Little Chick

Little Chick is Arcus, a Rainbow Spirit born from Castitas's divine power and interlocked with the Spear of Purity. It begins its life with Seol Jihu as a red egg that silently judges him, then becomes his lifelong partner, a blunt critic of his failings, and an anti-evil phoenix capable of fighting the Parasites' strongest servants. Its growth and the spear's development are connected but not identical: Little Chick matures by digesting divine and evil power, while it separately decides which of the spear's seven Authorities Seol may use.

Biography

Inheritance, Loss, and the Pagoda of Dreams

Seol finds the red egg beside the Spear of Purity in House Rothschear's inheritance. The family's record identifies the weapon as an artifact housing the Elemental Spirit Arcus and describes its guardian as a phoenix, while Flone explains that the egg must hatch. Little Chick is not yet able to act openly, but its dormant presence changes the spear from inherited equipment into a conditional partnership: possession alone cannot make Seol its accepted wielder. (Chapter 111)

Luxuria supplies the terms of that relationship when Seol seeks divine power for the egg. Arcus is a Rainbow Spirit born from Castitas's power, and it is interlocked with the Spear of Purity without being merely another name for the weapon. Once awake, it will watch Seol throughout his life and may permit any number of the spear's seven powers—or none. Even hatching is conditional, so Seol's immediate responsibility is to nourish the egg with divine power while living under an examination whose criteria he does not control. (Chapters 113 and 122)

Eva, Valhalla, and a New Recruit

The egg gives its first clear verdict during Valhalla's campaign to break Eva's corrupt alliance. After refusing Seol access to the spear, it removes the resistance when he commits to the operation, which he understands as approval from the examiner observing his choices. It later hatches during the meeting in which he disciplines Kim Hannah rather than excusing a trusted subordinate. Hatching signifies that Seol has passed the second test and been accepted as Arcus's lifelong partner, although it does not automatically release the spear's hidden Authorities. (Chapters 126 and 129)

The newborn spirit is named Arcus formally and Little Chick in ordinary use. At first its speech reaches the group only as chirping, though Yi Seol-Ah can receive its thoughts directly; after digesting more divine power, it grows and begins speaking aloud. Seol also treats it as a person within his organization. When Valhalla enters Eun Yuri's Neutral Zone, he pays Little Chick's entry cost because the rules count it as a participant and because he recognizes both it and Flone as members, not accessories to be left behind. (Chapters 129, 134, and 139)

The Spirit Realm and Tigol Fortress

Little Chick's return to the Spirit Realm exposes the age and authority hidden by its juvenile body. It calls lesser Spirits “younguns,” knows the realm as its homeland, and is recognized by the freed Spirit Kings as Arcus and Lord Rainbow Spirit. During the battle against Twisted Kindness, it deliberately tests Seol's resolve, condemning his selfishness and immaturity but valuing his refusal to surrender. It then pulls its first three forehead feathers and permits One with the Spear, Flying Spear, and Formless Spear—more Authorities than it says it had granted any previous partner. (Chapters 139 and 145–147)

The permission is only one part of Little Chick's contribution. It asks Seol for Ghionea Marcel, directs the archer and the gathered Spirits in delivering a seed and five sedges to the corrupted World Tree, and helps restore it. Little Chick then consumes the five destroyed Nests' nuclei. A later explanation separates what it takes in: it uses up the Spirit Kings' energy that the Nests had stolen, but stores the Nests' own energy. The immediate power lets it assume a huge five-colored phoenix form and oppose Twisted Kindness and her bone dragon, but this is temporary rather than permanent maturation. (Chapters 146–149 and 177)

The Path of the Soul and Humanity's Reform

The cost becomes visible after the expedition. Little Chick is bedridden because it forced a temporary evolution in the Spirit Realm, released three spear stages at once, and then maintained its larger form in the Middle World. Seol must replenish it with holy power. The Nest energy does not produce instant permanent growth: Little Chick stores that energy and digests it over time, while its innate purification turns evil into nourishment. Its weakened state therefore follows from overextension for Seol, not from losing the power it had consumed. (Chapters 153 and 157)

