Noah didn’t remember much of the next minute. Yoru’s soul blurred and swam at the edges of his vision as the Grimoire sprinted through the garden, trampling flowers with every step it took.
Shimmers of moonlight carved through the air like glistening silver raindrops. Some of them missed; some of them slammed straight into the grimoire and tore through the monster’s body. Not a single one hit Noah.
His attention was completely on drawing runes. The rest of the world was just a distraction. There was no other option. Noah couldn’t afford to let himself get distracted by unimportant things such as not getting killed.
That would just have to be left to his Grimoire. The monster had promised him that it would be able to keep him safe while he worked — Noah had to take that at face value. And so, even as the smell of crushed flowers and blood mixed in the air to mar the once gentle sweetness of the garden, he continued to work.
Noah drew as the sky fell around him. He worked as the bushes covering the ground started to wilt, and he worked as white cracks pushed their way free from beneath the dirt and let new light spill into Yoru’s soul.
There was no time to do anything else.
Every rune he finished, he threw to Yoru. She knelt on the ground, tears of blood running down her cheeks and joining with the rivers running from her nose. Her features were clenched in pain and concentration.
He couldn’t tell if she was combining runes or not, and he didn’t have time to check. Noah did note that there were no more Fragments of Sticky. Yoru had shattered them. She was attempting to form her own rune of Self. He couldn’t afford to see if it was working.
All he could do was keep making components.
At least — that was until the pressure in her soul started to rise. It was a strange feeling, like an invisible layer of water rising up all around her soul. Noah’s chest compressed and breathing grew more difficult.
“The demon is too slow,” the Grimoire roared as it ran, the howl of the wind in Noah’s ears nearly drowning the monster’s voice out. “Her soul can’t contain this many runes, even if they’re merely rank 1! She’s going to break.”
“Put me down next to her,” Noah ordered, grabbing onto a Light rune he’d just finished creating. “And cover both of us.”
“Protect both of you? What do you think I am?” the Grimoire demanded. But, despite its complaints, the dirt at its feet flew into the air as it skidded to a stop and changed directions, bounding back toward Yoru.
The world jerked around him as the monster reared back. Noah’s eyes only had an instant to widen before he was whipped through the air like a baseball, a slew of curses dying as the wind slammed into his throat and nearly choked him on the spot.
He hit the ground with a pained grunt, rolling to keep his momentum and scrambling back to his feet. The Grimoire had been surprisingly accurate with its throw. He’d landed just a foot away from Yoru — and away from a cloud of Rank 1 Runes that enveloped her.
Noah pushed past the runes and grabbed her by the shoulders. The thunk of a blade striking flesh echoed out behind him, but he didn’t even turn to look. Either the Grimoire would protect him or it wouldn’t. Worrying would change absolutely nothing.
“Yoru,” Noah said.
She blinked sleepily at him. Yoru’s flat blue eyes were glassy, her expression nearly slack. She wasn’t holding up well.
Noah gave her a shake. She stiffened and drew in a sharp breath.
“What? What’s happening?”
“The runes,” Noah snapped. A crack of soul damage snaked past them. Dirt cascaded into it, vanishing into the white void, but Noah ignored it. “You need to combine the runes I’ve made you. There are a bunch of Rank 1s here. Ones that I made for you. Just focus your intent and put them together.”
“I’ve never combined a rune on my own,” Yoru stammered. Her voice started to grow distant again. “I don’t know how.”
Noah slapped her. It wasn’t his proudest moment. Striking a child was just about the absolute last thing that a teacher should ever do — but Yoru was no child. She was an ancient demon with no experience making choices of her own. Even with her soul breaking apart, she was still so tough that striking her was akin to patting someone on the shoulder.
“Enough of this,” Noah barked. “You made a decision, Yoru. I wanted to take things slow. You did not. You came to me and broke your runes. That’s fine. That was your choice to make. But you will not make a choice and then leave the consequences to someone else to deal with. You are going to combine these goddamn runes, and you’re going to like it.”
Yoru stared at him, clarity sputtering to life behind her eyes.
“How?”
