Chương 62: A Heinous And Unforgivable Crime

Sint really hadn't been sure about accompanying her mentor. The last few times she had been in Ryland's presence, her mind had been ricocheting between trusting him and staying as far from him as physically possible. So when her mentor asked Sint to accompany her as the familiar point of reference between Ryland and High Academ Tyra, she had a great many reservations against the notion. All of which she had discarded because Sint hadn't wanted to disappoint the High Academ.

There was a saying in graduate student circles. When it came to supervisors and supervisees, the relationship between mentor and apprentice came first before everything. Securing the mentor's happiness was the ticket to success. Basically, Sint really couldn't find it in herself to tell Tyra that maybe meeting Ryland wasn't the best idea. Sure, Sint had facilitated their meeting, but that didn't mean she had volunteered herself as the… What in the Realms was she even doing here?

It wasn't like a mage who could handle Primordial-ranked Incursions and a Titan-ranked High Academ of Arcoryx Academy actually needed her for anything. But in an effort to be a good mentee, Sint hadn't voiced any complaints or reservations. Right up until the old Remnant guarding the restricted zone had recognized Ryland. Until he had accused Ryland of committing the crimes she had long since suspected he was culpable of. Horrific acts, unfathomable atrocities, incalculable massacre and bloodshed…

What else could inspire the kind of seething hatred from an old guardian Archmage other than standing in the presence of utter evil? The worst part of it was the sheer casualness with which Ryland was treating the matter. He didn't seem at all affected by the accusations. His face hadn't flushed, his words hadn't been unsure. He had hardly even reacted to the presence of the Archmage's Remnant, something that had certainly taken Sint aback. Nor had he reacted to that enormous golem bursting out of the ground.

At all. Sint was quite certain she hadn't seen earth or plant magic of that level before. The spell circle that had burned in the air had a Soul Glyph she hadn't recognized, but its sharp aquamarine gleam had professed it was at Tier [15]. She had backpedalled quickly, instinctively channelling her magic through her manasoul. Not that it would have been effective. Her Soul Glyph of Distortion was less than half as strong as that golem's driving Soul Glyph. She might as well blow bubbles on its rugged surface.

And then ridiculous Ryland had cast his ridiculous magic and stilled it completely. Sint really believed she ought to have found a limit by now. Not to her getting surprised by him, but a limit to his capabilities. Everyone was faced with something they couldn't do at some point, no matter how powerful or accomplished they were. Where in all the Calamity-cursed Realms was Ryland's gods-blasted limit? His spell was affecting Sint too. Her thoughts felt a tiny bit… swept away.

Like there were more important things than the situation she was currently enmeshed in. There was no point in getting worked up. The Glyph looked familiar too. She couldn't recall exactly, but had he used something similar during the Entrance Trials? But it was a moot point anyway when the golem broke through Ryland's spell. Sint hated the fact that her shock was enough to break her out of Ryland's spell too. She hated that something deep inside her had come to accept that this enigmatic mage was…

above everything he seemed to face. She hated that an elemental part of her soul had come to believe that there really wasn't a limit to what Ryland could achieve. Because that was bull crap. Because everyone had to have limits. And yet… And yet, when the golem moved despite the overpowered Glyph burning right in front of it, whose magic was threatening to dig into her mind to instill a strange sense of calm, one whose Tier she couldn't even identify, she gawked.

"Did that crazy old man just… possess his own spell?" she said.

"Remnants are capable of a great many things," Tyra said.

"Spell possession is one of their more intriguing functionalities." She had grabbed Sint by the arm and was dragging her back even further. Odd. Wasn't a High Academ supposed to be helping in such an intense situation? Though, with Ryland present, Sint supposed interference wasn't necessary. The golem groan-roared, the whole chamber shaking as twigs and leaves fell around them. Sint did her best not to fall on her face.

"Ryland!" Tyra shouted.

"Don't destroy the Remnant!" Had he actually been about to do that? Sint was too distracted following her mentor to safety to notice what exactly was going on for the moment. Not that she had trouble believing Ryland was fully capable of what her mentor had said. She managed to look around just in time to see the roaring golem slam down its massive, root-crusted, emerald-encased arms right down on Ryland.

The impact of the slam nearly threw Sint off her feet, and she failed to see the aftermath thanks to the huge cloud of dust and debris flying everywhere. Could he seriously have…?

