Eston continued his barrage, and he had done so from a distance. Every time he used his powers, wind magic would be forced out of his body, making it hard for anyone to approach him easily.
The ten swords flew away, and Raze immediately swung his sword before the swords came to him. In doing so, a large red slash had come out.
“Crimson Slash!”
Raze was using the Devil’s Formation with his wind magic to create a strong wind attack of his own. When it hit the sword, it had broken it apart, but there were more swords on his way.
Raze continued to swing his sword, creating Crimson Slashes of his own, and then with the remaining swords, he swung his arms, hitting them away. The ten swords had become next to nothing, and now he had directed a Crimson Slash right at Eston.
Seeing this, Eston flew forward, and a large cannon of air came out from his hands. It had destroyed the Crimson Slash instantly, and the air had hit Raze, sending him flying off his feet.
Right from above, another large cannon of air was shot out; Eston was above. Raze tried to cover himself with his sword, but his whole body was chucked into the ground.
A loud bang was heard, and vibrations shook the floor as Raze’s body indented the floor, creating cracks around the area.
“What a foolish, foolish child, I am a commander in Idore’s Noble Guild for a reason! I’m sure you know of me; I am Eston, the only person who has ever left the Ortian Guild. You never had a chance against me, even with your martial arts and Dark Magic,” Eston claimed.
Lifting both of his hands in the air, two more vortexes were growing in his palm. It was the large move that was used against Amir that had pinned him into the floor, and unlike Amir, Raze, although a magician and a Pagna warrior, was not a hybrid; this attack could very well kill him.
Alba was grinding her teeth when she saw this. So far, Raze was putting up a good fight, and a better fight than any of them could do in their condition.
“Haha, it looks like your only hope is going to die, and then the same will happen to all of you!” The squad leader stated.
Out of anger, Alba jumped up in the air with her swords. Seeing this, the squad leader reacted, firing out two lightning bolts from his hand. Alba was able to block one of them, but the other had hit her.
It caused her to wince in pain, but she bore through it as she slashed her sword down. In doing so, it was met with an electrical current that was created by the squad leader’s two hands.
Both of his hands were producing an electric current, and both of Alba’s blades were stuck in it.
‘My Qi, it’s almost completely gone; otherwise, my sword strike would have gone right through this!’ Alba, still angry, lifted up her foot and kicked the mage in the stomach, sending him tumbling in the sand.
She then turned to look and could see the large attack being prepared. Raze looked like he had tried to move, but he had been picked up by wind and had completely been surrounded in it.
He was swinging his sword trying to attack the wind that was keeping him in, but it wasn’t working.
‘I thought he had a plan when the sword reached his hands.’ Alba thought. When looking at the Dark Magus and the sword in his hand, an image had appeared in her mind.
There was a time when she had seen him do a devastating attack; it was against the Dimension boss they had gone up against. It was clear Raze had more power than this before, and he was stronger now, so why wasn’t he using such things?
The answer had soon become quite clear. Raze, wishing to get out of the trap that he was in, just waiting to be destroyed by a large attack from Eston, he desperately held up his sword and gathered his Dark Magic.
He surrounded it with his Qi, using both, but before he could even swing the sword down, it had crumbled; the Dark Magic powered with Qi had completely destroyed the sword, making it fall apart.
‘Wait, is that it, is it his power, is his strength too strong, that the sword can’t handle it?’ Alba thought.
Images of Raze talking in the cave underneath came to her head. When he had obtained a special material, he had asked for a new sword. There was a reason he had asked; there had to be one.
It was as if he could foresee this happening, his weapons not handling such strength. It wasn’t a common thing to happen to warriors, but Raze was not a regular warrior.
Scanning the desert floor though, that’s when she could see it, the sword that they had created for Raze. It had moved quite a distance away because of the constant attacks, but it was right there.
‘I need to get him that sword!’ Alba ran straight to the cloth in the sand.
While doing this, the mage could see her, and with his hand out, he activated his lightning attack hitting her bottom right foot. She was too weak, and tumbled to the ground at that point, rolling over.
