The Runic Artist Chapter 40: Chapter 359 - Only The Just

Read chapter 40 of The Runic Artist by Ellake on NovelPedia.

Kiri sped along the cloudlike substance that passed for ground in the Second Heaven. Next to her Luci bounded along roaring at the pale orange sky with Gwen clinging to her draconic back. In the past six months while they toured the Heavens, Luci had continued to grow in size. Where once the young dragonling had only reached Kiri’s knees, the white and gold terror’s back was now at Kiri’s shoulder height. Apparently feeding on Heavenly Light was good for a solar dragon's growth. “Less roaring, more running!” yelled Kiri, the Spiritual Wind whipping through her hair, tasting of joy and forgiveness. She wasn’t being poetic in her thoughts. Those were the actual flavours, Concepts endemic to the Heavens’ colouring the interpretations by her senses. However, she knew how quickly those Concepts could shift and at least three of them were already in hot pursuit after her not-so-careful liberation of a Peak-grade Nascent Divine Artifact of Celestial Healing. Just the thing Gwen needed to develop her Divine Vessel. Not everyone was as happy about it as Kiri though. A golden lance passed over Kiri’s head as she ducked. Instead of skewering her and painting the cloudy Heavens with her brains, the spear punctured a hole in the dense firmament. Kiri only got a passing glance at it as she continued to sprint like their lives depended on it, but all she saw was a hole that must have gone down over fifty metres with an increasing sense of Soul Energy. “They’re getting closer!” called Gwen. Kiri tried to focus on the words rather than admiring her girlfriends beautiful countenance and ethereal butterfly wings from her merged Celestial Spirits. Instead, she was forced to dodge another burning lance that passed through where she had just been standing. Beside her, Luci didn’t appear to have a care in the world, once more roaring at the pale orange sky to declare their continued victory. Kiri knew it was just a matter of time though before their pursuers caught up. When the next burning lance came for her, she pivoted on the spot, arresting her momentum as she caught the lance, ignoring the way it burned her hand, and spun, launching it back at the lead Celestial. The lance impacted the flying Celestial in a haze of golden flames that washed over the armoured being with no visible issues. Kiri set her feet as the Celestials finally caught up, the one struck speaking. “Justice cannot harm the Just, thief.” Kiri rolled her eyes, looking over the three Celestials. The one who had spoken, who she decided to call ‘The Just’, was the only humanoid one of the three. Armoured in silver and gold that covered them from head to toe, it was impossible to see their face. The Just possessed a thin and tall frame like a stretched out elf and floated unimpeded in whatever passed for air in the Celestial Realm. Their appearance was completed by three sharp points of golden fire that burned over their shoulders. The second was somewhat like Gwen’s Familiars. A Celestial with six sets of butterfly wings that each possessed a burning white eye in the centre of them. The body of the creature was almost skeletal, possessing a mirror sheen, and Kiri thought that if they stood side by side the being would only come up to her waist. It might have been beautiful, if not for how creepy it looked as each wing, or eye, it was hard to tell, shifted on its own. This was the one that had likely tracked their escape. Kiri didn’t have Nate’s skill at identifying Concepts, but she would bet her ass, though Gwen might object and claim it wasn’t hers to gamble, that the butterfly Celestial had some form of Sight or Scrying Concept. The final Celestial did away with any idea that Celestials were regular biological beings. The gold, white, and silver cubes it was made from fit together in the facsimile of a six armed being, but no one who laid eyes on it would mistake it as anything besides ‘other.’ Given how distinct each block was and how they all fit together in such a seamless se