[Are they gone?]
[They are gone!]
[Then, let’s move out!]
The Sphinger, Kapulahora stood guard before the group of Death Knells left in its custody while Inala and the Panger, Loya were busy discussing something at a slightly farther location.
Suddenly, she lost her senses and fell to the ground, with her body losing all means of balance. Her sense of balance too was gone, turning her into a helpless clump. The rest of the librarians were in a similar situation too.
Right as it happened, the Death Knells broke free from the Empyrean Whisker’s binds and spontaneously recovered by consuming Elixirs already stored in their stomachs. Slowly, the Grim Knell got up from its spot and climbed atop the Sphinger’s body.
It surveyed its surroundings, eyed the Quip Clansmen afar and then focused on some of the Free Humans that formed the rear of the retreating group.
Primary Nature—Linked Rupture!
Secondary Nature—Akashic Transfer!
A group of Free Humans spontaneously lost their balance and collapsed to the ground, unable to do anything as their Prana was steadily being consumed to rupture the senses of their comrades. They had lost all their senses.
"Gah!" A Free Human who had only recently entered the Body Stage woke up first from the effects of Akashic Transfer, since his limited Prana was already consumed. He blinked in confusion for a moment, overwhelmed physically since from a state of blackout, sensory information from all his senses blasted into his mind.
It took him a few seconds to regain his bearings, when he lifted his head to notice the Grim Knell standing before him, its bell-like body covered by dozens of eyes, noses, and mouths calmly facing him, "AAH! HELP!"
Death! Horrific Death!
In closeup, as he made eye contact with the Grim Knell’s numerous eyes, the Free Human began to hallucinate, as if he was delirious. The image of the Grim Knell twisted and turned in his vision, making it resemble an eldritch entity.
The eyes sprouted mouths, the ears grew out fingers, the mouth frothed eyes, all sorts of bizarre phenomena happened, overwhelming the Free Human’s visual sense. A myriad of smells swarmed his nose next. Aroma, pungent stench, neutral breeze, fumes, fresh air, there was a whole mix that assaulted his nose until it felt suffocating to the extent his nose wanted to stop inhaling air and feel liberated instead.
A woman’s melodious voice rang, amidst a dog’s squeals, a bear’s mating grunts, a man’s derisive laughter, a concerned monkey’s sarcastic chirps, and the list went on. A normal human ear would only capture this as ’noise.’
However, the Free Human was somehow able to perceive every sound individually, which all flooded his mindspace and absolutely overclocked his brain’s processing speed. As everything happened at the same time, the Free Human went mad, experiencing a distressing array of emotional fluctuations.
These fluctuations obviously influenced his Prana, causing his Spirit Container to crack. The cracks deepened as Prana started to leak out. The Human Avatar was the most affected, purposefully influenced by the Free Human’s state as it shattered first, releasing a wave of Prana.
The Natures stored in the Human Avatar dissipated as the Free Human dropped to the Spirit Stage. He would have continued to drop further as his Spirit Container sustained further damage. However, a diluted Low-Grade Elixir was poured into his mouth, which stabilised his state.
And right as it started to take effect, the Grim Knell stabbed into the Free Human’s chest, touched the heart, and poured in its Prana through a vein.
"Gaaah!" The Free Human grunted in pain as suddenly, his voice turned sonorous as a couple of eyes appeared on his neck.
Ravaged Tribe—Knell Tribe!
[Gracious Inheritance, right?]
The Grim Knell uttered with a gentle, almost melodious tone as the Prana seeping out of it hastened, now able to exert its will on the Free Human-turned-Ravaged Tribesman. Its Prana interacted with the fragments of the Vara Human Avatar still within the man’s body. It would have been ejected in a matter of minutes by his body, unless he were to use his cultivation technique to gather them into the Spirit Container once again.
As tiny traces of the Vara circulated through the bloodstream, they absorbed the Grim Knell’s Prana, strangely became influenced and then hastened the formation of a Ravaged Tribesman’s characteristics on the body.
[There’s a suitable amount of Vara in you, not more, not less. So, accept everything with grace!]
The Ravaged Tribesman’s body used the Vara as a fuel to rapidly change and became more and more pronounced with the characteristics of a Knell Tribesman. As the changes were starting to become apparent, the Grim Knell targeted another Free Human who just recovered his senses, repeating the same.
Soon, the second Free Human was turned into a Knell Tribesman too. The Grim Knell moved cautiously, watching the Quip Clansmen glide across the skies nervously, with the intent to retaliate the moment it were to target them.
