"How did you hide here?" Ruvva asked, flinching upon hearing the door shut behind her.
"Does it matter?" Brangara casually stretched his shoulder atop the golden lotus platform created by the Minor Treasure of Mystic Human Stamp. As if he was talking about what he had eaten just recently, Brangara declared, "If I wish to hide, there doesn’t exist anyone on Sumatra who can detect me."
"That’s impossible!" Ruvva shouted, "Virala was indeed able to hide using his Mystic Ewworm form, but that was before its capabilities were revealed. There are methods to detect it..."
"Virala can’t," Brangara shrugged his shoulders, "I can."
"And that’s all you need to know." He then extended his hand towards her, "Now, give them to me."
"..." Ruvva instinctively turned around, intending to break out of the chamber, when suddenly, a thick layer of Tratham covered the walls. And then, they emitted a crimson radiance, focusing upon her from all the wall surfaces. "Urgh!"
They pressed upon her body, preventing her from moving away. The only way to break free was to assume a transformation. However, the space expansion from her Apogee Bludder form wasn’t enough to fully break free. In an instant, it too would be locked in place by the Tratham forcefield.
And if she were to assume her Empyrean Tusk form, she would pummel into paste most of the Mystic Humans in the palace.
"I love the speed at which your brain analyses the situation." Brangara praised and pointed at his head, "Only after obtaining this brain did I understand what I had been missing out on for so long."
"Had I possessed this brain, I could have easily destroyed everyone without issues." As he spoke, the section of the Tratham wall behind Ruvva spiked its force upon her, pushing her towards him, all the way into his vice grip. "Now, don’t dally around any longer."
"You either return my Minor Treasures on your own, or I’ll rip them out alongside all your Minor Treasures." His expression was casual, concerned even. His eyes expressed care towards Ruvva, and his overall bearing resembled that of a gentle father.
However, Ruvva’s instincts screamed in horror, leagues worse than what she faced from the Cosmic Being. Her mind froze while her body became paralysed from terror. Slowly, urged by fear, her hands plunged into her body and extracted two Minor Treasures.
Minor Treasure—Mystic Human Stamp!
Minor Treasure—Spirit Puppet Slip!
"Ah, good to have them back." Brangara casually grabbed the two Minor Treasures and flung Ruvva away, ignoring the loud impact produced as she slammed into the Tratham wall and collapsed amid a pile of Tratham pieces.
"Well then, I will take my leave." Brangara casually jumped out of the golden lotus and winked at the Spirit Eater, "It was nice talking to you."
By that, he wasn’t talking about the Spirit Eater, but rather the entity connected to it—Sumatra’s Transcendent Eater.
In the time Ruvva took to arrive at the chamber after repairs were completed and the party was in full swing, Brangara spent it conversing with Sumatra’s Transcendent Eater.
"Why?" Ruvva shouted when Brangara approached the door, about to retract the layer of Tratham and exit the chamber.
His hands stopped as his eyes trained upon the collapsed figure a fair distance nearby, "Why, what?"
"Your actions don’t make sense!" Ruvva screamed, "You know your second body is in my stomach. I have two powerful Minor Treasures other than yours."
"Why...why haven’t you taken any of them?" She bellowed in frustration, "No one even has the strength to stop you, if you wanted to. Then why are you..."
"The old me would have taken them all." Brangara shrugged casually, "The current me doesn’t need them."
He casually eyed her stomach, "My second body is my backup. The moment we were in Spirit Weapon range with each other, I synchronised my body and mind with it."
"The moment this body perishes," He grinned, kneeled before Ruvva, and propped her up by holding her jaw, "The one in your stomach will walk out, with my full memories intact. You cannot stop me, even with the Mystic Human Stamp. I made sure of it just now."
"As for the two Minor Treasures you displayed..." He looked down on her, full of disdain, "Sure, they are extremely powerful. However, did you manage to do anything against me with them?"
"No, right?" A flick of his finger, and her figure was launched into the wall once again, "And that’s your answer, Kid."
"Stay put at home and obediently wait to benefit from the Violet Mystic Path. At least, by that point, you’ll at least be worth fighting seriously." He laughed and waved his hand.
"You..." His words triggered Ruvva, who screamed, "You weren’t fighting seriously against me?"
"Pfft!" Brangara burst into laughter, retracted the Tratham covering the walls, and walked out. Standing guard in the corridor were a couple Mystic Humans, protecting the chamber where the Spirit Eater was.
