Around them, the world had been reduced to nothing more than a smear of blue above and a chaotic wash of earth tones below. Clouds rose up around them, dragged by their sheer momentum as wind and lightning snarled across their bodies with every push forward.

"Our speed is too great to see anything!" Vess called out. "What if we run into the enemy?"

Abyssal Skein hadn't held up past the first dozen leagues they had flown. The void skill was useful for disappearing, but Felix was channeling so much power through Adamant Discord that it fell apart and refused to be sounded again while at top speeds. It wasn't truly necessary anyway. Speed was far more important than stealth now.

"We'll handle that when we get there," he called back.

Lightning crackled from his fist, pulling them along while Vess' On The Wing hummed beside him a song of their skills, separating and intertwining in his affinity like a series of chords dancing around each other. Using their skills in tandem, they had been able to press the limits of what they could accomplish alone.

Felix had originally worried about the sheer wind pressure of their flight. Not for himself—his Body could handle far worse—but Vess' safety had been in question. Thankfully, the Master Tier version of On The Wing provided an inherent protection. A visible shield of wind had formed around her, cocooning her and her wings into a bullet shape that narrowed with every bit of speed he could eke out. It was a lot of speed.

With Adamant Discord, Felix could haul back against the bonds that connected him to his goal: the captive Unbound. Ever since his visit to Amaranth through the Deadlands, his connection to them could no longer be kept from his attention. Now, they would be the road he paved to the Hierophant’s destruction.

But Adamant Discord alone wasn't enough. On The Wing channeled air Mana through Vess' manifested appendages, but it also provided an incredible synergy with his Sonata of Dominance. It took him a while to identify it, but it was the song that intertwined with his own.

So he made use of it.

Lightning streamed from his clenched fist as he leapt forward, kicking off a thickened pad of air, captured from Vess and suborned to his Will. His Stride of the King, his mighty Strength, and indominatible Endurance fueled each jump, hurtling him at incredible speeds before the bonds ever came into play. Once the hardened cables of connection were hauled upon, the pair of them were sent blazing forward. Every leap blurred the world, sound fading until there was only blue-white light and the pressure of hurricane winds that tried to tear them apart. There was only a brief pause as he landed, his heel barely contacting shaped air before he was off again, his free hand wrapped around Vess’ glaive and hauling her behind him.

Hours passed at this pace, leap after leap. His legs burned, his hands were nearly numb from the coursing electricity, and his every joint screamed from the sheer force of his movement.

Adamant Discord is level 145!

Stride of the King is level 138!

Sonata of Dominance is level 135!

The southwestern pastures were full of rolling hills and grassy plains, interrupted only by the occasional village or town. It would have been idyllic in the early summer sunlight, if it weren't for all the zealots. Now that they had risen to an acceptable height, Felix was able to pick them out in the distance, even at speed. There were encampments on every prominent hilltop across the countryside. Banners flashed past them far below. His keen eyesight picked out the familiar white and gold sunburst of the Pathless, but also a proliferation of metallic blue and silver, black and crimson, and bronze and yellow. Banners that would never have flown in Amaranth only months ago were hanging from towers and fortress walls, both temporary and longstanding outposts. The standards of the old gods.

Is this your move?

He could sense them, even from on high, like a stench on the wind. It smelled…delicious.

Felix shook that thought away. Inside of him, the Beast stirred. He could feel it uncoiling itself, as if ready to rouse from its forceful slumber—yet it never broached the edges of its containment. The Challenger's Sea still held the line, the last few stone pillars standing tall and binding the creature within the abyss. If he were lucky, it would hold for some hours yet.

If he were not…

He refocused on his journey, but couldn't help but notice that the power of the gods accompanied that stench. It laid thick on the soldiers that crawled below like ants, staining their small Spirits with newfound power. He wasn't sure what that meant, but he was positive it was nothing good.

"Felix," Vess warned, pointing with her chin. "Look!"

In the distance, far enough away that it didn't blur with the rest of the landscape, a signal flare burst alight. Then another, and another—each one a column of too-bright light that gleamed stronger than any flame. Moreover, they resonated, shaking across their Affinity like waves across a still pond.

"Mage Relays!” Vess cursed. "Someone noticed us and sent word ahead. What do we do?"

"It's alright.” Felix had never intended to land in Amaranth unannounced. "Let them know I'm on the way."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“They are certainly aware,” Vess said, slicing a ballista bolt that flew too close to their position. "They're firing on us!”

Arrows flew up from the nearest encampment, propelled by potent Skills—but none potent enough. Only the largest of ballista bolts were fast enough to catch them, but they could not contend with their defenses. Vess cut those down with a flap of her wings, the claws on their joints slicing the shafts in two with disdainful ease.

“I should not have been worried. What is the point of these outposts if they cannot stop an invasion of two?”

“They’re just the alarm system,” Felix said. He hauled back on the bond and lightning coursed around them. “That’s the border patrol.”

To the north, where the morning sky met the rising plane of the earth, a shadow spread. A great cloud formed from below, streaming from the land itself in concentrated funnels, until it undulated like oil upon the winds. The illusion lasted no longer than a few enormous steps before they could see the cloud for what it truly was: Amaranth’s true defense.

