Other POV
Wizard Grey stared blankly into the dark abyss beyond the fissuring red cage surrounding him. Perhaps this was his karma, a cruel joke he warranted for one of the callous sins he might've committed in the past.
Many things perhaps warranted his death. But the old Wizard still couldn't sit in this current truth.
"A stupid brat managed to foil one of my strongest spells? What kind of nonsense is that!" He spat venomously through his mouth.
Whichever way he looked at it, his current predicament was nothing short of a disastrous occurrence. Being enslaved by the celestial order in one of their underwater prisons sounded a lot better than this. At least he could uphold some level of dignity in that state.
Wizard Grey understood his best bet was to curry favor from the brat. The boy was clearly in need of a mentor, and his obliviousness to this world's practices, especially concerning Magic, was a helpful reed Wizard Grey could use to slowly make the boy trust him.
"If I can somehow get him fluent enough in Magic. What's to say? I won't have a second chance to capture his body." Just looking around this strange place told the seasoned mage that there was a whole sea of secrets locked inside of this mind, which possibly ran more profound than any mystery he had personally uncovered in the past.
The old Wizard was poised to stand up when he felt something was off.
"Hm? What's that sound?" He reared his head from side to side but saw nothing unusual.
Then he heard the sound of something big collapsing. Wizard Grey rose gingerly and stared into the dark space beyond the cage. He stood there and waited. And then.
"Wh-what in the world…"
With a narrowed gaze, he could barely believe his eyes. The skies were melting away like wax, giving way to a starry purple sky beneath. He could feel the ground beneath him shaking. The entire dark world was dissolving into a thick liquid. The cage itself started to react to the crumbling world, and just like the outdoor darkness, the fissuring red bars vibrated until they cracked and fell into a puddle of red liquid.
Wizard Grey stared at the scene in bewildered shock. After a while, however, a deviant grin pulled against his aged features. He placed both of his hands against his hips and rocked himself back and forth with hearty laughter. He cut quite the striking figure, being only clothed in ragged loincloth.
"The brat's having quite the trouble then. Now then, let's see if I can find my es-es-w-w-w-what is th-th-th-"
The stammering Elder could barely finish his words. Directly above him was a sight he possibly wasn't expecting to see. A large black sphere as large as the sun sat in the strange, discoloured, star-filled skies above. The once black expanse he had spent god knows how long it had completely melted away, and in its place was a vast space with a violet starry sky and a flourishing endless land with a cyan grassland floor.
Wizard Grey could only stare in deep marvel. He had spent way too long in such worlds to not understand what this place was. Only he couldn't quite fathom how on earth this was remotely possible for a brat who hadn't even become an initiate rank.
Before the old Wizard could even think of a possible reason, he heard something swiftly taking his attention elsewhere. As if the overall shock of this world wasn't enough. Wizard Grey could barely stand straight once he locked eyes with the disaster hanging in the skies to the side.
"N-no-no that can't be…wh-what is that doing he-"
Before he could finish his sentence he saw that boy again, staring into the skies with an expression more or less telling of this entire situation. They eventually locked eyes, and a look of deep despair was drawn against the youthful brown face of the boys.
Wizard Grey felt anger in his gut as he stomped his feet towards the youth.
He wanted to throttle him, but he remembered where he was.
If this was as bad as he thought it was. That thing above was a calamity waiting to happen.
"I'm only going to ask you this once brat" He massaged his nose bridge and exhaled deeply.
"Ahem…HOW THE HELL DID YOU BRING AN ANCIENT RUNE HERE!"
Roland POV
Whilst Wizard Grey was barking madly at him, Roland was a little preoccupied with a number of things happening all at the same time.
For starters, countless warning signs from Omega continued flashing in his view as though the system was experiencing some kind of virus attack. At the same time, he could feel his body growing incredibly weak.
And it was very likely because of that huge symbol sitting in the air.
Roland couldn't understand what was going on. The skies above him were breaking apart, and callous, thick tufts of smoke spewed out from his mental sphere like a balloon being deflated. He furrowed his brows in concern, watching sparks of lighting crack around the vast space.
A slight sense of clarity fell upon him. Roland twisted to one side, finally recognising Wizard Grey's loud disgruntlement.
