When A Mage Revolts

If the star chart could previously had been described as being behind a piece of frosted glass, forever barely visible and giving a blurred and crisscrossed appearance, then right now, it had become much clearer. The runes were on their respective paths, moving as slowly as celestial bodies. Their trajectories, interwoven with one another, seemed to be following some sort of hidden and unmentionable law.

In addition, Benjamin discovered that his mind seemed to have suddenly built some sort of connection with the runic star chart.

He felt… As though he could control this thing.

"This won't do, the hole in the plane seemed to have leaked a bit of something from the other side." The System had also noticed the change in the runic star chart, and was clicking its tongue in wonder, saying, "The elemental plane has really projected something here. This won't do, this won't do…"

"What do you mean?" Benjamin immediately asked.

"Basically, the original runic star chart was just a shadow of a ghost, but because of the effects of the hole just now, there might be some other factors messing things up, the distance between the elemental plan and your space of consciousness has decreased. The runic star chart is now something like a half materialized entity. Perhaps… You can exercise the ability to control it."

Hearing this, Benjamin stroked his chin.

Could he finally grow stronger once more?

He had always needed an opportunity for the changes in his capabilities to turn from quantitative to qualitative. It might be because of the sudden and explosive increase of his spiritual energy, causing the water to flow right out of the bottle. Or it might be because, after the destruction of the laws of the plane, his space of consciousness had obtained something from the other side instead.

Although he could not understand where this gift from the heavens had come from, but… This could possibly be the opportunity he had waited for so long.

At that moment, he closed his eyes and spread his spiritual energy out, trying to use the water elemental methods to communicate with this gigantic piece of runic star chart.

Ohm!

He seemed to hear an ancient and mysterious buss, reverberating from the depths of his soul.

It was an extremely weird feeling, as though a seed had sprouted and broken out from the earth. Somewhere, unseen, he heard the heartbeat of another life. It was strangely warm. There seemed to be a mysterious relationship built between him and this other thing, and although he was unable to describe it in words, it felt as though they were empathetically connected.

As though he had sensed something, Benjamin opened his eyes, touched by inspiration, Following which, he saw a bright rune falling from the star chart and landing squarely onto the palm of his right hand as he stretched it out.

Benjamin was stunned.

The entire process had happened as smoothly as the flowing of clouds and water. Benjamin felt very natural, and every move he made had been done subconsciously— he had not even realized that he had stretched out his hand.

What was this?

Gathering his thoughts, he took a deep breath and lowered his head to look at the palm of his hand. It was a white, triangular rune that symbolized the water element, like a piece of snowflake that had quietly floated onto his palm. The mystifying thing was that the structure of this rune was one he could not understand. It was not an element, nor was it spiritual energy… It was as incorporeal as a ghost, but could not even be considered a spirit.

It was… An existence that did not exist.

He felt as though an illusion had appeared. If it were not for the fact that Benjamin could feel the spiritual connection and seen it with his own eyes, he might even have thought that there was nothing on his hand.

Benjamin felt very strange.

He turned his hand around and tried to use his finger to touch the rune, but the tip of his finger went right through the rune, as though going through a mirage.

Did it not have a solid body…

"This is the projection of the actual runic body. However, this projection looks somewhat abnormal." The System's bodies had gathered around, and spoke after taking a good look, "I really don't know what kind of a dog poop luck you have. Such a thing should not be happening."

"So you know what this is?"

"Know…" The System hesitated for a moment, before saying, "Although not solid, the projection of the actual body of a rune possesses rules with power much stronger than the immaterial drawings of runes you sketch with your hand."

Hearing that, Benjamin nodded. He could not help but feel delighted.

After some though, he held his breath and tried to communicate with this rune. Using the strange spiritual connection, he suddenly lifted his hand and tossed the rune into the air, with an excited look on his face.

A faint buzzing sounded out from the depth of his heart.

The water elements suddenly began to move, like numerous iron chippings encountering a magnet, and immediately surged towards the small rune. Right after that, a blue shadow began to form around the rune. Wings, a torso… For some reason, under the prompting of some kind of energy, the water elements were merging with each other, slowly becoming a solid, material object.

In this process, Benjamin watched as four things that looked like limbs grew out, and saw the formation of wing-like shapes, moving jerkily and with difficulty…

He felt that he was watching a fetus being formed bit by bit in the womb. It was oddly impactful.

All of this were not planned by him. He had only followed his instinct and issued a command towards the rune. After that, this "formation" phenomenon happened. He had completely no idea about what was going to happen next, and the only thing he could feel that that there were some weak emotional fluctuations happening to the spiritual connection.

It was a living thing!

Benjamin felt somewhat incredulous. Had an organism from the higher dimension come down personally? It was unnecessary, and furthermore, had they not mentioned that they were unable to disturb anything in this world?

After more than ten minutes, the rune had finally disappeared, having turned into the size of a palm, an… unknown organism? There was no way to determine what was flying before his eyes, and Benjamin did not dare to ascertain it.

What he could see was that this thing had a completely transparent body, and it was entirely blue, rather similar to the bird-shaped water he had summoned. However, this "runic organism" was a hundred times more agile than the bird-shaped water, and the moment its transformation was complete, it moved its cicada-like wings and somersaulted in the air, as though it was feeling joyful.

Nevertheless, other than the wings, it was still very much shaped like a human. Long, slender limbs, a delicate head, and long hair that flowed past the torso like a waterfall… Although it was born naked, its gender was indistinguishable as there were no obvious sexual parts on its body.

It was really alive…

Benjamin could not stop being in awe.

After some hesitation, he sent the command to 'come here' through the spiritual connection.

At that moment, the runic organism suddenly stopped flying about freely, and turned around to fly obediently towards Benjamin. It stopped a meter away from Benjamin, and widened eyes that had no pupils, with the head cocked to a side, watching Benjamin curiously.

It was only now that Benjamin could see clearly how this being had no facial features, only those somewhat exaggeratedly big eyes. Its face looked as though some sculptor had worked on blue material to create the perfect human head, but had suddenly begun to feel lazy, and had given up after carving out the eyes.

What kind of an assessment should he give…

"Such ugliness!" The System suddenly jumped up, and spoke in a voice full of animosity, "The eyes are so big, does it think it's acting in Ju On? Does it know what the healthy and proper ratios for facial features are? Oh god, it is so ugly!"

Benjamin scratched his head, saying, "It's alright. It's a bit strange, but after some time, it looks kind of cute."

"You need to see an optician." The System immediately said in a sour tone. "No… Forget it, you are beyond help, you should just undergo an eyeball removal procedure."

At this moment, the runic organism seemed to have noticed the System, who had been jumping about continuously. It suddenly changed its direction, and flew to one of the System's bodies. Stretching out one hand, it poked the round face of the smiley face.

"..."

The System was stunned.

"You, what are you! Who permitted you to touch me?" In the next second, it immediately raged. All sixteen of the smiley faces jumped in unison, and like pigs being let out from their sty, and violently charged towards the runic organism.

Only before they could reach it, Benjamin kicked them away impatiently.

"...Stop messing about."

Saying thus, Benjamin turned his head and looked at the runic organism curiously, as it flew about lightly.

"Can… Can you talk?" He suddenly opened his mouth to ask.