Parasites

We make it to a lovely village in the northwest with an orchard that has the best fruits in the kingdom. Apparently, shield hero has been here before and helped them out when the trees were attacking the villagers and they couldn't harvest the ripe fruits to sell or eat.

With the monsters everywhere and attacking anything they can see they can't harvest the fruits once again. I'm pretty sure the orchard is cursed because it give me this urge to just burn it down. I cycle my energy to clear my mind and make a mental note to take one of the trees to test if it's just the trees that are cursed or the orchard itself.

I look over and see that my companions don't show any signs of being affected so I'm pretty sure it only effects monsters. Well, guess all those people that called me a monster were right. Good to know.

Interrupting my depressing thoughts, Sophia gives me a nice big wolf hug and says I'm not a monster. I think she may have a form of telepathy and make another mental note to investigate it later.

After shield hero gets all the information he can from the villagers, we split up into groups of two and three to search the orchard for any clues we may find.

I get the genius idea to cycle the fusion energy in my eyes while focusing on some of the monsters in the area. What I get for my trouble is a change in vision and shifting feeling in my eyes. I blink a few times to get used to my new sight and find that my vision is much clearer, I can also see faint outlines around living beings and inanimate objects.

I take a closer look at the outlines and my instincts tell me this is a kind of aura that everything gives off. It intrigues me and I feel it could help me with the monsters, orchard, and possible telepathy questions I have. I first look at my every faithful companion and see her tilt her head while looking at me because I stopped for no reason. It clicks in her mind what I need her do and she takes a step back so I can observe her.

I look at her and see a pink fluffy aura that transitions into a pale purple and runs to my gauntlets. I look at my gauntlets and see another line run to Fitoria and one go off in the direction that I believe the shield hero went. These lines would be the connection for the party feature of my gauntlets.

I look again at Sophia trying to see if there are any other lines, only after cycling more energy in my eyes do I notice a razer thin line that leads from her head to mine and Fitoria's. I want to double check this and use my instincts to interact with it before I hear Sophia gasp and feel two minds click into mine. I check with my computer mind and find a little network function that leads to my two companions.

Oh, me like! I first request the two to let me mess with their minds through the connection and they agree without hesitation. I start going through their memories and mental barrier sorting everything into organized files and saving backups in my own.

When everything is said and done, I get back to looking for some monsters, while the two head into the gate and get used to the sudden shift in mentality and added mental connections they feel.

I find a monster and pin it to one of a tree that looks sturdy with a binding spell. I get a good look at it while cycling energy in my eyes and see a black line that shoots off into the sky southwestward. The difference between this line and the lines connecting the hero parties is that this line doesn't connect equally, but instead looks to be enforcing submission by the stronger force.

I use my newfound knowledge and create some spells to scan for what caused this and where the owner of the black line is.

With a few tests I've improved the spell and pinpointed the exact location. Testing it was risky because there were attempts to force me into submission, but I had a three-part relay that filtered it out and mental shields at maximum.

I finish my testing and get to my last question of the day, is the orchard cursed? I pull one of the trees into a garden in the gate and use my new vision to determine it's just a regular tree. So, the orchard is cursed, I confirm this by returning to the village and seeing a massive greyish cloud that looms over the orchard but doesn't reach beyond.

I head back to the village ready to tell shield hero of my findings, only to find the place a wreck because a swarm of bats just wanted to say hi and taste the local humans. I restore the corpses and store them in the gate to study later.

One of the villagers tells me about how raccoon boy stayed behind to guard the village and got hurt protecting some villagers. I ask him to lead me to him and anyone that is injured so I can heal them.

When we arrive where the injured are, I see raccoon boy getting bandaged up and notice something I don't like. I activate my new vision and see black lines leading to fifteen of the thirty injured people, including raccoon boy.

I heal all those without a black line, because I don't know if it will speed up the process and tell everyone that I didn't heal to follow me to a different area. One by one I synthesize out the bits of bat flesh that got into their wounds and watch as the connection with the main body is cut off and the parasites die.

When everyone is healed and shield hero returns, I tell him a shorted version of the situation and teleport us to the palace. We meet with the queen and I drop the bombshell.

"A mountain sized turtle is using bat familiars with parasitic abilities to take over everything they can find.", I start out with this first to tell them what we are dealing with.

"The bat familiars can parasitize living creatures by being ingested as well and can only be resisted if the living creature is stronger than the turtle itself.", this is horrifying. Imagine the bats being eaten by monsters from the waves and gaining control of thousands of boss level monsters.

"Where is it's location? How did you find out about this?", she asks, and I explain my magic that traced the connection back to the main body.

The queen gets to calling a meeting between the countries that are in danger of a visit from the mountain sized turtle. The longer we leave this turtle alive the more monsters it parasitizes and turns frenzied.

Shield hero and I are discussing countermeasure we can take against the turtle, when a tall woman in black robes appears requesting the shield hero to kill the turtle. This causes my instincts to light up because the information wasn't released yet. I activate my vision to find a thick black line leading right into her head.

She explains how she is an original familiar of the turtle and will die if it is killed. I don't feel hostility from her, so I try to come up with a way to save her. I don't think that a normal spell with work because her connection is extra strong. I consult my instincts before appearing behind her with my mouth wide open around the connection and biting down to sever the connection.

I gain a familiar ability from it and this causes my eyes to widen in shock. The now free lady is also shocked because she felt the connection with her master severed which she thought impossible.

I'm mostly shocked because I didn't think my devouring ability worked this way. I always said I could eat anything and gain an ability from it, but I didn't think it worked on living things. Because the connection was basically a living thing, now I know I may not fully understand my own innates. Guess it's time for some testing.