Both used sound as a medium to attack, and hence, both sides could counter each other. The Grim Knell wasn’t worried about the Quip Clan attacking it, at least for now. Instead, it focused on the figures of the Panger and Brully who were sprinting out of the Empyrean Colosseum, their attention trained somewhere else, ’This works to my advantage. They are too dangerous. Good thing we didn’t resist.’
While the Grim Knell turned the captured Free Humans, numbering around thirty, into Tribesmen, the Death Knells hauled in the unconscious figure of a Wean Clansman.
"You...bastards! What did you do?" The Wean Clansman growled the moment he gained consciousness, "You think the lot of you will be safe after targeting a Wean Clansman? You better release me...otherwise..."
The Wean Clansman combusted his flesh in an effort to generate Prana to assume his Empyrean Boar form, which would be enough to break free and run to safety. However, the moment Prana began to form in his body, he lost his sight.
The Prana being generated was being consumed to steal the sight of one of the eyes of the Grim Knell nearby.
[Thank you for giving me the opportunity to form a connection with you!]
The Grim Knell’s statement appeared in the Vara Slip the Wean Clansman carried, making him bark in disbelief, "Impossible! How do you know our cultivation technique?"
[You think it’ll remain a secret with so many Pranic Beasts working in the library?]
The Grim Knell took out a bunch of Mid-Grade Elixirs and poured them down the Wean Clansman’s throat, forcing the latter to consume them all.
[I had to destroy a Kingdom to obtain these Elixirs. Drink it all without wasting even a single drop.]
The Wean Clansmen intended to resist. However, similar to the Free humans from before, the moment the Grim Knell stood next to him, all sorts of hallucinations plagued him, drowning out his mental faculties.
Prana continued to generate in his body as soon, there was enough. His Prana instinctivelyy wished to protect his mind, as he was being overwhelmed in his human form. His Empyrean Boar form had a stronger tolerance capacity, thanks to its larger brain. As such, his Prana automatically activated his Primary Nature of Empyrean Boar Transformation.
The moment the transformation happened, the hallucinations plaguing him intensified, causing his Prana to react aggressively in response, similar to how the immune system reacted in a phenomenon termed ’the itch.’
Fierce gales and shockwaves burst out of the Empyrean Boar as all its stored Natures were activated in one full swing. Right as they were all activated, the Empyrean Boar lost all its senses. The sharp spike in its Prana consumption depleted its Prana for a moment, which deactivated all its Natures and erased them from the body.
A second later, Prana began to refill its body thanks to the various Elixirs still being digested by the Empyrean Boar’s stomach. There was more than enough Prana to maintain the transformation as the Empyrean Boar lay still, unable to move as it had lost all senses.
Two eyes, a nose, a mouth, and a patch of its extra skin layer, the Grim Knell had lost them. It was Akashic Transfer to make the Wean Clansman expend his Prana and take out the respective group of the Grim Knell’s senses.
Since it had multiple organs, it could function without issues. Now that the Empyrean Boar lay still, the Grim Knell observed the group of Death Knells nearby and nodded at them, communicating in their respective language.
[Thank you for your sacrifice!]
The group of Death Knells made a mild bow as one of them walked towards the Empyrean Boar, opened the latter’s mouth and walked right in. it didn’t utter any scream as it slithered into the Empyrean Boar’s stomach and was violently digested by the latter’s stomach acids.
Nature—Linked Rupture!
It appeared on the Empyrean Boar’s skin, causing a spike at a spot. The Grim Knell noticed the presence fluctuation at the spot and nodded in confirmation. Immediately after, a second Death Knell walked into the Empyrean Boar’s mouth, then a third, and then the fourth.
Soon, all Death Knells had walked into the Empyrean Boar’s stomach and had been digested, causing their Natures to appear on the latter’s skin.
Since the Wean Clansman was in his Pranic Beast form, the influence of fifteen Death Knell Natures began to accumulate on his being rapidly. Moreover, as he was bereft of any senses, his Prana had gotten sluggish, as if the body was in a deep state of stasis.
As a result, the influence from the fifteen Death Knell Natures accumulated pretty quickly. Moreover, the Grim Knell was still maintaining its link to the Empyrean Boar, using it as another venue to strengthen the influence on the latter.
Without any other Natures stored on the body, the influence from the Death Knell Natures spread rapidly. As the Empyrean Boar was already under the effects of Linked Rupture and Akashic Transfer combo, its Prana was extremely helpless and was forced to be more and more influenced.
Secondary Nature—Akashic Transfer!
Mystic Sumatra Art—Influence Transfer!
Akashic Transfer allowed the Grim Knell to transfer the effects of Linked Rupture to another individual, making their Prana act as the source for Linked Rupture’s use. Originally, this was Akashic Transfer’s use.
