Chapter 48
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 48
Chapter Title: Perfect Purity
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Christian scoffed.
The condition seemed fair, but in reality, it was anything but.
‘Did he say Eshid is at the 4-Star level? Upper 4-Star?’
A 4-Star in his early twenties. And an upper-level one at that.
It was a tremendous achievement.
There was a reason he was called the greatest genius of the Dark Magic House of his generation.
In any case, at the 4-Star level, his proficiency in handling Magi was on a different plane. He could unleash a completely different level of power even with the same amount of Magi.
However.
“Yes, I’ll do that.”
Chris agreed without a word of complaint.
Did Eshid know?
That this was the exact situation Chris had been hoping for?
‘To think I’d hook such a big one.’
Chris had deliberately played the trick of hiding his achievements. He had anticipated that one of the direct descendants would pick a fight and planned to put them in their place.
But for it to be Eshid.
This was more than just a big fish; it was the jackpot.
Chris struggled to suppress the smile threatening to break out.
Eshid’s brow twitched, as if sensing something was amiss.
“Christian, I’m saying this just in case, but if you handle the Magi clash clumsily, you could severely damage your core.”
It was a blatant warning that he intended to destroy his core.
Chris returned the sentiment in kind.
“Yes, so please be careful, Young Lord. We wouldn’t want your precious core to be harmed.”
“…What?”
Eshid reacted with a momentarily dumbfounded expression.
Then he burst out into loud laughter.
“Right, I’ll be sure to be careful. Now that you say that, I’m even more excited to see just how outstanding your Magi is.”
Contrary to his hearty laughter, Eshid’s eyes glinted with cruel fury.
The two stood facing each other.
They took a posture as if they were about to shake hands.
They intended to cause a Magi clash through their clasped hands.
“You start. When you raise your Magi, I will match it with the same amount.”
Chris didn’t refuse.
First, he grasped Eshid’s hand.
Then, he summoned his Magi.
To start, 1-Star.
Just as a smirk began to form on Eshid’s lips at the faint Magi…
His face suddenly hardened.
He had noticed something was wrong.
An instinctive sense of danger shot up his spine.
*You must not confront that Magi.*
Though such a warning blared in Eshid’s mind, it was too late.
Chris squeezed his hand even tighter.
It was a grip embodying the subtle art of capture, designed to ensnare an opponent's body with one’s hand.
Thanks to this, Eshid couldn’t pull his hand away and was forced to summon his own Magi in response.
Was it due to his pride?
He summoned only the same amount of Magi he had told Chris he would.
1-Star Magi.
However.
The moment it touched Chris’s Magi, something unbelievable happened.
Eshid’s Magi was scattered to pieces.
No, it was more than that.
It was utterly dismantled, as if torn to shreds by a wild beast.
‘Wh-what?’
Eshid’s eyes widened as if they would tear.
He hastily summoned more Magi.
2-Star.
It was useless.
Though Chris had only summoned a 1-Star level of Magi, it crushed Eshid’s 2-Star Magi, crumbling it like a sandcastle being stomped on.
Eshid’s face turned deathly pale.
‘Impossible. How can this be?’
Normally, a Magi clash was like a tug-of-war, a sharp struggle where the Magi from both sides pushed against each other.
But this wasn't even a fight.
It was like an unstoppable catastrophe bearing down on him.
“You were acting so high and mighty… but you’re nothing special, are you?”
An irritating voice cut through the air.
Christian was smirking, a distinctly smug and unpleasant look on his face.
“With just this, you call yourself a genius?”
Eshid gritted his teeth.
‘How dare you, you insolent whelp!’
A memory from long ago surfaced.
A time in the past when ‘Christian’ had been called a prodigy.
Eshid had originally been known as the most outstanding genius among the younger generation of the Dark Magic House.
But the moment Christian arrived from a collateral branch, that title had been passed to him.
—A prodigy who might even surpass Eshid.
That was the moniker given to the young Christian back then.
Eshid couldn’t stand the humiliation.
So he had secretly pulled strings to bring about Christian’s downfall.
It was a despicable move, but he was just some collateral trash anyway. Inferior beings destined to kneel at his feet.
He had no qualms.
And now, that same lowly creature dared to glare at him defiantly, acting above his station.
‘Insolent bastard. I’ll break you completely this time.’
Eshid’s eyes gleamed with a terrifying fury.
He intended to unleash all of his 4-Star Magi, breaking his promise.
*Fwaaat!*
A surge of Magi, incomparable to before, erupted from Eshid’s core.
If the Magi he’d summoned earlier was like a small stream, what rushed toward Christian now was a fierce torrent, like a mighty ocean wave.
It was a power far beyond the 2-Star Magi Chris possessed.
“Th-that…!”
The vassals began to murmur.
They didn't know the exact details of what was happening between the two.
They only recognized that Eshid had unleashed 4-Star Magi and assumed Christian was facing a crisis of life and death.
As everyone anticipated Christian’s ruin, Chris thought to himself.
‘Bingo.’
The smile playing on his lips grew wider.
This was an incredible, unforeseen opportunity.
‘To serve himself up on a platter like this. How thoughtful.’
Chris intended to inflict as much damage as possible on Eshid’s core this time.
But if Eshid had stuck to his promise and only used 2-Star Magi, there would have been a limit to the damage he could inflict.
