A Faraway Enemy (Part-1)

Ever since Jay gained a hold over Olivia's skill <Mind Eye>, everyone was an open book to him since even their thoughts couldn't escape him.

Of course, Olivia and Felarial were an exception to that.

While the former was the shareholder of <SOUL EYES>, the latter has a powerful soul despite regressing from Tier-7.

When Jay entered the Lycanthropes' Rest House, he added Rex to that shortlist.

However, it was not like Rex's thoughts were entirely out of reach; rather they were audible once every few seconds, similar to a buzzing signal interrupting a Television show.

While conversing with Rex, Jay noticed the thoughts going around in Rex's head weren't just his but also had another voice.

That brought Jay to the conclusion that there was someone else controlling Rex to do their bidding and that someone had to have a Soul-type Innate Talent to be able to interfere with Jay reading Rex's thoughts.

Jay ruled out the possibility of that someone being within his 500-meter range after discreetly going through everyone's minds within the range of the skill, <Mind Eye>, meaning that the unknown individual has the means to spy on others from far away.

He could try forcibly going through Rex's mind, but that would alert the culprit behind the scenes. If Jay doesn't handle it with caution, the hidden party could become a thorn in his side. Especially with there being a high chance the other party knows of his identity, whereas he didn't.

So, Jay played along and waited for the culprit to slip up and make a mistake. Before long, his patience was rewarded with an opportunity.

With a devious smile, Rex shot himself forward as his right palm reached out towards Jay.

But before Rex's palm could reach, Jay caught him by the wrist and stopped him dead in his tracks.

However, that only made Rex erupt in delirious shrill laughter, "Kihkihkihh...Now you too are mine."

Then Jay was greeted by a couple of notifications.

[<SOUL EYES> detected a foreign entity trying to implant 'Possession Seed' in your Soul.]

[Due to the invading Innate Talent <POSSESSION> being a grade lower than <SOUL EYES>, you can counter as you see fit.]

Then the whole picture became more evident to Jay as things fell into place.

First, he learned that the culprit has a Grade-9 Innate Talent, <POSSESSION>. The 'Possession Seed' was something that was used to take control over a target's body, like how Rex was being controlled.

The culprit's goal behind closing in on Jay was to make physical contact with Jay in order to place a 'Possession Seed' in his Soul, but that presented Jay with the opportunity he was patiently waiting for.

A while ago, Jay only had a vague sense of the culprit's presence within Rex, but after possessing Rex's body, the other party's presence became as clear as day to Jay.

The wide grin on Rex's face faded upon realising the 'Possession Seed' that was sent to take over Jay's Soul was out of control.

With that, a sense of foreboding dawned upon 'Possessed Rex', and he instinctively tried to pull back, but his right wrist was stuck within Jay's firm grasp.

Even flailing around at full strength was deemed to be of no use.

To free himself, 'Possessed Rex' swung his left fist at Jay's face only to miss it by a scratch as Jay nudged his head to a side.

Before the other party could throw another punch, Jay activated <Strength Boost-III> and squeezed the wrist in his grip, crushing Rex's wrist bone in the process.

Jay then pressed down the wrist, bringing 'Possessed Rex' down onto his knees as his face distorted with pain.

The culprit failed the moment 'Possession Seed' didn't work on Jay.

The other party realised that and reasoned staying in Rex's body any longer would only make his situation even worse before making a wise choice to leave Rex's body. Alas, that didn't pan out as the culprit had hoped.

While still holding onto the crushed wrist, Jay used his other hand to grab over Rex's head and entered the other party's Spirit Space.

In there, Rex's Soul was shrouded within dark green root vines and at its very centre was a verdant green seed, throbbing and pulsating like a human heart.

But the intensity at which the 'Possession Seed' pulsated suddenly changed, and it began to wear down, causing the dark green root vines attached to it to shrink at a visible pace.

"Trying to leave so soon? Not without consequences." Jay sniggered upon sensing the culprit's intentions to escape and shot out a pair of golden light rays through his eyes.

Those rays entered Rex's eyes, reaching all the way through to the Soul within his Spirit Space.

Once the pair of light rays entered Rex's Spirit Space, they converged into one large golden light beam before landing on Rex's Soul.

As soon as the root vines came in contact with the golden light beam, they withered away like ash to the wind.

No more than a few seconds later, all that was left over Rex's Soul was a shrivelled verdant green seed.

The lacklustre seed was then sucked into the golden light beam before vanishing from Rex's Spirit Space and appearing within Jay's own.

Through that seed, a croaked voice entered Jay's mind, 'If you release me, I will let go of this and not interfere in the matters of your Trial Region.'

Despite the rather mindful words, the culprit's tone gave away their intentions.

Jay snorted, 'It seems you haven't realised the situation you have landed yourself in, Urzo.'

At the mention of his name, Urzo faltered, 'How did you….?!'

A few seconds ago, Jay used <SOUL EYES> to infiltrate the other 'Possession Seed', the same one Urzo had sent over as a means to possess Jay.

Through that, Jay learned everything he needed about his assailant.

Although Jay didn't show it on his face, he was pretty stumped to learn that the other party was from another Trial Region.

Especially the means Urzo used to reach out to other Trial Regions intrigued Jay even more since that involved a Unique Innate Talent user.

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Discord Link for 'Earth's Alpha Prime' :

https://discord.gg/maQC7xDBYZ

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