The Mysteries of Runes

Watching Orianna's retreating figure disappear, Katarina, standing behind Ryan, suddenly spoke:

"Sir, I don't think she is worth your personal intervention."

Ryan could see the defiance on Katarina's face and understood her thoughts well. The girl named Orianna might not even have been as old as her. He smiled and asked:

"Katarina, what do you think is most necessary for Machine Ascension?"

"Exceptional knowledge and an unyielding will," Katarina answered without hesitation.

A few days earlier, she had witnessed Viktor implant a Hex Gemstone into his body. The energy released by the gemstone wantonly ravaged his flesh, provoking the Shimmer in his body to resist.

His flesh was continuously destroyed, exposing the white bones beneath. Yet it was quickly rebuilt under Shimmer's regulation.

Destruction, reconstruction.

Destruction without end, reconstruction without end.

Until the final reconstruction, Viktor's body had even lost its crimson color. Shimmer's purple and the Hex Gemstone's blue had replaced his flesh.

Purple flesh, blue veins—he no longer looked human at all.

Katarina could hardly imagine the agony Viktor had endured. Throughout the entire ritual, he had kept smiling. There had been no cries of pain, not even the slightest hint of suffering on his face—only deep anticipation.

Viktor's composure alone had earned her admiration.

After the ritual ended, his strength had leaped beyond hers, yet she had unusually felt not a trace of jealousy, only wholehearted approval.

Ryan had warned them before the ritual began: if Viktor could not maintain his consciousness, once his flesh was destroyed, it would never regenerate. It had been a contest between willpower and the Hex Gemstone.

In the end, Viktor had succeeded, becoming the only human to use a Hex Gemstone to rebuild his body.

"You think that girl lacks such qualities?"

Ryan rose to his feet and walked over to the device that had begun to take the shape of a Hextech weapon.

Gentle currents of water swept aside the prosthetic limbs and dolls covering it, revealing the buried mechanical iron sphere.

"Her knowledge falls far short of Viktor's. Viktor could have found a way to perform a heart transplant without relying on any gemstone. As for her will, I don't see anything exceptional about it."

Katarina spoke bluntly. She could see that Orianna wanted to save her father, but she had not seen the corresponding capability.

Orianna was like a gambler on the verge of collapse, placing herself on the table as a wager, desperate to win a way to save her father.

"You only saw half of it. Orianna placed her consciousness and knowledge here. In truth, she made her choice long ago."

Ryan's hand brushed over the mechanical iron sphere. Hundreds of droplets floated down through the air and slipped into the sphere through its seams.

A thin Water Mirror unfolded before him, displaying the interior of the sphere.

At the very center of the iron sphere, an azure radiance enveloped a mass of pulsating flesh. That pulsating mass of flesh was unmistakably a living heart.

"This is...?"

Katarina's eyes narrowed as surprise appeared on her face.

"Orianna's heart."

Her heart was here, which meant...

Katarina felt a chill run through her entire body, and her gaze instinctively turned toward the direction Orianna had left.

That little girl... had replaced her own heart with a Hex Crystal long ago?

And she had succeeded!?

"What kind of joke is this? Did someone help her?"

She still remembered Ryan's question. Orianna's answer had been that she had done it herself, but Katarina simply could not believe it.

"There are only traces of one person's work. In Runeterra, some people are born with talents that set them apart from ordinary people."

As Ryan spoke, he raised his hands slightly. Countless droplets surged from his palms, flowing across the scattered prosthetic limbs and dolls underground and lifting them one by one.

Soon, a crude operating table surrounded by several dolls appeared in the center. Several prosthetic hands hung in the air from thin threads, with countless strings connected to them.

"This is... the site of the operation? She didn't wield the knife herself—she used dolls to replace her own heart?"

Katarina quickly grasped what had happened, and a flicker of horror flashed through her eyes.

Thousands upon thousands of threads stretched across the air, densely tied to the prosthetic hands holding surgical knives. Most of them had already snapped, held aloft only by the water Ryan controlled.

Looking at the scene before her, she felt ice-cold all over. She could fully picture what had happened then.

Orianna had lain calmly on the operating table. After injecting herself with anesthetic, she had cut the threads at her side in the final second before losing consciousness.

The threads moved the prosthetic hands in the air. The first hand holding a surgical knife cut open her chest. At the same time, the threads guided several other prosthetic hands downward in succession, perfectly removing her heart and replacing it with a Hex Crystal.

The following thousands of threads controlled prosthetic hands to stitch her chest shut, while the final few hundred threads manipulated the dolls to preserve her heart inside the device.

Using tens of thousands of threads to precisely control the movements of several prosthetic hands, accounting for every step and every detail.

Relying solely on herself, she had completed the operation to replace her heart with a Hex Crystal.

Even the slightest movement could have caused her to die on the spot. Yet she had calculated every step, restrained every possible physiological reaction her body might have had during the heart transplant, and completed this magnificent operation.

Such a success could only be called a miracle.

Katarina's contempt vanished from her eyes, leaving behind only profound admiration.

Anyone capable of doing this not only surpassed her by far, but might have been even more astonishing than Viktor.

"She was born with abundant emotions, yet she was also a perfect machine."

Ryan gave his assessment. He bent slightly and placed his hand on the operating table, blue magical light enveloping his palm.

Bzzzz!!!

Suddenly, the water on the ground gathered together, slowly climbing onto the operating table and forming a peculiar symbol before rising into the air.

"What is this?" Katarina asked curiously.

"Runes!"

Ryan uttered the word calmly. His black-and-white eyes fixed upon the peculiar symbol as magic repeatedly reconstructed it countless times within his mind.

He still could not precisely understand the rune's meaning, but as long as he recorded it perfectly, one day he would decipher it.

Or perhaps Orianna would be the key to comprehending this rune.

"Your magic is always astonishing, sir," Katarina praised sincerely.

Water should have been the gentlest element in nature, yet in Ryan's hands, it seemed able to become all things and accomplish anything.

"This does not belong to me. I merely used magic to draw it out. It confirms one of my hypotheses."

Blue magical light flickered in his eyes. The rune gradually moved toward him before finally merging into his body:

"I once had the fortune to discuss the mysteries of runes with a great mage. We agreed that runes are an extension of magic. Only by comprehending more runes can one travel farther down the path of a mage. Every rune represents an entirely new kind of magic. By learning them, we can draw closer to the origin of magic."