Return of the Runebound Professor-Chapter 699: To the last

The day ticked on. Tim sent Noah’s normal group and his students to the Scorched Acres so they could all attend their class in peace. Silvertide, Brayden, and Bird all came along for the ride. It was one of the increasingly rare times that every single person on their side was gathered in the same space.

There were only a few faces missing from the group. Revin was, as usual, not present. Tillian had been nowhere to be seen that morning, though he’d left a note with Eline saying that something urgent had come up and drawn his attention.

Ulya didn’t show up either. That wasn’t much of a surprise. She was an ally, but only from necessity and bribery. She was off working on her puppets and had no reason to be attending the group’s lessons.

Not counting Contessa and Karina, who rarely left Noah’s room, the only other person missing was Fuyin — though Noah definitely wouldn’t have gone as far to say she was actually on their side. She was just slightly more sympathetic to their cause than the other Inquisitors, and that really wasn’t saying much at all.

Noah still had to watch what he covered a little. Eline might have been Revin’s student, but he didn’t trust her yet…. or perhaps that was the exact reason why he didn’t trust her. Revin was such a loose cannon that it was impossible to predict what anyone associated with him would do.

But that was fine with Noah. Eline had already known what soul shaping was, which meant she and James were perfect for helping everyone practice the skill that they’d all learned the previous day.

And, while she was focused on soul shaping, Noah could easily travel through the class and pull students out one by one to talk about their Formations. He checked up on each one of them to see how their progress was going and give them some basic pointers on how to continue along their path.

Lee did the same, but her pointers were more stretching people’s limbs in directions they really weren’t meant to move. Noah was pretty sure she was only doing it because she felt a bit left out of teaching recently. That said, he didn’t make any moves to stop her.

If he did, he might have become the next one to get stretched out.

Noah was pleased to find that pretty much everyone had made incredible progress along their patterns and Formations. His human students were all doing great. None of them were quite at the point where he trusted them to create a Formation themselves, but it wouldn’t be long.

Isabel, Todd, and Emily all mentioned feeling like their patterns were starting to approach that level of unity that Alexandra had felt before she’d mistakenly created her Fragment of Self. Even though it was impossible to tell exactly when it would happen, Noah got the feeling it wouldn’t be long.

The same went for James — though part of Noah suspected that James had been there long before many of the others had. There were few people that knew what they wanted in life more than James. The kid had just been holding himself back.

He’s a clever one. Out of everyone here, I think I can trust James the most to not do something that endangers him pointlessly. He’s way too damn lazy for that. Convenient, really.

Even Garina herself made an appearance some time into the class. Noah wasn’t actually sure when. He didn’t see her arrive. He didn’t even notice her. But, during one of his rounds, he saw her standing in the treeline leaning against a burnt log, arms crossed in front of her chest and an eyebrow arched.

She didn’t say a word. That was just fine with Noah. He wanted to get class wrapped up before they got started with anything else — and the first thing he was making her do after class was explaining to Moxie what had happened the previous night.

That’s right. I didn’t forget. She’s not getting off the hook so easily.

But Noah didn’t let his thoughts linger. He had a lot more students than he was used to. Between the humans and the demons, there were a lot of people to get around to… and doing it while making sure Eline didn’t have the faintest idea of what was going on made everything a fair bit harder.

Perhaps leaving her behind would have been smarter, but Noah did want everyone to continue practicing their soul shaping. Garina had more than made her point about how effective a full merge could be. Reaching an Awakened state was an immense boost in combat abilities.

Unfortunately, Noah didn’t have anywhere near the understanding of soul shaping to go teaching other people about it. He was still learning himself… thus, having Eline and James pass along their knowledge made everything considerably easier for him.

Garina seemed to think the same thing, because she made no moves to interfere with the class. Perhaps she was just avoiding Moxie. That might have been a smart move in itself. Noah wouldn’t have blamed her if that was the case. Rank 7 or not, Moxie’s ire was never something that one wanted to find themselves at the wrong end of.

The class continued on. Noah would have gone as far as to say that it was a fairly successful one. Everyone, himself included, was getting better and better at soul shaping. Even Yulin was starting to catch up with the others. She still had a ways to go before she was at their level, but Alexandra had clearly spent a lot of time helping the other girl.

