Chapter 23: Chimera (1)

Dark Dimension is a space magic that amplifies the power of black magic. As an added bonus, it has a strong barrier ability that prevents mana from spreading outside.

Although it was a 6th class magic spell, Jamie had succeeded in memorizing it with the help of a perfect magic circle and Black.

‘Even so, this is too heavy of a magic for me to do right now.’

In order to prepare for what could happen, it had to be done.

“Need… to kill.”

Within the darkened space, the Paladin sprinted forward.

The holy power on the sword ripped through the darkness while radiating light.

Jamie reached forward with his index touching his thumb. Before coming here, he memorized a lot of magic spells besides Dark Dimension.

He was mentally drained, but maybe that was why he was in perfect condition.

[Gravity.]

The 5th class space magic Gravity weighed heavily on the Paladin.

At the same time.

[Touch of the Dead.]

Thousands of souls sleeping in the land came out of the darkness and clung to the Paladin.

[Sacrifice.]

The stuck souls shone.

And the Paladin crouched.

Kwang!

Countless souls were sacrificed to create a powerful explosion.

A heinous black magic that forcibly gave orders to souls which haven’t yet ascended to heaven and then prevented them from wandering around the world.

That was Sacrifice.

It was a technique that could be said to be a sample of black magic.

The Paladin’s armor tore.

However, the holy power was still revolving around him, as if he wasn’t dead yet.

“Is it because he is of expert level?”

At the level of a 5th class magician, Jamie couldn’t penetrate the defense of an expert knight.

Even if the person was a chimera, he was still a paladin.

In a normal case, the Paladin could slash Jamie’s throat with a simple movement of his sword.

However,

That would be if Jamie was a normal 5th class who wasn’t prepared for anything.

“Unfortunately, the opponent is in a bad situation.”

It would be a different story if the magician was someone who has been through everything.

No matter how strong the Sword Master was, he couldn’t have a guaranteed victory over an 8th class Dark Magician who was well prepared.

Not to mention, the current opponent was a Sword Expert Paladin.

And Jamie was a Dark Magician.

He did lose a lot of strength, but his experience was embedded within his body.

“Come on.”

“I’ll kill you!”

For the first time, the Paladin shouted straight without dragging the words.

The Paladin exploded his holy power and wrapped it around his sword as he rushed ahead.

The sword drew afterimages and moved, causing dozens of slashes. The sharp floor, the pillars and even the sky.

Jamie lifted his finger as he watched the numerous slashes.

That was when a subtle darkness began to flow between the armor on the Paladin’s body.

[Marionette.]

The trajectory of the sword shifted.

The Paladin didn’t know what was happening.

His legs seemed weird.

There was something very wrong with his waist and his arms too.

There was no pain. It was because that was how his body was made. But still, he couldn’t help but panic. Fluster in such situations was a must for any intelligent creature.

Clank!

The Paladin fell to the floor.

Did he hit his own feet and fall?

The probability of making such a mistake was close to zero. Did his opponent launch an invisible attack?

The eyes of the Paladin could see everything. That was how it was made. Even if he couldn’t avoid magic, he could see it.

‘What is it?’

A mechanical feeling.

The Paladin tried to get up, but his body didn’t listen.

“Souls sacrifice themselves and plant their shards within you.”

Jamie wiggled his ten fingers.

“All mine.””

A purple eye shone.

His face was hidden in the black mask, but his smiling lips could be seen.

“You can’t do anything now.”

Countless threads were hanging from the tip of the ten fingers.

The place all the threads were connected to, was none other than inside of the paladin body.

He wondered if such a magic was possible.

The Paladin wasn’t shocked by it. He was just trying to analyse it.

‘An opponent I can’t defeat.’

He could fight a bit more, but the opponent’s ability was unknown.

The opponent’s strength was confirmed.

‘But why?’

He had a question.

The opponent was a Black Magician. He was indeed strong, but they normally had to be powerless to the holy power of the Paladin.

‘A gap that cannot be narrowed even when using opposing energy?’

It was an unknown ability, but not overwhelming.

His head was messed up.

However, he suddenly stopped thinking.

‘Survive.’

There was no need to think about anything else.

If the opponent can’t be defeated, then the top priority would have to be survival.

Getting away from the place.

Fortunately, the Paladin had an idea to overcome the situation.

‘Cut it off.’

Holy power is a power that doesn’t go well with black magic.

The ‘nucleus’ implanted in the body began to bring out holy power to his limit.

The whole body of the Paladin began to be dyed in white.

“Are you trying to self-destruct?”

It couldn’t be left like that.

Jamie unwound the thread on his left hand and raised the Paladin with his right hand.

At the same time, as he controlled it to come closer, he flew towards it.

‘I don’t want it to be destroyed.’

Self-destructing meant disappearing without a trace.

Jamie’s hands were stained black.

[Dark Hand!]

Whoops!

A black hand was pierced into the chest of the Paladin, who was dragged in.

The threads on the body began to turn black.

Dark Hand is a hand with poison.

The poison paralyzed everything it touched.

“Kuah!”

Pain wasn’t the problem.

The Paladin felt the body turn stiff.

It is different from being controlled like before.

And it knew that the situation was dangerous.

‘It isn’t complete yet.’

It was enough.

The Paladin made the decision.

Flash!

The light which was wrapped around his body began to shine and spread out in all directions.

Jamie stared at the light. He had no choice but to be shocked. If it was in the past, things would have been different.

Kik!

Fortunately, Black was with him in Dark Dimension.

Black completely enveloped its Master’s body as soon as it felt the strange sensation.

