Chapter 104: His Return to Hell

Raziel, Lucian, and Lara arrived at the outskirts of the capital just before dawn.

The journey from the ruined sanatorium took them almost three weeks on foot.

They walked through the night to avoid the main patrols.

They hid in barns and abandoned caves during the day.

The Inquisitors scoured the countryside looking for any survivors of the St. Sophia fire.

Mirael survived the extreme blood loss.

The Purification Ritual stabilized her failing body just enough to keep her breathing.

Raziel carried her most of the way, felt the new umbral energy in his veins and gave him endless physical stamina and didn’t feel tired because of the weight of the Oracle on his back.

He realized this was the first symptom of his decreasing humanity, his body acted efficiently while his emotions stayed numb.

They reached a small abandoned farmhouse hidden behind a thick patch of trees near the eastern wall of the capital.

Paladin Kiera waited for them inside.

She wore plain clothes instead of her silver armor to avoid unwanted attention.

Odessa had arranged this safe house before heading back to report to Prince Aerion.

Raziel set Mirael down on a wooden cot in the corner of the room while Kiera checked her pulse and covered her with a blanket.

“She is stable,” Kiera looked at Raziel with a serious expression.

“Keep her hidden,” Raziel instructed. “The Inquisition will search every corner of the capital for her if they find out she escaped the fire, she is the only living Oracle left in Phaedra.”

Kiera nodded and crossed her arms. “I will protect her but you three need to get back to the academy right now.”

Raziel turned to Lucian and Lara and they looked completely exhausted and their clothes were covered in dried mud and gray soot.

Lara had dark circles under her eyes from overusing her empathic gift to avoid the patrols.

Raziel didn’t look much better on the outside and knew they couldn’t just walk through the front gates of St. Celeste without a solid explanation.

“We need to clean up and we need to get our story straight before we face Marius.”

Lucian wiped his dirty face with his sleeve. “A story? He sent us there with Sister Elena and now St. Sophia is a pile of ash and Elena is missing. Father Marius is going to execute us on the spot for destroying his operation.”

Raziel reached into his pocket and pulled out the golden pass. Exarch Caelum gave it to him back in the study.

“We are not going to be executed,” Raziel said. “We were on a classified assignment.”

Lara looked at the golden pass. “What do you mean?”

“Exarch Caelum gave me this pass for unrestricted access,” Raziel explained. “We are going to tell Marius that Caelum ordered us to evaluate St. Sophia in secret. We found heresy and we burned it down under the Exarch’s direct authority.”

Lucian frowned. “Marius is not stupid and knows we ruined his factory. He will ask Caelum directly to verify that claim.”

“I want him to ask Caelum,” Raziel replied. “He wants the Heart of the Forge, needs me alive and inside the academy to find it for him. If Marius tries to kill me, Caelum loses his best tracker. The Exarch will confirm our lie because it benefits him.”

***

They washed their faces and hands at the farmhouse well, dusted off their novice robes and walked toward the capital gates.

They mingled with the early morning merchants and entered the city without any trouble, navigated the busy streets and headed straight for St. Celeste.

The sun was fully up when they reached the academy and the massive iron gates were open.

Father Marius stood right in the middle of the entrance leaning on his cane.

His face was pale and his eyes were full of pure anger waiting specifically for them while a dozen armed academy guards stood behind him.

Raziel stopped walking, Lucian and Lara stopped right behind him.

Marius tapped his cane against the cobblestones.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

“Three weeks,” Marius said. “Three weeks since you left for St. Sophia and now the sanatorium is ashes. You return without Sister Elena and you return without a report.”

Raziel kept his face perfectly neutral, walked forward and stopped two feet away from the director. “We had orders, Father,”

Marius gripped his cane tighter. “Do not lie to me, novice. You destroyed a sacred institution, murdered a Sister of the Church and I am going to hand you over to the executioners right now.”

Raziel reached into his robe.

He pulled out a rolled piece of parchment.

He had written a formal report during their journey back.

He pressed the golden pass into the hot wax to create an official seal and handed the scroll to Marius.

Marius snatched the parchment, broke the seal and read the text.

He saw the imprint of the golden pass at the bottom.

“Exarch Caelum ordered us to conduct a private audit of the St. Sophia Sanatorium,” Raziel said loudly so the nearby guards could hear.

“We found severe heresy and unauthorized blood magic inside the facility, and purged the corruption by fire under the Exarch’s direct authority. Sister Elena was part of the cult and she perished in the flames.”

Marius read the text again while knowing it was a lie.

He knew Raziel had somehow destroyed the sanatorium and ruined his entire operation but the golden seal was absolutely real.

Marius could not punish them without directly challenging an Exarch.

He needed his position in the academy to maintain his power.

Marius crumpled the parchment in his fist.

“Caelum,” Marius spat the name. “That bastard.”

He looked up and glared at Raziel.

“This is not over, novice.”

Marius turned around and walked away.

He dragged his injured leg and hit his cane hard against the ground with every step and the guards followed him back into the main building.

Lucian exhaled loudly. “I cannot believe that actually worked.”

“It worked for today,” Raziel said. “Go to your rooms and sleep. We have a lot of work to do tomorrow.”

Raziel walked through the familiar halls of St. Celeste while the other novices stared at him but he ignored them.

He reached his isolated room in the old wing, opened the door and locked it behind him.

Raziel dropped his bag on the floor, took off his dirty boots and sat on the edge of his small bed.

He finally had a moment to rest, the umbral energy settled quietly in his core and didn’t feel the shadow parasite eating him anymore.

He closed his eyes.

The blue interface flashed immediately in his vision.

It didn’t show the usual status updates.

It showed a massive backlog of notifications.

The System had been trying to warn him for days while his magic was suppressed in the dungeon.

[CURRENT TIMELINE UPDATED]

[Prince Ayres’s Coup d’etat: Originally estimated in 4 years]

[New estimate: 11 months]

[Cause: Intervention of Seraphina + Corruption of Ayres + Ecclesiastical instability]

[CONNECTED EVENT: The Liberator attacks the southern borders. This action diverts Crown troops away from the capital.]

Raziel stared at the numbers and read the new estimate three times.

The timeline was completely broken.

Seraphina had accelerated her plans because he destroyed her factory.

Ayres was already corrupted and ready to take the throne.

Zion appeared earlier and was destroying the southern armies and pulling the King’s defenses away from the city.

Everything was happening at the exact same time.

He didn’t have four years anymore, he had just eleven months.

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