"Leave me alone...Fatty!" Ruvva screamed as Gannala grabbed her by the leg and spun around nonstop, for no reason at all.
"We're the same size." Gannala said after an hour as she placed Ruvva beside her and compared themselves, "Same height, similar shoulder length too."
"..." Her eyes spun as Ruvva took some time to regain her bearings, commenting snarkily right after, "You forgot the weight."
"You're only a few dozen thousand times heavier than me." Ruvva commented and shrilled in a fluster upon being used like a frisbee by Gannala, "Spareee meeeeeeee...Fatty!"
A while later, when Boul Brimgan returned to the Kalahatra Desert and made a beeline towards the Infinite Divine Soldier's spot, he was stunned to see four Forest Boars standing within a rectangle that was parted in the centre by a netted barrier.
The barrier was made by rope created through the fur of the Forest Boars. Two Forest Boars were on either side of the net, playing volleyball. The ball being volleyed was none other than the Apogee Bludder, one of Ruvva's Pranic Beast form.
"Eeeeee! Staph!" Right as Boul Brimgan was about to head to Ruvva's rescue, he heard the latter's shrill shout, which brimmed with annoyance, but showed no trace of fear or peril. 'Is she playing around?'
As he observed, one of the Forest Boars spiked the ball to the other court. The shot was perfect, angling it right above the net, the place right in the gap between the Forest Boars on the opposite side.
It was the game point, so the shot was important. And upon successfully pulling it off, the Forest Boar who made the shot grinned in satisfaction, its face beaming in response. However, a second later, it morphed into frustration.
The ball-Apogee Bludder-spurted a pair of Eddy Blades that acted like wings, using the air friction to generate an uneven lift across its surface, which caused it to curve to the side and land out of bounds.
"Screw you, Ruvva!" The Forest Boar screamed, almost plucking out the fur on its body in frustration. "That was the game point! All four are me, so why are you only sabotaging my shots?"
"I can, so I did!" Reverting to human form, Ruvva bellowed snarkily and ran away from the court, "You seem the most annoying among the four."
"They're all my bodies!" The one controlling the four Forest Boars was none other than Gannala, having equipped Secondary Nature slots with one of her Nature Weapon forms each. She was currently at the 6-Life Stage, thanks to her Empyrean Boar diet.
The Forest Boar purposefully sabotaged by Ruvva was one where the 3-Life Stage Gannala had equipped herself onto. Having lost the game point, Gannala chased after Ruvva angrily.
"You have too much advantage, so I gave the other bodies of yours a fighting chance." Ruvva shrilled as she turned into an Apogee Bludder, spun rapidly while condensing Prana in the shape of a corkscrew around her body, and drilled into the ivory sand to disappear.
"Gosh!" Gannala grumbled as she recalled her split bodies and spent a few minutes to harmonise the subtle influence differences between the bodies. Once she recovered her 6-Life Stage stack, she turned the extra three Forest Boar bodies into Nature Weapons and swallowed them.
Upon storing them in her stomach biome, she unleashed the influence of her Tertiary Nature of Cultivator and turned the Forest Boar into a human, a boy in his early teens.
"Did I interrupt your fun?" Boul Brimgan asked once Ruvva exited the ivory sands after a couple of hours.
"No, I was just about wrapped up here." Ruvva eyed the teenager nearby, "I made her rage quit more times than she made me. So, I'll consider it my win."
"That's...Gannala, right?" Boul Brimgan muttered after a couple of seconds of observation.
"Can you sense my location or did you just make an educated guess?" Gannala asked as she eyed Boul Brimgan.
"A bit of both," Boul Brimgan flashed a casual smile, "My detection means are...pretty sensitive these days."
'That's damn humble of him.' Gannala rolled her eyes, knowing the full extent of Boul Brimgan's capabilities. She didn't think much and instead changed the topic, "Can you take me to the centre?"
"Why?" Boul Brimgan asked, clearly expressing his stance on the matter, "Even if I can, I won't."
"I just wish to observe." Gannala said, "I won't do anything to sabotage the result of the Third Major Disaster."
"Alright," Boul Brimgan eyed Gannala for a minute and nodded, "I'm afraid I'll have to kill you if you try to pull anything unusual there."
