Psychic Parasite

Chapter 282: Shocked Beyond Belief!

The Crust-Mantle was immobile, its attention fully focused on the process at its heart. Jyorta watched the changes through the minor fluctuations in the surrounding aura while keeping an eye on the three souls through his soul domain.

Suddenly, he noticed one of the two souls around the Crust-Mantle's heart break down, dissipating soon after. When he was wondering the reason, the other soul too followed suit. Jyorta unleashed his Soul Cornea and grabbed all the soul residue.

The blue soul immediately began to work on the memory fragments, expending part of its soul's foundation to vaporise the murkiness first. When the pure memory fragments emerged, it sent them to the brain, allowing Jyorta to experience them.

He didn't remove the white layer over the experience fragments, wishing to see what the egos of the Frenzy Parasites deemed the reason for their sacrifice.

'Don't all Parasites wish to survive? Why did these two Frenzy Parasites sacrifice themselves?' Jyorta thought, beginning to comprehend the absorbed memory fragments. In the meantime, he observed all the changes in the Crust-Mantle.

The Crust-Mantle's body began to shrink while its exoskeleton broke off into pieces and fell on the ground. Its presence converged towards its heart, subtly changing, morphing into something superior. The semblance of threat it exhibited began to steadily rise, getting more potent.

In order to conserve his psychic energy enough to observe the entire breakthrough, Jyorta only retained a single barrier. Moreover, since he was deep underground, most of the ambient aura was filtered out. This way, the psychic energy he consumed was the least.

He made a conservative estimate of the time he had left based on his current psychic energy expenditure. 'I have seven hours at the very least.'

The area was silent, even its breathing didn't create any disturbance. When the souls of the two Frenzy Parasites began to breakdown, their murkiness was the first to dissipate. This allowed him to capture them easily while expending the least energy.

As the blue soul sent memory fragments to his brain one after another, Jyorta's expression steadily changed. He felt their emotions, their feelings, their thought process, and the dominant instinct that dictated their current action.

'So, when a Frenzy Beast experience drastic emotional upheavals and desires immense strength, the surviving Frenzy Parasites originating from its dead brethren will sacrifice themselves to it.' He frowned, 'This seems to be a predominant instinct in them, largely overwhelming their instinct to survive. But what is the reason? Why are they behaving in such a contradictory manner?'

Jyorta continued to comprehend their memories while waiting for the Crust-Mantle to finish its breakthrough. Time passed in such a manner; the Crust-Mantle was now only a tenth of its original size, having become weak.

Its body looked tender, like the soft muscles underneath a crab's exoskeleton. Currently, any Tier 1 Frenzy Beast would be able to kill it without struggling in the least. Only after its exoskeleton had fallen off did Jyorta notice the numerous spikes lodged in its body.

But they were currently melting, getting absorbed into the flesh. Moreover, faint black liquid seeped out from the spikes, their traces minute, quickly getting absorbed into the squirming muscles.

'The Essence of Frenzy of the Steel Porcupines!' Jyorta was surprised, seeing the Crust-Mantle absorb foreign Essence of Frenzy without suffering any damage. Moreover, the Essence of Frenzy seemed to be helping its body, subtly elevating its being into something more sinister.

Jyorta noticed the souls of the Crust-Mantle and its Frenzy Parasite dim considerably, the memory fragments in them exhibiting a resplendent splendour. The splendour was so bright that even the blue soul was affected, allowing some of the murkiness to invade it.

The Soul Cornea exerted its influence a little, easily getting rid of the murkiness. The blue soul extended a Soul Cornea, tapping it on the Crust-Mantle's soul. Immediately, an image flashed in his mind. It was a familiar area, just transparent than usual, as if it wasn't something that existed in reality, but was based off.

The blue soul retracted the Soul Cornea in surprise, noticing the image disappear from his mind. After a thought, he connected the Soul Cornea with the Crust-Mantle's soul, watching the image appear once again.

Existing before him was a serpentine figure, its form covered by spikes, with tiny flag-like objects waving from the tips. The head of the serpentine form resembled the Crust-Mantle, also possessing a pair of claws that it threateningly clamped.

'The Mental Realm!' Jyorta was tremendously shocked, his body trembling as a result. Just by connecting with the soul of a being when it was attempting a breakthrough, he was able to glance at the Mental Realm.

It defied the common sense of the era. After a thought, he connected the other Soul Cornea to the soul of the Crust-Mantle's Frenzy Parasite. Immediately, another perspective overlapped his view. It was from the serpentine form's perspective.

