Chapter Eighty Three - 083

Enjoy!

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A titanic bellow shook the Void, and teeth the size of buildings clashed and chomped only three hundred yards away. Captain Nokk finished cutting down another Harrowing and looked out over the prow of his ship to see a tremendous Narhollow writhe and glut upon the entrails of another. 

By the Deeps, Nokk swore, cutlass nearly falling from his fingers. The thing was covered in eyes and teeth and gaping, sucking mouths that screamed after the boy's sloop. With a ponderous roll, it chased after him, roaring all the while.

It's the same as what attacked the castle, Nokk marveled. It survived...VERIS!

A dwarven woman appeared next to him as if by magic, her tattooed face covered in dark blood. She holstered her barbed whip and followed where her captain was pointing.

That! How is that alive? It ran straight into our Desolation barrier!

Veris opened her mouth, but Nokk forestalled her.

No no! I don't want guesses! I want it! Full speed ahead! We follow in its wake!


* * *


Mana Manipulation is level 15!

The Whalemaw screamed again as Felix pulled the sloop out of it's reach, extending their lead by another hundred yards. It's toothy gob gnashed like a landslide, it's incalculable bulk an impossible force sweeping toward them. But they survived.

So far.

Felix grunted and focused on not passing out. For three hours he'd been pouring his Mana into the control orb, pushing the small craft as hard as he could through the dark. The Manaship was far faster than the behemoth itself, but while Felix wasted time and energy weaving through the stone obstacles, the Whalemaw chased, deceptively fast, utterly obliterating any rocks in its way.

The Corrupted Narhollow kept closing the distance, never tiring, forcing Felix to push himself harder than he ever had before. He had eked out a tiny lead in the last twenty minutes, only bare seconds after they'd nearly been bitten in half. But he knew he couldn't keep it up, he was burning out and his Mana regeneration no longer kept pace with the amount of Mana he'd poured into the ship.

Pit screamed, his echoing Cry launching out at the Whalemaw to no effect. The tenku shot Wingblades and Frost Spears at the thing, but nothing worked. The spells never made it to the beast's hide, fading into useless Mana before being swallowed by the Void.

You'll never beat it. It's...all powerful.

Felix heard a sigh of longing escape the Maw's rawboned neck. He cast a glance at it, baring his teeth as he saw their boney hands almost reach out toward the beast. He blinked, forcing moisture to alleviate his burning eyes. It had been so long since he last slept.

Yeah...heard that one before! Felix smiled tightly as he felt the Maw's incensed glare rake across him. Wasn't true then, and it's not true now!

Oh yes, your supposed 'victory' over me. How has that been going for you? Been enjoying the sights? The Maw smiled primly and gestured all around them.

This time it was Felix's turn to glower, and he focused back on the turbulent path ahead of them. The Maw was certainly right about one thing: Felix did not feel he had won against it, and he wouldn't, not until he could get rid of it for good. 

The Whalemaw roared again, and the sound of more rocks crashing into one another drowned out his thoughts. He pushed on, faster and faster. It was all he could do.

Their ship crashed and banged, sliding through the field around them at a breakneck pace. Already the sides of the sloop were ragged and splintered, and the sail was all but gone. Only half the mast still stood, the other half having been sheared off by a close call nearly an hour ago. The only thing keeping it running was his Willpower and Mana. The way the Maw begrudgingly described it, a Manaship used the frame and construction around it to function in the way a normal ship would, but took the majority of its guidance and power from the script core and control orb. The inscriptions around the plinth and orb were elaborate and confusing, but Felix assumed they were well made. They hadn't fallen apart yet, unlike the rest of the sloop.

All of a sudden, Felix felt an uncomfortable rush through his entire body. A heady, awful power echoed through him, almost an inverse to the deadening quiet of the Void. It crashed like a waterfall, roaring in the silence. Then the rocks around them opened up, the path clear for the first time in hours. They shot off into the emptiness, and Felix's stomach dropped in mingled awe and horror.

The Desolation.

A massive hole in the black revealed a blinding white radiance that was everything the Void was not. Heat and sound and life and matter all compressed and crushed into a blinding miasma of utter destruction. The song of it was a strident cry, a never ending crash that was all noises at once, screaming for his attention. Felix twisted his head, recoiling from the cacophony, and focused on their approach. It felt as if they had slowed down somehow, though Felix knew he had not. However, the rocky islands around them had started moving forward, and now they rushed in a tightening spiral around the white hole, and where they found the edge they tipped over. He watched as the rocks vanished instantly, erased from existence.

