"Guardian, what’s our response?" The Minister of Defence, Fuhrh Brimgan, asked as he stared at the ginormous creature that was rampaging within the Brimgan Palace.
"Only those with a Minor Treasure should attack it. The rest should just stay away." Ruvva shouted as she spun her body, "The influence radiating from it is the similar to what is currently present in the Sandy-Grey Void."
Skill—Eddy Blade x4!
The Brimgan Royals who had a Secondary Nature took action, relying on their Minor Treasures to protect themselves from the creature’s influence. They erected a wall of Rutham around the Brimgan Palace to ensure none of the citizens would stare at the creature, even by mistake.
The rest used their Spirit Weapon to target the creature. A Rutham chakram spun and severed one of the creature’s heads. The severed head didn’t dissipate, but instead consumed some of the ground when it fell and rebuild itself.
It released its influence on the piece of ground it had consumed, until the latter became one with its influence and began to radiate off the same.
It was the same as an Influenced Region, but only wasn’t as tough. However, if left to progress as is, the creature would turn into an Influenced Region soon, many times faster than a Major Treasure’s Influenced Region. Worst of all, this would turn anyone who sees it insane.
Water vapour blew off from her eyes as Ruvva stared dead centre at the creature. Her Eddy Blades hacked its heads while the Rutham chakrams diced the severed heads into smaller pieces.
However, seeing as how this wasn’t taking care of the issue, Ruvva took out a gun and pressed the trigger multiple times.
Minor Treasure—Spirit Puppet Slip!
Mystic Nature Art—Spirit Weapon Switch!
Sixty figures of Ruvva slammed into the creature, each possessing 100 units of Prana. They were all launched at the diced parts of the creature, and upon landing with resounding thuds, the Ruvva puppets swallowed the creature’s body parts and purified them all.
"Argh!" One of the Ruvva puppets screamed in pain as her body began to mutate, on the verge of growing a second head. The corruption in the body part she had swallowed was significantly more potent than the rest.
Immediately, she turned into a fist-sized Apogee Bludder, following which Ruvva herself swallowed the clone. She released a soft exhale, having neutralised the corruption.
"Just cut it all, I’ll take care of the rest." Seeing the success, Ruvva said. She had just said her piece when thousands of golden flashes happened in the blink of an eye. The terrifying creature that seemed intent on rampaging within the Brimgan Palace? It was diced into uniform pieces, completely, without leaving anything behind.
The Ruvva puppets consumed the pieces and purified them all, taking less than a minute to clean up the place. Simultaneously, they all turned into fist-sized Apogee Bludders, making it easy for Ruvva to consume them and recover her expended Prana.
"Let’s hurry," Fuhrh Brimgan said as he eyed the elevator shaft, "That entity might flee at this rate."
"No, it’s alright." Ruvva waved her hand and left behind a dozen clones, "Please take care of the situation here. Search to see if we had missed any pieces, and then focus on repairing the palace."
"I know where Orakha’s heading, so I’m not concerned." Ruvva said in confidence and then jumped into the elevator shaft, "For he’s at the destination."
...
Mystic Eaters slithered across the long tunnel, dragging a sledge formed using the bodies of coiled Mystic Eaters. Seated on them was Orakha, his face switching between sadness and laughter. "Hahahaha!"
"Ahhh!" And then, there were tears. However, these fluctuations were stabilising, as mild mutations began to form on his face.
First of all, his body had now grown to reach a height of four metres. He had developed a second set of arms, with sharp nails. His eyes had grown twice the size of what was supposed to be in his larger head.
His skin sported scales, resembling a fish, with chitin around the joints. Strangely, his arms had an extra joint now, between the wrist and the elbow. This was a ball-and-socket joint, allowing the wrist portion to rotate freely in a hemispherical path.
His Prana capacity had reached 99 units. Even though the Brimgan Palace had been vacated promptly, Orakha still managed to find bits and pieces of consumable substances.
The Brimgan Royals were swift in their actions. However, they were Royals, and hence had glossed over one place—the toilets.
This faecal matter was consumed by the Mystic Eaters to gather some Prana, which was transferred to Orakha.
As he moved through the tunnel, Orakha constantly released Mystic Eaters to fill up the place behind him, to ensure they would hold back Ruvva long enough, ’Once I reach the Body Stage, I’ll be able to deal with her better.’
