Chapter 152: His Fourth Chamber

Raziel stood in the center of the East Basement and stared at the heavy bronze map resting on the wooden table.

The first three markers glowed with a permanent silver light.

He owned Architectural Inscription.

He mastered Soul Resonance.

He secured Bond Forging.

He needed to secure the fourth weapon right now.

He tapped his finger against the fourth marker on the metal plate.

The blueprint indicated the physical chamber sat hidden inside the restricted archives of the main library on the second floor.

Raziel knew the physical room did not matter anymore.

The chambers operated as mirrors and examples, not classrooms.

He learned the first three Gifts through direct human and architectural connections, not by reading dusty books in a cellar.

He needed to figure out the exact psychological trigger for the fourth.

He opened a heavy leather-bound book he pulled from the underground library.

He read the uncensored description of the fourth Forbidden Gift.

Chronoperception.

The text explained the discipline did not function like Mirael’s divine prophecy.

Oracles received spontaneous visions from the gods and suffered massive physical deterioration from the backlash.

Chronoperception operated on pure, cold mathematics.

The user read the residual mana echoes left on physical objects and calculated the probable futures based on that exact data.

It was the most intellectual and analytical Gift of the six.

Raziel closed the heavy book.

He analyzed the pattern of his previous trials.

Architectural Inscription required him to communicate with a non-human consciousness.

Soul Resonance demanded a connection with a broken human mind.

Bond Forging forced him to drop his masks and share honesty with Zorya.

If the Gifts tested relationships and emotional states, Chronoperception demanded an experience related to time.

Raziel leaned his hands on the edge of the wooden table.

He carried an entire deleted timeline inside his head.

He remembered the blood on the cathedral floor.

He remembered the heat of the burning capital.

He remembered Zion’s black sword cutting through his ribs.

He used those memories every single day.

The trauma fueled his paranoia.

The fear of dying forced him to train until his knuckles bled and manipulate everyone around him to survive.

But he never processed the death.

Every time he thought about the Player, his chest tightened and his stomach dropped.

The previous cycle remained a massive, open wound in his mind.

He used it as dirty fuel, but he never accepted it as a lesson.

He viewed his murder as the defining moment of his existence instead of just something that happened to him.

To tame Chronoperception, Raziel needed to do the one thing he feared more than fighting an Inquisitor.

He needed to look his own death right in the eyes and let it go.

Footsteps echoed across the stone floor of the workshop.

Caius walked out of the dark corner.

He stopped next to the wooden table and looked at the glowing bronze map.

“You found the trigger for the fourth Gift,” Caius stated.

“Chronoperception,” Raziel answered and did not look up from the metal plate. “I need to face my past.”

Caius tilted his head slightly. “Your previous cycle?”

“Yes.”

“Do you want to do it?” Caius asked.

Raziel thought about the Void Slash and the mechanical voice of the System announcing his failure.

He operated on seventy percent empathy, but the terror of that specific memory bypassed the numbness and hit his core directly.

“No,” Raziel replied.

“Are you going to do it?”

“Yes.”

Caius pulled up a wooden stool and sat down.

He stared at the silver runes glowing on the brick walls.

“The Nine designed these Gifts as tests of character, not tests of raw power,” Caius explained. “Every single discipline demands something you do not want to give.”

Raziel looked at the transfer novice. “And the seventh?”

Caius turned his head and met Raziel’s gaze.

“The seventh will demand everything.”

Raziel absorbed the warning.

He left the East Basement and walked up the dark stone stairs to the ground floor.

The midnight bells rang across the academy courtyards. He needed to prepare for the psychological dive.

He found Lara sitting alone in the abandoned storage room near the old armory.

She sat cross-legged on a dusty wool blanket and practiced expanding her empathic perception range.

Raziel explained the mechanics of his plan to her.

He did not need to break into the second-floor library to find the physical chamber.

He already possessed Soul Resonance, so he planned to turn the connection inward.

He wanted to use the second Gift to establish a direct link with his own sealed memories from the previous timeline.

Lara opened her eyes and stood up from the blanket.

“You cannot do that,” Lara warned him.

“Soul Resonance connects two separate consciousnesses. If you use it on yourself, you create a closed feedback loop. You will trap your mind inside your own trauma and the pressure will destroy your mental stability.”

Raziel looked at her hand resting on his sleeve.

“I do not have a choice,” Raziel stated.

“I need the fourth weapon to predict Mordecai’s tactical movements before he arrives in six weeks. I have to break the seal on those memories.”

Lara stared at him and searched his face for any sign of hesitation.

“If the loop breaks your mind, I cannot pull you out,” Lara said.

“I know.”

Raziel left the storage room and returned to the East Basement.

He did not want Lucian or Zorya interrupting the process.

He needed absolute silence and total isolation for the auto-resonance.

He walked to the center of the room and sat cross-legged on the cold stone floor.

The silver runes of the Primordial Pantheon hummed with a low, steady vibration around him.

The Academy watched him prepare for the trial.

Raziel closed his eyes.

He raised his hands and placed his scarred palms directly over his own chest.

He felt the steady rhythm of his heart beating against his ribs.

He felt the gold Paragon light and the black Shadow Parasite twisting together inside his core.

He pushed past the magic and targeted the deep, locked vault of his own consciousness.

He activated Soul Resonance and forced the connection inward.

VMMMM!

A violent shockwave of pure psychological pressure hit the inside of his skull.

The feedback loop established itself immediately.

The noise of a thousand shattered memories screamed in his ears.

[WARNING: AUTO-RESONANCE INITIATED]

[MENTAL STABILITY: 45%]

[CRITICAL ALERT: IF STABILITY DROPS BELOW 20%, PERMANENT COGNITIVE DAMAGE WILL OCCUR.]

[CONTINUE OPERATION?]

Raziel gritted his teeth and tasted blood in his mouth.

He stared at the red warning screens floating in the dark of his own mind.

He made his choice.

Continue.

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