Dark Magus Returns

Chapter 1689: The Secret Of Trubin (Part 2)

Song remained in the tea room, standing near the shadowed corner as he waited for the final casualty reports to trickle in from his subordinates. In this moment of extreme vulnerability, he believed the most important person to stay close to was the Dark Magus. The air in the room was thick with the scent of bitter herbs and the metallic tang of blood that refused to dissipate.

He found himself increasingly intrigued, and perhaps a little unsettled, by what he was hearing. Raze wasn’t being careful with his words; the time for secrecy had long since passed. With a Grand Magus breathing down their necks, Raze didn’t seem to care who knew about his past, his true identity, or the fact that his knowledge hailed from a world far beyond their own.

However, Song couldn’t remain silent after Raze’s last revelation. It sounded like a heresy that challenged the very foundation of their magical society.

"One of the Grand Magus, the paragons of the magical world, knowing Dark Magic?" Song said, his voice a mixture of skepticism and dread. "That has to be impossible. It would undermine everything they stand for."

"Really?" Raze replied, his eyes glowing with a cold, predatory light. "After everything you have seen the Grand Magus do—the wars they’ve fueled, the lives they’ve discarded—you think learning Dark Magic is beneath them? You think they wouldn’t keep the ultimate weapon a secret just to ensure no one else could ever challenge them?

"In the first place, the only reason I was able to fight on equal footing against the Grand Magus in the past was because of my advantage in using Dark Magic," Raze continued, pacing the small room. "They didn’t have any counters to the various applications of the dark arts. They were used to fighting fire with ice, not fighting life with death."

In particular, Raze remembered the terror in the eyes of his enemies when he would use the corpses of their own fallen comrades to create Dark Magic explosions. It wasn’t a technique he used frequently now, mainly because he lacked the high-tier skills he once possessed, and he often found it more efficient to combine a mass of Dark Magic with the physical lethality of the Dark Edge sword arts.

"Seeing how useful it was against them, I have no doubt they decided to dabble in it themselves," Raze said. "Remember, Dark Magic was forbidden by the old Emperor, a man dead and buried for centuries. It wasn’t the current Grand Magus who made the law; they simply inherited it and used it as a leash. The real question is whether Trubin is exactly like me—if he possesses a Dark Core."

The room went silent at the mention of the Core. To mages, the core was the soul.

"With his involvement in the past, Trubin was always the one sent to ’clean up,’" Raze explained. "Any dispute the other mages had, any budding wars, any criminal organizations that grew too bold—Trubin was the eraser. If he had a Dark Core, he was given free reign to kill as many as he wished under the guise of justice. For years, he would have been growing his Dark Affinity by feeding on the very lives he was ordered to take."

This was the realization that truly worried Raze. There had been signs all along, breadcrumbs left in the ruins of his old life that he had failed to connect until now. The major one was his special vault at the Academy. It was a hidden treasury where he kept high-tier beast crystals and unique artifacts, sealed with a lock that responded only to a specific frequency of Dark Magic. He had found it opened, its contents pillaged.

At the time, he figured it had to be a high-ranking official with a specialized artifact. It never occurred to him that one of the Grand Magus could simply walk up and unlock it with their own power.

"Those filthy hypocrites," Liam spat, clenching his fists until his knuckles turned white. "They hunt us like animals for using the very power they use to keep their thrones. But it’s fine, right? You’re the Dark Magus. In a showdown of pure darkness, you’ll win. And don’t worry—I have your back."

"I think we might all need each other’s backs," B chuckled, though there was no humor in her eyes. She leaned against the wall with her arms folded tightly across her chest. "After what happened today, I don’t think a single person or minor group is going to join your cause. Those who were on the fence certainly won’t come over now. In their eyes, you failed the most basic test: the ability to protect your own allies."

"What? That’s not fair!" Londo complained, his voice rising in frustration. "The Dark Magus saved the people in this room! The only reason half of them are breathing is because he stepped in!"

"I’m afraid the woman is right," Song said, sighing as he looked out the window at the survivors huddled in the courtyard. "This was supposed to be the safest place in the North. To the guild leaders, the Dark Magus was an invincible figure of legend. Instead, they watched their peers get slaughtered like sheep by an invisible ghost while the Dark Magus struggled to find the killer. The mystery of the Noble Guild’s strength is now perceived as greater than the mystery of yours."

The atmosphere grew even heavier a few moments later when a messenger from the River Moon Guild burst into the room, pale and trembling. He whispered a report into Song’s ear, and the Guild Leader’s face visibly drained of color.

Song turned to Raze, his voice hollow. "The leaders who didn’t turn up to the meeting... the ones we thought were just cowardly or delayed... they’ve all been found. Every single one of them was executed in their homes or on the road. Trubin didn’t just attack us here. He conducted a simultaneous purge across the entire region."

The scale of the operation was breathtaking. It was a total decapitation of the Northern resistance in a single night.

"This is what I expected once I realized it was Trubin," Raze said, his voice as sharp as a razor. He stood up, the Dark Magic swirling around his feet once more. "He wants us isolated. He wants us alone. Fine. We will do as I originally planned. I leave tomorrow. We will march, and we will see if there is anyone left with enough blood in their veins to fight, or if they prefer to wait for the invisible blade to find them in their beds."