[Warning]!
Rune(Pulse) 3 experiencing [Overload] through Pathway(3, 1). Explosion imminent in: 00:00:07
“Balance out your [Mana], Adrian, or you’ll figure out what kind of heat this [Circuit] has to offer you,” Charles half-shouted, doing his best to help the struggling assistant in holding the newly formed [Mana Matrix]. It was meant to be the patron translator but it wasn’t colored at the edges properly. That needed to be fixed or they’d have an abomination instead of a being soon enough. “Give it proper circles. Elongating them brings out the search too wide.”
Letting his hands roam in the air, small pulses of energy roamed the air as the floating circuit was settled into place. Minor adjustments were made in the moving process, a moment spared as it settled into the full [Circuit]. It was weeks in the making but they were getting closer.
Rune(Pulse) 3 has been stabilized.
Ongoing issues present in Rune(Synth, 4) 7, Rune(Light of Man) 7, and-
“Sires!” a guard shouted as they pushed the door to the enclosure open wide. Charles nearly flinched as he carried the [Mana] through another shape, a [Rune] forming within the palm of his hand as a replacement for the ones already placed on the floor. His mental calculations had made him think a [Tier 8] [Collection Rune] would work as a stabilizer in the right-centre but that was not the case. It needed something two [Tiers] higher if he sought anything close to perfection. “The outer walls have been destroyed. We’ve been found!”
Anything below perfection will just kill us all without giving anything back.
“Reinforce the middle floors as much as you can. Make sure you delay them for as long as possible,” Adrian stepped in to command when Charles said nothing, too focused on making the lines of the [Rune] perfectly. The guard nodded and closed the door behind him, the apprentice locking it to make sure nobody could get in easily.
The feeling of a scroll sitting on the side of his body became more present than it had in many months. They weren’t going to be able to keep it out of the enemy’s hands anymore.
They had no time to [Engrave] using the standard tool so doing it in the air was their only way of moving forward. By the looks of things, they would need to make three weeks of progress in the span of five minutes. If either of them even thought about having shaky hands now, everything would be lost. “Can we make this work in time, Master?”
“If you stop talking and start weaving me a set of [Tier 5] [Ignis Vortexes] so we can balance out the inner [Frost Circle], we might just make it,” Charles replied in quick fashion, looking over the intricately complicated system of [Runes]. The [Synthetic] connections were just barely holding on at the scale they were being made but they would still work. Barely within the limits but still. It only required a near-seamless round of connection points that left zero flaws. “And get me another [Tier 11] [Holy Patron Rune]. Give it a [Healing Intent] as well. We need to make sure the ongoing transfer doesn't flay the target without putting everything back together.”
“Won’t that destroy the mind, and-”
“We talked about this last week, Adrian. This is one of the many gambles,” Charles said, his pulse going up another notch as the roof shook by the slightest bit. Dust threatened to fall on the not-prepared [Rune Circuit], forcing him to delay his sub-project and blow it all away with an [Air Rune]. Any foreign matter would throw off the calculations too much. “As long as the [Mind Circuit] works, we can influence the [Personality Matrix] as we wish. Keep working.”
Screams of all kinds were heard outside in the hallway. Charles had thought it wise to flee from the surviving public strongholds of the [Rune-Crafters] and out here into the middle of nowhere. He’d been assured that there were few records of this arachnid facility but he wasn’t sure that was true anymore. The [Anti-Seer Runes] certainly hadn’t worked as they said it would. It had all been destroyed months before the expected date.
Then again. Mages are too powerful to be stopped easily. Those madmen are too determined.
[Warning]!
Rune(Summoning, 14) experiencing [Withdrawal]. Effectiveness dropping in: 00:00:42
As another hitch that needed to be fixed, was Charles was forced to increase the [Mana] being taken from his body. He had already been working on a negative, his inner [Regeneration] not able to keep up with what was being removed. It was fine, though. He had enough to give for now.
He slapped away his apprentice's attempt to do the same, however. Adrian couldn't handle that level of channelling yet. At least to a point where he would be able to think calmly during it.
“Keep working.”
The shaking dust from above brought clear hints about the fact that the middle layers of the underground [Facility] had been breached as well. Screams started to be heard through the iron door, shouts of pain following it along with a deadly silence. All were dying in an attempt to stop them from reaching the room.
They didn’t have much time.
Adrian’s set of [Tier 5] [Runes] settled perfectly into the current [Circuit], overriding the flawed versions and making Charles sigh in relief. They were getting closer to the finish. A shortcut had been made but it would still work. It could still work. Maybe he was just growing too hopeful.
The pounding on the iron door left the [Rune-Crafter]’s body shaking wildly, barely able to hold onto the [Rune] in his hand without destroying it. Eight decades of experience with the art was the only reason he and his apprentice weren't already dead.
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“We only need to balance out the [Mana-Flow] and then everything is finished,” Charles said. The pounding on the iron door was getting stronger, the enemy clearly finding it in their hearts to use much stronger tools than what he’d expected. Either that or a certain leader had figured to just use his fists. It was either or at this point. “Adrian, I need you to work on it while I-”
“We both know I would fail at that,” Adrian cut in before Charles could finish his order, the Master looking at the youthful face with sorrow. “Finish it on your own. I’ll try my best to hold them back.”
They had spent a decade together and yet more words than ever travelled between them through nothing but eye contact. Charles was unwilling to accept another apprentice’s death so lightly yet they both knew it had been coming the second they stepped inside here. They were the ones who had been carrying that accursed scroll in the vain hope that the enemy wouldn’t find them. The two of them were the last of a legacy that was going to be forgotten in mere minutes.
