Runalond Calendar August 13th, 537 was a Saturday set for the duel between Nathan Modernson and Amy Blanc, as well as what posterity narrated as "The beginning of Nathan Modernson's rise." This assumption, however, was both within Nathan's expectation and outside it. At least at his last meal before the duel commenced.
His closest companions surrounded him at the cafeteria table, hanging out without any sensible pressure. Genesis, who had naturally integrated into their forces, was somehow included in this small crowd.
"How's it looking, Nathan?" he asked while drawing a rune Nathan couldn't even distinguish in the air lazily, as if he was just daydreaming. "The likelihood of your victory?"
"100% would be understating," Nathan scoffed proudly and sent a spoonful of porridge into his mouth. The blandness in his meal screamed for attention, presenting his true feelings that he had concealed from everybody but was unable to conceal from himself.
"Mister Modernson." A sleepy voice called out suddenly behind him. Nathan dropped his spoon in alertness. The half-empty bowl of porridge almost spilled on the table. He looked around to examine if his subtle display of worry was exposed to anyone before standing up to greet the guest.
Jonathan Schwarz's appearance in the first-year cafeteria wasn't the most impossible occasion to happen, but it still caught a couple of surrounding students' respectful stares. He walked towards Nathan and extended his arm, requesting to shake hands with him.
Jennifer and Daniel exchanged glances with each other. A handshake offer from an heir of the most prestigious clan? Both of them immediately understood what was going on.
Nathan bowed slowly and shook hands with him, taking quite a while before parting. Nathan naturally returned his hand to his pocket and began, "Second Vice Pres, is there anything I can do for you?"
"Today is a big day for both you and me." Jonathan seemed as if he was rolling his eyes, but people who had seen him often knew that was just his default expression. "I wish you the best of luck."
"If I do emerge victorious in this duel, it would be a huge help for your election, hm?" Nathan asked in a staged, cautious voice. "Very well then."
The students around pretended to be chatting among themselves while eavesdropping on the suspicious conversation, watching from the corner of their eyes as Jonathan departed after a few last casual exchanges.
Nathan returned to his table and placed a tiny gadget on it. "I'm certain because of this thing." He smirked and whispered, "Small and concealable in the mouth, but can deplete one's Rune energy gradually when activated and attached. This is the Schwarz clan's exclusive RAPI. With it, Amy Blanc has lost before the duel has begun."
Jennifer looked at the spider-shaped RAPI sceptically and asked, "Any of the Representative Students could've gotten you something similar. This was your master plan the whole time?"
"There are thousands of usable RAPIs, but there is only one Jonathan Schwarz." Nathan's eyes coldned and he snatched it back. "The agreement between him and me goes deeper than having him help me cheat."
"By the way, who told you guys I ONLY bribed him?"
For the overall recognised best Rune Arts Academy in the entire realm of Runalond, the relatively shabby arenas it possessed were not a part that contributed to that title. Of course, as long as the Tower of Dominance existed, arenas within academies would always be present along with it. Nathan had personally implored Henry Nox for an outdoor one, or at least somewhere without a roof, apparently due to the destructiveness of his Personalised Rune Art.
Nathan headed towards the designated arena alone when the time had come. His body was trembling, though he couldn't really tell whether it was due to the fear of something going wrong or the excitement of showing off his Rune Art.
He dodged the fair-play check by hiding the RAPI underneath his tongue. Explaining to the professor that the Stamped Runes he brought were just last-minute revisions, he entered the restroom without much trouble. After all, the security check in an academy-based duel was nowhere close to being as tight as an official one.
Nathan stared at the Stamped Runes, with the rune pattern printed on them that he had invented himself, but drawn by Joseph. It was rather no different from a normal projection, but with the figure Charlotte and Joseph had collectively illustrated, as well as a few useless strokes in an attempt to make the Rune Art look more complicated.
After all the days of travel and trouble, he finally got a moment to himself, a moment where he could think about nothing. Even after realising that he had lost the skill to keep his mind empty, it was a precious time for him nonetheless. Nathan just couldn't keep himself still before the match. It was like something was extracting his bones and muscles from the inside, and his body would break down if he didn't continuously walk around.
The unsettling announcement rose from outside, Henry Nox's unbothered and smooth voice as expected.
"I wish you all a good morning, fellow students of the Imperial Rune Arts Academy of Runalond. As the principal, it truly fills my heart with delirium to see your enthusiasm in this unconventional yet deeply ambitious challenge from Mr Nathan Modernson to the First Vice President, Miss Amy Blanc. It's been a long time since an arena like this has been occupied to such an extent. To celebrate this rare occasion, I personally volunteer to be the arbiter to testify and judge the fairness of this match, and at the same time, wish the two competitors the best of luck."
Behind him, a professor notified, "Good luck, Nathan."
Nathan stood behind the metal door that led to the arena emotionlessly. His heart was pounding so fast he almost couldn't hear anything else. After swallowing one last breath, he pushed the gate open and stepped into whatever lay ahead.
Cheers drove all the negativity away almost instantaneously. Again, the arenas in the Imperial Academy weren't the greatest, and there were still quite a lot of empty seats around the spectator seating. Eyeballing it, Nathan estimated there were a couple more than 200 students, with the most eye-catching being, of course, the members of the Salvation Club.
