?"Don't be afraid," Brandal Brimgan gently hugged the body of a Free Human youth whose eyes were covered by a mask, preventing him from seeing. "You're a brave soul whose sacrifice will protect the Empire for generations to come."
He hugged the bodies of the twenty children eye-bound similarly, sighing in the end as he lifted the platform they were kneeling upon and brought it into the stomach of the golden giant. He then used psychokinesis on Virala and made his body move, all while remaining in contact with the stomach of the golden giant.
The platform was a Spirit Weapon controlled by Brandal Brimgan to ensure the eye-bound children didn't touch the golden giant and became affected by its influence.
Virala's body began to perform all sorts of actions while emitting Prana, completely controlled by Brandal Brimgan. This wasn't the first time this had happened, as displayed by the expert way in which he controlled Virala.
"Damn…you!" Virala cursed in response but was unable to stop the Prana flowing out of his Spirit Container, behaving beyond his control. He watched helplessly as his Secondary Nature of Weaponisation was unleashed instinctively.
Brandal Brimgan became aware that Virala had to achieve certain conditions before being able to turn a target into a Nature Weapon. Hence, he controlled Virala's body to make the movements while making his body emit Prana onto the targets.
As his body moved, performing all sorts of actions derived from the database of conditions Virala had done in the past, Brandal Brimgan watched in patience. Eventually, the first condition for one of the eye-bound children was satisfied manually, which caused Virala's Secondary Nature of Weaponisation to activate.
This was how Brandal Brimgan made Virala use Weaponisation without willingness. He took advantage of the instinctive way in which Natures worked and made use of the conditions necessary for Weaponisation to work.
As long as a single condition was achieved, Weaponisation would activate and collate all the conditions necessary to turn the target into a Nature Weapon. And the golden giant's influence would cause all this information to materialise outside Virala's body.
Upon absorbing it, Brandal Brimgan would then move Virala's body in the respective motions, performing the necessary actions, at the end of which, the target became a Nature Weapon.
It took four days for the first child to become a Nature Weapon. The second child became a Nature Weapon a few minutes later, followed by the third, and so on. The majority of them had similar conditions, so most of them were achieved at the same time.
As a result, once the unique conditions were being satisfied per individual, the children turned into Nature Weapons one by one. A couple of hours after the first child, all twenty had turned into Nature Weapons.
Brandal Brimgan stared at them in interest and watched Virala's Prana continue to seep into the Nature Weapons, making them ready to be equipped. The moment someone touches it, the Nature Weapon will automatically occupy one of their Nature Slots, just as how Gannala created one for Wittral.
Each Nature Weapon fell into a box prepared for them, engraved with the names of the people who were supposed to obtain them. The boxes were sealed as Brandal Brimgan split off a body and sent it away with the boxes.
That body will make the necessary arrangements for the Nature Weapons to be equipped onto the correct individuals.
"That's the last of them." Brandal Brimgan sighed in exhaustion as he sent the body away, "Now, every one of power has been equipped with two Nature Weapons."
Upon understanding the strategic value of Virala's Secondary Nature of Weaponisation, Brandal Brimgan had been busy. He made plans for the Raid Team that would be facing the Boar King, creating a network of Natures that they could equip and become more potent with.
This way, the number of people part of the Raid Team can be reduced, which meant coordination was easier. Also, the number of strategies they could enact would balloon by a hundred times, thanks to the variables presented by an extra two Natures of each member.
He didn't stop at that and strengthened the ministers and practically every Royal with power. As for the necessary Natures? The Brimgan Empire had been collecting cultivation techniques for multiple eras.
Each cultivation technique developed a specific Nature upon reaching the Body Stage. Among them, many had been developed to be compatible with Rutham, the mineral used to build the Human Avatars of the Brimgan Royalty.
This way, the Natures generated by their cultivation techniques would remain compatible with their Human Avatars. Until now, only branch families among Royalty that weren't getting enough Rutham opted for these cultivation techniques.
But to take advantage of Virala's Weaponisation, Brandal Brimgan began gathering orphans from across the Empire, especially children with decent talent. They were made to cultivate the respective techniques while fed with Elixirs and carefully nurtured over the past six years.
Once they were ready and had entered the Body Stage, Brandal Brimgan brought them to this underground cavern and transformed them into Nature Weapons. He could control Virala's body without issues, but only when the latter was in contact with the golden giant could his Secondary Nature be used.
As a result, Brandal Brimgan couldn't move him anywhere else. Moreover, only one person at a time can be placed in the golden giant's stomach. Otherwise, if the influence were to concentrate in more than one location, all individuals in contact with the golden giant would explode.
This had happened in the past. As a result, while Virala was kept here, no one else could be brought to the golden giant to have their memories extracted.
Two days later, the body of Brandal Brimgan that had been sent to the palace returned, carrying a massive container. "There are two thousand Ewworms in this."
The body walked away and returned with another container a few hours later. It continued in such a fashion until more than fifty containers were placed in the cavern. Following that, the body approached Brandal Brimgan and touched his body, merging into him.
At the Life Stage, communication between split bodies could be performed within the Spirit Weapon range, as the minds were connected. To merge the split bodies, physical contact was necessary. Hence, to recover his 10-Life Stage cultivation, Brandal Brimgan had to touch the split body with his hand and merge with it.
"It's finally here." Brandal Brimgan smiled upon inspecting the condition of the Ewworms, "To think the first transaction with the Cooter Clan would be to purchase Ewworms."
Three years ago, a certain piece of information was extracted out of Virala. It was the fact that Virala could use Weaponisation to upgrade Nature Weapons. He was first stunned because it wasn't something the Mammoth Ancestor was said to have.
But soon enough, he came to find out that Virala's Weaponisation was a Mystic Grade Nature. That made him believe the possibility. Moreover, it tied to Loot's evidence of being able to use Natures at a level of power way beyond what existed in Sumatra.
So, Brandal Brimgan was assured of this information being a fact. Another piece of information materialised a few days later, saying that to refine a Nature to the Mystic Grade, too many Pranic Beasts were necessary, which means that only Iron Grade Pranic Beasts could realistically be used, given their birth rate and population.
Upon coming across Virala's plans in regards to using a Mystic Grade Ewworm as a defensive weapon capable of shredding anything in the vicinity, Brandal Brimgan became interested. After all, due to its passive character, even if it were to be a Mystic Grade Pranic Beast, it would remain subservient to him.
This meant that Brandal Brimgan could wield its power as his own, having a pet living off his body that could hide and reveal only when his life was at risk. Moreover, as a Mystic Grade Pranic Beast, and with Brandal Brimgan's nurturing, it would create a weapon out of Rutham, being powerful enough to one-shot even Gold Grade Pranic Beasts.
It would become his trump card!