Over two hundred Mystic Eaters coiled together to form the 3-metre-tall cocoon. It fell through a floor as the Mystic Eaters began to eat into the surface. They bit into and spat out the various substances forming the floor, and collapsed its structural integrity.
In seconds, the floor gave in, and the cocoon fell through. Upon making a landing, a bunch of Mystic Eaters lashed out and sensed for anything that could be consumed. After failing to find anything, the cocoon continued through the floors.
"Where the heck are you going?" Ruvva fell through the holed floors in one jump and arrived before the cocoon, carrying with her a large pillar. She twisted her hip and catapulted the pillar into the cocoon, producing a loud boom.
The cocoon collapsed around the pillar, refusing to make contact. Orakha’s body had been pulled to the side by a group of Mystic Eaters, his eyes subtly turning to face her. They didn’t move like regular eyes but turned within the socket.
A droplet of blood trickled down the eyes as Orakha was surrounded by the Mystic Eaters once again. Ten of them flew at Ruvva, targeting her heart in an effort to extract her Spirit Container. Doing so would render her powerless, making it easy for Orakha to consume her.
Consuming her would give him more than enough energy to fully build his body. With that thought in mind, the Mystic Eaters surged upon Ruvva.
"You want these?" Ruvva dangled her bone suitcase and waved her hand once. An Eddy Blade appeared for a tenth of a second and severed the Mystic Eaters along their midriff.
The severed portions intended to rejoin with the remainder. They only needed to make contact for that to happen. However, Ruvva didn’t want that. Using the Skill of Prana Flash, her body turned into a stream of light that grabbed all the severed pieces into a single clump.
Spontaneously, the severed Mystic Eaters rejoined into a massive Mystic Eater that took a plunge at her chest, targeting her heart. However, the moment its mouth bit into her chest and pierced inside, it was purified.
Purified!
As if swatting a mosquito, Ruvva slapped her chest to swat the tail section of the Mystic Eater into her chest. The moment the Mystic Eater entered her body, it was considered an external influence and was spontaneously cleansed.
"What?" A confused gasp resounded from Orakha, who hadn’t paid attention to her until now. He was stunned for a second, which was more than enough time for the pillar to be thrown his way. The Mystic Eaters tried to shield him, but got splattered from the impact as the pillar cleanly punched through the left hand and leg of Orakha.
Boom!
The impact shattered the pillar into three pieces as it crashed into the wall far away. Bloof spurted out of Orakha, which was spontaneously licked clean by his Mystic Eaters.
The Mystic Eaters then coiled around his left arm and leg to take on their respective shapes. Now, Orakha’s left arm and leg were jet-black in colour, made using a coiled cluster of Mystic Eaters.
A portion of skin on the midrib had also been peeled off from Ruvva’s attack. A Mystic Eater covered the place. Now recovered, Orakha glared at Ruvva, "How did you do it?"
"Where is Orakha?" Ruvva retaliated with a question of her own, having a sound conjecture by now, ’I wondered why he isn’t using those Mystic Eaters to build his Prana. Since they are made using Prana, they should be enough for his needs too. With how many he has made until now, it’s enough to even reach the peak of the Body Stage. However, he has been actively looking for medicines and food to consume.’
The Mystic Eaters weren’t Orakha’s power. Rather, Ruvva hypothesised, which she was confident about now, at the fact that the Mystic Eaters were produced from the pillar of light released by the two Minor Treasures of Orakha Checkpoint.
This pillar of light was what was creating the Mystic Eaters. That’s why Orakha had been able to make so many of them, despite being in the Spirit Stage. And this was also why he was searching for food and medicines.
He needed to consume food to generate Prana, using which he was progressing through the Life Stage. The Mystic Eaters didn’t have any Prana in them. When Ruvva absorbed one of them and purified it in her body, it completely vanished.
She didn’t obtain any Prana from it, for the Mystic Eater was solely composed of influence. However, in terms of function, it’s the same. The only difference is that it’s not composed using Prana but influence.’
Treasures were basically quasi-Transcendents. The influence they released wasn’t like the influence of creatures on a Continent. It was capable of altering matter.
Minor Treasures affected living beings, and Major Treasures affected terrains. The entity controlling Orakha was a being from the cosmos born out of the amalgamation of Transcended and cosmic influences that plagued Orakha.
It didn’t have the means to use Natures, like the natives of Sumatra. As a result, it harnessed the power of the Minor Treasures of Orakha’s Checkpoint. ’So, these Mystic Eaters are a product of those Minor Treasures. As long as I claim those two Minor Treasures, Orakha would be helpless.’
