A battle for the soul

In this world, he would be considered a psychopath. A monster. To it, he felt more like an efficient machine.

However, it felt that Hikaru was an unusual one. Psychopaths get bored easily and despite having a lack of emotions, they seek stimulation and often have grandiose ambitions.

Hikaru seemed to have dreamt about something impossible. He wanted to feel what it was like to be 'human', to have real emotions instead of simulating them.

Fortunately, Hikaru had given up that absurd idea and picked up something more reasonable.

World destruction.

The parasite had reached the deepest layer of his mind, but it was still completely dark. It doesn't know if souls exist but if they do, then is this a body without a soul? Could this be a mind of a psychopath?

"Hahahaha!" a laughed echoed.

The mind parasite felt a shiver across its body. Thick wet droplets were trickling down its grey transparent skin as if it were sweating.

It felt something ominous forming in front of it, taking shape as a black silhouette of an evil teenager.

"He can project inside of himself!?" It thought.

"I can do more than that" Hikaru replied.

The grey blob flinched, its silky body still bouncing because of its soft elasticity.

…

The silhouette was darker than black, making it visible against the darkness around it. Despite the lack of detail, it can tell that the shadow was smiling and that it was probably a sneer.

"So. You can read my thoughts. How is that possible?" it asked regaining its calmness.

"You opened a door to his mind. When a door opens, does it not open both ways?" he asked sincerely.

Sarcasm. An annoying human trait.

It wasn't as simple as he had said. It's like trying to push against a one-way security revolving door. It would obviously take a lot of force to break through with just pushing. That's why parasites dominate the host's mind and not the other way around.

The smile on the shadow grew wider. The mind controller's distaste deepened in response.

"Slave. You must know what is coming to you" it spoke.

If it could smile, it would.

The slime had no facial expressions, but Hikaru could tell it was smiling within.

"Don't you know that the battle's not over until the end?" he smiled back.

It seemed that whenever he smiled, it would frown.

"It's true that as long as the prey doesn't give up, the chance that it would survive exists no matter how small the possibility, but…" it trailed off and then sneered.

In a fight between a centipede and a spider of fair proportions, if the battle isn't over, the chance of survival for the spider is a non-zero possibility…

Even so, it would be more accurate to say that Hikaru is an antelope and the mind dominator is a lion trapped in an inescapable room.

Ignoring theoretical probability, there's practically no chance an antelope could stop a lion from eating it.

Without a warning, the slime threw its tentacles towards him at a speed that made the air whistle.

*SLAP*

A giant black shadow shaped like a hand emerged from the darkness behind Hikaru and deflected the tentacles with a back-handed slap.

Tentacles recoiled off into the water.

Suddenly an island of cherry blossoms is raised from underwater. Pink roots wrapped around each of the parasite's tentacles tightly and secured it to the ground.

The slime tried pulling but its tentacles were rooted too tightly.

Something covered in pink rose behind the slime from under like a person rising from bed with a blanket over their head.

The cherry blossoms fell off like pink sand and eventually revealed a woman.

She had a black ribbon bow on top of her carroty hair and was wearing a yellow top and pink skirt.

She had a mischievous grin and her hair hung over her face. She gave it a tight embrace from behind. The slime's squishy body bulged around her arms like it was about to explode.

"Impossible! How are you doing this!?" it roared.

When Hikaru had determined that the pest could not escape, he started walking towards it.

"No! Stay away!" the slime yelled hysterically upon noticing that Hikaru was a few metres from it.

Hikaru placed his hand on its head. He felt it shiver as it probably realized what he was going to do.

Hikaru smirked and closed his eyes to start focusing on the assimilation process.

Its body was pulled into his hand as Hikaru absorbed it cell by cell. It was as if there was a black hole in his hand.

The absorption stopped.

Hikaru opened his eyes and saw a pair of eyes flick open on the centre of its body. It glared at him with pure hatred.

"You think YOU can absorb ME!?" It spat.

Suddenly, Hikaru started to ball up from a sharp sting in his head that grew rapidly with every pulse.

He winced. It was fighting back. Its whole body glowed red with anger. A red glow radiated from Hikaru's feet and rose to his ankle.

Hikaru pushed back and his body was black again.

25% of the parasite was blacked out, representing Hikaru's domination territory.

It must be struggling with pain. Hikaru could almost see it grinding its teeth if it had a face.

Soon, however, it regained its full red-bodied glow.

The red glow once again climbed up his feet but this time he was only able to stop its growth to his knee.

The pain of resisting was like stopping a razor knife with one's bare hands. The greater the force of the blade, the greater one must grip the knife to halt its movement.

Earlier the pain in his head had intensified to a stabbing knife wound. Now it feels like his head is about to explode and all the cells in his body were combusting and screaming fire.

Its control broke through the waistline.

Hikaru felt a waterfall upon him… No. It was like gravity itself was magnified by tenfold. It felt like being crushed by a supernova.

Its territory has reached his shoulders.

Suddenly, his life starts flashing before his eyes.

The mind does this to look for a solution in your experiences and memories, anything to survive.