The Snow Leopard Baby of the Black Leopard Family - Chapter 207

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

Episode 207
“Father!”
Tiel urged him on, but Cassius remained silent and pulled her behind him by the shoulder.
Then.
“Hush.”
Tiel nodded.
‘What on earth did he see?’
What could he have glimpsed that drew such an expression? Tiel tilted her head back to gaze at the circular opening hanging in the sky above.
The rift resembled both an entrance and an exit—its true purpose remained unclear.
What little mercy there was lay in the fact that maintaining it seemed to strain whatever power sustained it; the Black Serpent’s form contorted and reformed in endless, agonized cycles.
Then it happened.
Crash!!
A tremendous sound erupted again from within the Temple. Tiel caught herself just before bolting inside on instinct.
Cassius stood motionless, his gaze steady on the darkness within.
At that moment,
“!!”
Cassius’s Salamander, which had ventured inside, was flung outward as if by an invisible force, tumbling across the ground beyond the Temple doors.
Everyone’s eyes widened.
Cassius’s Salamander was an Ability Fragment—a splinter of power carved from Cassius himself. It was not the sort of thing that could be cast aside so carelessly.
Yet Cassius showed no surprise, his expression remaining calm as he studied the interior.
“This doesn’t seem to be Nestian’s doing.”
Cassius, who had been silent all this while, finally spoke. All present nodded in agreement.
Nestian lacked the power to orchestrate such a thing.
They held back from rushing into the Temple, waiting instead just beyond its threshold.
Then the Temple doors swung open with a deafening boom, and the person they had been anticipating finally emerged.
“Something’s wrong!”
Rowen burst through the Temple doors, trembling violently. Everyone’s shock was profound.
It was Rowen who had been inside the Temple. The colossal school of fish had been her creation.
Yet it seemed this entire turn of events lay beyond her intentions; she stared at her blackened hands, shaking uncontrollably.
“No, no, this isn’t—something’s wrong. I never meant to—”
With each stammering word, tendrils of black energy crawled up her legs. Rowen flinched as she tried to kick the creeping force away, but it was useless.
“Rowen Nestian.”
Cassius spoke.
A woman with silver hair and brilliant blue eyes—beautiful, yet now consumed by dread—turned to face him.
“What have you done?”
“I didn’t do it!”
Rowen cried out. She attempted to use her Ability again, but instead of light or ice fragments, only pitch-black darkness bloomed from her hands.
“What is this? I’ve never heard of anything like this from him!”
Rowen clutched her head, her wail raw with despair. The cry was heartbreaking, though the fierce wind and power had already scattered everything nearby—only Tiel, Cassius, and their companions could hear her anguish.
“What do you mean? What did you hear about? Rowen—!”
Tiel called out, but Rowen seemed not to hear her, lost instead in screams of anguish.
“Tiel, that darkness… could it be those creatures that fled when they saw your light before?”
Upon hearing Iandros’s words, Tiel examined the black energy swirling around Rowen more carefully.
It certainly resembled what had once tried to harm her, though she could not be certain.
‘But I can still try.’
Tiel cautiously summoned her Ability. Fortunately, it flowed forth unobstructed, even with Rowen standing before her.
A small fragment of light materialized in Tiel’s palm.
The fragments swelled rapidly, growing until they completely enveloped her head.
Cassius, Ferdi, Ludian, Alpheus, Olivier, and Clemens watched in silence, their eyes fixed on Tiel.
Fins sprouted from the sphere, and soon it transformed into a single fish.
A massive creature radiating sacred light swam slowly toward Rowen at Tiel’s command.
Even as it advanced, black energy continued to pour from Rowen’s hands. Unable to control the force, she clenched and unclenched her fists repeatedly.
“Will it work? I’m not sure… but—”
Yet it seemed Tiel already knew, in some way.
From the moment she glimpsed the colossal serpent ascending into the sky, she had grasped that this lay beyond her power to mend.
Still, Tiel did not yield.
The enormous fish circled around Rowen. She cried out in pain at the center of its spiral.
“Ahhhhh!”
Even as Rowen shrieked, the fish paid her no heed.
Rowen’s blackened hands gradually began to regain their color. The dark energy faded. Olivier cried out at the sight.
“Look! Her hands are returning to normal!”
But it was short-lived.
“No, no, please—!”
As Rowen’s screams intensified with agony, the black energy surged forth violently, attacking Tiel’s Ability.
The fish conjured from Tiel’s power, unable to purge all of Rowen’s darkness, dispersed into mere dust.
Rowen’s hands had become even darker than before. Tiel’s face fell—it had backfired!
“What in the world is happening? How did it come to this? What’s wrong with her?”
Ferdi asked, bewildered, but no one present could answer his question.
The darkness repelled Tiel’s Ability and grew stronger still, coiling tightly around Rowen.
The darkness shifted and morphed before finally taking the form of a colossal spear.
“That is—”
Cassius’s brow furrowed. Ludian turned to him.
“You know something?”
“Yes. That is a spear that can only be wielded when one masters Nestian’s Ice Binding Ability to its absolute limit—”
Cassius stared intently at the spear emerging from Rowen, then spoke.
“Nestian’s Secret Technique.”
“How could Rowen possibly wield Nestian’s Secret Technique? Her Ability is nowhere near Thender Nestian’s level!”
“I don’t know either. And look at it now—it’s no longer even an ice spear.”
The spear bore a faint blue tracery of the Nestian crest, though it soon faded away entirely.
The spear had become nothing but a weapon of pure, pitch-black darkness. Rowen stumbled backward.
“What is this…!”
Rowen cried out, but again, no one could offer an answer.
As Rowen retreated, they could see behind her the fallen form of the High Priest and Priests, as well as the Holy Knights.
“Father!”
Tiel cried out. Cassius nodded.
“Yes, I saw it just now.”
Only then did Tiel understand why Cassius’s expression had turned so grave.
Through the Salamander, Cassius had witnessed the fallen High Priest and Holy Knights, and Rowen’s Runaway state.
‘But those people…’
Their faces were blackened.
Tiel murmured. A curse that darkened the face. A curse that, if it consumed the entire body, would bring death.
‘It’s the same as what the Beast-kin of Arcadia suffered before!’
Back then, Tiel had resolved it by turning the land’s harm upon itself.
But now the sun already hung in the sky. Yet darkness was still consuming them? How could this possibly be solved this time?
After a brief moment of thought, Tiel asked Cassius.
“Father, could I go inside?”
“You? Why?”
“I think I might be able to treat the High Priest if I go in. I’ve seen similar symptoms before. Though I failed with Rowen… perhaps it will work on the High Priest.”
Tiel intended to use her Ability on the High Priest and Holy Knights.
Her Ability was made from the warmest things in this land, woven together into light.
Though Tiel herself had not yet fully realized it, it was the only Ability capable of dispelling darkness.
Though she lacked the strength now to contain Rowen, perhaps she possessed enough power to heal those who lay fallen there.
Tiel swallowed hard.
Cassius continued to study the ominous Spear of Darkness that Rowen had created before asking,
“How much time will you need?”

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