"That's father's form," The humanoid-serpent frowned, taking a stance of caution on watching the flaming giant come closer. Unlike the form of Rhachis Ancestor Parasite, the form of Rhachis Ancestor Dawn was slow and steady, treading with calm.

But, this in fact increased the pressure Laila faced. After all, any delay meant the arrival of more giants that she would have to face at a time. And, her form was confined to a spot, unable to move due to the limited length of the thread that connected her form to reality. So, she didn't have the option to advance or retreat to gain favourable conditions.

The moment it was severed meant all her plans would become useless. For, she would be trapped in the Mental Realm for all eternity until she was slowly assimilated by it. The giants before her were all like that.

A century's worth of planning and accumulation. When Gajara Rahi broke through from Tier 5 to Tier 6, she absorbed some special experience fragments during her stay in the Mental Realm. When she returned to reality, she realised that the special experience fragments conformed to the being that brought her to this world, the one Jyorta called the creepy-haired man and the one she called the tubed-freak.

Those experience fragments helped her a lot. Even though she had already come to know the worth of the Mental Realm, the experience fragments of peak beings further changed her opinion of it. It was then she created a plan to absorb the experience fragments of all beings of importance.

She made numerous subsouls breakthrough and sever their connections to reality while in the Mental Realm. In their souls, she placed memories thrice their life experiences, placing a mental cue in them that formed their very existence.

It was like their very lives were lived to attain only one thing. When they severed their connections to reality while in the Mental Realm, they were guided by the mental cue and began searching for the experience fragments of the Ancestors.

Any being, when they arrive in the Mental Realm would battle the Cogent Phrenics. A result of the clash would allow both parties to gain or lose experience fragments. And, a significant portion of those experience fragments would splash forth from the attacks, travelling without pause until they hit another Cogent Phrenics.

Any Ancestor would have had arrived five times at the Mental Realm, losing a lot of their experience fragments—generated from all points of their life—in their battles. Gajara Rahi planned to collect them all. It was to support her in the grand scheme she had been concocting all along.

Each subsoul she sent to the Mental Realm had a target, either an Ancestor or a being of significant value. They would continue to search for the related experience fragments even as their egos would be gradually eroded by the Mental Realm and they fully turn into a Cogent Phrenics.

Since the essence conforming to their experience fragments, their existence, was for a single fact, even as Cogent Phrenics, they would continue to search and absorb the related experience fragments.

But, the splashed experience fragments of the Ancestors would have been absorbed by the Cogent Phrenics who were in the way. Moreover, all Cogent Phrenics desired higher quality experience fragments. So, the experience fragments of the Ancestors would have been with strong Cogent Phrenics.

The Cogent Phrenics created by Gajara Rahi slowly battled their way to the top in the Mental Realm, collecting the experience fragments of their desired targets. They would roam in search of them, stay still to allow the recovery of their expended Will, engage in a battle the moment they find one, rest, and recover after one. And, once they digest the experience fragment, they would move on to find another.

They rinse and repeated the same process for a century, also absorbing similar experience fragments of what they sought—even if the source wasn't from the Ancestors—and built up their strength. The quality of their experience fragments was at the peak of Tier 5.

After all, one became an Ancestor only after they left the Mental Realm. So, there weren't any experience fragments in the Mental Realm of the Tier 6 level. Even then, their forms were tremendously powerful, giving Laila's form trouble, even if a portion of her form was composed of Tier 6 experience fragments.

The flaming giant arrived, facing its palm forward, making a motion of pulling. Immediately, the Will within an area on the humanoid-serpent destabilised, the experience fragments from the part spilling out.

The flaming giant pulled them towards it, intending to absorb it when the humanoid-serpent pulled them back. The formless force it exerted trumped the flaming giant's, recovering the experience fragments it had lost.

But, just this action alone showed the danger the flaming giant possessed. The humanoid-serpent swerved its head, noticing another giant begin to fly towards it. This giant was like a yarn, composed of numerous threads that made up its structure.

The moment it arrived, it threw out thousands of threads, wrapping them around the mountain, constricting the humanoid-serpent. It swiftly made use of the humanoid-serpent's inability to dodge, primarily aiming at its tail area.

