Unbound-Chapter Nine Hundred And Fifty Eight – 958

Unbound-Chapter Nine Hundred And Fifty Eight – 958

The dark spat Gabby out. She stumbled against star-shaped tiles, nearly falling to her knees. For a moment, her body felt too big, too ungainly—she looked down at her large hands, noting the vast distance between them and the floor. She was no longer Human. To her surprise, it was a relief.
You Have Walked The Chosen Path.
Congratulations!
You Have Received An Omen Upgrade!
You Have Earned The Omen Of Strength!
+1 To All Omen-Based Stat Increases Per Level!
To the sound of a small bell, a metal plate appeared in her hand. It was the size of her palm but thick and heavier than it appeared, straining her sizable muscles to keep it aloft. The back was covered in a complex, fractal design her eyes couldn't trace and Gabby didn’t bother. The front was more interesting: it bore an image of a woman standing among the mountains, wrestling a Manticore to the earth. At the bottom, there was a single word in English.
“Strength,” she read. “But I already had this Omen…”
She pulled up her status screen. This time it appeared without issue, the System responding as smoothly as normal.
Name: Gabby Nevarre
Race: Gigas
Omen: Strength (+3 STR, +2 END, +2 VIT)
…
That was new. Her Omen once had +2 STR and +2 to END and VIT. Just as the system had said, there was now a singular digit increase to her stat bonuses per level. Useful, but not life-changing. Gabby turned the metal card in the light, hoping to find some missed detail. She’d earned this duplicate Omen and it had augmented her original. Was that the point of Omen Paths?
Or maybe it's this.
System notifications lingered at the corner of her vision, flashing eagerly. She toggled them and a slew of stat increases filtered across her sight.
+20 STR
+15 DEX
+16 AGL
+10 END
+24 MIG
+22 INE
+20 AFI
More than solid increases to her physical stats, and even greater advances to some of her Harmonic stats. All likely due to being made to experience the past without her Race or other benefits.
I wonder how much improvement I’d have seen if I hadn’t had access to even some of my abilities?
Suddenly, Gabby could see a lot more value in the Omen Path. Especially for people like herself, who were struggling to push their Skills and stats beyond their current limits.
She peeked out of her alcove into a narrow chamber covered by more of the same. Alcoves pockmarked the walls, flanked by thin columns between each, all fronted by a wide archway on the far end. It was a mirror of the chamber they’d entered originally, only far smaller. The doors were crowded together, with barely enough space to allow them to briefly linger before moving on, through the archway where the lights already glowed warm and yellow.
Chimes rang, ascending, as the other alcoves flashed in quick succession. The others had returned.
The Kobolds, Archie, the Minotaur, nearly all the rest walked out of their alcoves, all of them clutching a metal Omen card in their hands. Without a word, the deer lady—Elowen—pressed it to her chest and took a sharp breath. It dissolved, absorbed into her lungs as if it were made of vapor.
“How’d you know to do that?” Gabby demanded, waggling her metal card.
"I spent the last year in the largest repository of knowledge on the Continent,” the woman said, the chains on her antlers jangling as she shared her gaze among the others. “Omen Keys were often discussed, though the particulars are kept from others. The card is our reward for each completed Door; you must join it to your Omen for the benefits to become permanent.”
Archie regarded his card skeptically, and the Minotaur boy poked it with a thick finger.
Elowen rolled her eyes. “Place it against your chest. Breathe in sharply, and the System will do the rest."
Gabby frowned but did as instructed. The Omen card was solid and heavy, even to her, but the moment it touched her chest it felt…squishy. She breathed in and it turned ephemeral, soaking into her and vanishing. At the same time, a faint weight settled into her core space before it too vanished, now fully part of her. "Bleh. Feels like a ghost sat on my guts.”
"It’s not too pleasant, no, but it's useful.” Elowen tilted her head. “Are you all right?"
"I’m fine."
"Ah. Good."
She moved on, turning to the others and helping them with the same process. The Kobolds were huddled together, talking quietly as they stared at the pair of cards they'd earned. Beefhammer and his sentient armor were a bit more chipper. They talked animatedly with the Sylphaen princess, who was busily flexing her wings with a relish Gabby recognized.
It seems I'm not the only one who's happy to be back in my current Body.
It's strange how easily she’d gotten used to heavy muscles and eleven feet in height—yet Gabby felt more like herself now than she had throughout the entire First Door.
With a chime of bells, the chain-wielding madwoman, Evie, hurtled from her door. Spinning around in the small antechamber, she scanned the walls frantically. Archie and Beef lurched backward out of her path.
"Hey, are you okay?" Beef asked. "You look intense."
"Shush. Listen," Evie said, raising a hand. "Do you smell that?"
Gabby did. It smelled of seawater and roses and a wild wind from across the horizon. It filled the space, not cloying but full. The room flexed and between Evie and Ondine's alcove, another punched itself into the wall. A door etched itself like fire across steel wool, before a darkness blossomed at its center. It bulged, the star-flecked shadow spitting out an enormous, hulking figure.
Gabby grabbed the haft of a mace at her waist and had it half raised before she stopped.
