Acidic sludge present in the stomach during the digestion process dripped onto the ivory sands of the Kalahatra Desert like rainfall, accompanied by the bleats of an Empyrean Boar King.
"Stop...it!" Barla groaned as her muscles began to melt in response. She hurriedly switched a body and jumped away, only for the pillar of light to move in response to her motion and keep her locked within it.
A powerful force of inertia acted upon her within the pillar of light, making it hard for her to escape its influence.
Kaboom!
A Rirenal shield barged into the pillar of light and appeared before her, blocking the attack, but was struggling, as the stream of Prana fuelling its psychokinesis was rapidly being consumed by Unlimited Predator's effects within the pillar of light.
Every Major Treasure could unleash a pillar of light, which was their presence, one capable of influencing the surroundings. Through the usage of Mould and Counterbalance, Brangara followed the same principles as Boul Brimgan's Kinesis Felines and mixed unlimited Predator in the beam of light he could unleash.
This allowed him a long-ranged attack, increasing his versatility. Of course, he couldn't control the beam once it left his Spirit Weapon range. It would go ahead as a straight line. However, he could control its intensity thanks to Counterbalance.
"Not on my watch!" Blola's shout resounded as a wall of roots erupted from the ground and blockaded the pillar of light. This bought time for Barla to switch bodies and run away.
The roots rapidly melted into semi-digested sludge as Brangara eyed Boul Brimgan in the sky and unleashed a pillar of light at the latter.
Fhoosh!
The pillar of light slammed into Boul Brimgan for less than a fraction of a second before the latter moved away. His speed was slower than usual as the stream of Prana propping his body through psychokinesis was consumed by the pillar of light.
Thankfully, Boul Brimgan had refined two Minor Treasures of Kinesis Beyblades. The second one was positioned further away, whose stream of Prana was thankfully out of range of the pillar of light.
'This is stressful!' Boul Brimgan thought as the fist-sized spheres forming the base of his two Kinesis Beyblades began to move across the ivory sands of Kalahatra Desert, ensuring the stream of Prana emanating from at least one would avoid Brangara's ranged attack.
Minor Treasure-Satellite x2!
Brangara condensed an Unlimited Predator Satellite in the shape of a spear and hurled it towards the three bone serpents flying towards him. The spear pierced through one and caused a large portion of it to collapse, as the Prana within was consumed.
Bones too could be digested, even if at a slower pace as compared to flesh and blood. So at contact, enough damage had been done to stop the bone serpent for a few seconds. Of course, considering its length, Brangara would have to chuck hundreds of Unlimited Predator Spears to fully destroy one bone serpent, not to mention three.
It would be a drawn-out battle, which he welcomed, 'I can do this for months!'
His left hand was unleashing the pillar of light at Boul Brimgan, constantly keeping him on edge, forcing him into a defensive manoeuvre. His right hand aimed at the Empyrean Supreme, "You've simply made yourself to be a big target now."
However, he suddenly shifted and unleashed the pillar of light at the figure of the Royal Zinger situated close to forty kilometres away. Even though the Royal Zinger had been compromised, Brangara couldn't relax, 'This fucker fooled me even as a mortal with no Prana. Considering he used even Root as a mere pawn to buy time, he must have more up his sleeve.'
Resha, Boul Brimgan, and even Yahard Tusk's growing presence were alarming threats, but none came close to the Royal Zinger. After all, as he looked around, observing from atop an Attribute Region Slabs, seeing similar ones litter the region to form a maze, he knew who the most dangerous one of them all was.
The pillar of light slammed into a wall of the Transcendent Eater's roots, failing to reach the Royal Zinger, causing Brangara to frown, 'That unkillable bastard!'
The pillar of light rapidly melted through the wall of roots. However, the sludge that dropped as a result was absorbed by the roots to regrow themselves once again. This semi-digested content was many times easier to digest and hence, allowed the Transcendent Eater to recover at the same speed as it was getting destroyed.
State of Harmony-Astral Puncture!
Right as he thought of running towards the Royal Zinger's position, a drill pierced through the Attributed Region slab he was standing upon and slammed into him. It used the Attributed Region water to empower itself and grew heavier, striking with enough force that it actually sent Brangara's body flying up as grating sounds resounded from his Astral World.
As if it had been waiting for it, the Empyrean Supreme vanished, assuming human form. Resha landed on the Kinesis Feline that appeared under him as a flash of gold and watched it carry him high into the sky.
