Through some miracle, nothing happened to Hiral as he carved out his intricate runic equations down the thousand-foot hall. By the time he reached the others, the Black Gate dominating the center of the spherical room, the brass walls, ceiling, and floor behind him were literally glowing with energy. Drawing Amin Thett’s pathways along the route had created an unintended resonance effect, which strengthened both the runes and the pathways within the very limited hallway.

  Luckily, the empowerment didn’t escape beyond the boundaries of the brass—even though the pathways couldn’t normally be blocked by mundane things like walls—and Hiral couldn’t sense any spillover or side effects.

  “Whatever you did,” Seeyela said as Hiral arrived, at the same time Seena raised an eyebrow at the distinct lack of doubles with Hiral. “The Black Gate likes it. It’s practically purring.”

  “If it feeds off energy,” Hiral said. “I basically just made it a giant straw. And, as an added bonus, it’s going to funnel extra runic energy straight through the Gate.”

  “That going to speed up the poisoning?” Seena asked.

  “It just might,” Hiral said. “I won’t know until we get to the other side and see what the concentration of energy is like over there already.”

  “All projections suggest a very low concentration,” the PIMP construct said. “Using the size of Genesis as a basis for the model, estimates put atmospheric concentration at sub-one-percent. Fully opening the Black Gates—each of them—should increase that number by approximately one percent per hour.”

  “And how high does this concentration need to be for all this to work?” Yanily said.

  “Unknown,” the construct said. “The minimum goal is fifty percent.”

  “That’s almost twenty hours we need to hold the Gates open,” Seena said. “Longer, if we really want to make sure. Nivian, Ilrolik, you both hear that?”

  “We’ll make it work,” Nivian said. “We always do.”

  “Glad you’re so confident,” Ilrolik said.

  “I’ve got reliable people backing me up,” Nivian said. “It’s easy to be confident.”

  “Pssst,” Loan said, clearly not really trying to whisper to Ilrolik. “That’s what a leader is supposed to sound like.”

  “Shut it, you,” Ilrolik said, followed by what could only be the sound of a thwack coming over the raid chat. “Now, whatever I say is going to sound forced…”

  “Just say you’ll succeed and all come back,” Hiral said.

  “But don’t promise,” Yanily added quickly. “Flag.”

  “Oh, we’ll definitely succeed,” Ilrolik said. “I’m sure it’ll cost us at least a foot or two, though.”

  “Hey…” Devison said. “I haven’t lost any feet since The Fourth Crusade.”

  “I should hope not,” Yully said. “The only thing you’ve done since then is walk.”

  “If we’re all so chatty,” Seena interrupted. “That tells me we’re also all ready. Hiral, where are Left and Right?”

  “Right here,” Right said, jogging down the tunnel with Left at his side. “We grabbed as much as we could.”

  “Grabbed as much…?” Seena started, looking at Hiral.

  “I asked them to gather up any of Tomorrow’s collection or research, in case there was anything interesting in here,” Hiral said. “And in case the fight ended up back on this side.”

  “Gauto would be so proud,” the party leader said with a chuckle before turning serious again. “Everything is ready?”

  “I think so,” Hiral said, giving the runic equations one more quick look. In his sensory domain, everything was doing what it was supposed to. Or, at least what he expected it was supposed to.

  “Seeyela?” Seena said. Her voice came through the raid chat even though her sister was only a few steps away. “The Black Gates, are they going to let us through?”

  “Yes…” Seeyela said, trailing off.

  “But?” Seena prompted.

  “Sorry,” Seeyela said. “The Black Gates don’t… talk… like we do. I hear them in my head when we’re this close, but it’s like three voices all at once.”

  “Because there are three Gates?” Yanily said.

  “No, three voices each,” Seeyela said. “Yes, I can hear all three because we’re close to this one. But, everything they say, they talk in the past, the present, and the future all at the same time.”

  “What does that mean?” Romin said.

  “Every sentence is like a prediction and a report at the same time it’s a simple statement,” Seeyela said. “It’s really hard to explain, and even harder to understand what they’re getting at.”

