Return of the Runebound Professor Chapter 929: Cat's not right.

Renewal wasn’t eating her snacks anymore.

She hadn’t touched them in the past five minutes. Her eyes had been too glued to the shimmering image before her. And, rather uncharacteristically, Decras was leaning equally as far forward in his Cumulo. Not a word passed between the two of them.

They were completely focused on the snippet that they’d replayed at least three times now.

“Play it again,” Decras said, finally breaking the silence.

Renewal sent a shimmer of her energy out with a thought. For once, it was her in control of the image. But it only made sense. They were, after all, looking through the eyes of subordinate.

Peeking directly into Noah’s Mindspace was just a bit too invasive. He was getting strong enough that there was a chance he’d pick up on their noses poking in. And while that really wasn’t a major issue, neither of them had lost enough of their pride to admit to a mortal that he had somehow become their main source of entertainment.

But looking through Vivian’s eyes while she was inside Noah’s soul… well, that was fair game.

Renewal grimaced slightly.

Fair enough game. She had to admit that it was more than a little lame. There were invisible lines in the sand that beings of their strength really weren’t meant to cross. Sure, she and Decras had crossed a line some time ago. But there were a lot of lines that could be crossed.

Unfortunately, they were sprinting past them at breakneck speeds. Renewal would have renounced herself had she known what she would be doing just a few years ago. There was absolutely nothing for a god to gain from spying on the most intimate space of a mortal. So yes, it was ever so slightly lame.

Or it should have been.

Because if a god find something worthwhile in the Mindspace of a mortal, then it wasn’t really lame at all. It was genius. The only real difference between a visionary and a fool was success… and Renewal was starting to think that she and Decras might have been the greatest visionaries of the current age.

The scene before them wound back. Then it resumed anew. Vivian’s gaze swept over Noah’s runes, scanning each of them briefly, catching on each one slightly longer than the last as Renewal’s Prophet started to realize just how fucking ridiculous this mortal was.

“You see it?” Renewal asked, pausing the image once more.

“Which it?” Decras muttered, a mixture of awe and what might have actually been a little jealousy in his voice. “Because I see a lot. Much that should not be present. Much that should that is not.”

“He’s practically halfway Beyond,” Renewal breathed. “How is he even alive? He said that it filled his soul, but that’s not possible.”

“It isn’t,” Decras agreed. He crossed his arms in front of his chest. “But what about that man isn’t a complete antithesis of possibility? I cannot even find one thing to focus on. Where do we even start?”

“The Beyond is a good place,” Renewal said. She shook her head. “I — how it doing that? At first, I thought it might have filled in the gaps but avoided melding with him. But that definitely isn’t the case. The Beyond isn’t just catching a ride on him. It’s merged with his soul. Perfectly.”

“The Fragment of Self,” Decras said. “It might have something to do that. We need a better look.”

Renewal moved the vision before them forward several seconds until Vivian’s gaze was passing across the rune burned into the very existence of Noah’s soul. The two of them fell silent for several seconds as they studied it.

Renewal squinted.

Then her eyes went wide.

The patterns running all throughout Noah’s soul, binding every layer of his being together around the Fragment of Self, were riddled with the Beyond. But the Beyond hadn’t torn through the lines or damaged them in any way. Instead, it seemed to have somehow inserted itself into the existing pattern’s flow. They’d wound around it like vines circling the trunk of a tree.

“You’re right,” Renewal whispered in near-mute awe. “That’s incredible. His Rune of Self is somehow integrated directly with the Beyond.”

“Magic, bound with anti-magic,” Decras mused. “That… no. That literally isn’t possible. The Beyond should be destroying him. But it has somehow recognized his soul as part of itself.”

“Or itself as part of his soul,” Renewal muttered.

Decras tore his gaze away from the screen to send a sharp look at Renewal. “Let’s hope it is the former. The Beyond is too dangerous for a single being to control. Can you imagine the amount of damage a God of the Beyond could do? The concept is completely impossible. You cannot be god of nothing.”

“Either way, the Beyond has somehow acknowledged him,” Renewal said. She shook her head. “We would need to dive far deeper into his soul to see exactly why. But I don’t think that would be possible without forcing entry.”

Stolen from NovelPhoenix, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Decras hesitated for a second. “We should not.”

“You paused for longer than I thought you would,” Renewal pointed out.

“I am not beyond temptation,” Decras said flatly. He blew out a long breath. “And other than the Beyond, there is more. Are we going to discuss the fact that, despite him nearly manifesting a Divine Rune just a short while ago — and with a vastly inferior combination — there is no trace of that divinity at all?”

“Perhaps he was brushing across a concept and didn’t even realize it,” Renewal mused. “It’s possible.”

But even as the words left her lips, they tasted wrong.

She snuck a glance at Decras. The deadpan expression on his features made it clear he didn’t think much more of Renewal’s suggestion than she herself did.

“Okay,” Renewal admitted. “That almost certainly isn’t the case. He is most certainly far closer to forming a Fragment of Divinity now than he was then.”

“Which is ludicrous enough given the fact that he is only approaching Rank 6,” Decras said. “But if we ignore the fact that we are actually expecting a Rank 5 to manifest aspects of a god — why in all the planes are we unable to actually sense that divinity when looking right in his soul?”

