Adrian and Dorian stood frozen, the healing rune's light fading until it turned to ash. The emerald glow dimmed to nothing, leaving only scorched parchment behind.
At this moment, Adrian and the entire humanity did not truly grasp the scale of what they had just done, because even the alien empires that ruled the stars had never grasped this truth. One day, when they learn it, their entire reality will be rewritten.
But that was for the future.
Dorian's weathered hands trembled as he seized the altered ink vial. Its color had shifted to white-grey, faintly pulsing with a resonance unlike anything he had seen in sixty years of study.
"If this also works for every inscriber..." His voice cracked with anticipation.
He dipped a fresh quill without hesitation, scrawling an advanced fireball rune. The symbols glowed faintly as they took shape on the parchment.
Dorian pressed raw mana into the completed inscription. No fire affinity. No specialized training. Just pure, unaspected energy.
The rune flared. The parchment blazed with heat and light, alive and perfect, flames dancing above the surface in defiance of every law they knew.
"It works..." Dorian whispered, awe breaking through his granite composure. The fire dissipated, leaving him staring at the impossible.
Adrian watched with quiet intensity. He hadn't forced the Source to translate, it simply did. That was how it always worked for him.
All he had done was fuse it into the ink, and the impossible had become possible.
He pulled a larger vial from the shelves, letting his mist flow into the dark liquid. The ink shimmered, transforming to pale grey that pulsed with inner light.
This time, he drew something bolder. Two Gravity Snare runes, their complex patterns flowing from his quill like second nature.
Dorian's pulse raced as he recognized the symbols. "A legendary rune... two of them."
Adrian activated one without ceremony. The force of gravity warped the air around them, invisible pressure that made their ears pop. Cracks splintered across the stone floor before the effect dissipated.
All with raw mana. All without gravity affinity.
Dorian no longer doubted. He stared at the cracked stone, then at Adrian, realization dawning. Humanity's greatest wall had just shattered.
"We need to show the commanders," Adrian said, his voice cutting through Dorian's stunned silence.
They ran to the command chamber, Adrian carrying the last Gravity Snare scroll and Dorian clutching the shimmering vial like precious treasure. Their footsteps echoed through the fortress corridors.
Inside the chamber, Renard and Scarlett stood over a map of the coastline. Red markers showed monster positions, calculations sprawled across tactical displays. Hours until the A-rank Leviathan reached the fortress.
They turned sharply when Adrian and Dorian burst through the doors. Scarlett's ice-blue eyes flashed with irritation.
"Why are you here?" she demanded, her tone sharp. "This is no time for inscription reports."
Adrian didn't answer with words. He held out the scroll, its surface gleaming with legendary symbols. "Activate it. With raw mana."
Scarlett's eyes narrowed as she studied the parchment. She recognized the symbol instantly, gravity-type, legendary-tier, the kind of rune that should crumble to ash in her water-attuned hands.
Her first instinct was disbelief. No one could activate such a scroll without gravity affinity. The Language of Mana was absolute.
But two Rune Masters were watching her expectantly. Dorian's face carried decades of experience, and his expression brooked no argument.
Curiosity overcame her. She pressed her palm against the scroll and fed raw mana into the inscription.
The scroll ignited. The rune came alive, pulling at the air with crushing force. Gravity compressed the space around them until even Renard staggered back a step.
Scarlett froze, her hand still pressed to the dissolving parchment. Renard's confident grin faded to stunned silence. For the first time in years, both A-ranks stood in complete disbelief.
"That... that's a legendary rune," Scarlett breathed, her voice barely above a whisper. "And it worked without affinity. Purely with raw mana."
Renard could only stare at the space where the gravity effect had warped reality itself. Their understanding of inscriptions, the very foundation of human defensive power, was shattered before their eyes.
Dorian stepped forward, his voice steady where theirs faltered. The veteran Rune Master's weathered hands gestured toward the modified ink vial, its white-grey surface still pulsing with inner light.
"Adrian's affinity fused with the ink itself," he explained. "It acts as a translator between raw mana and the Language of Mana."
Scarlett's ice-blue eyes widened as understanding dawned. Her raw mana had just activated a gravity rune, something that should have been impossible according to every law they knew.
"Any inscription made with this ink can be powered by raw mana alone," Dorian continued. His voice carried the weight of six decades studying runic theory, lending gravity to words that would have sounded like fantasy from anyone else.
Renard ran a hand through his hair, his usual demeanor cracking. "You're saying... any defender could use legendary runes?"
"Precisely." Dorian's confirmed.
Scarlett and Renard listened in stunned silence, their gazes slowly turning to Adrian. Goosebumps rippled across their arms as the weight of what they were witnessing sank in, this was no small breakthrough, it was a reality shift.
"If more of this ink is made," Dorian pressed on, "then any inscriber could craft these scrolls. Advanced and Legendary runes could be wielded by common defenders, limited only by their raw mana reserves."
The words struck like thunder. Adrian watched both commanders process the implications, saw the exact moment when tactical minds grasped the scope of change.
Scarlett recovered first, her commander's instincts forcing her voice to steady. "This must be reported. Immediately."
Her fingers moved across her communicator, opening the direct line reserved only for emergencies. The device hummed with power as it connected to the Central Tower itself.
Lord Kael Varros answered within seconds, his S-Rank presence filling the channel even through the small screen. "Scarlett. You wouldn't use this line unless the fortress was falling."
"Not an emergency," Scarlett said, her voice carefully controlled. "Something greater. Something reality-breaking."
Kael's dark eyes sharpened. Behind him, Adrian glimpsed the war room's tactical displays, red markers tracking threats across multiple fronts.
"Adrian Blackwood has achieved the impossible," she continued. "He has created an ink that allows runes, even Legendary runes, to be activated with raw mana alone."
Silence stretched across the channel, heavy and profound. Adrian could see Kael's mind working, processing implications that would reshape everything.
"Explain again," Kael's voice returned, calm yet edged with disbelief. "In precise terms."
Scarlett repeated the demonstration, describing how her water affinity had successfully activated a gravity rune. Kael listened without interruption, his expression growing more serious with each word.
Unlike the others, he did not panic. His mind connected the revelation to Adrian's SSS-Rank Echo affinity, his pseudo-manifestation, and his earlier impossible feats.
"If it was anyone else, I'd call it madness," he said slowly. "But with him..."
His tone hardened, shifting into command mode. "Adrian is no longer a mere cadet. The fortress faces an A-Rank monster, and we cannot risk losing him."
Adrian felt the familiar surge of frustration as others decided his fate. His hands clenched at his sides, white-grey mist beginning to coil around his fingers.
Kael's dark eyes settled directly on Adrian through the screen. "Adrian Blackwood. You've become too important to risk. You will return to headquarters immediately."
"No." Adrian's voice cut through the chamber.
Scarlett spun toward him, shock written across her features. "Adrian—"
"I came here to support this mission," Adrian continued, his tone iron-hard. "I won't abandon it now."
Kael studied him for a long moment, then exhaled slowly. "I expected you would say that."
The S-Rank leader looked aside, issuing swift orders to someone off-screen. "Reinforcements will depart at once. And I will dispatch Rune Grandmaster Selena to your location."
Adrian's blood chilled at that name. Selena Valcrest, the golden-tattooed master who had already shown interest in his abilities.
"This is no longer a border matter," Kael declared. "This is civilization itself. Even Lord Sentinel will be informed."
The call ended with a sharp click. The room fell into profound quiet.
Scarlett and Renard exchanged a meaningful look, then turned back to Adrian. The boy who had just shaken the foundations of their world stood before them, white-grey mist still dancing around his clenched fists.