Return of the Runebound Professor Chapter 935: Rank 6

The Faction Heads were silent.

For once, none of them were speaking. Every single one of them was staring down at Spider’s arena. Not all of them looked particularly surprised about the results of the fight, but every single one was definitely interested. And Vivian couldn’t blame them.

She’d found herself risen partially out of her chair despite herself. The urge to laugh in Baress’ face wasn’t even there anymore. She was too focused on what she’d just felt unfold… and, more accurately, the things that she felt unfold.

He’d ranked up.

Noah had reached Rank 6 half a dozen times throughout the fight against Kali. She’d felt the first five of them perfectly, echoing blows that the miasmic protection of Aqua Terra had absorbed. But those 5, despite being a feat so stupid and ridiculous that Vivian had quite literally never heard of pulling it off, were — somehow — irrelevant.

The only thing that mattered was the final one.

The advancement that had quite literally crushed Kali from the new pressure that Noah’s rune had emitted in its creation.

The one that Vivian hadn’t felt.

Not in the slightest.

The pressure had definitely been there. Kali’s battered body laying on the ground at Noah’s feet made that abundantly clear. For the rune to have manifested such force upon its creation meant that it should have been incredibly powerful. A Rank 6 at the absolute peak of its potential. Perhaps beyond it.

And a rune like that should have announced its presence with such immense force that even Aqua Terra’s protections wouldn’t have been able to completely mute it.

Instead, Vivian wouldn’t have even known that Noah had created anything had the raw pressure from the new Rune’s arrival not sent Kali rag-dolling across the ground. The result of its arrival was clear… but it was as if someone had snuffed the actual rune out of being before anyone could even register that it was there.

Vivian’s hands clenched at her sides. Despite her incredible amusement at Baress’ disbelieving expression, this was dangerous. Everyone else in this room was in the dark. But she should have known. There shouldn’t have been surprises at this point.

And yet Noah had still somehow managed to pull one over her. She didn’t have the faintest idea what he’d done or how he’d concealed what must have been an incredibly powerful advancement so well. Vivian sent her thoughts plunging deeper into the arena. She didn’t even worry about trying to maintain her composure in front of the others. They were all too distracted.

There was nothing at all. Now that the initial shockwave the rune had released upon its creation was gone, there was just… emptiness. Noah felt like any other Rank 6 in the tournament.

And then there was the cat.

It had planted its fluffy white ass in the ground in front of Noah’s feet. Red spines shimmered with buzzing energy along its spine, and two antlers of the same electric magic sprouted from its skull like those of a great deer. Vivian couldn’t even sense any magical power from it.

But the moment her senses brushed across the cat, its eyes snapped up. Something dark and hungry smoldered within them, two ashen motes of flame suspended in a void of endless pitch black.

The skin on the back of Vivian’s neck prickled.

There was something… familiar about it. Uncomfortably familiar.

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Vivian reluctantly pulled back. She couldn’t let the others notice her staring intently. Besides, whatever Noah had done, it would have also prevented the others from sensing his baffling advancement. That, at the least, was a very good thing.

“Well,” Vivian said, letting her gaze land on Baress. Her lips curled. “I recall you said we would be impressed. And I have to admit, you’re right. Impressively done. I’ve never seen a Rank 6 mage lose a fight to literally nothing. That’s definitely a first.”

“I have to agree,” the Imperator of Man said, his tongue flicking out to taste the air. “Was that a pressure rune of some sort? Whatever it was, defeating her with sheer brute force rather than any measure of skill is… rather embarrassing.”

Rake didn’t say anything. His gaze was still affixed on Noah, features completely unreadable. Vivian wasn’t too worried about him finding anything. If she’d missed what happened, then Rake definitely had as well. And now that the rune was formed… so long as Noah didn’t go ripping it apart once again, it was incredibly unlikely that the Faction Heads would be able to figure anything out.

It wasn’t like Noah would be able to replicate that burst of magical pressure. The immense force had only come from the generation of a powerful rune. That kind of thing was a one-time weapon. At least, it normally was. It had been a 6 or so time weapon during this fight.

“You lied,” Baress finally said, turning to Vivian and piercing her with a flat, angry stare. “He’s a Rank 6. The peak of it. Nobody else could have tossed Kali around like that.”

Rake’s eyes flicked to her. Then they danced back to Vivian before returning to the arena.

Then the corner of his lip turned downward.

Vivian hid her smile. It didn’t matter what Baress thought. Even though she didn’t have any runes to let her read Rake’s mind, she knew exactly what he was thinking.

Noah swallowed.

His breath was still coming in heavy, labored gasps. Sweat trickled down the back of his neck. His mindscape stretched out all around him, tremors still running through it from the formation of his new rune. He could feel it expanding, stretching to contain the new power he had manifested.

Magic had permeated every part of him. It filled the air like a thick dew, so dense that he might have been able to scoop it up with his hands. It burned within his body and wound down into the deepest depths of his being, flooding him with newfound strength.

The world around Noah had changed.

His Fragment of Self had wound deeper, farther, the roots of the patterns making it up stretching out to parts of himself that he had never known to exist. There was more than just new magical power within him. His awareness of everything that could be encompassed by his body, magic, and soul had magnified. He could .

Noah could feel the imprint of the Line, seared forever into his being. He could feel the Beyond worming through him, a foreign presence that strangely felt perfectly in place and at home. And more that. Noah could feel his new rune. This was what he had been working toward. He didn’t even need to look at it yet. He already knew that it was flawless.

But the immense power radiating out from the Rank 6 was only the tip of the iceberg. There was something more. Not just within the rune, but within Noah’s very soul.

It felt like a cold, perfectly still lake. One that was buried deep within the depths of Noah’s soul. Maybe it was new. Maybe it had been there from the start. Whatever the case, his newfound awareness made him vividly aware of the freezing waters within it.

And Noah knew instinctively what it was. The lake was full of magical power.

It was the strength of his soul, condensed into near-physical form. A grin crossed over Noah’s lips. For several long seconds, he stood there, his eyes closed, simply .

Noah felt electric. The sheer power within him was almost begging to be set free. And despite that, none of the mind-fog he’d experienced during his first attempt creating a Rank 6 remained. On the contrary, everything felt sharper and clearer.

For lack of a better comparison, Noah was more Noah than he’d ever been.

And so he stood there. He just stood there and felt, letting his mind run over what had always been his. The cracks and damage his soul had taken in cutting apart all the failed Rank 6 runes barely even mattered. He’d heal them with the Fragment of Renewal in a little bit.

That could wait.

Noah let his eyes drift open.

And, for the first time, he let himself truly gaze upon his newly made Rank 6.

His gaze traveled over the discordant, wavering lines. The rune should have been hideous. Everything about its pattern was wrong. It flowed in the way that a brick to the head felt. Just looking at it almost gave him a headache. And yet, in all the chaos, there was a pattern. A clearly defined path that could only be seen by taking a step back and viewing it as a whole.

In its own way, the rune sang to Noah.

He smiled.

This was first of his true Rank 6 Runes, and it was beyond beautiful.