Return of the Runebound Professor

Noah’s revelation was followed by an indeterminate amount of time spent figuring out just how he could actually apply his newfound knowledge.

Discovering that his entire soul happened to be a massive Rune was great and dandy. It gave him — and his clone — a direction to focus their attention. It did not, however, actually tell them how one was meant to control said rune.

It wasn’t something they could just will into motion like they could with the other runes. For starters, it wasn’t actually housed within his soul. It was his soul. That might have seemed like semantics, but such a complaint would have to be taken up with the universe itself.

Even Noah’s realization hadn’t quite let him actually see what the name of his own soul was. He couldn’t see the rune at all. And when he couldn’t see it and didn’t know what it truly was, it was rather difficult for him to send his intent into it in the first place.

“Well, this is rather annoying,” Noah-2 said, poking at the ground beneath their feet. Calling it ground might have been a bit of an exaggeration. There wasn’t any discernable difference between it and the empty space around them. It was simply the area upon which their feet seemed to decide was solid. “You know, having the big realization moment is supposed to be followed by everything suddenly clicking into place. Imagine how Einstein would have felt if he said ‘Eureka!’ and then proceeded to be wrong for the next three months afterward.”

“It hasn’t been 3 months yet. And I don’t think it was even Einstein that said that,” Noah said absentmindedly. He squinted off into the distance, trying to cast his consciousness out from his body. It didn’t do much of anything. His consciousness could only be controlled when he was in his own body — but he was here only in soul. “You aren’t helping much.”

“Sure I am. I’m you. Half the thoughts you’re getting are mine.”

“That’s a load of shit,” Noah grumbled, more than aware that Noah-2 was correct. The Fragment of Self couldn’t create a form with any thoughts that he himself didn’t already have. It was literally him.

Noah-2 didn’t think, say, or do anything that Noah himself didn’t. He may as well have been trapped in here with a mirror.

“Well, it’s not my fault you’re vaguely useless,” Noah-2 said. “Maybe we should start punching things. That occasionally works.”

“We’ve already tried that,” Noah reminded himself. “Extensively. We aren’t corporeal here.”

“Could punch the floor.”

Noah looked down at the not-ground. Then he looked back up at his clone.

“Really?”

“You thought of it too. I know you did. It’s not that bad of an idea. Maybe we can interact with the space around us somehow. The problem is that we can’t really see or connect with the rune, right? Because we’re outside our soul. So if we dig back in, maybe that’ll fix things.”

“Can’t be that. We couldn’t interact with the Rune when we were inside the soul either,” Noah pointed out. “It’s so damn annoying. We can’t mess with it when we’re outside my soul, but going inside has the same problem.”

“Maybe the soul has some form of shell,” Noah-2 theorized, crossing his arms behind his back and beginning to pace back and forth like a professor contemplating if his class had studied even once through their lives. “And the rune is on or around that shell. Then we’d need to be on the sweet spot. Inside the soul, but not inside the shell.”

“Definitely possible. But how would we even get there? It doesn’t feel like we can control the area we’re in,” Noah said with a frown.

“To be fair, we haven’t really tried that hard,” Noah-2 said. “Maybe if we really push, we can try to move… well, somewhere. Might as well.”

“True enough,” Noah agreed. “I guess we should just push?”

“Not like we can access our magic,” Noah-2 said with a shrug. “The only things we’ve got to work with are our hands and the squishy bits stuck in our heads. Might as well give that a shot and see if it can accomplish anything.”

There wasn’t much to do but give it a shot. Both Noah and Noah-2 leaned to press their hands against the blank space where their feet touched the ground.

I’m really not sure the physical act of pushing is going to do much at all. If I really am outside my soul, then I’m pretty sure the only way I can affect anything is with my intent. But hell, maybe pushing will help my mind focus.

He drove his intent down. At least, he thought it was down. Direction was definitely relative here. All he knew was that he wanted to be somewhere else. Just willing something to work wasn’t typically enough for anything to change, but perhaps—

Noah’s heart bucked into his chest as the ground suddenly shifted beneath his palms and feet, dropping abruptly. He and Noah-2 landed on it a moment later with surprised grunts before exchanging a surprised look.

“Whoa,” Noah-2 said. “It worked. We actually moved it.”

“Didn’t think it would actually work,” Noah admitted. He scratched the back of his head. “Not sure we actually accomplished, though. We just made the ground bounce a bit.”

“Maybe we can bounce it more. Like a trampoline. Then we can launch ourselves into… well, wherever it is we’re supposed to go. I wish there was a giant sign telling us ‘Hey, go here! This is the finish line’, or some crap like that.”

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

Noah snorted. Then he paused. His head tilted to the side. “Hold on. Maybe that’s the point.”

“Huh?”

“We’re just in empty space,” Noah said, gesturing around them. “But there has to be a reason we’re here, right? It’s not like my soul would pop out somewhere random just because I was exhausted.”

“The most likely scenario is that we’re at the very outermost edge of our soul, but on the outside bits,” Noah-2 said with a nod. “Still connected, but only just barely.”

“Right,” Noah said with a slow nod. “And we’re surrounded by empty white space with nowhere to go. So what if that’s the point? There’s no finish line because we’re already there. Could everything around us be my soul?”

“If that’s the case, we’d want to get farther away if we wanted to get a look at the whole thing. I’m not sure if that’s the wisest idea. Assuming our theory is right… pulling our consciousness too far away from your soul could separate us from it. That could be bad. Really bad. Even for us. You’d need an immensely powerful soul to risk it. Not really something I think would be wise to barge ahead with.”

