Return of the Runebound Professor-Chapter 684: Unleashed

Sticky floated in an endless expanse of white. It stretched out in every direction around her like an endless ocean waiting to swallow her whole. She didn’t know where she was or what Garina had done to her. Logically, it should have been terrifying. There was no horizon. No ground. Nothing but… well, nothing.

But she was not scared.

Not in the slightest.

It wasn’t because Garina had promised not to hurt them. People could always lie. Lieing was the easiest thing in the world so long as your opponent wasn’t Aylin. She’d done it more times than she could count to survive back in the streets of Treadon.

It wasn’t even because Noah had promised to protect them. Sticky trusted Noah more than most. She wasn’t stupid enough to wholeheartedly dedicate herself to anyone. That was how a demon got themselves chewed up and spat out… but he’d come to the afterlife itself to retrieve her.

Sticky trusted Noah as much as she could trust anyone. But Noah wasn’t here. He didn’t need to be. She had another protector.

A presence enveloped her body a gentle gray web, not so much restricting her movements as cradling them. It stretched far off into the sky and spread out over the endless expanse of white around her like an enormous net.

And, instinctively, Sticky knew exactly what it was. It had been beside her ever since the day she had returned from the afterlife. This power was that which had been meant for Wizen’s daughter, but gifted to her instead.

His Master Rune.

Weave.

The Rune held Sticky in its protective grasp, refusing to allow the ocean to overwhelm her senses. No matter how far it stretched, no matter where she was, none of it mattered. She was watched over. She was safe.

It didn’t matter how big the Void was or how immeasurable it may have been. It could have been a sea of lava or a true ocean. Nothing would have changed the one absolute fact that Weave promised Sticky with every fiber of its being.

Sticky extended a hand. Gray strands bound around her fingers, stretching out into the distance as if they had always been there. They bore more sensations and thoughts than her mind could ever hope to comprehend. Fortunately, she didn’t need to.

I am in control. This is my world. My mind. This weird place is still part of me. It might be only by the smallest amount. Maybe I’m at the brink of death again. But it doesn’t matter. If this place is part of me… if I believe I have rulership over it…

Her fingers clenched into a fist. The strands went taut — and the void surrounding her shuddered.

Then Weave will bind it to my will.

***

Aylin stood with his arms crossed. His eyes danced across the empty space around him as his lips curled up into the faintest of smiles. Just a few mere cycles ago, he had been a street rat begging for scraps of bread.

His family had been at the cusp of death. Treadon threatened to grind them under its heel, and they hadn’t had the strength to do anything more than protest.

Spider had lifted them from that darkness. He had fixed their runes. Granted them a pathway to a new life. Made them greater than almost any demon that had come before.

He — Aylin the street rat turned Streetlord — stood among the peak of his own kind. To call his life a mere blessing would have been an insult. Aylin didn’t need to be a Knowledge Demon to know that… and he didn’t need to be one to know that he would not allow himself to be stopped here.

“Spider brought us all the way here. Up to the point where a Rank 7 sees fit to give us instruction,” Aylin said, his words vanishing into the empty white. His eyes blazed with determination. “I would be spitting upon all he has given me if I were to simply sit and do nothing when faced with this opportunity.”

He already knew what his surroundings were. Even though Aylin couldn’t feel his runes anymore — an exceedingly strange sensation for a demon — he knew himself. A Knowledge Demon could never reach their true potential if they could not see the truth of their own heart… and he knew that this was still part of his soul.

It is somewhere distant. A place I have never been before. So far from everything else that it would be easy to mistake this world for another, but it is still mine. Yes. I see it now. This must be the outer reaches of my soul, so far from its core and the runes within it that I can no longer sense their power.

Controlling his own soul was not something Aylin had ever tried before. Had he not understood where he stood, had his consciousness not been directly where it needed to be, he was certain he would have lacked the power to do anything more than hope.

But he knew himself. Garina had sent him here and he knew just why she’d done it. That was the purpose of a Knowledge Demon, after all.

To know.

And when a Knowledge Demon knew all they needed…

They acted.

***

Violet punched the space.

She hadn’t the faintest idea as to what the hell was going on. She’d lost track at some point during the fight with Garina. That had been fun. Getting the life kicked out of her had been a bit less fun.

I’m so lost. I thought the training part was fighting Garina. What am I doing here? I need to get out. She’s still standing out there, waiting for us to attack her again. I can’t waste an opportunity like this. Who else gets to spar with a Rank 7?

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I need to move.

Violet punched the ground at her feet again. It trembled.

I need to move.

Then she punched the void again.

I will not stay here. I will not sit around and do nothing. The others have probably all woken up by now. I might not be the strongest. I might not be the fastest or smartest or… well, anything.

But I’ll be fucking damned if I lay here and do nothing. I’m getting out of this weird ass place and sparring Garina again. That’s the only way I can get strong enough to protect everyone.

She punched the void, sending another tremor rolling through it — and, oddly enough, her own mind as well.

Violet dismissed it. She didn’t need to understand what was going on.

She just needed to get up.

She punched the void again.

And again.

And again.

***

Emily’s chest rose and fell in slow, measured breaths. She sat in the vast emptiness, legs crossed beneath her, her mind as clear as pure ice. Her very being was at peace. There was absolutely nothing within her mind that could break her concentration.

