Rune Seeker

“I don’t rightly know what I’m saying,” Gran said into the party chat. “Just what I’m seeing. And if one of you just gutted that thing and then smashed it in the face hard enough its grandkids will feel it, then, yeah – killing it will kill this girl.”

Hiral stared at his weapons, while he felt Yanily and Seeyela look in his direction through his sensory domain. Ahead of them all, not-Seena staggered to its feet, dark blood running from the wound in its stomach, and the right side of its face a torn-up mess.

“You’re a healer,” Seeyela said into the chat. “Can’t you do something about it?”

“Already am!” Gran said.

Hiral’s eyes went to Seena’s entry in the Party Interface, and her chunked-off health quickly started to climb. He let out a breath. She’d be okay… even after what he’d done.

“Uh, guys?” Yanily asked. “You seeing this?”

“What…?” Hiral started to ask, but it didn’t take long to figure out what the spearman was talking about. Not-Seena’s wounds were healing right before their eyes. The blood gushing out of its stomach slowed and then finally stopped, while its jaw and cheekbone crunched and twisted as they reset themselves.

Gran healing Seena was also healing not-Seena.

“Just how connected is this thing to her?” Yanily said.

Ignoring the mending monster directly ahead of them, Hiral pushed power into his time runes and Connection. The world slowed around him while dozens of gossamer strands appeared hanging in the air. Most of the strands were like he’d seen before, almost like a glimpse of spider’s silk caught in the sunlight. Fragile. Thin. Elegant.

Most. But not all.

One thread – more of a rope, really – pulsed like a thick vein almost the size of Hiral’s arm. Running from not-Seena in front of him, off into the distance of the defenders’ wall where Left had taken Seena, it didn’t take any careful deductions to figure out what it was. Not-Seena and Seena really were connected. By something the likes of which Hiral had never seen.

Pulses of power flowed in each direction of the fleshy mass, bumps like tumors growing all along it. Part of him wondered how he hadn’t seen it before – or how the others couldn’t – with how foul it felt. No, maybe foul wasn’t the right word.

Violating.

The vein wasn’t even connected to Hiral, but just looking at it turned his stomach and made him feel like he’d need to shower for a week. And it was doing this to Seena.

Without another thought, Hiral gripped his Rune of Separation and wrapped its power around Death Knell. Soaking his sword in the concept of cutting, he let his time runes fade, and swept the weapon up. Wrapped in blue and black, the crescent of Expansion, Compression, and Separation cut through the distance in a heartbeat. Maybe Yan and Seeyela wondered what he was aiming at – it definitely wasn’t not-Seena – but the blade of thrown energy slammed into the vein, powered by Hiral’s will to sever it.

Like it’d hit an impossibly hard, solid object, the blade of energy broke on what it struck, shattering into a thousand small shards of Separation that tore across the ground beyond.

“What did…?” Yanily started, but Hiral had already reactivated his time runes to get a better look at the vein. There, in frozen time, the vein hung completely undamaged. His Rune of Separation hadn’t been enough to break the connection. If he couldn’t cut it, though, then at least he’d need to understand it.

Putting aside his feeling of revulsion for the vein, Hiral extended his sensory domain into it. And, as soon as he touched it, a wave of familiarity washed over him. It wasn’t exactly the same, but this vein was a similar connection to what the PIMP made with their PIMs. The same thing he’d manipulated when he’d altered his Resonance of Heroes.

Not-Seena was directly connected to Seena’s PIM. A pathway full of energy and intent, and going in both directions. No wonder it could use some of her abilities!

The shock of what Hiral found tore away the concentration he needed to maintain his time runes, and the normal flow slammed into place around him.

“… you do?” Yanily finished, while a snarl grated past not-Seena’s toothy lips.

The flaming sheath reignited around it, stronger than ever, trumping Yanily’s question in importance for the moment. Both hands stretched out to its sides, fingers spread and palms up.

More Fireballs?

“I… I don’t think I can do this,” Seeyela said. “I can’t hurt Seena.”

“This isn’t Seena,” Yanily pointed out, spear up, but he wasn’t moving either.

It was like Picoli all over again, but worse in a way. They knew Seena was still alive.

“We’ll have to contain it,” Hiral said, mind still recoiling at what the thing was doing to Seena. “Trap it until…”

Solar energy rolled off not-Seena in a wave that was nearly visible, the ground around it rippling. Small stones lifted off the ground, as if suspended by the energy so pure, it was almost physical.

