Chapter 156: His Bleeding Anchor

Raziel sat on the cold stone floor of the East Basement and stared at the heavy bronze map.

He secured four of the six Forbidden Gifts.

He mastered Architectural Inscription, Soul Resonance, Bond Forging, and Chronoperception.

He had less than three weeks before Elector Mordecai arrived with the sealing team and the Oracle in chains.

He needed the fifth weapon right now.

He tapped his scarred finger against the fifth marker on the metal plate.

Anchor Blood.

He opened the restricted taxonomy book and read the uncensored description.

Anchor Blood allowed the user to burn their own physical blood as a highly volatile fuel source.

It amplified the power output of other spells or sealed massive threats away.

It was the most dangerous and self-destructive Gift of the six because it literally required the user to bleed to cast the magic.

Raziel analyzed the learning pattern.

The Gifts demanded specific relational experiences to unlock the power.

Architectural Inscription required communication with a non-human consciousness.

Soul Resonance required a connection with a broken mind.

Bond Forging required absolute honesty.

Chronoperception required facing the trauma of his own past.

Anchor Blood demanded a physical sacrifice.

He needed to give up a piece of himself to protect someone else.

He pulled out his iron practice dagger and dragged the sharp edge across his left palm.

SHIING.

Red blood welled up and dripped onto the stone floor.

Raziel channeled his Umbral Paragon core and pushed the dark energy into the fresh wound.

He tried to force the magic to ignite the spilled blood.

FZZT!

The dark mana sparked and died. The blood remained normal liquid on the bricks.

Raziel wiped his hand on his tunic and let out a hard breath.

He operated on seventy percent empathy. His logical brain understood the failure immediately.

You cannot fake a sacrifice to trick the ancient magic.

Cutting your own hand in an empty basement carried zero emotional weight and zero actual stakes.

The sacrifice had to be real.

The midnight bell rang across the academy courtyards.

A sudden, sharp spike of pure terror hit Raziel’s mind. T.

He gasped and grabbed the edge of the wooden table.

The panic traveled through the permanent tether he forged with Zorya.

He felt her existential presence through the third Gift, and he knew exactly where she stood in physical space.

She was not in her dormitory bed. She stood on the ground floor of the residential wing.

She stepped right on top of Father Marius’s invisible tracking seal.

Raziel sprinted out of the East Basement and ran up the dark stone stairs.

He bypassed the main cloister and headed straight for the administrative wing.

He felt Zorya’s terror spiking higher through the bond. Marius caught her in the hallway.

Raziel reached the third floor and stopped outside the director’s mahogany door.

He pressed his back against the cold stone wall and closed his eyes.

He placed his hand flat against the wood and activated Chronoperception.

He read the residual mana echoes on the door handle and calculated the probable futures for the next ten minutes.

The vision hit his brain with blurry, fragmented images.

He saw Marius dragging Zorya into the office.

He saw the director interrogating her about the underground workshop.

He saw Zorya refusing to speak.

He saw Marius losing his patience and writing a formal transfer order.

The director planned to hand the girl over to the local Inquisition detachment in the city for advanced interrogation.

The vision ended.

Raziel opened his eyes and processed the math.

If the Inquisition took Zorya, they would put her in a real cell.

They possessed methods that broke anyone, and she would confess everything about the ancient runes, the Umbral Paragon, and the Time Loop.

Raziel made his choice.

He dropped his mental barriers and pushed his own cold determination through the bond to calm her down.

He grabbed the brass handle and opened the heavy door.

Marius stood behind his desk and gripped his dark wooden cane.

Zorya sat in a hard wooden chair in the center of the room.

She looked pale and her hands shook in her lap.

“Novice Raziel,” Marius stated. “You are out of bed past curfew.”

“I am the reason she is out of bed,” Raziel answered.

He stepped into the office and closed the door behind him.

He presented himself as the sole responsible party.

“I ordered her to go down to the basement,” Raziel lied.

