Chapter 130: The Pool [2]

According to Morris’s arrangements, Cecilia needed to maintain a meditative state within the water, allowing the Sacred Spring’s power to gradually penetrate her mana circulation and suppress the unstable energy surrounding the curse.

Victor, meanwhile, would perform the next stage of purification when her internal mana was at its most stable.

"All right." Victor stopped beside the pool. "Go on in."

Cecilia glanced at the water before turning back toward him.

"Are you planning to stand there the entire time?"

"What else am I supposed to do?"

Victor pretended to consider the question.

"Haven’t we already been through far more dangerous situations together?"

"Victor!"

"All right, all right."

Seeing that Cecilia was about to lose her temper, he wisely turned around.

"I didn’t see anything."

"Of course you haven’t seen anything yet!"

The girl’s somewhat irritated voice came from behind him.

Victor couldn’t help laughing.

A short while later, accompanied by the gentle sound of water, Cecilia changed into the prepared treatment robe and entered the center of the pool.

"You can turn around now."

Only after hearing her voice did Victor turn back.

At this moment, Cecilia was sitting cross-legged on the stone platform in the middle of the pool. Her silver-white hair flowed down over her shoulders, while gentle ripples spread across the surrounding water.

Her originally somewhat pale complexion had gradually regained a little color under the nourishment of the Moonlight Sacred Spring.

"Stabilize your mana circulation the same way you did during our first treatment," Victor said.

Cecilia closed her eyes. The next moment, a stream of pure light element mana slowly spread from her body, intertwining with the surrounding moonlight energy.

Hum!

The formation at the bottom of the pool lit up.

The originally tranquil water began to rotate slowly, and dense moon-attribute mana continuously gathered around Cecilia’s body, gradually forming a gentle silver-white halo.

Standing beside the pool, Victor carefully sensed the changes within her body.

Soon, he detected that familiar Abyssal aura.

Victor glanced at the continuously gathering moonlight energy.

"Cecilia."

"Mm."

"What comes next might be a little uncomfortable. Remember, don’t actively resist my power."

"You already told me that last time." Cecilia kept her eyes closed. "I know what to do."

Victor smiled. "Looks like the previous treatment wasn’t wasted."

"If you keep talking nonsense, I’ll have you thrown out."

"Very well, Your Highness."

Victor put away his teasing expression and raised his right hand.

The next moment, the mana within his body began circulating slowly.

Mana Devour!

An invisible devouring force extended forward from his palm, immediately producing an extremely subtle fluctuation upon coming into contact with the Abyssal curse inside Cecilia’s body.

Victor did not rush to release its full power.

Instead, he first guided the devouring force slowly along the outer edges of the curse, confirming that the Moonlight Sacred Spring’s power had already stabilized the surrounding normal mana channels.

Only then did he begin the actual purification.

Hum!

Cecilia’s body trembled slightly.

Strands of dark-red Abyssal energy were gradually drawn out of her body, flowing along the mana channel Victor had established before finally disappearing into his palm.

Almost simultaneously, a System notification sounded in his mind.

[Detected devourable Abyssal-attribute energy!]

[Mana Devour activated!]

[Absorbing abnormal mana from the target’s body...]

Victor ignored the notification and focused all his attention on Cecilia.

Compared to the first treatment, this purification was clearly considerably more difficult.

The relatively scattered Abyssal energy around the outer layers offered almost no resistance and was successfully devoured.

However, as the devouring force gradually approached the true core of the curse, an exceptionally stubborn power suddenly began contracting.

Immediately afterward, the previously stable mana circulation actually experienced a brief interruption.

"Ugh!"

Cecilia let out a muffled groan, her brows tightly furrowed.

Victor’s expression darkened slightly.

Just as he had expected, the true core wasn’t going to be so easy to deal with.

Fortunately, he had already prepared for this.

"Keep your mana stable! Don’t move!"

Victor shouted, suddenly pressing his left hand against the control rune beside the pool.

Hum!

The formation beneath the spring pool abruptly lit up.

Even denser moonlight energy rapidly gathered along the surface of the water, forming streams of silver-white light that stabilized the affected mana channels within Cecilia’s body once more.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Victor further increased the output of Mana Devour.

In an instant, a portion of the Abyssal energy entrenched near her heart was finally forcibly separated from its original connection to her mana circulation.

However, just as Victor prepared to continue devouring it, he suddenly discovered that the separated Abyssal energy was contracting toward the core again, attempting to condense back together.

"Still trying to go back?" Victor’s eyes turned cold.

The next moment, he directly changed how the devouring force operated.

Instead of continuing to pull at the surrounding energy, he concentrated his power on the connections to the core that had already begun to loosen.

Since this thing wanted to condense again, he simply wouldn’t give it the chance!

Boom!

A powerful mana fluctuation suddenly erupted above the spring pool!

Several violent ripples surged through the water around Cecilia, and as the silver-white moonlight energy collided with the dark-red Abyssal aura, a brief vortex of energy actually formed behind her.

The muscles in Victor’s right arm suddenly tightened.

His devouring force was continuously absorbing Abyssal energy, but at the same time, the exceptionally stubborn core was resisting with everything it had.

If this stalemate continued, Cecilia would ultimately be the one to bear the pressure.

He had to finish this quickly!

With that thought, Victor held nothing back.

Mana surged rapidly through his right arm, firmly locking onto the curse core that had already been weakened by the Moonlight Sacred Spring.

"Get out!"

Hummm!

A thin, dark-red thread of energy slowly emerged from Cecilia’s chest.

It was not a physical object, but rather the curse core that had already been separated from her body.

Although it was only about as thick as a finger, it emitted an Abyssal aura that made one’s heart tremble. It seemed as though the slightest lapse in concentration would allow it to burrow back into Cecilia’s body.

Naturally, Victor had no intention of giving it such an opportunity.

Mana Devour activated at full power!

The dark-red energy was continuously extracted at a speed visible to the naked eye, while the violently churning spring water gradually returned to calm.

Only when the final strand of Abyssal energy had been completely devoured did Victor finally withdraw his right hand.

[Ding!]

[Abnormal Abyssal energy absorption complete!]

[Detected that the Abyssal curse core within the target’s body has been successfully extracted!]

[Confirming residual corrosion...]

Victor carefully examined Cecilia’s internal mana circulation once more, and only after confirming that the Abyssal aura previously entangled around her heart had completely disappeared did he slowly let out a breath of relief.