Moonlight casts faint shadows, rising thick with darkness.
A shadow, molded into the form of a black and massive claw, sweeps across Aria’s vision before she can even react.
Crack! A bone-crushing sound echoes menacingly, as if something crunchy was stepped on.
The mysterious Tracker of the Church, bizarrely cracked without fully bursting open, lands harshly on the floor.
Aria momentarily reveals her surprise at the sudden situation.
But remembering there’s still one enemy left, excluding the unidentified intruder, she quickly regains her composure and checks on the enemy’s condition.
“Ugh! Ughhh!!”
“…?”
However, Aria’s momentary distraction doesn’t affect the battle’s progress at all.
The last remaining enemy, Plona, was on her knees, subdued by something invisible.
Upon closer inspection, there were distinct black hand-shaped marks on the man’s mouth, neck, arms, and legs.
No, “mark” isn’t quite accurate. The black claw was still moving slightly.
There was no doubt that the hand was binding his movements.
Though Aria didn’t know exactly how it had happened, she quickly decided that one immediate threat is gone and rushes over to Plona, kneeling beside her.
She couldn’t even understand why she acted that way. It felt like it was just what had to be done, separate from her emotions.
Positioned beside Plona, Aria raised her guard and scanned the surroundings.
Just moments ago, she had been fighting fiercely against an opponent, and now one had died while the other was taken down in the blink of an eye.
While it was good news not to have to worry about the enemy right in front of her, there was no rule saying that an enemy’s enemy was a friend, and she could easily find herself stuck in a greater bind.
However, Aria sensed no one else nearby. Should she risk it and use Blood Magic to search?
Just before she could execute her plan, she distinctly heard intentional-like footsteps.
“Are you unharmed?”
It was a voice she recognized. Though she never imagined she’d hear it here, her brows furrowed.
The darkness of night dripped away.
With every step she took, the darkness that flowed from the air returned to her shadow, revealing the smoothly pressed maid uniform, complete and without a single wrinkle.
She suddenly appeared, as if breaking through the night. Her pink hair, tied on either side, fluttered in the wind.
“…Stella?”
“I don’t recall any self-proclaimed titles from the Duchy, but yes, I am Stella, your attendant under His Highness’s orders.”
Aria couldn’t hide her confusion.
What’s a cheeky maid doing here? And did she just do that?
How? Wasn’t she just an ordinary maid?
Since when? What is her true identity?
“…Were you not just a maid?”
Even if we’re in the Sahelrn Duchy, could a mere maid be this strong?
Aria shook her head. Objectively speaking, she wasn’t that weak at all.
Compared to her target, she was still far from reaching her goal, but taking the entire race of humans and dividing them into ‘strong’ and ‘weak,’ she would undoubtedly fall under the former.
Even considering that Plona hadn’t shown her true power, she was undoubtedly one of the strongest humans Aria had seen.
And they had struggled against the enemies, with her and Plona together.
Taking down one in a flash and capturing another?
She couldn’t possibly be an ordinary maid. If she was, there wouldn’t have been a need for Martini to worry about war when she was in the Duchy.
“Yes, I am a maid.”
‘So you’re not interested in sharing, huh?’
That’s fine. At least she wouldn’t be an enemy.
Aria shifted her gaze to the fallen Plona. Yet, the continuation of Stella’s words couldn’t be ignored even by Aria.
“I formally greet you, Progenitor. I am Stella Banteker, the Grand Duke’s personal maid and the second-ranking official of the Duchy. Please remember this.”
“The… Duke?”
Aria jumped in surprise and looked up.
‘That annoying girl is a Duchess?’
For an instant, an array of thoughts raced through Aria’s mind.
‘How did I treat her back in the Duchy? Didn’t I treat her poorly because she wasn’t giving a respectful answer?’
Aria shook her head.
Establishing their relationship could wait. She grasped Plona’s hand and directly asked the crucial question.
