Raze was in disbelief at what he was seeing.
The lightning magic was freely encasing the Dark Magic. It wasn't unstable. It wasn't clashing. It wasn't tearing itself apart like mismatched elements forced together.
It was flowing. This wasn't just a temporary layering of two spells cast at the same time. It wasn't one element masking another.
This was bination magic. True bination magic. And it was bined with Dark Magic. That alone made it absurd.
While Raze's whole body was being electrified, he forced himself to stay conscious. The lightning coursed through him in violent pulses, muscles locking, nerves screaming, but his mind refused to give in. He could see it clearly , the lightning bolt forming in front of him.
And he knew it would be bad.
He forced his Pagan body forward, pushing with Qi even as his limbs resisted him. His muscles twitched from the electrical current, but he moved anyway. With a strained motion, he released a Dark Pulse, shattering one of the several lightning pins that had been embedded in the ground around him.
The destroyed rod flickered out.
But it wasn't enough.
Trubin had already thrown the attack.
The Dark Lightning Bolt shot forward just as fast as the previous lightning strike. It didn't hesitate. It didn't waver. It moved with certainty.
It pierced straight through Raze's body.
His special blazer did nothing.
It didn't disintegrate the attack. It didn't weaken it. It didn't even slow it down.
And Raze wasn't able to fully move to block it.
The impact drove through him.
Raze felt the pain searing through his body. Not a simple burn. Not a clean puncture.
A layered agony.
He could tell blood was trickling from his abdomen where he had been struck. But that wasn't the worst part.
Now that the lightning rod had pierced him, it was as if Dark Magic itself was moving through his body, destroying him from the inside. It spread rapidly, eating through flesh, tearing at muscle, ripping apart what it touched.
This wasn't surface damage.
It was internal destruction.
'I thought there was a chance the attack could have been a bluff,' Raze thought. 'But Trubin really did manage to create true bination magic with Dark Magic.'
He remembered when he had first started using Dark Magic.
Learning about its properties had felt like studying something that was never meant to belong in the same world as the other elements. It didn't flow like water. It didn't burn like fire. It didn't conduct like lightning.
It consumed. It destroyed. It rejected. Raze had tried himself to bine Dark Magic with other elements. He had imagined the possibilities. Dark Magic with the speed of lightning , instantaneous devastation. Dark Magic with flame , pressure and expansion beyond simple bustion. Dark Magic carried through water , spreading endlessly across surfaces.
The ideas had been limitless. But reality was not.
bination magic between ordinary elements was already a delicate balance. Even talented mages risked harming themselves if the elements didn't synchronize properly.
With Dark Magic, it had always been worse. Because of its nature. Because of its property to destroy whatever it touched.
Raze could use large amounts of another element to coat Dark Magic lightly. He could force it to interact on the surface.
But that wasn't true fusion. It wasn't creating something new. It wasn't stable. Where Raze had failed, Trubin had succeeded.
Not only were the Dark particles now damaging the inside of Raze's body, but they were sparking with lightning. The electricity lashed outward, striking across his skin. Every exposed area burned as arcs of energy snapped violently.
The pain intensified.
His Qi-enhanced body resisted. His durability held longer than most would have lasted.
But even so, the Dark Magic was still destroying parts of his skin. It tore through muscle. It dug into him.
Now he understood even more clearly why it had been so difficult for the others to face Trubin. This wasn't just power. This was mastery.
'It just reminds me,' Raze thought, 'unlike everyone else… unlike all of those in the Grand Magus… I was never talented like them.'
The thought didn't e with bitterness. It came with clarity.
'I pushed myself through research. Forced myself to learn unconventional things. Using Dark Magic was the only advantage I had.'
It hadn't been natural talent. It had been persistence. Obsession. Study. And now, here stood someone naturally gifted in the art.
'I guess it's always been an uphill struggle.'
The Dark Lightning continued to tear through him. He could feel it trying to overwhelm his system, to overload him, to break him apart from within. There was only one option. Without hesitation, Raze activated his time reversal magic.
His body shimmered. Vanished. Reappeared several meters away. The wounds were gone.
The hole in his abdomen closed as if it had never been there. The internal damage reversed. The burning ceased. The lightning that had wrapped around him no longer coursed through his skin.
He stood steady again. Breathing controlled.
The air still felt heavy with Dark particles.
"All of the trials you have put me through," Raze said, his voice steady despite everything, "have built me up to what I am today."
His eyes remained locked on Trubin.
"I would have never been able to beat you guys if I kept doing what I had done before."
The memory of Alter. The forced confrontation. Being pushed into Pagna.
"If you hadn't helped me go up against Alter… forced my hand to go to Pagna… I would have never had the power to get my revenge."
There was no gratitude in his tone. Only resolve.
"I know now that I can't take it easy on you, Trubin."
His hand moved to his chest.
The pressure there was real. The weight of everything he had endured. Every battle. Every defeat. Every moment he had been forced to adapt.
"And I promised that I will get my revenge."
His fingers pressed firmly against his chest. The energy within him responded.
"Breakthrough!"
***
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