He walked down the stairs silently. He had his presence hidden, and he didnt have any spells casted. With a sword in his hands, he was ready to instantly cut down anyone he saw.

He was avoiding the use of mana since enemies could detect mana usage from a distance, and he wanted to get the jump on the enemy.

‘Although most likely they already know I’m here’ He thought to himself as he continued walking down.

It is in fact very likely that the things below heard the war outside, or his battle with the Lizardman. Or even worse, while

he was checking the newbies they saw the dead lizardman and booby-trapped the stairs he was in now.

He quickly double checked the floor as he thought about it, and continued walking. Soon, the stairs ended, leading to an

unnatural straight passage.

Dusk suddenly realized that it was a ruin as he touched the nearby wall. It was already weakened, and a few grains of sand dropped to the ground, stopping Dusk in his tracks.

He stepped onto the floor of the ruins.

And another step.

Convinced that there was nothing on the ground, he slowly walked forwards, checking for runes on the ground, walls and ceiling.

There was an open room in the front, and Dusk peered into it. There was a man inside, looking at a giant object.

As he got closer, he suddenly realized what it was.

It was a giant mana cannon.

From the spare parts on the ground and the glowing mana on the cannon, Dusk deduced that it was broken when it was just found, but it was being repaired.

Most likely with the items that has a rank 8 mana source. Dusk wasn’t ignorant of it. Although Shiina showed nobody, he had looked through Ducky’s footage.

He took a silent but deep breath, and took a mana card.

“Ahhh! Welcome, welcome, adventurers.” Suddenly, the man spoke, and Dusk stopped himself. But even if he was wearing black, and was in the shadows, the man looked at him directly and smiled. “Oh? One only? I was expecting at least 30 to 40. Surprising. Well I suppose you want to kill me already, but before all of that, I would answer your questions as long as you answer one of my questions. Okay?”

Dusk frowned. People like them are the most dangerous. Not scared, not panicking, they don’t even need to speak to you to distract you. Most of the times, you can fight them head on, getting a first strike in, but still lose the battle.

Of course, it could be all a lie, and the enemy would just be distracting him. But years of reading with real experience told him this was not a case like that.

“Who are you?” Dusk said, as he activated his Aura sense and Mana sense.

The man smiled as he opened his arms, “My name, is insignificant. I am, however, a dark mage. A rouge dark mage. One that has reasons for revenge. And the tools for it. Why are you here?”

Dusk sighed and looked up, “To save someone from a cruel fate. Why do you seek revenge?”

“Simple, actually. It was a day in the magic academy. People like us, dark mages, you know, do not have freedom in our research. But even so, we lived quite a good life, but one of my researches went wrong. It gave a result I didn’t intend to get, which caused me to break a huge law.” He said, his tone becoming slightly darker.

“They killed all of us. Every single one of us, but me. Ironic isn’t it? I’m the one who killed all of them, but yet they tried their hardest to save me, isn’t it funny?” He laughed cheerfully, and then his tone became dark again, “That’s why I want to fulfill our last wish. If it wasn’t the stupid crappy government, or the crappy sorceress that dominate the magic line, we would be able to research whatever we want, or do whatever we like. We had no plans of world domination, or humanity destruction. Those things were too petty for us. After all, we still needed them for our research. Anyways, why are you here alone?”

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“Because I came alone. I ignored orders.” Dusk muttered, “What would the cannon do?”

“Simple. The cannon will remove Saint Haven and the Magic institute from the map of Lagendia. It’s so funny that I could say that so casually. Do you know that they wouldn’t let you go for ignoring orders? Actually, ignore that question, you aren’t stupid. Do you plan to give them the cannon?”

Those words broke Dusk’s serious looks for a few seconds, as he laughed, “I plan to remove it, and all traces of this room. I have no more questions to ask.”

“Then, I’m ready.” He said, and floated a little.

Dusk gripped his sword with a pair of cards. The mage created a ball of darkness.

He dashed.

The mage smiled and threw the dark ball towards Dusk, who side stepped to dodge it, then he activated a card. A [Barrier] appeared in front of him, and he jumped onto it, jumping again to reach the dark mage.

The dark mage simply smiled, the dark ball he threw just a bit ago started to fly back towards him, and it would pierce though Dusk to do that.

[Summon: Interceptor]

The third type of Summon card Dusk made had been activated. When activated, it would summon 6 balls of mana, which will fly around to intercept both physical and magical attacks. A mana ball flew to block the ball of darkness, which was removed. And with that, there was nothing to stop Dusk’s blade from slicing the wrist of the dark mage.

Except for a mana shield.

Dusk didn’t falter from it though, he had expected something like that to appear, and he jumped back.

That’s when he realized something was wrong.

Out of the remaining 5 interceptor balls, there was only 2 left. The dark mage calmly smiled at him, gesturing him to come. Dusk jumped up, and swung his blade onto the mana shield again, and this time he saw it.

As an interceptor got close to the shield, a dark tentacle pulled it into the shield, and it disappeared.

“Absorb?” Dusk muttered as he kicked the shield to back off.

“Indeed. Mana absorption. I’ll cut to the chase, you can’t defeat me. The mana concentration is so high that none of your physical attacks would work, and your magical attacks would simply be.” He smacked his lips as he said the next word,

“Eaten.”

“Tsk.”

“It’ll be very nice for us to collaborate you know. You let me destroy the two places, and I could help you in… quite a bit of stuff.” He said, holding out a hand towards Dusk.

Upon those words, Dusk sighed and shook his head, “Even so, it’s too late.” He muttered and pointed his sword at his

enemy, “There are still innocents, and people unrelated to the bullcrap we know as the nobles. Not to mention.”

Dusk charged and activated a [Speed+] and a [Momentum+] card. “I’m already on a job.”

“I expected as much. It’s a loss, but good night.” After announcing that, he started muttering an incantation. Dusk’s blade smashed into the barrier, but it merely flashed. Before he could escape, the dark mage finished his spell. A dark claw appeared behind him and slashed him as he fell, it would have struck him, but he activated [Time: Slow] on himself. With the slowed time, he fell slower and the preemptive attack failed.

“Oho! Time AND space magic. Such power too. Sadly it isn’t the type of magic that could kill me~.” He said and laughed.

“Come, let me see how long you could dance.”

And with his hands raised, a huge number of dark claws and balls appeared.

The symphony of darkness has just begun.