Return of the Runebound Professor Chapter 936: Troublesome...

“My cat!” Renewal exclaimed in indigence, thrusting an accusatory finger at the shimmering image across from her and Decras. “He stole my fucking cat! Again!”

“I do believe he hasn’t been your cat for quite some time,” Decras said, but his words were distant. He was staring too intently at Noah to give her a more concentrated response. “I — forget the cat, Renewal. You felt it, didn’t you?”

“Only for a moment,” Renewal said. There were still goosebumps running along her skin. If she was honest, the only reason she’d even mentioned Mascot was to try and cover a little bit of the abject disbelief pounding through her thoughts.

Noah had actually done it.

He’d formed a fragment of divinity at Rank 6.

For only the briefest instant, Renewal had felt it. A brush of freezing cold song, coiling through her thoughts like a serpent. Then it had vanished. Not a single trace of its passing remained. But even its appearance had been so subtle that Renewal had barely noticed it. If she hadn’t been partially connected to Noah’s mind by the rune he’d stolen from her, she wouldn’t have been able to pick up on a thing.

“How is he hiding it so well?” Decras asked. “I was looking. Even without being in his soul, we’re connected. And it was there. For a tiny moment, it was there. But now I can’t feel it at all. I didn’t manage to get anything at all from this. I was hoping for at least a little inspiration.”

“I lost track of it as well,” Renewal said with a disappointed shake of her head. “I only felt it for a fraction of an instant. Then… nothing.”

“It just up and vanished,” Decras finished. His lips thinned. “It isn’t possible, Renewal. We can’t be tricked this easily. Not when we’re looking so close. That magic isn’t just buried in his soul somewhere. It’s actually one. How is a mortal somehow hiding a fragment of divinity from two gods?”

Renewal looked down at her now-empty lap. Then she looked back to the image of Noah standing in the arena, Mascot at his feet.

Her eyes narrowed.

Realization exploded through her.

“You little .”

“What?” Decras asked.

“Not you,” Renewal snapped. She thrust her finger at the screen, pointing at Mascot once more — but this time, for an entirely different purpose. “Him! The fucking cat!”

“What?” Decras asked again. “The cat? What does it have to do with—”

“How is Mascot there?” Renewal asked sharply. “He was so damaged that it should have been impossible to return to the mortal realm for years longer. And yet there he stands, and with more power in him than I’ve seen since he was my avatar. So how do you think that is?”

Decras blinked. He looked from Renewal to Mascot.

Then his eyes went wide.

“No,” Decras said. “You cannot be serious.”

“He ate the gods-damned excess power that came from Noah awakening his divinity,” Renewal said. “Look at him. That smug little fucker. He stole it. All the knowledge that we would have been able to use to gain inspiration from…”

“Your cat stole it,” Decras finished. His eye twitched. “I really, really hate that thing, Renewal. I’m going to throttle the life out of it when it ascends alongside Noah.”

Renewal just sank back into her cumulo with a groan, burying her face in her hands. “I can’t believe it. That crazy bastard actually manages to form divinity at Rank 6. Sure, it’s just a tiny piece, but he still manages it. And then my own avatar — that he stole from me — turns around and steals my chance to learn from the creation. Isn’t that too much? Am I being punished for something?”

Decras shook his head. “If we wring the divinity from the cat, we might be able to learn a bit from it.”

“We are not wringing the cat, Decras. You know it as well as I do,” Renewal grumbled. “I… damn it. I’m not giving up. We can’t just let Mascot steal all the inspiration. We’re going to have to get more creative.”

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“Creative,” Decras repeated. “What does that mean?”

“We’ll find a different way to peep into his soul while he’s making the next fragment of Divinity,” Renewal said simply. “We’ve got a good route. Even if it isn’t the most subtle right now… we can get stronger ourselves. Sneakier. Until we can watch without interfering.”

“You want to train,” Decras concluded. He arched an eyebrow. “Not on how to become more powerful, but on how to be a spying pervert.”

Renewal turned to stare at him.

“Did I stutter at some point during my proposal?”

Decras stared back for a second. There was absolutely no shame or embarrassment in the goddess’ features. She was serious. Dead serious.

“No. You did not.”

