> Beef warned and Isla leaped aside. Vess conjured Spears beneath the unmoving Bodies of Hallow and dragged them along, just as the War Naga rushed in. >

Before Felix could move, a flood of dark energies spooled outward from the Minotaur, manifesting into giant, segmented legs of chitin. They crashed down, clasping around each of the War Naga with bone-shaking impact that briefly drove the breath from their lungs and trapped them against the lakebed. The serpentine warriors wriggled and raged, mouths foaming and tridents stabbing, but Beef screamed something unintelligible and more constructs appeared to trap their weapons to the ground as well.

> Beef asked, voice tight and breathless. He was shaking like he’d run for hours in a dead sprint. >

“He is under control of the Creature,” a voice rumbled from farther back. Felix blinked in surprise to find the huge form of the Fathom laying limply in the sand. He was smaller than before, since he had been stripped of the Creature’s oozing bulk—but not by much. His voice sounded strange at first, but Felix realized that he simply hadn’t heard it before. It had always been the Creature talking through the Dragon. “I…remember pieces. That Naga came here a long time ago, chasing power and prestige—” A dark, rusty laugh was forced through the immense Dragon’s snout, ejecting bubbles that were quashed by the pressure of the water. “He made the same mistake I did. He entered the Breach, an army at his back. They did not survive, and he…was changed. Sent away with a piece of the Creature left dormant in him.”

The Dragon coughed, and pale, honey-colored fluid spattered into the water like smoke. “Nym…or whatever you are. You may have stopped a piece of the Creature, but it is as wily as any Dragon. My Mind has been soaked in its plans for too long. Its contingencies hold hidden facets that it has arranged for centuries.” It rolled a single, great eye at him, too tired to lift his head. “You must flee.”

> Vess stated. Hallow’s forms were settled some distance away from the trapped War Naga, and she planted herself before the great beast. A child before a mountain. >

> Beef echoed, his voice just a touch too thin. >

> Isla said, but her heart wasn’t in her words. Her face was drawn, had been for some time, and she stared at the glowing Naga with blank eyes. >

“The Chanter is right. Doom.” The Dragon closed its eyes. “Only doom.”

Felix didn’t respond to any of them, too busy sorting the mess of inputs that fought for his attention. His Affinity was still ringing painfully, but it was recovering fast. Strands of connection and meaning were weaving all around them in a chaotic storm that only he seemed to be aware of—but he was more than certain they weren’t random. Cause and effect. The choices we’ve made are all poised at the edge of a cliff, hovering above the drop. The Naga…

He looked up. The Nagafolk, all of them limned in that purple-blue radiance that was the Creature’s hallmark, were busy savaging the roots of the Abundance Anima. The Deepking had not moved, nor had Garox or his elite guards. They were watching Felix. Waiting for…something.

> Pit asked. >

> Felix shook his head. His thoughts dwelled on the strange fist he had manifested within his core space. The Creature had been overcome by its power, but he had almost zero clue what it actually had done, only that the technique had driven it to desperation. > Felix pointed out. He could feel the strength of the Abundance Anima waning slightly with each snuffed out sigil, but it was also growing new roots for every one that the Nagafolk severed. >

> Vess said, hefting her partisan. >

“You must,” Paxus appeared beside Felix. This time he looked far more present than before—even the sand beneath his feet seemed to dimple. “Ignore the snakes at the roots. Focus on the Vessel. They cannot break the Seal, but that is not their goal. We can sense it. Another presence, hidden—”

<>

Kar'casitrix, the Deepking, roared across the Breach, and space itself seemed to fold and buckle for the briefest of flashes. When it cleared, Paxus was gone.

> Felix asked. He scanned the mess of connections for evidence of his phantom ally, but there was only the Spirit Tree.

> he said. Behind him, the Dark Passage finally closed, and what looked like thousands of Naga warriors had flooded the Breach, all of them intently hunting the sands. His voice took on the manyfold echoes of the Creature, finally putting to rest the hope that the Deepking was in any sort of control. > The possessed king of the Naga did not advance; he barely moved, in fact, aside from the writhing mane of tentacles around his enormous head. >

> Felix patted his stomach. >

> the Deepking scoffed. >

> Felix asked, leaping atop one of the Abundance’s roots. Felix spread his arms, claws black as the waters around them. >

> The Deepking roared, lunging forward before something hauled it back. The tendrils atop its head slashed at its Body.

> Felix said. >

Relentless Resolution!

Adamant Discord!

Felix launched like a comet from the earth, riding a bolt of lightning as thick as a city bus and cratering the lakebed behind him. He pulled, flashing toward the Deepking so fast that the water felt like fire against his exposed skin.

> The Creature drew itself up and snarled into the Breach. Eyes of mad purple gleamed from the darkness below. A field of fury. >

As one, the Nagafolk surged from below, serpentine bodies lashing for speed as their wide jaws opened in mad hunger.

> Felix said, before switching his focus. His connection to the Deepking and his people was strong—Felix had taken up a Quest for them at the cost of the escalating conflict in Haarwatch. It was a potent link between Choice and Consequence, the metaphysical bonds that seemed to govern this world.

But it wasn’t his only one.

>

Adamant Discord!

The Creature’s eyes widened.

A surge of blue-white electricity vaporized the dark, a hundred feet wide and sizzling with compounded meaning. Consequence. Felix grabbed hold and didn’t so much pull as hung on as he left the scattered Nagafolk warriors behind.

Hand of Cataclysm!

Rime Shaping!

