Blood Magic was a powerful, forbidden force even among magicians. Its most distinctive traits were superhuman physical enhancent and remarkable regenerative abilities.
A magician using blood magic could montarily surpass human limits in speed and strength, and ordinary wounds healed almost instantly.
It seed as though they possessed the ability to transcend death in the midst of battle.
The sight of torn flesh regenerating before his eyes left a lasting impression on Leon.
More than anything, the blood magicians' power to dodge fatal blows and regenerate opened up a sense of greater potential for Leon.
However, the problem lay in the deadly side effects of this magic. The more one used blood magic, the more they gradually lost their sanity—its greatest drawback.
This side effect, turning one into a bloodthirsty beast, caused magicians to lose their judgnt and self-control.
Blood magic, while granting imnse power, was like a double-edged sword, making it impossible to control oneself.
Whether Leon could overco this side effect remained uncertain. For a magician, losing sanity was the greatest contradiction.
Ultimately, Leon would soon find out whether blood magic would beco a tool for his growth or an unusable power.
As the early morning mist began to lift, the wide plaza outside the castle in the magic city, occupied by the Astellia School, was filled with 51 magicians in the cool air.
These were elite forces gathered to exterminate blood magicians.
At the front stood a magician of the Insight rank, his sharp gaze sweeping over the others. His white robe fluttered lightly in the wind.
White symbolized the rank of Elder, and the silver star patterns on his robe, along with the number ‘7,’ indicated his identity. He was the Seventh Elder.
"When facing blood magicians, the most critical thing to be wary of is their absurd regenerative ability. They can heal their wounds almost instantly and continue fighting. Also, rember that they naturally use body enhancent magic that surpasses typical mana infusion techniques.”
“Is it true that it’s nearly impossible to face them one-on-one?” soone asked.
“That’s correct. Going one-on-one with a blood magician of similar rank is practically suicide. Keep in mind that breaking through their regeneration and enhanced physical abilities requires imnse power. Thus, it's most effective for multiple magicians to work together to restrain the enemy, while a higher-ranked magician delivers the finishing blow.”
The Seventh Elder’s gaze rested on one person in the group—Leon.
"It’ll be difficult to deal a proper blow with a weapon."
Leon had a wooden sword wrapped in cloth strapped to his back. It was clear the comnt was directed at him.
However, the Elder's gaze did not linger.
The Seventh Elder knew who Leon was—the disciple of the Twelfth Elder, a magician so talented he had even drawn the attention of the Tower Lord.
The Elder hesitated briefly, wondering if he should offer so additional advice, but remained silent.
He didn’t want to antagonize the Twelfth Elder.
"He’ll figure it out after so real combat experience. Besides, it’s not too dangerous of a mission," the Elder thought.
From the Elder’s perspective, Leon’s confidence in his abilities, born from his outstanding talent, seed like little more than reckless bravado.
Behind him stood ten Mystery-ranked magicians, arranged in a semicircle. The Seventh Elder stepped forward and began to outline the final details of the operation.
All the magicians focused their attention on him, including Leon, who quietly steadied his breathing and ntally prepared himself for his role.
The mission to eliminate the blood magicians was being led by a single Insight-ranked magician, with ten Mystery-ranked magicians under his command. Below them were forty Advanced Special-ranked magicians, including Leon.
Most of them were ordinary disciples, with very few personal disciples like Leon.
While there was little opportunity to gain rit, it was still a task that soone had to undertake.
Leon’s group, the 9th unit, was led by a Mystery-ranked magician nad Jerdin, a middle-aged man who had once been a personal disciple. Though not young anymore, he was still among the few personal disciples, and that was why Leon had chosen to be under his command.
“I trust that you’re all experienced enough to do well,” Jerdin said.
By now, no one in the group treated Leon as an apprentice magician. They considered him an Advanced Special-ranked magician like the others.
The 9th unit included several other personal disciples, among them a magician nad Chris, who had previously been stationed in the Valley of Souls before being dispatched here.
Most of the mbers of the 9th unit had served as guards in the Valley of Souls.
“I look forward to working with you,” Chris said with a nod to Leon. His gaze briefly rested on the wooden sword strapped to Leon’s back but he said nothing, seemingly rembering how Leon had wielded it during their past encounters with blood magicians.
The other magicians, too, no longer questioned Leon’s thods.
Once the Elder finished his briefing, the units dispersed to their designated positions, tension rising as the magicians quietly prepared to set off.
It took five days to reach the blood magicians' hideout.
Though they could have used artifacts to assist with levitation magic, the mission required secrecy, so they flew using their own abilities.
