Chapter 95: His Deepest Cell

Raziel went down the last steps to level 3.

The air down here was heavy.

Every breath filled his lungs with rust and dampness.

Four days ago, Celestine and her goons caught him here, the memory caused a phantom spasm in his side, where he still had bruises.

But the chaos on the surface gave him this window.

He reached the end of the hall.

The black iron door stood before him.

Three locks. Containment runes glowing, Raziel reached out and his fingers grazed the metal.

ZIZZZ!

A shock ran through his arm.

Raziel gritted his teeth, choking back a scream.

“Dammit,” he hissed.

Celestine had changed the barrier frequency.

The parasite in his chest vibrated, the entity recognized the challenge.

Raziel closed his eyes and let the darkness flow into his hand.

He had to use the poison to open the wound.

“Come on… eat it,” he muttered.

The shadows crawled over his fingers, black as tar, and filtered into the lock.

The metal rang, while the red runes flickered, fighting the invasion.

[ALERT: SEAL INTEGRITY AT 89%…][ALERT: CORRUPTION DETECTED.]

Raziel pushed more darkness.

CRACK

The first lock gave way, then the second, until the third broke with the sound of a bone snapping.

The door opened an inch.

Raziel fell to his knees, panting, and looked at his hand, watching black smoke come off his reddened skin.

“It still hurts just like the first time,” he grumbled, standing up with effort.

He pushed the heavy iron.

The screech of rusty hinges cut the silence.

He entered.

In the center, suspended by chains glowing with a cruel blue light, was her.

The hooks went through her collarbones, keeping her upright, and the mana drain was constant, drop by drop.

“You’re late,” whispered the girl, while dirty bandages covered half her face.

“There were complications,” Raziel answered, closing the door behind him.

“There are always complications.” Mirael coughed, and a thread of dark blood stained her lips. “Or doubts.”

Raziel stopped. “I have no doubts.”

“You lie.” She tilted her head. “I heard you hesitate at the door.”

“This time you took your time forcing the seal,” she continued. “Fear of Celestine? Or fear of what you came to do?”

Raziel stepped forward. “Fear of failing again.”

In his vision, Mirael’s name appeared crossed out in the Church records. ’Failed Saint’. Executed for heresy.

For the world, she was already dead.

“The Mother Superior reinforced the drains,” said Mirael, her breathing ragged. “She said you had profaned the place with your stench.”

“I noticed at the door.”

Raziel observed the crystals on the shackles.

“Time is running out, Mirael.”

He got closer.

CRUNCH.

His boot crushed something dry on the floor, a rat bone.

“You smell different,” she said, wrinkling her nose. “Like cold ash.”

“It’s the cost.”

“Four days ago the darkness was an intruder in your chest, but now…” She smiled sadly. “It’s part of your foundation, that thing is eating you, Raziel.”

The parasite in his core throbbed, confirming her words.

“Pure light is easy to put out,” she whispered. “You always failed for being too… Celeste. Too noble.”

Her eyes opened under the bandages, blind to the present, but nailed to the dead timelines.

“This repels purification and inspires fear.”

Raziel took the last step and stood in front of her.

He reached out his hand, with no introductions or false promises of rescue.

The Forbidden Section ritual demanded a catalyst: ’Oracle Blood’.

His fingers grazed the back of Mirael’s hand.

The parasite woke up violently, Mirael’s blood sang with an identical resonance, it was just pure fuel.

[RITUAL COMPATIBILITY DETECTED: 97%]

[WARNING: Forced extraction will cause host collapse.]

Raziel read the notification floating in the stale air.

“I need your help,” he said.

For the first time, it didn’t sound like a master plan, it just sounded like a plea.

Mirael’s hand turned and her skeletal fingers closed around Raziel’s wrist, she still had surprising strength for someone on the brink of death.

“I have waited so long for this,” she whispered. “For a version of you that stopped playing the martyr.”

“I do what is necessary.”

“I know.” She squeezed harder. Her nails dug into his skin. “In the other cycles, you came to save me.”

A tear of blood rolled down her cheek under the bandage. “We always died together, that was stupid.”

The atmosphere in the cell became heavy.

“But now you come to sacrifice me.”

Raziel held her blind gaze. “I do.”

Mirael let out a long sigh that seemed like relief. “Good, use me and break the damn cycle, let my death be worth something this time.”

Raziel nodded, preparing the dagger hidden in his sleeve.

“But wait,” she said suddenly.

She stopped Raziel’s hand.

“There is something you must know before taking my blood, something Celestine stopped us from discussing last time.”

Raziel tensed up. “What thing?”

“The world reset.” Mirael trembled. “It has another anchor, besides your death.”

She leaned forward. “The one they call ’The Player’.”

Raziel felt fear, no one should know about Zion down here.

“What do you know about her?” he asked, lowering his voice.

“She is your reflection, Raziel,” whispered Mirael. “Her choices and yours bend the same fabric from opposite sides, you are just two sides of the same cursed coin.”

Mirael squeezed his wrist with desperation. “If one of the two dies…”

She stopped.

“The game goes back to the start.”

Raziel felt the floor disappear under his feet.

’The beginning of everything.’

Zion’s image crossed his mind.

That arrogant, loud girl, who treated this world like a video game.

He had planned to eliminate her as soon as he became powerful enough to fight against her, but now Zion had become the condition of existence for his own hell?

Raziel looked at Mirael and understood the magnitude of the trap.

If Zion died because of her stupidity, he would go back no matter how hard he had tried.

At the end of it all, he was chained.

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