Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 244

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

The Knight released from the seal was filled with confidence. His stride was dignified as he approached the ice snake, melting the surrounding snow.

“He suddenly became incredibly confident?”

“Why is he acting like that?”

Muffin and Seraph, who had explored the labyrinth together, wore bewildered expressions at the Knight’s transformation. The Effort Priest’s laughter joined their words.

“Hehehe. Don’t you understand? It’s because Knight Marin made an effort. Those who strive without shame before the heavens and themselves gain confidence.”

The current Knight Marin was in a state where he could look up at the sky without a single point of shame.

“Bindo is also always confident because he strives to do his best in everything.”

‘I see. No wonder he was confident even when I rescued him from being buried in snow.’

Come to think of it, Serena had only discovered the priest because he hadn’t given up and kept calling for rescue.

At first, she thought he was arrogant for going on about effort when she was the one who saved him. But after watching him continuously, she came to understand.

“Is it really okay for him to go alone?”

Marin had hypothesized that the snow snake was also trapped in ice and couldn’t move, but it was just a hypothesis, not confirmed.

Serena, who had been dazed by the priest’s buff, came to her senses upon hearing Count Alpha’s words.

“Everyone help Knight Marin.”

“Yes!”

Muffin answered cheerfully and ran off. High Priest Hazel, Count Alpha, and Duri also ran along the path where Marin had melted the snow.

If necessary, she would have to provide magical support from the rear. Serena gripped her magic staff tightly. Count Randy also tensed up, running his fingers over attack potions, and Ying nocked an arrow to her bow.

Low gripped his spear, positioning himself to throw it at any moment, and Rihua stood by to heal any injured.

What did Seraph do?

“Hmph!”

Perhaps displeased that everyone else had something to do while he had nothing he could do, he scrunched up his pretty face. The presence of the Effort Priest beside him, who had finished his work and was chuckling, seemed to make him even more irritated.

The ice snake that hadn’t budged when High Priest Hazel threw punches began to move its massive body as the Fire Knight approached.

Hissssss.

The snake head made of opaque ice opened its maw and flicked its tongue threateningly at Knight Marin.

“The snake is moving!”

“Ugh. So it stayed still when the High Priest and I hit it because our attacks didn’t hurt even when they landed!”

Muffin, who had been secretly sympathizing with the snow snake, felt wronged.

“It also means he’s that wary of Knight Marin. The effort you made together with the Effort Priest was worthwhile.”

Mass is power. The warriors of both parties were wary of the ice snake that had begun to move, but Knight Marin didn’t even twitch an eyebrow.

The Fire Knight, facing the giant ice snake head-on, shouted.

“Fire!”

Knight Marin threw his flaming axe at the ice snake. The ice snake batted away the flying axe with its tail.

The axe bounced far away and was buried in the snow. Instead of lamenting his lost axe, Knight Marin called upon his deity again.

“Fire! Clear a path for your warrior trapped in the cold!”

Heavenly fire responded to the Knight’s prayer. Knight Marin drew his sword and blocked the teeth of the ice snake charging at him.

Kyaaaack!

The sacred flames rising from his sword melted not only the ice snake’s teeth but half its head. As the ice melted, it didn’t become water but immediately vaporized into steam.

“Uwong?”

“It’s dangerous! Everyone fall back! Knight Marin alone is sufficient!”

High Priest Hazel, concerned that allies might be hurt by the hot steam, quickly pulled people back. Perhaps intending to watch from nearby, he used divine magic.

“Earth, grant me a body as steadfast as yours.”

Serena gathered the people who had been driven away from the battle with the ice snake and created a mana field surrounding them.

‘Just in case.’

“Fire! Flame that illuminates darkness and repels cold!”

Hissss-!

The battle between fire and ice was nail-biting and heart-pounding, but given the distance, it was also anxiety-inducing.

Serena cast the mana field spell once more just in case. Every time the Knight’s sword cut through ice, she had the illusion that the temperature at the peak of the snowy mountain rose by one degree.

