Since I’m a Time-Limited Princess Who Has No Tomorrow - Chapter 86

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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 86
Ki Ho-cheol had said the Dark Spirit Blade was as formidable a weapon as a master swordsman’s strike. The boy believed his sword could sever the serpent’s neck.
Clang!
But what rang out was the sound of steel striking iron. The erect scales of the serpent deflected the Dark Spirit Blade away.
“…!”
Simultaneously, a dull, crushing impact swept across Cheon Gyeol-u’s entire body. Still a child, his light frame flew through the air like a hurled stone and smashed against the wall.
“Ugh….”
Only after crashing into the wall did the Crown Prince realize he had been struck by the giant serpent’s tail. His head spun from the impact against the stone, and a terrible pain seared through his struck ribs. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. For an ordinary child, such a blow would have meant instant death. That I survived even this much was only because of my darkness affinity.
“Hgh…!”
As I gasped heavily from the pain, the metallic stench of blood flooded my nostrils. My vision wavered and blurred across multiple layers.
‘I’ve inhaled the venom directly.’
Nausea seized me, and I vomited. Dark, blackened blood poured forth.
‘It hurts so much. I think I’m dying….’
The boy barely lifted his dizzy head. Through his distorted, chaotic vision, he saw the serpent demon’s head emerging from the wall and advancing toward him.
‘…Am I really going to die like this?’
That cannot be.
Cheon Gyeol-u bit his lips until they bled. He forced his dimming eyes wide open and gazed up at the towering serpent’s head.
‘I don’t want to die!’
I fed the terror of death surging through my entire body to the darkness, swelling it. Shadows spread outward from beneath the blood-soaked boy pressed against the wall.
‘I don’t know if this darkness will be effective against a demon, but right now this is all I have…!’
The shadow spread like ink dropped onto rice paper, touching the serpent demon’s body. The giant serpent flinched as if sensing something.
In an instant, the shadow rose like a living thing, and darkness surged forth to cling to the serpent’s entire body. Though the demon’s massive size prevented complete coverage, the darkness clung like a spider’s web, crawling up its neck and successfully obscuring its eyes.
The young darkness-bearer stared directly at the scene, dark blood streaming from his mouth.
‘Be afraid!’
As if hearing the desperate command poured forth like an order, something changed in the serpent demon ensnared by darkness.
“Kyaaaaaack!”
The serpent shrieked with such piercing intensity that the roof trembled. Its body, massive enough to fill half the great corridor, writhed like a worm doused in salt, thrashing madly. Its wildly flailing tail struck both walls of the corridor like a hammer.
‘It worked!’
Cheon Gyeol-u felt joy, then immediately realized this was no situation for celebration. The tail of the serpent demon, thrashing without discrimination, grazed the boy’s head and smashed into the wall behind him.
“…!”
If I stayed here, the fear-blinded serpent would crush me to death.
The boy urgently tried to rise but collapsed immediately.
‘My limbs… won’t obey me….’
My hands and feet were growing numb and paralyzed. It seemed to be from the venom I had inhaled. The only fortunate aspect was that as the paralysis spread, the sharp pain in my ribs began to ease.
Cheon Gyeol-u crawled forward while lying prone. Dizziness and nausea kept threatening to cloud my consciousness.
‘I can’t lose focus.’
I bit my tongue and lips, fighting to stay alert, moving bit by bit. I had to distance myself further from that raging serpent.
Suddenly, a clear voice’s cry reached the boy’s ears amid the crackling chaos.
“Right!”
“…?”
“Roll to the right, Your Majesty!”
The urgent voice belonged to the Lady.
The boy threw his entire body into a rightward roll. In the next instant, the Giant Snake Demon’s tail struck the exact spot where he had been, sweeping across the floor to the left before vanishing.
Cheon Gyeol-u watched the tail embed itself into the corridor wall and felt his spine chill.
‘Had I rolled left, I would be dead.’
But whose voice had that been just now?
As he turned his head in confusion, a silken sensation wrapped around his body.
‘Silk?’
A long ribbon of jade-green light coiled around his arms and torso, then tautened sharply, pulling him forward. The Crown Prince stumbled along bewilderedly, his eyes following the fabric to its source.
In the shadow-drenched corridor, Se-ru-hwa stood with tears streaming down her face, her semi-transparent jade-green ribbon draped like the celestial robes of a heavenly maiden, drawing him toward her.
“Your Majesty!”
* * *
I bit my lip hard.
‘Why won’t this come out?’
Against my expectations, the lifeline refused to slip free. Divine power flowed through my body via the lifeline connected to Heaven—the divine power inherited from my father, the Yama King—making Se-ru-hwa’s lifeline within this body vividly visible. I could see it clearly, yet it wouldn’t budge.
‘The lifeline is threaded along the meridian channels where the dragon force that Ki Ho-cheol taught me flows.’
Did this relate to the Shaman’s inability to accumulate dragon force? In any case, since the lifeline showed no sign of moving on its own, I brought my hand to the crown of my head where the Baihui acupoint—a critical meridian—lay.
‘If the lifeline is contained within the meridian channels, I can extract it through them, can’t I?’
I’d heard this was a dangerous acupoint that could kill if touched carelessly, so my hands moved with natural caution.
‘Come on, just a little. Come out.’
Imagining the lifeline clinging to my fingertips, I slowly drew it away, and finally Se-ru-hwa’s lifeline began to emerge bit by bit.