The destination was deep within a forest, where they found a small, shabby hole in the ground, just large enough for a single person to enter.
The Seventh Elder signaled the magicians to wait and quietly approached the entrance.
He took out a small ball of thread from his pocket and, after injecting it with mana, the threads shot out and wrapped around the entrance.
A mont later, an invisible barrier appeared and slowly began to crack.
Snap!
With a soft breaking sound, the protective barrier shattered.
As the hole flickered and vanished, a ticulously engraved square door appeared in its place.
The Seventh Elder attempted to open the door, but it wouldn’t budge.
Placing his hand against the door, he activated a spell.
Frost spread rapidly over the door, freezing it solid before shattering it into pieces.
Before the fragnts could even hit the ground, the extermination squad swiftly moved down the stairs that had been revealed beneath the door.
There were no guards at the entrance, but breaking through the door would have certainly alerted those inside.
The stairs led down only a short distance before opening into a new space.
It seed like they were on the first basent level, based on the fact that the stairs continued further downward.
A foul stench filled the air.
All the magicians wrinkled their noses in disgust.
“Is this really a place where people live...?” one magician grumbled, only to be hushed by another.
The extermination squad slowly advanced into the dark, cavernous space.
Another door appeared before them, this ti guarded by a single figure.
The man was slouched, dressed in ragged clothes, and standing at an odd, unbalanced angle.
“If I didn’t know he was a blood magician, I would have thought he was a ghoul...” Leon thought from the back of the group, observing the strange figure.
At that mont, the blood magician sensed their presence and slowly raised his head. His red eyes glead, and saliva dripped from his mouth.
“Grrr...!”
He growled like a beast and imdiately launched an attack.
“Blood...!”
The blood magician rushed at them with blinding speed, but the Seventh Elder calmly raised his hand.
In an instant, frost spread beneath the blood magician’s feet, freezing his body in place.
As the ice flowers blood on his frozen form, the magician’s body shattered into countless pieces.
The ice shards quickly turned into vapor, leaving nothing behind—not even a corpse.
The Seventh Elder clearly intended to carry out the extermination thoroughly.
The squad proceeded through the door the blood magician had been guarding, entering an area filled with rows of iron-barred cages.
Inside one of the cells, another blood magician appeared to have already lost his mind. Even though the magicians opened the door, the low-ranked blood magician didn’t even notice.
The Seventh Elder froze him in an instant, killing him without the blood magician even realizing what was happening.
As they passed through the prison, they saw more grueso sights—beasts and human prisoners locked up in deplorable conditions.
All the humans were ordinary people.
“Are the magicians locked up sowhere else...?” Leon wondered as they passed further into the prison, encountering more withered bodies and corpses.
One magician muttered in disgust.
“This is horrifying...”
“Should we free them?” another magician asked the Seventh Elder.
The Elder shook his head.
“Not until the extermination is complete. It’s not too late to release them afterward.”
The squad reached the end of the prison, but all they found were more iron bars.
At that mont, a man staggered forward from one of the cells, extending a bony hand.
“Save ...”
His voice was weak, his face sallow, and his arms emaciated.
“Please wait just a bit longer. We will free you once we’ve dealt with the blood magicians,” a magician calmly explained.
“Save... ...”
Despite the explanation, the man kept repeating his plea.
Soon, similar cries echoed throughout the prison.
“Please, save .”
“Let out... right now!”
Though the situation was pitiful, there was nothing they could do. They couldn’t fight while protecting the prisoners.
The squad quickly retreated from the prison.
“Watch your step...” soone whispered from within the prison.
“What do you think they ant by ‘watch your step’?” one of the magicians asked.
“We’ve been careful from the start. Stay alert,” another replied.
After causing this much commotion, it seed like the blood magicians inside would have co out to confront them by now, yet everything remained eerily quiet.
“Have they lost their sanity so completely?” Leon wondered.
If they were truly fixated on blood to the point of losing rationality, how was this organization even functioning?
At this rate, it seed like the Seventh Elder could handle the extermination on his own.
Of course, no one believed it would end that easily.
With tension mounting, they descended further down the stairs.
At the bottom, they encountered five branching pathways.
“Just as I thought,” the Seventh Elder muttered.
“People with dirty secrets always make their hideouts unnecessarily complicated.”
He clicked his tongue before continuing.
“From here, we’ll split up. Teams 1 and 2 will stay here to stand guard in case anything happens.”
“Understood,” the leaders of Teams 1 and 2 responded.
“If anything dangerous cos up, use the communication orbs imdiately.”
Leon, as part of Team 9, entered one of the branching paths along with Team 10.
The remaining path was left to the Seventh Elder alone.
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