Episode-718
Chapter : 1415
"It's the curse," Lloyd realized with horror. "It found us. Even in the tower."
He activated his [All-Seeing Eye]. He looked at the pen.
The structure of the magic inside had been inverted. The mana crystal that powered the pen wasn't pushing energy out to draw; it was sucking energy in. It was a vacuum. A black hole. And it was feeding on Zeba's life force.
"It's eating her," Lloyd hissed. "It's draining her soul to fuel the corruption."
"Lloyd!" Mina ran over with a lead-lined box. "What is happening?"
"The pen is cursed," Lloyd said. "It's bonded to her bio-rhythm. If I just rip it away, the shock could kill her."
Zeba screamed. It was a terrible, high-pitched sound of pure agony. She slumped forward, her head hitting the desk. Her breathing was shallow. Her skin was turning grey.
"She's dying," Alaric said, checking her pulse. "Her heart rate is erratic. Her mana levels are critical."
Lloyd's mind raced. He couldn't use brute force. He couldn't use fire. He needed to surgically sever the connection.
"I need to cut the flow," Lloyd said. He drew a small, fine chisel from his belt. "I have to break the rune sequence on the pen."
He grabbed Zeba's hand, pinning it to the desk. The black veins were pulsing, pumping her life into the metal.
"Hold her still!" Lloyd ordered.
Mina and Alaric grabbed Zeba's shoulders.
Lloyd brought the chisel down. He aimed for the central rune. He struck it with a hammer.
Clink.
The metal didn't break. It absorbed the blow. A shockwave of red energy lashed out, knocking Lloyd backward.
"It defends itself," Lloyd gasped, getting back up. "Adaptive defense. It's smart."
Zeba stopped screaming. She went limp. The silence was worse.
"She is fading," Alaric warned. "We are losing her."
Lloyd felt a surge of panic. He was a general. He was an engineer. He fixed things. But he couldn't fix this. He didn't have the right tool. He didn't have the magic.
He looked around the room, desperate. And then he saw her.
Airin.
She was standing by the door, watching with wide, terrified eyes. She was holding a stack of books.
"Airin!" Lloyd shouted. "Get over here!"
Airin dropped her books and ran to the desk. She looked at Zeba, then at Lloyd.
"What do I do?" she asked, her voice shaking.
"Heal her," Lloyd said. "You have light magic. High-frequency restoration. The curse is dark. It's entropy. You need to flood her with life. You need to overload the parasite."
"I... I've never done that before," Airin stammered. "I just fix cuts. I fix bruises."
"You saved a village from a plague," Lloyd grabbed her shoulders. "You have power, Airin. Real power. Don't think about the spell. Think about her. Think about saving your friend."
Airin looked at Zeba's grey face. She took a deep breath. She nodded.
She placed her hands over Zeba's chest, right over her heart. She closed her eyes.
"Light," she whispered. "Please."
A soft, golden glow appeared around her hands. It was faint at first. Flickering.
"More," Lloyd urged. "Push it. Give her everything you have."
The pen on the desk hissed. The black veins throbbed, fighting back. The curse sensed the threat. It tried to expand, to consume Airin too.
Lloyd saw the darkness creeping toward Airin's fingers.
"No, you don't," Lloyd growled.
He grabbed the pen again. He couldn't break it, but he could fight it. He channeled his [Steel Blood]. He didn't try to cut the metal; he tried to freeze it. He used his will to lock the mechanism, to hold the curse in place.
"I've got the pen," Lloyd gritted out. "Focus on Zeba!"
Airin screamed. A burst of blinding white light erupted from her hands. It wasn't a gentle healing glow anymore. It was a floodlight. It was pure, concentrated life energy.
The light poured into Zeba. It chased the shadows. The black veins on Zeba's arm began to retreat, sizzling and evaporating like steam.
The pen vibrated violently in Lloyd's hand. It was getting hot. Burning hot. The curse was starving. It was being pushed out by the light.
"It's working!" Mina shouted. "Keep going!"
Airin was sweating. Her face was pale. She was pouring her own life force into Zeba. She was draining herself to fill the void.
