Chapter 336: Forgot That We Were All Bathing Together
Whatever that Deathless Black Snake was plotting, it didn't really matter. Since Talulah clearly didn't want that thing taking over her body and mind, Steven decided not to press the issue any further.
For now, he'd just clean out the Originium arts the creature had left behind inside her body. At least then, he wouldn't have to worry about Talulah suddenly changing personalities one day and turning into some kind of deranged terrorist.
And for him, this was nothing difficult at all. One bottle of milk—that was all it ever took. No matter what sort of illness or contamination it was, once it went down, it was going to be washed clean.
Even so, Talulah could barely endure it. It felt as if something was stirring deep within her consciousness, tugging at her mind, unravelling it thread by thread, forcibly tearing away pieces of her awareness.
The sensation was so excruciating she couldn't help but widen her eyes and thrash in pain. But with Steven pinning her down, all she could do was clutch his arm with desperate force.
Then, with no other outlet for the torment, her instincts took over. She opened her mouth and bit down hard on the base of Steven's palm that was covering her lips.
Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth. Yet it wasn't that she had broken through Steven's skin—it was that she had bitten so hard her own lips had split.
But the pain in her mouth was nothing compared to the agony within her mind. Talulah had expected it wouldn't be easy… but she never imagined it would hurt this much.
And it wasn't just her consciousness being scoured. That bottle of milk Steven had forced down her throat was also purging the infection from her body. The feeling of Originium being stripped out from within her very flesh made her eyes roll back white.
As for Steven himself, he merely looked down coldly at the Draco girl twisting in his arms. Anyone else would've had a hard time even keeping her from breaking free, after all, her strength was far greater than he had expected.
Still, even though their bodies inevitably pressed together in the struggle, he wasn't in the mood to "enjoy" any of those incidental benefits. He was treating an illness, not looking for cheap thrills.
Alina, on the other hand, looked on with pity as she saw Talulah writhing in torment. She turned helplessly toward Steven as if pleading for mercy on her behalf.
"Don't look at me like that," Steven said flatly. "This kind of pain is nothing compared to having your entire body and mind stolen away. If she can't even endure this, then she'd best give up on ever doing anything great."
"Besides, this is a kind of tempering. Only by swallowing pain that ordinary people never could can she truly understand the struggles of others. She'll end up thanking me later."
Even as he spoke, he noticed the strength of Talulah's struggles fading. The milk's effect had run its course, and most of the lingering debuffs on her body had likely been scrubbed away.
Now curled up small in his arms, she didn't look like some martial arts heroine undergoing bone-washing and marrow-cleansing, emerging covered in filth. Instead, she was only slick with a sheen of fragrant sweat—perfectly suited to rinse off in the hot spring.
But then—without warning—a wisp of black energy slithered out from within her body. It coiled together like a small snake and, moving in silence, darted straight toward Alina.
Most people wouldn't even notice the faint black mist slithering about like tiny snakes—especially with the heavy steam rising from the hot spring masking everything. If it hadn't been Steven standing there, that thing might've actually found an easy opening.
But in this world, there were no "ifs."
The moment the black haze tried to latch onto Alina, Steven simply snatched it out of the air and, with practiced ease, stuffed it into a glass vial.
"Really? Trying to pull something right in front of me? Bit disrespectful, don't you think?"
Inside the bottle, the black mist churned, threads of snake-shaped smoke tangling together into something unsettling. Whether or not the thing could actually be contained in a mere glass container, even he wasn't sure. On instinct, he just tossed the vial straight into his inventory.
No matter how unruly it was—once inside his inventory, what could it possibly do? Stage a prison break?
Sure enough, the writhing haze instantly froze solid the moment it entered his inventory. The label on the vial warped, letters twisting until they finally settled into a new name:
[Liquid Snake Scale]: A partial manifestation of the Black Snake's will. You may attempt to absorb it to inherit the Black Snake's will.
The system even thoughtfully provided a description and suggested use. Unfortunately, he wasn't exactly eager to experience what it was like having someone else take up residence inside his head.
—Well, not like he hadn't gone through that once already.
Back then, he had drowned the intruder with a mouthful of milk, and judging by the situation now, that fragment probably escaped back then… who knows where it went, or who it managed to cling onto?
