Dark Magus Returns - Chapter 1747 Trapped (Part 2)

Chapter 1747  Trapped (Part 2)

While navigating the opulent, winding hallways of the grand palace, Raze quickly realized a few terrifying things about his environment. For one, there was a very good chance that the doors themselves were under a high-level spatial spell.

To confirm this theory, he decided to run a simple test. After stepping through a heavy oak door into a long corridor, he immediately turned around, grabbed the same brass handle, and pulled the door back open. Instead of seeing the room he had just left a second ago, he found himself staring into an entirely different room filled with strange statues. The architecture of the palace was shifting around him.

Because of this spatial manipulation, there was absolutely no reason to just rush blindly and run ahead. Raze had already somewhat tried that brute-force approach, frantically entering and exiting through several doors in a row, but it had ended up getting him nowhere. He was just running in circles within an invisible cage.

So, instead of panicking, he stopped and figured there had to be some sort of underlying pattern to the doors. There had to be a specific sequence, a logical way to figure out a path out of this maddening labyrinth.

‘The rooms have to be all physically based somewhere in the palace; they can’t just exist in a void. That’s the only way I can see this type of large-scale enchanted spell working effectively,’ Raze thought, his mind racing to deconstruct the magic. ‘The elite mages that were after me kept coming through these doors in coordinated waves, so they would have known exactly how the spatial system worked.’

He glanced down at the blood staining his boots.

‘Either that, or they had something on them—a token, a talisman, or an enchanted compass—that allowed for safe passage through the maze. But I couldn’t find anything like that on the bodies of the ones I just killed.’

Raze had briefly thought about keeping one of the eight-star mages alive for this exact situation, planning to interrogate them or force them to guide him through the palace. But it appeared that Idore was ten steps ahead. The mages had something implanted on them or bound to their very souls that ended their life the moment they were no longer able to fight or were captured.

It was an incredibly cruel mechanism, but also a brutally effective way that Idore kept his elites on a tight leash. It forced them to continue to fight to the bitter end, regardless of the consequences, ensuring no secrets or keys ever fell into enemy hands.

‘At some point, I need to figure out the exact sequence. When I enter a new room I have never been in before, I need to mentally map the spatial coordinates and test the connection points of the rooms in my head,’ Raze strategized, closing his eyes to visualize the layout. ‘I have studied and broken magic circles that are far more confusing than this. I should be able to figure it out, but it’s just going to take some precious time.’

As he stood there calculating, a glimmer of hope crossed his mind.

‘Maybe, if I decipher the pattern, I could even navigate my way to the main storage room in the palace. If I manage to do that, there might be a high-tier item in there that can forcefully restore my mana, even after a breakthrough state has ended. Maybe I could find a much more enchanted, stabilized version of those Qi pills. It might even possess enough raw energy to force another breakthrough entirely.’

He knew how Idore operated.

‘Since those cursed pills were originally created using Dark Magic, there is a very good chance that Idore and Turbin were also secretly working together in this palace to create more forbidden items. Maybe they used this secure facility to conduct experiments where the cursed risk was simply too strong for them to try anywhere else.’

This potential reward was exactly why Raze could no longer afford to recklessly rush through the doors. He needed to be meticulous and make mental notes of every variable and pattern that could appear.

‘That bastard Idore is vastly more cautious than I could have ever imagined,’ Raze thought, a scowl crossing his face. ‘To take all these extreme precautions for the slim chance he was to meet me here, and to even set up all of this spatial trickery just in case I could somehow defeat his elite guards? I thought that arrogant man had no faith in me ever reaching this point.’

He struck the stone wall in frustration.

‘And now what? While I’m stuck in here playing his twisted puzzle games, he’s just going to stay outside and get rid of everyone I care about! If he was so incredibly confident in his overwhelming power, he should have just faced me directly on the battlefield!’ Raze shouted to the empty hall as he angrily pushed through another heavy door.

Although his frustration was mounting, he did actually seem to be making some tangible progress. By applying his knowledge of complex magic circles to the doorways, he was starting to consistently enter rooms he had never been in before. He saw this forward momentum as a very good sign; he was slowly but surely uncovering the pattern at hand.

If there was one main thing this whole palace was designed to do, it was certainly buying time. And although maybe, if enough time passed, Raze would naturally recover and be able to use his magic again, he highly doubted his friends fighting outside could last that long against a monster like Idore.

Eventually, Raze stood before another ornate door. If his mental calculations and spatial guesses were right, stepping through this time from the hallway would lead to another entirely new, significant room he hadn’t been in before.

He pushed the door open. The moment his boot hit the flooring, he could immediately tell he was correct.

The room he had just entered was completely unlike any of the other lavish, traditional rooms he had seen in the palace before it. The flooring was cold and almost metallic to the touch, and the tiles were slightly raised, glowing with faint, internal energy lines. Finally stepping fully inside and seeing the full extent of the space, Raze could see there were several of these massive metallic panels curving upward, forming a large, enclosed orb-like shape.

Raze slowly spun around, his eyes scanning the smooth, curving walls.

“There’s no other door in here, other than the one I just came through?” Raze thought aloud, his voice echoing slightly as he walked further in until he stood perfectly in the center of the spherical room.

He gripped his sword tighter. “Should I head back out and try the sequence again? But what even is this room supposed to be?”

Right as the question left his lips, a sudden, disembodied voice echoed from the walls.

[A new identity has been detected.]

[The simulation for a new Guild member has begun.]

Instantly, all of the large metallic panels started to shift and change color. The entire room hummed with power. Now, projected onto one side of the large, curved panels, Raze could see a massive, high-definition image of Idore. The projection showed Idore sitting down in a luxurious chair, looking directly forward as if he was personally addressing anyone standing in the center of the room.

“You have successfully become a part of the Noble Guild,” the projection of Idore spoke, his voice carrying a charismatic, almost hypnotic tone. “And just like our prestigious name suggests, you mages are doing this for a truly Noble cause….”

Raze lowered his weapon slightly, wondering what on earth was going on. All he could guess was that this was some sort of mandatory orientation program. It was a recorded simulation that all new, elite members of the Noble Guild had to go through upon their induction. And since Raze wasn’t registered to the palace’s internal security system and lacked the suicide-leash signature, the automated room simply mistook his presence for a brand new, undocumented recruit.

“And it is incredibly important,” the projected Idore continued, leaning forward in his chair, “that you learn the true history of our world. It is vital you understand the real reason why we fight, and the reason why we must do whatever it takes to get stronger.”

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