Psychic Parasite

Chapter 354: Initiation into a Healer (9)
The ringing sound increased in intensity, echoing in the Shishya’s mind, causing her vision to spin. She took a step into the room when the ringing sound disappeared, the scent of herbs giving her mental clarity.

The Shishya then heard the sounds of bangles jingling as she saw the shaman beckon for her to come closer. Each action of the shaman was suffused with grace and authority, something only birthed in beings who stood in power for decades since birth.

All the women moving about in the room finished their tasks, placing many ingredients in a vat that they placed next to the shaman. They then bored holes into its lid, placing another smaller vat above, the lids of the two facing each other. Once they were done, the shaman waved her hand, motioning for them to leave. The women bowed and left.

The ingredients had been mashed into a pulp, their extract floating at the top. Placed within the smaller vat was the heart of the Fire-Tailed Snail, soaked in its blood, filled to the brim.

”Shamans don’t possess a tattoo of their own, but they are imbued with a certain spiritual power that allows them to manipulate the essence in nature. Using this spiritual power, we extract the essence from many materials and form a recipe while mixing it with a beast’s essence.” The shaman moved her hand, picking up a needle that she measured the rigidity of.

She flicked its end once, piercing it into the smaller vat, watching a thin stream of blood gush out. She moved her hand upward, causing the spurting blood to trail along her action, curving upwards before forming into a lump.

The lump condensed into a sphere, shrinking in size before entering the bigger vat through one of the holes on its lid, sinking into the contents within. The moment it entered, the contents dissolved it, absorbing it into them, turning hotter before shimmering.

Bubbles escaped from the sudden heat while all the gravy and crushed remains began to break down under the heat, either evaporating or dissolving into the fluid. The vapour that exited from the holes on the vat were condensed into a sphere under the shaman’s manipulation, forming a needle that pierced through the smaller vat, mixing with the blood inside.

The sounds of a beating heart immediately resounded, loud enough to overwhelm their hearing. The Shishya’s heart thumped in response to the sound, synchronising with every passing beat, soon thumping in unison.

A faint link seemed to have been established, causing the Shishya to feel something from within. The image of a beating heart appeared in her mind, thumping while releasing a faint mist into the surroundings, one that was similar to steam.

The Shishya fell into a daze when the shaman snapped her finger, the sound breaking the flow, pulling the Shishya out of it. She then noticed that their heartbeats were no longer in sync. ”The essence of the beast is its lifeforce, will, emotions, power, and the experience it had accumulated through life. If left alone, the essence will birth another Fire-Tailed Snail after a couple of days.”

As condensed spheres of blood entered the bigger vat, the temperature in it began to steadily increase, turning all the contents into vapour. When the vapour escaped from the holes on the lid, the shaman condensed them into needles, drilling them through the smaller vat before piercing the heart within.

The heart began to melt under the heat, condensing into a membrane under the shaman’s manipulation, trapping the heat within. The heart swiftly melted, displaying the blood-red essence inside. It was alive, looking like a creature that existed in a liquid state, formless, like water.

Soon, the bigger vat was emptied of its contents, the resultant heat cracking its surface, causing it to shatter after a couple of breaths. The moment it shattered, the smaller vat fell, crashing on the ground before breaking into pieces under the impact.

What bounced out from within was a jelly-like ball, the size of her head. As she willed, the ball bounced once before landing upon her palm. The shaman handed it to the Shishya, ”Touch it and see what you can feel.”

The Shishya held the ball, feeling that it was squishy under the touch, seeming fragile. She closed her eyes, an instinct of sorts guiding her actions as she tried to perceive it by blocking her five senses.

”What do you see?” The shaman said, dipping a needle in a solution before poking the back of the warrior lying on the stone slab, her actions swift. She poked him more than 20 times in a single breath, watching the warrior leak out a couple of grunts before falling unconscious.

