Chapter 7: So This Is Why Forbidden Magic Is Forbidden

Chapter 7. So This Is Why Forbidden Magic Is Forbidden

If normal magic aggravated the curse... Then I simply wouldn’t rely on normal magic.

Rey had six elemental manipulation skills.

Fire.

Water.

Wind.

Earth.

Light.

Dark.

Six foundations.

Six entire branches of magic waiting to be corrupted.

"This is going to be fun." I raised both hands. "Arcana Injection."

[Select Target.]

"Water Manipulation."

Cold blue mana formed.

Forbidden Energy entered.

The water darkened into deep midnight blue, silver-black frost spreading through it.

[Arcana Injection successful.]

[Abyssal Water Manipulation]

I shaped it into a spear.

Then froze it.

A black-blue ice lance formed.

I fired.

-CRACK!

The lance punched through one target and froze everything within several meters.

Even the stone developed dark frost.

"Arcana Injection. Wind Manipulation."

Air twisted around me.

Then darkened.

Not visibly at first.

Instead, the space around my fingers distorted.

[Arcana Injection successful.]

[Voidwind Manipulation]

I swept my hand sideways.

A black crescent flashed.

Three targets separated cleanly at the waist.

Their upper halves slid off.

-THUD!

I grinned. Oh, this was fun. So much fun.

Earth.

Forbidden Energy surged into the stone beneath me.

[Obsidian Earth Manipulation]

Black crystal erupted from the floor.

A massive spike impaled a reinforced dummy and lifted it six meters into the air.

I tilted my head.

Beautiful crystal structure too.

Very dense.

Possibly useful for barriers.

Construction.

Artifacts.

Maybe... No.

Focus.

"Light."

That one made me curious.

Light and forbidden corruption shouldn’t cooperate easily.

At least according to every magical framework I’d ever studied.

I activated Arcana Injection.

Golden light formed.

Black energy touched it.

The chamber trembled.

For one moment, the two forces resisted each other.

Then... They merged.

The light became white around the edges.

Pitch black at the center.

[Arcana Injection successful.]

[Eclipse Light Manipulation]

I went silent. "Oh."

That... That was academically offensive.

I loved it.

I shaped the Eclipse Light into a spinning ring.

White radiance burned along its outer edge while absolute darkness churned within the center.

I flicked my wrist.

The ring shot forward.

It sliced straight through the target.

For half a second, nothing happened.

Then the upper half of the dummy slid sideways.

-THUD!

The cut surface glowed white-hot, while the mana reinforcement inside it collapsed into black ash.

Physical destruction and magical destruction simultaneously.

I stared at the result.Then at the beautiful, deeply heretical ring of light still spinning above my palm. "The Light Temple is going to hate me."

I could feel it.

Somewhere in the future, an elderly saint had just developed chest pain without knowing why.

One remained.

Darkness.

I lifted my hand. "Arcana Injection."

Normal shadow mana gathered. "Dark Manipulation."

Forbidden Energy entered without resistance.

Unlike Light, darkness welcomed it immediately.

Black tendrils exploded around my arm.

The chamber darkened.

The shadows beneath every target stretched toward me.

[Arcana Injection successful.]

[Abyssal Darkness Manipulation]

I clenched my fist.

The shadows moved.

Chains erupted from the floor.

One target.

Two.

Five.

Ten.

Every remaining dummy was bound simultaneously.

I pulled.

-CRACK!

The chains tightened.

Stone fractured.

Metal screamed.

Then every target collapsed at once.

Silence returned.

Dust drifted through the chamber.

I stood alone in the middle of what had previously been a perfectly respectable training ground.

Now there were craters.

Frozen stone.

Black crystal spikes.

Bisected dummies.

Burn marks.

Shadow chains.

And one section of wall that was probably going to require an awkward conversation with whoever maintained this place.

The system filled my vision.

[Arcana Injection completed.]

[Forbidden Variants acquired:]

[Blackflame Manipulation]

[Abyssal Water Manipulation]

[Voidwind Manipulation]

[Obsidian Earth Manipulation]

[Eclipse Light Manipulation]

[Abyssal Darkness Manipulation]

I stared at the list.

