Chapter 189

When Marisa shouted sharply, Senin and Leon exchanged glances.

“He’s staying still because he’s the Grand Duke,” Senin explained.

“…What do you mean?”

“We know exactly how crazy—no, how utterly insane—the Grand Duke is.”

Leon shook his head in disbelief.

“To be honest, we’re just as worried. I mean, what kind of mindset makes someone challenge that formation alone? It’s madness.”

“But why?”

“This isn’t the first time the Grand Duke has taken on such a reckless challenge.”

“…”

“So just wait. He’ll definitely pull off another crazy stunt and come back.”

Marisa stared at the two of them, mouth agape.

‘They’re both weird.’

Even Melin, the aide trailing behind, showed no sign of worry from the start.

Her eyes shone with absolute trust in Christian.

‘…You can’t just dismiss Jin as a talented genius! To pull this off, he has to have a perfect understanding of formation magic.’

Marisa bit her lip.

She resolved that if no news came after some time, no matter what others said, she would have to go in and help.

*    *    *

Of course, Marisa’s worries were completely unnecessary.

Christian, having entered the formation, scanned his surroundings.

The myriad devices and spells designed to confuse the senses made his vision unreliable.

He couldn’t be sure of the cardinal directions—north, south, east, west—or even up and down, or the left and right sides of his own body. Everything was a haze.

It was a sensory distortion worthy of an “Absolute Formation,” but Christian sneered.

‘This low-level formation is nothing.’

As Marisa had raised her voice about, this formation was not to be underestimated.

The sensory confusion was just the beginning; it was a labyrinth so endless that one couldn’t see an inch ahead, designed to trap and poison intruders to death.

‘This is a direct copy of the Galos school’s formation magic from the Sky Tower. No originality at all. What kind of master of formation magic copies like this? Considering the level of the Venom Mage’s formations, it makes sense.’

Indeed.

The Venom Mage was skilled at using formation magic, but only as a means to deliver poison efficiently. Their understanding of formation magic itself was shallow.

‘The true masters of formation magic are the Illusion Mages, the renowned shaman clans, and the Sky Tower.’

Compared to those three, the Venom Mage’s level was far inferior.

‘And I was someone who disregarded even those three.’

Christian wasn’t a formation caster himself.

To properly cast a formation, one needed to have reached a high level of magical energy and spiritual power.

Christian was, more precisely, a “formation analyst.”

Even if he couldn’t cast formations himself, he possessed top-tier knowledge of formation magic.

‘Formation knowledge has come in handy more times than I can count.’

Back when he was known as the “Light Excavator,” a famed treasure hunter.

When he joined a hero’s party as a guide.

Formation knowledge was essential.

Especially during the Age of Ruin, he had firsthand experience with countless powerful formations, and his understanding rivaled that of the Illusion Mages, shaman clans, and the Sky Tower.

‘Of course, formations cast by the top masters of those groups would be tough to break down, but this? This is child’s play.’

Still, he couldn’t simply dismiss the Venom Mage’s formation.

Though their understanding of formation magic was lacking, their real weapon was poison.

The Venom Mage’s formations served a different purpose: to create openings and trap opponents in poison.

One wrong step, and you’d be poisoned to a gruesome death.

‘But if you analyze the formation perfectly, there’s no way to get poisoned.’

Christian narrowed his eyes.

First, he needed to establish the basic directions.

Though his senses were still confused, he adapted.

He reinterpreted the distorted sensations as a new frame of reference and used that to reverse-engineer the directions.

‘The Galos school’s formation magic is all about wandering endlessly through a maze with no way out.’

A key feature was the absence of any “life gates” (safe passages) in the formation.

Only “death gates” appeared in succession.

‘There’s only one solution: find the core and destroy it.’

Of course, finding the core was no easy task.

It was the heart of the formation.

How well it was hidden determined the formation’s quality.

‘There are even fake cores, and if you pick the wrong one, you’ll be counterattacked and killed.’

This formation, true to its “Absolute” level, had its core well concealed.

‘But there’s a way. By combining the sequence of death gates, the formation’s shifting patterns, and the cardinal directions, you can estimate the core’s approximate location. Then, by interpreting the spells that make up the formation, you find a gap and pinpoint the coordinates. There has to be a tiny flaw.’

This wasn’t some special method only Christian could use.

It was a traditional technique used by formation experts to analyze formations.

The difference was that other experts would need to work together over a long time to accomplish this painstakingly.

But Christian?

‘Is it here?’

He didn’t need to hesitate.

‘Bingo. Found it.’

He clicked his tongue.

‘How sloppy is this formation’s security? What’s so great about this? It’s no comparison to the Illusion Mages, shaman clans, or the Sky Tower.’

This was a somewhat unfair assessment of the Venom Mage.

Compared to the best formations, it was lacking, but this was a poison formation.

As mentioned, analyzing a formation takes time.

But poison formations don’t allow that luxury.

