The Runic Artist Chapter 56: Chapter 375 - One Last Masterpiece

Read chapter 56 of The Runic Artist by Ellake on NovelPedia.

Nate observed his handiwork as waves of iridescent blue mana flowed around him like a lover's caress rather than the violent whips they had once been. He had spent so long repairing the Throne of Reality that he had lost track of time, his perceptions warped by the infirm nature of the Prime Reality. The initial changes had been the hardest, when most of his Divine Energy and the deathgrip he held on his Pillar of Concepts was entirely focused on keeping him alive. With the infinitesimally small amount of energy left over, he had begun to repair the uncountable fractures in the Throne, each one representing a Pillar of the Prime Reality that had been broken. His knowledge of what they should represent was limited, and that seemed like a poor way to repair what was effectively going to be the new Heavens. So, he took the longer path, drawing in the memories within the mana of all those who had died in the fall of the Prime Reality and isolating their understandings of whatever Concept he was working to repair. The work was laborious, but Nate knew if the Throne was not repaired then the cycles of mini-Realities being born then devoured by the Prime Reality would just continue forever. Alone with his own thoughts and nothing but the task in front of him, he grew lonely often. When it all became too much, he would take breaks to paint. Sometimes they were of the visions and vistas he saw in the memories of the fallen. More often though, they were of people and places he loved. The most frequent were of Camilla, followed closely by Kiri. He even included himself in some of those paintings, the faux closeness a bittersweet pain that at least reminded him of what he was fighting for. Then, with the refreshed motivation that afforded him, he would return to the task before him. Time passed like this, in cycle after cycle, and with every Concept repaired, the mana of the Prime Reality settled more and more until it had reached its current state. While time was hard to measure, he knew how long it felt like he had been here, and that estimate put him at just under a decade. The last couple of years had seen his work accelerate dramatically. The calmer the mana became, the less he needed to invest in protecting himself and the faster he repaired Concept after Concept. The end was finally in sight, and he thought perhaps another year and the crystalline Throne of Reality would be restored. A new heaven to aspire to. The question then was, what would he do once the Throne was restored? He had plenty of time to think over his options. Would he take the Throne for himself, becoming the Overgod of the Prime Reality? That was definitely a choice he could make, but then what? Restore the Prime Reality? The blueprint for much of it was there. The alternative was he could leave the Throne empty and seal it off somehow. Nothing was foolproof though, and he would need to spend the rest of his days monitoring it to make sure someone didn’t attempt to seize it and use it for their own ends. In that scenario, with the mana of the Prime Reality calmed, he could just return to his own Reality and let it grow naturally. The last option he could see was to put someone else on the Throne. Someone he trusted to have everyone's best interests at heart. He just didn’t know where this just, fair, and kind individual was, or if they even existed outside of the fantasies in his head. He pondered those problems for months and months, and, by the time the Throne was fully repaired, he had arrived at a potential solution. The fact was that he now found himself in the position of Kai’ro’sin, the God of Victory and architect of the destruction of an entire Reality that spanned more space than could easily be fathomed. He had everything that Kai’ro’sin had desired before him. The Throne of Reality, whole and uncontested, ready for Nate to assume his rightful place as Overgod of all. And he didn’t want it. Not even a little bit. He had never wanted power except that w