If I had more time, I’d do it myself. There’s something deeply amusing about taking a mistreated kid from Jakob and doing a better job teaching her than he ever did. Honestly, I’m just glad to see that Alexandra is making more friends. She’s got a bit too much of my suicidal instincts. Having people that rely on her is a good way to keep her from doing anything too crazy.

Several hours had already passed by this point. Noah was well aware that the class had gone long, but with the state of affairs as they were, nobody was complaining. They all needed every second of practice they could get… and he much preferred to be around when anyone was practicing anything dangerous in case it went wrong.

I wish Tillian hadn’t buggered off, though. I had questions for him. I want to know more about the Inquisitors before I go off with Fuyin—

Noah’s thoughts came to a screeching halt. The hair on the back of his neck stood straight on end and a chill passed over his body. Something deep and primal shuddered deep within his stomach.

All sound in the clearing went silent in an instant. He wasn’t the only person who had felt it. Everyone had suddenly frozen. The air had turned suffocating and still, and even the shine of the sun overhead had become muted.

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What is this?

Noah’s eyes darted around in search of the oddity. He couldn’t tell where the feeling was coming from. There wasn’t anything odd in his domain. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary in the clearing around them. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com

Everything seemed normal… but the looks on every single face around Noah told him that things were anything but. The very air seemed to be trembling in fear.

There was something wrong.

The thoughts passing through his head did not come from the forefront of his brain. They were deep. Primal. Something ingrained into human consciousness, burned into the deepest parts of its being to ensure survival.

It was the voice that told humans not to stray too deep into the darkest nights. The whisper that kept them from squinting too hard at the shadow in the corners of their vision. The trill of fear that arose when one should have been perfectly alone but knew that they were not.

Noah’s gaze snapped toward Garina. She still stood at the treeline, but her posture had changed completely. The Apostle had pushed away from her tree and stood as stiff as a rod, her eyes directed up toward the sky.

“What is this?” Noah asked as he extended his senses toward his runes and drew upon their power.

“Is it you? Are you doing something?”

Garina didn’t reply. Her gaze was locked upward, her focus clearly no longer in the Scorched Acres. The Apostle’s mind was somewhere far away.

“Shit!” Eline exclaimed, spinning toward her. The whites of her eyes were showing. “Where did she come from? Who’s doing this?”

Isabel and Todd moved closer to each other, and James fell in alongside Emily. Every single pair of eyes in the clearing scanned the trees and dug through the dirt as they tried to put a face to the feeling enveloping all of them like a constricting snake.

“Noah?” Moxie asked in a low tone as she drew vines up from the ground. Lee tensed beside her, her fingers flexing into claws.

Noah shook his head mutely. He didn’t have faintest idea as to what was happening.

Silvertide’s grip tightened around his staff and his eyes narrowed. Out of all of them, the old man seemed the least phased.

“Something is coming,” Silvertide said. “Ready yourselves. Something is coming..”

“No,” Garina breathed. She tore her gaze away from the sky and spun to all of them. “It’s already here.”

“What is?” Todd asked. “What’s happening?”

“You need to prepare to run,” Garina said. Her eyes shot to Noah. “I can’t protect you. My duty is to the empire as a whole. I have to go.”

“Go to what?” Moxie snapped. “What’s going on?”

“Father has figured out how to use a portion of the Long Night’s powers,” Garina replied grimly. “I don’t have long for a history lesson, but you need to know what we’re up against. The Night’s Shadow was one of the great monsters that was sealed within the Arbalest Empire. It’s a peak Rank 8 being.”

“And it’s coming to Arbitage?” Noah exclaimed, his face going pale. A Rank 7 was already out of their ability to fight against. Going up against a Rank 8 wasn’t even within the realm of possibility. Even running was pointless.

“No. The Night’s Shadow isn’t fully awake yet,” Garina replied, her gaze returning to the sky. “We’d know if it was. What we feel now are just a few strands of its awareness. The strongest one is manifesting near the center of the Empire, above where the true body is buried. The others… I can’t afford to pay attention to them yet. I have to fight the First.”

“How many are there? How powerful?” Silvertide asked.

