A being with unmatched potential but a lack of creativity, that was Brangara. However, what made him scary was the fact that whenever he was engaged in a battle, he tapped into that potential. The more he fought, the more hard-pressed he was, the greater he explored his potential.
And that unfortunate reality was why one couldn’t fight him without being fully prepared to kill him. It was why the Mystic Seven harnessed every ounce of their capability to kill the Celestial Boar during the Third Major Disaster, for they knew for a fact that they wouldn’t win if they were to delay any longer.
But even though Brangara had unmatched potential in terms of strength, his schemes could be predicted to a certain extent. Once Yarsha Zahara was dealt with, only his power was a concern.
However, the current Brangara didn’t have that limitation, in that he was a filter applied upon Virala’s cunning, intelligence, memories, and experiences. Worst of all, this was upon a Virala who clearly remembered his time as Kvirala.
So, when necessary, he could keep his arrogance in check. That was truly the worst combo, which had now been manifested as the Mystic Human Brangara.
As a root of the Transcendent Eater slapped the water, aiming for Brangara, the latter curved around the side and raced to its top. He stood upon it and watched it slam into the water. But he didn’t have the time to lounge around, as a few more roots were aiming for him, one after another.
He kicked the root and leapt sideways, watching the root aiming for him move in response in the same direction. It was about to collide into him. The damage wouldn’t be enough to harm him, but it would lock him in place and allow for an endless beating session by the roots.
To avoid it, he wriggled his body and assumed his Mystic Ewworm form, reaching a length of two kilometres. His girth was merely 10 metres, and the entire body was exceptionally soft.
As the root slammed him, it squished his body between two roots. However, like squishing a rubber band, his body merely deformed but didn’t sustain any damage. Moreover, only a portion of the body was caught between two roots.
The rest coiled around atop the root and reverted to human form as it severed off the portion stuck between the roots, ’I lost around eighty Prana from that one attack.’
Brangara analysed as a few more roots slammed into him. He used the same method to survive the attack and emerged atop all the roots.
By now, the roots at the bottom wriggled and rose into the sky, aiming to go for a second round. Brangara kicked on the root he was standing upon and launched himself in Ruvva’s direction, only to be intercepted by a dozen roots, all of which began bombarding him nonstop.
"Are you planning to tire me out?" Brangara chuckled as he lashed out with his whip and formed a deep gash on an incoming root. Using psychokinesis, he made the whip curve as he swung it against and again in quick succession to sever the root.
With a twist of his arms, the whips coiled around the root and pulled it towards him. followed by a leap, he assumed Empyrean Boar King form, took a big chomp on the severed root, and reverted to human form as he landed. "You know that’s not possible, given my recovery means."
"You can indeed recover Prana faster than your expenditure. You do eat a lot for your worth." A carnivorous mouth popped up and snorted, "However, how long can you keep it up? Even with your Prana recovering your being, you’ll eventually grow tired."
"A month? A few months? A year?" The carnivorous mouth uttered, "Eventually, your Prana will grow sluggish and you’ll hit your limit. That’s when you lose,"
"For I can keep this up forever!" The roots rained down upon Brangara relentlessly, "Before meeting you, I sealed off the Dralh Sea. You can forget leaving this place alive."
"Oh, really?" Brangara stopped evading the attacks and casually raised his hands, watching a root encompass the sky as it descended upon him. He slowly brought the hand downward and moved it towards his ass, following which he pulled out a metre long Ewworm.
"Do you remember this?" He said and propped up the Ewworm, which reverted into Brangara.
"What?" A stunned shout reverberated across the region as Blola stared at the two figures of Brangara incredulously. He was aware at the fact that Ruvva had safely tucked away Virala’s second body.
So, Brangara was stuck with one body. Therefore, it didn’t make sense that he had two. But a few seconds later, he got his answer, as one of the bodies began to lose out on presence, which quickly diminished to hold a fraction of the original. ’A puppet?’
However, this highlighted a scary fact, in that the one fighting Blola all along was a puppet and the actual Brangara was chilling in the puppet’s ass.
"That’s what it was," Ruvva analysed the situation and hurriedly explained it to the carnivorous flower next to her, "He knew he would tire out eventually in a fight against you. Hence, he never moved his body and instead made his clone do everything. Using his Ewworm’s capability, he hid in the puppet’s body, and behaved like a battery to supply Prana and used the time to sleep."
