Return of the Runebound Professor - Chapter 759 (Patreon)

Familiar darkness spun out in every direction around Spider. The near-endless expanse of his soul knit itself into being like a tapestry beneath his feet. It stretched to cover the stars and muted out everything but the memory of the world that had once been.

The magic was gone. Father’s domain was gone. Jalen and Garina were gone. Not even Noah’s runes materialized within this part of the soul. It was too deep.  There was no sound nor light nor wind present.

Here was only darkness.

Darkness, Spider, and Father.

The other man stood across from Spider, his features carved from still stone and eyes reverted back to their flat, expressionless pools. He watched Spider in silence as his magic squirmed all around him in search.

Father wouldn’t allow himself to move before he understood the situation. Before he figured out how some mere lowly Rank 5 had managed to pull him all the way into the depths of his soul. After all, Father was a Rank 7. They both knew that something had to be awry from the standard for him to be here.

And deviations from expectation were the one thing Father couldn’t tolerate. They were a crack in his carefully laid plans. One that had to be approached with utmost caution.

“Who are you?” Father asked.

“Wrong question,” Spider replied.

Caution may have bound Father in its chains, but danger similarly bound Spider. The entity he’d brought into this mindspace was far greater than any he’d attempted to contain before.

Strain burned at the edges of his frayed existence. Bright white light pushed against the walls of shadow. It remembered the damage that Renewal’s Prophet had fixed, and it knew just as well as he did that it would only be so long before that temporary lease on life crumbled to nothing.

The more he pulled on his powers, the more the veneer she’d applied would fade and the damage would resurface. That wouldn’t have been much of a problem in pretty much any other situation. There were few entities capable of damaging Spider’s soul to this degree with their presence alone.

Unfortunately, Father was one of them. Even if Spider tried to pull him into the memories of the Line, he didn’t have enough power as he was now to keep the other man trapped within it.

“You’ve changed again,” Father said. His eyes narrowed. “Perhaps my question should have been… what are you? Certainly not a demon. Not any manner of monster I’ve come into contact with before, but not human either. Something else entirely? You don’t even feel the same as the man I spoke to a moment ago.”

“I have already answered that question. I would expect one of your stature to be less obnoxious with repeated questions,” Spider replied. “I am the mountain.”

Father extended his hand toward Spider.

Nothing happened.

His eyes narrowed further still.

A pang of pain drove into the back of Spider’s mind. He paid it no mind, but that did nothing to stop the tremor from passing through the darkness in the distance. Father’s soul shifted as he tried to adjust its shape into one that would allow him to slip free of Spider’s grasp.

Spikes of essence drove into Spider’s existence, each one searing like hot iron.

It was nothing in comparison to eternity. But even his soul couldn’t withstand this manner of damage forever. The cracks would eventually split open. And, when they did, it would all be over.

“You can’t hold me forever,” Father said. “Our minds move far faster than our bodies. What is it that you hope to accomplish? It will only be a few instants in the real world before I escape. Or will you try to eclipse me with the superior weight of your soul? Yours is larger than mine, I admit. But size is far from everything.”

Thoughts flashed through Spider’s mind. Theories. Strategies. Hopes. Every single one of them failed. A cold dread set in as realization solidified itself. Father was too powerful. Even the slightest mistake would be enough to give him a way out.

And Spider couldn’t afford that.

Is this truly the only option left available to me? The only way to protect my sparks?

“I don’t understand one thing about you,” Spider said. “I would have thought that someone with plans as carefully laid as yours would have found a better path to power than sitting in a prison of your own making for hundreds of years. Why would you do it?”

Father’s lips pulled into the faintest hint of a smile.

Then he clapped his hands together. His soul slipped free of Spider’s mental grasp like an oiled snake and struck in an instant. Spider’s mind grabbed at it again, binding the powerful soul once more. It was too late.

A ringing crack echoed through the darkness. The ground at their feet shattered like broken glass, raining down around Spider and Father as they dropped through the floor.

More darkness rushed up an instant later to reform beneath them, but the damage had been done. A searing pain still lingered in Spider’s soul where Father had struck it.

“Ah,” Father said. “There we go. You’re an enigma, Vermil. Spider. Whatever you wish to be called. You have power. More than anyone of your stature should even dream of possessing. But you lack the proper training. You don’t know what you’re doing. It’s almost as if you learned how to wield your soul last week.”

“I did,” Spider said. He drove his mind forward in a spike toward Father’s soul, but it rang off harmlessly. Father’s soul may have been smaller, but he’d been preparing his mental defenses for gods knew how long. Father wasn’t wrong. Raw power could only go so far.

Father snapped his fingers.

Another layer of Spider’s soul shattered. The ground dropped out beneath them once more. Spider slammed his soul back together, knitting the broken parts in an instant, but they fell several feet before he could finish the repairs.

