38 Battle between Souls
Lotus Stalk Hospital, doctors hurried across the cracked hallways, scurrying to and fro, carrying patients and transporting all the medical apparatus outside the building. Artisans and builders, dressed in coarse clothes rushed in, carrying building materials, proceeding to mend the cracks.
Pieces of concrete fell along the hallways; splotches of paint peeled off, revealing the coarse structured cement within. In the flurry of activity, a nurse pushed a berth affixed atop rollers, pushing it through the hallways that were beginning to cave in. Behind the nurse ran a man, using his psychic energy to keep the berth afloat, trying to prevent it from toppling over due to the uneven ground surface.
"I can barely support this weight," Hancent shouted, his voice drowned out amid the flurry of chaos.
"The damage is primarily concentrated on this floor and the floors above. It is safe starting from 3 floors below. We'll first travel there before deciding on our relocation." The nurse replied, using her psychic energy on the patient sleeping atop the berth, using it to stabilise his posture, lest the vibrations from their movement affected him.
"Kyaak," The nurse screamed in surprise as the floor beneath her suddenly disappeared, making her lose her footing. She hurriedly roused her psychic energy, infusing it in her clothes, lifting her body. Hancent timely reinforced her, keeping them afloat.
The weight they had to carry was greater than what they were capable of, leading to a steady fall. Suddenly, another stream of psychic energy rushed to their aid, lifting them up. It brought them safely outside the building, bringing them to the rooftop of an adjacent building.
Hospital berths carrying patients were lined up in order; nurses flashed to and fro between them, hurriedly connecting the life-sustaining equipment to their bodies. Soldiers rushed to the rooftop, carrying extension cables to support all the machines. Everyone rushed, completing numerous tasks to ensure the lives of patients weren't affected.
Hancent, the nurse, and the berth carrying Jyorta landed, joining the row of berths. A doctor hurriedly inspected the condition of Jyorta, heaving a sigh of relief. He then commanded the nurse, giving her a set of instructions, rushing towards the collapsing building of the hospital to save the others.
A soldier approached Hancent, performing a standard military salute, "Sir, I was informed that you were at the scene that was the cause of this destruction. Please follow me to give a recount of the events."
"Sure, give me a couple of minutes. Let me first ensure the well being of my son." Hancent replied, cursing the day for being a disaster to him. He spoke with the nurse, helping her attach some support machines to Jyorta, keeping his body functioning for the time being.
He followed the soldier, his back sulking, lamenting at his fate. The nurse watched the scene in a daze, her back drenched with cold sweat as she recalled the aura confrontation between Madam Mary and the old man that had accompanied Hancent.
'Who the heck was that man? To be able to provoke Madam Mary with a couple of sentences, do they share some history?' The nurse thought, continuing with her work. Many nurses arrived at the rooftop, carrying their patients. Some were strong enough to carry one on their own while others were assisted by their colleagues.
With a rumble, the top half of the hospital tilted, reducing its angle to the ground. Large blocks of concrete fell down, crashing onto the ground below. The glass exterior shattered, the sounds high pitched, piercing the ears of the people present nearby.
Hundreds of Espers took off to the skies, the standard doctor's coat wrapped around their bodies, fluttering in the air in response to the dense psychic energy fluctuation radiating off their bodies.
"Doctors," A Doctor that looked like the eldest of the present shouted, his voice reverberating across the surroundings, "Try your best to keep the damage to the building to a minimum. There are still patients trapped inside. All nurses, hurry inside and evacuate the remaining patients."
In response to his shouts, all the doctors raised their hands, infusing their psychic energy into the collapsing half of the building, trying to slow down its fall. Veins popped across the foreheads of all doctors, their eyes red as they shouted one by one, increasing the output of psychic energy to their utmost limits.
As if their conviction fell upon a fault, the top half of the building, weighing hundreds of tons continued to tilt, finally falling off when the beam structure beneath it crumbled. Like a piece of rock pushed from a terrace, it fell, bringing with it the doctors who tried to hold it in place.
"Aargh!" A doctor screamed, blood dripping from his forehead; his eyes had burst out from the exertion. Like a kite that had lost its strings, the doctor plummeted. Seeing him fall, a doctor near him diverted a part of his strength, hurriedly bringing him to safety. But, as a result, their exertion further increased, leading to many doctors screaming as they fell, one by one.
The blue soul connected to the ears of Jyorta, listening to everything that occurred around them, getting a gist of things from their conversations. It then noticed the condition of Jyorta's soul, looking like a blob of messy fluids, emitting a putrid stench that was stronger than before.
