inertia didn't apply to them. But it certainly applied to Felix and Pit, as the two of them weren't able to outrun the Harrowings for more than a few seconds.

Talons flashed and Voidborn beasts shrieked while Felix and Pit unloaded their arsenal of Skills. Wrack and Ruin tore through two of them, boring sizzling holes through their wings, which unfortunately had zero effect on their ability to fly. Pit flared with green Poisonfire, blindingly bright in their black surroundings, and got up close and personal with Rake and Bite. For a few blessed seconds, the two of them fought the Harrowings back.

Then three others attacked. From below.

Flying just as if the ground were air, the Harrowings burst from below them and both Felix and Pit took raking talons to their backs and sides. The Reign of Vellus that Felix was holding stuttered and went out, the Mana flow somehow interrupted by the Voidborn's attack, and Felix's sharp eyes caught a trailing tendril of crackling azure light fading behind the beast.

His Mana was low, lower than it had been in a long while, and even though it regenerated at a ridiculous pace it wasn't quite enough. These monsters tore it from him faster than he could use it, dropping his Health by significant numbers as well. Ten seconds into the fight, Felix was torn and bloody, with Pit not far behind. The tenku, while not as magically potent as Felix himself, was still a tasty morsel to creatures that fed on Mana.

And fed they did. The Harrowings grew bloated and fat on their meal, though they flew no less gracefully.

They're so fast! How?  His new and "improved" Analyze no longer told him their highest stats, so he could only guess. Their Agility has to be through the roof!

The Maw floated off to the side, watching with rapt eyes as Felix and Pit were sliced and diced. Seeing it, Felix felt fury rise up inside of him, a real and physical hate for the creature that had messed with his life so thoroughly. It had denied bringing him to the Continent, but he couldn't trust anything it said. Felix channeled his rage into his fists, lashing out with standard unarmed strikes that didn't cost Mana. They were agile but so was he and—damn it—he was strong.

He hit one of them with a straight jab and it's Health dipped fast, and before it died completely Felix grabbed it. He felt something grip him in turn, and a stinging heat flashed in his chest.

Ravenous Tithe!

Ravenous Tithe (Epic), Level 1!
Consume completely an object or creature which you have claimed and can physically touch. Uses Mana to power conversion. Chance of gaining Skills and/or Memories from target if applicable.

His Mana sank, dropping nearly three hundred points, and the Harrowing was suddenly torn asunder. Its strange, rubbery body shred in strips that faded into motes of white light and were sucked immediately into Felix's mouth. It all happened in a millisecond, less than a blink, and Felix felt a burning heaviness settle in the pit of his stomach. No, his core.

Harrowing Consumed!

But not all of it: the creature had a bellyful of stolen Mana, and Felix screamed as much of it crawled out of his throat and exploded in a massive shockwave. A ripple tore through the Void, an expanding circle of Mana vapor that shot off into the black. The remaining Harrowings darted off after it, wheeling their unnatural bodies with reckless speed.

Felix's scream cut off abruptly, and he fell to his knees. His body blazed with energy, his core packed to bursting.

Ravenous Tithe is level 2!

His hands shook as he pushed back into a standing position. Felix was a mess of blood, and Pit was little better. Both of them were dangerously low on Health, Stamina, and Mana.

"I'm...sure...that's gonna be fine," Felix huffed with all of the sarcasm in his bones as he nodded at the receding wave of power. He was a torch made of Mana out here. No wonder they were getting mobbed.

Pity. The Maw pouted, floating in lazy circles around him. You survived.

Felix snapped. "You realize that if I die, you'll die too, right?"

The Maw waved a pale hand. Impossible. I am Unending. I believe I've said that already. It looked up, as if noting something in the distance. I also said running is the better option. I suggest you listen this time.

Felix ground his teeth, almost tempted to stay still out of sheer spite. Instead he ran.

While the act of running was not difficult, the lack of anything in the Void meant it felt a little like spinning in a hamster wheel. There was no wind against his skin, no objects moving in the distance, only the faint resistance of the "ground" beneath him giving any sense of motion. Pit had trouble as well, loping alongside him. Strangely, the tenku was keeping pace despite the disparity in their Agility scores. Felix frowned, then looked at the Maw; it was easily keeping pace, floating after them like the ghost it was.

Felix growled, low and in the back of his throat. He pushed himself, all while constantly scanning in all directions. Voracious Eye couldn't find anything but he didn't trust it. Too new, too...tainted.

Felix had to slow down slightly, however, as Pit couldn't move as fast as he could. As Felix adjusted his speed, he caught a glance of the Maw who was flying slightly behind him. It looked...pensive.

"What?" he snapped.

