Dark Magus Returns

Chapter 1765  The Weight of Peace

The entirety of Idore’s physical form had been completely absorbed into the wind, and the last, tyrannical Grand Magus was finally gone from the world. But strangely, in that exact, quiet moment of absolute victory, Raze felt something completely unexpected deep within his own magic core.

It was a tiny, almost microscopic flicker of a brand-new affinity.

‘Hah… is this some sort of cosmic joke? Is this your pathetic way of annoying me until the bitter end, Idore?’ Raze wondered, a tired, ironic smirk crossing his face.

Due to just how overwhelmingly dense and pure Raze’s Dark magic affinity was, he had logically never thought he would ever be physically able to harbor any sort of connection with Light magic. It was biologically impossible. But after forcefully using the Extraction Technique directly on Idore to drain his Breakthrough, it seemed he had inadvertently unlocked the smallest, most infinitesimal spark of it within his own soul.

It absolutely wouldn’t be useful to be used in actual battle by any means—the spark was far too weak to even cast a cantrip—but the reason why Raze made his sarcastic comment was that it almost felt like a tiny, stubborn part of Idore’s legacy was now always going to live on inside of Raze’s core.

Slowly looking up, Raze stared into the vast, clear blue Alterian sky as the dark clouds finally parted. He couldn’t fully believe it. The crushing weight that had sat on his chest for lifetimes was suddenly lifting. He had finally done it.

“I finally took care of them. I wiped out all of the Grand Magus,” Raze whispered to himself, his voice raspy and exhausted. “It was so incredibly tough… it was so agonizingly hard. After absolutely everything I was forced to go through in Alterian…”

Raze closed his eyes, the ghosts of his past flashing behind his eyelids.

“And from there, after everything I went through in Pagna… I hunted them down. I got them all, one by one. I finally avenged you all. My friends… my love. Sabrina… I finally did it.”

Raze slowly opened his eyes. He planted his boots firmly on the cracked stone, placed both of his battered hands by his sides, and drew in a breath. With the absolute last bit of refined Qi he had left in his exhausted body, he screamed at the top of his lungs.

“ARGHHHHH!!!!!”

His supercharged voice violently rang out, echoing like thunder over the ruined floating platform and shaking all the way down to the battlefields of the Noble Land below.

“I… THE DARK MAGUS, RAZE CROMWELL!! No… WE! WE HAVE DEFEATED THE GRAND MAGUS!”

The thundering words were clearly heard by absolutely everyone still breathing on the continent. Down in the chaotic trenches, there were those who stood frozen in pure, paralyzed disbelief. But there were also those terrified Noble Guild soldiers standing on the other elevated areas of the crater who had physically seen what had just happened. In seeing the blinding light of their god violently snuffed out, they simply dropped the heavy weapons they held in their hands. The steel clattered loudly against the stone.

The impossible word was rapidly spreading like wildfire. The remaining Noble Guild members who had still been fiercely fighting the Pagna warriors suddenly stopped. They desperately wanted to not believe the booming declaration, while simultaneously, deep down in their exhausted souls, wishing it was true so the bloodshed would finally end.

Since a part of the Guild’s military force was forcefully conscripted to comply in all of this madness through fear, when they looked up and saw there was absolutely no divine response or counter-attack to Raze’s bold claim… when they physically felt the Grand Magus’s oppressive, suffocating aura completely disappear from the atmosphere… they had no choice but to believe it was true.

And with more and more soldiers dropping to their knees, no longer wishing to throw their lives away for a dead tyrant, the commanding officers of the Noble Guild knew that the apocalyptic battle had already been definitively lost. The remaining members had absolutely no choice but to officially surrender.

What would happen to them now, they had no idea. Whether they would be ruthlessly executed or eternally hated by the general public that inevitably took over the shattered government, it didn’t matter right now. The war was over.

As for Raze, exactly three seconds after shouting his triumphant words to the world, the adrenaline completely left his system. His eyes rolled back into his head, and he collapsed right on the spot, falling hard against the stone and instantly passing out.

