Chapter 329: Rank 4

Chapter 329: Rank 4

A short while before Jalen arrived, while Noah was still within the confines of his mindspace, he stared at the final Rank 3 Rune before him.

Thunderstorm had been, surprisingly, one of the easiest Runes to make. Perhaps it was his affinity toward noise, or maybe it was just because he’d been thinking about it a lot, but it ended up coming together on his first attempt.

Before making it, Noah had finally Sundered his original Natural Disaster. It felt odd to destroy the Rune that had been with him for so long, but it no longer had a place in what he needed. Still, Noah couldn’t help himself from breaking it down all the way to its Rank 1 components to get a Rank 1 Vibration Rune to fit into his new Thunderstorm Rune. Once the surgery was done, Noah deposited the rest of the Rune’s pieces into his grimoire and moved on to the penultimate step of his ascension to Rank 4.The origin of this chapter's debut can be traced to N0v3l--B1n.

The pieces of the Stormprince Elemental’s Rune hadn’t been great, but the majority of the issue was in a horribly made Rank 3 Shattered Lightning Flash Rune. After Noah had discarded the faulty Rune into his grimoire, it had been a relatively simple matter to take apart a few of the other Rank 3 Runes, finding and making the Rank 2 Vibration Runes and Lightning Runes that he needed for Thunderstorm.

Noah didn’t want to think about the amount of energy he wasted in the making and filling of the final Rune, but he was on a roll and didn’t plan on stopping. The last dregs of energy swirled into Thunderstorm, filling it completely. It floated back, joining the seven other Runes swirling in Noah’s mindspace.

Sandstorm

Tsunami

Cyclone

Earthquake

Volcano

Blizzard

Thunderstorm

Pressure rolled off them, bearing down on Noah from every direction. It wasn’t an uncomfortable feeling. It felt like he was wrapped up tightly in a safe blanket of his own power.

Far above, Sunder, the Fragment of Renewal, and Combustion awaited him. Their power was still on a completely different level. While Combustion was only a little stronger than his new Rank 3 Runes, the other two Master Runes were like immense mountains that threatened to crush him beneath their weight.

Noah drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. Every single one of his Rank 3 Runes was full. They were ready.

He was ready.

Moxie said that reaching Rank 4 was a bottleneck. I’d imagine a large portion of that is going to be because imperfect Runes only get more imperfect when they get combined together. But everything in my soul is flawless.

At the very least, that should help. I guess there’s only one way to find out for sure, though. And hey – if it doesn’t work, I can always Sunder it and try again. There’s no end of the road for my Runes. There are only temporary inconveniences. No matter how badly I screw up, I can just rip everything apart and try again.

Noah raised his hands, calling all seven of his Rank 3 Runes to float before him. It almost felt sacrilegious to combine Runes that he’d literally never used in a fight, but he’d used their powers.

Instead of knowing exactly all the things they could do, Noah knew all the things that they lacked in. He knew the drawbacks of his magic and all the mistakes and misinterpretations he’d made about Runes.

And, as far as he was concerned, nobody truly learned by doing everything right. Failure was the essence of improvement. Every single mistake had reinforced his understanding. It had changed and improved his intent.

The Runes shuddered as they drew close. Energy crackled at their edges, hissing and popping as Noah begun to bring them closer and closer together. The hair on his arms stood on end and his back prickled.

Noah’s lips peeled back in a mixture of concentration and excitement as he pushed the Runes even closer together. His intent was as clear as a cloudless day and as razor-sharp as a blade.

Static electricity gathered around Noah’s head and his hair rose of its own volition. His mindspace trembled beneath his feet, the cracks of white light blurring as he pushed even harder to bring the Runes together.

The trembling intensified into a full-on earthquake. Magic pounded – not just around Noah, but within him as well. His veins felt like molten rock was pumping through them and jagged blades drove into his heart.

Noah was used to pain, though. His intent didn’t falter. A wordless roar escaped his lips as he pushed even harder. Compared to the infinite nothingness of the Line that was oblivion, pain was nothing.

“I think the exact meaning of my words may have been warped in translation,” Noah said, clearing his throat. “But now that you’re here – could you stop sending assassins after me? It’s kind of annoying.”

