Rune Seeker

Bullying aside, Hiral looked at every face in the valley watching him.

“You all sure it’s okay I go first?” Hiral asked his raid party.

“Like I said before,” Ilrolik said. “You’re the Vanguard. Live up to your class.”

“You’ve more than earned the privilege,” Seena said.

“We literally wouldn’t be here right now,” Seeyela said. “If you hadn’t made the choice to save my daughter by jumping off the island. That action set everything in motion.”

“I’m going to point out,” Nivian said just loud enough for only those closest to hear. “That choice you made that day – the action you took – wasn’t the PIMP. It was you. All you. I know you wonder sometimes if you’ve earned what you’ve gotten, or if the PIMP has spoiled you because it needs your runes…”

“It’s totally spoiled you because it needs your runes,” Yanily said bluntly.

The slow turn of Nivian’s head in the spearman’s direction was more than enough to stop Yan from offering any additional input.

“True as that may be,” Nivian admitted. “That’s not at all there is to your story. You jumped. Twice. Once to save a little girl you didn’t know, and a second time to reach for an opportunity to change your life.”

“And it changed all of ours, as well,” Wule added.

“Saved some of ours,” Ilrolik said.

“No, that one is ‘all’ too,” Seena said. “More than once. More than I can count.”

“Even if we didn’t all deserve it,” Sera said, her voice cracking with barely suppressed guilt.

“We all got benefits from the PIMP,” Seena continued. “You’re not actually special in that regard. What makes you special is your willingness to fight for us. What you believe in. No matter what anybody else tells you.”

“Always been stubborn like that,” Loan said. “Also one of the things that makes you who you are, and somebody I’m proud of like my own son.”

“You can’t have him,” Elezad said. “He’s mine.”

“I know better than to try and take one of your kids from you,” Loan chuckled. “I’d never get another tattoo from anybody if I pissed you off.”

“Don’t you forget it,” Elezad said, though his eyes and huge smile were directed solely at Hiral.

“In case you didn’t catch it,” Seeyela said. “We’re not just okay with you getting to A-Rank first, we’d actually be kind of insulted if you didn’t do it.”

“She’s worried there might be an explosive downside to Ranking up,” Left said evenly.

“Hah, that’s fun… wait, are you joking?” Hiral asked his double, completely unable to read Left’s face. “You’re joking, right? Right, is he joking?”

The other double shrugged.

“Hiral, darling,” Seena said, stepping right up to him and taking his face in her hands and forcing him to meet her eyes. “I absolutely adore you, but stop talking, stop thinking, stop worrying, and become A-Rank.

“You’ve earned it. You.”

Hiral couldn’t say anything at first. Not after the praise from some of the most important people in the world to him. To hear they really felt that way – even though he kind of knew it – made him feel…

“Hiral!” a voice shouted from the crowd. “We don’t love you as much as Seena, but you’re still pretty okay! Go, Hiral!”

Everybody turned slowly to spot the Academic at the front of the crowd, an actual sign with ‘Hiral is pretty okay!’ on it in his hands.

“Thank you, Gauto,” Hiral said flatly. “You lost the dessert bet too, didn’t you?”

“Absolutely did, and I may never forgive you for it,” Gauto said cheerily. “Enough about that though.” Then Hiral’s friend pointed at the raid interface. And he smiled. Smiled in support of his best friend doing something nobody on the island ever thought Hiral would do.

Reach A-Rank.

“Okay then,” Hiral said quietly, partly to himself, and partly to those around him. “One more Rank after this,” he said louder to his raid group. “And you know we’re going to get it.”

With twenty-two nods in return, Hiral went to the raid interface and swiped his hand above the crystal. “Rank evolution.”

As expected, an invisible – to everybody other than Hiral – gateway opened to connect the PIMP to his PIM, the curtain separating him from A-Rank fluttering in the wind. He’d been at this precipice before, where he’d used the authority of the Edicts to temporarily pull that curtain aside and step into the next Rank. The process had been… far too easy, with the Edicts on his side, and he’d certainly paid for it after.

Now, though, the energy flowing around him in the second between seconds was soothing. Refreshing. Even though it’d been easy before, he’d still forced the process. Invaded the next Rank. This time, he was invited.

And with no more thoughts – no more worries – Hiral stepped from B-Rank to A-Rank.

The curtain in his mind flew aside, his PIM shining within his own eyes as new energy flooded into him. Across his body – and the Second-Skin of Amin Thett – his double-helix flared bright, sending cascading and strobing light across the people gathered around.

Over and over, waves of energy rushed through his channels and that double helix, rewriting it. Reforging it. Rebuilding it. Stronger than ever before… but not strong enough.

