Return of the Runebound Professor-Chapter 692: Shredding time

Decras leaned in toward the image shimmering before them, snapping his fingers and pointing with his other hand. Uncharacteristic delight washed over his angular features as he let out a loud, booming laugh. “Did you see that? Hah! I’m going to win the bet.”

“Don’t get too excited,” Renewal grumbled. She sat back into the soft, plushy clouds of her Cumulo and crossed her arms in front of her chest. “And it’s not fair. I thought you would be way less optimistic. Is this why you let me say my side of things first?”

“He who plays his cards last is liable to come first,” Decras said with a smug grin. “Shouldn’t you be happy, Renewal? This is your little pet. It is ill fitting for someone of your stature to be displeased about another’s success.”

“Stuff it,” Renewal said.

That might have been a bit beneath her, but there was no point in being a Goddess if she couldn’t be petty every once and a while. She and Decras had just gone out for what he called a training session. Renewal had thought that they would be meeting some of the other Gods within the Fallen — but it turned out Decras had other plans.

Decras had teleported them both right to a black void, in which he revealed that his idea of training was just starting one of the most brutal fights that Renewal had ever partaken in.

They’d ripped each other limb from limb and poured enough magic energy out into their surroundings to melt the better portion of a large continent. The pain from every blow she’d taken still echoed through her mind, as did the satisfying feeling of flesh shattering beneath her own fists. If anything had been present within their vicinity during the fight, it would have been reduced to atoms.

It had been incredible. Renewal hadn’t been able to let her power loose like that in thousands of years. The sheer damage it would have caused to the afterlife would have been astronomical. Expulsion from the Order would have been the least of her problems had Judgement gotten so much as a whiff of power like that.

But out here, in the farthest reaches of the universe, there was nothing for their magic to destroy. They could go all out.

Even though the fight had been short, it had shown Renewal more about the Fallen than any conversation ever could have. This was why they were so powerful. This was why she had been stagnating so much. Even though she’d been trying to push herself to grow stronger, there had been no growth to her strength in recent years.

Now Renewal knew why. Nobody could truly train and grow strong when they couldn’t use their powers to their fullest potential. Strength could not be claimed by tiptoeing along the treaded path.

And the Fallen knew that. If this was how they trained every single day, it was little wonder that Decras had become the monster that he was. Renewal also didn’t miss the fact that Decras had held back when they’d fought in the afterlife. The powers he’d used today would have torn her Well of Life asunder.

Getting me here was his plan all along. Sly bastard. It’s kind of flattering, though.

Renewal blew a strand of hair away from her face and scrunched her nose. Flattering or not, she was completely spent. The only thing she wanted to do right now was kick back and watch the mortals do their best to murder each other.

There was something so riveting about it. They were so free. So without restraint. It was ironic. Once one became a god, their freedom evaporated. Their actions were far more dangerous. They had to be restrained. Prevented from causing too much damage.

Or perhaps that was simply the order. The more time Renewal spent with Decras, the more she realized that her experiences in Godhood were far from what they could have been. The Order had stolen time from her.

There would come a time when she took that time back with interest.

But, until then, she was more than satisfied to watch Noah and his allies while snacking.

“I never said I was displeased about Noah’s success,” Renewal said, realizing she hadn’t answered Decras’ accusation. “I simply took a safe bet. Reaching Godhood in five hundred years would be a ridiculously safe bet, and I said he could do it in two hundred and fifty. How would I know you would just go and half it?”

“Should have played your cards closer to chest,” Decras said with a chuckle. He flicked his hand and the image on the screen rewound and zoomed in until Garina’s stunned expression, her eyes wide and lips parted in disbelief, filled it. He then pointed at Renewal. “That’ll be you when I win.”

“You’re making fun of your own subordinate. That’s just lame.”

“She’s my subordinate. I make the rules, and I say it’s a badge of honor to be respected enough to be made fun of,” Decras replied. He let his hand drop and time snapped back into motion on the image, whirring forward until it was back in the present time.

Garina still had the exact same expression on her face.

Renewal burst into laughter.

