Advent of Eternity - Chapter 146 (Patreon)

Knell rose to his feet and released Exhume. Worms of pain dug into his leg as it receded back to its injured form and he gritted his teeth, leaning heavily on his staff as exhaustion racked him.

Energy washed into him from the dead captain, pushing some of the exhaustion he’d earned from overusing his magic away. To Knell’s surprise, the energy was actually enough to push him to the next level.

The gods have granted you experience for besting your foe. You have leveled up.

You have defeated an entity more powerful than you. Experience Gained. Your Level has been adjusted accordingly. New skill gained.

Knell’s eyebrows lifted slightly. Both of his Paths had progressed. Before he let himself get distracted with figuring out what had changed, Knell drew his staff blade free.

“Hold still,” Knell said.

Eliza’s brother swallowed heavily, not even daring to nod his understanding. Knell brought the blade to the gag and slit it, pulling the cloth away from his mouth.

“Thank you,” he gasped, his voice raspy. The edges of his mouth were red from where the bandage had dug into his lips. “Who are you? Did- did my sister send you?”

Knell’s lips flattened into a smile. “In a manner of speaking, yes. She’ll be here to meet you soon, I think. Do you know why you were kidnapped and brought here– Milo, was it? Was there something these bandits wanted from you, Milo?”

“I don’t know,” Milo stammered. He pulled at the chains and grimaced, sending a hopeful glance at Knell. “Could you…”

“I don’t want to injure you,” Knell replied. “One of my crew will free you once they’ve finished killing the last of your captors. Do you know any reason why they might have kept you here? Anything at all?”

“They said something about Eliza,” Milo stammered. “A few of them mentioned some Lord guy and the gods.”

Knell’s eyes narrowed. “Lord Veil?”

“Yes!” Milo exclaimed. “Him and Holen. They worked for Holen.”

Milo coughed, and a flicker of pain shot through his eyes. He clearly hadn’t had anything to drink recently, and he was so gaunt that Knell suspected that food hadn’t been particularly plentiful either.

Knell pulled the waterskin out of his bag and held it to the boy’s lips, tilting it back. Milo drank greedily, and Knell took it back after a moment.

“More?”

Milo nodded. Knell tipped more water into his mouth. Milo drank everything in the skin, leaving it empty and letting out a relieved sigh. Knell tossed it back into his bag.

“Continue. What else? What did Holen want with you?”

“Not me,” Milo said. “They were talking about Eliza. She apparently joined the Veil guy. That’s how I knew. She was going to come to save me.”

His eyes fell slightly. “I guess she sent you instead.”

“Not because she had any other choice,” Knell said, his features softening. “She tried. Think deeper – what else did they mention?”

Milo sucked on his lips and shifted in his bindings. “For some reason, they really wanted to kill Eliza. Holen had some big trap set up. The Captain was bragging that she would be dead for sure. There was a Scion on the ship, I think. But a few days ago he suddenly left, and the captain was in a shit mood ever since. He made the ship change course to start chasing someone.”

He had someone with a tracking Path go after us, then. The Scion left because of the upcoming fight with Mordrigal, I bet. So Holen abandoned whatever he was trying to do to inconvenience Veil so he’d have more power to attack Mordrigal.

Knell let out a slow breath. The threat hadn’t been adverted, but it had been delayed. Holen had abandoned the bandits because a greater prize had shown itself, and he’d gotten to reap the rewards.

“I see. Thank you,” Knell said. “Is there anything else you can think of?”

Milo shook his head. “I – I’m sorry. Nothing. Just lots of swearing. They were really mad when the Scion left. Were you the people he was chasing?”

“Unfortunately for him, yes,” Knell replied. He paused. The sounds of screaming from the deck had finally come to a stop. He looked through the window as Maya approached, blood still dripping from her blade.

She stepped into the cabin, her eyes landing on Milo and a flicker of relief passing over her features.

“He’s alive?”

“Evidently. The bandits?”

“All dead. There were another two Path users hiding belowdecks. Cyll killed them,” Maya said. “Did you figure out why they were here?”

Knell nodded. “Just about. Can you get Milo out of his bindings? I need to check on my Path. Gained a level from helping Cyll kill the idiot at my feet.”

“Sure,” Maya said. She raised her sword and stepped up to Milo. “Make sure not to wiggle. I won’t mistakenly cut you as long as you’re still.”

Knell turned his attention away from them. He pressed a hand to his wrist and pulled up the full information for both of his Paths.

Name: Knell Coda [Age: 0]

Path: Scion [Rank Zero]

Level: 23

Attunement A: Foresight of the Vulture

Attunement B: Devouring Maw

Attunement C: Realm of Truth

Attunement D: Empty

Attunement E: Empty

Foresight of the Vulture [Legendary] – Peer a short distance into the future, seeing the most likely outcome of actions taken in your immediate surroundings.

Bloodline: Eternal Body [Epic]– Time magic bends around you, modifying your lifespan and granting you resistance to spatial magics.

Path: Epoch

Level: 20

Abilities:

Mental Clock – Use time magic to keep time or set an alarm audible only to you.

Slow – Impede the movement of a single creature by warping the time around them for a brief instant.

Haste – Increase the movement of a single creature by warping time around them for a brief instant.