“I needed her translation notes for the upcoming theology exam. She did not want to break curfew, but I forced her.”

Marius stared at him. The director narrowed his eyes and tapped his cane against the floorboards.

“You take the blame for her actions?” Marius asked.

“I am the one who broke the rules,” Raziel replied. “She is innocent.”

Marius let out a dry laugh. “Do you offer yourself in her place?”

“Yes.”

Marius accepted the trade immediately.

The director did not care about justice or truth.

He just needed a body to punish to maintain his authority before the Elector arrived.

He dismissed Zorya and sent her back to the dormitories.

She looked at Raziel as she walked out of the office.

Her eyes showed gratitude and guilt, but Raziel nodded once to tell her the sacrifice was necessary.

“Three days of isolation in the penitence wing,”

Marius ordered and pointed his cane at the door.

“No full meals. No visitors. No light.”

Guards escorted Raziel to the lowest level of the administrative building.

They shoved him inside a small stone cell and slammed the heavy iron door shut.

The lock clicked into place and total darkness consumed the room.

The penitence cell smelled of mold and old urine while the air felt freezing cold.

Raziel sat down on the hard stone floor and leaned his back against the wall.

He had no food and no light.

He just lost three vital days of training time right before the biggest war of his life.

The sacrifice was not heroic or glorious.

He chose the pain and the isolation to protect his asset and keep his secrets safe.

He sat in the dark for hours.

The hunger started to gnaw at his stomach.

A sudden, intense heat ignited inside his veins.

The physical temperature of his blood spiked.

He felt the liquid pumping through his arteries like boiling water.

The veins on his wrists flared with blinding gold and black light for a fraction of a second, illuminating the dark cell.

The blue interface exploded in his vision.

[GIFT MASTERED: ANCHOR BLOOD — LEVEL 1]

[DESCRIPTION: You can burn your own physical blood as a catalyst to temporarily amplify any other Gift by 3x.]

[COST: Proportional physical weakening based on the volume of blood consumed.]

[SAFE LIMIT: 200ml per use.]

[GIFTS MASTERED: 5/6]

Raziel read the red text and dismissed the screens.

He secured five of the six weapons.

The ancient magic recognized a genuine, selfless sacrifice and granted him the power.

Heavy footsteps echoed in the corridor outside his cell.

Father Marius stopped in front of the iron door.

He just stood in the dark hallway to deliver a final warning.

“Three days, novice,” Marius stated through the small metal grate.

Raziel sat in the pitch-black cell and stared at the door.

“Father,” Raziel called out.

Marius stopped walking away.

“The Inquisition?” Raziel asked. “You planned to call the Inquisition for a novice who walked down a hallway past curfew?”

Marius did not answer.

“Do not question my methods,” the director finally replied.

“I do not question your methods,” Raziel countered. “I question your fear.”

Marius gripped his wooden cane tight. “My fear?”

“You are terrified of what sleeps underneath this academy,” Raziel stated.

“You have been terrified since the day you arrived and the fear turned you into exactly what you promised not to be when you took your holy vows.”

The metal grate slammed shut with a loud crash.

Marius walked away and left him in the dark.

Raziel closed his eyes and leaned his head against the cold stone wall.

A sudden, sharp emotion hit his mind through the permanent bond.

The feeling came directly from Zorya in her dormitory bed.

She projected determination.

Zorya made a massive decision while he sacrificed his time for her.

Raziel felt her thoughts translate through the tether.

She wanted him to break the suppression seal on her arm.

She did not want to wait for the world to become a safe place.

She wanted it gone right now.

Elector Mordecai arrived in three weeks with the Silencer artifact, and she needed her full power to build the shield.

Raziel remembered the fragment of her mother’s soul trapped inside the black ink.

’I will carry her in my heart instead of on my skin,’ Zorya projected through the bond. ’Take it off when you get out, Raziel. I am ready.’

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