Return of the Runebound Professor

Chapter 552: Rank 4 Rune

Noah returned to the vine bed and sat down upon it. He set the opened grimoire upon his lap and placed his hand upon its surface before plunging into his mindspace.

The pitch black void of his soul rose up to swallow Noah’s world. Runes blinked to life in the sea of darkness like stars orbiting around him, and pressure bore down onto his back. White light seeped into the darkness from small cracks ran throughout the corners of his soul.

Noah was tempted to call on the Fragment of Renewal and heal them on the spot, but he didn’t know how many attempts or modifications his new Rank 4 rune would take. Wasting the Fragment now could stick him with a bunch of damage he couldn’t heal until the next day.

He blew out a breath and steadied his thoughts. Even though Noah already knew what he wanted to make, there were still a lot of ways to go about it. Belkus had given him three Rank 5 Runes. Even if half of their components were completely useless and the energy conversion rate was less than ideal, he probably had enough to brute force an entirely new Rank 5 Rune.

There were actually two ways he could hypothetically get a Rank 5 rune. He had a number of runes in his grimoire. Not enough to truly have a lot of variety, but he could cobble together several more Disaster Runes and top up the remaining pieces with Mind Runes.

The resulting rune would be shoddy and poorly made, but it would still be a Rank 5. He could always rip it apart later and re-combine everything. Unfortunately, reaching Rank 5 meant absolutely nothing if his final rune was garbage.

He’d seen the difference between a powerful Rank 4 and a weak Rank 5. Destroying the potential of his runes, even temporarily, just for the boost at Rank 5, was not a trade he was willing to make. Crumbling Space and Warped Matter had significant use even without being Rank 5 runes — not to mention he still had Formations he could work his existing runes into.

And then there was the other option. Making a Rank 5 entirely from the Mind Runes he’d gotten from Belkus. Noah just wasn’t so sure that would be in his benefit. His keystone rune was still a component of Natural Disaster.

There was a lot he still didn’t know about how Runes worked. Keystone runes were definitely important. They were closely tied to the soul and imposed severe consequences when removed.

He honestly didn’t know what would happen if he left his keystone rune behind as a Rank 4 when his strongest rune became a Rank 5. Noah doubted that was a situation anyone had ever found themselves in before. It would probably destabilize his soul a little. Maybe enough to be manageable — but that wasn’t really a good reason to ignore the possibility entirely.

In the end, the thing that gave Noah pause was the potential of making a mistake. He didn’t know Mind Runes well. Even though he had a pretty good idea of what he wanted to do, there was still a good chance it would need to be modified at least once or twice.

The bigger and more closely tied to the soul a Rune was, the harder it was to remove. Ripping a Rank 5 free of himself had the potential to do some pretty serious soul damage. It was magnitudes larger than a Rank 4, and he’d be doing it right after it expanded his soul.

Noah had absolutely no idea what that would cause. The last time he’d gotten an excessive amount of soul damage, he’d fallen into a coma for a week. Perhaps the same would happen. Perhaps it would be nothing.

He didn’t know — but he couldn’t risk it for a Rank 5 Rune that was the equivalent of a handgun in a toddler’s hands. Wizen’s magic would still be stronger than his. Wizen would still have more experience. Putting all his money on an entirely new form of magic to him when his opponent was a master of the field was a losing move.

Having a little protection was important, but Noah wasn’t going to beat Wizen at his own game. He had to come from a different angle. There was more than one way to gain power — though he wasn’t about to pass it up either. Noah didn’t love the idea of a mind rune, but he still needed more disasters. There was no guarantee Wizen was the only enemy with mind powers he’d fight. Investing in a way to protect himself now would be useful in the long run… assuming they could actually deal with Wizen.

But first things first. I still need my Rank 4 rune to make sure I’ve at least got some way to keep Wizen’s grubby fingers out of my head.

Noah raised a finger in the air before him and started to draw one of the Rank 5 Mind Runes. Dull pink energy followed in the wake of his finger as it traced magic into his soul. He moved quickly and with confidence.

The Mind Runes Belkus had given him were — unfortunately — demon runes. Now that Noah knew a little more about how the runes worked, he wasn’t as worried about forming one in his soul as long as he shattered it instantly. The only problem was that he couldn’t use any of the components that had demon runes in them, which meant he’d have to do a lot of re-combining.

The only way to do that is to get started. No time to waste. I have to finish this before Zath decides he’s done talking and comes for me.

It took him about five minutes to draw the rune in its entirety. The Rank 5 was so much more complex than all his previously created normal runes that it drew practically every single scrap of attention Noah could muster.

There was a sharp snap, followed by a burst of pressure and a pop in his ears. Wind blew his hair back as the Rank 5 took form in Noah’s soul, surrounded in a halo of molten pink energy. Noah squeezed his eyes shut. His hand moved even as Sunder’s power coursed through his veins in an icy river.

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He struck the rune.

And, even as the Rank 5’s magic swelled in his soul and pressed against its boundaries, it shattered with a loud crash. Noah squeezed his eyes shut before the flash of brilliant white energy could blind him, only opening them in time to see the Rank 4 constituents of the rune come spilling out of the storming energy it left behind.

Noah scanned over the new runes that formed before him. They bore lovely names like Mental Corruption and Psychic Rend among others, several of which were unreadable Demon Runes. All of them broken or improperly made and none had been less than 30% full on creation.

