[Vol. 7] Chapter 260: Golden Flame
"Ah! Everyone… and Instructor Priscilla too!"
In just a short moment, many thoughts rushed through her mind. Realizing what was important, the dragonkin girl pushed aside her confusion and quickly started looking for her companions in the chaotic scene.
Although the explosion just now was sudden, everyone had already been somewhat cautious beforehand. Plus, because she had bravely kicked the source of the explosion away, the damage shouldn’t have been too terrible. She just hoped that Yogg had heard her warning and reacted in time…
The awards stage where they had been standing earlier had now turned into a giant crater, with its center blasted apart by the explosion. Most of the people who had been on the stage had been thrown off and were lying on the ground, their condition unknown. Only the Saintess from the Holy Empire had managed to protect a few people behind her.
It had to be said, the strength of the Judgment Saintess was truly remarkable. Even under such a powerful blast, she still looked completely unharmed. At that moment, she was already helping the wounded nearby, though her expression was anything but calm.
"Instructor Priscilla! Is everyone okay!?"
Finally spotting her target, Lenka hurried over to the edge of the explosion crater. Under a cracked and battered thick grey wall, she found Instructor Priscilla and the other students lying on the ground.
"Cough… We’re fine, thanks to Yogg. Those bastards… they even killed their own people. They're completely insane!"
Picking up her staff, which had been knocked to the ground by the shockwave, Priscilla, who was usually calm, cursed softly in anger. Seeing Qiqi, Zi, and the others getting up with Lenka’s help, looking a little battered, she suddenly caught sight of the land stained grey by the strange explosion, and her face changed immediately.
"Wait a minute, could this be what the Headmaster warned about…? Oh no!"
Forgetting her anger, Priscilla quickly stood up, realizing something serious. She turned to the front side of the thick stone wall that had protected them, noticing that most of it was already being eaten away by a grey corrosion. She couldn’t help but suck in a breath in shock.
After a moment of hesitation, she pulled out a small crystal bottle from her storage item. It was filled about two-thirds with a thick, half-transparent red liquid. Gritting her teeth, Priscilla poured it all onto the wall, watching the blood-like liquid slowly seep into it.
The two different colors seemed to react with each other, and the grey corrosion gradually stopped. As light flickered around them, the stone wall finally changed back into the body of the young magestone boy, who now lay unconscious on the ground with his eyes closed.
"Instructor, he…"
The other students, who had also been saved by Yogg, quickly gathered around. Seeing the one-eyed boy lying motionless, Qiqi, the [Snowstep Forest Deer] tribe girl, was just about to step closer to check on him when Priscilla quickly raised her staff to block her.
"Don’t get close to him! Also stay away from any ground that's turned grey. You must not touch it with your body. This is called [Desecration], a terrifying plague that can even corrode magic elements. If even a little bit touches you, you’ll be infected too."
The students looked at each other in shock. They had never heard of something called [Desecration] before, but since it was Instructor Priscilla speaking, they trusted her. They fought the urge to get closer and stayed in the small area that Yogg had made temporarily safe, resting for a moment.
"Then, Instructor… shouldn’t we hurry and get the dumb stone, I mean, Yogg, to the hospital? He looks badly hurt," Qiqi suggested carefully.
Hearing that, Priscilla could only give a bitter smile. She glanced at the already chaotic venue outside and shook her head slightly.
"It’s very difficult… Right now, Yogg himself is like a giant carrier of disease. It's not just that we can’t touch him, even if we somehow brought him to a hospital, Sainz’ current technology can’t cure [Desecration] anyway. This is a Law, and it would require power at least on the level of the Seven Towers to take effect."
The mature red-haired beauty grew angrier as she spoke, her usually beautiful face twisting slightly with rage.
"All for the sake of their own ambition… they actually used powers that don't belong to the mortal world to massacre innocent people... Frederick, that bastard... Doing something this insane, isn’t he afraid of being exposed and becoming an enemy of the whole world?!"
"Uh… Instructor?"
