Advance Gold Grade Pranic Beast-Empyrean Whisker!
Many things were blurred in Sumatra's history due to how long it spanned. The incredible feats of countless beings were erased in the passage of time. However, thanks to the recounts of a Mystic Tentacle, the tale of the most ambitious, but cursed Race was widespread.
Gold Empyrean Tentacles were naturally occurring on Sumatra Continent. Ignoring them, the first Race to evolve into the Gold Grade were the Empyrean Whisker. And unlike every other race, it jumped from Expert Silver to Advance Gold, the highest jump in its era.
One of the strongest races to walk Sumatra, actively rampaging across the Continent in their efforts to evolve themselves, the Race seemed unstoppable until they reached Gold Grade. And then, they pretty much disappeared from history for a comically sad reason.
They were too strong!
In terms of appearance, it looked no different to a cat other than thirteen sets of retractable arachnid legs in place of its ribs. Its dark gold fur coat with stripes of magenta used to be the symbol of authority, which influenced the earliest of Free Human Kingdoms and Empires to opt for crowns and thrones with the same colour scheme.
With a Prana capacity of 7200 and a lifespan of 1690 years, the Empyrean Whisker was pretty much the perfect existence among Advance Gold Grade Pranic Beasts. At maturity, its body reached a length of 144 metres, with its retractable arachnid leg-ribs extending up to a length of 440 metres each.
Back in the days, the Mystic Tentacle that criticised the Empyrean Whiskers stated, "Had they been a tad weaker, they could have reached the Mystic Grade in another three eras."
The race with the greatest potential, one that once occupied most regions across Sumatra, but one that had been almost forgotten from history. That was the Race of Empyrean Whiskers. And the reason was their Nature that was both their boon and bane.
Primary Nature-Feeler Fur!
The whiskers of an Empyrean Whisker had a special property in that they could coil themselves into a string, which could conduct its Prana. These whiskers were perfect to the extent the Prana imbued in them was never depleted through storage.
Only when the strings took action was the Prana used up accordingly. Even if multiple whiskers were woven together, the resultant string behaved no different to a pipe for Prana flow, allowing it to flow freely without obstructions.
Prana could freely jump from one whisker to another that was part of the string with no losses, thanks to the whiskers' affinity and conductivity for Prana being at a hundred percent.
Upon coming across a habitable place rich in resources, an Empyrean Whisker would build its nest there using the strings created from its whiskers. This nest was similar to a spider nest, but the biggest difference was that the Feeler Fur could coat itself with the substances from its immediate surroundings.
Therefore, an Empyrean Whisker's nest wasn't perceivable to other beings, since it would be camouflaged with the terrain perfectly, whether it consisted of earth, water, trees, etc.
When a prey sets foot on this region, the nest would first detect them and transmit information to the Empyrean Whisker through the strings in the form of vibration. Sound, in these strings, travelled at speeds fourteen times the speed of sound in air.
Therefore, information was quickly transmitted to the Empyrean Whisker. And then, it would wait patiently before launching an attack, one that conveyed all sorts of stimulus to the prey and overwhelmed its central nervous system until it short-circuited.
This stimulus wasn't merely physical. Garbage data would flood the mind space and force the prey's brain to process it, plunging its speeds to abyssal levels. Moreover, the Feeler Fur also had tremendous defensive strength in that the Prana forming any attacks from the prey quickly dispersed across the nest thanks to its conductivity.
Therefore, any energy-based attacks was dispersed across the nest, reducing their lethality. Pain, hallucinations, extreme amounts of stimuli, dispersion of attacks, and finally, the whiskers with adhesive property that slowly but steadily coiled around the prey and constricted it.
If necessary, the Empyrean Whisker could actively use its ability to hunt. However, it never had to. After all, its nest dealt attacks in a dozen forms onto a prey and destroyed their body, mind, and soul. Only a living husk was left behind forte Empyrean Whisker's consumption.
There was an old saying, "The only way to kill an Empyrean Whisker is to kill it when it's young and doesn't have a nest yet."
Depending on the region's resources, an Empyrean Whisker's nest spanned anywhere from a hundred to five hundred square kilometres. It typically spent over a few decades building its nest. But once it finishes the nest, the Empyrean Whisker spends the rest of its life eating, never having to lift a finger for food.
There would always be plenty of living husks trapped in its nest. From time to time, a male Empyrean Whisker would leave its nest in search of a female, mate with the first one it comes across and then promptly return home to resume its life of abundant laziness.
The female Empyrean Whisker would lay eggs a decade later. The numbers ranged anywhere from ten to fifty, and usually, one-fourth of them survived until maturity. There was a point in time when every important location on Sumatra Continent was occupied by an Empyrean Whisker.
