Chapter 126 - Holed Face

The area they were moving around was a wet jungle, the green trees and grasses were drenched, this seemed to irk Vale Ashford off.

"I do not think it has ever rained today or yesterday…" She said. "So, why is everything here drenched to the brim?"

Her question made Zachary and Yin think as well.

It was a mystery as to why this jungle area was wet ever since they got here if rain was never even present.

"It really is odd." Zachary Lancaster thought to himself.

Yin touched the ground below while still maintaining a crouching position.

"No wonder it is this slippery here." Yin said.

Vale took out her blade and advised both of them to do the same with their weapons.

"I do not see any monsters nearby, Vale, do you?"

Yin asked the S Rank Wind Slayer.

"Something is up, I can feel it, you two best pull out your grimoires and weapons in advance." She saw that only Zachary had a grimoire on the other hand while Yin was equipping his gauntlets.

"Sohaya, where is your grimoire?"

This was the first time that Yin heard this question.

"M-My grimoire?"

The question caught the C Rank Lightning Slayer off guard.

Zachary tried to explain his stead.

"Err. Well. Yin has unique capabilities and skills that are far more amplified with his close quarters combat approach, I think the fact that the Commander and the Serpent Summoner never really gave him a lightning grimoire is attributed to that."

He said.

Yin nodded a nod of gratitude at Zach.

"Hmm. I see. I hope your special powers will be of any use during combat scenarios, Yin. I trust you on that."

Vale did not press the issue further and was satisfied with the explanation that Zachary gave.

She was also a bit curious to see what kind of capabilities the Fire Slayer referred to as he talked about Yin.

"I feel a drastic change in the atmosphere a few seconds ago, the presence of something caused it. Something strong…"

The three of them pressed onwards and climbed up to the branches of trees in order to have a higher vantage point for scouting.

"Who told you that a Seraphim would be here, Vale?"

Yin asked.

"A squadron was decimated in half by this thing. Five of them are now at the apothecary floor getting healed. Before setting off to go to where your room was, I stopped by there." She stopped in order to catch her breath.

"And what I saw were the empty husks of what used to be Slayers…They were all traumatized, none of them were even higher than A Rank and they had unfortunately came across a damn Seraphim."

She said while clenching her fists.

"What did they tell you?"

Zachary asked.

"It was useless trying to make conversation with the other four, most of them just repeated the phrase 'La mort' whatever that may have meant. But one of them was sane enough to fill me in on the details, thankfully. She was a Water Slayer who looked to have returned straight from hell itself. She promised that her words were nothing but the truth, no matter how surreal or horrifying they might have been."

Zach and Yin gulped.

"She said that they noticed a flock of Angels flying towards somewhere near Niflheim, and that if they were to backtrack and go back from where they came, they would get picked off one by one from above. Thus, they wanted to push on forward and find a safe place to wait until the winged harbingers left that place near the Outer Gates. But what they saw was even worse. They had not known it was a Seraphim so she proceeded to describe it. Her words exactly were that it had an empty and absent hole for a face, the top of its head was a circular water ball which was pushing water out of its face. It was wearing a blue tattered armor with an equally destroyed dress at the bottom. They waited for it to pass, but Angels were already onto them, and at that point, it was a question of who would survive the sprint back to Niflheim between them…"

Yin clenched his jaws in anger.

Zach was speechless at what happened to this squad.

"So, anyway, I am on guard because of how wet this area is, it looked as if a flood or hurricane had passed through yet we have not even experienced rain back at Niflheim. Perhaps it is connected to that water Seraphim."

Vale Ashford said.

"That is a plausible explanation. But how sure are we that we would be able to handle it on our own? Just the three of us seems like we are heavily undermanned."

Zachary responded back.

"You just took a Slayer down not even a week ago, keep your head up, Zach. You two seem stronger than you let on, I trust you on that."

The Specter replied with a confident smile.

"If the Emperor had not recommended us for this mission, would you still have considered us?"

Yin asked in a soft tone.

"Of course not! Heh."

Vale Ashford chuckled.

"Yet I do not feel any regret bringing you both here, I guess I was wrong to doubt you kids, considering you are Six Blades, after all."

This gave Yin and Zachary a boost in confidence right after their saddened faces before the Specter said her last line.

They continued their journey onwards as the area they were traversing got more and more drenched.

Vale signaled them to hush down with her hand and pointed at something in front of her afterwards.

The boys looked on and found just what the Specter was actually pointing at.

It was the Seraphim.

"I-Is that what the girl described it to look like?!"

Yin said while trying to lower his voice.

"There is no doubt about it, that is the Seraphim."

Vale Ashford said while nodding and gritting her teeth.

"Are we sure that's it?"

Zach protested.

"Yes. So far, there are only three variations of Angels, the newly discovered Wingless Angels, the normal ones, and the Seraphims. Not even the Wingless Angels look like that. Seraphims also exude a different aura than them, they are a cut above the rest. I am guessing the Seraphim you just took down also looked wildly different from the other Angels you have fought before, right?"

Yin and Zachary nodded.

"There are three Angels currently hovering around the Seraphim. What the hell is it even doing?"

Vale asked.

The Seraphim was looking down below with the hole it had for a face and the crystalline circle orb it had above its head continued dripping out water out of the hole.

There was no doubt about it, this was the most surreal looking Seraphim that mankind has ever seen.

"What now, Vale?"

Yin was curious what their next move was going to be.

"Now we are going to have to wait. I am confident I can take down these three Angels by myself but I have you two to protect so there's that."

Her words were delivered with such ease that both Yin and Zachary felt powerless.

"We can fight as well!"

Zachary said.

"A Seraphim and three Angels, that is four targets that we will not be able to take head on, even if we fought them one against one. Besides, we still do not know what that Seraphim's goal or abilities are, the only thing we know about it is that it uses water, similar to Water Slayers and their affinities, that would explain that weird floating ball excreting water into its face."

"Tch. I am going to be at a disadvantage, then. Damn."

Zachary said while looking at his grimoire.

"As unfortunate as that seems, that really is the case, Zach." Vale said with a smirk. "But we might just be able to make something out of that disadvantageous match up, Zachary."

The Specter thought about how to best use Zach in the battle, she still has not told him this yet.

"Lightning conducts over water, right? Does that mean I will have to be the 'bruiser' this time?"

Yin excitedly asked.

"That is right, Yin. Just be careful, though. It is not like we are attacking right this instant, we have to observe it and hope that those Angels stray far enough for me to pick them off one by one. We will conduct a plan later when it is alone already."

Vale said.

Zach was having a hard time trying to grasp that his spells would not be as effective this time around.

"I am going to have to go all in on my physical attacks, then."

He said to himself.

"It is either you both are extremely unlucky or lucky. Heh." Vale smirked as she watched the Seraphim closely, observing every single small movement it did, memorizing its quirks and whatever it did. "To think that you will get to fight a Seraphim once again after just a few days.. That has got to be either two of those."