’However, I have to do it before he reaches the Body Stage...’ At this point, Ruvva grasped the other party’s plans. ’Mystic Eaters are being harnessed from one of the Minor Treasures of Orakha’s Checkpoint. The second Minor Treasure’s power might be something it could harness at the Body Stage.’
That needn’t be said, since it was apparent what that power was. If they were Natures like Mystic Eater or Daily Checkpoint, they could be directly harnessed through the Minor Treasures, as Orakha was doing now.
The only other power that would require him to reach the Body Stage was the Nature of Human Avatar. ’Shit! That’s not a good scenario!’
The Mystic Eaters had already consumed some Rutham before. Ruvva had an inkling that Rutham was safely being carried within the myriad bodies of Mystic Eaters, ready to be built into a Human avatar the moment Orakha reached the Body Stage.
If it were to come to that point, things will reach the worst case scenario, especially since Ruvva was able to figure out Orakha’s end goal, ’From the very beginning, he has been moving towards it.’
Major Treasure—Deity!
Minor Treasures emitted a pillar of light. However, they were bound to run out eventually. With the rate at which Orakha was drawing out power, the Minor Treasure of Orakha’s Checkpoint would soon run out of power and no longer emit a pillar of light.
It would have to be fused into the body of a living being other than Orakha to recharge itself, which would take decades, if not more. That was an issue.
However, the Major Treasure of Deity was different. As a Major Treasure, the pillar of light it could release would last for centuries. It would give Orakha enough time to fully harness his build and reach the 10-Life Stage.
Ruvva didn’t know his end goal, but she could feel his intentions weren’t to the benefit of her or anyone she knew or even the whole of Sumatra.
Boom!
Ruvva grabbed the three broken pieces of the pillar and lightly tossed them before her. In a flash, her hand rested upon one of the pieces and unleashed a shockwave to blast it at Orakha.
Skill—Prana Shock!
Orakha lost a couple of fingers from the attack as a Mystic Eater coiled to form each of the lost fingers. He was constantly producing more and more Mystic Eaters to disperse them into the surroundings, so that they could find consumables for his growth.
However, amidst a mixture of shockwaves and blades of Prana, all the dispersed Mystic Eaters were damaged.
Boom!
Orakha released the Minor Treasure’s light at their severed portions, causing their damaged parts to regrow to form smaller Mystic Eaters. Those within proximity combined to become larger Mystic Eaters.
Since they weren’t beings of Prana, they weren’t limited to recovery within the Spirit Weapon range. Their range was as large as an open space. The lights from Minor Treasures were typically unable to penetrate tough solids.
This was the limitation here.
As they continued to fall, Ruvva moved gracefully as her body spun and created a tornado, sucking everything into her mouth. Shockwaves blasted from her teeth to destroy all objects into dust.
"Oof!" She swallowed all the dust, kept it in her mouth for a second, and then barfed it all out. All Mystic Eater fragments in the dust were neutralised.
’What an annoying creature.’ By now, there was a base level of harmony in Orakha’s thoughts. The collective will that had formed in him had stabilised by now and forced the rest of the chaotic wills to align with the overall cause.
’I have dispersed them across a wide range, but she has managed to clean up every single Mystic Eater.’ Orakha frowned as he now stood on a platform while his Mystic Eaters ate through the floor and plunged him into an elevator below. ’I don’t understand how she could neutralise my corruption.’
Seeing that Ruvva was hot on his tail, Orakha placed his hand on the walls of the elevator and smirked, ’You may be able to deal with the corruption somehow, but what about this?’
Body, mind, and soul unified as Orakha extracted a tinge of the cosmic corruption present in his being. A Mystic Eater appeared on his palm as he seeped the droplet of Transcendent influence into it.
KEEEEEEEEEE!
The Mystic Eater grappled with pain and mutated, growing in size as it sprouted multiple heads. Orakha threw its body in the elevator as he fell through the elevator channel below, which could only be accessed by the Brimgan Emperor.
This channel led to an underground tunnel, at the end of which was the Golden Deity, the Influenced Region created by the Major Treasure of Deity.
The Mystic Eater devoured all the materials part of the lift as it grew in size, assimilating everything in its path. It turned solid, using the palace’s materials to form its body.
A fat bulge in the chest region, sprouting dozens of heads that each spanned a length of eighty metres. The tail section stretched for over 400 metres, and the end sprouted another mouth that was readily consuming any solid it could find.
SCREEE!
In a matter of seconds, the creature had formed in full size and radiated madness, enough to turn anyone seeing it insane.
Without any hesitation, dropping upon it like a meteor was Ruvva, her body beginning to spin at a high frequency the closer she approached the creature. And then, she blasted forth dozens of Eddy Blades.