Psychic Parasite

Chapter 270: Impending Disaster
’H-How long do I need to persist?’ Gerude Eagle watched in a daze at the horde of Cogent Phrenics before him. Their numbers didn’t seem to dwindle. On the contrary, they seemed to have increased.

’Are they being attracted from the other Rings too?’ He grabbed hold of a rope-shaped Cogent Phrenics, tugging at it with force. Attacked to its ends were two discs, sporting the shape of a beast’s maw.

The two discs hacked at him, trying to damage him. His wings shielded him from harm, also managing to absorb some experience fragments from the attackers. Though, he didn’t try to absorb the experience fragments, leaving them to linger around his wings.

Every movement expended part of his Will. He would turn into a statue the moment it was fully expended. After that, his ego would be gradually eroded, unless his experience fragments weren’t gobbled up first.

Holding onto the middle of the rope, he spun his body, aligning the angle of the discs by twisting the rope. The discs damaged the approaching Cogent Phrenics, inflicting plenty of damage while suffering less in return. It was a Cogent Phrenics equivalent to a Tier 3, hence its form was durable.

The two discs soon lost their sharpness, beginning to break; their experience fragments spilled out. Gerude Eagle slammed it on a box-shaped Cogent Phrenics and threw it towards his subordinate. By the time it reached his subordinate, its form completely collapsed, causing most of its experience fragments to collide into her.

Her job was solely to collect all the experience fragments resulted from the battle. Many did her role too. After all, the prime objective of their operation was to reduce the number of Cogent Phrenics, i.e. the number of experience fragments in the Mental Realm overlapping their area.

Experience fragments were indestructible in the Mental Realm. The only means by which they could reduce their quantity is by bringing them back to reality.

They were as their name implied, fragments of experiences. Suppose a person absorbed blade-type experience fragments in the Mental Realm, he would find it easier to wield a blade after returning to reality.

The moment he holds a blade, he would instinctively sense methods to better his form, and inspirations to improve it further. Banking on the wisdom of the predecessors; the experience fragments in the Mental Realm allowed one to directly convert the experiences of others as their own.

But, the amount of experience fragments one could bring back depended on the ’Adhesiveness’ of his/her form. To obtain a greater number of experience fragments, one had to have a vast reserve of willpower, emotions, ego, etc.

Geniuses were made based on how much they could obtain from the Mental Realm, the treasure trove of experiences.

Their mission was to bring back as many experience fragments as possible to reality. This way, the number of Cogent Phrenics would reduce in their area for the foreseeable future. This would allow others to have an easier time during their breakthrough.

Otherwise, the moment they appear in the Mental Realm, their forms would be drowned and devoured by the overwhelming number of Cogent Phrenics. This would further increase the number of Cogent Phrenics in the area, implying an increase in the experience fragments, creating a vicious cycle.

The subordinate lady soon obtained the maximum amount of experience fragments she could carry, beginning to head deeper into their defences. She had made a breakthrough as an Amplifier; her form was mostly human with tiny speakers embedded under her arms.

Most of those designated with the duty to carry the experience fragments were Amplifiers. She felt her speed slow down to a crawl, the number of experience fragments she had to carry burdening her, expending her Will in greater quantities.

She slowed her pace, taking note of the distance to travel, calculating her speed based on her expenditure and the remainder of her Will. Her destination was one of the 10 Shifters. The 10 Shifters were tasked with bringing back as many experience fragments as possible.

The Unranked Skill, Ingrained Earth was mysterious, effective in various domains. The moment Marble City came to know of its wonders, they waged a war with the Lava Turtles. They came to learn of its secrets and found ways to make use of the Unranked Skill that even the Lava Turtles were ignorant about.

The subordinate lady finally arrived before one of the 10 Shifters, feeling her consciousness slip. She experienced a rapid decline in her emotions, her ego crumbled at an alarming rate.

Hovering before her was a humanoid figure that was now on all fours. His neck had slightly elongated while carried on his back was a massive shell the size of a hill. Stuffed within were experience fragments, forming a complex cluster.

Faint energy circulated in the shell, constantly adjusting the experience fragments to prevent inner conflict between them. They were arranged in a complex formation, creating a unified whole. It was similar to creating a human body using various cells. A cluster of cells combines to form an organ, the heart for example.