Six elements. Six corrupted branches.

And not once had my curse stability dropped.

I slowly looked down at my hands.

The original Rey had spent years trying to escape his curse.

Suppress it.

Cleanse it.

Destroy it.

Every attempt had failed.

And now I understood why.

He’d treated corruption like poison.

But poison was just chemistry with bad intentions.

The Dark Lord had given Rey something designed to ruin him.

Unfortunately for the Dark Lord...

He’d eventually handed it to a researcher.

I flexed my fingers and started laughing. Then harder.

The grin faded.

My eyes turned cold. "Alright."

I moved. Not like a researcher. Like a magus.

My left foot slid back first, heel barely touching the stone. My weight shifted onto the ball of my right foot. Shoulders angled. Hands separated.

One high.

One low.

The stance came back naturally.

Not Rey’s.

Mine.

I snapped my right hand forward.

Blackflame burst from my palm. Three narrow darts.

They crossed the chamber and struck three different targets almost simultaneously.

Before the first impact finished, I pivoted.

Left heel turned.

Hip followed.

My other hand swept low.

Voidwind raced along the floor like an invisible blade and cut through the legs of two stone dummies.

I stepped through the gap before they even fell.

Obsidian Earth answered beneath my next footfall.

Spikes exploded upward.

One.

Three.

Seven.

I twisted my wrist.

The crystal shattered outward.

Fragments became ammunition.

Abyssal Water formed around them midair.

Then froze.

The entire storm transformed into dark ice shrapnel.

I released it.

The chamber erupted.

Stone cracked.

Metal screamed.

I kept moving. That mattered.

A magus who stood still was a corpse who hadn’t received the paperwork yet.

My right palm came up. Blackflame exploded point-blank.

I stepped sideways before the recoil finished, crossed my arms, then separated them sharply.

Opposite elements answered.

Fire in one hand.

Water in the other.

The two should have resisted.

They did.

I compressed both.

Blackflame spun clockwise.

Abyssal Water rotated against it.

Steam screamed between my palms.

I slammed both attacks forward.

The collision happened halfway across the room.

Dark steam erupted like a storm cloud.

Visibility disappeared.

I entered it.

Voidwind wrapped around my legs.

My body accelerated.

One step.

Two.

Three.

Then Obsidian Earth erupted beneath my foot and launched me upward.

I twisted in the air.

Eclipse Light formed as several thin rings around my fingers.

I threw them downward.

They curved.

Not straight lines.

Different trajectories.

One sliced through a dummy’s neck.

Another carved through its torso.

The third hit the floor, ricocheted off an angled crystal wall I created at the last second, and cut through a dummy from behind.

I landed in a crouch.

Abyssal Darkness immediately spread beneath me.

Chains exploded from every shadow.

The targets that remained standing were caught.

I pulled one hand back.

The chains dragged them together.

My other hand closed.

Blackflame gathered.

Not one orb. Ten.

They floated around me like miniature dark suns.

I flicked two fingers.

The first volley fired.

Then the second.

Then all of them.

The impacts overlapped.

Stone burst apart.

The barrier walls flashed.

Heat rolled through the chamber.

I didn’t stop.

Fire became wind.

Wind became water.

Water became earth.

Earth locked a dummy in place.

Light cut through its defenses.

Darkness bound what survived.

Sometimes I used one element.

Sometimes two.

Sometimes elements that had absolutely no business cooperating.

Blackflame and Abyssal Water.

Obsidian Earth and Voidwind.

Eclipse Light layered over Abyssal Darkness.

My feet never stopped.

Forward.

Back.

Pivot.

Slide.

Duck.

Accelerate.

One hand shaped.

The other fired.

Sometimes both cast separately.

Sometimes my fingers drew formations in opposite directions while my body turned between them.

Magic wasn’t merely standing twenty meters away and throwing colorful attacks.

Real combat punished hesitation.

A swordsman could cross ten meters before a careless magus finished breathing.

An assassin could kill you between gestures.

Another caster could interrupt the structure.

So movement mattered.

Footwork mattered.

Timing mattered.

And I swear... I had missed this.