Myriad Heavens: Rise of the Rune God

Chapter 240: Chapter 241: Homeward Bound

The months-long Dao talk came to a gentle close.

Runar stood on the central platform one last time. His voice, steady and warm, offered his final words. The golden Dao runes still covered every inch of both universes — they would remain for years, radiating quietly, accessible to anyone ready to absorb them.

He stepped down from the platform and stood still for a moment.

The internal state was interesting. He had expected satisfaction from the talk’s completion. He had not expected what was actually happening to his principles. Every principle he had fully comprehended — Genesis, Elements, Unity, Nothingness — felt different now than they had four months ago. Not deeper in the way that passive study produced depth. Sharper. More precisely defined. The months of explaining them clearly to billions of listeners had forced him to examine every layer, every implication, every connection to adjacent principles he hadn’t fully traced yet.

And the seeds — the principle fragments he had collected from the tournament, from the divine abilities, from William’s origin — those were closer to completion than he had calculated they would be at this stage. Several of them had crossed thresholds he hadn’t expected to reach for years.

He thought: Teaching accelerates comprehension. I didn’t account for that fully.

He filed the observation and noted its implications for what came next.

His clone and main body merged back into one as he stepped off the platform. The months of slightly divergent experience integrated cleanly — the clone’s accumulation of live audience questions and responses, the main body’s continued reading of William’s origin. Both threads becoming one again.

The merged experience was richer than either thread alone would have been.

He was still thinking about this when Wukong appeared.

Wukong came out of seclusion the same day the talk ended, which was either coincidence or very good timing. His presence was noticeably different — the Rule of Boundless Metamorphosis sitting at a deeper level than when he had entered seclusion, his information lifeform nature more settled, the particular quality of a being who had just spent months doing nothing but refining a single thing to a higher standard.

He walked up to Runar with a wide grin and clapped him on the shoulder hard enough that anyone below Supreme level in the vicinity instinctively stepped back.

”Young friend,” he said, ”that Dao talk of yours was something else entirely. I listened to every word from seclusion. My Rule has grown considerably more flexible because of it.” He laughed. ”Thank you. I owe you one.”

”Glad it helped,” Runar said.

Wukong twirled his staff once, the movement carrying the relaxed confidence of someone who had just confirmed their own ceiling had risen. ”I’ll come for that rematch eventually. But right now this old golden monkey has other plans.” He looked at the void beyond the hall’s boundary. ”I’m going out. The multiverse is large. I want to see what’s in it.”

He put his hand on Runar’s shoulder. ”Take care of your family. Don’t get too comfortable. I’ll find you when I’m back.”

Wukong then looked toward the position where Willith and William projections are and he nodded at them. Then he turned and disappeared into the void with a flash of gold, his laugh echoing behind him.

William watched the space where Wukong had been. ”He’s going into the multiverse alone.”

”Yes,” Runar said.

”Is that safe? For the multiverse?”

Runar considered this. ”Probably fine.”

William looked like he was not entirely convinced by this assessment but chose not to pursue it.

Runar met privately with William and Willith’s projection before leaving.

”I’m taking a break,” he said. ”A year has passed since I last saw my family, I am going to visit them.”

William nodded. ”You’ve done more for both universes in this exchange than either of us calculated. Thank You.”

”One more thing,” Runar said. ”I will send my main body back to your universe and it will remain in seclusion in your universe. I want to continue the principle comprehension work without interruption. The clone will go home with my family.”

William looked at him. ”You’re leaving your main body in my universe.”

”In seclusion. You won’t notice it’s there.”

”I noticed last time,” William said. ”Your main body in seclusion is not something that goes unnoticed. It’s been radiating principle energy for months.”

”Less so in seclusion,” Runar said.

William looked at Willith’s projection. She looked back at him with an expression that communicated clearly stated ’Not my problem. Who told you to let your universe be super strong.’

He looked back at Runar. ”Fine. But if your seclusion starts shaking my universe —”

”I’ll be in the void between your membrane and open space,” Runar said. ”Nothing to shake.”

”Good,” William said. Then: ”Take care of yourself over there.” He paused. ”Both of you.”

Runar’s expression shifted slightly — the closest thing to amusement he regularly produced. ”I’ll pass that along to myself.”

Willith’s projection said: ”Return when you’re ready. The door stays open.”

”Thank you,” Runar said. ”Both of you.”

He bowed slightly. They received it.

Then he went to find his family.

Celestia, Cassia, and Nyla were in the outer hall when he arrived.

Nyla saw him first. ”He’s done,” she announced, as though the others hadn’t already sensed him coming.

”We know,” Cassia said. Her third notebook of the exchange was under her arm. She had filled the first two and started the third in the final weeks of the talk.

Celestia looked at him when he reached them. She had the particular quality of someone who had been listening to a person speak for four months and was now seeing them in person for the first time since. She studied him for a moment.

”You look different,” she said.

”Different how?” he asked.

”Deeper,” she said. Then: ”And tired.”

”I’m not tired.”

”You look tired.”

”I feel fine.”

”You’ve been speaking continuously for four months while also maintaining seclusion in another universe and running principle comprehension in parallel,” she said. ”You look tired.”

Nyla, helpfully: ”You do look a little tired.”

Cassia, without looking up from her notebook: ”Tired but satisfied.”

