The world exploded into a flare of violet and white light. For a moment, I didn't exist as a human being or a manager. I was just a stream of data and raw, screaming power. I forced the system to ignore the red runes, pushing a massive surge of "Over-Leveled" Faith directly into the floor. It was like trying to put out a candle with a hurricane.
The "Anti-Divine" circle tried to absorb the power, but it was too much. The runes began to smoke, then glow white-hot, and finally, they began to crack.
CRACK-BOOM!
The stone floor of the vault shattered. The [Anti-Divine Circle] couldn't handle the pressure of the Faith surge and exploded in a wave of white dust. The silver chains around Arkael's throat snapped, turning into harmless mist that smelled like ozone.
The silence that followed the explosion was terrifying. Arkael stood up slowly, his tall frame rising from the smoke. His body was wreathed in a dark, flickering flame that seemed to eat the very light in the room.
His armor was smoking and glowing red from the "Holy" burns, but his eyes... they were no longer the crimson red I knew. They were a dark, endless void of pure hatred. He looked like a god of the underworld who had just been released from his prison.
"Arkael... wait..." I tried to say, but my mind was reeling. I felt dizzy, and my vision was fading. I felt like my soul was drifting away from his, the overclock leaving me empty and broken.
He didn't listen. He was in "Berserker" mode. Arkael moved so fast the silver knights didn't even see him move. He wasn't using his abbys sword anymore; he was using his bare hands.
He grabbed the nearest knight by the helmet, the metal groaning and denting under his grip, and slammed him into the stone ceiling with enough force to crack the granite. He turned to the Captain, his eyes locking onto the man who had called me a "heretic."
"Wait! Please! By the Light!" the Captain screamed. He realized too late that his "Light" was nothing compared to the monster he had just unleashed.
Arkael caught the Captain's glowing blade with his bare hand. He squeezed, and the sanctified steel shattered into a dozen pieces like cheap glass. He raised his other fist, which was glowing with a dark, Abyssal flame that seemed to grow colder the more it burned. He was going to kill them all. He was going to paint the walls with them.
"Arkael! STOP!" I screamed through the link, using every last bit of my strength to pull on his mind. "Do not kill them! If you kill them now, we lose everything! We become the monsters they say we are! The children are watching! We need these men alive to tell the truth to the King! We need the law, Arkael! Think about the panti asuhan! Think about Toby!"
Arkael's fist froze an inch from the Captain's nose. The heat from his hand was so intense it was actually burning the Captain's skin, but Arkael stopped. For a long, painful moment, the darkness in Arkael's eyes fought against my voice.
He wanted to kill. He wanted to destroy every single person who had tried to hurt us. I could feel his hunger for vengeance, and it was terrifying.
"I am the Manager, Arkael," I said, my voice softening even though I was in absolute agony back in my chair. "I order you... stay human. Don't let them take your soul."
Arkael's chest heaved. He let out a roar of frustration that was so loud it shook the whole manor. He didn't hit the Captain. Instead, he grabbed the man by his breastplate and threw him across the room like a bag of trash.
The Captain hit the wall and slumped to the ground, unconscious but alive. Arkael turned and looked at Lord Valerius, who was hiding behind the furnace, shaking like a leaf.
"You," Arkael hissed.
He walked over, the floor cracking under his heavy, metallic steps. He reached down and picked up the Black Ledger and the Slave Contracts from the floor where they had fallen.
He tucked them into his belt and then grabbed Valerius by the neck, lifting the fat man off the ground with one hand. Valerius kicked his feet, his face turning purple.
"You're coming with us," Arkael growled. "You have a lot of explaining to do to the Magistrate."
"The... the Inquisitors will find you!" Valerius sobbed, his voice high and pathetic. "They're already at the gates! You'll never leave this valley! You're dead men!"
"Then we'll make a path through their corpses," Arkael growled, his voice sounding like two stones grinding together.
But as we turned to the balcony to make our escape, the Captain—who had crawled to a hidden lever near the door—let out a crazy, high-pitched laugh. He knew he was defeated, and his fanaticism had pushed him over the edge of sanity.
"If we can't catch you... then we will bury you in this pit!" he shouted. "For the Light! For the Kingdom!"
He slammed his fist onto a glowing crystal on the wall. It was the manor's "Final Guard" protocol. Hidden demolition charges, placed in the structural pillars of the vault for just such a scenario, began to glow a bright, unstable orange. The air began to vibrate with the sound of a ticking clock.
"Arkael, the whole house is going to explode! The foundation is failing!" I shouted.
"Hold on tight, ghost!" Arkael shouted back.
He tucked Valerius under one arm like a bale of hay and used his other arm to protect the ledger and the contracts. The floor beneath us began to tilt at a sharp angle. The ceiling groaned as thousands of tons of stone started to fall.
The furnace exploded, sending a wave of fire and molten iron everywhere. Arkael didn't look for the door or the stairs. He sprinted toward the balcony, his boots slamming against the breaking floor, and leaped into the night air just as the ceiling came down.
BOOM!
The entire wing of the manor collapsed in a roar of dust, flame, and thunder. We were falling through the cold air, the wind whistling past us, as the "Crimson Vault" turned into a pile of smoking rocks behind us. We were out, but the chase was only beginning.