For Nihil, walking here is torture. The thick, pure Blessing aura feels like a physical pressure, making it hard to breathe. He moves like a ghost, his dark cloak blending with the shadows of the grand architecture. His destination: a towering black basalt monolith at the heart of the district, a windowless building that seems to devour all light. The Inquisitorial Fortress.

He arrives at the outer perimeter. A plaza gate guarded by two guardian golems and a faintly pulsing holy energy shield. This is the first defense.

[Activating: Aura of Silence]

[Aura Capacity: 40/40 -> 39/40 (per minute)]

A thin layer of nothingness envelops him, dampening his existential footprint. He slips past the golems' sensors, which remain motionless. He places his hand on the energy shield. His Void power passively nullifies the holy magic at the point of contact, creating a momentary gap just wide enough for him to pass through.

He is now within the fortress courtyard. Using Void Sonar intermittently, he maps the patrol routes of the Inquisitorial Knights within.

[Activating: Void Sonar]

[Aura Capacity: 35/40 -> 34/40]

He moves swiftly and silently, each movement calculated by Heze's mind. He reaches the door to Richter's Private Archives. The door itself is a masterpiece of defense: a Divine Logic Gate. No keyhole, no visible hinges. Only a smooth metal surface etched with hundreds of interconnected runes.

He retrieves the device crafted by Finn. "Nullifier Resonance."

[Activating Nullifier Resonance...]

A quiet hum sounds as the device attempts to decode the defensive magic's frequency. The runes on the door flicker wildly. Then, for ten crucial seconds, they go dark.

Nihil presses a hidden panel—its location known to him from Finn's theoretical analysis—and the door slides open. He enters just as the runes reignite.

The archive is cold and sterile. Within it rests the most forbidden knowledge in the Empire. Scrolls containing heretic confessions, cursed artifacts, and sealed data crystals.

[Activating: Void Sonar]

[Aura Capacity: 30/40 -> 29/40]

His sonar detects a hidden room beneath the floor, directly beneath Richter's desk. He locates its mechanism and the stone floor shifts, revealing a small vault.

[Using Void Grasp (Application Precision: Encryption Deconstruction)]

[Aura Capacity: 29/40 -> 28/40]

The magical seal on the vault vanishes. Inside, there is only one thing. A black data crystal. The private journal of the previous Grand Inquisitor.

He touches it, and its contents flood his mind. The horrifying truth about the Inquisition's secret genocide policy against his family. Cold plans to let the curse annihilate his bloodline.

He has found his evidence.

Suddenly, a chilling cold runs down his spine. Not from the archive. From within. A mental alarm. A trap.

He seizes the data crystal and turns to flee.

But the archive door he entered through has closed. And before him stands Grand Inquisitor Richter Von Braum, his golden eyes blazing with holy wrath. He did not enter through the door. He simply appeared there, as if he were a part of the fortress itself.

"I knew you would come, heretic," Richter's voice echoes in Nihil's mind, not in his ears. "Even the safest cage cannot hold a desperate rat."

The walls around them begin to glow, hidden holy runes activating. The entire archive has now transformed into a purification chamber. A prison designed to burn away all that is unholy.

Nihil is trapped. Alone. Directly confronted by his strongest enemy, at the heart of his power.

" You have witnessed our sins, the ones we commit for the greater good," Richter's telepathic voice fills Nihil's mind. "And because of that, your existence can no longer be tolerated."

Blinding golden light begins to radiate from Richter's body. The walls, floor, and ceiling of the archive now glow with the same intensity, turning the room into a holy fire furnace.

Nihil feels his skin begin to blister. His Aura of Silence struggles desperately to hold back this wave of pure Blessing energy, draining his Capacity second by second.

[Capacity: 28/40... 27/40... 26/40...]

"Submit," says Richter. "Confess your sins, and I will grant you a swift end."

"My sin is surviving," Nihil replies, his voice hoarse. "Something you will never understand."

Richter raises his hand. "[Holy Judgment]." A ball of light the size of a small sun forms above him, ready to annihilate everything.

Nihil knows he cannot fight. He cannot defend. He can only create chaos.

He ignores Richter. He extends both hands and targets the entire archive. All cursed artifacts, all forbidden scrolls.

[Using Void Grasp (Application: Wide Area and Unstable)]

[Capacity: 25/40 -> 15/40]

All protective containers within the archive shatter instantly.

Hell breaks loose.

A roaring demon sword begins to slash wildly on its own. A lich skull releases a death scream that causes the holy runes on the walls to crack. A gem containing the soul of a mad archmage explodes with psychic energy waves. Richter's sacred archive transforms into a battleground between dozens of malevolent entities and their prison magics.

Richter is forced to divert his [Holy Judgment] to suppress the artifact uprising. "INSANE HERETIC!"

Amidst the chaos, Nihil runs. He hurls himself at walls, using Void Grasp to create holes.

[Capacity: 15/40 -> 13/40]

He is now in the main corridor of the fortress, alarms blaring, and dozens of Inquisitorial Knights rushing towards him from both sides. He is truly cornered.

Behind him, Richter emerges from the now-chaotic archive, his eyes blazing.

There is no escape.

Nihil looks up. At the high vaulted ceiling. A desperate idea forms.

He does not try to run sideways. He runs... upwards.

[Using Atom Manipulation: Local Gravity Vector Alteration]

[Capacity: 13/40 -> 8/40]

This is a new application he theorized from his research. He does not oppose gravity. He 'erases' part of the gravitational pull beneath his feet, making himself extremely light. He leaps, and his jump carries him ten meters into the air, landing on an architectural ledge near the ceiling.

The Knights below can only stare in confusion.

"You cannot run from God!" Richter roars, flying after him with light magic.

Nihil runs along the ledge, leaping from pillar to pillar. Behind him, Richter hurls spears of light. One strikes his leg, making him stagger.

He reaches a massive stained-glass window at the fortress's peak. Below stretches the night view of Solara Magna.

He has no other choice.

He leaps, shattering the glass. As he free-falls through the cold night air, he once again uses Atom Manipulation on the glass shards around him.

[Using Atom Manipulation (Aerodynamic Formation)]

[Capacity: 8/40 -> 1/40]

The shards of glass fuse on his back, forming a pair of makeshift, glistening wings.

He glides, not flies, clumsily through the night, distancing himself from the now-chaotic fortress. He lands hard on the roof of an opera house several blocks away, his glass wings shattering into pieces.

He lies there, injured, bruised, and nearly out of energy. But he clutches the black data crystal tightly.

He has succeeded. He has stolen secrets from the heart of the Church itself.

But as he looks up, he sees all city patrols, all guardian golems, and even the Gryphon Knights in the air, all moving. No longer at random. They are all moving in one direction. Toward him.

Richter has not only tried to capture him. He has branded Nihil's soul with a holy mark. No matter where he goes in this city, he cannot hide.

His hunt has just begun.

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