The Snow Leopard Baby of the Black Leopard Family - Chapter 222

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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 222
Lightning!
Tiel’s head snapped up toward the rift. Lightning streaked down from it ceaselessly.
Tiel remembered the “Grand Plan” that Orpheo had spoken of.
She didn’t know the details, but they were on the cusp of it becoming reality! Tiel scrambled to her feet.
Iandros, Ferdi, and Ludian released her without resistance. They had understood from early on that the situation was dire, so they did not hold her back.
“I have to get to Rowen…!”
Tiel said, turning back to them as she watched the rift contort. Iandros furrowed his brow.
“Rowen?”
“Yes, Orpheo said so. To complete this ‘Plan,’ light is absolutely necessary!”
“Light? But isn’t that you?”
“No, he said I can’t be controlled, so he created a replica that can be controlled and tamed easily. And he added that the replica is Rowen… So I have to find her first!”
Tiel cried out. She had to locate and secure Rowen at once. If Orpheo’s words were true, they would move to take Rowen first.
Because that’s what would complete the Plan.
Then it happened. Someone came rushing up from the foot of the mountain. Tiel recognized them immediately.
It was Cassius and the elite knight order of Asterian that he led. Upon hearing that Tiel had been taken, they had followed Iandros, Ferdi, and Ludian all the way to the Altar.
Cassius looked thoroughly disheveled, but the moment he saw Tiel standing unharmed, he pulled her into a fierce embrace.
“Tiel… my daughter.”
His voice sounded sorrowful. Perhaps because he had lost this daughter once before and nearly lost her again?
Tiel held him fiercely in return, her breath catching, then pulled away from his arms. There was no time to linger now.
“Father, I’ll explain later. Right now, we have to secure Rowen!”
Tiel said, breaking free from his embrace. Cassius stared at her with a dazed expression for a moment, then nodded slowly.
“Very well. If that’s what you say, then that’s what must be done. Knights, all of you—head for the Temple. Secure Rowen in the Temple Underground Prison! I will follow immediately.”
At Cassius’s command, the knights of Asterian transformed into several panthers in an instant. A pack of them charged toward the Temple of Luyset.
Tiel started to follow them but stopped short, looking down at the jewel that should have been in her hand.
But the jewel was gone.
“…What?”
Tiel spun around in alarm, searching the surrounding area. But the jewel was nowhere to be found. The faintly glimmering Emerald had vanished without a trace.
‘Could I have dropped it when I fell?’
But she hadn’t dropped it! Even until she was expelled from the Princess’s Subspace, the Emerald had been firmly in her grip. So where had it gone?
As Tiel wandered about, her face drained of color, searching for something, Ferdi and Ludian followed her gaze to the ground and asked.
“Tiel, what are you looking for?”
“What did you drop? Tell us—we’ll find it for you.”
“…It’s the Emerald! A large, beautiful, brilliant blue Emerald… Where did it go? I was definitely holding it!”
Tiel fumbled across the ground in a panic. That was when Iandros seized her wrist with an odd expression.
“Shining blue, you said?”
“Yes! Did you see it?”
“Could it be… this?”
Iandros flipped her palm over. Tiel’s gaze dropped to her own hand.
A blue light was embedded in Tiel’s palm. It wasn’t merely glowing blue—it was truly ’embedded’ there.
The boundary between the light and her palm was sharp and distinct. Tiel blinked in shock.
‘This light… it’s definitely the light from that Emerald.’
But why had the Emerald vanished, and why was it now embedded in her palm? She couldn’t understand it.
But there was no time to puzzle over it. If they didn’t hurry, Rowen would be taken by Orpheo.
Then truly irreversible things would happen, and a great calamity would befall this land.
‘As long as it’s not lost, that’s all that matters!’
Tiel clenched her palm with the embedded blue light and nodded firmly.
“Yes, this is it. Finding it was enough. Now to Rowen…”
Just then, Iandros seized her wrist with a grave expression. Tiel, who had started to dash away, turned to face him.
“Tiel, the Emerald you’re talking about… it’s not the ‘jewel’ you mentioned earlier, is it?”
“…Yes, it is. This jewel! Once I held it, I could glimpse the Princess’s memories.”
“Then isn’t that dangerous? Why was it absorbed into your palm?”
“I… don’t quite understand that myself.”
In that moment, Tiel recalled the last words the Princess had spoken to her.
‘I have given you a chance.’
What had the Princess meant by giving her a chance? The Princess had demanded that Tiel let go of the Emerald, and Tiel had not. At the time, she had simply felt that she must not.
After that, the Princess had expelled her from the Subspace, and the Emerald had been absorbed into Tiel’s palm…
Tiel couldn’t fathom how any of it connected.
But there was no time to think further, so Tiel decided not to tell the worried Iandros about the Princess’s talk of a “final chance.”
Tiel cradled Iandros’s face in both her hands.
“We’ll figure out the jewel later together. Right now, finding Rowen is the priority! We can’t let that rift grow any larger.”
Tiel said. Iandros bit his lower lip with clear displeasure, then slowly nodded.
Tiel released him and bolted toward the Temple. Explosions were already ringing out from that direction. Something had definitely happened!
Tiel, Iandros, Ferdi, and Ludian raced like the wind toward the Temple. Cassius had already gone ahead of them.
Tiel pushed down her anxiety and arrived at the Temple. Upon reaching it, she saw the knights of Asterian fighting someone through a haze of dust.
‘Who is that?’
Tiel paused for a moment, watching the one the Asterian knights were battling.
He appeared to be in his late teens or early twenties at most, yet he was holding his own against twenty of Asterian’s elite knights alone.
Tiel thought his face looked familiar somehow, but she couldn’t recall where she’d seen him.
Black power billowed from his hands, engulfing the area. Without hesitation, Tiel unleashed her Ability.
Light flashed between her palms—her power surged forth. Perhaps because this wasn’t the Princess’s Subspace, her Ability flowed freely. Her light spread like mist in all directions, dispelling the darkness.
The man faltered in alarm and retreated. The moment the darkness lifted, Cassius reached out.
“Get out of my way. I don’t have time for you.”
Cassius spoke in a voice thick with rage. Beneath his feet, a towering inferno erupted, rising as if to swallow the man whole.
But the man was not burned. Cassius had instead trapped him within a Flame Prison.
In his fury, Cassius’s flames burned fiercer than ever. If the man tried to escape by touching the flames, his entire body would be incinerated in an instant.
Tiel hoped he wouldn’t make that foolish choice and rushed past him into the Temple. Iandros stayed at her side.
“Iandros, where is my panther?”
Tiel asked as she descended into the basement. If her panther was there, it could easily dispel the darkness they’d just faced.
That basement was the brightest place touched by Luyset’s power. And with Tiel’s Ability added to it, no one would be able to take Rowen from there.
Just as Orpheo had locked Tiel in endless darkness, Tiel had locked Rowen in endless light.
But Iandros looked troubled. Tiel leaped down the basement stairs but paused, glancing back at him.
Iandros spoke with difficulty.
“Tiel, your panther…”
But Tiel couldn’t hear the rest of what Iandros was saying.
They both stared at the basement door—utterly destroyed and shattered.

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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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