“It seems like you have something planned; did you think I would just let you do what you want?” The squad leader stated.
Alba was reaching out to the weapon ahead of her. She needed to get it to Raze, but if she turned her back again, then the mage would continue to attack her.
While looking at the weapon wrapped in cloth though, a certain individual had picked it up from the ground.
“It seems you were after this,” Amir said, pulling out the Dark sword that was pulsating with power up and down its center.
“I assume, this is for him,” Amir said as he turned around, his arm had transformed into the large black mass it was before, and with the power of Qi, he hurled it right at Raze.
The sword flew through the air and broke through the tornado that was surrounding the area.
Noticing the large amount of energy, Raze had turned, and just in time, he grabbed onto the hilt. His feet were dragged across the floor a bit, but now he had the sword in his hand.
“This is… the ghost blade… the new ghost blade,” Raze said, as a smile started to appear.
Chapter 442 My Specialty Is Dark Magic
Due to someone surviving an attack of his before, Eston wanted to make sure this was a one-spell kill. He needed to, in some ways because eventually, his Breakthrough form would come to an end, and if he didn’t get rid of all the troublesome ones, he would need to rely on the others to handle matters, and they didn’t seem to be doing well so far.
So he trapped Raze with his wind magic and had been casting up a strong spell, storing up his magic; it was finally ready.
“Vortex Crusher!” Eston swung both of his hands to the ground. The giant vortexes of wind started twisting around each other, producing strong currents before they had become one heading right to where Raze was.
With the new sword in his hand, the smile on Raze’s face grew larger, but he could tell that an attack was coming from above.
‘I don’t have time to perform the descending steps, but I have to do what I can to stop this attack.’
Raze then lifted the sword above his head with both hands. He inputted his Qi into the sword, and he had done so in condensed form, what he had managed to learn from his time with an injured throat and using his skills.
Condensing his Qi down, he supercharged the sword. The effect of the ghost blade made it so the sword was glowing with even more power than before.
Right after that, Dark Magic was swirling around Raze’s body, around his arms it covered the sword until it was completely black in color.
“Dark Edge Magic Sword Arts, the Second Formation, Eclipse Strike!” Raze swung his sword down right at the time the Vortex Crusher spell had hit.
The top of his sword had hit the point of the attack, and the Dark energy was unleashed right into the air.
A giant shockwave went out, blowing the sand a kilometer from where they were. Some of the mages fell from their feet and were chucked backward.
While the Crimson Crane members had to keep their ground with what Qi they had left.
The power pulsated out and went through their bodies. Such pure energy swirling in the air, they had never felt it before.
“Did he do it?” Froma asked, trying to peek through the dust. “Did he win the fight?”
“Well, that other one looks to still be fine,” Elvlin pointed at the sky.
They could see that Eston was unhurt and was slowly coming back down to the ground. The glow around his body was still there.
The mages, seeing this, were rejoicing; they were almost cheering for victory, that was until the sand had cleared up a bit more, and they could see that Raze was fine as well.
He stood, holding onto the sword in his hand, unharmed apart from the wounds he had received before.
“You!” Eston said; his entire body was shaking. “You managed to stop that, what sort of magic was that!”
Raze smirked in response.
“You should know, right, that was Dark Magic, but not just Dark Magic, it was mixed with a little bit of something else!”
Raze wasted no time, as he swung his sword creating another Crimson Slash, but this was bigger than the last one, and it came out from his sword far faster as well.
Eston had to lift both of his hands creating two large slashes of wind to hit the single red one, and with that, Raze was now incredibly close and right next to Eston.
“You must be getting tired, right, but for me, I’ve only just started!”
Dark Magic was spiraling around Raze’s sword, intertwined making a strange pattern. He then went ahead to strike right at Eston’s body.
The wind magic around his body was acting like a barrier; it was blowing his sword away, but that didn’t matter to Raze because he wasn’t aiming for the sword to directly hit him.
