Dark Magus Returns

Chapter 1017: Feeling Trapped

Surprised looks spread across the room, even from Lince who was meant to be Raze’s ally in this situation. Such a powerful warrior the world didn’t know about was in front of them. Something that he should have known about, and now they hear that Raze had freed him, from where, from what, just what was going on.

Those in the Light Faction were more nervous than before but were still confused by the whole situation. The only thing they were thankful for was that fighting hadn’t broken out yet between everyone present.

“I wasn’t the one that freed you,” Raze answered. “I was trying to stop what was happening and I didn’t even know what was happening. I was just in the same place at the same time.” They waited for Mosak’s response which was a shrug of the shoulders.

“You played your part in all of it, and I was able to descend because of it, so I thank you.” Raze was remembering back to that moment. Learning that those in the Dark Faction from the Lethal Bite Clan were trying to summon a Divine warrior from above to help them. Not just summon a Divine warrior but do so with the Divine warrior keeping their power.

Putting them in a host body of sorts, so there wouldn’t have the same limitations if a Divine warrior normally came down from the Divine realm. In the end, it was somewhat of a success so this man in front of them had incredibly great strength, and Raze knew that as well.

Lince hearing Raze’s words thought he had a better idea of the situation so he quickly moved to Raze’s right side.

“That man is also the one that we were talking about before, he calls himself Mosak,” Lince explained. “All of us had to team up in order to go against him, so I’m just warning you, he’s a very dangerous person, even for us.”

An unexpected variable to the Golden Globe Raze thought. He didn’t know how much of a pain this person would be, and whether he was just in this situation for his own benefit or not. Maybe, if Mosak understood, there would be a situation where Raze didn’t have to fight him, because he was unsure he could take on someone from the Divine realm, not while his magic was still at the 6th stage, and not while he hadn’t figured out how to use his Dark Core Breakthrough either.

“I have an idea of who you are,” Raze said and then lifted his hand pointing at the man next to him. “But you, who are you? I’ve seen that outfit before, so I can tell that you’re an

Otherworlder, are you with Alter?”

Red smiled in response to the question that was being asked.

“Why are you asking questions that you already know the answer to, but you should be careful who you point your finger at. Because it might be the last time you ever point a finger out at someone again. I’m not just from Alter, I’m a Deleter.”

Flashing memories came flooding through Raze’s mind. The word Deleter, the warning that had been given to Raze by Himmy, and all of the destruction one had caused the last time he had run into one.

“Hahaha, judging by your reaction, it seems that you have heard of us, but that’s the appropriate reaction I guess. I bet you wished you would have brought more people by your side this time. Because I’ll tell you now, I’m not as weak as Scar, he was by far the weakest of us all!” Red claimed.

Now there were two large annoyances in Raze’s mind, including even those that were traveling with him.

“Is he here because of you?” Raze asked, looking at Ricar and Beatrix.

“Yes,” Ricar answered truthfully although it was less like he didn’t want to admit it. “An alliance between Alter and the Light Faction has begun. As we know your movements in the matter, the Demonic Faction and Dark Faction seem to be growing closer together…the Light Faction feels like it’s on the back foot, and that war will soon be upon us.”

“Ha!” Raze laughed with an irk curling up his face. “You have no idea, it looks like none of you do. I don’t care about the Light Faction, I don’t care about the Demonic Faction or the Dark Faction. The only reason why I got involved is because they got involved with me.”

“I have no plans to take over the Light Faction, the ones that I’m after are Alter at the end of the day, because they have information that I wanted, and it seems that we’re both after the same thing.”

Ricar was trying to think about what the Dark Magus said, was it truth, was it just trying to trick them? Someone so powerful, someone who had risen through the ranks so fast, did they not care to conquer all of Pagna.

Wasn’t that many of the clan’s dreams, even those in the Light Faction to unite everyone under one banner, and to be the ones that managed to accomplish it.

Yet if what Raze was saying was true…then…then…

“You’re being used,” Raze answered. “Alter is using the Light Faction to get in my way. Alter, otherworlders, the world of Pagna is small in the grand scheme of things. They are using you to stop me, that’s all, and I’m just making sure nothing gets in my way.”

Raze walked forward and stopped just shy of the circular area where the tiles on the ground changed. He looked down before giving an answer.

