Return of the Runebound Professor

The stench of demon infused the ground. It wound into the dying grass and buried deep into the soil. Even though there was no sign of the battle that had taken place here, Rafael knew the smell all too well.

“This is where Inaros and Johan fought,” Rafael mused, pressing a hand to the grass. He rubbed the dry soil between his fingers, then rose to his feet. Anger swirled in his chest. This was where his men had died.

Pure incompetence is the only reason that the culprits still walk free. If I had been permitted to pursue immediately after they went missing, the demon responsible for this would already be flayed at my feet.

By how much energy they let leak out, they have to be a low tier. Rank 3, at the most. I find it hard to believe that Inaros or Johan would fall to something so pathetic. The demon has aid, then. Either another demon, or someone else of a higher rank.

The Inquisitor rose to his feet, brushing the soil off on his beautifully decorated shirt. A sword hung at his side, its hilt sculpted into the form of the head of a dog. He barely even noticed the stain that it left behind. Two men were dead because the Inquisitor’s Guild was busy playing politics with the Linwick family.

“Power hungry fools,” Rafael growled. He hadn’t even been sanctioned to look into the deaths of his men, but they couldn’t keep a Rank 5 from taking the leave that he had stored up. It had been years since Rafael could last remember taking a vacation.

There had been no need for one. Ripping the filth of demons from the mortal plain had always been reward enough. Freeing the world from their wretched grip was his purpose for living.

He had less than a month to track down the wretched being that had killed his men before the guild would recall him. And, as much as Rafael hated the idea of leaving his targets alive, there were far greater threats known to them.

This was a personal vendetta. He knew that well. There were many demons to kill, and he was a Rank 5 Inquisitor. There were duties expected of him. Duties that were far greater than his own desires.

And I won’t even need a month. A demon such as this will be unable to hide itself, and I suspect it will still be together with whatever force or alliance it used to strike down Yohan and Inaros.

I will return to the Inquisition with their corpses and have their bones formed into weapons to slay demons a generation from now.

Rafael’s hand clenched around his rosary. The bone pearls, each crafted from the corpse of a different Rank 4 Demon, trembled at his touch. Some small part of them remained, trapped within the polished bone. And, every time he forced his power through it, they screamed in agony. He’d never been able to determine if he despised or loved the tool.

The idea of turning back even a small amount of the suffering that the demons inflicted upon the world brought him delight, but relying on demons in any way disgusted him. Unfortunately, without the bones, it was difficult to force the demons from hiding.

Nothing comes without sacrifice.

Rafael drew in a deep breath and let it out through clenched teeth. He drew a small dagger from his side and pulled it across his palm. Blood welled up from the cut and Rafael turned his hand to the ground, letting it drip onto the grass.

The blood sizzled as Rafael’s energy worked into the ground, drawing out the dried blood beneath the earth. Even though the trail was cold, blood carried knowledge for long after it was spilled.

Scents mixed in Rafael’s nostrils. His eyes closed as he filtered them apart, processing each piece and dismissing it before moving onto the next. Blood magic was complicated, but it was the greatest tool in the arsenal of all the most powerful Inquisitors.

Blood Runes were some of the rarest and hardest to find in the wild, and their sale was heavily regulated. Very few people had managed to get access to them outside the order, and it was for good reason.

Rafael’s eyes sharpened as he found what he was looking for. The stench of demon grew stronger. His hand clenched and the blood flowed up from the ground, pooling into an orb above his cut palm. A cold smile stretched across his lips.

“Found you,” Rafael breathed. It was just a general direction, but it would be enough. The blood would react when he grew closer, and then his men would be avenged. Rafael pulled a vial from his pocket and let the blood slither into it before sliding the cork in.

Count your days, demon. I am coming for you.

***

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It wasn’t a pretty sight. Blood dripped from Lee’s nose and eyes, streaking down her face and splattering to the dark ground of her mindspace. Noah’s arm wrapped around her back, propping Lee up as she pushed through the pain.

Cracks ran throughout her mindspace, faint energy piercing through the darkness in a discomforting manner. It didn’t belong, and Lee’s soul knew it.

Lee trembled against him, and her body temperature felt lower than it should have been. He wanted to tell her to stop and rest, but it would have been nothing but an insult. The Fragment of Renewal could repair the damage she took, so this was a matter of her willpower versus her nature – and it was not the spot for Noah to butt in.

Sunder did clearly make the process easier than just ripping the Runes out, but with the amount of changes they had already made, the damage was adding up – but so was her work. She was nearly finished. Lee had already repaired all of her Demon Runes and turned her Umbral Body Runes into Umbra Runes.

She’d even managed to repair one of her Shift Runes, though its appearance and name didn’t change. She’d moved so quickly that Noah had barely even had time to see what Runes made it up, but there were definitely some Monster Runes within it. Grabbing pieces from the Moonlit Shadow Rune Noah had brought in for her, Lee mercilessly ripped her own body apart in the process of remaking it.