Hiral’s eyes widened as he recognized the ability. No way. No way it could use…

A pillar of flame burst towards the arched ceiling high above as not-Seena activated Eloquently Enraged+.

Fireballs immediately appeared in its hands, then it launched forward, the melted ground at its feet rippling in the opposite direction. Twin lines of fire traced its movement as it closed the distance in the blink of an eye, and the first churning Fireball came sweeping around towards Yanily.

Despite Seena – and thus, not-Seena – having a lower Dex than any of the others, the thing moved fast. Powered by Eloquently Enraged+, it reached Yanily so quick, he barely got his spear up in time to block. Even then, the sheer strength behind the blow spit sparks from where the attack met his crystal weapon, and hurled the spearman backwards.

Twisting as its foot landed – Yanily already flying away – not-Seena pivoted at its waist and brought the left Fireball up to try to tear through Hiral’s side. Death Knell met it mid-swing, and having seen what it did to Yanily, Hiral added Rejection to his parry. Even then, the grinding version of Seena’s Fireball forced him back a step. And not-Seena was already coming with more.

One after the other, it struck at him with wild abandon, the tearing Fireballs in its open palms ripping apart the earth when they swept low. Again and again, Death Knell parried aside the blows, his higher Dex keeping him alive, but even he was falling behind not-Seena’s modified stats. The heat coming off the Fireballs – even though they didn’t reach him – was searing his skin like he was directly on a barbeque.

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Even as he began to wonder if he could keep this up, a bamf of purple fire appeared behind not-Seena, glowing-green Fangs of the Lady converging for its throat. Fangs… that hesitated. Eight red eyes seemed to go from the terrible venom the weapon would inflict to the shape of Seeyela’s little sister in front of her, and what should’ve been a decisive, fatal attack lagged ever-so-slightly.

Enough, in fact, that not-Seena spun around before the daggers could strike home, and it buried one of its tearing Fireballs directly in Seeyela’s side. White, chitinous armor burned and ripped as the woman’s body bent around the blow – flesh quickly following – before the sheer force of the impact hurled Seeyela away.

The smell of charred meat and a stream of smoke trailed behind as Seeyela hit the ground, bounced, rolled, and then kicked up to her feet. Her right side – between her waist and ribs – was nothing but a charred and scorched mess. Blackened flesh hung interspersed with red, ugly patches, her armor and clothes melted directly into her skin. Quick steps kept her momentum moving backwards until she finally stopped, and then Seeyela faltered, her knee buckling.

And even before Hiral could react, not-Seena bolted straight for the vulnerable woman. With the sheath of flame and Eloquently Enraged+, he wouldn’t be able to catch it before it reached his friend, and by the way Seeyela wobbled on one knee, she wouldn’t be able to protect herself either.

“No!” Hiral shouted while he slammed power into his time runes. He needed the chance to think, but he’d overused the runes, and reality already pounded on the back of his head. Despite the runes, there wasn’t time to think or plan. He needed to act. But, how?

Just need to slow it down!

With that in mind, Hiral reached for his runes and Edictsof Gravity and Increase, forming the horizontal tunnel he’d practiced against the warthogs. The burst of power should be enough to at least throw not-Seena off course. One half beside him, the other beside Seeyela, and the two Edicts appeared close to not-Seena.

Except, just as he was about to release the bomb, the Primal Chord struck an odd note, calling to him. Not just to him, but also to two of his other Edicts – Energy and Connection. Hiral almost hesitated to follow the music, but hesitation was what had gotten Seeyela in trouble in the first place. Instead, he followed his instincts and the Chord, throwing threads of Connection through the four Edicts that converged between him and Seeyela.

As the four images converged in the second between seconds of frozen time, Hiral knew something was still missing. The way the images of the Edicts lined up to his sight, overlapping like they were, was similar to the three-dimensional Rune of Dreaming. Lines and strokes wove and converged, but there were pieces missing. It was as if he was seeing an entirely new rune forming within the meeting of these.

What was he…?

Of course!

Pain spiked in the back of his head from the overuse of the time runes – he wouldn’t be able to use them again for a while – as he pulled on his fifth Edict. Attraction joined the other four in the space between him and Seeyela, and Hiral squeezed. The Edicts didn’t join or become a new, single, super-Edict or anything like that. No, if anything, they partially rejected even an attempt at that. What they diddo, however, was line up just right for Hiral to see something new.

The Rune of Exchange.

