Rune Seeker

“Seeyela!” Hiral shouted as the beam scoured the city in their direction. Almost in slow motion to Hiral’s senses, the beam annihilated everything in its path, the ground beneath it vanishing even though it wasn’t directly hit. Like ambient heat around the core of intermingled black and white. Further out from that, in the wake of the rushing attack, rubble the size of houses lifted into the air, only to get incinerated down to nothingness almost instantly.

The sound of it all wasn’t loud, but it was everywhere. It drowned out everything else, like a white noise so absolute, it was impossible to even imagine any other sound existing at the same time.

Worst of all, even though Hiral felt like he could watch the beam rush at him inch-by-inch, that was only because he’d instinctively activated his time runes, along with his high Atn. As soon as he released his runes, the beam would almost be on top of them.

There simply wasn’t time to move the group – not anywhere safe at least – so, there was only one thing they could really do, and that was try and stop the attack. As Hiral cut his runes, he and the woman he’d called out to darted forward with solar energy surging within each of their bodies. She’d realized the same thing he had.

Bamf, and Seeyela appeared a hundred feet above and in front of the group, a sheet of black unfurling beneath her.

“It’ll be too much,” she had time to say before the blast reached her portal.

Overwhelming energy met an insatiable greed to swallow that energy, and much to Hiral’s surprise, the curtain directly in front of him held. Waves of the terrible power vanished as Seeyela’s advanced-class ability gulped down the beam attack for two, long seconds.

Then, to his horror, the edges began to fray, while cracks spread through the strange ‘backside’ of the portal.

It’s not going to hold.

At the thought of the people behind him, Hiral’s pseudo-aspect flared, small veins of black spreading out from the Edict-connected runes.

But, I will.

Hands snapping up in front of him like he’d physically hold the beam back if he had to, the Ring of Amin Thett at his back shattered and reformed atop his head as the Crown of Amin Thett. Solar energy roared through his channels, breaking apart into dozens of separate streams to move more easily, and threaded their way to almost every corner of his body. In his sensory domain, black lines ran from his eyes, reaching to meet his Runes of Dreaming and Connection, but he held them back.

The partial Rune of Eclipse he commanded wouldn’t be enough to stop this – it was too impossible – and the loss of control over his solar energy would be a death sentence for everybody. No, he’d borrow a hint of its power – when he needed it – but that time wasn’t yet.

His time runes had engaged by themselves again – an instinct like holding his breath when he dove underwater – and Hiral called on the power of his runes and Edicts. The beam in front of him – the one breaking down a damn portal – was just energy. A terribly inconvenient amount of energy, yes, but just energy. And he could handle energy.

Runes and Edicts came to his call, one after the other, and he focused them into the point between the horns of his Crown of Amin Thett. Of course, the Rune of Energy came first, coupled with Decrease to try and make what would hit him more manageable. Knowing stopping the beam probably wasn’t possible, though, Hiral twisted runes into the second part of his plan.

First came the Runes of Attraction, Absorption and Compression. He’d used the Crown’s ability to suck in energy in the past, and he planned on making full use of that here as well. Dreaming and Breaking would help dull the damaging intent of the beam coming his way, and make it more digestible to his Crown. From there, Sealing would help prevent spillover that could rip him apart, and a little bit of Restoration for what he couldn’t catch. Expansion did what its named implied, expanding the area of where his Crown would pull on the energy.

A spark, like the seed of a tiny star, spiraled between his horns, his hands coming up to cup it. Eight more spectra arms sprung from his back as he activated Hundred Handed+, and those hands joined his own. The palms of each glowed with runic power, while around him, the Edicts took shape in his vision. Forming a circle in front of him – even though he couldn’t use all of them for this – they took the shape of the shield that would meet the beam. The funnel that would pull the energy into his Crown. With that done, he was ready.

Well, at least as ready as he could be.

The only question was whether it would be enough or not.

Letting go of his time runes, he was about to find out.

In front of him, the portal finally gave out, the whole thing shattering like broken glass containing hints of Gravity within the shards as they fell before the beam. Another heartbeat, and the beam reached Hiral’s Edict-wall. As nearly absolute rules, the Edicts themselves were in no danger from the destructive force of the beam, and it was entirely up to Hiral’s own power whether or not he’d survive what came next.

As soon as the 0M3G4 W34P0N’s attack met the barrier, the sheer magnitude of it washed across Hiral, even as his runic cocktail sought to break it down. Tomorrow really had managed to artificially create something like Yanily’s Dragon Breath or his own Annihilation of Amin Thett through a construct. Fragments of how the energy was combined, built, and projected tickled his senses, bringing inspiration with them.

Not that he had time to be inspired, with the blast currently trying to erase him from existence.

