Chapter 179: His Forced Reality

Mordecai absorbed the Silencer. The cleanup protocol initiated a total, uncontained wipe of Sector 4.

Red digital static exploded from his boots and chewed on the damp stone floor.

The glitching polygons crawled up the tunnel walls and erased the ancient grooves carved into the bedrock.

Raziel stood his ground inside the blinding white light of the Sovereign Override.

The ten-meter radius of Domain Authority held the deletion code at bay.

The red static slammed into the white sphere and sparked violently, but it could not penetrate the perimeter.

Raziel dictated the physical rules inside this circle, and he rejected the Architect’s commands.

“The server requires a hard reset,” Mordecai’s voice echoed through the tunnel.

The Elector stepped forward.

He did not swipe his hand to delete the floor or snap his fingers to erase the audio channels.

He walked straight toward the edge of the white domain.

He crossed the threshold.

BZZT!

The red static surrounding his boots screeched and dissolved into digital ash.

The black robes glitched and sparked, but Mordecai forced his body inside the ten-meter radius.

He possessed administrative access to the game board, and he burned his own core code to override Raziel’s authority through sheer, raw processing power.

Raziel tightened his jaw.

He needed to end the fight right now.

He needed to force the administrator to play by his rules.

Raziel raised his scarred right hand. He channeled his Umbral Paragon core and pushed the gold and black energy into his palm.

He forced the corrupted magic into a solid, physical shape.

A long, jagged blade of pure Umbral energy materialized in his grip.

The gold holy light and the black rot of the Shadow Parasite twisted together to form the weapon.

The blade hummed with violent heat and cast dark shadows against the tunnel walls.

Raziel did not stop there. He pulled the blinding white light of the Sovereign Override into the weapon.

VMMMM!

The pure white energy fused with the corrupted Umbral blade.

The three distinct magical signatures locked together in perfect, impossible harmony.

The jagged sword stabilized and turned into a solid, physical weapon of raw, unfiltered source code.

He gripped the hilt with both hands.

Mordecai stopped walking.

The cleanup protocol analyzed the unique weapon and registered a massive, critical anomaly.

The blade defied the game rules and bypassed standard durability checks.

The Elector raised his left hand.

He formed a fist and punched the empty air.

He cast a localized deletion wave straight at Raziel’s chest.

A flat, gray void ripped open in the air and rushed forward. The unrendered hole ignored the white domain and threatened to erase Raziel’s physical body completely.

Raziel did not dodge. He swung the Umbral blade in a wide, two-handed arc.

SHIING!

The glowing white and black sword collided with the gray void.

The physical weapon did not turn into red pixels.

The Sovereign Override protected the blade from the deletion code.

The sword cut the gray void in half.

The unrendered hole shattered like thin glass. The deletion wave broke into a million useless sparks and died in the air.

Raziel forced the Moderator to obey fantasy physics inside his domain. He turned a battle of server commands into a brutal, close-quarters sword fight.

“My rules,” Raziel growled.

He lunged forward. He ignored his screaming muscles and crossed the distance in a fraction of a second.

He aimed the tip of the Umbral blade directly at the Elector’s chest.

Mordecai raised his right arm to block the strike. The black robes glitched and formed a thick, solid shield of red digital static over his forearm.

CRUNCH.

The Umbral blade punched straight through the red static. The white light of the Sovereign Override neutralized the defensive code instantly.

The jagged sword sank deep into the Elector’s arm.

Mordecai staggered backward. The administrator lost his perfect, mechanical balance for the very first time.

He stared at the blade sticking out of his flesh.

He did not leak black wireframes or gray pixels.

Warm, dark red blood poured out of the wound.

The physical blood dripped down his black robes and splashed onto the wet stone floor of the tunnel.

Raziel forced the cleanup protocol to render as a mortal human being inside his ten-meter radius.

He ripped the administrator out of the code and dragged him down into the dirt.

Mordecai looked at his bleeding arm.

The cold, featureless void of his face twisted into a mask of pure, unfiltered shock.

He had not bled real human blood in five centuries.

“You damage the hardware,” Mordecai stated.

His voice lost the amplified, mechanical echo and sounded completely normal. It sounded weak.

“I am just getting started,” Raziel answered.

He yanked the Umbral blade out of the Elector’s arm.

The jagged weapon tore the flesh and sprayed more hot blood across the tunnel wall.

Raziel did not give him time to recover.

He spun around and drove the hilt of the sword directly into Mordecai’s face.

The heavy kinetic impact snapped the Elector’s head back and cracked his nose. Blood poured down his chin.

Mordecai stumbled and hit the brick wall of the Founder’s room.

He dropped to one knee and clutched his bleeding face.

The black robes turned white again as the deletion code failed to sustain the illusion inside the Sovereign Override.

Raziel stood over the supreme commander of the Inquisition.

He raised the Umbral blade and pointed the glowing tip right at Mordecai’s throat.

The battle of source code ended. The physical execution began.

Mordecai looked up at the blade.

He possessed the cold logic of a machine, and he recognized his own defeat inside the white domain.

But he also recognized the ticking clock.

“You win the sector,” Mordecai said. He coughed up a mouthful of real blood onto the stone floor.

“But you lose the server.”

Raziel tightened his grip on the hilt. “What did you do?”

“The Silencer was not a weapon,” Mordecai explained and smiled his thin, cruel smile. “It was a beacon.”

The Elector pointed his bloody finger up at the ceiling of the dark tunnel.

“I did not come to delete this academy,” Mordecai stated. “I came to mark the target for the Architect.”

Raziel looked up.

A massive, deafening roar echoed from the surface of St. Celeste miles above them.

It was not the noise of a crumbling stone wall or a dying guardian.

It was the sound of the sky tearing open.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep