Chapter 276 - 277: Twenty Seats
Wukong tore out of the living forest like something that had been held back too long and finally snapped free.
The last stretch of trees were very tightly packed and tried everything to slow him down. Thick trunks shifted into his path, script-leaves flared bright in warning as if to say ’stop passing through us, there is plenty of space above us’, but Wukong didn’t care and the roots rose up in sudden ridges to catch his feet. But he smashed straight through all of it.
The bark exploded in every direction, turning into fine rune-script fragments that hung in the air like dust before the chaotic energy around him scattered them. Glowing pieces of language trailed behind him in long, messy streams as he kept accelerating.
He hit the edge of the clearing at full speed and felt the difference immediately. The constant pressure of the living forest dropped away the second body left the forest boundary and his boots touched the smooth stone.
Everywhere was suddenly quiet. The ground stopped trying to rewrite him.
When Wukong had first arrived in the forest, the living trees, the ground and scripts had been trying to devour him the whole time. Roots reached for his legs, bark tried to open and pull him in, sand and leaves stuck to his skin hoping to turn him into more runes.
He only stopped it by using his own rune knowledge to passively push the attacks away. He never fought it head-on. He just kept a steady wall of his own power around himself so the forest could not dig in.
It was the same for everyone else who entered. People with weak rune foundations got slowly eaten. Their legs or arms would start turning into glowing script if they were not careful. Some only survived because a partner or someone stronger pulled them free in time.
The ones who traveled alone and could not defend themselves properly never made it out. The forest simply swallowed them.
(AN: My bad, I forgot to add that the ruin forest actively tried to consume the entrants, the only was to stay alive was to actively or passively(depending on your rune foundation) defend and repel against it. Please continue and enjoy.)
For a moment the sudden stillness almost threw him off balance, but he dug one heel in hard, twisted his body, and skidded across the surface. Sparks of leftover chaotic energy sprayed out from under his feet in a long smoking line until he finally came to a stop near the outer ring of circles.
His chest rose and fell once. Golden eyes swept the place fast watching for any unexpected danger. As this ruin was no joke.
The first thing he spotted was a tall narrow tower stood in the exact center. Twenty perfect circles were cut into the ground around it. Everything looked silent and still, almost too clean after the wild forest outside.
Then he saw the figure sitting calmly in one of the circles.
Wukong froze.
He just stared for a long second, body locked in place. The way the man sat, the quiet controlled presence that somehow made the empty clearing feel less empty, the familiar weight of that aura of his Genesis Eye even if it was only half open and was even more terrifying from what he remembered... it cut through every layer of the silent tower’s suppression like it belonged there.
Runar.
The name hit him harder than any shockwave.
Years of empty void between sectors, fights that went nowhere, nights spent alone on broken and shattered universal origin cores, the stubborn hope he had refused to kill... all of it crashed into him at once. His eyes started to burn.
"You absolute freaking bastard..."
The words came out rough and broken. He was already moving before he finished saying them.
Wukong crossed the distance in a single long strides and dropped to his knees right in front of the circle. Both arms locked around Runar’s shoulders while the man was still sitting cross-legged. He hugged him hard enough that the stone under them gave a quiet creak of protest. His forehead pressed against the side of Runar’s neck for a moment while he just breathed.
"Finally," he muttered, voice thick. "Finally I’m not alone in this damn multiverse."
Runar had gone still the second those arms closed around him. He stayed quiet for a brief moment, then let out a soft, real laugh and brought one hand up between Wukong’s shoulder blades, steady and familiar.
Wukong kept talking, the words spilling out in a messy rush against Runar’s shoulder.
"What are you even doing here? I thought you were back home in our universe. How the hell did you get here ahead of me when I left our universe way ahead of you?" He pulled back just enough to glare, eyes still red at the corners. "Wait, don’t answer that. It’s probably because I got locked up by pirates for so damn long."
Runar’s hand stayed where it was. His voice came out calm and almost conversational, but the small curve at the corner of his mouth gave him away completely.
"You were locked up by pirates? Man... what an adventurous journey you had."
Wukong’s eyes narrowed. He knew that tone. He had heard it a hundred times before, usually right before Runar made him look like an idiot in the most polite way possible.
"You’re teasing me," he said, voice still rough but already carrying the old familiar heat. "I pour my heart out and you’re sitting here making jokes."
"I’m acknowledging your suffering," Runar answered, face perfectly straight. "In the most supportive way I know."
Wukong made a sound that was half laugh and half growl, then dropped his forehead back against Runar’s shoulder for another second.
"I’ve been through hell, you bastard. Got defeated, captured, locked up until I started forgetting what open sky even looked like. I really thought I was going to keep wandering this treacherous multiverse alone forever."
Runar’s hand moved once between his shoulder blades, steady and unhurried. When he spoke again the teasing edge softened, but the practical core was still there.
"I’m glad you’re still breathing. Truly. But now isn’t the time for the long version of the story."
Wukong made a muffled protesting noise against his shoulder.
Runar kept going, voice calm. "There’s something important about these twenty circles and the tower. Look." He tilted his chin a little toward the empty ring. "Every single one of them is locked. Completely silent. Even my Eye can’t pull any meaning out of them. Most logical guess is that all twenty need to be filled before anything wakes up. Sit first. We can talk properly once things settle."
Wukong stayed frozen for another couple of seconds, still not wanting to let go. Then he let out a long breath through his nose that was half laugh and half complaint.