“That’s unfortunate,” Decras said, scratching his chin. “She must be happy thinking nobody’s watching her. Her ego would never recover if she knew the truth.”

“Some things are best kept a secret,” Renewal agreed as she got over her mirth. In truth, it was hard to blame Garina. Noah really was a treat to watch. He never failed to pull something new out of his ass. “Garina’s been holding back pretty well, though. Not bad at all. I would have thought she’d snap and kill him a whole lot earlier.”

“Not like it did her much good,” Decras drawled. “I don’t think he’s going to stop until he’s completely drained of energy.”

Noah had attacked once more. He and Garina danced around the clearing, exchanging a flurry of blows. The Rank 7 was no longer restraining her strikes as much as she had been. Each blow hit with enough force to shatter limbs and rip through flesh — but Noah pressed through them like a furious zombie.

An axe kick carved his left arm clean off, but Garina’s expression immediately after the strike told Renewal that the mere contact with Noah’s body had been enough for him to send his power tearing into Garina’s soul.

“I wish Garina hadn’t killed him,” Renewal said with a sigh. “Imagine how powerful this would have been if he’d had full access to his runes.”

“It’s probably for the best she did,” Decras replied. “There’s such a thing as too many options. She’s forced him to focus entirely on his pattern and his full merge. Having the runes to add into the mix would only give him distractions. I get the feeling he’s going to remember quite a bit of this.”

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Renewal just shook her head. She still remembered the first time she’d truly become one with herself. The experience had not been an enjoyable one, but it rarely was — and it was one of the earliest and most important steps that shaped the path to godhood. The way it went determined much of one’s future… and Noah was looking very promising.

“What’s the longest time you know of a first full merge lasting?” Renewal asked.

“An hour,” Decras replied. “And that was by one of the most powerful gods I’ve ever met. I’d imagine there are some whose first merges lasted even longer, but I don’t know of them.”

Renewal nodded slowly. Her own experience had lasted just over thirty minutes. And by her count, Noah was already nearing forty-five. It was inaccurate to say that this was a complete predictor of a god’s strength, but there was definitely some correlation. Truly understanding oneself was an enormous part of godhood for more reasons than any mortal could ever realize.

Noah died again.

Garina had taken his head clean off with a spinning kick. Despite her surprise, she’d certainly taken Noah’s request seriously. She wasn’t holding back nearly as much as she had been before.

I really didn’t think she’d be a good teacher. Maybe I looked down on her too much. I’ll have to keep a closer eye on Garina in the future. She’s far more than a snarling dog on a leash. She might even be able to achieve Godhood herself.

Renewal had no plans of admitting that to Decras. He was already smug enough about his Apostles. There was no reason to pad his ego any further.

As they watched, Noah’s body re-materialized beside his gourd. He was moving before the black smoke had even finished dissipating, lurching up toward Garina and sprinting in her direction like an enraged animal.

The fight was far from over.

Renewal and Decras fell silent as they watched.

Time was a strange concept to a god. What had once been life’s greatest motivator was now nothing more than a distant ticking. Age meant nothing. Years could slip by like grains of sand.

But, today, two gods counted every single second that passed.

And pass they did.

“Is he… recovering from his deaths faster?” Renewal asked with a frown. “I swear it normally took him longer to get back up after he reformed.”

“Seems that way,” Decras said. “Fascinating, isn’t it? My rune is incredible.”

“His mind would have shattered a long time ago if not for mine,” Renewal countered. “Do you think he’d be training like this if he didn’t know he could put his soul back together with just a few thoughts?"

"Yes."

Renewal raised a finger. Then she let it lower. Her eyes narrowed. “Fine. But he wouldn’t be able to do nearly as much. There’s a lot that can be said for having no limits to how far you can push yourself.”

“Also my rune. Look at him and tell me he’s got limits to his potential. That crazed mortal might be the worst enemy you could possibly make on the that little world. There isn’t a single other being other than Sievan who can evade the cluches of death.”

“And certainly none who do it quite so… freely,” Renewal muttered, trying not to look too hard anywhere below Noah’s chest. He really needed to find a way to manifest some clothes when he came back to life.