“Uh, illuminating darkness is the domain of shining light though.”

Priest Rihua passively objected to Knight Marin’s prayer that encroached on the domain of light. Though there was no way the fighting Knight Marin could hear her, the light priest kept chattering.

“In the first place, sacred fire is a child of light. In the beginning was light.”

“In the beginning was darkness.”

The Loyal Servant of Darkness cut off the light priest’s words like a blade. Priest Rihua startled and turned to look at the archer.

“Light doesn’t illuminate darkness. Darkness yields.”

“What are you saying? I’ve never heard such strange logic before.”

“Hehe. In the beginning was Effort. Effort made an effort, and thus other deities were born.”

The priests of this world where deities actually exist in the heavens have one thing in common. They all claim that the deity they believe in is the first deity.

‘Light and darkness I can understand, but effort isn’t right.’

It was so absurd that Serena’s concentration in maintaining two mana fields nearly wavered.

The party’s intellect, the Empire’s genius alchemist, perhaps also finding it absurd, interjected.

“I tried to listen quietly, but I cannot. In the beginning was gold.”

The alchemist, though not even a priest, joined the primordial debate, perhaps trying to show loyalty to the gold that favored him.

The Princess barely managed to restore one mana field that had nearly dispersed.

Muffin, listening to the debate, made a tearful face.

“Ugh. If only I were a priest of water or flowers instead of decay, I could insist that water or flowers existed in the beginning.”

Surprisingly, Ying, who spoke little, was winning the primordial debate. Even when Priest Rihua or Count Randy spoke logically, Ying dismissed them with a single word.

“Darkness.”

“Kuk. Ying doesn’t follow the basics of debate, so she’s disqualified.”

Even when Count Randy, unable to bear it any longer, declared her disqualified, it was useless. Ying spoke briefly with conviction in her deep, dark eyes.

“Darkness.”

“Hehehe. Very efficient. Efficiency is important when making an effort too. In that sense. Effort.”

“Darkness.”

“Uurgh. Light! Light is exactly one syllable! Light light light light light!”

“Light is hard to pronounce. Darkness. Two syllables but very smooth.”

“Fir- no. Gold! Gold gold gold gold gold gold!”

“Hehe, what to do. I’ll make an effort to change effort to one syllable! Eff!”

‘These people.’

Outside the mana field, steam was thick like a sauna, and the sounds of the giant snake and Knight clashing never ceased.

Though only vague shapes were visible through the steam, Knight Marin’s struggle was transmitted into the double-layered mana field.

The Fire Knight was fighting such a fierce battle, yet these people were just talking about primordial matters inside the safe mana field.

Even worse, while the topic was reasonable, the statements of those debating were pathetic. So pathetic that they kept disrupting Serena’s concentration. The Imperial Knight was concerned enough to worry about the Princess.

“Your Highness, you look like you’re struggling. Are you alright?”

“Don’t talk to me.”

At the peak of the mountain where thick steam rose instead of snow, the Knight’s prayer echoed.

“Gentle flame that bestows warmth and light upon the earth!”

As heavenly fire responded to the Knight’s prayer, intense flames capable of burning the entire mountain were imbued in the Knight’s sword.

“Hyaaaah!”

Kyaaaack-!

The ice snake melted and vanished within the flames. Though she couldn’t see the left eye’s world while concentrating on maintaining the mana field, a defeat notification window must have appeared.

“Knight Marin, you’re amazing!”

“Knight Marin did it!”

Muffin and Priest Rihua grabbed each other’s hands and jumped up and down in joy.

But the joy was brief. Even though the ice snake was dead, the flames didn’t diminish but grew larger in scale.

“The fire isn’t going out?”

“Isn’t it coming this way?”

“Uwong?”

The flames surged toward the group like waves. Serena was horrified.

‘How can we block that!’

Serena’s meager mana field could never block those massive flames. The others were also surprised and panicking.

“Knight Marin! There are people here! Put out the fire!”

