Return of the Runebound Professor-Chapter 649: Inspiration

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“That sound didn’t come from his instrument,” one of the Inquisitors said as the three of them grouped up, their eyes darting around nervously. The three of them gathered magic around them. They were smart enough not to send it at Noah and end up feeding his intensifying song.

“Where in the Damned Plains did it come from, then?” the lead Inquisitor snapped. Blood twisted into a blade in his hands and he raised it before him. “How do you know it didn’t come from the instrument? Are you an expert on Formation tools?”

“It is a violin,” Noah said, his eyes narrowing. His fingers didn’t stop playing for so much as a moment. He built the song around him, layering its magical notes over each other like he were building a house that could be only heard and not seen. “Formation tools. Bah. I take offense to that. A lot of it.”

“If it didn’t come from the damn tool, then where did it come from?” the third Inquisitor demanded. “Are you saying we all hallucinated it?”

“Answer the question, demon-worshipper,” the first man said. He was doing his absolute best to sound like he had even the slightest amount of control over the situation left to him.

“There are a lot of brilliant ways to experience something for the first time,” Noah said, only speaking with the edges of his consciousnesses. The rest of his mind was completely focused on the song unfurling like a flower around him. “I’m partial to when things all go to plan… but I enjoy learning alongside my audience just as much. There’s something about new discoveries that just feels different.”

And if I’m totally honest, I don’t fully understand what I’m doing. I’m just copying what Alexandra did. Seeing her use her pattern like that… I really need to pull her aside and speak to figure out what she’s actually learned. There might have been some instinct in there, but I can tell she was actually in control of it. Alexandra isn’t just doing something without any thought behind it. Her understanding of patterns is actually far greater than mine right now… but these idiots wouldn’t even be able to tell the difference between my cheap copy and her abilities.

“What are you on about?” The Inquisitors were stuck in an awkward position. They couldn’t just turn and run off — that wasn’t their paradigm. But not a single one of their attacks had even gotten close to Noah, much less managed to actually injure him.

They’d been expecting to find a weak mage reliant on his demon contracts to protect him. A part of Noah wondered what they would have thought if they knew they stood across, not just from Professor Vermil, but from the very one they thought Vermil had contracted.

“That was a fun way for me to say I haven’t the slightest idea,” Noah said with a delighted laugh. "Isn't that wonderful? See, I realized something. The world is a pattern in itself. Music, magic, the way we all act, everything. Everyone is so focused on ripping that pattern apart to figure out how things work that nobody actually just stops. Stops to marvel at the wonder that all of this really is. It’s beautiful.”

“He’s lost it,” one of the Inquisitors muttered. “The fool has gone insane. Demonic energy must have reduced his mind to mush.”

Noah blew out a disappointed sigh, his hands still playing the complicated song flooding the Scorched Acres. “I suppose you wouldn’t be the lot that would pick up on this too quickly. Inquisitors haven’t been too good at being open-minded, have they? I wish you’d sent Fuyin. At least she isn’t a complete dunce — but then again, I suppose this makes things easier for me.”

“If we attack at once, we can break through his defenses,” the lead inquisitor hissed, gathering more and more blood in his sword. The weapon glistened with concentrated magical energy, its core practically humming with unrestrained power.

“You know, trying to attack things you don’t understand is half the reason you’re all going to end up dead,” Noah said. “One chance. That’s all I’ll give you. It’s certainly more than you’d give me. Release your magic and step back.”

“We will not bargain with a demon!”

“Upgraded me to demon, did you?” Noah tilted his head to the side. Then he shrugged. “So be it. I suppose I’d prefer if this didn’t get out anyway. You’ve made things easier for me, but don’t let it be said that I didn’t try.”

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The air crackled. Unstable Pandemonium shuddered within him — but not a single drop of power left the rune. Instead, power from the magic that the Inquisitors had thrown at Noah surged back into existence, accompanied by the bright chord of a harp ringing through the air.

A brilliant crack split through Scorched Acres as a bolt of red lightning bloomed from the air to Noah’s side, splitting it with a brilliant flash and streaking toward one of the Inquisitors.

His Shield flashed to life in a brilliant golden orb around him. A smug expression crossed the man’s lips as the red light faded from the air and his shield remained shimmering in the air around him.

