Memoirs of a Wicked Magician - Chapter 58

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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 58
If only she could use Purification Magic somehow—but her Core was as parched as drought-stricken earth, yielding not a single drop of Mana.
With each agonizing inch her frozen body dragged forward, a burning hunger to surrender everything surged through her.
Simply to stop here, to let her already-leaden body go slack, to let her breathing cease—
Then all this suffering would vanish in an instant, and peace would come.
Yet even this yearning was surely the Black Calamity’s scheming.
A thick, suffocating darkness born from the Black Lake had swallowed the forest whole.
The lake that consumed Zed swelled rapidly, belching forth clouds of black fog.
By Liriope’s reckoning, Zed—who had inexplicably gained such devastating power—seemed to have triggered the source of the Contamination itself.
Thankfully, Liriope had been spared the worst of it.
Velkius had left behind a Protective Barrier.
Days earlier, after sending Caliona beyond the exit, he had spirited Liriope away from the heart of the Blue Forest.
When Liriope regained consciousness after collapsing from exhaustion, she found herself in a familiar Cave—the very refuge where she had hidden after escaping the Flower Cluster before.
Velkius was nowhere to be seen, but a strong Barrier enclosed the space around her.
It had stolen her freedom while paradoxically granting her rest.
Whether by Velkius’s design or accident, the isolation from the outside world had shielded her from the tainted air.
But then, without warning, the Barrier vanished.
And so Liriope too was swept helplessly into the corrupted fog.
The Black Lake had always been a source of Contamination, but it had never possessed such destructive force.
Yet the poison that spread outward from the lake at terrible speed afflicted every living thing it touched with sickness or madness, and even the grass and trees shrieked with ominous resonance that scattered in all directions.
Thus the Blue Forest transformed in moments into something incomparably more perilous than before.
The wild howls of maddened beasts echoed without pause, as if they would split her eardrums.
The grotesquely warped corrupted plants twisted their roots and stems endlessly, shifting their positions until the forest became a complete labyrinth.
Liriope moved however she could, knowing that to live, she had to escape the forest.
But her body and mind, poisoned by the fog, rusted away with each passing moment.
Ah, just for a moment—to feel some peace…….
She asked for so little. Just five minutes…….
No—just one minute without any pain, to simply fall asleep…….
-Shriek!
[Liriope……!]
And when Ode’s cry jolted her awake, Liriope found herself flying across the forest.
-Screech!
More precisely, she was being dragged somewhere, her body clutched in the massive talons of some hideous bird-thing.
There was no way to believe the creature had abducted her out of benevolence.
Rather, it had clearly marked her as easy prey.
Wind-tangled hair fell across her face, but even through her blurred vision she could make out the repulsive form of the bird.
When a sharp Tree Branch scraped her skin, that acute pain granted her a moment of clarity.
The creature navigated the trees with practiced ease, but showed no concern for the safety of its captive. Liriope’s body quickly became a mass of gashes.
[This beast—it has a wound on its left flank! Go for that spot! Before it reaches the nest with the others……!]
Liriope forced her strengthless hand to move, seized a passing Tree Branch, and snapped it off.
Then she drove it with all her remaining strength into the spot Ode had indicated.
-Screeeeeech!
An ear-splitting roar tore through the fog and echoed outward.
Thud-crash, whoosh!
“Aaagh……!”
When she came to again, Liriope was tumbling across the ground, free from the creature’s grip.
[Oh no! Are you all right? Liriope……!]
It seemed her arm had fractured from the impact of the fall.
Involuntary tears blurred her vision further before she even registered them.
Her sight darkened to black once more.
Whoosh.
When she opened her eyes again, Liriope realized her body was suspended in mid-air once more, held by something.
Remembering her near-abduction by the creature, she moved her hands instinctively.
Even through her unconsciousness, the Tree Branch she had wielded against the beast remained gripped in her hands like a lifeline.
But the moment it pierced skin and flesh, Liriope understood: the thing before her was not a corrupted monstrosity.
“Still had enough strength to swing your arm?”
Was it his nature, or did she simply perceive it that way because they had met in such circumstances each time?
“Good.”
Surrounded by air that still felt dreamlike and unreal, a quiet voice reached her ears—one that, if only for a moment, made her forget her predicament.
Velkius’s expression was frozen cold, but not because of her attack on him.
The shoulder bearing the embedded branch must have hurt terribly, yet Velkius seemed indifferent to pain, ignoring his wound entirely. Instead, he studied Liriope’s face with focused attention.
Liriope was cradled in Velkius’s arms, being carried away from the black fog-choked forest.
The fog that struck his Protective Barrier shattered like waves, rippling away.
Her body, which had been filthy from rolling in mud, was somehow clean, and the sharp pain that had throbbed in her fractured wrist was gone.
And most of all…….
“Your condition is worse than I thought. Keep your eyes closed until the poisoning symptoms subside.”
Velkius suddenly poured more Mana into her.
Burst!
“……!”
As the light of the Purification Magic Circle intensified, Liriope’s ravaged body—worn ragged inside and out—felt suddenly, impossibly relieved.
Her labored breathing gradually eased, and a faint tingling sensation returned to her completely numb hands and feet.
Her head, which had throbbed with fracturing pain and dizziness, felt clear and clean for what seemed like forever.
The suffocating despair, hopelessness, and helplessness that had threatened to overflow her mind slowly faded along with the black fog inside her.
Not all her symptoms vanished at once, but even their slight diminishment brought tears of gratitude and happiness.
She understood now why a traveler lost in the desert might cling to a single drop of rain after so long.
Liriope felt a primal yearning as the clear, warm energy washed through her entire being.
“More, more……. Please…….”
Without even realizing what she was doing, she pressed her body closer to Velkius.
Her cold cheek brushed against his neck, while her trembling hand—still lacking strength—clutched his collar as though it were a rope to salvation.
“……!”
Velkius stilled at the unfamiliar contact.

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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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