The Runic Artist Chapter 44: Chapter 363 - Love and Support

Read chapter 44 of The Runic Artist by Ellake on NovelPedia.

Nate activated the memory gem and felt it expand around him in the form of a sphere of soul energy. Slowly, as though it was pulling itself together block by block, a humanoid form was given shape. The body of the man, and Nate was assuming he was a man since he was titled ‘Lord’ in the language shared by Kali’Terra, was not unlike a tall dwarf. He had a wide, sturdy body, with two arms and two legs. He was of a height with Nate but easily four times his width. The Lord of Constraint’s arms hung down to his knees, with long dexterous looking fingers and a face that was mostly flat with a protruding brow. Three eyes, Nate noted, two beneath the brow with the third above on the forehead but recessed. For clothing, the being wore armour made of some kind of fluid light-brown stone. Nate sensed multiple Concepts in its construction, some familiar and some foreign, like he was seeing them through a reflection. Either way, Nate acknowledged that, since even the memory of the actual item revealed its Conceptual makeup, it was, without a doubt, a Regalia - and likely a rival for his own. “So, you’re the one little Kali speaks of. I can tell why it is so hopeful that you can succeed where others failed. Are you done assessing the Concepts associated with me? Our time is limited.” The voice of the Lord of Constraint was a deep baritone, like rocks rumbling down a mountain before an avalanche. “I am. What should I call you?” asked Nate. “I have a long name, in my native tongue, but you can simply call me Constraint.” “Very well, Constraint. What does it mean to be an Ascendant?” asked Nate, not bothering to bandy words or waste his time. “To be an Ascendant means to have connected with your Pillar in multiple Realities.” “How many Realities are there, then?” asked Nate. “That I am aware of? Eight. The Prime Reality, my Reality, your Reality where Kali’Terra is managing the overflow of mana. Two other Realities where my other two Familiars are doing similar. Then three more I managed to find.” “And how many of them have you managed to connect to your Pillar in?” “Just mine and the Prime Reality.” Nate raised an eyebrow at that. “It’s not what you think. We did not go searching for it. Mana started bleeding into our Reality all on its own. Some of the other Pillars saw it as a new source of power. They widened the rip between Realities, drawing in more mana. More than we could manage. My connection to the Pillar of Constraint within the Prime Reality was a last ditch attempt to gain enough power to stop the flow of mana. I failed.” “Is there a reason you’re not trying to send mana into those other three Realities?” asked Nate. “They’re too small. Little bigger than a couple of our own universes. One of them may not even exist anymore. I haven’t been able to check on it in over a hundred years.” Nate paused, his mind whirling through possibilities as he seized on a question he had wondered about before, but never been able to answer to his satisfaction. “Do you know how old your Reality is?” “I can think of factions that existed for over ten thousand years. So, perhaps a little older than that? Maybe twenty thousand years?” The uncertainty bothered Nate. As did the timespan. He knew that on Earth, scientists had managed to date their universe. The timespan was measured in billions of years. Yet, in these worlds filled with mana, he hadn’t heard of anything similar. He understood that maybe the idea of carbon dating was foreign to those who grew up with mana, but the differences in timespans was vast and it felt like a hole in everything that required an explanation. He accepted he would not get one from the Lord of Constraint and moved on, while filing the question away for further investigation. “Was the Concept of Constraint in the Prime Reality different from your own?” “Yes. They were similar, but not the same. I had to shift my understanding to accommodate both before I was considered an Ascendant. It’s the only reason I am managing to