“It’s a high-level spell, a magic formation. One that drains all types of energy that is being used. The spell is powerful because the instructions are quite simple. A strong magic has been used, but in truth, after a while the spell will wear out.”

“So, it was a trap, they just trapped there but there are no other entrances in this room?” Lince asked.

“Precisely,” Raze answered. “The spell is instructed to start another formation, either when time runs out, or when eight people enter the circle.”

Everyone started to count the number of people in the room.

Red

Mosak

Raze

Lince

Beatrix

Ricar

Impress

Krynic

There were exactly eight, there was enough for them to activate the next formation.

“And then what?” Beatrixz asked.

“I don’t know, maybe it will lead us to where we all want to go,” Raze answered.

With that, it seemed like it was pretty much decided what they were to do next, until footsteps were heard from the side again, and when they turned their head they could see Zon in his black suit had entered the room.

Immediately his eyes were stuck on just one person in the room, and both of Zon’s hands were balled up into a fist.

“RED!” Zon said gritting his teeth, the yellow energy around his suit sparking.

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Dark Magus Returns

Chapter 1018: Pick Which Eight Enter?

Raze was being truthful when he read the signs that were visible to him. That the magic circle required eight people to enter and only after that, would it activate and proceed to the next step. There was much he wouldn’t know, much he wouldn’t be able to see.

If a mage wished to hide their work and their enchantments, it was certainly possible, and especially a skilled one like so, which made him think that whoever had made the magic circle wished for a mage to see it on purpose.

Out of everyone here, Raze was the only one that was a mage, and the only person that knew the requirements that were needed. Knowing the person who did this, the Dark Faction Founder was also a mage, Raze had a good feeling that they were heading in the right direction for finding the Golden Globe, but he was conflicted with the news.

‘The magic circle requires eight people, and what reason would it need so many people to do such a thing? And does it have to be the case that there are eight of us right now?’ Raze thought. There was no excuse as to why they couldn’t go into the magic circle, since they had the right amount of people.

Making Raze think he should have kept the information to himself. The only reason why he hadn’t was due to it being a simple task of just not entering the circle himself to stop it from activating.

‘With everyone here in the circle, for those who enter, there will be more enemies on our side than allies… if only Zon was here.’

Right on cue, as soon as Raze thought this, the footsteps were heard forcing Raze to turn his head to the side.

“RED!” Zon said gritting his teeth, the yellow energy around his suit sparking.

Energy exploded out of Zon’s body and hit them like a wave. All of them could feel the physical heat of the energy. This wasn’t like Qi, or mana, this was a pure form of energy being used and coming from his body.

‘This is the angriest I’ve ever seen Zon, he is a man that has a calm head on him at all times, so what could have happened to cause him to be this way.’ Raze thought.

Looking to his right, the answer was obvious, it had to be due to the man with the same suit as him. Before Raze could turn his head to look at Zon again, he had already flashed across the room kicking up all of the dust in a vacuum and sending it behind him.

With a heavy fist, Zon threw it directly forward aiming for one person in particular. As the fist traveled, it crashed and a barrier had appeared right in front of Zon. It was still several meters away from Red’s face, who was seen smiling on the other end.

“Wow, what a reunion, huh captain.” Red said with a devious smirk on his face.

The punch from Zon had caused the entire room to shake as his fist couldn’t get past the barrier. Yet Zon failed to notice this as his eyes were locked onto the person in the room.

Pulling his fist back again, Zon’s fist was glowing with the yellow energy from his suit and he slammed it against the barrier again. The room shook even more violently with pieces of rubble falling from above.

“HAha fantastic, fantastic!” Red said. “Let’s have this whole place collapse, maybe then I’ll finally be able to get out of here!”

“Red!” Zon said through his teeth. “I knew someone like you couldn’t have just disappeared, you killed the All Knowing, you left our world in chaos, and you have yet to suffer yourself for all of this! I knew you were out there somewhere.”

“Ah!” Red clapped his hands. “Right I almost forgot about that, but so much for the All Knowing, they didn’t really see me coming did they. I guess it was just a fake title given to them, just like the title given to us.”

“Trained killers, trained to fight, and when not needed we were to be discarded, so I did my part, and I discarded them.”

Hearing all of this just fueled Zon’s anger even more. He pulled both of his arms back, the energy was continually flowing from the round circular metallic devices on his suit. It was running up and down his arm into the palm of his hand drawing more power.