“Then yes. That is what I said.”

Decras nodded slowly. Then he rose from his cumulo, flicking his hand and banishing the image of Noah. He looked down to Renewal. “In that case, we had best get started. Who knows when he’ll manage to form his next fragment… but if we’re going to put the effort into actually training for this, then I don’t plan to miss it.”

***

Noah opened his eyes to the dull roar of the crowd above, a grin still lingering on his face. He was feeling pretty damn good about his new rune. Its power lingered at his fingertips, ready to leapt forth in case Kali was still fighting. Spider probably would have warned him if he was coming back into the middle of a fight — but it never hurt to be careful.

It quickly became very clear that his caution was unneeded.

Kali laid on the ground across the arena from him. The only sign that she was still alive was the faint rise and fall of her back. He couldn’t even see any sign of his own magic. It looked like Kali had just flung herself face-first into a wall a few times until she’d just straight up passed out.

No sooner than Noah had gotten a look at her did a pillar of yellow energy come crashing down from the sky to swallow the Rank 6 whole, leaving him standing alone in the arena.

“Damn,” Noah said. “What happened to her?”

There was a moment longer of stunned silence. Then Baun suddenly seemed to remember that he was, in fact, meant to be the announcer for the tournament.

“And there we have it!” Baun roared. “An incredible fight! I’m not entirely sure what happened in that fight myself, folks, but Spider has undoubtedly won! What a fascinating clash of magical power! How unfortunate for these two competitors to have met so early on in the tournament. Kali most certainly could have made it quite a bit farther… but such is the way life goes! I know I’ll be keeping quite the close eye on Spider from here on out.”

Noah paid Baun little mind. He was still enjoying the feeling of his newly made Rank 6 when an odd, rumbling noise from just below him caught his attention. It almost sounded like… purring.

He looked down.

Then he blinked.

“Mascot?” Noah whispered. He stared in disbelief for a second, his new rune completely forgotten. His mind ground to a complete halt. All he could do was stand there.

At Noah’s feet was a very familiar looking white cat currently in the process of licking its ass.

The row of spines running along his back was darker and redder than he remembered, and though energy churned within them in miniature storms, it wasn’t like there were multiple cats with this particular configuration. This particular cat was one of a kind.

And, as far as Noah knew, he was dead.

Mascot glanced up at him, not even pausing his task. His eyes smoldered like two angry coals suspended a pitch-black void that almost seemed to try and pull him into their depths. Only then did he pause his task to let out another purr.

“Holy fucking shit,” Noah said with a delighted laugh, reaching down and grabbing Mascot, who let out a yowl as Noah lifted him into the air. “You’re alive! You’re alive!”

Mascot squinted at him, as if to say,

“What happened to you?” Noah asked, pulling Mascot to his chest and giving the cat a hug. He didn’t dare squeeze too tight. It was clear that he was already pushing his luck and that Mascot was only tolerating his offending grasp momentarily, but he just couldn’t help himself. “I thought you died, Mascot. Where have you been?”

Mascot purred and licked him on the side of the cheek. That would have been a considerably more appreciated gesture had he not been licking his ass about a second ago. But, before Noah could think about that, Mascot smacked him in the face with a paw.

Evidently, he’d run out of tolerated holding-time.

Noah barely even cared. He held Mascot out before him again, his eyes narrowing. “Seriously. What happened to you? Are you okay?”

Mascot purred.

That was probably a yes.

“You better not vanish on me again,” Noah said. He shook his head. “I — damn. I seriously thought you were dead. I’m going to need a moment.”

A green portal buzzed to life behind Noah.

He glared at it.

“Seriously?”

Then he glanced up toward the cheering crowd. A grimace crossed his features. Sitting around here with Mascot probably wasn’t the best idea, especially considering people were waiting for the next fight to start. They could continue this back in their room.

“Okay, you little bugger,” Noah said with a chuckle as he plopped the cat on his shoulder and started toward the portal. “Come on. Let’s get you something to eat. I wish you could talk. I’d kill to know what you’ve been up to this whole time. Just who have you been terrorizing while you’ve been gone?”

And, even though Mascot didn’t say a word, Noah could have sworn he caught a glint of amusement in the cat’s eyes in response to his question.