Felix gulped.

No! Flee from this place, Felix! It is better to die in the jaws of that beast than here! The Maw was in a panic, and she spat and snarled at him from inches away.

Enough! Felix flexed Bastion of Will again, and the Maw's form flickered and vanished for a few seconds. Time enough to focus. To--there! It floated upside down in the Void, dangling at the very border of Desolation. The Temple.

Felix grinned and accelerated. His Mana was draining fast, but it didn't matter. They were almost there!

KRAKOOM!

The rocky islands behind them exploded outward in wild, parabolic arcs as the mountainous mass of the Whalemaw burst out into the empty Void. It's mouths screamed in rage and pain and hunger, and Felix's felt an echo of it all within him, a burr in the air that shook his blood the closer the beast came. The Maw within him called out to the Maw within the Narhollow. They wanted to be one.

FUCK! Felix dove, just barely staying ahead of the monstrosity. But his eyes blurred and mind felt muddled. His nerves and concentration were shot. He wasn't going to be able to make it. The Corrupted Narhollow swam toward them with the inevitable onslaught of an avalanche, of a tidal wave. Nature given psychotic, ravenous form. Teeth the size of houses stretched and popped, its jaws pushing outward from its mouth in a grotesque display as it attempted to swallow them whole.

YES! TAKE ME BACK! REBORN AGAIN! The Maw cackled wildly as it reappeared with its arms spread wide, and Felix hadn't the concentration to banish them again.

Green explosions burst abruptly against the Whalemaw's hide, detonations an order of magnitude greater than Felix had seen used before. The Corrupted Narhollow flinched, it's jaws descending prematurely and sending a shockwave of force into the stern of Felix's ship. They were sent reeling.

The gargantuan Hippocamp's Fury had reappeared somehow, and despite everything, if Felix could have stopped spinning he would have cheered. As it was, he tried desperately the regain control of their sloop, but it was impossible. The ship had been too damaged, the hull and mast devastated by debris before and was jettisoning shards of void bone in every direction. Felix gripped hard to the control plinth with his arms and what was left of his fatigued Willpower, commanding Pit to do the same.

Ten, twenty, thirty more shots landed on the Whalemaw's fleshy expanse, bursting its bubbling flesh and blasting craters that quickly became terrible weeping sores. The monstrosity cried out, the rocks all around them quaking in sympathy.

NO! The Maw cried out as the pirates launched bolt after bolt into the creature. My power!

Get over it! Felix bared his teeth and pushed for all he was worth. Every last scrap of power he had, concentration, endurance, everything went toward guiding the ship toward the Temple. The sloop shook and spun, pieces of it shearing off as it hit rock after rock, prow cracking as they rammed into another floating island. An errant blast of the pirates' balistae sent them careening in a wild spin.

AHH!

Everything stopped with a dreadful crunch. Thrown from the craft, Felix crashed into the ground, sending wide cracks spidering across the stone ground. Blearily, Felix raised his head. Blurry shapes above him twirled and spun, and for a moment he didn't understand what he was seeing. Then a green bloom of fire ate across the sky and everything snapped back into focus. It was the Whalemaw battling against the pirate's above him, no more than 300 yards away. 

Frantically, Felix pushed himself up to his feet. Every muscle screamed at him to stop, but Felix didn't have time. His eyes darted around, finding shattered pieces of dark bone and leather scattered all across the tilted stone floor. A pained chirrup from nearby assured him that his friend was alive, and Pit limped free of a particularly large piece of curved bone. He huffed and puffed, but seemed more exhausted than injured. The sloop had snapped in half, obliterating itself against a rocky isle, throwing the Nym and Pit free of the wreckage which had probably saved their lives. The majority of the ship had ricocheted off the island and now drifted away in a tight spiral. Felix followed the debris with his eyes, shielding them against the glare of the Desolation. It was extremely close, and within moments the remnants of his sloop were consumed and...unmade.

Holy...damn...Pit I don't know if...

He could feel a tug on his body, as if the Desolation was trying to drag him into it as well. Pulling his awed gaze away, Felix's eyes were instead drawn to the side, where a set of stairs had been carved into the rock. Pulse rising, Felix looked around him, but only found more craggy stone. Then he followed the steps as they curved strangely, impossibly around and beneath the island.

The Temple. He was on top of it...or below it, really.