Within the first second of contact – the leading morsels of black and white energy transforming into a whirlpool to funnel into his crown – he knew he was out of his depth. His plan was good, it could work, except he could feel his process getting overwhelmed. He couldn’t transform all the energy fast enough, and his Edict-wall was getting physically pushed in his direction. From fifteen feet in front of him, down to fourteen, thirteen, twelve… he was losing ground so quicky, it wouldn’t even be seconds before it reached him. Before it ended him. And all the people counting on him.

What could he do?

The Crown was handling its part of the deal, transforming the energy that reached it happily, its own ball of power condensing like a birthing star. The problem lay in getting that energy to the Crown in a form it could devour. He’d succeeded in attracting it all – partly by standing directly in front of it – and, now that he looked at it, even at the transformation phase.

No, the problem was his rate of absorption. Basically, his funnel was too small for the volume coming his way. Even as he realized that – the Edict-wall now only eight-feet from him – pain tore along his body as the edges of him began to degrade. The Second-Skin of Amin Thett was doing what it could to protect him, along with his pseudo-aspect, but the splash-energy that wasn’t going into his funnel was breaking down his flesh.

And it hurt.

The shock of it cost him another foot in distraction, and he pulled lightly on the Rune of Eclipse to hold his own body together. It didn’t completely allow him to ignore the pain, but it did dim it a bit. Enough he could focus entirely on the devastation waiting for him. On the fact he didn’t have a solution for his problem.

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What was the issue? Why was some of the plan working flawlessly, while this other part wasn’t up to the task? The energy transformation was fine. The connection to pull it into the Crown seemed to be perfect. He was reducing the energy to a generally acceptable level… but the… the problem was the absorption.

That’s it. The parts of the process that were working had Edicts directly supporting them. The Edicts of Energy, Connection, and Decrease. He didn’t have the Edict of Absorption, though, and that was why his funnel wasn’t up to the task. He wasn’t A-Rank, even with something like Aim High, and he was straight-up being overpowered without the Edicts’ support.

Four feet in front of him, the Edict-wall churned with energy, but Hiral took his mind from it and turned it inward to the node lying inside his Rune of Absorption. While he’d had the rune itself for a long time, it wasn’t one of his most used. It had been more passive than anything, due to the complications of directly absorbing things. A few bad experiences – namely some Ghost-WebVenom – had probably made him more hesitant to use it than he should’ve been. Without it, he never would’ve saved Drahn’s like from the Chimera’s blood.

And he needed it now to save everybody.

Forcing the nodes in the past had come with consequences. Side effects. A whole lot of discomfort. What choice did he have?

Three feet. The Edict-wall was so close he could reach out with his spectral hands if he wanted to – though he’d have to get them through the whipping energy in between.

No real choice, Hiral focused on pushing his will beyond the node. To moving solar energy through the space to connect with the Edict. If he could force…

He half paused as he felt something already working its way through the blockage. It wasn’t his solar energy stream, not completely. No, it was more like…

Of course! Since he was actively using the Rune of Absorption right now, he could feel the node slowly wearing down. He’d theorized more use of the runes would unlock the nodes, and he was seeing it firsthand! Except he needed it to happen faster. Exponentially faster.

Two feet.

The answer came to him almost immediately, with how the energy moved through the node. It wasn’t a straight line, but instead like a river that ebbed and flowed. It would almost be impossible to explain why it moved like that – almost – if Hiral didn’t also hear the current.

The melody.

The chord.

The Chord of the Primal Echo, more precisely. The energy through the node – while he was using the rune – was moving like it was trying to line up with Cycling. It was just too rough, like an amateur playing a master’s composition. Unguided. Hitting the wrong notes as often as the right ones.

So, Hiral grabbed that energy with his will, and he took control of the melody. He guided the hands of the amateur when they were about to make a mistake, and let them go when it was correct. With each miniscule improvement, the flow of energy tightened, like it was learning. Hiral only had to make an adjustment in one place, one time, and the next rotation was smoother. Like that, in the time between seconds within his body, he strummed the strings of his solar energy like an instrument until the Chord sang in his ears.

As the melody improved, the energy thrumming through him magnified, the Edict itself feeling eager at being met.

One foot, and he was so close…

The node standing between him and the Edict dissolved within the Cycling energy, and Hiral immediately thrust one of the strands of potential through the space. As soon as the Rune and the Edict of Absorption connected, the image of it flared in front of Hiral’s eyes – directly between the two horns of his Crown.

A whump pulsed outward as inspiration and power filled Hiral’s body – as it always tended to with connecting to new Edicts – but all his attention was on the funnel of energy. Would it be enough to…?

The Edict-wall in front of him – now not even six inches from the spinning energy being gathered by the Crown – had stopped moving. The energy that’d been a raging whirlpool that threatened to break free at any moment almost seemed… calm. Controlled. It still came in massive amounts as the W34P0N’s beam met Hiral’s Edict-wall, but it moved so smoothly, Hiral could make out the individual lines of black and white as they got separated out.

