Beguiling the Enemy’s Patriarch - Chapter 136

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 136
* * *
The way Hades seized my body was identical to how he had taken Soleia’s two years ago. The withered skeleton that separated from Soleia’s form burrowed directly into mine.
[….]
But there was one crucial difference.
[…Damn it.]
Soleia’s consciousness—or soul—had been suppressed within her body, but mine.
[Again, again….]
Had been cast out entirely, unable to cling to the flesh.
Thud. Soleia’s body collapsed as Hades vacated it. I stared blankly at her crumpled form before my gaze shifted to my own body—the vessel my soul had abandoned. The one Hades now inhabited.
“…Ah.”
My body spoke. I watched, pallid with horror, as my limbs moved of their own accord, utterly divorced from my will.
“Ah. Ah.”
My body twisted at an unnatural angle—one that should have been physically impossible. My mouth fell open in shock. If even one bone broke like that, what would—!
“So this is how….”
Hades, wearing my face, tilted his head. His expression suggested something was not as he’d anticipated.
“Rather…fragile?”
[….]
I forgot the gravity of the situation entirely, consumed by bitter resignation. Weakest everywhere I go. Damn it. Hades seemed unaware that my soul had been ejected outward. He was too preoccupied with creaking through my body, testing it.
“A form saturated with holiness….”
I watched with disgust as my hands pawed across my own body. Perverted bastard…!
“Hmm….”
Hades tilted his head again. My pallid face bore an expression I could never produce—cold, imperious, utterly alien. It was a grotesque sight.
[….]
I had no idea what to do. Hades had clearly seized my body to claim the holiness within it. The ‘body’ itself.
But wasn’t it my soul that was bound to Raulus? My soul—Eun-seo’s soul. Which meant this body was merely a shell. So Hades had grasped at the wrong thing….
[Ah.]
It was far worse than grasping the wrong thing. My body was a magical weakling. It couldn’t possibly withstand Hades. Was this… actually fortunate…? …It couldn’t be!
“Now you’re finished. Raulus, you unlucky bastard.”
Hades, draped in my flesh, muttered to himself. I could only blink blankly in disbelief.
‘No. You’re the one who’s finished, Hades!’
Should I abandon my body and flee? But then the flesh without a soul would perish instantly. And I, a spirit without a body to return to, would become a true wandering phantom. Yet I couldn’t simply wait here helplessly either!
I screamed silently within. Right on cue, Hades raised his hand.
[No, damn it. This won’t work…!]
The holiness remaining in my body was nearly depleted, and if he cast magic while wearing that form. If he did….
“Ah.”
Hades let out a short gasp. I turned so pale with shock I nearly became transparent. The palm where magical energy had gathered began to burn. As if scorched by flame. I couldn’t help myself—I shrieked, caring nothing for whether Hades heard.
[Hey, you’ll die like that!]
But my voice never reached him. The world trembled.
[Ah….]
A groan escaped my lips. That mad skeleton bastard was about to reach out his hand. Beyond Udeta. Crimson-red magical circles began spreading along both walls of the sloped passage. Like cracks forming in all directions. And in the next moment, the earth above my head split open.
* * *
The ground literally crumbled down. The moment I lifted my head at the sound of something cracking above me, the ceiling was already collapsing.
[…!]
I reflexively tried to scream, then remembered that I was currently in a spirit state capable of passing through stone, and barely swallowed the cry. A tremendous roar accompanied acrid smoke that obscured my vision. And through that dusty chasm, sunlight poured down. The air of the Surface rushed in.
[Ah….]
And I felt it clearly—holiness. Something leaped down toward me. Now it was just a silver-furred mass reduced to the size of a single finger joint.
[Little one, are you alright?]
Tears welled up in my eyes. I knew what this presence was. Whose it was. Massive piles of earth continued to cascade down. Since I couldn’t feel any sensation anyway, I simply sat there in a daze. The ground still shook violently around me, as if an actual earthquake were occurring.
“…!”
I could see Hades, who inhabited my body, flinch in surprise. Only then did I realize that it wasn’t Hades’s magical power that had destroyed the ceiling.
Thud, thud. Soil mixed with boulders fell like hail, embedding itself in the ground. The already fractured earth, jutting up haphazardly, trembled as if about to collapse downward. But it wasn’t just trembling. Through the fractured vision, I saw blue-red magical circles that had been climbing the walls suddenly ignite.
Pale silver-blue holy flames.
“Insolent whelp…!”
My voice rang out sharply through the crumbling Underground. Hades, who possessed my body, roughly tangled his magical power again. I instinctively sprang to my feet.
[I can’t….]
I couldn’t use magic twice with this body. I would truly die.
“Cough….”
As expected, Hades stopped weaving the magical circle and bent over at the waist. I watched blood trickle down from the corner of my mouth.
“Yerenika?”
An urgent voice rang out at that very moment. I snapped my head up. Toward the fragmenting collapse above. Beneath the sky that looked shattered, silver hair fluttered. And those reddish-violet eyes.
Auredhian Belgot.
I let out a sob mixed with a groan.
“You came….”
Whoosh. The geometrically interwoven magical power burned away in the purifying flames. The holy flame, which had been merely a small spark, grew larger and larger. The pale silver-blue fire threatened to spread, licking hungrily across everything.
“Damn it. What is this body…!”
I staggered to my feet. The fact that I couldn’t feel any sensation was actually a blessing. I didn’t have to fear pain. Hades seemed to grow increasingly desperate. The magical power not consumed by the flames clashed fiercely with the holiness. Whoosh. A human shadow leaped down into the Underground. There was no question who it was.
“Yeni, what is that magic….”
The moment I heard his voice, I realized something crucial. Ah. Auredhian Belgot didn’t know that Hades had taken my body. Of course he didn’t. My ‘body’ was right there.
“…Who are you?”
But Auredhian Belgot was indeed a man with excellent instincts. His movement toward my body stopped abruptly. He seemed to sense something wrong. I couldn’t hesitate any longer. If my body died, I would end too.
[Burn it.]
My voice trembled as it came out. It wasn’t a sound from my throat but rather a vibration that resonated and spread. Yet Auredhian Belgot immediately turned his head toward me. Only then did our eyes meet. I could see his face.
“…!”
His eyes widened. Those crimson eyes fixed precisely on me.
“Yerenika…?”
Ah. The man I love. I struggled to suppress the tears threatening to burst forth and opened my mouth again.
[Burn it. Burn my body.]
One step. My body moved without time for further thought. Even as I spoke the words, I knew he couldn’t do it. He was a man who could never harm my body in any way.
Two steps. Three steps. I approached him, heedless of the soil and stone fragments blocking the way. I felt Auredhian Belgot’s characteristic holiness slowly absorb into my semi-transparent form. If he couldn’t do it, then I would have to.
“What… how did he end up in that state?”
But before I could move, he came to me instead, turning his back completely on my ‘body’.
“Yerenika, you’re okay—”
[Just a moment.]
I barely managed to open my mouth and cut off his words.
[My hands…]
I had never summoned the purifying flames before. But somehow, I felt I could do it now. I could read the flow of divine power coursing through this man’s body. If I just altered that flow slightly… The moment my outstretched hand brushed against his frost-hardened cheek,
“…!”
With a whoosh, the silver flames that had been ravenously consuming the Underground’s walls instantly transferred to my body.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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