Dark Magus Returns

Chapter 1504: Shadows Before the Crowd

The Eclipse Strike had been a cornerstone of Raze’s skills ever since he had first learned it. It was a deceptively simple technique, one that merged two separate energies into a single devastating force, releasing it all in one focused direction. The stronger his mana, the denser his Dark affinity, and the deeper his well of Qi, the stronger the strike became. Over time, it had grown into something truly terrifying, something that had reached an almost unimaginable level of destructive power.

As Raze’s sword came slashing down, the wave of energy tore loose from the blade, exploding outward. It consumed everything it touched. The energy didn’t just tear across the arena floor, it devoured it, swallowing the ground whole. And not only that, but every single one of Ibarin’s previous attacks, spells that had been lingering and hanging in the air like a storm waiting to fall, were pulled in and erased. They were swallowed entirely, vanishing into nothing as the darkness consumed them.

When the wave came for Ibarin, he had no choice. He slammed his palm down onto the ground, summoning every ounce of strength he had left. The floor trembled as he called up massive walls of earth, layering them one atop another and encasing each in thick shells of ice, trying to harden them as much as possible. His breathing grew ragged as he poured more and more mana into the defenses.

But the darkness did not stop.

Raze’s magic crashed into the walls and tore through them as though they were paper. It shredded stone, melted ice, and devoured everything in its path, continuing forward relentlessly. Ibarin’s teeth clenched so hard his jaw trembled, but he didn’t stop.

He couldn’t stop.

He called every fragment of mana from within his body, from his reserves, from the air itself. Finally, just before the attack could crush him entirely, he managed to force the dark wave to break apart, splintering it into harmless particles of raw energy. The attack dissolved into nothing.

But Ibarin’s body was shaking. His chest heaved violently as sweat streaked down his face. He had survived, but barely.

For the first time, Raze’s eyes softened. He hadn’t expected Ibarin to fall to that strike alone, not truly. Still, he found himself oddly thankful.

If he hadn’t been so afraid of the attack... if he hadn’t been forced to defend himself with everything he had... it might have reached the others behind him,

An attack of that scale would have shattered the barrier protecting the spectators. It could have torn through the stands and left dozens injured, or worse. Just in case, Raze had already been preparing himself to cancel his own strike halfway through, ready to abandon it if it veered off course.

But Ibarin had stopped it.

"You... you... you!" Ibarin’s voice cracked as he shouted. His body trembled, his eyes wild. "That was Dark Magic. That was Dark Magic you just used!"

More words fought to spill from his lips, but they tangled together, tripping over his shock. His breath hitched in sharp gasps.

He had fought Raze before. He had seen this darkness before. But this, this was different.

The Dark Magic that had been unleashed felt purer than anything he had faced in their previous encounters. And not just purer, stronger. It was as though another unseen force had been pushing behind it, driving it forward, forcing him to use every drop of his magic to erase it.

With that single strike, Ibarin realized something dreadful. Raze was not merely powerful.

The boy standing in front of him might be even stronger than the Dark Magus of old.

That realization chilled him to the core.

And Ibarin was not the only one who had seen it.

There was another thing that the attack had revealed, something even more dangerous than its power.

It had revealed that the student currently standing on the arena floor... was using Dark Magic.

"That was Dark Magic, right? I’ve never seen it before," one voice whispered from the crowd, trembling with a mix of fear and awe. "But it looked exactly like the old televised footage... or the recordings in the archives."

"Yeah... yeah, that has to be Dark Magic," another replied, louder, the edge of panic rising. "Which means... which means that person... he’s part of the Dark Guild."

"Crap... crap, you’re saying one of the students here is actually a member of the Dark Guild? What are we supposed to do? Shouldn’t we get out of here right now?"

"I mean, what if he’s not the only one? What if this is some kind of coordinated attack?"

"Hey, come on," someone else cut in sharply. "It’s one thing to sneak in a few people here and there, but to coordinate an entire assault in front of the Grand Magus? No. They’d have to be completely insane to try something like that."

"Insane or not, did you even see that attack?" another shot back. "That wasn’t just strong, it was strong enough to go head-to-head with the Grand Magus, and he was taking it seriously. That can’t just be anyone from the Dark Guild. No normal member could do that."

The whispers swelled into a tide, voices overlapping, rising louder and louder as the realization began to spread.

"Wait..." one guest said, his words slicing through the noise. "A Dark Guild member who uses a sword... and is unbelievably powerful... We’ve seen him before. We all saw it, broadcasted everywhere. This has to be him. This has to be the Dark Magus!"

"What? No... isn’t the Dark Magus supposed to be some old man? And isn’t he dead?"

"Are you living under a rock?" another scoffed. "Not the old one. The new Dark Magus. The one who used sword skills and set the entire Dark Guild into chaos in the first place."

The ripple became a wave. A wave of shock. Of awe. Of fear.

Guest after guest started reaching the same conclusion.

The person standing on the arena floor, the student who had just unleashed that monstrous attack, was the new Dark Magus. And unlike before, this time, everyone could see his face clearly. There was no mistaking him.

And Raze knew it.

He knew what their eyes were seeing. He knew what their minds were piecing together.

This was the risk he had accepted.

He had known from the moment he chose to strike that after taking down Ibarin, everything would change. The other three Grand Magus would not be easy to eliminate, not when it was now obvious that he was coming for them.

The veil was gone.

The whispers grew louder.

Some of the crowd began to rise from their seats, thinking that perhaps they should flee, that staying might be foolish, even suicidal. Yet only a few actually moved.

Because the truth was undeniable,

Watching a fight between the Grand Magus and the Dark Magus was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

And none of them wanted to miss it.

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