Chapter 50: Confusion
She was confident that the spell circle would explode and the whole place would collapse.
But, nothing like that was happening even though we had come out of the place.
The whole dungeon was still perfectly fine and, even though they were outside now, there was no great commotion that would alert the guard dogs outside.
They were still in their positions even though we were outside.
"Well, what the fuck?"
Alex was confused right now.
She knew she did it right and that the spell circle was certainly destroyed. But then, why wasn\'t anything happening?
The dark minions didn\'t have enough intelligence to stop a dark spell circle from exploding. They should have died with the explosion.
But, why wasn\'t anything happening?
"I think we should go back and-."
His sentence wasn\'t even finished and she was walking back inside the same place she had walked out of.
"Oy."
She wasn\'t stopping, so he ran behind her.
The inside of the dungeon… they did not enter through the secret entrance this time but directly from the front entrance that was still covered by a strong illusion barrier.
Elio was surprised how she walked towards the front entrance, but as he walked behind her to stop his mad girl, he was also stunned to see the now empty dungeon.
There should have been many guards at the entrance, inside of the cave, there should still be tens of the evil minions present in the cave, throughout the cave, there should have been some traps here at least, creatures hidden for an ambush.
And yet, there was no one guarding the inside of this place anymore?
"What\'s happening here?" Elio questioned what was going on in the cave, but Alex only answered with a continued silence.
"Miu?"
"Muuuu."
Even the little creatures with him were confused right now, but they just followed behind her inside the dungeon.
The inside of the cave was dark, but at least, thanks to the torches present inside of the cave, there was enough light for them to see around them.
The pathway inside was narrow, but not so narrow that not even three people could pass through it.
It was good enough, so they just walked behind her and somehow, reached a fork.
"Miu? Do you know which way your house is from here?"
Usually, there should at least be guards in a place like this one. But there was nothing here either. Which made her suspicions even more certain.
"Alex. What is up with you? What\'s going on here?"
This whole thing was getting creepy now.
"We were wrong, El." But her words made things even more confusing for him.
"Hun?" She walked back and took the slime from her hands without elaborating further.
He was going to find out soon enough so, there was no need for her to explain things here.
"Miu? Miu."
"Muuuuu…?"
The little gecko knew where they had to go, so it showed the way with its light. And they followed according to its directions.
They were inside the cave where these creatures had lived for most parts of their lives, so navigating inside was pretty easy for them.
And, it did not take them long to reach the core area that they had seen twice just today.
"Who…?"
"I knew it."
But the inside situation in the cave\'s core was pretty different from what they had expected.
The magic circle that they needed to destroy, the circle that had almost been destroyed was still there.
The ground on which the spell circle existed was fluctuating and there were reactions from the ground right now.
There were sparks coming out of the spell circle still, and there was a strange vibration present all around this core area.
There were no minions in this place either. There was just a strong red-black light present throughout the place and, the origin of this light was the spell circle– upon which an individual stood with an uncomfortable expression.
[ "Ughhh…" ]
"The Mage really had an assistant."
In the core of the spell circle, in the very center of it, a figure wearing normal black clothing– someone that seemed to be a mage was standing with a tough expression covering his face.
His hair was white, his face young, the clothes that he was wearing looked pretty good for a mage, and there was a thick darkness present all around her.
He seemed to be strong, but more than that, he was in pain right now.
[ "You… you were the ones…" ]
When they walked in, the individual saw them as well. And an enraged expression sparked on his \'normal\' face.
"An aspirant…"
The person that was standing in the center of the magic circle was not a dark magician or a follower of evil.
He was a human, a human mage.
[ "You…!" ]
Actually, it would be better to say he used to be a normal, human mage until just now.
"He seems to be in his early thirties."
"Did he… help the mage?"
"It looks like this one is the main reason the dark mage is here in the first place."
In the center of the magic circle, he had positioned as the core since the actual core was on the verge of breaking.
There was a thick darkness surrounding him. A kind of darkness that did not belong to him but was something that belonged to the dark Minions that were present in this dungeon until just now.
"..."
[ "Who… who are you…?!" ]
His eyes were slowly turning black, his skin was becoming paler, and he was losing the faint traces of Mana inside of him.
The darkness that was around him was consuming him.
He must have somehow assumed the position of the core and tried stopping the core from getting destroyed.
He must have known that if the core was destroyed then the dark mage would lose a significant part of his powers as well.
He did not understand the darkness much from the looks of it, so he must have tried to stop the spell circle from breaking apart by taking the risk of forcefully stopping the spell circle\'s destruction.
And in the process, he must have used up the Minion\'s darkness energy as well since he himself did not possess any evil dark energy yet.
[ "Did you do this…?!" ]
The darkness that was now surrounding him was slowly turning him into something that was neither a human nor a dark magician.
The power of evil darkness that the dark magicians have was granted by the evil from the other side. One could not obtain it as they pleased.