The Snow Leopard Baby of the Black Leopard Family - Chapter 209

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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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Episode 209
“Tiel!”
Ferdi instantly raised a Flame Barrier to block that power.
It was Rowen’s power.
Dark Power, frozen sharp as ice crystals, came hurtling toward them, only to strike Ferdi’s barrier and melt away into nothing.
“Tiel, hurry. If it looks bad, we need to leave. This place is dangerous.”
Ferdi kept the Flame Barrier steady as he spoke. He couldn’t drop his Ability—another attack could come at any moment. Tiel turned to look at those lying on the ground.
Several of them were already fading, their fingertips and toes turning to powder and dissolving, a process Tiel’s own power couldn’t completely halt.
“If we can’t save them, we leave them. I won’t let you put yourself in danger.”
Iandros spoke, dusting off his hands as he rose. He seemed ready to slip out of this place alongside Ferdi at once.
‘But if I go…’
These people will die here.
Tiel squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them. She tried using her Ability once more. Light flickered at her fingertips. The phenomenon of body parts turning to powder and scattering stopped.
But it started again. After that, it was nothing but repetition. Again and again and again.
Tiel knew she wouldn’t last long. Now her Ability couldn’t even serve as a temporary measure.
“Tiel, some things can’t be helped. Sometimes you have to know when to give up.”
“But it worked before. Before, it definitely—”
Tiel spoke as she used her Ability again. Streams of light wrapped around the fallen Beast-kin again and again, but soon dissolved completely into darkness.
“Tiel.”
Ferdi spoke with an almost stern tone, as if trying to convince her. He was ready to grab Tiel and get out of here immediately.
They would die soon anyway. Some were already dead. For now, abandoning them was the best possible choice. Ferdi believed this was a moment that required rational judgment.
“Come with me, Tiel. There’s no need to exhaust yourself using your Ability any further.”
Tiel looked between her own palms and the fallen Beast-kin with a hollow expression.
‘Why won’t it work?’
What was different from before? Had the Dark Power simply grown too strong?
If that were the case, it would make sense. The Dark Power had grown remarkably over the past ten years, while Lucette’s power had weakened considerably.
Lucette had grown so weak that even the Oracles ceased. For ten years, Tiel had lived with an unstable Ability.
Her Ability often disappeared entirely, and sometimes existed only as a very faint light. This meant that Lucette, the god of light and day, had weakened.
Darkness had grown stronger. Light had grown weaker.
That was why her power no longer worked against them. It was a simple truth, and yet Tiel felt like crying.
To be too weak to save anyone.
Tiel knew well enough that none of this was her own fault.
Yet she couldn’t shake the feeling that all of this happened because she was weak.
Even as she stood there, attacks kept coming. Now there was even a hole in Ferdi’s Flame Barrier.
“Tiel!”
Ferdi pressed her. Tiel glanced back at him once, then gathered a small light in her palm again.
One last time.
She had decided to use her Ability just once more and then give up.
She had failed dozens of times already, but that didn’t mean the last attempt was guaranteed to fail, did it?
Perhaps the last one could succeed. As she gathered pure light in her palm with that thought, it happened.
[Help me, child.]
A voice she recognized came from somewhere. Tiel’s eyes widened in surprise as she looked up, but there was nothing before her.
Yet it was there beside her.
Tiel felt with her whole body that the owner of that voice existed at her side.
The owner of that warm voice wrapped her entire body in an embrace and cradled both of Tiel’s hands in their own massive ones.
And they breathed warmth into her in time with her use of the Ability.
Tiel felt the warmest power in the world flowing into her body like a stream.
Whoooosh—!
A tremendous light gathered in Tiel’s hands. Iandros watched quietly.
‘It feels different from usual.’
It was grander and more magnificent than before….
Meanwhile, the great light gathering in Tiel’s hands began to split apart, one piece at a time.
“Mm?”
Ferdi paused to look at Tiel for a moment.
The great light bursting from Tiel’s fingertips was dividing gradually.
As Tiel concentrated harder, the small clusters of light that separated drifted in the air, glimmering, and soon took the shape of fish. One, then another, then another.
One, two, three.
Ten, twenty, thirty….
A great school of Fish Swarm formed at Tiel’s fingertips. It had the exact same shape as the fish swarm that had surged forth from the Temple just before.
But there was a difference: while the Dark Power’s fish swarm had transformed into a single serpent, Tiel’s fish maintained a perfect formation.
They circled around Tiel in that formation, swimming in a pattern. The wind created by the fish’s movement brushed gently against Tiel’s hair.
[Now, you can do this.]
The warmest voice echoed at Tiel’s ear once more. Tiel’s eyes flew open and she released her Ability.
But the fish that had been swimming in formation scattered and dove directly into the bodies of the fallen priests and High Priest.
It was a very different method from the light shown before. This time, she had planted the light directly inside their bodies.
Where the fish burrowed, light shone transparently. Light glimmered beneath their clothes and skin.
It looked as though she had planted tiny glowing seeds….
‘Was that voice just now Lucette’s?’
Tiel thought that the voice she’d heard as a very small child seemed slightly different from the one she’d just heard, but she couldn’t be certain.
Childhood memories fade as one grows. The voices Tiel had heard in childhood remained only very faintly in her mind.
Because of that, she couldn’t compare them to the voice she’d just heard. Yet what mattered was that both were gentle and kind.
Then the small lights embedded in the bodies of the fallen Beast-kin flashed simultaneously.
The light then spread throughout their bodies. You could see it flowing through their veins transparently.
It was a sight like a miracle, and Iandros suddenly understood anew why Lucette was the god of Crashion.
With such tremendous power, it was natural that the religion of Lucette had been made the state religion and that Lucette was revered at the imperial level….
If this was the extent of Tiel’s power as merely a Divine Representative, one could not even begin to fathom how vast the power of the ‘true’ Lucette of ancient times must have been.
Ferdi reinforced the Flame Barrier. No one must interfere with Tiel now. Ferdi was determined to protect her with all his strength until her work was done.
But before Ferdi could fill the hole in his barrier, a tremendous power crashed through the same spot again.
It was incredibly fast!
Ferdi, Iandros, and Tiel couldn’t even react as they watched the power bearing down on them.
Then.
“!!”
The Salamander hidden in Tiel’s embrace suddenly burst forth.
The Salamander instantly unleashed a massive inferno. It was instantaneous.
Then it swallowed the incoming ‘power’ and burned it within itself. Its reaction speed was even faster than Ferdi’s.
Thanks to the Salamander, Tiel was able to use her Ability without interruption.
“That’s quite impressive. Is it different because Father made it—mine isn’t like that?”
Ferdi spoke with pure admiration. The Salamander paid no mind and shrank its body, crawling back into Tiel’s embrace.
It was as if to say: ‘The rest is up to you.’ Ferdi felt a strange displeasure but said nothing.
Then.
Whoooosh!
The light flashed once more in the bodies of the fallen Beast-kin.
The light flowing through their veins flashed again. It completely drove out the darkness that had been gnawing away at their bodies.
Lost fingers, portions of ears, and parts of toes that had already crumbled away couldn’t be restored, but they succeeded in completely expelling the darkness from their bodies!
“Cough!”
At that moment, the High Priest coughed awake. Tiel quickly knelt and helped him up.
“High Priest! Are you alright?”

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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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