Dark Magus Returns

The brief, painful silence that descended from Raze after Allen's question spoke volumes, confirming the depth of the guilt he felt inside. It wasn't just the fact of the death of Mordain that truly stung. Raze had too much death on his hands, too many sacrifices he himself were responsible for, to be overly sentimental about one more on the path to his ultimate goal. Although he did feel slightly bad for an ally who had genuinely tried to help the cause, the true, searing pain came from the act of lying to Allen.

As time had gone on, Raze had started to see Allen as something beyond a mere tactical ally. Just like the trusted warriors around him, Raze knew he would have done a great deal to help Allen, even protecting him or lending him aid if he ever truly needed it. He felt a genuine, if begrudging, bond of respect.

"You knew, and you continued to work with him even now!" Allen shouted, his voice cracking with betrayal. He couldn't believe the man who had saved his sister was capable of such cold-blooded calculation. "I thought you were different, Raze. I thought the stories about you weren't true. I thought they had wildly exaggerated who the Dark Magus really was, painting you as a monster. But now I can see, now I can really see that all of those warnings were terribly true."

Raze gripped his left fist so tightly the leather of his glove squeaked, and then, slowly, he finally looked Allen right in the eyes, meeting the dark Magus's hurt and fury head-on.

"It's true," Raze said, his voice flat but resolute, the admission an agonizing confirmation. "I knew what Harvey had done, and I knew what he was capable of. But with the situation as it was, with everything that was truly at stake, our one chance to defeat Gizin, I knew your emotions would get in the way of strategy. We need to do what needs to be done, Allen, because this whole thing is a lot bigger than just the two of us, and far bigger than your need for justice."

"BULLSHIT!" Allen roared, refusing Raze's claim of the greater good outright. His eyes flashed with raw, uncontrolled power. "I'm not going to let you do that, Raze! To trick yourself? No, to try and trick me into believing you did this out of some noble, heroic act of greater good. We know, we all know why you did it: because you're a monster."

Allen took a step closer, his accusation striking Raze like a physical blow. "You are a monster who has only ever cared about your own selfish goal: to take down the Grand Magus. The fact that the Grand Magus might be bad people? That's just a bonus, a convenient byproduct of all of this. You couldn't care less about the innocents or the people who die along the way."

As Raze absorbed the full weight of the condemnation, Allen suddenly spun his body, gathering the immense arcane energy he had been holding in check. When he completed the rotation, a massive, serpentine flaming dragon erupted right out from his outstretched hand, one of his most powerful, signature moves, designed for annihilation.

In response, Raze had only two immediate options: he could step completely to the side and let the searing attack go directly toward Harvey. With the damaged state his puppet was in, there was a good chance the dragon would deal a significant, perhaps fatal amount of damage. Or, he could defend, blocking the devastating force of the attack.

Raze made his choice, a decision that further cemented his impossible moral position. He lifted his Dark Magic sword high in the air, gathering every trace of ambient darkness, and then swung it down with a thunderous force, making the scene in front of him momentarily disappear as it was instantly covered in a thick, consuming shadow. Raze had used the Eclipse Strike.

He hadn't used his full, terrifying power; he had used the strike just shallowly enough that it instantly got rid of all traces of the flame dragon, extinguishing the magical fire with pure negative energy, but it wasn't powerful enough to actually attack or harm Allen.

Seeing one of his most powerful attacks stopped so utterly and effortlessly just made Allen even more furious. The realization hit him, there wasn't a single thing he could do physically to challenge Raze. But the Dark Magus could act; the Dark Magus could choose to punish the evil standing right behind him.

While the tense standoff continued, the others came filtering in. The chaotic task had finally been completed; all of the Cerberus Guild members who were in the immediate area had been killed. Unlike the original plan, they were unable to keep a single one alive due to the intense, sudden shift in the situation. Even now, the remaining Dark Guild members, what was left over of Varkos's crew, and Allen's men were unsure about what to do, or who they should attack. They were almost frozen in place, swords and magic ready, waiting for the result of the confrontation between Raze and Allen.

"Raze, I think it's still best for us to get out of here as soon as possible," Safa interjected, her voice cutting through the thick tension. She was completely focused on strategy. "The longer we stay, the higher the chance of the others, the rest of the Grand Magus faction, coming. And since we and the others didn't attack the other Cerberus Guild areas, there's still a high number of them actively searching."

Raze noted her words. The strategically correct thing to do now was for all of them to immediately head back, regroup, and prepare a new assault, together. But was that really going to happen now, with the irreparable damage that had just taken place?

"Raze, I'm asking you one more time," Allen demanded, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper, his last shred of hope draining away. "So, are you really not going to punish the man behind you for what he has done? And are you not going to allow me to do anything as well?"

There was a slight, agonizing pause, but Raze had already made his decision. He gave the only answer he could.

"Correct."

Standing up tall, straightening his stance, Allen finally knew what he needed to do. The decision was painful, but clear.

"EVERYONE!" Allen shouted, his command ringing with authority and finality, addressing both the remaining Dark Guild forces and his own men. "We are no longer working with the Dark Guild or the Dark Magus! They are no longer our ally! We are to head back! For now, we are on our own!"

****

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