Return of the Runebound Professor

Noah jerked upright, a throbbing headache pounding in his skull. Cold ground pressed into his backside and his clothes had been draped over his naked body like a blanket. The walls of a tent rose around him and the edge of Moxie’s bed floated just behind him. Two blurry forms on the other side of the room slowly shifted to take Moxie and Lee’s forms.

“Did it work?” Noah asked through a groan as he pulled his clothes on. If Axil had somehow managed to survive Sunder, he had absolutely no desire to fight her naked. There were some rumors that he didn’t need following him.

A heavy fog hung around his head, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. He’d dealt the killing blow to both himself and Axil, so the soul damage he’d taken was minimal. Noah was pretty sure he’d actually grown stronger by absorbing her energy. He couldn’t tell yet — that would have to wait until he could properly access his runes again.

“You cut her in half,” Moxie confirmed. “I was watching, and I wasn’t the only one. The camp is probably minutes from chaos. You need to make another appearance as soon as you can if we want to prevent the Streetlords from trying to pull some stupid shit.”

“Figured,” Noah said through a sigh.

Lee, whose head was poked through the flap in the tent, pulled back to glance at Noah for a second before returning to her former position.

Moxie held a hand out and Noah took it, pulling him to his feet. She grabbed the lapel of his jacket and adjusted it before brushing some dust off his shoulders. After giving him one more look over with a critical eye, Moxie stepped back and gave him a curt nod. “At least you got her.”

Lee cleared her throat. “Uh… about that.”

They both looked over to her.

“She’s melting, but in reverse.”

Noah pushed past Lee and stepped out of the tent. He ground to a halt. The two halves of Axil’s body — along with his own — laid dead in the center of the market square. They should have been laying in rest like good corpses, but it seemed somebody had forgotten to tell Axil about that part.

Rivers of blood and viscera crawled across the ground. They gathered beside a large, black axe and twisted together like taffy. Bubbles burst against the flowing corpse-fluids. A thick, teeming red mass formed, a shape starting to appear within it.

Thick, gut-twisting squelching sounds violated the alley. Limbs pushed free of the visceral blob. The limbs formed hands and feet, formed a connecting torso and its head. Flashes of bone and organ bubbled up within the solidifying form like chunks of meat in a soup. In a vile way, that was exactly what they were.

Noah’s jaw clenched. His powers were still sealed, and it would be twelve hours before his magic functioned again. Thoughts flashed through his mind as he searched for a way to stop Axil from fully coming back.

If she took form again, Moxie and Lee wouldn’t be able to stop her. She was just too fast. And, even if they did, he wasn’t so sure that it would matter. Axil just wouldn’t stay dead no matter what they did. This was a level of immortality he’d never seen before. Axil was actually unkillable.

Chills gripped Noah’s spine.

Sunder still did more damage than anything else I’ve tried. My best might be killing myself again. I can access Sunder while I’m a soul. It’ll fuck me up for quite some time, but the Fragment of Renewal should be able to handle patching me up once I break out of the coma.

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“Moxie, Lee, get ready to run,” Noah said softly.

“I could try to drink her before she finishes taking form,” Lee offered, her features twisting in disgust.

It was one of the first times Noah had ever seen Lee unwilling to eat something. That didn’t reassure him in the slightest. He shook his head firmly. The last thing he wanted was Lee somehow getting infected with whatever it was twisting Axil’s mind.

“Just run,” Noah said. He took a step toward Axil, flexing his fingers. When she came back to life, she’d kill him — and he’d return the favor with Sunder once again. Given how much longer it had taken Axil to regenerate this last time, he was willing to take his chances. It was the only shot he could take. They’d find out which one of their powers gave way first.

Muscles took form in the bloody blob. They were followed by patches of gray skin that spread like wildfire, rapidly stretching to cover Axil’s body. Several mercifully placed scraps of white cloth from what remained of her clothes spared them all from seeing anything too mentally scarring.

A victorious cry split the air. Axil thrust her hands into the air, claws curling toward the heavens. The remnants of the viscous fluid exploded into the air in a spout. Bloody rain pattered down around Axil as her body took shape once more—

Noah blinked.

Axil was about half his height.

Her proportions and features hadn’t changed in the slightest, but she now stood no more than three feet tall. The remains of the clothing that had covered her were now practically a wedding gown.

The tiny Axil’s victorious cry slowly petered out. Her hands lowered. She studied her palms, then slowly turned her gaze over to her axe. It was now considerably larger than she was. Wordlessly, Axil took the uncomfortably long trip over to the weapon and grabbed it.

Her teeth ground as she heaved the weapon into the air with a pained grunt. It flew over her shoulder and slammed into the stone behind her. The weapon’s haft acted as a lever and shot up, catapulting Axil into the air.

White robes fluttered like a drowning ghost as Axil bounced across the ground. She scrambled to her feet and stormed back over to the axe. She hoisted it once more. The weapon swayed unsteadily in the air, but she managed to keep it from dropping a second time.

Noah stared in mute — well, he wasn’t actually certain what emotion it was that he was feeling. It was certainly something.

At some point, Moxie and Lee had stepped out of the tent behind him. They both followed his gaze.

“What the fuck?” Moxie asked.

“If you Sunder her again, will she shrink a second time?” Lee asked.

“I think I might still be dead,” Noah muttered, shaking his head furiously.

Their words drew Axil’s attention. The demon’s gaze snapped to them — and her eyes went as wide as saucers. Her axe pitched from her grip and crashed to the stone once more. This time around, she was smart enough to release the handle and avoid a second trip into the air.

“You died,” Axil said, her lips parting in awe. Her voice, strangely enough, was exactly the same as it had been. “You died. I felt it. I saw it. We joined the canvas together. How is it that you still stand here?”

“Did you really think that killing me would be enough to make me die?” Noah asked.

Moxie and Lee both looked at him.

“Really?” Moxie mouthed. “That was lame.”

Lee nodded.

“I’ve got a headache,” Noah hissed. “Get off my case.”

Axil swallowed heavily. She reached for her axe, but her hand never tightened around its shaft. Her eyes then flicked to the bodies on the ground beside her — or rather, what remained of them.

Noah and Axil realized at the exact same time that the number of corpses remaining on the ground did not quite line up. But, for the first time, it wasn’t Noah’s corpse that was the source of his confusion.

There were one and a half bodies. Not two. Not one. One and a half.

Noah’s body was just feet away from Axil, as was exactly half of her own body. The other half of her was gone. It struck Noah that, now that he thought about it, this did make a certain amount of sense.

Axil was just about half as tall as she’d been before. Somehow, she’d left half of herself behind when she’d come back to life.

“My body. My power. My runes. Lord Sievan would not have done this. He would not return me to this world unable to fulfill his task,” Axil muttered, her stunned words just loud enough to reach Noah’s ears. Disbelief etched itself over her features. “What did you do? How is this possible?”

And, before Noah could answer that he had absolutely no idea, he realized that he did know. Even through the headache pounding against his skull, Noah’s eyes widened in realization.

He hadn’t just killed Axil. He’d Sundered her. Not just her body. He’d Sundered her runes, and possibly her soul as well. He’d cut everything that made up the being known as Axil straight in half.

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