Chapter 158: His Last Don Before the Storm

Zorya finished mapping the final defensive perimeter across the glowing brick walls.

She possessed absolute control over the ancient foundation now, and her eyes tracked the invisible currents of mana running through the stone.

Raziel pulled the heavy bronze map from his tunic and dropped it onto the wooden table.

CLANG.

He secured five of the six Forbidden Gifts.

He owned Architectural Inscription, Soul Resonance, Bond Forging, Chronoperception, and Anchor Blood.

He needed the sixth weapon right now.

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

The Devourer.

The Church banned this specific magic above all others, and they burned every single record of its existence.

It allowed the user to absorb and repurpose the Gifts of other living beings.

It was the literal power to steal magic.

If someone mastered the Devourer, the Exarchs lost their absolute monopoly over divine power, and the entire ecclesiastical hierarchy would collapse.

Raziel crossed his arms and stared at the bronze plate.

He tracked the psychological sequence in his head.

Architectural Inscription required him to speak to the stone.

Soul Resonance required him to connect with a broken mind.

Bond Forging required absolute honesty to build trust.

Chronoperception required facing the trauma of his own death.

Anchor Blood required him to bleed for someone else.

He recognized a clear escalation of vulnerability. The trials forced him to give up his defenses piece by piece.

Raziel gave his time, his secrets, his blood, and his peace of mind. What was left to give?

He paced across the dusty floor.

He mentally flipped the pattern. If the first five Gifts required him to give something away, the final Gift required the exact opposite.

The Devourer literally absorbed power. It took things from others.

To master the Devourer, Raziel needed to receive.

He needed to accept something from someone without calculating the cost, to take a gift without possessing the ability to return the favor.

Raziel stopped pacing and clenched his jaw.

He never received a gift without analyzing the tactical advantage or planning the exact repayment.

The heavy iron door of the workshop scraped open.

Gideon stepped into the dim light of the basement.

The boy wore his standard uniform and thick white bandages wrapped around his wrists, his posture lacked his usual aggressive stance.

He walked over to the wooden table and stopped right in front of Raziel.

“I want to help fight Mordecai,” Gideon stated.

“But I have zero magic. I failed the tournament, and I lost my strength. I have absolutely nothing left to offer the team.”

Gideon paused and reached into his tunic pocket.

“Except this.”

Gideon extended his right hand.

A small, jagged crystal rested on his palm.

It looked completely opaque and dull, and it lacked the inner glow of standard Church artifacts.

Raziel looked at the rock.

It was the residual fragment of Gideon’s artificial Gift.

It was the physical shell left behind after Caius disconnected the Amplified Strength from the boy’s core weeks ago.

It was just an empty husk containing the dead memory of a spell.

“It is garbage,” Gideon said and kept his hand extended.

“I know it is worthless but it is the only thing I have left to give.”

Raziel stared at the dull crystal in the boy’s palm.

It was a gift with absolutely zero practical value, given by someone who possessed nothing. It was an act of pure generosity carrying zero expectation of repayment.

Raziel reached out and picked the crystal up from Gideon’s palm. He just accepted it.

VMMMM!

A sudden vibration traveled up his arm.

The Devourer activated.

It opened like a new sensory channel inside his brain.

Raziel felt the ambient magic in the room shift.

He felt the specific frequency of Zorya’s unchained runes flowing across the walls.

He felt the residual strength humming inside the stone pillars of the Pantheon.

He felt Lara’s empathic net expanding over the courtyard above them.

[GIFT MASTERED: DEVOURER — LEVEL 1]

[DESCRIPTION: Detection of external Gifts. Allows partial absorption of active spells with explicit consent from the original caster.]

[LIMITATION: Non-functional without consent at Level 1. Consent requirement can be bypassed via domination at higher mastery levels.]

[GIFTS MASTERED: 6/6]

Raziel read the red text. The System generated a second notification block right below the first.

[NOTE: All Forbidden Gifts restored.]

[CONSEQUENCE: The game foundation has lost 12% stability. The Architect will experience severe lag in monitoring functions.]

Raziel dismissed the screens and looked down at his own scarred hands.

He secured all six weapons.

He possessed the Umbral Paragon core, carried the System interface, and was objectively the most versatile human being in Phaedra right now.

Zion possessed massively superior brute force, but Raziel held the absolute mechanical advantage.

He reached into his tunic and touched the heavy bronze map.

The seventh mark burned hot against his fingers.

The final anomaly waited sealed inside his own chest.

“I am sorry,” Gideon said and broke the silence. He looked at the dull crystal in Raziel’s hand. “I know it is useless.”

Raziel closed his fingers around the empty husk.

“Do you know what the most valuable thing someone ever gave me is?” Raziel asked.

“What?”

“Something I did not need,” Raziel answered. “Because it means you gave it without expecting anything in return.”

Gideon blinked and let out a short breath. “That is a weird way to look at it.”

“It is the only way that matters.”

A sharp spike of adrenaline hit Raziel’s mind.

It traveled through the permanent tether connecting his core to Zorya’s consciousness.

Zorya stood near the brick wall and gripped her charcoal pencil tight.

She expanded her runic perception net miles past the academy walls.

“I found them,” Zorya whispered.

Raziel stepped closer to her. “Where are they?”

“They are marching down the Pilgrim’s Path,” Zorya reported. “They accelerated the march again.”

She swallowed hard and dropped her pencil onto the table.

“They are exactly four days away from St. Celeste.”

Raziel tightened his jaw. “Numbers?”

“Thirty elite Inquisitors,” Zorya listed the threats.

“Ten master sealers. One heavy black carriage covered in silence seals.”

Raziel knew exactly what rested inside that carriage.

The Silencer artifact.

“And two passengers,” Zorya finished.

“Mordecai,” Raziel stated.

“Yes.” Zorya nodded and her voice trembled. “And the oracle, she is chained to the floor next to him.”

Raziel crossed his arms and stared at the dark stone wall.

He had six Forbidden Gifts and a seventh anomaly sleeping in his chest.

He had a degraded stone guardian.

An unchained Inscriptor.

A redeemed street thug.

A noble with practice daggers.

An empath who saw souls.

A guardian of dead gods.

A renegade Exorcist hiding in the capital.

He prepared to fight an Elector who existed before the Church with a weapon designed to murder temples.

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