“Annoying?” Jalen let out a bark of laughter. “I’ll tell you what was annoying. Finding enough idiots that were actually incompetent enough to waste on something like this. The Linwicks have surprisingly few people that absolutely nobody cares about. Everyone has at least one connection that makes disappearing them somewhat bothersome.”

A ripple of power rolled out from Jalen. Everyone in the room stumbled and fell to the ground as the magic slammed them down, but as it hit the supercharged energy still surrounding Noah, it dissipated harmlessly.

Jalen’s brow twitched, and Noah did his best to keep a straight face. He was certain Jalen wasn’t using anywhere near his full power, but he hadn’t even flinched. That had to be at least somewhat surprising.

At least, I think it should be. I don’t know how much a Rank 4 can normally stand up to a Rank 6, but I’d imagine the odds would be pretty stacked against me.

“Let’s cut through the bullshit,” Jalen said. “Where are the Records of the Deceased, Vermil? I want to know what you did with it.”

Yeah, that’s not happening. That book is never seeing the light of day again.

“I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about.” Noah’s voice was perfectly smooth and collected, trained by months of practicing his bullshitting skills at Arbitage. “If you mean the book I saw in the catacombs – I didn’t take it with me. It started screaming and I left it in the collapsed cave.”

I can’t even try to deny that I was in the catacombs. My grimoire is literally on my lap. But... add in a little truth in the lie, and boom. It feels a lot more reasonable.

Jalen’s eyes bored into Noah’s. “You... left it? Do you think I’m an idiot?”

I certainly hope you are.

“Of course not, Magus Jalen,” Noah said. “But I’m not dumb enough to lug such a massive book with me when it was clearly a trap.”

Jalen looked down at the grimoire, which was easily twice as large as the Records of the Deceased had been. He looked back up to Noah. The two of them stared at each other, straight-faced.

“You’re awful cocky for a Rank – wait. Rank 4?” Jalen’s brow furrowed. “You’ve got a domain. You shouldn’t be a Rank 4.”

Whoops. Talk about bad timing.

“I just reached it recently and haven’t had a chance to report my advancement yet,” Noah said.

“You’re registered as a Rank 2 with Arbitage as of just a short while ago. I’ve looked into you.” Jalen’s eyes narrowed into slits and he took a step forward, causing both Moxie and Lee to get pressed even further back by the pressure rolling off him. “And – bullshit. You didn’t just hit Rank 4. The amount of energy your domain has is indicative of at least four or five Runes. How does a Rank 2 go all the way up to halfway through Rank 4 that quickly?”

My flawless Rune is that much stronger? Or is he feeling all the extra power that came off my combination? Maybe a mix of the two.

It wasn’t the time to celebrate how successful his combination had been, though. Jalen’s eyes promised trouble, and the situation was rapidly deteriorating.

“I reported my advancement to the Office, but I don’t think they recorded it. The secretary was eating. I’ve just gotten a few lucky breaks as of late.”

Jalen didn’t look like he was buying it. The power coming off him intensified even further, pushing against Noah’s newly made domain. He started to feel the world press down on his shoulders as the gravity increased, but Noah held firm.

He’d met people like Jalen before. Men that only respected power, and all else was a sign of weakness. Doing anything even remotely subservient would only make things worse for him. All he had to do was match Jalen’s energy and divert questions until an opportunity presented itself.

And, of course, that was when a tiny white paw stepped out of thin air above Jalen. It was followed by the rest of a cat, which promptly did what Noah could only describe as a flying, drive-by hairball.

Mascot hacked a ball of unidentified matter up straight onto the top of Jalen’s head, then disappeared in another puff of smoke. The room stared in mute horror as the ball rolled off Jalen’s head and thudded to the floor.

Jalen’s eye twitched.

He snapped his fingers, and Noah felt the true power of a Rank 6 for the first time. Evergreen had been nothing in comparison to the immense might that Jalen wielded. All of them were slammed to the ground, only spared from getting squashed by Jalen’s restraint. A wave of purple energy ripped out from his hand, moving so quickly that Noah only managed to pick up a flash of light before it swallowed him and the world vanished in spinning lights.