"Airin, careful!" Lloyd warned. "Don't burn yourself out!"
"I won't let her go," Airin said through gritted teeth.
She pushed harder. The light intensified until it filled the room, banishing every shadow in the tower.
Chapter : 1416
CRACK.
The pen in Lloyd's hand finally shattered. The metal couldn't handle the conflict between the Void seal and the Light flood. It exploded into shrapnel.
The black smoke dissipated instantly in the light.
Zeba gasped. A huge, lung-filling breath. Her eyes snapped open. The grey color faded from her skin, replaced by a healthy flush.
Airin collapsed. Lloyd caught her before she hit the floor.
"I got you," Lloyd said softly.
He looked at Zeba. She was confused, weak, but alive. The corruption was gone.
"What... happened?" Zeba whispered. "My pen... it bit me."
"It's okay," Lloyd said. "It's over."
He looked down at Airin in his arms. She was unconscious, exhausted. But she was breathing steadily. She had done it. She had beaten a Devil's curse with brute-force kindness.
The room was silent. The other students were staring with awe.
Lloyd looked at the shattered remains of the pen on the desk. He felt a cold fury rising in his chest.
This wasn't an accident. This wasn't a random malfunction. Someone had targeted Zeba. Someone had targeted the weak link in his class to send a message.
"They came into my house," Lloyd thought. "They hurt my student."
He gently handed Airin to Mina. "Take care of her. Get her to a bed."
He walked over to the desk and picked up a shard of the corrupted metal with a pair of tongs. He held it up to the light.
"Valerius was right," Lloyd said to the room. His voice was terrifyingly calm. "There is a traitor. And they are close."
He crushed the metal shard in the tongs.
"Class is cancelled," Lloyd announced. "Everyone go to the dorms. Lock your doors. Do not touch anything magical unless I inspect it personally."
The students hurried out, terrified.
Lloyd stood alone in the lab with his inner circle.
"This means war," Lloyd said. "They want to play with curses? Fine. I'm going to teach them why you don't bring a curse to a gunfight."
He looked at the empty spot where Airin had stood. She had saved the day. But she shouldn't have had to. That was his job. And he had failed to protect them.
"Never again," Lloyd vowed.
He turned to his workbench. The Aegis suit loomed in the shadows.
"We work faster," Lloyd ordered Alaric. "We finish the suit. And then... we hunt."
The crisis with Zeba had passed, but the tension in the Academy remained high. The students were scared. The faculty was paranoid. But inside the Old Tower, work continued. Lloyd knew the best way to fight fear was with progress.
He and Mina were in the Academy Library. They needed to cross-reference the energy signature of the curse with historical records. It was research, but it was also... nice.
The library was vast, a cathedral of books. Sunlight streamed through stained glass windows, painting the floor in pools of color. Lloyd and Mina sat at a secluded table in the back, surrounded by stacks of ancient tomes.
"Look at this," Mina said, pushing a book toward him. "A reference to 'The Black Rot'. It affected the mage towers in the Third Era. The symptoms match Zeba's condition."
"Interesting," Lloyd said, leaning in. "Did they find a cure?"
"They burned the towers down," Mina noted dryly.
"Let's put that in the 'Plan B' pile," Lloyd laughed.
He looked at her. The sunlight caught her hair. She had a smudge of ink on her cheek. She looked focused and brilliant.
"You have ink," Lloyd said, reaching out to tap his own cheek to show her.
"Where?" Mina asked, rubbing the wrong spot.
"Here," Lloyd reached over and gently wiped the ink away with his thumb.
Mina froze. She looked at him. Then she smiled. It was a warm, intimate smile. A smile that said, I know who you are, and I like you.
"Thank you, Professor," she teased.
"Anytime, Consultant," Lloyd grinned back.
They laughed. It was a soft, shared moment of joy in the middle of a dark week. For a second, they forgot where they were. They forgot the eyes watching them.
But the eyes were there.
The library doors swung open with a loud bang. The sound echoed through the silent hall. Every student looked up.
Princess Isabella stood in the doorway. She was wearing her full Royal Guard uniform, her red cape flowing behind her. She looked magnificent. And she looked absolutely furious.