The star, despite being more like a pitch black hole, was almost blinding to Runar. It was something that he had practically only dreamt of having. He had seen a few individuals with a star in the past, and they were the most powerful and impressive people in the world from his point of view. That, and they were also some of the most insane.

  It took a special type of person to reach this level. Even Runar knew that he himself wasn't exactly 'normal' at this point. Nobody that could get close to max level could be called sane.

  And this person was so young, they looked barely a few years older than Ryan. But then again, it wasn't like he could actually trust the appearance of anyone involved with the Church of the Dead God. If they could look like living, mummified corpses, then they could definitely look younger than they actually were.

  Either way, Runar knew one thing. He could not fight this person. How was he supposed to battle against someone with a star? Runar's class wasn't even originally made just for combat. In general, mages had a pretty broad reach, but Runar himself had specifically done things in every possible field.

  Combat, research, production, leadership—he did it all. And while it meant that he could do everything that was asked of him as the head of the Aglecards, and that he could act independently to some degree without having to completely rely on the assistance of the elders, it also meant that he wasn't specialised in anything. If there was something that Runar would say he was best at it was research. Analysis. Learning more about magic, discovering more runes; not whatever he was doing right now. Runar was not capable of fighting against a star-bearer with powers related to death.

  But maybe he didn't have to win that fight, anyway. He just had to hold out for a little while. Runar grabbed his pen, and wrote one specific rune. 'Acceleration'. Immediately, the world around Runar slowed down. This rune wasn't one that made him physically faster, but he was able to think at much greater rate. This would at least buy him some time.

  And with that time, Runar activated one of his skills, and a magical book appeared in front of him. It wasn't one that he used a lot, since there was a limited amount of 'slots' within it. It was a skill that allowed him to save premade arrays of runes. But since it was more useful to be able to change the details of a spell to the unique situation one was in, what Runar mostly used this for was item-crafting. Things that he had to mass-produce at times.

  Runes for special bullets for Yamada, the complex array that he had come up with for his pen, protective wards that were carried around by most of the people that worked directly for Runar, as well as the special coins that showed that someone was part of the family. There were a lot more things, ones that he kept in there simply because he couldn't bring himself to remove them, but Runar skipped past those without a second thought.

  However, there were a handful of spells that he kept in here for absolute emergencies. These were arrays that would be directly engraved onto Runar's body. It was pretty damn painful, since it felt like his skin was being dug up with a hot iron for every single individual line. But right now, it was necessary.

  He activated the spell, and the moment he did, green droplets started floating from the pages of the book onto Runar's face. They settled down on his throat, cheeks, and even on his tongue, burning themselves into place. Good, next.

  Runar flipped further through the pages, selecting more and more of these spells to put onto his own body. These weren't like the ones that he just drew onto his skin before. These were carved into his flesh and had to be erased later, or else he wouldn't be able to live a normal life anymore, with these constant, permanent enhancements that couldn't be easily weakened. Luckily, Runar had a skill that let him erase any runes he had drawn, but it also hurt to remove them from his body. Because why wouldn't it?

  Soon, Runar's hands, legs, chest, back, and eyes, all had green runes covering them. Blood dripped out from parts of them, but that wouldn't change anything about the spells.

  "Oh? Now that's pretty interesting magic," the star-bearer said with a curious smile. "You're a proper rune mage, then. You know, I do have some ancient runes jotted down somewhere if you're interested."

  Runar just stared back. The way he was right now, he couldn't talk. He couldn't even communicate with Yamada through sign language. Every single part of his body was now changed to become part of his spellcasting.

  "Osath, mari, aloga, proh, lis, garut," Runar started to speak, with each and every one of the runes that he was speaking being written down in the air in front of him. At the same time, he started signing different words. Not in riverian, but the equivalent of a sign language from the runic age.

  Technically, Runar's magic was the magic of words, of meanings. Those meanings were simply represented through runes, a language imbedded in magic itself. If you knew what to do, you could create runes in numerous ways.

  The shape of your mana as you spoke particular words, the forms that your hands took on as you signed, and even the movements of each and every one of your steps that were now akin to strokes of a pen. Even Runar's blood was slowly drawing runes within his body, pulsing mana into his veins at just the right moments. This was as close to an artificial 'ultimate skill' as one could get, at least that was Runar's conclusion when he first came up with all of this. Instead of just being the scribe that would place the runes into the world, he had turned himself into the pen.

  And with that pen, Runar just wrote an array into the world. The moment he activated it, numerous stone spears started shooting out from every surface of this chamber, shooting straight at the star-bearer. The air itself was starting to turn hostile, moving around the space, ready to cut apart any that dared pass through.