It didn’t look like Belkus had given Noah his best work. That was fine with him. He’d hardly expected the Demon Lord to be rolling out the red carpet. This was more than enough for his purposes.

Noah pushed six of the seven runes out of the way, grabbing one of the unreadable demon runes and pulling it into the cloudy pink energy left behind by what had once been a Rank 5.

He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. There was going to be a lot of magical surgery involved in removing every single demon aspect and piecing the rune back together with the remaining energy. He definitely wouldn’t have had enough energy to pull the process off if Belkus hadn’t given him 3 Rank 5s to work with. There was so much power lost in the process of ripping the pieces apart and converting their energy that the mere thought of it would have made most mages cry.

Most mages didn’t have Sunder.

One of these days, I’ll give the god I took this rune from a proper thank you. Don’t know what I’d do without it.

Noah hummed a tune to himself as he carved a Rank 3 Demon Rune apart with Sunder, burning through more power than the majority of demons saw in their lives just to make a Rank 4 rune that wouldn’t make him slightly uncomfortable to use.

There was work to do.

***

Noah lost track of time.

That really wasn’t an uncommon characteristic for him, but it really didn’t lend itself well to when he was working against the clock.

But, as he studied out at the results of his work on Belkus’ runes, he couldn’t help but feel like he’d spent his time well.

9 new runes floated in his soul, waiting to be used. Noah had condensed the excess components from the Rank 5 runes into other Rank 4s to avoid losing too much energy while he was working. He’d also dragged in a few extra space runes, combining them with a few of the other mind runes, and used a painful amount of energy from the Rank 5 Mind Runes to fill them up.

He scanned over the new runes floating around him, making a mental list of them in the process to make sure he hadn’t missed anything.

Rank 4 Unstable Mind Meld - 1

Rank 4 Broken Mind - 1

Rank 4 Broken Mind Castle - 1

Rank 3 Mental Block - 1

Rank 3 Mind Meld - 1

Rank 3 Mental Prison - 2

Rank 3 Psychic Force - 2

Noah wasn’t sure how many of each rune he would need quite yet, but he had more than enough to work with — and the quality of all the Rank 3 runes was flawless. He couldn’t say the same for the Rank 4s, but considering they were only there to hold energy and save space, he didn’t particularly care.

There was just one thing that seemed a little off. Noah couldn’t help but notice that 4 of the Mind Runes he’d made were active.

His brow creased in confusion. That was rather odd. He had four runes that should have already been active. Natural Disaster, Warped Matter, Crumbling Space, and the Rune of Self.

Recounting everything did nothing to change the facts. He somehow had 8 active runes. That was, of course, impossible — which meant one of the Runes he thought was a normal rune was anything but.

There was really only one option that fit that category. The Rune of Self. Noah frowned and scratched at his chin. That was significant. There was no doubt about it… but he didn’t have time to dig into why. Not yet.

Noah focused his concentration on the Rank 4 Unstable Mind Meld Rune. It held the several flawless components he was going to need to pull this off. His soul was strained from the constant usage of Sunder, but he was too close to stop now.

Gathering his power, Noah got back to work.

***

Noah swam in a swirling mess of saturated pink hues and black veins. His bones throbbed and his eyes pulsed with the beginnings of a building headache as he brought his hand down, carving through his fifth attempt at combining a flawless Rank 4 Mind Rune.

The rune shattered with a plink and power spilled out from it. Noah’s mind groaned in protest as he pushed to grab all the magic before it could dissipate. He’d already consumed the power in two of the Rank 4 runes he’d had, grinding them to dust in his research.

His teeth gritted as he pulled an extra Rank 3 Mind Meld Rune into the mixture, swapping it out for one of his Psychic Force runes. Focusing on the Line while trying to combine a rune felt like pulling his own teeth out.

The experience was agonizing. As it turned out, the absolute last thing his mind wanted to do was focus on one of its least favorite multi-thousand year strings of memories.

But Noah was determined now. He’d put this much work into making the rune work, and he refused to accept anything other than success.

His teeth gritted. He lifted a hand toward the seven Rank 3s floating before him. His lips pulled back in a snarl of defiance and he clenched his hand into a fist.

The runes slammed together. Noah blinked to avoid the flash of light, focusing every scrap of his intent on the line — but not every part of the line.

He’d made that mistake on his last attempt. Channeling the entirety of the line into a Rank 4 rune was like stuffing an elephant into a hamster ball.

What he needed was a very specific part of the line.

He needed the feeling of stepping over and over and over, only to find that the world had not changed. The sensation of existence without purpose. The feeling of nothing.

Nothing was a surprisingly difficult emotion to properly encapsulate.

Fortunately for Noah, he had a lot of experience getting to know it.

Power roared in his mind as the runes snapped together, bound by his intent. A brilliant flash tore through his soul and he squeezed his eyes shut, staggering back as a wave of force rolled out of a newly formed rune and drove into Noah’s gut like a punch.

He gritted his teeth and forced his eyes open, holding up a hand to block the remnants of the light. Noah blinked furiously in attempt to clear his vision. His arm lowered and his eyes widened, a wave of mild disbelief prickling against his skin as he looked upon the efforts of his labor.

Finally, after 6 re-combinations, he had done it.

Before him was a perfect Rank 4 Rune.

Empty Proliferation