Chapter 189
When Marisa sharply raised her voice, Sanin and Leon exchanged glances.
“It’s because he’s the Grand Duke’s heir. That’s why we’re staying put.”
“…What?”
“Because we know just how insane the Grand Duke is… I mean, how mad His Grace can be.”
An outrageous thing to say.
Leon shook his head in disbelief.
“To be honest, we’re just as worried. We keep wondering what state of mind would drive someone to take on a formation like that all on his own.”
“…Then why let him?”
“Because this isn’t the first time His Grace has done something completely insane.”
“……”
“So just wait. He’ll definitely come back after pulling off another outrageous stunt.”
Marisa stared at the two of them, her mouth agape.
‘Everyone’s acting crazy.’
Even the attendant Melin, following behind them, didn’t show a shred of worry from the very beginning.
Her eyes were filled with unwavering faith in Christian.
‘…That formation isn’t something a talented genius can just dismantle on instinct! You need complete and thorough mastery over formation techniques to break through it!’
Marisa bit her lip.
She silently resolved that if time passed with no news, then regardless of what the others said, she would rush in to help him.
* * *
Of course, Marisa’s worry was entirely unnecessary.
Inside the formation, Christian calmly surveyed his surroundings.
Because of the array of disorienting devices and techniques, his vision was far from reliable.
It wasn’t just the cardinal directions that were thrown off—up and down, even the left and right sides of his own body felt uncertain, as if everything was shrouded in illusion.
It was a level of sensory disruption befitting a so-called “Absolute Formation.”
But Christian scoffed.
“This low-grade formation is supposed to impress me?”
A shocking reaction.
Just as Marisa had shouted earlier, this formation was not something to take lightly.
It was designed to confuse the senses as a mere starting point. From there, the victim would wander endlessly through an indistinguishable maze until they were finally poisoned and succumbed to death.
“This is a direct ripoff of the formation style from the Gallos School at the Sky Mage Tower. What kind of so-called master just copies others? No originality whatsoever. Then again, it’s exactly what I’d expect from the Venomous Demonic House.”
Exactly.
The Venomous Demonic House handled formations skillfully, but only as a method to administer poison more effectively. They didn’t possess deep expertise in formation techniques themselves.
“The true masters of formations are the Mystic Demonic House and the shamanic clan from the Alliance. And of course, the Sky Mage Tower too.”
Compared to those three, the Venomous Demonic House was far behind.
“And I was someone who didn’t even bother acknowledging formations from those three.”
That wasn’t to say Christian was a formation master.
To lay out a formation properly, one’s magical power or divine radiance had to reach a significantly high level.
To be exact, Christian was a formation analyst.
Even if he couldn’t set up a formation himself, he possessed the highest-level theoretical knowledge about them.
“There were many times when formation knowledge came in handy.”
Like back when he made his name as a treasure hunter, hailed as the “Excavator of Light.”
When Christian had once traveled as part of a Hero’s party, acting as the group’s Guide—
Formation knowledge was essential.
Especially since he had experienced all sorts of extraordinary formations firsthand during the Age of Ruins, and his expertise in the field was by no means inferior to that of the most acclaimed specialists from the Venomous Demonic House, the shamanic clans of the Alliance, or even the Sky Mage Tower.
“Sure, if it were a formation cast by the top experts of the Mystic House, the shamans, or the Sky Tower, even I’d have a hard time breaking it—but something like this? It’s nothing.”
Of course, that didn’t mean he could afford to entirely dismiss the Venomous Demonic House’s formations.
Even if their theoretical grasp of formation technique was lacking, their real weapon was poison.
From the beginning, their formations weren’t crafted for spatial manipulation or illusion—they were designed with a completely different purpose.
To create an opening.
An opening just wide enough for their poison to get through.
One wrong step, and you'd be poisoned—suffering a gruesome death.
“But if I fully analyze the formation, there’s no chance of being poisoned in the first place.”
Christian narrowed his eyes.
First, he needed to determine the base orientation.
Though the disorientation still lingered, it didn’t matter.
He adapted to the skewed perception and recalibrated his senses using them as a new standard. From there, he reverse-calculated the orientation.
“The core of the Gallos School’s formation is to trap the target in a maze with no exit.”
Formations normally contain what’s called a “Gate of Life”, a way out—but this one had none.
Only “Gates of Death” kept appearing, one after another.
“The only solution is to find and destroy the core.”
Of course, finding the core wasn’t easy.
It was, essentially, the life of the formation.
How well it was hidden often defined the sophistication of the entire formation.
“There are even fake cores set up. If you hit the wrong one, the formation counterattacks and kills you instead.”
This formation, too, had hidden its core well—appropriate for a so-called Absolute Formation.
“But there’s a way to find it. By combining the pattern of the Gates of Death, the movement traces of the formation’s flow, and the four spatial directions, I can estimate the general location. Then I interpret the spell structure forming the formation, find a gap, and lock in the coordinates. There’s always a minute flaw—no formation is perfect.”
This wasn’t some secret trick only Christian could do.
It was a classic, standard method used by formation specialists when analyzing formation arrays.
The difference was—
Most specialists had to work in groups, carefully and slowly pouring time and effort into the process.
But in Christian’s case—
“There?”
He didn’t need any of that.
“Bingo. Got it.”
Christian clicked his tongue.
“What kind of security is this? This is supposed to be impressive? Compared to the Mystic Demonic House, the shaman clans, or the Sky Mage Tower—this doesn’t even qualify.”
To be fair, that was an overly harsh judgment against the Venomous Demonic House.
Sure, compared to the best, their formations were lacking—but this was a Poison Formation.