  "... Now, that is actually a little bit troublesome." To Runar's surprise, the star-bearer seemed to actually grow a little concerned. But he still wasn't getting cocky, what he was doing wasn't something to try and beat this person. After all, they had said this from the other side of the room, a place that Runar didn't aim at.

  He diverted the stone spears toward the star-bearer, who slowly raised their hand forward. "Guess I have to also get a little–"

  Before they could finish speaking, though, chains shot down from the ground beneath them, wrapping up their limbs and even gagging them so that they couldn't speak some kind of chant.

  With a roll of their eyes, the star-bearer pulled their arm away, and the chains snapped. They grabbed the ones that were keeping them gagged, and tore them just as easily.

  "That's not nice, is it? I think you should–"

  Once again, they were interrupted, though this time, it was by the entire ceiling falling onto them. A giant hand of stone pushed down, trying to squash the star-bearer. But by the time that hand hit the ground, the enemy was already in another part of the chambers. Runar wasn't stopping, though. The moment he saw the star-bearer in a new place, a hand would either try to grab, smash, or slap them. Each and every time, they appeared in another place, unaffected.

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  So what was happening here right now? Spatial magic? No, Runar was able to see the flow of magic with his own eyes right now, and there was no trace of any sort of teleportation. No, it was a more complicated thing than that. The star-bearer was doing something that even Runar couldn't fully understand. They were distorting the world itself. Maybe they were changing things, like 'I was never in that spot in the first place'.

  "Urag, ifrir, olam, proski," more and more runes were being created around Runar, as he was trying to use more and more magic to somehow trap or distract the star-bearer. At the very least, it seemed like he was doing enough that they didn't have the opportunity to counterattack.

  Or, that's what Runar thought, until suddenly that person stood right in front of him.

  "This is getting boring, don't you have anything better to show me?" the star-bearer asked, letting out a loud sigh. "Fine, I guess this is where your limit is." They seemed disappointed, holding their hand forward, trying to grab him. But the moment that they did, Runar pressed his hand onto their chest. He could feel the physical sensation, so he must have hit them this time. And this time, the air ignited around the star-bearer, enveloping them in a blazing grasp that even burnt part of Runar's clothes.

  "What? How did you–" the star-bearer asked, confused, though that lasted for just a moment before a grin appeared on their face. "Ah, so you did have something better to show me. Alright, then. However, I reject these flames of yours."

  The moment they said so, shivers ran over Runar's back as the flames that had been burning the star-bearer just a moment earlier disappeared like they had never been there. Before Runar could blink, they had disappeared again, and were standing in front of the guardian that was protecting this place, whose head was blown up earlier. The star-bearer smiled.

  "I reject your death," they said, to the corpse right there on the ground. Runar was confused, but just for a moment, until the dead body simply stood up. Their head was still gone, but that person that died here not too long ago was once again upright. But it wasn't necromancy, at least no school of necromancy that Runar was familiar with. "And you shall be honoured, dear friend, as I reject your weakness, too."

  The words left the star-bearer's mouth, and something changed about that corpse. For a moment, its body bulked up, like its muscles were blown up with an air-pump, before compressing down again. The parts that looked 'wrong' about them just a moment earlier were starting to be fixed, like the distortion was being removed. But they were still headless.

  Runar thought there was something wrong about this, and had a fist of stone slam down on the moving corpse. The stone hand was shattered apart as the headless corpse struck back. Pieces of the compressed stone were thrown through the air, and Runar quickly took control of them. He made them shoot back at the corpse. It wasn't able to defend against them all, and slowly but surely, injuries were accumulating all over it. This thing was strong, but it wasn't nearly as dangerous as the star-bearer.

  Runar pushed back his foot, starting to slide over the ground. He built distance to the corpse, and started drawing more runes on the ground with his feet in the process. As soon as the corpse stepped onto one of those runes, its body started to collapse in on itself, turning into a thin, sharp spear that Runar shot straight at the star-bearer. Seemingly unbothered, they just side-stepped it, a broad smile on their face.

  "You dispatched that one faster than I thought! Impressive!" the star-bearer exclaimed enthusiastically, but Runar just glared in their direction. "I really want you."

  That sentence came from right in front of Runar again. "I reject your ability to move."

  The moment the star-bearer's voice came left their mouth, Runar's body was frozen. What kind of stupidly powerful ability was this?

  The star-bearer once again extended their hand, and placed it around Runar's face. "Be mine."

  Runar glared at the star-bearer, and they seemed to get the gist of what he was trying to say. "I reject your refusal, and will give you another chance."

  For a brief moment, Runar's head went blank, as the star-bearer slammed his face into the ground. As part of the floor shattered apart, they lifted him up again.

