Inside the Floating Castle
"I came up with a new rune combination," Syndra said, a rare, beautiful smile forming.
She raised her pale hand and swept it through the air. Runes shimmered into existence before her and Ryan.
"A mix of water and wind?" Ryan analyzed the glowing symbols.
"Water runes usually lean toward unmoving effects, while wind runes tend to be dynamic and free-flowing."
Although they hadn't gathered many water runes, Syndra remained fascinated by their potential.
After a moment of thought, Ryan suggested, "Let's test it in Lab Two. It was just reinforced with third-tier Earth runes. I'll add some magical materials later to see if it can maintain a low-temperature, windless, dust-free environment."
"Sounds good," Syndra replied, satisfied.
She dismissed the runes with a flick, letting them fade from the air.
The floating castle served as their current rune research site.
To build a complete magical system, they had already tested thousands of combinations throughout the castle.
Nearly a thousand runes were inscribed into its walls, floors, and ceilings.
The entire structure was built from Cloud Ink Stone, a rare material known for its superb magical conductivity and limited mana storage capabilities.
Their combined magical energy sustained the castle's levitation and powered hundreds of constant rune formations.
Some formations were designed for single-use spells, while others could be sustained by feeding them magic power.
Most were engraved into the infrastructure—walls, doors, devices—to form long-lasting enchantments.
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In the training hall, Seraphine's rune demonstration was ending.
With a soft smile, she gently raised the stage with a wave.
"And before we finish," she said warmly, "let me share a final song with all of you."
As her voice fell, a melodic and soul-stirring tune filled the room.
The students, listening intently, felt themselves drawn into a vivid illusion.
In that shared dream, each of them experienced the process of creating a rune with their magic.
The illusions were tailored to them—different for every student.
Annie's rune, for example, manifested as "Fire," primal and fierce.
Rell's was "Resilience," sturdy and enduring.
Though none of them had crafted a rune yet, the experience etched deeply into their minds.
It felt real—familiar, even.
Then, the vision ended, fading before completion.
Everyone understood what it meant—this was Seraphine's final lesson: to create their own rune, through effort and understanding.
As the song ended, the illusion faded completely, and the students returned to themselves.
They sat in silence, processing the experience.
Then, in their ways and languages, they thanked Seraphine with genuine reverence.
She smiled gently, waved in farewell, and lifted the stage again, floating gracefully out of the training hall.
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"That went well," Ryan said with a nod, dismissing the floating water mirror he'd been using to observe the class.
Syndra, however, frowned.
"She was too rough with the rune formations. Those two display runes were only stable because we helped her craft them."
She remembered her early training. She could replicate rune structures after seeing them once.
She didn't need fine magical control—just a command to the dark mana within her, and the runes would form on their own.
Ryan chuckled at the memory of her intimidating talent.
"She's still young. Not everyone's born with your... unique advantages."
Seraphine's pace was impressive compared to his clumsy trial-and-error learning back then.
Syndra, though—she was something else entirely.
Since mastering fine control over her magic, she only needed a glance to replicate any rune.
"The improvements must continue. A lot of our current spell models could be made more efficient," Ryan said thoughtfully.
Rune magic was a vast improvement over traditional spellcasting.
In the beginning, casting required deep understanding—not just the meanings of each rune, but the intricate magical circuits within them.
Every connection, every transmission node, had to be clearly understood to avoid miscasting.
But thanks to their innovations, the process had become more structured.
Spells could be cast step-by-step, and many had developed into standardized templates.
New students no longer needed to grasp the full depth of every rune.
They just needed to learn the framework.
Not everyone was destined for greatness, and that was fine.
The system Ryan and Syndra were building wasn't just for prodigies—it was a foundation for the future.
Still, what they had now was just a prototype. The rune models were stable, but far from ideal.
"Those kids might just live up to your hopes," Syndra said softly.
"Maybe the magic of the future will flourish the way you've envisioned—under our guidance."
She stood from her seat and floated gracefully to Kayle's side.
Reaching down, she removed the Petricite Stone from Kayle's chest and replaced it with another identical piece.
The Petricite was harvested from the Petricite Grove near Demacia, from the heart of a rare Petricite Tree.
Despite the name, it didn't block magic—it consumed it.
Once filled with more than half its capacity, the stone began to glow, its hue corresponding to the type of magic it had absorbed.
Left unchecked, it would automatically release the energy, gently dispersing the magic element.
Demacia had long used Petricite to suppress mages.
It was their secret weapon.
Only those with tremendous magical output could overpower the stones, shattering them before their magic was devoured.
Few in all of Runeterra could manage that.
"Petricite can even absorb the magic of a half Celestial like Kayle," Syndra explained, observing the soft golden glow.
"It mimics the appearance of light magic... A single piece can absorb—"
While she described their findings, Ryan moved to the nearby desk and began documenting the results.
At first, Syndra resisted this kind of research—she was used to being the one taking notes and not running the experiments.
But over time, she had come to prefer the role of the discoverer.
Besides, many of their tests used her Dark Orbs as a core medium, and her intimate control over them allowed her to detect subtle magical patterns others might miss. Just like now...
"Extracting power from the Celestials seems to suppress their souls. What's strange is that their energy regenerates faster than we can absorb it."
She raised her hand over Kayle's body, and a Dark Orb slowly emerged.
She could feel an immense flow of mana drawn from it, feeding directly back into her.
"A shame," Ryan said with a small sigh.
"If she didn't have other uses, she'd make a perfect energy core for the floating castle."
"Then let her stay. Worst case, we can always go after Morgana too," Syndra replied calmly.
The ancient energy of spirit willows could only be drained once. After that, they withered.
But Celestials... their power was infinite. Limitless.
And under continuous extraction, Syndra could feel her own magic swelling again—an energy she hadn't felt in ages.
"It's not necessary," Ryan said, shaking his head.
"More magic isn't our goal. What matters now is building a mature, lasting rune system."
He smiled slightly, knowing Syndra's words were more playful than serious.
If she truly cared only about raw power, she would never have given him that rune.