It had to be Daniel Whitedawn's idea again. A huge banner waved in the air like a flag. Nathan was too focused to read it under the disturbance of the strong wind. He bowed towards his opponent, Amy Blanc, standing quite far at the opposite end, and then towards the audience.
"Setup phase will begin in 30 seconds," Henry announced solemnly. There wasn't anyone around to notice that he had already drawn his wands.
Nathan thought he was going to be more nervous when the time actually came, but he was completely wrong. Seeing the anticipation on the students' and staff's faces, a prideful, satisfied smile overtook his fear.
"Setup phase, commence!"
Nathan stood still, ignorant of the command, and simply watched as Amy began to prepare her initial runes. Her movement was slow and collected, almost like a dance, but compared to the stillness at Nathan's quarters, it was clear which one caught more attention.
"Nathan, you are aware of the rules of Rune Art Combat, aren't you?" Henry warned him.
"I don't need a setup phase," Nathan replied, loud enough for everyone to hear. The audience gasped in astonishment.
Amy swiftly finished her preparation without breaking a sweat. She sent a signal to Henry, who declared loudly, "Since both sides are ready, let the duel commence."
Nathan reached towards the Stamped Runes tied to his belt and threw them into the air, one at each side. Drawing his wands faster than the eye could perceive, he pressed his pen on the seemingly ordinary paper, and two distinct, complex Runes materialised beside him.
Though students didn't fully understand the concept of Completely Harmonised Elemental Traits as well as Nathan did, most of them were able to recognise that both Runes were half white, half black.
To everybody's surprise, Nathan unsheathed his wands back into place, openly declaring that he wasn't going to use them for the rest of the duel, and bellowed coldly, "I planned to flex a bit more, but unfortunately, I don't know the name of the Rune Art you are preparing to use. Possibly because it wasn't taught to me yet."
Clara Marshall's face darkened. Amy Blanc was using a rather standard initial setup for a lightning-type Rune Artist, and the names of the runes weren't the hardest to remember.
"But that doesn't even matter anyway, because you probably won't be using them." Nathan continued as he pressed his hands onto the two runes beside him. His body and arms were chillingly straight, like the statue of a cross.
"Behold, my Personalised Rune Art." Nathan chanted as he channelled elemental energy into the two runes, which began to glow in an abyssal yet angelic light. The brilliance began to spread across his arms to his chest, to his eyes, which turned one dark and one pale, and eventually above his head. For the moment, it seemed almost like a halo, a halo that began to expand and sublimate into visible air that conquered the space above it.
"Unified Ascension."
The brilliance above Nathan began to gradually take shape, solidifying into a giant, humanoid frame that stretched all the way through the clouds. It seemed as if even the heavens had detected a catastrophic threat, signalling the clouds to turn dark and gather above the figure in a spiralling motion.
What came next was a sweeping storm that staggered not only Amy Blanc but also the majority of the audience watching kilometres away. Some of the weaker, timid ones even covered their faces in frightened screams. The details of the humanoid figure refined in an impressive feat, into muscular shapes composed of the purest, brightest forms of light. Yet, before long, the light was ensnared by frayed dark armour that enveloped every piece of skin apart from the eyes.
The eyes, however, were the most perturbing of all. If anyone even dared to stare directly into them, they would not be able to interpret what they truly were. It was an intricate mixture of anger and sorrow, of despair and hollowness.
The last thing that transpired was a claymore that sprawled longer than the body itself. Following suit after the style, the blade was half pale, half dark, with the line that split them apart being a grey light of nothingness. Even one swing sent a shockwave that knocked out a couple of pigeons flying past coincidentally.
Amy Blanc stared at the figure with uplifted, unbelieving eyes. Never in her life had she witnessed a Rune Art as powerful and as vast as what she was supposed to defeat right now. Trying to cease the trembling of her legs, she kept reminding herself of Nathan's Elemental Traits.
"This has to be an illusion, it just has to. There is no way Nathan Modernson can do this."
However, as she shifted her glance back to her relatively tiny opponent, she saw something that haunted her dreams for days to come.
The blade came slashing down before she could activate any runes in response. She didn't dare to dodge, only staring at the falling blade and praying that this was all an illusion Nathan had constructed to fool her. She couldn't afford to lose. She couldn't afford to lose. She simply couldn't afford to lose.
Her hopes were immediately shattered, just like the ground below her. A crack appeared on the ground directly before her before the blade even came into contact with it. The crack crept towards her slowly, giving her a final warning, a final chance to forfeit the match for the sake of her life.
"Nathan, that's enough." Henry Nox warned as he pressed on one of the runes he had constructed. Without any effort, the crack stopped spreading, but the mark remained on the ground as proof of Nathan's demonstration of power.
With another wave of his hand, the shadow above Nathan's head faded away as if it were just an illusion. Nathan's arms dropped in a restful manner by his side. The uncanny glow inside his eyes dimmed back to normal as well.
"Such horrifying, destructive strength… I could've never imagined such a magnificent craft from a 16-year-old first-year student," Henry voiced as he scanned the audience's reaction and lifted his hand.
"Then there shall be no more hesitation. Nathan Modernson is the winner of this duel."
Nathan, who held back his urge to shake the pain off his arms, gave a deeply amusing smirk towards Henry.