The Snow Leopard Baby of the Black Leopard Family - Chapter 210
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 210
“Mm…… T-Tiel?”
The High Priest’s eyes opened. He looked around, then fixed his gaze wide with alarm on the priests sprawled unconscious around him.
“How did this……?”
“Don’t move suddenly! Don’t strain yourself. You need to rest for a while.”
Tiel spoke softly. The High Priest nodded from her arms.
He forced out his unused voice with difficulty and asked.
“Th-the other priests? Are they……?”
“They’ll wake soon, don’t worry too much. But first, we need to get out of here…….”
Tiel spoke while watching the unrelenting barrage of attacks. Rowen’s power continued to slam against the Flame Barrier that Ferdi had erected.
Were Cassius and Alpheus unable to stop it? Or had they managed to contain it to this degree?
She couldn’t tell, with the situation outside obscured from view.
‘I have to move these people outside first.’
The Temple was in danger. Rowen continued her assault on it from the front, and the pillars supporting the structure had cracked from the sustained bombardment.
At this rate, it wouldn’t hold much longer before collapse. She had to get all of them out.
‘But how?’
Iandros’s Subspace was unstable—she couldn’t bring so many people through it—and Tiel’s Ability wasn’t suited to evacuating this many at once.
Ferdi was occupied defending against the attacks with his Flame Barrier, so he couldn’t summon the Salamanders as he had before to move everyone.
‘But I can’t leave it all to this one……’
Tiel looked at the Salamander. The creature tilted its head, gazing up at her with an expression that seemed to say, *If you need something, just ask.*
But a single Salamander couldn’t carry all these people. It was then that Tiel noticed something.
A soft rustling sound.
“Huh?”
Light poured from her hand again. It converged and scattered, then quickly took the form of a vast school of fish.
Tiel, gazing at the multitude of fish gathered in her palm, struck upon an idea.
‘Maybe I can move them with this!’
Tiel turned her head sharply toward the Temple’s exit. Since Rowen blocked the entrance, they’d have to use the opposite way out.
Tiel gently waved her hand. The school of fish shifted formation at her gesture.
A massive formation of fish took shape. Tiel’s golden eyes gleamed even brighter in the light’s reflection.
“Could you carry these people outside for us?”
Tiel whispered carefully.
Did the fish understand her words?
Or did the Ability instinctively grasp its master’s intent……?
The school of fish slowly enveloped the fallen people. As they swam in circles, those sprawled on the ground rose up to the center of the fish formation.
The fish lifted them one after another in the same manner.
“Tiel, hurry!”
Ferdi’s voice was urgent. Tiel looked at his Flame Barrier. From bearing so many strikes, it had grown dangerously weak.
Soon the High Priest too floated up into the very heart of the fish formation. Tiel sprang to her feet.
“That’s it, let’s go!”
“Move. You—protect them.”
Iandros caught the Salamander that had been trying to slip into the folds of Tiel’s dress and hurled it forward.
The moment Iandros threw it, Ferdi instantly withdrew his Ability.
In that instant, Tiel, Iandros, and Ferdi were exposed.
Bang!
Rowen’s rampaging power surged toward them once more.
But the Salamander that Iandros had sent swelled instantly, absorbing the brunt of her power, and disaster was averted.
“Go!”
Ferdi rushed forward. Tiel grabbed Iandros’s hand and ran. The three of them burst out of the Temple.
Tiel’s fish formation looked like one enormous creature, or perhaps like a fish that had swallowed many priests—for that was precisely what it held within…….
They fled the Temple with the giant fish. After running hard for a considerable distance, they finally arrived far from where the Temple stood.
“Well done!”
As Tiel withdrew her Ability, the priests tumbled softly onto the grassy meadow. They remained asleep, not stirring.
But they would wake soon. Tiel sensed that the darkness dwelling within them had completely vanished.
‘Could Rowen recover the same way?’
Might Rowen’s rampage be stopped using the same method?
Tiel clenched her fist, then opened it. She felt a surge of power flowing through her palm—stronger than anything she’d known before.
A sensation washed over her as though a vast light flowed through her very being.
Which meant, perhaps, that this time it might be possible…….
That was when it happened.
A massive column of flame erupted from where the Temple stood. The fire was incomparably fiercer than before.
The towering inferno reflected perfectly in Tiel’s transparent golden eyes.
“Oh, Father.”
Tiel murmured.
Cassius was using power far beyond what he’d shown before. That meant he was struggling against Rowen.
“I need to go to Father!”
Tiel rose to her feet urgently. Ferdi nodded in agreement.
Only Iandros looked displeased.
‘Rowen isn’t the real concern.’
Iandros gazed at the Temple where the flames erupted, then at the massive Rift that had opened above it.
‘Where is the Imperial Princess?’
The Imperial Princess had vanished with the only Record that bore her name. And she hadn’t appeared since.
Iandros concluded that the center of this entire affair was not Rowen, but the Imperial Princess herself.
Rowen was merely a pawn. The true Queen lay elsewhere.
‘Then where is she?’
Where? Iandros’s mind raced as he puzzled over it.
“Tiel!”
Olivier rushed toward Tiel and embraced her tightly, as he used to when they were very young.
“Are you all right? You’re not hurt?”
“I’m fine, really. But Father right now…….”
“I came back earlier—Cassius is fine. Grandfather is with him, so nothing should go wrong. They’re the two with the strongest Abilities in the entire Crasion Empire!”
Olivier added, noticing Iandros standing nearby.
“Of course, excepting the royal family.”
“No need to hold back, Olivier.”
Iandros replied dryly. Olivier shrugged.
“Anyway, the Heads of Household from each family are all coming to Arcadia. I heard the Emperor himself is on his way.”
“The Emperor is coming?”
“Yes, he sensed the gravity of the situation. I sent a detailed account of what’s happened here to both Wolfgang and the Imperial Palace.”
Olivier continued hurriedly.
“Of course, Grandfather had already reported to the Palace before that, so the Emperor was already aware that things were taking a dire turn. Since no one knows what might emerge from that Rift, everyone is……heading here for now.”
Olivier looked up at the sky. Lightning crackled around the black Rift, and dark clouds gathered and dispersed repeatedly around it.
“Tiel, what in the world is that?”
Olivier released Tiel from his arms and murmured the question.
Tiel stared at the Rift.
Inside the Rift was pitch black. Nothing was visible. And in that moment, Tiel found herself murmuring without thinking.
“The God of Darkness, Orpheo…….”
“Orpheo?”
“This place is Arcadia, where the God Lucet and the God Orpheo once waged war long ago.”
Tiel spoke carefully.
“The days in the Crasion Empire have grown shorter and the nights longer. The Oracles from the God Lucet no longer descend. My power became suddenly unstable and weak……. If all of this is the plan of the God Orpheo…….”
“How are we supposed to stop the scheme of an Evil God?”
Olivier spoke in bewilderment, having heard her out. Tiel remained silent, staring at the Rift.
Could a mere beast-kin stop the plan of a god?
It seemed impossible.
But what if she, who possessed Divine Power, could? Just as in the Temple moments ago, if the God Lucet would aid her…….
Only then did Tiel understand her true purpose.
And a strange feeling washed over her—as though both gods had been waiting for this moment for a very, very long time…….
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————