------------------
[Translator - Kiteretsu]
[Proofreader - Kyros]
------------------
Chapter 48
Christian let out a faint laugh.
It seemed like a fair condition, but in truth, it was anything but.
‘Wasn’t Ashid at 4-star level now? 4-star High?’
Four-star High, in his early twenties.
An extraordinary achievement.
No wonder he was called the greatest genius among the dark magi of his generation.
In any case, once someone reached the 4-star realm, their ability to manipulate magi operated on an entirely different level. Even with the same amount of magi, the power they could exert was vastly different.
However—
“Yes, I’ll do it.”
Chris agreed without complaint.
Did Ashid know?
That this was exactly the situation Chris had long wished for?
‘To think I’d hook such a big catch.’
Chris had deliberately played down his accomplishments, expecting one of the direct bloodline members to pick a fight—he had planned to strike back hard.
But to think it would be Ashid.
A jackpot among jackpots.
Chris had to work hard to hold back his laughter.
Ashid, sensing something off, twitched his eyebrow.
“Christian, just so you know, mishandling your magi during a magi clash can severely damage your core.”
A blatant warning that he intended to destroy Chris’s core.
Chris returned it in kind.
“Yes, so please be careful as well, Heir. We wouldn’t want your precious core to get damaged either.”
“…What?”
Ashid reacted with momentary confusion.
Then burst into loud laughter.
“Fine, I’ll be sure to take care. Now that you say that, I’m even more curious. Just how exceptional is your magi?”
Unlike his hearty laughter, Ashid’s eyes gleamed with a cruel, furious light.
The two faced each other.
They took a stance as if to shake hands.
Through their clasped hands, they would initiate the magi clash.
“You start first. Once you unleash your magi, I’ll follow with the same amount.”
Chris didn’t hesitate.
He gripped Ashid’s hand first.
Then activated his magi.
Starting with 1-star.
Just as Ashid was about to sneer at the weak magi—
His face suddenly hardened.
He sensed something was wrong.
An instinctive sense of crisis ran up Ashid’s spine.
He must never go head-to-head with that magi.
A blaring alarm echoed through Ashid’s mind, but it was too late.
Chris clenched his hand even tighter.
It was a grasp imbued with the secret technique of Geumnasu—a martial art that captures the opponent’s body through the hand.
Thanks to that, Ashid couldn’t pull his hand back and had no choice but to respond by raising his own magi.
Was it because of his pride?
As he had told Christian earlier, he only raised the same amount of magi.
1-star magi.
However—
The moment it came into contact with Christian’s magi, something unbelievable happened.
Ashid’s magi shattered into pieces.
No, it wasn’t even at that level.
It disintegrated as if it had been ripped apart and shredded by a wild beast.
‘W-what?’
Ashid’s eyes widened as if they were tearing apart.
He frantically raised more magi.
2-star.
It was useless.
Even though Christian had only raised 1-star magi, it completely crushed Ashid’s 2-star magi as if stomping over a sandcastle.
Ashid’s face turned pale.
‘This can’t be. How is this possible?’
Normally, a clash of magi is like a tug-of-war, with both sides’ energies pushing and pulling in a fierce contest of strength.
But here, there wasn’t even a fight.
It felt like an unstoppable catastrophe was bearing down on him.
“For someone who acts so high and mighty… you’re not much, are you?”
An irritating voice suddenly cut in.
Christian was clearly sneering with an insufferable smirk.
“And with this level, you call yourself a genius?”
Ashid clenched his teeth.
‘How dare he speak so arrogantly!’
A memory from long ago resurfaced.
From the days when “Christian” was once called a prodigy.
Originally, Ashid was hailed as the most gifted genius among the younger generation of the Dark Demonic House.
But the moment Christian, from a branch family, emerged, that title was taken from him.
—A prodigy who might surpass Ashid.
That was the nickname given to young Christian at the time.
Ashid couldn’t tolerate the humiliation.
So he secretly pulled some strings and caused Christian’s downfall.
A despicable trick—but after all, he was just from a branch family. A lowborn destined to kneel at his feet.
He had no hesitation.
But now, that same lowborn had the audacity to rise again, with eyes blazing, acting as if he belonged.
‘Arrogant bastard. I’ll destroy you completely this time.’
Ashid’s gaze gleamed with chilling rage.
Breaking the agreement, he began to summon all his 4-star magi.
Paaat!
A surge of magi, far more intense than before, erupted from Ashid’s core.
If the magi he had raised earlier was like a small stream, now it surged toward Christian like the violent waves of the sea.
A force so intense it couldn’t even be compared to Christian’s 2-star magi.
“Th-that…!”
The vassals murmured among themselves.
They didn’t fully understand what was happening between the two.
They only recognized that Ashid had raised 4-star magi and believed Christian was now facing a life-threatening crisis.
As everyone expected Christian’s downfall, he thought to himself—
‘Bingo.’
The smile at the corner of his lips deepened.
An enormous opportunity had come, completely uninvited.
‘To offer up your neck and ask to be killed… how generous of you.’
Christian intended to use this chance to inflict as much damage as possible to Ashid’s core.
But if Ashid had kept his word and used only 2-star magi, there would’ve been a limit to the damage he could deal.
With only a small amount of magi, Ashid could have pulled out before suffering critical injury to his core.
But now that Ashid had gone all out, it became the perfect opportunity.
Due to the nature of magi clashes, once you release magi at full power, it becomes impossible to pull back midway.
In other words, Ashid could no longer retreat.
Of course, the same went for Christian… but the outcome of who would meet disaster had already been decided.
Kwaang!
Ashid’s magi and Christian’s magi collided.
Ashid had 4-star.
Christian, on the other hand, had only 1-star. And he wasn’t even using his full strength.
Even so, Christian’s 1-star magi didn’t lose to Ashid’s 4-star magi.
Rather, Ashid’s magi showed signs of strain and began to scatter, and just as Ashid’s face twisted in disbelief at the unbelievable phenomenon—
“You arrogant idiot who thinks he’s hot shit.”
Christian’s mocking voice rang out, but Ashid couldn’t offer any rebuttal.
Christian had now released his full strength magi.
2-star upper-tier magi.
No—while the rank was upper 2-star, because he had absorbed the black pill perfectly efficiently, the amount of magi far exceeded that of a 3-star level.
As the amount of surging magi grew, only then did Ashid begin to truly feel the purity of Christian’s dark magi.
‘Over 70%? No… could it be? 80%… no, more than that? That’s… impossible?’
Utterly pure.
So pure, it was terrifying—the magi stormed forth relentlessly.
And that wasn’t all.
Christian’s magi was also cunning.
It didn’t just rip apart Ashid’s magi like before.
Like a serpent, it coiled around Ashid’s magi—ensnaring it, making escape impossible.
Then, as if devouring it whole, it consumed Ashid’s magi.
Ashid’s magi vanished, devoured by Christian’s like it was being swallowed by a snake.
As a result, in that instant, the blood channels flowing toward Ashid’s core were left completely empty of magi.
‘N-no…’
Ashid's face turned deathly pale, anticipating the imminent disaster.
He forcibly gathered the remaining magi to protect his core, but it was useless.
Christian’s magi surged straight into Ashid’s core.
“Keugh!!”
“Lord Ashid?!”
It was only a single strike, and yet Ashid vomited a mouthful of dark blood.
His core had taken a heavy blow.
But Christian didn’t stop.
‘This is a chance that won’t come again.’
He didn’t need to see it to know.
If left alone, Ashid would resort to every underhanded trick against him.
He had to break his wings now.
But an interruption came.
“Stop!!”
It was Marquis Langham.
And it wasn’t just a shout.
The aura Marquis Langham unleashed violently shook the space.
A manifestation of a 7-star Magian’s aura.
If Christian didn’t withdraw his magi immediately, he would suffer a critical injury too.
‘Cowardly.’
But he had expected this kind of interference.
Instead of striking Ashid’s core again with his magi, Christian made another move.
As he withdrew his magi—
Pang!
A shockwave rippled out.
A technique like a high-wire act—completely matching the magi wavelength of the opponent’s core with his own.
A fierce resonance rattled Ashid’s core.
Ashid vomited another mouthful of dark blood and collapsed limply.
He had lost consciousness.
“Lord Ashid!!”
“What are you doing?! Hurry, call a healer!!”
The vassals were in an uproar.
Ashid was quickly carried away by healers who appeared like the wind.
“H-how did this happen?”
All the vassals widened their eyes and stared at Christian. Something unbelievable had just occurred.
Marquis Langham approached, eyes cold and sharp.
“…Christian, you—”
His voice was clearly filled with anger, unlike before.
But Christian remained upright and unyielding.
There was no reason to lower himself.
‘It’s not like they’d go easy on me even if I did.’
“I apologize for what happened just now. I didn’t think Lord Ashid would be unable to endure something this minor.”
“!!”
“More importantly.”
Christian looked around.
He saw the eyes of the vassals fixed on him, filled with shock and disbelief.
He had to turn those gazes into reverence.
Only then could he claim the Dark Demonic House.
This was the first step toward that goal.
“This magi is rough, you see.”
Everyone in the hall drew a sharp breath.
Magi flowed from Christian’s hand.
Endlessly dark.
A pure darkness, untainted by even a speck of impurity.
It was the moment a perfectly pure dark magi—something no one had ever achieved—was revealed before everyone.
“I believe this is more than enough proof that I surpass the other young lords.”
The hall sank into a deathly silence.
No one dared to speak a word.
That was how shocking it was.
It was the moment when the impact Christian—once called a worthless scoundrel—sent rippling through the Dark Demonic House.
* * *
A dark magi of perfect purity!
The Dark Demonic House was in an uproar.
“A 90% purity, you say?”
“Not 90%, it’s even higher!!”
“No way. That scoundrel?!”
At first, everyone reacted with disbelief.
It was just too hard to believe.
But too many had witnessed it.
And more than anything, the shock Christian delivered wasn’t just that.
“Are you saying it was truly his own strength that defeated Young Lord Royen and the others during the Sacred Darkness Ceremony?”
“Yes, even Young Lord Alros of House Tyramin testified to it. Said there was no trickery involved.”
The events of the Sacred Darkness Ceremony were brought back into the spotlight.
“You’re saying Lord Ashid lost in a magi clash?”
The Magians spoke as if they still couldn’t believe it.
------------------
[Translator - Kiteretsu]
[Proofreader - Kyros]
------------------
