Chapter 516: Fragments

Chapter 516: Fragments

Noah stared at the ground in a stunned silence. He’d somehow made an entire rune on accident.

“How can this even happen?” Noah muttered to himself. “I could see my intent somehow getting messed with by the energy in the Damned Plains or some shit like that, but it can’t make two completely different runes.”

It didn’t seem that anyone had told the runes that. They remained on the floor of his soul, illuminated by the crackling light of the ball of electric energy churning above his hand. The second rune didn’t look like it was about to go anywhere anytime soon.

As the shock wore off, Noah took a closer look at the dark lines on the ground. A flicker of annoyance welled up in his chest. Not only was the unexpected rune blocking out significant portions of the rune he’d actually tried to make, but he couldn’t read it either. There were just too many segments missing.

This is exactly what happened with Lee’s Rune, isn’t it? She managed to squish all her runes together into Frankenstein’s Rune. Now she can’t read any of them. But I don’t have a Master Rune, broken or not, in the mix here.

Could this be the result of a failed combination?

That was something he could test. Noah held a hand up to the amalgamation of runes before him and focused his attention on it, sending a faint tendril of desire toward them. A wall of pressure drove into him in response and the other runes in his soul shuddered as they pushed back against it.

It wasn’t enough to keep what felt like a strong wind from driving into Noah, blowing his hair back and nearly causing him to slide across the ground. He blocked his eyes with a hand and released the desire, letting the runes return to their normal state as a frown crossed his lips.

“Way more than the pressure from a newly made Rank 4,” Noah muttered. “That’s easily two of them. There’s energy there that shouldn’t be there. This isn’t just some failed combination. Something got added into the mix that I didn’t want.”

The rune floated innocently before him, the thick strands of jet-black soul undulating gently in beat with the ripples of energy passing over its surface. Noah scrunched his nose. It felt a little odd to be irritated about getting an extra rune. That was a first world problem if he’d ever heard of one, and that made him mildly annoyed that he couldn’t be more annoyed.

“I don’t like you,” Noah informed his conjoined runes. “But I would like you more if you split yourselves apart for me.”

The runes did not respond. That was probably for the best. The day his runes started talking to him was the day Noah Sundered them out and served them on a plate to Lee. His brow furrowed at the thought of the demon. She needed him to find a way to deal with... whatever this was.

Even if it didn’t hold the secret to her issues with Rank 4, the very least he could do was find a way to untangle the bungled mess of a Rune she currently had. Azel’s bindings weren’t going to hold forever and they only got weaker with every time Lee pushed her strength.

That might have been fine back in Arbitage, but they were in the Damned Plains. He doubted they were going to get the liberty of being able to hold back for long. They’d already taken control of the streetlords and made a scene at the auction. Stronger demons would be taking notice of them soon — if they hadn’t already.

Noah brushed his thoughts away and let out a sharp breath to refocus himself. He couldn’t afford to start worrying about distractions right now. There was too much at stake.

“I wonder if I could just Sunder you?” Noah mused to himself, moving to see if he could find an obvious spot where the two runes had connected themselves. He made another circle around them, but it did little to help. There was no clear distinction in them. If it wasn’t for the light illuminating the runes on the ground, it would have been impossible to tell that there even were two of them.

He came to a stop back at the front of the rune and dismissed his glowing ball before crossing his legs and sitting down. He planted his chin in his palm and braced his elbow against a knee, fingers drumming against the side of his chin in contemplation.

Sundering the runes had a chance of splitting them apart. It had an equal chance of just straight up destroying them. He’d lost around 15% of the energy in Crumbling Space when he’d Sundered it in order to make... whatever abomination this thing was. If the same thing happened — well, the rune didn’t have enough energy to lose. It would just shatter and all his efforts would be wasted.

It’s almost as if there’s a...

“...pattern,” Noah muttered, finishing his thoughts out loud as his eyes widened. He raised his hands and summoned a crackling ball of electricity with the help of Natural Disaster, illuminating the two runes and casting their inversed shadows onto the ground so he could examine them.

Noah’s eyes danced as he memorized the glowing lines that came from the black strands. He couldn’t understand what the patterns meant, but he could still see a portion of them. Once he’d memorized everything he could, he released Natural Disaster and hopped awkwardly on one foot, raising the other to stick it into the parts of his soul covering his rune.

He gagged as tingles shot down his leg and up into his torso. The urge to pull back was strong, but he resisted it. Noah just tilted his head to the side and summoned his violin, bracing it against himself and resting the bow on the strings.

I don’t know any way better to manifest a pattern than through music. If this rune does anything, I’ll find out when I convert its pattern to song while channeling its energy.

Noah drew in a deep breath and pushed the distraction away, shoving the uncomfortable tingling sensation into the back of his mind.

Then he began to play.

He started slow, taking care not to draw too much power or let the pattern escape from him, but he was surprised to find the music didn’t just come easily. It came naturally. His bow picked up speed and a strange song echoed through the reaches of his soul.

It was more than natural. It was familiar.

Power twisted within Noah. The uncomfortable prickling in the back of his mind receded. His posture relaxed and his song grew faster still as he felt himself synchronize with the rune. Noah’s eyes drifted shut and he immersed himself within the song, letting the pattern form itself with his body as the outlet.

And then it came to an end. His bow slowed and a deep sense of peace washed over his body like a comforting blanket. The discomfort had entirely vanished everywhere other than his eyes, which still felt like he’d squinted into a bright light for a little too long.

Well, at least it doesn’t seem malicious. What kind of rune does this?

Noah let his eyes open once again. His violin squeaked as his hand jerked in surprise, playing an unbidden note. Faint golden lines glimmered within the dark floor and walls of his soul. They danced and twisted in the most complex mosaic that he’d ever seen like a field of glimmering vines, stretching so far out that he couldn’t see where they ended. It was a pattern, but it was so much more. It was an entire world.

Noah could do nothing but stare in disbelief. He turned, trying to take in the entirety of the pattern glowing within the darkness of his soul, but it was impossible. The pattern was just so immense that he couldn’t even begin to make anything individual out. Swirling waves and starry skies mixed like the painting of a madman, vanishing the moment he thought he caught a glimpse of something tangible. It was alien and immense, beautiful in the way that Renewal had been.

His gaze landed back on the strands holding onto his rune. Noah’s fingers loosened and the violin vanished from his grasp. The darkness had been lit up by the very same lines running throughout the rest of his soul, but these ones didn’t change.

They remained locked in place, interweaving with each other in a way that wasn’t just familiar to Noah. It was Noah.

For the first time, Noah managed to read the name of the rune stored within the syrupy strands of his soul.

Fragment of Self