His body glowed like a new sun being born, with his Solar Heart beating in time with his real one, like it was truly waking up with him in A-Rank. All that, as amazing as it was, wasn’t all it could be. The PIMP was reinforcing what it had control over – his PIM – but it couldn’t directly touch or use Hiral’s most powerful asset.

His runes and Edicts.

Good thing Hiral could.

Pushing power into his Rune of Rejection – because this could actually be very dangerous – Hiral lifted off the ground to float into the air above the fortress. There, glowing even stronger as the PIMP dumped obscene amounts of energy into his evolution, Hiral called out to his runes. Across his body, their glow joined that of the double-helix’s, warping the air around him with energy and meaning. Reality and its rules bent as he focused his will on the outcome he wanted.

Bleeding along his Second-Skin and pseudo-aspect, veins from the runes sought each other out in a familiar pattern, but didn’t connect. Not yet. There was more to do first.

Next, Hiral’s focus went from his runes to his Edicts. To their absolute command of their dominions. He still didn’t have access to all the ones connected to his runes, but twelve came when he called.

The air around him nearly shattered as the Edictsappeared. And not just to Hiral.

Searing themselves into reality, one Edict after another pledged its aid to his cause.

First – almost fittingly – came the Edict of Separation. Like his first rune, it formed directly in front of him, splitting reality down the middle. And, more importantly, separating him from the future he would have found, had he not called on the Edicts.

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With almost a bow of respect, the Edict slipped to the side for the next to arrive. As a group of three, the Edicts of Energy, Attraction and Absorption appeared. Around them, the edges of reality Separation had split began to burn, pushing them back even further. To Hiral, they offered their aid by hauling even more energy out of the place where the PIMP hid, and funneled it directly into Hiral’s body.

Awash with power, Hiral felt himself reaching his limits – even in the realm of A-Rank – almost immediately. But the Edicts weren’t stopping. They had more to offer. More they expected of him. He wouldn’t disappoint.

In his head, primal music played, the Lost Chord of the Primal Echo pounding like a thousand drums. To its melody, more Chords joined, an orchestra – no, a Symphony – of music coming to life as the Primal End, Storm, Fire, Tide, and Moon resounded with their tunes.

Together, it all sang of a chance. A chance for something great.

In line with the Chords, Hiral activated Double Trouble+ and Eloquently Enraged+, his body exploding with power. And, not just that. While his strength had more than doubled, so too had the space within himself for new power to take hold. Like they approved – or were waiting for just this moment – the three Edicts poured their energy into his new vessel, filling it to the brim.

No sooner had he reached this new limit, than the trio gave the semblance of a bow before moving to the side for the next to come to his call. The Edicts of Connection and Increase appeared side by side, sentinels holding back more of the raw energy from the PIMP’s realm.

Instead, these two focused entirely on Hiral’s body and his PIM. With their aid, Hiral bound portions of the nearly limitless energy within himself. Increasing his capacity and strength with every step, he went through his channels, forging and reforging the work alongside what the PIMP was doing. Every change it made, he improved it, thanks to the Edicts.

In a flash that felt like hours – but couldn’t have been more than a second – the work was done. The two Edicts offered a pulse of praise at how he’d tapped into their concepts, then parted for the next Edicts to take the stage.

With an almost critical appraisal of him, the Edicts ofDecrease and Rejection appeared. Hiral had done good work with the previous Edicts, but it wasn’t perfect. There was waste within him. Foul remnants that would impede his growth if he left them to fester.

These two Edicts wouldn’t let that happen. With precision like a surgical scalpel, the pair reduced the imperfections, then simply expelled them from his body with enough extreme prejudice to make Yanily proud. Within another few seconds, Hiral could feel how the energy flowed more smoothly, how things felt more clear – more real – and he offered his thanks to the Edicts’ guidance.

Another pulse of recognition from the two, before one went up and the other down, and they vanished from his line of sight for the next to arrive. This time, it was the Edicts of Compression and Sealing that trailed. With attention like they were reviewing the work of all those that came before – including the cleaning done by Decrease and Rejection – something about this pair made it feel like it was their job to give the final approval.

Tethers of energy connected Hiral to the two Edicts, and their support pulsed through the bond. Were they actually alive? No, that didn’t feel right. There was something there, but it was too alien for him to classify it as life. Whatever it was, though, it helped him.

And in this case, it warned him.

While these two Edicts would finalize the process going on within his body, the ones that came after would be the trial to determine if he deserved what they’d given him.

Thanking them for their warning – a thought through the connection – and Hiral used their power for what they came to do. First came Compression, pushing the rampant power down into the deepest parts of his body. It wasn’t just his muscles, blood, bones, and solar channels, but the even smaller building blocks. Down past a level he could ever hope to see, he felt something else come alive as the influx of power.

