Chapter 171: His Deleted Code

Lithos climbed out of the abyss on Level -5.

The colossal guardian woke up, but the silver shield was already dead. The ancient magic of the academy sat completely silent.

Elector Mordecai stood in the center of the ruined Main Chapel. He looked at the gray, unrendered void where the sacred marble altar used to sit.

He picked up the black Silencer artifact from the edge of the void and slipped it inside his pristine white robes.

He turned around and walked out of the sanctuary.

Every single place his white boots touched, the physical world died.

The heavy oak doors of the chapel vanished into gray, textureless gaps as he passed through them.

The red digital static crawled across the floorboards right behind his heels and chewed on the red carpets.

He stepped into the main corridor of the administrative wing and headed for the underground stairs.

The standard blue Church magic powering the decorative torches sputtered.

The flames turned into jagged, pixelated blocks of gray static and died.

The ancient silver runes carved into the stone archways turned pitch black and flaked off the walls like dead skin.

Mordecai did not burn the heresy with holy fire.

He deleted the code of the world step by step.

He reached the top of the dark stone stairs and began his descent into the basement.

Raziel felt the massive, suffocating pressure wave rolling down the stairwell before he even saw the Elector.

He leaned his back against the cold stone wall of the corridor on Level -1. His left arm hung useless and covered in dried blood.

Zorya sat on the floor next to him and clutched her chest. The silver ink in her veins looked dull and dead.

Caius stood in the shadows and watched the dark corridor.

“Lara!” Raziel coughed and spat red blood onto the dusty tiles. “Where are Lucian and Gideon?”

“They are moving!” Lara’s voice crackled through the communication rune.

“They got up from the courtyard! They are entering the administrative wing behind him!”

Raziel gritted his teeth and gripped his iron dagger with his right hand.

He needed to buy time. He needed to stop the cleanup protocol before it reached the basement and erased the six Forbidden Gifts completely.

“Caius,” Raziel ordered. “Get Zorya out of here. Take her to the Founder’s room on Level -6. Hide in the hydraulic shaft.”

“I am not leaving you,” Caius answered in a flat voice. The transfer novice did not move from the shadows.

“That is a direct order,” Raziel stated. “You cannot fight a deletion frequency with Pantheon magic. He erases runes. Save the Inscriptor.”

Zorya grabbed Raziel’s ankle with her ink-stained fingers. “You will die.”

“I am an anomaly,” Raziel replied. “I break the rules.”

Caius hauled Zorya off the floor and dragged her toward the rusted iron grate leading to the deep tunnels.

Raziel pushed himself off the wall and stood alone in the dark corridor.

Heavy footsteps echoed down the stone stairs.

Elector Mordecai stepped onto the landing of Level -1.

The red digital static crawled down the steps right behind his boots and chewed on the edges of the stone.

The gray unrendered voids swallowed the torches and plunged the hallway into total darkness.

Mordecai stopped and looked at Raziel standing twenty yards away.

“You survived the first purge,” Mordecai’s amplified voice carried absolute, chilling clarity in the dark. “The Architect noted your persistence.”

The Elector raised his crystal cane. The glass ignited with blinding, corrupted gray light.

Raziel did not run. He did not have the stamina to dodge a deletion wave.

He activated Anchor Blood and burned the last remaining drops of physical blood in his left arm to fuel the Umbral Paragon core.

Gold and black energy flared through his veins and forced his exhausted muscles to move.

He charged forward.

“Now!” Raziel roared.

Lucian and Gideon burst out of the stairwell directly behind Mordecai.

The two boys bypassed the elite Inquisitors in the courtyard and dragged their bruised bodies into the administrative wing to follow the Elector.

Lucian activated his Stealth Gift and erased his physical presence completely. Gideon swung his heavy iron mace with a feral scream and aimed directly at the Elector’s spine.

Mordecai simply existed inside his own administrative parameters.

Gideon’s heavy iron mace struck the Elector’s pristine white robes.

CLANG.

The iron weapon did not crush bone or shatter ribs. The solid metal connected with an invisible, digital barrier covering the Elector’s skin.

The mace stopped dead in the air.

Mordecai did not move. The kinetic force of the massive blow vanished entirely into the gray void surrounding his body.

Lucian dropped his stealth and materialized right next to the Elector. The noble drove his sharpened steel dagger straight at Mordecai’s exposed neck in a lethal, practiced arc.

He executed a perfect assassination strike from the blind spot.

The steel blade closed the distance in a fraction of a second.

It never touched the skin.

BZZT!

The tip of the steel dagger hit the invisible digital barrier.

The corruption spread up the blade instantly. The solid steel turned into digital ash and dissolved into the empty air before it even scratched Mordecai’s throat.

Lucian stared at his empty hand in pure, unfiltered horror. His weapon ceased to exist.

Mordecai turned his head slowly. He looked at the noble and the street thug standing right behind him.

“You attack the system with broken tools,” Mordecai stated.

The Elector did not raise his hand to cast a spell. He just looked at Gideon.

He blinked.

A flat, gray void ripped open in the physical space directly beneath Gideon’s boots. The stone floor vanished in a fraction of a second.

Gideon did not have time to scream.

The boy fell straight down into the unrendered hole.

Lucian yelled and grabbed for his friend’s arm, but he grabbed empty air. Gideon disappeared into the void.

The jagged edges of the hole flickered with red digital static and closed immediately. The solid stone floor reappeared perfectly intact.

Gideon was gone.

The cleanup protocol deleted him from the server.

Lucian stood over the solid stone floor and his hands shook violently. He lost his weapon and he just lost his friend to a literal glitch in reality.

His tactical brain shattered under the absolute impossibility of the attack.

Mordecai turned his attention back to Raziel standing in the corridor.

Raziel gripped his iron dagger and stopped charging.

He watched a human being get erased from the game board with a single blink.

The blue interface erupted in his vision. The screens bled in frantic red pixels across his retinas.

[CRITICAL ALERT: ENTITY DELETION DETECTED.]

[PACKET LOSS: GIDEON.]

[WARNING: WORLD PHYSICS COMPROMISED.]

Raziel dismissed the screens. He did not look at the spot where Gideon vanished. He locked his eyes on the Elector’s face.

Mordecai raised his bare left hand and pointed his open palm straight at Lucian’s chest.

“The purge continues,” Mordecai said.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep