Psychic Parasite

Chapter 245: The Hoberman Sphere’s Effect
The Hoberman sphere was shaped into a rugged sphere, with thin lines forming its surface, implying the contraption they formed. It shot into the murkiness, its speed beginning to slow as it was slammed.

The Hoberman sphere began to spin, drilling through the murkiness, pushing away the semi-solid fragments in them aside through sheer force. The Two Soul Corneas followed its lead, exerting their influence, and vaporising the thrown murkiness.

They prevented the murkiness from enclosing the Hoberman sphere. They also supplied it with a steady stream of soul energy, repairing any damage it suffered. Jyorta felt the strain in his psychic energy depletion.

He didn’t expend the energy in his soul to sustain the Soul Corneas, unwilling to use up its foundation unless the situation turned urgent. Therefore, he supplemented it with his psychic energy.

He was also pressed for time. The Crust-Mantle was about to finish eating the Spiked Lizard. It would probably return through the hole it had burrowed out from. He would lose his opportunity by then.

His psychic energy reserves were running low. He had started the exploration with the amount refilled over the past two days. Rest were all used up in his training. Jyorta concentrated on his task, always keeping part of his attention on his surroundings.

The Spiked Lizards were beginning to move. The ones within the range had fallen unconscious but both the intensity and range of his aura were decreasing. Now, its sphere of effect had fallen to 20 metres. Jyorta was worried that the Spiked Lizards would drop on him from the ceiling, which had a fair possibility of happening now.

The Hoberman sphere unfurled itself, from a shrunken version into a large, spherical cage. It had fully expanded, encompassing the Crust-Mantle’s soul within. The murkiness continued to damage it but a faint blue sheen covered the cage.

The false persona was beginning to affect the Crust-Mantle. It contained the traits of decisiveness, absolute servitude, and compassion, with servitude directed towards him and compassion directed towards all humans.

It allowed him to command his foes until the false persona was in effect. Immediately, there was a change. The Crust-Mantle finished eating the Spiked Lizard before proceeding to kill the Spiked Lizards that lay helpless on the ground.

Even the Spiked Lizards that were beyond the range of his aura were still affected. They were barely able to move at present. The Crust-Mantle unleashed its aura, turning their bodies numb. Its aura overlapped his, enriching the effect.

The Crust-Mantle used its sharp mandibles and powerful jaws to kill all the Spiked Lizards. As for the Two-Faced Fireflies, Jyorta commanded it to refrain from killing them. He also came to know—through the memories he was absorbing—that Crust-Mantles refrained from killing any tiny Frenzy Beasts. Spanning only the size of his fist, the Two-Faced Fireflies fell under this category.

Also, Jyorta didn’t wish to destroy his source of illumination. After all, he wasn’t going to end with a single exploration. Bringing out a Soul Cornea, he took in the dissipating souls of the Frenzy Beasts the Crust-Mantle killed.

He didn’t try to absorb their murkiness, not having the leeway to get their memory fragments. After all, the murkiness would harm him. To get the memory fragments within, he had to first vaporise the murkiness which would consume a lot of psychic energy.

At present, using up his psychic energy like that would only negatively affect him. It also served no purpose. He still had to explore the Labyrinth of Frenzy as much as he can and accumulate more Credits. That was practically feasible.

’I can just get higher quality memory fragments from the Frenzy beasts I would kill in the future.’ Jyorta through, only absorbing the soul fragments; they could be used to create false personas. Jyorta especially wished to create more Hoberman spheres.

The Crust-Mantle first killed its foes, unwilling to be attacked while it consumed its meal. Jyorta tiptoed behind it, fishing out the Heart Crystals from the dead Frenzy beasts. Even though the Crust-Mantle was currently under his control, he couldn’t act brazenly. He had to put up an act; after all, the entire Labyrinth of Frenzy was monitored by Madam Mila.

If anything occurred other than the usual behaviour of the Frenzy Beasts, she would investigate. And, considering the prowess of Sky Controllers, it would be weird if she didn’t notice something amiss about Jyorta. After that, unless Psychic Ancestor Marble intervened with another excuse, his fate would be questionable.

The best would be the fate of death while the worst would be as a research subject.

Jyorta acted in line with his behaviour and the behaviour of the Frenzy Beasts, only giving minimal instructions to the Crust-Mantle as he tailed it. He maintained the barrier around him, preventing himself from exposing any flaws that would allow the other party to detect him.

