Return of the Runebound Professor-Chapter 702: That’s an answer

Blood dripped from Garina’s palms. It traced down her nails and along her fingers to drip from her knuckles and fall through the sky like droplets of red rain. Tremors ran through her soul like the ripples of a stone throne into a still lake.

The world above her was cast in shadow. The Night’s Shadow’s tentacle sprawled through the air above, its pallid gray skin swallowing the sky itself and leaving behind nothing but darkness and screaming.

But the tentacle didn’t so much as move. It hadn’t so much as budged for the last minute. The enormous appendage was completely frozen. Strands of Garina’s will bound it in its entirety like the web of a spider.

A droplet of sweat rolled down her face as her soul groaned in protest once more. There was only so long she could keep the Night’s Shadow contained. She’d already drawn on every single ounce of Rune Force that she could muster, and the full extent of her might had been enough to slow a sliver of the Night’s Shadow’s will.

If the monster had been even slightly awake, there wouldn’t have even been a contest. Her runes would have been blown away like a whistle in a tornado. That said, she never would have tried to bind the true consciousness of the Night’s Shadow with her will alone.

Had it actually been awake, she would have chosen a thousand different strategies first. Her specialty had never been complex applications of Runic Force. There were others among the Apostles who could have managed such a thing far better than her.

Garina was a hunter.

Unfortunately, the Night’s Shadow was not a being she could hunt. If she drew on the true strength of her Rank 7 Runes, on the power that she needed to truly cut down the deadly being above her, there was a very real chance that she would succeed.

And there was an equal chance that the Night’s Shadow would wake up.

The monster was still asleep. That was the only thing keeping the Empire from being completely destroyed. Its presence today was the equivalent of it rolling over in its sleep. If she went and stabbed it while banging a gong in its ear as hard as she could, the monster wouldn’t go sleeping for much longer.

All I can do is slow it. Father — that bastard. He figured out how to start fiddling with the Long Night. But he can’t control the Night’s Shadow. All he’s done is tickled it. Its stirring should stop soon. When it does… I can seal it again.

But until then, I can’t afford to do anything but sit here. This is the strongest of the Shadow’s presences. The others will do damage… but not as bad as this one would have. Damn it. If I try to save everything, I’ll end up saving nothing.

A droplet of sweat rolled down the side of Garina’s face.

Her focus was as sharp as a razor. It couldn’t afford to be anything less. Exertion burned at the edges of her soul. It wanted to return to its proper position, but she wouldn’t let it. She couldn’t afford to have mercy on herself right now.

The only proof of that she needed was a quick glance down.

Beneath her had been one of the Bastions.

A city sprawling so far that it seemed endless. There had been a time when it had been larger than Arbitage. Not more influential, perhaps, but larger.

Now it was a sea of singing stone.

Every single tree. Every single rock and shingle and animal. Every single person. All that had been on the surface of the city was now nothing but a warped, twisted garden. Thousands upon thousands of lives had been snuffed. The extent of the damage was beyond astronomical.

But some still lived. Anyone who had been deep enough within the city would have had time to retreat further within it. The Night’s Shadow’s influence couldn’t instantly corrupt everything. It took time — and so long as Garina held it here, its advance would be slow.

If I hold it here, the damage will be contained. At least there isn’t anyone idiotic enough to come out and try to attack it themselves. Their soul would just get twisted into a pretzel before they got a chance to call on a single rune.

It shouldn’t be too much longer now. She was certain the Night’s Shadow was still in deep sleep. The only saving grace any of them had were the strict laws that Garina had imposed on the Empire for all these years.

There are only three mages in the entire Empire that have the power to actually wake the Night’s Shadow up. Father, me, and Revin. Father won’t do it because then the Night’s Shadow would kill him as well. He’s not an idiot. Revin… well, he won’t do it either. And nor will I.

So as long as we hold out, this should pass — and then we can find Father and stop him before he manages to get any better at using the Long Night. We just—

A presence rolled against the back Garina’s mind. Her back stiffened. The breath caught in her chest. And, for an instant, she nearly lost control of her soul.

But she didn’t. Garina was not so easy to catch off guard. She was a professional. Garina had lived for hundreds of years, and she was no mere mage. She was one of the Seven.

