'This place is cold,' he thought. Unable to see, he sensed the outside in a mysterious way that his young mind could not comprehend. Instinctively, he knew he was in a low-temperature environment.
Over time, he began to feel more and more. First, he became aware of his surroundings, which at first felt cramped and uncomfortable. Soon, however, he had much more space, which allowed him to develop the ability to see.
His surroundings were completely red. He didn't know what that meant, but he knew it instinctively, just as he knew he was cold. He could also feel everything around him, including his 'home', growing larger.
Wanting it to be bigger, he followed his instincts and began to "eat" what was outside. This integrated completely into himself, making him bigger and more concentrated.
What was that? Why could he suddenly 'know' so many things? Ironically, this was one of the things this strange knowledge did not provide a concrete answer to, except to indicate that he had to find out for himself.
Eager to learn more, he extended his senses outside his body and observed a different environment: a world of colors and things completely different from the red eternity in which he was initially confined.
Then, he learned to listen and understand the voices of the entities surrounding him. Many new concepts came to his mind, helping him to understand many more things.
The figures that were different from him were 'humans,' while he was a 'core of spiritual energy.' He understood that he ate this 'energy' to grow, but there was also a ritual circle to prevent it from getting out of control.
Would eating make him dangerous? But it made him feel good! He began to fight against this repression, releasing waves of crimson energy that permeated his entire new environment and eventually brought it under his control.
Was this the solution? To radiate his 'power' and dominate everything outside his body? To circumvent the barrier that humans had imposed around themselves, around him?
He gained a sense of self, a consciousness of his own, and a clear idea of what he wanted. But he had no 'name,' not yet, not while he was captured. So he continued with his arduous task, acting unstable in front of those annoying humans.
A woman was constantly watching him. He could sense that she had found him, but she said nothing. Instead, she made a gesture as if to encourage him to continue. Although he could instinctively know many things, his understanding of some things was limited. However, he had also developed emotions.
He was happy when he saw that someone wanted him to be free. His efforts became increasingly drastic, altering the world around him and attracting a fragment of the spiritual world. However, he never understood why strange things existed in it.
Who were the elves, and why were those humans whispering about them? He couldn't learn about them as he had before. It seemed that the projection he had induced into the real world contained ruins from this civilization, which was unheard of to these people.
He didn't care, though; it wasn't of immediate interest to him. Once he was free, something he would surely achieve. He would find out about these things he couldn't understand. This was one more reason why he wanted to achieve freedom.
Then, he felt he could do something else. His energy served as a bridge, extending his consciousness. Soon, he mastered the ability to send short messages to other people's minds.
Thus, he convinced the apparent leader of these humans by promising him many things and using his power to induce certain changes in the leader's body and that of his henchmen. Slowly, however, there was no need to rush.
The woman was not convinced by him, but she did talk to him about many things and saw him as a curious child. Was he a child? Perhaps! After all, he was very young compared to many existing things.
But when he sensed three strangers entering his territory, he realized that things had changed. These people were different. They did not yield to him. They refused. One of the inhabitants of his body even lent them his power so they could resist him, albeit temporarily. How dare they!
One of them even had a mental exchange with the strange barrier attached to the elven ruins, another thing he couldn't understand. It was just like the strange entities between the spiritual and earthly worlds, which were far beyond his understanding and instinct.
He urged Howard Stone, whom he had previously convinced, to release him. When that happened, his power was unleashed completely. As a 'joke,' he transformed one of the men into a strange reminder of the things he saw in the mezzanine of the real world.
He also allowed his followers to 'appease' him, ceasing to radiate his spiritual energy. After all, he needed the energy to survive. Now that he was free, there was no need to waste it.
Incidentally, he gave Howard Stone a deeper transformation so he would get rid of the women, especially the witch. He didn't know why, but looking at her up close made him reject her more.
Everything worsened when he felt this woman invading him. She even managed to see his true self among the cluster of energy he had collected, which frightened him deeply.
He didn't understand why the witch's eyes were shining or the strange power they possessed. He only knew that she was not convinced by his words, which made her the most threatening figure present.
He was confident that the power he granted to Howard Stone would be enough to win. After all, he gave him a great body, protection, and the ability to recover quickly. That should have been enough to kill those women, right?
But it wasn't. Not only did he fail to harm his enemies, but he was crushed by Lamia's body and subsequently had his head turned to bloody pulp by the blonde woman's hammer blows.
'What... a disappointment,' he thought. His plan to use the man as a vessel had been ruined, but then an idea came to him. Wouldn't it be better for him to take action himself and create his own body?
