Dark Magus Returns

Chapter 1640: The Growing Monster (Part 1)

Shock rippled across the battlefield in a single silent wave. Every pair of eyes, Alen’s, Kelly’s, Londo’s, the remaining Dark Guild members, had locked on the same sight. Harvey’s puppet had driven its limbs straight through the bodies of his own people.

Most already believed Harvey was unhinged. Many thought he was capable of cruelty. But very few had imagined he would slaughter the Dark Guild members so openly, without hesitation, without remorse, without the slightest attempt to hide what he was doing.

"Did he really just, ?" one mage whispered, unable to finish the sentence.

Alen’s jaw tightened. His rage, already simmering, now threatened to erupt.

"If he’s willing to do this in front of his own forces, the ones who were already questioning him, does he honestly expect anyone to keep following him?"

Kelly’s expression was grim as she stepped forward. There was no surprise in her tone, only a cold acceptance.

"I think Harvey crossed that line a long time ago. He’s never seen people as people. To him, the Dark Guild is just a tool... a will he’s shaping, and if breaking that tool gives him what he wants, he won’t hesitate."

Her words struck deeper than she intended.

Because part of her, a quiet part she had tried to bury, wondered if things might have been different.

What if she had confronted Harvey when he first began to unravel?

What if she had warned him?

Told him to stop?

Forced him to face reason?

She remembered the moment he reached out to her earlier in their time with the Dark Guild. The look in his eyes had suggested loneliness... or desperation.

But now she questioned everything.

Had he always been like this, hiding his true nature until the mask finally cracked?

Or had the chaos around them, the pressure, the violence, the Dark Guild’s twisted rise, pushed him into madness piece by piece?

Her answer waited for no reflection.

The puppet’s tentacles lashed out again, stabbing through several more unsuspecting Dark Guild members. Their bodies collapsed instantly, cores shattered, Dark Magic extinguished in an instant.

A few survivors reacted on instinct, unleashing desperate blasts of Dark Magic toward the massive puppet. But their attacks dissolved the moment they struck its surface, erased so completely it was as if they had never cast anything at all.

Before they could retreat, a single whip of the puppet’s limb tore through the air and struck them down just as mercilessly.

"All of you were pathetic!" Harvey’s voice boomed over the screams and collapsing stone. "You stood there doing nothing while they attacked me. If you’re this useless alive, then I’ll make better use of you dead!"

His words were venomous, each syllable dripping with contempt.

And then something even more terrifying occurred.

As the bodies of Dark Guild members hit the ground, threads of darkness, too thin for normal eyes, but unmistakable to those who wielded magic, began drifting from the corpses, flowing directly into Harvey’s core.

His Dark Affinity surged.

Not gradually.

Not incrementally.

Violently.

Kelly’s breath caught. Londo felt bile rise in his throat. Even Sophie stumbled backward.

They understood the principle: Dark Magic grew stronger through death. The more a person killed, the more their affinity expanded. But the increase Harvey was experiencing wasn’t normal. It wasn’t gradual. It wasn’t a simple strengthening of his own abilities.

This was exponential.

Because Harvey wasn’t absorbing his own victims’ contributions,

he was absorbing everything they had ever accumulated.

Every Dark Guild member he killed passed their entire lifetime’s worth of affinity directly to him.

Kelly whispered under her breath, horrified, "Is this... is this how he became so strong? Has he been killing our own members in secret?"

The memory hit her with sickening clarity.

The Dark Guild member who had asked Harvey for permission to leave.

The man who wanted to protect someone he loved.

Harvey had agreed, but only on the condition that the person could no longer live.

She’d assumed Harvey killed him to protect the Guild’s secrecy.

But now she knew the truth.

Harvey had done it to take everything the man had built, to claim his entire Dark Affinity for himself.

And he was doing the same now.

One after another, threads of darkness poured into Harvey. His aura thickened. His presence warped the air. Even his Shadow Puppet was evolving, the limbs stretching wider, growing heavier, its shape expanding until it towered above all of them.

The puppet’s transformation did not pause. Dark spheres formed at the tips of its limbs, compressing into solid masses of magic. The air vibrated as an overwhelming number of Dark Pulses charged simultaneously.

Kelly froze.

"Move, !"

Her warning came too late.

The puppet unleashed the barrage.

Dark Pulses rained down in a relentless storm. Some slammed into Alen’s reinforced walls, shattering them instantly. Others tore through the ground, carving trenches of destruction across the Underside. Several shots pierced through the nearby Shelter’s outer walls, collapsing parts of the structure entirely.

Screams echoed from within.

People, noncombatants, civilians, families hiding inside, were struck by the pulses. They didn’t stand a chance. One hit was enough to kill them instantly.

And every death fed Harvey.

He grew stronger with every second.

Londo’s heart pounded in his ears as he shielded his face from the dust. He watched Harvey with wide, terrified eyes.

"We can’t beat him... we can’t beat that thing. We need to leave, we have to run!"

No one argued.

No one even considered standing their ground.

Because in that moment, it became painfully clear:

Harvey was no longer a man.

He wasn’t even a mage.

He was something else entirely, something monstrous, fueled by a cycle of death he had created himself.

A monster that grew every time he killed. And he wasn’t finished. Not even close.

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