Similarly, based on their content, another cluster of cells combine to form the lung. As more and more organs form, they clash with each other due to their purposes. The purpose of the lungs was to expand and contract; it was to beat rhythmically for the heart.

What the energy in the shell did was to place each organ in its designated spot and connect nerves, arteries, veins, etc. eventually creating a human body that made use of all the organ functions to create a unified whole.

Normally speaking, the energy required to create such a process was a tremendous amount, something the ’Adhesiveness’ a human produced proved insufficient.

The subordinate lady hovered before the Shifter’s face, one that had a large slit in the middle. By this time, she no longer retained any Will to move, her ego had also collapsed. Thankfully, she had completed her duty.

The shifter’s neck elongated further as his mouth reached her form. It expanded, revealing a row of triangular teeth that clamped down on her, tearing out a huge chunk of her ballooned form. Followed by a series of munching, the Shifter swallowed all the experience fragments.

The experience fragments flowed through his body, arriving in his stomach. Formless energy then guided them to the shell in the back, arranging them in spots based on their contents. The shell turned a tad bigger.

The shifter clamped his mouth, biting off another chunk from the subordinate lady’s form. Without a Will, her form couldn’t move. Without an ego, her form couldn’t resist. Soon, the Shifter’s mouth grabbed hold of two crystals—one that belonged to her and the other that belonged to her Wisdom Parasite’s form.

It struggled once, trying to apply pressure while expending a tremendous amount of Will. With a snap, the two crystals shattered, producing a tremendous amount of formless energy. This energy also recovered his Will to a certain extent, allowing him to move his neck and gobble the remainder of her form.

But, it seemed the Shifter was reaching his limit. His ego was beginning to collapse, steadily being assimilated by the Mental Realm. He used his focus to direct part of the formless energy, placing the crystal of his Wisdom Parasite right next to his.

They were only separated by a thin layer of formless energy. The moment the formless energy disappears, the two crystals would fuse and bring him back to reality. It was a contingency measure in the off chance his ego crumbled due to unexpected reasons.

The last thing he wanted was to become a monstrous Cogent Phrenics that would haunt future generations in the Mental Realm. Moreover, to finish his task, he had to return to reality with all the experience fragments he had gobbled up.

The battle had dragged for a long while; their defences were being breached time and time again. Gerude Eagle noticed the situation and weakly motioned with his hands. From the beginning of his battle, numerous scouts had their gazes trained on him.

Some of them were in charge of relaying his message across all the troops while the remainder were to report the proceeds to reality. On seeing his signal, an Amplifier swallowed his Wisdom Parasite’s crystal, returning to reality.

He hurriedly bowed and spoke with a tone of reverence, ”Madam Marble, our defences are getting breached. We have already lost all Tier 1 and a significant portion of Tier 2. Even our Tier 3 are approaching their limits.”

He then hurriedly relayed the positions of the breach, the strength in each place, etc. After all, the battle was in and around the Limitless Tower. Before the battle began, they had given coordinates to each floor, creating a point of reference to make the communications quick and accurate.

On floor 92, many were still seated in their cubicles. Some of them heard Minaela Marble’s voice, ”Your positions in the Mental Realm has been breached. Hurry up!”

Without a second’s delay, they began their breakthrough process. They quickly fused the body of the Wisdom Parasite around their Heart/Brain Crystal, making a sloppy mess. They didn’t care if it would explode as they were pressed for time.

Thanks to their enhanced senses, they could notice the level of their breakthrough process. The moment they reached 51 percent competition, they allowed the remainder of the Wisdom Parasite’s body to be flushed out, abruptly ending phase 1.

They immediately arrived in the Mental Realm and took up positions, teaming up first to defeat the forms of their Wisdom Parasites.

Suddenly, the form of Gerude Eagle crashed through the defensive lines, causing the form of many people to splash out like water. There was no concept of air resistance in the Mental Realm, causing him to fly uncontrollably.

The only way to slow down was to expend his Will and try to fly against the motion. Eventually, he crashed into a large hill—the shell on one of the 10 Shifter’s back.

’W-What was that?’ His expression was one of fear; his form trembled, the experience fragments in them jumping out, like struggling fishes in a boiling lake.

The left side of his face began to slowly melt, the experience fragments inside squirming in fear before turning still, as if they were dead.