Dark Magus Returns

Chapter 1725  Limits Of Dark Magic

Through the countless trials Raze had gone through alongside his allies in Pagna, there was one thing he had learned without a shred of doubt. He could trust them. When it came to accomplishing what needed to be done, they wouldn’t fail him. They didn’t need his constant oversight, and they didn’t need him stepping in to fix their mistakes. They would take care of the towers.

Because of that, for the first time since this battle had begun, Raze was finally able to focus fully on a single opponent.

Trubin.

“Trubin!” Raze called out as he lifted his sword once more, activating the Eternal Night formation. Darkness spread instantly, swallowing the area whole as thick waves of Dark Magic surged outward just like before. The world itself seemed to dim as shadows layered upon shadows, and right after that, the magic flowed and shifted, forming two small, almost wing-like extensions along the blade of his sword. At the same time, massive dark wings erupted from Raze’s back, pulsing with raw power.

He held the sword carefully, feeling the weight of the magic coursing through it, and with his other hand, Raze summoned a second weapon. This one crackled violently with lightning, arcs of electricity snapping through the air as it appeared in his grip.

“You might think,” Raze said calmly, his voice steady despite the overwhelming power filling the space, “that because of our last few encounters, I am no match for you. But I was conserving myself. I was making sure I had enough energy to take on the entirety of the Noble Guild… as well as you and Idore.”

“Really?” a voice replied.

It echoed from everywhere at once, reverberating through the darkness as if they were standing inside an endless tunnel. There was no single source, no clear direction.

Raze reacted instantly.

He swung his sword downward in a piercing arc, Dark Magic exploding violently at the point of impact as the ground beneath shattered. The attack clearly struck something, sending ripples of power outward.

“It seems,” Trubin said as his form appeared in the air above the impact point, “that despite my invisibility trait, you can see exactly where I am. In that case, let’s stop playing games and make this a contest of power.”

Stretching out his arms, Trubin released his magic.

Dark orbs erupted from his body all at once, dozens upon dozens appearing as if they were being cast from every pore of his skin rather than from his hands. They hovered in the air around him, condensed masses of pure Dark Magic, humming with destructive intent. A moment later, they fired.

Dark Pulses shot out in every direction, all of them aimed directly at Raze.

Raze moved.

Using the wings on his back, he surged forward, swinging both of his weapons in rapid succession. Dark Pulses shattered upon impact, exploding or being deflected as Raze cut through them with precision. It felt as if he were fighting hundreds of Dark Mages at once, each attack powerful enough to be lethal on its own.

If Raze relied solely on Dark Magic, he could tell immediately that Trubin would overwhelm him.

But something had changed.

There was an intense focus building inside Raze, something sharper than before. Instead of moving at his maximum speed, instead of overwhelming Trubin with brute force, Raze slowed himself down. Each swing was deliberate. Each movement calculated. He cut through attacks cleanly, weaving between pulses as if he were reading the flow of magic itself.

Seeing this, Trubin wasn’t about to let the battle remain the same.

He stretched his arms outward again, and this time, hundreds of circular, flame-like orbs appeared in the air around him. Unlike before, these burned with fire magic, blazing fiercely as heat distorted the air itself. In the next instant, they fired, streams of fire magic mixing with the Dark Pulses.

The attack doubled.

Darkness and fire surged toward Raze together, a relentless storm of magic.

‘I see,’ Raze thought as he moved. ‘This is how Trubin earned his reputation as a one-man army.’

Before, Raze had been flustered, forced on the defensive. Now, with his focus sharpened and his energy controlled, he could see the structure behind the chaos.

‘I can deal with this.’

Raising his sword, Raze gathered the swirling Eternal Night around the blade, forming what looked like a Darkness Eclipse. The shadows condensed tightly, spinning violently as he swung downward. The attack carved through a massive section of the floating orbs, erasing them instantly as they vanished into nothingness.

He moved to repeat the attack on the other side—

And that was when it happened.

A massive lightning bolt pierced straight through Raze’s stomach.

The impact forced his body to tense as electricity surged through him. The pain was sharp, stinging, but not piercing in the way he expected. Before he could fully react, lightning erupted again, striking his entire body at once.

Raze realized too late what had happened.

Lightning bolts embedded in the ground flared simultaneously, connecting through him as Dark Magic surged alongside the electricity. It was a spell Raze himself had used before, one that required either an immense amount of preparation or a massive gap in power between caster and target.

In this case, Trubin had used neither advantage directly.

Instead, while Raze had been dealing with the relentless assault of Dark and fire magic, Trubin had been setting up a third attack entirely unnoticed.

“You call yourself a master of Dark Magic, Raze,” Trubin said as he lifted his hand. “But there are still things you don’t know.”

Dark Magic gathered in Trubin’s palm, shaping itself into the form of a lightning bolt. At the same time, he raised his other hand, pulling the surrounding lightning toward it. The two energies merged, darkening and intensifying as they combined into a single, terrifying construct.

Darkness and lightning fused together.

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