Dark Magus Returns

Chapter 1746  Trapped (Part 1)

Going through the opulent, winding hallways of the grand palace, Raze continued to meet a relentless tide of high-level mages. His blade dripped with blood, and his dark mana flared with every step. There wasn't a single opponent he encountered that was below the eight-star level. It was an astonishing concentration of elite power. As he deflected another lethal barrage of spells, Raze could only imagine how long Idore had been meticulously planning all of this in the shadows. What kind of unimaginable wealth, power, or forbidden knowledge had Idore promised these elites to entice them to abandon their posts and join his treasonous side?

One thing was abundantly clear: the difficulty of the infiltration certainly increased exponentially as one progressed through each of the defensive walls. The inner sanctum, located deep past the third wall, was the ultimate defense line of the palace, and Raze could intimately see why.

If he had come here even a fraction weaker than he currently was, or if he hadn't been actively utilizing the raw, chaotic power of his breakthrough, he would have perished mere moments after stepping inside. The mages waiting for him weren't just terrifyingly high-star leveled; they were also armed to the teeth with an array of highly enchanted equipment.

These were the kinds of legendary artifacts and protective talismans that would have easily made any one of these individuals the head of a major guild. But Raze had his breakthrough. With the manifestation of his Black Hole, he possessed the ultimate counter. The swirling void of dark energy hovering near him acted as a gravitational sink for magic, allowing him to absorb and nullify nearly the entire effect of any enchanted item that was activated against him.

For some of the more complex ranged spells, he still needed to get closer to physically strike the caster. However, relying on his deep reserves of Qi and his monstrously strong, reinforced body, it was easy for him to bridge the gap and move exactly to where he needed to be. Knowing there was a strict time limit before his breakthrough state collapsed, Raze didn't even stop to breathe. He pushed forward like a force of nature.

He dealt with a large cluster of them in the grand hallway, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake, and then seamlessly moved to the next area, entering what looked like a rather large, ornate reception room. Immediately, he heard the heavy hinges groan as the double doors began to open from the other side.

Raze didn't hesitate. He already leapt high into the air.

Before the door had even fully opened, his sword flashed downwards. The blade struck the extending arm of a hidden mage attempting to cast a spell through the crack, slicing the limb off clean at the elbow. A scream echoed from the other side, but Raze was already moving. In the narrow gap between the heavy doors, Raze thrust another sword directly in. He channeled his energy and blasted a concentrated wave of Dark Magic straight through the steel, hitting whoever was standing on the other side of the room with a devastating explosion of black force.

The palace was extremely large, but worse than its size was its layout; it was a maddening labyrinth. The spatial enchantments and the various reality-warping items being used by the defenders constantly changed the internal structure. In some cases, Raze had burst through a door only to enter what looked like a completely upside-down room, complete with several doors placed on the "ceiling" and "walls." Gravity seemed to twist in upon itself, so he truly didn't know if he was going up or down within the palace's architecture.

But there was one simple truth that made things much easier to process: every single mage he had come across in this palace was an enemy. There were no innocents here.

And then, the chaos suddenly ceased.

Raze was unsure of exactly how many he had killed in his bloody sprint through the labyrinth. He hadn't been keeping track of the bodies, but it had to be at least over fifty mages. Fifty of the highest-star mages in existence. Taking out that many elites meant he had single-handedly wiped out a massive percentage of the top-tier combatants in the whole world of Alterian.

Yet, they had finally stopped coming to him. Ever since he had breached the palace, they had swarmed him non-stop, tracking him perfectly as if they knew exactly where he was at all times. And yet, the sudden, eerie silence made Raze believe he had finally reached the end of their ranks.

Entering another grand hallway, this one lined with large, imposing doors leading to different, unknown locations, he decided to make a necessary stop. There were no longer any enemies immediately rushing his position, and the critical time limit had finally passed.

One major thing had ended: his Breakthrough.

The adrenaline vanished, replaced by a crushing weight. His body almost felt like it wanted to collapse in on itself as he was violently drained of energy. He was completely drained of mana; the familiar, comforting flow of magical energy no longer coursed through his body. He stumbled to the side of the corridor and slid down the wall, sitting heavily on the cold stone floor for a moment.

'I still have Qi left…' Raze thought, his chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath. 'But it still feels incredibly weird to be completely devoid of mana for a moment. And even my Qi reserves are running dangerously low. Those mages were a lot harder to put down than I originally thought.'

Although Raze was currently resting, his mind raced with anxiety. He didn't want to stop. The longer he was stuck in this labyrinth, resting against a wall, the longer his allies outside were fighting for their lives. But this brief rest was absolutely necessary in order for his muscles to recover so he could move faster later and make the right, clear-headed decisions about what to do next.

'Those mages… they were only that tough because of the sheer quality of the enchanted items they were wielding,' Raze analyzed, his eyes narrowing in the dim light. 'And during the fight, I even recognized some of those artifacts. Some of them were legendary items originally protected inside my secret vault at the Academy—a vault where only a nine-star mage could ever gain access.'

The pieces clicked into place. The Central Academy had been destroyed to make way for Noble land, and that meant the subterranean vaults and the items that were secretly protected and hidden away were suddenly exposed and vulnerable. Turbin, being a high-level threat, was most likely the one who had cracked the vault, accessed the treasures, and handed the priceless items out to the other mages to bolster Idore's forces.

It was yet another reason why Idore must have been so incredibly confident in Raze's inevitable failure if he ever made it to the third wall. The irony of the situation was that while Raze was fighting for his life, using his Black Hole on the incoming attacks ended up destroying those precious items completely. They were consumed by the void, meaning he couldn't even loot them to use for himself or his allies.

Not that they were any stronger than the God Tier Blazer he had personally created, or the other specialized cursed items he had forged for the other members of his group anyway. Still, it would have been good to gather them to give to his weaker allies for extra support.

Thinking of the Central Academy brought a different, slightly warmer thought to his exhausted mind. Raze was immensely thankful that during the period of warning that Idore had arrogantly given, the students had actually listened. They had evacuated the premises and had even moved completely out of Central City, seeking refuge far away from this epicenter of destruction, just like a lot of the smarter citizens had done.

Raze took one final, deep breath, pulling the ambient air into his lungs and circulating the last dregs of his Qi to revitalize his aching muscles.

'Alright, I've rested enough. I can't afford to stay here,' Raze figured, slowly pushing himself up from the wall. 'Now, I need to find an exit out of this damned place somehow.'

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