Dark Magus Returns

The last time Raze and Alen had met was when Raze had gone to the academy under the disguise as Kelly's brother. He had gone hoping to reach his vault of secret items.

Reaching it, although most things appeared to have been taken from the vault, he had managed to obtain his special Blazer that had been crafted by his late wife Sabrina.

The issue was when leaving the vault, there was one person waiting for him: Alen himself.

Alen had been following Raze during the special event, noticing that there was something off about him, and also was curious as to just what type of mage he was.

Seeing him sneak out of a secret room in the academy wasn't exactly a good look, but due to events that had occurred previously, Alen had said he owed him one favor, and Raze had decided to use that favor so that Alen could let him go.

Alen was true to his word, something that was rare for Raze to find, but Raze didn't just leave; he left him with a particular message, not just to the Grand Magus.

With Alen being in the position he was, and constantly around Enaxx, he believed that he would one day find something, and maybe it would be a seed that planted a change.

However, there was a chance that it could wither up into nothing as well, just like the many plants that Raze had attempted. If they turned into nothing, that was fine with him as well.

Now they were in this situation where they were facing each other again.

"You came all this way to talk about that?" Alen laughed. "If I had found something, do you really think you would have heard about it on the news by now? I'm not a person to sit around and do nothing."

"No, you're right, because if you did find out something, then you would be dead," Raze added.

There was a moment of silence between the two.

"I looked into things because you piqued my curiosity," Alen explained. "But there's nothing solid, just a bunch of rumors and conspiracy theories. Things just don't line up based on the evidence that is out there. I didn't realize you were the type to believe in conspiracy theories."

"A talented mage like yourself, then again, people from all sorts tend to dive deep into things."

"And yet a part of you must believe them, right?" Raze replied. "If they were just baseless conspiracy theories, then why would you tell your sister to leave?"

Alen had a straightforward look on his face for a moment before he let out a big sigh.

"Look, what are you trying to do? Are you trying to ruin my life?" Alen asked. "Or did you have something important to talk about? Since a man sneaking around the academy, and a person I can get no details about, contacted me, I thought it might be a good chance to bring in a hardened criminal. So, are we going to be fighting today, or what?"

From Raze's observation, Alen was a six-star mage, just like himself. One that mainly focused just on fire magic. In a standard fight between mages, focusing on one element was a bad thing to do.

That was if you weren't talented in the first place. Sure, the low-star levels had to focus on which affinities were better at beating others, but when a mage got to the higher stages, learning more advanced spells and magic that aligned with your core would triumph over a mage that put an equal amount of time into all of their elements.

For Raze, who currently specialized in Dark Magic, even with his vast knowledge of magic in stars above, it would be a hard fight.

"I'll be honest with you, right now I am struggling with breaking through my core," Raze explained. "Since you are from the Radiant Order, I presumed that you knew of ways for mages to break through easier."

"The most advanced military in the world that even gets support from Gizin, the Grand Magus. Surely they wouldn't let you guys fall behind."

"There is the need for a shortcut of some kind at times."

"Someone as skillful as you not being able to break through, I don't buy it; it makes no sense," Alen laughed. "What's your magic core?"

"Wind," Raze answered instantly without hesitation. It was his previous core in his last life, but he realized that might have been a mistake.

"Now I'm even more confused, the easiest magic core to break through with. Although now that I think about it, if you can't for whatever reason, that really is an emergency," Alen pondered, rubbing his hand against his chin.

"I'll be honest, I do think we have something that would be able to help you. It's not a permanent solution; it's something that was designed by Gizin, and its effects lessen with each use."

"It's just like you said, it's a special inhalant device created by Gizin himself. It forces one's core to break through, but each time the device is used, the less time one can spend in its breakthrough form, regardless of the amount of mana a user has."

"It's meant to help one get the feeling of breaking through and then learning how to do so on their own. So, I think it could help you. I'm perhaps one of the few people that can get their hands on such things."

This was what Raze was looking for. Who knew what would happen in his fight against Alter? There was a chance, just like with his fight against the Behemoth Clan, he would need to use all powers he had, despite him being stronger than he was before. The power of a nine-star mage was a great help to a battlefield.

"But, what benefit do I get from giving you this? We are not friends," Alen claimed.

Raze felt like Alen was having fun, telling him just what he needed and all its effects to say this, but Raze did have a plan, one that he had just formed recently through conversation.

"What you said earlier, when you looked into things. There's a reason why you claimed they were baseless conspiracy theories. Reasons why you can't say for 100 percent certainty that Enaxx was the one behind them."

"It was just as you said, right? Things just didn't add up. What if I said I would give you the one piece of information that would clear up all of your doubts, the one thing that has been tugging at the back of your mind through all of this at once?"

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