And then… it vanished. Seeyela and Hiral had absorbed everything. Somehow.

Which left him with his own swirling ball of power just begging to be used.

An Annihilation of Amin Thettwith this would be bigger than any he’d let loose before.

But, would it be enough to fell the 0M3G4 W34P0N?

Looking at the monstrosity staring at him across the gulf carved by the beam, his gut told him it wouldn’t be. He could damage it – badly, most likely – but it wouldn’t be decisive enough. No, he needed something more than…

Nivian slammed into the distracted titan, driving it sideways, before dropping an elbow on the top of its head, then reaching down to brace the haft of his hammer under the thick neck. Feet compressing the stone around them with the force, the Aspectof Landbreaker twisted around, then around again, and again, hauling the 0M3G4 W34P0N with him as its feet left the ground. By the fourth rotation of the top-like motion, claws tore at Nivian’s thighs, and he was forced to let go, hurling the giant, metal animal two hundred feet through a series of buildings that came down in a deafening crash.

Without missing a beat, Nivian – with Wule merged inside the chest of the Aspect mending the damaged legs – charged right after.

“Any time here,” Nivian said through the party chat as he engaged again. “I can throw it around all I want, but I’m not doing any damage. If you’ve got any ideas…”

“I… do,” Hiral said, an absolutely mad plan forming as he took hold of the power donated by the W34P0N and his inspiration from unlocking an Edict. “Nivian, keep it busy for another few seconds. Everybody else, gather up. Igwanda and Drahn, need you here now.”

“I’ll get them,” Seeyela said without questioning what he had in mind, and vanished with a Bamf.

“Sounds like our raid leader has a plan,” Yanily said.

“Is it a good one?” Ilrolik asked as Seena reappeared with Drahn. A second later, the Greed of Malice vanished in another purple and red flash. “I tend to remember your plans being a bit reckless.”

“And usually – thankfully – effective,” Seena said. “Hiral?”

“Oh, this plan is both effective and epic.”

“Let’s hear it,” Seeyela said as she returned with Igwanda.

“What I need each of you to do,” Hiral explained, his solar energy already primed and ready as he’d prepared while Seeyela was fetching the others. “Is work together. As one.”

“That’s it?” Gran asked. “What were we doing before?”

“Yeah, I don’t get it either,” Yanily said.

“You will,” Hiral said. Then, ear on the tune of the Primal Chords – not just his, but also the thundering Chord of the Primal End – Hiral waited until they met. In that perfect note, it all came together for Hiral to activate his abilities.

First came Terminal, pure potential exploding out of him like the universe was at his fingertips. It was both liberating and terrifying – because of the potential backlash – but he trusted in the Primal Chords and first activated Double Trouble+ and then an ability he hadn’t used with either of them in the past because he hadn’t seen any benefit to it when testing the combination.

Class Ability (Active): Resonance of Heroes

Worry not on the darkness of the road ahead, for new heroes stand with you.

Resonance of Heroes: Grants a party-wide buff that echoes abilities of the new generation of heroes.

Grants Ability (Passive): Resonance to user and members of user’s party within range.

Resonance: Chance on ability usage to repeat as a Resonance Echo.

Note: Abilities generated by Resonance have a chance to manifest as a Building Resonance, charging for up to 3 seconds before releasing.

Note (2): Building Resonance attacks do up to 45% increased damage, while Building Resonance support effects see 45% increased proficiency.

Note (3): Chance to manifest as a Building Resonance increases against enemies of higher Rank than user, or of Unknown Rank.

Note (4): Range of Resonance of Heroes is 200 feet from user at time of usage.

Note (5): Duration of Resonance—2 minutes per Rank

Note (6): Cooldown—60 minutes

Note (7): Cooldown between Resonance Echoes – 10 seconds.

Powerful as the buff was, though, it wasn’t the crux of his plan. No, it was more just a vehicle to make the plan the inspiration gave him work.

“Right, Left, you’ll have to carry me,” he said quietly to just the doubles.

“Always,” the two replied, likely catching on to what he was doing.

“Nivian,” he said on another channel. “You need to let this happen.”

“I trust you,” the Death Knight replied simply. “Do it”

“Whatever it is,” Wule said.

“Here we go,” Hiral told them all, then took hold of the one-time inspiration of unlocking the Edict, combined it with the raw power from the 0M3G4 W34P0N’s own attack, fed them into his newly empowered Resonance of Heroes, then tied the party members together with powerful strands of Connection. “Let twenty-three heroes… become one.”

With the words uttered and a touch from his Rune of Eclipse to bend reality, Hiral merged his creation within a matrix of Dreaming and Exchange, then thrust the whole thing through his Edict of Absorption.

Straight into the center of Nivian’s Aspect.