New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Chapter 951  Changing The Runes

The runic circle would indeed channel immense power into his soul, may haps allowing it to overpower the soul snare, but it seemed… forceful.

It was like trying to unlock a door by prying it open.

The spell, lacking finesse, was a volatile force, its power raw and unrefined. Killian couldn't shake the fear that David had gravely understated the pain it would inflict, a pain that could potentially shatter his very soul.

One thing that Killian knew for a fact about souls was that they were a fragile thing. And pushing too much power into it brought with it the danger of breaking it.

But Alex started grinning, which made David frown.

"What are you pulling a big dumb grin for?" David asked, worried.

"This spell, I think I can make it better," Alex replied, as runes started changing, mana oozing out of Alex.

The pressure of his mana grew, as the spell activated fully under his control.

But David was staring at the runes with fear.

"Hey! Stop it! You have no idea what you are doing!" David warned, trying to lock the runes into place.

But his mana was promptly erased by Alex's, which only made David tense up more.

"Alex, you are messing with a ritual that I barely know how to perform. Stop it. If you keep changing it, I won't be able to guide you through…" he claimed, his face showing visible worry.

But Alex was too focused on his tampering to care.

His mind was elated by all the knowledge that was pouring into it, as if the runes themselves were telling him what to do.

'Where does this knowledge come from?' he wondered.

And it was Sanguis who responded to his mental question.

'Those are divine runes. The divine shard held memories of them, memories which are now yours. I imagine it was all just stored away inside your mind until you accessed it.'

Alex winced slightly at the strange reverb in Sanguis' voice, but acknowledged his words.

'Convenient,' he simply responded.

But all this knowledge allowed him to do something he would have never imagined possible.

He rewrote the entire spell, the runic circle changing, expanding, and glowing with more and more power.

By the time he was done tampering with it, the circle had almost reached the edge of the cargo hold, and David could barely recognize it.

Killian looked at the runes, his eyes wide. Most of them, which he had recognized, had now changed, and he couldn't make heads or tails of their function.

But one thing was certain. He could tell by the flow of the mana inside the runes.

This spell was a lot more refined.

Once Alex was satisfied with his handiwork, he infused the runes with a hefty dose of his mana, to the point where it almost condensed into Aether, and the spell activated.

Killian jolted in pain as his body seized up, throwing his head back, a silent scream escaping his throat, as the air refused to go past his larynx.

His body floated up slightly as it reclined back, sending him into a position parallel to the plane floor, as his eyes rolled into the back of his head.

Already, heavy beads of sweat were forming on his forehead, as the physical toll on his body began to exacerbate.

But Alex was too focused to notice.

He was already entering Killian's mental space by force and looking at his soul with a grin.

"Hah. Child's play," he scoffed, looking at the soul snare.

What had looked like a terribly complex thing earlier now looked like it had been done by a kid learning binding magic.

He walked toward the soul; the thorns lashing out at him.

Soul snares were always made with defences to the soul itself, which was a precaution the casters set into them, in case another mage tried to torture the snared being through his soul.

The snare would then protect the person afflicted by it, making sure no information was revealed. If it couldn't protect them, then its second function would activate.

Which was what was currently happening, after the first bramble smacked into Alex's mana barrier, turning it to ash.

The brambles around Killian's soul started constricting in on it, slowly poking their thorns into the soul.

On the outside, David watched as Killian started bleeding from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears before a scream of pain escaped Killian's lips, the wail attracting attention at the front of the plane.

Kary stepped in front of the doorway, peeking into the cargo hold, and saw Killian's floating body, blood trickling down his face, and David looking at him worriedly.

"Everything alright?" she asked.

"I… I don't know. Alex did something to the ritual. I can't even tell what he's doing to him right now…" David muttered.

Kary sighed, almost as if she had expected this to happen.

"I'll make sure the kids don't come close. Contain the mana, though. The plane started shaking a moment ago, and it's worrying them," she said, closing the cargo hold door.

David hadn't even noticed the shaking, as his mind was reeling from Alex's reckless actions. But now that she pointed it out, he realized the turbulences were only getting stronger.

"The mana must be affecting the air outside, forming a pocket around the plane… Can I even contain his mana, though?" he questioned.

He shrugged. It wasn't time to hesitate.

Since he couldn't guide Alex through the ritual anymore, he might as well ensure the rest of them stayed safe.

Extending his senses outside the plane, David reached to the edge of the expanding mana bubble, and started pushing back on it with his own.

It was an arduous process, but he managed to push it back into the confines of the cargo hold, at least for now.

He wasn't sure he could hold for long, though.

And if this ritual took anything close to how long his would have taken, then there was no way he would hold on that long.

"At least, I hope whatever you did makes it swifter… The longer this goes on, the more risk Killian is in, and the more risk we are, with your monstrous mana trying to push us out of the sky…"