Psychic Parasite

Chapter 366: A Century’s Worth
The Mental Realm had actually descended to reality to pull her psyche. Rhachis Ancestor Dawn gazed with shock at the projection of the Mental Realm, watching it struggle to pull her in. ’Just how frightening did her accumulation transcend to warrant such a scene?’

Unlike the other Ancestors, Gajara Rahi had reached the peak of both the Parasite path and the Soul path, also treading quite the distance in the other two paths. Moreover, the development in the Soul path was only through one manner, and it was what Jyorta did to elevate himself from Tier 1 to Tier 2 Psychic Parasite—by consuming the memory fragments of other beings.

As a Tier 6 Psychic Parasite, Laila’s accumulations—memories and experiences—were unimaginable. The Mental Realm creaked, struggling to affect her as it manifested more and more into reality. Rhachis Ancestor Dawn shielded himself using his methods from the Mind path, watching the Mental Realm coagulate around Laila, fully manifesting into reality.

A pair of eyes appeared on her back, bloodthirsty. The ravings of pain, anger, bloodlust, of happiness, sadness, desires, the sounds of chuckles, roars, chatters, etc. blasted from them, jolting his mind.

Rhachis Ancestor Dawn defended himself against all mental inflictions, keeping his emotional state under firm control, watching the Mental Realm condense, twist and twirl around Laila, fully wrapping around her body.

It then moved up, pulling something from within her. A massive serpent, with the body of a human, possessing hundreds of thousands of heads littering above its shoulders, of hands that were like tendrils, numbering like the grains of sand on a beach; it flashed from Laila’s body, warping the illusory reality as it disappeared from view.

The projection of the Mental Realm vanished right after, the surroundings returning to normalcy. Rhachis Ancestor Dawn wiped the sweat from his forehead, sighing as he sensed the presence of the area around him, swiftly healing the damage it had suffered. If the situation had persisted any longer, the entire mountain would have crumbled.

”So, this is the true you. You have concealed well, Gajara. Can’t exist in reality my arse,” He grumbled, massaging his forehead as he sighed again. He looked at the visage of Laila while he created an environment optimal for her breakthrough, ”I hope you succeed.”

The Mental Realm creaked, sagging at the spot where Laila sat in reality. Around the illusory projection of the mountain in the Mental Realm, a massive humanoid-serpent coiled around, its every movement causing the Mental Realm to creak in protest.

”Come!” The serpentine-humanoid shouted, transmitting the sound everywhere, despite the Realm being a place where the concept of sound didn’t exist. The humanoid-serpent coiled its body tighter, causing cracks to form on the illusory mountain.

The space in the Mental Realm began to stretch at places, even affected by the mere presence it generated, showing signs of rupture. The Mental Realm trembled, expending the energy it had stored to mend the damage.

Faint sounds reverberated as a giant appeared beyond the horizon, each of its steps denting the Mental Realm as it moved forward, slow but steady. It was as big as a mountain, possessing a humanoid body.

It lacked all facial features, only spotting a pair of horns in the pace of ears. Growing from its head were hundreds of thousands of tendrils, their ends shaped into a suction pod, also sporting two needles on one side, acting as the eyes.

Spikes grew all over the body, sometimes inanimate, other times acting like serpents. They hissed but failed to produce any sound. Its two legs were a product of numerous serpent-like tendrils that had coiled together, acting as a collective unit propping up its giant body.

The giant moved slowly, its destination the humanoid-serpent. Its massive body took a long step, followed by another, longer one, craning its serpentine legs to expand and take an even longer step, continuing successively before it began to sprint at blinding speeds.

The bumps it caused on the Mental Realm were swiftly healed while its form burned, expending the massive reserve of Will in it to move.

Thump! Thump!

It was a prehistoric beast that continued to accelerate the closer it was to the humanoid-serpent. Finally, when it was in range, it leaped into the air, coiling its hands into one to unleash a massive hit.

Thousands of heads shot out from the humanoid-serpent, poking holes in the giant, displaying the superiority of their Wills in the condensation of their forms. The heads poked holes all over the giant’s body, emerging on the other side before turning around for a second volley.

The humanoid-serpent’s tail coiled around the giant’s hip, slamming it down on the other side. The giant crashed and paused, its body wriggling before collapsing into serpents, restructuring it into a standing position.

