Meteors continued to crash into the ground as Brangara continued to run. As he was consuming Prana without replenishment, he had to consume something in order to keep running.
Upon evolution, he lost his stomach biome, for that was used as fuel for the creation of his Astral World. And as Astral World resided in his stomach, Brangara couldn't create another biome there.
But creating it anywhere else was of no use, since whatever he ingested would arrive at his stomach to be digested. Without an Empyrean Tusk's inheritance, he wouldn't be able to make a functional biome in other organs, especially a practical one in this situation.
Therefore, he had to rely on primitive means to recover Prana quickly, which was to consume a Pranic Beast. With an emission of his Prana, thousands of Iron Grade Pranic Beasts fell unconscious as Brangara leaped at the closest target, only to see it be pulled into the sky.
"Yum!" Resha licked his lips as he activated his Tertiary Nature of Empyrean 100 to transform into a Centinger and gobble up the large Iron Grade Pranic Beast's body. Everything that Brangara aimed for was pulled into the sky for his consumption. And the reason he couldn't reach them despite his supersonic speed was simply.
Prime Skill—Gravity Funnel!
Through the effects of External Inertial Gravity, Resha stacked dozens of Gravity Funnels on Brangara, causing them to unleash a repulsive field around him. Thereby, the moment he approached a Pranic Beast, this field repelled it away from him.
Considering his speed, Brangara could take advantage of the Pranic Beast's inertia—since it was in a state of rest after falling unconscious—to quickly close in the gap before its body started to move away.
But the moment he was about to consume it, Resha did the usual. First, a Gravity Funnel began to pull the Pranic Beast's body towards Resha. Second, Brangara's kids were pulled away from him.
Resha had refined their bones through his Secondary Nature, making it damn easy to control their skeleton through his Primary Nature. He could treat them as his Spirit Weapon. Hence, he pulled Brangara's four children in different directions, forcing the father to raise their density and regain his hold over them.
By the time he managed to reclaim his children, Resha managed to grab the Pranic Beast's body and consumed it. This was what he used to prevent Brangara from making a recovery.
"Hold him back for me!" Brangara grunted in anger and released a bunch of Tangible Natures that took their respective Pranic Beast forms. Simultaneously, they activated their respective Natures and targeted Resha, holding his attention for a couple of seconds before a rain of bone spikes ruptured them.
Two seconds was enough for Brangara to assume Celestial Boar form and unleash a suction force that swallowed hundreds of unconscious Pranic Beasts.
"The fuck is this?" Resha was stunned by Brangara's Pranic Beast form, for it was even more terrifying than he had imagined, 'No wonder my Primary Nature is trembling in fear nonstop.'
The Celestial Boar was a humanoid creature reaching a height of 540 metres, sporting the head of Brangara's Empyrean Boar King form. The entire body was covered with brown fur, riddled with swirling patterns of black.
Laid on the back, forming an outgrowth of his spine was a series of bone spikes, with the tallest reaching a height of twenty metres. They resembled the tusk of an Empyrean Tusk in shape, appearance, and texture.
Covering the neck was a jet-black mane that cascaded from the crown of his head, dangling in the wind. Two pairs of eyes stared regally; their pupils seemingly formed by the combination of more than a thousand concentric circles.
At the back of the pair of ears on his head were another set of eyes, positioned to observe his back, leaving virtually no blind spots for the Celestial Boar.
The hands resembled a human's, covered by a greyish-black material resembling the hooves of his Empyrean Boar King form. It made the hand seem as if it was wearing a skin-tight glove that doubled down as a gauntlet.
The feet resembled a human's too and were similarly covered by a skin-tight layer of the material. When the Tertiary Nature of Cultivator fused with his Primary Nature of Voracious Nature, it heavily influenced Brangara's Celestial Boar form.
As a result, it was a humanoid entity, one armed with the exceptional perspiration system of a human. As a result, endurance running was even simpler for Brangara, capable of running for days at a stretch at an optimal speed without the need for rest.
In his human form, Brangara hoped to conserve his strength. But upon seeing that he was only being hindered by Resha, he decided to reveal his Celestial Boar form prematurely, losing the element of surprise.
Had he used it strategically, he could have killed his targets. But with his family's well-being being his priority, Brangara revealed this card merely to consume Pranic Beasts.