That didn’t make the surprise she felt any less. In rapid succession, two presences had briefly made themselves known within the Empire. Ones with power so significant that she could not ignore it.

The first she knew. It was Noah and the sliver of Decras’ power that he had claimed for himself. It seemed he’d been forced to fight. Garina wasn’t concerned about his magic. Noah was absolutely ridiculous for a Rank 5, but he couldn’t do anything more than give the Night’s Shadow a prick on the thumb. He couldn’t wake it up.

But the other presence — it was one that Garina realized that she knew. The presence reminded her of Ferdinand, but a thousand times more powerful. It was one that did not belong here. Something far beyond the power that any Rank 7 could even begin to dream of mustering.

It was the presence of a god.

***

“Shit,” Renewal breathed, leaning forward and watching Noah with wide eyes. The huge limb of the Night’s Shadow plummeted toward him in agonizing slow motion — far slower than it had any right to be moving.

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Far, far slower.

Rneewal’s eyes narrowed. She sent a sidelong glance at Decras.

“What?” Decras asked.

“You slowed it down,” Renewal snapped. “Why?”

“I thought it was good dramatic effect,” Decras replied. “And I didn’t slow anything. What do you think I am, a Rank 15? I can’t control the flow of time itself. We’re just processing it at a far faster rate.”

“Don’t explain how time compression works to me. I wasn’t born yesterday,” Renewal said, unable to tear her eyes from the screen. The tentacle was still inching down toward Noah, one micrometer at a time. At this rate, it was going to take ten minutes before it connected. “Noah’s dead.”

“Most definitely,” Decras agreed. “I’m more curious to see if he’ll actually be able to do anything to the Night’s Shadow. What an amusing name. Night’s Shadow. It’s strong for that planet… but how arrogant, to claim to be the first of darkness.”

“The mortals named it,” Renewal pointed out. “You can’t blame it for a name it didn’t select.”

“Fair enough,” Decras allowed. “Then perhaps we should address the elephant in the room. Or should I say the cat—”

“Shut it,” Renewal said crossly. She pointed at the screen with one hand while stroking the black ball of fur that Decras had created for her with the other. “Noah’s about to get flattened. I don’t want to miss this.”

“Sadist,” Decras said.

“He’ll be fine. Get over it.”

They both fell silent as the tentacle continued down toward Noah’s outstretched hands. He was reaching up toward it, concentration carved into his face and determination burning in his eyes.

A wall of death loomed above him. It was plummeting toward Noah at such an incredible speed, but his brain definitely still had time to process what was happening. He knew that he was about to die — and there wasn’t so much as a flicker of fear within him.

Man’s greatest fear held no grip on him at all. He was only focused on the task at hand. Renewal wished she could have seen into his head. She wished she could have heard what he was thinking. Known what it was that gave him such motivation to fight forward.

But she couldn’t. All she could do was watch as the gray stone making up the Night’s Shadow brushed across his fingers.

All the power gathered within his Formation exploded out.

A black line carved upward into the massive tentacle even as it continued on its path down.

Time snapped back to its normal flow.

An explosion tore through the Scorched Acres. The tentacle collided with the ground with such force that the wave of wind rolling out from within it shattered all the stoneified trees within hundreds of feet of its collapse point.

Noah vanished beneath it. There were few things in the world that were more definitely dead than he was at that very moment.

“Look!” Decras exclaimed, pointing like a proud father.

A long furrow ran along the circumference of the Night’s Shadow’s tendril. It ran deep enough to sever many of the holes running through the enormous appendage. The damage was insignificant structurally — but nobody liked stubbing their toe while they were asleep.

With a hissing cacophony of screams, the tendril lurched back. It dragged itself up into the air toward the portal it had emerged from, wrapping around the mountain that had so rudely fallen on it and dragging the huge mass of stone along for the ride. Renewal watched raptly as the tentacle was slurped into the vortex in the sky like a long noodle vanishing into an eager patron’s mouth.

And then it was gone.

All that remained was a forest of stone trees, their singing now nothing more than wind passing through holes. The magic that had connected them all to the Night’s Shadow had been severed.