Her Pattern was not one that allowed for even the slightest miscalculation. Controlling countless little spikes of ice like mist took more concentration than nearly every other Pattern among her fellow students.

She wouldn’t even claim to have mastered the ability… but she’d certainly gotten rather apt at it in recent times. Getting to this point had been nearly impossible. She’d spent countless hours staring at the walls of her room, the urge to beat her forehead against the stone nearly overwhelming her.

Even with all the suggestions she’d gotten on controlling her pattern, little had truly helped until James. He’d idly mentioned how he let his mind drift during class, like a block of ice floating in the sea. It didn’t resist the waves. It simply bobbed upon them. Thoughts didn’t have to be fought. They could simply be weathered and let to pass by.

Emily had pressed him for more, and James had been more than happy to share details about his favorite hobby. It hadn’t taken Emily long to realize that James’ techniques were far more than just advanced slacking.

He was teaching her meditation — and it worked perfectly. Better than any other technique she’d ever tried. James had continued to prove he was far more insightful and capable than he’d let on. But, in turn for his teaching and company, Emily hadn’t pressed him on it at all.

She’d gotten pretty damn good at his meditation techniques. Not as good as James, but more than enough for her current purposes.

And now, as she sat in meditation, she knew one thing for certain. The white ocean imprisoning was not that of another place.

It was her own soul.

Sensing the similarities was impossible when she had thought with her active mind, but meditation went far deeper than that. It was a true link between the body and soul. There was no doubt in her mind that this, no matter how distant or muted it may have been, was a part of her soul.

Garina had sent Emily here to learn how to shape her soul, and around Emily stretched a soul. It wasn’t hard to connect the dots.

All that remained was to do it.

***

Alexandra held a sword.

It was not a sword that she had ever seen before, but it was one that felt more familiar than any other she had held. The weapon was perfectly plain and yet immaculately balanced, to the point where it should have been impossible.

She had held swords that felt like a part of her before. But this was different. This blade didn’t just feel like a part of her.

It was a part of her.

Touching it was like connecting with a limb that had finally woken up after having fallen asleep for many years. The weapon was as much a part of her body as her legs and arms. In some ways, it was more.

This must be my Fragment of Self. It takes the form of a sword?

The corners of Alexandra’s lips pulled up into a smile. She couldn’t have thought of anything more apt than a blade to represent her.

Her fingers tightened around the hilt of the plain weapon as it pulled her forward. Not to a destination, but to a journey. A sword’s purpose was to cut. It could not cut whilst still, and the ending of the cut could not be reached without its path through the air toward it.

Alexandra advanced. The white void didn’t matter. She didn’t care where she was. It didn’t matter. Her purpose was to advance. She did not care where or how. So long as she advanced, then she was satisfied.

The world could ever give way to that determination…

Or it could be sliced asunder.

***

Vrith had once thought her life to be interesting. Now, she realized the universe may have taken that belief as a request.

Being a Streetlord had been at the peak of her goals. She’d never wanted anything more than that.

Now she served a god.

Sure, he didn’t want to be called a god, but there weren’t many other ways that Vrith could put it. Nobody else could having casual dealings with the Lord of Death himself and then leave to tell the tale of it.

Her life was like nothing she ever could have guessed at. Spider had given her a chance to reach higher than she ever could have imagined… and yet, for some reason, the thing she wanted to reach for the most was within arm’s reach, lying on the ground not too far away from where her own body lay.

Vrith’s eyes narrowed. She couldn’t just sit around here. The others had far more training than she did. They had stronger runes or more versatile abilities. Vrith was just... well, Vrith. She had nothing but her instincts.

But her instincts had always been honed. It was the way she’d survived as long as she had in Treadon. They were sharp enough to, upon occasion, overhwhelm even the suggestions that her runes nudged her toward.

And today, her instincts sounded like Aylin.

What do you think the void is? What makes it up? Can it be controlled? Can it be escaped? There is a path. You just have to ask the right question to find it. You’ll find the truth in time.

Vrith pressed her hands into the intangible ground beneath her feet. There was something there. Something… vaguely familiar. She wasn’t quite sure what it was. But Vrith didn’t need to know. There were times when just instinct, when aided by the right questions, was enough.

The truth is here, somewhere. I just have to start digging.

***

Garina’s surprise slowly shifted to sheer disbelief. Her shoulders slumped and her back arched forward as her thoughts drifted away from posture entirely. A fluttering twitch had taken her right eyelid by storm, and she didn’t have the state of mind to stop it.

Noah’s students were shaping their souls. Not all of them were quite as effective as he and Moxie had been, but aside from Yulin, who had clearly only just recently joined their group, they were all doing it.

Every. Single. One.

And they’d done it entirely without interference. Purely through instinct, strength, or understanding. This was far beyond just having a few talented individuals. Claiming this to be luck was the cheap way out.

To have every single one of his students, demon and human alike, able to shape their souls…

This group is exactly what the Empire was created for — and half of them aren’t even from it.

An even grimmer thought struck Garina and her pale face paled a shade further. They’d gotten so far completely without her instruction. If they’d gotten this far completely without her…

Gods. If I leave them mostly to their own devices, who knows what they’ll be able to discover. This might be one of the most terrifying groups I’ve ever met. Their potential is enormous. They might even be able to become Gods. An entire group…

A shiver ran down her spine.

What am I about to release on the world?