Chapter 144
“Come here.”
Despite saying that, he was the one who approached her.
He suddenly grabbed her leg and tied something around her ankle with nimble movements.
“What is this?”
“It’s not very pretty, but this will protect you while I’m gone.”
Angelina felt what was wrapped around her foot. It was a cord that felt both smooth and soft.
“It feels nice……”
He said it was ugly, but for Angelina who couldn’t see, appearance didn’t matter.
As she fiddled with it, she felt her anxiety melting away.
“So make sure to keep wearing it. I’ll be back soon.”
“Okay.”
Somehow, this anklet made her feel like it would truly protect her. That’s why she could let go of his clothes that she had been clutching tightly.
He patted her head, got up, and quickly headed somewhere.
Since he left everything behind except what he needed for hunting, she knew he would return.
Even though touching the anklet didn’t completely eliminate her worries, Angelina sat pressed closely against a tree.
He’ll be back soon, right?
Maybe if I count to… 500?
Angelina closed her eyes tightly.
And that was the last time she saw him.
BOOM CRASH. RUMBLE RUMBLE.
KYAAAHHHH-!
‘Sob, I’m scared.’
The ground shook violently and the entire sky was filled with explosions and monster howls. Being unable to see and only able to hear made it even more terrifying for her.
It felt like the world was ending.
‘Is Blake making those sounds?’
Is hunting normally this frightening?
SCREECH! THUD! GROWL…
Trees being uprooted and the forest being turned upside down came closer and closer.
Angelina curled up tightly and covered her ears.
‘Stop. Make it all stop…!’
She wished everything would stop.
If only everything would disappear, she thought.
Her thoughts turned into white light that burst outward, and she lost consciousness.
***
Though Angelina herself didn’t know it, the intense light that burst from her center burned everything as if the sun had fallen there.
The aftermath spread delicately to even more distant places.
Gurk?!
And the monsters that were rushing toward where she was were also affected.
KYAAAA-!
The completely corrupted monsters burst apart as they collided with the power. They couldn’t withstand the forced purification of the Sun’s power.
However, just one creature.
Kwang?
A small being that had been fleeing powerfully as if being chased stopped abruptly when struck by that power.
This creature, which looked like a black fox with large ears, had also been succumbing to corruption like the other monsters, its once white fur turning completely black.
But this creature was different from the other monsters.
There was a seed remaining in its heart.
The seed that had been protecting it from complete corruption absorbed Angelina’s light that touched it, then cleared away the smoke that had been filling its mind.
With reason suddenly returning.
Where am I?
Why was I in this forest?
How long have I been here?
I feel like I was waiting for something…
Memories that had been completely forgotten began pouring down like a waterfall. And the clearest among them was…
“Phoebe, go!”
The memory of fleeing with Sun on its back.
The most desperate and powerful force that Sun had emitted at that time became a seed planted in its heart, and only now had it sprouted.
Whoosh. The corruption receded.
Krya?
The creature’s dark red eyes changed.
Oh? This warm energy is…
But that was only momentary.
CRASH-!
That terrifying killing intent was chasing from behind again.
“KWANG!”
Though its fur had already turned black, Phoebe—who would later be called Pudding—the divine beast who had regained its power by recalling its memories, fled powerfully from the killing intent.
And shortly after, the one who appeared there slaughtering monsters along with that killing intent was…
“Lina.”
It was Ante Flaubert, the Magic Tower Master, who had fully awakened Zeplictus’s power and once again become the master of this forest.
“Let’s go home.”
He carried Angelina, who had collapsed after releasing her power, on his back. From that place, now a wasteland soaked in monster blood, the two disappeared.
A moment later, what greeted Blake, who had been hunting and rushed over startled by the commotion, was a scene of slaughter with nothing left.
***
“Mmm……”
“Sniff?”
At Angelina’s moan, Pudding flicked its ears and turned its head. It seemed she had lost her blanket again while tossing and turning.
