Blood Magic was a powerful, forbidden force even among magicians. Its most distinctive traits were superhuman physical enhancement and remarkable regenerative abilities.

A magician using blood magic could momentarily surpass human limits in speed and strength, and ordinary wounds healed almost instantly.

It seemed 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 judgment and self-control.

Blood magic, while granting immense power, was like a double-edged sword, making it impossible to control oneself.

Whether Leon could overcome this side effect remained uncertain. For a magician, losing sanity was the greatest contradiction.

Ultimately, Leon would soon find out whether blood magic would become 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, remember that they naturally use body enhancement magic that surpasses typical mana infusion techniques.”

“Is it true that it’s nearly impossible to face them one-on-one?” someone 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 immense 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 comment 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 some additional advice, but remained silent.

He didn’t want to antagonize the Twelfth Elder.

"He’ll figure it out after some 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, seemed 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 mentally 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 merit, it was still a task that someone had to undertake.

Leon’s group, the 9th unit, was led by a Mystery-ranked magician named 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 named Chris, who had previously been stationed in the Valley of Souls before being dispatched here.

Most of the members 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 remembering how Leon had wielded it during their past encounters with blood magicians.

The other magicians, too, no longer questioned Leon’s methods.

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 moment 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 meticulously 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 fragments 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 seemed like they were on the first basement 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 time 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 moment, the blood magician sensed their presence and slowly raised his head. His red eyes gleamed, and saliva dripped from his mouth.

“Grrr…!”

He growled like a beast and immediately 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 bloomed 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 gruesome sights—beasts and human prisoners locked up in deplorable conditions.

All the humans were ordinary people.

“Are the magicians locked up somewhere 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 moment, a man staggered forward from one of the cells, extending a bony hand.

“Save me…”

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… me…”

Despite the explanation, the man kept repeating his plea.

Soon, similar cries echoed throughout the prison.

“Please, save me.”

“Let me 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…” someone whispered from within the prison.

“What do you think they meant 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 seemed like the blood magicians inside would have come 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 seemed 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 comes up, use the communication orbs immediately.”

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.