"Argh! Fuck! Fuck! Fuuuuuck!"
Asd yelled out as he overturned his new bed, throwing it across his attic room with as much ease as Dragon would have flinging a tiny pebble across the continent. He was stronger, and it has been so since he became an alpha. His strength was monstrous, along with his speed and resilience and so too was his temper. He was irritated and tried multiple times to catch a breath in order to calm down and get back to what he needed to do. Normally he would probably go find Professor Chelsea for a spar, but the vampire has been missing for days now, almost as if she had upped and vanish into thin air, even their connection was so faint now that at times Asd wondered if it was ever there in the first place.
[We got closer this time master, just 7 more runes to be put in sequence which means the next few attempts would be shorter and that much easier.] Asd turned his bloodshot and reddened eye in the direction of Gaia, wholly convinced the wisp was mocking him in some manner or the other.
"30 fucking hours Gaia, we've been at this for 30 hours. I'm fucking tired! I- I want to sleep." Asd added the last one with a small tone that sounded no higher than a pained whine. Gaia was a tyrant, she had driven Asd to the edge and back, exhausting his mana over and over again as they found the proper sequence of all 777 draconic runes. They have so many failures, especially when they first started. But as the pool of runes that Asd had to put in sequence got smaller, it got easier to pick out the next runes by looking at it as a puzzle just like Gaia had said, and at this stage, Asd had his heart in his throat as he realized what shape or rather module all 777 runes were forming. But until he completes them, he would not jump to conclusions.
[you can't give up master, you're seven steps to the end, and I think we know how to fix this. Seven runes left that funny enough coincides into the four prime and three secondary elements. And for as long as time has stood we know the sequence is Fire, Earth, Water, Air, Light, Dark, and finally Rune. Your mana just got exhausted this time so maybe a ten-minute rest will help you complete it once and for all.]
Asd was prepared to take a step back, at least for a while but just like Gaia said, he was so close. He had enough Mana to make one final sprint to the end, he was mentally exhausted, but the sooner he was done with this then the better for him. The sun had just set, and he knew if he decided to rest, then he would be passed out for the rest of the night and might not wake up in time for the assessment tomorrow. Also he would really like to head to the assessment tomorrow as a first circle mage, perhaps he would break another record or something. Either way, life won't let him be obscure, he was a bloody Werelion in a school of humans, elves, dwarves and vampires… all eyes would be on him, so why not be the brightest star in the sky at any given time, the fucking sun.
"I'll give it one more run Gaia, ill sprint for the finish line and see just how far we can go. Are you with me?" he asked the wisp, who glowed in a soft golden light as she settled onto the head of her master.
[Always Master]
"Then let's do this."
The first rune was the rune for [VOID] the nothingness that the universe traveled through from which the universes friction created mana. Which was why the rune for [MANA] came next. And followed close behind it was the rune for [LIFE] and [DEATH], and then it moved on to a whole bunch of things like [PUSH], [PULL], both combined could make up the rune [GRAVITY]. And so much more. It was more like putting together a foundation than a puzzle. Asd felt like he was building reality from the ground up, that he was combining all of the forces that made a living breathing creature, something that was alive. And for a moment he wondered if reality itself was alive. Did it have a heart and lungs and breathed just like the mortals did, and if it was alive was it also possible that reality could die. Asd shuddered, that wasn't a thought he wanted to have.
The runes fell into place, from 10 then 20, then 50, then a 100 and then 200 going all the way until he was knocking at the door of the rune 500 which funny enough turned out to be the rune for [5]. Asd even with his exhaustion and frustration loved the process, doing this had opened up and understanding to him about runes, so much that he felt that this was the most important of all his abilities and elements. Earth, fire, water, air, light and darkness seemed more like younger ones if not children of the runic element. It was easy to get lost in the sheer number of runes and the variations they could give birth to, but he had to keep focus, because a lack of focus would cost him dearly and starting over isn't something he was too keen on; it took him at least 2 minutes to make a single rune, some faster, some so complicated they'll take five whole minutes to put down.
By the time he got to seven hundred, Asd was drenched in his own perspiration, veins pulsed allover his body as his eyes shone the bloody red of an alpha and his claws drove themselves in and out of his fingernails at regular intervals. 707, 717, 727, 737, 747, 757, 767, 700… 771… 772….773… 774… 775… 776 ...… 7.7.7! and then the world exploded with light as a multicolored shockwave spread out from his body, blasting the entire attic of his dorm to pieces and exposing Asd to the open air of the cold night, stars shining down on him like kindred spirits of a cosmic nature. They seemed to sing to him, but Asd was lost in the feeling as powerful mana from all corners of the Monroe academy's mountain rushed into his body, making a pillar of multicolored lights that was born from the element of earth, fire and wind. The first blazed a golden orange, blue and white of the cosmos, and his earth element took on shades of grey, black, brown and green, and then his wind was a silver so bright and so sharp Asd could hear voices ringing from it. And then flying around it was all 777 runes, all the runes that were actually just one big puzzle, a puzzle that came together to make a picture of…. A dragon.
And as the display reached its peak, the seemed to collapse into themselves and come crashing down into Asd's body. it was like being crushed by the weight of the world and being smothered by a tidal wave. He couldn't breathe, there was just so much magic, so much mana, so much power, so much secrets. His body underwent a partial transformation as he and his lion for this first time in his entire lifetime became one and roared with defiance to the heavens. The tribal markings on his skin began to change, shifting until the completed puzzle of all 777 runes were etched from his tail bone, over his right shoulder to his stomach, it was as if he had a dragon hanging over his body.
But Asd saw it for what it was, power, the blueprint of magic. He felt himself change as something seemed to click into place, and then the world went dark, the notifications from his mana ignored as Asd fell into a deep slumber; one that was filled with dreams of claws, fangs, dragon breath, lion's roar, wolves howl and death…. So much death.