Even a slight delay means getting poisoned, so their flaws are usually impossible to exploit.

Christian had found the flaw too quickly for the poison to take effect.

Or rather, the flaw was easy for him to spot.

‘Still, if I break this formation, the Venom Mage’s main house will notice immediately.’

Christian folded his arms.

A good idea came to him.

‘Time to have some fun.’

*    *    *

Meanwhile, inside the castle engulfed by the poison formation.

Lord Balmont sat in his chair, his face dark and sunken.

‘To think they’d launch such a surprise attack. Those damned Dark Mages.’

He was completely caught off guard.

‘But it’s fine. This castle has the poison formation left by Lord Groben. If we hold out a few days, reinforcements will come from the main house.’

He sneered.

‘They say the one leading the troops is Grand Duke Christian? Foolish. How dare he commit such a reckless act against our Venom Mage clan.’

The enemy had even committed an even more absurd act of suicide.

“Grand Duke Christian went into the poison formation alone?”

“Yes, my lord. It’s been about three hours now.”

“Stupid fool. They say ignorance is bravery, but there’s a limit to recklessness. He’s a genius? More like a clueless idiot.”

Lord Balmont twisted his mouth.

“After three hours, he should be nothing but a corpse. Go retrieve the body. I want to see how the Dark Mages react when we impale his head on the castle wall.”

“Yes, sir.”

As his subordinate bowed and turned to leave, suddenly—

Splash!

Blood spattered.

“?!”

Startled, Lord Balmont sat up sharply, only to see a figure standing before him.

An annoyingly handsome face.

Christian.

“How the hell did you get here?!”

“Simple. I broke through the poison formation.”

“That’s impossible! The formation is still intact!”

There are two main ways to pass through a formation.

Open a life gate.

Or destroy the core.

But the poison formation in Balmont’s territory had no life gates; the only way out was to destroy the core and collapse the formation.

‘The poison formation is still intact. How did he get through?’

Christian said calmly,

“Ah, if the core collapses, the Venom Mage’s main house gets an immediate signal, so I used a slightly more troublesome method. I altered the formation, turning one of the death gates into a life gate.”

Lord Balmont’s face twisted in disbelief.

Was this guy spouting nonsense?

“You tampered with an active formation? Changed a death gate into a life gate? That’s impossible unless you alter the foundation of the formation. Nonsense!”

“I said it was troublesome. Even a genius like me took nearly three hours. It wasn’t easy.”

*    *    *

Christian rubbed his shoulders, clearly tired.

“But is this really the time for idle talk?”

His voice turned cold.

“I came to kill you.”

“!!”

Lord Balmont instinctively took a step back.

In truth, their levels as mages were roughly equal, but Christian’s presence overwhelmed him.

‘R-Report this…!!’

Suddenly, an idea struck Lord Balmont.

If he died here, the main house wouldn’t know the territory had fallen.

The poison formation was still intact.

Their response would be delayed.

He reached for the emergency communication device hidden in a corner.

“I see you have some loyalty. Prioritizing reporting, huh.”

“!!”

A chill ran down Lord Balmont’s spine.

Christian’s voice came from right beside him.

In the blink of an eye, he closed the distance.

“Profit…!!”

Whoosh!

Poison blossomed from Lord Balmont’s hand.

It was the pinnacle of poison arts, the “True Poison.”

His poison was corrosive.

With his will to “melt” behind it, even a mere graze would cause fatal damage.

“The level of poison isn’t bad, but you seriously underestimated me. If you wanted to live, you should’ve gone all out the moment you saw me.”

His voice was low and steady.

A fierce energy flashed from Chris.

A perfect vessel.

And within it, an absolute will to destroy.

“!!”

In an instant, Viscount Valmont’s vision seemed to black out.

Overwhelmed by the oncoming dark energy, his sight momentarily froze.

Not just his eyes.

As if time itself had stopped, all his senses went numb.

A dizzying sensation, as if caught in the gaze of a giant.

‘W-what kind of… power is this?’

With a sharp crack!

The dark energy utterly crushed the poison within the true energy.

Without faltering, it continued its path of destruction.

A sharp slash.

A long line was carved across Viscount Valmont’s body.

“…Un-unbelievable…”

That was the last thing he said.

Viscount Valmont collapsed backward with a heavy thud.

Chris then reached down and grabbed the emergency communicator Valmont had been reaching for.

‘As expected from an emergency device, the security is tight.’

Beyond simple magical seals, it required the owner’s energy signature—like a fingerprint—to activate.

‘But it’s not impossible.’

Chris approached the fallen Viscount.

Valmont’s breath had already stopped, and the energy core’s magic was scattering into the void.

Normally, that magic would dissipate quickly, but Chris used the nature of dark magic’s dominion to gather it into his hand and activate the communicator.

The security seals broke, and Chris sent a single message to the main base of the poison magic faction.

—Enemy repelled.