‘Perfect! Now I just need to bring this to my own lifeline, very carefully…’
I swallowed dryly and moved my hand with utmost delicacy, carefully bringing Se-ru-hwa’s lifeline toward my own, which stretched upward to Heaven.
‘Gently, gently.’
Like dipping a narrow-necked bottle into a waterfall to collect just a little water—if I plunged it too deep, the rushing current would shatter it, so I had to insert only the rim and withdraw it quickly.
The moment a single draught’s worth of divine power flowed into Se-ru-hwa’s lifeline, I urgently pulled the thread away.
‘…Done!’
Though I called it a draught, it originated from my vast divine power, so its quantity and quality were extraordinary.
‘I succeeded!’
I quickly reinserted Se-ru-hwa’s lifeline.
Divine power surged within my body, rippling through it. The “borrowed” power flowing in and out through my own lifeline was distinctly different from my natural divine essence. Since the quantity suited this vessel’s capacity, I could now unleash my full power without worrying about my body’s limits.
I wanted to experiment with various things, but there was no time for that now.
‘How long did that take? It didn’t seem to take very long. The Crown Prince shouldn’t be in danger already, should he?’
I wiped the cold sweat beading my forehead and hurried toward the corridor where Geuseon-dae had vanished.
‘I’ll maintain this possession state until we leave this mansion. My identity won’t be exposed at this level anyway.’
Even Seok-ran, a thousand-year-old Thousand-Year Fox, only discovered my identity after observing how the phoenix treated me, catching my scent of heavenly peaches, and examining my eyes. Unless I revealed myself, demons would hardly discern the truth.
‘It’s far more believable that a young Shaman is channeling Princess Cheonmyeong than that the Princess of the Imperial Palace has descended to the Mortal Realm in human form.’
Maintaining this possession did risk damaging my true body, as it had in the early stages of possession. But as long as I didn’t actively use the channeled divine power, it would be fine. The mere presence of Princess Cheonmyeong’s power flowing through me was already beneficial.
‘Like this.’
I stepped into the shadow-filled corridor, radiating the dignity of Princess Cheonmyeong, and the demon-infused shadows that surged toward me to consume me recoiled in terror at the vast divine power emanating from my being, retreating like an ebbing tide.
‘Yes, trash like this should disappear on its own.’
Just as the Crown Prince had once shaken off the darkness he couldn’t yet control, I brushed away the shadows engulfing me and stepped deeper into the corridor.
Not long after, a deafening boom echoed through the entire corridor.
‘What? What was that sound?’
Worried, I rushed forward. Pushing through the shadows as if parting fog, I soon saw the massive form of the Giant Snake Demon filling the corridor. Black scales studded with blood-red stones—I could identify it at a glance.
‘The Ten-Thousand-Man Snake!’
A demon that had devoured over ten thousand humans, and in the process had formed within its body what was called the Ten-Thousand-Man Blood Stone—an inner core created when accumulated spiritual energy condensed within a creature’s body.
‘A demon nearly as powerful as Geuseon-dae! Why is it trapped in Geuseon-dae’s shadow?’
Looking closer, something seemed wrong with the Ten-Thousand-Man Snake’s state.
‘It looks terrified, thrashing about in fear… terrified?’
Could it be?
Scanning frantically near the Ten-Thousand-Man Snake, I spotted a boy drenched in blood. A familiar robe hem.
‘The Crown Prince!’
What was he doing in that state! How dare—!
‘Of course, the Ten-Thousand-Man Snake did this!’
As rage surged and my vision whitened, I saw the Ten-Thousand-Man Snake’s tail, writhing across its entire body, descend toward the Crown Prince.
In that moment, time seemed to slow. No matter how skilled the Crown Prince was, a direct hit from a tail as thick as a pillar would kill him.
Die? Before me, who has limited time? That makes no sense. I cannot allow it.
But did I have any way to stop it? I was powerless, a deity who couldn’t even use divine power.
‘No, I can use it now.’
Even if it was but dust compared to my true body’s divine power, I now possessed divine energy I could safely wield—the shimmering essence within Se-ru-hwa’s vessel.
How could I use this to save him?
There was no time for deep thought. The tail was descending.
How? How? What method could I use?
A sharp sense of energy traced across the Ten-Thousand-Man Snake’s tail. The divine power pooled in the vessel surged forth, gathering in my eyes.
‘How?’
Then I saw it. The flow of energy. How the demon would move. It was a sensation close to foresight.
I immediately cried out.
“To the right!”
“…?”
“Roll to the right, Your Highness!”
Even as I spoke, I realized evasion was only a temporary measure. To truly save him, I needed something more.
How could I use this small amount of divine power? What method would let me save him? My body was too small and slow to be of much help even with added divine energy. How should I channel divine power in a situation like this?
Naturally, my memory turned to the celestial maidens of Sang Ra Palace—the immortals I had observed most frequently. They possessed far less divine power than true deities. Their primary method of channeling divine power was.
‘Celestial robes!’
Running toward the Crown Prince, I drew the divine power from the vessel within my body and let it flow outward. The luminous divine energy took tangible form, stretching long and draping around my body in ethereal waves.
The celestial maiden’s robes.
I reached toward the Crown Prince, bloodied and fallen. As I moved, the robes extended far and touched him.
“Your Highness!”

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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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