Deku Up! 3

D : (I'm beat...) "... Mmmh..."

Deku pressed his weight against the wall, in a slumped, and relaxed position.

Taking care of the children had not proven to be a cakewalk as he had believed it to be. He had to continuously stop Totta from bullying her brother's oh-so-pinchable cheeks, and stop her from stacking and jamming the books playfully at the small flap underneath the door, managing their lunch and spoonfeeding Seiene every last bit of his rye and tomato gruel.

Surprisingly enough, Seiene seems inseparable from his sister, when they are both awake. He would persistently cling to her, and follow her around the room, observing silently while she picked up the wooden pieces to play, or pressed Deku to read him strange books, without so much as flinching when Totta pinched his rosy cheeks every time she vents her frustration over Deku's reluctance. Had Deku not stopped him in time, he would follow his sister out into the library as well.

At least, when he is sleeping, it had been easy to handle them - Totta would quietly sit beside him and poke his cheeks, or have Deku read to him stories, or the occasional rubbing of his feet, an action befitting a caring elder sister figure.

Deku did not want to read stories to Totta when Seiene was awake, at least, not with what happened the last time he did. Deku had simply shared with Totta the origins of the Kaba and Rhanat runes, and when they hadn't noticed...

D : "Seiene?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? THAT'S DANGEROUS!!"
T : "Seiene! No! You naughty, naughty boy! Put down the charcoal!"

... Seiene had drawn many, many Kaba runes on paper with a small piece of charcoal, and spread it across the room. Some were imperfect and stayed black strokes, but some were well enough to actually glow a sinister orange. Anyone with the knowledge of the Kaba rune knows that it is a rune to create both intense heat, as well as a powerful expulsing force from a single point. Having this many in a room with a locked door that Deku cannot unseal spells trouble.

*Cozy's Notes : Basically, Kaba runes are explosive, and they are in a pinch.*

Perhaps it was him being used to dealing with the unusual tricks of the competitors, or perhaps it was simply his situational awareness. Whatever it was, Deku quickly used his Conduit Imbue on a small bowl of water meant for coloring, and passed the water through all of the papers with the Kaba rune, effectively soiling the charcoal markings and ruining any chance they had of detonating.

Panic attacks like these were not good for his heart, and so Deku lay his lethargic body against the wall, in exhaustion.

D : (... Why do I have to deal with this?... These siblings... Urrgh. They drive me nuts. I can't take my attention off either of them.)

T : "Deku?"

D : (... I should just ignore her. It might work in my favor and have her play with the wooden blocks instead.)

T : "Deku, wake up. It's about Seiene."

D : (I don't like the sound of that.)

Deku struggled to open his eyelids, and peered at Totta meekly. Totta's face slowly entered his vision.

D : (... !!!) "Waah!!"

And on her hand, was a wooden block, with the Kaba rune and its orange glow on it.

D : "What- What- What are you doing with that!? That's dangerous!"

T : "That's the problem, Deku. Seiene remembers how to draw the Kaba rune. He's drawing it everywhere now. Please erase them."

D : (He WHAT!?!)

With eyes wide open, Deku scanned the entire room.

From his opened knapsack, Deku concluded that Seiene had apparently picked up a rune scribe from his bag, and had marked many toys, the floor, the walls, and even the door with Kaba runes.

D : "... Oh my god. He is dangerous."

T : "Please, Deku, do something! You said that Kaba runes are hot, and... And I'm afraid of touching them..."

D : (This is bad, especially when Seiene doesn't even know how dangerous they are... We need to find him first.) "Okay. I will, but first things first - Where's Seiene?"

T : "I don't know. He was sleeping over there just a while ago, but now he's gone."

Totta points at the now-vacant straw mat, recollecting Seiene's sleeping posture there.

D : "We need to find him, and quickly. If he goes out into the library, and scribes everything with Kaba runes, only Vithrolu knows how many casualties there will be."

T : "Okay..."

D : "Don't touch the Kaba runes at all. I don't know how Seiene scribed these runes on, but they might explode by contact since Seiene probably didn't control how these runes are marked. If you're scared, just stay in a corner, and don't move."

T : "O... Okay."

Deku carefully tiptoed and avoided the Kaba runes to the best of his ability. Reaching his bag, Deku took out a blank wooden tablet and a piece of charcoal.