The darkness was swollen like a balloon.

Light began to leak through the Dark Dimension.

Jamie thought about it. Everything that had happened till now. He looked at it very clearly. It was just that the variables related to the opponent were amazing.

‘Additional damage is?’

Would an explosion happen after the light?

Fortunately, there didn’t seem to be any secondary damage.

Perhaps, it seemed like the holy power was all it needed to escape.

If that was all.

“I can’t let it get out.”

His right hand was still holding onto the thread.

Still, looking at the Paladin, it seemed like it dispelled Dark Hand’s paralyzing effect to a large extent.

But Marionette threads were cut off.

‘My ‘black magic’.’

Holy power was bad for Dark Magicians. The holy power had an upper hand over everything, thus black magic could normally never defeat the Holy power.

And it gets even worse, considering Jamie’s current level.

‘Then nothing can be done.’

The light from the opponent was coming onto everything.

He was happy that the thread was cut off.

‘Black. Take down the light.’

Kiik!

Black spread its wings from Jamie’s back.

The darkness began to spread out like a poured black ink.

Jamie’s left hand was empty. The Paladin withdrew.

He clenched his fist. When the light obstructing the vision had disappeared, he could clearly see what was in front.

The back view of the Paladin flickering in light.

“Dark Dimension!”

The darkness that was torn away by the light, filled the place once again.

[Dark Spear of Curse]

A spear of ominous shape had formed.

Jamie threw the spear with all the power he could gather.

Shhhh!

As the spear flew, the air seemed to get divided.

The Paladin gazed.

He assumed that Jamie would start preparing for another attack, but he didn’t expect that Jamie would recover from the light and attack so quickly.

‘It is… fine.’

It was still within a range he could handle.

He took a breath. His chest began to swell. His neck was bent back to a bizarre level.

“Woah!”

His chest constricted, and a large amount of fire erupted from his mouth.

At the same time, the soles of its boots were torn, revealing ugly-looking feet. It wasn’t just the feet. The armor was split.

It was the first time that a living creature appeared with such legs.

The Paladin’s speed increased tremendously.

“Chimera…!”

He expected it, but seeing it with his own eyes felt different.

Jamie smiled and spread back.

[Chain Area]

Numerous chains protruded from the ground towards the Paladin.

“…!”

He couldn’t help but feel puzzled as he wasn’t expecting this kind of magic.

He got caught in an instant.

The Paladin struggled to escape, but

Puck!

The Dark Spear of Curse pierced the back of the Paladin.

With curious eyes, Jamie approached him.

And clasped his hands together.

Black mana was gliding up and down.

[Death Boom!]

The darkness exploded.

The Paladin tried to harden the skin, but the darkness relentlessly smashed his armor and passed through the hardened skin.

The Paladin thought of many ways to survive the occuring hell.

But all the methods didn’t seem to work.

No, there was no method left.

If his final method was used, then surviving was possible, but the Paladin would lose himself.

‘Enforce.’

There was no hesitation left in the Paladin.

Losing himself was an easy price to pay.

He was nothing but a doll anyways ‘doll’.

Something small protruded from the back of the Paladin’s neck.

At that time, a tiny body was captured by Jamie’s keen eyes.

‘The main body!’

Even with his sharp sense, it was difficult to easily capture the faint presence.

And quickly lost where it was.

The Paladin’s body dropped and fell to the ground.

The body from which the main body had been removed was nothing more than a shell.

[Coordinate tracking.]

When Jamie’s small hand touched the floor, numerous green lines overlapped horizontally and vertically, covering the space they created.

Blue mana ripped around like waves.

“Hmm”

Nothing could be caught in it.

From the moment the main body was out, catching it became difficult. At his current level, there was no way Jamie could capture the fading presence.

“Master!”

Raiza, who was watching from afar, approached.

One arm and one side were severely damaged. And since the attack was done with Holy power, the condition seemed severe.

His already pale face was even paler as if there was no pain, he said.

“Thank you.”

“I missed it.”

“Yes?!”

Raiza’s eyes widened.

Compared to Azad, he had little change in his emotion, yet his surprised expression was quite worth seeing.

He looked at his Master and asked.

“C-can’t we quickly track it down or something?”

“We could if it was normal.”

“What does that mean?”

“It is a pity that we missed it, but it doesn’t really matter now.”

Raiza couldn’t understand anything that Jamie was saying.

Missing an enemy didn’t matter? Things could get seriously messed up.

He couldn’t understand, so he dared himself and asked his Master.

“I know that this is rude, but can Master tell me what it means?”

“W-well it is nothing.”

Jamie answered.

“The mark of black mana is not something that can be easily erased.”

The moment the lungs were pierced with Dark Hand, a thick layer of black mana would have filled the entire body.

No matter how small the body was, traces of black mana would still be buried.

“But if the enemy finds that a Dark Magician has intervened…”

“We don’t need to worry about it.”

Raiza didn’t understand either.

If it was ordinary priests, then it might not be sure, but if one was a high-ranking priest, one would be able to read traces of black mana, no matter how faint it is.

“I know what you are thinking. But those people will never know about us.”

“Why…”

“Because my black magic is different from current black magic.”

The current black magic is infinitely vulnerable to holy power.

Jamie couldn’t understand that either.

Since when did black magic turn so vulnerable to holy power?

“My power is black magic created from the beginning for the purpose of ‘Killing God’.”

Which is why sometimes it is called.

“New Death Magic. That is the black magic I use.”

So, no matter who was wielding the holy power, they would never be able to trace it back to Jamie.

Never.