Noah was getting pretty familiar with splitting and re-combining runes. He was pretty sure it wouldn’t have been arrogant to claim that he might have been the expert in it. Sure, there were people that had a hell of a lot more experience combining runes than he did. But that wasn’t quite the same.

Combining a whole new set of runes was a tangentially different task to splitting an existing one apart and then sticking it back together in a new way. Runes, by nature, were rather unique. Intent carried such a large part of their power. Being able to work with the same runes went a very long way in making it a whole lot easier to stick them back together so long as Noah had a goal for what he was doing.

That, in his mind, made him an expert on the subject.

It helped that he was pretty sure there wasn’t a single other person in the Arbalest Empire capable of splitting a rune apart without just completely shattering it. There was a whole lot less competition for the title of expert when he was the only one in the running.

But, competition or not, Noah set about repairing his now-shattered Keystone Rune with the calm determination of a man who had done this hundreds of times.

He knew its purpose well. Garina had helped push that understanding even farther. His brief fight with Og had too, though Noah had no plans of admitting it to the asshole. Chaos was far more than just blasting a laser that disintegrated things.

It was destabilization. The denial of the natural order. A complete and utter lack of a pattern to such a degree that it actually wrapped back around to being a pattern in itself. There was only one major question Noah still hadn’t found an answer to about Unstable Pandemonium.

He’d never actually put chaos magic into the rune himself. Not one of its constituents had chaos anywhere in the name. But that question was almost an answer. Because, if the chaos hadn’t come from the runes, then it had come from his intent.

Just how far does Intent influence a rune? I don’t know what chaos really is. It’s not an element. That, at least, is certain. But neither is gravity or space. They’re concepts, I guess. But does that mean you can straight up create a concept for a rune without actually having it as a constituent, so long as you can see a path toward it from the parts you’re sticking together?

What if you’re a complete and utter moron? If I was completely and utterly convinced that seven Fire Runes would come together to create an Ice Rune, would my intent actually be enough to make that happen?

Noah had no idea. The thought did amuse him, though. Nothing he knew about runes actually implied that intelligence played a factor in their creation. It was all about intent and the parts you had to work with. He couldn’t test his theory because he himself didn’t believe that seven Fire Runes could ever make an ice one… but that didn’t mean he couldn’t inadvertently be applying his own lack of understanding to his own creations.

Better not think about it too hard right now. I’ve got a Chaos Rune to re-create… and I know exactly where I went wrong.

Chaos was uncontrolled. That much Noah knew to be true. It wasn’t a magic that could be harnessed or restrained. Unstable Pandemonium had just been targeting chaos as a whole, and that concept was far, far too large for a Rank 5 rune. The concept was positively enormous. Possibly one of the largest ones in the universe. It was probably too big for a Rank 7.

It couldn’t be controlled… but it could be directed. A little bit of focused chaos was something that Noah had managed to pull off, even with the limitations of the less than perfect rune he’d been working with.

He could work his way up to the bigger stuff as he advanced through the ranks even further. For the time being, Noah knew exactly what he needed. He pulled the pieces of Unstable Pandemonium through the air, adjusting his intent to ensure it was as focused as possible as he lined them up.

Noah didn’t have any reason to rush things. He really didn’t want to screw up the combination and have to Sunder it a second time. There wouldn’t be any time for him to call on the Fragment of Renewal again before the upcoming trip to meet the Inquisitors.

That wasn’t to say he moved slowly. Noah simply moved with intention. He gathered his intent and focused it, bringing the seven Rank 4 Runes that had composed Unstable Pandemonium back together before him.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The edges of the runes overlapped. Power buzzed through Noah’s soul as the swirling energy left-over from the Rank 5 Rune swirled all around him in an angry mist. He gathered that too, not letting any magic go to waste. Every single bit of it was useful.

Then he clapped his hands together with a snarl.

Brilliant white tore through Noah’s soul. He reflexively closed his eyes, keeping himself from being blinded, as a wave of pressure slammed into his chest like a hammer. It drove into his lungs and pressed down on his shoulders.

A younger version of Noah might have stumbled or fallen to his knees. But Noah had experienced this enough times to have prepared for it. He simply skidded a foot back, his teeth gritting as he fought to keep his balance.