“Can you help? Do you think she can be saved?”
“That man was one of the Knights who went to the Duke’s castle during the war. Are you acquainted?”
Stella subtly mentioned that Plona was an enemy of the Duchy. That was also an indirect pressure on whether Aria intended to save the enemy.
Still, Aria firmly nodded, keeping her demeanor calm. She didn’t seem to notice the underlying pressure.
But the intensity of Stella’s gaze, as if to say, “Just answer about the method,” made it clear how much the Progenitor had grown since staying in the Duchy.
She had gained significant confidence compared to those precarious times.
Under normal circumstances, Knights should not be spared. But since she seemed to be helping Aria, and more importantly, she had received orders to fulfill as much as possible what Aria wanted.
“Understood. Let’s check it.”
Stella removed the blood-soaked garment from Plona.
Seeing the continuous flow of blood from the wounds, Stella frowned briefly before silently turning towards the last surviving member of the Church they had captured.
“What’s this? You think I’ll tell you… huh?!”
As soon as the black shadow hand sticking to his mouth twitched, the man sneered and was about to boast, only to have both of his cheeks grabbed tightly by Stella.
He thought he had freed himself to hear about the identity of the mysterious force that knocked Plona down, but Stella already knew what it was.
She just wanted to check if such a guy would hide the antidote in his teeth.
Stella’s hand, seemingly reluctant to plunge into the man’s mouth, had shadows creeping out.
After rummaging for a while, Stella’s eyebrows shot up. The shadow that had entered his mouth slipped out as Stella tightened her grip.
With a dull thud, the shadow that twisted around his neck didn’t break it but made a painful sound, causing the man to lose focus.
The fainted man rolled on the ground, and Stella shook her head after briefly surveying.
“It’s impossible to revive by normal means. From the beginning, he intended to kill, and he didn’t even have an antidote.”
“Antidote? Is it poison?”
Aria asked urgently.
At this moment, Plona was still dying. She was tearing off a clean part of her garment to apply it to Plona’s wound, but that alone wouldn’t completely stop the bleeding.
“It’s a form of magical poison.”
“Poison Magic?”
“It’s not poison magic; it’s magical poison. It refers to a toxic substance that uses a magical catalyst in its manufacturing process, not one that causes poisoning through magical means. In this case, to be specific, it’s a bomb embedded into her body that reacts with Holy Magic.”
Though it had been improved and made more powerful than before, this kind of poison has existed since ancient times.
A poison that reacts to light spirits.
If one attempts to use Holy Magic while poisoned, it entirely disrupts the user’s body in response to an activated light spirit.
Unless a specialized antidote is used, the poison will spread until it consumes all traces of the light spirit in the flesh. It’s just a matter of time before the user of Holy Magic faces death.
Only the Luminous Church uses Holy Magic.
And it’s the extreme poison that reacts only to that Holy Magic.
Stella understands that one reason someone who learned Holy Magic in the Church could not leak secrets to the outside was precisely because of this poison.
There’s no way someone who doesn’t know Holy Magic could create a poison targeting a Holy Magic user.
Hence, the Luminous Church is the one who made the poison. It was designed specifically to kill heretics betraying the Church, and that is what is killing Plona.
“Unless there’s an antidote, it won’t end until all traces of the light spirit in her body are completely gone. A user of Holy Magic will not reach death before that happens.”
“…So, there’s no way?”
“There is one, but.”
“Don’t beat around the bush; just tell me.”
Aria tightened her grip on Plona’s hand. Plona, who had lost consciousness, slightly opened her eyes that were still dazed.
Stella gazed at the unfocused look in Plona’s eyes for a moment, then suggested the only possibility.
“There’s a way to completely expel the light spirit from a Holy Magic user’s body without using the antidote.”
“So what is it?”
“Make her a familiar. An infected human completely loses other magic affinities and gains an affinity to Dark Magic. Only becoming a familiar is the sole method to save her life from this poison.”
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