Return of the Runebound Professor

Chapter 682: A totally surprising revelation

Yoru braced her hands against her knees as she fought to draw in desperate breaths. Her body swayed with exertion and the only part of her that hadn’t been struck half a dozen times in the last minute was her face, which was still protected by the mask covering it.

Garina had to admit that the formerly Rank 7 demon had done a little better than she’d been expecting. It was rare that someone who reached such a high rank was actually capable of bringing themselves back down to the basics.

That was doubly true for a demon. Most powerful mages saw training like this to be beneath them. A few of them were right. The rest were just arrogant idiots. And, from what Garina had managed to learn about the demon’s master rune in the time they’d spent sparring, she really should have become one of the latter.

Moonlit Prophecy, huh? A master rune so powerful that it let her weigh the probabilities of every single action that affected her. I’ve seen a number of terrifyingly powerful runes, but that might actually be the most insane of them lot.

It’s a miracle Yoru was able to avoid getting an ego so enormous that it drove her face-first into the ground. And it’s a greater miracle still that Noah managed to slice the damn thing up and let her remove herself from under its thumb.

“You… still haven’t fully answered my question,” Yoru panted. “And I’ve still got some energy left. Why would my rune gain sentience? You said you would tell me.”

“If I’m totally honest, I was hoping you’d have passed out by now,” Garina said through a sigh. “You’re a little more impressive than I was expecting. It’s really a pain in the ass. I’m not generally a huge fan of rules, but there are a few I really don’t like breaking.”

“And answering my question would be one of them?”

“I didn’t say that,” Garina said.

“But this question is something important,” Yoru said. “It wouldn’t go against any rules if it wasn’t. Why? And who even puts the rules into place?”

“You’re the one with the power to control probability,” Garina pointed out. She blurred forward to arrive directly in front of Yoru. “Why don’t you leverage some of that and see what will happen if you continue this line of questioning too long?”

Garina drove her knee up into Yoru’s stomach and the demon rolled with the blow. She shot back up to her feet a foot later, only to find Garina before her once more. Yoru’s glowing hands raised to block a kick from striking the side of her head.

The force of the blow was still enough to send her rocketing into a tree. Yoru dropped to the ground, coughing, as her arms flickered and sputtered. Her Runes were running out of power. Despite that, Yoru rolled over and pushed herself back to her feet, swaying unsteadily as she rose.

“Because I don’t want to use my Master Rune right now. I don’t trust it. I want to learn on my own. I want to do it without the crutch that I have been forced to rely on since I was a child.”

Garina’s hands twitched. Her teeth clenched.

Damn it. Couldn’t you have had reason that would been easier to find fault in?

“What is it with this group and having access to the most uniquely infuriating individuals?” Garina asked tersely. She cracked her knuckles. “Let me ask you something in turn, Yoru. What answer are you hoping for? That Master Runes have some inherent will of their own and will sway you to their commands? That they all have some shared, secret desire that makes it harder to resist them?”

“I don’t know,” Yoru said. Her moonlight arms sputtered as their reserves finally drained, leaving her standing helplessly before Garina. The demon didn’t so much as flinch. And, even though the mask was covering her face, Garina could tell Yoru was staring right at her. “I just want to know.”

Gods damn it.

Garina suppressed a sigh. “I’ll give you one piece of advice and nothing more.”

“I’ll take anything I can get. I want to learn.”

“Then you should turn your attention away from the runes and toward yourself,” Garina said. “I think you can say a great deal about what you know of Runes. Of their patterns. Of how they work and how they form. But what about you?”

“I… I don’t understand.”

Garina smiled. The air between them warped as shadows twisted through it. By the time Yoru had registered the movement, Garina already stood beside her.

The small demon doubled over, then crumpled to her knees. Her body held itself aloft for a moment longer. Then she pitched forward. Garina caught Yoru by the shoulders, then gently lowered the small demon to the floor.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Then she straightened and blew out a slow breath, casting her gaze around the clearing. Everyone was still out cold. Yoru had just joined them.

“Persistent little demon,” Garina said, pinching the bridge of her nose and holding back a sigh.

If she can’t do anything with the hint I just gave her, then all the questions in the world aren’t going to take her anywhere meaningful.

***

“I could kill myself again,” Noah-2 suggested.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but that probably isn’t going to work,” Noah said, chewing his lower lip.

They’d already tried that a few times. The urge had been a bit too strong to resist. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem to do much at all. Their fists just passed right through each other as if nothing was there.

Face-planting into the ground didn’t do anything either. They just slowed to a stop moments before they could hit it. There were probably some other ways that the attempt could be made, but it was pretty clear that dying here wasn’t going to be easy. Not that Noah actually knew exactly where here was.

Either way, it seemed the universe had gotten up with his favorite strategy.

He had no idea how long he’d been stuck in the endless void together with his clone. More than enough time for them to have a few too many conversations. Nobody was meant to have such a long conversation with a manifestation of their own being.