“Not bad at all,” Decras said in approval. “He managed to keep it from spreading its influence too far. Perfect one for the job. Not enough power to actually wake the Night’s Shadow up, but just enough to annoy it away.”

“Where’s Mascot?” Renewal asked, her eyes darting around the screen.

Decras sent a glance at her. “Renewal.”

“I know,” Renewal snapped. “Where’s Mascot?”

“We both saw what he did,” Decras said. “That little avatar didn’t have the ability to go tossing power around like that. Not without his connection to you.”

Renewal’s hands tightened at her sides. Avatars were extensions of the god they belonged to. There was a certain amount of power that was amounted to them. But that was when they were actually avatars.

Mascot had severed their connection. As rude as it had been, it meant Renewal couldn’t control him — and he couldn’t draw on her magic. The only energy in him was what she’d left him with.

It was more than enough to flit through the barrier between planes on his own or do some minor mischief. But teleporting an entire mountain was an entirely different case. Something like that was far beyond what Mascot could afford to spend.

Renewal’s eyes darted around the screen in search of any white fur. “He can’t be gone. Not like that. I spent a lot of effort making him, you know. He’s a resilient little shit.”

“He isn’t yours anymore, you know.”

“I don’t care,” Renewal snapped. “Did it spend him entirely? Rewind the screen. If he’s gone—”

The ground before Renewal shimmered. She blinked, and her gaze shot down as her breath caught in her chest.

A faint, almost entirely translucent ball of white fur tumbled out from a portal to fall at her feet.

It was Mascot, but he was not in good shape. In fact, he was barely in any shape at all. His body was so close to see-through that he might as well have been drawn on a thin tissue. The formerly red horns that protruded from his head and ran down on his back had paled to the point of turning gray.

Renewal scooped Mascot off the ground and held him before her. Fragments of him were already separating and falling away. She wound her soul around Mascot’s, pressing the avatar back together like she was rebuilding a puzzle.

It wasn’t a fix, but it would hold him together until she could take care of things properly.

“You’ve come back to me,” Renewal said with a relieved smile. She extended a tendril of her will toward the cat. “I knew you would. That was quite the stunt. Don’t think you’ll be doing something like that again. But don’t you worry. I’ll get you back in prime form within a few hundred years. That’ll give me time to introduce you to Fiesty. You try to get along, okay?”

The black cat in her lap glanced up at Mascot. Then he went back to minding his own business. Fiesty didn’t tend to care about much at all.

Mascot’s eyes fluttered open. His gaze locked with Renewal’s.

She felt her strand of will hit an iron wall.

Her eyes went wide.

“What are you doing? Drop that barrier, you little shit.”

“He’s made from you,” Decras pointed out. “I doubt that’s going to work. You’ve always been hardheaded.”

Renewal glared at him, then glanced back to Mascot. “I can’t fix you if you don’t open up. Don’t forget what you are, avatar. You want your power back? Drop the wall. I won’t force you, but if you keep me out, then there’s only so much I can do.”

The determination in Mascot’s eyes didn’t so much as flicker. Even though his translucent body hung limp in Renewal’s hands, only a short ways away from ceasing existence entirely, the will of his soul was unflinching.

“Just like a cat,” Decras said. “Shits on your doorstep, screws off, then comes back and expects you to take care of him for free so he can go traipsing back to his favorite person. Who isn’t you, by the way. Just in case he didn’t make that clear.”

I can’t believe it. Mascot isn’t stupid. He might not talk, but he knows exactly what’s going on here. It must have taken just about everything he had left to get here so I could stabilize him. If he doesn’t bond with me, then he can’t regain the powers of an avatar. Is he really that determined to stay by Noah’s side?

Renewal sighed. She lowered Mascot to set him down on her lap. “If you don’t re-connect with me, there’s only so much I can do. Stabilizing you might take me months, and that’s without restoring your powers. Are you really okay with that? Noah can’t fix you yet, even if I send you back. He’s not a god. It could be hundreds or thousands of years before he becomes one. Will you really wait that long? You’ll be stuck as nothing more than a slightly magical cat until he can give you power himself.”

Mascot looked lazily up at Renewal.

Then he started grooming his backside. ƒгeewebnovёl.com

And that, Renewal supposed, was answer enough.