Chương 63: Runes and glyphs and sigils

It was a small island. One of the really small ones, barely a rock above water, the kind that you could walk from end to end in just a minute or two. There was no grass or any other kind of vegetation, just plain rock intermixed with gravel and a bit of sand. It was truly the ass of the world. A place with no significance whatsoever.

"Breathe," Mary said quietly to Stacy, holding the girl's hand as she trembled.

"Just breathe. One, two… Good. It's okay." The amount of mana everyone had spent on the 'existence' spells to fight off the void was enormous. Stuart couldn't find a moment where he didn't hear someone muttering a variation of 'you exist' or 'you matter' or similar magic. It wasn't sustainable.

"Your skill's great and all," Jack grumbled nearby.

"And teleporting everyone is a cool new trick, not gonna lie. So… What the fuck, Stuart? Is this a proper place to die or what?"

"I really hope not," he replied quietly and began walking towards the centre of the island. With how ravenous the void around them was, time was crucial. Whatever was calling him to this place, they had to find it as fast as possible. The path was short. They had to climb a small hill to get to the centre, but otherwise nothing stopped them. The closer they got though, the worse the void aura around them became.

It was intermixed with something, and it took Stuart some time to notice that his mana wasn't regenerating. Worse than that, with every step he made the sapping sensation got stronger.

"I'm losing mana," Evan noted when they were near the top of the cliff.

"No shit you're losing mana," Jack said.

"With all the casting we're doing–""I'm not casting right now," Evan cut him off.

"This place eats mana along with everything else. The void feels wrong. If we stay here long enough, Stuart won't have the mana to teleport us in a safer place. I assume your new skill uses mana?"

"It does," Stuart answered.

"My mana was regenerating on the edge of the island though."

"Your Soul stat is higher than mine." They finally got to the top of the hill.

"Is that…" There was a hint of excitement in Mary's voice, despite the oppressive surroundings.

"Is that an elf lady?"

"It sure looks like one," Jack said quietly.

"Oh my god oh my god oh my–" the girl's squeal contained pure concentrated happiness. On the top of the hill there was a big rock made of obsidian, flat on the top. A young woman was sitting on her knees inside of a rune circle on top of the rock, with her eyes closed. She was very obviously an elf. She seemed young, though obviously Stuart decided not to try and deduce her age just from appearance. It was a freaking elf.

"It's an elf, it's an elf, it's an elf!" Mary also seemed to notice the long ears and the otherworldly grace in the woman's features.

"Can she hear us?! Can she see us?! Hello, miss elf! Oh my gosh, what if she doesn't speak English?! It's been so long since I practiced my elvish… Ehm… Suilad! Mae govannen!" Mary was losing it.

"I doubt she speaks made-up elvish either…" Hannah muttered. While a literal elf straight from the fairytales was quite attention-grabbing, Stuart's gaze was mostly focused on the rock the elf was sitting on, because that thing was freaky. First of all, it was a huge chunk of obsidian, which shouldn't be possible since the tiny island clearly wasn't a volcano. How did it get there? Secondly, it was a focus-place for a skill.

Places being skills wasn't anything new, but as far as Stuart knew skills repelled the void. This one empowered it instead, making it even stronger and–he was pretty sure–adding the mana-drain effect to it. The skill felt like being forgotten, like an inversion of anything important, and inescapable entropy. Thirdly, the rune circle was giving him chills.

Every marking on it felt like a resonance to a specific skill, like a written representation of the way they figured out how to cast magic, and what he felt from those markings was… well, nothing good. He could feel the resonances to things like suppression, something along the lines of containment, definitely some kind of a curse and dozens of others that he had no frame of reference for, but he was sure they weren't pleasant. That elf lady might as well be sitting on a piece of enriched uranium.

