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Chapter 255: Noble Soul (9)
The garden of the spirit Leafanel.
‘Was it the beginning of the semester when I first came here?’
At that time, Baek Yu-Seol didn't even have a proper understanding of Mana Leakage Disorder.
When he thought about it, Leafanel had probably given him the most help.
Baek Yu-Seol could understand the secrets of his body, and thanks to that, he overcame the time limit.
There were many ways to solve this problem even without Leafanel...
However, honestly, he didn't know if he could do it, so he was always grateful to her.
But, he never had the chance to express that gratitude.
Their meeting was brief, and even after waking up, she kept slumbering, so they couldn't have a proper conversation.
As the distance grew, so did his feelings... To be honest, he’d completely forgotten about her until now.
If Baek Yu-Seol had to make an excuse, he was really busy. So busy that it was understatement.
He spent the entire summer vacation tirelessly moving around Aether, and he even went on time travel.
… Even so, Leafanel had recently woken up and was very fragile and vulnerable, so he should have paid more attention and checked on her often.
Because the story developed completely differently from the original game.
"The concentration of mana... is gradually decreasing."
At Florin’s words, Baek Yu-Seol nodded.
Ordinary people wouldn't be able to feel it, but they were sensitive to mana. They could faintly sense that something was wrong.
The path leading to Leafanel’s garden was not a path made for ordinary people, but a completely rugged terrain, which was quite difficult when he traveled alone.
However, with Florin, the burden was lessened.
Srrrk...
As she walked, paths appeared where there were none, leaves blocking the view parted on their own, and petals descended from the sky to create a stepping stone.
Some might look at this scene and say it was beautiful, mysterious, or enchanting, but honestly, more than anything, it was just convenient.
Baek Yu-Seol wished he had an ability like that...
As Florin, who had arrived at the destination, stopped walking, the petals and branches that had gathered to assist her quietly withdrew.
"...This doesn’t feel right."
The entrance to the garden was surrounded by the branches of the World Tree, making it difficult for ordinary elves to notice.
But with just a gesture from Florin, the vines were pulled away, revealing an old, moss-covered stone monument.
That was the entrance to the garden.
Baek Yu-Seol took a step forward and pulled out the key to the garden.
“That’s….”
“I received it as a gift a while ago.”
“You received a key as a gift...?”
“Yes.”
The person who gave the gift was from the Constellation Project, but it was not a lie anyway.
Click!
[The door to the garden of the spirit Leafanel is opening!]
When he held the key to the stone monument, it slid sideways, and a pure white light emerged.
The place where Leafanel resided was slightly out of the three-dimensional space of reality, so the space itself was slightly distorted in such a way.
After exchanging a glance with Florin, Baek Yu-Seol took a deep breath first and stepped inside.
Whooong!!
After the familiar sensation of the twisting space passed quickly, he opened his eyes to greet the inside of the garden which was entirely dyed in violet.
“Ugh!”
A tide of dizziness overwhelmed him so he quickly reached into his subspace to pull out a mask.
Modeled after a gas mask from reality, this helped block out turbid mana instead of poisonous gas.
Knowing that his body was very vulnerable to mana with intense colors, he had made it, but he never thought he would use it in Leafanel’s garden.
“How could this…"
Following Baek Yu-Seol into the garden, Florin looked around slowly, her face pale with shock.
It formerly thrived with a green aura, making it a beautiful and mysterious place. However, Leafanel’s garden... was now tainted with a powerful violet impurity.
Even with the gas mask on, it was hard to breathe properly.
Baek Yu-Seol might have to ask Alterisha to upgrade its performance.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes... Well, sort of. I actually want to ask you that."
"Me?"
Florin’s face was pale.
Just by seeing her trembling lips and pupils, he could tell she wasn't in good condition.
‘Is it because of the corruption from the dark mana?’
‘No. That can't be it.’
She, who had been blessed by the World Tree, wouldn’t be harmed by this level of dark mana.
Florin was in panic because she couldn’t believe the situation—the presence of such dark mana in Leafanel’s garden.
Surprisingly, perhaps thanks to the blessing of Pink Spring Moon, she barely let it show, and he almost missed it.
“Calm down.”
“Ah…”
He grasped her hands tightly with both of his and said.
“We don’t know what’s happening inside yet.”
She bit her lips, looked at Baek Yu-Seok with her trembling eyes, and then tightly closed them.
“Yes. Let’s go quickly.”
Even though it was contaminated by dakr mana, nothing had changed in Leafanel’s garden.
In the past, he hunted plant-like demons here, but those were all like golems set up by Leafanel to protect herself, so they were not visible now.
Rather, it felt more like a dungeon than before, yet there wasn’t a single monster.
It was quite ironic.
After cautiously walking for a while, they reached the end of the garden, where a large rock wall blocked the path.
It wasn't there before...
Seeing Florin approach it as if she was familiar with it, it appeared it was only absent when Baek Yu-Seol came here.
"This is... A barrier Leafanel sets up when she doesn't want to let outsiders in."
