Chapter 225
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 225
Chapter Title: Sphere of Infinite Penance
As he pushed the air away and froze his surroundings, Loan worried about the others.
Those following behind him would be fine.
The air in Loan's wake was even cleaner than it had been before the miasma spread.
Even if they breathed some in or it touched their skin, the amount wouldn't be enough to cause serious harm.
Still, he was concerned enough to send Sienna a telepathic message, telling her not to use mana breathing.
The real problem lay ahead, in the direction Loan was headed.
If someone were fleeing from the opposite direction through this secret passage, they would face a concentrated blast of the poisonous miasma head-on.
It would undoubtedly be fatal, not just for an ordinary person but even for someone trained in magic.
‘It can't escape my control.’
Loan began to adjust the distance of the wind barrier he had initially pushed far ahead.
His aim was to gather the miasma within a range he could manage.
Sure enough, the miasma ahead had condensed so much that it felt like a hazy green wall.
This meant the poison that had seeped into the underground passage had spread far and wide.
‘If I had tried to pass through here without knowing, I probably would have died beneath the moat.’
But could he call it fortunate that the Duchess and her son hadn't taken refuge in the secret passage?
He couldn't be sure.
He didn't know what situation they were in.
But if there had been even the slightest chance of escape, the Duchess would have surely sent her son through the secret passage, even at the cost of her own life.
He couldn't be certain, but he believed that was the nature of a mother's love for her child.
The mothers in countless stories and novels had acted that way.
*Swoosh.*
As he slid across the ice, he imagined it.
The Duchess, clutching her child, fleeing death, confronting terror as she ran through the underground passage.
She would be desperate.
She would run without rest, believing that safety lay at the end of this path.
Then, she would inhale the miasma.
Realizing something was wrong with her body, she would instinctively check on her child.
‘Loan, are you alright?’
He didn't know why.
But in his imagination, the Duchess he had never met called the child ‘Loan’.
Loan looked at the child in her arms through the Duchess's eyes.
Skin so pale it was almost translucent, eyes holding a mysterious light. Soft, silver hair.
The child was a younger version of himself.
‘Wasn't this an illusion? Is it a memory…?’
Loan suddenly recalled.
He had passed through a place like this before, held in someone's arms.
The smell of blood. The smell of sweat. And a comforting scent.
The screams and shouts that echoed from behind him.
Mixed in with them, a warm, pleasant voice that kept asking if he was okay.
But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't remember the face of the ‘someone’ who held him and looked down at him.
The blurry silhouette was just stained with red.
And the woman from his memory, who he thought might be his mother…
‘Take care of Loan… please, take care of Loan…’
She entrusted Loan to someone running alongside them in the narrow passage, unfastening the brooch that held her robe and handing it over as well.
After a brief argument over him, Loan ended up in another's arms.
He looked up at the face.
A familiar face. It was Helen.
‘Ah…’
Helen took Loan in her arms and continued to run.
He didn't see or hear what the woman who stayed behind intended to do, or what became of her.
He was just held like that.
‘Young Master, just hold on a little longer. Young Master.’
He remembered hearing her urgent voice.
He remembered being carried in Helen's arms across cold water, then running for a long time before warming himself by a hot fire.
The pleas Helen had made as she drew her last breath came back to him in a jumble.
Just as Loan was feeling lost between present and past, memory and imagination, in the fragments of his recollection…
“Loan, are you okay?”
Suddenly, he heard the voice again.
And a gentle hand on his shoulder.
He turned, relieved, to see Sienna looking at him with a very worried expression.
“Ah… it's you, Sienna.”
“Huh?”
Sienna felt that something was off with Loan.
His eyes looked incredibly sad.
“Of course it's me. What's wrong? Did you breathe in the poison? Are you okay?”
“Oh, no. It's not that. I thought… you were my mother.”
Sienna's heart ached at Loan's words.
Knowing what kind of life Loan had lived as a child, she felt a pang of sympathy for his mistake, brief as it was.
While Sienna hesitated, unsure of what to say…
Loan turned his head again to face forward.
His vision was filled entirely with green. The particles of miasma in the displaced convection had gathered like a thick fog.
“We're here.”
Beyond it, a staircase led upward. The end of the secret passage was just up those stairs.
He looked over each of his companions who had made it safely through the moat section.
They were all looking at Loan with concern.
Yorgos spoke.
“You suddenly stopped dead in your tracks. I thought something was wrong.”
“I'm sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry to us for. If anything, we should be thanking you. That stuff up ahead. It's poison, isn't it?”
“Yes. It's a spell used by the demon that fled from Le Dong. I think the poison it released into the moat seeped underground and spread this far.”
“That's insane…”
Berthelot trailed off, glaring up the stairs.
Yorgos asked again.
“So, can you get rid of it? Can we get through?”
“Yes. I can do it.”
Loan answered without hesitation.
He could eliminate the miasma using high heat.
The key was to prevent it from expanding and affecting the outside before applying the heat, and to keep the smoke from spreading as the miasma burned.
And while there was some distance to the surface, it was best to avoid excessive noise.
Fortunately, Loan could cast a spell that met all these conditions.
