Floating in a space of darkness was a floating fortress, with a bubble of life within. The walls were made of concrete, with windows formed out of a crystal substance, reddish in shade.
The fortress seemed irregular, erratic even, with the passages running within it twisting and turning at sizes that were impossible to traverse. At one spot, it was as wide as a whale, but at the other, it was smaller than an ant.
The windows were jarring too, formed out of all shapes and sizes, except for the measured shapes, such as a square, rectangle, circle, etc. They were wonky, without a measured arc or a straight line. The windows weren’t uniform either.
Some were thick, some thin, some pristine, and some murky in composition. In one of the transparent windows, the silhouette of a rat-shaped individual was visible.
The face resembled a rat, but sported a circular bump in one of the eyes, almost half the head’s size. It yawned with boredom and then hissed, revealing a tongue in the shape of a hand. The hand-shaped tongue slapped the window and grabbed a fistful of the murkiness before stuffing it in the mouth.
The rat-face switched from boredom to addiction the moment it consumed the murky substance. Mouthful after mouthful, it consumed, which caused the bump in its eye to progress in size before it popped open to reveal another rat-face.
The second rat-face opened its mouth and screeched in pain, the sounds of which caused the corridor to swarm with serpentine creatures with the head of a rat and arms made out of worms...like a millipede.
These creatures swarmed the rat-face and devoured it, condensing a cocoon as they swarmed into a room and then exploded, creating a rat-face with its fur replaced by worms.
Nothing made sense here. And similar scenes happened throughout the fort. In a wide-open hall, swarming with creatures that were a joker’s mix of insects, animals, birds, and people, was a mountain.
This mountain was a seething mass of flesh, oozing pus, bones, hair, chitin, and whatever it wanted, wherever it wanted. Something seemed to be eating into it, judging by the grating sound that resounded singularly.
However, this singular sound was accompanied by numerous grating noises, conflicting in nature. There seemed to be a limbo, but the presence of two opposing forces was apparent. For days, years, decades, centuries...or even millennia, the limbo seemed to be maintained.
However, suddenly, appearing atop the fortress was a violet star, giving off a violet radiance that coloured everything its shade. The violet rays shone onto the fortress and pierced through the windows, shining onto the creatures within.
There was no reaction among the creatures, absolutely none in response to the violet rays. However, things were different in the main hall.
As the violet rays were incident on the mountain, there was a stir from within, and then...something seemed to have been awakened, "Gross! Shit! This is horrible...oh, it tastes alright, I guess?"
Chomp! Crunch! Burp!
A gurgling sound resounded from the mountain as a hand drilled out. It clenched onto the side of the pile and clenched, smashing the substances into pulp. It then retracted, along with the crushed pulp, followed by the sounds of swallowing. "This is slightly sweet..."
"Nom! Nom! ...Gulp!" The hand popped all over the surface of the pile, grabbing chunks to retract, followed by swallowing sounds. A few hours in such a fashion, maybe it was days, that was unclear...but after a long while, two hands emerged out of the mountain, followed by three, four...eventually dozens.
These hands were attached to a monstrous stomach with a throat, at the end of which were carnivorous teeth. They clamped onto whatever substance the dozens of hands fed it, causing bulges to appear on the food pipe and then get pumped into the stomach.
This seemed to be the source of the singular feeding noise before. Latched onto it were wormy creatures of variety, biting and tearing into it nonstop. As this stomach entity consumed stuff, its body regenerated. And then, the regenerated parts were consumed by the wormy creatures.
The mountain was basically composed of this stomach in the centre and the pile of wormy creatures ganging atop it. The consumption capabilities of both sides used to be equal, both mindless devouring entities.
But with the incidence of the violet light, the stomach seemed to have gained intelligence. As a result, it selectively targeted the wormy creatures latching onto its food pipe, which was causing most of the consumed food to spill out.
"Yumm!" The hands pulled out dozens of wormy creatures and stuffed them into the mouth, which crunched them up. In response, the holes along the food pipe closed by a margin.
The stomach entity kept up with the process until most of its food pipe became intact, allowing it to consume substances with greater efficiency. One after another, it rid its body of the wormy creatures and began consuming at speeds that spiked and spiked until it completely dwarfed the other side.
Muscles formed around the stomach, soon gaining a midriff. A spine formed while the numerous hands shrank. Two of them turned into legs, one of them shrank into the tailbone, and one more became a little brother.