“I don’t know,” Garina replied. Dark energy flickered through her eyes as she called on her runes. “Powerful. They won’t be weaker than Rank 6. This is an enemy unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. Don’t waste your energy running until you know where it’s taken form. You need to wait to see which direction to flee in.”

“I’ve handled my share of Rank 6s in my time,” Silvertide said. “If it’s just—”

“You will run,” Garina interrupted. “This is not a Rank 6 in the way you know them. The Night’s Shadow is older than the Empire. Any of you who try to fight it will invariably die.”

“So we wait until we see it and run?” Lee asked, her eyes darting around the clearing as she sniffed the air in search of the monster.

“Pray you do not see it. When the monster takes form close enough, you will feel it. I can tell that one of the Shadows is forming near Arbitage. Do not engage it under any circumstances. If you see it, then it may already be too late. Noah—” Garina stiffened mid-sentence. Something prickled across Noah’s spine as a sense of immense dread settled on his shoulders. Garina. “It has arrived. I must fight. Do notthrow your lives away. If I do not return, leave the Empire. Ferdinand will find you. He will show you the way.”

“Noah?” Eline asked, her brow furrowing. “Who—a”

“Leave the Empire?” Silvertide exclaimed, cutting Eline off. “Is such a thing—”

Garina leveled a dead stare at him. “If I do not return, then there will soon be nothing left of the Empire at all. It will be reduced to a desolate waste.”

Shadows exploded around Garina and she was gone before anyone could even blink.

There was a long, still second of stunned silence.

Then Todd swallowed.

“Right then. We wait for something creepy to happen and then run in the opposite direction. But the Empire is huge. There’s no way this thing is going to pop up…”

Todd trailed off. His eyes went wide as he stared up into the sky above the Scorched Acres.

It had gone black as night.

Strands of pure, vibrant white twisted together to form a swirling vortex far above them. The light was harsh and angry, sharp enough to cut into Noah’s eyes like daggers. Noah’s stomach clenched as the sense of unease he felt magnified by a hundredfold.

Pressure bore down on all of them, starting soft but rapidly increasing to increasingly uncomfortable levels. It was like a planet was rapidly approaching them.

The large grimoire on Noah’s back trembled. His lips thinned.

Father sent this thing after us. Either after me or Garina. I don’t know, and at this point, it doesn’t matter.

“We see it,” Todd said, a slight tremor in his voice. “I think Garina said that was a bad thing.”

“We’re dead,” Yulin whispered. She stared up into the sky in horror, her mouth hanging agape.

“Moxie,” Noah said. He grabbed the gourd from his waist and handed it to her, then unslung Grim and handed the book to Lee.

He didn’t need to say anything else.

“You heard Garina!” Silvertide barked. He let his gaze land on Noah for a moment. They both knew what had to be done. Garina had made it abundantly clear. If they could see one of the Night’s Shadows, they were too close. Someone had to give them a chance to escape. The old soldier gave Noah a sharp nod. “I’ll protect them with my life. Buy all the time you can.”

“We’re just leaving him?” Eline asked, her eyes widening.

“No more questions. Move!” Moxie ordered. She sent one last look at Noah. Then her features set in stony determination. “We have hours before the Transport Cannon pulls us back. We need to get out of here, now!”

Everyone burst into a run.

Everyone but Noah.

He stayed back, his eyes turned skyward. The air around his head buzzed. There was a faint pop as a tuft of white fur materialized beside an ear. Mascot’s tail coiled around Noah’s neck as the cat alighted upon his shoulder.

If anything, that only unsettled Noah even further.

There was only one time that Mascot showed up, and that was things were well and truly going to shit.

A rumble crackled through the sky. The vortex above him was growing larger. It was like a massive whirlpool far in the sky, except instead of sucking everything into it, something was coming out.

Something ancient.

Unnatural wind whipped at his hair and screamed through the Scorched Acres as if fleeing from the approaching monster.

Noah summoned his violin to his hands. He set the bow against its strings. Nobody had ever said he had to wait for his enemy to make the first move. There was a very real chance he wouldn’t get time to make another.

And so, as the world quaked in fear of the Night’s Shadow’s arrival, a lone man stood with his feet planted on the ground and played a song.