The Runic Artist Chapter 46: Chapter 365 - Purple Bastard

Read chapter 46 of The Runic Artist by Ellake on NovelPedia.

Nate took a moment to process this new information. The fact was, searching for Earth had long since fallen by the wayside, moved back in the order of his priorities behind the looming problem of mana. It sounded, however, like Arikanvil had been looking into it himself. That begged the question of how Vicoli tracked him down. After all, Nate had to acknowledge that this could be a trap. “How did you find him?” asked Nate. “I helped build parts of Arikanvil’s space station,” answered Vicoli, his sing-song voice filled with pain from the Concept infecting him. “Mostly, I collected specific materials from the void. That’s how it travels. It’s less likely to be detected than direct spatial transfer. When you let me leave to hunt him down, this is where I came to first. He left the moment he detected my presence and realised I was Unbound. I had honestly thought he might fight, but even against me he chose to flee. When he left, it created ripples in the void. I followed them.” Nate nodded. “A year feels like an awfully long time to be chasing him.” “He tried to lose me more than once. Dropping out of the void and using spatial transport in other universes around the edge of The Heartlands. Places with enough mana to get by but not enough for heavily developed civilisations. That game lasted for almost six months. Then I lost the trail for a time and had to retrace our path. He’d laid a false set of jumps and I fell for it. When I finally did find the real one, he’d had time to prepare. He was waiting for me. My wound is from that fight, but I had enough time to see the world he found himself on. The only sapient beings were humans. The world was bereft of mana, yet the sky above their world was filled with metal, electricity, and other things I would not have expected to see.” “And the wound?” Vicoli shook his head. “I don’t know what the Concept was. It’s not Void or Space. Even now it makes me feel…split…like I am in too many places, or maybe not enough.” “You’re not getting worse though?” “No. I will live. I just need time to remove it.” Nate grunted slightly, pacing back and forth. Should he believe Vicoli or not? Normally it wouldn’t matter, but then, normally he would have Kiri, Luci, or the others to back him up. But Kiri and the others were still away searching for Nascent Artifacts. Luci and Ankh’aris were off doing something as well. Nate suspected they were working on Luci’s Nascent Vessel development. Which meant that Nate was, for lack of a better word, alone. The risk was higher, but not as high as letting Arikanvil run amok on Earth. The world of his birth lacked mana and Class Cores, which meant Reciprocity wasn’t a factor. Arikanvil could wipe out the whole planet if he felt like it, and Nate doubted Kali’Terra would lift a finger to stop it. Nate didn’t have particularly fond memories of it, but that didn’t mean it, and the people on it, deserved to die. Decision made for him by the fickle twist of fate, Nate turned back to Vicoli. “Can you show me the way back to that world?” Vicoli nodded. “Yes, but we should get the others. Your sister at least.” Nate shook his head. “They’re not here and they won’t be back for months. This can’t wait.” He paused. “If you can show me the way without coming, that would be best. I don’t want to aggravate your injury.” Vicoli tried to stand straighter and Nate could see how hard it was for the Void Disciple to suppress his pain. “You do not know enough of the void. I worry what you might find if you lose your way. I will come. You gave me freedom. I choose this.” Nate stared into Vicoli’s dark eyes and saw the resolve there. Whether to assist him or betray him was yet to be seen, but, either way, Nate had no doubt that the Void Herald intended to follow through. Nate spent a few minutes leaving instructions for Morgane and Luc, the self-titled Executive Director of the Artist’s Emporium. The last two notes he left in his room. One for Camilla and one for Kiri. He didn’t know how