Return of the Runebound Professor Chapter 922: Horrible Things

Vivian felt the world fall away around her as she allowed Noah to coax her soul into his. The pull wasn’t a strong one. Whatever amount of mind magic he had within his Runes wasn’t a very significant one. But she wasn’t exactly trying to resist.

Darkness bloomed all around her. The shadows kept on stretching. And, though she couldn’t physically see the ends, she could feel them. Noah’s soul was large. Far, far larger than a Rank 5’s soul should have been. An enormous swathe of emptiness that stretched out in a cold, empty void.

But it wasn’t empty.

Her senses prickled.

There was something in the dark.

Vivian’s feet hit solid ground. At least, it felt like solid ground. There was nothing there but endless shadow. Her eyes narrowed and she raised a hand, allowing a wave of faint pearlescent light to wash out from her soul. It revealed nothing. There was nothing at all.

She couldn’t sense the strange presence that had prickled against her thoughts a moment ago. The darkness felt as entirely empty as it looked. Her lips pulled down in a small frown.

Noah wasn’t here. Neither were his Runes. She could feel them — but they were distant. As if they were thousands of leagues away, at the far end of her Empire. A flicker of surprise danced through her thoughts.

It wasn’t entirely uncommon for something like this to happen. But that was when it came to delving into the soul of a powerful Rank 6 or 7 mage. For a Rank 5… it was unheard of. There was no reason for his soul to be anywhere near large or complex enough to interrupt even a sliver of her consciousness.

Fortunately, he wasn’t anywhere near powerful enough for this to cause her any significant trouble. It didn’t matter how odd Noah’s soul may have been. Her own was incomparably more dense. She gave her power a faint tug, directing herself deeper in the direction of where she could sense his runes.

The world shifted.

Darkness still surrounded her. But now there was something more. The faintest sliver of… something else. It couldn’t have been called familiar. She’d never felt it before. But that didn’t stop her from feeling the smallest sense of recognition.

Vivian’s brow furrowed. She hesitated for a moment. Then she drew on her power once more, directing herself toward the source of her confusion.

The world shifted.

Goosebumps prickled against her skin.

She still couldn’t see anything. Darkness was all that met Vivian’s soul. But the feeling had gotten stronger. More familiar. She still couldn’t place what it was. It was so close to… something. Something she’d seen, or felt, or once known.

Vivian drew on her power one more time. She was getting closer. Whatever this was, she’d find it.

The world shifted.

A line of gold sliced through the shadow.

And then another. And another.

Not just dozens. Hundreds — thousands — of interweaving golden paths unfurled around her all at once. A wall of pressure slammed into Vivian. Not nearly enough to cause any true harm, but more than enough to knock the wind from her lungs.

She stumbled, catching herself before she tripped. The was a golden pathway beneath her feet, stretching out as far as the eye could see in either direction.

And, finally, she recognized what the power must have been. It wasn’t one she’d ever seen. Calling it a power in itself might not have even been possible. She wasn’t sure that such a thing could be classified as anything other than its name. Vivian had felt its presence, if only in faintest passing, when she spoke with her master.

And that meant there was only one thing it could be.

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“The Line?” Vivian whispered. “How?”

A tremor shimmered through the seemingly infinite golden paths.

And then she wasn’t alone anymore. Standing on the golden ground before her was Noah.

Or, at least, it was a part of him.

His eyes were pitch black, cracked by a web of gold that shimmered like molten honey. There was no expression whatsoever on his face. For lack of a better word, the man seemed empty. He was a faded memory. Nothing more than the record of what had once been… and yet, she could feel the Line within him just as much as beneath him.

But that couldn’t have been right

Vivian stared into his eyes. Something lurked within them. More memories. And amongst them was something more. The Beyond. She could sense it, deep within him. And that meant there was only one path before her. It was the one at her feet.

She took a step forward, peering deeper into Noah’s eyes.

And then she froze.

Her back went stiff.

Then her eyes widened.

A footstep echoed through the back of her mind, a hundred, a thousand, a million times, all separate and all at once. Thousands upon thousands of years of memories slammed into her all at once.

