Silence - Chapter 04

Changed my mind! Gonna drop three more tonight, then another two next saturday!

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Relentless Charge is level 12!

Running is level 24!

Felix fell atop a craggy stone, one of many that had begun to litter the Void. He panted harshly, cramps seizing along his gut as he did; the voidbeast he'd eaten sat in him like a rock. But Pit was exhausted too; the tenku's thin chest heaved, both of them taking huge, gasping gulps of air. They'd run as fast and as far as they could have, and it wasn't until Felix could no longer see the hulking, crimson mass of the Corrupted Narhollow that he dared rest.

That had proven to be farther than he had imagined. There was air in the Void—he was breathing something after all—but it was something else that slowly occluded objects in the distance. A darkness that slowly engulfed things too far to sense, and Felix feared it was tied directly to his Perception. It had made him run farther and farther, even going so far as to dump 10 of his free points into Agility and boosting his speed. His Stamina had almost bottomed out six or seven times, but eventually the panic that seized him had settled.

Felix leaned his head back against a rocky outcropping and clutched his Companion to his side.

"Where the hell did we end up, Pit?"

Pit cooed in tired sympathy.

"Yeah. I'm pretty sure we don't deserve this either," Felix said, rolling his eyes toward the specter of the Maw. She hovered high above them, apparently no longer concerned with the mountain-sized whale. Felix squeezed his tired eyes shut. "It does, though."

The Maw had done terrible things in just the half-hour he'd known it, let alone the breadth and scope of its massive life. From all the things it had confessed to, the Primordial had deserved eternal banishment to the Void. Felix looked back up, but the Maw had vanished.

We have lost it.

"Jesus!" Felix nearly shouted. The Maw fixed him with its intense eyes, a swirl of green and blue that still unsettled Felix.

Feeding those voidbeasts your Mana was an...acceptable tactic, Felix Nevarre.

Felix blinked in surprise. He hadn't been expecting praise from the world eating abomination.

But, it continued. You still leak that Mana like a sieve. Your Mana system is patchwork and your core is pitifully crude. You will kill us, given half the chance, with nothing more than your ineptitude.

"Oh," Felix let out a pent up breath. He was almost relieved. "For a minute, I thought you were being helpful." He settled back against the stone and fixed the apparition with a glare. "You were afraid of it."

What? I was not, mortal. I was enraged. The Maw's gaunt face took on shadows that were impossible in the strange, even lighting. It looked feral. That thing has taken hold of my power. You would have no idea how that burns.

"Does it feel like someone stole your body? That they planned to walk around in it like a meat puppet?" Felix asked in mounting frustration. "You're no different from that thing."

The Maw did not respond. It merely regarded Felix with those blue-green eyes, so similar to the...the Whalemaw.

"What?" Felix snapped.

You must fix your Mana.

Felix ran his hands over his face, close to ripping his hair out. "What are you talking about!?"

You are Unbound, so I shall forgive your lack of knowledge, but if we're to remain hidden from that beast, then you need to fix yourself. The Maw floated closer, until it was only feet away.

"That's close enough," Felix warned. He didn't have a clue what he could do to her—it!—but he was willing to try anything he could. "You've already altered one of my Skills, and don't think I didn't notice my Bloodline progress increasing after you did it! I don't need you touching me again."

...Very well. Then at least listen, you quibbling wretch. The Maw put its spindly arms on its stolen hips. Your Mana system is paltry, but you've begun to enter the Visualization Stage. So you should be at least capable enough to manage this.

"Visualization Stage?" Felix asked, interested despite himself. Cautiously interested. "What are you talking about?"

Your core, fool. Can you not feel it? Feel the power surge through your veins?

"You're talking about my channels? Where my Mana moves?" Felix asked. He knew relatively little about the channels in his body, except that they were extant. He recalled the mural in the Waterfall Temple, a cross section of a humanoid body that depicted a circular orb above the navel and looping veins throughout the torso, head, and limbs. If he concentrated, he could envision a blue-white vapor pulsing through him, traveling along those veins before returning to his core. "What about them?"

Not just your channels, your core itself. You leak your Mana out of your Gates like a chimera taking a piss. The Maw sneered at him. The voidbeasts are tracking your scent.

Felix sat up, his attention well and truly grabbed.

I thought that might stir you, the Maw smirked. It looked more like a sneer, though. You've not progressed far into the Visualization stage, I felt that much when I was...making myself at home. There's still time to fix you.