  “But they’re definitely going to let us through?” Wule said.

  “Yes, definitely,” Seeyela said.

  “Then… what’s the problem?”

  “It’s like they’re trying to warn me about something,” Seeyela said. “I just can’t tell if they’re trying to warn me about something that has happened, or will happen.”

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “They can see the future?” Seena said.

  “Maybe?” Seeyela said. “They keep talking about the end of Genesis. About some kind of terminus. I don’t know what it means.”

  Hiral looked at the Black Gate. “There’s only one way to find out,” Hiral said. “One more time, everybody. We don’t know what’s going to be waiting for us on the other side, but we’ve all agreed we need to go through. Once we get on the other side, I’ll work with the PIMP to get it connected, then all we need to do is hold.

  “If it comes to a fight, pace yourselves. Time is our enemy and our friend. The longer we hold, the better it is for everybody. But! If things take a seriously bad turn, prioritize getting yourself out of there. Any questions?”

  “Did Nivian pack us lunches in Shared Storage?” Yanily said.

  Every head in the room turned slowly to look at the spearman.

  “Of course I did,” Nivian said, like any other answer would be absurd.

  “Then I think we’ve got the important things covered,” Yanily said, oblivious to—or ignoring—the stares in his direction.

  “Are you ready?” Hiral said to the PIMP construct after a shake of his head.

  “Preparations are complete,” the construct said. “Over six-thousand years of planning have gone into making this moment a reality. My primary purpose to save Genesis nears its completion. Odds have been calculated and lean in our favor. We can succeed.”

  “Oh? What are the odds?” Romin said.

  “Never ask the odds,” Yanily said with a shake of his head, then pointed at the PIMP. “And don’t you dare answer that question.”

  “Answer suppressed,” the construct said flatly.

  “Enough procrastinating,” Hiral said, everybody around him taking a deep breath as the moment finally arrived. This might be their last moment on Genesis. No. Flags or not, we will get back. We’ll stop the Raze and we’ll make it home.

  “Consider this the raid-wide shoulder tap,” Seena said over the raid chat.

  “Except, I’ll go first,” Hiral said to Romin. “I want to pull the bridge through with me, and it’ll be easier if I go first.” Knowing Ilrolik and Nivian would already be moving, he barely waited for the Bonder to acknowledge his statement before he stepped up to the Black Gate.

  This close, he could feel a hunger coming from the crack in reality, like the cold hands of death itself trailing along his skin. His solar energy seeped off his body in small wisps like steam after a hot bath, and his health ticked down before Runic Regeneration topped him back off immediately. That was just the passive consumption of energy, with the Gate giving off the distinct impression it was suppressing its instincts to feed on them, so they could instead pass through with as much strength as possible.

  “We’ll save you too,” Hiral whispered to the Black Gate, then lifted his hand to touch the crack hanging in the air. At his back, the funnel of runic energies hung attached to his shoulders, and if he expected to have to step through like a dungeon portal, that delusion was quickly dispelled.

  No sooner had he touched the Black Gate, than he was no longer in Tomorrow’s facility. No longer on Genesis. Within a single beat of his heart, Hiral was surrounded by darkness. Actually, darkness didn’t do it justice. It was black. Empty. Nothing.

  This wasn’t the space Tomorrow had showed them, with twinkling stars and distant worlds spread through an ocean of black space. This was the absolute absence of everything. There was no light. No weight. Hiral wasn’t even sure there was time passing, with how he seemed to float there. The second he knew he was in stretched, and stretched, and stretched, while his eyes struggled to adjust. Was it just so dark he couldn’t see things that were actually there?

  That was partially true, with familiar shapes emerging from the black nothingness. Cracks in space. One. Two. A dozen. A hundred.

  Black Gates peeled back the darkness as if they were looking at him, and it was only with their appearance he realized he was moving. Not in the traditional sense—he was still trapped within a second, after all—but it was like he was accelerating down a tunnel. The Black Gates on all sides of him watched him ‘pass’, and something about the scene told Hiral he wasn’t going to Tomorrow’s universe.