“Your magic might be powerful, but we came prepared,” he said.

Noah tilted his head to the side. His eyes flicked down to the Inquisitor’s chest. The man followed his gaze. His smug expression faltered as he involuntarily took a staggering step back.

A warped hole flickered in the very center of his chest. His body had warped around where the magic had connected with him, twisting like melted sugar. The spot where his heart had been was nothing but a clean hole that continued through to reveal the glow of the Shield behind him.

The Shield sputtered. Then it went out, having nothing left to protect. It hadn’t so much as been touched by Noah’s magic. The Inquisitor swayed, then pitched forward. He was dead before he hit the ground.

The other two stared at Noah in horror.

“Impossible,” the lead Inquisitor rasped, fear finally taking root behind his eyes. “Shields cannot be bypassed by magic so easily. How could you…”

“Do you have any idea how many times I’ve heard the word impossible and how many times the person who said that was wrong?” Noah asked. “Because, let me tell you, it’s pretty damn often. This is the problem! Rules, rules, rules. Rules are good — but you don’t fucking understand the rules at all. You made them up, and then you get pissy when your imaginary laws don’t work. You want to know why his shield didn’t do anything? It’s because that was his magic that killed him. Shields don’t block your own abilities.”

Horror washed over the features of the remaining Inquisitors, but the lead refused to back down. The man was clearly trying to buy time while he thought of a way to kill Noah by keeping him talking. “You imply that you stole the magic we used? That cannot be done. Runes don’t work that way. And we used blood and shadow, not that accursed lightning.”

“The sad thing is I would have agreed with you just a short while ago,” Noah said with a shake of his head — but he was running low on time. His song was nearing its end, and he was never one to drag a finished performance out too long. “But really. We already know energy can transfer between runes. As far as connecting the dots goes, this can’t be that difficult. You people sling the word impossible and its synonyms around so much that I’m starting to wonder if you’ve ever actually had an original thought. Does the Inquisition frown on that?”

“Do not attempt to goad us,” the lead Inquisitor growled. He lifted his hands, holding his blood sword between himself and Noah as if it was going to do anything. “We will not fall to your trickery, demon.”

Couldn’t I have gotten one of the inquisitors that isn’t a complete moron? I know they exist. Fuyin seemed fairly intelligent. Then again, I’d probably feel a whole lot worse about killing them if they weren’t like this. Once again, I have to thank them. They’ve made things easy for me.

“I see,” Noah said, the vibrations of his violin running through his collarbone as he continued to play. It was a bit disappointing. He quite liked this song, and it seemed his efforts were wasted on the current audience. But that was just life. Noah’s gaze lifted from the instrument to focus on the two inquisitors before him. “Well then. I’d say that it’s been a pleasure, but you really didn’t contribute. You were an audience. Not a good one, but an audience.”

“Don’t act as if you’ve already won. We still have our domains to protect our magic,” the lead Inquisitor snarled. He and his companion both burst into motion as one, charging right at Noah with righteous roars.

They were actually quite fast. Noah suspected that was probably because they were meant to be able to deal with demons, who could move at speeds typically completely incomprehensible to humans.

But compared to a normal demon, they weren’t really all that impressive. And compared to Noah’s Fragment of Self-empowered mind… they weren’t really all that fast at all.

His fingers danced across the strings of his violin as the final notes of his song sang out. A single, thrumming note of a harp breathed through the air of the Scorched Acres like a dying whisper.

The blood sword in the Inquisitor’s hands disintegrated. Disbelief washed over his features and his shield flashed to life preemptively.

It did nothing to stop the bolt of red lightning that bloomed from the space to their side from ripping through the pair of Inquisitors like they were nothing but paper. Their domains hadn’t been anywhere near strong enough to keep Noah’s power from piercing through them. They crumpled.

The forest fell silent.

Noah let his bow lower from his violin. He looked down at the corpses littering the ground around him, but his attention was barely there. It was focused on his pattern — one that had converted someone else’s magical power into energy for Unstable Pandemonium to use.

Well… holy shit. I owe Alexandra some thanks. She gave me some great ideas… and I think I might have found something big. Really big.