It was just wrong.

“I’m more than aware,” Noah-2 said. “I kind of just want out. We’re too dense for this.”

“We are not dense,” Noah said defensively. “This isn’t exactly an easy puzzle, you know.”

“James figured it out,” Noah-2 pointed out.

“James did figure it out,” Noah admitted. He scratched at the back of his head. “But James is no slouch. He just wants people to think he is. I’d imagine anyone with the misfortune to be taught by Revin is going to be a whole lot more capable than they appear to be.”

“Point taken. Maybe we should go back to the basics, then,” Noah-2 said. “Think about who we really are. There’s the pattern covering the entirety of our soul — the one the Fragment of Self is made out of.”

Noah suppressed a sigh. He was more than aware of the pattern. So was his clone. They’d spent nearly the entire time they’d been sitting around down here on that very pattern. It was the most obvious way they could come up with to control the shape of his soul.

There were just two problems.

First, the pattern was nowhere to be seen. They weren’t directly in Noah’s soul. They were… somewhere else. Neither were sure exactly where, but they couldn’t feel their runes, Master, Fragment of Self, or otherwise. They were completely isolated.

The second problem was that Garina had knocked all of them out in the same manner. It would have made no sense to do that if being able to shape your soul required a Fragment of Self. Aside from Noah, a few of the demons, and Alexandra had one.

“You don’t think she’s expecting everyone to somehow make their Fragment of Self just like this, do you?” Noah asked.

“Hm. Probably not?” Noah-2 said. “It’s not that easy. She isn’t stupid, and we’ve already figured out how to make those. Getting exhausted isn’t the way. It’s done through deep understanding of your pattern.”

Noah nodded, chewing his lip as he dug through his thoughts. “Right. So, other than each other, what do we have to work with?”

“Shitall,” Noah-2 said. “So unless Garina is screwing with us — wait. Do you think…”

It was a definite possibility. Noah wouldn’t have put it past her. But, at the same time, Garina had seemed pretty serious about teaching them. He was mostly certain she wouldn’t do all this just to justify beating the snot out of them.

“Probably not,” Noah said. “So I guess that means all we should need to control the shape of our soul is… well, us.”

“Maybe we can control each other to change the shape of our soul. Like finger puppets,” Noah-2 said.

Noah grimaced. “Hell no.”

“Yeah, it was a pretty bad idea.”

The two of them were silent for a few moments. Perhaps it was longer. Telling time was borderline impossible here. There really wasn’t much of anything at all. Beyond Noah and Noah-2, it was empty and devoid of all else.

A slow frown pulled across Noah’s lips before he’d even realized it had formed.

“Do you think the others all have a version of themselves to speak to as well?” Noah asked.

“Huh. Dunno,” Noah-2 said. “I did only pop up after the Fragment of Self. But that would just mean the others are alone.”

“I think I’m technically alone too,” Noah said. “You’re me. So the whole point of this was probably to isolate us with only ourselves, then.”

“Are you implying I’m screwing things up?”

“How can you? You’re me. You just said it.”

“Oh, yeah. True. Then perhaps we should turn our attention inward,” Noah-2 said.

“Is that really any different from turning it to each other?” Noah scratched his chin. “This is confusing.”

“Quite,” Noah-2 agreed. “But… that kind of does make me wonder something. Why am I here?”

“What do you mean?” Noah frowned. “You’re me.”

“Right. But aren’t I technically a rune? It’s a representation of you, sure, but the Fragment of Self is still a rune.”

“Right,” Noah said as the question’s purpose dawned on him. “I see what you’re getting at. All my other runes are cut off. So why are you here? Or… better question. Are you even a rune?”

“Alternative question,” Noah-2 said. “What is a rune?”

The two of them started to chuckle.

“That’s a throwback,” Noah said. “That was a good question.”

“I know,” Noah-2 said. “Really thought provoking.”

They both fell silent for a brief moment. Then Noah frowned.

“Hold on. You’re me.”

“Yup,” Noah-2 said with a nod.

“And you’re a rune.”

“Or at least born from one, as far as we can tell,” Noah-2 confirmed. Then he blinked. “Huh.”

Their eyes widened as one.

“Maybe the question isn’t about what a rune is…” Noah started.

“But what I am,” Noah-2 finished. “If patterns make up everything in the universe, then why would we ourselves be any exception to that rule?”

“That’s it,” Noah breathed. “That’s why I couldn’t read it.”

“What?” Noah-2 asked. “This isn’t fair. I’m you. You can’t realize things without me.”

“I’m not inside my soul,” Noah said. “You can’t see a Rune from the inside. I’m outside of it.”

“That’s what Garina was going for,” Noah-2 realized, his eyes going as wide as saucers. “We couldn’t comprehend the huge rune that covered our entire soul without the Fragment of Self…”

“…because we were inside of it,” Noah finished. He swallowed. “That’s what Garina wants us to realize. Our souls aren’t just some abstract thing. They’re one giant rune.”