With only a small amount of Magi, Eshid could have withdrawn before his core sustained critical damage.
But since Eshid was using his full power, a golden opportunity had presented itself.
Due to the nature of Magi clashes, it’s impossible to back out midway when one has committed their full power.
In other words, Eshid could no longer retreat.
Of course, the same applied to Christian, but… it was already decided which of the two would meet a disastrous end.
*Kwaaang!*
Eshid’s Magi and Chris’s Magi collided.
Eshid was a 4-Star.
Chris, on the other hand, was a 1-Star. He wasn't even using his full strength.
And yet, Chris’s 1-Star Magi didn't yield to Eshid’s 4-Star Magi.
On the contrary, Eshid’s Magi showed signs of buckling under the pressure, threatening to disperse. As a look of disbelief crossed Eshid’s face at this impossible phenomenon…
“You goddamn idiot who thinks he’s so great.”
Chris’s mocking voice reached him, but Eshid couldn’t offer any retort.
Chris had unleashed his full power.
Upper 2-Star Magi.
No, while his level was upper 2-Star, the amount of Magi, thanks to his perfect absorption of the Black Dan, far exceeded that of a 3-Star.
As the volume of surging Magi increased, Eshid finally began to truly feel the purity of Chris’s Dark Magi.
‘Over 70%? No. Could this be? 80%… No, even higher? Th-this is impossible!’
It was utterly pure.
So pure it was frightening, the Magi surged forward ferociously.
That wasn’t all.
Chris’s Magi was also cunning.
It didn't just tear through Eshid’s Magi as it had before.
It coiled around Eshid’s Magi like a snake, preventing its escape.
In that state, it devoured Eshid’s Magi as if swallowing it whole.
Eshid’s Magi vanished, consumed by Chris’s as if devoured by a serpent.
As a result, the blood vessels leading to his core were momentarily emptied of his own Magi.
‘N-no.’
Anticipating the impending catastrophe, Eshid’s face turned deathly pale.
He desperately tried to gather his remaining Magi to defend his core, but it was futile.
Chris’s Magi slammed directly into Eshid’s core.
“Keuk!!”
“Young Lord Eshid?!”
With just a single blow, Eshid coughed up a mouthful of dark blood.
His core had taken a massive hit.
But Chris didn’t stop.
‘This is a chance I won’t get again.’
It was obvious.
If left alone, Eshid would resort to all sorts of despicable tactics against him.
He had to clip his wings now.
But there was an interruption.
“Stop!!”
It was Marquis Langham.
It wasn't just a shout.
The marquis’s aura shot through the space.
The materialized aura of a 7-Star Majin.
If Chris didn’t withdraw his Magi immediately, he too would suffer a fatal blow.
‘How cheap.’
But he had expected this kind of interference.
Instead of attacking the core with Magi again, Chris used a different tactic.
As he withdrew his Magi,
*Paaang!*
He created a vibration.
It was a technique akin to an acrobatic feat, requiring him to perfectly match the wavelength of his Magi with that of his opponent’s core.
A powerful resonance shook Eshid’s core.
Suffering another massive internal injury, Eshid coughed up more dark blood before slumping to the ground.
He had fainted.
“Young Lord Eshid!!”
“What are you doing?! Call a healer, now!!”
The vassals erupted into chaos.
Eshid was carried away by healers who appeared as if out of thin air.
“Wh-what just happened?”
All the vassals stared at Christian with wide eyes. The impossible had just occurred.
Marquis Langham approached, his gaze radiating a chilling light.
“…Christian, you.”
His voice was distinctly more furious than before.
But Chris remained standing tall.
There was no reason to bow.
‘It’s not like he’ll treat me any better if I do.’
“I apologize for what just happened. I did not realize Young Lord Eshid would be unable to withstand even this much.”
“!!”
“More importantly.”
Chris looked around.
He saw the vassals staring at him with expressions of shock.
He had to turn those gazes into ones of awe.
Only then could he take control of the Dark Magic House.
He took the first step toward that goal.
“This Magi is a bit unruly.”
Everyone in the hall held their breath.
Magi flowed from Christian’s hand.
It was an endless dark.
A pure darkness, unmixed with any impurities.
The perfect purity of Dark Magi, a feat no one had ever achieved, was unveiled before them all.
“I believe this should be sufficient proof that I am superior to the other young lords.”
A deathly silence fell over the hall.
No one could even utter a sound.
The shock was that immense.
The bombshell dropped by Christian, the one they called a worthless scoundrel, was about to shake the Dark Magic House to its very foundations.
***
Perfectly pure Dark Magi!
The Dark Magic House was in an uproar.
“A purity of 90%?”
“I heard it’s even higher than 90%!!”
“Impossible. That scoundrel?!”
At first, everyone reacted with disbelief.
It was just that unbelievable.
But there were too many witnesses.
Moreover, that wasn't the only shock Christian had delivered.
“Are you saying he really defeated Young Master Roin and the others during the Sacred Black Ceremony on his own merit?”
“Yes, Young Master Allos of the County of Tiramin testified to it. He said there were no tricks involved.”
The events of the Sacred Black Ceremony were re-examined.
“Young Lord Eshid was defeated in a Magi clash?”
The Majin spoke as if they couldn’t believe it.