At least now he had a general idea of what the so-called "Deathless" of the Black Snake really meant. In truth, it was just spreading itself thin, casting a wide net and waiting for some poor soul to get unlucky enough to be possessed.
Of course, for it to have left such a notorious legacy in Ursus, it clearly wasn't just a cheap trick. Still, as long as it didn't come knocking on his door again, he couldn't care less whether it lived or died.
Alina, meanwhile, had been watching curiously.
She hadn't seen the black mist itself—only Steven suddenly snatching at the air, pulling something invisible into a bottle, then making the bottle vanish like a magic trick.
Even though she'd already witnessed his bizarre abilities plenty of times, she couldn't help her curiosity from bubbling up again.
But curiosity wasn't her top priority. What she really cared about was the condition of the girl draped limply in Steven's arms—Talulah.
The Draco girl's breath was shallow, looking as if her strength had been completely drained, head resting weakly against his shoulder.
"Is… is it done? The cleansing?" she asked, blinking. To her eyes, Talulah looked no different from before—aside from the utter boneless weakness that made her seem hollowed out.
"What else did you expect? That I'd pump her full of life energy or something?" Steven shrugged.
Honestly, only he could have pulled this off so easily. Without his milk—a rule-breaking weapon in its own right—even he would've been helpless against something clinging to her very consciousness.
He glanced down at the girl in his arms, carefully adjusting her posture as he helped her sit upright.
After giving her a quick once-over, his eyes narrowed slightly.
The system tag behind her name had changed. The ominous suffix—[Black Snake (Unawakened)]—was gone.
Only then did Steven finally nod in satisfaction.
"The rest is up to you," Steven said quietly, glancing at the girl still dazed from her ordeal. "I can't help with this part. Once you manage to overcome that fear he planted in you… that'll be the moment you're truly cured."
He had already done everything he could. Whether Talulah walked down the path the Black Snake had laid out—or forged one of her own—depended entirely on her resolve.
At last, stirred awake by his voice, Talulah's consciousness fully returned to her body. But the weakness clinging to her limbs remained, leaving her feeling like an empty husk.
Just like Alina, she couldn't detect any obvious change in herself. She didn't know if that so-called curse had really been removed. After all, it had never shown any clear symptoms on her to begin with.
What she did feel was the lingering aftershock of agony, that raw pain of something being torn from her very soul. It still clouded her thoughts, kept her from focusing on anything clearly.
But then—her brow furrowed sharply, before her expression shifted, melting into something wild and ecstatic. Her gaze snapped to Steven, and in that instant, he realized.
He had forgotten something very, very important.
And by the time the thought hit him, it was already too late.
He tried to back away, but the girl who had been too weak to even lift a finger suddenly exploded with impossible speed. Talulah lunged forward, wrapping her arms around his waist, clinging to him with all her strength as though she'd never let go.
Her eyes blazed with starlight, brimming with a joy that swallowed everything else.
The posture she held him in, the way her body pressed against his—it was dangerously alluring. But Talulah herself didn't notice, not in the slightest. Her mind was consumed by only one thing.
Even whether or not the curse had been cleansed no longer mattered. What mattered was the unmistakable lightness flowing through her weary body. The constant ache that had always gnawed at her—gone. The corrosive pain of Originium lingering in her flesh—vanished.
That relief was real. Undeniable.
"You… how did you do it?"
She clung tighter, her arms hooked firmly around his waist, terrified that if she loosened her grip even for a second, he might slip away. Tilting her head up, her burning gaze locked with his.
On this land, Oripathy was an incurable plague—an unhealable brand of sin itself. Even Talulah knew that for all her resilience as a Draco, once she became infected, her time was limited.
Suppressive medicine existed in plenty, yes. But a cure? That was nothing short of fantasy.
And yet here, in her own body, that miracle had come true. She was certain—absolutely certain—that there wasn't a trace of infection left inside her. The sword of Damocles that had forever hung above her head… had been lifted, just like that.
And the one responsible was the mysterious boy she was holding onto with desperate strength.
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Note: Character Illustration is in this Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1iuyfwNVFHzIi9H4rWNT_lAm7jTSiah_M
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