"You foolish brat! Why's there a Rune in the air like that! What the hell have you done? What the hell are you!"
Roland wanted to cover his ears from all the noise, but he wasn't that egotistical to not understand that this was a real problem. He gazed into the air again. Indeed, he was bewildered by what to do about this encroaching disaster.
"I... I didn't do anything?" he said almost distantly; Roland combed through his actions in the last few hours, and he still couldn't pinpoint where he might've gone wrong. All he did was practically stare at the glaring symbol against the page before things turned this way.
With a deep look of confusion, he beheld the furious looking Elder again for help.
Wizard Grey's face contorted a few times, but judging by the deep look of terror each time, he glanced at the Rune above. Even the Elder couldn't keep his show of anger going. The old timer massaged the bridge of his nose for a short while. Soon enough, he exhaled deeply and looked up at the volatile giant Rune above them more carefully.
"Th-that thing...h-how is that even possible. A rune being pulled into a sea of awareness doesn't just happen. There must be intent behind it, and without intent...tsk, brat, talk me through what happened. Step by step. How did you stumble on that thing?"
Without so much as a second thought, Roland obliged and went through exactly what happened prior to this turn of events, other than the time when he admitted to taking a few of Wizard Grey's books back with him. Wizard Grey's expression hardly changed. The Elder was locked into focus, a deep focus, trying to piece together how this was even possible.
"Kid, listen to me carefully. Either you have the worst luck in the world, or the secrets you hold dear to you, run deeper than any lost tomb or ruined cave that has ever existed within this world.
That isn't any regular Rune up there, but an Ancient Rune. I've only met 2 people in my entire life that could understand those things, and understanding might be an understatement, considering none of them could ever use it when casting incantations."
Ancient Rune repeated in his mind a few times. Roland hadn't heard anything like that before. But he did have a tiny understanding of what a Rune was. Countless lines of incantations bundled together to create a sequence of spells that activated either involuntarily or, if certain actions were taken, upon stimuli. Roland scrambled his mind for answers, and the only logical thing he could think of was that, somehow, staring at the symbol activated the Rune. Only he couldn't understand why it appeared in his mind.
"Tsk! You went and read something you weren't supposed to, and now that ancient Rune is going haywire. See that brat, perfect example of dangerous powers left in the wrong hands. Hope you're happy with yourself you little thief."
"Hey! Who thi-this-this isn't my fault...entirely. I didn't know that was going to happen, and why was there a stupid Rune like that in your possession in the first place?" Roland barked back; Wizard Grey pointed fingers at him, and their back and forth grew more heated.
Another shockwave sent Roland's body into a terrible state of unease. He swiftly held his complaints back and stared with deep concern at the sky above him.
"This is bad, really bad. Alright, we can play the blame game later. Tell me what do we do about that thing." Roland asked the Elder, who he only just realised was barely clothed.
A part of Roland could somewhat see the Elder's frustrations. From a simple aesthetic point of view, it looked as though Roland was keeping this man prisoner in terrible conditions.
Wizard Grey stared solemnly at the chaos above. He scratched his forked white beard a few times and remained in deep thought considering things over. Suddenly his lizard-like eyes shot open in a state of realisation
"Oh, that's right, you have exceptional control over your sea of awareness, don't you. Ok brat this is what you're going to do. You need to create the biggest hole you can imagine. And then...your only option is to destroy that thing above us."
Roland's eyes flickered a little upon hearing that. "H-how am I supposed to do -" A loud bang echoed from above; this time, a shockwave erupted and sent Roland flying backwards. The force carried him several meters away until he finally landed against the carpeted ground with a loud thump.
He peeled himself off the ground and gingerly raised his head. The old Wizard's bony frame stood in his view. Wizard Grey had his arms folded, a look of annoyance creased against his wrinkly features.
"You're running out of time kid. That thing will eat away at your mind faster than you realise. So yes, it must be destroyed. And it has to be done now. Get up and start thinking of what you can conjure big enough to stop that thing."
Roland rose to his feet and seemed to be dusting himself free of the tiny blades of grass clinging to him. Before he could relax, the Elder was upon him, prodding his finger at this chest.
"Don't even think about hiding anything from me neither. I think we've both come to that conclusion that secrets are the reason we're in this mess."