Chapter 178
Philip stepped forward first.
“Why’d you come alone? I told you to come at me together.”
“Shut your mouth!! Someone like you—I can crush you on my own!”
Philip pulled out a remarkable item.
A staff etched with a chilling brand.
It was the arcane artifact, Orb of Ruin.
‘An arcane artifact that amplifies the destructive power of dark magic. A perfect match with the destructive spells of the Destruction Demonic House.’
Those who recognized the artifact began murmuring among themselves.
A dark mage wielding an artifact with matching affinity could unleash power far beyond imagination.
What’s more, Philip was a genius.
It was clear he’d be able to draw out the artifact’s full power.
“You’ll regret this. I’ll make you atone for your sins against me—through excruciating pain.”
Fwaaah!!
The brand on the orb flared with a crimson glow.
And then, fire erupted.
It was the same Jingang-class spell he had used in yesterday’s duel.
But this time, it was different.
White flames—White Blaze, flames of pure destruction.
It was a fire imbued solely with the nature of annihilation.
The watching dark mages widened their eyes in shock.
‘He’s evolved the 5-star Jingang spell Flame of Ruin into the 6-star Will-class spell White Blaze using the power of the artifact!’
Of course, it wasn’t a genuine 6-star Will-class spell.
It had merely been forcibly enhanced.
Even so, its power was on par with a 6-star Will-class spell.
‘That flame is unstoppable!’
‘Dodging won’t help! That flame never misses its mark.’
There was only one way to survive.
To admit defeat before the fire engulfed you and beg for the opponent’s mercy.
But then, Christian responded in an unexpected way.
He raised his hand slightly.
‘Is he really thinking of blocking it with dark aura?’
‘That’s suicidal.’
Everyone assumed Christian would use Dark Aura.
After all, the Dark Demonic House was a martial house, and the most powerful force Christian could wield would be Dark Aura.
But what Christian brought out wasn’t aura.
It was a long spear of water materializing at his hand.
A Destruction Dark Spell.
‘What the—?!’
‘He’s using destruction-type dark magic against a dark mage of the Destruction Demonic House?!’
And on top of that, it was merely a 3-star destruction dark spell.
It was like an amateur wielding a kitchen knife against a master wielding a sacred blade.
Yet—
“So you’re called the genius of the Destruction Demonic House? And this is the best you’ve got?”
“!!”
Many people are mistaken.
The speed of one’s progress isn’t what defines a true genius.
‘Of course, that guy is only at 5-star magic at the age of twenty. Even in terms of sheer speed of progress, it’s not all that fast.’
In his previous life, Christian had seen what true geniuses looked like—even if not quite at his own level.
And the one standing before him now couldn’t even be compared to those real geniuses.
“Let me show you what a true genius really is.”
Fwaaah!
Christian cast another spell.
Destructive lightning magic.
A blade of wind magic.
Finally, a shadow spell fused together with the tip of the water spear.
A quadruple-layered magical cast.
To make this possible, all four spells had to be disassembled and reconfigured so they wouldn’t interfere with each other—only someone like Christian could achieve such a feat.
With a flick of his hand, the spear was launched.
Its target: the core of the White Blaze.
“What the—?! Shut up!!”
With a furious roar, Philip amplified the power of the White Blaze.
At that moment, the icy spear Christian had unleashed began to produce an unbelievable sight.
Wooooooom!!!
The wind embedded within it instantly accelerated the spear’s velocity.
In a blink, the spear was already piercing through the blaze.
Naturally, it should’ve disintegrated upon contact—but incredibly, the spear didn’t shatter.
That was due to the shadow magic infused within it.
‘Shadow ignores physical attacks.’
Magic is a technique that manifests as a phenomenon.
In particular, this White Blaze may have taken the form of fire, but it wasn’t actual flame—it was the will of destruction, materialized in the form of fire.
Therefore, if the spell recognized the spear as “shadow,” the phenomenon of destruction wouldn’t be triggered.
Christian had intentionally added lightning magic to further disorient the spell’s recognition.
Lightning doesn’t burn either.
The moment the spear made contact with the flames, electricity burst in all directions, amplifying the confusion of the magical formation.
‘Of course, if this had been a properly formed Will-class spell, something like this wouldn’t have worked at all.’
The reason why Philip’s magic couldn’t truly be called a Will-class spell lay in its lack of completeness.
Because he had forcibly amplified only the destructive power using the artifact, gaps were inevitable.
‘Had he just used a Jingang-class spell suited to his actual level, I wouldn’t have been able to break through so easily.’
Granted, those gaps were still minuscule—but for anyone other than Christian, exploiting them would’ve been impossible.
The icy spear pierced straight through the core of the White Blaze, and the Will-class spell Philip had unleashed was snuffed out—utterly and in vain.
“W-What…?! Impossible!!”
Philip’s face went pale with shock as he staggered back.
“Impossible? If you don’t believe it, try again. I’d hate for this to end so boringly.”
Philip desperately cast more destructive dark spells.
All were pseudo–Will-class spells, forcibly boosted through the arcane artifact.
But it was no use.
The overwhelming destructive dark spells that Philip unleashed were repeatedly nullified by the light, effortless dark magic Christian cast.
Everyone stared in disbelief at the sight before them.
It was as if—
A master of dark magic was toying with an amateur.
And not just with any spell, but with the very type of magic the opponent specialized in—destruction dark magic.
“Kuhk!!”
In the end, the cost of forcing such immense power out of himself hit Philip hard—he coughed up a mouthful of blood and collapsed to his knees.
Then came a voice, pressing down on him like a hammer:
“A genius isn’t some pretentious fool like you. A true genius is someone who surpasses limits without a second thought.”
