Manaless Mage-Chapter 249: Black smoke

Click!

However, all he was met with was a dull sound, and contrary to his expectations, the door didn’t budge.

’Shit, it’s locked.’ Leon thought, smacking his forehead in embarrassment.

In his eagerness to check what was behind the door, he had completely ignored that possibility that it would be locked.

After all, if what was inside was really that serious, then it was expected for them to lock it.

’I’m really stupid... so stupid.’ He thought, tapping his hand on the door as he pondered on how he was supposed to get in now.

He couldn’t afford to waste too much time of meaningless stuffs like this, as a huge chunk of his energy was rapidly being eaten away by time freeze.

’Hopefully...’ He thought, his eyes suddenly turning to a certain ginger haired man, who was standing still behind him.

Without wasting anytime, he swiftly went to the man, checking all his pockets in search of the key to the door.

Fortunately for him, he found a bunch of keys nested in the chest pocket of the man’s shirt, and swiftly pulled it out.

’Thank God.’ He thought, letting out a deep sigh of relief.

He quickly went back to the door, randomly inserting one of the keys into the keyhole, and then—

Click!

A low click sound echoed in the solemn air, as the door finally unlocked.

’Yes!’ Leon thought, slowly pushing the door open.

The moment he opened the door, a strong ominous wave suddenly swept past the corridor, causing his eyes to widen in shock.

’It’s... a lot thicker now...’ Leon thought, his eyes flashing with a strange glint, as he slowly stepped into the room.

Due to the effect of his skill, time in the room had also frozen, causing everything within it to be still.

"What the hell?" Leon muttered in shock, staring wide-eyed at the figure laying on the bed at the other side of the room.

It was a beautiful woman with long brown hair, which scattered roughly all over the bed.

"What is this?" He said, slowly moving closed to the woman.

Running all around her face, down to the neck and the rest of her body were some strange thick black lines, which kept oozing out a strange black smoke.

However, the smoke was also frozen in the air, courtesy to the effect of time freeze.

The closer he got to her, the more that baleful mana he had been sensing grew stronger, and his eyes slightly shook in realization.

Nonetheless, what shocked him the most was the identity of the woman lying on the bed in front of him.

"Mrs Morton..." Leon mumbled in surprise, staring intensely at the black lines around her body.

’I was right, so this is the corruption Harry told me about.’ He thought, still in shock at what laid in front of his eyes. ’And it seems really... terrible.’

He slowly stretched his hand towards her, however, he suddenly halted his hand midway, releasing a deep sigh.

He couldn’t help but wonder how Harry was dealing with all of this; the situation with his mother, and also the AMO’s refusal to let him see her.

’I wish I could help... I really do.’ Leon thought, calmly withdrawing his hand from the air.

Unfortunately, he didn’t understand anything about the strange black lines on her body.

At first, he thought that he might be able to somehow reverse the corruption using his element.

However, time reversal was something he was never able to learn despite training so hard to do so.

And even if he did learn how to reverse time, he doubted it would be effective against the corruption, especially with his limited amount of energy.

He hadn’t fully understood neither his element, nor his energy, so thinking like that was simply overestimating his abilities.

’I need to leave.’ He thought, swiftly running towards the door.

He had been here for a while now, and he was starting to get fatigued from using up too much energy.

However, just as he took the first step towards the door, he suddenly sensed something move behind him, causing his eyes to widen in shock.

Since this whole floor was under his skill domain, he could sense even the tiniest changes happening within it, such as new people entering the domain... or moving within it.

’That’s just my imagination... right?’ Leon thought, swallowing down a huge gulp.

He had already frozen time on the whole floor, it wasn’t possible for anything to still be able to move.

Nonetheless, he slowly turned around, channeling his energy in preparation for anything that was about to happen.

Szzz!

"W-what...?" Leon mumbled, his body trembling slightly in shock as he stared at the scene playing out in front of him.

The black smoke which was supposed to be frozen in time, was slowly rising up in the air, making a low sizzling sound.

’My skill is still active... how is it still moving?!’ Leon thought, narrowing his eyes at the black smoke.

Was it that his energy had already gotten so low that his control on the skill was weakening?

’No... that’s not it.’ He thought, swiftly brushing the thought off his mind.

While his energy was indeed draining fast, it wasn’t to the point where he wouldn’t be able to control his skill anymore.

The only plausible way he could think of was that this black smoke, whatever it was supposed to be, was actively resisting the effect of his time freeze, something which shouldn’t be possible.

’This is bad... very bad.’ Leon thought, beads of sweat slowly rolling down his face.

The process suddenly sped up, and before Leon’s, the black smoke rapidly started coming together, merging into... something.

Szzz!!

Two long black horns first formed in the air, before a small face speedily started forming beneath it.

The eyes formed first, tiny bits of dark steam still oozing out of it, then the rest of its face completely formed after a few seconds.

"What... what the hell is this?" Leon muttered, his eyes widening in shock.

His gaze slowly drifted to Harry’s mother, who was still lying unconscious on the bed, and to his surprise, the black lines around her body had greatly reduced.

Apart from a couple of thin black threads which connected from her forehead to the bottom of the strange creature’s face, the rest of her body was completely clear.

"Ohh... looks who we have here." A low voice unexpectedly sounded in his ear, sending a chill down his spine. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ

Though scared, Leon slowly raised his head up towards the strange creature, asking the only question that came to his mind.

"Who... or what are you?" He asked, tightly clenching his hands into a tight fist.