So Felix hurried, moving through the last of the rooms he'd unlocked as Karys urged him onward toward the Control Node. The Garment flowed around his limbs like a cloud, a whisper of weight that allowed for complete range of motion even though his pants were mimicking jeans. As he ran, he tried different materials, cycling through cotton, silk, even corduroy...though the last was a mistake. No matter how free flowing and loose it felt, the speeds at which he ran produced a godawful noise that would have woken up the dead.

 

He had tried a couple times to make it into armor, but whatever restrictions were in its arrays prevented it from mimicking steel and thick, boiled leather. Perhaps if he tinkered with it, but that would require him to study the tiny glyphs he sensed all along its design, hidden in seams and along individual threads. Felix wasn't sure he had the time, but he added it to his list of tasks.

 

He was holding the Dwelling Stone in his arms as he ran, it's glowing depths casting wild shadows all around him. It was far heavier than he expected, and it grew heavier the closer he came to his destination. Luckily for him, Felix's Strength was more than up to the task. Pit had caught up with him soon enough as well, the enhancements he'd undergone doing wonders for his Agility. It was nearly at a thousand points, lagging only behind the tenku's Willpower. Felix wouldn't have been surprised if Pit could match any number of standard Journeyman combatants.

 

"Race you?" he offered with a grin.

 

Pit only chuffed an annoyed laugh. Let us wait. I would test you in the wilds.

 

"You're on."

 

The Control Node turned out to be the center of the odd array at the roots of his Spirit Tree. Seven chambers, interconnected by star-shaped archways and filled—utterly filled—with the most complicated sigiladry Felix had ever seen. Only the first room was lit, however, ever since he'd claimed the Territorial Authority over Nagast. Ever since he'd become the Autarch.

 

He wasn't a fan of the title.

 

Karys was waiting for him, standing just outside the array. It wasn't that the constructed man couldn't enter it, but was a sign of respect—another detail from the ancient Nymean culture that Karys trotted out every once in a while. The array was a sign of Felix's Authority, and to trod upon it was a personal insult in addition to being potentially deadly. Ancient sigaldry such as this might have done any number of things to an unauthorised person walking atop it.

 

"In the center, Felix," Karys pointed. "That is the Control Node. Or it will be, once you step upon it."

 

Felix chewed at his lip, hefting the Dwelling Stone in his arms. Pit chirruped cautiously, poking a curious beak at the nearest lines of light, lit up with gold and silver. They looped around the first chamber in dizzying patterns that Felix still couldn't make heads or tails of, but at the center he knew all too well what he'd find. A glyph, on that was shaped like an eye of fire and lightning, surmounted by a nine-pronged crown.

 

His personal glyph.

 

"Felix!"

 

Before he could walk out into the array, the sound of shouting and clattering fall of metal and booted feet announced the arrival of Evie. She sped into the room, her own high Agility burning at full. As such, she barely caught herself before she ran right over the glowing lines.

 

"Noctis' tits, what's this?" she asked before shaking her head. "Wait, no, not important. Felix—what are you wearing? Gah! No—there's trouble."

 

Felix gripped the Dwelling Stone and Pit perked up. "What kind of trouble?"

 

"Giant kind."

 

He groaned and pushed the Dwelling Stone into Kary's sturdy arms. The damaged construct barely held onto it, and joints in his newly fashioned arm creaked ominously. "Felix! You should use this immediately—"

 

"Does it have a time limit, its potency?" Felix asked. When Karys shook his head, Felix shrugged. "I'll play house after I resolve this. Just—just keep an eye on it, yeah?"

 

Karys glanced between the stone and Felix, the former already slipping to the floor. "I-I shall give it my all, then."

 

Felix patted him on a tarnished golden pauldron. "Thanks. And I'm serious. I'll be back as soon as this is settled."

 

"Of course. Your people come first. Just know that this might have solutions all its own."

 

Felix nodded and followed Evie out of the first chamber, back toward the thickest piece of the Spirit Tree's lowest roots. The room was mostly rubble, but Felix had fallen down here a day ago and his body had punched a series of holes from the upper levels. After securing the Territory, he had made sure to fashion some half-decent hand holds to climb back up, but couldn't get Stone Shaping to work on the Temple rock, even this far down. So he had to settle for shoving his fingers into the walls and creating a crude ladder. It was this that Evie quickly grabbed and started climbing.

