Path

6:30 AM, dressed in a suit, Heima opened the door to Jyorta's room, planning to wake him up. The moment she entered, she noticed him sitting cross-legged, his expression one of ease.

"You woke up?" She exclaimed in surprise, taking a second glance at the time, wondering if it was supposed to rain today.

"I couldn't sleep," Jyorta opened his eyes, displaying his tired features, "I barely got a couple of hours of sleep. I drank too much water last night and had to attend nature's call in the middle of the night. After that, I could no longer sleep."

"I'm off to work now," Heima said, ruffling his hair, "I made some breakfast; eat it before you depart. Also, don't try to sleep now, get ready, and play a game or two until you depart."

"I will; don't worry." Jyorta laughed, "I was just about to deal with the entity inside me. Even though it doesn't pose much threat to me at present, I don't want to take any chances. Also, this would improve my control over my psychic energy; so, one way or the other, I would have to do it."

"Just make sure you don't attempt it on other people." Heima pulled him into a hug, her hand ruffling the back of his head, "Most people have sturdy egos. Don't take any unnecessary risks and use all the advantages you have to their full extent."

"I know," Jyorta wrapped his hand around her hip, burying his head on her stomach, feeling the warmth. After going through numerous difficulties, Heima had finally come to terms with his existence, the inherited memories influencing her mindset to a great extent.

Moreover, she was the sole person in this world who didn't try to use him, accepting him for what he was. She also wholeheartedly supported him and imparted precious knowledge to him early, to help him survive and make optimal decisions in the future.

"The previous you was just an ego that had detached itself from your main self during birth. Even then, it almost led to you getting a split personality. So, you must always make sure to have a complete grasp of your ego and ensure it never detaches from you." Heima said, breaking away from the hug.

"The previous me was an exception; I was unaware of it all along. It was also probably due to my ego being too much to handle for a baby. That resulted in the detachment of a fragmented ego from me. It must have been an arrangement by the creepy-haired man." Jyorta sighed. When he first learned about the truth, even he felt shocked, almost failing to express his frustrations.

'I had been plotting, planning, and fighting against my own. How ignorant and stupid of me,' Jyorta sighed, fishing out a crystal lens from his pocket. It was this Artifact that led him to the truth; though, it had taken months of experimentation and observation, substituting with Heima's abundant knowledge.

The lens had mysterious symbols flashing across its surface, forming into symbols that represented a lantern, torch, and the stars. Its ends were shaped into a square, their edges blunt. It was the Tier 4 Relic created from extracting the Unranked Skill Deific Inference from a Ground Controller.

"I can use this to always keep an eye on myself. Don't worry, sister; I will make you proud." Jyorta flashed a smile, placing the crystal lens in a concealed pocket within the trolley bag.

"Oh yeah," Heima exclaimed, remembering something she had almost forgotten, heading out of the room. She soon returned with a small box, its design plain, formed by a dull shade of white, bordering grey.

"What…is this?" Jyorta said, taking the small box into his hands, opening its lid, his curiosity piqued. Though, the moment he opened the lid, a vast overbearing aura impacted him, making him shudder; the air in his lungs gushed out through his nostrils, preventing him from taking another breath.

Heima hurriedly closed the lid, sealing off the aura, her hands feeling a mild shiver. She looked at Jyorta, looking at his body drenched with sweat, the clothes sticking to his body. As time passed, Jyorta slowly regained his breath, his thumping heart steadily becoming calm.

Noticing his gaze, Heima smiled, "Inside the box is a Tier 5 Artifact, made from a Tier 5 Floating Spider's remains. The Artifact is a book, compiled with the information related to Espers that our Bone Family has accumulated to date. It is a gift from grandpa, or so he claims."

"Couldn't you have just written it on a normal piece of paper? Isn't this…overkill?" Jyorta gasped, unable to move his limbs for the time being. The previous display of aura had suppressed the functioning of his nerves, looking like it would take some more time before they could function normally.

"When you are doing a mission in the Wilds, even a Tier 5 Frenzy Beast can pop up unannounced. Just its aura alone would render you useless, your thoughts freezing up. This will help you to get your bearings in such critical situations. Get used to this oppressive feeling every day, until your body gradually gets accustomed to it. You don't need to worry, this box prevents the aura from leaking out," Heima said, pointing at the box.

"Also," She began, her expression serious, "The information stored in it is pretty important. It's the fruits of labour of generations of Espers from our family. Storing it elsewhere will increase the chances of information leakage. Moreover, the Artifact is made in such a way that only you can open it. Grandpa had used some of your blood infused with your psychic energy and fused them into it. Even if a third person were to forcefully open it, suppose he/she had Tier 5 strength, the contents within it would become blank. No words will ever form on it, permanently destroyed."

"I see," Jyorta nodded in praise, his expression filled with longing. "I hope I can one day reach such a level."

