Agent of Seraphim-Chapter 52: Spirit

’Such a bright light...’

’Hmm... It’s heading toward me?’

’It is morphing into a hand...’

—SLAP

"Arghhhh." Brand jolted awake, hand pressed to his cheek.

He glanced around, looking for the source, but stopped midway.

"Ruby?" He narrowed his eyes. The person in front of him looked like Ruby, but there was something obviously different about her.

"Your hair..."

Ruby’s long red hair was now blazing in a bright orangish-red glow, fluttering in the air like a golden mane.

Her eyes glowed with a fiery orange light.

Her tan skin had turned fair and luminous. A fierce, wild flame aura radiated from her, as if it was constantly clawing at the darkness, devouring it.

"I overdid it..." Ruby said while checking his cheek.

’Overdid what...?’

The burning sensation on his face left him puzzled for a moment, but he soon despaired as his senses returned.

’Ughhhh.’

He groaned in pain, fanning his hand over his face. Even if he did not have Scarab Shell’s cover, his cybernetic skin was durable enough that he shouldn’t feel such pain from a mere slap.

He heard Ruby murmuring in a low voice, as if whispering to someone.

’Like how I always whisper to Seraphine?’

"Pffft." Seraphine was holding her stomach, laughing at his face.

He was both confused and frustrated by the current situation. However, he soon remembered the most important thing at the moment.

The mission given by the System.

"Demon Worms!" He jolted and hurried to check his map.

From the map, he saw that they were still in the middle of enemy territory, surrounded by countless red dots. In fact, it was so dense it looked like every corner on the Map was red.

Yet, there was an odd gap between them and the demon worms. When he raised his head, he noticed numerous eyes staring from the darkness.

However, in the space illuminated by Ruby’s light, there were no demon worms at all.

’They’re afraid of approaching?’

Ruby’s heat felt warm. At least, that was how it felt to him. But the worms seemed to be burning. Their flesh melted if they got even a bit closer to the burning aura. The demon worms in the front look deformed.

"I should release the Spirit Form, now that you’re awake," Ruby said to him calmly. "You’ll take over from here, okay?"

Seeing that she was still maintaining the Spirit Form she had mentioned, he thought she must be waiting for his reply.

"I will take a rest," he said, nodding and holding her hands to reassure her.

She smiled at him, even though she was a bit startled. But that was the brightest smile he had seen from her.

Ruby’s usual appearance returned, and she slowly dozed off into slumber. Her expression was not one of fatigue, but rather relief, as if a great weight had been lifted.

Yet, the situation he faced was far from peaceful. Thousands of worms were lunging at him at the same time. They viewed him as their natural foe.

He knew he had to act fast before the worms overwhelmed him with their numbers. Just by the sheer amount, he felt like he was facing a tsunami of worms. But Ruby was still unconscious.

While he was worrying about Ruby, a flame aura radiated from her pendant, enveloping her in an intense orangish-red light. It was as if she was in some kind of mythical escape pod.

What a weird way to describe it." He slapped himself to concentrate on the worms ahead of him.

"Ruby will be fine. She’s protected by a super-strong being," Seraphine told him.

Which kind of made sense to him, as he remembered the vision before he lost consciousness. Ruby was dropping from the earth above to reach him. It was like she was sinking into the sea, with the ground melting as she descended.

’Let’s go wild then.’

He reached into his dimensional pouch and pulled out the Vibrant Shield, slamming it hard to the ground.

One would expect a loud sound when metal met earth with such force, but it was silent.

He activated the Scarab Shell’s transformation only on his upper body. His arms were covered in seamless black scarab shell.

He held the shield with one hand, while shells coiled from the other arm into a cone, forming a sharp needle-arm.

’It’s better to save energy for later.’

After fighting Raml-d’ah, he was confident he could handle these normal demon worms without using his full Scarab Form.

Occasionally, there were different variations of demon worms, like the Bone-head Worm earlier, but they didn’t concern him much.

To him, they were just demon worms with higher defense. He could still pierce through them with his needle-arm.

He braced against the horde effortlessly, but started to feel uneasy as this continued for a long time.

"It’s endless?" He was worried now. The mission had two conditions: survival and reaching the predestined location—the Ruin of Worms. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Right now, all he was doing was surviving. He hadn’t made progress toward the main objective. He had to move toward the ruin as well.

Ruby was still lying unconscious, but the flame around her was burning as strong as ever, if not stronger. The worms became fuel for the fire.

He lowered his head, contemplating his choices. He had to move on to complete the mission, or the waves would be endless.

"There is no other choice. Ruby will be fine, right?" he asked Seraphine.

"Yeah. Her spirit beast urged you to hurry," Seraphine replied.

’Spirit beast?’

’That powerful being was some kind of spirit beast?’

He wanted to ask more, but he had to focus on the mission.

"Consume." Red mist covered the field, as far as he could reach, and absorbed the lingering energy from the carcasses.

’This can’t go on forever...’ He could recover energy, but muscle fatigue would still remain.

"I’ll return, Ruby." He darted in the direction of the ruin, as shown on his map. He had to hurry.