But that limitation blurred with the introduction of Mystic Sumatra Art. Thanks to it, the Grim Knell’s Prana had traces of his blood’s imprint, basically consisting of its genetic information.
With its usage, creating a Ravaged Tribesman was not only a faster process, the potency was on a whole other level. The sheer quantity of influence it was able to seep into its Ravaged Tribesmen was many times greater than before.
And as long as it shared a connection to its Ravaged Tribesmen through Akashic Transfer, the Grim Knell could use Mystic Sumatra Art to unleash the Skill of Influence Transfer.
The link served as a direct bridge between the two, allowing direct transfer of influence. But that wasn’t all.
The Primary Nature of a Vara Free Human was Gracious Inheritance, which allowed them to inherit Natures. This made a Free Human with a Vara Human Avatar more susceptible to external influence than regular Free Humans.
That was why the Grim Knell picked them. Also, in the original build, the Wean Clansman acted as the source of Vara while the Free Human was the sink that accepted the Vara.
The Empyrean Colosseum still had an Empyrean Boar Aurora in the sky, even though it had become fainter now as all parties began to retreat. This aurora reinforced both the Wean Clansman and Free Humans, strengthening their respective traits.
Hence, the Grim Knell took complete advantage of the environment.
The Wean Clansman’s Prana became drunk with the influence from fifteen Death Knell Natures. And as its body activated Mystic Sumatra Art due to the Grim Knell’s manipulations through the hallucinations it showed the Wean Clansman, the Death Knell influence was steadily imprinted onto the Empyrean Boar’s blood.
It created a vicious cycle as the blood then imprinted the same influence on the Prana and made it more susceptible to the influence generated by the Death Knell Natures. The cycle caused the influence to stack up more, and faster.
And then, through the Skill of Influence Transfer, the Grim Knell transferred all the influence building up in the Empyrean Boar into the Knell Tribesmen. The Vara, in their bodies, drank the influence like crazy as it was digested by their bodies faster.
More of the Grim Knell’s characteristics appeared on their form as the Grim Knell poured Elixirs into their mouths one after another, as necessary.
There was eerie silence in the Empyrean Colosseum as every other existence lay still. When it seemed like some of them were about to get up, exhausted of Prana, the Grim Knell poured some Elixir into their mouths too, disliking any external interference.
The Quip Clansmen that were tasked with vacating the Pranic Beasts simply stood agape and watched the events transpire. They neither wanted to interfere nor intended to. After all, they received a fat sum from the Grim Knell beforehand.
It was the Quip Clan that brought the Grim Knell and its group to the Empyrean Colosseum in the first place.
[Now, let it continue!]
Every time the Death Knell Nature influence accumulated to a certain level within the Empyrean Boar, the Grim Knell transferred it into the Free Humans.
And with each transfer, the Knell Tribesmen exhibited more and more of the Knell Tribe’s characteristics, approaching closer and closer to the peak of the Body Stage.
[I told you, my method works!]
The Grim Knell casually eyed the Quip Clansmen and smirked, feeling its Prana stirrup. Slowly but surely, the changes accumulated before reaching the tipping point.
[Get up, and witness me!]
One after another, the Librarians woke up and eyed the Grim Knell with complex gazes, as they had just realised that they weren’t the only ones who had communicated with the Grim Knell. Pretty much most of the Librarians had come to an agreement with the Grim Knell.
The Empyrean Whisker, Pai was the most jubilant as it gazed with complete focus, "Finally, there’s a way forward."
The Grim Knell observed the changes happening to the Free Humans, picked the most compatible man to keep and chucked the rest into the Empyrean Boar’s mouth. As it consumed them, the influence gathering in it harmonised into a singular vessel.
This vessel continued to grow in size and absorbed the influence without limits until eventually, the Empyrean Boar’s body showed signs of breakdown. Its cells began to deteriorate as the influence had started to destroy the body.
But still, the Grim Knell allowed the buildup to continue until it could no longer. And then, moments before the Empyrean Boar’s body collapsed from within, the Grim Knell transferred the container into the sole surviving Knell Tribesman, grinning as the latter entered the 2-Life Stage.
At the conclusion of the Varahan Challenge, a new record had been made on Sumatra, for the fastest speed at which a Free Human was turned into a Tribesman and became a Clansman.
[Four Hours! That’s all it took! Mystic Sumatra Art is the ultimate treasure!]
The Grim Knell’s presence climbed into the Gold Grade, renewing an era where Pranic Beasts absolutely dominated Sumatra Continent.