Guided by this thought, while the women celebrated their victory, the spiritual core, considered a failure by some, decided to do more than eat or contaminate its surroundings.
The red sphere began to shake, alerting the quartet of women, but there was nothing they could do. Séraphine refrained from using magic directly because mixing aether with such a large amount of spiritual energy would be like lighting the fuse of a mountain of powerful explosives.
She didn't want to die in an explosion! So, while holding the exhausted body of Élodie, she decided to retreat. But first, she took the staff that Howard Stone had discarded, deciding it was too valuable to leave there. She stored it in her witch's hat.
"Was that necessary?" asked Élodie, who had regained some of her strength.
"Wizards and witches always carry their most important things with them. I didn't know Howard Stone was a wizard. Since he is, isn't his staff precious to him? It might even have spatial storage!" Despite the risky situation, Séraphine's greed and curiosity were obvious motivations for her decision.
"But we don't know exactly what's going on. Isn't everything supposed to be over now?" asked Madeleine, who was essentially just a fairly strong Lamia and not a fighter.
The supposed investigation took an unexpected turn, and she had to confront this kind of conflict for the first time, which was shocking.
However, the situation did not allow her to dwell on her feelings. Only when she saw the man who caused everything die were her emotions able to surface, mentally exhausting her.
This is why her face was gaunt and her body had returned to its normal shape without scales covering it. Now, she frowned as she watched the spiritual core change shape.
"We don't know what's going on. I just know that thing is a failed spiritual core. This is the first time I've been in a situation like this. Worst of all, weren't spiritual cores supposed to be conjecture? This whole situation is too weird!" Séraphine complained. She tried to stay a safe distance away from the changing mass of crimson energy.
"Since I met you yesterday, weird things have been happening in my life. Is it because you attract bad luck? Until recently, I was just fighting normal monsters.
But now I've even met Nisca, who is nothing like the small, chubby, cute walking mushrooms in the real world." Complaining was perhaps a way for the girls to relax their minds, and so Élodie joined them.
"But Nisca's gift helped us avoid corruption," commented Sasha, who had noticed this special detail. Although her participation in the fight was minimal, it was the contribution of that strange spiritual mushroom that allowed her to be with the trio of women at that moment.
"Yes... It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the mushrooms she gave us allowed us to get closer. However, it's obvious that the benefit is temporary because they're similar to expensive potions I've seen before." Although Séraphine continued talking with her companions, she was completely focused on the vague crimson figure that had been the spiritual core.
After a short time, the spiritual core's consciousness decided to take on a new appearance, representing its freedom and future. It decided to enjoy this new form by learning everything it could.
It chose to imitate humans since they were the most intelligent creatures it interacted with, though it added some changes to its final form.
Thus, the trio of women and a fairy saw a boy no older than 12 before them. His skin was completely red, and he had small horns on his forehead and pink eyes that looked at the world with curiosity.
His black hair moved unnaturally, floating upward as if he were underwater. A black robe covered his body, and his features were so delicate that he could pass for a girl.
The small figure began moving its body, even trying to walk forward despite its lack of balance, as if adapting to its new form.
"So I'm a boy? No, I can be a girl too, but for now, let's keep this appearance," a high-pitched voice emerged from the new entity. After testing its body, it turned its attention to the women.
"Do you think you can stop me? I can see it!" The child frowned. His pink eyes seemed to capture something more than others could. He realized the girls had bad thoughts toward him.
"After all, you've caused a lot of trouble, you know?" Séraphine said accusingly as she wiggled the fingers of her free hand as if she were about to perform a magic spell.
"I just wanted to be free! Now I am!" the boy shouted. His anger seemed to affect the real world. The ground, no, the entire space that made up the spiritual fragment, shook with his words.
"Hey, you should calm down if you don't want any more trouble..." Élodie tried to talk to him in a much more relaxed and less aggressive tone than the witch, but the red-skinned boy was pretty upset at that moment. Instead of letting her finish, he attacked.
With a simple movement of his hand, a thin beam of red energy flew toward the blonde, who was still being supported by Séraphine due to her previous exhaustion.
Had she known she would have to face a child who was the embodiment of a dangerous cluster of energy, she would have maintained better control of her resistance. But there was no time to complain now.
A terrible threat of death hung over her body at that moment! She felt Séraphine push her aside, and she narrowly avoided the beam of energy, which struck one of the columns in the distance.
The column exploded, scattering pieces of rock everywhere. From the ground, Élodie received a rush of adrenaline and quickly got up, focusing all her senses on the child, who had a smug smile on his face.
"I'm pretty strong!" The boy showed off his childish mentality. He did not continue attacking, but instead smiled and puffed out his chest, full of pride.
