Return of the Runebound Professor

Chapter 516: Fragments

Noah stared at the ground in a stunned silence. He’d somehow made an entire rune on accident.

“How can this even happen?” Noah muttered to himself. “I could see my intent somehow getting messed with by the energy in the Damned Plains or some shit like that, but it can’t make two completely different runes.”

It didn’t seem that anyone had told the runes that. They remained on the floor of his soul, illuminated by the crackling light of the ball of electric energy churning above his hand. The second rune didn’t look like it was about to go anywhere anytime soon.

As the shock wore off, Noah took a closer look at the dark lines on the ground. A flicker of annoyance welled up in his chest. Not only was the unexpected rune blocking out significant portions of the rune he’d actually tried to make, but he couldn’t read it either. There were just too many segments missing.

This is exactly what happened with Lee’s Rune, isn’t it? She managed to squish all her runes together into Frankenstein’s Rune. Now she can’t read any of them. But I don’t have a Master Rune, broken or not, in the mix here.

Could this be the result of a failed combination?

That was something he could test. Noah held a hand up to the amalgamation of runes before him and focused his attention on it, sending a faint tendril of desire toward them. A wall of pressure drove into him in response and the other runes in his soul shuddered as they pushed back against it.

It wasn’t enough to keep what felt like a strong wind from driving into Noah, blowing his hair back and nearly causing him to slide across the ground. He blocked his eyes with a hand and released the desire, letting the runes return to their normal state as a frown crossed his lips.

“Way more than the pressure from a newly made Rank 4,” Noah muttered. “That’s easily two of them. There’s energy there that shouldn’t be there. This isn’t just some failed combination. Something got added into the mix that I didn’t want.”

The rune floated innocently before him, the thick strands of jet-black soul undulating gently in beat with the ripples of energy passing over its surface. Noah scrunched his nose. It felt a little odd to be irritated about getting an extra rune. That was a first world problem if he’d ever heard of one, and that made him mildly annoyed that he couldn’t be more annoyed.

“I don’t like you,” Noah informed his conjoined runes. “But I would like you more if you split yourselves apart for me.”

The runes did not respond. That was probably for the best. The day his runes started talking to him was the day Noah Sundered them out and served them on a plate to Lee. His brow furrowed at the thought of the demon. She needed him to find a way to deal with… whatever this was.

Even if it didn’t hold the secret to her issues with Rank 4, the very least he could do was find a way to untangle the bungled mess of a Rune she currently had. Azel’s bindings weren’t going to hold forever and they only got weaker with every time Lee pushed her strength.

That might have been fine back in Arbitage, but they were in the Damned Plains. He doubted they were going to get the liberty of being able to hold back for long. They’d already taken control of the streetlords and made a scene at the auction. Stronger demons would be taking notice of them soon — if they hadn’t already.

Noah brushed his thoughts away and let out a sharp breath to refocus himself. He couldn’t afford to start worrying about distractions right now. There was too much at stake.

“I wonder if I could just Sunder you?” Noah mused to himself, moving to see if he could find an obvious spot where the two runes had connected themselves. He made another circle around them, but it did little to help. There was no clear distinction in them. If it wasn’t for the light illuminating the runes on the ground, it would have been impossible to tell that there even were two of them.

He came to a stop back at the front of the rune and dismissed his glowing ball before crossing his legs and sitting down. He planted his chin in his palm and braced his elbow against a knee, fingers drumming against the side of his chin in contemplation.

Sundering the runes had a chance of splitting them apart. It had an equal chance of just straight up destroying them. He’d lost around 15% of the energy in Crumbling Space when he’d Sundered it in order to make… whatever abomination this thing was. If the same thing happened — well, the rune didn’t have enough energy to lose. It would just shatter and all his efforts would be wasted.

“I wish I could just test on something,” Noah complained, his mood still worsened by the still-present headache from all the soul damage littering his soul. He cast his gaze around as if in hopes of finding a second copy of the odd rune amalgamation before him. It was fruitless. The only other option he had to test on was Lee’s rune, and he vehemently refused to do that.

If anyone’s getting tested on, it’ll be me. I don’t want to risk hurting or killing Lee. But if I’m going to fiddle around with myself —that sounds wrong — I should save the Fragment of Renewal until I’m done. The chances of me getting out of this without even more soul damage are negligible.

Noah blew out a sharp breath and pushed himself to his feet. Then, for a flicker of a thought, he paused. If his soul already had extensive soul damage, the smart thing would probably be to use the Fragment of Renewal now and then wait until it came back before he started messing with the new runes.

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If this is really a Demon Rune, I don’t think I can afford to sit around and wait to see what it does. What if I start feasting on emotions all of a sudden? I don’t know what emotion I’d want, but I don’t think it would be anything good. It would probably involve Mo — no. Not letting myself get distracted now. I really do need to get some more Mind Meld potions, though.

Sundering the runes would be his last resort. Noah brushed his hands off on his pants. It wasn’t like there was any sweat on them in his mindspace, but it was about the spirit of things. There was at least one thing he could try before fiddling around with any magic.