Little Chick's judgment also becomes part of Seol's training. Black Seol Jihu reveals that the Spear of Purity has been speaking since its awakening and that Seol failed to hear it until Little Chick opened the first three stages. This distinction matters to Seol's Path of the Soul: Little Chick is the examiner who grants access and voices harsh assessments, while the spear has a will and voice of its own. By watching Seol sternly and refusing easy praise, Little Chick reinforces the lesson that borrowed power cannot substitute for understanding one's weapon and actions. (Chapters 146, 163, and 167)

The Imperial Oath Expedition

By the preparations for the Imperial Oath, Little Chick has slowly digested the stored Nest energy and reached adolescence, adding more colored feathers and gaining normal access to its phoenix transformation. It tells Seol that his ability may qualify him for the fourth or fifth spear stage, but his character remains under evaluation. On the expedition it scouts the Parasites' empty territory from the air and repeatedly carries messages, yet the journey drains it: frequent trips through Via Lactea leave it unable to maintain phoenix form for even an hour without first gathering more energy. (Chapters 177–179 and 182–184)

When Seol orders Little Chick and Flone to evacuate the unconscious Seo Yuhui, Little Chick protests but keeps the promise. Because Seol is preparing to die behind them, it makes a “special exception” and releases the fourth and fifth Authorities, Mind Spear and Limitlessness, while explicitly saying that he has not passed their tests and that the final two stages remain beyond its juvenile means. After bringing Seo to safety, it risks its life scouting the return route, overuses its transformation until it coughs blood, and finds Seol dying. It tries to pull him toward reinforcements and promises the sixth and seventh stages if he survives, but he dies before reaching them. (Chapters 185–187)

Return of the Star and the Final War

Seol's resurrection reunites the partners, first through an angry scuffle and then through preparation for the final war. Little Chick refuses to treat its desperate promise as automatic permission: it reminds Seol that the fourth and fifth stages were already exceptions and that it must first reach adulthood. Seol provides enough holy power for that evolution. At Black Seol Jihu's urging, the adult Arcus then releases the sixth and seventh Authorities, Thousand Stream Convergence and Spear God, while warning that the former requires practice and the latter must be used with close attention to Seol's physical condition. (Chapters 193–194)

Little Chick uses its own adult power alongside those permissions. It transforms and stays behind to confront Twisted Kindness so that Seol can advance, trusting him to keep the promise not to turn back. During the final confrontation with the Parasite Queen, it wraps Seol in five-colored protection against the Queen's attacks. The barrier lasts only seconds before Arcus collapses in a burst of light and disappears from the immediate fight, but Little Chick is alive at Valhalla's victory celebration soon afterward. Its last wartime act is thus a successful delay, not evidence that its protection can indefinitely withstand released divinity. (Chapters 197, 200, and 202–203)

After Paradise

Peace gives Little Chick a freedom it says earlier partners never allowed it to enjoy. Because those masters died young and left it returning to an egg, Arcus had spent its life bound to repeated cycles of duty. With Seol alive and Paradise at peace, it sets out alone to find its own path and keeps contact by letter. The journey becomes a comic attempt at romance with several ordinary birds, but its significance is practical as well: the lifelong partnership does not require Little Chick to remain physically beside Seol in peacetime. (Chapters 236 and 241)

Little Chick nevertheless returns when danger rises again. While on a date, it senses abnormal energy, reaches the battlefield carrying Yi Seol-Ah, evaluates the hidden monster's strength, and warns Seol that the enemy may be laying a trap. It then burns a path through the surrounding creatures, safeguards Yi Seol-Ah, and leaves the final decision to its partner rather than overriding him. By its latest appearance, Little Chick is alive, independent, capable of its adult phoenix form, and still treats Seol as the partner whose judgment it advises and supports. (Chapter 250)

Appearance and personality

When first hatched, Little Chick is a round, fist-sized bird covered in soft yellow fluff tinged with red, with a white belly, tiny wings, ruby-colored eyes, a light-pink beak, and one light-green forehead feather. As it develops, additional colored forehead feathers appear. Its mature combat form is a huge phoenix whose plumage displays multiple brilliant colors; it can still return to the small chick form after reaching adulthood. (Chapters 129, 139, 147, 177, 193–194, and 197)

