Chapter 143: His Ancient Warden

Even after leaving The East Basement the stone floor still vibrated under Raziel’s boots, shaking the entire first-year dormitory.

RUMBLE!

Dust fell from the ceiling while the wooden bunk beds rattled hard against the brick walls.

Novices woke up in a panic and grabbed their blankets, and a few of them ran straight into the hallway wearing nothing but their sleep tunics.

Father Marius stood at the far end of the corridor leaning his full weight on his dark wooden cane.

Two academy guards stood right behind him with their swords drawn.

“Return to your beds,” Marius ordered with a loud voice.

“These are natural seismic vibrations. The fault lines shift under the mountains, so the academy is safe.”

Raziel stood in the doorway of his room and crossed his arms.

He knew Marius lied through his teeth.

Brother Thomas stood a few feet away from the director and kept his mouth shut.

The healer adjusted his wire glasses and looked down at the floor because he could not contradict the director in public.

Raziel did not care about the politics of the Church right now.

He stepped back into his room to grab his dark cloak, then he walked down the hall and found Lucian.

The noble wore his full uniform and held his practice dagger ready.

They did not speak and just nodded at each other before heading straight for the stairs.

They reached the East Basement ten minutes later and found Zorya and Caius waiting inside the Inscription workshop.

Zorya clutched her canvas bag tight against her chest, while Caius stood in the dark corner staring at the glowing walls.

The ancient silver runes of the Primordial Pantheon flashed in frantic geometric patterns instead of pulsing with their usual steady rhythm.

They screamed a structural emergency.

Raziel walked to the center of the room and dropped to his knees.

He placed his bare hands flat against the cold stone floor, channeled his Umbral Paragon core, and pushed the dark energy deep into the bricks.

He used Architectural Inscription to read the vibrations traveling up through the foundation.

He felt a massive physical weight moving deep underground.

“It is coming from below,” Raziel stated while keeping his hands on the stone to translate the spatial data.

“It is far below the six sealed chambers, and it is moving on Level -5.”

Lucian frowned. “St. Celeste has three basement levels. Level -5 does not exist.”

“It exists now,” Raziel answered and stood up.

The silver runes on the walls shifted into a continuous warning loop because the Academy was terrified.

Caius stepped out of the dark corner and walked over to the stone wall, placing his scarred hand over the flashing silver light.

“Lithos woke up.”

Raziel looked at the transfer novice. “Who is Lithos?”

“The Nine dead gods left guardians in each Pantheon node,” Caius explained while keeping his eyes fixed on the wall.

“They are not simple stone golems. They are constructs of pure will, and the builders created them using fragments of divine consciousness.”

Zorya stepped closer to the table. “I read about constructs in the restricted archives. They require constant mana to function.”

“These do not require constant mana,” Caius corrected her.

“They sleep forever and only wake up when the node faces an existential threat. Elector Mordecai initiated the Silence Protocol, and he plans to pour boiling consecrated lead into the foundation to kill the ancient magic. That is an existential threat.”

Lucian spun his dagger in his hand. “Is Lithos friendly?”

Lucian spun his dagger in his hand. “Is Lithos friendly?”

Caius turned his head and looked at the noble.

“Lithos was created for one single function. Protect the node. It does not distinguish between the Church wanting to seal it and us wanting to use it.”

“So it will kill us,” Lucian said.

“It will destroy us,” Caius answered. “There is a difference.”

Lucian scoffed. “Grammar does not matter right now, Caius. Dead is dead.”

Caius stepped away from the wall with zero emotion in his pale gray eyes. “Destruction is of the body. Death is of the soul. Lithos destroys bodies. The souls…”

Caius paused and looked down at the stone floor. “It absorbs them.”

Raziel processed the information and approached the situation as a pure tactical problem. He crossed his arms and looked at the transfer novice.

“So it eats our souls,” Raziel stated.

Caius nodded. “Yes.”

“Does that slow it down?”

Lucian stared at him in total disbelief. “Are you asking if my soul gives a giant rock indigestion?”

“I am looking for a tactical weakness, Lucian,” Raziel answered without blinking.

“If it eats you and slows down, that gives me three seconds to escape.”

Lucian gripped his dagger tighter. “Remind me to push you first.”

“I will,” Raziel promised. He turned back to the iron door. “We need to leave the basement.”

BOOM!

A massive tremor hit the workshop, and the kinetic force threw Zorya against the wooden table.

Lucian stumbled and dropped his dagger while Raziel grabbed the edge of a stone pillar to stay on his feet.

The sound of tearing rock filled the room.

CRACK!

A deep fissure opened in the center of the brick wall across from the table.

The stone split apart and created a jagged gap two feet wide, and thick dust poured out of the fresh wound in the foundation.

The silver runes on the intact bricks died, and total darkness consumed the workshop.

Raziel stepped toward the fissure.

He ignored the common sense telling him to run away because he needed visual confirmation of the enemy.

He peered through the jagged crack in the stone and looked down into the black abyss of Level -5.

The darkness shifted.

Two massive golden eyes ignited in the deep gloom.

They were not biological eyes.

They were constructed entirely of living, shifting runes.

The golden light cut through the dust and illuminated a colossal face made of jagged bedrock and ancient silver metal.

Lithos looked up at the crack in the wall, and the divine construct locked its gaze on Raziel.

The ground shook again.

THUMP.

The golden eyes moved higher in the dark, and Lithos started climbing.

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