Episode 10: The Dark Sorcerer (3)
The moment the dark sorcerer removed his bracelet, the entire cave was engulfed in a sinister black aura.
The floor, ceiling, and walls were all shrouded in darkness, as if the night sky itself had descended upon them.
“Damn it.”
Despite unleashing such a formidable amount of dark energy, the sorcerer seemed far from pleased.
“This was supposed to be my trump card against the Order.”
Grinding his teeth, the sorcerer glared at Damian Haxen.
“Don’t think you’ll die easily now! I’ll make you beg for death!”
Damian Haxen paid no heed to the sorcerer’s threats. His attention was entirely focused on the bracelet.
‘To think it held so much dark energy, and I didn’t even notice.’
Typically, the more energy one stores, the harder it is to conceal. Its presence becomes more pronounced as it accumulates. This holds true for dark energy as well.
Yet, the bracelet had hidden its power so perfectly that even Damian Haxen hadn’t detected it.
‘Could it be an artifact?’
Artifacts, relics from ancient civilizations, are said to possess extraordinary capabilities due to their superior craftsmanship.
“Carrying something like that… you’re no ordinary dark sorcerer. Who are you, really?”
“I have nothing to say to someone who won’t reveal their own identity.”
Once again, the sorcerer refused to answer.
”…Though I suppose I’m not as rude as you are.”
The sorcerer rolled up his sleeve, revealing a tattoo of a white flower on his forearm.
“I’m Agito, an officer of Yulan.”
Dark sorcerers are hunted.
Their dark magic manipulates souls and corpses, and the Holy Order does not tolerate such practices.
The Order has labeled them heretics and conducts purges several times a year to eliminate them.
But the dark sorcerers don’t just sit back and take it.
They’ve formed networks, exchanging information and offering mutual aid to resist the Order.
Sometimes, these networks grow so notorious and powerful that even the Order struggles to deal with them.
“An officer of Yulan?”
Yulan was one such organization of dark sorcerers.
It was well-known enough that even Damian Haxen had heard of it.
A relatively new group, Yulan specialized in assassinations using dark magic.
They were involved in numerous incidents, yet the Holy Order had not been able to eradicate them.
This was due to the high combat prowess of all its members.
Given such a formidable affiliation, there was no need to question Agito’s skills.
“Why would someone like you work for a group like the Black Serpents?”
“I needed to lay low for a while. I wasn’t hired!”
“Lay low… Ah, because of the Holy Order.”
An officer of a group like Yulan would only need to hide so discreetly if the Holy Order was on the move.
“I heard the Order’s been cracking down on dark sorcerers lately. So you were pretending to be a third-rate sorcerer to avoid them.”
Agito ground his teeth.
“Yeah, you’re right. Damn it, I never expected to run into someone like you on a simple job for pocket money.”
Agito spat out a curse and asked, “Even after hearing my name, you still intend to hide your identity?”
“I’ve never hidden it.”
“Ha, you still think I’m a fool.”
Agito’s face twisted with anger, and the dark energy around him began to surge.
“It doesn’t matter if you won’t tell me now.”
Without constructing a spell, the dark energy took form.
Thick tendrils sprouted from the ground like a forest of logs.
“Be crushed and die.”
The tendrils wrapped around Damian Haxen, squeezing with terrifying force.
“Rot in hell, you worm.”
Even in victory, Agito felt no joy.
For someone of his rank in Yulan, victory was a given once he revealed his true power.
Though not as vast as the infamous dark sorcerer organization ‘Manmajeon’ rumored to be operating in the Empire, Yulan was still quite…
It was then that cracks began to appear on the surface of the tendrils. The fissures spread rapidly across them.
With a sound like shattering glass, the tendrils disintegrated.
As the dark magic unraveled, the scattered energy whipped into a storm.
“So this is your great dark magic?”
From the center of the chaos, Damian Haxen spoke in a bored tone.
“Not as impressive as I thought.”
“This… this can’t be happening!”
Agito screamed in disbelief.
