Return of the Runebound Professor

Chapter 578: Hungry

The Damned Plains greeted Noah like an old friend. Cool air prickled against his skin as his body reformed upon an obsidian platform trimmed with gold amidst a void that stretched out as far as the eye could see.

Sticky had relented on the portal she’d been opening, allowing the magic to fade, and everyone had gathered around Sievan to stare at the rippling image contained between his palms.

The final strands of magic curled away from Noah as his body re-solidified within the Damned Plains. He didn’t even get a chance to say anything before Moxie drove into him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and spinning him around with a delighted laugh.

“You did it!” Moxie exclaimed. She set him back down and took a step back, the relief in her features so prominent that it may as well have been painted across her face. “Gods, I was so damn scared. I thought you would be too late.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Noah said with an exhausted laugh. All the adrenaline that had been pumping through his veins finally started to settle down, but there would be time to rest later. “Getting summoned was certainly a strange experience.”

“You make a very convincing demon,” Sievan said. He pressed his palms together and the image flickering within them collapsed into fragments of flickering energy. “That was… satisfying to watch. Well executed.”

“I was just doing what had to be done,” Noah said. He turned to Sticky and crouched so they were face to face. “I’m sorry for stressing you out while you were summoning that portal. It was unfair of me. You were doing great.”

“It’s okay,” Sticky said. She glanced down at the key. “You just wanted to save those people. I want to help people too.”

“You will,” Noah said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “You already have, actually. You’ll help every single demon.”

“Is that what you meant when you said you had to do something before you went back to the mortal realm?”

“Yeah.” He straightened back up and turned to Lee. “I think it’s about time we take care of things, Lee. You’ve been waiting for long enough.”

Lee met his gaze and gave him a small nod. He could tell that she was thinking something, but it didn’t look like she was about to voice her thoughts. It would have been hard to blame her. There was a lot riding on this.

If Noah’s theory was right, then Lee would be the first demon that they used Sticky’s rune to save. It was a monumental task, and it wouldn’t be exaggerating to say that the hopes of the entire demon race rested entirely on her back.

“I’m ready,” Lee said. She sat down on the platform, crossing her legs beneath her and placing her palms on her knees.

Noah sat down across from her. He set his grimoire down before him and flipped it open. Sticky’s Rune shimmered across its pages. For a moment, Noah stared down at the book. He’d missed exactly what had happened between Jakob and the book, but he’d seen the results.

There’s something in this book. One day soon, I’m going to have to have a real good talk with it and figure out just what the hell I’m working with. But, today, I don’t care what it is. It helped my students. That’s all that matters.

Noah tore his gaze away from the page and up to Lee. She swallowed, then gave him another firm nod.

“Let’s do this,” Noah said.

He extended his mind toward hers and unleashed Empty Proliferation.

The world crumpled around them both. The Damned Plains vanished as Noah plunged into Lee’s mindspace.

***

Thick, inky darkness swirled all around Noah. It twisted at his feet, threatening to swallow his body whole if he stood still for too long.

Before him floated a massive conglomeration of runes, still bound by Azel’s power. Viscous strands of soul-matter ran down from it and bound the rune deeply to Lee’s body. It was exactly as he remembered it.

Even though he had Sticky’s Rune to work with, this wasn’t going to be easy. Decras’ runes were ingrained into Lee’s from the core. The first step would tell him if the process was viable, but completely transitioning away from Decras would probably take weeks if Noah wanted to avoid killing Lee.

They’d have to slowly build up a replacement rune based off Sticky’s energy and then slowly cut out the other one once her new one grew strong enough to keep her soul afloat. It wasn’t the most efficient plan, but Noah hadn’t ironed out the kinks in his theory yet. He hadn’t even had a chance to properly test it.

He blew out a small breath, shoving the tension gripping his body into the back of his mind. There was no room for nerves now. He had to act. Lee was relying on him. With a thought, Noah traced the rune into the air. It floaded there, glistening with pure white light, prepared for Lee to call upon it.

It’ll work. It has to.

“You know, I always used to wonder what was wrong with me,” Lee’s voice said to his left.

He turned to find her standing beside him, looking away from the warped Rune floating in the center of her soul.

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That’s right. She can’t look in its direction without risking activating its power and weakening the seal Azel put on it.

Something about that struck Noah as profoundly sad. The more he learned about runes, the more he realize how closely integrated they — and the patterns they represented — were to life. That was true for humans and doubly true for demons. Not being able to look at such a core part of oneself was just wrong.

“There’s nothing wrong with you,” Noah said. “Everyone gets dealt a hand in life, and we all need help from time to time. I’m just giving you the tools that you should have had from the start.”

“Not that,” Lee said with a small shake of her head. “I meant before we knew about Decras and about his runes. Every demon consumes an emotion. And even if they don’t start consuming it before Rank 3, they still have an inclination. Aylin was always inquisitive. Violet was protective. But me… I could never figure out what it was that I wanted, so I wanted everything.”

Noah remained silent. Something told him this was a conversation where his role wasn’t to speak but to listen.

“I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about why,” Lee said, studying the palms of her hands. “Why every other demon knew what they wanted, but I just wanted. Why I couldn’t consume emotions like the rest of them could. It wasn’t because my runes were special. They weren’t worse or better than anyone else’s. So it wasn’t my runes. It was me that didn’t work.”