The attack from the sword, the Dark Magic started to intertwine and tangle around Eston’s legs and arms. The special sword technique used a strange sense of Qi mixed with magic, and Eston was unable to break free from it.
“The first Dark Edge Sword Art Formation, Shadow Bind,” Raze stated.
The Dark Magic was taking away his wind barrier, while the strange wrappings were holding him down.
“Finally, I can now hit you directly as well!” With his free hand, Raze gathered a fist that was covered in Darkness. ƒгeewebnovёl.com
He shifted his feet and swung it right into the face of Eston. It was a clean hit; blood spattered out of his mouth. His body would have gone flying, but it was unable to due to the Shadow Bind Formation.
Lifting up his sword, Raze then took the first descending step. His defying Qi made Eston’s body shudder. It was the first time he could feel such strong Qi going through him.
The sword was lifted in the air again using both hands from Raze. Just as he swung it down, the bindings had become undone by Eston, and he managed to use his wind magic to push him away.
Eston’s back hit the floor, and his head was covered in sweat.
His heart was racing because he was just thankful that he was able to get away at that moment.
When Eston tried to lift his feet and move from the ground, he noticed though, it was encased in Ice. As he tried to attack the ice, his whole body felt a jolt as it was being electrified.
The electricity that was hitting him was coming from none other than the White-haired mage, who was walking towards him with his sword covered in darkness.
“Do you remember what you said to me before, about how you are the only member of the Ortian Guild? I know your story… and I know who you are currently linked with, which is why I couldn’t lose this fight.”
“As you said, you are quite the famous person, aren’t you, for someone like me to know your name? Well, let me tell you something, I’m sure you have heard of my name as well.”
Eston was in a troubling situation. He was being overpowered, despite his items that gave him extra power, despite him using his breakthrough form, he was going to lose this fight.
He didn’t understand the words going through this young one’s open mouth. If he knew someone with such strength, then surely he would have remembered him.
“I am… the Dark Magus,” Raze declared.
Chapter 443 He’s Something Special Afterall
Eston’s heart was racing even faster than it was before as soon as he heard the words “Dark Magus.” Everyone in Alterian knew of the person.
He was the most famous and infamous person in all of Alterian. The reason why his heart was racing was because he believed it. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ
If Raze had simply come out and claimed that he was the Dark Magus, then Eston would have thought nothing of it, even if he was a mage that used Dark Magic.
It wasn’t like he was the only one; there were plenty of criminals that had turned to using Dark Magic, some even trying to copy the fame of the Dark Magus.
But it was what they had been through. With Eston being who he was, being as strong as he was, the number of people that could beat him, he could probably only count them on both of his hands.
Narrow that down to the number of people that knew Dark Magic that could beat him, then in his mind, it was only one.
It didn’t matter that it was really a combination of Pagna skills and magic. To him, he had lost to another mage, one that used Dark Magic, and the only thing that made sense was if this man really was the Dark Magus.
Looking at him from his sitting position, he was now looking at Raze in a completely different light.
“You said that mages should have a specialty; well, I guess you could say in the past, I was quite skilled in magic, and now I’m skilled with the sword as well,” Raze claimed.
The more Raze spoke, the deeper Eston felt his heart was going to sink. His most powerful attack was stopped; he had been tied up by strange powers, and his entire mouth was sticking… and now learning that this person was the Dark Magus, he had to get out of there.
‘I have to run, I have to live!’ Eston placed both of his hands on the floor, and with all the wind magic he had left, he blasted himself out from his position.
The ice broke from underneath him, and he started to run away.
“Retreat, everyone retreat, it’s the Dark Magus, it’s the Dark Magus!” Eston called out.
The other mages had heard the cries from Eston. Just like him, if anyone else was making these claims, they wouldn’t have believed it, but since it was their commander, the strong and powerful Eston, they all started to join him.
They gave up trying to fight with the Crimson Crane, and all of them were using their powers to get away.
“What is happening?” Lilly asked.
“I’m not sure, they’re all saying the Dark Magus’s name… why are they reacting like this?”