Its effectiveness had already been thoroughly proven in his past experiments.
He didn't have much mana left after using ice magic and meticulously controlling the convection on the way here, but…
He had to do it if they were to pass through now.
Without a moment's hesitation, Loan extended the convection toward the mass of green fog ahead and trapped it within a sphere.
To the others, it looked as if the green fog had transformed into a sphere.
Loan spread his hands, palms facing each other, with the connecting stream of convection between them.
A moment later, a brilliant blue spark crackled between his palms. The convection became a current of electricity, spreading across the sphere surrounding the green fog.
Tens of thousands of electrical charges, carried along mana tributaries, collided and set off a powerful explosion inside the sphere.
[Sphere of Infinite Penance - Thunderclap]
A relentless discharge attack that completely detonated and incinerated everything inside the sphere, converting it back to mana, which in turn powered the sphere itself.
A divine technique that emitted no smoke or sound to the outside.
The sight of countless blue lightning bolts striking within the green fog brightly illuminated the dark underground.
It left all who watched completely mesmerized.
The lightning storm only ended after it had detonated and incinerated all the miasma within.
Berthelot said, as if sighing in awe.
“I have never seen such beautiful magic. It feels as though it transcends human ability.”
Loan, confirming that the green cloud had vanished and the surrounding air was clean, smiled and said,
“That's what magic is all about.”
With this, he wouldn't have much trouble even if he faced Marbas again. He could prevent the fiend from escaping and annihilate it in a single blow.
But contrary to his smile,
Loan's face looked exceedingly pale. He also appeared completely exhausted.
The mana consumption had been that great.
For the first time in a while, his head was throbbing.
His vision even swam for a moment.
Sienna approached Loan, her face etched with worry.
She abruptly placed a hand on Loan's forehead, then touched Yorgos's forehead with her other hand.
“You have a fever. I think you overdid it.”
“W-Well, of course. He froze the entire path here, there's no way he'd have mana left. And that last spell looked like it was Third-Class or higher.”
Yorgos answered in Loan's stead.
He wasn't wrong.
Strictly speaking, the difficulty was in managing his mana in an environment where he couldn't gather more, but…
Berthelot also chimed in with concern.
“We made it here safely thanks to you. Let's rest for a bit until Loan recovers before we go up.”
But Loan shook his head.
“No. I don't think I'll recover by staying here. In fact, the miasma might seep back in this direction. It would be better to get out of the secret passage quickly.”
Sienna agreed.
“Right. We should get out of here first.”
She was the one who best understood how Loan recovered his mana.
Since the two of them were decided, there was no other choice.
However, Berthelot had a feeling that Loan would play the most crucial role in this mission, so he wanted to let him rest, even if just for a little while.
So, he tried to carry Loan on his back.
Loan thought it was ridiculous for a grown man like himself to be carried on someone's back.
He was mortified and refused, but Berthelot simply bent his knees, presenting his back, and didn't budge.
When even Sienna gave him a short nod, Loan looked troubled.
With no other option, Loan allowed himself to be carried on Berthelot's back and they started up the stairs.
After some time in that uncomfortable state, both physically and mentally…
The infiltration team finally reached a dead end. Unlike the entrance, a stone wall blocked their path.
Loan tapped Berthelot's back lightly.
It was a signal to be let down.
“Thank you. That was a comfortable ride.”
It hadn't been, really, but he expressed his thanks politely.
Loan closed his eyes and peered beyond the stone wall.
He couldn't see any mana on the other side.
“I can't see or sense anything. At this point, I'd say it's more likely that I can't check, rather than there being no one there.”
The wall might be too thick, or the material it's made of could be blocking his mana sight, or perhaps there's a special device preventing mana from passing through.
“It's fine. We have to be prepared for a direct confrontation from this point on anyway.”
A tense atmosphere filled the infiltration team at Yorgos's words.
After everyone drew their swords and prepared for the worst, Berthelot placed his palm on the adjacent wall.
The mechanism activated again.
Fortunately, the sound wasn't loud.
With a soft grinding sound, the stone wall slid open to the side.
Berthelot, who had dashed out first, quickly gestured for the others to follow.
“It's empty.”
The infiltration team stepped outside one by one.
And they all took a deep breath at the same time.
Not to draw in mana like Loan, but because the air in the underground passage had been so stale.
After catching their breath,
“What is this place?”
Yorgos asked in a hushed voice, looking around.
It was an empty space with unadorned brick walls.
“This is an intermediary point for the secret passage. These three walls each lead to a different area. From this side, the Grand Hall, the Duchess's private office which also serves as a reception area, and her private chambers.”
In a crisis, one would first come here from any of those locations, then use the secret passage to exit the castle.
It was designed to follow the Duchess's movements, allowing for escape no matter where she was.
Sienna asked Loan.
“Can you tell which room we should go to?”
Loan shook his head.
“No. It's the same here.”
Then they had no choice but to open one and see.
He didn't know how much time had passed, but it was likely still the middle of the night.
In that case, it was best to check the private chambers first.
After having everyone stand flat against the wall, Berthelot activated the device.
The wall and a section of the floor spun around.
The wall of the private chambers and the wall of the secret room swapped places.