 

"Quickly! When I left them, they had that Witch glaring daggers at Vess and Harn."

 

Felix frowned. Pit?

 

His Companion nodded, and in a flash of light, leaped into Felix's Spirit and vanished from the physical world. He was a noticeable weight, but Felix was made of heartier stuff these days. He eyed the ceiling and the holes that led up into the open air, some six hundred feet above. He reached out, feeling along the threads that connected Felix to his friends and the Spirit Tree itself. Other threads were there of course, less potent connections to the air and the earth, as well as a set of vibrantly thrumming ones. Threads that were very familiar. Felix frowned.

 

 

Lightning surged around his body before he hauled back with the force of his Aspects. All of him was sent flying straight up, through the holes at such a speed that thunder followed in his wake.

 

"Oh come on!" he heard Evie shout in annoyance.

 

Felix laughed, and lightning danced across his teeth. He pulled.

 

A bar of lightning burst from the topmost level of the Temple, flashing through stone and dark and falling water. The waterfall that once careened off the cliff nearby was now filtering into the Temple and flowing ceaslessly into the lower levels. Luckily none of that reached the array chambers, but it was something he had to address at some point probably.  There was no one around the opening, thankfully, something Felix had checked on but was still nice to confirm with his actual eyes. He shot up and into the sky, cresting almost seven hundred feet from the bottom of the roots to a space several hundred feet shy of the lowest branches of his Spirit Tree. Hovering there, for a moment, Felix took in the Foglands.

 

All around was forest, mountains, or lake. The sun barely rose above the eastern horizon, filling the sky with pinks and oranges that mingled among the scudding clouds. Birds wheeled through them, huge things far away, and the branches of his Spirit Tree was wreathed in the lowest of the clouds. Below, at the base of his Temple, where the Archon had ruined the land with massive reservoirs for some unknown purpose, his people had made camp. The reservoirs had been destroyed and the sigaldry running them ruined, though not before Atar and Alister made copies. Finding out what the Archon had planned was one of their top priorities; the last thing Felix needed was for a defeated enemy to bite them in the ass.

 

Crude stone homes covered that open space, enough to create the idea of a small village. All of the homes were relatively large, around two thousand square feet. In part this was because it gave his team room to move inside, but also because their other occupants needed the space. Those other occupants were now all congregating around a larger home—one that Felix had designated as his own before he'd found the rooms in the Temple.

 

Felix scowled as he fell, letting gravity take hold of him. The ground sped upward, wind roaring in his ears, as Felix fell faster and faster. Just a hundred feet shy of the top of his cliff, he flared Adamant Discord once more. A bolt of lightning shot downward as force pushed back up at Felix's feet, slowing his descent with a single, potent pulse. He landed with barely a whisper of his boots.

 

Showoff, Pit sent.

 

Felix's scowl threatened to turn into a smirk, but the situation below the cliff kept it in place. Around his dwelling, dozens of blue forms stood arrayed behind two huge women with flowing locks of white hair. Frost Giants, the lot of them, headed by two that called themselves Witches. They were hundreds of feet below him, but Felix's powerful Perception picked out their words easily.

 

"—doesn't he show himself?" one Witch asked.

 

"The Autarch does not answer to you, Frost Giant. No matter the rank you hold within your tribe." Vess said. He winced at her use of the title, but the woman was a stickler for proper etiquette. "He will emerge from the Temple when he is ready, and no sooner. You may return to your quarters until he does—the same ones the Autarch saw fit to build for you."

 

The Witch's snort turned to a sneer. "I do not answer to you, Human. I shall wait here until the...Autarch graces us with his presence."

 

Felix hadn't heard quite so good a cue before, and took a standing leap off the cliff. He flared Adamant Discord, except this time it was behind him, adding to his considerable speed.

 

 

Huge wings of leather, scale, and feathers burst from his back, pulled from Pit's features and grown more powerful with his mastery over his own flesh. The cupped appendages caught the wind like twin parachutes, each of them thirty feet long, but only slowed him enough that Felix hit the earth with a rumble rather than snapping his legs in two.

 

 

 

 

Dirt and dust kicked up in a wild circle around him, and Felix tried to ignore the notifications that flickered past his sight—though the change in his Etheric Concordance was enough to break his stern countenance. He grinned. You see that Pit? My turn to take a break!