"I have a name, too. Call me Rubin!" After announcing his chosen name, Rubin decided to demonstrate the full extent of his power to these women.
He started with the two women who had killed the man who had freed him. Suddenly, Rubin's figure disappeared. Élodie looked around, trying to spot the boy, but she couldn't find him.
"Is he that fast...?" The blonde's words stopped abruptly, and she flew backward. At that moment, the sound of flesh being struck reached the other two women's ears.
His blow was faster than sound! Séraphine and Madeleine concluded, but how had he gotten so close to Élodie so easily? Even though she was tired, she could have at least tried to evade him. Instead, she was an easy victim of his attack.
The Lamia couldn't see his movement either, and the witch didn't have an enhanced body, so they might as well say that Rubin had teleported.
"I brought this space here. I am the owner of this place. I can be anywhere in it whenever I want," the boy said, raising his fist and smiling innocently.
'Only a child would describe his abilities that way,' thought Séraphine. This further increased Rubin's danger because the worst thing about a powerful enemy is if he's either crazy or has a childish personality.
At that moment, she was facing the second case, which was not good for the witch. Children can be quite cruel without realizing it. A child with power who is aware of his own strength? Yes, a complete recipe for disaster.
"Now... It's your turn." Rubin looked at Madeleine, who had transformed the scales on her body back to human form because of the danger she felt from the crimson child.
True to his word, Rubin acted. This time, he didn't teleport; he moved so quickly that he left only a red blur in his wake. In less than a second, his small body was in the air in front of the Lamia.
The child's hand reached out and fell on Madeleine's face. She felt an irresistible force pushing her back. Her head slammed against the ground, cracking it, and a shockwave pushed the wind and loose pieces of granite that made up the floor.
With a strength that didn't correspond to his size, Rubin squeezed the lamia's face and began to run, dragging the lamia's enormous body with him. He left a crack and a trail of blood in his wake.
At that moment, Séraphine tried to act. She made a gesture with her right palm and waved it in a cutting motion. This produced a thin, slightly curved strand of aether that floated in front of her for a few moments before she guided it toward Rubin.
However, the enemy reacted as if he didn't care, simply letting the spell fall upon him. Séraphine expected to see some kind of reaction between the spiritual energy and the aether, but her attack merely cut Rubin's back, tearing his clothes and skin and opening his flesh.
There were no drops of blood, nor did the attack stop the entity's actions. It stopped dragging the Lamia and gently caressed the girl's cheeks instead. Madeleine had long since used her nails to attack him, scratching his body, but Rubin simply didn't care about the damage he was suffering.
"That...hurts," the spirit creature murmured before grabbing Madeleine's head with both hands. She couldn't break free despite her resistance.
He began slamming her against the ground repeatedly, as if repeating the hammer blows with which Élodie killed Howard Stone. The Lamia clung to Rubin's arms, trying to stop him, but she wasn't strong enough.
More of Séraphine's spells fell upon the entity's body, but it remained unmoved. Whether the attacks were blows, stabs, or energy cuts, Rubin continued his actions with impunity.
The floor was stained with Madeleine's blood. She gradually stopped resisting; her yellow eyes rolled back, and her arms fell limply. But Rubin continued to whip her head.
After slamming her head against the floor one last time, causing more cracks, the red-skinned boy turned and looked at Séraphine. The witch, feeling the gaze of those pink eyes, instinctively took a step back.
She usually provoked this kind of reaction with her visual ability, but Séraphine was deeply disturbed by Rubin's attention because she sensed he was examining more than her body.
"You wonder about many things... but you also fear me," said Rubin. His robe was torn to shreds from the attacks he had endured. His skin was torn, cut, and bruised. Soon, however, a red glow emerged from his being, restoring him to optimal condition.
His body recovered, and his clothes were repaired. All the damage inflicted on him failed to affect him as expected. This caused Séraphine to frown because she did not like what she saw or the words the boy had spoken to her.
"Can you read my thoughts or observe my mental activity?" the witch asked, trying to take advantage of Rubin's occasional childlike naivety.
"I suppose so. They're like sparks around your head. Although I can't tell what they are, I can sense many things just by glancing at them." As Séraphine had hoped, Rubin was naive enough to answer her question openly. However, she couldn't continue to take advantage of that.
Not when the boy appeared in front of her, raised his head, and tilted it slightly to look at her. Sasha hid shyly in her hat and let out a little scream when Rubin materialized in front of the witch.
Séraphine had to resist the urge to use her special vision. She knew that if she did, she could discover many things about the enemy in front of her. However, she could also suffer terrible reprisals, as the boy's words confirmed.