Something adapting to what was being done externally, to make his body even more receptive to the changes. The Chimeric aspects he’d taken into himself! Like before, it was taking the best of what was in him, and making it better.

Seconds of Compression – like his whole body had grown too big for his clothes and was now getting squeezed back into shape – and it was over. From there, Hiral empowered the Edictof Sealing to lock everything into place.

Ten Edicts had reshaped his new, A-Rank body within their primal domains, but two more remained. This last pair would be the forge that tempered or broke him.

Edicts of Gravity and Impact emerged from the split in reality. The hammer and anvil that spread around him, and he immediately felt their power dominate the area. Right away, Gravity wanted to hurl him back to the ground, his weight multiplying as he fought back with the power of his runes. The Rune of Gravity obviously didn’t work against its Edict, but Hiral had other runes he could rely on.

Rejection and Dreaming came in clutch, holding him aloft while the Edict of Gravity continued to increase his weight. Had his body not just been molded by the other Edicts, this new force would’ve ripped limbs clean off. Thankfully, he was literally made of sterner stuff now.

A flare of power in front of him reminded him quite clearly the trial wasn’t over. The Edict of Impact loomed above him, practically filling his vision as he looked up. Another pulse, like a question of whether he was ready or not, and the whole Cradle seemed to hold its breath.

Looking up at the primal representation of Impact, Hiral only had two words for the absolute power.

“Bring it,” he told the Edict.

And it did.

There was no build-up or gradual increase like with the Edict of Gravity. No, the Edict of Impact went from watching to hitting, a force like a crashing moon slamming into Hiral. At the same time, Gravity reversed direction, as if throwing him into the Impact in case he somehow thought to escape. Where the two titanic forces met – where Hiral was – cracked and then shattered.

A hole opened in reality, pure white energy erupting in a sun-like sphere to fill a space fifty-feet wide, with Hiral at the center. Somehow, the sheer force of the blow had broken through to the place the PIMP kept its energy, adding a third arbiter to the trial.

Between the Impact and Gravity trying to crush his bones to dust, and the untamed energy from the PIMP looking to incinerate that dust, Hiral’s entire world was engulfed in destruction. At B-Rank, his body would’ve ceased to exist within a heartbeat of this pressure. At A-Rank – without being rebuilt by the Edicts – he would’ve lasted three.

Thanks to the Edicts’ impartments, he could last five.

This trial demanded more.

Good thing Hiral was stubborn.

Within the sphere of white energy and trapped between the vice composed of two Edicts, a new color – a new power – bloomed. It started as tiny pinpricks of black across the white sphere on the sixth heartbeat. On the seventh, those dots became lines – veins – spreading across the surface.

By the eighth, the lines connected with each other. The ninth beat brought a bulge to those channels, a floodgate of power being released into them, and filling them like interconnected hoses.

With the tenth beat of Hiral’s still-whole heart, the Edict of Eclipse seared itself across the sphere of energy, and between the two other competing Edicts. A roar shook the heavens, the newly formed Edict pushing its brethren apart as Hiral forced his reality to overlay theirs.

He would pass their test – it wasn’t impossible anymore – and he would claim the power they offered.

Across the sky, from horizon to horizon, the three Edicts stood in a line, waves of pressure from their contest warping the image of everything around them like looking through running water. In the center of it all, Hiral floated, while ten more, smaller Edicts circled in a vertical ring around him. One after another – like they’d done before – they approved his actions, and added their weight to his struggle.

In an instant, the battle ended – how could two Edicts compete against eleven? – and Impact and Gravity zipped in to join the others, the rotating circles expanding to incorporate them. As for the energy of the white sphere, Hiral wasn’t going let that go to waste, even as the PIMP resealed the breach between realities.

Taking hold of a massive chunk of that energy with his Edicts – particularly Eclipse – Hiral spread his sigil across the roof of the Cradle. For the moment, all that happened below would have his touch.

“Rank up,” Hiral said into the party chat. “All of you. While the Rune of Eclipse holds, you’ll get more from the evolution. Hurry.”

Already it was straining to be released. He didn’t have full control over it – he kept using coincidences and shortcuts to tap into its power – and he couldn’t hold it for even a minute. It would have to be enough.

Hundreds of eyes gazed up at him in undisguised awe, the majority of the crowd unable to even move from where they stood in the seconds it took him to evolve. Luckily, Hiral could count on his party. Could count on them to trust him when he told them to act.

Seventeen others – plus two companions and a little lich – moved on the raid interface, and then all spoke together.

“Rank evolution.”

Under the sky written with Hiral’s personal Edict, the next generation of heroes stepped into A-Rank.