"Well fought, Nathan Modernson."
The Undefeatable applauded as Nathan dismantled another training RAPI with his bare fists by jerking the wires out of its unarmoured neck. Nathan was too focused on the intense combat to notice the gleaming respect for power in her eyes. He threw the mechanical remains on the ground carelessly and maintained his murderous stance, only taking a deep breath to prepare himself for the RAPI to reassemble itself. He honestly forgot how many times he had beaten it.
Back in Lostburg, Nathan was someone who would much prefer solving problems with his mouth rather than his fists. Yet he barely missed out on any of the brawls that happened in the wildest streets. Even though those fights had a high possibility of turning into a huge free-for-all that he had to escape from, Nathan enjoyed watching people fight to their deaths like any other kid in Lostburg.
Those brutal yet effective stances and moves were like picture books that he read over and over in his childhood. All he needed was to mimic them slightly to seem like an experienced brawler in any city other than Lostburg. After all, physical combat was only for brutes living in Lostburg. Civilisation was too sophisticated, with the knowledge of Rune Arts, to respect it in the slightest.
"With talents like yours, five years would be enough for you to surpass me in runeless combat." The Undefeatable complimented him without exaggeration. "That's enough for today. The RAPI had already depleted its elemental energy." She approached to pick the mannequin up and threw it down the aperture to the seventh floor. "The qualities of these things just stopped improving after we began using them, huh?"
"Why would that be so?" Nathan Modernson stretched to ease his fatigue. "I thought the Four Pathtowers were on the same team."
"That's with the Rune Arts Federation around," Angela explained in boredom. "Without them, all we do is condemn each other's foolishness."
"Just because others chose a different path than yours, it doesn't mean they are wrong," Nathan suggested, which should've been common sense.
"Yeah, but fools need something to hate so they can love themselves." She summarised flatly.
As much as Nathan denied this statement itself, he couldn't deny that this was precisely the reason why Runalond had to construct so many conflicts between each individual and community. Motivation is the defining factor for success, and hate is the most productive source of motivation. People like Adrian Paradox and Gideon Runaria all realised this fact, and even they weren't able to change it.
"Have you studied illusion-type Rune Arts before?" Angela asked out of nowhere, clearly ready to start the new phase of training.
Have I? Nathan tried to remember the content he learnt in Clara Marshall's class. Maybe he had. The tone sounded familiar. Despite all this, Nathan knew one thing, if nothing else: He certainly wouldn't know how to cast one.
Angela didn't need to wait for his response to understand. She shook her head in slight disappointment and murmured to herself, "What in the world is the Imperial Academy doing? Not teaching a Light and Darkness Element Rune Artist Illusion Rune Arts?"
For a moment, Nathan wanted to defend the Imperial Academy, but perhaps silence was the wiser option.
"That's fine, not your fault," Angela dismissed. "I'm sure The Undefinable couldn't have taught you anything useful either. Guess I have to do everything."
"Can you cast 'Form Dispersion?'"
"I'm afraid not."
"What about 'Partial Lightification?'"
"I don't think so."
"Twilight of Loss?"
"Nope."
"Glaring Realm?"
"Nah."
Angela's voice began to sound desperate. "Entangle? Vex? Facade? Motivate?"
Nathan scratched his head in pure embarrassment. "I mean, I've heard of these, at least."
"How are you passing your exams?" Angela almost started to yell. Nathan knew that this level of ignorance might seem like a joke in her eyes.
Talking about exams, Nathan had lately been stressing about the end-of-year exams. Not necessarily for himself, but for the fellow members of the Salvation Club. After inventing his "Personalised Rune Art," he practically could not attend the exam and still pass it with Clara's approval.
"I invented my Personalised Rune Art," Nathan replied. "You haven't heard about it?"
"I see, you should've told me earlier." Angela sighed in relief. "So you are one of those extremists who go directly to creating novel Rune Arts. Show me."
"Not in here." Nathan fabricated an excuse quickly. "There's not enough space in here." He added before Angela could suggest the alternative, "Not outside the tower either. It would cause too much attention."
"Sounds impressive." Angela didn't bother to doubt him. "Whatever then. I can't teach you your own Rune Art anyway, but to truly excel in combat, being a one-trick pony won't cut it. Unless you are the Undefinable or…"
"Or?" Nathan asked curiously as her voice trailed off.
"Or… the strongest Rune Artist regarding combat."
"Isn't that you?" Nathan couldn't hold back his question, while not forgetting to flatter her a little in the process. "You are undefeatable, no?"
"I mean… I've never lost a fight with him, but I know I would." Angela didn't sound bothered or envious at all.
"How strong is he?"
Angela avoided answering his question directly and instead threw one back at him: "How much would you sacrifice for power?"
Nathan had thought about that question before, but he was too afraid to come up with an answer. Anything he suggested sounded more like imprudent boasting to convince himself that he was fit for the role of a liberator, a saviour. Most things in life are only precious after you lose them. Nathan couldn't confidently say he was willing to give up on anything he already had.
