System vs Rebirth

Noel was sitting on the ground with a bunch of demon crystals in front of him.

"Are you ready?" Anna asked while unsheathing her blade. They had killed all the surrounding demons, but there was still a possibility that a demon would attack here.

"Yeah." Noel nodded as he gradually closed his eyes.

His hands reached for the demon crystals and began to absorb them.

Noel could feel the fullness of his spiritual energy reserve, but he continued to absorb more spiritual energy until the very limit.

The spiritual energy from Noel's body started leaking, a sign that he had gathered enough power. Absorbing more would just cause the spiritual energy in his body to get pushed out.

This leaking spiritual energy was different from normal spiritual energy. It had been dyed in Noel's color as a Spirit Grandmaster.

The spiritual energy was carried by the wind and started flying to the west.

It would take a few minutes, but the demons were very sensitive to the spiritual energy. The moment they sensed this abnormal spiritual energy, they became alert.

Aoo!

Roar!

The demons started communicating to each other, which eventually brought attention to the overlord of their area.

Anna wasn't aware of their presence just yet, but she had expected that there would be trouble following the breakthrough. Hence, she sharpened her instinct, picking all dangerous signs from the entire area.

On the other hand, Noel continued to absorb the spiritual energy even though the excess energy was leaking from his body.

Anna was confused at first, but Noel's body suddenly underwent a change. There was a small ice shell covering his lower left arm, which continued expanding.

'Is that… a shell?' Anna furrowed her eyebrows. 'No. It's like a scale…'

Anna became even more confused when the scale continued to grow. They were covering his entire left arm before spreading to his body.

But their growth stopped in the middle of his chest as if they had hit an invisible wall. Since they couldn't go much further, the ice scales expanded upward and downward. Just like what happened to his chest, the ice scale only covered the left portion of Noel's body.

'Noel is a half spirit. Is the ice scale only covering that spirit part? But his body becoming that of a spirit is due to Ardagan. Maybe Ardagan has occupied the right part of his body, considering Heisk's spirit seal is located in the left chest while Ardagan's spirit seal is located in the back of his right hand.'

Anna observed Noel's condition, hoping that nothing went wrong. After all, she had no idea what kind of transformation a Spirit Transcendence would have, let alone one with two spirits.

The process took some time, but eventually, all the left part of his body was covered by the ice scales.

Even though she couldn't see the scales underneath his clothes, the spiritual energy that the ice scales exuding was enough.

Roar!

Roar!

"!!!" Anna furrowed her eyebrows while turning to the west. "So they have come… to think that the demons are able to sense things from far away. We have to take this into account. Then again, Felicia said that the spiritual energy acts like gas. It might get carried by the wind or something… If that's the case, won't it be another way to lure those demons? Well, I can discuss it later. For now…"

Anna moved to the side, standing between Noel and those demons. "I have to kill those demons first."

The demons started exiting the forest that was located one kilometer from their current location.

Anna's expression turned serious because she could actually sense one Superior Demon among them. There were also at least three hundred other demons.

This number could multiply if demons from other areas also joined forces.

Still, this number was something that Anna could easily handle in her current state. That was how much the transcendent path strengthened her abilities.

"In that case, I will—" Her words abruptly stopped because there was a burst of spiritual energy coming from her back. "Huh?"

She turned around and saw Noel had stopped absorbing the spiritual energy. All that spiritual energy was now being released from his body, causing a burst that produced a shock wave in all directions.

"!!!" Anna couldn't help but widen her eyes. If he did that, it wouldn't be weird if the demons from other directions also joined.

However, it seemed that this burst of energy was a must. As his body was releasing that energy, Anna could sense that the part that released the most energy was actually his back.

The ice wing formed very slowly as if it were being integrated as a part of his body instead of a skill.

'Is this what it means for synchronization?' Anna thought. 'From the record that Grandfather and Sword Arbiter gave, the synchronization is a part where the human acts like a spirit, and the spirit acts like a human.

'Doesn't this look like merging? No. Looking at our transcendent path… we are utilizing our power differently. The record said that if we are charging spiritual energy, the spirits will do the same, allowing us to release our power twice as fast.

'However, our transcendent isn't like that. We separate the energy, elements and other things to cause a burst that involves nature in the process. Well, the record comes from the peak of Spirit Grandmaster, so it might not be accurate. Still, the spirit seal is supposed to undergo a transformation as well…'

She realized that the record they currently had was a bit unreliable. Still, this was just the beginning, so there might still be other things happening on Noel's body.

For the time being, he had to focus on the incoming demons.

Roar!

The Superior Demon let out a roar, commanding the demons to charge forward to take down their opponents.

Before Anna could take them on, she could sense hundreds of demons coming from the south and north. It seemed that they were lured by the burst of energy Noel was currently releasing.

Fortunately, they came from the east, so they had cleaned up that area better than others. There was no demon coming from the east… or so she thought.

The one picking up Noel's spiritual energy wasn't just any demon. It was a demon located far east… yes, the one they had to escape from, the Ancient Demon Spider.

The Ancient Demon Spider, who was still shedding its exoskeleton, picked up the faint spiritual energy.

Even though it couldn't move currently, the spider sent a signal to the superior demons under him.

And all these superior demons woke up from their slumbers to lead thousands of demons according to the spider's instructions.

Roar!