Anchor – Lock a target’s current state in the timeline, returning it to that state after 1 minute passes, reverting any changes to the target that have happened under the duration of Anchor.

Exhume – Return a target object to the glory it once held in the past. The distance the user can reach back to increases with the power spent on the spell, as does the duration of its stay in the current time.

Warp – Distort the passage of time in a small area in front of you, causing inanimate objects that pass through it to slow down. The duration of this spell and the amount objects are slowed depend on the amount of energy spent casting Warp.

Slipstream – Reach back into the annals of time and bring forth an incarnation of a target where it had been ten seconds before. It will follow and mimic the movements and actions of the target, repeating them exactly as they had been done the first time.

Advent of Eternity (Passive)- You do not fall under the jurisdiction of time. With sufficient strength, it will bend to your will, and your existence is absolute. Perennial Soul; Eternity awaits.

Knell studied the new ability Epoch had given him. At first, it didn’t seem particularly useful. It only lasted for ten seconds, and a mirror image that just repeated actions without doing anything else didn’t feel very impactful.

However, the wording of the spell caught his attention. If the incarnation mimicked everything exactly, did that mean it would actually recast any magic or do real damage rather than just being an image?

If that was the case, Slipstream was incredibly useful. Knell dismissed the floating screens, looking up as Maya helped Milo out of the chains covering him and pulled the boy to his feet.

I want to test how this works, but now probably isn’t the time. I’ll pull Cyll or Stix aside in a moment.

“Can you get him onto the Withered Rose?” Knell asked.

Maya nodded. She sheathed her sword and took Milo by the shoulders, leading him away. He stumbled every few steps and clutched onto her for balance, but it didn’t look like he was seriously injured.

Good. The last thing we need is more needless death. The faster Holen and Mordrigal are struck a blow, the better. I hope Lillicent is prepared to replace my eyes. Time is growing thin.

Knell walked out onto the deck, his staff tapping against the wood as he wound around the puddles of blood his crew had left behind. Right on time, Cyll’s shaggy head poked out from the stairs leading below.

He clambered out, Lassie sheathed at his back.

“Ah, Cap. Good timing with the save,” Cyll said. “It’s all safe down there.”

“Good,” Knell said. “I want to test a new spell.”

“Figures. Can’t even wait to let me brag about how well I did a little more?”

“Your clothes are a strong breeze from blowing away. What happened to avoiding getting killed?”

“There were no witnesses,” Cyll grumbled. “It’s fine. There was no way I was getting through a group this big without getting blown up or stabbed a bit.”

“Which is why I’m not going to punish you for it.”

Cyll let out a huff. “Sourpuss. Go on, then.”

Knell gathered his magic, ignoring the weariness that already covered him like a blanket, and cast Slipstream on Cyll. Dark green energy swirled around the immortal’s body and he shuddered.

“I don’t like that. What did you do?”

“Stab the deck with Lassie.”

Cyll blinked, but he didn’t hesitate. He drew the sword and spun it around, driving it into the deck. He pulled Lassie out and took a step back, looking at the hole expectantly.

Knell hooked a bandit’s body with the end of his staff and dragged it over the top of the hole.

“Well, now you’ve gone and covered my hole,” Cyll complained. “What was that for?”

“Just wait. You might want to step a bit to the side as well.”

Cyll followed Knell’s instructions and watched curiously. A few more seconds passed, and there was a subtle pop as a mirror image of Cyll snapped into existence. Cyll’s eyes widened.

“I’ve got a clone? How did you figure out what I’ve always wanted, Cap? You’re the best.”

“I don’t like that. What did you do?” The copy of Cyll said.

Cyll frowned. “I take it back. That’s creepy.”

The incarnation of Cyll drew Lassie, following the other man’s movement exactly as it stepped forward and drove the blade into the ground. Blood splattered as the blade carved into the dead bandit.

Cyll’s clone left the blade there for a moment, then drew it out.

“Well, now you’ve gone and covered my hole,” the incarnation said. “What was that for?”

It stepped to the side, moving straight into Cyll and vanishing without a trace. Knell and Cyll stared at the dead bandit.

“Well,” Cyll drawled. “That was something.”

“Something incredibly useful,” Knell murmured. “Thank you. We’ll be able to get quite a bit of use out of this, I think. Can you go gather the crystal cannonballs these idiots had and bring them to the Withered Rose? No reason to leave good ammunition lying around.”

Cyll gave Knell a sharp salute and headed back below deck. Below them, Maya dropped to the deck of the Withered Rose, Milo clutched against her chest with her one arm. She knelt, lowering him to the ground and straightening back up, sending a glance in his direction.

Knell gave her a nod. Maya had done incredibly well in the fight, even though he’d only seen part of it from his spot on the Withered Rose. She was mastering her new blade at a brilliant rate.

She wasn’t the only one. All the ballista bolts sticking out of dead bandits across the deck spoke volumes for Stix as well. Knell didn’t see the moon elf, but suspected she was probably belowdecks on the Withered Rose telling Lillicent that the fight had ended.

Knell approached the edge of the deck, waiting for Cyll to finish gathering the crystal cannonballs. He’d tell Stix to help him when she came back above deck. It would take some time to ferry all the cannonballs down to the Withered Rose, and he wasn’t in any big rush to get down from the bandit ship yet. He suspected it wouldn’t be long until Eliza and Emma showed up to see how the fight had went.