And then the light faded. The pressure on Noah’s chest let up and his breathing came as easily as it always had. He’d formed his new rune. All that remained to see was if his intent had been correct.

Noah let his eyes open to gaze upon his newly completed creation.

Unraveling Disruption

It was perfect. Noah could tell by a glance. The newly created Rank 5 Rune wove in and out of itself, seemingly split apart by its own jagged lines and yet still entirely whole. Arcs of red energy twisted along its dark form like slithering snakes and pressure rolled out from the new rune in powerful waves.

The excess energy from its previous iteration left Unraveling Disruption at just over halfway full. It had lost a pretty significant amount of fullness in its re-creation… but he’d also stuffed it full of the excess magic that he’d gathered.

“The real question is if you’re perfect… or flawless,” Noah said to himself.

He extended a hand to the rune, calling it to himself and drawing power into his body. The pressure from the newly created Rank 5 remained perfectly constant. Even as magic poured through him and scaled his veins, Unraveling Disruption didn’t so much as flicker in its output.

A grin split Noah’s lips.

His hand dropped and he took a step back, letting the rune float back to its proper place in his soul, equidistant from the other Rank 5 Runes that he’d liberated from the Apostles.

Unraveling Disruption was a Flawless Rune.

A disaster rune, at that. And he didn’t think that calling this a disaster was a stretch in the slightest. Disruption could do a hell of a lot of damage. Disrupting a country’s supply line would do a hell of a lot more damage than any tornado ever could.

Perhaps someone else would have disagreed. It was certainly a creative take on exactly what constituted a disaster. But the higher up he got in the runes, the more that would be necessary. Noah didn’t even want to think about what kind of disaster a Rank 7 Rune would require. In the end, his own intent was all that mattered. He saw it as a disaster — and that meant the runes would as well.

Maybe my theory about a sheer dumb idiot actually being able to create runes with the least restrictions might actually be correct.

Noah’s efforts had left some soul damage. Cracks that the Fragment of Renewal had been working to heal still remained. Shattering his Keystone Rune wasn’t exactly the best way to heal… but the pain wasn’t too bad. It was more than manageable.

“A worthy trade,” Noah decreed. He rubbed his hands together in delight. The idea of having to wait to test his new rune out was actually a little painful… but it wouldn’t be long. If Fuyin still planned to follow through on her promise, then she’d be showing up any moment.

Maybe I should head back so I’m not passed out on Moxie’s bed if she does show up.

He paused for a moment. His eyes flicked to Astral Ruin. The other Rank 5 Rune was still floating there innocently. A large portion of him wanted to slice it apart and see how it worked. The name was certainly grand.

I just can’t see how a Rank 5 could flawlessly represent the fucking sky collapsing. Maybe it’s more like astral body ruin? But even that is way too big for a Rank 5. I’m not going around destroying planets with it. Is it possible to make a flawless rune that just can’t do what it says? Or is someone else’s idea of astral completely different than mine? Maybe this means ruin from the astral bodies. That could make more sense. Calling down stars and shit. Still a stretch, but more reasonable.

Noah shook his head. He just wasn’t sure. No matter how tempting it was to split the rune apart, it was still seemingly Flawless. And not just that. This was a rune from outside the empire. Maybe something special had gone into creating it. The best thing he could do right now was leave Astral Ruin exactly as it was and try to test it out to see what he could glean from it. He could always imbue a portion of it away and carve that up into little bits later.

Taking one last look over his soul, a smile crossed over Noah’s lips. Even though he wasn’t going to be keeping all of these runes, he was now well over halfway to Rank 6 holding exclusively Flawless Runes.

A sobering thought struck him.

All the power he had… Father was well beyond it. The Night’s Shadow was well beyond it. He couldn’t even comprehend the powers that rested outside the Arbalest Empire, but he was going to need to if he wanted to protect everyone.

Rank 6 isn’t the final goal. It’s just the next step.

Noah blew out a breath. His eyes narrowed in determination. Then he let his mindspace fall away. He wasn’t going to waste this momentum. There were some Inquisitors kindly holding onto some runes for him.

It was time to pay them a visit.