“A barrier?”
It just appeared like an ordinary rock.
Fortunately, Florin seemed to know the password. She placed her palm on the barrier and chanted a spell.
Whooong!!
Red, blue, and yellow circular magic circles spread out like waves in the air, and Baek Yu-Seol heard a clicking sound from the rock wall, which then began to slide sideways with a loud rumble.
Soon, a breeze brushed his cheek.
Moonlight poured down.
It was a beautiful sight no matter how many times he witnessed it.
Three moons, larger than Earth's, hung in the sky, and a silver Milky Way stretched across the horizon, filling the flower field with a dreamy glow.
Beneath that vast flower field bathed in moonlight, she was there.
The spirit, Leafanel.
Having been trapped in time that had forever stopped, she regained her heart and was granted a new life...
Yet, she remained still with her eyes closed.
She was in the same pose as Baek Yu-Seol remembered from that time.
The figure of a girl kneeling with her hands clasped together as if in prayer.
She had been a woman then, but now, with her youthful appearance, she seemed to have a sad expression on her face.
"Leafanel..."
Leafanel, who once had a color colder and more chilling than moonlight, was now tinged with violet.
It was as if someone had deliberately tainted her with dark mana.
Florin covered her mouth with a troubled expression, but Baek Yu-Seol kept his cool and thought rationally.
'Why?'
Who would suddenly taint Leafanel with dark mana?
As far as Baek Yu-Seol knew... About a year from now, the ‘Dark Magic Holy War’ was supposed to happen.
At that time, Leafanel became tainted with dark mana... But exactly why and who tainted her was never revealed.
However, players speculated that it was to brainwash Florin with dark mana and use her as a pawn in the Dark Magic Holy War.
But, there was still a long way to go until the Dark Magic Holy War... And it was questionable whether it would even happen.
Because... The Dark Magic Holy War only occurred on the route where Ma Yu-Seong became corrupted.
“This... doesn’t make sense.”
“... What?”
At that moment, Florin shook her head beside Baek Yu-Seol and spoke.
“It’s impossible to taint a spirit with dark mana.”
“If the concentration is this thick... Even Leafanel might not have been able to withstand it. Moreover, she’s weakened now.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
“Huh?”
She spoke with a firm expression.
“Leafanel is a spirit. The moment she ascends as a spirit... She attains the qualification of a 'noble soul' that doesn’t get corrupted no matter what in this world.”
“Ah.”
For a moment, it felt like someone had struck his head with a hammer.
It was a question he had never considered before.
A noble soul did not succumb to dark mana, and the soul of a spirit was always noble.
The reason he always missed this simple and clear premise was obvious... Because in the original game, Leafanel’s corruption route was surprisingly common.
But Baek Yu-Seok didn’t know the cause.
He just played the story as it existed and headed into the dungeon as directed by the episode and repeatedly fought Leafanel.
Without even trying to think about what made her that way.
‘How did they manage to corrupt a noble soul? Was there truly a villain capable of such a feat?’
Everything was shrouded in mystery.
“Haah...”
Baek Yu-Seol didn’t know the cause. And he didn’t know the culprit.
He slowly approached Leafanel.
She still had her eyes tightly closed and her hands glued to her chest. She appeared to have been frightened by something, which made Baek Yu-Seol’s heart ache even more.
“I should have come sooner...”
She didn’t hear his voice.
Even the faint cry that kept echoing in his ears no longer reached him.
What he thought was a hallucination was actually Leafanel’s plea for help.
‘... Wait a minute. That means she was at least sane until a week ago.’
Was it possible for her to become completely corrupted in such a short period?
Even if it was the powerful Dark Mage King, it should be impossible to corrupt a spirit to this extent.
Baek Yu-Seol quickly looked around.
The dark mana was now completely violet.
Now that he looked at it... There wasn't even a trace left of the green mana possessed by Leafanel.
All that remained was the violet mana.
And the violet that spread throughout this space... blended into the environment as if it had been here for centuries.
“Could it be...”
Feeling that something was off, he was about to say something to Florin when suddenly, she staggered and fell to her knees on the ground.
“What, what’s wrong? Are you okay?”
He hurriedly supported her, and Florin held her throbbing head with her hand and sweated coldly.
“... Yes. I’m okay.”
“What’s suddenly... Was it the dark mana after all?”
“That’s... Not it... It’s just that the World Tree keeps trying to talk to me...”
“What is it saying?”
Florin shook her head, then slowly parted her pink lips and spoke.
"It’s warning me… about an intruder with the energy of earth and ash."
"Earth and ash...?"
For a moment, Baek Yu-Seol’s mind went blank at the unfamiliar yet familiar word, but soon his Sentient Spec automatically searched for and displayed the information before his eyes.
Immediately after, he felt a chill run down his spine.
‘No way...?’
There were only two beings in this world with such a unique aura.
One of them never made a move, so that left one person.
‘Chelven.’
It could only be the legendary dark mage.