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Chapter 307

Arsha, crying and trying to rush into my arms, had to be stopped.

“Brother?”

“Sorry, Arsha. If you hug me right now, you might get really hurt. I’m okay. Could you stay away for just a bit?”

The pure white energy inside my body kept colliding with the massive poison that had taken root in me.

Maybe because I pushed her away, she sat down on the spot, mumbling tearfully in confusion.

“Brother… brother’s hurt. Hic! Oh… brother! Brother’s hurt!”

She kept repeating the same words, unable to do anything else.

I felt guilty seeing her like that.

But regardless of my memories, my body itself wasn’t used to this—this clash between a new poison and the white power inside me.

It felt just like the first time I learned Thanatos, when I had to isolate myself.

Another such crisis was looming.

‘Hey, Librarian. Can’t you fix this quickly?’

[Your body’s compatibility with the powers you carry is high, which is why these dissonances occur.]

[In the Hall of Ten Thousand Poisons, such a situation was never considered.]

[Warning: your body is repeating collapse and recovery. Please employ every possible measure at once.]

So, this kind of thing could happen.

The white power was pushing back because the power I gained in the Hall of Ten Thousand Poisons was so lethal to both my other powers and my physical body that it was trying to suppress it.

If I didn’t have this white power inside me right now… things would be much worse.

This side effect was completely unexpected.

From now on, I’d need to be far more cautious whenever transferring memories from the Halls.

I immediately moved myself somewhere no one else would wander.

“Waaaaah!! Brother! Don’t be sick! Brotheeeeer!!”

Arsha cried harder, calling for me as if an infant sobbing desperately, when I hurriedly slipped out the window.

To Arsha, seeing family in pain could only trigger deep trauma.

Melissa and I were all she had left.

Even though she had been slowly healing, a scene like this was the most terrifying thing she could imagine. Newest update provided by novel※fire.net

I wanted nothing more than to hug her and comfort her—but just being near her could put her life at risk.

“Leon?! What’s going on—what the hell is this? What’s wrong with you?”

“Calm Arsha down. And seal this place off—nobody is to come near.”

Melissa’s eyes widened at my words.

“You’re doing it again… like last time…”

“I’ll finish it quickly and come back.”

Melissa knew by now that I could suddenly draw upon tremendous power from somewhere.

She looked at me with troubled eyes, but quickly ordered the servants following her, then sprang up onto the building’s roof.

“Leon, this time come back quickly.”

“I will.”

“Arsha! It’s okay. Brother’s fine, don’t cry.”

Melissa soothed the sobbing Arsha, and I took a sharp breath before twisting space.

That’s when it happened.

Ssshhhhhkkk…

The space I tore open shimmered—then collapsed.

“What the hell…?”

What kind of insane poison could corrode magic itself?

I’d never seen anything like this.

Then—someone placed a hand on my back, without fear.

“Luna?”

A wave of exhaustion swept over me.

My body was adapting with terrifying speed, but that very process was draining me.

Luna’s voice reached me.

“Just what… were you doing?”

“It’s nothing. But it’s dangerous, so step back.”

“What could you have done to create a monstrosity of poison like this inside your body?”

Her healing power surged through me, but all it could do was aid in patching up the body that kept collapsing.

After all, the mass of poison from the Hall had become one with my body.

Maybe the only reason I’d lasted this long was thanks to adaptation.

But now, perhaps, I’d reached the point where my body couldn’t handle absorbing multiple Halls’ powers so rapidly.

‘Hey, Librarian. If this is already happening, how did you expect me to handle all the powers of the Labyrinth at once?’

[Had your memories been sealed and willpower not dispersed, such problems would not exist.]

So, in the Hall, I must have entered without sealing away other memories.

Well… fair enough.

Then Luna gasped.

“Why… why won’t it heal…?”

Apparently, this wasn’t a wound at all.

The mass of poison inside me was tearing apart a body unready for it, faster than Luna’s healing could help.

And for some reason, her healing wasn’t taking effect properly at all.

With movement becoming difficult, I erected a mana barrier around me to block others from approaching.

“….”

Luna, confused, then spread her wings and lifted off.

“Where are you going?”

“To fetch something that can help.”

As she soared, a placard planted nearby was ripped away by the gust.

—No Pigeon Thieves Allowed.

One of Luna’s angry warnings hammered around the mansion.

“Unbelievable! My help was needed so soon after all!”

About 30 minutes later, Luna returned—bringing an unwelcome guest.

Approaching me with the brightest smile in the world:

“Don’t worry. I’ll help fix this. My, this poison is fierce! Should we start with a barrier to contain it?”

Even in a crisis, she was smiling radiantly.

Lispa Elde was back.

* * *

It felt like my guts were about to burst after being held back too long.

I grimaced under the foul sensation, like I’d spread poison everywhere just by moving.

[Your body is already overloaded with the Halls’ powers. Until you adapt, further transfers are impossible.]

So that was why there’d been no progress for two years.

The rate of gaining power far exceeded the rate of adapting.

As a result, the memories of the Halls hadn’t fully settled into me.