Runar looked at the three of them. ”Are we going home or not.”

”We’re going home,” Celestia said, and took his hand.

The ship materialized from his storage ring in the outer landing area of the exchange venue.

Several beings nearby stopped what they were doing to look at it. It was a Type 5 civilization vessel — the product of an entirely different technological tradition, built with principles and materials that didn’t exist in this universe’s manufacturing catalogue. It looked like it belonged somewhere else, which it did.

Nyla ran her hands along the hull before boarding. ”When did you build this?”

”With Rene,” Runar said. ”A few months ago.”

”It’s beautiful,” she said.

”It works,” he said, which was the highest endorsement he typically offered anything he built.

They boarded. The interior was spacious — comfortable seating in the main lounge, viewing windows on every wall, a small training area in the back that Nyla immediately identified and claimed as her territory for the journey.

Cassia found a seat near a viewing window and opened her notebook before the ship had finished powering up.

Celestia sat beside Runar in the forward section and looked out at the exchange venue through the window — the vast platform, the still-glowing remnants of the golden runes visible in the atmosphere, the wormhole in the distance maintaining its permanent silver-gold light.

”Ready?” he said.

”Past ready,” she said.

The ship lifted off.

Nyla, from the back: ”Couldn’t you have just used Multiversal power to move us instantly? Or brought our parents here in a second?”

Runar’s voice, from the forward section: ”Where’s the fun in that?”

”I’m just asking.”

”I built this ship. It deserves to be used.”

A pause.

”That’s a very sentimental answer for someone who doesn’t usually give sentimental answers,” Nyla said.

”Write that down,” Cassia said, already writing it down.

The ship broke through space with a smooth, elegant ripple and launched forward at speeds that would have been incomprehensible to anyone who had built the vessel from standard materials. Which nobody else had.

The journey was several hours by ship time — not because the distance required it, but because nobody aboard was in a hurry.

They talked. Celestia asked about the principles — specifically which ones had advanced and by how much. Runar answered in enough detail that Cassia started a new section in her notebook specifically for the information.

Nyla asked about Wukong. Where he was going. What he would find. Whether the multiverse was ready for him.

”The multiverse has been around for a very long time,” Runar said. ”It will manage.”

”But will it be okay?” Nyla pressed.

”Define okay.”

”Not destroyed.”

”Probably fine,” he said, which was the same answer he had given William, and carried the same level of conviction.

Nyla looked at Celestia. Celestia looked back with an expression that meant: yes, that’s the best answer we’re going to get.

At some point in the middle of the journey, Runar went quiet.

Celestia noticed. She didn’t say anything for a while. Then: ”What are you thinking about?”

”The principles,” he said. ”All of them are closer to completion than I expected. The teaching accelerated the comprehension in ways I didn’t account for. If the pattern holds, several of the seeds I collected at the exchange will complete faster than my original projections.”

”Thats good right?”

”Yes,” he said. ”Significantly.”

She looked at him for a moment. ”You’re already planning the next phase.”

”I’m always planning the next phase.”

”We’re going home to see our parents.”

”I know.”

”Could you not plan the next phase for approximately the duration of this visit?”

He looked at her.

”The principles will still be there,” she said. ”Your parents won’t always be.”

He held her gaze for a moment. Then he put the planning down.

”You’re right,” he said.

She leaned against his shoulder. ”I know.”

The ship touched down on the home planet in the late afternoon.

The light was the particular gold of a sun an hour before setting — the kind of light that made everything look slightly more significant than it was. The landing area was a wide open space outside the family compound, grass running to the tree line on three sides, the house visible through the trees.

They stepped off the ship.

Familiar faces were already coming through the trees.

Jake Cross reached Runar first, which was purely because Jake had been watching for the ship from the house’s upper level and had a head start. He grabbed his son by the shoulders and looked at him — the particular look of a parent who has been told significant things about their child and is now seeing them in person and processing the gap between reported and actual.

”You look different,” Jake said.

”Celestia said the same thing,” Runar said.

”She’s right,” Jake said. Then he pulled him into a hug that had nothing strategic about it. Just a father and a son.

Lirien reached them a moment later and immediately started crying, which she had apparently decided in advance was an acceptable response. She hugged Runar for a long time and said several things into his shoulder that he heard clearly and didn’t repeat to anyone.

Caspian and Seraphina Stormwind came through the house behind them, moving toward Celestia with the warmth of parents who had been receiving updates from their daughter through video and chat for months and were relieved to see her in person.

Seraphina hugged Celestia first. Caspian hugged her immediately after, and then turned to Runar with the expression of a father-in-law who has been told his son-in-law can accidentally destroy universes and is choosing to engage with this information carefully.

”Runar,” he said.

”Caspian,” Runar said.

A pause.

”Thank you,” Caspian said. ”For bringing her back.”

”She could have come back herself,” Runar said. ”She’s stronger than you think.”

Caspian looked at Celestia. Celestia’s expression confirmed this.

Caspian nodded. Then he clapped Runar on the shoulder with the specific energy of someone who had decided to simply accept the situation entirely and was at peace with that decision.

Nyla and Cassia were already inside the compound — Nyla had been swept up by Seraphina immediately, and Cassia had been pulled into a side conversation with Liren.