His psychic arm controlled the spindle, drilling through the headless bodies to fish out the Heart Crystals. As the Crust-Mantle continued to walk, its heavy body and its sharp legs created a lot of noise, masking the sound of his spindle drilling into the Spiked Lizard’s flesh.

After fishing out a couple of Heart Crystals, his actions became more efficient, soon able to catch up with the Crust-Mantle’s pace of killing. Meanwhile, the Soul Cornea within the Crust-Mantle’s soul continued to absorb the murkiness.

As the murkiness travelled through its body, the Soul Cornea’s influence vaporised it, only leaving behind pure memory fragments. The blue soul also began to chant the verse imparted by the creepy-haired man, vaporising the faint murkiness that still managed to seep in.

It created numerous soul tendrils, segregating the influx of memory fragments to one side. A couple of soul tendrils sent the memory fragments to the brain to be processed. After a moment of thought, Jyorta stopped the blue soul from sending any more memory fragments to his brain. His focus was too much strained as is. He planned to later go through them while in his room.

Soon, there were only a couple of Spiked Lizards in the vicinity. Those that could move had escaped further into the Labyrinth.

Thanks to the influence of the false persona, the murkiness in the Crust-Mantle’s souls didn’t resist him much. That was why they were easily being siphoned by his Soul Cornea. But, despite his wishes, he couldn’t continue it any longer; his psychic energy reserves were running dry.

He could create more psychic energy by burning the fat in his body but, Jyorta planned to save it as a last resort. After all, who knows what he would face deeper into the Labyrinth. He had to save a backup for the uncertainties.

Just when he planned to retract the Hoberman sphere, Jyorta glanced at its Frenzy Parasite’s soul.

It had already become his subsoul. After some thought, he judged it to be risky to leave it there as is. After all, Laila would soon enter the Labyrinth of Frenzy. And, if she spotted the Crust-Mantle and had plans similar to his, she would chance upon his subsoul. His subsoul would eventually Nurture its ability of corrosion; gifting it to Laila was the last thing he wished to do.

His Soul Cornea entered the back of a Spiked Lizard that was still alive, wrapping around its Frenzy Parasite’s soul. It first isolated the soul from its body, slowly beginning to pull it outside the confines of its fleshly cage. There was a bit of resistance but the Soul Cornea overwhelmed it easily.

The moment the soul exited the body, the Frenzy Parasite died. The Spiked Lizard’s eyes widened in shock, realising something; but, it couldn’t think further as the mandibles of the Crust-Mantle severed its head.

The Soul Cornea placed it next to the soul of the Crust-Mantle’s Frenzy Parasite. Its other Soul Cornea isolated the subsoul, gently pulling it outside the body while replacing its position with the other soul.

There was a faint commotion; the soul was unable to cope up with the foreign body it was placed within. It began to turn dimmer, beginning to vaporise. Soon, a large amount of murkiness arrived from the body, mixing with it, stabilising it for the time being. The murkiness also began to affect it, making it suitable to exist in the foreign environment.

’It seems to work.’ Jyorta mentally fist-bumped, trying his best to prevent a smile from forming on his face. He then saw the bulging pouch on his hip, breaking into a grin anyway. On seeing that he hadn’t left anything behind, his Soul Corneas entered the Crust-Mantle’s soul.

Jyorta began to retreat while his Soul Corneas fished out the Hoberman sphere. No sooner had the false persona’s influence dissipate did the murkiness start to attack his Soul Corneas. It took a bit of trouble before his Soul Corneas returned.

Jyorta took wide strides, matching his footsteps to the crunching sounds of the Crust-Mantle that began eating a Spiked Lizard. Once all the foes that could threaten it had been killed, its feast began.

He was panting, feeling difficulty in taking every step. Exhaustion stemmed from deep within him, having maintained his aura for such a long time. This was his first in doing so. Due to a lack of practice in this regard, he had become tired pretty soon.

As he neared the exit, the psychic arm maintaining the barrier flickered a couple of times before dissipating. His body also stopped exerting its presence. Anymore, and he would faint from exhaustion.

The Crust-Mantle noticed the fluctuation in aura, turning around to see a humanoid figure slam his palm on a rectangular yellow slab. Followed by a rumble, the double door opened. The Crust-Mantle sped towards him, wishing to kill him.

It slammed into a psychic energy barrier—erected just outside the moving space of the double door—unable to proceed further, watching the humanoid figure slowly walk out.

”Don’t worry; we’ll see each other soon.” Holding his left hand, Jyorta turned around and smiled, winking once, ”Also, thanks for the free meal.”