Noah frowned, but he kept himself from speaking. Lee wasn’t just saying this because she wanted to. There was a reason.

“I think I’ve known the answer for a long time. I just didn’t want to admit it,” Lee said. She lifted her gaze from her hands and turned toward Noah. “I know why Demons are the way they are. We feast on the concept that we feel we lack the most. The concept we’re the most scared of not having. After you told me what the Demon Rune really was, I figured it out. Decras was scared of failure, and that’s what my race was built on. We try to make up for what we lack by taking it from others and magnifying that concept until we’re nothing but that concept. But that must make you wonder why I couldn’t figure out what it is that I could consume.”

“It does,” Noah admitted. “But it sounds like you’ve figured it out.”

“I’ve always known,” Lee replied. Her hands clenched at her sides. “I just didn’t want to admit it. I’m the worst demon.”

“You don’t have to be anything you don’t want to be,” Noah said gently.

Lee shook her head. “That’s the problem. I’ve been avoiding what I want to be this whole time. I couldn’t consume any emotions because I want all of them. I’m scared, Noah. I don’t want to lose anything, and so I want everything. I can’t content myself with just a single aspect. I’m too greedy. I’m the worst of every demon.”

“There’s nothing wrong with not wanting to give up your other emotions to embody a single one. That’s just natural. When you consume the energy from Sticky’s Rune and use it to form a Fragment of Self, you can—”

“You don’t understand,” Lee said. A small smile tugged at the corners of her lips. “But that’s okay. You aren’t a greedy person. You could never understand how selfish or arrogant I am. I let you spend all that time worrying and trying to find a way to fix my Runes when I’ve known all along that I wouldn’t let you.”

Noah blinked. “What?”

“I liked the attention,” Lee said with a small smile. “But I’m too greedy to give up anything that belongs to me. Sticky’s Rune will probably work for everyone else. They only have a single emotion they fear losing — but I don’t want to let any of them go. I don’t want to be content.”

“I’m not sure I understand,” Noah said slowly. “You don’t want me to use Sticky’s Rune to help you fix yours?”

“That’s right,” Lee said.

Noah was silent for several long seconds. Then his features thinned. “I’m greedier than you think, Lee. I’m not going to let you stay like this. I won’t let your runes destroy you — even if I have to fight you to fix them. I won’t leave you behind.”

She let out a small giggle. “I’m not going to stay behind, Noah. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking. About me. About demons. About our runes and about patterns. And in the end… I just wanted you to be here.”

“To be here for what?” Noah asked, a flicker of unease building within him.

“To watch,” Lee replied. “Thanks for trying so hard to save me, but you pulled it off a long time ago. I don’t want Sticky’s rune. You’ve showed me so much ever since I got to the mortal plane. You and Moxie and everyone else — you showed me what it is to have a family. To be human. Now now I want to show you something.”

“Lee—”

“I want everything — and replacing my Demon Runes would change that. I don’t want to change. I want to be more. And that power can’t be given. It has to be taken,” Lee said. Her features set in determination. “I’m going to show you what it is to be a demon.”

Lee turned to look directly at the rune floating in the center of her soul. She extended a hand toward it and the rune lurched. The bindings that Azel had placed upon it snapped with loud cracks.

She extended a hand toward the rune and curled her fingers inward. Her soul rumbled. Power burned within the inky darkness surrounding them and the rune trembled as it shrank down, twisting in on itself until it was the size of her palm.

“Lee?” Noah asked. “What are you doing?”

“The same thing you did,” Lee replied. Horns tore free from her forehead, their ends glistening a brilliant blood red. The demon’s lips curled into a determined smile. “Making a Rune needs 3 components, and this is the inciting event.”

Her rune floated to hover before Lee, no larger than an apple. Power buzzed and crackled within it like a miniature storm. The rune did not like being crushed down. Lee plucked it from the air, arcs of energy burning across her palm as her grip tightened on it.

She bit down on the Rune.

It shattered. The strands binding it to her soul snapped and power exploded free, tearing through the darkness all around Lee. A wall of pressure slammed into Noah and launched him back, sending him skidding across the slick ground.

Thoughts and feelings mixed with the energy as it pulsed through the darkness. Fear and desire. For the briefest instant, it felt as if Noah had stepped into Lee’s very mind. A Demon was their Runes, and she had just spilled that energy everywhere.

Thousands of loud cracks echoed out. Cracks tore through Lee’s soul, sending an ocean of white light spilling into it.

“No!” Noah yelled. “You still need—”

And then the words died in his throat. Blood poured down Lee’s face and seams split all across her body as it came apart together with her soul, but her features had not lost an ounce of their determination.

The vast majority of power from the rune was still gathered in her mouth. Her eyes flicked to meet Noah’s.

Then she swallowed. Every scrap of power within the soul howled as it was ripped toward Lee. Claws pushed out from her fingertips as she carved lines into the air, drawing a pattern.

Noah’s back stiffened. All the fear and desire within Lee had formed into a thick miasma, but the stronger it grew, the more it felt odd. There was something strange about it.

Something familiar.

And just like that, Noah realized what Lee had done. She was using all the energy contained within her Rune to connect back to its source.

And in that moment, far in the darkest reaches of the universe, Decras’ eyes went wide.