Getting back to work as the apprentice forced an endless stream of [Tier 5] [Reinforcement Runes] to settle onto the iron door, Charles forced his mind to enter the [Circuit]. There was a blockage at some of the connection points that were throttling the equal distribution. If that wasn't fixed, the [Circuit] wouldn’t be able to work for more than a day before exploding. He needed it to potentially work for decades. There was no telling when a fitting candidate would appear.
The iron door sounded like it was being shredded by the sharpest of nails but the [Master Rune-Crafter] tried not to listen to his apprentice's pain. It entered his ears whether he wanted it to or not, though, Adrian’s vocal cords being pushed to their maximum. The waves of power coming from the young man spoke of what could’ve been. Charles knew he had picked the right man to be his successor. It was a shame he would be the last to die between the two of them.
Where are you?
Going through thousands of connection points every second was showing nothing. Charles knew it had to be somewhere yet it was so perfectly hidden inside the maze of connections. [Synthetic Runes] were too annoying in that way, never showing their faults until the last minutes. They were deceivingly simple as their nature, though that was more because the [Rune-Crafters] of the past were the ones who’d created them. They couldn’t have expected them to be used for something like this.
Truthfully, nobody could have. Piercing the barrier between the infinite worlds of reality wasn’t something the average mind thought of every day.
“Found you,” Charles murmured as he finally caught the slightly off-centre connection inside the [Warlock Sub-Circuit]. The [Rule-Set of Demon Summoning] was needed for the entire set to work but the [Master Rune-Crafter] should have guessed that it would be one of the conceptual magics that nearly ruined them. Now it was just about cleaning up the mess without screwing with anything in the process.
That was easier said than done as the iron door was blasted open. Adrian was clearly able to fire off an initial barrage of [Force] through his [Rune-Work] but it mattered little. The initial wall of shields took the impact and the [Mages] behind fired off a collection of spells at a speed nobody could dodge.
Charles had to force himself to ignore the dying whispers of a good friend. The [Circuit] was the only important thing now, the [Rune-Crafter] not even looking at the enemy that entered the door behind him.
“Well… this is a sorry sight to look upon,” Draven commented, Charles not giving that tall monster of a man any hint of hearing him. He was so close to finishing, mere fractions of a hair-width away from the perfect placement. After this, everything would work perfectly. “Three years of siege upon your hidden castles to burn it to the ground and yet it only took me fifteen minutes to break into this place. Truthfully, I thought this was just another trick from that book of yours, Charles.”
A large hand gripped his shoulder, the [Rune-Crafter] feeling its firmness as a dagger entered through his ribcage and into his right lung. The twisting made blood gather fast, his breath forever caught. His vision was already starting to go black, his old body not made for this level of damage anymore.
I can’t stop now.
“What is… you truly thought you could finish a [Teleportation Rune] in time to escape? You old, demented fool,” Draven said, ripping off the scroll that had sat on the [Rune-Crafter]’s side for the past five years before throwing the old man down to the ground. Charles didn’t care, the enemy not spotting the [Circuit] for what it truly was. The final connection was nearly repaired. “You could have just given this to me, you know. I would have granted you all the riches in the world and so much more with time.”
“There will be no world if you use it,” Charles said, spitting blood in Draven’s direction. Some of it made it to his boots, surprising the [Rune-Crafter] more than it did the tyrant. “You’ll end all life.”
The final adjustments were almost done. It was only the old man’s shaky mind that was keeping it from finishing. One last detail and then he could activate it.
“Either you’re trying to scare me or you’re too stupid to realize what it is your old student created. She was a genius beyond anything else you old fools could ever imagine. We fished out the remains of her work from the oceans long ago, but this here is going to save us a decade of work,” Draven muttered, kicking Charles in his chest to remove all the saved-up air. He was almost dead right then and there, only his higher level letting him withstand the blow to a point. The tyrant didn’t waste time grabbing at the man’s grey beard, forcing Charles to look at him.“This is what I’m going to use to create the perfect being, Charles. I will make every person in my army perfect. Do you not wish for a country of immortals who will forever reign over the weaker minds? Can’t you see the same vision as me?”
That smile made it seem like the tyrant was making a case for his side. It was laughable, though the old man was no longer able to do as much. He couldn’t feel his body anymore, only [Mana] making it so his mind still worked.
“No, for I am not mad,” Charles whispered, his lungs not able to grant him more than that. Blood was starting to pool in his mouth, flowing onto the floor. He had to activate the [Circuit] soon or the liquid would interfere with it. “I would rather die than ever see you have it.”
“Then I suppose you get to die a slow death without anybody around to save you,” Draven surmised, giving the old man a final kick on the chest before leaving the room again. The [Mages] and [Warriors] followed him without question, the brain-washed soldiers not able to question their lord. Charles felt sympathy for them.
Their bodies were already damaged beyond recognition but the soon-to-come horrors would make the former seem like child’s play. Nearly all life on the continent would soon be gone.
But if this works, we can stop anything further from happening.
Since the start of the past year, he’d known that there was no chance of stopping Draven. That power-hungry [Human] wasn’t going to cease his goals until he had their secrets in the palm of his hand. He was the perfect version of an unrelenting tyrant.
And to combat it, Charles was going to grant him a force worthy of fighting. He was going to summon a mighty beast that would grow into a force that the world had never seen before. He was going to transform an otherworldly creature and force it into the role of a saviour.
Forcing his final bit of [Mana] into the [Activation Rune], he felt the [System] pop up with one final message.
[Reality-Fragmentation Matrix] has been activated!
Estimated time until [Matrix] finds target: N/A
Charles died with a smile on his face. There was still hope for this world.