Chapter 48

At Silri’s command to stop breathing, Enria instinctively raised her hands to cover her nose and mouth, looking at Silri with widened eyes.

Silri used her wind attribute to enclose the faint-glowing poison in one corner. The poison, trapped within a whirlwind, rose onto Silri’s palm. Examining the poison contained tightly within the whirlwind to prevent it from spreading into the air, she muttered, “It’s a poison without an antidote.”

“What? Poison?!” Enria exclaimed in surprise.

“Enria, I think there is an uninvited guest in the castle. Call Graum.”

Enria nodded once at Silri’s words and softly called Graum, who instantly teleported in front of them.

“What is it?”

“Graum, a black mage seems to be hiding inside the castle. I need you to find them.”

Graum’s eyes immediately sharpened. He lifted one of his small feet slightly, then stomped it down firmly onto the floor. Suddenly, countless tree roots sprouted from the floor and quickly spread in all directions. The reason earth spirits are strong at searching is because of these roots that connect deep beneath the ground. The roots spread beneath the ground, rapidly sweeping the entire Grand Duke’s castle.

While Graum focused on the floor, searching for the hidden black mage, Silri used her wind attribute to open a spatial rift and put the whirlwind containing the poison inside.

Enria, seeing the spatial rift for the first time, stared at it with round eyes. Silri explained the rift for her.

“It’s a rift connected to the Spirit Village.”

“Ah, you can open a gate to the Spirit Village even if you’re not an earth spirit?” Enria was surprised, as she had always thought that one had to summon an earth spirit to open the gate to the Spirit Village.

Silri shook her head at Enria’s question, saying that wasn’t the case.

“Only Graum can open the gate to the Spirit Village. I and the other spirits can do nothing more than open small rifts like this.”

“Ah.”

“But it’s useful for sending dangerous things like the poison just now to the Spirit Village.”

Enria murmured, “Ah, I see,” and then looked at Silri with a perplexed expression as a thought suddenly occurred to her. “But you said it was an antidote-less poison. Is it okay to put it in the Spirit Village?”

“It’s fine. It can’t emit toxins in the Spirit Village.” Silri continued, saying that the Spirit Village was a sanctuary of pure Holy Power created by the gods, and thus, black magic, monsters, and toxins that oppose Holy Power are all neutralized there.

Nodding and saying, “I see,” Enria looked at Graum, who was still standing with his foot planted on the floor, concentrating. Silri also looked at him and let out a short sigh.

“He must be cleverly hidden.”

“…”

She didn’t know how the black mage infiltrated the Grand Duke’s castle, but given the amount of black magic spread on the floor, it seemed they had been inside the castle for quite some time. As soon as that thought crossed Enria’s mind, Hayden’s face flashed quickly into her head.

“Hayden might be in danger!”

“Windel is with him. Then there’s nothing to worry about,” Silri reassured her with an expression that said she worried too much.

It was certain that with Windel there, things like the black mage kidnapping Hayden wouldn’t happen. However, if the poison the black mage planted all over the floor were to enter Hayden’s respiratory system, that too would be a disaster.

“He could be poisoned, so I should hurry and tell them.” Enria quickly turned and began running towards where Windel and Hayden were.

Silri told her that that room would be fine from behind, but Enria didn’t stop running.

“Hold your breath as much as you can while you run, Enria!” Silri shouted, telling her to minimize her breathing so Enria wouldn’t be poisoned by the toxin that might be planted on the way there. Enria quickly covered her nose and mouth with both hands.

“Found him.”

Just then, Graum murmured in a whisper, instantly placed his hand on the floor, and cast his earth attribute in one direction. Graum, who had concentrated for a moment to capture the black mage, then clicked his tongue briefly and stood up again.

“Missed him.”

“What?” Silri asked with a frown. Graum calmly brushed the dirt off the hand that had touched the floor and said, “He was someone who could open a spatial-temporal rift.”

At his words, Silri’s face instantly stiffened.

“What…?”

“Why do you keep saying ‘what’?” Graum frowned in annoyance. Silri turned towards him and asked again.

“Someone who can open a spatial-temporal rift? With black magic?”

“Yes.”

“Is that possible? A human?”

“It was possible 120 years ago, so it must be possible now.”

“The black mage back then was skilled enough to swallow the soul of the King of Monsters.”

