Boom! Thud!
Ruvva collapsed to her knees and sobbed, feeling disgusted as she stared at her bloody hands. Before her was a mashed-up corpse immersed in her blood to be constantly purified. The blood gradually moved like how a Cooter Clansman controlled a Spirit Weapon, seeped into Orakha’s body and continued to purify every trace of cosmic influence in him.
Originally, she couldn’t access it well, since Orakha’s Spirit Weapon continued to shatter the moment she created one for him. Without a Spirit Container, her treatment methods couldn’t reach Orakha’s mindspace and purify the cosmic influence.
But now, the Cosmic Being created a Spirit Container, which she took advantage of. Moreover, she had enough control to protect Orakha and only purify the Cosmic Being. But that also meant she had to repeatedly torture Orakha.
She knew the existence before her wasn’t her uncle. However, the appearance and voice were that of her uncle, which caused her stomach to convulse in nausea.
From the mouth of the Influenced Region of Golden Deity, Boul Brimgan watched the events passively. He watched the ten Minor Treasures of Orakha’s Checkpoint emit a pillar of light and search for a new host when Orakha’s body was destroyed.
Ruvva created a puppet of herself and weakened its Mystic Human characteristic the most. She placed one Minor Treasure of Orakha’s Checkpoint on the puppet and watched it seep into the latter.
Typically, a Mystic Human was only able to fuse with a Minor Treasure created by a Mystic Human. The Minor Treasure of Orakha’s Checkpoint was the sole exception for few reasons.
First was the fact that it was created using Brandal Brimgan’s Human Avatar, whose data played a pivotal role in the creation of the Mystic Human Race. Second was the fact that it was created using the influence present in the stomach of the Golden Deity, which Virala too had absorbed to become a Mystic Human.
’It is able to bypass a Mystic Human’s resistance.’ Ruvva frowned upon seeing how easily the Minor Treasure of Orakha’s Checkpoint fused with her puppet, ’Our resistance isn’t able to even register its existence.’
The Minor Treasure of Orakha’s Checkpoint was able to camouflage itself in the body it had fused with. That was why detecting it was close to impossible. The only one who managed to successfully detect them was Yamahara.
Even Yarsha Zahara and Brangara, with all their power, failed to sense the Minor Treasure.
Ruvva noticed it was same for her too, as she couldn’t sense the Minor Treasure after it had fused with the puppet. However, she knew the Minor Treasure fused with the rib bones, so she could find them without issues.
All she had to do was rip out the rib cage, and one of them would have the Minor Treasure.
"Urgh!" The puppet grunted as it was affected by the influence permeating from the Minor Treasure. Blood mist oozed out of the puppet’s orifices, and a few minutes later, her voice began to resemble Orakha’s.
Ruvva used a piece of bone to grab and toss a second Minor Treasure of Orakha’s Checkpoint at the puppet and noticed the puppet’s screams turn into Orakha’s faster. She stopped here and made four more puppets.
Each puppet held two Minor Treasures. They were placed more than 180 metres apart, and as they formed into Orakha, Ruvva attacked them.
She was systematically destroying the Cosmic Being. And as a result, the latter was forced to react.
Nature—Selectively Permeable Plasma!
A jet-black substance oozed out of one of the puppets and latched onto Ruvva, burning her fiercely. However, protected by her Empyrean Tusk exoskeleton, Ruvva didn’t sustain any damage as she began her attacks.
By the time her armour was burnt by the plasma, she had already killed the puppet and collected the two Minor Treasures. Without skipping a beat, she used the Minor Treasure of Spirit Puppet Slip to shoot another puppet of hers away and threw the two Minor Treasures at the target.
As the puppet writhed in pain while it was steadily getting turned into Orakha, Ruvva targeted the next puppet.
"How long, mother?" Moihala asked, still covering her eyes and ears. Standing guard beside her on either side was a Kinesis Feline.
From afar, Boul Brimgan observed everything coldly, ready to take action the moment Ruvva made a mistake. He had enough speed to dice up the Cosmic Being into a thousand pieces before the latter could finish taking a single step.
...
Orakha’s mindspace!
Standing at the peak of the same mountain where he last discussed with Moihala was Orakha. Coolly, he slumped on an easy chair, sipped some orange juice and whistled mockingly while staring at the Cosmic Being in the sky, "Silent, are we?"
