Chapter 166: His Internal Rot

Raziel tightened his grip on his iron dagger and stared at the gray voids eating the academy walls.

Elector Mordecai possessed administrative access to the game board, and the red digital static crawled across the grass to delete the environment entirely.

Raziel stood up from the stone tiles and pulled Mirael with him.

The Oracle leaned her full weight against his shoulder.

She survived the execution cross, but she lacked the strength to stand on her own.

“Lara!” Raziel shouted over the humming noise of the silver shield. “Take her!”

Lara ran down the stone steps from the second-floor cloister.

She reached the courtyard and grabbed Mirael by the arm.

“Get her to the infirmary,” Raziel ordered. “Lock the doors and stay away from the outer walls.”

Lara nodded and dragged the bleeding Oracle toward the medical wing.

Raziel turned around and looked back at the battle.

Lucian and Gideon finished off the last of the vanguard Inquisitors in the dirt.

The noble wiped his bloody steel dagger on his dark trousers, and the street thug leaned on his heavy iron mace to catch his breath.

Mordecai just stood on the dirt road outside the main gates and watched the red digital static chew through the stone perimeter.

The Silencer artifact pumped out a continuous, sub-audible frequency that eroded the physical world.

The silver dome protecting the academy flickered.

BZZT!

The architectural shield lost a fraction of its intensity.

A small patch of red static breached the barrier and deleted a stone bench near the entrance.

Raziel felt a sharp spike of panic hit his mind through his permanent bond with Zorya.

The unchained Inscriptor sat in the East Basement and fought a desperate war of attrition against the deletion code.

She provided the raw mana to sustain the shield, but something disrupted her focus down in the dark.

Raziel activated Soul Resonance and pushed his awareness through the tether.

He felt Zorya’s physical exhaustion, but he also felt her terror.

“The basement is compromised!” Raziel yelled to Lucian and Gideon. “Someone is hitting Zorya!”

Raziel sprinted toward the main doors of the administrative building.

He ignored the burning ache in his legs and the blood dripping from his popped eardrums.

If Zorya died, the silver shield fell.

If the shield fell, the entire academy and everyone inside it turned into gray voids.

He reached the heavy wooden doors and kicked them open.

He ran down the long corridor leading to the underground stairs, and he heard Lucian and Gideon’s heavy boots hitting the stone right behind him.

Father Marius stood on the third-floor landing of the main staircase minutes ago.

The director gripped his dark wooden cane and stared out the large glass window overlooking the courtyard.

Marius watched the unrendered holes eating the perimeter walls.

He saw the red static dissolving the solid earth.

He spent his entire life manipulating the Church hierarchy and consolidating his own political power.

He survived assassination attempts to keep his position at St. Celeste.

He expected Elector Mordecai to arrest heretics and burn a few novices at the stake to make a point.

He did not expect the supreme commander to delete the entire building.

Marius’ political maneuvering held zero value against a man who erased physical matter with a hand gesture.

He realized he backed the wrong side of the board, and the Inquisition planned to wipe his entire kingdom off the map.

The director turned away from the window.

He did not run toward the courtyard to fight the Elector.

He possessed the survival instinct of a cornered rat.

He needed to hand Mordecai a prize massive enough to buy his own life.

He needed to drop the silver shield protecting the academy and surrender the foundation to the Inquisition.

Marius walked down the stairs and found three of his personal academy guards standing near the refectory.

They wore standard chainmail and carried loaded crossbows.

They looked terrified of the humming silver dome overhead and the screaming noise of the battle outside.

“With me,” Marius ordered them.

The guards followed the director down the dark stone steps toward the East Basement.

They reached the heavy iron door of the Inscription workshop.

The metal bolt sat locked from the inside to protect Zorya.

Marius pointed his wooden cane at the lock. He channeled his mana and blasted the heavy iron with a concentrated burst of kinetic force.

CLANG!

The iron bolt shattered and the heavy door slammed open against the brick wall.

Zorya sat at the large wooden desk in the center of the room.

Her hands pressed flat against the stone slate, and thick silver runes flowed across her skin to sustain the massive shield above.

Dark red blood poured from her nose and stained her chin.

She operated at maximum capacity and possessed zero physical defense to protect herself from a close-combat assault.

The ancient silver runes on the walls flared to protect her, but they lacked offensive capabilities.

Marius pointed his cane at the girl.

“Kill the heretic,” Marius ordered his guards.

The three guards raised their crossbows and aimed at Zorya’s chest.

THWACK.

Raziel burst into the workshop and saw the crossbow bolts flying through the air.

He did not have time to draw a defensive rune or shout a warning.

He threw himself directly into the line of fire.

He intercepted the first bolt with his dark cloak.

The iron tip punched straight through the heavy fabric and sank deep into his left shoulder, the kinetic impact spun him around and dropped him onto his knees.

The second bolt missed his head by an inch and shattered against the brick wall behind him.

The third bolt embedded itself into the wooden desk inches from Zorya’s right hand.

“Agh!” Raziel grunted and grabbed his bleeding shoulder.

Zorya screamed when she saw the iron bolt sticking out of his flesh. Her concentration broke for a fraction of a second.

BZZT!

The silver dome above the academy flickered and dropped ten feet.

“Hold the shield!” Raziel yelled from the floor. He ignored the burning pain and locked his eyes on her.

“Do not look at me! Hold the shield!”

Zorya squeezed her silver eyes shut and slammed her hands harder against the slate.

Marius glared at Raziel bleeding on the floor.

“You ruined this academy,” Marius spat the words with pure hatred. “You brought the rot into my house.”

The director raised his dark wooden cane. He channeled his mana to cast a lethal kinetic blast directly at Raziel’s head to finish the job.

Lucian and Gideon charged through the broken doorway.

The noble did not shout a battle cry. He activated his Stealth Gift and dropped his mana signature to zero. He erased his physical presence and bypassed the three guards completely. He materialized right behind the director and drove his sharpened steel dagger straight through Marius’s right shoulder.

Marius screamed and dropped his wooden cane. The kinetic spell shattered against the floor.

Gideon slammed his heavy iron mace into the chest of the nearest guard.

The chainmail buckled under the raw physical force, and the guard crashed into the stone pillar with broken ribs.

The other two guards panicked and tried to reload their crossbows.

“Do not let them reload!” Raziel ordered and stood up from the floor.

Lucian yanked his dagger out of the director’s shoulder and kicked Marius in the back of the knee.

The director collapsed onto the dusty tiles.

Lucian spun around and slashed the second guard across the throat before he could notch another bolt.

Gideon charged the final guard and swung his mace at the man’s helmet.

The heavy iron weapon connected with a sickening crunch, and the third guard dropped to the floor completely unconscious.

The workshop went quiet except for the heavy humming of the silver shield and Zorya’s labored breathing.

Raziel gripped the iron bolt sticking out of his left shoulder and yanked it out in one smooth motion.

He bit back a scream and tossed the bloody metal onto the floor.

He activated Anchor Blood and burned his own spilled blood to stop the hemorrhage and numb the pain.

He walked over to the director.

Marius lay on the cold stone tiles and clutched his bleeding shoulder.

His arrogant posture and political authority vanished. He looked up at the three bruised and bloody novices surrounding him.

“You cannot win this,” Marius gasped and pointed a shaking finger at the ceiling. “He deletes the world and he will erase all of you.”

“Maybe,” Raziel answered with a flat, emotionless voice. “But you will not be here to see it.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep