The Runic Artist Chapter 29: Chapter 348 - Descent

Read chapter 29 of The Runic Artist by Ellake on NovelPedia.

The ground beneath Nate had transformed from solid glass to a liquid, red hot, and undulating like an ocean as growths akin to cancerous cells formed upon its surface. The molten glass expanded from the rising air from beneath the sands before slowly popping, leaving the resulting half-globes of glass to give the impression of bubbles exploding in slow motion. The blue sky above was gone and in its place was a carpet of red flames that stretched as far as the eye could see. The ashes of Nate’s painted phoenixes drifted in the hot air, forming small tornados that appeared and vanished as the superheated air fought to find equilibrium. Belori’khan’andur stood on the boiling glass ocean, riding its languid waves like a statue of red. glittering scales. Across from him, Nate burned, over and over again. The amount of Divine Energy on display was destroying the environment and Nate was willing to admit he didn’t have enough left to match the display being put on by the ancient red dragon. Instead, he fed on the power, allowing cycle after cycle of destruction and creation to take place. In the skies above, his phoenixes formed and were returned to ash only to reform in the next breath, powered by the processed mana being released from a gem the size of an aircraft carrier stored in one of his Created Spaces . Nate smiled. He might not be able to match Belori’s Divine Energy stores, but he had come prepared for that. As the flames licked his body, turning him to ash, he was restored. Inside his gallery another painting turned to ash. The cycle of destruction and creation he was maintaining was both around him and in him as he maintained a precarious balance, losing a painting every second to keep himself in the fight. “How much longer can you resist?” asked Belori, the deep baritone of the dragon sounding odd as the hot air warped the sound. “As long as I need to,” answered Nate. “When you run out of Divine Energy, what will you do?” “You don’t need to know. You’ll already be ashes and I will have proven that you are no Disciple of Ankh’aris’kol’deravian.” Nate sighed, watching his gallery of portraits burn. He had hundreds of them, but they were running out. The heat was not abating and the rate at which the flames were burning through him was only increasing. He had a few minutes left. “Do you regret it?” he asked quietly. “Regret what?” asked Belori, standing proud and tall as he maintained his burning grip on Reality. “Regret taking Kali’Terra’s offer. You were young when it arrived and brought The System, were you not?” Belori’khan’andur roared at the sky, trumpeting his dominance. “Why would I regret it? Kali’Terra granted me power. I am the strongest being within The System!” Nate could hear the things left unsaid. Strongest within The System. Power granted, not taken. Belori’khan’andur was a dragon. The chains that he had willingly accepted had begun to chafe. It was that coal of discontent that Nate intended to fan into a bonfire. “And yet you can never reach for a Pillar. The Pillar of Fire stands empty, and yet, it will never be that Belori’khan’andur, ‘Lord of Flame,’ rests upon its lofty heights. You claim more and more worlds, your expansion unrelenting, and for what? Some Divine Energy from artifacts so that you can be granted an iota more power from The System? How much does it even cost to advance a level for you now? No matter how much you take, will you ever rival even the weakest of Pillars?” Belori roared again, this time in anger. “Do you seek to taunt me, human? To make me angry enough that I release my control and free you from the fiery death that you are racing towards? Petty tricks. I expected more from one who claimed such an exalted position beneath the Pillar of Destruction.” “I’m not taunting you, though I am buying time.” The Concept of Fire had been so thick in the air that it had blotted out almost every other Concept present, at least at first. Nate had been constantly maintaining the cycle, both o