“That’s a fancy upgrade it looks like you got, yet someone like you can’t even take down this barrier? Even though you were the captain, you always knew you were second to me right? Is that what this is really all about?” Red continued.

“Oh shut up!” Mosak shouted, complaining. “Even I want to punch your face in, and it’s too bad I can’t!”

Zon was ready to throw both fists at the barrier, while the others were debating whether they should just run back from where they had come from. There was a good chance the whole place could collapse on them.

Being Pagna warriors with strong bodies, they would perhaps survive, but then the weight of the mountain, or trying to get out, was another thing altogether. They would perhaps slowly end up suffocating to death or staying stuck in the mountain for hundreds of years before their bodies ran out of Qi energy eventually dying.

This thought dreaded them and they believed it might be even worse than death itself.

“ZON!” Raze shouted.

The moment Zon heard Raze’s voice, he didn’t know why himself, but he placed his hands down by his side and the energy stopped. Zon turned to look at Raze, his face still filled with anger as if he wanted to say something.

“I’m not stopping you from completing what needs to be done, but there is a chance that your actions might hamper me as well.” Raze explained. “We have worked together for a while now, but if you continue, it could ruin our relationship.”

Although Zon’s mind was filled with all sorts of thoughts moments ago, rationality started to kick in. Looking at the place and the area, they were probably in the location of the Golden Globe. And Zon had an idea how much the time meant to him.

Not only that, but after promising Raze that he was in his debt to act like this in front of him, and not pay attention to his needs, he felt like a fool in this moment.

“That barrier is not something that even I could break through, not without time or more equipment at least,” Raze said.

Maybe when he was a nine-star mage he could do something, the magic needed to reverse break a spell. One needed great understanding of the spell being used, or could force it to be broken with one’s own mana with a few tricks but still needed a basic understanding. “Punching that is useless and won’t help the situation. Right now, he is trapped in that circle, there is nowhere for him to run.”

Now Zon was truly understanding why Red was doing all of his antagonizing from before. Rather than stay closer to Red than he needed to, Zon decided to move back and stood by Raze’s side, and now, Lince, the head of one of the top clans of the Demonic Faction and Raze

was here as well.

“You seem to be taking a lead in the situation, and seem to also know more than most here,” Ricar said. “So what do you suggest we do now, we are somewhat at your whim.”

Raze believed that the Light Faction warrior was being nice. After all, with them all teaming up, maybe it would still be a struggle for their group, but the reason why they were so willing to follow Raze’s order and lead was because of the power they had seen him display.

In turn though, believing that the Light Faction were acting out of kindness, Raze had decided to return the favor slightly.

“I will be entering the circle, once eight enter, the next part will start. I wish to take Lince and Zon with me. So you must decide amongst yourselves who won’t enter,” Raze replied.

The Light Faction members had turned to each other, and huddled up in a group. There was much talking and in the end, surprisingly a person had volunteered.

“It’s best that I stay on the outside, I think it might be better this way,” Krynic said. “All of you are from the Dawnblade Clan, I am from the Aurora Clan. In this situation your skills and your knowledge of each other will help you out more.”

“If you get into a fight, your strength and synergy together will be needed, whereas I will just

be a side helper.”

The others didn’t say much but they respected Krynic for stepping to the side.

“Stand back,” Raze said, to Krynic overhearing their conversation and Krynic moved till his

back was touching the edge of the cavern wall.

“You three, enter,” Raze said.

Slowly, Impress, Beatrix, and Ricar walked forward heading into a circle. A strange feeling

overwhelmed their bodies just for a moment as they weren’t inside. Even simply breathing felt harder as all of their Qi looked to be taken away.

“Now it’s time for us to enter as well,” Raze said.

Walking together, the three of them entered into the special circular room, and immediately all of the ruins on the floor started to light up.

Dark Magus Returns

Chapter 1019: The Golden Globe (Part 1)

The moment eight of them had stepped into the circled area, the runes on the floor activated. Zon had truthfully thought that he might be able to head over to where Red was and at least attempt to attack him.

It was still hard for him to comprehend even with his system how a barrier could stop his attack, the energy of his fists, but allow them to simply walk into the area. With the light consuming them all, each of them felt their bodies shifting position.