  "Be mine."

  But Runar's answer was the same.

  "I reject your refusal."

  The star-bearer slammed him down. Again, and again, and again. Every single time, with Runar frozen and unable to move. But it was just Runar's face, that was fine. He could heal this later. For now, he just had to hold out. Just a moment longer.

  Runar's heart kept beating, and his blood was still flowing. Even if Runar couldn't do anything else, his blood was still drawing runes. And that was enough. Just like before, magical chains appeared to bind the star-bearer, but not just them alone. They were tying Runar and the star-bearer together.

  "And what is this supposed to be now?" they asked, annoyed. "Desperation like this is quite unattractive, you know?"

  But Runar just laughed a little. The runes around his mouth and throat faded. "Sorry, I'm taken anyway."

  The star-bearer rolled their eyes, and tried to tear away the chains. And the moment they looked down to grab at one of them, suddenly, the spear that Runar had shot at them was sticking through both of their bodies.

  "What is–"

  Runar smiled, and pushed himself away from the star-bearer. He simply slipped through the magical chains, and the spear didn't injure him at all, either. "You forgot about something, huh?" He walked over to the tunnel in the wall, which was now covered in angular lines of electric, yellow mana, all the way to the surface. Next to it was Yamada, who had just shot the spear at the star-bearer's back using one of her guns.

  Yamada signed at Runar, telling him that everything was ready. "So even you can't tell when something's hidden from the world, interesting." he stretched slightly, trying to pop his shoulder back into place. "Sadly, my friend here just used that tunnel to create the largest gun in the world, so..."

  The star-bearer glared at Runar. They tore the spear out of their abdomen, and glared at him. "I reject this wound!"

  In that instant, that large, gaping hole in their chest simply disappeared. With an annoyed groan, Runar grabbed Yamada's arm. "Well, it was time for us to go anyway, hurry."

  Yamada signed something to him, and Runar nodded. "Yes, it's set up, now hurry!"

  With a smile, Yamada put her hands onto the inside of the tunnel, which was now the barrel of her newest 'gun'. The angular lines of mana extended throughout the entire chamber, which was still filled with numerous small runes that were prepared for this moment.

  Runar created a capsule of mana around the two, which Yamada immediately turned into a bullet for this new gun. Her and Runar's powers linked together into one, as Yamada pulled the 'trigger'.

  All the runes in the chamber blew up, and the star-bearer pulled back their arm. "I reject the distance."

  Those were the last words that Runar heard before the explosions that shot him and Yamada out of the massive tunnel at immense speed. Only when they were in the air, dozens of miles away, did Runar realise that the spear made from that corpse was now within the capsule, having torn through the side of his abdomen and pierced Yamada's arm.

  "And then, we safely landed somewhere and made our way home. We healed up a bit, well, a lot, on the way," Runar said, trying to finish up the story now that all the important parts had been said.

  "... That did not happen... right?" Ryan asked in disbelief. "You're trying to tell me that Yamada turned the mountain into a gun?"

  With a loud sigh, Runar responded. "That's seriously the part you're focused on? Yes, Yamada has an extremely high level in her 'Improvised Weaponry' skill, and she also happens to be an extremely powerful mage in her own sense, so she was able to do that pretty easily. I created the actual propulsion, and she did the rest of controlling us like one of her 'bullets' to get us home."

  "Hm... Alright, I guess."

  "You don't have any other questions?"

  "Well, I'm still mentally catching up to the rest..." Ryan said bluntly. There was a lot to take in there. So the enemy was someone that even Runar was helpless against, and could only run away from? Ryan had barely even seen a fraction of his uncle's powers, but he knew that this made the star-bearer an absolute monster. But there was something about their powers that Ryan found interesting. "So they were able to 'reject' reality?"

  "Yeah, something like that. We're still trying to figure it out right now, and the exact systems behind it, to create a counter," Runar explained. "But listen, I've been standing here in the kitchen for what feels like a month now, I should really get back to Chantora. I can hear him get out of bed to look for me, I think. Can we talk about the rest later? I'll come by the house tomorrow afternoon when you're home from class."

  "Hm? Oh, yeah sure, I guess," Ryan replied, absent-minded, looking at one of the spirits currently relaxing on a DIY hammock on his desk.

  "Alright, good. I hope you're at least a little satisfied for now. See you tomorrow." With one last sigh, Runar tried to end the call.

  "Wait, hold on," Ryan said, or at least tried to say, but by then the call already ended. He was so lost in thought that he couldn't say what he wanted to before now. Ryan looked at Jester, slowly putting his head down on the desk, and the spirit tilted their head confused. "That 'reality rejection' sure sounds a lot like one of your skills, Jester."