When Raze finally started to slowly flutter his eyes open, the first thing he noticed was that he was staring blankly up at a perfectly pristine, white plaster ceiling. And he was lying comfortably in a rather soft, warm bed.

It was abundantly clear he was safely tucked away in a luxurious bedroom of sorts, far away from the rubble of the battlefield. But as he tried to shift his aching body, he could distinctly feel something rather heavy and warm resting directly across his stomach.

When he weakly tilted his head and looked down, he saw Rayna. She was sitting in a chair pulled close to the mattress, but she had leaned forward, resting her head gently on his stomach, her arms wrapped loosely around his waist. She, too, had fallen into a deep, exhausted sleep.

‘Was she carefully caring for me this whole time? Or stubbornly keeping guard so no one could hurt me?’ Raze thought, a soft, genuine smile touching his lips as he looked at her peaceful, sleeping face.

He imagined she had to be incredibly physically and emotionally tired as well after the war they had just waged, so he didn’t quite want to move and risk waking her up.

‘I owe them all so much,’ Raze thought, staring at the ceiling as his memories of the final clash returned. ‘If it wasn’t for their unshakeable loyalty, if they hadn’t stood as my shield… then there is a very good chance that I would have violently lost that fight. I would have never completed my ultimate goal. But now… it’s actually all over.’

Right then, the heavy wooden door to the bedroom was violently thrown open, and Liam came striding casually inside.

“Hey! You’re awake! The boss is finally awake!” Liam shouted at the top of his lungs, his booming voice echoing down the corridor.

The sudden noise caused Rayna to violently jolt awake. She gasped, snapping her head up.

“What?! Huh?! You… you are awake! And you saw me… you saw me sleeping on you…” Rayna stammered, her face instantly starting to turn bright, burning red as she scrambled backward, nearly knocking her chair over in embarrassment.

However, Liam’s obnoxious shouting down the hallway had already done its job. It quickly caused nearly the entirety of the Crimson Crane—as well as Kelly, Alen, and Londo—to come sprinting desperately toward the room. They had all excitedly tried to rush in at the exact same time, causing a hilarious, chaotic bottleneck as they shoved each other, having trouble squeezing their armored shoulders through the single doorframe.

Until they eventually spilled into the room, surrounding the bed.

“Raze! Raze! Thank the gods, Raze!”

Absolutely everyone was excitedly speaking at once, their voices overlapping in a wave of overwhelming relief. Raze couldn’t even follow a single coherent sentence of what they were saying, to the point he finally had to lift his heavy, bandaged hand up to silence the room.

“Wait… wait, please. Give me a second,” Raze rasped, his throat dry. “I clearly remember defeating Idore, hitting the ground, and instantly passing out. Exactly how long have I been out cold?”

“How long?” Liam answered, crossing his arms with a relieved grin. “It’s been about a full week, mate.”

“A week?” Raze blinked, stunned.

“You were completely, biologically exhausted,” Alba said, stepping forward.

Raze noticed she was now wearing a sleek, black leather eyepatch diagonally over her left eye. Even though she didn’t technically need it for cosmetic reasons—as her eye physically looked just fine, perfectly intact—the curse of her weapon had rendered her completely and permanently unable to see out of it. It was a grim badge of honor.

“You aggressively used absolutely everything you had in your core,” Alba continued softly. “Or maybe this coma was just your body’s ultimate way of forcing you to finally rest, after carrying that burden and doing everything you possibly could for lifetimes.”

Raze nodded slowly, absorbing the reality. “What exactly happened while I was asleep?”

“Well, there’s quite a lot to tell you regarding the surrender of the Noble Guild and the state of the continent,” Amir said, stepping up beside the bed with a serious expression. “But… there is also a rather pressing, small issue at hand right now as well. Currently, we are entirely stuck here in Alterian. We can’t use the Golden Globe to teleport back to Pagna… until next month.”

**