Return of the Runebound Professor

As soon as the accusation left Garina’s mouth, something within Vermil’s gaze changed for the second time. The borderline arrogant air that had wrapped around his words fell away as he seemed to adjust approaches in a split instant.

It was almost as if a layer of his soul had been peeled back. There was still no fear within his eyes. All that remained was grim determination — but Garina hardly cared. A Rank 4 wasn’t about to do her in no matter how he tried.

Her skull pounded with a building headache.

Everything was falling apart.

The Rank 7 had managed to find a way to hide themselves, and the person she needed to interrogate was the one that she’d been meant to be looking for this entire time. He was the one that allowed her to remain away from the other Apostles.

And the moment she found him, her full duties resumed. Sitting around in a kingdom of magelings when there were no threats to its existence would draw too much attention — especially if she was sitting around in the exact same spot.

This is the one person that I couldn’t afford to find. But now that I have, what the fuck do I do? Directly disobey an order from Decras himself? That’s as good as turning against every other Apostle.

I could take some of them… but the Prophet? I can’t beat him. Shit. And if Ferdinand discovers this idiot is here, then he’ll have to act as well. Am I supposed to just lie to him?

Garina’s fists clenched at her sides. Her rune-empowered mind was moving so fast that even a second was enough to have an entire conversation with herself, and that second was still nowhere near long enough.

The Rank 7 and everything to do with them was bundled and shoved into the corner of her mind. Her pride didn’t matter when everything that she’d come to enjoy over the last few all-too-short weeks was about to go up in flames because of Vermil’s presence.

All that mattered was finding a way to deal with this.

Do I just kill the lot of them? If nobody knows they were here, then the search goes on forever. I’d have to lie to Ferdinand, but I can live with that. I could tell him in a year once it’s too late for anything to matter and it’s clear that he’s abandoned the Church of Repose.

Garina wasn’t the only one thinking. She could see Vermil desperately cycling through ideas, but he must have realized the situation they were in. There was nothing he could do against her and they both should have known it.

“Lee, get Yoru and go get the others,” Vermil said, his voice flat. He grabbed a gourd from his waist and tossed it to her. “Get them out of here.”

Lee. Yes. That was her name.

Lee didn’t hesitate to obey his orders. She grabbed the fallen demoness and slung the masked girl over a shoulder before darting off into the forest. Garina’s hand twitched. The smart move to do would have been to stop her, but it hardly mattered.

A few lower ranks couldn’t escape her. It wouldn’t matter where they went. If Garina wanted to find them, she would.

At least that was what she told herself.

In truth, Garina wasn’t so certain she could bring herself to cut Lee down.

I don’t think anything of most mortals. Fuck. How did I get attached to this one so easily? She’s just a mouthy little demon brat.

A demon brat that had once had a point. Garina’s eye twitched. Her hands tightened even further, and she felt a flicker of Rune Force push past her mental walls before she could stop it. Every dry stick and tree in the area around her shattered. Ash flattened into a black sheet on the ground as a wave of pressure drove into the ground.

Vermil staggered, slammed down to one knee by the force of her presence — but he didn’t fall.

His veins turned jet black. Garina’s domain prickled as pressure pushed out from the Rank 4 — but far more pressure than there should have been.

The back of her neck prickled.

Did he really steal all this from Decras? Or is this his own power? Either way, it’s little surprise that gods are looking for him. Damn it all, Decras. What do I do? If it comes to choosing between my self-respect and losing this new life… then does honor have any use but to burn? �

“You’ll have to let Decras know that I’ve been otherwise occupied,” Vermil said through clenched teeth. “I’m afraid I’ll have to reject his request to meet, but I’ll make sure to add an extra fruit basket to the gift package when I send it off.”

“Fruit baskets?” Garina asked, taken aback even through her distress. “Are you insane?”

“Only a little,” Vermil replied. The pressure rolling off his body intensified. It was still nowhere near enough to pose a threat to her, but it let him slowly rise back to his feet.

A flicker of awe passed through her. Even though she wasn’t actively using her Rune Force, the fact that he could shrug off her pressure like that was unnerving. A Rank 4 should have been laid flat by her magic.

The power coming off him was familiar. He was drawing on his Master Rune. But, the more power Vermil used, the stranger it felt. It was close enough to Decras’ power that there was no mistaking it, but there was something different.

There were just too many things that didn’t make sense — and among them was the complete and utter lack of fear in Vermil’s features… and the ramping power pouring out from him.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Black spiderwebbed out from his veins and seeped into his fingernails. The whites of his eyes washed out like the night sky.

How much energy can he draw from that rune? That amount of pressure isn’t possible from a Rank 4. Not by a long shot.

“How are you doing that?” Garina asked, her surprise breaking through her internal struggle. “A Rank 4 soul shouldn’t be able to resist that much energy without shattering.”

“Who said anything about not shattering?” A mix between a snarl of concentration and a cold smile split his features. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. There wasn’t a trace of the arrogance that had been in his words a moment ago. “You’re a Rank 7, Garina. The strongest one I’ve ever met. I’m not stupid and playing games with you obviously isn’t going to work. That only leaves me with one option.”

“You think you can kill me?” Garina demanded “You’d choose that over trying to convince me to spare your lives?”

“I see the look in your eyes,” Vermil replied. Even more power built within him. Tongues of black smoke trailed off the edges of his eyes and slipped from between his lips. The boundary between his soul and his rune was breaking. “It doesn’t matter what we say, does it? You’ve already made your decision.”