Before him was a blurry figure of a Crust-Mantle, its form barely glued together into a single whole. It was like a fog, too thin to even make an attack. Any Cogent Phrenics would be able to easily kill it. Of course, the serpentine form was even worse off.

Using the two perspectives, Jyorta noticed some Cogent Phrenics hovering around the area. They were all still like statues, not even bothering to look at the two figures that had appeared in their area.

'I see.' Jyorta nodded in realisation, his horizons broadened. 'In Marble City, where geniuses appear one after another, with each possessing a rich treasure trove of experiences, the experience fragments of a Crust-Mantle are lacklustre. That is why no Cogent Phrenics bothers to even make a move on them.'

"They don't possess the quality to instigate the greed of the Cogent Phrenics. But similarly, they don't have any hope to obtain experience fragments from the Cogent Phrenics due to the limited distance of their links to reality." He murmured, "They are neither threatened nor can they hope to grow strong."

"In the Mental Realm, risks and rewards go hand in hand." Jyorta relished in the experience, watching the two forms fight each other. They were like swirling clouds that mixed, barely able to define themselves under the tussle.

It was a simple fight of who swallowed the other party first. A simple, brutal fight pitting their life experiences against one another. Soon, the Crust-Mantle began to overwhelm the form of its Frenzy Parasite.

Jyorta simultaneously experienced the feeling of dominating and getting suppressed by the other party. Eventually, the Crust-Mantle's form swallowed the crystal of the serpentine form, watching the two fuse inside it. At the next moment, its consciousness returned to reality.

The moment it returned to reality, Jyorta lost the two perspectives, no longer able to sense the presence of the Mental Realm. Still, he was satisfied, finding another aspect of his ability. Moreover, this was tremendously useful.

It allowed him to spy on the Mental Realm's state whenever he wished. All he had to do was form a link with the soul of a being that attempted a breakthrough, finished phase 1, and had arrived at the Mental Realm.

On seeing that it had successfully completed its breakthrough, Jyorta unleashed his domain, also sending his other psychic arm to its heart. As its body had decreased in size and had expended a tremendous amount of energy, its presence was incredibly weak.

Jyorta faced almost zero resistance when his psychic arm passed through the Crust-Mantle's body. The moment his psychic arm arrived at its heart, he was surprised to find an oddity. He could make sense of it through comprehending bits and pieces of his psychic arm's feedback.

The Crust-Mantle's Heart Crystal was rapidly healing. The speed was confounding, surpassing his understanding. In Marble City, despite all their resources, technology, and impressive methods, the Heart/Brain Crystals of those that managed to breakthrough took time to heal.

For Jyorta, it took a bit more than a day. For people who managed to finish with a higher Sync Rate, it took even longer. He remembered Dalna Doppler taking almost three days to heal her Heart Crystal after breakthrough. It was because she sat out from all training activities during that time, hence it was apparent.

But now, the Crust-Mantle defied common sense, surpassing the speed of all humans he had witnessed, that too from a race at the bottom of the Frenzy Beasts. The Crust-Mantle rested, looking tired, its mind exhausted from all the high-intense task it had to do in such a short duration.

The moment it closed its eyes, it dozed off. Only through such a way would it be able to replenish its expended Will and mental strength. Even now, the Crust-Mantle failed to sense Jyorta's presence.

Jyorta observed it in patience, fully concentrating on his senses, trying to comprehend as much as possible of his psychic arm's feedback. As time passed, he noticed his comprehension improving at a drastic rate.

'Is it because of what I witnessed in the Mental Realm just now?' Jyorta thought, noticing inspirations explode in his mind. New thoughts were produced, colliding with each other as they clashed, integrating the parts while deriving new conclusions. Ideas were generated in his mind one after another. Soon, he started to comprehend more and more of the details from his psychic arm's feedback.

Three hours later, the Crust-Mantle's Heart Crystal was fully healed. The moment it happened, Jyorta unleashed a gentle flux of his aura. The concentration was so low that the exhausted Crust-Mantle failed to sense it.

The moment he did so, Jyorta inhaled a sharp breath of air, feeling shocked, tremendously in fact, even greater than when he accessed the Mental Realm by accident. He mumbled in disbelief, mentally shaken to the extent ripples formed on his barrier, causing it to collapse after a couple of seconds. "A S-Sync R-Rate of 97 p-percent?"