“The current black mage is also skilled enough to manipulate Panz.”

At Graum’s words, Silri had nothing more to say and tightly closed her mouth. But she kept twitching her lips a couple of times as if she still wanted to say something. A black mage who could open a spatial-temporal rift—no matter how she thought about it, this situation gave her a headache.

It was only natural, as the stronger the power of the black mage targeting Enria and Hayden, the more tense situations they would face.

“Furthermore, the same poison as before is planted all over the castle. You don’t need to worry about the room where the child is, as I set up a barrier beforehand, but you must prevent the humans in the castle from moving around until all the planted poison is eliminated.”

“Understood. I’ll tell Enria. You’ll handle the elimination work, right?”

“I’ve been doing it since the moment I found it, so you don’t need to worry.”

“As expected, you do one thing extremely well.” Silri raised the corner of her mouth at Graum’s indifferent reply and turned away.

As she headed toward Hayden and Windel, she recalled Graum, who likely cast the barrier as soon as he arrived. Admiring his thorough preparation once again, she remembered that Lonn was also unusually well-prepared, making her wonder if these traits were inherent to earth spirits.

Whatever the reason, it was highly beneficial for Enria and Hayden, who were exposed to danger. She decided that she must ensure that earth spirits remained by their side until the group targeting them was eliminated.

‘Well, they’ll certainly be annoyed by my suggestion.’

However, she thought they wouldn’t refuse to protect Enria and Hayden, who might be the subjects of the oracle.

***

Pahomel, who had escaped through the spatial-temporal rift, dusted off his stained cloak after tumbling onto the floor and clicked his tongue softly.

‘To be discovered by the earth spirit there.’

Pahomel’s brows were deeply furrowed.

When Groen failed to kill Enria, he knew that a spirit user and spirits were by her side, so he expected spirits to be with her this time as well. That was why he used black magic to cover the entire floor with black smoke.

‘How exactly was the earth spirit able to use its power…?’

The black smoke laid on the floor was partially intended to conceal the areas where the poison was planted, but the main purpose was to prevent the earth spirit—the strongest of the four spirits in tracking—from using its tracking ability. This was because the roots of the earth spirit couldn’t rise above the floor when covered with black magic smoke.

Of course, the wind spirit could disperse the black smoke, but it would quickly return to its place. Therefore, the earth spirit’s roots shouldn’t have been able to pop up above the floor unless the smoke was completely removed.

‘There is one way, but even that would take a long time…’

Pahomel thought of a tracking method where the wind spirit would temporarily disperse the black smoke, the earth spirit would raise its roots above the floor to match the timing, and then, if the floor was covered again, the process of clearing the black smoke with wind and raising the roots would be repeated. It was definitely an issue that would take at least a full day, even moving fast.

‘That’s strange.’

He tried to figure out how the black smoke was cleared so quickly, but he had no idea. His plan had been so perfect that he felt utterly unable to pinpoint where and how it went wrong.

He was unaware that Enria could use summoning magic and that her ability was stronger than expected, allowing her to summon the appropriate summoned beast for the situation. It was natural, as Enria had developed her ability and honed her newly acquired power while in the Spirit Village during her pregnancy and the birth of Hayden.

Pahomel pondered why his perfect plan had failed and finally concluded that it was because she was the Master of the Oracle.

‘The easy way won’t work.’

He decided that to completely eliminate the Master of the Oracle, it would be better to strengthen Panz’s power rather than step into the forefront himself.

Pahomel walked toward his desk and used black magic to summon a massive black grimoire onto the surface. Then, he quickly flipped through the pages, searching for something. After flipping through for a long time, he stopped at one section.

Pahomel’s lips slowly curled up as he meticulously read that part.

‘Indeed. It’s possible.’

Pahomel’s eyes sparkled.

The page he was reading described how a black-magicked spirit could become stronger. It detailed a method of consuming the soul of not only a human but also a spirit of the same species to absorb its power entirely. The content was complex, and it required using a portion of his own black magic power, but that was not a major concern.

Once the Master of the Oracle was gone, he could also eliminate Caldeon, the master of black mana who was immune to black magic. If that happened, his plan to rule the world with black magic would surely succeed.

Pahomel closed the black grimoire, dismissed the summoning, and let out a triumphant smile.