As he consumed the Pranic Beasts, a meteor slammed into his back and exploded, singeing his fur. But that was the extent of the damage. The momentum behind the meteor only managed to jerk his body.
"Tch!" Brangara stared up to see that Resha was currently at an altitude of six kilometres from the ground, far beyond his reach. Since the meteors failed to harm Brangara in his Pranic Beast form, Resha refrained from wasting his strength anymore and simply kept pace in the sky.
[His base body is a notch tougher than his Empyrean Boar King form. This is indeed worrying. Do you have any plans to harm him?]
"I don't," Resha said, his expression locked onto the figure of Brangara, watching him curl his family in his left hand, keeping them safe there.
[Then why are you persistently chasing him?]
"Because no one else will." Resha said, his tone changing as he stared at the Biome Bomb, "Say, can you represent Inala fully?"
[Yes, I'm no different from a piece of his mind acting independently. My opinions are a mirror of the original.]
"Then, answer me this honestly." Resha asked after a mild sigh, "Do you plan to kill Brangara?"
[Yes, but I need to prepare extensively for that. Otherwise, a single miscalculated variable will allow him to survive and grow stronger through the crisis. After all, he's not using his abilities to their full potential. I can easily determine ways in which Brangara's current skillset could have allowed him to annihilate the Mammoth Clan three times by now.]
"Based on your statement, it seems you are confident in killing Brangara, no matter how far into the future it might be." Resha nodded as his gaze hardened, "Then all I have to do is hold him back as long as I can. If his growth is halted, then killing him is still realistic."
[Don't sacrifice yourself foolishly, Resha. You're the only one who can fight him head-on.]
"I'm not sacrificing myself or anything. I want to live." Resha retorted, "The only situation where I can accept death is when I drag Brangara down with me."
"It's just…I'm scared." He said while observing Brangara's Celestial Boar, "The scene of him at the 10-Life Stage is not something I can ever forget. Nothing I did worked against him. Honestly, even Transcendents might have struggled to kill him. All I want to prevent is the arrival of that…Brangara!"
"So, I'll keep trying my best. I have no other choice." He uttered and watched the Celestial Boar sprint across the region, with its every step thundering the earth, consuming all living beings in its wake. "Tell me something."
He stared at the Biome Bomb, "Will Inala's preparations be completed in the next few hours?"
[You're…kidding, right? I'm not buying cheap trinkets in the market to be done in a few hours. It will take decades. Honestly, if you hadn't targeted his family, my trap would have bought us a few years at the very least. Brangara wouldn't have evolved so soon.]
"…You're right," Resha said, his expression growing more and more desperate upon seeing Brangara wrestle more and more control over the situation, "I was confident of killing him…"
[You need to firm your mindset first before trying to kill him, Resha. You should've given your all to kill him…]
"You think I didn't?" Resha glared at the Biome Bomb, "I used everything in my arsenal and even the mechanics of the Attributed Region to kill him. There wasn't anything else I could do…"
[Had you killed Yarsha Zahara, Brangara would long be dead by now!]
There was absolute silence between the two as the Biome Bomb hit the nail on the head.
[You couldn't bring yourself to kill her, right? You feel obligated to care for her since you pity her. You have feelings for her, which is why you held back subconsciously. Otherwise, with the abilities you have displayed, killing Yarsha Zahara would have barely taken you two seconds.]
Resha's expression scrunched up as he heard the Biome Bomb's arguments, "That…she's a victim of this situation. I don't want her to suffer. She should live happily at the very least, considering everything she's been through."
[Then, do me a favour and forget about killing Brangara. Because at the decisive moment, if Yarsha Zahara flings herself between you and Brangara, you'll hesitate to deliver the killing blow. Irrespective of how powerful you get, no matter how many times you push Brangara to the edge of death, you'll never be able to deliver the killing blow!]
"I know!" Resha grunted, "I know, dammit! You think I'm an ignorant bastard, right? Fuck! What do you know about me? You're nothing but a fucking ghost!"
[…Forget it. Why am I arguing with you? It's a waste of Prana. Let's just continue with our objective here. If anything, I want you to remember one thing, Resha.]
[We're all in the same boat. Despite our differences, our end goal is the same. But Yarsha Zahara isn't on our boat. She's riding alongside Brangara. Beat that fact into your fucking head!]