Unbound-Chapter Nine Hundred And Sixty Eight – 968

The horizon fell away, a dark violet flame consuming everything in her line of sight. Gabby struggled against it, trying to piece together a semblance of order. It rushed toward them, through berm and barricades. Forests fell, chitin walls collapsed, hurricanes unraveled, and even the golden light was nothing before it. All was consumed in an instant, leaving only the Void.

She floated there, alone, for a time that she could not measure. There was no thought, no feeling, just endless being. It was only when the slow measures of silence were punctuated by the distant chiming of bells that she found herself aware. Alive. Her hands before her were unmarred, though her armor had been banished, both conventional and light-shaped. Her hair flowed listlessly around her face, untouched by a breeze, yet restless.

The…Void. Gabby blinked. She was nowhere, but she was no longer nothing. There were edges to her self now, a place where she began and the world ended. Stars?

In every direction, the textureless black was speckled by stars. Every direction but down. Those chiming bells had grown stronger, becoming more of a roar as a distant speck rose up beneath her. A blue sky, rising to touch her feet, and beyond it, vast tracts of green land dotted with sodium lights. A coastline took shape, one that was deeply familiar. The gulf. A peninsula. A city. They rushed up, swallowing the distance until she landed with a soft thump of her heels on hot asphalt.

I know this place. She stood on a highway just outside Fort Lauderdale, Florida. On Earth. Gabby knelt slowly, hands rubbing over the rough surface of cracked asphalt. Pebbles came away against her fingertips, gritty and hot under the afternoon sun, and oh so real.

A car honked its horn. Gabby stood up. She’d forgotten about cars.

A teeming row of vehicles were backed up in her lane, and people were fed up. They honked longer, their rage palpable through her Affinity—as if she needed it. The curses some of them hurled at her was more than enough. In two large steps, she crossed onto the shoulder and the stream of sedans and SUVs whipped by her, their occupants entirely unimpressed by her enormous frame.

Huh. Without a word, Gabby ran along the highway. She knew this place. With a graceful leap she passed over the guardrail, landing in a twisted nest of trees but refusing to even pause. Her booted feet tore through the undergrowth, plowing across wet, heavy wilderness between street and exit. She crashed through small trees, tearing them up from the roots with brute strength and into a familiar suburban sprawl.

Macon Street. She took a left, passing down Wending Way through a quaint collection of semi-detached townhouses, and cut across the well-manicured lawn of Mr. and Mrs. Humbert. It was a path she’d taken a thousand times, but never without Mr Humbert howling after her like a guard dog, yelling at her to keep off his grass. This time, however, no one yelled. She was too fast, and she feared she didn't care about the clods her footsteps tore from the earth.

Gabby skidded around a corner, slipping into a half-used side street between main thoroughfares. Down its length of garages and dried up drainage, she emerged from its end in a rush of wind and gritty dust that billowed across a stamp-sized plot of land and a beat up, white vinyl fence. A modest, two-story home sat there, framed by a pair of lemon trees that hadn’t produced a single fruit her entire life.

The gate creaked as it opened and the cracks in the third paving stone was still there, same as always. Gabby walked up the steps, avoiding the fourth one that creaked and knocked on the door. There was no answer. She pulled open the screen and tried the handle—it was unlocked. Inside it was dark compared to the brightness of the afternoon, but it was cozy. The smell of it was instantly familiar. Coriander and citrus and something else, something indefinable.

Home.

Screen door slapping behind her, Gabby stumbled through the entryway. Boots crusted with dried mud and ratty old tennis shoes with soles worn down to smoothness tangled between her feet, threatening to trip her up before her weight crushed them into the worn linoleum. With firmer steps, she moved past the stairs, carpeted as always, and entered the living room. It was empty, the lazy afternoon sunlight catching clouds of cloying dust above furniture that was two dozen years out of date. A minefield of crystalline doodads her mom collected were set on a glass table just to the side of the stairs. They were like spikes of leaded glass,, heavy and ugly, yet displayed prominently. Her brother had always made jokes about selling it all off when their mom wasn't looking. Now, Gabby couldn't be happier to see it.

“Mom?”

She pushed through into the kitchen, which was emptier than she'd ever seen it. There were no dried flowers hanging from the rafters, the sink was empty of dishes, and when she opened the fridge, she found fresh food. None of it was expired or even the busted clamshell evidence of too much takeout that their mom got when she was left alone.

Through the glass sliding door was the pool, barely fitting into their tiny yard. It was clearly neglected, green with algae and drains that were clogged with bugs and rotted leaves. The lawn chairs were bent and rusted, and what little grass remained was full of weeds. Gabby returned back inside and started flinging open doors. The bathroom was empty, as was the craft room, and the garage didn't even have a car in it.

“Mom! Where are you?” The carpeted steps creaked under her weight and Gabby had to bend over to fit her frame beneath the ceiling. “You have to be here!”

The world flashed before her eyes and Gabby jerked back, smashing her head against the ceiling.

Congratulations!

You Have Completed Your Path.

Choose One.

Path Of The Titan (From Butcher Of Amaranth Title, Vitality, Endurance, And Strength Above 5000, More Than 100,000 Kills, Level Exceeding 150) +500 lbs To Weight, +500 Strength, Vitality, And Endurance Per Level.

This tale has been pilfered from novelbuddy. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Path Of The Eidhrin (From Oathmaker Title, Former Vessel, Bargain With The Divine) +10% To Willpower, Intelligence, And Alacrity, +25 Free Stats Per Level, +100 Free Stats For Every Successful Bargain.

Path Of The Light (From Vessel Of The Pathless, Lightshaper, Named Core [Sun’s Glory]) +50% All Stats, All Light Shaping Takes 60% Less Willpower To Maintain, All Light Attuned Skills Gain Two Tiers Of Advancement.

