Return of the Runebound Professor

Chapter 180: Something's Wrong

Noah’s eyes snapped open to find Lee’s face about an inch away from his. He drew in a sharp breath, expecting to be greeted by a painful headache, but was pleasantly surprised to find that there was nothing.

The Rune had done the same thing the first time he’d tried to form it, but Noah had no idea if it would work a second time. His body didn’t feel nearly as energized as it had after his previous attempt, though.

Lee let out a relieved sigh, then poked Noah in the chest.

“Say something.”

“I’m alive,” Noah said. “Sorry to make you worry.”

Lee scrunched her nose, then leaned back. “Was it worth it? Is killing yourself the secret to making Runes?”

“I – yeah. I think it is. It worked.”

Lee blinked. “What? You’re serious?”

“Yes. I formed the Rune,” Noah said. He paused for a moment, then grimaced. “I think it might have been a bad idea, though.”

“What? Why! You formed a Rune! That’s incredible!” Lee exclaimed, grabbing Noah by the shoulders. “How’d you do it? I’ve never met someone that made their own Rune!”

“I kind of just did what Moxie told me to,” Noah admitted, rubbing the back of his head. “Actually, I did exactly that. Gather a bunch of energy, then give it a kick and focus on forming it into a Rune. It kind of did itself. I tried once at Rank 2, but it failed. Worked this time. Not totally sure why, but I’ll take it.”

Not sure I want to take the side-effect of what is almost certainly a pissed-off goddess, though. Renewal is at least a Rank 9. If that was her voice in my head… I think she could literally kill me with a thought.

I better put together a fruit platter and polish up my begging skills.

Or I could go find the shadow bloke that attacked her. That might work better.

“Noah?”

Noah blinked. “Sorry, what?”

“I asked what the Rune does. Is something wrong?”

“Yeah,” Noah muttered. “Something’s wrong.”

***

Renewal reclined in a chair made of flowing, rose colored water. The infinite void stretched out around her, swirling paths of gold leading countless lost souls to the many Waters of Life.

Not even she knew exactly how many different reincarnation pools were scattered across the cosmos. Possibly as many as there were souls. The line leading up to hers had been paused, but it wasn’t like the souls would care much.

They’d been waiting this long, so they could afford to wait a few hundred extra years while she took her lunch break. Renewal’s hair curled up in the air around her, as if she were underwater. She idly raised a comb made of brilliant ivory to it, combing it out as she relaxed.

As a whole, the cosmos were largely unchanging. It was a concept that always surprised mortals who had recently ascended beyond what they perceived to be the limits of power, having gone through constant struggle.

They were used to shifting world – one where every day was different than the one before it. But, this deep into the cosmos, the shifting of one world and that of another often ended up canceling each other out.

There was little change. Rarely did anything of true interest happen. It had taken Renewal nearly a million years to follow her Runes to her current pool containing its small wellspring of Life Water, and while she’d hardly consider herself peak amongst the gods, she was satisfied with her progress.

But, in the time that had passed since that, Renewal had been struck with a revelation.

She was, completely and utterly, bored out of her mind.

The universe as a whole was utterly uninteresting. Even the most significant events on minor planets rarely ever made it off their planets, much less actually affected anything. And, when something did, other gods always rushed to the scene first to ensure the sacred balance was never disturbed.

Renewal had just started to get used to it – the eternal oblivion had a way of wearing away at her hopes and dreams, leaving the goddess with nothing but the dim understanding that she would persist, witnessing the great nothingness that was the cycle of life for all eternity.

And then, in the span of months – something had changed.

Months, in a universe where millennia ground on so slowly that Renewal could count the number of times literally anything of interest had passed on a single hand.

And to think, it started with Decras.

A smile flitted across Renewal’s lips. It had been a good fight. A few souls had gotten squished in the process, but the cleanup had taken her less than a day. She’d even recovered nearly all of the souls – a few hundred had gotten lost in the oblivion, but that was well within the margin.

She’d expected that to be it. A minor blip in a sea of emptiness, gone as soon as Decras departed. But, instead, she’d felt a tiny fragment of her powers rip away – and she wasn’t alone. The look on Decras’ face had been burned into her memory with such intensity that she couldn’t help a laugh slipping from her lips whenever she thought back to it.

A mortal soul had stolen power. Not just from one god, but from two. Technically, Renewal was pretty sure that upsets to the universe, even at a scale like that, were meant to be reported.

But neither she nor Decras had said a word. The universe was too boring.

It needed something different, and a miniscule theft of power at this level was so insignificant that it was hardly worth pursuing.

At least, that’s what she’d thought at first. Things had started to change when Renewal had felt a tug on her magic. The mortal that had taken her powers had somehow managed to form the slightest amount of comprehension over her.

Renewal couldn’t remember the last time she’d been so excited. She’d restrained herself, of course, but the order to her agents on the world that the mortal had reincarnated into had gone out the very same day.

Someone who had the strength to actually begin comprehending her… even if they were just a mortal, it would be a fascinating conversation. It was an idle curiosity, but it would be a good way to break the tedium. There was no real concern, as a mortal that weak had no manner of actually forming comprehension on the true powers that bridged life and death.

The cycle could only be understood after one was steeped within it – when they had gone through death and rebirth over and over, coming to a true understanding of what it meant, not only to live, but also to die.

Renewal had taken on her name when she had reached Rank 10, after her soul had soaked within the Waters of Life for years. There were gods that had gathered their enlightenment far faster, but they were prodigies.

There were a variety of ways in which Divine Runes formed, and one of those ways was to take the power from another Divine Rune, then twist it into something entirely new. It was the exact way that Renewal had formed her own Rune.

It was simply impossible for a mortal, even one with a slight scrap of invaluable inspiration, to ever –

He figured it out in less than a year.

Renewal had nearly choked in surprise when she felt a tiny sliver of her power carve off from her. She’d followed it back into the mortal’s soul, of course. As interesting as he was, Renewal had absolutely no plans of letting him take a portion of her strength. There were ways things were meant to be done.

If he was a budding god, then it would have been another thing. Having another god in her debt would have been quite entertaining. But giving the power to a mortal was akin to giving a dog a mansion.

She’d had her fun, and that was that. Besides, the other gods would have never let Renewal live it down if they found out a mortal had quite literally stolen some power from her, miniscule amount or not.

But, somehow, she’d failed to stop the mortal.

Renewal stared at her left hand. A tiny cut ran along the tip of her finger. She’d gone to take the energy back – and she’d been surprised enough that her concentration had faltered and she’d lost track of the mortal.

It hadn’t just been Renewal that the mortal had earned an understanding of. He possessed Decras’ strength as well.

This is… not ideal. If I put more effort into finding him, then other gods will notice. We’re not meant to meddle with the small worlds too much. I wish I were alive back before all those rules were established and the universe was actually interesting.

Renewal let out a slow sigh and pursed her lips. She wanted to speak with the mortal even more now than she had before. It shouldn’t have been possible to learn this much about the concept of reincarnation in the few months he’d been alive.

No, by all means, something was strange. Renewal was missing a key piece that had let a mere mortal make so much progress that he’d actually stolen a portion of her Runic power.

Perhaps this mild distraction will actually serve as a way to push myself to grow further. The chances of a mortal actually discovering something that even the gods do not know of are so tiny that they may as well be nonexistent, but they aren’t actually zero.

And, if he did find something…

I’m going to need it. I just hope I find him before anyone else does.