“Mm. Garina must have been desperate,” Father said. He clicked his tongue. “You must realize that you’ve already lost. You should have killed yourself. It would have brought you back to that gourd of yours where your life force is bound. You would have survived. Why throw your life away?”

“You’re the expert on that,” Spider replied.

Father let out a bark of cold laughter. “You really believe that? I suppose you were never the cleverest.”

“The Long Night is shattered,” Spider said. “You lost a long time ago, Father. This is just finishing the job.”

Father’s lips curled into a smile. He snapped his fingers again. His soul slipped free from the power binding it once more. It formed into a blade, carving deep into Spider’s core. Spider’s teeth clenched as Father’s soul sliced through the darkness and the ground dropped out from beneath them once again.

A hiss of pain slipped from Spider’s lips as he grabbed at the darkness around him with his mind and drove it back together. He and Father both slammed to a stop, but the pain didn’t relent.

Every strike Father made came faster. Even as Spider re-bound Father’s core in an attempt to keep him from escaping again, he knew it wouldn’t last. The man was a professional weasel. Spider just didn’t have the experience to hold him down.

“You, of everyone I have fought, deserve a measure of respect,” Father said. “To stand at such a level when you’re a Rank 5… were you at my rank, I do believe you might actually have been able to defeat me. I am not afraid to admit that.”

His soul jerked free of its containment again. It exploded out like the blades of a saw whirring to life even as Spider tried to bind it back down. Searing flashes of white cut through the darkness. The world around them lurched, and then they were both falling.

The ground reformed. Spider slammed down on his back, cracks of glistening white twisting overhead as his mind throbbed. Father was bringing them closer to his core. He was carving layer after layer of Spider’s defenses away like they were nothing more than cobwebs.

“You’re ignoring the fact that the Long Night is gone. No words can change that,” Spider growled, staggering to his feet. Father didn’t bother stopping him with either magic or physical might. They both knew there was no point.

There was only one manner of strength that mattered here, and it was the might of their souls. Anything else was just a distraction.

“You are correct. You have inconvenienced me immensely,” Father said calmly. “My plans have been delayed far more than I would have liked. But the power stored within the Night’s Shadow will still be mine. Do you really think the key to the cage was my ultimate goal when the real power lies within the prison itself? The Night’s Shadow is the true goal. It is a bastion of Order within this accursed world — one that I will harvest once I have finished with you.”

So that was his goal.

“You think the Prophet will allow you to? That opportunity vanished the moment the Night’s Shadow escaped Arbalest.”

Spider stumbled as the world jerked, falling out from beneath him again. He managed to pull things back together, but time was running out and they both knew it. Father was nearing the core.

Their time was just about up.

Father inclined his head. “The Prophet will defeat the Night’s Shadow. But she will not take what I need from within it. That will remain. But I believe we’ve run out of time, Spider. It’s been a pleasure. I wonder what I’ll find at the center of your being. You never did say what you truly were.”

Then Father broke the final layer of Spider’s defenses.

The darkness shattered.

Spider bowed his head as the crack echoed through his soul like rolling thunder. He fell to his knees. There was nothing more he could do.

Brilliant lines of gold exploded through the darkness like branches of forked lightning. They sliced into being in an instant, carving themselves beneath Spider and Father with such certainty that not even a god could have denied their existence. They were so intense that everything in their presence felt like nothing more than a lie.

Spider’s soul rumbled. Power flooded through it in waves of brilliant golden pressure that slammed into both him and Father relentlessly.

And then the Line, in all its horrible majesty, pulled away.  

Father’s lips parted as he stared down, hands raised before his face as he formed his soul into a desperate shield. He bore silent, disbelieving witness as the pathways receded. Then he took a pointless step back.

“A pattern?” Father breathed. “What is this?”

“What you wanted to find,” Spider replied.

Staring up from below was an eye of pure gold, and the Line was nothing more than the veins running throughout it. The eye seemed to look right past them, entirely unaware of their presence, as if staring off into eternity. Shadows dripped from its corners like a river of tears to flow into the enormous sea darkness all around it.

Dread swallowed Spider. There was nothing more that could be done.  

It’s over.

“What are you talking about?” Father whispered. He drew desperately on his soul, but it was far too late.

It was too late for all of them.

A shudder passed through the eye. Then it blinked. The flow of its shadowy tears stopped. The final walls of Spider’s self-imposed prison crumbled and fell away, too damaged to remain in place any longer. There was nothing left to keep all the memories bound away. Nothing left to protect Noah from himself. Nothing left to protect any of them.

There was no escape. No way to avoid the memories. No way for Father to shape his soul or hide, because there was no part of Noah’s soul that was spared from himself.

After millennia upon millennia of waiting, Noah Vines’ soul — along with everyone within it — was given no choice but to remember.