"Huff… It's nothing. Just talking to myself. You all must remember, don’t go telling others what you just heard," she warned seriously.
Knowing that these simple students, who had little experience with the outside world, probably wouldn’t understand the complicated schemes of adults, Priscilla took a deep breath, shook her head, and brought the conversation back on track.
"Just now, I used a treasure given by the Headmaster to suppress the spread of [Desecration] on Yogg’s body. But he took the full force of that explosion and has been deeply infected by this power. If we want to save him, we would need to heal him with power on the level of 'Laws.' But only beings at least legendary-level or higher can even begin to touch it. For ordinary people like us, it’s almost impossible to reach."
"Normally, we could maybe spend a huge amount of resources to ask a temple to perform a large connection ritual, or beg the Headmaster to use the power of the 'Seven Towers.' That might give a tiny bit of hope. But looking at the situation now... it’s not something we can manage anytime soon…"
"Uh, wait a second, Instructor, what are these golden lines on his body?"
A clear, childlike voice suddenly broke the heavy mood. Everyone turned to look at the dragonkin girl, who was pointing at Yogg’s chest, a bit puzzled.
"Golden lines? What golden lines, Little Lenka? Are you saying you see them on Yogg? But… I don’t see anything like that," Priscilla replied, frowning slightly.
"Huh? How about everyone else?"
"Nope, I don't see anything..."
"Me neither."
The other students nearby also shook their heads one after another. Seeing their reactions, the dragonkin girl couldn’t help but show an odd expression, like she was thinking, "Are your eyes broken? It's clearly right there!" She looked again carefully at the magestone boy lying on the ground.
She was sure of it, even though it was faint, there were countless thin golden lines flowing slowly beneath Yogg’s now dark grey skin. These lines were woven together like a dense net, blocking the spread of the grey infection and stopping his condition from getting worse... But why could only she see them?
"By the way, Lenka, when you rushed out like that earlier, you really scared me," Zi said, half-joking to lighten the tense atmosphere. "I didn’t expect you to come back still bouncing around like nothing happened. Don’t tell me... you’ve been hiding your real strength like Sister Light?"
Hearing that, the dragonkin girl blinked in surprise.
Now that she thought about it, a situation like this...
[It’s Sister’s power that's keeping him alive. Don’t you remember? Yogg Hardstone drank that special potion once. Maybe the leftover power inside him was awakened when the instructor used another force to save him.]
"Eh?!"
The sudden voice startled Lenka out of her thoughts. But the moment her friends nearby looked at her with confused faces, the little dragon girl immediately realized, the familiar tone, the way the voice spoke, and the power that protected her before...
[Sister Light? Is that you? What’s going on here?]
Lenka tried to send her thoughts out in her mind to talk to the voice. With her spiritual strength much stronger now, this wasn’t too hard for her. The other side didn’t waste time either and quickly gave her a simple and clear answer.
[It’s me. We don’t have much time. Take out the [Tears of Light] and drink it. That way, you can save Yogg. I’m pretty sure I gave you one bottle to protect yourself.]
[Me? Save him? But I don’t know any healing magic! What am I supposed to do after drinking it? Uh… Sister Light? Light? Hello? Are you still there?]
There was no answer. Just like how the voice had suddenly appeared, it now disappeared without warning. No matter how hard Lenka tried to connect again using her mind, there was no response. It seemed the link between them had already been cut.
"Ugh! Seriously! First she sneaks off somewhere without telling me, and now she’s acting all mysterious too!"
"Fine, I’ll drink it!"
Even though she was still full of doubts and complaints, the brown-haired girl finally stood up. Under the increasingly surprised and confused looks of the others, she pulled out a small bottle filled with pure, glowing golden liquid. She pulled out the stopper and drank it all in one gulp.
The next moment, a burst of light, like golden flames, exploded outward. Pure and bright like the sun burning away all dirt and darkness. It shot up from the deep crater into the sky, and the great, god-like power spread like crashing waves, pouring out flames of purification.
"Waaahhh! What’s happening here?!"