Green Shaping!

Auroral Forge!

Cardinal Flame!

Felix hit the Deepking in the face, blasting forth with every shaping Skill he knew. The combined might of his spells ripped the layers of ooze from the Deepking’s visage, splitting backward under the relentless deluge of acid, ice, life, light, and flame. The Creature’s ooze-body flinched, peeling up from the blackened scales of Kar'casitrix’s maw, writhing and undulating as it screamed.

> the Creature protested.

> Felix snarled, and finally jammed his hand onto his ally’s snout. >

The mane of ooze-flesh snapped forward, Dissonance screaming from each and every tendril as it rushed for Felix’s throat. They were too late.

Unite the Lost!

Felix reached down, grasping not his own significance to fuel the Skill, but relying on his new Title, Devourer In Darkness, he plunged his hands into the spinning halo of his Hunger.

MINE!

Not yet it isn’t! Felix hauled back, pitting his Mind against the stubborn sapience in the black…and it relented. He surged back up, and hurled the lot of it like gasoline into a fire.

The Deepking ignited.

Or rather, the ooze that surrounded him did, erupting in red-gold flame that forced it off the king of the Nagafolk, back into the cold waters of its prison. But Felix wasn’t done there. He bore down on the connections he still sensed amassing all around him, woven threads like silver chains between king and his people, and sent Unite the Lost racing along them. Red-gold flame erupted in a swelling wave, spreading from Felix outward into the thousands of Nagafolk. They lit up like torches in the night, screaming in sudden, excruciating pain before all of them went suddenly limp.

Not dead. Free. For perhaps the first time in a very long time.

Sovereign of Flesh!

The moment Unite the Lost ran its course, the ooze pounced. It leaped over the unconscious form of Trixie and surged for Felix’s throat—only to be caught by his undeniable Will.

Foul Nym! How? You Cannot Hold That Skill! The Creature rippled and writhed in Felix’s grasp, held at bay only feet from accomplishing its murderous intent. That Is The Province Of The Gods!

> Felix said, trying not to pant too hard. His clawed hand was steady, at least, as he held back the sliver of Noctis, Goddess of the Night. >

The ooze’s Spirit all but froze. You Cannot Be.

He hauled it closer, peering into its bubbling mass with eyes that he knew were burning blue. >

Teeth of black formed atop the purple-blue goo. It snarled at him. I Shall Die Before Revealing Anything To You.

Felix clenched his jaw. >

Chthonic Tribute!

>

The Creature’s scream was tangled Dissonance and Harmony wrapped into baleful chords, but Felix weathered it, flexing the shaking walls of his Bastion to their utmost. It clawed and tore through his channels, his core, but it could not escape.

The Seal within caught it, and then, his Hunger.

The Creature was gone, once more.

YUM.

> Felix asked as he floated back down to his friends. All but Vess were huddled away from the still-trapped War Naga, who had fallen just as unconscious as the rest of their people when Felix had removed the Creature’s influence. Of his spear-wielding friend, there was no sign. >

The Chanter looked up at him and frowned. > She shot a mild glare at a sheepish-looking Beef. He was sitting on the ground, tired as hell and holding the head of his Multipede in his lap, while the Homunculus hung off his back. >

Felix had noticed that. >

Isla’s eyes widened imperceptibly…to all but people like Felix, at least. That had surprised her. > She gestured brusquely to the glowing rim that marked the distant exit above. The edge of the Breach. >

“It will not. You are all trapped, as I have been these many Ages.” The voice of the Dragon boomed around them, a feeling Felix still did not enjoy while immersed entirely in water. He could feel it shake his entire Body, for all that it left him unmoved. Others, like the stirring Nagafolk, were tossed back several inches. “You cannot defeat the Creature, Nym. No one can.”

Felix traded glances with Isla, who shrugged her shoulders. He stepped toward the mountainous bulk of the Fathom, passing by Beef with a simple pat on the shoulder. >

> the Minotaur said, but was still pretty shit about veiling his Spirit. Felix felt a hard-edged sorrow at his center, but it was bolstered by a steady pulse of what he could only describe as conviction.

> he promised, before swimming ahead.

>

Felix was worried for his friend. He had no idea how well he’d been able to reconfigure his core space, or whether he’d been able to use the Primordial’s power to push into the Ring Stage. Beef certainly felt stronger, but there was no gauge or readout that his Voracious Eye could display. Felix wouldn’t be sure until he could delve into his core space again.

Focus. You have Dragons to talk to, he told himself. As if he needed to be reminded as he swam up to the huge, wedge-shaped head of the Fathom. Former Fathom?

This was the first time Felix had been able to inspect the Dragon since he had been freed of the Creature. He was covered in scales of varying size, shape, and ruggedness; from the small, smooth scales around his eyes and nostrils, to the large, ridged ones that coated his neck and back. All of him was dull gold, dirty and smudged and scarred, like the ancient jewelry of a hoarder, and a mane of dirty white fur surrounded his head and back, caught up between branching antlers of what appeared to be crystal.

And at his side, sitting and staring daggers at him, was Vess. With Pit at her side.

“The Devourer in Darkness,” he rumbled, and the voice was even worse up close. Felix had to sink to the ground to banish the worst of its vibrations. “A fitting Title for such a warrior. Now, tell me slayer of monsters—if I entreat you—” The Dragon opened its giant eye. It was all gold within, though there was an iris and pupil present, all of it so close in coloration that the Dragon’s eye seemed a solid whole.

“Would you kill me as well?”