 

In response, Felix's wings vanished abruptly, withering off his body as a huge tenku manifested beside him. Pit squawked at Felix, and nudged him with a massive shoulder though it did little to move him. Felix laughed.

 

"Felix—er, Lord Autarch, sir?"

 

Vyne and Nevia were the closest to him, and both had been sheltering behind the warrior's tower shield. Felix felt touches of fear and relief humming across their Spirits, fear of his entrance and relief that it was only him. Vyne nodded to the assembled Frost Giants, all of whom were watching with stern faces and clenched fists. Their Spirits were a jumbled mess; a mixture of surprise, fear, awe, and...a touch of—what is that?

 

Felix cleared his throat and addressed them, nodding to Vess and Harn among the others. "My people tell me that you want to see me.”

 

The Frost Giant in the lead, a rare female, tossed her hair back like a recalcitrant horse. Another stood behind her, just ahead of a crowd of four dozen Risi—Frost Giants—and all of them stared at Felix like he was a monster.

 

“Yes. We have…concerns.” She drew herself up, emphasizing her almost nine feet height. “Why did you save us?”

 

Felix’s eyebrows lifted. When he had used his Unite the Lost at the end of his confrontation with the Archon, he had cleansed the Marks from all within range of his Spirit Tree. Marks were like spiritual tags that let a greater power track, influence, or even outright control someone of lesser advancement. Felix himself had been afflicted with several, as had the twisted servants of the Archon: the Arcids and the Reforged. When felix had cleansed them, his Unite the Lost also reverted their bodies to what they once were, restoring lost flesh and bone and blood, restoring Minds and Spirits in addition to their Bodies. All of the giants before him were once raving slaves to the Archon’s hate. Now they were free.

 

“Did you not want to be saved?” Felix asked carefully.  There had been a tentative peace over the last twenty four hours, but he wasn’t so naive to think it would continue forever. The Frost Giants had been his enemy since he’d first came to Shelim. The Witches, moreover,  were the power behind Grimmar, former chieftain of the Risi and unwitting pawn of the Maw. He had no idea how much these Witches knew about that situation, or the fate of the Maw; the one they worshipped as a goddess.

 

"We—You have put us in a difficult position, Felix Nevarre. You, who faced down our High Chieftain in single combat, who survived the Mother's ire, you now come and deliver us from the vile thrall of the Archon." She shook her head, and that strange melody skipped across her Spirit. It was reluctant, almost wayward, but the emotion flitted across all those before him. "It is too much. I must know. What are your intentions for us?"

 

"Intentions?" Felix asked. He longed to meet Vess' gaze, but the Witch hadn't blinked. He felt certain that looking away would lose him something in the exchange, like running from a predator. Regardless, he thought honestly on her question. Why had he saved them? "To have you be free. That is the gist of it. The Archon took the choice from you all when he turned you into those...things, and I'm just giving it back." Felix made a vague gesture northward. "You can go whenever you like. I'll not stop you."

 

The Witch watched him warily, skepticism clear on her face. "You have embarrassed us time and again and expect us to be grateful. Our honor cannot take the strain of being saved by one so...small." She tossed her hair again. "We demand recompense! A fight to the death to assuage our honor! Our greatest warriors against your own. What do you say to this?"

 

Felix heard Vess' sharp intake of breath and Harns low growl in addition to a myriad of sounds from his people. Only Pit seemed unworried. "This will resolve your problems, going forward? Set us square?" Felix asked.

 

"It will," she promised and Felix sensed no deceit in her Spirit. He decided to roll the dice.

 

"Then let's do this. Pick your warriors. We'll do this here and now." Felix said, releasing a pulse of Stone Shaping that firmed up the ground between crude houses. It was a decent size, approximately the length and width of a a football field. It only seemed like less because of all the literal giants.

 

"Agreed. It is better to end things quickly," the Witch said, before barking orders in the Risi tongue.

 

Vess sidled up to Felix, as did Harn. Alister, Atar, and all the Haarguard lingered further back, all of them frowning at the giants. "Felix, you thinkin' this through? You're strong, but those Risi are half again stronger than they were as Reforged or Arcids."

 

"I disagree, Harn," Vess said. "Sometimes we must put force behind our words, as otherwise our actions have no weight or substance. Diplomacy does not only occur in palaces and salons."