It wasn’t pushing them in anyway, but it was as if the floor was moving itself, placing them into position. Now stood in a circle staring at each other were the eight of them.

“Is this something we should be worried about?” Lince asked.

“The formation isn’t meant to harm us, but is meant to keep us still,” Raze answered. “At least, the part that I could see.”

Lince quickly turned his head and raised an eyebrow. Were they really trusting to follow this man that would make off-hand comments, on an island that they didn’t understand where everything was trying to kill them.

All of them felt like they were trapped in a tube of sorts around them. They could barely move their feet and hands a few inches. They were stuck, and there was nothing they could do.

Eventually, the flooring started to lift up slightly, splitting from the ground, and after lifting up, it started to sink into the floor. All of them were sinking into the ground extremely quickly and could only see darkness around them.

They continued to descend down further and further. Heat was starting to get to them all, and despite them trying to move they were still unable to. When tilting their head up, they could no longer see the hole which they were in above.

At some point it felt like they were no longer moving, but they couldn’t be sure. The only thing they could see were each other, due to the lighting of the stones on the ground which they stood on.

Lince took a peek at Raze to see if he was panicking. If he was panicked he figured that the rest of them should be as well, but his head was tilted down looking at the floor.

The runes on the ground not just under Raze but everyone else were splitting up and constantly moving. They were glowing and breaking apart, but it wasn’t anything Lince could make sense of. He could only see Raze continuously mumble from his lips.

‘It’s breaking out now?’ Raze thought to himself. ‘I can understand the breakdown of the runes… it’s not as complicated as I thought, but how much energy needed to be used to even get to such a stage?’

Eventually Raze lifted up his head, and everyone could see the light source from the runes and the flooring had expanded out. It was allowing them to see the walls to their side and it was quite the sight to see.

The edge of the wall looked to be made of nothing but power stones. They were various colors of shapes and sizes, and they had a small glow in each one of them. The glow was proof that the power stones were active.

“How many power stones are in here, this far deep, where these were forced in?” Ricar said to himself.

“The power stones’ energy is being used now, perhaps to power this contraption as well,” Impress said.

Raze knew the truth though, they were all thinking far too simply, the crystals here were being used even now to keep the spell that was active on the entire island. The concentration of crystals was something he had never seen.

How many years, how many beasts had to have been killed to place such crystals in one area. Now they were being used to keep the spell active on the island, to make sure magic couldn’t be used and was even powering the contraption and spells being used on them now.

‘This isn’t something that one person can do on their own, even if they are a nine-star mage… did he have the help of Belil? Did he help with the donation of crystals, even then, the founder must have done some things himself.’

‘Traveling dimension to dimension, gathering crystals to achieve all of this, all for the sake of hiding the Golden Globe.’

Raze couldn’t understand what would lead a man to do so much work. It wasn’t a pure emotion like revenge that had driven him so what was it, what was the reason?

When carefully staring at the wall of crystals, it was clearly the way they had been placed was to completely draw their energy out as well. Raze could see carefully crafted runes written underneath each crystal.

They had to be hand-planted in the area, there was no doubt in Raze’s mind though, this had to be where the Golden Globe was, and he had to figure out how to break free of the formation that was trapping them.

Meanwhile, Beatrix continued to turn her head, she too was in awe of the crystals but had different thoughts in her head. She continuously was thinking of the words spoken by Zon, spoken by the others since they had been here.

‘All of these crystals, this island, and everything else, it’s clear that something bigger is happening, and we the Dawnblade Clan were told nothing. I understand Ricar’s feelings but doesn’t he feel suspicious as well of all of this?’

‘How can we just help Alter, when we have no idea what all of this is for! I don’t think we should help them, I don’t think we should hand over the item to Alter… at least for the sake of

Pagna.’

The doubts in her head had been growing for a while, but she was still reluctant to make a decision for everything she had been taught in the Light Faction and in the clan.

In the middle of these thoughts, several crystals above lit up, and energy lingered in the air like small little particles. They gathered above them in the center, until a mystical image formed, of a simple hooded man in the center. The facial features or eyes couldn’t be seen as it was a simple mist.

Yet the figure looked almost familiar to all of them.

“It’s nice to meet you all, I am Bofan, the founder of the Dark Faction.”