His body had reached five metres in height by now, as it sported cracks. He had modified his body to such a size to give space for the Mystic Eaters to coil and apply pressure on the Spirit Container cluster and prevent it from breaking.
This was how he could forcefully raise his strength through the Spirit Stage. And as long as he reaches the Body Stage, he will be able to create a Compound Human Avatar suited to his needs, one that would allow him to quickly build an Influenced Region to protect himself.
100!
The last Spirit Container was formed successfully as the Golden Giant came into view. Seeing it, Orakha couldn’t help but lick his lips, "Once I consume it, I’ll reach the peak of this Continent."
"Stupid, ignorant natives," Orakha muttered as the sledge dragged him forward. Suddenly, the Mystic Eaters shuddered and grew vibrant, reacting to a pinnacle mineral. "Oh?"
"Is it Sumatra Gold? Great!" He roared in laughter, "With it, I can spontaneously erect a large Influenced Region..."
He stopped speaking upon seeing a golden humanoid appear in the mouth of the Golden Deity, "Eh?"
He couldn’t even react, for all he sensed was a spike in Prana. And then, a destructive beam enveloped the entirety of the tunnel section.
All the Mystic Eaters were caught in the crossfire and were vaporised.
"You...cannot kill my body!" Orakha roared, "Even an Influenced Region will struggle to damage mine..."
Orakha watched his body begin to melt, startled by the changes as he noticed his body, mind, and soul were being consumed by this destructive beam, "W-What is this power? This shouldn’t exist on this Continent!"
State of Unity—Unlimited Predator!
"Cough...cough!" The golden humanoid began to cough in a flurry as the destructive beam was suddenly cut off.
"Argh!" A molten head and chest were all that remained of Orakha. Mystic Eaters surged around and began to rebuild his body. He sat up a couple seconds later and glared at the golden humanoid, "That was a frightening attack. However, it seems it’s not your power, and you obviously cannot unleash it for long."
All the melting in Orakha’s body, mind, and soul gradually subsided as he got up and dusted himself. Mystic Eaters spilt out of his being and began to spread out as he became ready to destroy the golden humanoid and then consume both the Influenced Region of Golden Deity and the Major Treasure of Deity.
But in contrast, the golden humanoid didn’t take action and instead just seemed to be...staring behind Orakha.
’Is something behind me?’ Orakha turned behind and gasped to see a mildly panting Ruvva standing an arm’s reach away, "How are you here so fast?"
"Making chaos in his body..." Ruvva glared in anger as she pointed her gun sideways and pressed the trigger in a flurry. In Apogee Bludder form, spinning bullets blasted forth at terrifying speeds and slammed into the spreading Mystic Eaters.
One after another, they used Eddy Blades to dice up the targets and then reverted to Ruvva’s form, where they consumed all the Mystic Eaters to purify.
"Can you handle him?" The golden humanoid’s voice resounded. "No, that’s not it. Can you bear to kill him?"
"I can be heartless when needed," Ruvva said as a storm erupted within the tunnel, for she had assumed her Empyrean Tusk form.
Her trunk unleashed a powerful suction force and sucked everything present in the tunnel, including Orakha, who resisted fiercely and ejected another droplet of corruption from his being and dripped it into her mouth.
The tongue mutated in response, but that was it. Nothing was birthed in response, much to Orakha’s shock, "This is impossible!"
"I have been purifying the corruption in you for decades now. I’ve long since developed resistance to it." Ruvva said as Prana poured into her mouth and acted upon Orakha causing him to scream in fright as he was being treated as an external influence.
"You’ve actually made it easier by taking form." Ruvva’s voice resounded in gratitude, "You’ve made yourself accessible to me now."
As she said so, Mystic Nature Art was activated in full force. The corruption radiating off of Orakha was gradually erased. Taking advantage of the situation, a Ruvva clone appeared and thrust her hand through Orakha’s ribs to yank out the two Minor Treasures of Orakha’s Checkpoint.
"Urgh!" Her hands melted within a second of holding the Minor Treasure. Thankfully, she was a clone, as before her body melted fully, she threw the two Minor Treasures into a container.
Ruvva eyed the two Minor Treasures for a moment and frowned, ’What the heck has happened to them?’
The two fist-sized golden sculptures of Brandal Brimgan lay immobile, occasionally twitching at the eyes, lips, and fingertips.
"Argh!" Orakha continued to scream in pain as suddenly, his words stunned Ruvva, "It...hurts! Stop it..."
"Ruvva!"