As mentioned earlier, analyzing a formation takes time.
But Poison Formations are terrifying because they don’t give you that time.
If you delay even a little, the poison infects you. That’s why even a flawed Poison Formation is difficult to exploit.
But Christian identified the weakness so fast, the poison never had a chance to activate.
No—the reason he could spot the weakness so quickly was because he was Christian.
“Still… once I destroy this formation, the main family of the Venomous Demonic House will likely notice right away.”
Christian folded his arms.
A good idea soon came to Christian.
“Maybe I should have a little fun.”
* * *
Meanwhile, inside the inner fortress shrouded by the poison formation—
Baron Valmont sat slouched in his chair, his face dark and heavy.
“To think they’d launch a surprise attack like this... Those damned Dark Demonic House bastards.”
He’d been completely caught off guard.
“But it’s fine. This fortress still has the poison formation left behind by Lord Groven. If I can just hold out for a few days, reinforcements from the main family will arrive.”
He even let out a scornful laugh.
“Wasn’t it the Grand Duke’s heir, Christian, who led the troops here? Foolish brat. To dare pull something this stupid against our Venomous Demonic House.”
And as if that weren’t enough, the brat had taken it a step further into the absurd.
“What? The Grand Duke’s heir, Christian, entered the poison formation alone?”
“Yes, my lord. It’s been about three hours now.”
“Idiotic wretch. They say ignorance is courage, but there’s a limit to reckless bravado. So much for being a so-called genius—he’s just a fool who doesn’t even know his own limits.”
Baron Valmont curled his lips into a sneer.
“Three hours, huh? He must be a corpse by now. Go recover the body. I’m curious how the Dark Demonic House will react when they see his head mounted on a pike atop our walls.”
“Yes, understood.”
Just as the subordinate bowed and turned to leave the room—
Thwack! Fsssh!
A sudden spray of blood erupted.
“?!”
Startled, the baron jumped up, eyes darting wildly—only to see a figure standing there.
A disgustingly handsome face.
It was Christian.
“Y-You?! How the hell are you here?!”
“How do you think? I broke through the poison formation.”
“Don’t be ridiculous! The formation is still active!!”
There are two main ways to get through a formation.
Open the Gate of Life .
Or destroy the core.
But the poison formation in the Valmont territory had no Gate of Life. That meant the only way out was to collapse the formation by destroying its core.
“The formation’s still intact… So how did he get through…?”
Christian answered calmly.
“Oh, if the core collapses, the main family of the Venomous Demonic House would be alerted immediately. That’d be annoying. So I took the roundabout way. I tampered with the formation and turned one of the Gates of Death into a Gate of Life.”
Baron Valmont looked completely dumbfounded.
Was this brat seriously spouting nonsense right now?
“You tampered with a functioning formation? And you’re saying you converted a Gate of Death into a Gate of Life? That’s impossible unless you alter the foundation of the entire formation! What are you babbling about?!”
“Like I said, it was troublesome. Even for a genius like me, it took nearly three hours. It wasn’t easy.”
* * *
Christian massaged his shoulder as if he were genuinely exhausted.
“Is this really the time for idle conversation?”
Christian’s voice turned cold.
“I came here to kill you.”
“!!”
Baron Valmont instinctively stumbled backward.
In truth, his level as a Magus wasn’t much different from Christian’s. But even so, he was overwhelmed by sheer presence—crushed by the weight of Christian’s killing intent.
“I… I need to send a report—!!”
A thought flashed through his mind.
If he died here, the main family would have no idea the territory had fallen.
After all, the poison formation was still intact.
That would delay their response.
Just as he urgently reached toward the hidden emergency communication device—
“So loyal, aren’t you? Prioritizing the report, even in this situation.”
“!!”
A chill ran down Baron Valmont’s spine.
Christian’s voice had come from right beside him.
He’d closed the distance in a blink.
“Urgh…!!”
FWOOSH!!
Poison flared up from Valmont’s hand.
It was True Poison Energy—a level of poison arts comparable to martial force.
Valmont’s specialty was corrosive poison.
Combined with his will to dissolve, even a slight touch could cause a fatal wound.
But—
“Your poison’s not bad. But you made a big mistake… You underestimated me. If you wanted to live, you should’ve gone all-out the moment you saw me.”
Christian’s voice was low and composed.
And then his aura flared.
A perfect vessel.
A perfect will to destroy—condensed into an overwhelming manifestation of martial energy.
“!!”
In that instant, Baron Valmont’s vision darkened.
Overwhelmed by Christian’s black aura, his sight faltered for a moment—paralyzed.
And it wasn’t just his vision.
It was as if time itself froze. All his senses shut down.
A terrifying feeling, like being trapped under the gaze of a giant.
“W-What the hell is this aura…?!”
Fsssh!
Christian’s black aura crushed the True Poison Energy completely.
Without even the slightest deviation, the path of destruction continued.
Slice.
A long, clean line split across Baron Valmont’s body.
“…I-It can’t be…”
Those were his final words.
Baron Valmont collapsed backwards with a heavy thud.
Afterward, Christian picked up the emergency communicator Valmont had been reaching for.
“As expected of an emergency device—tight security.”
It wasn’t just protected by technique-based security. It also required authentication from the user’s own mana signature, similar to a fingerprint.
“But there’s always a way.”
Christian approached Valmont’s corpse.
The baron was completely dead, and the core mana within him was scattering into the air.
Normally, that mana would soon fade into nothing.
But Christian used the dominative nature of Dark Mana to gather the scattered energy into his hand and activate the communicator.
The security spell lifted.
Christian sent a single message to the main family of the Venomous Demonic House:
—Enemy repelled.