Chapter 139: His Spy’s Dilemma

Zorya’s words hung in the East Basement while the silver runes faded.

You have to give up a piece of yourself to forge a permanent bond.

Raziel stared at the blank wall and felt the weight of that warning.

He had already sacrificed a massive chunk of his humanity to the Shadow Parasite, and he operated on seventy-three percent empathy right now.

He had very little left to burn before the cold numbness consumed his mind.

He had to clear the board of active enemies before he even thought about taking the third trial.

CLACK.

The iron bolt of the workshop door slid back.

Lucian stepped into the basement and closed the metal door behind him.

He just finished scouting the upper corridors to make sure the night guards stayed away from their hidden base.

“The perimeter is clear,” Lucian announced. “What did the walls say today?”

“They told us the third trial demands a sacrifice,” Raziel answered.

He turned his back to the wall and walked over to the large table.

A single drop of silver liquid rested on a small stone slate right in the center of the wood.

Zorya spent every single night since the Ascension Tournament analyzing the magic inside that tiny sample, because they kept it when Lucian robbed the infirmary to forge the fake vial for Angelina.

Zorya dropped her charcoal pencil and pointed at the silver drop.

“I finally decoded the base component,” Zorya stated and looked at the two boys.

“It is not an automated command sequence designed to open locks. It contains human blood.”

Raziel leaned his hands on the edge of the wood. “Whose blood?”

“The Oracle.”

Zorya opened her messy notebook and pointed at a complex geometric diagram to explain her findings.

She revealed the liquid was Concentrated Gift Essence extracted from Mirael back at the St. Sophia Sanatorium.

Mother Celestine drained the blind girl for years to create a master key, and the silver liquid injected unfiltered prophecy straight into the user’s brain.

Raziel processed the information and his tactical mind calculated the disaster.

If Angelina delivered the real vial to Seraphina, the cult leader would gain temporary future sight.

Seraphina would see every single move Raziel planned to make, and she would anticipate their attacks before they even drew their weapons.

Lucian let out a short laugh and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Good thing we gave her a glass full of dirty mana water and a tracking rune,” Lucian said. “If that crazy witch gets future sight, we are all dead.”

Raziel stared at the silver drop on the slate.

“Angelina picked up the fake vial from the western gargoyle a week ago,” Raziel looked at Lucian.

“We are waiting for her to break the glass to cast her spell so the Umbral tracking rune triggers, and then we find her hideout. But we missed the most important detail of this entire operation.”

Lucian uncrossed his arms. “What detail?”

“Angelina is a burned spy hiding in the woods,” Raziel explained.

“She has absolutely zero access to this academy. How did she know the surviving Sisters brought that exact vial from St. Sophia, and how did she know they locked it inside the main medicine cabinet?”

Lucian tightened his jaw. “She has a mole.”

“Exactly,” Raziel nodded. “Someone inside the academy reads the internal inventory logs and sends her messages.”

Raziel knew he needed to find the leak right now.

He walked to the center of the workshop and sat down, placing his bare hands flat against the bricks.

He channeled his Umbral core and pushed the dark energy straight into the floor while activating his perception skill at the exact same time.

[SKILL ACTIVATED: SHADOW ECHO]

He pushed the echo straight down into the ancient silver runes and used the academy’s massive magical network to amplify his range across the entire institution.

He searched the walls and the floors for the specific emotional signature of conspiracy and deceit.

VMMMM!

The stone vibrated under his palms and the building answered his request.

The foundation fed the geographical data directly into his brain in a matter of seconds.

Raziel opened his eyes and stood up to dust off his trousers.

“I found two signatures,” Raziel looked at his friends. “One is sitting in the administrative wing on the third floor, and that is Father Marius.”

“Where is the other one?” Lucian asked and his hand dropped back to the hilt of his dagger.

“The first-year novice dormitories.”

***

Raziel and Lucian left the basement and walked through the dark corridors of St. Celeste.

The midnight bells had already rung, so the hallways were completely empty.

Lucian activated his Stealth Gift to drop his mana signature to zero, while Raziel kept his footsteps quiet and followed the invisible noble toward the residential wing.

They reached the heavy wooden door of the third-year dormitories and Raziel pushed it open to step inside the long hallway.

He tracked the residual pulse of the conspiracy and walked past a dozen sleeping novices until he stopped right in front of room number fourteen.

He recognized the name carved into the small wooden plaque on the door.

Oswyn.

It was the fanatic Orator from Team Seven.

“Oswyn,” Lucian whispered right next to Raziel. “He plays the perfect loyal dog for the director.”

“He plays the dog for two different masters,” Raziel corrected him.

Raziel did not bother knocking.

BAM!

The heavy wood hit the stone wall and bounced back.

Oswyn sat on his small bed in the pitch-black room, but he did not hold a holy book and he did not pray to Zhalyr.

He held a jagged, blood-red communication crystal in his right hand.

The magical artifact pulsed with a dark light and illuminated his face.

Oswyn jumped and dropped the crystal onto his wool blanket, scrambling backward until his spine hit the headboard with a loud thud.

His chest heaved and he gasped for air while staring at the intruders.

Raziel walked into the room and closed the door behind him to muffle the noise.

He looked at the glowing red crystal and then looked at the scared novice.

Lucian dropped his stealth and materialized right next to the bed.

He drew his practice dagger and pressed the blunt iron edge directly against Oswyn’s throat.

“Give me one good reason not to break your jaw right now,” Lucian demanded with a lethal edge in his voice.

Oswyn trembled and raised his empty hands in the air.

“I had no choice!” Oswyn yelled in a panicked, broken whisper. “She forced me to do it!”

Raziel stepped closer to the foot of the bed and crossed his arms.

“Angelina forced you to read the infirmary logs and send her the location of the silver vial.”

Oswyn swallowed hard, and the sharp edge of Lucian’s dagger pressed against his skin to leave a small red mark on his neck.

“Yes,” Oswyn confessed while tears welled up in his eyes.

“She intercepted me in the capital during the summer break. She poisoned me and she gave me the antidote to survive the night, but she kept the actual formula. She said I have to send her weekly reports or my organs will rot from the inside out and I will die.”

Raziel processed the information.

Angelina secured a constant flow of internal intelligence using basic extortion and a slow-acting poison.

Oswyn was a coward who lacked any real conviction, so he broke under the pressure and betrayed the academy to save his own miserable life.

“When was your last report?” Raziel asked.

“Ten minutes ago,” Oswyn pointed a shaking finger at the red crystal resting on the blanket.

“She just contacted me to ask for an update on the Inquisition patrols because she wants to move camps tonight.”

Raziel looked at the red crystal, and his eyes locked onto the dark light.

The artifact maintained an open magical connection to Angelina’s current location, waiting for Oswyn to send his reply.

Raziel turned his head and looked at Lucian.

“We do not have to wait for her to break the fake vial anymore,” Raziel stated.

He reached down and picked up the red crystal from the bed.

The dark magic hummed against his palm.

He possessed Soul Resonance and he mastered Architectural Inscription, so he knew exactly how to trace an open magical connection straight back to its source.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep