Dark Magus Returns

Both Gunther and Raze were now walking side by side as they entered the cave. They noticed the destroyed part of the dimension boss, blood oozing from above, still dripping on the ground. The body itself was starting to shrivel up and decompose relatively quickly, as they did once the crystal had been removed. But Raze also noticed something else: how Dame had left the energy inside the beast all alone.

'He's quite the supportive one in my growth. Either that, or absorbing the energy of this wouldn't do much for him anyway.'

Technically, the two were inside the main body of the beast, and Raze was able to touch his hand against the wall. It was mostly strong muscle fibers, so his hand squished in, and then he started the absorbing process.

'Isn't that the extraction technique that the Demonic Faction uses?' Gunther noticed. He had his fair share of fights around the place, and the extraction technique was quite famous. n(-In

'The fact that he has demonic energy as well? Is this person really from the Demonic Faction? There are so many questions I want to ask, but he has a snappy side,' Gunther thought, as he started to think back to moments ago.

It wasn't just then, but during the event when Raze was fighting against the five main disciples, he could see it as well. There were just moments where emotions would completely consume him from head to toe.

However, he did seem to have somewhat of a calm head on him, as he would calm himself down before acting.

The energy had been absorbed, and Raze could feel stronger than before. His Ice attribute had grown rapidly in strength, and if he were to take a guess, it was just as strong as his wind attribute, which he had for a while now.

Unfortunately, Raze didn't know too many ice spells. He knew the basic ones that a 1-star mage would know, but none at the three-star level. He thought a type of book similar to the one that Charlotte had given him for wind magic would have been extremely helpful.

After absorbing the energy, the two of them continued forward and headed inside, leaving Raze to think.

'I've finally made it to a three-star mage, which means I can do stronger enchantments on weapons,' Raze thought. 'I won't have to rely on the luck of the Dark Magic, but even if I do use Dark magic, the effects of producing a higher-level item increase.

'Combining my Qi and magic spells has worked out good for me so far; maybe I should think about trying to increase my Pagna stage as well. After all, even Ricktor is at stage 3.'

Raze gave a quick glance at Gunther, trying to wonder what stage he was at. Based on his actions, he felt like he was strong. He also had heard the others talking about him in the academy; he was extremely close to reaching the middle stages, which might even put him stronger than Dame.

"Hey," Gunther called out. "It looks like there's a split. I don't think it's a good idea for us to split up. We have no clue what's inside here."

"With the Dimension Boss taken out, will there be anything stronger though?" Raze asked.

"I wouldn't rule it out," Gunther replied. "The Dimension Boss' powers seem to be linked more so to the portal, but there have been times when other events in a dimension have been activated."

"Then how did you know what we defeated was the Dimension Boss if there could be other events?" Raze asked.

All of these things were quite new and strange to Raze because it didn't work the same way as portals did on Alterian.

"Honestly, it's more of a general feeling," Gunther answered. "The Dimension Boss appeared because we had killed so many beasts; that's one common sign, and the level of the beast that appeared was what one would expect; it's not just some other beast. If we do discover something stronger in this world, you could say that it's more linked to another event."

"Anyway, because of this, I suggest we pick a path that we both can head down together."

Looking at both of them, Raze couldn't see which was better just from looking, so he activated part of his magic. He was hoping, just like with items, the magic would lead him to a path that was more suitable for him.

Eventually, the Dark Magic started to linger, and as it did, it moved over to the left side.

"So I guess that means we should take the left path?" Gunther said, as he could see the Dark Magic moving as well.

"Not just yet," Raze replied as he wanted to see something else as well. Raising his hand again, he started to activate part of his new ice magic. The air was freezing slightly, and small particles like snow were appearing in the air like a mist.

Slowly, it started to move, and this time, rather than heading toward the left side, it had gone to the right side instead.

"Now... I'm really confused," Gunther said, scratching his head.

It wasn't as if they could only choose one path; they could always come back and head into the other, but what if an event did occur that stopped them from doing so? Thinking this way, Raze felt like he needed to make a choice.

"In this new life, Dark Magic is what has guided me so far, so I will allow it to choose my fate," Raze said as he took a step forward and started to walk toward the left part.

"Wait... what does that even mean?" Gunther asked as he went on to follow Raze.

They walked down the stone path and had been doing so for around five minutes, seeing nothing in sight, that was until the tunnel looked to come to an end once more. The area was relatively bright up ahead.

When taking a step, they had entered a relatively large dome-like room. It was grand in size, a place that could fit around a thousand people or so. In the center of the room, there was a beaming light from above that also flowed in fresh air.

Looking up, it looked as if the whole was connected to the outside, to the very top of the structure they were in.

"What is all of this stuff? I wonder what was here before?" Gunther said as he looked around the room. What he had noticed was there were several markings on the wall, not just on the wall, but also all around them, including on the floor, where a relatively large circle had been drawn with markings that Gunther had never seen before.

Raze had quickly gone to read the markings and looked at what was on the floor; he had seen it all too many times before, and as he continued to read, his mouth was moving along with the words.

"This is... it's a summoning spell," Raze said. "A spell that's made to summon creatures."

"Wait, what? Do you mean those snakes, or like a magic voodoo spell that summoned the Dimension Boss? That's impossible; no one can summon monsters and beasts," Gunther said.

As soon as he finished his sentence, the sound of clapping was heard echoing in the room. The two turned toward the entrance, and immediately, they could see a figure starting to walk in.

"As expected, I thought a mage like you would have figured it out," the mysterious voice said, as the man stepped into the light.