Muscles, organs, and soon, blood started pumping into the entity that turned humanoid the more it consumed, until soon, everything within the main hall was wiped clean. Standing in this place now was an individual with a ginormous mass, but proportion-wise, had a small stature.
The widened face was chubby, with pearly eyes and a slightly bulbous nose. The forehead was wide, sporting a crease. The mouth opened and revealed a set of teeth that were optimised for consumption.
"Am I too huge?" The entity muttered and found its body getting compressed, "Ahh! That’s the spirit! I’m feeling my strength return to me!"
"What was my name again?" The entity muttered as more of the violet light fell upon it, gradually dawning in realisation, "Oh! I remember now!"
"I’m Virala!" Muttering such, the entity looked around, "Is this my mind space? Why am I here?"
"I...seem to have forgotten something?" The entity muttered, "I feel trapped, for some reason. What is happening?"
"Oh, I remember fighting someone. It was a terrifying opponent." The entity frowned, deep in thought, "Who was it again?"
"I...can’t seem to remember..."
Boom!
The doors to the main hall were blasted open as a man with a chubby, widened face, pearly eyes, and a slightly bulbous nose walked in. "Don’t worry, for I know the answer."
"You were fighting me." Said the man.
"You..." Virala frowned, "Why do you look like me?"
"You sure?" The man tilted his head and smirked, "I’m afraid you’re wearing my appearance."
"You...you’re right!" Virala’s eyes widened in realisation as, in response, his body morphed, growing in height, with a leaner body frame. His face turned angular, with a sharp jawline and a high-cropped haircut. "Now I look like me."
"Wait..." A second later, Virala glared at the man before him, "Why are you here? Isn’t this my mindspace?"
"It is," Nodded Brangara, who walked into the main hall, "This is your mind space..."
As he uttered, a swarm of creatures sauntered in, targeting the duo. However, with a sharp exhale from Brangara, majority of the creatures were sucked into his mouth. A few crunches, and they were swallowed.
"I remember what they are now!" Virala’s eyes widened in shock as he crunched upon a smaller portion of the creatures, "They are the influence you poured into me...using that Minor Treasure...what was its name again..."
"Gracious Inheritor," Brangara chuckled, "You can’t remember all the details, right?"
"It’s only natural, since most of your mindspace’s data was consumed by those creatures. They retain it now." Brangara tapped his chin, "Oh, I have them now, since I consumed most of them."
"You..." Virala grew nervous, "Why are you in my mindspace? No, that’s not it! You’re not supposed to be here! Whatever, I’ll erase you here."
With that thought, Virala activated Mystic Nature Art, which would help him erase all external influences. However, when he activated it, Virala realised that he only had a small chunk of the cultivation technique.
He then stared up and noticed that the violet light...that had been incident on the fort, seemed to have concentrated most of its power on Brangara, ’This is the Violet Mystic Path’s power!’
"Why is it focused on you?" He roared, instinctively perceiving the majority of the data that formed Mystic Nature Art was within Brangara.
"Remind me about your Tertiary Body’s Stage 1 Partial Transformation once again, will you?" Brangara chuckled, seeing Virala’s face pale in response, "Yes, you’re right."
Tertiary Body Stage 1—Brangara!
"Yes, I’m not an external influence." Brangara chuckled, "I am merely your partial transformation. But to become me, you need to have all of me."
"I have been inside you all along, just a pile of data. However," Brangara chuckled, "When the Celestial Boar fused with your body and poured all his influence into you, alongside the Minor Treasure of Gracious Inheritor, the data forming me absorbed it."
"It’s like I was given a semblance of sentience, which wasn’t much originally." Brangara explained casually as he dodged an attack from Virala and slapped the latter to the ground, "I was merely one of the chaotic wills among the tens of thousands that plagued your mindspace. However, I wasn an external influence."
"I am an integral part of you. And that meant..." Brangara pointed at the violet light, "When this hit us, I awakened at the same time as us. And I did what I do the best."
"You swallowed all the data." Virala wiped the dent on his face, "Especially those that belonged to Mystic Nature Art."
"You’re wrong about that." Brangara evaded another lunge from Virala and pointed at the entrance, "I swallowed almost everything in your mind space."
"We started at the same time, but you should know this," Brangara smirked, "Even with my powers, you were never able to eat on the same calibre as me."