The Runic Artist Chapter 22: Chapter 340 - Holding up the Heavens

Read chapter 22 of The Runic Artist by Ellake on NovelPedia.

Chapter 340 - Holding up the Heavens Nate glanced out the window of the floating mountain that was the home of the Risen Sun Sect. Below and to the left floated the Eternal River city of Islandic. The original plan had been to return to the homeworld of the Golden Tide, but Ankh’aris upon his reappearance had pushed back on that idea. The ancient dragon apparently liked the new facilities and home for the burgeoning Sect, which had been forced to accommodate a few applications to join. So far, all had been denied. But since Ankh liked their temporary home and wanted to bring it back to the Wild Realms when they were finished, the ancient dragon had simply uprooted the entire mountain and then told Nate to make it fly. Once upon a time, doing so would’ve been the work of weeks, maybe months. But, once upon a time, Nate hadn’t been guzzling in Divine Energy by the bucket load. Using his ability to split his mind, view things at a distance with Conceptual Sight , and carve runes into solid material with Runic Reality , he completed the work in the span of a few days. The necessary Gravity Control, Altered Weight, and Spatial Stabilisation runes, plus redundancies were all active being fed a mountain of mana that kept the Risen Sun Sect Mountain aloft. Prior to that, it had been held up by Ankh alone, who simply Destroyed the effect of Gravity on the floating mountain, dubbed the Risen Mountain by the locals. Parts of Nate’s mind continued to work on the next layer of runes, these ones specialised in Spatial Relocation. Standing beside him, Vicoli reviewed his work. “What do these ones represent?” asked the Void Disciple in his musical voice. Nate glanced at the Sigils in question, all Grandmaster-tier or higher. “They’re for Size and Shape. The surrounding runes and symbols are to hold my Intent better so that it doesn’t degrade over time. They basically determine the three-dimensional shape of the spatial tunnel so that it can accommodate the Risen Mountain.” “If you used the Void like I suggested, this could be much smaller. Size and Shape become far less restrictive in a few layers of the void. Would that not be more efficient?” “More efficient, yes, but you have told me that there are things that live in the Void that are probably not of this Reality. Unbound things. Seems far more dangerous for a small cost decrease. And it’s not like the Risen Mountain will have to transition to new worlds too often.” Vicoli stared at Nate for a moment. “Okay,” agreed Nate. “Yes, for the duration of the war against Belori and his forces, we will be transitioning to new worlds more frequently. But we’re also not footing the whole cost in Divine Energy to do so. Eternal River, Golden Tide, and Everlasting Grove are all paying for a large portion of that with the proceeds of each world taken. Besides, it is worth the cost since it means everyone gets to stay together and train.” Vicoli’s dark eyes moved to the ceiling and Nate sensed the Parting as Vicoli used the Void to stare through the walls to the floors above where the rest of the Risen Sun Sect, excluding Frick and Luci, were training. Under Ankh’s guidance, each individual continued to work on developing a Divine Vessel. Gwen, of course, was the exception and, instead, was attacking Kiri in the now reinforced combat arena. Kiri was simply Enduring the strikes, using the opportunity to regenerate her spent Divine Energy. “How did your report to Arikanvil go?” asked Nate. “I told him the portion of truth that satisfied Reciprocity. That you were making progress on the task he had set before you. That your nature as a Second Evolution Divine had come to light but, so far, it had worked in your favour to hasten the pace of completing your agreement with him.” Nate nodded his thanks before glancing back at the slowly expanding runic design on the table before him. His senses picked up Kiri finishing her training session and making her way down to his crafting room. Ankh’aris was following a