Mage Adam

As the Dean of the Academy, who is second only to the master of the Tower, Dean Victor has the authority to make his laboratory completely independent of the tower's surveillance system. Everything that happens in his laboratory is known only to him and him alone.

When the alarm sounded, the Dean phased to Adam in an instant and tapped on Adam's naked body, suspended in the air. With a single tap, the Dean could see the layout of Adam's soul.

The instruments in his laboratory recorded every minute change happening in Adam's soul -- this data would prove valuable for the study of souls, which is why he let Adam survive.

Time is meaningless to a powerful being like Dean Victor -- with his power comes infinite patience, so if anything of interest occurs, he will wait and observe silently.

To Adam, time is no longer a factor to him. Spending an endless amount of time fighting for dominance of his soul only tired him out.

He was winning at first, tearing apart at the unknown soul, but later, the two souls began to merge, intertwine with each other.

The souls bit harshly at each other, with each soul attempting to devour each other.

"Will you survive, or will you fall into the grasp of the antimage..." Dean Victor muttered.

It doesn't matter who wins -- despair is inevitable in either outcome. The Dean knew that Adam's existence would not be tolerated by other mages.

After five hours, a soul emerged victorious.

Adam's soul was completely devoured by the antimage's magic.

Adam's body began to distort and wither in front of the Dean; his body gradually transformed into an ash-grey, but his soul was continuously absorbing power, and Adam became a qualified antimage.

The Dean continued watching as he wanted to see what would happen to Adam -- if Adam decided to fight against him, the Dean would crush him with just a single thought.

The rich, grey energy surrounded Adam, permeating every pore, every cell with magic, enhancing him; breaking apart his bondages.

Adam levitated, and his eyes opened. With a loud roar, he started to vomit out a continuous barrage of despair out of him.

The Dean shook his head and muttered to himself, "Pity how you could become an antimage this way -- you really are extraordinary. Unfortunately, I have to kill you." The Dean brought up his arm and started to conjure a spell, but Adam's body shook violently.

The dark energy spewing out of Adam's mouth was forced back into him with a strange force, and his body forcibly stopped its promotion to an antimage. Adam could do nothing but scream at the excruciating pain as his soul was being forced back into his body.

This was true despair.

The Dean immediately stopped his obliteration spell in a daze. With his knowledge, he never expected this to happen.

"Seems like you are able to stop your body from transforming, but can you stop your soul from corrupting?" the Dean pondered pessimistically.

With a single tap, the Dean looked into his soul, revealing an astonishing scene before him.

A single light emerged from the dark depths of Adam's soul sea; the light was weak, but persistent, and the surrounding grey fog avoided the light.

Adam has truly understood what it's like to despair, and has overcome it.

The only way to overcome despair...

...is to never give up!

With faith, despair can be overcome.

The orb of light rose, and like a beacon, dispelled the surrounding grey energy like a tide.

"Amazing wisdom," the Dean smiled. "However, your soul is eternally corrupted; how would you remove this negative energy staining your soul?"

The Dean was right. Although Adam emerged victorious, his soul was forever stained by ancient curse magic.

Adam flexed his fingers and started to stretch -- his body was broken and malnourished, but he was happy that he was back in his body again.

Adam peered into his soul and found something surprising.

The "corrupted" parts of his soul sea seems to no longer be stained by Peter Aum's magic. Instead, it seems to be part of Adam.

"My things, of course, should only be able to be controlled by me," Adam smiled.

If this dark energy can be absorbed by Adam, then it must also be able to be absorbed by other things.

Adam was lucky that he had a portable waste dispenser with him.

Even if it wasn't enough to fully promote his devil, Adam will simply use them as a disposable unit.

Adam summoned the devil. The devil popped into reality and they were shivering, curling themselves into a ball. Now that they saw Adam alive and well in front of them, they cried out and rushed towards Adam.

"Master! Master! You're alive! You're fine! You're not dead, I'm not dead!" the devil wept in joy.

Adam swept the devil aside and bound it with a patch, "Want to become stronger?"

The devil was stunned, not understanding his words.

The devil glanced at Adam, then at the negative energy pooling within his soul. Immediately, the devil knew what Adam was suggesting, "No, my beloved master, you can't do this to me! I'll die! I can't hold this much energy, please!"

The Dean smirked. Looks like his gift was being put to good use.

"Don't you love negative energy?" Adam said, unmoving. "This is a great opportunity for you to become stronger, so why refuse?"

Adam lied to the devil, fully knowing the devil would not be able to handle pure negative energy refined by a qualified antimage. The devil struggled, but Adam held a tight leash via the contract between them, and the devil begged, "Master, please, I can't... there must be another way... I'll die!"

"Nonsense!" Adam scolded, shoving the devil into the pool of negative energy.

The negative energy could sense a sink, and poured into the devil violently.

The devil could only gasp before being forced with violent, negative energy being forcefully fed into its body, and their body was continuously being shattered and rebuilt.

Adam held onto the contract firmly, not allowing the devil to die.

As the negative energy was gradually being siphoned out of Adam's body, the devil's body started to morph to an entity with a form.

With all of the negative energy drained out of Adam's body, Adam ejected the devil out of his soul sea, and cancelled the contract.

"Smart," the Dean commended.

Adam was smart, fully knowing that if he cancelled the contract, then the negative energy was no longer bound to him, but the devil.

The moment his soul was cleansed, exhaustion washed over him like a tsunami, and he fell to the floor.