As the incantation rang out, Pilimas suddenly felt a surge of magical fluctuation so terrifying it defied description erupt into existence. Within his domain of will—pitch-black, dark green, and pale yellow—phantom faces materialized one after another, dragging transparent, blurry bodies, and plunged straight toward him with utter disregard for his defenses.
"Legendary magic?!"
Pilimas was stunned to the point of disbelief, but before his mind could do more than flash that single thought, the incomplete yet ferocious souls ignored the protections of poison and curse alike and burrowed into his body. They entered through his nose and exited through his mouth, then went back in through his eyes, forming a bizarre cycle—as though hosting a grand ball.
The gleam faded from his eyes, leaving behind the dull, deathly white of vacancy. Pilimas's body swelled slightly, as if too many souls had crammed inside, and he stood rigid as a stone statue, his face frozen in an expression of utter disbelief. The half-ethereal domain of will dissipated along with it.
The guttural incantation that no mouth should have been able to produce, the vast and terrifying waves of magical power—these reached
No matter who it was, their lives were finally secured!
And so their hearts tilted a little further toward the Magic Parliament.
The moment Lucian activated the Ring of
With no time to spare, Lucian extended his spiritual power, opened his storage pouch, and drew out a vial of Water Song potion—his hand-like manipulation carrying it as naturally as a physical grasp.
Without any detectable magical fluctuation, the Water Song potion wobbled into the air, popped its own cork, and poured itself into Lucian's mouth.
One of the fundamental requirements for a mage to advance to the high-tier rank was that their soul and spiritual power had to reach a level capable of directly influencing reality. That was why lich-type mages like Congus could speak and chant without a physical body. Lucian had relied on precisely this ability to free his left hand and recite the incantation.
In truth, curse power was fundamentally different from poison—severing the central nervous system could not stop it. Lucian had originally intended to precisely thrust his left hand into his own neck, carefully avoiding the spine and central nerve, and use its supernatural ability to nullify effects, cutting off and eliminating the curse that had threaded through his bloodstream into his brain via the neck. But in his drunken state, he simply lacked that degree of control. He had damaged the spine and central nerve, leaving everything below the neck without sensation.
If any more time had passed, oxygen deprivation would inevitably have caused brain death, and then Lucian would have had no choice but to swap bodies entirely. The moment he immobilized Pilimas, he rushed to drink the potion and begin repairs.
The Water Song potion flowed down his throat into his neck, giving off a faint watery glow as the mangled mass of flesh writhed and began to restore itself.
Before the spine was completely severed and the central nerve utterly destroyed, this kind of injury was far easier to treat than a severed hand or leg. Back when Natasha's cousin Verdi had half his neck cut off by her, he hadn't died on the spot and had even been slowly recovering.
Next, Lucian channeled an incantation, using the fourth-circle spell Remove Curse to eliminate the last remnant of curse power.
The wound on his neck healed swiftly. Lucian quickly pulled out another vial of Water Song, propped up Natasha—who was still standing by sheer force of will—and poured the potion into her mouth while casting Neutralize Poison and other healing spells on her. He also layered multiple air-filtering effects over himself.
Seeing the danger resolved and Lucian alive, Natasha felt the tension drain from her at last. Without the driving need to keep fighting, the willpower she had forcibly mustered finally crumbled under the Kiss of Weakness, and she collapsed softly into his arms.
Once struck by the legendary spell Soul Lock, one's soul was imprisoned permanently—unless dispelled by the corresponding magic. Even if the spell's effects eventually faded, the soul would crumble to dust over the long passage of time.
The black curse infecting the wound was severed by her bloodline's innate ability. The dark-green poison and pale-yellow disease vanished quickly under Lucian's magic and the Water Song potion, and the wound writhed and closed, slowly "wiping away" one gruesome, shocking scar after another.
Apart from the Kiss of Weakness's toxin—which could not be removed by ordinary Neutralize Poison magic or Water Song potions—Natasha's external injuries had mostly healed, and she was out of immediate mortal danger.
"I'll rally my willpower again and let the Health Belt take effect. Go save Aunt Camille, Duke James, and Duke Russell first." Natasha's voice was still weak and breathless from excessive blood loss and the Kiss of Weakness's effects.
After she had successfully rallied her willpower by leveraging her mutated bloodline—the ability to grow stronger the more wounded she became—the best course of action would have been to immediately breach the Health Belt's central array and let it function on her body, neutralizing the toxin's effects. But at the time, Lucian—the Health Belt's master—had been in mortal danger himself, leaving her unable to guide the belt through its layers of magic arrays to activate its passive effects. She had been forced to keep fighting, and even now had not yet shaken off the Kiss of Weakness.
"All right." Lucian wasted no words or hesitation. Reviving Golden Knight Duke James first would help guard against any follow-up attack from the enemy.
He helped Natasha to the wall, letting her lean against it as she slowly gathered her will. Once she tried to use the Health Belt, he would sense it and be able to guide her through.
Walking over to Duke James, Lucian saw that his eyes still held a degree of clarity. It seemed his ninth-rank strength had diluted the Kiss of Weakness's effects—even without Lucian's help, once the phase in which the Kiss of Weakness grew stronger over time had passed, he would gradually recover on his own.
After waiting a dozen seconds and confirming his spiritual power had recovered enough to use the Sun Scepter, Lucian cast the spell to suppress the Kiss of Weakness. At a time like this, he had to assume that everyone except Natasha could be a traitor.
Under the spell's influence, Duke James recovered somewhat but still could not muster his will. He spoke: "Help me activate the ring on my little finger."
On his left little finger was a pale blue gemstone ring. By Lucian's judgment, it possessed a passive poison-resistance effect, but the Kiss of Weakness's tier had already exceeded its passive capabilities—it could only be dispelled by activating its active magic.
Activating magic items was Lucian's specialty. It didn't take long for the gemstone ring to light up with a curtain of rippling, water-like light.
The watery barrier merged swiftly into Duke James's body, dissolving the Kiss of Weakness's effects. Bolstered by this double suppression, Duke James let out a roar, his bloodline churning as he forced streams of interwoven dark-green and pitch-black gas out from beneath his skin.
He had shaken off the Kiss of Weakness on the strength of his ninth-rank Golden Knight power.