Grounded Runes x Smog of War

Roland had his hands against his two knees, panting for breath whilst his body was almost on the brink of collapse right now. He stood a little further away, admiring his work with mixed feelings. Four large boxes squared beneath the floating Rune above. Each with a large chain shooting out of the gaping mouth and wrapped around the ancient Rune. His plan was simple. Squeeze the Rune until it explodes. Considering it comprised countless tiny incantations, this was the best play he could think of. 

His major problem was the amount of fatigue he accumulated by doing this. Omega had very well left out telling him just how much strain this would place on his mind and in this realm that controlled his physical body. 

Roland could barely keep this going for much longer, but he needed to concentrate. As he witnessed before, the slightest misplaced thought or action meant the chains would slack, and then the Rune would overpower them and break free. The assault against his mind from that alone was enough to render him incapable of lifting his body for a few hours.

Between the fatigue in his body and the strain against his mind, Roland was fighting to keep himself in check without his sanity spilling over the edge. 

His mind was locked into a deadly focus. Not even Omega's mechanical whirring reached him. The chains finally found a solid grip and shook the giant-sized Rune. With each firm squeeze the chain applied, the entire space shook, and Roland felt a surge of pain between his eyebrows. The relenting struggle continued, but slowly, the Rune was being brought down. Roland couldn't take a moment to breathe. The feeling of the chains wrapped around the Rune alone was a heavy burden. But he had no real idea how to squeeze the Rune until it broke. This mental exercise felt like trying to coherently write and solve four complex formulas simultaneously within his mind without thinking of anything else.

"Tsk! I can't...I can't do-do this..." 

Roland tried to breathe for a second, and in that short moment the chains started to rattle and threaten to break. A swell of pain filled his head again and forced him to fall to a single knee. 

A firm hand found his back just before he was on the verge of falling over. 

"Don't you dare kid! Keep your head raised high. If you're going to die, die fighting until the bitter end." Roland's eyes were devoid of light, but he nodded in response before gingerly picking himself up again. He wiped the blood away from his nose and nodded again. He raised his two arms and held them flatly towards the floating Rune.

The chains groaned and constricted tighter. His mental focus ordered the chains to tighten, to grow thicker, far surpassing the meagre elements of metals. He needed something heavier, more powerful, more domineering. Roland's eyes flashed wide at that moment as though he had made a breakthrough in his mind. A dark, inky substance started to bubble and entwined around the chains. A trail of blue and grey fire roared forth, swallowing the four thick chains in a combustion of dazzling blue and grey fires. The black ink swarmed and the bolstered the thick chains. The Ancient Rune once again was attempted to be grounded again.

Roland held out his two hands, and he cut quite the pitifully looking figure right now. Blood trailed down his nostrils again, and his head was growing increasingly light. But Roland relented and pushed his palms forward. His intent surged and overtook the overwhelming pain that wracked through his entire ethereal body. 

Roland could feel his life force slipping away, but his eyes never wavered. Not for a single moment could he relax. The chains roared like never before, and Roland felt the urge to roar with them. He used every ounce of his vigour to finally ground the giant Rune. Seconds after meeting the ground, the giant Rune expanded and gave way at last.

An explosion sent a terrifying blast his way. Roland's mind turned into a mushy distortion, and then everything turned golden. 

Other POV 

The skies bled an orange tint, and the evening descended upon the castle black. Lord Soma stood by the towering window inside his chambers, with his hands clasped behind his back, staring off into the open field towards the cluster of forests. His stiffened features were as hardened as the day he first assumed his position as Lord of this family. 

He imagined that was 30 or so years ago, and somehow, he couldn't say a lot had changed since then. War was still war, and with each triumphant victory, they were ebbing closer to destruction. 

Lord Soma considered the five major powers vying for power alongside the Cloud Country: the Rain Nation, which spilt most of its men's blood over the years; the uninhabited storm lands; the matriarchal society of the Moon Dynasty; and the Sun Kingdom and its overlords. The Lands of Snow was a relatively isolated kingdom. Scarcely had there been any known contact from their people for almost a decade. And then, there was that place; Arcadia.

Where the most powerful beings in the entire world lived. The Wizards.

He heard footsteps shuffling behind him, and an aged voice filtered into his ears. 

"Nothing stands forever, my Lord." 

Soma slowly twisted around to find his trusted old advisor, Vulcan, cane in hand and clothed in his usual dark robes. The old man, other than the dragons, was the oldest in this castle. And somehow, his presence was still as reassuring as the first time Soma's father had passed his services onto him. 

Soma wore a slightly neutral expression as he bowed his head to welcome the elder. Elder Vulcan looked troubled by that. His eyes shifted elsewhere. Clearing his throat, he swiftly said. 

"Forgive my intrusion, my Lord, I thought it worth you knowing the boy…I mean to say, the Lady Diane's bastard has recovered."

Soma nodded, expecting the boy to survive again. 

"Do we know what went wrong? Another attempt at this life?" This would be another failed attempt at the cripple's life. Soma was too seasoned in these matters not to understand this was by far no longer a coincidence. Either someone was incredibly incompetent in finishing off their vendetta. Or, the boy was hiding something. 

