Kael did not return to the outer grounds.
He couldn't.
Every step back toward the sect felt heavier than the last, not because of fatigue alone, but because of the object hidden inside his robe. The scroll case pressed against his chest like a living thing, its presence impossible to ignore.
An ancient rune scroll.
Even unopened, it felt different—cold, heavy, old in a way that had nothing to do with age. Kael's instincts warned him again and again: this was not something meant for ordinary hands.
So he diverted.
By the time the sun dipped low, Kael had reached a narrow ravine carved between two stone ridges. It was a forgotten place, far from patrol routes, shielded by jagged rock and thornbrush. The kind of place where mistakes could be made without witnesses.
That mattered.
Because if he failed tonight, there would be no one left to care.
Kael cleared a small space, stacking stones into a crude boundary and scattering spirit powder to dull wild beast senses. It wasn't a formation—he didn't have the luxury of wasting materials—but it would buy him time.
Only then did he sit.
His breathing slowed. His mind sharpened.
Slowly, deliberately, Kael removed the scroll case.
---
The Ancient Script
The parchment inside was brittle, yellowed, its edges cracked like old bone. Unlike modern rune manuals, there were no annotations, no simplified diagrams, no explanations. Only a single symbol, carved in uneven strokes that seemed to shift when stared at too long.
Kael's throat went dry.
Ancient runes were not written.
They were remembered by the world.
He unfurled the scroll fully and froze.
The symbol was incomplete.
Not damaged—unfinished.
A chill crawled up his spine.
Ancient runes were never whole. They were fragments of a language older than gods, broken after the ancient deity was slain and cursed. What remained were pieces—concepts rather than instructions.
To understand one was not to read it.
It was to let it carve itself into your mind.
Kael swallowed and leaned closer.
The moment his gaze fully settled on the rune, pain exploded behind his eyes.
His vision blurred. The symbol seemed to stretch, lines bending inward like hooks sinking into his thoughts. Images flooded his mind—stone cracking, pressure building, collapse and reinforcement, weight and resistance.
Earth.
Not wall.
Burden.
Kael's hands clenched as blood trickled from his nose. His Soul Sea stirred uneasily, ripples spreading across its dark surface.
This was the first stage.
Understanding.
---
Two Days of Repetition
Kael did not attempt to engrave the rune.
Not yet.
He rolled the scroll closed and immediately began drawing the symbol into the dirt with his finger. Over and over. Hundreds of times. Thousands.
At first, his attempts were clumsy. The lines felt wrong—too shallow, too symmetrical. Each time he tried to replicate the rune exactly, his head throbbed in protest.
So he changed his approach.
Instead of copying the shape, he copied the feeling.
Pressure. Resistance. Holding against collapse.
His finger moved differently after that—slower, heavier. Each stroke carried intent.
Hours passed.
Then a day.
Then another.
Kael ate little. Slept less. Every waking moment was consumed by the rune. He drew it on stone, on bark, in ash. Each attempt refined his understanding, sanding away human logic and replacing it with something older.
By the end of the second day, he no longer needed the scroll open.
The rune lived in his mind.
That terrified him.
---
Preparation
Night fell.
Kael sat cross-legged within the stone boundary, spine straight despite the tremor in his limbs. This was the point of no return.
Engraving a rune into the Soul Sea was nothing like memorization. It was an act of force—pressing an alien concept into the very foundation of one's soul.
One mistake meant collapse.
Not death.
Worse.
Crippled souls lost coherence. Memories unraveled. Sanity fractured. Those who failed did not die—they lived on as empty husks, drooling shadows of who they once were.
Kael inhaled slowly.
"I will not fail," he whispered—not as a promise, but as a command.
He closed his eyes and turned inward.
---
The Engraving Begins
The Soul Sea greeted him with quiet darkness.
Three runes glowed steadily at its edge, each anchored, stable—but strained. Kael felt it immediately. The Soul Sea was not empty space. It had limits.
A fourth rune would test them.
He reached for the ancient symbol.
The moment he did, agony tore through him.
The rune resisted.
It did not want to be placed.
Kael's consciousness trembled as the symbol descended toward the Soul Sea's surface. Cracks spread instantly—jagged fractures of light tearing through the dark expanse.
Pain unlike anything he had known ripped through his mind.
Kael screamed—but no sound left his lips.
Blood streamed from his eyes, ears, and nose as he poured soul essence into the fractures, forcing them to mend even as the rune pressed down harder.
This was not engraving.
This was war.
The rune demanded lifespan.
Kael felt it—years tugged at, pulled like threads from his existence.
"No," he snarled internally.
He redirected essence, thinning the cost, halving it as the Soul Sea drank from the world itself. The pressure eased slightly—but not enough.
The rune screamed.
The Soul Sea screamed.
Kael held on.
---
Breaking Point
The cracks widened.
Memories flickered—his childhood, his first failure, the humiliation of being declared mortal. For a horrifying moment, he felt them slipping away.
"Not you," he growled.
Willpower surged.
Kael anchored himself—not to the rune, but to himself.
The pain peaked.
Then—
The rune settled.
Not fully.
But enough.
The cracks sealed slowly, trembling, unstable—but whole.
Kael collapsed forward, consciousness shattering into darkness.
---
System Panel
When he awoke, dawn light filtered weakly into the ravine.
His head felt split open. His limbs refused to move.
The system panel appeared unbidden.
Name: Kael
Lifespan: 31 years, 2 months
Cultivation: Mortal (Soul Sea – Early Stage)
Soul Sea Capacity: 4 / 4 (Unstable)
Runes Mastered:
• Grade 1 – Earth Wall
• Grade 1 – Ice Bullet
• Grade 1 – Ice Bind
• Grade 1 – Burden Sigil (Ancient)
Effect: Increases weight and pressure within a targeted area
Secondary Effect: Strengthens defensive runes when layered
Cost: Lifespan (reduced by essence)
Cooldown: None (Soul strain dependent)
Warning flickered at the bottom.
Soul Sea Integrity: FRAGILE
Kael laughed weakly.
He had done it.
But the price was clear.
Four runes.
No more.
Not until he grew stronger—or risked everything.
Kael pushed himself upright, every movement slow, deliberate. His body was still mortal. His life shorter. His Soul Sea strained to its limit.
Yet his eyes burned with quiet fire.
Ancient runes had accepted him.
And the world would never forgive that.