 

Harn laughed. "I do know that. I ain't sayin' he should back down. We can take em, but it'll be rough, and I don't know what'll happen after. Where's Evie? With you, me, and Felix here we can wipe out whatever they toss at us, but I'd feel better with a fourth."

 

"She's up there," Felix said, gesturing to the top of the Temple. "But it doesn't matter. Neither of you are helping."

 

"What?" Harn and Vess both said, equally surprised and annoyed.

 

"We are ready, Felix Nevarre," the Witch interrupted. Three others flanked her: the other Witch, and two warriors that stood twice as tall at around twenty feet.

 

"Good. So am I," Felix said, and strode out into the field. Alone.

 

"Just yourself?" The Witch did not seem surprised, but she grinned widely. Perhaps she had counted on Felix doing this, or maybe she just saw it as an easy win. "You do us no honor if you cannot bring out your best warriors."

 

"My warriors are resting. You'll have to settle for me," Felix said, then gave her a grin of his own. "Besides, I needed a good warm-up anyway."

 

The Risi beside her growled, a sound so deep Felix felt it faintly in his chest, even forty feet away. The Witch's smile faded, and she nodded once. "Then let us begin."

 

Felix glanced at Vess and Harn, both of whom looked ready to attack him themselves. "Let's—"

 

The Frost Giants exploded forward, massive axes of ice manifesting in their uplifted fists. A rain of blurring yellow-purple light fell from the sky, soaking into Felix's Body even before the warriors crossed the distance.

 

 

The axes came down. Felix's bare fists, void of Skills, rose to meet them both. A sound like shearing iceburgs cracked the air, and a plume of stone dust and ice chips flew in all directions.

 

The axes, both of them, were hurled back along with the Risi Warriors' arms. They grunted in surprise, but had little time beyond that. Felix, unharmed and unarmed, came for them.

 

He shot forward, through the smoke and debris and swept both of the warriors' legs. They fell, careening backward, hard enough to make the nearest houses shudder. Felix flared his Agility, moving so fast the Risi had barely touched down when he hefted one of their discarded ice axes. The axe, easily ten feet long and heavy as a team of avum, was light as a feather in his hands as he lifted and spun it. The bearded blade slammed into the earth just inches from the first warrior's skull, and he looked at Felix with wide, terrified eyes.

 

"You're dead," Felix said. He blurred away, leaping over the fallen Risi to deliver a single, solid kick to the other warrior's jaw. His bald and bearded skull snapped back, his entire, enormous body going limp. Unconscious, but alive. "You're dead too."

 

Felix pivoted toward the Witches.

 

Waves of ice tore across the field, attempting to bury him under the layers of their spell, but Felix simply pushed himself to his limit. Strength, Endurance, Vitality, Agility, he plowed through wave after wave of ice relying entirely on his stats alone. New Hexes shot out, more comets of yellow and purple Mana—Hexes of Despair—but Felix shrugged these off with a casual flex of his Willpower. Both of the Witches flinched back as their spells rebounded against them, but one recovered fast enough to hurl a thick stalactite of ice at him.

 

Felix slapped it aside, directly into the crowd of Frost Giants. It bowled over several of their warriors, and the Witch gasped. Felix was already airborne, however, his right knee leading the way into the Witch's gut. She crumpled like a house of cards, and Felix's sheer weight and momentum threw the both of them ten feet back. Felix rolled from the impact, coming to his feet without losing a beat, and came at their leader.

 

"Enough!" she cried out, before she bowed. "We are defeated." He blinked. The Witch dropped to her knees and prostrated herself on the ground, pressing her forehead to the dirty stone. "We surrender to your strength, Felix Nevarre. We are yours, Autarch, bound by Oath and Power. Upon our honor shall we serve, or else upon our honor shall we die."

 

All at once, every single Frost Giant did the same. They sank to their knees and pressed their foreheads to the dirt, all of them repeating that same Oath. And it was an Oath, because Felix could feel the silvery threads of them coiling about his Spirit. Gossamer chains that were heavier than their ephemeral nature would suggest. He winced at the weight, but the sensation faded almost instantly.

 

Felix traded shocked glances with Vess and Harn. He hadn't expected this.

 

"Uh. Okay. Accepted."

 

A trumpeting fanfare accosted his ears immediately, and a notification box appeared bracketed with gold and silver.