Return of the Runebound Professor

Yoru’s soul expanded all around Noah as his mind merged with hers. He’d had absolutely no idea what a Rank 7 demon’s inner world would look like, but as his sight returned to him and solid ground materialized beneath his feet, he realized that this was not it.

Soft grass pressed against Noah’s bare feet and the fragrant smell of sweet sap and honeydew lingered in the air like a resurfaced memory. Rows of flowers ran in carefully arranged patterns all around him. Gentle moonlight shimmered against them like a silver wave, casting everything in just enough light to see by.

He stood in a huge garden.

There must have been dozens of different varieties of flowers all around him — none of which he recognized — but there was intention to every single one’s position.

It was a pattern.

Not one that he could understand, but a pattern nonetheless. Noah was too deep within it and didn’t have enough of an ariel view to figure out what its purpose was, but he could feel the latent power within the arrangement around him. There wasn’t so much as a single blade of grass that was out of place.

An uneasy air lingered against Noah’s skin despite the beauty of the garden. A beautiful amber carnation bloomed beside him. It was perfect, completely without mar or malformation, nestled in a bunch of equally perfect flowers.

There wasn’t a single thing in the garden that wasn’t perfect. If he hadn’t known better, he would have thought the world around him to be made of plastic. Nature was intentional, but it was never this perfect.

Noah found his gaze, as if by instinct, lifted to the sky. To the moon illuminating the world — but there was no moon.

Moonlit Prophecy burned like a silver sun in the sky far above. The Master Rune was immense, but something had completely removed its pressure from Noah’s soul. He wouldn’t have even noticed it if he hadn’t checked.

It was almost as if the rune was trying to hide itself from him and blend into its environment as best as a monstrosity like it could possibly hope to.

“Did you forget I was dying?” Yoru asked, her words cutting through Noah’s thoughts.

He turned. The small demon stood behind him. A bush of red roses lay crushed beneath her feet, their heads desperately straining up as if trying to reach one last time for the heavens. A single line of blood trickled down from one of her nostrils and traced over her lip.

“Where’s your soul damage? You should have a lot of it if you’ve already started ripping your runes out,” Noah said, turning fully to face Yoru. Something deep inside him shifted in discomfort. He didn’t like that he had to turn his back on Moonlit Prophecy in order to speak with Yoru.

Something about that Master Rune really sat wrong with him — and the moment his thoughts focused further on it, he realized what it was.

He was too calm. His heart should have been racing. Yoru was meant to be actively dying from soul damage, but he hadn’t even spun to find her when he’d arrived. He’d just sat around in the garden and observed it.

Yoru’s soul was somehow dulling his senses. But, even though Noah was fully aware of it, he couldn’t do a single thing about it. There just wasn’t a single scrap of panic or fear to be found. Even his motivation to help Yoru was faltering.

I could just sit down and enjoy the flowers. There’s no need to fight so hard to change someone who belongs to a Master Rune. That would just be a waste of energy. Why would I make her weaker and less useful to me?

“The damage is buried beneath the earth, stitched together by this garden,” Yoru replied. “It will not hold. Moonlit Prophecy seems to keep me under its control. It is displeased.”

Why would you be displeased about being strong? There’s nothing you could ever need that Moonlit Prophecy could not provide for you. The future is yours to command when you are under its sway. Shifting your true self to be something else will only weaken its powers. Why take on the extra struggle of control when something far more capable can do it for you?

A faint frown flickered across Noah’s lips.

Something was wrong.

He instinctively reached for Natural Disaster — but instead, he found his mind brushing against Sunder.

Power raced through his soul. His veins turned jet black in an instant, and what felt like an ocean of freezing water slammed down on his back. Noah staggered, his eyes shooting wide open as he drew in a sharp breath.

The thoughts that had been wrapping around his mind like a constricting snake shattered. They hadn’t been his. All of his emotions came rushing back in a deluge.

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“What the hell?” Noah rasped, clasping a hand to his head as a violent headache slammed into him. “Your fucking rune is trying to mind control me!”

“It is persuasive,” Yoru said dispassionately. “Please do your best to resist its pull. If you cannot, I will die. Moonlit Prophecy has grown powerful enough to not need a living host. When my soul collapses, it will claim my body for itself. Please do not let that happen. I trust you.”

Yoru’s words crushed any remaining influence that her Master Rune had over Noah. The world seemed to sharpen. The beautiful garden around them lost its luster and his gaze focused on her.

“I won’t let you die,” Noah promised, his heart slamming in his chest as adrenaline injected into his veins. He extended his mind to his Grimoire, preparing to draw a Fragment of Sticky. “Where are your runes? What do you want them to be? We need to work fast.”

“I trust you. I trust you because Moonlit Prophecy fears you,” Yoru said again. Her voice was… different. Even as Noah worked to draw a Fragment of Sticky into existence, he dimly noted that she had changed. Gone was the flat, empty voice of the demon perpetually in control.