And then Vivian .

***

“Where the hell is Vivian?” Noah muttered, turning in a circle as he scanned the depths of his own soul. He was pretty sure he’d brought her along with him. Sure, she was a Rank 8, but she’d been the one that wanted to see in his soul. It hadn’t felt like she’d resisted him either. She should have been here. He’d taken all the care he could to make sure the… other aspects of his soul had stayed hidden.

He didn’t need Vivian’s brain getting blasted by the Line. She wasn’t Father.

Noah squinted up at the massive Master Rune floating in the sky above him. It, along with the Fragment of Renewal, completely filled the horizon. He ran a hand through his hair.

Then he sighed.

Maybe he could just keep Vivian from looking up. There was a chance she’d be so distracted by the patches of pure white Beyond riddling his soul that he could hurry her out of here before she noticed anything else. That did, of course, hinge on her actually showing up.

“Maybe I should go back and get her,” Noah muttered. “Did I—”

His senses prickled.

Noah took a step back, the hair on his neck rising a moment before Vivian appeared in the air before him without so much as a pop. It was as if she’d simply always been there.

“Ah,” Noah said. “There you are. I—”

Vivian turned toward him.

For the briefest instant, he could have sworn he saw a shimmer of fading gold in the back of her eyes. Then it was gone.

“Gods above,” Vivian breathed, her gaze boring into his. There was something quite clearly wrong with her voice. She sounded… horrified.

“Huh?” Noah blinked.

“I’m sorry,” Vivian said. “Gods, Noah. I’m sorry. You weren’t supposed to remember. Nobody was.”

“Shit,” Noah said. “You saw—”

“A fragment,” Vivian replied. She swallowed, taking a step forward before stopping herself. “Your soul wasn’t powerful enough to force me to witness all of it. But I saw enough to know. You remember the afterlife. The Waters of Life didn’t cleanse you. That… that never should have happened, Noah. Not to anyone.”

A cold chill passed over Noah’s shoulders. If he’d spoken to Moxie here… would she have been subjected to the Line? He’d thought he could control it. But he definitely hadn’t called it forth. Vivian had seen it against his will.

“Are you okay?” Noah asked. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for—”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Vivian said. “I was digging through your soul. And it did no lasting damage. I am a Rank 8. I am capable of defending myself against mental attacks. But… how are you alive, Noah?”

“You know, that’s a pretty rude question to ask,” Noah said. “How am I supposed to answer that?”

“Don’t play stupid,” Vivian said. She paused for a moment, still clearly fighting with her own thoughts. “You know what I meant. Lifetimes of… nothing. Your memories are older than I am. All your time on this world is nothing more than a blip. A spark in a sea of emptiness. And you have borne it since before your soul had reached Rank 6. How is there anything left?”

It was several seconds before Noah responded.

“That wasn’t life. It was existence. And I found something worth living for.”

Vivian stared at him. She, too, didn’t say anything for quite some time. But when she spoke again, it seemed she had gathered herself once more.

“I do not think I can apologize enough for what you have gone through,” Vivian said. “It does not seem that even you yourself understand the scale of what has been done. No living being should bear this weight. That is Renewal’s purpose is so vital to existence. All must be washed clean.”

“Well, I wasn’t,” Noah said. “And, if we’re going to get real specific, we really can’t blame her for that. Shit happens. And as much as I appreciate your sympathy — we aren’t in my soul so you can feel sorry about my past. If you recall, we’re here so that I don’t have to worry about you trying to murder me in the future.”

Vivian watched him blankly for a moment. Then her brain seemed to spin back up.

“Oh. Yes. I… forgot.”

“So…” Noah gestured to the Beyond all around them. “Take a look. As you can see, it’s not present within my Runes. At all. It’s completely isolated.”

Vivian blinked. And for the first time, her gaze finally seemed to register the fact their surroundings. She turned in a slow circle, shock spreading across her features like a wildfire tearing through dry grass.

“Gods,” Vivian breathed in horror. “What have you done to your soul?”