Pit! C'mon! Flexing their Will again, Felix and Pit clung to the stone and followed the curve toward the bottom of the island. A broken building laid out before them, cast into silhouette by the glare of the Desolation behind it. Without wasting a second, Felix and Pit flung themselves into its halls.


* * *


The boy, Captain! The boy has entered that Temple! Celat's fair voice cut through the sound of explosions and roars of their foe.

Captain Nokk slashed again at the Harrowings and Tenebrils that refused to leave them alone. His crew had been fighting the damn things the entire time they'd shadowed the boy and his monster, and even now they were still besieged by hundreds of them. He ran to the railing and looked down at the shattered remains of the Temple. It had never been much, but the years it floated near this hole hadn't been kind. Much of it had been torn apart and broken. Old Mungle'd be sad to see it like this...but he'd be the only one.

Damned, useless gods, Nokk muttered. I don't care about the boy and 'is rat anymore! They're trapped between the Desolation an' that! He pointed at the Corrupted Narhollow. The boy can go rot! I want that Narhollow! He thrust his cutlass through another Tenebril and grabbed a whole pack of Mana flares. With a grunt he tore one open and lit it, instantly releasing a cloud of rainbow light. The Voidborn swarmed toward him from all across the ship, rushing toward the Mana.

Then again, can't leave the kid without a parting gift, eh?

He threw the flares off the side of the ship, and a storm of ravenous Void beasts followed after.


* * *


The interior of the Temple was as ruined as the exterior suggested. Rocks and dust, the major exports of the Void were in large supply. There were only two things that were strange or interesting about the place: the first, he was upside down and his hair wasn't falling up. He was holding himself to the ceiling/floor by sheer Will and it somehow included his hair and clothes. He'd seen weirder things, but the total disregard of physics was pretty wild, despite his circumstances.

And two: the building was cut in half.

After acclimating himself to his shift in perspective, Felix had noticed that the Temple must have been much larger at one point. The main area featured a wide, circular entryway surmounted by a flight of stairs and a lower hallway that would have extended farther...were it not missing. Something had cut through it, severing the Temple so neatly that some of the edges were still smooth and glassy. Bright, Desolate light shone into the Temple, highlighting the pillars and walls and naturalistic rocky formations, all perfectly sliced.

Just like the Waterfall Temple in the Foglands. The second room looked like this, as if someone had a huge sword and sheared through solid rock. He ran his hand over one of the pillars.

The Maw appeared next to him, dusting itself off as if it were tainted by the room. Disgusting. Fall or not, a true goddess wouldn't have let her Temple come to THIS.

Felix half turned to her, torn between wanting to rush ahead and get some answers. Who? You know who's temple this is?

The Maw only gave him a withering look. Vellus. She spat, though the imagined spittle disappeared before it hit the floor. Upstart wench.

Like my Skill? Felix blinked. Reign of Vellus had been one of his go to Skills for weeks now. He didn't know it was connected to a goddess.

Like the seventh moon, Unbound. The Bloodmoon.

Pit gave a curious coo and his small ears perked up. Reluctantly, Felix tore his eyes from the Maw and glanced at him, and then followed the chimera's eyes back toward the doorway. There was a strange sound, as if the leather sails of a ship were being rustled. The sound grew louder and louder, however, and Felix's eyes widened as he saw a massive trail of rainbow Mana vapor trail across the black. Pit chirruped a panicked warning only moments before hundreds of Tenebrils and Harrowings curved around the edge of the island and caught sight of them.

Run!

The Temple rocked as it was hit by the flood of Void beasts. Felix shoved Pit ahead of him, heading up the stairs to whatever laid on the second level. Companion out of the way, he unleashed Reign of Vellus. A ring of crackling lightning exploded outward from him, jumping from beast to beast as the creatures were thrown back nearly twenty feet. Tenebrils dropped by the dozen, but the Harrowings were far sturdier. Felix held it for a five seconds before being forced to drop it. The monsters were simply piling against his kinetic barrier; any more and it would have fallen apart itself. He cursed and ran.

Having tasted his Mana, the Void beasts followed.

Felix crested the staircase quickly, remembering to simply relax his Will and fall the majority of the way there. After clamping down again, Felix landing in a crouch atop the second floor, which featured another circular area surrounding a large triangular archway. Both Pit and the Maw were standing in the center of the room, near the archway. The Maw had its hands behind their back, idly looking at the thing.

What are you doing!

The Maw gestured. This is your gate the madman told you about. It doesn't work.