The moment its hands began to form, the humanoid-serpent swiped with its tail, using the massive blade in it to sever them into two. The severed hands continued to float away, spurred by the inertia.

The humanoid-serpent roared, unleashing a formless attraction that pulled the severed hands back to the scene of battle, including all the experience fragments that had splashed out from their collisions.

The two severed hands broke down into serpents that drilled back into the giant’s body. It swiftly regrew another pair of hands that the humanoid-serpent severed. The spikes on its body grew in length before piercing the humanoid-serpent, causing a tiny splash of experience fragments.

The humanoid-serpent kept the formless attraction ongoing, pulling back all the experience fragments that flew away from their fight.

The giant’s right leg doubled in girth, the serpents forming it protruding out as they wriggled and coiled around, firming its structure as it sent a kick at the humanoid-serpent.

Of the innumerous hands it possessed, ten thousand hands clubbed together to form a massive hand, the side of which was formed into a blade, defending against the kick.

The sharpness of the blade and the sturdiness of its structure allowed it to withstand the attack, only spilling forth experience fragments worth a Tier 3 Cogent Phrenics. The giant though, suffered a large wound on its legs, as if it was hacked by an axe. A wave of experience fragments tided out of the wounded area.

The humanoid-serpent’s formless attraction pulled the spilled experience fragments towards itself, fusing them into its form. It expended a bit of its Will to relocate them to an appropriate location, becoming a tad bigger.

After a round of attacks, the giant had become smaller than before. Still, its flurry of attacks didn’t decrease in intensity, but instead, become fiercer. Initially, its body was larger than what its stored Will could condense and support. Now that the excess had been shed, its Will could orient its form better.

The giant dispersed into tens of massive serpents that coiled towards the humanoid-serpent, intending to burrow into its body. But, the moment it acted on its intention, hundreds of thousands of heads flew around, riddling them with holes, stopping their march.

The heads opened their mouths, biting off chunks of experience fragments from the serpents. The humanoid-serpent gazed afar, noticing the outlines of more giants beyond the horizon. It immediately condensed ten pairs of massive arms, slamming the serpents with a flurry of attacks.

Its tail multiplied into ten, their bladed ends dicing the pummelled serpents. Finally, its mouth chomped on the diced parts, blowing once to expel the Will contained within them while it absorbed the experience fragments.

The blown-out Will flew away, attracted by something as it seeped into the remaining serpents, enriching them. The serpents became stronger, tougher, faster, and could take up many forms. The Will replenished their reserves, making each serpent more dangerous than before.

The humanoid-serpent slithered forward, moving a bit away from the mountain, only keeping a part of its tail coiled around the peak. Shielded within was a thin connection between it and the heart of Laila in reality. Also hovering next to it was a tiny serpent, possessing a core in its body, the key to leaving the Mental Realm.

Though, the serpent couldn’t move, constricted by a pair of tendrils. Even when it struggled, it lost experience fragments, unable to even damage or relocate a single experience fragment of its foe.

Three pairs of hands combined to form an enormous hand that slammed down on a serpent, splashing out all the experience fragments in it. The abrupt motion—of being scattered—consumed most of its Will, preventing the serpent from recondensing ever again.

The humanoid-serpent absorbed all the splashed-out experience fragments, crushing the remainder of the serpent. It then delivered critical hits to each and every serpent, destroying their forms, fully expending the Will in them, and absorbing the freed experience fragments.

”Ugh,” The moment it gobbled up the last of the serpent, the humanoid-serpent shivered, trembling as many changes erupted in its form. The numerous tendrils on its body in the form of hands now turned into serpents, having assimilated the essence of the giant.

It expended a lot of Will to assimilate the gains, ”Phew, I finished absorbing all the experience fragments related to Rhachis Ancestor Parasite.”

It then looked at the numerous giants that were beginning to arrive one after another, slowly walking in calm, their gazes fully focused on it, as if wishing to devour it completely.

The humanoid-serpent gazed at the giant that was the nearest, noticing that it was an incarnation of flames. It was a solid human, possessing well-defined features, the composition of the experience fragments in its make wholly focused on one aspect.

Power!

”Father’s form, huh.” The humanoid-serpent became solemn, the hands it possessed had become smaller but more numerous.