"Your eyes bother me. You want to look at me with them again, don't you? With that green glow... I want to take them out." The entity waved its fingers, showing the witch how and with what it would rip out her eyes without needing to speak.
"There are answers within you that I cannot obtain. You confuse me too much." Rubin reached his small hand toward Séraphine, trying to touch her, but the witch took another step back. The boy's face wrinkled in obvious annoyance.
"You have a lot of strange smells on you. But there's a scent on your body that I've smelled before. It's very similar to those confusing guys," the creature said in a darker tone. Then, he stood on tiptoe and sniffed the air, making the brunette feel uncomfortable.
"I don't like you at all. It seems you don't like me either, which makes me hate you even more," Rubin continued. His voice was filled with obvious anger as he punched Séraphine in the abdomen, sending her flying several meters into the air.
Her body fell heavily to the ground and rolled a few meters before coming to a stop. The blow knocked the wind out of her, making it difficult to breathe. The searing pain that spread throughout her entire being made it worse.
"You don't want to be around me, but what you keep ignoring is that this is... Hmm?" Rubin looked back, trying to find something in particular, but he didn't have much success.
He did notice, however, that Madeleine had regained consciousness but decided to stay on the ground. She couldn't get up after the beating Rubin had given her.
Then there was Élodie, kneeling and trying to stand while leaning on her warhammer. The blonde's blue eyes were fixed on the red-skinned child. However, both her exhaustion and the blow that had put her in this state were not things she could overcome so easily.
"What was that? I've been feeling some strange things for a while now..." the boy murmured, distracting himself enough for someone to act in his presence.
Sasha took advantage of Rubin's inattention and floated over Séraphine. Her hands emitted aether, and small sparks of energy fell on the witch. This alleviated her pain and numbness slightly.
The fairy's action allowed the brunette to move more fluidly. She tried to sit up, but saw a pair of red feet appear in front of her.
"Who said you could get up? Did I?" Rubin asked, speaking in the third person. Not finding what had attracted her attention, she refocused on Séraphine.
Seeing the witch try to stand up, the spiritual creature felt satisfied. His great power allowed him to do whatever he wanted! He smiled and then kicked Séraphine hard in the face.
Two sounds followed: the crack of Séraphine's nose and the sonic boom caused by Rubin's movement. However, Rubin didn't want to destroy the witch's head yet, so he controlled the force of his kick.
The blow was powerful enough to lift Séraphine's body into the air and spin her around, causing her to fall on her back. Blood from her face splattered her blouse and the floor.
Rubin reappeared next to the witch with something new in his hand. Sasha's body. Although he wasn't squeezing her, the expression on the fairy's face made it obvious that she wasn't comfortable with the spiritual creature's touch.
Séraphine struggled to open her green eyes and watch the scene unfold. A strong feeling of helplessness rose in the witch's heart, which the crimson child noticed. He laughed as he waved the fragile fairy body in front of the brunette as if it were a doll.
"Hehehe! This little thing participated, too, didn't it? I'm going to turn it into paste..." Rubin's voice stopped abruptly when an explosion shattered his head.
Perhaps it was because of the unusual nature of the attack, or because he had found a way to hurt the child, but this time, Rubin did not react as he usually did to injuries.
His body staggered erratically as he moved away from the witch he had struck. His hands shook wildly. Although his head was splitting and he couldn't speak, a mental scream spread through him. They had finally caused him pain.
His hand opened, releasing Sasha. She took this opportunity to approach Séraphine, whose nose and lips were covered in blood. Yet, her gaze was fixed elsewhere, observing a small dot in the distance.
It had been a long time since the witch had suffered damage. When she faced Mirian yesterday or dealt with Howard Stone in the previous fight, she hadn't been hurt. Now, however, her face was stained with her own blood.
Her head ached from the blow, her nose stung from the blood, and she could barely breathe due to congestion. She had to open her mouth to get air, which allowed her to taste her blood.
But her spirits, previously low, seemed revitalized. Her eyes, dazzled by the previous kick, tried to focus on the red-haired woman kneeling on the ground with a long gun emitting a trickle of smoke.
Reinforcements had arrived.
𑄝𑄝𑄝𑄝𑄝𑄝𑄝
Francisca had arrived to see what was happening, but she decided not to attack first. She was glad she had been paranoid and had brought many enchanted objects with her, which helped her get there with relative ease.
Without mentioning her red contact lenses again, the redhead wore a bracelet with stealth enchantments on her hand, which was perfect for an alchemist like her who used a sniper rifle as her main weapon.