Uranium might've been a better option, actually. Just standing near it felt like standing in a puddle near a high voltage transformer. Not to mention that his mana reserves were plummeting just from looking at the thing. The elf, who sat motionless up to that point, suddenly started moving. She raised her hand agonizingly slowly, like every small movement was taking all of her strength, and pointed a finger at one of the markings in the circle. Her eyes were still closed, and not a sound escaped from her lips.

Lesser link of Cautious Reaction. Skills used in casting could surely get weird. He had no idea how to even begin resonating with that concept if he wanted to summon it.

"Oh my god she's communicating!" Mary shouted, practically jumping in place.

"This has to be the first contact between humanity and an alien race! And she's an elf! And she– We have to free her!"

"What if she's evil though?" Jack asked quietly.

"I mean, even I'm not that pessimistic, but she's clearly super powerful if she can sit on that and not disintegrate, and this feels like a magical prison for powerful entities, and if I know something about magical prisons it's that half the time you free someone from one they turn out to be an evil god or something along those lines."

"But it's the Proper Place!" Mary said.

"Obviously we are supposed to free her. And even ignoring Stuart's skill, I can't in good conscience leave anyone near that rock. It's horrible." This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"I agree that we should free her," Stuart nodded.

"Though I have to add that this is… Well, not exactly the Proper Place. I think she subverted my skill, somehow. So… could be an evil god."

"Could we please hurry up?" Stacy asked, shivering.

"I can't stand this– I can't –" Both Mary and Evan immediately started casting their 'existence affirming' spells, probably spending the last of their mana.

"Fuck it," Jack muttered.

"We just have to break that sigil, I guess? No way anyone is touching that. Brace for impact." He pointed a finger at the rune, not unlike the elf. Stuart only had a moment to cover his ears before a sound akin to twang of the bow but so much louder shook everyone. In a place where the link rune was, there was now a hole that went cleanly through all of the obsidian stone.

Without moving or even opening her eyes, the elf began casting immediately, though the way she did it only vaguely resembled what Stuart understood as 'casting'. Instead of attuning to and resonating with one skill to bring it into reality like they usually did it, countless translucent runes were appearing in the air in front of her, each of them attuned to a different concept.

Some of them combined with the others, some of them empowered each other, and some came into existence just for a moment and disappeared instantly as they did their mystical job, changing other processes. It was mesmerising. Somehow, it reminded Stuart of cooking. But if magic as he understood it was summoning one ingredient, the elf was cooking a five-star meal. Instead of using the summoned skills directly, she was applying them to each other in a mind-bogglingly complicated process.

It was an alchemy of meanings. A skill soup. After just a few breaths all of the runes in front of her coalesced into one and the spell was released. Instantly, the whole rune circle around her winked out of existence, the markings on the stone literally sealing themselves, and she finally opened her eyes. For one tense moment, they looked at each other. Her eyes were deep green, and yet so vibrant that it would be impossible to find a human with a natural eye-color like that. For one tense moment, no one moved.

"Could you please help me get off this heresy-blessed rock?" she asked casually. Her voice was surprisingly normal, pleasant to hear but nothing supernatural, though the way she talked sounded like she was singing a song. There was an implicit rhythm to every sound she produced.

"I can't feel my legs, you know. They're numb."

"You speak English!" Mary shouted in triumph, dancing in one place like a giddy girl on a birthday.

"And you don't sound evil! You're not evil, right? Please don't be evil, you're so cute! Ohmygod!"

"I assume that English is the name of a language?" The elf tilted her head like an owl.

"I actually don't. You just understand me, as I understand you. Now, some help? It would be much appreciated. Crawling on my own would be quite undignified, after all."

"But that rock…" Hannah muttered questioningly.

"Is just cold to the touch and drains mana, which most of you already don't have. Also, quite uncomfortable to sit on. But ultimately harmless now. Could we maybe hurry along? My jailer won't be distracted forever, I'm afraid. I recommend making as much distance as possible between ourselves and him, as soon as possible." Stuart had a feeling that he was being scammed.

