Chapter 119: His Ghost Student

Lara’s discovery about the fake academy changed the entire situation for Raziel.

Father Marius was a paranoid bastard who checked every single paper and verified every ecclesiastical seal before letting anyone step inside St. Celeste.

He interrogated every new novice because he needed absolute control over his territory, but still accepted the new transfer novice Caius without asking a single question?

Raziel watched that transaction from the second-floor cloister days ago and knew something was completely wrong.

Marius simply took the transfer parchment from the boy and pointed toward the dormitories without even checking the wax seal.

Lara investigated the registries yesterday and discovered the Academy of the Fallen Seraph did not exist at all.

Raziel already knew Caius belonged to the Ancient Pantheon somehow because he watched the boy absorb the silver moonlight in the courtyard during his first week.

Caius also sat across from him in the refectory on his very first day and asked if Raziel took his power.

Caius knew Raziel possessed an anomalous core from the very beginning.

Raziel spent the next three days tracking Caius from a distance to gather intelligence before the tournament started.

The new transfer avoided all normal novice activities and never spoke to the other students in the dining hall.

He ate his meals in total silence at an empty table and completely ignored the instructors during theology classes.

Caius spent his free time walking through the oldest corridors of the academy.

He dragged his scarred fingertips along the stone walls and tilted his head to the side to listen to the physical brickwork.

He was searching for the ancient nodes buried in the foundation.

Raziel leaned against a stone pillar in the main courtyard and activated his interface.

He focused his vision directly on Caius while the boy sat on a stone bench reading a heavy book.

Raziel pushed a concentrated pulse of mana into his eyes to force a deeper scan.

[SKILL ACTIVATED: SHADOW ECHO]

The blue text materialized and glitched.

[TARGET ANALYSIS: CAIUS]

[GIFT: ENCRYPTED. UNABLE TO READ DATA.]

[THREAT LEVEL: MEDIUM]

[EMOTIONAL AFFINITY: NEUTRAL]

[NOTE: SUBJECT APPEARS TO BE WAITING FOR SOMETHING.]

Raziel dismissed the interface and rubbed his temples to ease the headache.

Tracking the boy from a distance yielded zero useful information so he decided to force a direct confrontation.

***

Raziel walked into the main library after dinner.

The large room was mostly empty and lit by a few scattered candles burning on the tables.

Caius sat at a desk in the back section and read a heavy volume on ancient history.

He saw Raziel approaching and closed the book.

He rested his scarred hands flat on the wood and waited for Raziel to initiate the contact.

Raziel pulled out the wooden chair across from Caius and sat down.

He kept his expression neutral and relied on his empathy level to keep his heart rate flat and his voice steady.

“Lara checked the ecclesiastical registries today,” Raziel stated.

“The Academy of the Fallen Seraph does not exist and Father Marius accepted your forged transfer papers without doing a single background check.”

Caius looked at him. “Paperwork is very easy to forge when you possess the correct administrative seals.”

Raziel leaned forward and rested his arms on the table.

“You sat at my table on your first day and asked me about my power and I watched you absorb the moonlight in the courtyard that same night. Who sent you?”

Caius opened the history book again and turned a page.

“People who have been waiting a very long time.”

“That is a useless answer.”

“It is the only answer I have permission to give right now,” Caius replied.

Raziel analyzed the boy’s posture.

Caius showed zero signs of physical tension or defensiveness.

He sat completely relaxed and projected a total lack of hostility.

“Are you a threat to me?” Raziel asked.

Caius closed the book again and looked Raziel straight in the eyes.

“No,” Caius said. “I am an investment.”

“Whose investment?”

“The investment of the people who built this world before the Church stole it,” Caius answered.

He paused and let the words settle in the quiet library.

“Does the number nine mean anything to you?” Caius asked.

Raziel kept his face blank and recognized the number.

It represented the Ancient Pantheon and the nine dead gods who originally ruled Phaedra.

Raziel refused to answer the question.

Caius smiled. “It will.”

Caius stood up and grabbed his book to leave.

Raziel stayed seated and processed the conversation.

Caius stopped at the edge of the aisle and turned his head.

“I know what you have inside you,”

Raziel tensed his muscles and prepared to defend himself.

“The light and the darkness,” Caius continued. “The people who sent me call it the Umbral Paragon. It existed exactly one time before five hundred years ago and its carrier tried to close the Forge.”

Caius turned around and met Raziel’s gaze.

“He failed.”

Caius walked out of the library and left Raziel alone.

Raziel waited until the midnight bell rang and the academy went silent.

He walked down the stone stairs to the East Basement and slid the heavy iron bolt of the Inscription workshop open.

The room was illuminated with bright silver light.

Zorya stood in the center of the workshop and clutched her charcoal pencil.

She trembled and stared at the stone wall across from the wooden table.

Raziel stepped inside and closed the door behind him.

The ancient silver runes of the Primordial Pantheon had changed again.

The geometric sequences they had studied that morning were gone, the stones displayed a new message and glowed with an urgent silver light.

“They started writing this ten minutes ago,”

Zorya whispered and pointed a shaking finger at the wall.

Raziel walked closer and read the ancient syntax he had memorized over the last two weeks with Zorya’s help.

The runes translated into clear and direct concepts in his mind.

The Guardian has arrived and the first Key is ready. Learn quickly. The ones who profaned our temple know you woke up and the one who judges is coming.

Raziel read the message twice.

He understood the first part.

The Guardian was Caius.

The boy from the Pantheon faction had arrived to protect their investment and monitor the situation.

The first Key referred to Raziel himself and the Umbral Paragon core fused inside his chest.

The final sentence triggered an alarm in his brain.

“The one who judges?” Raziel asked and looked at Zorya.

Zorya pointed at a blank section of the stone wall near the floor.

Raziel watched the brickwork, a new line of text formed on the stone in real-time.

The silver light burned into the rock and carved the geometric symbols letter by letter.

Raziel translated the runes as they appeared on the stone.

Elector Mordecai arrives at St. Celeste in four days.

Elector Mordecai occupied one of the highest-ranking positions in the entire Church hierarchy.

He sat directly below the High Luminar and controlled the central Inquisition forces.

He commanded absolute authority over the regional Exarchs and possessed the power to execute anyone without a formal trial.

Mordecai was coming to St. Celeste to find the anomaly and purge the heresy from the academy, he was arriving right before the second phase of the Ascension Tournament began.

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