Wait. Not one figure. Two.
A Dragon and a Dragoon.
"Vess!" Beef rushed the woman, gathering her up in a hug, which a very surprised Vess returned heartily, a wide smile dimpling her cheek. Yin, her Companion, let out a bugling roar, answered by an almost metallic shriek from Beef's armor as Hollow greeted him in turn. Evie was right behind Beef, snatching the Dragoon into another embrace. Everyone else crowded close, while Gabby watched from a short distance away, unsure how to react.
Vess was clearly thrilled to see everyone. Her wide smile grew, spreading with every flare of her Spirit, and unrelenting joy sang in that small antechamber. Even so, Gabby flinched when their eyes met. Yet, instead of anger, or distrust, or even disinterest marring that joyous Spirit, Vess walked right up to her, smile still in place.
"We have not properly met," she said, before bowing. "I am Vessilia Dayne.”
“I..." Gabby straightened up. A not-too-distant part of her that held what remained of Imara recognized the protocol Vess was using. The precise bow, a greeting between equals amongst the nobility. "I'm Gabrielle…and I suppose Navarre is as good as any last name I could choose."
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, the violation.
"I certainly think so." Vess's smile became a sharp grin, her dimple deepening. "I am happy to meet you. Felix has told me much."
"Oh…I hope it's good."
"All complimentary. I am happy that you are free."
Gabby had to agree. Though, she wasn't going to argue exactly how free she felt. The bargain still loomed behind her eyes. Imara was still there, merely suppressed.
"I'm happy too." Gabby cleared her throat. "So, what's next?"
Vess turned, her attention encompassing the entire group. "Did anyone have any trouble with their First Door?"
There was a vague murmuring from everyone. The general consensus seemed to be no, but there was a reluctance among the Kobolds and even the generally positive bulk that was Beefhammer. Gabby briefly wondered what had happened to them, but she supposed if they wanted to share, they would.
Elowen raised a finger. "I will note the most important detail on my path was the intrusion of creatures of unstable Mana. Things echoing the nature of Amaranth that were clearly effecting the Omen Path."
"We saw it as well," Ondine agreed. "A stork and some birds of some dire variety attacked us. They were easily defeated, but strange, and their presence warped the Memory that constructed the First Door."
Beef nodded. "Yeah, they died quick, but their blood and their attacks made all this, like, staticky stuff happen.”
“I only saw weird stuff once I ran into you," Archie said, jutting his chin towards Gabby. "But then there was all those monsters chasing us down, and they were actively awful, eating pieces of the Memory, absorbing it, and leaving chaos behind."
"Wait, did everyone run into someone else?" Evie asked.
Gabby soon gathered that they did. Kevin and Shadow had appeared in the same path with Elowen. Archie, of course, had been with her, while Beef and Hallow had joined Ondine, and Evie had found Vess at the end, along with the Dawn Drake Yintarion.
Vess leaned against her glaive, the head of which was a copy of her Companion. "The true question remains: is this happening because we are all sharing the same Omen Path experience? Or is there an element here that we are missing?”
“Pretty strange that we’ve all walked through each other’s lives, all unknowin’,” Evie said. “Seems far-fetched.”
Vess pursed her lips. “Unlikely, yes, but…I suspect more than coincidence holds us together.”
Archie shrugged. “All I know is that I headed to Fort Lauderdale to fence some goods. I didn't know this was all happening at the same time. It's a coincidence.”
"I doubt that.” Elowen tapped her lip, the chains between her antlers jingling faintly. "There seems to be an element of our connection to one another influencing our Paths. It is very likely that it will happen again through the next Door…and we can turn that to our benefit. From what I've heard, this Second Door should deal with the present.”
“And if the challenges amplify, having an ally with us would be particularly helpful," Shadow added.
"That's a good point," Kevin replied. "We kinda got dumped into the same Path in the first place. I don't know if that's because we're twins, which honestly is kind of annoying, or if it's just some quirk. Still, it was good to have my brother at my side."
Shadow gasped in mock surprise. “You like me?”
"Yeah, yeah," Kevin said, "don't get all mushy."
The Kobolds put up a bold front, but Gabby could hear a whine of distress from their concealed Spirits. Not that she was one to talk; she couldn't chase away the memory of her brother and April screaming for help as she left them behind. Everyone seemed to have been confronted by some sort of phantom of their past.
Choices define us?
She snorted to herself.
The System is cruel.
She wanted to ask the boys questions—to make them feel better or herself, she wasn’t sure—but she couldn't find the words or muster up the courage to reach out. No one would want to hear from her anyway.
"The First Door was no doubt toubling," Vess said, addressing them all. "I know mine was. If you are struggling, know that we all are in the same place, walking together." She reached out, taking Evie's hand in one and Beef’s in another. "Does anyone need anything?"
A murmur met her words. No one admitted to needing much of anything, but the mood in the room lifted considerably. A pall that had hung over their Spirits lightened.
Damn. She’s good.
“Remember,” Elowen said loudly, adjusting her robes. She turned in a circle, addressing them all. “Stay focused. The First Door was the past, and the Second Door is the present, but none of it is real. None of what occurs within these Paths really happens—it just could.”
