Psychic Parasite

Chapter 218: Phantosmia of the past
”There are innumerous ways in which you can use your powers to deal with various situations,” Madam Rizenne’s voice became calm, traced with a hint of warmth, ”Everything will depend on your imagination. Every day, new methods of use, techniques of practicality are being invented. This is why I have stressed this point numerous times in our previous classes.”

She glanced around, ”Despite our superhuman powers, humanity’s greatest weapon has always been our wisdom.”

A psychic arm turned pale blue, seeping into her body for a moment, disappearing after that. ”That concludes my demonstration…for Espers. Now, I will similarly replicate for Warriors. Watch and learn.”

She unleashed a psychic arm, wrapping it around herself, visible to everyone to witness. The psychic arm outlined her body, seeping into her figure, eventually becoming invisible. Madam Rizenne stretched her body once, lifting her right leg, her actions slow.

Calm, and steady, her right leg gently landed on the floor. With a flash, she disappeared from her prior spot, quickly traversing a distance of 30 metres in a couple of seconds, arriving before Esina. ”I used my psychic arm to reinforce my body muscles, empowering it. Now, my body is no different from a Warrior.”

She pointed at Esina, ”I will be using the abilities she possesses. My physique is exactly as developed as hers.”

Madam Rizenne then glanced at the Espers, ”Even though you can exhibit the capabilities of Warriors to a certain extent using this method, unless it is necessary, I would advise you from doing so.”

”Though I would be able to move like Warriors, also possessing a tough body, it is all thanks to the amplification brought about my psychic energy. There are some disadvantages to this. First, my body muscles are normal. Moving about in this superhuman speed beyond its structural limits will damage it, breaking it down at the cellular level.”

”I am using another psychic arm after having activated my Unranked Skill Regen to heal my body’s damage. Without this, I would be coughing up blood within 10 seconds. Second, one must consciously reinforce each muscle while moving. Only when they know how each muscle contracts and expands upon each body movement would be able to replicate it.”

She sighed once, ”Otherwise, they would reinforce in the wrong direction, increasing the strain faced by the muscle while decreasing the effect of the reinforcement, sometimes even making your overall physique weaker than a normal human body. It becomes detrimental to your cause.”

She raised three fingers in her right hand, ”Third, you need to think and actuate a lot to maintain this, which consumes most of your focus. Unless you are a Wave Controller, you wouldn’t even be able to run while using this to reinforce your body.”

Madam Rizenne inconspicuously overlaid a psychic arm over her face, making an illusion of her facial position, using the chance to glance at Laila, thinking, ’Laila was able to replicate such a feat in the first week after coming to the military academy. Even though all she did was enhance a single muscle, it is still impressive. Now, I am curious about the contents of Mavelin’s draft. It should be insightful to read. Hope he completes it soon.’

She retraced her line of sight, aligning it with her illusion, retracting the psychic arm. No student could guess or detect her sneaky action, with none the wiser. Unless they were fellow Sky Controllers, it would be difficult to detect her actions, should she be intent on being discreet.

She then raised her fourth finger, ”Fourth, it is less efficient. Instead of doing this, you might as well use your psychic arm to get the job done. After all, your psychic arms are termed as such because they can do anything you require your limbs for and can accomplish even more.”

”Pursue efficiency,” She curled her right hand into a fist, dropping it, ”To achieve anything, there are many paths one can choose. Always ensure to pick the most efficient one.”

Madam Rizenne glanced at the Floating Spider hovering in the air—shivering in fright. Noticing her gaze, it shrieked, flying back, and hitting a psychic energy barrier. It slammed into the barrier in frenzy, attempting again and again, all in an effort to break through and escape.

It was afraid, fear suffused into its entire being. It knew the monster before it, unwilling to die upon facing it foolishly. Compared to the monster, it was weak, pitiful, and helpless. It had been captured, trapped in a cage, and only fed with the bare minimum.

Every day, it lived in fear, looking at the humans that gazed at it with bloodthirsty smiles. It watched its brethren trapped in cages similar to it, howling in fear and anger. Their howling changed to a whimper of fear whenever a bloodthirsty human entered their cages.

