Chapter 19 - Runes And Heart
Runes.
A universal constant.
You needed a combination of a rune and some manner of fuel to bend the rules. Sometimes even break them.
Rules of Reality that is.
Mana on its own would be useless, as would a rune. THIS, was a rule.
And they couldn't just be used willy-nilly either, Runes were required to be harnessed in order to be used. Both the living and the un-living. To harness a rune, one had to embrace it, learn it, make it a part of your soul. Only then would you be able to use it like it was a part of yourself, like a muscle. THIS, was also a rule.
[Sire, your heart is the source of your energy. Unlike that of the living or the undead, your heart produces a pure energy known as 'Ether']
"Ether, got it"
[You must guide this energy to the runes that you possess]
"Right....where are they?"
[Where are what]
"My runes, where are they?"
[I wouldn't know sire, since you are quite literally the first of your kind, there are no known records that would apply to you]
"Bummer, at least do you have an idea of what i should be doing?"
[Well, most records for that of the Astiran Family, you must carry your mana, or in your case, ether, with an intent, and your rune should respond. However that is only in the case of Ranking individuals who have spent Centuries with their runes and blah blah blah blah.....blah blah....blah]
Aedhira shut Argos out, everything out, and focused within. He didn't see. But he heard.
*BADUMP*
*BADUMP*
*BADUMP*
He heard his heart, unperturbed by anything. Like a constant. Something that would never change. His heart continue to beat. With each beat, it flashed. Violently. Like a pulsar almost.
Curious, he dove. Deeper. As deep as he could. The deeper he went, the brighter the lightes became. Soon, he came to see a sight. His heart. And not like a heart he had imagined.
It was a rough sphere. Composed of what would seem almost like metallic bandages over a sore wound. Except each bandage was engraved with a strange language. Not runes.
Not any language he knew.
Something else.
Something he quickly and cowardly deduced he shouldn't mess with.
*BADUMP*
Each time he heard a beat, the bandages contracted, and loosened, as it trying to imprison.
No, not imprison. But to constrict whatever it hid within. With a muscle-like movement, the sphere slightly expanded, then shrunk, constantly. And each time it did, his 'heart' beat.
*BADUMP*
Despite the best efforts of this, 'confinement', energy pulsed and escaped. Ludicrous amounts of ether, shot out like bomb exploding, with each beat.
Around his 'heart', orbiting it were Runes. Actual Runes. 4 of them, orbiting the 'heart' like planets around a star. He didn't see these, he heard them. He heard the images that these Runes imprinted upon him.
That's right, he heard images. A dragon's wrathful roar. The sound of metal striking metal. A flame, that wished to burn infinitely, held by chains.
[Servitude of Metal]
[The Dragon Flies, The Storm Follows]
[IGNITION]
[Armaspace]
And one other Rune, different from the rest. It felt...artificial.
He didn't bother with it. Somethings were better left untouched.
[Sire do you feel it?]
"Yeah...I hear them"
[....hear? Regardless, you must link to them. Then...I do not know]
"Sure, sure, just lemme do my thang'
[.....]
He reached out for one of the runes. And did what any logical being would do.
He grabbed one and squeezed.
Aedhira opened his eyes, held out his hand. And focused on causing damage to the facility.
"Cause why not, right?"
[Sir-]
Argos couldn't finish before the a deafening groan echoed throughout the facility.
*BADUMP*
The walls deformed, and pieces of the floor ripped out like paper. They sped to Aedhira like a bullet. Then just before they met homunculi muscle, they stopped, losing all their momentum.
They hovered silently in the air before him. Aedhira's head tilted a bit, as did his hand. His face looked like he was trying to scratch an itch you couldn't reach. The Rune within him, set aflame, pulsed. The metal in front of him, contracted, squeezed, into a sphere. Slowly, but surely, it became smoother, more refined. Then a spotless metallic sphere dropped on the ground with a clang.
Aedhira wore a satisfied look on his face. As he should. What he did was extraordinary.
[....]
Argos was speechless. As he should've been.
His sire had done something, that was in FACT, impossible, after all. This was something, that even that nearly all Rankers on Veria could do. They could use runes, like they used their muscles, only in Aedhira's case, it might as well really be a muscle.
The only issue lay with this fact was that, most of those Rankers were thousands of cycles old.
His sire had only walked the plane for 3 days.
Runes were required to be harnessed in order to be used. Both the living and the un-living. To harness a rune, one had to embrace it, learn it, make it a part of your soul. Only then would you be able to use it like it was a part of yourself, like a muscle. THIS, was a rule.
Alas, it seemed Rules were made to be broken.