"Yeah, yeah," Archie lamented from the alcove beside them. "But I sure wish it had. I made some good decisions, and got rid of a couple of bastards that deserved it."
He met Gabby's gaze. "Necessary ones."
She couldn't disagree. Whatever else he’d done in his Door, he’d left the Path when called. She had to keep that in mind.
Their Spirits dipped, voices agreeing with the deer mage’s words but certainly not as chipper as Vess had left them. If she could have, Gabby would have said something too, but she had nothing to soothe their feelings. The person she once was might have spared the effort, but now…too much had happened. She wasn't like her brother, either before the Continent or after he'd become Felix. He was a figure of inspiration. She'd been turned into one of fear.
The room shook. Thunder drew from a distant sky. Pieces of dust rained from above. Paint across the small antechamber started peeling from the walls. Faint at first, but then swifter.
"Everyone get out!” Gabby shoved the deer and the princess ahead of her, ignoring the latter’s indignant squawk.
The walls crumbled.
All of them ran through the wide archway, toward the distant warm light of the next room. Gabby risked a look back.
The antechamber they'd entered had been stripped down to stone studs, until it too crumbled away into a yawning void of swirling shadow. The last leg of the corridor bucked under their feet, the star-shaped tiles pulling out from under their heels. The Kobolds leaped over it, landing just on the far side of the corridor as a roaring crash toppled it completely. The hallway was gone, their exit from the First Door sealed away as much as the swirling darkness just beyond.
Gabby swallowed, taking in the wild expressions on everyone's faces. "What the hell was that?"
"It is clear to me that we are on a time limit," Vess said. "This only proves it. Evie has told me that Felix buys us time fighting against this Echo of Noctis. It seems the fight continues, and so must we. Steel your resolve, my friends. We do not know how long this place will hold together."
Beef groaned as he crawled back to his feet, Hallow clinging around him. The crystalline creature flexed an appendage from his breastplate as if it were patting him on the back. "Looks like our doors are ready for us."
The chamber they'd entered was similar to the first…but there were fewer doors than before. Where once there had been eight, now there stood only four. Each of them were set into familiar alcoves fronted by more pillars carved with the fractal designs they’d discovered on the last set of doors. Gabby quickly found the fractal design that seemed to represent her core space. It stood out, gleaming gold next to a green-gold column.
Kevin, the green-gold Kobold, stepped up next to her. "Seems like we're working together this time.”
Gabby grunted.
He glanced nervously toward his brother who stood with Evie and Archie. Their doorway was fronted by three pillars. "It seems kind of unfair that he gets that much help.” He glanced up at her. "But then again, you're enormous.”
"Thanks," Gabby said dryly.
"I mean, I'm not like—I don't mean to be rude. I can’t—uh, that is—I'm gonna shut up."
"That's smart. Are you ready to face the next step?"
"Ready as I'll ever be, I suppose.”
They stepped up to the next door. It wasn’t until she was five feet away, it was fuzzy—unresolved, almost, like an unfinished drawing. Once they were in range, the pieces of the door fell into place, sharpening into a solid shape. It formed two spikes, one at her chest level and another at Kevin's chest level. Each spike sat in the center of a divot of metal and was surrounded by a number of glass-fronted funnels that spread around the door in complicated loops and swirls. Each ended at circular pockets where gemstones had been recessed.
"Oh, these look like pathways," Kevin said.
"What?”
“Pathways, you know? Like inside of us, where we push all of our Mana? It looks like diagrams I've seen."
"Huh." Gabby tilted her head, looking at the door in a new light. "I suppose you're right. So does that mean we feed it Mana?"
"I mean, I suppose." He reached out, pushing a liquid burst of green-gold Mana outward. It spattered against the door, rolling down part of a funnel before it dissipated into vapor.
"Well, that didn't work." Gabby eyed the spike, a certain amount of dread filling her. It was no more than an inch high, but it was wickedly sharp. And it gleamed with a deep crimson and a faint flaking of dull brown. "I think I know what we need to do."
"What?"
Gabby released a tight, sharp breath and thrust her palm forward, slamming it into the spike. Immediately blood flowed from her, pouring into the channels connected to hers. It gouted out more than could be drawn from a simple wound, and she felt her health decrease by rapid increments. The channels filled until the two lights connected to her part of the door lit up.
"Oh, God." Kevin looked at the spike, disgusted. "Can I like, sanitize this thing first?"
Gabby growled.
"Okay, fine. Ah!" Kevin gave a brief shout that turned higher pitched as the spike pierced his palm. Blood flowed from him and he sagged forward, arm shaking in clear pain until the channels were filled. The gemstones at the end of each inset channel lit up as soon as the blood touched them. The door unlatched, a deep grinding fronted by a metallic click. Gabby and Kevin pulled their hands free at the same time.
“Fuuuuu—This
sucks
.”
Blood Is Paid.
The Choice Is Made.
The Door Opens.
The door split down the middle before opening into a swirling, star-flecked darkness. Together, Gabby and Kevin vanished into the black.

Chapter Nine Hundred And Fifty Eight – 958