What remained was the voice of a girl that had never gotten a chance to experience life for what it was. She may have been hundreds of years old, but they were not years that she herself had lived.

Yoru had been a puppet for her entire life. Ever since she’d gotten Moonlit Prophecy, not a single one of her actions had truly been her own. The rune had stolen more than just her sight. It had stolen everything.

The air above Noah shimmered.

His neck prickled; his instincts screamed. He lunged to the side, hitting the ground in a roll and shooting back to his feet even as a soft snick echoed through the silver night. A blade of glistening light had driven into the ground where he’d been standing.

The Fragment of Sticky faded. He hadn’t had a chance to finish drawing it into her soul.

“Moonlit Prophecy does not want you to fix me,” Yoru said. “Please be careful.”

A fucking Rune is attacking me? You can’t be serious.

“How do I fight it?” Noah asked, lifting his hand and starting to draw once again. He’d be damned if he let a giant pattern get the best of him. “Without killing you, that is? And where are the remains of your runes? There should be energy. We’ll need that if you want to regain any measure of your former strength.”

“Buried,” Yoru said, looking down at the flowers at her feet. “And I do not know how you can fight Moonlit Prophecy. I have never been successful.”

I should have seen that one coming.

Noah was nearly finished drawing the Fragment of Sticky when another shard of light carved through the air like a silent knife. He lurched out of the way, letting it pass by him harmlessly, but the damage was done. His rune faded away again.

“Son of a bitch,” Noah snarled. He started drawing again immediately. He didn’t have time for this. The rune was trying to stall him out, and he couldn’t let that happen. Every second that passed brought Yoru closer to her grave.

Even if I can get one rune made, how am I meant to get everything else when Moonlit Prophecy is actively trying to kill me? Yoru’s soul is so large that we’ll need a whole lot more than a single Rank 1 Rune to keep it from collapsing on itself when there are no normal runes to keep its pressure stable. Not even the Fragment of Renewal will be able to save her if that happens.

Noah’s teeth gritted. He’d be damned if he let a fucking rune steal a life from him. There was no way to try to counter Moonlit Prophecy, as drawing on his magic would have stopped him from making a rune at the same time.

All he could do was press on.

He was midway through the final line in the Fragment of Sticky when another shard of light carved out toward Noah. It was toying with him — or saving energy, expecting a larger fight later.

The shard slammed into his palm. It drove deep into his arm. Pain pierced through his body. Noah didn’t even flinch. He flicked his left hand to the side and finished drawing the Fragment of Sticky with his free one.

A lone Rank 1 Rune shimmered into being before him, summoned into Yoru’s soul. Noah’s jaw clenched as blood dripped from his palm and fell to the grass, soaking into the dirt beneath.

The victory was a minor one. He’d lost an entire limb making a single Rune. He needed a way to fight back while he worked, but Moonlit Prophecy was nowhere near in range for him to fight, even if he’d wanted to.

“Can you fight back against that thing at all?” Noah asked.

“I already am,” Yoru replied. “If I were not, you would have already been crushed by the full force of its pressure.”

Goddamn it. Should have guessed that was why such a powerful Master Rune wasn’t exerting pressure on me. I need a way to fight back or defend myself while I work. But how —

Something brushed against Noah’s mind.

Perhaps I may be of service… for a price.

The back of Noah’s spine prickled. He couldn’t say how, but he knew exactly who it was that was speaking to him.

“Discussions later,” Noah said, making a split second decision. “Help me. We’ll figure out a suitable payment if this works.”

A distant laugh echoed through Noah’s mind.

The grass beneath him wilted. A pool of black spread out from his feet. It bubbled and churned, and a gale howled through Yoru’s soul. Far above, Moonlit Prophecy shuddered in the sky.

Yoru staggered, clutching a hand to her chest.

“Moonlit Prophecy is fighting back,” Yoru wheezed. “It… did not forsee this. I have blocked it. It can only witness the future in a world with weight. There is nothing here but our souls, but you must act quickly. I will not live for long.”

A black hand shot up from the black lake and slammed into the ground, the chunks of sewn, sinewy flesh that made it up pulsing and undulating as its fingers carved furrows through the dirt.

An abomination rose free of the ground beside Noah, and the laugh echoing through his mind its way into his ears. The gangly monster’s form jutted and zigzagged at sharp angles, its back broken a dozen times over. Even badly hunched over, it towered over Noah.

Its empty, sunken eye sockets peered up at the rune taking the place of the moon in the sky. A ragged smile split the monster’s black lips to reveal a mouth of wide, crooked teeth.

A buzz filled the air and Yoru dropped to her knees, her teeth clenching.

“I’ve never eaten one of these before. An open-ended offering…” The monstrosity let out another raspy laugh. Sickening pops and squelches rang out as it straightened one snap at a time until it stood at its full height. The monster reached up toward the moon, as if to grasp it from the ground. “I accept your deal, Noah Vines.”

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