Felix was positive he didn't want the Maw doing any "fixing." But he also didn't want to lead the Whalemaw back toward them, or any of the voidbeasts for that matter.

"Talk."

You have seen your core, the blue-white flame within, yes? Felix nodded and the Maw pointed at her own navel. All have such cores, though they are not the same. Your...disposition will shape it, your unique vision reflected in its composition.

"Okay," Felix said slowly. "So mine is a ball of blue-white fire, and it has little lightning bolts around it. You're saying it looks like that because I want it to?"

The Maw made an exasperated noise. It is as it appears, but it only appears as it is due to your perception of it.

"That's...okay." His core was what he wanted it to be, but it was colored by his preconceptions. He first unlocked a smattering of it when he gained the Fire Within Skill. He had thought the warmth inside him was a flame, and so it was. "So when I envisioned my center as fire that spread outward to warm myself—"

You created a connection between your Mind and Spirit, beginning the process of Visualization. The Maw rolled her eyes. I'd be disappointed in you were you not completely foreign to these concepts. Your world is practically barren in comparison to mine.

"Does that extend to Skills, as well?" Felix asked, and the Maw raised a thin eyebrow.

Quicker than expected. That boost to Intelligence seems to be kicking in, finally. Felix frowned, but the Maw kept talking. Your core is the amalgam of all three of your Aspects. Body, Mind, and Spirit. Of course your Skills are intrinsic to that amalgamation. Each one you learn is stamped into the fabric of your core space, however you visualize it, and only grow more entrenched as they level. It waved a clawed hand in a careless fashion. None of that is important in the now, Felix Nevarre. What is of gravest concern are your Gates.

"My...Gates," Felix said. "Part of my channels, the pathways through my Body?"

Indeed. They are apertures through which your Mana escapes to affect the world around you, as well as where ambient Mana is pulled back in, to regenerate your core. The Maw pointed to several spots on her—its—own body. Your palms, the base of your skull, elbows, knees, and feet. Nine Gates, corresponding to the nine major channels that move through you. Each one acts as a reservoir meant to purify the ambient Mana around you, but yours are...sloppy. They simply pull in Mana constantly, no matter the type, and release it just as readily. The Maw gave him a grin dominated by its overly large, Human teeth. You're ravenous.

Felix felt a quiver of unease, but tried to keep it off his face. "So you're saying I'm...releasing a trail of my Mana through the Void?"

The Maw nodded. And in this dead place, it burns like fire.

Felix looked down at his hands and flared his Manasight. He'd never noticed anything odd about himself, but then, he hadn't really spent much time looking at his hands and whatever. Mana in the Void was...thin was the best word. There wasn't even much shadow Mana either, as there wasn't exactly any light. It was all a source-less illumination that hit everything equally.

So it was far too easy to spot tiny puffs of multicolored light coming from his palms.

Fire Within is level 34!
Mana Manipulation is level 9!

"Shit," Felix said, clenching his fists. It was like trying to catch smoke. Pit quirked his head and nipped at the floating vapor. "I'm losing Mana? How long has this been happening?"

Since you arrived. Those not as blessed as you would feel their reserves drop continually until they were barely functional. It's why most learn early to develop better internal Mana control. You're Mana regeneration though is...abnormal. You suffer no ill effects from losing a bit of your Mana like this—not yet, at least. At later Stages you'll find the world far less agreeable to such weaknesses. As it is, every voidbeast close enough to sense you will come swarming. We must fix this now, or else you'll die. Something in the Maw's tone pulled Felix's eye from his fists. It was looking into the darkness of the Void and touching its own throat.

"Or else we die," Felix corrected. "We're tied together, Maw."

Unfortunately, you are correct. The creature gathered itself and floated closer. So I shall deign to fix your deficiencies. It will take but a second to—

"No," Felix said, and put every ounce of his Willpower into his voice. "I don't need you to fix this for me. Explain what has to be done, and I'll do it."

The Maw regarded him with a sour expression, but its clawed hand dropped back. Fine. Choose the Fool's path, despite your Omen. It floated backward, putting a few more feet of distance between them again. Listen closely then, Felix Nevarre. I'll not be repeating myself.

Pit nudged against Felix's elbow, and he absently scratched his Companion. He listened.

He wouldn't forget a word.