Lee nodded her head in the direction of her final Shift Rune, barely even able to muster the energy to move her arms to point. Noah pressed his lips together as the Rune drew closer to them. Lee was just inches from collapse.

He clenched his jaw and raised his hand, drawing on Sunder and shattering the final Rune. The strands of Lee’s soul connected to it snapped. Energy washed past them and Lee spasmed, stumbling. If it hadn’t been for his support, she would have collapsed.

She coughed blood onto the shadowy substance beneath their feet and it bucked beneath them, groaning in pain. Noah prepared to call on the Fragment of Renewal, but Lee’s eyes fluttered to stay open.

Mutely, she drew Runes from the spiral of energy surrounding them and pulled them together, dragging out pieces left behind from their other combinations and forcing them together.

I could use the Fragment of Renewal now, but that might mess with the creation of the Rune because of the way it works. Renewal isn’t necessarily proper healing as much as returning to the proper state. If it register’s Lee’s proper state as the one without the new Rune formed, it could cause problems.

“Come on, Lee,” Noah breathed. “You can do this. Just one last push.”

Blood dripped from her nose and fell onto his sleeve. Noah’s clothes were already soaked with it, so he barely even noticed. Her arm struggled to raise at her side.

Noah reached down, taking her wrist and lifting it. Lee drew in a shaky breath. Her eyes, unfocused and blurry, sharpened for an instant. Baring her teeth, Lee clenched her hand. The Runes snapped together.

A flash of light lit Lee’s mindspace, and Noah was momentarily blinded. He’d been so focused on Lee that he hadn’t been ready for the flash. He squinted through the bright light, desperately hoping that they wouldn’t need to remake the Rune.

He didn’t think Lee would be able to survive another modification at the moment, and they’d need a new Mind Meld potion. And, as simple as that was, it felt like admitting defeat.

The light faded, and a new Rune became visible beyond it, the excess energy from the combination pouring back into it. A relieved grin crossed Noah’s face. A second remade Shift floated, identical to the first. Strands of black rose up from her soul, winding around the Rune and pulling it in.

He went to draw on the Fragment of Renewal, but Lee wasn’t done. She bit her lip so hard that blood dripped from it, joining the rivers running down her face. Energy pulsed from the last Rune as Lee drew on it, testing her final creation to ensure it was flawless.

The pressure didn’t change.

A tiny smile flickered across Lee’s lips and her hand dropped. She collapsed into Noah’s arms, her body going limp. He instantly ripped power from the Fragment of Renewal, letting the refreshing energy course out from his fingers and into Lee’s body.

She let out a small, relieved breath. The jagged cracks running all throughout her soul started to seal over and cool, pink mist swirled behind her eyes. Noah lowered her to the ground, sitting beside Lee as he waited for the Fragment of Renewal’s magic to do its work.

Lee was definitely awake, but she was so mentally exhausted that she couldn’t even muster the energy to speak. Noah didn’t mind. He just sat beside her, looking out at her soul as it started to heal.

Minutes passed.

“I did it,” Lee said, her words breaking the silence. She wiped some of the blood from her face with the back her hand, then pushed herself upright. “I fixed all my Runes.”

“Damn right you did,” Noah said, ruffling her hair. “I don’t know if anyone else could have had the willpower to push through it like that. But… maybe the next time we need to fix this many Runes, we do it one at a time.”

A small grin passed over Lee’s face and she nodded. “Okay. Hopefully we don’t have to do this again, though. They’re all Flawless now.”

“So they are.” They fell silent for a few more seconds. Noah nodded in the direction of Lee’s new Shift Runes. “Why’d you add Shadow to your Shift Runes? Couldn’t you have just tried to make True Shift Runes?”

“I could have, but I’ve been moving much more toward the stealth aspects than the shape changing ones,” Lee said. “This fits my soul better. I only needed to shift bodies so much because I was hiding, and I don’t need to do that as much when I’m with you guys.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” Noah said with a small smile. Many of Lee’s Runes had lost a good portion of their energy in the conversion, but the power in the Moonlit Shadow Rune that he’d brought her had done a lot to make it up.

Its energy hadn’t been too different from the energy that most of Lee’s Runes needed, so many of her new Rank 3s were still nearly full. It probably wouldn’t take too long until she had enough energy to push to Rank 4.

That was a problem for a different time, though. Noah had already seen his fair share of Rune modification today – Lee deserved a break.

They sat there in silence, watching the damage to Lee’s soul patch over, until the Mind Meld’s effects finally wore off and they were whisked back into the real world to see what had passed in their absence.

And, when they got back, there would be a Master Rune waiting for Lee.

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