Alba was now by Reno’s side; she hadn’t given chase to the squad leader as he ran for dear life and was just as confused by the sight of what was occurring as everybody else.
“Did you hear what they are saying?” Reno asked.
“Yeah, I’m not sure if I’m imagining it or not, but all of those people, they’re running away now. Ever since they heard his name, the name that we have been spreading, the Dark Magus?” Alba replied.
She was confused; could such a name really strike this amount of fear in these people? The Dark Magus was a name known in Pagna as well, but it was of a talented Alchemist, not someone like this.
Based on his power, sure the Dark Magus was strong but to create this much fear, it made no sense to them.
“I’m afraid, I can’t let any of you escape. I can’t have Idore finding out about me just yet,” Raze said, as he looked down at the ground.
He hadn’t broken through to the middle stage, to the 7th stage, but he had evolved from his current 6th stage self, and he had learned to control Qi even finer than he had done before.
What this meant was there was something that Raze had unlocked which he hadn’t been able to do for a while now.
Raze stomped his feet onto the ground, performing the first descending step, he moved onto the second, a dash with his back foot.
The third was performing a jump back. The Qi was building up, growing with each step. The fourth step was produced, kicking off both feet.
Then, the fifth and sixth step, jumping from side to side. At this point, the Qi in Raze and in his weapon was so strong the whole area was already shaking.
At the same time, Raze was preparing the movements for the Eclipse Strike.
The seventh step was produced as he jumped in the air; the eighth step, he spun until his body hit the ground.
When he landed, the Qi shook the floor once more behind him and to the ground in front of him. The amount of Qi that finally needed to be controlled was growing.
The ninth step was produced, it was a kick along with a spin, and finally, there was one more step of the Descending Steps, the tenth Descending Step, a complete stop.
All of the built-up Qi in that moment was surging in Raze’s body; from his toe, it went through his body like an electrifying jolt into his weapon. The sword was covered in a dark eclipse, and the moment he stopped, Raze combined it by swinging his sword from above.
“Ten Descending Steps, Dark Edge Eclipse Strike!”
A giant wave encased the entire sky. For a moment, one area of the world looked like it was encased in darkness.
As Raze swung his sword down, a vile wave of Dark magic and power followed his sword and struck forward.
It left his sword and took out everything in its path, consuming it all. As the attack hit the mages, they disappeared in a blink, and the attack had finally reached Eston, making his body disappear too.
Like a giant pulse, the dark wave attack was seen, and taking everything with it, even destroying the sand in front of them, it looked like almost a part of the world was destroyed.
“I think… we might have been wrong about him,” Reno said, looking at the sight. “I think the Dark Magus… is a very special person.”
Chapter 444 The One You Should Be Talking To
Raze stared at the sight in front of him; the energy from his large-scale attack had dwindled down to nothing. The sand on the ground had disappeared. The mounds in the distance were gone. All that was left was part of the ground, deep thick sandstone. The sky was still there in front of him and in the very far distance, mounds of sand.
Still, there wasn’t a single person left, or a single body, and looking at it all, he could only think of a certain phrase.
“Eston, you were strong, but you were unaware, the sky that you always looked up to, that which was above you, the Grand Magus, there is another sky even above them.
“Although in my case, for me who was dragged to the bottom of the pits and always had to stare at the sky. I will drag everyone down below me, so my view is that of the top.”
These words meant a lot to Raze, and in this instance, it felt like it was the first part of his revenge. Eston played a big part in Idore’s Noble Guild. He wasn’t his right or left-hand man, but still someone high up in the Noble Guild. If anything, this matter certainly would affect him.
Looking at the sword again, Raze liked the energy he could feel. It was a good sword, even with all of his Demonic Qi and his mana, the sword was still intact and it was able to even increase the output of his attack.
‘It makes me wonder what it will be like once it’s enchanted with a new effect as well. This is a sword that will be able to last me a long time… maybe even one that will help me accomplish what I was wishing for.’
Looking at the sword made him think back to the fight. The reason why he was able to accomplish such a strong blow, all of it was mainly due to him completing the Ten Descending Steps.