“This spell is something I’ve refined my entire life! I’m the only one in the world who can use it! And yet… you! How did you…!”
As long as Damian Haxen possessed the power of Greed, no dark magic Agito used would be effective.
“Your entire life? It’s rather crude for that. You should try harder.”
Of course, Damian Haxen didn’t share this with Agito. Instead, he taunted him further.
“You… I won’t let you live. I’ll kill you for sure…!”
Shame and fury contorted Agito’s face.
He began to absorb all the dark energy released from the bracelet.
A massive amount of dark energy poured into his body.
“Ugh, urgh.”
It seemed to be a struggle; Agito looked as if he might vomit at any moment.
“If it’s too much, why not stop?”
Agito didn’t respond. He seemed incapable of it.
Black lines began to etch themselves onto the skin exposed outside his robe.
“A magic circle?”
Damian Haxen quickly recognized what the lines were.
Agito was using the dark energy to inscribe a magic circle onto his own body.
But he didn’t stop there. He pulled a dagger from his robes.
“Damn it, I never thought I’d have to use this spell!”
Agito slashed his wrist with the dagger. Blood spurted from the wound.
As soon as the blood hit the ground, it turned to ash and scattered.
Immediately afterward, a green flame ignited above Agito’s head.
The flame stretched out like a serpent, floating around him.
Damian Haxen instantly understood the nature of the flame.
“You’ve borrowed the power of a demon.”
Skilled dark sorcerers could offer sacrifices to demons in exchange for their power.
Agito had used dark energy and his own blood as offerings to summon the demon’s flame.
“Yes! As you said, this is the power of a demon! The flames of hell!”
The green flame was ominous beyond measure.
Even a slight touch caused the earth to melt, turning into a stream of lava.
“You won’t be able to dispel this! It’s not dark magic; it’s the power of a demon!”
Agito extended his hand toward Damian Haxen.
“Go! Burn him to ashes!”
The demon’s flame surged toward Damian Haxen.
It was like a tidal wave, not a fire.
‘He’s gravely mistaken.’
Contrary to Agito’s belief, the power of Greed could dismantle even a demon’s power.
As Damian Haxen prepared to unleash his power on the flame, a thought crossed his mind.
’…I don’t necessarily have to use my power.’
Despite possessing dark magic and the power of Greed, Damian Haxen was, at his core, a swordsman.
Even during his time as a Death Knight, he always wielded a sword against formidable foes.
‘With this much dark energy, I can use the sword techniques from my Death Knight days.’
In his past life, Damian Haxen had combined the skills he learned from battling powerful opponents into a single sword technique.
He named it the Soul Severing Sword, imbuing it with his aspirations.
Thanks to this technique, Damian Haxen had reached the realm of the ‘Divine Sword.’
However, in this life, he had to abandon the Soul Severing Sword. It was a technique based on dark energy.
‘Without dark energy, I can’t wield the Soul Severing Sword.’
Dark energy and magic are fundamentally different and cannot substitute for one another.
He had no intention of gathering dark energy just to use the Soul Severing Sword.
Dark energy could only be obtained through death and corpses. Dark sorcerers committed horrific crimes for this reason.
Damian Haxen had no desire to act like a dark sorcerer.
‘I’m curious. How much of the Soul Severing Sword can I manifest in a human body?’
Damian Haxen absorbed the dark energy into his body.
The energy melded with him as if it belonged there.
A jet-black aura surged from the blade of his longsword.
Agito’s face froze at the sight of the aura.
“An aura? You… you’re not a dark sorcerer, are you…?”
The aura, which had been burning like smoke and flame, began to coalesce around the blade.
Soon, the aura took on a complete form. A pitch-black blade that seemed to absorb all light was forged.
The Aurablade.
A skill only those who have reached the pinnacle of mastery can wield.
An invincible weapon capable of slaying even dragons, the apex of living creatures.
This absolute power was now in Damian Haxen’s hands.
“W-wait!”
Damian Haxen raised his sword.
The air around the Aurablade distorted visibly.
“S-stop! I-I surrender!”