"If you could become the most powerful Rune Artist, but you couldn't open your mouth for the rest of your life, would you take that deal?" She didn't give him enough time for an answer anyway. "Losing your ability to talk to anyone, and even your ability to eat and drink. To the point that you have to inject nutrients into your body via infusion, and never being able to live like a human ever again?"
A figure appeared in Nathan's mind, a figure that he had only met recently. He had a face that always carried a faint, friendly yet bitter smile, not towards people, but perhaps towards his own fate.
"Seraphim of Silence: Justin Lock." She revealed the name that Nathan had expected to hear at last.
"He constructed a rune inside himself. Once he opens his mouth, that rune will be activated," she concluded. "No matter how strong you become, if you see his lips begin to part, all you can do is comfort yourself that at least your death will be quick."
"What do you mean, 'inside himself?'" Nathan gasped at the mere possibility of that. It was grotesque to even imagine.
"Cut himself open, drew a Rune inside, stitched himself back together," Angela explained in a chillingly calm tone, "allowing the Elemental Energy within himself to nourish the rune at all times so it doesn't decay. No one had ever thought about it before, but it worked."
Of course no one had ever thought about something like that before. Even a complete psychopath wouldn't do something as crazy as that. Nathan wasn't only concerned about how uncomfortable the whole procedure sounded; he was even more intrigued by Angela's indifferent attitude towards something like that.
"That's enough resting. Since you haven't actually learnt any Rune Arts, I'll just teach you myself." She sighed and put an end to the conversation. There was something about Angela Pompeii that usually startled people who came across her path: the fact that her expression was always so statically cold. She had one of those faces where the mouth naturally curved downwards, constantly giving the impression that she was upset. Thankfully, Nathan could detect the subtle changes in her tone. It was a reassuring signal that soothed his anxiety about her being unreadable.
"I might disappoint, just saying," he claimed in embarrassment, knowing he couldn't hide his inadequacy anymore.
"The world has never lacked disappointing Rune Artists. You won't be the first. You won't be the last." Angela said.
"I'm your mentor, Nathan Modernson, so no matter how hopeless you are about something, I'll find a way for you to overcome it."
Ever since Nathan's identity was revealed in Endnest, words of support and encouragement had always accompanied him, but when they came from The Undefeatable's mouth, it hit him differently. The contrast between her cold tone and the warm message suddenly filled Nathan with a sense of determination that he wasn't going to disappoint her no matter what.
"Wait, just a quick question." He interrupted.
"Why did you suddenly want to take me as an apprentice?"
Nathan always found it random or even suspicious that she wanted to become his mentor. When he could finally confirm her genuine welcome, he figured that this was the best moment to ask.
The Undefeatable paused, stared at him for a while, and shrugged.
"I don't know."
"I just randomly wanted to, like how I randomly kill a bunch of people from time to time. Can't really explain it. It just felt natural to me, like… Fate is meant to progress this way."
As for what Angela Pompeii taught him, Nathan Modernson could barely remember anything apart from the few runes he finally learnt to illustrate competently. Her attitude in the process was flat and indifferent as always, only correcting his mistakes and giving him advice on how to control his wand. These runes were just ordinary ones that you would find in a textbook, but Nathan realised how different everything was if he just had a mentor who could teach him stroke by stroke. This was especially fascinating to him since Angela was an Earth-Element Rune Artist who should've had no knowledge of illustrating any Light or Darkness ones.
Nathan wouldn't lie. He had little to no talent in rune depiction. Angela even pointed that out brutally. By no means would he become the strongest Rune Artist of all time. However, he no longer felt hopeless, and that was enough to motivate him to pick up Rune Arts seriously again.
The problem lay within his stiff, disobedient fingers that couldn't draw a straight line without making it look like the aftermath of an earthquake. This was especially significant due to the fact that runes were illustrated in thin air with no support. Yet, as Nathan practised physical combat day by day, he excitedly realised that he miraculously gained more control over them.
He remained in the Tower of Domination for an entire week, spending most of his days practising with The Undefeatable. These days lacked something that Nathan deeply cared about: excitement. Every day was basically the same as the day before, but at least he didn't always need to dwell on all the troublesome matters that he had to resolve. To Nathan, this was an absurd style of vacation.
Whether it was repetitive or spontaneous, it seemed that the lifestyle we crave most is the one opposite to our own. Nathan had once again found evidence for his theory. Humans could never be satisfied, even if everything went their way.
Nathan wouldn't say he had gotten used to these constant headaches. He just realised through a mere week of thoughtless training that there was salvation in the realisation that perfection wasn't possible, a sense of solace that choices didn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. He was becoming more and more like Jennifer Lumendra, but there was still something so thoroughly different between them.
The difference was that when he finally cast a Rune Art that wasn't Conceal or Illuminate, Nathan Modernson smiled.
It wasn't a big accomplishment, but he felt fulfilled nonetheless.