The Maw didn't answer, only frowned and looked away. As far as Felix was concerned though, that was nothing but a gift.


* * *


They sped through the Void. For all that he felt he'd achieved no distance, Felix could see his Stamina ticking down and his muscles had begun to burn. His Born Trait gave him perfect recall, so keeping track of time wasn't hard, just tedious. He did the math: they had been running for six entire hours.

Running is level 22!

Holy shit. Felix couldn't believe it. It had felt like, at most, an hour. The unique combination of featureless landscape mixed with a Body that had reached the First Threshold seemingly meant less mile markers, either geographical or physiological.

"Hey, you," Felix grunted at the Maw. It still floated, seemingly unaffected by their travel. Only the rippling flow of its tattered dress and hair indicated any movement at all. "Be useful: what does First Threshold mean?"

The Maw smirked, lines gathering on its gaunt face like a traffic jam. First Threshold is when your Primary Stats reach a point of conflux. It is rare to reach it so early, but less rare for the Unbound. And one of the many reasons I wished you as my Vessel. Your kind has a certain knack for the unexpected.

Felix frowned, but ignored the jab about Vessels. "You're not answering the question, Maw. What does that mean? I get the impression that my stats work...better than before. Is that what you mean by 'conflux?'"

Yes. And no. The Maw grinned, and though it's teeth were flat and Lhel-shaped, its mouth looked entirely too wide.

"And that's all you're going to tell me?" Felix panted. His lungs were beginning to burn.

You haven't earned more, yet.

Pit screeched, his voice entirely too loud in the dead air, and Felix felt a surge of hate-rage through their bond.

"Yeah, what he said."

It was only a few minutes later that Felix found out that the Harrowings had never stopped pursuing them. As his muscles flagged, they came like invisible assassins. Influence of the Wisp caught many, rendering them immobile while he pummeled them with his acidic fists. But his Mana was slower than usual at recharging in the Void, and Felix only had so many castings available to him.

They all were hurt, again and again, while the Maw watched on in silence. Its blue green eyes were riveted to Felix at all times, measuring and weighing him on scales he neither understood or appreciated. It was his rage against the Primordial's continued existence as much as survival instinct that guided Felix to victory. After a vicious battle lasting all of fifteen minutes, he and Pit had killed seventeen more Harrowings.

In the distance, another cry.

Better keep running, Unbound.

Felix bit off his curses and did just that.


* * *


The Harrowings dogged them through the next few hours. Furious battles interrupted by long, boring stretches of featureless running. Eventually, the Voidbeasts gave up. 'Why' was a question Felix didn't care to discover, instead hoping it was a lucky break that would continue.

Then it was just running.

Running is level 23!

Moving through the Void felt like falling, no matter the direction he turned. Stuffed as he was by the Harrowing he ate, it only added to Felix's growing discomfort. He felt like he'd eaten a double helping of Thanksgiving dinner, and unfortunately he was not wearing stretchy pants.

Yet, far more than the physical exertion, it was the silence that gnawed at Felix. Never before had been been somewhere so still. No grass to rustle, no crickets to chirp, not even any wind. It was a silence that almost like those nights as a kid, when he'd stay up far pasts his bedtime then wander out of his room. The house became a strange, alien place. Unknown.

The memory of it hit Felix hard, more clear than it had been in years as his Mind and Perfect Recall activated. He had been four, nearly five, and it was the night before Labor Day. He'd stayed up late because he was a big kid, about to go to school for the first time. To prove to himself that he was brave, he had wandered out into the dark living room, passing by the night-stranged knick-knacks and chachkies. The room had felt cold and weird, and noises had crept out at him, things that he'd never hear in the day. Car alarms, shifting floors, the pitter-patter of geckos on the lattice.

Something moved in the dark, and the memory was so vivid Felix felt the remembered terror as if it were real. His little self didn't run away or run toward it or even boldly challenge. He had cried. Oh lord, he had cried a lot, until his mom had bustled out of her room.

"Shh shh shh, what's wrong, Bumble? Why're you out of bed?" She'd said. Her voice, even in memory, was a soft, soothing melody. She sounded so young.

He hadn't been able to make much sense of it all, merely blubbering about monsters and the dark. His mom had whispered comforting words like "you're safe now" and "don't worry." Mom things. And he had promptly fallen asleep.

His thoughts turned inevitably toward the dream that wasn't...the memory he walked into just before he "died." His mom, his sister Gabby. Felix hoped they were okay, that his trusting sister had made it off the boat in that storm. And...and he hoped they didn't miss him.

He really didn't think he'd ever make it back to them. Felix was surprised at how much that hurt to admit. He'd thought he'd come to grips with it when he'd fallen on the Essence Anchor, but it was still just as raw.

