Ascension: Rune Evolution System

It was odd.

Frost had watched this thing plunder massive sections of the forest over the past few minutes, effortlessly slaughtering everything in its path, yet something about the woman’s presence made him feel as though she wasn’t simply going to die here.

His reasoning was simple.

If she could make herself fly through the sky using some intangible power, then what else was she capable of?

The woman seemed to raise a hand toward the creature, and Frost felt the wind suddenly begin to pick up around them.

A strange flickering light appeared less than a few metres in front of the woman, forming a simple but massive glowing circle.

The moment the circle was completed, it expanded outward, transforming into a translucent, light-blue dome that completely surrounded her.

”What?”

”What is she doing?”

”What is that light?”

Frost watched in shock as the hundreds of tentacles slammed into the dome, each one striking the magical barrier with enough force to shake the surrounding air.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Hundreds of cacophonous impacts rang out across the forest, yet not a single crack appeared across the translucent dome, and it didn’t even move.

The woman raised her other hand.

This time, instead of another simple circle, a massive trigram materialized before her, composed of countless shapes, circles, and intricate symbols that seemed to intertwine with one another.

Frost’s eyes widened.

Once the trigram had fully formed, it suddenly expanded to nearly ten times its original size, dwarfing the woman behind it and reaching a truly monstrous scale.

Even then, it was still tiny compared to the colossal octopus.

The wind began spinning more violently.

Leaves and dust were ripped from the ground as flickering motes of light began gathering around the enormous formation.

They converged toward its centre, gradually forming an incandescent white-gold sphere that radiated an almost blinding brilliance.

The sky itself seemed to darken around it.

The sphere continued to grow bigger, and bigger still.

Until the brilliant white-gold light illuminated the entirety of the space around them.

The octopus suddenly began thrashing wildly.

Its hundreds of tentacles twisted through the air as it released a deafening roar, desperately trying to attack the woman through the barrier.

It was almost as though the creature had finally realized that it was the one in danger.

’What is she doing?’

Frost’s gaze remained fixed on the enormous magical formation.

”Oh my god! Do you see that?”

”It’s like she has some sort of superpower!”

Curiosity seemed to have gotten the better of some of his peers despite their fear, and several began whispering amongst themselves.

But Frost barely heard them.

He was too mesmerized by the sight before him.

The sphere had grown so bright that Frost was forced to squint, raising one arm to shield his eyes from the overwhelming radiance.

Even through his fingers, the light seemed to burn into his vision, painting everything around him in a brilliant white-gold glow.

The woman remained completely motionless.

Then she lowered her raised hand.

The enormous trigram suddenly trembled.

For a single moment, everything became unnaturally still.

The wind stopped.

The countless tentacles hanging around the barrier froze in place.

Even the frantic movements of the creature seemed to pause.

Frost’s pupils contracted.

’What...’

A thin line of white-gold light appeared at the centre of the formation. It was almost too small to see at first.

Then...

BOOOOOOOOM!

The world seemed to explode.

A massive beam of white-gold light erupted from the centre of the trigram, shooting forward with such terrifying speed that Frost barely had time to register what had happened.

The beam struck the monstrous fiend directly in the centre of its enormous body.

There was no explosion or any dramatic collision.

The light simply... Pierced through it.

A perfectly straight hole was torn through the creature’s massive body, the beam continuing onward until it emerged from the other side and disappeared into the distant sky.

Frost stared.

The massive creature seemed to have frozen in place.

Then its body convulsed.

”ROOOOOOOOOAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR!”

A deafening roar of agony erupted from the fiend.

The sound was so powerful that Frost felt his entire body tremble. Several people collapsed onto their knees, clutching their ears as the roar reverberated through the forest.

The creature thrashed wildly.

Its hundreds of tentacles whipped through the sky, smashing into one another and tearing apart what remained of the canopy below.

Luckily, none of them found Frost’s group.

Dark blood poured from the enormous hole through its body, splattering across the clouds as its roar gradually weakened.

”Roooo...” The sound became a low, agonized rumble. ”...argh...”

Then silence.

The monstrous fiend stopped moving, and for a brief moment, Frost wondered if it had actually died.

Gravity finally seemed to remember that the creature was supposed to be falling.

Its enormous body began to descend slowly, then faster and faster.

Frost’s face gradually lost all colour.

His eyes widened as he watched the colossal mass above them begin plummeting from the heavens.

Straight toward them.

”...Oh, fuck.”

The others followed his gaze.

”What the hell...?”

”It’s falling!”

”GET OUT OF THE WAY!”

Panic erupted through the group once again.

But Frost could barely move.

The creature was simply too massive.

Even with the hole blasted straight through its body, the sheer scale of the thing was incomprehensible. It was like watching a piece of the sky itself come crashing down.

Its countless tentacles hung lifelessly beneath its enormous body as it descended, casting an ever-growing shadow over the clearing.

Frost’s legs finally moved; he stumbled backward.

”MOVE!”

Everyone began scrambling in every direction, desperately trying to escape the rapidly approaching corpse.

But there was nowhere to go.

The creature was far too large.

And as Frost looked upward at the monstrous fiend falling toward them, one horrifying realization burned into his mind.

’That woman just saved us from being eaten... Only to fucking kill us with the falling corpse.’