"No, I only intend to observe." Gannala shook her head, knowing very well that even the current, dying Boul Brimgan could kill her if he were to put his mind to the task.
"I can vouch for her," Ruvva chimed in, "She's nowhere close to the pinnacle of stupidity. So you can trust she'll display some semblance of intelligence and not do anything foolish."
"We'll have to talk later," Gannala chuckled as her eyelids curled up.
"Lalalalala!" Ruvva closed her ears and made some random noise, behaving like she hadn't heard Gannala's statement. And even though it was extremely basic, childish even, she succeeded in irritating Gannala, 'Another win for me. Heh, this noob is pretty weak when it comes to childish taunts.'
Ignoring the two, super tall women bickering like street cats, Boul Brimgan controlled the Kinesis Beyblade to speed towards the heart of a large forest in the core of the Kalahatra Desert, stopping ten kilometres above a cocoon that was spawning a variety of Pranic Beasts.
Both Gannala and Ruvva spanned a height of 240 centimetres, so they looked like giants in comparison to Boul Brimgan. He ducked and watched the two giants roll about over him as they scratched each other out of boredom and chucked novice punches onto the faces of each
other.
"We're here," As he said so, both Gannala and Ruvva sat at the edge of the chakram that Boul Brimgan tilted downward, creating a better view of the cocoon far below.
"Can't you bring it a bit closer?" Gannala frowned upon seeing their altitude, "I can't see things clearly from up here."
"Nope, this is the limit. They'll sense me if I get anymore closer." Boul Brimgan shook his head and pointed at the cocoon, "Focus, and you'll be able to sense them too."
"Alright," Gannala exhaled and observed, squinting her eyes until the tiny cocoon gradually filled her vision. She equipped herself onto the Nature slot of an Empyrean Zinger and was able to see better, noticing Pranic Beasts be spawned nonstop from the roots streaming out of
the cocoon.
These roots seemed to be made out of a Major Treasure's pillar of light, creating sacks
towards their ends that popped in large numbers and spammed new living beings. The moment they were born though, they hurried away from the cocoon, as if deathly afraid.
Only then did Gannala notice the presence of large beings perfectly camouflaging themselves within the foliage. 'Advanced Gold Grade...and even Expert Gold Grade Pranic Beasts?'
"Just how many of them are there?" Gannala expressed her shock.
"A bit over 600 within my Spirit Weapon range. One-fourth of them are Mutants." Boul Brimgan let out a mild groan, "And that's just among the Expert Gold Grade Pranic Beasts."
Even in the region surrounding the Brimgan Empire, there were around 300 Gold Grade Pranic Beasts. This number would at most be double if one included the Gold Grade Pranic Beasts that lived in hiding and never revealed themselves.
Most of these Pranic Beasts were at Beginner Gold Grade, with a small number at Intermediate Gold Grade. The number of Mutated Gold Grade Pranic Beasts there could be counted on one hand. This was at the infamous blessed land of Sumatra.
And now, there was an incomprehensible number of Mutated Expert Gold Grade Pranic Beasts
right in the forest below them. It was a terrifying number, one that would only continue to increase in the future.
"The Kalahatra Desert is easily capable of sustaining these numbers. The resource production
here is insane. Even with more than a million Gold Grade Pranic Beasts living here, there's no strain on the resources." Boul Brimgan uttered solemnly.
'The Royal Zinger's body coupled with the Celestial Boar's influence created this blessed land.' Gannala and Ruvva had the thought simultaneously.
The trio turned silent upon noticing one of the Mutated Expert Gold Grade Pranic Beasts emerge from its hiding, revealing a figure closely resembling the Wean Clan's Boar King, except for its tail that spanned a length of 400 metres, coiling its body like a spring.
This Pranic Beast seemed discontent as it approached the cocoon and growled a few times. And then, upon expressing rage, it attacked the cocoon.
'So, that's what Dad created.' Gannala was unable to control her shock, seeing the cocoon
remain unfazed despite the powerful attack. She judged that even if she were to assume her Empyrean Tusk form, crank her density to its maximum, and fall onto the cocoon with her maximum possible weight, the cocoon would still remain undamaged.