Seconds continued to tick by in Renewal’s mind. Goosebumps prickled against the back of her scalp. Their cold fingers brushed across her arms and trailed up to her shoulders. The fight had been going on for 58 minutes and 32 seconds.

Noah should have run out of magic twice over by now. He was clearly getting weaker. His moves were coming slower and the power burning behind his eyes had finally started to fade… but he was still going. Garina had far more reserves to draw on than he did, but she couldn’t go on forever when she was holding back like this.

Fighting while trying not to completely obliterate your opponent was, in some ways, much more difficult than just going all out. She’d noticed that Noah was slowing and reduced the intensity of her own attacks as well, clearly trying to let him squeeze every last scrap of training he could out before his first merge ended.

Seconds dragged by. Renewal didn’t even dare breathe.

59 minutes.

Noah swayed. The crackling storm in his eyes sputtered like a dying candle. He was almost completely spent. Arcs of Chaos magic slithered across his body before slipping back into his skin. The air around him and Garina was so soaked with magical power that they were basically breathing it.

59 minutes and 10 seconds.

Garina and Noah exchanged another round of blows. Noah’s punch missed Garina; her kick slammed into his side.

He staggered.

Fell to one knee.

Drove a hand into the ground.

59 minutes and 15 seconds.

For a second, Noah remained there.

Garina hesitated.

And he rose. His fingers flexed at his sides. His gaze bore into Garina, unflinching despite his battered and exhausted body and soul.

59 minutes and 35 seconds.

Decras leaned forward. Neither of them spoke anymore. They were both too focused on the time.

Noah staggered toward. A step turned into another. A walk turned to a run, and the run to a sprint.

He lunged at Garina.

She stepped to the side, letting him pass her by harmlessly. Her foot carved down through the air toward his back. Noah twisted, somehow managing to avoid the strike in what should have been a near-impossible display of acrobatics.

He hit the ground in a bouncing roll and skidded to a stop. His hand drove down into the ground and he forced himself back up. The light behind his eyes sputtered. Consciousness clung to his body by a fraying thread.

59 minutes and 50 seconds.

Noah swayed.

He and Garina stared at each other for a long second. An arc of red energy danced across his shoulders and raced down his arms.

Then the light in his eyes sputtered out. No thought remained behind them.

Noah’s body still stood, but his consciousnesses had finally given in.

Garina’s shoulders fell. She blew out a relieved breath as she realized the same thing that Renewal and Decras did.

“He’s down,” Decras breathed. “I’ll be. What an incredible run. But to fall so close to an hour…”

59 minutes and 55 seconds.

“What a fight,” Garina whispered, wiping blood from the side of her lip. “I’ve haven’t been pushed like that in a training session since the Prophet last fought me, and certainly never by someone of your rank.”

The Apostlee approached Noah. The Apostle’s eyes were full of respect — which was probably why they remained firmly fixed at above his neck level.

And that was probably what saved her.

His eyes, still white and without thought, crackled with one final spark of dying black lightning. Noah’s body blurred into motion.

He exploded forward, diving for Garina and reaching for her shoulder.

The Apostle lurched back. She twisted away from Noah’s grasping fingers, just barely managing to avoid them as they streaked by her.

Noah pitched forward and hit the ground with a thump — and the grass that his fingers brushed by on their way to the dirt disappeared.

But perhaps disappeared was the wrong word for it.

All living things had energy within them. That energy still remained exactly where it had been moments before — but the physical form of the grass was nowhere to be seen.

It had been ripped apart. The grass had been shredded all the way down to its most core components. Even if the grass had been powerful enough to possess a rune, even that too would have been ripped apart.

Nothing whatsoever remained of the living materials that had come into contact with Noah’s hand. They had been completely and utterly unmade.

Only then did Noah truly fall still.

Renewal had stopped counting the exact seconds, but she knew one thing for certain. If only just barely, more than 60 mintutes had passed.

“What the fuck?” Garina breathed, staring down at Noah’s still body.

And, far in the deepest reaches of the universe, two rather voyeuristic gods asked the exact same thing.