He strode up to the rune and set his jaw, grabbing the rune with both hands. A river of tingling energy raced down his palms and through his arms into his chest. An involuntary shiver ran down Noah’s spine, but he didn’t let go. His grip tightened and he planted his feet in the ground.

Then he pulled. The river transformed into an ocean. His fingers went numb and he could have sworn his bones started to vibrate. It felt like he was trying to yank out his own heart. Noah’s teeth gritted and he pulled even harder.

“Come here, you little shit,” Noah snarled.

Energy coursed throughout his veins and flooded every part of him. His tongue tingled and prickles poked at the back of his eyes. A colony of ants felt like it had taken up residence within him and were marching throughout his veins. It was the most incredibly uncomfortable thing that Noah had ever experienced, but it wasn’t quite painful.

One of the strands snapped, releasing the rune and whipping back into the base of his soul with a splatter. Noah’s eyes widened in surprise and he nearly lost his grip. He hadn’t expected tugging on the rune like a disgruntled ape to actually work.

The sharp edges of the rune pulled back and Noah quickly adjusted his stiff fingers, just barely managing to keep his hold on it. He took a step back, stretching the dark strands farther. Gaps started to form within them as they lost the game of tug-of-war against him.

“Let go!” Noah roared, driving himself backward another step and thrusting every scrap of force he could muster into his feet. Several loud thwangs ripped through the air as ropey soul strings ripped and lost their hold on the rune.

Noah slipped, his fingers losing their grip, and landed on his back with a pained grunt. The energy tearing through his body vanished and he groaned, staring up at Sunder and the Fragment of Renewal floating above him. It was several seconds before the awful tingling finally faded away and he managed to push himself into a sitting position.

“Oh, pound sand, would you?”

The rune had gone right back to the position it had been in before. His soul had extended gloopy tendrils to wrap around it once again. All his work had been for —

Wait.

Noah rose to his feet and approached the rune. The strands had wrapped back around the rune in the exact same way as before. His head tilted to the side. If his soul was trying to hold onto the rune for some reason, then the way it connected should have been at least somewhat random. This wasn’t. He’d broken some of the strands, but they’d come back exactly as they’d been.

It’s almost as if there’s a…

“…pattern,” Noah muttered, finishing his thoughts out loud as his eyes widened. He raised his hands and summoned a crackling ball of electricity with the help of Natural Disaster, illuminating the two runes and casting their inversed shadows onto the ground so he could examine them.

Noah’s eyes danced as he memorized the glowing lines that came from the black strands. He couldn’t understand what the patterns meant, but he could still see a portion of them. Once he’d memorized everything he could, he released Natural Disaster and hopped awkwardly on one foot, raising the other to stick it into the parts of his soul covering his rune.

He gagged as tingles shot down his leg and up into his torso. The urge to pull back was strong, but he resisted it. Noah just tilted his head to the side and summoned his violin, bracing it against himself and resting the bow on the strings.

I don’t know any way better to manifest a pattern than through music. If this rune does anything, I’ll find out when I convert its pattern to song while channeling its energy.

Noah drew in a deep breath and pushed the distraction away, shoving the uncomfortable tingling sensation into the back of his mind.

Then he began to play.

He started slow, taking care not to draw too much power or let the pattern escape from him, but he was surprised to find the music didn’t just come easily. It came naturally. His bow picked up speed and a strange song echoed through the reaches of his soul.

It was more than natural. It was familiar.

Power twisted within Noah. The uncomfortable prickling in the back of his mind receded. His posture relaxed and his song grew faster still as he felt himself synchronize with the rune. Noah’s eyes drifted shut and he immersed himself within the song, letting the pattern form itself with his body as the outlet.

And then it came to an end. His bow slowed and a deep sense of peace washed over his body like a comforting blanket. The discomfort had entirely vanished everywhere other than his eyes, which still felt like he’d squinted into a bright light for a little too long.

Well, at least it doesn’t seem malicious. What kind of rune does this?

Noah let his eyes open once again. His violin squeaked as his hand jerked in surprise, playing an unbidden note. Faint golden lines glimmered within the dark floor and walls of his soul. They danced and twisted in the most complex mosaic that he’d ever seen like a field of glimmering vines, stretching so far out that he couldn’t see where they ended. It was a pattern, but it was so much more. It was an entire world.

Noah could do nothing but stare in disbelief. He turned, trying to take in the entirety of the pattern glowing within the darkness of his soul, but it was impossible. The pattern was just so immense that he couldn’t even begin to make anything individual out. Swirling waves and starry skies mixed like the painting of a madman, vanishing the moment he thought he caught a glimpse of something tangible. It was alien and immense, beautiful in the way that Renewal had been.

His gaze landed back on the strands holding onto his rune. Noah’s fingers loosened and the violin vanished from his grasp. The darkness had been lit up by the very same lines running throughout the rest of his soul, but these ones didn’t change.

They remained locked in place, interweaving with each other in a way that wasn’t just familiar to Noah. It was Noah.

For the first time, Noah managed to read the name of the rune stored within the syrupy strands of his soul.

Fragment of Self

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