Born in Blood

363  Grin

Weeks passed.

Ever since Liam 'jacked' his mind into the Zeniths and peered at its contents through the King's Eye, he'd learned several things about the sea of consciousness.

Every little iridescent 'scale' was an integral piece of the cultivator's mind.

From what Liam deduced, they stored important 'data', like little storage devices capable of absorbing massive amounts of info.

Memories, the subconscious and consciousness, feelings, emotions, senses and more.

The tiny scales included all of these aspects.

And there were several million of these tiny scales in each mental sphere.

Not to mention, with each Rank, they grew higher in number and infinitely more complex.

For a Zenith, this was especially true, since their minds were layered with complexity.

Liam's goal was fairly simple.

To chip away these little scales until there were none left.

Once they were cleared, there was a high chance for the Kitsune's mental energy to usurp the isolated mind and take over it.

It was the only way.

However, if Liam ever wanted to tinker with his own mind, it would get beyond difficult, since tampering with one part could affect others, too.

Creating mental enhancements was a project set for the distant future, that was for sure.

But even pulling away these scales took effort and time.

Liam had to be diligent and graceful with his mental energy usage, and it was painfully slow.

Nonetheless, he continued.

CRACK!

The first Zenith's mind shattered after a tiny misstep.

Days of work went up in flames just like that.

Liam moved on to the next.

CRACK!

And the next—

CRACK!

And—

CRACK!

The—

CRACK!

Next.

Needless to stay, Liam was starting to get a little frustrated.

Certain scales had more volatility compared to others.

But they all looked the exact same.

It was basically like playing a game of minesweeper.

But there were no directions of any kind to tell you where the bombs were.

Liam clacked his tongue in annoyance.

This was getting repetitive.

Still, he persisted.

Eventually, on the fifth try, Liam succeeded entirely in clearing out a mental sphere.

It took one week of nonstop work.

But it was finally over.

And now?

'I can't risk this not working,' Liam thought with furrowed brows.

'It's better to sacrifice this for a test run and study the results.'

Liam put two fingers on the Zenith's forehead.

Then, he slowly pulled them back, pulling an ethereal strand of the Zenith's mental energy with it.

Yanking out someone's mental energy was impossible if they were aware and resistant.

But the Zenith was currently unconscious and defenseless.

Once he was done with that, Liam looked back towards the Zenith.

In one fluid movement, Liam killed the Zenith cultivator and Isolated his mental sphere.

The mental energy was rapidly dissipating and emptying the sea of consciousness!

But before the mental sphere shattered due to having no body, Liam imbued the Zenith's mental energy inside it using the Mind Jack.

Liam's eyes widened in amazement.

As soon as the mental energy entered the empty sea of consciousness, the empty, translucent walls started to flicker with growing scales!

Amazingly, the mind was resetting!

But the strand of mental energy was too tiny.

As the scales reformed, the strand was being used up.

And soon enough, it flickered out and disappeared, together with the reforming scales.

Liam still smiled.

'The important thing is it worked,' Liam thought. 'Meaning the plan is perfectly usable.'

***

Three tries later, Liam succeeded in clearing another mental sphere.

This time, he was resolved to use the Kitsune's tattoo.

Liam had already fixed the core problem, since it was vastly easier to do so.

All he had to do was feed the Four-tailed Fox some powerful laxatives while simultaneously denying it food or water.

As the poor thing emptied its bowels, its core was slowly drained of energy.

As it emptied out fully, Liam replaced it with the Kitsune's.

And that was done.

But now, it was time for the last step.

Liam took off his shirt.

The tattoo on his abdomen was brighter than ever.

'Damn thing knows that it's time to come out,' Liam thought.

Using his mental waves, Liam manipulated the tattoo to wrap around his fingers.

Liam heaved a long breath.

Then, Liam killed the Zenith, used Mind Isolated, then imbued the Kitsune's mental energy within the sea of consciousness.

There was silence as Liam held his breath.

The elders to his sides were quietly watching.

Besides the general work, they weren't able to help at this step.

Nonetheless, they watched like it was the most important thing in the world.

As the Kitsune's mental energy seeped through the Zenith's mental barrier, it shook violently.

It threatened to shatter and break!

Liam used Mind Edge in an instant.

Everything went sharp.

In one-thirtieth of a second, Liam was able to recognize the problem.

Using the remains of his mental energy, he wrapped all of his mental waves around the Zenith's sea of consciousness, firmly holding it together.

Although the shaking was still there, due to Liam's interference, it didn't shatter.

Instead, the process inside continued.

Slowly, the Zenith's mental barrier was turning golden.

Glitter-like shards formed within it.

Cruder than a human's, but larger and sharper.

In the span of a few minutes, the process was over.

What remained of the cultivator was no longer human.

It was the Kitsune.

But it was still just a mind.

Liam calmly dashed over to the Four-tailed Fox's body, then placed within it the ethereal sea of consciousness.

Right after, the Elders patched up the fox's exposed skull, cleaning it the best they could before running to safety.

Silence.

Liam held his Breaker Blade and stood unflinchingly at his place, his eyes narrowed.

The Four-tailed Fox was massive.

It was 7 meters high and 5 meters wide.

But its head was placed parallel to the ground, and Liam stood at its nose.

Five seconds passed. Eight. Ten.

The Kitsune's golden eyes slowly opened…

…and a toothy grin formed on its maw.