What?!

Suddenly the floor beneath them lurched, and Felix found himself smashed face first into it as the entire island flipped and spun. A titanic bellow shook the air. Felix could see dark, corrupted tendrils of twisted red Mana pulse through the holes in the walls. The Whalemaw was outside, only feet away, and it was bashing at them like a monkey with a coconut.

Flaring his Will, Felix climbed atop the tilted landscape. Pit did the same, though his wings were spread wide. The Maw hung strangely, completely unaffected by the impact as she studied the gate. The sound of leathery wings filled the air again, coming up the stairwell. Felix snarled at the Maw.

It has to work! Figure it out! Or I swear I will throw myself into the Desolation rather than be eaten by that THING out there!

The creature's eyes widened until he could see the whites all around her eyes. Panic.

He almost enjoyed it, only he didn't have time. The Void beasts had arrived.

C'MON THEN!

Mantle of the Long Night!
Influence of the Wisp!
Reign of Vellus!

The area around them crackled with an icy chill as a maelstrom of freezing wind spun outward from Felix. Simultaneously, the first four Voidborn that crested the stairs were limned with ghostly blue fire and Enthralled. Felix didn't wait, instead launching himself at the creatures with a focused blast of Reign of Vellus, bringing the his icy aura closer. He smashed through the first Tenebril with a punch, it's body burning up and freezing at the same time. It exploded into grey ichor and streamers of rainbow vapor. 

Corrosive Strike!

Blow after blow, he threw everything he had at the Void beasts, while Frost Spears and Wingblades ripped into either side of the crowd. Pit hovered near the ceiling, picking off whatever he could at range, though that didn't stop several Harrowings from coming after him. Felix couldn't do anything about that though, he had enough to worry about.

His Mana was running low.

Detonations went off outside the Temple, and Felix could see the reflection of green fire through the holes in the structure's walls. A resounding scream from the Whalemaw shook the air, and Felix grinned and jumped back into the fray.

The freezing aura of his slowed the monsters down considerably, but it was still a battle. The Harrowings' cloaking Skill was less effective in a large group, but their talons were just as quick and sharp. Their slashing edges found Felix's flesh easily and often, sprinkling the growing rain of ichor with bright red blood. Felix roared in anger and pain, and he struck with everything he had. Skill after Skill flared and activated, each one a weapon or tool to maneuver or maim.

SCREW YOU! Felix smashed through a Harrowing's angular face and tore off its razor sharp beak, carelessly tearing open his palm. The rage and pain and terror he'd been feeling rose to the surface, buried for so long, ever since he'd found he'd survived the Maw. Now it exploded outward in a flurry of violence that only blood could quench.

The Temple rocked again, this time the Corrupted Narhollow's bellow as far closer, and massive teeth pierced through one of the far walls. A staccato crunch and the stone came apart, ripping back and into the dripping jaws of the nightmare beast as it undulated backwards. It's body was utterly transformed, and now was pocked with weeping sores and fleshy red tendrils that writhed along it's entire form. More green fire bloomed along its back and head, and it reared up again in a fury.

WE HAVE TO HURRY! Felix turned to the Maw, who was floating upside down before the gate. He blasted out with Reign of Vellus and drove twenty more Void beasts back against the walls.

Of course! The Bloodmoon! I need your blood! The Maw stared at him, its blue-green eyes glinting as it held out a hand.

What? NO! Felix lashed out with Corrosive Strike, burying his arm in another Tenebril. Never again!

You idiot! For the gate! It's a bloodgate! It was pointing to some sort of markings on the triangular gateway. They looked like a series of circles.

FUCK! Felix ducked and dodged a sweeping talon strike, only to run into a second Harrowing's attack. Damn it! Why is everything blood this and blood that?

A flurry of Frost Spears slammed into the ground around Felix, cutting him off from the Void beasts for a moment. Appreciate surged through his bond, and Felix leaped toward the Maw. It wanted blood? He had plenty of blood to give.

The Temple shook again, tumbling once again, end over end. The white, impossibly bright light outside filled the windows and cracks with a powerful, unstoppable radiance. The Whalemaw screamed again, a many voiced cry of dissonance that sent everyone reeling.

Everyone but Felix.

Convergence!

Across the room Pit disappeared in a flash, and Felix flung himself toward the Maw. Felix slammed his wounded palm against the frame of the bloodgate.

Lightning burst from the once-inert gate, an azure energy that swept outward and upward in an instant.

They were gone.