A puppet created using the Minor Treasure of Spirit Puppet Slip had a limit of 100 units of Prana. It couldn’t function without a Prana supply beyond that limit. However, if the original did that while hiding within them, the puppet could behave like the original without the latter having to move a muscle.
"Can you do the same?" The carnivorous mouth asked Ruvva.
"For a short while," Ruvva shook her head, "My Apogee Bludder’s miniature form allows me to hide in my puppet’s body. However, I’ll have to actively transmit Prana to the puppet’s Spirit Container, so this isn’t realistic..."
"I see," She realised what Brangara wasn’t using such a sophisticated means like her to transmit Prana and the like to the puppet.
Instead, after settling in the intestines of the puppet, Brangara simply formed an incision on his body to bleed out blood. He slept with a conscious thought to not close the wound. So, his Prana was being consumed to generate the lost blood.
In the meantime, the puppet’s digestive system was simply digesting the blooḍ. That was it. As the puppet digested the food, it was generating enough Prana to act like the original without issues.
"But the puppets cannot retain enough information. Their mindspace is limited." Ruvva frowned, "Unless the puppet could access Brangara’s mindspace, it couldn’t have moved so complexively as it did until now. But that is impossible, for only a stacked body could access the mindspace. A puppet can’t do so."
Ruvva was unable to figure out the mental aspects that allowed Brangara to achieve what he did, ’Virala’s memories are only until partway into the Third Major Disaster. He isn’t aware of the progression we had past that point. Brangara’s memories are stuck even farther into the past, from his time at the Brimgan Empire. How is he able to achieve such a feat with that knowledge?’
’Does that mean...’ Ruvva shuddered, ’His existing memories are enough to create such a feat? Or did he already catch up to the present?’
Such a feat wasn’t possible even to her, so Ruvva was stumped for an answer. And most of all, realisation hit her at the fact that they wouldn’t be able to outlast Brangara. He could fight perpetually using his puppets too.
"You have lost your one advantage." Brangara uttered with arrogance. And then, as if he were already aware of what Blola would state next, he spread his legs wide and struck a pose like a pole dancer, "You wanted to claim I cannot eat you fast enough while dodging your attacks? I don’t need to do that in the first place. After all,"
"I have minions to do that." Bursting out of the water was a Gold Ewworm, aiming for his ass.
Primary Nature—Rectum Merger!
"Don’t you know that the cut-off parts of a Mystic Ewworm will turn into Gold Ewworms?" Brangara chuckled, "When you were busy attacking me, you didn’t even realise you were making more of my minions, huh?"
"Now," Brangara gathered Prana to his rectum, and used psychokinesis to instantly crush the organ into paste. As a new rectum regenerated, he pulled the paste into his stomach and digested it, "After they appear, they were secretly munching on your roots for nutrition. Since you’re a plant, you never noticed it."
Even the Iron Grade version of Ewworms were experts in hiding from Prana detection means, not to mention its Gold Grade variant. And in the present scenario where two Mystic Grade presences were permeating the region, all a Prana detection means could detect was two ginormous ripples dancing about.
Detecting the Gold Ewworms was impossible, which allowed them to feast without issues as they drilled into the roots. As Gold Grade Pranic Beasts, they had enough strength to eat into a Transcendent Eater’s roots.
"See," Brangara uttered and flashed his ass, as immediately, another Gold Ewworm targeted it. And just like before, he smashed it and consumed it too, "They have all gorged on your rots, you see."
"This is how I recover." Brangara calmly eyed the sea of roots that were sprouted in his field of view, "You can forget winning a war of attrition against me, for that’s impossible. I have figured out the means to outlast you. And now, your only hope towards victory would be to face me with your trump cards."
"Trick question," Brangara raised a finger and pointed at the roots filling the region, "How many times have you cut off my Mystic Ewworm form?"
Upon the question, he casually twirled atop another root an flashed a pose and winked when another Gold Ewworm revealed itself to target his ass, "The answer is...Many!"
"How many, you ask?" Brangara ridiculed as he blew the air coquettishly, "Find...it...out...your...self...!"