The elf's insistence on getting someone to climb the 'completely harmless' rock combined with the stated urgency that there was a jailer who would notice them soon smelled like a scam. It could also be exactly what it was on the first glance, just a person who needed help. Well, they've already helped with destroying the rune circle. No reason to half-ass the rescue attempt.

"I'll do it," he heard himself say.

"Much appreciated," the elf nodded.

"Though the gravitas in your voice is misplaced. This is a minor matter, and completely safe." The elf could not for the life of her stop sounding like she was selling him a bridge. He put a hand on the obsidian. It was cold like ice, and the remains of his mana disappeared near instantly. Fortunately, the elf didn't start shouting 'you have fallen into my trap, mortal' or anything along those lines. He was half-expecting it. Climbing on the stone of death was a surprisingly mundane affair.

He helped her get up, and nothing bad happened. The elf was holding on to him to keep herself from falling as they climbed down. She weighed surprisingly little.

"So…" he said, trying to sound casual.

"What were you in for?"

"I rightfully don't know," she said.

"Though I suspect it was my heightened interest in my teacher's latest activities that earned me his ire. Don't be worried about my moral character though, I did not break any Laws! My imprisonment and execution was unlawful, and you have nothing to fear from me, except for my gratitude. I am completely trustworthy."

"Why should we be afraid of your–" Jack instantly focused on the weird phrasing.

"Oh no, it's the fey rules," Stacy muttered.

"She's going to reward us with monkey-pawed wishes or…"

"It was an attempt at a joke," the elf said dryly.

"I have tried to ease your spirits for I sense your distrust. It was a poor attempt, I see. I apologise. Please be not afraid." Stuart couldn't figure out if the elf was fucking with them or not. Surely it was intentional? The group was slowly walking back down to the edge of the island, where the mana drain effect was weakest.

"Execution?" Evan asked.

"The prison of mine was designed as a means of delivering final death, preventing any forms of resurrection," she explained, and then added quietly.

"It takes time. I am quite grateful for your arrival."

"Nice teacher you have," Jack noted.

"I do sense the mockery in your voice," she said quietly.

"And while I'm honor-bound to protect the High Authority in all matters, including an attack on his character, I can't deny your accusation in this instance. It was unlawful of him. A great shame." Ah. Cool. Cool cool cool.

"So, how do we get out?" Stuart decided to stick to the priorities. Escape the horror death-island first, ask questions later. Otherwise he felt they would all die from erasure before they finished interrogating the woman.

"I assume we're relying on my skill, but we don't have mana."

"The same as you came here," she shrugged.

"I'll soulburn more of it. We don't exactly have a choice." Oh great, she could burn souls for mana. Stuart was getting more and more doubtful about this whole rescue operation.

"I do have a question of my own, if you don't mind," she said as he helped her get down a particularly steep slope.

"Hm?"

"How did you manage to acquire an ascended corpse? Undeniably dead, yet undeniably leveled. It shouldn't be possible." The question prompted Stuart to inspect the girl that Evan carried again. Pretty much everyone turned their gaze at the body, reminded of that mystery.

"There was this cute boy…" Mary said.

"Unhinged murder in the shape of a human," Jack corrected her.

"Impossible, you say?" Evan muttered.

"It has mana," the elf whispered, her eyes wide.

"It's losing mana. Fascinating." Something broke. The undeniably dead girl in Evan's arms became just a normal healthy girl. Was she just sleeping? What? His thoughts became a mess. She opened her eyes, looking around warily. Her gaze landed on the elf.

"Were you 'dying from a mysterious cause, needing immediate help yet somehow surviving' for the past month or so?" The girl's question did not resolve Stuart's confusion at all. What the hell was happening?!

"It could be said in that way, yes," the elf nodded, still weirdly amazed.

"Could you be considered to be 'saved' now?"

"In essence, maybe. Yes."

"And me," the girl said dryly, her brows furrowing.

"I am not 'kinda dead' anymore, am I?"

"I would love to find out how you achieved that. But to answer your question, you seem perfectly alive to me."

"Well, shit."