"I won't destroy it." Sint twisted her head once again, looking at a spot far behind where the golem was raging and stomping around. Ryland stood there entirely unbothered. Right. Of course, the madman was fine. Sint felt like slapping herself. The golem roared as it turned around to face Ryland once more. Sint detected growing frustration from the Archmage. Unsurprising. Who wouldn't get annoyed at throwing everything possible at a problem only to see it remain intact and unaffected.

At least the golem couldn't talk so she didn't have to put up with the mad old man's crazed invectives. Yet another impossibly powerful Glyph burned to life on Ryland's outstretched palm. This one was his Soul Glyph, going by the Subglyphs popping up around it to create a spell circle. Sint didn't even bother to parse the spell's Tier. Probably over Tier [20]. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. The more curious fact was that she didn't recognize the Soul Glyph.

Not even visually. Her heart started thudding faster. No way… She had seen Ryland cast spells before, had seen his spell circles form with his Soul Glyph in their centres. She had received a first-hand demonstration back at the Entrance Trials. This Soul Glyph was something else entirely. Something terrifically powerful." [Anima Authority]," Ryland incanted, his voice ringing with mana-imbued power that reverberated in the atmosphere around them. Sint's manasoul shivered at the thrum of magic. What was this?

A strange sense of energy floated through the space. It was another new magical sensation to add to the growing list she was unwittingly constructing thanks to Ryland. Tiny green threads swivelled from Ryland to alight on the golem, freezing it in place. There was a lot of groaning and roaring from deep within its root-constricted body, dust flaking off its gigantic, cracking form. But it remained motionless.

Eventually, after a good minute or two, the spirit of the old Archmage slowly emerged from within the construct's chest. He retook his position atop its shoulders.

"Hmph," he said, squinting at the spell circle Ryland was maintaining.

"At least you've got good taste when it comes to Soul Glyphs. Although…" His squinting intensified.

"That's not the Glyph of Lifeform."

"It isn't," Ryland confirmed.

"This is my Soul Glyph of Genesis." The implication of Ryland's statement escaped her. Though she was working with living body Inscriptions, she wouldn't call herself an expert by any means. But clearly, it was a big deal for both the old Archmage's Remnant and High Academ Tyra.

"How did you even come by such a thing?" the Remnant demanded.

"This is impossible. Surely, it must be a trick. How can a mere thief such as you aspire to and actually reach such heights?"

"Hold on," Sint said. Her whiskers bristled again. She felt so out of place here, among mages who could snuff out her life with hardly any effort. The predator and prey laws of her old home were ingrained far too deeply in her soul.

"Did you say he stole from you? Don't tell me… don't tell me this theft is the heinous crime you've been raging about all this time?" The Remnant turned imperious eyes on her.

"Watch your tongue, whelp. Stealing from me is a capital crime. In my day, thieves would hang for less." He turned his venomous glare upon Ryland.

"And yet, this rat escaped. And clearly used my stolen teachings to propel himself to heights he doesn't belong in."

"You're insane!" Sint said. She was finding it hard not to bare her fangs at the stupid old man. Her maturity came into play soon enough and told her not to make a scene. Especially when her reaction was about herself. Sint had mistakenly assumed the old Archmage had known about Ryland's past. His atrocious past. His reaction had made her feel vindicated. Here was a person who could corroborate everything she had sensed and smelled on him.

The scent of countless acts of bloodshed, of endless annihilation, of a history as tainted as a Calamity's. And now he was saying he was mad because Ryland had stolen from him? Was he senile?

"I find that characterization highly abusive," the old man said.

"You should be ashamed that you walk in the company of a thief." Ryland had the audacity to chuckle.

"Please. I merely borrowed your cauldron. Which means you were created after that incident, so you no longer remember me returning it less than a week later."

"You stole a cauldron from Archmage Soverius?" High Academ Tyra asked. She sounded like she couldn't decide if she ought to be outraged or impressed. For her part, Sint was suppressing the temptation to just nod along. Of course, Ryland of all people had stolen from and made enemies of an ancient, legendary Archmage. What else was he supposed to do?

"You expect me to believe the words of a thief?" the Remnant asked. A bluff. He might have been acting angry, but he had stopped casting a while ago. The others had noticed it too.

"Yes, well, that is neither here nor there," the High Academ said, stepping forward.

"We've completed your little challenge, Remnant. We've subdued the golem you set before us and proven ourselves. Allow us to proceed."