  It reminded him too much of when he’d accidentally shattered the boundaries of the Rise of Fallen Reach dungeon and found the Black Gates staring down on him. Dungeons didn’t exist within the same time as reality did, and that was what was happening now.

  Hiral wasn’t just traveling through space, but more through time. Or, no, even that wasn’t accurate. He was at the end of time.

  The Terminus, the Black Gates had told Seeyela. It wasn’t a concept or an idea; it was a place. A place where the Raze resided, and it appeared before Hiral faster than he could blink an eye. In the next instant, he felt stone beneath his feet again.

  It took two more blinks for the world to resolve around him, for his senses to come back to him. When they did, he was standing atop a perfectly flat surface—stone bricks—with some kind of temple built around him. Outside the large, main door ahead of him, lightning flashed across the sky, illuminating a powerful storm. Thunder boomed, shaking the building, and it took Hiral another second to gather his wits, and push out his sensory domain.

  At the same time he began to feel the building around him, the others appeared behind him, each of them staggering from the strange trip. Still, with S-Rank bodies, they quickly collected themselves, but it wasn’t them that drew Hiral’s attention.

  Turning slowly on the spot, the others noticed what had to be his wide eyes, and twisted to see what had gotten his attention. As one, their expressions matched his.

  Hovering above the ground at the point where they had to have exited the temporal tunnel, was not a Black Gate. At least, not like one Hiral had seen in his limited experiences before. No, what they all saw staring them in the face was…

  “… a dungeon portal?” Seeyela whispered. “A black dungeon portal?”

  “I…” Hiral started, then cut off as something else demanded his attention. Power surged off his back, shaking the walls of the temple like all the thunder in the sky BOOMED inside with them at the same time. Even the slowly rotating black dungeon portal seemed to shiver at the release, while the other members of Hiral’s party took a staggering step away from him.

  And, good thing they did, with his hand whipping up to the hilt of the Greatsword of Amin Thett peeking above his shoulder to draw the weapon. As soon as he held it in front of him—there was no time even for him and his Dex to move away from the others—the final dark chain around the broken blade appeared.

  Like before, it looked wrought of some dark metal, slips of paper with runic script—some kind of containment—pressed against the chain circling an invisible blade at regular intervals. With a sizzle and flash, each of the papers combusted into a spray of burning embers, before the chain itself shattered. A brilliant flash of energy hit Hiral so hard and fast, he didn’t close his eyes in time, the burning afterimage of the light blinding him.

  Despite his vision filled by nothing but a sea of white, a notification window glowed blue, its script perfectly clear to read.

  Dynamic Quest: Complete—Unfathomable Power

  You’ve met the last requirement of unlocking the restrained power of a legendary—yet broken—S-Rank item, removing the limiter on the weapon’s bound potential.

  Repair Progress: 100/100%

  As impressive as the notification was—of what it meant—Hiral closed it without any fanfare. With the breaking of the final chain, the hilt of the sword had vanished entirely from his hand, the contained energy of it rushing a dozen steps ahead of him in his sensory domain.

  And, there, where the rampant energy released from the S-Rank item converged, a being sat with his legs crossed on the stone floor. With four arms, twisting, crystal horns on his head, and alabaster skin, there was only one person that could be.

  “Amin Thett,” Hiral said.

  Wanna Support Rune Seeker? Check out the Ebook and Audio Here! Thanks for your support:

  Amazon:

  Audible:

  Rune Seeker, Vol. 1 by J.M. Clarke, C.J. Thompson, Hardcover | Barnes & Noble?

  Rune Seeker (book 1) Book By Jm Clarke,cj Thompson, (Hardcover) | Indigo

  If you wanna chat about the book? Come to discord!

  If you're already on that discord? Go to "Get Roles" and you can get Rune Seeker updates, if you want :)

  Note my patreon does not have Rune Seeker chapters.