Return of the Runebound Professor
Chapter 729: Fated

Dayton’s feet pounded against the floor as he raced through the dormitory with the lone remaining masked man at his side.

He couldn’t hear the Rank 6s anymore.

That was a problem. Something told him a fight between mages that powerful wasn’t going to be quiet. The only reason there would be silence was if someone had already won. As confident as the man of red-trimmed robes had been… this was Spider they were dealing with.

No. It’s not even Spider. This is just his backup. That damn demon is too dangerous. I don’t understand how the Inquisition has decided to let him live. They’re fools. All of them.

“What happened?” Dayton snarled as they turned the corner. “Why is it quiet?”

“I am unaware of the results of the fight,” the masked man replied. “I would suspect my partner has already dealt with the threat. Calm yourself.”

“You would be more aware if you’d seen what Spider is capable of,” Dayton snarled. “Your ally is dead.”

“Preposterous.” The masked man let out a snort of laughter. “Exal vouched for you, but it is clear you don’t have the nerve for a job like this. Keep yourself together. A Rank 6 mage would not fall that easily. Your paranoia overwhelms you.”

“And naivety blinds you,” Dayton snapped. He could feel everything slipping through his fingers. His heart slammed in his chest as an invisible noose wound around his neck. “If you’re so confident he still lives, then go buy me time. I will deal with the children myself. I can deal with a few pathetic Rank 3s. I don’t need your help.”

Muffled laughter beat against the mask covering the other man’s face. “Nobody is coming. But I do not believe you are stupid enough to try and steal the rune for yourself. Very well. If only to save myself from your yammering, I will ensure you are not followed.”

Dayton didn’t waste time on a response. He’d been briefed on where Isabel and Todd’s room was. There wasn’t a second more to waste. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that the first of the masked men was either dead or well on his way to it — and the second would follow shortly afterward.

His revenge would be short. Spider denied him even a chance at properly enjoying what was rightfully his. But victory took priority over a few mere seconds of satisfaction. Dayton doubted he had more than a minute to work with. If he didn’t get the Master Rune and escape the dormitory by then, then it was likely he never would.

He skidded to a stop in front of the door, but Dayton barely even paused. This was far from a stealth mission. The explosion that had rocked the dormitory had ruined any chances of that. All that mattered now was speed.

Speed and power.

He thrust his hand forward, sending black lightning raking through the air before him with a roar. The door shattered beneath his magic with a splintering crack, sending fragments of wood tearing through the air and pelting across the floor.

Light from the hall flooded into the room beyond, but it didn’t do much. The room was pitch black. Heavy curtains had been drawn shut over the windows. This was no ordinary darkness. The shadows were too deep, too long.

The glow from the sun in the hall was barely enough to even make an inch dent into the murky shadows. But Dayton didn’t need to see. He drew on his domain, casting his attention out as he let magic swirl to a crackling ball within his palm.

He could feel two forms within the room. They’d taken up spots on either side of the door, hiding just deep enough that he wouldn’t be able to see them if he’d manually checked the corners.

Dayton’s lips pulled into a sneer. The children were trying to fight back. In any other time, it would have been laughable. Rank 3s trying to hold their own against a Rank 5. He could have slaughtered them even before Spider’s humiliation had forced him to evolve.

Now, there wouldn’t even be a competition.

He burst into motion, lunging into the room and thrusting his hands toward the presence on the left. There was no way to know which of the two it was — and it didn’t matter. Even if he’d planned to spare one, there was no time to figure out which was which. He’d just kill both of them. That would make sure the Master Rune dropped.

Darkness swallowed the crackling roar of his lightning as it raked through the shadows. It arced toward one of his targets, but they’d hurled themselves to the side the moment he’d stepped into the room.

His magic slammed into the wall with a muffled crack. Dayton bit back a snarl as he spun, thrusting both of his hands forward and letting a torrent of scorching black lightning pour free from his hands in a wave.

The magic washed across the floor of the room with a crackling hiss — but it didn’t make it far. It sputtered out just mere feet away from Dayton, the power from his runes evaporating the moment it left his body.

What is this?

Lights twisted through the darkness, coiling along the walls and twisting beneath his feet. Dayton’s eyes widened.

Runes. There were hundreds of them. Thousands, perhaps. Someone had covered every single square inch of the room’s walls with imbuements. And they hadn’t stopped there. The imbuements covered the ceiling and sprawled over every single piece of furniture like some grotesque painting.

Dayton spun — and a stone pillar exploded up in front of the door, cutting off the exit and banishing what little light still trickled in from the hallway.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

The fury burning in Dayton’s heart multiplied a hundredfold. They weren’t trying to run away. They were keeping him from fleeing.

“You think I would run?” Dayton snarled. “From the likes of you?”

Magic exploded out from his palms with a roar. Jagged lightning tore through the darkness and raked across the runes shimmering on the ground, slicing through the imbuements and shattering the power stored within them.

He felt Todd and Isabel move to the far end of the room to avoid the attack. Even if he couldn’t see, they couldn’t hide from his Domain. Dayton’s lips pulled back into a snarl. This was already taking too much time. He had to end this.

“Can you blame us?” Todd’s voice asked, echoing through the darkness. “Your history with this kind of thing isn’t exactly stellar, Dayton.”

A massive bolt of lightning screamed from Dayton’s hands and split the air with a thunderous crack. It slammed into the spot where Todd’s voice and magical energy originated from — but he continued speaking as if nothing had happened.

