Chapter Four #3
The other guards and inmates quickly recovered from their shock.
They started talking excitedly about what had happened while searching for survivors and helping the injured.
Still, Mordecai didn’t bother lowering his voice.
Inmates were trained to pay more attention to whispers over conversations held at regular volume anyway.
Besides, the truth was the best way to combat rumors and false stories from spreading to the other units.
“That was Death,” Mordecai said honestly. “Literally, Death. As in one of the Four Horsemen.”
It wasn’t surprising that the Horsemen were powerful enough to teleport directly into the prison, bypassing all of the safeguards in place.
But until now, none of them had a reason to try.
Raziel had really made a mess of things, but Mordecai wasn’t sure he had even realized how much damage he had caused.
In his current state, it didn’t seem like he cared about much of anything at all.
Warden Saffron shook his head. “Braxton Lightbringer is now Death of the Four Horsemen.”
Mordecai had heard about Lucifer’s son getting a magical upgrade, but he hadn’t realized he had been chosen to be one of the Horsemen. Still, a replacement didn’t make sense if Raziel wasn’t dead.
“Well, that was the old Death. I’m not sure how there can be two of them running around, but with the way he just showed up here, it’s clear he still has his soul-destroying powers.”
Warden Saffron shivered. “Is that what he just did? Destroyed that guy’s soul?”
He nodded. “I’ve seen him do it before. When he destroys a soul like that, there is no chance of that person ever being reincarnated or reborn.
I guess he came here to make sure that celestial was really dead and gone.
Wasn’t he one of the gods who had been part of the conspiracy to start the war between the Celestial Realm and the Realm of Souls? ”
“He was,” Warden Saffron reluctantly admitted. “He must have fallen in here from the floor above since he is part of a different unit with less restrictive security measures.”
That made Mordecai scoff. A god who helped start a war between two realms was deemed less of a security risk than he was.
Go fucking figure.
“You know him?”
Figuring the warden was asking about Raziel, Mordecai nodded. “I did, but I haven’t seen or heard from him in a long time. It didn’t seem like he was really here, though. It was like he was here in spirit and not in his true form.”
“I noticed that. I didn’t even realize that was possible. I mean, astral projecting right through all these layers of magical wards and safeguards? That is definitely something I haven’t seen before.”
Mordecai knew it wasn’t astral projecting.
At least, not in the normal sense, since that was something he was very familiar with.
Traveling in spirit form and being able to actually interact with the physical world wasn’t something that should have been possible.
And yet, Raziel had done it with ease. He was definitely going to have to figure out how Death had managed it.
“Raziel supposedly died around the time of the war between the realms, but if he is back and searching for those who were involved in the conspiracy, expect more incidents like this one.”
Warden Saffron’s eyes widened. “Oh, shit. We have others in the prison.”
“Not anymore. They probably ended up like that guy,” Mordecai countered, nodding toward the blank space where the body had fallen and disintegrated. “But that is for someone else to worry about. Now, I’m leaving.”
Glancing around, Warden Saffron said, “We have a lot of injured people in here.”
“That’s for you guys with magic to deal with.
But you have to do it fast.” Mordecai pointed his thumb toward the cracked window as he headed toward the exit.
The fissures on the glass had spread while they were talking.
If it broke, it wouldn’t be good for anyone in the prison.
“That doesn’t look like it is going to hold for much longer. ”
The warden shouted in alarm and raced toward the glass wall, calling out to the other guards for reinforcements.
Mordecai was pretty sure they could repair the damage in time, but he still wasn’t willing to stick around.
He needed to get the fuck out of there, and not just because he didn’t want to be there if the glass broke.
Beneath the pain of his injuries, he’d also felt something else.
Something unexpected.
After the explosion, it felt as though some of the invisible shackles that kept his power restrained had cracked. If true, he needed to figure out what in hellfire he could do about it before someone discovered his secret.
However, there was a chance he wasn’t the only one affected.
Perhaps Raziel had damaged more than just the walls when he had broken into the prison.
Maybe the destruction was more extensive than anyone realized.
The ancient wards woven into the walls could have been altered or weakened.
If the suppression spells were failing across the entire complex, then every monster buried within their cells might already be feeling it, too.
If so, that meant shit was about to get really interesting.