"Get AWAY FROM HER!" Yarsha Zahara bellowed as her figure flickered towards Blola, spinning rapidly to hack the latter, all while ensuring her attacks didn't harm Penma. After all, Penma was carrying a baby, who was her grandson.
Even though her Eddy Blade severed through the body of Blola supposedly, she didn't get the feeling that she had killed him. Or rather, it felt like she was simply hacking away at the branches of the Transcendent Eater.
'Is he creating false bodies?' She thought and observed the figure of Blola that formed out of a Parute Tree near Brana. Her gaze fell to the soles of his feet, observing hair-like strands trailing into the ground. 'I think I can see what is happening.'
She tapped her foot on the ground and unleashed a shockwave, targeting the hair-like strands. Once severed, the figure of Blola acted like a puppet whose strings were cut as his figure collapsed to the ground.
But an instant later, he got up without issues, terrifying most of the people in the vicinity. Yarsha Zahara remained calm, however. She observed another patch of strings had connected with Blola's feet, controlling him.
'His real body is probably deep underground.' She thought and snapped her finger, unleashing a Prana fluctuation that drew in the Mystic Eaters dispersed underground, 'Target him!'
Tiny holes were situated towards the bottom edges of all walls, connecting into pipes that proceeded underground. They acted as pathways for her Prana to flow through and make contact with the Mystic Eaters.
As Prana couldn't penetrate the ground without losing most of its power, she had to rely on this method to communicate with the Mystic Eaters. In response to her command, the Mystic Eaters grew active, absorbing the Prana she generated to replenish their reserves, using which they made a move.
It took less than ten seconds before a Mystic Eater detected a figure calmly seated underground, in the shape of a taproot, looking similar to a turnip. The Mystic Eater targeted the taproot, only to be latched onto by a dozen root tendrils, the ends of which sprouted carnivorous mouths and clobbered the Mystic Eater.
A few more Mystic Eaters approached the taproot in the meantime as one of them entered Yarsha Zahara's Spirit Weapon range, informing her of everything that was happening underground, 'Found you!'
She used Prana Shock and Eddy Blade in conjunction and severed another body of Blola. Before another body could appear, she raced towards an open ground and stomped on it, erupting with a stream of Prana. Immediately in response, the ground wriggled and drilled deeper underground.
A part of the ground had been turned into Brangara's Spirit Weapon through Subtle Terrain Domination. Yarsha Zahara gained control of it through her Primary Nature and turned it into a Comet. Now, she had activated it, giving it the command to target the taproot hidden deep underground.
As the Comet had the power of Subtle Terrain Domination, it was able to freely transform its shape, behaving no different from a liquid as it flowed towards the taproot and targeted it. Dozens of roots sprouted out of the taproot and bombarded it.
The Comet retaliated in response, getting shredded in a matter of seconds. But by then, Yarsha Zahara had drilled a path to the taproot, glaring at the culprit, "There you are!"
"Congratulations on finding your way here!" The taproot transformed into Blola, his actual body. A wave of his hand later, dozens of branches fitted with carnivorous mouths burst out of his spot and uprooted the layer of earth above his position.
"Ack!"
"Aaah!"
"My Kids!"
Countless women part of the group screamed in fright, desperately using all their strength to protect their children while they were thrown into the sky by the upheaval. Dozens of branches popped out of the ground and flailed around, wreaking havoc. Their carnivorous mouths chomped around, targeting the women and their children.
"I'm coming!" Brana shouted as he kicked the ground and grabbed the woman targeted by a carnivorous mouth, barely managing to save her. His expression despaired as he noticed more than twenty others in the same situation, 'No! I won't be able to save them all!'
He stared at the carnivorous mouths, tremoring in response, experiencing a chill, able to fully understand the sheer difference between him and a Mystic Seven.
There was a flash of grey, following which a layer of bone vapour covered most of the branches and hardened, constricting their movements. The branches wriggled, causing cracks to form, about to break free in a second or two.
But that was more than enough time, as followed by a white flash, the figure of Yarsha Zahara flickered across the branches, grabbed the women in danger, plunged a greyish-black substance into their bodies and hurled them away.
Boom!
A pregnant woman slammed into the ground, screaming in fright as she formed a crater. "My baby!"
She hurriedly got up and observed a mysterious, overwhelming power course through her body, one that somehow managed to protect her and ensure her body didn't sustain damage in the slightest from the impact.
"Is this…Internal Inertial Gravity? How mystifying…" She muttered as the power vanished from her body, causing her to feel damn weak immediately in response.
Grehha had the Secondary Nature of Internal Inertial Gravity. Yarsha Zahara absorbed it from him moments ago, transformed it into a Satellite, and infused it into the bodies of all the women in harm before kicking them away from the carnivorous mouths.
She hadn't stopped at that and instead spun rapidly along the way, unleashing Eddy Blades strategically.
Boom!
As the crowd had been cleared out from the conflict zone, the bone layer covering the Transcendent Eater shattered. But alongside their crumbling fragments were the Transcendent Eater's branches, falling off as large chunks, having all been severed.