D : (I need to open that door. But I can't risk forcing it open and triggering the Kaba rune. What I need to do is to remove the rune, somehow. I have to try, even if it costs me my life.)

He drew many lines over the wood, and kept the charcoal. Deku closed his eyes and focused on the piece of wood in his hands.

D : (Feel the lines, read amongst them, run along them...)

The charcoal strokes glowed in a yellow light, and the wooden tablet broke apart at those black streaks before being fully absorbed into his left hand.

D : (I'm not the best at precision aiming, but here goes...!)

With his left hand outstretched, Deku pointed at the door, and destroyed the wood around the Kaba rune, effectively cutting it out from the door. Deku gently caught the Kaba rune still embedded in the door, and placed it on the ground gently, making sure to avoid the other Kaba runes on the floor.

Then, he punched and absorbed the entire door into his left arm, to reveal a horrible sight.

There were Kaba runes littered almost everywhere across the library. Kaba runes on the stone tiles. Runes on the base of the distorted pillars. Runes on the books at the lowest row on the shelves. Runes practically occupying more than half the surface area of the ground level to Seiene's height. Runes still coming out from the scribe in Seiene's hand, which continues to make the calamity of the situation escalate that much faster.

And, unbeknownst to Seiene, the situation is getting more and more out of hand the more he taps the scribe on practically anywhere within his reach.

D : (What is that kid doing!? He's just tapping more and more runes out as if it's some sort of toy! That's suicidal! At this rate, the entire school will have burning paper raining all over it!) "Seiene! Stop! That's dangerous!"

And, to no avail, Seiene ignored his cry, even with the silence of the library amplifying his voice.

D : (I can't do anything! At this rate, I may as well absorb the entire library, and throw it off into the sea... Curses, Dardicel's trials are really ridiculous!!!)

Deku gritted his teeth, and readied his stance. He rammed his fist onto the ground, and yellow, glowing lines crawled out from his knuckles, avoiding the Kaba runes in an agile, tree-diagram like manner. They crackled, and glowed, and spidered over the entire library-

B : "You don't need to do that, Deku."

From behind Deku, a green man wearing a slime hat and a crisp green suit came forth.

D : "!?" (Bertund?! When did he get behind me?!)

B : "Just let loose, and let me handle it."

D : "Okay."

Deku obeyed quietly and the yellow glowing lines slowly faded off.

B : "Very good. Now, allow me to show you a much better way to remedy this dilemma."

With the raise of a palm, all the runes in the library suddenly turned blue. Seiene, upon seeing the change in the colors of the runes, briefly glanced at the marvel before falling asleep almost instantly. And with a snap of his fingers, all the runes faded off, and disappeared.

D : (... Bertund's magic prowess is really incredible. To even use the positioning of such randomly-scattered objects... As expected of a Sorceror.) "... Bertund."

B : "Yes, Deku?"

D : "... I may need to request for some carpentry to elevate my bag off the ground; Such that Totta or Seiene can't reach it at all."

B : "Of course. That is an acceptable proposition."

*** ***

Totta anxiously ran to the doorway when she saw the blue-hued runes fade away. And in the center of the library, was Bertund watching silently and Deku picking up Seiene from the ground.

T : "What happened just now? Deku? Why did the runes just disappear like that?"

She ran a bit, and clumsily kicked on one of the bookshelf corners by accident.

T : "Ow!"

D : "Be careful, Totta!"
B : "Don't be hasty, child."

T : "Oh! It's Greenie!"

B : "My, Totta, you remember me! How nice."

Totta happily ran towards Bertund, and hugged his legs.

T : "Greenie! Greenie Greenie Greenie Greenie! Greenie and his lizard!"
B : "Ohohohohoho, careful now, young lady. Watch yourself - The library is not a place for one to run."

T : "Ah! Sorry."

Picking Totta up, Bertund held out his left arm and let Totta sit on his forearm.

B : "Right then, let's go back to the room. Deku, you can put the door back now."

D : "Uh, Bertund... I blew a hole in the door, though."

Bertund looked back at Deku, with his unchanging smile frozen on his face.

B : "... Very well. We shall use your first pay to fund its reparations."

D : (That's too cruel!)

*** ***

B : "Sleep tight now, Totta. I'll come by and visit again sometime."