Meanwhile—

[Hall of Ten Thousand Poisons. The Deadly Poison of the Heaven-Slayer has entered your body.]

Another tenant had just taken up residence.

Aura.

Elemental mana.

Necro mana.

The heart of the Machine God.

The power of Thanatos.

The white power.

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My body, already overcrowded with residents, had welcomed one more.

And this one was like a lunatic blasting rock music 24/7 in a thin-walled apartment.

The other energies tried to suppress the toxic invader, but it resisted violently, screaming “This is my turf, get lost!”

Its strength was undeniable…

But little by little, it was being pressed down.

The white power in particular, and the others like aura and mana, were no small forces either.

Lispa began directing Luna and Melissa to fetch her materials.

Once she received them, she pounded, kneaded, and combined them skillfully, forming small clumps like herbal pills.

“What a fuss for something so simple. Just a ball of herbs.”

“That’s because you’re an idiot.”

What Lispa had made looked like nothing more than mashed herbs rolled into a lump.

No fermentation, no refinement—just raw ingredients.

But when she drew out her lyra, the ordinary became irrelevant.

Lispa’s power was strange indeed.

Luna’s healing might be nearly absolute against wounds, but Lispa excelled at transformations of the inner self through vast knowledge and music.

The herbal lump floated in the air, wrapped in strange melody, and began to shine.

This wasn’t just mana coating it.

Its very structure was being rewritten.

Could I replicate that with the Machine God’s heart?

No—that was divine power, close to authority itself.

Mimicking it would be impossible.

Maybe it was only weaker because she wasn’t a full archangel anymore.

“How… how can a human body suddenly grow a poison gland?”

Lispa examined me curiously before meeting my eyes.

“Swallow this whole, and suppress the poison as much as possible. For some reason, your body just needs time right now.”

If I could simply buy time—then I could adapt to controlling this poison gland.

“Still… fascinating. With all these mutations, your appearance hasn’t changed at all.”

Indeed, my organs looked completely human.

“Can you do it?”

“I don’t know. Doesn’t feel right.”

Once the memory transfer was complete, maybe—but it was taking too long.

Not just because of quantity, but because absorbing such vast knowledge without backlash was never easy.

If only… I could store the poison raging in me somewhere else, even for a while…

“Ah.”

My eyes widened.

In a sense, this poison inside me was pure enough to be almost elemental.

Ridiculous.

How could a mass of countless impurities be this pure?

“Leon. Use the same method as when you created the chick spirit—condense the poison.”

“A spirit contract?”

“Hurry! I’ll hold it back and draw the boundary once it starts leaving you!”

As Lispa shouted, I pondered.

Could it work?

Just then, I felt something approach—drawn to the purity of the element.

A frail, incomplete being.

Empty, rejected even among spirits for lacking a core identity.

A twisted spirit.

Identical in type to Sur, the spirit of heat, and Grivy, the spirit of earth.

[Contract with me.]

At my voice, the warped spirit flickered faintly.

It couldn’t speak or think properly, but was drawn to the pure element I gave off.

And it devoured it greedily—just like Sur had fed on Ctugha’s fire at its birth.

It didn’t resist, and I recited the words of the contract imbued with spirit mana.

I grant to this artificial element your name and will.

Your flickering flame is your will.

Your searing heat is your heartbeat.

Your name is Serqet.

If I remembered right, that was once a god of poison.

The details escaped me, but I’d heard of it.

‘Your mark is Venom.’

I had never seen a more vicious condensation of poison than this.

Beyond harming flesh, it could warp natural laws themselves.

Your essence is harmony—or discord.

Like Sur and Grivy, I named it, gave it a nature, and defined its essence.

The new spirit was born, feeding on the poison gland’s toxins.

Even this poison, which could melt space itself, could not erase the empty being.

Normally, a twisted spirit couldn’t devour power this way.

But I had devised my own methods, since ordinary spirits rejected me.

This was the result.

Twisted spirits weren’t supposed to be born strong.

Yet by chance, this one carried immense power from birth.

After I swallowed Lispa’s pill and transferred the poison to the spirit, my body began to change rapidly.

Lispa’s melody sank into me, resonating with the pill’s power, isolating the poison that had been destroying me.

Then the white power took over, swiftly restoring me, while adaptation reshaped my body to endure the toxins.

It was like undergoing continuous rebirth in real time.

As my inner chaos turned to harmony, the new lifeform appeared before me.

It had devoured the poison and taken form—a small, brown-furred otter.

My existing spirits appeared too: the calm girl Grivy and the fiery chick Sur.

Both eyed the newborn curiously and stepped closer.

The otter stared blankly at them, then suddenly jolted like a broken cat and flopped over.

“What the—what’s wrong with it?”

“Broken? Is it a cat?”

Everyone stared dumbfounded.

Then the otter abruptly jumped up and began convulsing.

Gulp-gulp-gulp-gulp!

After a long fit, it spat out a violet bead.

“Holy crap. An energy core?”

Melissa muttered in shock.

“Like… coughing up a hairball?”

I was stunned too.

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