“You know, we figured you’d be back at some point,” Todd said. “We’ve been waiting for it. You killed my father, coward. You killed my family. Our families. You’re going to—”

“That rune was never yours! It belonged in the hands of someone who could use it!” Dayton roared, slicing his hands through the air like blades. Magic exploded out from them and slammed into the wall, destroying several more imbuements in the process. The thick darkness filling the room faltered. It faded rapidly, sending information flooding back into Dayton’s eyes as his sight returned.

His magic slammed into a plain stone wall — but Todd was nowhere to be found.

“—pay for that,” Todd’s voice continued, partially swallowed by pops and hisses as if he were speaking from far away.

A rune sputtered out, the damage too extensive for it to persist. Todd’s voice went with it. Dayton’s eyes widened in realization. Todd had been speaking remotely. But that should have been impossible. He’d felt Todd’s presence.

He could still feel the energy signature of someone standing right where the voice had come from… but nobody was there.

Are they invisible?

And then the magic marking one of the brat’s positions before Dayton vanished. Before he could register it, the second one disappeared as well.

His domain scoured the room, but there was nothing. All that remained were sputtering remains of the failing imbuements that had been destroyed by his magic. They’d—

An explosion ripped through the air and a tongue of flame cut through the fading darkness. A spike of heat slammed into Dayton’s side. The breath exploded from his lungs in a weak wheeze as he found himself staggering to the side, shoved by some sudden force. He staggered, a hand clasping to his side.

Hot blood poured out from a small circular hole in his side. The wound was deep. He wasn’t sure how deep, nor did he have the slightest idea what could have caused it.

What? How? Where did it come from? How do they have magic fast and strong enough to overpower my domain?

Dayton’s skull pounded as panic and confusion mixed with his anger. This wasn’t how the fight had been meant to go. It was impossible. A pair of Rank 3 blacklisted children couldn’t do this.

The shadows shifted as Todd stepped out from the corner of the room — and the pounding in Dayton’s skull intensified.

The Rank 3 was encased in sleek stone armor. His hand was raised, and coils of smoke twisted up from his wrist. The wound must have come from some manner of projectile that Todd had fired at him.

But none of that mattered in the face of the pounding realization beating down Dayton’s temple.

Todd didn’t have a magical signature. He may as well have been invisible to Dayton’s domain. It was like he wasn’t there at all… but the weeping wound in his side begged to differ.

“Spider,” Dayton snarled, grabbing his magic and bringing it to bear as he forced himself back to his feet. “He did this.”

A streak of hot fire sliced across Dayton’s back. He let out a scream of pain — and all the power he’d gathered abruptly evaporated, stolen from his hands like a baby from a cradle. He fell to one knee.

With a snarl of fury, Dayton yanked on his magic again —

Nothing responded.

A single, terrifying instant of silence hung over the room. Dayton grabbed for his magic again. There was nothing there. His magic wasn’t just spent. It was gone. His domain was no different. It was like all the power he’d garnered over the years had just… vanished.

“What is this?” Dayton screamed. “Give it back! This is my right! That rune is mine! It belongs to me!”

“None of your runes are yours,” Isabel said, stepping out from behind Dayton. Light shimmered across the ground as she stepped out to stand before him. A sword of crimson red energy pulsated in her hand, coils of slow-moving lightning twisting through it like fingers drifting through a galaxy. “You don’t deserve any of them — much less one that belonged to my father.”

“What have you done to me?” Dayton snarled. He tried to stand, but the world spun around him mockingly. It was like he was trying to puppet his own body with slack strings.

“How do you not even recognize what you came here for?” Isabel asked, her features cast in blood red by the light of her sword. “You wanted the Soul Master Rune, didn’t you?”

“Your runes are severed,” Todd said. “What did you think the Soul Master Rune did, Dayton? It strikes the soul directly — and yours is no longer attached to your body. You have no more magic. Not that it was much of a loss. Your combinations were terrible. I didn’t think my magic would actually cut through your domain that easily. You’re finished.”

Blood pounded in Dayton’s ears. He couldn’t believe the words falling against them. It was impossible. His magic couldn’t be gone. But nothing was there. No matter how hard he reached, his runes wouldn’t respond to him.

“My magic,” Dayton whispered, a tremor cutting through his voice. They were telling the truth. It was gone.

“Imagine, would you?” Malice dripped from Todd’s words. “Living a life without any magic at all. Severed forever from your soul, unable to access your old runes or even draw in new ones. Living as nothing.”

“You think this will stop me?” Dayton hissed, his words slurring as he found his lips moving slower than they should have been. He lifted a trembling hand for Todd’s neck. “You think I’ll give up if you spare me? Or do you think I’ll beg for my magic back? I’ll never stop. I’ll—”

A searing pain cut through Dayton’s neck.

The world spun around him, the ceiling turning to the ground and then the ceiling once more as his head hit the ground with a thud, lips still parted in mid-sentence.

His head had been severed at the neck. Panic and fear screamed in Dayton’s fading thoughts. He should have been dead already — but something was keeping him here, his soul pinned to the mortal plane like some science experiment.

All too late did Dayton finally realize that it wasn’t Spider that he should have been worried about.

“Oh, we had no plans of sparing you. You killed our fucking families, you asshole,” Isabel said, her heel landing on the top of Dayton’s head and rolling it back so her cold gaze could meet his. For an instant, she didn’t move. Then her knuckles whitened around the glowing sword in her grip. “We just wanted to see the look on your face. Say, did you know that the afterlife doesn’t exist if there’s nothing left of your soul?”

Then her sword plunged down, and Dayton knew no more.