Arriving a kilometre above Brangara, the duo glared at each other as Resha spat out a large slab of bone accumulated in his biomes. A pillar of light slammed into it from below and began to melt through it.
But Resha spat out enough to form a slab that was 200 metres thick and spanned a square kilometre in area. Every particle of bone in it was a storage lantern with a cubic metre in volume. Each storage lantern began to suck in air, specifically targeting it from below its
position.
This created a vacuum in the region below the slab, resulting in a high pressure above. This pressure pushed the slab downward with greater force. And of course, Resha was there to manipulate everything with Perfect Inertial Gravity to ensure the vortex formed by the air suction didn't act upon the slab and slow down its descent.
Nature-Gravity Funnel!
It used to be one of his most-used Prime Skills. And now, under the effect of his State of Harmony, had been elevated into a Nature. As the Empyrean Supreme, that meant Gravity Funnel was a Mystic Grade Nature.
It concentrated the entirety of Resha's External Inertial Gravity onto Brangara and locked his position, reacting to his fleeing attempts similar to Counterbalance to ensure he stayed put in the centre of the Gravity Funnel.
Astral Puncture was drilling into his Astral world from below, launching him upward while a ginormous slab of bone descended on him from above. The slab was merely a platform, a tool to attack. The real attack was something extremely basic.
Advanced Mystic Grade Pranic Beast-Empyrean Supreme!
The Empyrean Supreme placed one leg on the bone platform and erected all its weight onto
the latter. Gravity Funnel pulled its body faster towards Brangara as soon, the collision
occurred.
Prime Skill-Gravity Bomb!
At every contact, the storage lanterns forming the bone slab exploded, rhythmically eating through Brangara's Unlimited Predator body. The pillar of light he emitted rapidly cracked and shattered like glass as Brangara found himself roaring in response, "Again and again,
damn you, Resha!"
Expert Mystic Grade Pranic Beast-Celestial Boar!
Right as his human form was destroyed, it was replaced by the Celestial Boar form. The
expansion of space acted as a temporary defence, but it was soon destroyed. In response, Brangara reverted to human form, unleashed Unlimited Predator, and quickly assumed Celestial Boar form. He switched bodies to give time for the damaged ones to recover in both
forms.
He rapidly shifted between the forms among the set of nine bodies, creating a rhythmic expansion and contraction of space that somewhat blocked the damage done to him. Less than a hundred rhythmic transformations later, all achieved in a span of three seconds, his Spirit Container shattered, unable to handle the load.
All nine Spirit Containers were destroyed in the process as Brangara stared blankly. The bone slab continued to attack him as Astral World was fully exposed now, with both human and Pranic Beast forms of all nine bodies vaporised.
But that was it. The attack was unable to damage Astral World. And right as the effect of Astral Puncture ended, and in the short window available before Barla could fire her ninth one, Unlimited Predator appeared, expanded to envelop the confines of Gravity Funnel within it,
and cut off the Prana supply.
Minor Treasure-Drifting Tunnel!
It paled in strength as compared to Resha's Gravity Funnel, but upon cutting off the latter's supply, Drifting Tunnel could free up Astral World. Using Prana Shock, the Astral World broke free and regenerated Brangara's human form.
He didn't do anything after that, but seeing his stance caused both Boul Brimgan and Resha to
simultaneously curse in frustration, 'Fuck!'
Minor Treasure-Prana Shock x2!
Minor Treasure-Drifting Tunnel!
Shockwaves of Prana emanated from his feet, pushing against the air to propel him up. Simultaneously, a tunnel of gravity expanded under him and touched the ground, generating a field of gravity pushing against him from the bottom.
Brangara stood in the sky, as if he was on flat ground. Until now, he was nervous about
assuming a state of flight. Even though he had methods to survive the Hidden Eye's power, it
would weaken him upon each attempt.
However, no matter how much everyone used Boul Brimgan's Spirit Weapons or Kinesis
Felines while moving about in the sky, especially in Resha's case where he flew using External Inertial Gravity, it was just a matter of time before Brangara caught on.
They had been too obvious during their attacks. And now, Brangara had figured out a solution.
His enhanced Unlimited Predator was a solution, as it was created using the influence of three Major Treasures.
The Hidden Eye's power travelled in a straight line and was powered by influence that could
build up a Major Treasure. Its power would be weakened if it had to travel through an Attributed Region wall.