In many places on the Continent, it was still true to this day. The only exception was this corner that had faced three, brutal invasions.
When the Brully Race invaded, they hunted the Empyrean Whiskers in large numbers, for the latter proved to be formidable foes. A Brully considered it fashion statement to use the skull of an Empyrean Whisker as a helmet.
And the reason they targeted the Empyrean Whiskers was because they could withstand its attacks. Typically, an Empyrean Whisker would kill about a couple dozen Brully before it gets killed. But during the Brully Invasion, there was no lack of Brully, since they were spawning nonstop.
The Brully Race caused a sharp dwindle in the Empyrean Whisker numbers. Similarly, the Death Knells could transmit their attacks to the Empyrean Whisker through the nest, since it carried soundwaves at fourteen times the speed of sound in the air.
So, despite being Silver Grade Pranic Beasts, a Death Knell found it the easiest to target an Empyrean Whisker. And finally, nothing needed to be said about he Mudroppers that turned entire regions into the Sandy-Grey Void.
Throughout Sumatra's history, the Empyrean Whiskers were unable to progress in strength because they were too strong. But suddenly, the Brully Invasion happened and their numbers dropped. Even then, they couldn't change, for they were too strong.
Even when an Empyrean Whisker was targeted by the Brully Race, it killed a couple dozen of the latter before meeting its end. That meant they were never pressed for survival, and as a result, stagnated.
Or rather, they had been stagnating from the start of Sumatra's history, which pretty much became part of their genetic material. And it was already too late by the time the Brully Invasion started, because they were unable to change anymore.
The genetics of the Empyrean Whisker Race had stagnated so much that even if they were to consume Celestial Boar meat alongside Royal Zinger meat nonstop, they would never experience a mutation.
Mutation was impossible for them, and such was their fate, for they had become too strong too fast that they had no enemies anymore.
The Mammoth Clan faced a similar issue, but they manufactured the Empyrean Boar King. Moreover, their total time of existence was a mere thirteen millennia. The Empyrean Whisker race existed from a time before the birth place of the Mahira tusk-the Gaja Enclave-even
existed.
"Wait, why are you suddenly transmitting all this information to me?" Inala expressed in confusion upon catching a Vara Slip thrown by the Bulging Snapper, Loya. The next instant, tens of thousands of strings latched onto him and bombarded him with various effects.
"Fucking Brully!" The leader of the Gold Varahan Library, the Head Librarian who also happened to be an Empyrean Whisker, uttered coldly as it targeted Inala.
The Empyrean Whiskers hated three races the most-Brully, Death Knell, and Mudropper. The moment they detect any of these three, they'll attack with all their might, which was why it was extremely rare to encounter a Death Knell or Brully in the wild.
Any that was alive and chanced upon by an Empyrean Whisker was quickly killed. And upon seeing a Brully saunter into the Gold Varahan Library, the Empyrean Whisker who went by the name of Pai grew enraged.
"Kruuu! Kraaa! #$$%#%$#!" All sorts of incessant noises bombarded Inala's ears, various
mix of smells, both foul and pleasant invaded his olfactory senses, rashes erupted across his skin, al sorts of physical pain impacted his body, a sea of useless information invaded his mind space, all sorts of stimuli targeted him, making his nervous system go haywire trying to react to everything, and finally, threads dug into his body through the pores across his skin.
All it took were two seconds before Inala couldn't move anymore, suffering nonstop while it seemed he was about to die. But another two seconds later, things changed.
"Stop it! Leukeu is one of us!" The Bulging Snapper, Prarahh bellowed at the Empyrean Whisker, Pai, "Don't kill it!"
"That's a Brully..." Pai retorted when suddenly, its body began to tremble. Another second
later, blood burst out of its orifices as every spot on its skin began to explode one after another. "Loya! You dare target me?"
Every Gold Grade Pranic Beast turned to stare at the Panger in surprise, for it never cared
about anyone or anything. It especially avoided the Empyrean Whisker, since if they were no careful, they could kill each other spontaneously. Their abilities ran counter to each other.
However, in response to their stares, the Panger, Loya simply shook its head and uttered, "That wasn't me."
"Then?" The Sphinger, Kapulahora turned in a hurry to stare at the figure of the Brully next it,
only now noticing that extending out of its right hand's claws were thin strings. These strings
moved about with greater dexterity and finesse than the Empyrean Whisker to target the
latter.
"That's Pai's Nature," The Sphinger uttered in shock, flinching upon hearing screams of pain
from the Empyrean Whisker.
"You can dish out a fucked-up attack but cannot receive it?" An angry voice resounded from
Inala amidst the Empyrean Whisker's screams, "You scream like a coward." "Besides," Inala uttered as the number of strings churning out of his right hand's claws increased, "If you wanted to kill me, you should have gone for my hands."