"You haven’t changed at all. I finally find you after years of pure misery and the first thing you do is tell me to sit down and wait for the test to start."
He pulled back slowly. One hand came up and scrubbed roughly across his face, wiping the wetness from the corners of his eyes with the heel of his palm. When he looked at Runar again the golden eyes were still bright, but the wild edge had softened into something steadier.
"Fine," he muttered. "But you’re not getting out of the full story later. I’ve got years of complaints stored up and they’re all your fault. Especially the pirate part. You’re going to hear about the pirate part in extreme detail."
He stood, took the two steps to the circle right beside Runar’s, and dropped into it cross-legged. The moment his weight fully settled on the stone, something quiet moved through the clearing.
A faint pulse.
It was almost invisible. The rigid runes that formed the second circle deepened for the briefest instant, like they were acknowledging that a second seat had been taken. The same soft pulse traveled through the ring and brushed against the base of the tower. The interlocking scripts on the tower’s surface shifted half a degree and then went still again. No light. No sound. Just the quietest possible recognition that the count had gone from one to two.
Wukong felt it through the soles of his feet and blinked.
"Did the ground just nod at me?"
"It acknowledged the second participant," Runar said. His eyes were already half-lidded, the Eye of Myriad Truths working at a low steady level. "The tower’s waiting for the full set. Twenty seats. Until then it stays closed."
Wukong leaned a little sideways, still glancing at Runar every few seconds like the man might disappear if he looked away too long. "How long have you been sitting here?"
"Long enough to check every circle and make sure they’re all inert. The outer forest was only the filter. This is the first real checkpoint."
Wukong snorted. "Of course you arrived first and started taking notes. Some things never change." He rolled one shoulder, letting the last of the high-speed tension bleed out of his body. "I was this close to punching the next living tree that tried to rewrite my path. The forest got personal after a while. And don’t even get me started on the pirates. You said ’adventurous journey’ like it was some fun side quest."
Runar’s mouth curved slightly. "I never said it was fun."
"You implied it."
"I acknowledged it."
Wukong pointed a finger at him. "See? This is why I almost cried. You’re impossible."
They sat in the quiet for a while. The living forest beyond the clearing kept up its endless soft breathing, but the sound felt distant now, muted by the unnatural stillness of the stone. Wukong’s chaotic energy settled into a low restless hum that no longer tried to dig into the locked runes. Every so often his eyes flicked back to Runar’s profile, checking, confirming, grounding himself in the simple fact that the other man was real and present and breathing the same air.
"I really thought it was the end for me, but i finally manage to escape," he said after a stretch of silence, quieter than before. The usual bravado was still there, but thinner. "The multiverse is too big. Too many layers. Too many places a person can just disappear. And then you show up and you’re already sitting here like you booked the seat in advance."
Runar didn’t look away from the tower. "Our home sector almost got wiped out after you left. An injured Advanced-stage Void Devouring Dragon showed up. Oh, you might not know what a Void Devouring Dragon is since you were mostly locked up."
He glanced at Wukong with a small smile, clearly taking another jab. "They’re from the void race that specialize in the Devouring Principle. Those things eat sectors for breakfast and can devour and assimilate anything.
Thankfully this one was already hurt and the dragon was stupid and didn’t use its Devouring Principles and the other principles it devoured to its full potential, so I managed to take it down and keep everyone safe."
Wukong stared at him. "I see what you did there, but what the hell? That seriously happened after I left? There’s actually a race like that in the multiverse? How overpowered and terrifying are they? And how did you even kill one? I have so many questions." He looked at Runar for a second longer, then let out a short breath. "Alright. After all this, we’re sitting down for a long talk. No excuses."
"Sure, lets’ clear the ruin." Runar said.
The short exchange settled something in Wukong’s chest. The years of isolation didn’t vanish, but they no longer pressed quite so hard against his ribs. He leaned back on his hands for a moment, staring up at the silent tower, then straightened again and rested his wrists on his knees the same way Runar was sitting.
"So we just wait for eighteen more people to show up and park their asses in these circles?"
"Yup, that’s the current theory."
"And if some of them decide they don’t feel like sharing the seats?"
Runar’s gaze stayed steady on the tower. "Then the ruin will either force the issue or things will get messy. We’ll adapt when it happens."
Wukong let out a quiet laugh. "There’s the Runar I remember. Always so reassuring. ’We’ll adapt.’ Classic."
A new pressure brushed the edge of the clearing.
Both of them felt it at the same time.
The living trees on the far side of the stone circle leaned inward for a heartbeat. Scripts flared and then flattened as something powerful cut through the outer forest at high speed. The aura that rolled ahead of the newcomer was dense and disciplined, already reading the difference between the wild forest and the silent clearing.
Wukong’s head turned. The last traces of emotional softness dropped from his expression, replaced by the sharp ready focus he always carried into a fight.
Runar’s eyes opened fully. The Eye of Myriad Truths expanded just enough to catch the incoming signature without wasting energy.
The new presence didn’t slow down gradually. It simply decided the edge of the clearing was the place to stop, the same way Runar had earlier. A controlled deceleration sent a second smaller shockwave rolling across the stone. Dust and leftover script fragments lifted in a brief ring and then settled.
A figure stepped into view.
The quiet reunion ended right there on the edge of the next arrival, while the silent tower and the eighteen remaining circles kept up their patient unreadable wait.