Holy Night: My Husband is Definitely a Paladin - Chapter 33
Translated by Elphie
Her clasped hands felt like they were burning.
A fiery heat, starting from the point of contact, swiftly spread throughout her entire body. It consumed her, searing every vein.
Irene’s breath caught in her throat, and for a moment, it almost felt as if she was being suffocated.
As the initial shock subsided, a lingering warmth, like a delicate touch penetrating her entire being, replaced it.
Her strength weakened and devoid of any will to resist, the warmth manifested as small flames, bursting forth from various parts of her body.
“Ah!”
Light flashed before her eyes and she shuddered. Her slightly parted lips continued to release involuntary moans that she couldn’t quite swallow.
‘Why is this happening…?! It wasn’t like this before!’
Irene vividly remembered the sensation when she purified him in her past life.
‘Back then, it just felt warm…’
Magic was like an everlasting flame. The more it accumulated, the larger the fire became, the more it burned away at your mind and dismantled your reason. It was a sinister blaze that, when built up, turned into a force making one relinquish their humanity.
The purifier stood as the sole entity capable of completely extinguishing that blaze.
While the purifier endured an uncontrollable burning sensation, the knights became increasingly add*cted to the overpowering touch of purification. However, this was merely the knights’ perspective. For the purifiers, it was a taste of death. They had to extinguish the flames the other harbored within them.
It wasn’t easy to extinguish a flame that consumes reason. Above all, purifiers, constantly influenced by the magic throughout the process, often found themselves letting go of their sanity.
Magic dismantled reason, dredging up the lowly nature buried in our deepest recesses. Thus, purifiers had to strive to hold onto their sanity during the purification, as the influence of magic threatened to break them.
However, this was not a universal experience for all purifiers. A robust purification ability could extinguish even the fiercest flames. Irene, however, with her Grade 10 purification ability, struggled to grasp onto the flickering magic. While others molded and wielded it, to her, magic was nothing more than a strange force that burned hot.
In her past life, Irene had no one to ask about proper purification, so she shared her experiences with Wilhelmina, the only person she knew somewhat well.
“It was just hot?”
Upon hearing Irene’s words, Wilhelmina made an expression as if she had witnessed the most pitiful person in the world, then whispered in a small voice.
“You might never know for yourself, but… purification, in reality, can be quite pl**surable. Other pairs don’t just mix bodies for the sake of purification.”
She clicked her tongue in pity. At that time, Irene thought Wilhelmina was merely teasing her.
There was no way purification could feel like that…
“Ah, ah, ah!”
Still holding onto Michael’s hand, Irene trembled. The sparks that erupted from every part of her body showed no signs of subsiding. Her breathing became erratic, and her vision blurred. However, her other senses heightened.
The fire he held within his hand, clasped with hers, continued to surge.
‘Just how much has it accumulated?’
Even in their past life, when he obliterated more than ten dungeons in a single day, the accumulated magic in him was nothing compared to this. Currently, an enormous amount of magic continued to pour into her, unlike anything she had experienced before.
It was as if he had become magic itself.
At this rate, he was going to completely destroy Irene’s sanity before he could purify him. What distressed Irene the most was the sensation coursing through her entire body.
“Ha, hahng! Ah, ah…!”
Amidst the incessant moans, Irene began to realize that something other than pain was starting to take root.
‘I need to let go…!’
She knew she had to regain her composure and attempt to cleanse him again more cautiously. Realizing what she needed to do, she tried to release his hand.
However, at that moment, Michael forcefully tightened his grip.
“…!”
Surprised, Irene tried to jerk her hand away, but it was in vain. As if he couldn’t let go under any circumstances, Michael tightened his grip even more.
That wasn’t the end of it. Unnoticed, his long, sturdy fingers smoothly slithered between hers. His rough calluses from years of wielding a sword grazed against the tender skin between her fingers. Now, as if asserting ownership, he firmly clasped her hand, repeating the motion of squeezing and releasing.
“Ah, uh…”
With each strong clasp of his hand around hers, the intensity of the magic flowing from him grew stronger.
“Th-that’s enough, let go!”
Sensing that something might go wrong, Irene tried to pull her hand away again. However, the more she resisted, the tighter Michael held onto her.
His insistence on never letting go baffled her. This wasn’t like him.