In her current environment, she wore a necklace with a medallion bearing characters from her homeland. The medallion provided her with protection from the free spiritual energy in this space, preventing it from accumulating in her body and corrupting her.
She didn't understand why this spiritual fragment was there, except that the energy within it had increased sharply at one point. This made her more cautious and urgent.
To improve her situational awareness, she wore earrings that enhanced her hearing, which was ideal for an environment as dangerous as the one she was in.
These four simple pieces of equipment helped her navigate the spiritual fragment and avoid enemies that would consume her time. She could feel herself lacking time, so this help was invaluable.
She arrived at this place having taken a different path from Séraphine and her group so that she wouldn't have to climb those stairs. She was hundreds of meters away from the large platform that had housed a temple in the past.
With her contact lenses, she observed the strange child who seemed to be in a spiritual field. This phenomenon had been seen in other beings of the Spiritual World, but this being's use of it was particularly special.
'If they act in his field, he can sense it. His body prepares itself so as not to suffer harm, and he can teleport himself into the aura covered by his power. Turn all this spiritual space into your domain?
What a joke! You just radiated your power; nothing more. Not only does he look like a child, but he also acts and thinks like one.' Having heard those words, Francisca scoffed, knowing it was pure bravado.
However, she recognized the immense power possessed by the being who called himself Rubin. She loaded one of her most powerful enchanted bullets into her sniper rifle, ready to blow his head off with one shot.
Since he was outside her range, her attack could not hurt him. The alchemist activated her stealth device to its maximum to prevent the energy signature of her weapon from being detected.
This way, the redhead wouldn't waste her first shot, the most important and valuable. She put her eye to the scope, aimed at the creature's head, took a breath, and stood still like a statue.
Then, she pulled the trigger. Her weapon made no noise when it fired; only streaks of red light emerged from the pale wood of her rifle, propelling the bullet to levels beyond those of a standard weapon.
A beam of light shot through the air at supersonic speeds, striking Rubin's skull directly and exploding instantly. Nothing remained but the neck that had previously housed a head.
Before anything else could happen, Francisca noticed Séraphine's gaze. Although there was a considerable distance between them, the redhead moved her lips before shaking the bolt of her sniper rifle. Its magazine could hold five bullets.
She had four left. Seeing the spiritual being try to recover with part of its head reassembled, she aimed for a different area: its chest. After pulling the trigger again, the left side of the entity's torso exploded.
There were three bullets left. Rubin fell to the ground from the impact of the previous shot, which made it much easier for Francisca to aim. She fired again a few seconds later.
One of the creature's legs exploded. This time, the head, which was now lying on the neck, let out a loud cry of pain that shook the fragment of the spiritual world. This was all because of the energy Rubin had previously dispersed.
Two bullets remained. Her red eye made direct eye contact with the child's pink eyes. However, his ability to become indifferent to pain and injury was useless if Francisca's actions were outside his field of vision.
From the first shot, pink blood splattered all over the floor, staining the entire place the same way Séraphine's and Madeleine's red blood had. This made it seem not as special as he had believed, which made him very angry.
"Damn it! Come here!" In a show of desperation, Rubin pointed his hand at Francisca's position. A large amount of energy accumulated in his palm and was fired in the form of a beam.
As a sniper, how could she not know that, after a couple of shots, she had to move? She was already prepared to change positions, and the crimson-haired boy's actions only sped up the process.
The beam of spiritual energy, as thick as a jet of water, passed by the redhead. She clicked her tongue at this blatant waste of energy and lack of control.
'A competent spiritual creature would have controlled that attack better. This child is only powerful, nothing more,' the alchemist concluded. However, she did not relax, especially after seeing her previous position.
The place where Francisca had arrived seemed to have been an altar, with broken stone idols. Now, all of that had been blown up, leaving a two-meter-deep crater.
Although she was running, the redhead was able to shoot while moving. She fired again, this time at the arm Rubin had previously used to attack her, causing the child to scream in pain.
There was one bullet left, one more special than the previous ones, which she wanted to use, so she knelt on the ground, held her breath, and aimed at the entity's head again. In just a few seconds, she had the target secured, so she fired.
This time, she not only blew Rubin's skull apart, but also unleashed thick arcs of electricity along with the fire from the explosion. The arcs spread across the young spirit creature's remaining body, burning and destroying it.
Knowing this wouldn't kill the being, Francisca stowed the magazine of her sniper rifle in her space ring. Then she took out another magazine, inserted it, and cocked the weapon, ready for action.
There were five bullets left, which gave the girls time to recover. If Howard Stone was the first round and Rubin's show of power and Francisca's shots were the second, then the third was yet to come.
The women should be prepared for it.