Chapter 230: Hey! Didn’t we get it back?

That name seemed to drain the last of the girl’s strength.

“Julius…?”

It was more like an unintentional sigh from the deepest part of her soul than a conscious greeting.

Helos’s consciousness, like a drowning person, desperately struggled to resurface.

Just one second.

She saw it.

She really saw it.

That blurry face before her.

That silhouette she had missed for three years.

That warm aura.

That hug that was so tight it made her bones ache, yet so reassuring.

It was real.

Not an illusion.

Her best friend… he had returned.

But just as that faint, pale purple clarity, her own, was about to spread after breaking free from the chaos—

The cold, icy blue light deep in her mind, along with that thread of bloodthirsty crimson, surged back like a provoked emperor.

They would not allow it.

They would not allow this “Helos” own will to awaken!

They would not allow this warm “foreign object” to destroy the “nest” they had already occupied!

That icy “will” belonging to the [Enlightenment], mixed with the berserk aura of “chaos,” violently counterattacked!

Helos’s body arched sharply. A shrill, almost inhuman roar burst from deep in her throat.

“Aaaaaah—!”

That faint pale purple that had just emerged was instantly submerged by the madly flashing blue and red lights.

Her entire body trembled uncontrollably.

Her mind had once again fallen into the most terrible battlefield.

On one side was the warm reality she longed for: “Julius is back.”

On the other side was the cold command from [Enlightenment]: “Eliminate the threat,” “Kill him.”

And those crazy, seductive forbidden knowledge.

Three completely different wills were madly tearing and pulling at each other in her soul!

She let out a low snarl.

“Let… me… go…”

Her cold little hands suddenly grabbed Julius’s shoulders, trying to push him away.

Her nails, from excessive force, were already deeply embedded in his clothes.

Her face was twisted, looking agonizingly painful.

“Helos!”

This sudden change made Julius’s heart clench as well.

The hope he had just kindled was suddenly doused with a bucket of ice water.

A hint of barely concealed heartache showed in the young man’s eyes.

He looked at the girl’s delicate face, twisted by extreme pain.

He wanted to help Helos.

But he didn’t know what to do!

He didn’t know what the enemy had done to her!

He didn’t know what that cold blue light and strange crimson light were!

All the young man knew was that she was contaminated by chaos!

“Holy Light!”

He could only do the only thing he knew.

He poured the warm, pure divine power—the power belonging to the Chosen One inside him—without sparing any, continuously into her body, trying to help her dispel the filth.

However, Julius’s desperate “rescue” didn’t calm her down. Instead, it made her tremble even more violently!

Holy Light was the bane of chaos.

His warm divine power was clashing most fiercely with the blood-red light of “chaos” inside her.

And the cold, icy blue “will” in her mind judged Julius’s Holy Light as a “foreign invader” and was frantically mobilizing all forces to fight back!

Two completely different forces were waging the most brutal tug-of-war inside her body and soul.

This subjected Helos to an unimaginable torment for any mortal.

Julius looked at her face, pale as paper, at her lips clenched to the point of oozing blood.

For a moment, he still couldn’t find the real reason Helos had become like this.

He could only hold the girl tighter, pressing his chin against the top of her head.

He gently, clumsily patted her trembling back, just like three years ago when she threw a tantrum after a failed experiment, and he helplessly comforted her.

“It’s okay… Helos… I’m here…”

“Everything will be fine… I won’t leave you alone again…”

But that couldn’t solve the girl’s current problem.

His comfort, his Holy Light, seemed so pale and powerless at this moment.

Julius was sweating in panic.

For the first time in three years, he felt like a complete failure.

He had fought his way through mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

He had single-handedly faced hundreds of cultists and their minions.

He had endured the Goddess’s cold divine trial atop the Sacred Mountain of the Theocracy of Al.

He had calmly hunted down the most cunning cultists throughout the various dioceses.

But the young man had never been so flustered, so helpless.

He could purify thousands of evil chaos.

He could slay the most heinous enemies.

But the one in his arms was Helos.

He couldn’t hurt her, yet he had no idea how to save her.

Julius held the girl tightly, preventing her from hurting herself with the violent tremors, while frantically thinking of a solution.

‘Calm down.’

‘Julius, you idiot, think of something!’

‘Calm down!’

‘What exactly did Eleanor say?’

‘Fainted.’

‘Personality change.’

‘Forbidden experiment.’

‘Red light.’

‘Blue light.’

‘Graham… Chaos Believers.’

‘What did they do to her?!’

‘Is it some kind of curse?’

‘Or a soul contract?’

‘Why did she become like this?’

Just as he was about to be drowned by despair and regret, the girl in his arms seemed to have exhausted all her strength.

Her roars gradually turned into intermittent, painful sobs.

Once again, unconsciously, she uttered the name imprinted deep in her soul.

“Julius…”

She cried intermittently, her voice as soft as a feather.

“It hurts…”

“It hurts…”

“My… mind… my brain…”

Tears of pain flowed from her unfocused eyes.

“Like… like it’s about to be… by something… magic…”

“Peeled apart…”

Magic?!

Julius’s racing mind, at the sound of that word, was struck like a thunderbolt, abruptly halting all thought.

He suddenly lowered his head.

He looked at his own hand, which was pressed against Helos’s back.

That hand was currently emitting a soft golden light.

That was his Holy Light.

That was also… a form of “magic.”

He suddenly realized something.

A detail he had completely overlooked from the moment of their reunion, due to shock and heartache.

He…

He was holding Helos.

Right now, he was touching her body with his own hand infused with “mana.”

He was even forcibly pouring his Holy Light “magic” into her!

But she wasn’t suffering from the backlash of the “curse” like she did three years ago.

Her pain probably came from the conflict between the “abnormality” inside her and the Holy Light, not simply from his “touch”!

Julius froze.

Slowly, with his hand that wasn’t glowing, he lifted Helos’s chin.

He looked at her tear-streaked face, still twitching in agony.

The thing beside the girl…

That innate…

That which made Julius her “only true friend”…

That absolute “null magic field”…

When… had it…