Renewal’s lips thinned. She didn’t have the answer to that. Her gaze lowered to where Mascot sat in her lap. The red-horned cat let out a content purr. Renewal didn’t let herself think for a second that Mascot’s affection was meant for her. The little bastard had gone full traitor. Her former avatar was now little more than an ill-mannered leg warmer waiting to run back to Noah.

“Do you think Hollow Symphony is stealing it?” Renewal mused. “It’s the most likely option. That Rune already touched divinity. Even though it tore itself down, it could be trying to subsume his mind and take over.”

“It could be,” Decras said. “That is exactly what I would have done if given the possibility. But…”

Decras didn’t have to finish the sentence. He just nodded toward the screen. Renewal flicked her hand, sending it moving forward several seconds until Vivian’s gaze was directed straight at huge Master Rune.

It was powerful. There was absolutely no denying that. Even Renewal respected the strength lurking within it. The Master Rune had immense potential. But there wasn’t so much as a fragment of divinity anywhere within it. The rune was exactly as it appeared to be.

“Yeah,” Renewal said, running a hand through her hair. “There’s most certainly no divinity in that. It seems quite content exactly where it is within Noah. Which is honestly something that should be ridiculous enough as it is. The fact he managed to tame such a powerful — oh, forget it. Who cares at this point. Nothing about him makes sense. I’m far more interested in knowing where that divinity went. Did he somehow lose his progress?”

“Almost certainly not,” Decras said. “He has grown even more like himself than he ever has been. You saw what the little shit did when Rake pressed him. There is no dilution of self there. He is as focused on his goals as he ever was. And his runes are far more powerful than they were. He is already combining new ones, and yet we can still feel no divinity coming from him despite the fact that he is about ready to advance to Rank 6.”

“It odd,” Renewal mused. She leaned back in her Cumulo, ignoring the cloudy chair’s attempts to eat her, and pursed her lips in thought. “I just can’t accept any implication that he’s gotten weaker. Everything we’ve seen points very much to the contrary.”

“Which means he hasn’t,” Decras said flatly.

“So what happened?” Renewal asked.

Decras didn’t have an answer for that.

Renewal let the vision start again. The two of them sat in silence until Vivian left Noah’s head.

Another few moments passed by.

Then Decras flicked his hand, and the image on the screen snapped back to Noah, sitting cross-legged in his room with his massive grimoire open upon his lap. His eyes were closed in meditation and lips thin in concentration. There was no doubt that he was currently combining some of the runes that Moxie had been gathering over the past months.

If he had any chance at divinity, then it should have been making itself somewhat apparent right about now. They were actively looking for it. Even though he hadn’t yet hit Rank 6 again… getting this close after he’d already touched divinity once was more than enough when she and Decras were actively studying him.

Several more seconds slipped by in silence.

Then an idea struck Renewal, and a sinking feeling built in her stomach.

“Decras?”

“What?”

“As absolutely ridiculous as the suggestion is, we’re in agreement that it makes absolutely no sense for him to have at least a small fragment of divinity, yes?”

“I do believe we are,” Decras said. “Why?”

“What if he does?” Renewal asked. “The fragment would still be minuscule — and still completely within his Mindspace.”

“We would still be able to feel it,” Decras said. “And we were just looking in his Mindspace. If he was anywhere near it, we should have been able to sense it.”

“Only if it was showing in the outermost layer of his soul,” Renewal said grimly. “Not if he’d buried that power deep within himself and hidden it within layers of his own being.”

Decras let out a derisive snort. “That’s a long shot, Renewal. Even for you. You think a Rank 5 is somehow powerful enough to actively hide a fragment of divinity that he does not even realize he has?”

“Who said anything about actively?” Renewal drummed her fingers against her thigh. “We’ve seen his multiple personalities. Even though they’ve merged, his soul is more layered than it has any right to be. And he’s got an imprint of the Line within it. One that he’s somehow managed to start drawing upon. How exactly do you think he’s doing that?”

Decras paused.

Then his eyes went wide.

“You can’t be serious,” he breathed. “You think he’s had a latent fragment of divinity buried within the imprint of the line this entire time?”

“Well, how else would you explain it?” Renewal asked, thrusting a finger at the screen. “He’s controlling aspects of the Line. Without a Rune. Without anything. There are a few other ways he might have been drawing on that latent power… but if he have a latent fragment of divinity, wouldn’t that be exactly how it started to form?”

Decras was silent for several long seconds.

“Shit,” he finally breathed. “And he hasn’t even reached Rank 6. If you’re right, and he actually manages to form an even more powerful fragment upon ranking up… can anyone even bear power like that whilst so weak? His physical form might literally be torn to shreds as the divinity properly emerges.”

“Not if he somehow manages to bind it with his soul,” Renewal said.

Decras shot her a disbelieving look. “You really think a newly formed Rank 6 will be able to manage something like that?”

Renewal didn’t answer.

But someone else did.

From her lap, Mascot let out another content purr. And while the little bastard was no longer Renewal’s avatar, she knew him more than well enough to recognize that the cat wasn’t just making himself known for the sake of it.

Mascot was excited.