Stretching its neck, it pulled the blanket with its mouth and covered her. Then it placed its fluffy tail over her as well.
A smile slowly bloomed on her lips as she hugged the soft tail tightly.
“Sniff.”
Now reassured, Pudding snorted and curled up more.
Our precious Sun Lady.
Then, the Sun’s power that gently emanated from Pudding’s body explored her internal system.
Hmm, good. It’s almost all gone now.
That was satisfying.
When Pudding met Angelina again in the Dark Forest, it had been uncertain.
The familiar energy seemed right, but… it was so weak that it was hard to recognize…
And there were many strange things mixed in.
Is this really the Sun Lady? Or not?
It had been difficult to tell even while following and observing her.
But the moment it was held in her arms, it knew.
Yes! It’s the Sun Lady!
It had been difficult to recognize because of the altered magical power and holy power tangled together, but the Sun’s power was definitely the same as what was contained in the seed in its heart.
Hehe, our Sun Lady.
Phoebe was happy to have returned to the embrace it had been waiting and waiting for.
But…
But, Pudding?!
To give such a name as Pudding to the dignified and great Phoebe! Damn that Zeplictus! He’s always been strange anyway!
Hmph. Tsk.
Hehe, but if the Sun Lady likes it, I like it too.
Pudding stayed by Angelina’s side. Sometimes she sent it to Zeplictus, but that was fine.
The Sun Lady had always sent it on various errands since long ago.
She often met with the one who seemed to be Artoas, yet wasn’t Artoas.
She also met with the one who appeared to be Grandonia, though somewhat awkwardly.
The same daily life as before.
Pudding was happy.
If there was one thing it didn’t like, it was the strange energies that were wreaking havoc on the Sun Lady’s body.
The vitality that had become twisted due to various experiments by the Order.
It was causing the Sun’s power to pour inward rather than outward, attacking her own body.
So Pudding used the Sun’s power contained in the seed in its heart to untangle that twisted vitality. A little bit each day, since doing it all at once could be painful.
That wasn’t all.
Why was there so much altered power?
One of them was an excessive amount of holy power.
It was the result of Ante’s excessive treatment to heal Angelina, who had lost her sight and damaged her legs after being trapped in the Dark Forest as a child. But Pudding, not knowing this, pushed away that power.
It’s similar to the Sun’s power, but it’s not the Sun’s power. It doesn’t suit the Sun Lady.
Heave-ho, it pushed the holy power out of her body.
It filled the gaps with the Sun’s power.
This also had to be done carefully. If it pushed everything out at once, there was no telling what the already rampaging Sun’s power in her body might do.
And the cause of the rampage.
In fact, that was the biggest problem.
The concentrated magical power that caused the Sun’s power to rampage unpredictably.
It was power originating from the memory-sealing magic that Ante had cast on her.
The magic that Ante had cast on her as a child to erase “that memory.”
Originally, he had tried to erase the memory. But it failed and was merely sealed.
And what he didn’t know was that the reason for the failure was the Sun’s power.
His magical power had clashed with the Sun’s power, and while fighting against the Sun’s power that was trying to protect the memory, he had inadvertently sealed the Sun’s power along with the memory.
Ante, who had been focused on eliminating the memory, was completely unaware of this fact.
In the first place, he had no knowledge of the Sun’s power at that time since there was no memory of history.
So he didn’t realize how dangerous what he had done was.
Subsequently, with incidents at the Order, in the Dark Forest, and so on, the memory-sealing magic continued to seal power along with memories whenever something related to the Sun’s power occurred in Angelina’s body.
As this continued, the Sun’s power struggled to break free from the seal and control, eventually leading to a rampage.
Angelina Flaubert was ultimately destined to die, unable to withstand the rampage of the Sun’s power.
But that changed after meeting Pudding.
Heave-ho.
Pudding diligently broke down the walls of the seal while soothing the rampaging Sun’s power inside.
Thanks to Pudding, who continued its solitary battle that no one knew about day after day, the walls of the seal gradually thinned.
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