Its manner is proud, caustic, and openly combative. Little Chick insults Phi Sora, bickers with Seol and Black Seol Jihu, and often turns concern into mockery or scolding. The aggression is not indifference. It evaluates Seol seriously, worries when he is hurt, and repeatedly spends its own strength to create chances for him. Even at Seol's death, its instinct is to cajole, promise, and physically pull him toward safety rather than abandon an impossible retreat. (Chapters 139, 146, 187, and 193–194)

Little Chick combines ancient self-importance with conspicuously immature habits. Spirit Kings address it respectfully, but it can quarrel over food, become drunk, delight in other people's embarrassment, and make a chaotic mess of its postwar courtship. Its peacetime journey also reveals a desire that duty had suppressed: after surviving masters who repeatedly died young, it wants a period of life chosen for itself. That independence does not dissolve its loyalty; when it detects danger in Chapter 250, it interrupts its private life and returns to support Seol. (Chapters 139, 147, 202, 236, 241, and 250)

Abilities and class

Little Chick is the Arcus Spirit, a Rainbow Spirit created from Castitas's divine power to destroy evil. It is neither an Earthling nor assigned a numbered level or human class. Its personal growth, its phoenix manifestations, and its authority to examine the Spear of Purity's partner interact closely, but they remain separate systems: nourishing Arcus develops the spirit, while Arcus's judgment governs another being's access to the spear.

Arcus identity and the Spear of Purity

House Rothschear's record calls Arcus the Elemental Spirit housed in the Spear of Purity, and Luxuria describes spirit and weapon as “one and the same” in the sense that they are interlocked. The story still demonstrates distinct wills and roles. Little Chick can leave the spear, speak, travel, fight, and mature independently; after it opens the first three stages, Seol hears the Spear of Purity itself speaking and protesting his misuse. Little Chick is therefore the spear's examiner and lifelong partner, not the voice or physical body of the weapon in every scene. (Chapters 111, 113, 129, and 146)

Arcus judges both ability and character. Its tests begin while it is still an egg: allowing basic use is the first approval, and hatching marks acceptance of Seol as a lifelong partner. Later permissions remain discretionary. Little Chick grants the first three stages because it respects Seol's refusal to surrender, withholds the next stages while continuing to evaluate him, and opens stages four and five as an emergency exception rather than a passed test. Even adulthood provides the means to open six and seven; it does not erase Arcus's role in deciding whether to do so. (Chapters 126, 129, 146, 178, 185, and 194)

Divine nourishment, purification, and growth

Divine or holy power is Arcus's ordinary nourishment. Luxuria supplies the initial divine power needed for hatching, after which Seol is responsible for feeding the spirit. Digestion takes time and is associated with growth, speech, additional forehead feathers, and eventual maturation. Seol's large contribution-point expenditure in Chapter 194 supplies the holy power that completes Little Chick's evolution to adulthood; the text does not reduce that development to a fixed amount, timetable, or numerical rank. (Chapters 113, 139, 153, 177, and 194)

Arcus also has an innate power to purify and consume evil. In the Spirit Realm, it devours the five destroyed Nests' contaminated nuclei because evil can serve it as nutrients. Its later account distinguishes two power sources inside them: it uses up the Spirit Kings' stolen energy during the expedition, while storing the Nests' own energy and digesting that reserve gradually. Neither source is a Spear of Purity Authority. Purification and evil-feeding belong to Arcus; the spear stages are permissions it gives Seol through their interlocked bond. (Chapters 147, 153, and 177)

Phoenix transformation and anti-evil combat

Little Chick can transform from its small bird body into a massive, many-colored phoenix. Its first transformation in the Spirit Realm is a temporary state enabled by the location and the power it has just consumed; its later explanation says the stolen Spirit King energy was used up then, while the Nests' own energy remained stored. In that form it blocks an attack from the weakened Twisted Kindness and battles her bone dragon, benefiting from an existence specialized against evil. The encounter does not establish equality with Twisted Kindness at full strength, and the forced transformation leaves Little Chick bedridden afterward. (Chapters 147–149, 153, and 177)