Elephantine birds, winged serpents the size of several train cars, and twisted insects filled the sky, rising from various encampments all around them. Joined as one, the cloud of shadowflesh streaked toward the pair of them, tooth and claw bared with a cold, savage glee.

Felix didn't even bother slowing down.

Shadowflesh burst beneath his charge, his scaled fist and burning lightning searing through their ichor. They drove a literal hole in the cloud, cratering those that stood in their way and leaving nothing behind but bloody ruin. Vess cut down the others, her wings and summoned Spears slashing in rhythm with Felix's leaps—then they were through.

The horde followed. Arrows sought htem out as they flew over new towns and fortresses, each one getting closer than the last as the pasturelands ended and the farmlands began.

Time marched relentlessly onward, and Felix could give no thought to exhaustion. His Stamina replenished almost as fast as his Mana, but a bone-deep weariness crawled into him after the third hour. The shadowbeasts tried to snuff out their lives with every single step. No matter how often he killed, they returned, manifesting from the disappearing shadows down below.

He and Vess were both far stronger than them, but their relentless assault would wound them eventually. Given free rein, they would eventually wear him down. Vess herself was panting, no longer maneuvering her wings, save to cling tighter to Felix's side. Her Spears spun outward, propelled by her Will alone, but they trailed behind, only able to kill those beasts that dared approach them from their flanks.

Noon slowly approached, and the shadows thinned as the sun sought its zenith. Only then did the beasts dwindle, no longer able to manifest as often as the daylight banished their maker. Until finally, the final wriggling insect fell beneath their onslaught, its shadowflesh sizzling into nothing to reveal their goal.

Amaranth.

It was lifted on a series of hills surrounded by a towering wall of white stone. Outside of those walls, where small towns had once hugged the gate of the Shining City, now there was only desolation. Sundered homes and ruined fields lay trampled beneath the varied feet of an army too vast to be counted. There were no soldiers there, no Paladins or Inquisitors, but the half mile to the city before them was filled with thousands upon thousands of Shadowbeasts, Fungal Horrors, elephantine Plaguerats, and enormous, dual headed Ettin Wolves.

“Five minutes to go. Are you ready?” he asked over the crack of thunder.

She seized her glaive and summoned her Spears. “Let us end this.”

With barely a hitch in his stride, Felix leaped forward. Arcing over the horde, they shot like a bolt of lightning into its very center, just south of the massive alabaster gate. Spore and fang and dark twisted magic sought them out immediately, but Vess’ Spears landed first.

"Final Glory!"

The horde around them exploded, their attacks consumed by a gale of metal and their bodies torn to shreds, clearing the way for a dozen yards in every direction. Felix landed a split second after, Vess in one arm while the other slammed the earth. Lightning coursed outward, bursting through the brood of Noctis and Yyero, and sending the Plaguerats and Ettin Wolves yelping back in pain.

"I heard you were looking for me," he announced, his voice a basso growl. "Come and get some!"

A shapeless howl tore from ten thousand throats, as godslaved minions charged all at once. Paw, claw, tooth, and mandible surged for them, trampling one another in their frenetic hatred. And it was hatred—that was unmistakable to Felix. It bore down on him like a thousand forge fires, seeking to melt his bones to slag and quench itself on his blood.

He gave them a chance.

They just had to get past Vess, first.

A dozen explosions ripped around them, each one tearing apart the ground as much as it sundered shadowflesh and spore-riddled meat. Again. Her Spears congealed from her Mana, stabbing through open maws and exposed bellies in the seconds before they burst. A near-constant storm of metal and air Mana raged around them, more furious than the godslaves themselves.

Felix contributed, stomping on the earth and sending his Will coursing across the trampled fields. Sonata of Dominance commanded stone, sending it bursting from beneath their feet in a field a hundred feet in diameter. Godslaves that were already injured fell, and the rest were caught upon razor sharp terrain, forced to impale themselves by the mad press of the mob.

“He is one man!” came the cry.

Just as it was going so well. He kept his Sonata running, altering the earth in random pulses around his location. Who’s this jerkass?

All the way on the shining walls, above and beyond the bloody blender that surrounded Felix, were the Humans. A dark skinned man with slicked back hair and a sneering expression stood atop the battlements, his white armor radiating a golden light.

Unseen Beholder!

Name: Lar Kodal. Hierei of Andiva and Tavan. Grandmaster of the Inquisitor Order.

“Take heart you mindless beasts!” the Hierei cried, his bloody cloak snapping in a sudden breeze. “Seek the savage nature within! Let not death nor pain daunt you! Embrace ruination! Drown them in your blood!”

An unnamed Skill pulsed the air, carried upon waves of light. It surged through the horde, and Felix heard the distant, telltale sound of Status Conditions proliferating across ten thousand monstrosities.

Stone spikes shattered beneath bodies reinforced by an incredible swell of sudden Vitality. Vess’ Spears exploded, killing hundreds, but the rest did not even flinch as they charged forward. Their eyes burned a maddened crimson, and a golden halo surrounded every single one.

The Hierei laughed. “Devour the Fiend!”