Whatever touched the cocoon was instantly turned into a Bolt of Transcendence-however much a spark of its kind that could be produced by consuming the creature-and absorbed into the cocoon. Even if an Attributed Water slab were to be thrown at it, the most it would
cause was a ripple.
A Bolt of Transcendence would destroy it, grey sand would convert it into grey sand, and then
the overall entity would turn into a Bolt of Transcendence to merge into the cocoon. This was done in an instant upon contact, through a Bolt of Transcendence.
Therefore, its defences were unbreakable. Only Boul Brimgan, after unleashing his State of
Harmony, could gradually damage and destroy the strings of Prana-with the essence of a Bolt of Transcendence-forming the cocoon.
It would be a battle of attrition, since even if the strings of Prana were getting damaged, they could harness endless energy from the body of the Celestial Boar within to reinforce themselves. The cocoon could only be destroyed when all the energy within it was used up.
As for the Pranic Beast that had targeted the cocoon? Its figure vanished as there was a mild
stirrup within the forest. But after that, things calmed down. This wasn't the first of their kind that attempted to break the cocoon and was instantly consumed by the latter.
"They are used to it." Boul Brimgan uttered as he stared at Gannala, "Have you seen
enough?"
'The Brood Mother is inside that cocoon.' Gannala thought and let out a sigh, "Yes, it's enough."
'When that cocoon breaks, it means Astral World has been fully consumed. Until then, let's
hope these creatures don't spill out everywhere.' For a moment, Gannala wanted to use her Dance of Annihilation. All creatures with one Nature were easy prey for her, and majority of the Pranic Beasts in the Kalahatra Desert fell under this category.
However, after some consideration, she refrained from doing so, 'That will pressure the
survivors and force more Mutants to pop up in the future. It will only make things more
dangerous.'
"Then, this is farewell," Ruvva said once Boul Brimgan dropped Gannala closer to the border
of the Kalahatra Desert.
"I'll visit you when the Fourth Major Disaster starts." Gannala thought for a moment before
stating solemnly, "Prepare well to survive it."
"Then, it's time we return." Boul Brimgan said and stared deeper into the Kalahatra Desert, "The Brimgan Empire needs to prepare for an invasion by these Boar variants."
No sooner had he said this did the Kinesis Beyblade carry the duo of Ruvva and Boul Brimgan
far away in a flash of gold. After travelling hundreds of kilometres away from the Kalahatra Desert, Boul Brimgan observed Ruvva and asked, "Did you gain any benefits?"
"Plenty," Ruvva grinned, "I managed to pull off your destructive beam without a Kinesis
Feline. It did explode my trunk. However, once I progress through the Life Stage, I can realistically charge it up quick enough and use it in battle."
"I gained some inspiration about a possible direction the Mystic Humans could take to attain
a State of Harmony. I'll work on it next." Ruvva nodded and then patted her stomach, "But the greatest gain from everything is this!"
Sealed in her stomach was Virala in his Ewworm form. The one at the Dralh Sea had been revived at the peak of the Body Stage. After stabilising the situation, Ruvva sneakily fed her Empyrean Tusk body to the insane Virala and made him enter the 2-Life Stage.
She then stole the second body, made it assume Ewworm form, and sealed it in her stomach.
The Mystic Ewworm's smallest transformation only reached a metre in length, barely occupying any space.
So, even without a biome, Ruvva could store it in her stomach. What it was doing there? Ruvva
currently held possession of a Minor Treasure of Mystic Human Stamp and had gained a large volume of Rirenal.
So, the obvious thing to do would be to use Virala's Ewworm's form, make it create a tool out
of Rirenal, and use the refinement from the Mystic Human Stamp to create a Minor Treasure.
It would be a Minor Treasure for Ruvva's exclusive use, something that would further strengthen her identity as the Second Brimgan Guardian.
"It'll be Sumatra's strongest Minor Treasure." Boul Brimgan smirked, "Especially after your gains from the Infinite Divine Soldier whose body too was made using Rirenal."
"It all depends on how much I can capitalise on my gains this time." Ruvva smiled in excitement. "I don't even understand most of what I learnt. So, I need to research plenty."
"Take your time," Boul Brimgan nodded with hope, "I'll try to hold out until then."