Chapter 58: Null Maggot
"Now what should I do with this?" Adyr muttered, eyeing the Null Maggot. His vision was still blurry, but his thoughts were sharp.
He didn’t have enough energy to subdue it yet, but keeping it in his pocket wasn’t an option either.
Can I transfer it to the Dawn Land without subduing it? The thought crossed his mind after a moment. He doubted it. The Dawn Land existed to hold subdued sparks, after all. Still, it was worth trying.
He set the Maggot down at a safe distance, somewhere its presence wouldn’t affect him, then retrieved the energy crystals embedded in the skulls of the two wolves. Strangely, the alpha had two level-2 crystals instead of one—an unexpected but welcome bonus.
With that, he now had ten level-2 crystals and ten level-1s. Without hesitation, he tossed one into his mouth, refilling a single point of energy. Then he picked the Maggot back up and attempted to send it to the Dawn Land.
Focusing, he directed his energy into the spark and watched as a transparent layer of energy wrapped around it. But after a few seconds, the glow receded, fading into nothing. As he suspected, the Dawn Land couldn’t accept a spark that hadn’t been subdued.
But it wasn’t a total failure. The moment his energy wrapped around the Maggot, the sensory pressure it had been emitting vanished—and even when he withdrew his energy, the pressure didn’t return. It was as if the spark had been drained of its power.
"This result works too. I can carry it like this," Adyr said, satisfied, and took a closer look now that his senses had fully returned.
It was encased in a smooth, pitch-black shell that resembled hardened obsidian. It was so dark it looked like light itself couldn’t touch it. There were no eyes, limbs, or ridges—just a seamless body, as if it had been forged in a workshop rather than born. It looked less like a living creature and more like a decorative relic made of black iron.
After slipping the Maggot into his pocket, Adyr gathered the throwing knives scattered around the area. Then he headed back into the forest to retrieve the coat he had thrown aside while fleeing—the swords were still strapped to it.
He had spent a lot of merit on these items, and with many already lost, he needed to recover whatever he could. He also considered picking up the shield, now bent and folded in half. For a moment, he thought about having it restored at Headquarters, but then changed his mind.