chapter 124: long awaited destiny pt. 7


    the final split boulder was a large thing. he recognised it, a perfect duplicate of another further across the base of the slope. the same one father had used to teach him runes.


    the shifting glyph on the boulder''s face made father’s master runework look like a child''s drawing. it was jagged and aggressive, impossibly crisp lines cutting through stone, before they cracked into hard points and ran back through themselves.


    he found it almost impossible to focus on a single aspect of the shifting rune, his eyes tugged from point to point. every time he roved back over a spot, its entire geometry had shifted, rolling back over itself to present him with a new face.


    and yet, he did not ever see the thing actually move. it was simply different every time he focused. still, he could work out some aspects of its construction, even if in the broadest of senses. it was similar to his own glyph, in the way a barn cat was similar to a lion. a central nexus of violent shards, or crackling spokes, or twisting knots. a controller, shifting faster than he could focus on it. swooping lines that wove themselves into a binding, before shattering like glass.


    he swallowed thickly, a vein on his temple throbbing as the mutable design made his head start to ache. it didn’t take long for him to give up studying much more of the formation.


    taking a deep breath, he stepped forwards, revealing the description of his final potential skill.


    latent glyph of drakthar:


    class skill- tier i


    affinity: arcane, martial


    type: glyph-binding, runic, spellcasting


    selection available!


    heroic


    the ‘glyph of scouring,’ drakthar is etched for aggression and dominance in battle. its hymns unleash raw, directed energy in bursts of screaming magic. of all vesryn glyphs, it is the most warlike, as such initiates have its latent form inscribed on their hands and wrists to make it easier to direct - and less likely to bite something important.


    this skill allows the user to inscribe vesryn evocation spell-hymns to be activated at will, limited only by the availability of mana to reserve into the working, and sufficient space on the body. creates a hymnbook on the user''s status if one is not already present. paired on both hands, each glyph can cast hymns inscribed on their counterpart.


    each level moderately increases the power, range, afflictions, and area of effect of spell-hymns cast through the glyph.


    each level slightly decreases the physical size of inscribed spell-hymns.


    every 100 levels the user may learn another runic hymn of the relevant tier to add to their hymnbook.


    spell-hymns known:


    tier i-


    selection available!


    air hissed between kaius’s clenched teeth as he took in the nature of what would be the first skill of his class. there was no doubt in his mind.


    drakthar. he rolled the word across his tongue, feeling its hard points and sharp edges. it was a good name. a fitting one. something that a warrior-king would name his weapon. r?a??o?be?s?


    it was perfect. a source of new spells, his charged hymns limited only by his mana pool, and an increase of power that scaled with his level. he could think of nothing better. plus, to his core he burned to grasp as much of glyph-binding as he could.


    turning back to the glyph scrawled boulder, kaius felt the system react to his intent and offer him a new notification.


    **ding! latent glyph of drakthar class skill available, would you like to proceed? this choice is pivotal and irrevocable.**


    kaius accepted.


    power thrummed, surging through his soul. gasping at the electric energy that coursed through him, kaius dropped into his soul space.


    the class mesh that surrounded his soul pulsed; waves of power streaming out from the impossibly fine points that linked to his soul. guided by the system''s grand working, the power was corralled, woven into a dense ball.


    he could taste the flavour of that energy. aggressive, domineering. calling out in joy for the glory of battle, and the effervescent thrill that accompanied the expulsion of energy.


    shining with an aura of gold, the threads of intent that linked the latent skill to his class compressed the ball of formless potential, shaping it bit by bit into a shard of power. it was crystalline, much like his general skills, and gleamed with the rich red of war banners and spilled blood, shimmering with the incandescence of honourable death.


    unlike his legacy skills, the coalescing shard did not take on a platinum glow. golden light emanated from the working.


    with a final shattering crunch, his skill was forged as a pulsing wave of anticipation burst free from the nexus, washing over every inch of his being.


    his latest power floated away from his soul. it settled equidistant between the pillars of his aspects and the locked orbits of his legacy skills. with satisfied vigour, it started to rotate around the pyre of his soul, orbiting around the plane that split his soul top to bottom.


    formed and settled, it began its work in earnest.


    kaius started, feeling mana fly free from his pool. snapping his eyes open, he flew from his soulspace and rejoined the world of the waking. lifting his hands before his eyes, he leaned heavily on true sight, ignoring the absence of two fingers in favour of focusing on the streams of mana that split and divided under his skin. both of his hands were affected, glowing like a bonfire to his sight with the weight of mana that suffused them.


    woven under the intent of his skill, the mana took on new form, binding itself to his flesh according to higher mysteries and sacred geometries, leaving lines of white hot fire as the caustic arcane seared his nerves. kaius winced.


    it stung. like fuck.


    still, he could bear the discomfort. burning crimson light branded itself onto his skin, the glyph taking shape. it was cohesive, dense, and immeasurably more complex than anything he would have been able to inscribe himself, let alone design.


    he struggled to even identify what it did, but he could at least tell that there were different segments to the formation. if he couldn’t do even that he would have been a poor excuse for a runewright’s son. a central array, shaped like splayed out shards of metal, was surrounded by a densely woven mesh of hexagrams, each vertice cutting the central array in twain as they crossed his flesh with eye watering fire. jagged runes that whispered of power and the thrill of spilt blood scrawled around each line, somehow dipping through his flesh to wrap the glyph in a three dimensional matrix. it was mind bogglingly complex, and something that was only possible due to the formation being bound to his body and soul.


    he gulped, suddenly realising that developing his own expertise on his glyphs was going to be a lot harder than he thought if they were three dimensional. the complexity and permutations alone... balancing mana flows along a flat plane was bad enough.


    a final circle of runes flared into being, encircling the central formation at equidistant points. each was as large as a fingerprint, and a thin line of runes linked each one into a decagram.


    his mana surged, totally under the thrall of drakthar, before his whole being...clicked. shuddering in place. the burning lines of his glyph dimmed, leaving clean black elegance in their place that drenched the back of his hands and climbed up and around his wrists.


    clenching his fists, kaius took in their shape. he ... liked it. the brutal edges and whispered promises of violence. that said, he was going to need to buy some gloves if he wanted to avoid questions. it wouldn’t take long for people to start wondering what a fresh tier one was doing with body formations of unknown design.


    he grinned. he couldn’t wait to test them out, but first he would need to get his first spell.


    “ready to move on?” his class guide asked, giving him a small smile.


    “born ready.” kaius replied with a grin.