Damian Haxen swung his sword.
A single black line cleaved the world in two.
The green flames were sucked into the line.
In an instant, not a single ember remained in the cave.
“Ah! Aaaah! Somebody help! Help me!”
Agito turned to flee.
Despite Demian Haxen blocking the only exit, he acted as if it didn’t matter.
At that moment, Agito’s upper body slipped and fell to the ground.
Startled, Agito turned around.
He hadn’t even realized his legs had been severed and were still standing upright.
“Agh! Aaaah! Nooo!”
Agito clutched his severed thighs, screaming in agony.
“Shut up.”
Demian Haxen, who had approached unnoticed, kicked Agito in the face.
The scream was abruptly cut off.
“My, my legs… my legs…”
“Seems like you’re in shock. But now’s not the time to worry about that.”
Demian Haxen pressed the blade of his longsword against Agito’s neck. The color drained from Agito’s face.
“P-please, spare me. I don’t want to die.”
“You want to live?”
Demian Haxen grinned.
“Then you’ll have to pay with something else.”
“Th-this is everything I have.”
Agito laid out his belongings in front of Demian Haxen.
Demian glanced over the items with a look of irritation.
“This is it?”
A book of dark curses.
An artifact bracelet Agito had been wearing.
And a pouch of gold coins.
The materials Agito had extorted from the Black Serpent were all destroyed in the battle.
“Aren’t you supposed to be a high-ranking member of Yuran? Why are you so poor?”
“I-I was on the run from the cult…”
“Useless fool. You should’ve brought more.”
Demian Haxen tapped Agito’s head with the longsword.
Agito’s face flushed with embarrassment.
The book of dark magic was of no interest. Demian picked up the bracelet instead.
In truth, the bracelet alone was incredibly valuable.
“What exactly is this bracelet? An artifact?”
“Y-yes.”
As Demian suspected, the bracelet was no ordinary item.
“What are its exact abilities?”
“It can store any kind of energy. M-magic, dark magic, it doesn’t matter. A-and it has a concealment function, so it never gets detected.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m still alive, aren’t I? That’s proof enough.”
Demian examined the bracelet with satisfaction.
Its function was simple, but it was exactly what he needed.
‘I can store dark magic in this.’
As proven today, using dark magic allowed him to replicate past sword techniques.
It couldn’t unleash full power, but it was enough as a trump card.
However, dark magic was dangerous enough to get him hunted by the cult if discovered.
With this bracelet, he could avoid such risks.
‘Maybe I can even manifest the Divine Sword.’
Demian Haxen had fought strong opponents, absorbing their skills and techniques.
The pinnacle he reached through that was the Divine Sword.
It was thanks to reaching that level that he had been able to kill Dolgo in his past life.
“But is this really all? Nothing else?”
“N-no, that’s it! Please, put the sword down!”
Demian raised the longsword and said,
“No, there must be more. Squeeze out whatever you can.”
“How can I squeeze out something that doesn’t exist…”
Then, hope flickered across Agito’s face.
Agito rummaged through his pockets and pulled out a notebook.
“What’s this?”
“It’s a record of the items the Black Serpent’s boss bought for me! You can verify it by visiting the shops listed here!”
“Oh?”
Demian opened the notebook and checked inside.
It was filled with transaction records for materials.
“With this, you can prove the transactions. As you know, dealing with them is a serious crime. You could link the cult and the Black Serpent!”
“Then I can take down the Black Serpent without lifting a finger.”
“You’re quick on the uptake.”
The two laughed loudly. Agito asked cautiously,
“You’ll let me go now, right?”
“No.”
Demian swung the longsword, severing Agito’s head.
“I don’t forgive anyone who messes with my family.”
Demian picked up Agito’s head and placed it in a nearby sack.
“And I need a silent witness.”
What good was a notebook alone?
He needed proof that a real dark sorcerer was involved.
But if he took Agito alive, there was a risk he’d talk about Demian Haxen.
“Now, let’s go pay the Black Serpent a visit.”
With that, Demian Haxen left the cave.