“Agreed,” Noah said with a small nod. “But we don’t actually need to do that. If everything around us really is the edges of my soul… we just moved it, didn’t we? Doesn’t that mean we kind of just shaped my soul?”

It was a moment before Noah-2 replied. “Huh. I suppose we did. And if we could move it, do you think we could do more?”

“Only one way to find out.” Noah crouched and pressed his palms to the ground once more. This time, instead of trying to push it, he dug his fingers into the void. It was a strange sensation. Even though there was nothing there, he could feel… well, something.

The more he tried, the more he became aware of it. Not just in his own fingers, but at the back of his own mind as well. It was like a prickle against the farthest reaches of his skull. Noah strained to reach further.

Even though his fingers didn’t so much as budge, he felt the sensation in his skull intensifying. Far in the distance of the void, something rippled. He couldn’t have said if it was a shape or a color or even anything at all. Something simply was.

Noah paid it no mind. Now that he was making progress, he wasn’t about to stop and let himself get distracted. The tingling sensation in his mind was growing stronger still. It had now extended to run down his arms and through his vessels like blood.

Awareness bloomed. It was like a whole other sense — and one he knew well. This was the same sensation and knowledge his domain gave him over his surroundings, but it was focused entirely on himself rather than the outside world.

So that’s it. Shaping your soul is basically turning your domain inward to control yourself. I bet it’s a bit more complicated than that, but it seems a lot of the strongest effects are the simplest in initial nature.

His hands were no longer the things reaching out. It was his very body and mind… and his soul was responding. A ripple passed through the void besode Noah. His eyes glittered in delight as he pushed harder still. The harder he tried, the more he felt. And the more he felt, the more he could control.

Let’s see what I can do with this.

***

“Say,” Garina said, turning to look down at James. While everyone else was still passed out and lurking around the deepest recesses of their weak little souls, the boy had been awake for several minutes. He’d just chosen not to say anything to avoid drawing any more of her attention. Garina nudged him with the tip of her shoe. “What method did Revin use to teach you how to shape your soul?”

James rolled over to squint at her. “The ocean one.”

Garina grimaced. “Of course he did. Let me guess. He barely gave you any time to get used to the true nature of your soul and just immediately attacked it?”

“Yup,” James grumbled. “Tried to drown me with my own soul. I swear I nearly died. The waves were like fifty feet tall. It certainly worked, though. It’s really damn hard to shape your soul when you don’t realize it can move around. Once he wore me down to my subconscious, I instinctively made a boat to cling to.”

Garina nodded knowingly. “Nobody ever said soul shaping was easy. I think it’s still better to let people acclimate to their souls before you start rattling things around. By now, everyone should have tried and failed to control their soul. You want to help me give them the nudge to get things moving?”

“Revin said it was possible to establish control over your soul without external influence,” James said. “He just didn’t bother with me because he was impatient. Shouldn’t we give them more time to try? It’s only been a few minutes.”

“It’s possible, but it’s exceedingly difficult.” Garina shook her head. “There’s no point. This time is just to get used to the sensation of being so close to the edge of their soul. Your consciousness is naturally pulled to the very center. Things are very different this far out. You only have access to the bigger picture. No magic. Nothing.”

“Yes, I recall how infuriating it was, even for the short time I had to deal with it,” James said through a yawn. “But it is possible to just form the connection on your own, isn’t it?”

“Something tells me you just don’t want to work.”

“Ding.”

Garina sighed. “You’re the laziest little shit I’ve ever met. Revin wasn’t wrong. It’s possible… but controlling your soul without another one shaking things up is like looking through a perfectly clear lake and trying to see the water. You need some relative motion to figure out you’re underwater.”

“You could also breathe in.”

“It was a metaphor,” Garina said. “A bad one. Regardless, pulling that off would require either an immense understanding of your own soul or a ridiculous amount of sheer brute force. I highly doubt anyone here is capable of either of—”

Garina froze.

Her domain was telling her something that shouldn’t have been possible.

She spun to the side, where Moxie still laid in the very same spot she’d fallen.

But, despite looking straight at her, there wasn’t so much as a trace of the woman to Garina’s senses.

Impossible. Her soul isn’t that strong. There’s no way she was able to brute force control over it. Does she seriously have such an intense understanding of who she is? At Rank 4?

She wasn’t allowed much time to sit around in awe. Only a few seconds after Moxie’s presence blinked out of Garina’s domain, another one joined it in vanishing. Garina spun. She could barely even believe her own senses.

Noah had managed to shape his soul.

And he wasn’t alone. A third presence vanished from Garina’s mind just moments later. Not one of the teachers. Not even one of the demons.

It was Todd’s.

Garina couldn’t help it. Her lips parted in disbelief as she stared at the boy’s face. Not just Noah. Not just Moxie. But a Rank 3. A mere Rank 3 had managed to shape his soul.

She was so stunned that she could barely even muster the energy to twitch when Isabel’s presence disappeared as well.

Four. Four of them had managed to shape their souls before Garina had even extended a helping hand.

I could understand one. Two is impressive, and three is ridiculous. But 4? That’s unheard of. There’s absolutely no way all of them are brute-forcing the control. That means mere Rank 3s have such deep understandings of themselves that they can shape their own souls without external influence.

What kind of little monsters has Noah gathered?