"As if I would allow a thief to traverse through these halls!" the insane old man said.

"That would be a grave violation of the duties I am honour-bound to perform." Ryland's spell flared. What was it? [Animus Authority]? Something along those lines? The lines of vibrant green mana constricted tighter around the golem before threading off it like marionette strings. With grinding steps, the golem moved out of their way.

"How dare you?" the old man spluttered.

"This is a gross violation of my duties, a terrible denigration of my role as a—""We'll be taking our leave now," the High Academ said, leading the way forward now that their obstacle had been taken care of.

"Thank you, Archmage Soverius. I'll be sure to tell your corpse that you've performed your task admirably."

"M-my corpse?" The High Academ didn't answer. Ryland and Sint followed her mentor. Despite her disgusted anger at the old man, she was almost tempted to cast a pitying look back at his ghost. What was one supposed to feel to learn something so existential as the death of one's real self?

"That was rather vicious of you, High Academ," Ryland said as they left the Remnant behind, once more following the Glyph of Questing he had cast. High Academ Tyra merely shrugged. She hadn't taken part in the fray against the old Archmage, but her frizzy hair still appeared a little more dishevelled than normal.

"He was getting a bit out of line. I think we need to send a message to the administration that the Remnant is acting up a little. That challenge was a mite too intense."

"Was it?"

"We cannot expect Academs to defeat a Titan-ranked construct every time they wish to access the restricted zone." Ha. Sint had been right in assuming the construct had been something far, far beyond her. Good thing she hadn't embarrassed herself trying to stop it or something.

"Well…" Ryland said.

"In this case, I was involved. So the measure seems appropriate."

"Does it?" the High Academ challenged.

"You handled it rather adroitly with hardly any effort at all. Clearly, Titan-ranked obstacles are trivial to you. So how exactly was that appropriate?" For the first time, a small frown marred Ryland's brow.

"The Remnant's power is limited. It can only create magic up to its own power. While he was Empyrean-ranked in his heyday, I don't remember Archmage Soverius reaching that rank when I… stole his cauldron."

"Why in the world did you steal his cauldron?" Sint asked.

"I borrowed it because mine had sprung a leak at the bottom and I needed the best one I could find on very short notice." Sint and her mentor silently decided that further questions were only going to lead to craziness. That said, the High Academ wasn't quite done questioning.

"Alright then," she said as they passed through the thickest section of the forest. Ryland's Glyph was pulsing gently. They were almost at their destination.

"What would be an appropriate level of challenge for you, Ryland?" Sint swallowed. She had been asking her own stupid mind the exact same thing for nearly an hour now. For Tyra to just say it outright like that… to be fair, she was the High Academ.

"I'm not certain," Ryland said.

"Really?" The High Academ couldn't hide the dubiousness from her voice. Was she trying to rile him up?

"This is going to sound tremendously arrogant, but in my continued interest of frankness, allow me to speak freely—there is no challenge you or anyone here can come up with that can ever begin to concern me." Sint could feel the sheer frankness with which he replied. He didn't care one whit how his answer was going to be perceived.

It was the truth from his perspective, so he had decided to wave it around like a flag, regardless of whether it was perceived as a comment on the weather or a Calamity-cursed declaration of war. They didn't talk much, in part because both Sint and her supervisor seemed to be digesting the fact that what Ryland had said was likely very true. Which was… scary. The other part was because they arrived at their destination.

The forest had opened up to a little grove, where a single pedestal held a small notch where something was stored. Sint couldn't recall if Ryland had stated what exactly he was looking for. And it was his fault she couldn't remember. Absolutely. She was blameless. Every time she asked Ryland anything even a mite complicated, he always drove into the most long-winded answer possible.

But as they reached their destination, as the Glyph of Questing glowed a vivid golden-green to indicate that they had finally reached their target, there was visible confusion on all their faces. Even Sint wasn't sure what she was looking at. Okay, she was sure, but she had a hard time believing her eyes.

"You were looking for a Glyph?" she asked. It kind of made sense. The Glyph glowed with a strong, iridescent light, indicating the kind of power Ryland kept casually throwing around. Ryland shook his head.

"No…"

"This is a trick." High Academ's voice was grave.

"I don't understand…" Sint's spine started tingling in alarm.

"I wasn't looking for a Glyph," Ryland said. The tingle in her spine turned to freezing unease.

"Definitely not a Glyph of Baiting."