After slowly digesting the stored power and receiving more holy power, Little Chick reaches adolescence and then adulthood. The mature form can fly, scout, carry people, breathe sacred flame, scratch a dragon-bodied Army Commander, and create a brief five-colored protective barrier around Seol. These effects still have limits: repeated long-distance travel and transformation exhaust adolescent Arcus; its wounded form can fail to transform; and even the adult barrier against the Parasite Queen survives only a few seconds. (Chapters 177, 182–187, 197, 200, and 250)

The spear's seven Authorities

Little Chick releases seven powers of the Spear of Purity through its colored feathers. The first three are One with the Spear, Flying Spear, and Formless Spear. They improve Seol's relationship with his weapon, allow him to wield it remotely, and enable attacks from an apparently absent spear. The fourth and fifth are Mind Spear and Limitlessness; the latter supplies an effectively unbounded field of possible spear attacks and also serves as a stepping stone in Seol's development of Trinity Harmony. These are the spear's techniques as used by Seol, not combat moves performed by Little Chick's phoenix body. (Chapters 146–147, 185, 194, and 200)

The sixth Authority is Thousand Stream Convergence, which manipulates or redirects flow, while the seventh is Spear God, which drives Seol's spear ability and potential to an extreme state. Little Chick explicitly warns that Seol cannot use the sixth immediately without practice and must monitor his body when using the seventh. The final battle confirms the warning: Spear God forcefully detonates Seol's potential, repeated use is sharply limited by that strain, and the resulting depletion cannot simply be healed by the World Tree. Arcus grants access, but Seol must train, activate, and physically bear the Authorities himself. (Chapters 194 and 200)

Limits and latest state

Little Chick's greatest early constraint is developmental. It needs holy power, time to digest nourishment, and physical maturity before it can sustain its full phoenix form or provide the final spear stages. Spending strength on a transformation and releasing several stages together can incapacitate it. Even after adolescence, travel through Via Lactea and repeated transformations deplete its energy; severe overuse makes it cough blood and can prevent another transformation. The corpus never states that adulthood removes all energy costs. (Chapters 153, 177, and 184–187)

Its specialization also matters more than raw comparison. Arcus is exceptionally effective against evil and can stand against enemies whose nature suits that power, but its first clash with Twisted Kindness occurs when she is weakened, and its protection from the Parasite Queen rapidly fails under sustained released divinity. By Chapter 250 it considers itself capable of handling an enemy stronger than an Army Commander, yet qualifies that estimate and advises caution about a possible scheme. Its latest demonstrated state is formidable, mobile, and adult—not unlimited or omniscient. (Chapters 147, 197, 200, and 250)

Power progression

Relationships

• Seol Jihu: Little Chick accepts Seol as its lifelong partner after observing his conduct, then tests, criticizes, and protects him. It grants access to the spear's Authorities but refuses to substitute permission for Seol's own training and judgment.
• Flone: Flone identifies the egg as the phoenix Arcus and later serves beside Little Chick as Valhalla's other nonhuman member. The two obey Seol's order to evacuate Seo Yuhui and return together after completing it.
• Ghionea Marcel: Little Chick selects Ghionea for the World Tree mission and directs the archer through the seed-delivery plan. Their coordinated intervention frees the Spirit Kings and restores the World Tree.
• Yi Seol-Ah: Yi Seol-Ah is initially the only person who can receive the hatchling's thoughts through its chirping. Little Chick later carries and protects her when it returns to assist Seol in Chapter 250.
• Black Seol Jihu: Black Seol Jihu shares Little Chick's readiness to criticize Seol's shortcomings and presses it to release the final stages early enough for training. Their alliance is productive despite frequent bickering.

Items

• Spear of Purity: Arcus is interlocked with the sacred spear and evaluates its partner, deciding which of its seven Authorities may be used. Little Chick's own growth and combat abilities remain distinct from the weapon's voice and Seol's execution of those Authorities.