Dark Magus Returns

Chapter 1688: The Secret Of Trubin (Part 1)

Trubin had vanished as if he were nothing more than a ghost, leaving only the scent of ozone and the cold touch of death behind. Raze stood in the center of the courtyard, his blade still humming with residual Dark Magic, but the heavy, oppressive presence that had been suffocating the area was gone.

He didn’t need to see the man to know he had retreated. Trubin was a predator of the highest order; he didn’t stay to gloat once his mission was complete. He had struck his blow, dismantled the gathering, and slipped back into the folds of the world.

Raze’s focus had been so consumed by the logistics of the meeting and the potential for a traditional siege that he hadn’t sensed the arrival. Trubin had masked his presence with terrifying efficiency, a masterclass in magical stealth that even Raze’s heightened senses had failed to pierce until it was far too late. Typically, a Nine-Star Mage left a trail of mana so dense it was like a physical weight, but Trubin had moved like a silk thread through a needle’s eye.

The aftermath was nothing short of a massacre.

The courtyard of the River Moon Guild, once a place of tense political maneuvering, was now a graveyard. Of all the ambitious guild leaders and government representatives who had traveled across the continent to hear the Dark Magus speak, two-thirds were dead. Their bodies were scattered across the grass like discarded dolls, many with the clean, horizontal neck wounds that had become Trubin’s signature.

Hardly anyone had survived, and those who did were only the ones lucky enough to have been standing within the shadow of the tea house when the invisible blade began to sing.

Song moved with a grim, frantic energy. He began shouting orders to his subordinates, desperate to salvage what was left of the River Moon Guild’s reputation. "Healers! Get to the survivors! I want a perimeter established now! If a blade so much as whispers in the wind, I want to know about it!"

But the survivors were beyond consolation. They huddled together in the blood-stained grass, their eyes wide and vacant. They were terrified to move; many believed that the moment they stepped away from the protective aura of the Dark Magus or the River Moon mages, their heads would simply slide off their shoulders. They had come to find power, but they had found only the cold reality of the Grand Magus’s reach.

Song eventually cleared a path, ushering Raze and his core group back into the sanctuary of the tea house. He posted his elite guards at every entrance, though the gesture felt hollow. If Trubin wanted to enter, a few Five-Star guards wouldn’t even be a speed bump.

Inside the tea room, the silence was heavy. The smell of expensive tea was now nauseatingly mixed with the scent of blood drifting in through the open screens. Raze’s companions looked at him, their faces a mixture of guilt and growing dread. They had been safe on the platform while the people they were supposed to "lead" were slaughtered below.

"You said that was Trubin?" Kelly asked, her voice trembling as she wiped a splash of blood from her cheek. "The invisible force... that was really him? One of the Grand Magus?"

"Yes," Raze answered. His voice was a flat, hollow drone, devoid of the rage he had felt moments ago. He was in a state of cold calculation now. "I know his mana signature. I know the resonance of his voice. I would bet my life, and yours, on the fact that it was him."

"For Idore to send a Grand Magus this far North..." Londo muttered, pacing the small room. "It means they don’t just see you as a nuisance anymore. They see the Dark Magus as an existential threat. They didn’t send an army because they didn’t need one. One man did more damage in five minutes than a legion could in a day."

"And the fact that he retreated," Liam added, trying to find a silver lining. "It means he was wary of you, Raze. Even a Grand Magus knows he can’t take all of us at once in a fair fight."

Raze didn’t offer a comforting reply. He knew the truth was far grimmer. Trubin hadn’t retreated out of fear; he had retreated because he had achieved his objective. He had broken the spine of the alliance before it could even form.

"I underestimated him," Raze said quietly. "I knew Trubin was considered the pinnacle of combat magic. Idore might be the leader, but Trubin was always the executioner. But I didn’t know about his Unique Trait."

"The invisibility?" Kelly asked. "How are we supposed to fight something we can’t see? Safa isn’t here to track him for us."

"It’s more than just being invisible," Raze explained. "Most invisibility spells are fragile. The moment the caster exerts a large amount of mana or strikes an opponent, the veil flickers. But Trubin... his trait is absolute. He can maintain a full-scale offensive without ever revealing his position. It turns a duel into a slaughterhouse."

The group fell into a dark contemplation. The sheer mechanical advantage of such a trait, combined with Nine-Star mana capacity, made Trubin almost untouchable.

However, ’B’ had been watching Raze closely. She had seen the look in his eyes during the final moments of the mist formation, a look of genuine shock that surpassed the fear of an invisible blade.

"There’s something else, isn’t there?" B asked, her voice cutting through the room. "You discovered something else out there. Something that isn’t just about invisibility."

The others turned to Raze. He hesitated, his hand trembling slightly as he reached for a cold cup of tea. The silence stretched until it became uncomfortable.

"I noticed it when I deployed the Nightmare Veil," Raze finally whispered. "My mist... it didn’t just fail. It was hijacked. At first, I thought Trubin had some way of controlling my mana directly through a specialized artifact or a high-level counter-spell."

He looked up, his eyes reflecting a deep-seated horror. "But that isn’t what happened. To manipulate the Nightmare Veil the way he did, to dissolve the Dark Magic from the inside out... he had to be using the same fundamental energy source."

The realization hit the room like a physical blow.

"You mean..." Kelly’s voice trailed off.

"Trubin isn’t just a Wind Mage or an Illusionist," Raze concluded, his voice hardening. "The Grand Magus’s top enforcer is a practitioner of Dark Magic. Just like me. I’m not the only one, and he’s had decades more than me to master it."