They neither sensed his presence nor saw him walk out. The moment Brangara stepped out of the chamber, he turned into a metre-long-Ewworm, with the entire body wrapped around by the same substance that covered the floor.
By consuming the floor, the Ewworm secreted the same substance into the tool, which wrapped around the body like skin. As the Ewworm moved forward, the tool let go of pieces of the substance, which perfectly stuck to the rest of the material in the floor.
It was no different from using Subtle Terrain Domination to move through the floor. The process here relied on delicate consumption, camouflage using tool, and expulsion using the Mystic Ewworm’s properties.
It was a lot slower here, but Brangara could move without being detected. And he was doing such an exceptional job that even an average Empyrean Snapper wouldn’t notice anything amiss. Only the Empyrean Snappers of the current time period, ranked in the single digits, would be able to notice his actions.
"Aargh!" Suddenly, there was a shrill screech from the chamber. The two Mystic Humans standing guard rushed inside spontaneously, only to see a haggard Ruvva in tears, slamming her fists into the floor while cursing nonstop like a deranged animal.
"Chief!"
"What happened, Chief?"
Soon, more and more Mystic Humans rushed into the chamber, alerted by her screams. Yoribu was soon to arrive, her expression morphing into shock upon seeing Ruvva’s haggard state, ’How...was she reduced to such a state?’
’Is this...that Ruvva?’ For a moment, she couldn’t recognise the other party, ’That bundle of pride is in such shatters?’
Meanwhile, producing a dull, crimson streak over the seabed was Brangara, in his metre-long Mystic Ewworm form. He was steadily approaching the border of the Dralh Sea, and soon, leapt into the Guna Caves.
"Oh, there you are." He muttered and pulled out an Ewworm. He casually placed the Mystic Human Stamp on it, extracted its memories, and went through it, "I see, I see, I understand."
Once he was done, he returned the memories to the Ewworm and headed deeper into the Guna Caves. A few days later, he left the region and soon made his way to the Red-Draft River.
After travelling through it for a while, he reached land, and then began to run while avoiding other creatures as much as possible.
’They have developed extensively, huh?’ Brangara thought upon spotting a Quip Tower. Immediately in response, he assumed Mystic Ewworm form and burrowed into the ground. He travelled underground for a while and surfaced once there was no sight of a Quip Clansman in the vicinity, ’It seems even after the public opinion damage they suffered due to their actions at the Varahan Empire, their growth hasn’t been hindered in the least.’
Swoosh!
A lone Quip Zinger was gliding over a region, covered in wounds. Quip Zingers usually moved in flocks to endure the dangers of Sumatra. The one was the sole survivor in its flock, after they had encountered danger.
Brangara observed the Quip Zinger and leapt to catch it, following which he used the Mystic Human Stamp to extract its memories and grasped the situation, ’Discussion with one of the natives of a farther region went awry, and they were targeted. This is the only survivor.’
’Why do they need to endure so much danger? From what I noticed, they are in a comfortable position and could expand naturally without risks...ah!’ He got the answer immediately, "Binala and Kvirala."
The Quip Clan needed to experience constant dangers to strengthen itself. Otherwise, they wouldn’t innovate, "Talk about tough love."
He returned the Quip Zinger’s memories, erasing only the past about himself as Brangara moved on. He stopped at various locations to eat and replenish his Prana, and soon, came across a flat plains where the local population was getting trampled upon by a horde of Forest Boars, ’This place is at least a couple dozen thousand kilometres from the Kalahatra Desert. To think they have invaded so far...’
"One...hundred...a total of one hundred and seventy-two Forest Boars." Brangara muttered and licked his lips, "This will be a worthy opponent to train my resistance."
Mystic Nature Art—Kinesis Physiology!
It used psychokinesis to compress, expand, and morph his body to change appearance. It was similar to the Skill of Virala that was unleashed using Mystic Bone Art. It had been changed to suit Mystic Nature Art, added with Brangara’s own understanding of changing one’s physique.
Slowly, he used psychokinesis to restrict his blood flow, turning it weaker. He then applied psychokinesis against his muscles, to turn them weaker. He applied it against his bones, blood, and even his heart, eventually dropping his strength to Gold Grade.
Mystic Nature Art—Nerf!
He weakened himself until his overall strength was on par with a Gold Grade Free Human who had reached the peak of the Body Stage. This was just a regular Free Human and not a Brimgan Royal. "This is good enough."
With that, he rushed towards the Forest Boars, "Damn Beasts! This is vengeance for destroying my Kingdom!"