"Hard to say, the healers spoke of a possible affliction to his mental state. The fever has passed, and his vitals are stable, so he should be moving soon." 

Soma's expression didn't change. But his mind never stopped thinking. 

"Does this absolve him of the suspicions and accusations? Would it be safe to say whomever held a hand in the murder of Alyssa Cloud. Also had a role to play…in this." Elder Vulcan kept his eyes low; despite his silence, the Patriarch could somewhat grasp where his mind leant towards. 

"It's… It's hard to make the correlation." Said Elder Vulcan. His bright blue eyes moved across the ground in slight fear. 

"Especially when we consider the gap of strength between the two." 

Soma nodded again; that truth was the only thorn in that way of thinking. If the several attempts at the bastard boys life had come to nought. Then how could a prodigious talent like Alyssa Cloud have been killed? 

Soma still found too many holes in all of this. The frustrating truth about this entire ordeal was the growing pressure on his family to find the reason for the king's niece's death. And Soma could already smell the smog of war slowly entwined between the wind. The Rain Nation were practically camped on their borders.

He rubbed the side of his face and smoothed the outline of his bearded jawline in deep thought. Decisions had to be made for the betterment of his clan. 

"Vulcan, have it that the boy is heavily protected. And summon Eric; I need to decide on the succession of this clan." Soma had many grievances towards naming a successor, yet Eric was the oldest. He had a family and sired children with the potential to pave the way through the cloud kingdom. He was well-versed in their family's values, trained his body and experienced what war was like beyond the borders of their kingdom. On paper, Eric was the best choice. But Soma had one major grievance: he married a woman with the same temperament as a slithering viper lurking between the tall grass. 

And what of his other son? The one who spent his life bathed in the blood of his enemies. Soma sighed under his breath, considering his options. 

"If only Diane listened to me." He still felt a twisting anger about the fate of his beloved daughter. The one who was born almost a carbon copy of himself. 

He pictured the crippled boy. Who's eyes shone of a deepness that far eclipsed the age of what his outward appearance suggested. And Soma sighed again, wishing things had been different. 

"Vulcan…did I make a mista-"those words choked in his throat. Soma swiftly narrowed his gaze. He turned back around towards the tall window. Outside the world looked the same through the naked eye. But with Soma's Gold Ranked body. His perception didn't miss anything. From the birds flocking across the skies. To the animals crawling out from their burrows. And certainly not, the sudden spike of a foreign Qi emerging on his land. 

Elder Vulcan felt it too. 

Without wasting another moment, the Patriarch raised his hand. Suddenly, four shadows appeared behind Elder Vulcan. Four death knights, dressed in shadows, wore a uniquely cut-coloured mask. 

"Go and dispose of what trouble has arrived. And be quick." 

"Yes, my lord!" the four replied in unison. The four shadows dispersed away, and both Elder Vulcan and the Patriarch merely stood there in silence. Soma could feel this was something different. The air stirred unusually this time around and for the first time in a long while. He felt the looming cloud of a truly troubling matter set to unfold. 

Other POV 

Deja pressed a single palm against the cold soil, then spreaded her fingers apart and waited. Her dull, dark eyes slowly shut, and again, she waited. The rigid forest air unforgivingly clung to her face. Her lips were dried and chapped, and her joints felt slightly hardened from the chill. Her mouth, however, never stopped moving. 

"Gold rank…gold rank…where are you gold rank." 

She felt a sudden change beneath her palm resting just against the surface of the soil, a subtleness in the pressure of mana flowing through the ground. Through this method, Deja could feel mostly all living creatures with some kind of mana signature, from the tiniest root to the sleeping beast cradled in the bosom of a cave almost 3km away. A jolt of euphoria sparked through her fingers, and three bodies homed towards her at lightning speed. 

A delicate smile pulled the corners of Deja's mouth upwards. She stood upright and wiped the soil off her hands. After she finished patting her robes down, she stretched her muscles a little before casually making her way out to the clearing in the middle of the forest. 

Her feet trudged over the crunchy ground and Deja simply gazed at the partial bright blue skies and waited. 

"Three shadows? No, there's a fourth one surveying nearby. That's silly; they should attack me all at once. But then again, I'll probably... oh-they've arrived." 

Her expressionless gaze moved towards the hurdle of tall trees in her view. Their footsteps were almost silent, and even their breathing expertly waded with the flow of the outdoor wind to mask their presence. Her eyes slightly widened. Deja watched the bodies position themselves. She nodded gently, and she stood a little impressed. 

"Hello there, do you know where I might find the Gold Ranked fellow?" She waved her hand at the empty air a few times. Nothing spoke back but the slight bristle of bushes shuffling. Deja blinked a few times before she decided to take a step forward. At that moment, three shadows emerged from behind the slender trees. They were tall and dressed in skintight black uniforms. Each wearing a unique iron mask bearing no face nor distinctive features of their own. 

A soft chuckle broke free from her cold expression as Deja covered her mouth with a few of her small dainty fingers. 

"Sorry, I'm just a little excited." She licked her lips and squirmed a little awkwardly. "I hope...well, I hope you won't finish too early. I like a man who knows how to keep up with me-a haha-ooo- Now then! Let's get this show started."