Dark Magus Returns

Chapter 1020: The Golden Globe (Part 2)

The name Bofan was known well among the world of Pagna, full name Bofan Klikola. The founder of the Dark Faction, a man from a bygone era, a man who had statues built for him placed around the Dark Faction.

Yet for the rest of the Pagna warriors and most in the room, he was a person that they hadn’t heard much of. Seeing his image here, they didn’t understand what it meant. In truth, there were only three people in the room that had an idea of what was going on.

Zon, Red, and Raze. In particular, the latter had been following his footsteps which led him to Belil, and eventually to this point where he was now. With Alter trying to find the Golden Globe for a large amount of time, it was no wonder they had an inkling of where the item was.

As for how Zon knew, Raze hadn’t even had the time to ask, but none of that mattered because, seeing Bofan here meant they were on the right path, and perhaps everything that Belil had said and told him was completely true.

“Don’t worry!” the mysterious voice said, oozing with power with each word. Just from speaking, one could tell energy from the crystals around had been used up. “This is a message most likely from beyond the grave, but I knew my time was up.”

“And do you all know why I knew my time was up? Because of people like you. People who are far too greedy, that need to push and push to get what they want. Why can’t you just enjoy what you have with your lives now?”

“It seems those on Pagna and Alterian are quite similar, which is why I knew it would come to this. You can’t change people, it seems.” There was a big sigh at the end.

It was quite interesting how realistic the image felt in front of them, as if he was actually there watching them. At times the head even moved and turned around as it talked to them all directly.

“What is this item that we’re taking?” Beatrix couldn’t help but mumble to herself.

Even Ricar started to feel uneasy. Seeing the Dark Faction Founder, where they were taking something that didn’t belong to them, this wasn’t matching up with the morals of the Light Faction at all.

If anything, Ricar was starting to believe more and more that they might be in Bofan’s tomb and was taking something from him.

The ground underneath the mist started to rumble and the area in the center started to change. A pillar made from the ground started to rise until a golden glowing ball came out, placed on the pillar. Circles and markings of glowing energy were swirling around the orb, constantly moving. The markings looked like rings that would appear on other planets, constantly swirling.

It somewhat even looked like the images that mages would draw of a mana heart. “The reason why you are all here is because of this, the legendary artifact, called the Golden Globe,” Bofan explained. “A little information for you all, as I imagine after so much time has passed, you might not even know what you are after, and some of you might even be here on behalf of others, but I wish for everyone here who is present to have a clear understanding.” “This item used to belong to a race of people not from Pagna, the Bonum Society people. Their world was one that was on the verge of destruction, and so they used their powerful artifact to move here to the world of Pagna.”

“Interesting, right? An item that gives one the power to move worlds. If it was as simple as that, I wouldn’t go far to protect it. You see, this item is extremely powerful. Not only can it open rifts to allow people to jump between worlds easily,”

“It can also open rifts between different realms, allowing one to bypass even universes that we are in, those on a different plane. Although I never figured out how to do it myself, who knows the full capabilities of this item, it might be able to even open a rift through time!”

The ecstatic conversation and excitement as Bofan was explaining things weren’t resonating with the others. Learning more about the item sounded extremely frightening to many of them there.

“Frightening, right? Such a powerful item that can be used to help can also be used for so much harm. I come from a world of researchers, mages who are gaining more and more knowledge about the world. It’s quite frightening, honestly.”

“In fact… I had at one point taken this item back to them…. it was a mistake on my part. They tried to use their minds to create another one, to create a similar item, another Golden Globe. Mages are great at enchanting items, and powerful ones with the right conditions can create artifacts that might even become godly artifacts like this.”

“Too much power attracts too much attention. Too much attention and the universe will deem that it must be dealt with. I’m sorry, it’s my fault that rifts constantly open up in your world.”

“It’s my fault the mages are trying to find a way here… although it seems they knew of this world before I gave them the item… but that is a story that I have no end to.”

“Regardless, I hid this item for many years, wishing it would never get in the wrong hands, and because you are seeing this message, it means that many people are after this item. To protect it again, to use it for their own good. I do not know… which is why I have created this test.”

“Right now, the darkest moments and deepest memories of each individual here will be revealed to you all. Your heart will be open to all on display in this room.”

“After, all of you will be asked a question, and there will be no escaping the truth. The one you all judge to be the safest person to have the Golden Globe will be able to take it home.”