Dark Magus Returns

The pain of being betrayed, Raze knew that well. One of his close colleagues, Ibarin, the current head of the central Mage Academy, was one who had betrayed him.

Doing whatever they could to climb up, and in turn was a person that had ruined his life, and for what, for something as simple as a position?

When coming to Pagna, Raze wished to trust no one. Those that did him well would end up hurt, and those that he did end up trusting would just hurt him in return.

Having those close to him like Simyon and Safa, had started to make him think that he could be less cautious around others, but right now, a member of his own clan that had helped him several times, was ready to give all that up over an item.

As Raze walked closer to Elvlin, she could feel her heart beating, it was trying to pop out of her throat. There was this strange aura around his body.

'His Qi, it's coming out of his body and covering me... and it's not just that, there's something else as well, why is there such strong bloodlust coming from him.'

Elvlin couldn't help but gulp down her fear. She had forgotten that she was even being restrained by the technique because she was trying to do everything she could to remain less visible.

If she moved, at that moment it felt like she would be sliced immediately, but if she didn't move her life would be done for immediately.

At this point though, the others had broken from the paralysis with the lightning attack and had come right at Raze.

Seeing this, he swung his sword, doing a spin. As he did, the sword was shrouded in magic and quickly switched to the Ghost blade.

A new sword was in its place. It started to light up as an immense amount of Qi was placed in it.

'Crimson Slash!'

A large line of Qi energy along with Raze's wind magic exploded from his sword. It was larger in size compared to before, and hit both Axe and Neon cutting right through them.

The attack continued hitting even the roof of the building they were in making a clean cut.

"AHHH!" Harbour placed both of his hands at the side of his head. The place was getting even more ruined by the second, thankfully the cut was so cleanly made that the building wasn't falling apart.

Still, it would be a further cost to his repairs.

After the slash was made by the sword, two bodies that were in the air, had split in half, falling to the ground and sliding. No longer part of the land of the living.

Now that only left two more wanderers, the woman who used the chains and Elvlin herself. However, the woman with chains had taken the attack as an opportunity.

She had yet to see the power of the Crimson Slash, nor did she know that her allies would be down for the count, but being so close she had gone to stab Raze with a dagger.

Lifting up his arm, the dagger went right into his shoulder, pushing him until he had eventually stopped.

Immediately Raze grabbed onto the woman's hand, and held it tightly.

"Did you think I didn't notice you? I could tell the effects of my blazer were already worn out, especially now I'm not using the Lux Sword but I wanted to see something."

As Raze held onto her hand at a fast rate, she could feel her life perishing away. Her flesh was fading away, and letting go she fell to the floor lifeless.

Watching, Harbour was thankful that was the way Raze had dealt with the attacker. There were no hard feelings here for the warriors.

They took on the mission, and would easily kill those to get it, all just for coin. That was the way the world was.

After absorbing the energy Raze was trying to feel the new Qi that had been added to him. It felt like a drop in a large well.

'The effects of the extraction technique are even smaller now that I'm at the middle stage. Although the extraction takes their Qi, it doesn't take the same equivalent to what they had. This means I'm a long way off.'

Right after, Raze switched back to the Lux Sword and turned to look at Elvlin, the bindings had already been undone from Raze's techniques but she hadn't dared move, nor had she tried to attack Raze like the others.

That was when something interesting had occurred. The blazer was repairing itself as it lit up slightly green in color and the wound underneath that had been made by the dagger, that also had healed almost in an instant.

'This sword is handy in more ways' than one, and switching between them worked out well.' Raze thought.

Finally though, he had to deal with one last person, a person he knew who had decided to try and take his life for the weapon in his hand.

"Don't do it." Elvlin eventually said her lip quivering. "I realized my mistake, I shouldn't have attacked you. I didn't attack you after because I knew what I did was wrong, I was just taken away by the sword for a moment."

"For a moment?" Raze replied. "And that moment would have taken my life. If I was weaker than all of you here, would you hesitate to take me out?"

"You know, there is a big issue with those that are unfaithful, that betray others. Once they have made the mistake once, in the back of one's mind they have already broken that trust, and it can never be mended."

"Each time I would be wondering, will they try to take my life again? What if someone offered you more, or what if you ended up growing stronger than me? For these reasons I can't forgive you."

Elvlin's words weren't convincing at all, she needed to either use her mouth or try to fight out of this, but she doubted that she could run away, so instead she had one last thing she could use.

"If you kill me, Alba won't forgive you, the entire Crimson Crane won't forgive you!" She shouted, and a smile started to appear on her face, as confidence was rising in her.

Did she forget, she was in one of the most powerful Clans. This was something she could use.

"Alba treats all of its members like family, if you kill me, She will hunt you down with the others. And if you think she would treat someone like you on the same level as those that have been with her from the beginning then you're wrong!"

This was it, this was the way Elvlin would get out of this. When she left she would need to speak to Alba about the whole thing, but for now, she had secured her safety.

"Like family huh?" Raze said, and immediately he swung his sword as fast as he could right through her neck. Her head rolled onto the floor until it eventually stopped.

"If that was the case, then why didn't you see it that way?" Raze said.