A dense fluctuation of psychic energy appeared in the surroundings, propping up the falling building, just 5 metres before its impact to the ground. The remaining doctors looked at the source of the energy, their bloodshot eyes filled with a sense of relief.
"Ancestor!" They collectively exclaimed as the building gently touched the ground. Immediately, the nurses emerged out, carrying the remaining patients with them.
Psychic Ancestor Marble gazed into the surroundings, using his psychic energy to lift the doctors who had suffered serious injuries and had fainted. "Mary!"
Upon his shout, a figure blazed through the air, followed by sonic booms, stopping atop the collapsed half of the hospital building. With a wave of her hand, a dense cluster of blue liquid formed before her, collating into a long stream.
With a spike in her energy, the stream split into five counterparts, rushing into the doctors who were the worst off, rapidly regrowing their shattered eyes. The five streams then swerved, merging into the bodies of the injured, rapidly healing them from their near-death state. Within a minute, she was heaving ragged breaths, her forehead throbbed with pain, the nerves within it looking ready to burst.
"Stop it; let your subordinates take care of the remainder. You'll die if you exert yourself any longer." Psychic Ancestor Marble appeared before her, pulling her to a stop.
"This Trait of mine can still be improved. This is the best time to collect data. It's very rare for me to feel this sense of exhaustion." Madam Mary replied, followed by another spike in her energy, creating a sixth stream.
"Sixth!" Psychic Ancestor Marble exclaimed in shock, looking at Madam Mary as if she were a monster.
"I told you, this Trait can still be improved. Once we get the data of Jyovic Bone's Trait, we can create a synergic effect using these two." Madam Mary replied, retracting her psychic energy, her aura dropping down rapidly.
Unawares of the spectacle that happened near him, the blue soul concentrated its gaze upon the murky soul of Jyorta, starting to chant the verse imparted to it by the creepy-haired man. The moment it finished reciting it, two tendrils grew out of it, looking blue, filled with the engravings that pertained to its memories.
The blue soul decided to name them 'Soul Cornea' as evident to their properties that let it connect, affect, and gaze into the soul of another. The blue soul controlled the two Soul Corneas, making them wrap around Jyorta's soul.
After having suffered a grave injury to his body, Jyorta's soul had retracted its connection with his body, lying still, making the body enter a vegetative state. Despite being fully cured of the physical injury, Jyorta's soul had yet to re-establish its connection with his body.
The two Soul Corneas covered Jyorta's soul, perfectly encasing it. Now, unless it retracted the two Soul Corneas, there was no way for Jyorta's soul to re-establish a connection with his body.
'Now, for the final touch.' The blue soul gazed at a wisp, bigger than a baby's by a multiple of ten, filled with a dense cluster of engravings, containing massive amounts of knowledge. It was the subsoul, the one that resided in the body of the language teacher.
The moment it pierced its hand into the stomach of Jyorta and ripped out a piece of his spinal cord, the subsoul collected most of the knowledge fragments from the soul of the language teacher that was breaking down, carrying with it as it entered the body of Jyorta.
It left a final instruction in the body of the language teacher, making her engage in a slaughter, leaving out the three children from its attacks. Since the soul of the language teacher had yet to fully dissipate, her body functioned until the Principal pummelled her body into a meat paste.
The subsoul transferred all the knowledge fragments to the blue soul, transforming into a wisp, half its prior size. The blue soul segregated the knowledge fragments it had received towards one corner, intending to digest them at a later date.
With a command, the subsoul approached Jyorta's soul, morphing into a needle, burrowing into his soul through a small opening the blue soul had created. The moment it entered, the blue soul moved the two Soul Corneas, completely wrapping Jyorta's murky soul that grown a tad larger. It then used the tip of two Soul Corneas, attaching them to Jyorta's soul.
Unlike the connection created by extending a part of its soul in the form of a soul tendril, the invasion rate using the Soul Cornea was many times faster, also accompanied by a filter that reduced the rate at which Jyorta's soul accessed it. This ensured that the two souls wouldn't get assimilated by one another.
The subsoul, on the other hand, burrowed straight to its centre, occupying the region. It then extended a soul tendril, connecting to the innermost region of Jyorta's soul, one that was pure.
'Now, two modes of invasion from the outside and another invasion from the inside; I wonder, how long can you last, Jyorta?' The blue soul fell silent. It had been patient for almost a decade; hence, it didn't want to rush at such an important fork, lest everything turned awry at the last minute. It dared not be careless, connecting to the senses of Jyorta's body, keeping an eye out for any external threats.