Left with no choice, they had to fight with their foes. But, it was a futile endeavour, a living being’s death throes. All they could do was wound their foes, even if they had superior strength. The moment they tried to go in for the kill, an overbearing power would stop them. The bloodthirsty humans would then be healed of their injuries, allowing them to fight with full strength once again.

If they were lucky and if their opponents were a lot weaker than them, then they would be able to preserve their lives. But, the moment they faced similarly powered foes was the signal to their deaths.

It had seen the fate of its brethren every day. Once after another, they were killed…brutally. Once a sufficient amount of its brethren were killed, more would fill in the vacancy. Every time it happened, the Floating Spider would scream in despair.

It meant more of its brethren had been captured. They would then be subjected to harassment daily, the threat of death lingering above their heads, the reaper of life claiming them eventually. Moreover, nothing was hidden. Every action, including the rending of their fates, was witnessed by everyone, including their brethren.

This fuelled their fury, spiking their rage, also imbuing in them despairing helplessness. Despite everything, the Floating Spider didn’t want to die. It wanted to live. It wanted to return to its home, and live among its brethren.

But, it knew the truth, deep down. Escaping was impossible, not under the watch of two powerhouses, Sky Controllers who were privy of everything that happened in their domains. Even during its short stay in its cage, it had noticed three such monsters. Every time it saw them, fear stemmed from its depths.

The Frenzy Parasite in it shuddered in fear, the primal fear expressed in its entirety, further enhancing its own fears. Its instincts further warned it, the humans it witnessed were far from ordinary.

Also, it had a special Skill, its Tier 1 Skill. It was an olfactory-related Skill, the prime reason for its source of despair.

Tier 1 Skill—Phantosmia of the Past!

It was a Skill that allowed the user to detect murderous scents around the target. Had the target killed a brethren of the user, it would have a lingering murderous scent, only detected under the Skill. The more lives of the user’s brethren the target had reaped, the more murderous scents lingering around it. Similarly, the stench of the murderous scent varies accordingly to the Tier of the brethren killed—Floating Spider.

The young humans that entered each cage possessed almost no lingering murderous scents, albeit the few that had killed one before its eyes. It gradually came to realise that the humans were using its brethren to train themselves, getting to understand the secrets of its race, and preparing accordingly. It was a vicious method in its eyes, having to watch its brethren killed.

The killings weren’t due to the reasons it had grown up with, a fight for food, and a fight for survival. It was just…practice, the notion of which felt strange, and terrifying.

The cause for despair was the individual before its eyes. Its body trembled, shaking like a leaf caught in a storm, floating over the ocean. Turbulent times where balance had been destroyed and chaos reigned supreme.

There wasn’t even scope for anger, not to mention harbouring feelings of rage. It could neither resist, not mount an opposition. There was fear, only fear. Its despair had long since exceeded what its emotional quotient could grasp.

Having activated its Tier 1 Skill, it detected a sea of scents, all murderous in nature. It was a stormy sea, the likes of which it had never witnessed before. Rough waves broiled around, the sea currents unbridled, unable to be controlled, or calmed.

They washed over like the tide, overwhelming its senses. The scents amounted to despairing levels in both quantity and quality. Based on the stench, there were millions of Tier 1 scents, hundreds of thousands of Tier 2, tens of thousands of Tier 3.

Forming the major currents in the sea waves, like pillars that propelled the flow were scents, the stench thick, each equivalent to independent rivers in the waves. They belonged to the Tier 4 Floating Spiders killed by the target, numbering in the hundreds.

The Floating Spider cried out in vengeance, its floating body no longer able to remain afloat. Before, while trapped in a cage, the effects of its Tier 1 Skill had mostly been filtered. During then, when it gazed at others, it could only detect scents to limited extents. Now, out in the open, and with the effects of its Tier 1 Skill no longer blocked, what it sensed was different.

It fell on the floor, tears stemming down its grotesque spider face. Its mandibles clattered restlessly, the force in them lacking, the sounds produced seemingly like the weak throes of a dying man. It counted, sensing distinct stenches in the sea of murderous scents.