A hundred heads from its shoulder shot forth and snapped the threads, before ganging up on the yarn, biting through its experience fragments. Without any hesitation, the humanoid-serpent unleashed more than ten thousand heads to attack the yarn while its front condensed a pair of blades.

The blades flashed once, severing the hip of the flaming giant. But, unlike the other forms, the flaming giant seemed to have a fluid form. So, all its bladed attacks caused was the spillage of some experience fragments, a scarce amount considering its massive size and the number of experience fragments it had amassed in total.

"Hah," The humanoid-serpent shouted, creating a massive shield to defend against another giant. The force behind the attack was minimal, but it caused the shield to slam into its face. The humanoid-serpent grunted, thinking, 'Dawn, Web, and now Crash.'

It then swerved its head, its mood plummeting as it noticed a humanoid giant approach slowly. It was fully magenta; its form was the most condensed of all the forms the humanoid-serpent had witnessed. It was to the extent it thought the opponent was composed of Tier 6 experience fragments.

'No, that is not possible. I see, its essence is fully on the aspect of defence. So, that essence also condensed the Will and created such a sturdy result. Once Marble's form too joins the battle, my efficacy would drop to the minimum, and there is a good chance I might expend my Will and be defeated.'

"Hah!" The humanoid-serpent shouted, increasing the girth of its body to twice the amount, the cord connecting it to reality swelled to a hundred times its original size, gushing in experience fragments without limit.

The humanoid-serpent became even more imposing, its head hitting the barrier of the Mental Realm, almost poking a hole through it. The Mental Realm screamed in protest, unable to bear the intensity of the battle.

Energy gushed into the region, trying to reinforce it, preventing the Mental Realm from collapsing. That was why Laila had chosen this spot to make a breakthrough. The stability and toughness of the Mental Realm depended on the beings that had made a breakthrough there.

During the dark ages, the Mental Realm was just an illusory manifestation that could exist temporarily during a breakthrough. When Rhachis Ancestor Parasite broke through to Tier 6, the place it made a breakthrough had stabilised, using the Will, experience fragments, and essence it had generated to create a stable fragment of the Mental Realm.

When other beings, Tier 1 to Tier 5 broke through in the region, the Mental Realm fragment expanded. When many Ancestors began to breakthrough, numerous Mental Realm fragments were created all over the world.

As the number of breakthroughs increased, it further stabilised their respective regions, also increasing its area. Soon, the fragments expanded until connecting with one another, eventually creating the Mental Realm.

But, even though it had already been created, the stability of the Mental Realm varied from place to place. The greater the breakthroughs and the higher the Tier of breakthrough, the more the Mental Realm developed in the region.

So, in response to that, the Mental Realm around Dawn City was one of the sturdiest, second only to the place where Rhachis Ancestor Parasite lived. Dawn City had birthed four Ancestors; moreover, Gajara Rahi had also broken through to Tier 6 in the same place. So, it made the optimal location for her battle.

Only in such a sturdy place would the Mental Realm endure their grand battle.

The humanoid-serpent condensed a massive hammer and slammed it into the flaming giant, causing a wave of experience fragments to spill out. But, before it could travel far, the flaming giant absorbed them back into its body.

The formless force the humanoid-serpent generated only managed to pull away a small fraction of the spilled experience fragments.

The yarn could no longer attack it, busy defending itself from the numerous heads.

'Father's form is the most troublesome after all.' The humanoid-serpent expanded in size as experience fragments gushed into its form, bulking it up. A head among the head cluster on its shoulder absorbed a massive volume of experience fragments, exiting like a fission being, taking the form of a four-legged beast.

It possessed ten tails, the ends of which possessed suction-pod-like mouths, while on its back was a massive chakram. Its entire body was aerodynamically constructed in accordance with the chakram and the ten tails. It reached the flaming giant's knee in height, not a threat size-wise.

The humanoid-serpent grunted, creating two more of such beings, ordering them to gang up on the flaming giant while it defended against another attack from Crash's form. The moment it defended, its guard slammed into its body, toppling its balance.

Crash's form—shaped into a perfect sphere with a pair of whiskers—appeared, swishing around as it attacked the humanoid-serpent.

-----------------------

Read and support "ARTHROPOD IMPLANT" on the website [ Tapas.io ] (Its app version is named Tapas)

I have worked on this comic a lot, and the result is EPIC~!!! Do check it out.

----------------------