Brangara didn't have to experiment to know this. He was already aware of it, as during the
Second Major Disaster, the Bolts of Transcendence he summoned slammed into him after passing through the Hidden Eye and the Attributed Region.
The information related to it was already in his database. As long as he covers himself with
the Influence of a Major Treasure, the power of Hidden Eye will be dampened. This time, he'll suffer less damage and could call forth a Bolt of Transcendence faster.
When Virala extracted all the memories from the body of Brangara they had captured, this
information was present. Hence, as always, their goal was to divert Brangara away from realising such a possibility.
Unfortunately, though very late, having suffered damage to five Astral Worlds, Brangara still
managed to figure it out. With the influence of three Major Treasures guardian Astral World passively through Unlimited Predator, Hidden Eye's attack would no longer pack enough strength to erase him.
He wouldn't even need to rely on the risky Bolts of Transcendence to counter it, which meant
he no longer had to worry about sticking to the ground. The sky was his now, and with it, his reign of dominance evolved from two-dimensional to three-dimensional.
'I can't be in this state forever, as the pillar of lights from the two Major Treasures are
gradually weakening Astral World. Hence,' He took a step forward as the air pulsed under his feet. He merely glanced at Barla once and no longer cared about her, since the latter was
incapable of flying.
Even if she selectively used her Natures from Astral Chart to assume a state of flight, it meant
she could no longer use Astral Puncture. No other attack she could use apart from Astral
Puncture could even damage the Celestial Boar's body, not to mention the Astral World.
Minor Treasure-Shredded Lunge x3!
Astral World-Accel Ram x35!
'Effectively, she's useless.' He kicked the air and accelerated towards the Empyrean Supreme.
Adding to the seven Minor Treasures of Statue and one Gracious Inheritor used on the Royal Zinger, there was a total of 35 slots empty in Astral World.
That meant he could simply take out Tangible Natures from the remaining Gracious Inheritor
and fill up the slots as he pleased. That made him unpredictable, since he could change his builds and attack patterns without any external signs.
"I'm indeed the strongest dumbass of Sumatra." He let out a sigh and hurled a few Attributed Region Walls towards the Empyrean Supreme to block the effects of Perfect Inertial Gravity trying to suppress him. He lamented at how slow he was, 'In search of more power, I
weakened myself.'
He stuffed Astral World to the limit, which made him unable to take advantage of Gracious
Inheritor. Only after Resha infiltrated inside and wrecked damage did he figure this out, 'I should have left a few slots empty...'
Gracious Inheritor had to be used carefully, since if he were to fuse with it, he'd go insane. And until now, he thought he had to bring Gracious Inheritor out of Astral World like a Spirit Weapon to take out the Tangible Natures stored in it, which was indeed the case.
But that was just him being dumb. He operated with the opinion that they were Natures that
had fused into a Vara Human Avatar. Hence, the principles regarding the usage of Human Avatars by Free Humans weren't applicable.
They were Tangible Natures, meaning they had bodies. Therefore, them being stored in
Gracious Inheritor actually followed the principles of the Pranic Beast forms of Mammoth Clansmen being stored in their Spirit Containers while in human form.
It was the same principle that applied to his original Tertiary Nature of Cultivator and now the
Primary Nature of Voracious Cultivator.
Meaning, similar to how Resha could target the Spirit Containers of others through Perfect
Inertial Gravity, Brangara could do the same with Internal Inertial Gravity. Heck, he had its Major Treasure version.
So, similar to what happens when a Mammoth Clansman transforms, he could apply it to the
Minor Treasure of Gracious Inheritor and take out Tangible Natures from it. In simple terms, with Gracious Inheritor being a stomach, with the food pipe being the pathway it uses to intake Tangible natures, the excretory system could be used to take them out. It was common sense and was exactly what he did when Gracious Inheritor was brought outside.
With the aid of the Major Treasure of Internal Inertial Gravity, he could do it from within
Astral World. He couldn't understand the principles perfectly himself, but the space within a Spirit Container didn't conflict with the space of a biome, which was the case with all Empyrean Tusks who attained human forms through the Tertiary Nature of Cultivator.
'Ideally, I should have figured this out when I consumed the Mammoth Clan a few years ago.'
Brangara lamented for a few seconds and then vanished from the spot, rapidly flying through the air to begin bombarding the Empyrean Supreme, 'With only two targets to focus on,
things have become absurdly easier now.'