‘Dame wasn’t wrong when he said, those that could master all of the ten steps would be able to beat anyone. This might even be proof of it.’
For a while now, Raze was able to perform the last two steps, the 9th and 10th, but he was only able to perform them individually.
For him, who was a master of controlling mana, when it came to controlling Qi, due to the feelings being quite similar, he was also a master at that as well.
That was what allowed him to learn so many of the steps so quickly. A technique that would take years to learn or only by the very talented to complete, Raze was able to do it because he had spent all his previous life doing such a thing.
However, Qi and mana were not exactly the same, and it was difficult for him to connect the last two steps, that was until Raze started to refine his Qi down even more.
In the state he was in placed by Feebie, he had no choice but to control each time the perfect amount of Qi he was sending through his body, otherwise it would affect himself.
After learning how to use every inch of power from Qi to its utmost best, after Safa had healed him, it allowed him greater control, enough to complete all ten of the steps.
‘My power has grown by a large amount. That woman would be rolling around in her grave if she knew how much she actually helped me.
‘I said I would turn your punishment into a reward for myself.’
Turning around from the destruction he had caused in front of him, now he was heading back to the others.
The Crimson Crane members couldn’t help but try to piece together everything that happened. They continued to stare at the aftermath of his attack.
It was something they could only imagine would come from a top-tier middle stage warrior, or a Divine being. More so, they were still confused.
Mysterious attackers coming from a portal, with powers similar to that of the Dark Magus, and once they had learned of who the Dark Magus was, they just went and vanished.
There were too many questions, and they weren’t so sure they would get answers either.
However, there was one thing that they all had witnessed that they did understand, and that was the Ten Descending Steps.
“That footwork he did before the last attack.” Alba mumbled. “Do you know how hard it is to complete all ten Descending Steps? I don’t think that there’s anyone in the Demonic Faction that can do such a thing. All those that can must be at the Divine Rank.”
“I think you’re right.” Reno said. “And this guy, he’s still at the initial stage and has those strange powers. As I said before, he really is someone special, right?”
The rest of the Crimson Crane had come together. They were trying to check if anyone was severely hurt.
The one that had been affected the most was Tilon, but it was expected with his fate being that of the defender for the Clan.
As they were in the middle of checking over everyone, they finally saw Raze approach them. For some reason, everyone felt different about him now.
The Dark Magus was a mysterious figure to them all, shrouded in mystery, but there was one thing that they were confident about.
That they, as a clan, with their strength and reputation they built up, were a bigger deal than the Dark Magus.
It was why some of them even felt that they were doing too much for the Dark Magus. That was until now. The figure looked bigger than ever, and they no longer thought of him as just a young man.
“Thank you for making this weapon for me.” Raze stated. “It held out well, and I have to thank you all for protecting me while I was in the state I was in as well.”
With the first words from Raze’s mind being thanks, the tension left them slightly, but he was still curious about a number of things.
Looking up, Raze could see the sky swirling around, almost absorbing the world that they were currently in. It wasn’t the first time he had seen something like this either.
“Why were those mages attacking you? What happened after I had passed out?” Raze asked.
It was the first time the others had heard this word, the word ‘mage,’ but they knew who he was referring to, and it was as Alba suspected, he knew what they were because he was just like them.
“If you’re wondering, your friends at the academy have escaped out of this place, but for us, we’re kinda trapped in here,” Alba explained. “Everything started to change after the Dimension Boss was beaten.”
“The portal was closed, and before we knew it, they had entered.”
Everything so far was following the same pattern that Raze expected. Somehow, the mages of Alterian must have found a way to enter dimensions that were closed to the world of Pagna.
This fact must have been hidden by Idore and his guild and the larger society of Alterian as a whole. Since it would give him an advantage.
“But why would you stay here if you defeated the Dimension Boss?” Raze asked, confused.
That’s when the rest of the Crimson Crane members stared at a particular man who was brushing sand off his clothing.
“I think you and I have quite a bit to talk about. Perhaps that includes your status as a student at the academy,” Amir said.