Dark Magus Returns - Chapter 1482: The Price of Power

Chapter 1482: The Price of Power

After using the extraction technique on Kayzel, Raze slowly lowered the boy onto the ground. Kayzel’s body sagged lifelessly, his limbs trembling with exhaustion, but his expression was unlike the others Raze had drained. There was no desperation in his eyes, no terror from the sudden loss of power. Instead, there was a faint curve of his lips, an almost peaceful smile.

It unsettled Raze more than anger or fear ever could.

’From what I’ve heard about him, Kayzel always carried the expectations of others,’ Raze thought, watching the boy’s chest rise and fall with shallow breaths. ’Born into one of the most prestigious lines, praised as a prodigy, yet weighed down by a burden no child should ever carry. Perhaps… he understands what this means now. That he’ll never be able to perform magic again.’

The pills had ruined them.

Each of the Central Academy students who had consumed one had their mana cores twisted beyond repair. It was far worse than the forced breakthrough pill Alen once gave him. That pill was reckless but at least pointed in the direction of growth, a violent push up the ladder of stars. These pills, however, were something else entirely. They did not push. They broke. They hollowed. They turned the body into a false core, wrapping mana around the heart like chains until the natural flow collapsed.

Anything that touched the mana core was dangerous, for it was intertwined with the heart itself. Raze knew that well. To tamper with it was to gamble with life.

By absorbing the unstable energy and stripping it away, he had done the only thing that might save them. It left the students powerless as mages, severed from the very essence that had defined their lives. But it spared them death. In truth, he might have been the only person alive capable of doing it.

And yet he knew they would never thank him for it. None of them would understand. None of them would be told. To them, he would always be the villain.

Still, Kayzel’s final words echoed in his mind: “You might really be able to take out the Grand Magus.”

’Maybe he resented the Grand Magus too,’ Raze thought. ’Maybe he hated being used as a pawn in their schemes. Another child caught up in a war between giants.’

For a moment, Raze almost pitied him.

There was one silver lining to the ordeal: through his extraction, Raze had absorbed fragments of mana and gained several affinities the students once wielded.

The mana itself meant little. His reservoir as a Seven Star mage was far beyond theirs; their contribution was a drop of water tossed into a lake. But the affinities, that was different.

Many of the Central mages specialized in fire, an element Raze lacked. Now he carried it within him, a tool to refine later. But the most valuable prize had come from George: the gravitational affinity.

Unlocking it opened a new frontier. Gravitational magic was rare and devastating, but unlike other affinities it grew in proportion to the strength of the body.

Raze’s lips twitched at the thought. His Pagna-forged body, honed through brutal training and fueled by Qi, could turn that affinity into one of the strongest forces in existence. Sha Mo’s legendary feats, crushing fields of enemies with a gesture, pulling armies into the dirt, suddenly seemed attainable. Perhaps even surpassable.

Time magic, gravitational magic, dark magic. His arsenal grew with every battle.

Not everything could be taken, though. Kayzel’s super speed wasn’t an affinity, but a unique trait of his bloodline. Traits like that, like Enaxx’s ability to clone himself, couldn’t be extracted. Not that it mattered. Raze was already faster than Kayzel, and against the foes waiting ahead, speed alone would never be enough.

“What do we do now?” Moze asked, glancing around the swirling dome of dust and wind. “Do you want us to keep up the spell? If we clear the air, people will see what happened. Won’t we get in trouble?”

“Hey, I think we’re forgetting someone,” Yolden added. He pointed toward Kelly, standing awkwardly off to the side. “Isn’t she still part of the Central Academy team?”

All eyes turned. Kelly immediately raised her hands in mock surrender.

“Don’t worry about her,” Raze answered flatly. “She’s with us.”

“Right… but that still leaves us with a problem, doesn’t it?” Piba frowned. “Technically, the match won’t end until she’s unconscious.”

Kelly rolled her eyes and groaned. “Oh, for crying out loud. Don’t even think about attacking me. Look, I’ll make it easy.” She dramatically flopped onto the ground, closed her eyes, and went limp. “See? Knocked out. Totally defeated. You can all relax.”

The Wilton students exchanged confused glances but said nothing.

“So should we stop the magic?” Chiba asked. Sweat beaded her forehead as she struggled to maintain the massive spell. “It’s not that hard to sustain, but talking and casting at the same time is rough.”

Raze considered the situation carefully. The dome of dust and wind had concealed everything from the outside, but that wasn’t its only purpose. It was also a test. If the teachers, or Ibarin himself, had truly cared about the students’ safety, they would have intervened by now. Yet none of them had stepped inside.

That told him all he needed to know.

’Ibarin expected them to win,’ Raze thought darkly. ’He doesn’t care if the Wilton students are injured. To him, they’re disposable. And Wilton… he would have spoken up. He would have said something. But he’s gone. I don’t know how Ibarin will react when the truth reaches him.’

Raze walked over to Kelly. She peeked one eye open as he knelt beside her and pressed a small object into her palm.

It was a communicator once used by Alter to keep in contact, normally linked through the markings of Idore. But Raze had altered its design. Now, it connected only to his own network.

“If the students are ever in danger, contact me immediately,” Raze said, his voice low but firm. Then, turning back to the others, he gave the final order. “Drop the spell.”

The Wilton students exchanged glances, nervous but obedient. Slowly, the swirling dust began to thin, drifting away into the air until the stadium once again came into view.

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