“We’re all going to die!”

“Ugh. I’m sorry.”

Count Alpha gritted his teeth and apologized, then ran with Serena and Seraph tucked under each arm. The others were also fleeing in panic, but there were some who didn’t run.

It was Ying and the Effort Priest. The two stood calmly within the mana field that Serena was still maintaining.

Why weren’t they running away? The moment Serena wondered this, flames burned through the mana field and swallowed them both.

The flames then proceeded to swallow the other people one by one. Even though Count Alpha risked his life to flee, he couldn’t shake off the pursuing flames.

The Empire’s knight embraced the foreign prince and princess, while the princess held her sibling in her arms. Just as the prince tried to break free from his sister’s embrace to protect her instead.

The flames engulfed them.

Serena would have preferred to burn to death in an instant. She squeezed her eyes shut and gritted her teeth, but a gentle energy swept over her body.

The headache from maintaining the mana field disappeared. The jaw pain from gritting her teeth also vanished.

The full-body aches that had remained even after taking muscle pain medication were gone. The dryness in her right eye that had been bothering her alone was healed.

‘Am I dead?’

Serena cautiously opened her eyes. The princess hadn’t died. She was still in the same position as when she and her sibling had been grabbing each other’s hair, wrestling over who would protect whom.

“What, what? We didn’t die?”

The prince, who had been pinned under Serena and grabbing his sister’s hair to climb on top of her, looked around with a dumbfounded expression.

“Get off!”

Then suddenly he shuddered and pushed away his sister whom he had been trying to embrace. Serena was shoved and fell on her bottom.

The knight who had been embracing the foreign princess and prince, thinking of his family in his final moments while clutching his necklace pendant, also raised his head.

“What in the world…”

Flames that could have burned the entire mountain had swept across the summit, yet everyone caught in the flames was perfectly fine. Not just fine – their injuries were healed and their bodies were full of vitality.

The fire wasn’t an illusion but real. The snow that had piled up to their knees had actually melted, turning the ground into a muddy mess.

Serena pressed her hands against the squishy ground and barely managed to stand up. Her condition was the best it had been since falling into the Labyrinth, but she felt dizzy from all the confusion.

[You have defeated a powerful enemy. The probability of getting a dud from the limited shop roulette has decreased.]

A notification window dutifully appeared in her left eye’s world. Serena composed herself and looked for the person who could best explain what had happened.

“Knight Marin. What happened here?”

The Fire Knight answered with a gentle smile.

“The gentle fire distinguishes between what to burn and what must be burned.”

Serena didn’t know this. Probably most people wouldn’t. The only ones who knew were likely the 5-star priests who hadn’t run away.

Muffin, who was also a 5-star priest but lacked experience and didn’t know, got angry.

“You should have told us beforehand! Ugh! Do you know how scared I was?”

“I’m sorry. I seemed to have more power than before the seal, so I was distracted.”

Seraph immediately found something to tease Serena about.

“So you didn’t need to use magic after all?”

She had struggled to maintain two mana fields, and it was all meaningless?

Just as the princess was shocked, High Priest Hazel acknowledged Serena’s efforts.

“Not all of Knight Marin’s fire is safe. The steam was hot and only the final flames were safe fire, so the princess’s judgment was correct.”

“Grrrrrr.”

Duri, being a bear, seemed more afraid of fire and openly grumbled.

“Fire.”

Knight Marin called for fire again. A flame blazed in her hand and soon became a substantial axe. There was no need to search for the axe that would be somewhere in the muddy ground where the snow had melted.

Knight Marin smiled confidently like when she left the cave, seemingly satisfied that her seal had been broken.

“Now that the warm fire has broken my seal, I fear nothing. Just trust me. I, Marin, Knight of Fire, will protect you all from cold, darkness, and monsters.”

The 5-star knight’s hearty smile as she showed her healthy teeth suddenly contorted.

“Gasp!”

Knight Marin suddenly cried out in pain. The axe slipped from the knight’s hand and fell into the mud.

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