The cobbled floor was wrecked, as the ground had been destroyed; a large line broke through the center of the flooring. The side structures, which had already been damaged, had suffered even more and had completely collapsed on the floor.
Around, four mages were seen lying on the floor, too injured to stand on their feet, taken out before they could fully utilize their power. They themselves were perhaps unaware of what happened to them.
Only one man was standing present, with his sword in his hand, at the end of the broken flooring.
"I've only learned two of the Dark Edge Sword Arts, and this is the result of the second art. Sure, this is the result with it being mixed in with my magic, but even without magic, the strike is extremely powerful. Mixing this even further with the descending steps, I can see how these techniques would disrupt the Dark Faction."
Thinking about it a little more, there was a slightly bigger worry in his head. These techniques were created by a great master. Someone who was in the same situation as Raze, being able to combine magic and Pagna arts, yet even he was defeated at some point.
His whole kingdom that he had built toppled.
The mages had been injured to the point where they could no longer fight back, but Raze had purposely only injured them, keeping them alive. He walked towards one of those that were closest on the ground.
"Who are you guys?" Raze asked.
Before the man could even answer, Raze grabbed his face and started to use the extraction technique. The mage was unable to do anything as he could feel his mana core and the rest of his energy drift away until he no longer had any life in him.
Letting go of the man, he was lifeless, and Raze soon moved on to the next one.
"There is no recourse for mages who decide to attack me with the intent to kill, and if you guys are who I think you are, and are in a place like this, I will assume it's for other reasons."
Raze soon walked over to the next mage and proceeded to ask the same question. "Who are you guys?"
Once again, Raze didn't give time for the mage to answer and grabbed around his mouth, drawing in his energy, taking it away from him.
One of the mages that was nearby, lying on the ground, could move his head; his legs had two large holes in them from some type of magic attack from before.
"If you do that, how are we supposed to answer you!" The mage shouted, his heart racing.
He saw the mage in the dark clothing let go of his ally, who had now shriveled up into something that resembled a raisin. Now, the mage in the dark robes was coming toward him.
"Oh, so you guys can hear me?" Raze asked. "I was hoping since I've been asking the same question, that one of you would have answered even before I spoke."
Raze dealt with the others before they could answer to show that his threats were serious. That if he didn't get what he wanted, then it would mean death to the others.
'I can't go easy on them; I can't because if they are involved with him, then I know they wouldn't go easy on me.'
The walk turned into a single Qi step push which allowed Raze to reach the Mage who could barely move; his entire body was trembling, even if he wanted to speak, it almost felt like he couldn't, and before he knew it, he too had been grabbed around the mouth, the energy sucked out of him.
Raze could feel his core growing, and when the mage died in front of him, the dark essence flowed into him.
[Dark attribute: 50 >>>>> 58]
[Wind attribute: 28 >>>> 32]
[Ice attribute: 18 >>>> 21]
[Lightning attribute: 15 >>>> 18]
'My magic attributes are getting stronger because of this. All of this will do me well as I go against tougher mages. These guys were a little uncoordinated, and it seemed like they had experience fighting against Pagna warriors, but that won't be the case for everyone.
'With my current magic and strength as a fourth-stage Pagna warrior, I still wouldn't have been able to defeat that Elder from the Light Faction on my own, nor best the Clan heads.'
When Raze first arrived here, there was almost no doubt in his head that magic was superior to the Pagna martial arts. Perhaps this was his naivety as he had seen very little of their techniques and more of the magic.
However, he was starting to consider that the Pagna martial artists were the tougher opponents that he needed to look out for.
Finally, Raze had reached the last mage. In the first place, he only needed one of them to live to get the information he needed.
"Now tell me, are you from Alterian, or are you from Alter?" Raze asked, making the question more specific.
The mage who was lying on the floor just smiled; veins started to build up on the side of his head as he said nothing. His face was turning bright red, and before he knew it, his head exploded into several pieces of flesh chunks.
It had popped like a balloon, and Raze had to cover himself to stop part of it from splashing over himself.
"Damn it!" Raze yelled in anger. "The damn rat killed himself. Are there people really that loyal to scum that they would be willing to do that?"
The anger was building inside of him, as he felt like he was close to finding out something. Or at least being a step closer to his goal. The truth was, Raze was going to deal with the last mage anyway regardless of his answer because no one was allowed to know of him or his whereabouts. Perhaps that was the reason as to why the mage had killed himself in the first place.
Looking over at the rest of the city, Raze could feel the movement of mana far and wide; he could feel it behind the walls as well. There were more of them, far more than just this group; they were just the first ones to come in contact with him.
'This is a large-scale operation, and I have no idea how many of them there are, nor if there is a higher star mage with them. If there is, then it could bode trouble for me. Although I wish to find out why they are here, I might need to save it for another time.'
Thinking this, Raze got out of the scene he made as soon as possible and entered one of the broken-down houses. He made sure the area was clear and checked through the openings.
They looked like windows, only there was no glass blocking between the ways. Here he could see a couple of mages moving about. Which was why he was hasty in his work as he went ahead and drew the magic circle for memory.
'With the absorption of the other mages, I can feel my core getting stronger. I thought absorbing the level five power stone would allow me to reach the next star level. I wanted to do that while I was in the other dimension.
"But doing so will attract attention. I never expected other mages to be in a place like this. So I will just need to do it some other time," Raze thought as the magic circle lit up. A portal opened, and he stepped through, knowing that he would need to return to this place in order to make his way back at some point and wondered what would await him then.
In the dimension, the mages were beyond startled as they had come across the many dead bodies on the ground. They could see that the team had been killed, and examining the scene, they were trying to see what or how.
"Just what happened here? Was it another mage from another guild, perhaps?" one of the mages asked.
"The person has to still be in the area; we need to search for them."
One of the mages looked at their shriveled-up member on the ground. "Whatever, or whoever this was, it's clear that they are a dangerous person. Let's send a report back and see what they wish to do."
