Dark Magus Returns - Chapter 8: The Dark Core

Lee Se-Hoon, the blacksmith of humanity’s last desperate united force, fought against the demons until the very end. However, the result was mutual destruction, with the world coming to an end. The moment he took his own life over that futile conclusion—

“…What is this?”

He had regressed to his days as a candidate at the hero training institution, Babel Academy. Having obtained a second chance, he swore to use anything as material to gain victory this time. Anything at all!

Sixty Years ago, one middle aged man brought a Qilin that looked like a pug and a mandarin duck that looked exactly like a duck, walking into the Imperial City of the Central Plains for the first time.

For ten long years, Adam was a prisoner within his own body, paralyzed and helpless, silently observing a world he couldn't interact with. As his life finally ebbed away, connected to hospital machines, his last conscious thought wasn't one of peace, but a desperate, burning wish hurled into the void: If I get a second chance, let me be the strongest.The universe, in its mysterious ways, answered. Adam was reborn, not into light, but into an infinite, suffocating darkness. Yet, within this void, he discovered an astonishing truth: he possessed unimaginable power. Reality itself seemed to bend to his mere thought; he could conjure wonders or horrors with a whim. He was, by all measures, the most powerful entity imaginable. But this godlike power came with a cruel twist – he was utterly trapped, unable to escape the encompassing darkness.His prison, he soon grasped, wasn't empty space. It was the consciousness of another being. He was an unseen passenger, a silent god locked within the mind and soul of Eric, the unassuming Third Prince of a kingdom unknown to Adam. Eric, frail and seemingly ordinary, was completely unaware of the cosmic powerhouse dwelling within him.Adam's initial goal was simple: escape or seize control. But a chilling revelation halted his plans – his existence was inexplicably tethered to the prince's fragile life. If Eric died, Adam's own newfound power, perhaps even his very being, might shatter. A reluctant protector was born from a desperate prisoner.Now, Adam walks a razor's edge. He subtly guides and shields his unwitting vessel, Eric, from the dangers of court intrigue and hidden enemies, intervening with earth-shattering displays of power only when Eric faces certain death. These brief, terrifying moments where the “weak” prince unleashes godly might leave the world baffled and fearful, whispering legends of the prince's hidden potential.To navigate this precarious existence and perhaps forge a path to his own freedom or dominance, Adam devises a unique tool: a 'System' granted to Eric. Is it a gift to empower his host, a means to strengthen the vessel for eventual takeover, or a dangerous gamble with unforeseen consequences?As Adam fights unseen battles, protecting Eric while plotting his own endgame, questions linger. Can he ever break free? Will Eric discover the terrifying truth of his inner 'guest'? And what will happen when the world realizes that the power shaking kingdoms doesn't belong to the prince, but to the ancient, godlike entity trapped inside him? His journey is one of immense power bound by frustrating confinement, a hidden war fought within a single soul, where the fate of a prince and the ambition of a captive god hang in the balance.

[WARNING: 18+ — NO RAPE]“I scratch and bite,” Vivian warned, holding the Lycan Alpha's gaze confidently.Ronan smirked, his hand gripping her chin possessively as he forced her to look up at him.“You'll crawl and beg too,” he promised.************Being the Clan Leader of the last remaining cursed Lycans, Ronan had long abandoned his task of finding his fated mate after years of useless searching. However, his life is disrupted when he encounters a mysterious and barely clinging-to-life alive Omega wolf, Vivian, trespassing on his land. Covered in strange Wickan magic symbols, Vivian is not just any wolf—she is his destined mate.Vivian has lived a life of rejection and suffering. Abandoned by her first mate for being unable to conceive, scorned by her family, and mistreated by her pack, Moonborn, she has endured endless humiliation. Forced by her father to mate with other Alphas in a desperate attempt to prove her worth, Vivian’s fate takes an even darker turn when she is cursed by a local coven and framed for a crime she didn’t commit. On the brink of death, she escapes into forbidden territory—Ronan’s land.A stretch of land her pack never dared to tread upon.Ronan’s mistrust only grows when he learns Vivian is from Moonborn, the pack that slaughtered his clan and remains his sworn enemy. Yet, irrespective of their dark feuding histories, he takes her in, determined to care for her and break the deadly curse inflicted upon her by Wickans and the ancient curse slowly leading him to an inevitable death. As they grow closer, secrets from both their pasts threaten to break them apart.And when Vivian’s niece arrives with a hidden agenda, matters become far more complicated.