Chapter 232: Saving Private Rose

In the moment the surroundings fell silent again, Helos’s violently trembling body suddenly stopped.

The “Curse of Silence” that erupted from her like an invisible black hole devoured all surrounding “mana” in an instant.

Julius was the first to be affected.

He felt the endless sacred power within him crash against an insurmountable wall, then be crazily neutralized, suppressed, and finally dissipated into nothingness.

The holy light on his hand pressed against Helos’s back extinguished completely within a second.

And with it, the devastating “war” within Helos’s body also extinguished.

That cold azure will severed its connection with the girl’s spirit.

That violent chaotic aura also lost its foundation.

And the “holy light” that Julius forcibly injected was also completely “magic-sealed.”

These forces that had been madly tearing and pulling at each other within her soul, trying to completely occupy her, in the face of the absolute overbearing “curse” of the “Curse of Silence,” were like machines unplugged from power, all immediately shut down.

The painful expression on Helos’s face completely froze at this moment.

The excruciating pain that felt like it would crush her brain, and the torment that seemed to strip her soul away, all receded like a tide.

“Ha…”

Helos let out a weak sigh as if she had survived a catastrophe.

Her body stopped convulsing, and her tense muscles relaxed inch by inch.

Sweat soaked the silver hair on her forehead, making her look like a cat fished out of water.

Her small face, pale as paper, remained with eyes tightly shut, her whole body so weak it seemed it could shatter at any moment.

But she was alive.

Only then did Julius’s heart dare to start beating again.

He still held her tightly, not daring to loosen his grip even a little. He could feel the weak breath of the girl in his arms, evenly brushing against his chest.

He succeeded?

Did he really… pull her back from the edge of that abyss?

“Helos?”

He called her name softly, tentatively.

Helos’s consciousness was floating in an endless void.

She felt so tired. She just wanted to sleep like this, never to wake up again. But she seemed to hear a very familiar voice—a clumsy voice she thought she would never hear again in this life.

Who is it? Who is calling her?

Helos struggled desperately to open her eyes, wanting to see the person in front of her clearly. Her eyelids, heavy as lead, began to tremble violently.

The girl used the last bit of strength she had survived from that mental storm.

But even with all her effort, she could only open her eyes a tiny slit.

In the dim forest, her vision was blurry.

She could only vaguely see a tall black silhouette holding her tightly. And those… pitch-black eyes she would never mistake. And that blurred face so close.

In those eyes, there was no longer the stubbornness and helplessness from three years ago, only heartache, remorse, and a hint of ecstasy at having found something lost.

“Julius…?”

The girl’s weak words were full of disbelief.

“Is it really… you?”

Her voice was as light as a feather, as if it would be blown away by the night wind at any moment.

If it weren’t for the fact that she had no strength left at all, she would probably have pinched herself hard to confirm whether this was an illusion.

Was she not dreaming? Was she still being tormented by those terrible things? Why was this idiot here?

“It’s me.”

Hearing this weak response, Julius’s hard heart was instantly filled with an indescribable bitterness. He lowered his head and pressed his cheek against her cold, sweat-dampened forehead.

The black-haired young man looked at the girl in his arms, and with some tenderness, held her a little tighter.

“It’s me, Helos.”

His voice was hoarse, full of suppressed sobs.

“Sorry.”

“I came back late.”

“…You bastard… you still know to come back…”

After hearing this familiar voice full of apology, Helos finally confirmed that she wasn’t hallucinating. She wasn’t dreaming.

The corners of Helos’s mouth pulled into an extremely weak smile. The tense nerve that had been so sleepy and uneasy completely relaxed at this moment.

She didn’t even have the strength to scold him or question him about where he had been for three years. She just felt… so at ease.

She slowly closed her heavy eyelids again, still muttering softly:

“Coming back…”

“At least it shows… you bastard…”

“haven’t forgotten me…”

“I’m so sleepy…”

The fatigue of surviving a disaster, like the darkest tide, completely drowned her consciousness.

“I… I want to sleep for a while…”

“Mm.”

Julius gently kissed her cold forehead.

“I’m here.”

“You sleep peacefully.”

As soon as Julius’s words fell, Helos completely relaxed her body. Even her little hand, which had been unconsciously clutching the front of his clothes, slipped down weakly.

She fell into a deep sleep.

Right in the arms of this guy who had made her wait three years and finally made her feel so at ease again.

The forest fell silent again.

Only the magic crystal, suppressed by the “Curse of Silence” to the size of a grain of rice, still flickered persistently.

Julius remained in that hug, not daring to move. He lowered his head, greedily inhaling the fragrance of her hair, like a loyal dog memorizing its master’s scent.

Only after confirming that Helos’s breathing had become completely steady and long did he carefully check the aura within Helos’s body again.

He didn’t dare use holy light.

He just attached his perception, beyond ordinary people, to her sleeping body.

He could feel that her overbearing “Curse of Silence” had fully awakened and was faithfully performing its duty, repelling all “magic” and “mana.”

And that azure glow that had been entrenched deep in her soul, making her cold and indifferent, seemed to have completely quieted down as a result.

At the same time, the chaotic aura on Helos, which had been growing heavier, also gradually calmed, like ashes drifting in the wind, gone with the wind.

Julius perceived for a long time.

That aura had indeed disappeared. It seemed that the moment the “Curse of Silence” returned, along with the magic it had been opposing with the holy light, it was completely “neutralized” and “purified.”

Julius’s heart, which had been hanging in the air, finally settled.

He let out a long sigh.

That sigh carried all his longing, guilt, and the fear that had nearly driven him crazy just now from the past three years.

Thank goodness…