The Runic Alchemist

Chapter 924: Light That Moves

Unknown Location, Unknown Time, The Goddess of Nature & Light, Astraea.

In the city of golden light, she walked alone. This was not the right place. It was not for the eyes of those bastards.

Astraea passed the tall light structures, wide streets, and large gates. Arriving in a large open green field where flowers of all colors bloomed in full glory, she sent the mana signal. Then, with a gesture of her eyes, she created a grand table with four chairs, each on one side.

A moment later, a tall, red bearded silhoutte of a man materialized from thin air and smiled at Astraea. She ignored him as he took a seat opposite her. Another second and a muscular blue silhouette, with pure white facial ethereal hair, holding a trident, arrived as well and took a seat without a word.

“You look good, Aes. Recovered enough yet?” Aurelion, the Sun God, asked in his annoying half-joking voice.

Astraea did not give weight to his words by reacting; ignoring him was the best way.

“What’s it been? Two-three centuries? You guys sure don’t age at all. Oh.. could it be you guys are immortal?”

“Have you gone senile by spending day after day living your voyeur life?” The Sea God scolded.

“Try smiling, you old cunt. No wonder your scions keep dying. Bored out of their minds, I bet.” Aurelion shot back.

Before the childish argument could go further, Astraea got straight to the point,

“Let’s be done with this. I have things to do.”

“Can’t spare the energy, huh?” The words of Aurelion shouldn’t have hurt so much, but despite all her sense they did.

“You are truly playing the code by all your little whispering. Do you really want to join that bastard that much?” She said.

“We spared the kid. Stop messing around with him, or your little red cult will become history.” The Sea God added, also not amused with Aurelion’s annoying schemes.

“I have not broken any code, so keep your bitching to yourself. Besides, that brat is clearing dungeons faster than I can count and has found land beyond even what we can see. He is a threat to my people; I must be prepared.” Aurelion replied; the earlier amusing tone was replaced with a deadly serious one.

She could never tell which one was the real him. The bastard had always been like that.

“You have taken him. Which makes you responsible for him. If he goes out of line and your people try to defend him, I will not spare them.” Sea God declared, looking at her.

“He is just scared and worried for his people. Believe it or not, despite that monstrous, ominous aura, he is a better man than all that I have ever seen. He wishes to keep things as is. His class is what makes him dangerous. Added to his personality, the innovative changes on the mainland are inevitable. It would indeed give us more followers, of course, as long as we keep reminding them who we are at times.” Astraea revealed the information that was the reason for their gathering.

“Are you completely certain it’s not the Black Man?” The Sea God asked, his serious face growing even darker if that was even possible.

“I kept watch on him day and night. Not a single sign says it’s him. But he is an odd guy.”

“Did you glance at his origins?” Aurelion asked, the look in his eyes clearly revealed he knew the things she was trying to keep secret.

“Did Mightyone’s grandson reveal it to you?” She asked back and recived a shameless nod from the red silhouette.

“Revealed what?” The Sea God asked.

“This is why you keep yourself informed on the matters of people below, my little worm friend.” Aurelion would, of course, not miss the opportunity to jab at his lifelong rival.

“May I remind you of the purpose of this alliance? My people can live underwater, can yours?” And there it was.

Not once had it ever been that the Sun God wouldn’t joke around and the Sea God wouldn’t remind the threat of his superiority whenever they met. Fucked up as it was, Astraea missed Maelkrath at times like these. Putting aside the insane philosophy of the Chaos God, at least he had those elven manners of proper discussion.

“The boy is not of this world. A supreme or above rank forbidden soul-summoning spell was used to pull him into this world.” Astraea revealed.

“Space-time Summoner? The Elsewise?” Sea God asked.

“Most likely it’s him. The boy did not see the face.”

Astraea hated that guy. He always showed up at random times, messing with things for no other reason than the simple fact that he could. Known as the Chronomancer, the guy was relatively young but still existed throughout the living history. His origin was just a couple of centuries old, but due to his annoying, unstable, space-time spell, he was ripped from their reality by the divine and was punished to forever live outside time and space.

Whenever he showed up, some confusing shit followed, and they had to work tirelessly to stabilize their reality from collapsing. Good thing, the damage this time didn’t seem too severe.

’Why wouldn’t he die already?’ How long can a second-ranker live?

Why all these weirdos came from her Eldoris, was beyond her understanding.

“Each time The Elsewise uses his spell on himself in hopes of reaching a better time where he could live, why would he do that for someone else this time?” Aurelion raised a valid question.

“Maybe he is finally tired of living and just ended it in this way?” The Sea God guessed.

“Could be,” Aurelion replied, but his suspicious, crafty mind was still trying to find some pattern in the random occurrence of chance.

Astraea smiled. Sun God hated mysteries. And she loved seeing him getting worked up over such things. Seeing a fellow god suffering was the greatest joy of life.

“Anything else we need to talk about? You guys were awake. Any signs of other gods’ reincarnation time coming anytime soon?” Astraea asked to push the discussion forward.

Unlike others, she had limited time. Already, she was feeling the strain of taking this form for long.

“No, I took care of that ugly bird. The dwarf is gone as well,” Aueralion replied. “It’s too soon for the others.”

“Going out exploring the world does not break any codes, does it? Are we all in agreement on letting the kid connect the whole world? The work he is doing is very important for the survival of humankind; we can all see that. It’s only beneficial for us; if it comes to that, we can share the territory in the future.” Astraea asked.

“The Sea and everything in it belongs to me. He can keep the large land pieces he finds as long as it’s not in my children’s territory. I won’t interfere, but the treaty won’t apply to those new lands as well. My children can make their own decisions.” The Sea God nodded.

Aurelion sighed, “Yeah, why not? Because of him, we got rid of the demon lord once and for all, including all major cult members of the Chaos. That bastard Maelkrath has been so quiet ever since his army was crushed by the boy. Guess he deserves at least that much. But any sign of him trying to come after my people.. And I will not hold back at all.”

He stared at her.

“As long as the Sanctuary refuses my words and tries to go fighting once they have enough strength, I will not interfere. That boy knows it well. He knows fighting against either country means making you two his enemies, so he will leave it alone. As long as his people are safe, he won’t look back at the Mainland.” She reassured the overly cautious guy.

The similarities between Aurelion and that boy were unmistakable. They had the same personalities. But because of that, she knew for sure, the boy would never follow him. Two overly cautious people would never get along. She was his best choice.

The oddities in the boy did not end there. Astraea did not reveal everything about the boy.

The memories of another, beautiful, grand world. And those flying colorful primordial runic arrays that he could see with his own eyes and create so freely.

At first, she was only interested in the survival of herself and her people, just like the other three, but after seeing the potential the boy had, she pondered other possibilities. Her control over him was not as absolute as her control over her daughters. She can take over his flesh and mind, but it will only be for a short while, if she succeeds at all, and will leave her too vulnerable afterwards.

She can not stop him from ascending if he manages to fulfill the divine’s requirements. Using her control to stop him from doing that is a meaningless risk. He is already an insanely powerful individual; if he ascends, no other scion of the other gods can even touch him.

She, herself, will lose control, but if she manages to gain his trust, that might be a good thing in the long run.

’He is a good person. Someone who would make a very admirable god. Maybe.. we can..’

With nothing more to discuss, the two gods left her alone with her thoughts, in her city of gold.