Chapter 180: His Execution

Raziel drove the glowing Umbral blade straight into Elector Mordecai’s exposed chest.

He did not feel a rush of heroic justice or the hot adrenaline of revenge.

He just saw a hostile target standing inside his ten-meter radius of Domain Authority.

Mordecai did not flinch or beg for his life.

The supreme commander of the Inquisition possessed the cold, mechanical logic of a cleanup protocol.

He recognized the mathematical impossibility of surviving a physical attack inside a zone that rejected his administrative privileges.

The Elector raised his right arm to block the strike.

The black digital squares covering his flesh glitched and sparked with red static.

He tried to overclock his internal deletion code to erase the incoming weapon.

CRUNCH.

The jagged blade of gold and black energy punched straight through the red static. The white light of the Sovereign Override neutralized the defensive code instantly.

The physical sword sank deep into the center of Mordecai’s chest.

The kinetic impact drove the Elector backward. His spine slammed hard against the cracked brick wall of the Founder’s cell.

The heavy Umbral blade pierced his ribcage, tore through his lungs, and buried its tip into the stone mortar behind him.

Raziel pinned the administrator to the wall.

Mordecai stopped moving.

Raziel forced the cleanup protocol to render as a mortal human being inside his white domain.

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

Mordecai looked down at the blade sticking out of his own chest.

His cold eyes widened in shock.

He raised his shaking, bloody left hand. He reached for the hilt of the Umbral sword.

He lacked the physical strength to pull it out.

“You damage the hardware,” Mordecai stated.

“I am just finishing the job,” Raziel answered.

He tightened his grip on the hilt. He twisted the jagged blade sideways inside the Elector’s chest.

Mordecai gasped. A thick stream of dark blood spilled from his mouth and ran down his chin. His knees buckled, but the sword held him upright against the brick wall.

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

He stared at Raziel’s face.

The Elector dropped his bloody hand from the hilt.

His eyes rolled back in his head. The last spark of administrative energy faded from his body.

Mordecai died.

The supreme commander of the Inquisition went completely limp against the wall.

The white robes stained crimson with heavy, organic blood.

The man who possessed absolute authority over the game board just bled out in a dark basement like a common thug.

Raziel breathed hard.

His left arm throbbed with burning pain from the crossbow wound, and his muscles shook from severe exhaustion.

He killed a Moderator.

He secured the seventh Forbidden Gift.

He protected the foundation of St. Celeste.

He yanked the Umbral blade out of the brick wall.

The Elector’s dead body slumped forward and collapsed onto the dusty tiles. A thick pool of blood spread across the floor.

Raziel dropped the glowing sword.

The weapon dissolved back into his corrupted core, and the white light of the Sovereign Override retreated into his chest.

The ten-meter radius vanished, plunging the Founder’s room back into total darkness.

The blue interface erupted in his vision.

The screens did not display standard system notifications or quest updates.

They flashed with frantic, blinding red text that shattered his retinas.

The alarm bypassed his audio settings and screamed directly into his brain with a high-pitched digital screech.

[CRITICAL ALERT: MODERATOR TERMINATED.]

Raziel gritted his teeth and tapped the side of his head to clear the noise.

[SYSTEM OVERRIDE DETECTED.]

[UNAUTHORIZED DELETION OF ADMINISTRATIVE ASSET.]

Raziel stared at the red text hovering in the dark cell. The game foundation of Phaedra recognized a catastrophic breach in its own source code.

He deleted a piece of the Architect’s control mechanism.

The interface generated a massive, screen-shattering warning right in the center of his vision.

[INITIATING QUARANTINE AND PURGE PROTOCOL FOR ZONE: ST. CELESTE.]

Raziel stopped breathing.

A massive, deafening roar echoed from the surface of the academy miles above him.

Raziel turned around and looked past the shattered doorway of the cell.

The dark hydraulic tunnel stretched out into the blackness.

He sent Caius and Zorya down this exact shaft to hide before he fought the Elector on Level -1.

Footsteps echoed from the deep bedrock.

Caius stepped into the dim light of the Founder’s room. The transfer novice looked completely exhausted.

He dragged a half-conscious Zorya behind him.

Zorya leaned her full weight against Caius. She stopped fighting the deletion code when the shield fell, but the physical damage remained.

She looked at Raziel standing over the Elector’s dead body.

Her silver eyes widened in pure horror. She felt the permanent Bond Forging tether connecting her mind to his core.

“Raziel,” Zorya whispered and touched her chest. “Your empathy. The connection is freezing.”

She felt the exact moment the System locked his humanity at fifty percent.

She felt the cold, absolute calculation replace the warmth of his soul.

“I bought us time,” Raziel answered with a flat, emotionless voice. “The Moderator is dead.”

Caius looked at Mordecai’s bloody robes.

“He did not come to delete the academy,” Caius stated.

His pale gray eyes showed genuine fear. “He came to mark the target for the Architect.”

“Raziel!” Lucian yelled through the communication rune painted on Raziel’s collar.

The noble’s voice crackled with heavy static and raw panic. “The sky is falling! The whole courtyard is gone!”

Lucian operated on pure survival instinct.

He stood on the surface with Lara and the bleeding Oracle.

He watched Gideon vanish into a gray void an hour ago, and he refused to lose anyone else.

“Get everyone to the gates,” Raziel ordered through the comms.

He kept his voice completely cold. “Evacuate the zone.”

“We cannot leave!” Lucian shouted back. “The static is eating the road!”

Raziel tightened his jaw.

He secured seven ancient weapons and fought an ecclesiastical war.

He expected to fight holy fire and fanatic priests.

He did not expect the Architect to drop a quarantine dome over the entire academy and delete the physical space.

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