The darkness in the sky had lost most of its murkiness, as the Cosmic Being was significantly dimmer than before.
"You...arrogant...mortal!" A cloud appeared at the foot of the hill, as the Cosmic Being had invaded the space. "You...dare...mock me?"
"I’m not." Before Orakha had even opened his mouth to reply, he had shifted positions, abandoned the mountain and cut it off from his mind space. It became part of his mind space that was occupied by the Cosmic Being.
Orakha appeared on the rooftop of a skyscraper and condensed another cup of orange juice. He drank its contents and observed the mountain from afar. The Cosmic Being grew some strength in the process, but a few seconds later, it grew dimmer as Ruvva had targeted another part of it.
The Cosmic Being that had controlled the mountain was forced to let go and rejoin with the massive cloud in the sky. The moment it had done so, Orakha expanded the barrier protecting him and regained control over the mountain top.
He observed to the side and saw the forest expanse at the foot of the mountain had expanded further. The ten Minor Treasures were rebuilding his mindspace continually. When the Orange Mystic Path pulsed, it served to rebuild the mindspace faster.
That was how the war between Orakha and the Cosmic Being had started. Until then, both were in the process of being rebuilt by the Minor Treasure of Orakha’s Checkpoint.
If nothing had happened, the Cosmic Being would have fully altered the Minor Treasures once all ten of them had appeared. However, the Orange Mystic Path awakened the defeated Orakha’s will and allowed him a small place in his mindspace to survive.
Thanks to Ruvva, his living space in the mindspace was gradually increasing. As the Minor Treasures continued to rebuild the mindspace, every piece it rebuilt had a mixture of both Orakha and the Cosmic Being.
The part of Orakha was obviously taken over by the Cosmic Being. However, when Ruvva purified the part, only Orakha was left behind, which joined into the dome under his control.
This was how he was gaining ground bit by bit. He himself didn’t have the strength or means to fight the Cosmic Being, for he had already lost long ago. As Ruvva purified him, his purified parts joined together and resisted the Cosmic Being, futilely yes, but at least made it harder for the Cosmic Being to regain control over the mindspace.
’I don’t know how, but I’m glad the Orange Mystic Path pulsed ahead of schedule.’ Orakha thought in relief as he observed the murky cloud beyond his barrier, ’Otherwise, it would have finished rewriting my Minor Treasure into its own.’
At that point, even when destroyed, the Minor Treasure would rebuild the Cosmic Being again and again.
And if Ruvva wasn’t there to stop it in advance, and if by chance the Cosmic Being were to get its hands on another Minor Treasure or at worse, an Influenced Region, or in the worst-case scenario, a Major Treasure, Sumatra Continent would pretty much be fucked.
The only means to fight against it in that case would be to rely on a State of Unity. And even then, it would be a protracted war, until the Minor and Major Treasures in the Cosmic Being’s possessions were fully consumed.
Roar!
A serpentine monstrosity appeared in the tunnel, exuding corruption that began to influence the surroundings. In response, there was a flash as a destructive beam covered the tunnel.
The power of Unlimited Predator permeated the destructive beam, which consumed through the corruption and neutralised the creature. Ruvva swallowed whatever that remained of the creature and purified it all.
"Haah!" She gasped and groaned, feeling exhausted as she brought down her fists a few more times and pummelled another Orakha to death after immersing the latter in her blood. "How...
She turned to face Moihala, "How much is left?"
"That...was the last!" Moihala’s eyes shot open with resounding clarity and blinked curiously. Before she could observe her surroundings, Ruvva covered her eyes.
"I told you to keep your eyes closed." Ruvva masked her exhaustion and gently spoke, "Are you sure?"
"Yes," Moihala nodded, "That Cosmic Being has been fully annihilated."
"I see, that’s good then." Ruvva groaned and clenched her hand into a fist. Her blood that covered the place sloshed around and gathered every foreign particle. The foreign particles were combined and compressed to the limit, following which she swallowed them.
Her face scrunched up in revulsion, but she swallowed the compressed substance alongside her blood and activated Mystic Nature Art, just in case. Once the place was clean, she created another puppet of herself and threw four Minor Treasures of Orakha’s Checkpoint into it.
Soon, the puppet transformed to partially resemble Orakha, who sat idly while burying his face in his palms.
Ruvva walked before the latter and hesitated for a few seconds, tearing up when the latter lifted his head, "Uncle?"
"Is that you this time?"