The words were more than letters; they were a portal into something else. A vision of a possible future unveiled itself through the narrow viewport, showing a battlefield not unlike the last one. The dead lay like cordwood across rolling hills stained with blood, while she strode above them, untouched.

A voice spoke, but it wasn’t the System or anyone she’d ever heard.

“You are mighty, Ascendant. Your Path is paved by Strength of Body great enough that it overcomes any obstacle. You are the crushing force that strides through the land. Unconquerable.”

The next Path rolled onward, showing her a vision of herself bereft of any armor at all. “A Path for those that bind with their words, holding themselves and others within their firm grasp. This is the Path for the forger of chains, the maker of destinies, and the hand of fate itself.”

Armorless Gabby moved among kings, queens, and great powerful creatures, all of them bowing to her as she held them within blue-white chains, leashes around their necks as her eyes burned with a sullen yet triumphant light.

The last Path was far different. It washed over her, demolishing the last vision as golden radiance flooded everything.

“The glorious gold within your soul shines all the brighter for every move you make to secure the righteous legacy of the Pathless. The Coward in White lies dead. You live, and you carry within

your heart the way back toward the light. For only then can you claim it as yours once more."

Gabby stood above all. Greater than her eleven-foot frame, she filled the sky itself, as bright as the sun and just as vital, her power played across the Continent. Some were illuminated by her vibrant, life-giving light…while others burned beneath an ire that overwhelmed Gabby’s Mind. To those, she was vengeance and wrath. A brightblade the size of mountain ranges dropped, swung by a heedless hand down onto the wretched unbelievers.

She jerked back, fear awash in her Spirit.

"I have seen enough.”

Gabby jolted, nearly hitting the ceiling again. Above, standing on the second floor landing, was her. Imara. Clad in golden armor, she sneered at Gabby, her Spirit filled with serrated edged derision.

"I make my choice," Imara decided.

The notification flashed.

You Have Chosen The Path Of The Light.

Felix tackled the Echo of Noctis, forcing the omen door back into its chest, and driving both of them tumbling toward the edge of the crater. They smashed into the earth, plowing a deep furrow that sent crumbling stone cascading down the steep slope. Felix hauled off, punching into the creature's arms that reached for him, scattering pieces of it up into the sky. Streamers of glitching power. More of the Echo peeled away, but the moonshards held. The golden threads were too few now, but they persisted.

You Cannot Stop This. I Will Win!

"Over my dead body, asshole," Felix gestured, and Fiendstone shackles latched around every one of its limbs, row after row, holding it at wrist, elbow, bicep, and shoulder. Other arms formed, pieces of it glitching and falling, but Felix merely shaped faster, holding it to the ground as he transformed it all into Diendstone. The ashen earth groaned beneath the weight of it, but he held on, driving spikes deep into the ground to anchor himself.

"Felix, the crater!" Wendell's voice barely made it past the roar of unstable Mana as it fountained up.

Sonata of Domination!

Astrum Ascendence!

He shaped a hasty canopy of Fiendstone over himself and the Echo, pitched against the tidal wave of unstable Mana that flooded the plain. Reality twitched, pieces of it breaking off into sizzling static before vanishing entirely.

The Mana washed outward, forcing Wendell to take massive leaping jumps away. It careened after him, foaming and twitching, the leading edge a sizzling line of instability, turning the earth into fire and ice and cascading boxes of blinding light. He leaped as high as he could, blowing up the ground beneath him to force himself upward.

Felix reached out, his Sonata flaring within him, but the Echo shifted, attacked, and he had to force his Will and Intent back against the creature.

Wendell fell.

"I got you!"

Thick paws wrapped around the Lizard's midsection as Pit swooped down, his four mighty wings pumping hard. They lifted up away from the Mana, and Wendell gasped. “The Mana! It’s headed for the ship!”

“We know!”

A chorus of bestial cries followed Pit’s steady assurance. Scylla and the Chimeras dive-bombed surging wave. The Dragoons on their backs and the Chimera themselves fired Skills across the bow of the earth, tearing deep furrows across the landscape that funneled the liquid instability back toward the crater.

"Emperor! Hold on!" Thalgrym cried, wheeling around to fly at Felix.

On his back, Roland leaned forward, his spear outthrust like a lance. “Spear of Tribulations!”

Polearms manifested, punching down into the Echo as it lifted itself through Felix's slackening Fiendstone. It burst, followed swiftly by burning air that cored through chunks of the Echo's strange flesh. The creature screeched and lashed out, a hand forming from its twisted neck, reaching and smashing into Thalgrym and Roland. They spun out, wing snapping, and crashed into the rocky distance.

"No!” Felix shouted. “Roland!"

Bubbling Mana erupted again, and Felix tightened his barrier, hurling his Sonata toward the fallen pair. Fiendstone encased them, a shell carried along by waves that screeched against his senses, a discordant dismay deeper than any Dissonance he'd ever encountered.

Your Compassion Is Unbecoming Of A Cardinal. Or A God.

Felix turned back to the Echo. Murder in his heart. They balanced at the precipice of the crater, the thing squirming against his confinement. It would have been so easy to let the thing fall. “You aren’t going anywhere, godling.”

It glitched free. The Echo leaped for the edge.

Adamant Discord!

Bonds of Enmity raged within him. Hate burned at his Spirit, flooded his limbs, giving him strength as lightning tethers secured themselves to the Echo of Noctis, halting its fall just over the lip of crumbling stone. It twisted on itself, an empty face bearing a rictus grin at Felix.

You Did This, Fiend.

Remember That.

In a sudden burst, the Echo ripped its own body apart, the Bonds of Enmity tearing massive chunks from its shadowy flesh and Spirit, and the Echo fell free over the edge into the crater.