Chapter 48: Alex’s Crazy Project - Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage

CH48 Alex’s Crazy Project *** The greatest difference between this world and the countless fantasy novel True_Sage had once binge-read online... was the absence of large-scale use of personal interspatial storage. For a realm that, to a modern Earthling, was still stuck in the magical equivalent of the medieval age, to also be lacking robust interspatial storage was more than inconvenient—it was downright archaic. So, when the chance to change that appeared in the Realms of Runes... Alex jumped at it without hesitation. With his perception once again elevated into the Runic Realm, he reached for the Nullcore Orb secured in his waist satchel. He poured both Spiritual Force and mana into it, opening a tiny rift that allowed access to the orb’s internal space—a basic spatial storage function. ’As expected!’ Alex grinned, eyes shining. With his rune-enhanced vision, he watched closely as Runes flared to life, forming an intricate array circle in the instant the dimensional link opened. Most wouldn’t have noticed it. But for Alex, that fleeting moment was more than enough. His Eidetic Memory captured the runic sequence in perfect detail—the logic runes, the spatial link architecture, and the binding matrix that held it all together. He immediately relayed the recorded image to the OmniRune Core. Together, they began the replication process—forming and arranging new Runes within a custom-built array circle. Time blurred into irrelevance. Alex became completely absorbed, losing all awareness of his body or surroundings. He was on the verge of cracking the logic behind interspatial storage—a game-changer for Rune-Tech as a whole. Eventually, the final Rune slid into place. To Alex’s mild surprise, the formation had been fully constructed within his Mindspace—without requiring the OmniRune Core to manifest physically. Interesting. He stepped back mentally, now analysing the complete—though inactive—array from a programmer’s perspective. And right away, he spotted flaws. Not true mistakes, per se—but deliberate compromises baked into the formation. Workarounds. Stopgaps. These were limitations imposed by the hardware—the Nullcore Crystal—which couldn’t handle the full breadth of the original formation’s complexity. They weakened the array. And that, Alex could not tolerate. He wanted something pure, something elegant. A formation as close to the original design intent as his current Rune-Tech understanding would allow. So he went to work. Using every scrap of Runic theory, every ounce of his elevated perception, he began stripping away the compromises—restoring the array’s underlying elegance. Again, time flowed like a distant river—unfelt, uncaring. Badum! Badum! His heart pounded harder the closer he got to completion. Alex assumed it was just excitement. He didn’t notice the wolf phantom from his bloodline or the golden Dragon flame in his Mana Heart—both shifting uneasily, wiggling with rising alarm. He remained laser-focused. He removed the final redundancy, streamlining the structure to what he believed was its true form. Then, for good measure, he added something personal—his own flair, a minor innovation to make the array uniquely his. ’And with that... voilà!’ he grinned. He mentally ’stepped back’ to admire his creation. Suspended in his Mindspace floated a brilliant runic array circle, humming faintly with restrained power—beautiful, elegant, and—at least to Alex—perfect. He mentally rubbed his hands together, giddy. Then, gathering both mana and Spiritual Force, he activated the formation. Suddenly— Spacetime froze. Alex remained frozen mid-grin, his hand still glowing with mana as he activated the formation. Outside, in the vast valley, below, savage beasts stood locked in place—fangs bared mid-attack, claws halfway through a killing blow. Above them, the scavenger birds—wings spread, eyes gleaming with hunger—hung motionless in the air. Time itself had come to a halt. Only one thing moved. The dark clouds above churned restlessly, swirling into a formation far beyond natural phenomenon. A golden lightning coalesced within them, flickering violently, until it took the shape of a massive, serpentine dragon. From within the storm, a colossal dragon’s head slowly emerged, its glowing eyes peering down— —at the one who had summoned it. This was the second time in what, to mortals, might be measured in years. But to the Tribulation of Heavenly Secrets, these mere five years was nothing more than a breath. The entity looked down and—for the briefest moment in eternity—it paused. A flicker of something akin to shock registered in the semi-sentient construct’s eternal awareness. This was not an emotion in the human sense—more a mechanical stutter in its thought-process, a system encountering the impossible. Once again... the same being. The same anomaly. The same source of disruption. Across eons of existence, since the primordial age when natural law was still forming, the Tribulation of Heavenly Secrets had served as the arbiter of cosmic balance, manifesting only when someone tampered with the deep laws of reality. Yet never—never—had it descended upon the same individual twice, and in such a narrow span of subjective time. It found this unprecedented. It focused its vast awareness upon the being known as Alex Fury, analysing his actions and intent with cold, clinical detachment. The construct calculated that the youth had achieved his latest feat by building upon a foundation that had already been accepted into the natural order during its previous descent. So by its own rules, his actions were... valid. But validity alone was not enough. The power the boy touch upon was beyond his capability. To permit such a profound advancement—without consequence—would violate the balance it was designed to preserve. So the Tribulation made an adjustment. It subtly altered the natural backlash that would have followed the activation of Alex’s formation. Rather than allow the collapse of the Subspace Sanctorum—an event that would have killed Alex and every other lifeform within—it imposed new conditions. The formation would succeed. But its impact would be blunted, and its effects diminished. A bargain struck in silence: life preserved in exchange for potential lost. That was the most the Tribulation could offer, within the confines of its immutable protocols. With its judgment complete, the golden dragon receded back into the clouds. Its presence vanished. No boom of thunder followed. No storm. No sign that anything had happened at all. Alex remained blissfully unaware—oblivious to how close he’d come to death, or how nearly he’d brought about the collapse of the entire Subspace. ***