“!!”
“Like this, for example.”
Fwoooosh!!
Flames erupted from Christian’s hand.
It was the same Jingang-class destruction dark magic Philip had used—Flame of Ruin.
Christian had recreated it just by having seen it a few times.
Of course, it wasn’t exactly the same.
Christian hadn’t yet reached the 5-star level in destruction magic.
He hadn’t obtained the True Essence of Destruction.
So instead, he modified and restructured it with his own will and intent.
Even so, it wasn’t lacking.
In fact, aside from lacking the True Essence itself, every other aspect of the spell was more refined and powerful than Philip’s version—down to near perfection.
“Ah…”
Philip’s eyes began to dull with despair.
Only then did he finally understand—
Christian was not someone he could compare himself to.
Christian was a true genius.
He felt like a massive wall—one that couldn’t be climbed or overcome.
Faced with that hopelessness, the light vanished completely from Philip’s eyes. Christian merely shrugged.
“No need to finish it. Get him out of here. Oh, and try not to piss yourself.”
A deathly silence settled over the arena.
What Philip had just displayed was, without a doubt, not weak.
And yet, it wasn’t simply that he lost—it was that he had been completely toyed with.
What made it even more shocking was that Christian hadn't even shown his true strength.
Let it be repeated: the Dark Demonic House is a martial lineage.
Destruction dark magic, like all other spells, was something they used only as support.
And yet, using a form of magic that wasn’t even his specialty, Christian had humiliated the genius of the Destruction Demonic House's main bloodline.
Christian then turned to the stiffly frozen representatives of the Tri-Alliance.
“What are you waiting for? Aren’t you coming up? Or are you scared?”
“!!”
“I’m giving you some friendly advice—you’d better come at me all at once. Though even then, you won’t stand a chance.”
Another wave of tense silence swept through the arena.
As a side note, in the Magus Empire, the region with the highest number of battles wasn’t, unexpectedly, the territory of the Four Kings’ Castle.
It was the Western Magus Nation—the region where the Tri-Alliance was based.
That’s because the most aggressive force of the Crusade Alliance, the Holy Empire, was right next door.
Not only that, but the Mirror Ice Palace, the Fanatic Cult, and the Round Table were all located in the west as well.
The three houses of the Tri-Alliance had formed deep bonds over time, forged through countless battles against the Crusade Alliance’s enemies.
As such, the Joint Combat Technique performed by these three houses was overwhelmingly powerful.
“Don’t let your guard down.”
“Just like when we took down the leader of the Starshade Knights.”
They had fought in perfect sync numerous times before.
In fact, they had recently captured a 6-star powerhouse, the commander of the Starshade Knights from the Holy Empire.
That meant their joint formation was powerful enough to go toe-to-toe with even a 6-star Master-class.
‘I was waiting for a chance to get revenge anyway… and now he walks right into it. I’ll kill him.’
The heir of the Beast Demonic House, still grinding his teeth after the humiliation Christian dealt him yesterday, seethed with bloodlust.
“I’ll take the flank, as the Beast. The Ghost will take the front. Illusion disables him.”
It was a straightforward formation.
The Ghost Sword blocks and pressures the target from the front.
The Beast strikes from the flank.
And the Illusionist neutralizes the target completely from the shadows.
Simple, yet devastating—especially given the perfect synergy between the three houses.
“Let’s begin. Grrrr…!!”
The Beast began his transformation.
His fangs and claws grew longer.
His body became covered in fur and swelled to nearly one and a half times its original size.
He had revealed his true form—a Lycanthrope.
The intensely trained body showed that he wasn’t the kind of tamer who stayed in the back, sending out monsters. No—he fought on the front lines, like a true martial combatant.
But that wasn’t all.
Fwoosh!
Magic stones shattered as the monsters sealed within them appeared.
They were Shavel Wolves, classified as 4-star beasts.
They weren’t top-tier magical beasts, fitting for someone who specialized in hand-to-hand combat rather than taming.
But the sinister magical energy swirling in their eyes made it clear: these Shavel Wolves weren’t ordinary monsters.
“Are those beasts modified using a secret technique of the Beast Demonic House? They’re definitely not your average 4-star monsters!”
“There’s eight of them too!”
Meanwhile, the heir of the Ghost Sword Demonic House wasn’t idle either.
“I’ve always wanted to cross blades with someone from the Dark Demonic House.”
SCREEEEEEECH.
A terrifying scream echoed the moment he drew his sword.
It was the Ghost Sword—a grotesque weapon forged using the body of a captured Tri-Alliance knight.
The anguish and hatred of someone who died in torment had been sealed into the blade, granting it horrifying sharpness.
But of course, the true terror of the Ghost Sword Demonic House didn’t lie in the sharpness of their blade alone.
“It’s honestly laughable that your house gets called a martial house too, when you’re just a half-baked lineage that doesn’t commit to either path.”
The Dark Demonic House was known for its magic swordsmen—those who combined martial combat and dark magic.
Because of this, both pure magic houses and pure martial houses tended to look down on them.
And no one looked down on them more than the Ghost Sword Demonic House.
To sword fanatics who devoted their entire being to the blade, the Dark Demonic House was nothing but a bunch of cowardly tricksters.
The daughter of the Illusion Demonic House also raised her skull-topped staff, gathering dark energy as she prepared her spell.
But then—Christian’s reaction was… strange.
He just stood there, silently watching them.
“…What?”
“I was worried you’d end up looking pathetic like that idiot from the Destruction Demonic House earlier.”
Christian let out a yawn.
There wasn’t the slightest hint of tension in his posture.
“So please—give it your best. The more desperately you struggle, the more dazzling I’ll look by comparison.”