"You will, definitely!" Heima replied, gazing at the time displayed on her watch. "I have to get going now. Take care; don't miss me too much."

With a wave of her hands, Heima exited the house, rushing towards the metro station along the way, seemingly in a hurry. Jyorta gazed at his room, the silence suffocating. He slowly propped himself to a seated position, feeling some strength return to his stiffened limbs.

He closed his eyes, taking the view of the blue soul in him. The surroundings turned dark—pitch black—the only source of light being a massive blue soul and a tiny wisp hovering near it.

'I'll deal with you in a moment,' Jyorta thought, focusing his concentration within his soul, tracing past the information currents stored in it, segregated into mysterious symbols, forming the essence of knowledge, his accumulation over two lifetimes.

'When I first came to this word, I attached myself to Jyorta's soul, slowly invading him. But, unknowingly to me, a part of my ego detached from me, fusing with his soul during the 8 years I wasn't lucid. This shaped his character which mostly included my recessive characteristic traits. Over the years, his ego slowly developed, and by the time I gained clarity, he looked like a different person.'

'But, the crux of the issue is clear. Despite his core being different, he was basically a part of me. If I had known of this beforehand, I could have taken a different approach.' He thought, focusing at the innermost region of his soul.

Two spheres of distinct differences had fused to become a unity, forming the current core in his soul. It was his entire being condensed into matter. The majority of it existed from before he arrived in this world but the minority originated from Jyorta; it was the core of him.

'If I hadn't influenced him at birth, maybe he would have grown up to be a different individual. Even sister doesn't know of this detail, neither does that old man who goes by Rhachis Ancestor Light. Deific Inference only reveals my psyche but not my real soul. Maybe it is because it is only a Tier 4 Relic? I can't say the same for higher Tiered Relics.'

'I'll just focus on my current issue and develop step by step.' Jyorta thought, using his blue soul to sense the wisp hovering beside him. The wisp originated from the Wisdom Parasite fused into his brain, looking no different from a baby's soul.

Jyorta mentally chanted the verse imparted by the creepy-haired man, creating two Soul Corneas. He made one connect with the wisp and wrapped the other around it, cutting off its connection to its physical body, easily overwhelming its resistance.

The current blue soul looked a hundred times larger than the wisp, its form hulking over the latter. The moment it began the invasion, it had converted the wisp into a subsoul, the process taking no more than a couple of seconds.

Seeing the simplicity, Jyorta realised that the Wisdom Parasite's soul was still undeveloped, lacking an ego, belonging to that of a newborn's. It was why converting it into a subsoul was so simple and easy. The two soul Corneas retrieved a couple of memory fragments from the new subsoul, five in number, their contents related to some vivid memories of his Induction Ceremony.

"So, even its mental growth is based on its host; a parasite in the truest sense. But, its symbiotic characteristic is what makes it alluring, capable of imparting power to the weak human bodies." Jyorta muttered, making the subsoul possess zero memory fragments.

"My growth fully depends on my experiences and the passive nature of the Wisdom Parasite. The more it gains an ego, leeching off my experiences and making them its own, the more dangerous it becomes. But now, it's my subsoul. As long as I ensure to remove all the memory fragments from it whenever they accumulate and prevent it from forming an ego, I would be safe.

"Sister said Gajara Rahi used this advantage to breeze through her cultivation journey, eventually becoming Rhachis Ancestor Space. Even though she had faced a lot of obstacles, many of which were life-threatening in her journey, none of them originated from within her. They were all external dangers." Jyorta muttered; his expression eased up.

He didn't want to develop his subsoul until its ego became strong and tried to wrestle control with him. This was a mistake Gajara Rahi had endorsed, developing her subsouls until they tried to wrestle control with her, trying to become the main soul. Even though many factors were at play which led to her situation, he didn't want to take his chances.

Despite the numerous subsouls she possessed, only her main soul managed to reach Tier 6. Moreover, the subsouls only had partial traits of a Psychic Parasite, the ability to parasitize other souls not being one of them.

'Learn from the examples of your predecessors.' Heima had imparted plenty of knowledge over the past year, the knowledge she had obtained from Gajara Rahi. Even though the information she gave was naught but the tip of the iceberg, it was still sufficient for Jyorta to make a mental plan, of the path he would tread on.

7:00 AM, Jyorta gazed at the time on the alarm clock, his gaze bright, "I'll get ready." He packed the box in his trolley bag, secured by rope, and placed beneath the clothes. Ensured that it wouldn't open by itself should the trolley bag experience a jerk, he took out a spare towel and entered the bathroom.

7:50 AM, finished with his breakfast, Jyorta inspected his appearance once and looked at the contents in his luggage, making a final confirmation.

"I'll be away from home for the next one year." Letting out a sigh, Jyorta closed the door to the living room, engaging the self-lock mechanism. He then proceeded to carry his luggage and headed towards the metro station.