T : "Aww, Greenie... Don't go..."

Totta pouted and stared longingly at Bertund. Compared to Deku, Bertund was able to control and use his magic to entertain the young girl; A feat that Deku could not hope to achieve, at where he's standing currently. Limiting the destructive capabilities of many of his spells, he could make bubbles, bead art, small flames to light candles, wooden pieces that come to life to retell a story, reanimated crayon drawings, to name a few.

To have him leave would mean that there was nothing interesting to entertain her anymore.

B : "Don't worry. I'll be sure to visit."

T : "But Deku is boring~ He doesn't read us stories frequently, he doesn't play with us much, he doesn't make for much fun. I want Greenie."

B : "I'm sorry, Totta, but I am a busy man, after all. I promise, though - I'll visit when I can afford to spare time."

T : "... Fine..."

With that, Bertund took his leave. Deku sat next to the sleeping Seiene, patting his soft hair and head.

T : "... Deku?"

B : "Yes, Totta?"

T : "I didn't get a chance to ask Bertund, but uhm... What happened just now? The runes all turned blue and just faded off..."

Deku then realized what Bertund had managed to do - And why he had stayed behind after the incident.

D : (Bertund could have easily told her what he did, but he didn't?... He occupied her attention so he didn't have to answer that question, and have her depend on me, her caretaker, instead... How slippery and deceptive.)

T : "Deku?"

D : "... Sovereign."

T : "Soverain?"

D : "... Yes. He used a powerful magic called Sovereign. It is very difficult to set up, but once properly established, he can raid the authority of anything standing within the magic circle. Seiene was the one who drew the Kaba runes, but Bertund forcibly claimed all the runes for his own, so he could disable them."

T : "I see..."

D : (Still, to think that he used the positionings of the Kaba runes, ran very thin Fay lines through them, AND used Hypnosis on Seiene, all at the same time... He really is incredible.)

T : "... Is there anything about it that you aren't telling me?"

D : "Huh? Wha-?"

T : "If it was this powerful, then why isn't everyone who learnt the spell just using it non-stop? What is the weakness and drawback?"

D : "!!" (... I really can't underestimate the children of a magus as great as Mister Jiel. Seiene is magically talented to memorize and draw that many runes by himself, and Totta is already this good at working out a spell's weakness...) "... Okay, fine. I'll tell you more."

T : "Yay! Deku is talking again!"

D : "... There's also the huge risk of drastically weakening oneself if the caster of Sovereign does not have enough magical power to control the objects under the spell properly. In the worst case scenario, the Sovereign spell will demand magical force from you, and will forcibly suck your life out to complete itself. As such, it is usually a high-risk spell that should not be used too frequently, unless you are fully confident that you are able to control the objects within the Sovereign circle."

T : "And? What are some examples of magical objects that can't be controlled?"

D : "... Hmm... Well, some traps set by magi are signature-triggered, so even if you claim authority over it, you lack the signature to trigger the trap - You essentially waste energy on it, because the trap setter can activate it regardless. Some other things would be things of no magical power, like barrels, or chips of wood, which are there to sap your magical force unnecessarily. Objects of great power like sacred land reinforced by a God's will and, or image power, Words of Power, or Nihil runes that are specifically made to sap your magical force and life, are far more dangerous - Using Sovereign on those would mean giving your life away, because to gain authority over them is to literally challenge multiple people, and even Gods in some cases."

T : "That sounds cool. Tell me more - You said something about there being a magical circle. How did Bertund draw one?"

D : "He didn't - He used the positioning of the Kaba runes already across the floor, and created a magic circle by tying Fay lines over them to draw one without even moving at all."

T : "How do you use Fay lines, then?"

D : "Well, that's quite similar to my Conduit Imbue, but with different properties..."

And so, the teacher-student relationship between the two deepened.

*** ***

*Cozy's Notes : I wouldn't be so sure to call it a teacher-student relationship, though. It seems that way to Deku, at least, so it's fine. I said a 'couple of days' on my previous post, but it ended up taking 5 days. Lol.

Sorry, my Progress Report 2 is coming up next Friday, 23rd August. That means I'll be really packed and busy the next week and be free and available then.

So, it is a shame, but I'll see if I can write Messiah 3 on the 18th.*