”…A Flame…” The Shishya muttered, witnessing her surroundings turn dark, devoid of anything. A faint wisp appeared before her, burning like a candle flame, looking easy to be extinguished. Hidden within the candle flame was a tiny presence, of a shelled beast curling up on the sand, shrivelling in fear.

Every time the candle flame flickered, it shuddered in fright, its tear-struck voice unable to obtain any help. The shelled beast’s tail was connected to the candle wick, thinning as time passed, losing its substance. Suddenly, pale blue light filled the surroundings as a pair of hands manifested.

They belonged to a newborn baby’s, gently shielding the candle flame from being snuffed out. Under its protection, the candle flame regained stability, burning a notch brighter. The shelled beast within let out cheerful sounds, slightly growing inside, the pattern on its shell increasing from a single circle to two concentric circles.

The hands then retreated and touched the cheeks of the Shishya, transferring the warmth before disappearing.

”…Warm,” The Shishya muttered, realising that she was back to reality. She then noticed that the ball in her hand contained a tiny wisp, a candle flame inside it, and sleeping peacefully within it was the same shelled beast.

”Its essence was condensed to possess a spirituality of its own,” The shaman stared in surprise, ”Even the Chief’s didn’t contain such spirituality. Only after he had developed his tattoo to be activatable six times did he develop its spirituality to this extent.”

She patted the shoulder of the unconscious warrior, ”You have lucked out, child.”

She curled her index finger, recalling the ball, placing it on the stone slab beside the warrior. She picked up a needle and said to the Shishya in seriousness, ”Now, stay at the side and don’t disturb me. Like you had sensed the essence before, try to sense this process in the same manner.”

Something instinctively compelled the Shishya to nod and move to the side. She then watched the shaman poke the ball with her needle before pulling it out, the contact minimal. Faintly coated on its tip was the essence in the ball.

The shaman poked the needle on the warrior’s nape, the contact minimal to the extent of not drawing any blood. She inserted the needle into the ball again before poking the warrior, at a spot left to the previous one, the miniature holes created by the two actions touching each other’s ends.

One after another, the shaman repeated the process, careful in her actions, showing expert dexterity, a result of decades worth of repeat. She was fully focused, unaware of everything else aside from her task.

The Shishya closed her eyes, trying to sense like before. Her surroundings turned dark; she noticed three presences before her. One was shaped into a man, one was a ball, and the other was a needle.

The needle seemed to extend into infinity, her senses unable to grasp its full extent. The ball burned; it was the candle flame she had seen before. It was the same as before, but more condensed, a solid fire that was also plasma at the same time. It churned something concerning the aspect of life within it.

The man, on the other hand, was like a solid block of rock, with flowing water circulating within, an expansion and contraction at the chest area that pulled in and out the ether in the air. The ether was the darkness she had sensed around her before.

The needle was like water, capable of dissolving everything it came into contact with. It was solid, retaining part of the flames on its tip when poked into the ball. When the needle poked at the back of the man, the flamed were infused into the pierced point, along with part of the water making up the needle tip.

’The presence of the ball is taken, shaped by the presence in the needle, and carried by it before infusing it into the man.’ The Shishya felt the thought resound in her mind, watching the scene as something was on the verge of sparking within her.

The needle continued to poke into the man’s back in fixed intervals, quick to prevent any delays or rejections, but slow enough to allow the imbued presence to adapt and grow. Sparks of the flames were present in each of the poked places, joining with each other as they guided the flames, creating a path in the man, influencing his composition, his very presence.

”With gradual addition, using a formation while understanding the layout of the target, the individual, and the land, a qualitative effect is achieved, birthing evolution.” The voice of a youth, seemingly in his teens echoed in her mind, resounding with her psyche.

The ringing sounds resounded in her mind once again as something churned within her, causing a subtle change in her presence, absorbing all the knowledge she had perceived, storing them as a trove in her muscle memory.

”Aura…Induce…Evolution.” The Shishya’s eyes regained clarity, waking up to see the shaman had finished engraving the tattoo.

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