“You’re going to shatter your soul long before I get to do anything if you draw that much power from a Master Rune. You can’t resist that much magic, idiot.”

“Why do you care?” Vermil tilted his head to the side. The air around his body thrummed with a dull greyish-black haze. There was so much power gathered around him that it was spilling out into the world. “You’re about to try to kill me anyway.”

“I haven’t decided if I need you alive or not yet. Drop the damn magic, fool. Don’t throw your life away. You have no idea as to what the extent of the universe holds. This doesn’t have to be your end. A Rank 4 with this much power in a little shit thole like this… you could be so much more.”

A real smile replaced the snarl on Vermil’s lips.

“I don’t want to be anything else. This ends with us, Garina. Stay the fuck away from my students.”

“I don’t think so, you suicidal shit!” A firm woman’s voice echoed through the forest.

For the second time that day, surprise washed over Garina. She — and Vermil — both glanced to the side in unison.

Standing at the edge of their clearing was a woman with strawberry ginger hair and a furious look on her features. She wore a thick, white-furred cloak and the burnt trees around her squirmed as if in agony.

Garina hadn’t sensed the woman coming at all.

Her magical energy was completely concealed — but Garina knew who she was. It was the woman that had sat with Lee and Vermil during their dinner.

Impossible. She’s not a Rank 7. There’s no way she’s more than a Rank 4. I would have noticed if it was here. What the fuck is going on?”

“Moxie? What are you doing here?” Vermil demanded. “You need to run! I told Lee to—”

“You are not killing yourself for this,” Moxie snarled, striding forward. The trees at her sides shuddered. Then, with a series of loud tearing crunching noises, they split apart. Jagged blades of ashen wood rose into the air around her, gathering behind the woman like the churning form of a vengeful angel.

“How can you conceal yourself from me?” Garina demanded. “What manner of magic could you possibly have that can fool my power? Is this how you’re hiding the Rank 7?”

“There’s no Rank 7,” Vermil said. “They’re gone, Garina. Destroyed. The only one here of any interest to you is me. Let Moxie leave.”

Moxie pulled her hood back. Instantly, Garina’s senses could feel her once more. The woman was a Rank 4, just like Vermil.

“Wrong,” Moxie said. “I’m not going anywhere. Lee told me what happened. The gods can get shafted. They don’t get to make demands of us. Especially after we saw how badly Decras fucked everything in the Damned Plains. He owes an entire race an apology.”

The Damned Plains? You can’t be serious. They know a lot of demons, but these two little pipsqueaks have been to the Damned Plains and know enough about them to know that Decras created the demons?

What is going on?

“Who are you?” Garina asked.

“Someone who’s had it up to her neck with people trying to kill us,” Moxie replied. She thrust her hand forward and the shards of wood exploded forward in an ashen wave.

Garina flicked her fingers. A wall of pressure shot out from her. It shattered and disintegrated the wood before it could get anywhere close to her. But, even as the cloud of ash exploded from their remains, something prickled against her domain.

The chills running down her back doubled in intensity.

Dark green and black magic lit behind Moxie’s eyes. Her shadow stretched out along the ground and the dead trees around her shuddered. Then prickles of life appeared upon their surfaces. The burnt bark healed. Broken limbs regenerated.

Fresh matter appeared where there had only been death. Sickly black smoke poured out from the healed trees. It twisted into Moxie’s outstretched hands, pouring into her palms. Thorned tattoos appeared upon her skin and wound up her arms, working their way toward her heart.

Garina had never seen the rune at work, but that mattered for nothing. Its pattern was far too similar for her to have forgotten it. It was the power of Decras’ one and only true child.

It was the might of the Lord of Death.

“Sievan,” Garina breathed. “How do you have Sievan’s Rune?”

“Close, but wrong again,” Moxie said, her teeth pulled back in a snarl. “This is Eternal Cycle. I made it with Fragmented Master Runes from Sievan. It’s my Master Rune, not his.”

Someone would have to have an incredible understanding over the pattern of life and death to manifest a rune like that. How would a Rank 4 have achieved that?

“He gave you the pieces to make a rune like that? Sievan protects the power of death from those who would abuse it. You expect me to believe he would just give it to a random mortal? And you expect me to trust, even with power like this, that you managed to kill a Rank 7?”

“I never said we killed the Rank 7,” Vermil said. “Just that they’re gone. Moxie, she’s Rank 7. You need to take the kids and—”

“Shut up,” Moxie said. “Where are we going to run from a Rank 7? She’ll be on our asses the moment you go down. At least the two of us have a chance.”

Garina’s attention caught on Vermil’s words. Something about the way he’d said the Rank 7 was gone was… wrong.

Then her eyes widened as an impossible thought struck her.

No. That can’t be it, but nothing else makes sense. The power he stole from Decras was the ability to carve runes apart? That’s why there was a Rank 6 a moment ago. He cut her down from Rank 7 — but that shouldn’t be possible. The Almighty Sever is Decras’ Divine Rune! A mortal could never have absorbed something like that into their own soul. He should have gotten one of Decras’ weaker runes, not his true one. A Divine Rune, even if its powers had been weakened, would completely crush a mortal existence unless there was an immense…

Counterbalance.

And just like that, everything finally clicked together.

That’s why the Church of Repose is searching for him. Renewal doesn’t want Decras’ power. He’s got her in him as well. This little mortal didn’t steal from one god.

He stole from two.

And if I don’t deal with him here and now, then it won’t be just the Apostles that are at my neck.

It’ll be Renewal as well.