33 Arash - Strength Rune

In a blink of an eye, three years passed. Arash studied a great mass of floating silver river in front of him. Ever since being bonding with Arash, Najwah gained an access to a limitless supply of emotions. He would sneak away at night and devour memories to his heart's desire.

Arash felt troubled at the insatiable desire of the little snake, but the benefits of the white mist greatly outweighed the troubles of his conscience. He meditated like a madman, slowly tempering his will. Even though he managed to cultivate a strong will, Najwah's word proved to be true; no matter how hard he tried he couldn't slow down the rotation of the node. Whenever he thought he was making progress, the rotation of the node would immediately change and he would have to start all over again.

"They never stop. All I ever managed to do was get them to spin opposite." Arash frowned as he stared at the two oppositely spinning nodes in front of him. Suddenly he was struck with an urge to slam them together. The two constrained energy nodes darted towards each other and as soon as their protective fields touched each other they let out loud screech sound and for a split second, the reverse spin counteracted and the fields of the two nodes conjoined together to form a simple bond.

"Wha..." Arash dumbly stared at two nodes joined together. He smiled bitterly as he tiredly rubbed his eyes. "That was it... reverse spin and slam them together. This was it?" Arash frowned in disbelief. He once again slammed two nodes with opposite spin but this time instead of slamming them together he gently placed them against each other. The two fields fiercely attacked each other, but the two nodes failed to form a bond. "So, they need to have a certain speed for it to work. Are the angles necessary?"

Countless experiments were performed using different speeds, angles, and different rotation direction. "Speed and rotation speed play an important factor in the formation of a bond, but the angles are surprisingly useless. It isn't how they collide it's the difference in their rotation speeds that help in the formation of a bond." He said with a sudden smile as he stared at the countless dual bonded nodes floating in front of him. He focused in his sea of consciousness and brought out the memory of strength rune. Arash split his will into seven different parts. Each part responsible for adjusting the spinning direction of the energy node.

Even though Arash was confident on his insight and had performed countless experiments before forming a simple strength rune, his heart still nervously drummed in his chest. Arash steeled his nerves and stilled his heart. Suddenly the seven nodes danced to a strange motion. Each and every node collided together at the same time. A rasping cacophony of loud screeches assaulted his consciousness as the different energy nodes started to form a bond. But this time

Arash noticed a strange phenomenon. His will was absorbed by the new bonds as they formed and made the bonds stable.

With a loud bang, a pulsing yellow rune floated in front of him. Arash felt a strong connection between him and the rune. He could felt it's consciousness as it opened its eyes to the new world. The strengthening rune sang to a low melody as it raced through his soul.

"h..i....m....st" The rune struggled to form words, but Arash could feel its emotions and somehow knew what it was trying to say. Arash lightly smiled as he saw the strengthening rune dancing around him. Suddenly the rune let out a loud shriek as it tried to hide behind Arash.

"What happened little guy?" Arash asked the little guy, but the strengthening rune nervously shuddered and refused to let out a single sound.

"It is afraid of me." Najwah appeared in front of Arash. He curiously stared at the little rune. "It's natural our kind can't come in contact with another. We destroy each other. It's only following its instincts" The little snake looked up to Arash in surprise. "I was waiting for you to realize the futility of your approach... But, I underestimated you. However you don't seem happy." Najwah frowned at Arash.

Arash smacked his lips together as he thought of the giants and the blessed who took his right eye. He involuntarily looked at the little yellow rune as a pained expression flashed across his face. "Not enough."

"It took me nearly 10 thousand years to have my first breakthrough," Najwah said bitterly. "I would say what you have achieved in three years is more than enough."

Arash pursed his teeth as he stared at the little snake before him. "Let's see what he can do?" Arash said with a forced smile as he cast the strength rune on his arm. The yellow little rune was happy to run away from the little snake as he ran towards Arash's right arm and merged with his muscles and bones. Arash's arm pulsed with a mysterious new strength. The strength rune, transformed his arm's muscles as they became shrunk in size but gained an explosive strength while the bones in his right armed became dense and heavy. It felt strange, he could feel the difference in the strength between his left and right arm. Even though there wasn't much difference between the two arms in their appearance, but sheer difference in the strength between the two was like night and day.

Soon, he created a couple dozen of runes. He only stopped when the last bit of his will had been used to form a rune. 100 runes hummed in front of Arash as he coldly stared at them, each one like an extension of his own. They rushed towards the different parts of his body, strengthening his muscles and bones. Soon, a fight between different runes broke out and only five of the strongest managed to survive. One in each limb and one in his chest. Those who managed to survive devoured other runes and made themselves stable. Even though there were only five runes in his body. Their cumulative strength was greater than the combined strength of the 100.

Seeing Arash frowning, Najwah couldn't help but laugh out loud. "What did you think would happen? I have told you before, we feed on each other to become strong."

"You will get stronger by feeding on it?" Arash asked with a slight interest.

"It doesn't work like that, he is of a different kind. Devouring it will make me weaker."

"So it only works when you are of the same kind?" Arash eyes shone with a strange light.

"I appreciate the thought. But you would have to make at least millions of little me for them to have any benefit for me." Najwah grinned helplessly.