Chapter 617: Ember-Ash Worm

"They're here."

The moment Loren spoke, a small sand dune suddenly rose from the desert before them. The next instant, a massive worm burst out from the dune.

In that instant, Loren felt a wave of scorching heat wash over him, so intense that even his air conditioning magic proved useless.

The Ember-Ash Worm resembled the legendary death worm—enormous in size, its entire body crimson red, with a ring of horrifying teeth around its head.

The ground the Ember-Ash Worm burrowed through turned to ash, which was the origin of its name.

However, this particular Ember-Ash Worm was clearly not right. Its teeth were incomplete, its body was riddled with pits and holes, and through these gaps, its internal organs were directly visible.

Combined with the fact that it was already ugly to begin with, it was simply revolting.

The remaining flesh looked normal, with no signs of corruption.

The moment the Ember-Ash Worm emerged from the desert, its first action was to spew a torrent of flame at the group of bandits. The fire was incredibly fierce, swallowing them entirely in an instant.

Yet the bandits weren't harmed at all—instead, their plague was being cleansed.

Soon, they returned to normal, and the flames vanished along with it.

The next moment, the Ember-Ash Worm turned its direction, looming over Loren. Its massive body blotted out the sunlight.

Its open maw was larger than Loren's entire body—it could swallow Loren whole without even chewing.

The Ember-Ash Worm slowly lowered its head, bringing that mouth right up to Loren's face, growing increasingly unsettling.

That said, the Ember-Ash Worm had no bad breath. After all, its ability countered plague; there probably wasn't a cleaner creature in the world.

Finally, the Ember-Ash Worm spoke:

"Great Observer, you've finally come..."

What Loren hadn't expected was that the Ember-Ash Worm had mistaken him for the Perpetual Observer. Still, this worked in Loren's favor.

So Loren didn't waste words and got straight to the point:

"I need to prepare a Severance Ritual targeting the epidemic. I need your help."

"My apologies, Great Observer. Years upon years of corruption have left me at the end of my rope. Now all I desire is death. Please use the World Card to take my ability."

"I burned away all the corruption upon me, which is why I haven't gone mad even now. But at present, I no longer possess much capacity for thought—I only remember my mission: to heal this world."

Like the Dawn Magpie, the Ember-Ash Worm had little reason left. It was now like a corpse driven by obsession.

"How do you know I have the World Card?"

Loren asked, but the Ember-Ash Worm didn't answer his question. It simply continued speaking on its own:

"My kin will assist you. Now, please grant me release."

With that, the Ember-Ash Worm lay down before Loren, waiting for him to take its life.

"Ah..."

Loren let out a sigh. This was all he could do now.

Every extra second the Ember-Ash Worm lived was another second of pure torment.

He'd wanted to ask how the Ember-Ash Worm knew he possessed the World Card, but that opportunity was gone.

Then again, it wasn't hard to understand. They all knew the Perpetual Observer, and they all knew the Tarot cards belonged to the Perpetual Observer, so they naturally assumed Loren had the World Card.

"Farewell. Though you aren't human, you are a hero."

Corruption had plagued these mythical creatures for over ten thousand years, yet they'd persisted all this time to save the world. That alone earned them the title of hero.

The Requiem fell, and the Ember-Ash Worm was cleaved cleanly in two from top to bottom.

Loren wasn't entirely sure where its brain was, but to give it a quick death, this was the only way.

One strike, and Loren's experience surged by a significant margin. He was now just one step away from leveling up again, which also confirmed that the Ember-Ash Worm had indeed been successfully slain by Loren.

The Ember-Ash Worm wasn't as powerful as the Dawn Magpie, so it provided less experience.

"Time to head to the God of Plague's territory."

Loren sheathed the Requiem, then used Abundant Magic to bury the Ember-Ash Worm's corpse deep beneath the earth.

The Ember-Ash Worm had been remarkably efficient. From its appearance to its death, less than three minutes had passed, and it hadn't spoken a single wasted word.

It all happened so fast that Loren felt a bit dazed.

A being like the Ember-Ash Worm, even in death, deserved a grand funeral. Yet it died so silently, so unnoticed.

The Ember-Ash Worm's ability was incredibly useful, its strength was considerable, and its character was beyond reproach. It should have saved the day at a critical moment, died in battle during wartime—not been tortured by corruption until it only wished for death.

"This damned world..."

As he left, Loren muttered in reflection.

Apart from Loren, only Starnight showed any emotional fluctuation. The others couldn't care less.

"Let's go!"

Anna was overjoyed—finally leaving this desert. There was nothing here, and it was dreadfully boring.

Starnight transformed back into a dragon. To balance the temperature in this area, this time Starnight became an Ice Dragon.

In this sweltering environment, riding on an Ice Dragon was genuinely pleasant.

Loren wasted no time setting off toward the God of Plague's territory. What had just happened didn't affect his mood, after all—he'd known exactly how disgusting this world was the moment he transmigrated.

...

"Is this really the God of Plague's territory?"

Loren and the others had arrived in the airspace above the God of Plague's domain. When he looked down, what greeted his eyes were bountiful crops and busy farmers.

For an instant, Loren wondered if Starnight had gotten lost. But the rainbow flags everywhere left no doubt—this was indeed the God of Plague's territory.

"What's going on here?"

The God of Bountiful Harvest controlled nearly all of the authority over abundance, so there was no way other places should be experiencing such plentiful harvests.

Judging by the scene before him, the abundance here was almost comparable to the God of Bountiful Harvest's own territory.

Something like this happening was definitely abnormal, so Loren decided to go down and investigate.

These crops were grown by the farmers themselves. Even if they didn't understand the principles behind it, they surely knew something.

This was just an ordinary farmland that anyone passing by could see, which meant the Plague Church hadn't tried to hide it at all.

Starnight didn't land but continued circling in the sky. Only Loren flew down himself—this made it easier to escape if needed.

Loren's method of gathering information was simple. He went straight up and stopped a farmer:

"Hey there, how come the crops here grow so well?"

Since Loren had concealed his appearance, the farmer didn't recognize him. But the farmer did notice the two blades at Loren's waist.

Even if Loren wasn't a mage or a knight, someone wielding longswords like Loren was still someone a farmer holding a hoe couldn't hope to fight. So the farmer decided to tell the truth:

"The bountiful harvest all depends on this..."

The farmer tremblingly showed Loren the pouch in his hand. Inside was something black:

"Just sprinkle this around the crops, and they'll grow rapidly, guaranteed to yield a bountiful harvest..."

"Fertilizer?"

Loren recognized what it was, and at the same time, a certain person came to mind.