The concept of it burned into Hiral’s mind, but he fought back against the inspiration – now would be a terrible time to explode and lose all his solar energy – and instead simply used the rune’s power. Time shattered back to normal around him with a pop and a blur – flipping his stomach – and suddenly Hiral was directly in front of the speeding not-Seena, while Seeyala was right where he’d been standing.

Black and blue energy swept across in front of him as Death Knell parried her first Fireball, then he ducked under the second to roll out of the way. Even then, heat scarred its way along his back as he was still too slow.

Nothing for it, then, and Hiral rolled to his feet to activate his own Eloquently Enraged+.

Double-helix script burst to life across his body – though he had purposely not used Double Trouble this time – and he blurred ahead to intercept not-Seena. Now, with his absurd Dex, Death Knell became a flurry of blue and black energy, the blade itself barely visible as it moved to keep both Fireballs at bay.

It still wasn’t enough, though. He was keeping her attacks from hitting him, but just being close was continuing to sear his skin. Scalding air entered his mouth and lungs with every breath, and all it would take is one lucky hit to do major damage to him. Seena’s power set – her build – was all constructed around massive damage potential, which meant not-Seena’s was too. He could probably stay ahead of its direct attacks, but High-Speed Regeneration+ was barely keeping up with the ambient damage the fire was doing to him.

But, maybe with his own power-up, he could do something about that vein. Completely forgoing offense, Hiral worked his sword to keep the barrage of attacks from reaching his body while he reached out with his senses to the foul vein. Almost immediately, he felt himself sink deeper into the connection between Seena and not-Seena, that space hidden within the folds of reality emerging around him. Rules of the PIM glowed like a universe, while skills and…

Pain seared across his chest, his sword too slow while he was distracted to catch the attack. Back he staggered, cursing himself for his overconfidence in thinking he could actually hold not-Seena back while probing the connection between it and Seena. Worse, his flailing follow-up was out of position, exposing his side to the other Fireball arcing up to crash into him. He wasn’t going to be able to parry it!

Watching as if in slow motion, Rejection forming under his feet to launch him away, Hiral traced the churning flames coming his way. Examined the distance between them and his side growing smaller by the fraction of a second. Calculated how long it would be until it reached, and whether or not his healing ability would be enough to overcome the damage – his armor certainly wouldn’t. Gaped at the crystal spear wreathed in lightning that intercepted the attack meant for him.

Fire and lightning battled each other in that split-second it took Hiral to Reject himself to safety, Yanily’s spear buying him the time he needed.

“I’ll hold it off!” Yanily shouted, his own Eloquently Enraged+ activated along with his electric scales to protect him from the flames surrounding not-Seena. “You figure something out!”

“Thanks,” Hiral said over the party chat, driving his senses back into the vein between Seena and not-Seena. Again, the universe that was the PIM stretched out around him, Enduring Mind triggering to protect him from the sheer amount of information. Thanks to the ability, Hiral was able to take in more than just a few constellation-like abilities at a time. In fact, the whole thing spread about before him.

But it was different than what he’d seen inside himself. Some of the constellations – the abilities – looked more like tumorous masses than the scripts of energy he expected, and they infected the larger whole. Or, maybe that wasn’t quite right. One side of this ‘universe’ was highly infected, almost entirely filled with the tumors, only the occasional script of energy present. On the other side, dozens of energy-constellations filled the space, with a few tumors showing up.

Why was…?

Then he understood, and his heart sank. Even as he watched, one of the closest tumors bubbled and then melted away, revealing an energy-script. An ability. At the same time that happened, a constellation on the other side warped, bent, and then bloated. The previous script became unreadable, completely replaced by the new tumor.

He’d been somewhat wrong in his initial interpretation of what he was looking at. This wasn’t a single PIM – it was two. Seena’s on one side, primarily made up of constellation-like energy. On the other, not-Seena’s, filled with the tumorous masses. And every time not-Seena took one of Seena’s abilities, it wasn’t just copying it, it was warping her very PIM.

Ruining her from the inside out.

Worse, from what Hiral could feel, this wasn’t a reversible process. Just touching the tumors on Seena’s side with his senses told him the ability no longer existed there. This thing was stealing everything that Seena was. Her abilities. Her class.

Permanently.

Even if they managed to stop the monster, it’d already gutted her PIM from the inside out. She’d never be the same.

If they killed the monster, Seena died.

If they delayed and tried to capture the monster, it would steal her PIM from her, leaving her nothing more than an empty husk – and that was the best-case scenario. Looking at what the tumors were doing, Hiral’s instincts told him nothing of Seena would be left of her if they completely infected her.

No matter what they did – no matter what choice they made – they would lose Seena.