Chapter 102: His Ritual’s Last Chance

St. Sophia Sanatorium burned in the distance as Lucian gathered thirty-one survivors near the muddy banks of the river.

The escaped prisoners stared at the fire destroying their personal hell.

Lara walked among them.

She used her basic healing magic to treat their worst burns and cuts.

She cried silently while she worked but she didn’t stop moving her hands, pushing herself to the limit.

Raziel left them behind.

He walked deeper into the dark trees with Mirael.

He carried the Oracle on his back until they reached an isolated clearing surrounded by thick bushes.

He needed distance from the others.

He didn’t want to hurt Lucian or Lara if something went wrong and his body exploded.

He set Mirael down gently on the cold dirt.

Mirael leaned her back against a wide tree trunk.

Raziel had absorbed her golden blood back in the cell to stop his core from detonating.

That quick action saved his life, but it was only a temporary fix.

The gold and black energies clashed continuously inside his chest right now.

He needed to perform the actual Purification Ritual to bind the forces together permanently.

“We need to finish it,” Raziel told her.

He used his bare hands to clear away the dead leaves and small branches until he reached the damp soil underneath.

Mirael nodded weakly. “Do it quickly.”

Raziel took her hand.

He squeezed it gently and a few drops of her golden blood fell onto the dark soil.

Raziel used his index finger to trace the ancient runes in the dirt.

He drew a perfect circle and he filled the inside with the required geometric symbols.

He didn’t have the pure light crystals mentioned in the forbidden text but his Umbral Paragon class provided the necessary power to substitute them.

He placed his hands flat on the completed circle.

The runes glowed immediately.

VMMMM!

The energy traveled through Raziel’s arms and slammed directly into his chest.

The ritual forced the anomaly and the holy grace to fuse.

The Shadow Parasite stopped resisting the light.

The two opposing forces melted together and they formed a new solid core in the center of his spirit.

Raziel gasped and dropped his hands to his sides.

The light on the ground died out and left only scorched earth behind.

[SYSTEM UPDATE]

[UMBRAL PARAGON STABILIZED]

[Available Skills: Corrupted Light (offensive), Devour Artifacts (parasite), Shadow Echo (perception), Umbral Shield (defense)]

[Permanent Cost: -1% Empathy per major use]

[Current Empathy: 85%]

Raziel read the permanent cost again.

Every single time he used his new power to fight or defend himself he would lose his humanity.

He would become more distant from the people around him.

If his empathy reached zero he wouldn’t care about anyone, he wouldn’t feel sadness if Lucian died in battle, he wouldn’t feel anger if Lara suffered, he would view every human being as an object to be used and discarded.

He would become exactly what Zion was.

A monster playing a game without any regard for the lives she destroyed.

Raziel felt genuine fear for the first time since his transformation in the cell.

He gained the power to fight Saint-Level Exorcists but the ammunition was his own capacity to love and care.

Eighty-five percent meant he had eighty-five major uses of his skills before he turned into a complete sociopath.

Mirael observed him from the base of the tree.

“Power always collects.” Her voice was weak. “The Church collects in blood and your new form collects in humanity.”

She could see the exact nature of his curse through her prophetic sight.

She knew what the interface said without reading it.

Raziel wiped the ritual blood from his hands using the wet grass.

He looked at the dark permanent veins of umbral energy running under his skin.

“How much do I have left?”

Mirael tilted her head.”Enough If you are careful.”

She paused. “Will you be?”

Raziel couldn’t promise that to her.

He had a brutal war to fight against the Church and against Seraphina’s cult.

Eventually he had to fight against Zion.

Wars required power and he would have to spend his empathy to keep his friends alive.

He just stared at the dirt and accepted his inevitable decay.

Mirael closed her eyes, she rested her head against the rough bark of the tree.

Suddenly her body went completely rigid.

Her hands curled into tight claws and her jaw locked, her back arched away from the tree trunk.

Raziel stood up quickly and took a step toward her.

He thought she was having a seizure from the extreme blood loss.

Her mouth opened.

When she spoke her voice changed completely.

It wasn’t just Mirael speaking anymore, it was a thousand different voices talking at the exact same time.

The sound vibrated in the cold air, it was an involuntary prophetic trance.

“The Architect awakens.”

Raziel stopped moving.

“The game was designed and two Players were planted. One to destroy. One to rebuild. If they meet before the Forge opens the cycle breaks.”

The voices paused and the forest went completely silent.

“If not everything resets. Forever.”

Mirael collapsed forward.

The prophetic trance ended and it drained the last bit of her energy.

Raziel caught her before her face hit the dirt.

She was completely unconscious and her breathing was very shallow.

Raziel held her small body in his arms, while processing the words of the prophecy.

’The Architect.’

He remembered the terrifying formless shadow manipulating Zion in the vision from the cell.

The game was rigged and two Players were planted in this world on purpose.

Zion was the destroyer and shadow was the rebuilder.

They were two sides of the same sick coin and they had to meet to break the time loop.

But the most important part of the prophecy was the location.

The Heart of the Forge.

Exarch Caelum was looking for it in the capital and he wanted to use it to gain power, but Raziel needed it to survive.

He looked up at the sky through the branches of the trees then adjusted Mirael on his back.

He turned around and walked back toward the river where Lucian and Lara waited.

’The time for hiding is over.’

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