“Envision what you want,” Noah said. “Focus your intent. Not too wide. Not too narrow. Rank 2 Runes should be something like Moonlight. Rank 3s can get a little more specific. Think of elements of the moon that you want to embody. Reflection, that kind of thing. Don’t forget to account for every part of the rune when you create it. If you’ve got light and water, to make Moonlit Reflection, then remember to have intent for both elements and not just your final result.”
“What if I make a mistake?”
“Then I’ll fix it. That’s what I do. I fix people’s mistakes — but you can’t make a mistake unless you do something, and there’s nothing in this world that’s worse than sitting around and letting a chance to try pass by you. You want freedom, Yoru? Then act. Failing is fine. That’s what I’m here for. But if you don’t act, then you die.”
Yoru swallowed heavily. She blinked — and when her eyes opened again, something behind them had shifted. There was determination within them. There was emotion.
The two Master Runes struck each other, not with a resounding crash, but a gentle, echoing ringing like a piece of glass being rung.
A wave of power exploded out from the two of them without so much as a pop. It ripped across Yoru’s soul, a torrent of soundless wind.
And, for an instant longer, there was only silence.
Then a black line split down the length of the blade.
It shattered.
Silver mist screamed free from the weapon — and streamers of it curled through the air, flying to gather at the Grimoire’s palm. The monster’s hand clenched down on the magic and it vanished, drawn within itself.
The pressure pressing down on Noah evaporated. Without it, there was nothing to keep Sunder from crushing Noah. He went to dismiss the spear, but it shattered and faded away even before the thought could finish crossing his head. The Master Rune had pulled its own power back.
The silver version of Yoru dropped from the sky, landing on the ground before Noah and staggering.
“Impossible,” Moonlit Prophecy said. The stoic demeanor on her silver features faltered as fear flickered behind her eyes. “You cannot resist fate.”
“Maybe not, but you aren’t fate,” Noah replied. He cracked his neck. “Stop interfering with Yoru.”
“She is mine. I raised her from birth. I trained her. I protected her. You are nothing but an usurper who seeks to steal the power that I deserve by birthright. Who are you to stand in my way?”
“He is the Herald,” the Grimoire said, delight dripping from its words. “Shatter the rune, Noah. Eviscerate it. The power will be yours; the corpse mine. We can use this power for ourselves. With vision of what is to come, there will be none that can stand in our way.”
“No,” Noah said. “This isn’t our power to take. It’s Yoru’s... and frankly, I want nothing to do with this rune.”
“I am nobody’s to take,” Moonlit Prophecy yelled. “I am—”
Noah took a step forward, twisting his entire body to put his weight behind his fist as he drove it into Moonlit Prophecy’s face.
There was a satisfying crunch. Her glowing eyes only had an instant to widen before her nose shattered and she was sent tumbling back. Her body bounced twice against the ground before skidding across the ground and falling into a massive crack in Yoru’s soul.
A silver hand grabbed onto the crumbling dirt at the edge of the crack. Noah strode over to the rune, looking down at her as she struggled to keep her purchase on the ground, trying to avoid plummeting into the nothingness below.
Noah crouched and held the rune’s gaze.
“Stay there,” Noah said. “Your power belongs to Yoru — but if you try to fight back again, I’ll just kill you.”
“You would throw my magic away?” the rune demanded. “The power to control the future, all for a worthless child?”
Noah reached down and grabbed Moonlit Prophecy by her hair. He lifted her into the air before him and leaned in so she could get a good look at his features.
“Without a second thought.”
He tossed the rune to the ground.
Moonlit Prophecy wasn’t going to get in his way again. Either the rune gave in or it died. He wasn’t about to risk Yoru’s life over it after all the damage it had already done — but he didn’t even know if that would be enough.
The cracks running through her soul cracked and widened. It was some of the worst damage he’d ever seen. If he started fixing it now, there was a chance her soul would collapse under itself. She needed the pressure from her runes returned before he could patch the cracks.
“Come on, Yoru,” Noah muttered under his breath, turning to watch the demon as his hands clenched by his sides. “There’s nothing else left in your way. It’s just you and the runes.”
It was a race against time, and Yoru was the one running.
Noah had done everything he could.
Now it was her turn.