'She…hasn't been pressurised in the slightest.' Grehha thought as he observed the figure of Yarsha Zahara arrive at a halt before the crowd of people, having saved them all without issues. And as she arrived at a halt, thunderous sounds resounded as the dozens of Transcendent Eater branches collapsed to form a pile on the ground.
As he stared at her visage, his heart rate accelerated, 'Even with Silver Grade strength, she was amazing in Sumatra Chronicles. Now, she's on a whole other level.'
"This is what the peak of Free Humans has to offer." He muttered, enamoured with her graceful actions, "The heroine is indeed built different."
"Don't dawdle, make a move, now!" Yarsha Zahara shouted at her three sons, "One of you, protect Barla!"
"It must be hard to take care of people vastly incompetent as compared to you, huh?" A mocking remark resounded as the chopped branches were absorbed by roots that jutted out of the ground for a couple of seconds.
Immediately after, a large branch sprouted and reached a height of eighty metres. The carnivorous mouth growing at its end reached a size of forty metres, significantly terrifying to look at. It opened its mouth and displayed hundreds of circular teeth, unleashing a sweet, almost irresistible scent.
Parute King Fruit!
The scent was too strong as the group that was fleeing away stopped abruptly.
"Why have the lot of you stopped?" Brana shouted in a fluster and turned around, realising all his wives were drooling, unable to control themselves. Subconsciously, they turned around and began to run towards the Transcendent Eater.
"Stop!" Brana roared and transformed into an Empyrean Boar to leap on their paths, blockading them. He was terrified, seeing his wives exhibit no semblance of sentience and pounce like ravenous beasts. Even their children were in the same state.
Hungry!
He tried to stop them, alarmed to see that even he was being subjugated by the scent released by the Transcendent Eater. Thoughts in his mind were gradually being replaced by hunger and his wish to consume the Parute King Fruits.
A single Parute Tree in the wilds gets contested by a tribe of Pranic Beasts. If there were thirty or more Parute Trees, then even Gold Grade Pranic Beasts would kill each other to vie for dominance. After all, any existence with Prana could smell a Parute Tree from afar.
The stronger they were, the greater the range through which they could sense the Parute Trees. A faint scent would be released by the Parute Trees, gathering Pranic Beasts to fight for control over the area it lived upon.
In its evolutionary path was a Parute Tree, followed by a Parute Tree King, and then its final form, the Transcendent Eater. When even a Parute Tree gets fought for by powerful groups, it needn't be mentioned about Parute King Trees.
When Blola appeared in the form of a Parute King Tree before the Brimgan Empire, a massive war ensued. Hadn't Inala used the Boar King's presence to pressurise everyone and assassinate Blola promptly, things would have spiralled out of control rapidly.
Officially, over three hundred Gold Grade Pranic Beasts lived around the Brimgan Empire. Unofficially, there were more, living in hiding. Without exception, all of them would have contested to gain possession of the Parute King Tree.
It was that alluring of an existence.
And currently, Blola had gone a step further. He controlled to ensure the range was only his vicinity, but the scent he released surpassed that of a Parute King Tree. It was as if he had concentrated the essence of thousands of Parute King Fruits into a singular existence, creating an ultimate consumable that only Transcendents could enjoy.
The scent it released was impossible to resist for the average individual. Even Brana and his siblings with Gold Grade strength were gradually succumbing to it, subconsciously about to leap into the carnivorous mouth that released the scent.
"Do you know of a way to stop it?" Yarsha Zahara grabbed Grehha and Yennda, exercising all her will to make them answer, "Tell me!"
"Severing his body is the only way." Grehha talked under her will, "If you don't target the root of the issue, all you'll do is pull more responsibilities for yourself. Even you cannot fight Blola while constantly protecting everyone else."
"You can also knock out everyone and prevent them from approaching Blola." Yennda gave his opinion, "At least, this way, you can focus on dealing with him."
"What do I do?" She grumbled while using Grehha's Empyrean Incubators to seal everyone and prevent them from approaching Blola. In their hungry states, none of the people seemed capable of using Prana, so the Empyrean Incubators would be able to hold them without issues.
But this made them sitting ducks, unable to leave the place, only adding to her frustration as even her children began to lose signs of sentience. She would have to transport them to safety, but Blola wasn't giving her any chance.
And as there was a high chance of them being harmed, Yarsha Zahara couldn't unleash any area-of-effect attacks and instead had to limit herself to precision attacks, which demanded significantly higher control and focus from her.
Branches jutted out like an encirclement to protect the large carnivorous head that was emitting the irresistible scent. Yarsha Zahara would have to go through multiple layers of them to deal with the cause, which would take some time.
Of course, time wasn't a luxury for her as Gannala's scheme had just begun.
'You were too focused on me, Yarsha. That was your mistake.' Blola thought.
One of the meteors exploded when a group of ceilings slammed into it. But upon explosion, a powerful gust of compressed air was released radially, producing a powerful shockwave that sent the ceilings hurling into the barrier.
Hidden behind the compressed pocket of air was a bone sphere, barely a metre in diameter. It slammed into the barrier and dented it, incomparably heavy. The smoke barrier caved in as the bone sphere fell through, turning light along the way as it gently landed on the ground.
A second later, it expanded in size, reaching a diameter of three hundred metres and cracked, shattering a few seconds later to release a horde of Bone Vipers.