What is wrong, Felix Nevarre?

When the memories released him, Felix felt like he had been transported all over again. It hadn't been like when he'd stolen a Memory in the past, but his perfect recall had made it so damn realistic. Smells, sounds, even emotions felt viscerally true. He felt at his cheeks and found them wet. Pit bumped at his leg, hard enough to nearly knock him over, and a fuzzy warmth spread through their bond. Comfort.

Felix Nevarre?

He ignored the Maw and started running again. He might share a body with the damn thing, but his memories were his own.

It was only a few minutes later that they came across a few rocks floating in the Void. No bigger than his torso, Felix almost missed it as they whizzed by the formation; though a strange quirk of perception meant it looked like the rocks were the ones moving. When they slowed and back tracked, Felix found the rocks to be hovering in place; just a touch was enough to send it moving away. After a moment, it was pulled back by some unseen tether. They were bare of anything but stone, yet Felix felt excitement course through him.

"If there are rocks, that means the Void isn't completely empty," Felix said to Pit. The tenku joined him in his excitement. "There are monsters, there are floaty rocks. There's gotta be a way out."

Optimism, rasped the Maw. The smiling Fool's lie he tells himself. I thought you drew the Magician, Felix Nevarre?

Felix ignored it as best he could, but the Maw was insidious. It crept into sight over and over, floating into his peripherals or in front of him as he ran. By the end of another two hours, Felix and Pit had crossed the path of numerous floating stones. Some were lone formations, while others were conglomerated into tiny floating archipelagos.

Felix knelt atop a particularly large formation, perhaps as large as a basketball court. He swept his Perception and, with some reluctance, his Voracious Eye around the area.

What are you doing?

Felix didn't bother to answer it, merely grunting in annoyance. He sought some sign of life and hoped the larger islands would have something. But there was nothing growing on them, just rock and rock dust. Still, hope buoyed his heart. He knew they could find a way out. Why else would the System assign a quest?

You're a fool, Felix Nevarre.

Felix rolled his eyes. "What is it this time?"

There is no escaping this. The Void is...You cannot escape it. Your Grand Harmony lies to you. You cannot even hear it in this wretched place!

"I recall someone telling me I couldn't fight you off, and yet here we are," Felix spread his arms wide. The Maw only bared its flat, human teeth at him. Felix scoffed and dropped his arms to slap at his sides. "If you—"

A fog-horn like bugle rocked the Void, a description that was both apt and totally misleading. It was deep, sure, but strange and multitudinous undertones laced the bugle, the cry of a creature that was far larger than even the whale-thing he had seen earlier. Felix's vision blurred with the strength of the cry, the rock beneath him vibrating like an earthquake. Then suddenly and without warning, a massive creature flew above them.

It looked like one of those rocky whale beasts except far bigger and more gruesome. Whereas the former had skin of craggy stone, this...thing had reddened, blubbery flesh that visibly pulsed even from a distance of what had to be miles. Upon its body were rows and rows of serrated teeth, forming strange mouths all over it's long, bulky form that were surrounded by patches of rust colored scales.

Name: Corrupted Narhallow
Type: Voidborn*
Level: 73
HP: 3944/3944
SP: 2489/4375
MP: 862145769/0
Lore: Normal Narhollow siphon Mana from the Void with their specialized mouth filters, releasing excess through their tails to move their impossible bulk. This Narhollow has been corrupted by foreign power, it's very nature altered by its ingestion.
Strength: Unknown
Weakness: Unknown

Voracious Eye is level 26!

As they watched, it tore into a flock of Harrowings that Felix hadn't spotted, eating a huge mouthful of them. Silhouetted against the Narhollow, Felix could see that there were hundreds of the things after them now. The Corrupted Narhallow snapped up several more with one of its side mouths, the teeth working like a horrific venus fly trap. Just looking at it, Felix could sense a dire sort of connection to the creature. A visceral reverberation shot through his guts, before coiling and leaping back out, toward the creature.

Oh Ruin, whispered the Maw.

"What?" Felix couldn't tear his eyes away from the corpulent monstrosity, but he felt the Maw float next to him, could feel the tension pouring from it. He turned and saw a flurry of emotions moving across the Maw's face, some far too fleeting to catch.

My power. My beautiful strength! It TOOK IT! The maw raised a pale hand in a snatching motion. GIVE IT BACK!

A dissonant note cracked across the silent expanse, a burr in the fabric of reality that shook from Felix's own core at the Maw's gesture. In the distance, Felix saw the Corrupted Narhallow's massive eye roll toward them with a distinct clarity. Another foghorn shook the Void.

And the creature began heading in their direction.

"What've you done?" Felix looked at the Maw only a moment before calling out for his friend. "Pit! Run!"