Mist billowed, blanketing the entire layer. Hot gusts of air streamed about as sparks flickered through it intermittently. Bolts of lightning flashed past while the sounds of thunder resounded. The Lava Turtles had retreated far away; half of them had even descended to layer 4 to avoid the resulting chaos.

The Wave Controller Lava Turtle stood in a daze, its body still. The Hunter Clams that had defended it had their arms hung over its neck, with their shells floating on the water. They were motionless; their shells sported numerous cracks while their bodies had turned into jelly, oozing out as goo.

Positioned before its face was a transparent film, made by combining all three of its psychic arms. Currently, it sported a 15-centimetre-wide hole, looking similar to a glass that had been shattered. Positioned right behind the hole was the Wave Controller Lava Turtle's head, its eyes blank, unfocused.

Steam rose from its body, turning heavy as it fell on its shell, forming a layer of ice. The Lava Turtle was absorbing heat rapidly, without control to curb its deficit, freezing the air around it. The skull on its head had caved in; a thin stream of blood leaked out of its eyes; the eyeballs had cracked.

At the start, it had almost 15 Hunter Clams on its back defending it. Now, none of them was alive, their bodies melting out of their shells that had cracked. Their respective Frenzy Parasites had died without even putting up an ounce of resistance. They had melted along with their hosts.

A cold breath of air exited the Wave Controller Lava Turtle's nostrils, blowing away the hot air surrounding it. The temperature in the area dropped down rapidly as the Wave Controller Lava Turtle's shell began to glow red.

Just when it seemed like its body would regain the lost heat, a loud cracking resounded as a line formed on the Wave Controller Lava Turtle's shell. The line grew deeper and deeper as it branched out from the middle like a fibrous root, creaking towards the entirety of the shell.

Followed by crunching sounds, the shell cracked into numerous pieces, falling off as it displayed a mound beneath. The bare muscles twitched and thumped as blood spurted out from many junctions. The colour of the skin turned increasingly pale as the Wave Controller Lava Turtle panted, feeling a sluggish sensation all over its body.

Lying 40 metres away from it, sprawled in the water was a humanoid figure, motionless. It was Jyorta, his skin had completely melted, including parts of his facial muscles. The skin had melted over his eyes and nose, preventing him from seeing and breathing.

His mouth was slightly opened, the melted lips had leaked from the sides. A muffled coughing sound resounded from his mouth as his adam's apple throbbed up and down. He was weak, unable to even move. His presence was almost negligible, like a rock strewn at the side of the road.

The blue soul looked at his state, connecting to the brain with ten soul tendrils, manually actuating all neural responses using its memory fragments. A thin psychic arm exited his head, seeping into the body as it expanded slowly until it overlapped him completely. It then turned pale blue, slowly mending his injuries.

Floating on the water next to him was the Bundle Flea, now bald. The longest hair it possessed only spanned a couple of millilitres in length, while the total number of hairs it retained now numbered in the double digits. It stared at Jyorta weakly while swerving its head, imprinting the figure of the Wave Controller Lava Turtle in its mind.

It slowly slithered, inserting its tail through a hole in Jyorta's armour, dragging his body towards the exit. In the place of his arms were now stumps while a melted goo floated on the water, trailing from the stumps. The pain had long since overwhelmed his nervous system that the brain had cut off the connection to the areas.

When defending against the plasma beam, despite all the erected defences, it still reached him. Jyorta had to shield himself using his hands, which then led to the current situation. Thankfully, his attack too did damage on the other side, so the plasma beam was fully expended by the time it melted through his hands.

"I…am…fine…" Jyorta's weak voice resounded as he slowly got up. The skin on his face peeled off and fell as patches to the water, revealing the squirming muscles beneath. A new layer of skin grew over it slowly, similar to the rest of his body.

His presence too began to recover, albeit at a slow pace while Jyorta slowly turned his head, gazing at the River Whale, watching it bleeding profusely. To defend him once its water defence had been expended, it used its flippers to bear the brunt of the plasma beam, giving the Bundle Flea some more time to regrow the hairs that had been burnt. It even went to the extent of using its coral horns to block the plasma beam.

The River Whale was bleeding all over; more than half of its flippers had been melted under the attack while its coral horn had disappeared. It fell unconscious once again. Based on the position of its eyes, it had last glanced at Jyorta while retaining the last vestiges of its consciousness.

Patches on its skin peeled off as the Bundle Flea cried out in pain, its voice similar to a human baby's. Jyorta floated on the water as he used a tiny fragment of his recovered aura to give a command to the Bundle Flea.

The Bundle Flea activated its Tier 2 Skill, slowly growing its hair while it shuddered in pain. It too knew that it was completely defenceless now and had to grow it swiftly to prepare against threats. Receiving Jyorta's command, it swerved its head, staring at him in confusion.

On seeing Jyorta reassure it through his aura once again, it joined the hair that had grown into two paddles and rowed through the water, using its tail to pull him across. His head was positioned towards the Wave Controller Lava Turtle while his feet faced the opposite direction.

The eyes of the Wave Controller Lava Turtle trailed over his figure that came closer and closer before stopping a metre before it. It then watched the skin on his face finish forming as the hair on his eyelids grew back; his eyes shot open.

The iris recovered, imbuing in him sight once again as Jyorta stared at the Wave Controller Lava Turtle's face. His mouth finished healing before curling up into a devilish smile, "You almost killed me, bastard."

"But," Jyorta laughed, followed by a couple of coughs, "If you cannot kill a healer, you will die next. Remember it in your second life."

The Wave Controller Lava Turtle stared at him in silence, breathing out a cold breath. Its nostrils started to freeze as ice formed on its head. Its skin started to peel off, making splashes as it fell in the water.

Its muscles broke into individual strands, uncoiling as they bloomed like a flower before snapping at numerous segments, causing a hail of strands that fell to the water. They dissolved into the water immediately.

The muscles in its legs fell off similarly as the nerves flailed about like suspension cables that had been cut. They then snapped and fell along with the tendons and ligaments, leaving the bare bones behind.

The bone joints crashed into each other, getting stuck as their ends melted, joining together into a unity. Every bone in its body behaved the same as its muscles fell off as pieces, with the muscle strands opening up.

Every hydrocarbon chain in its body reacted and broke down into simpler compounds, breaking up all the structures. The organs fell to the water, breaking into numerous strands immediately upon the impact that dissolved within a couple of seconds.

"See, I told you so." Even though he was still floating on the water and gazing at the Wave Controller Lava Turtle in reverse, Jyorta didn't seem bothered, his eyes flashing with a desire for slaughter, "You failed to kill me, so you die as a result. Your body has soaked my corrosion, so your chances for survival is pretty much zero."

"Don't be an idiot in your second life."

Aura Induction—Tattoo World!

With most of its aura expended from the exchange, the resistance it could offer wasn't much. Moreover, its body was failing, dying bit by bit, so it was soon pulled into the effect of his Aura Induction.

The Wave Controller Lava Turtle found itself within a blank space as its eyes felt heavy, slowly closing shut. The words of Jyorta and his devilish face was the last thing that resounded in its mind.

The Soul Corneas wrapped around its soul, pulling everything into the blue soul before storing it in numerous soul husks that had been emptied now. As it wasn't long in the Tier 3 realm, it hadn't formed that natural barrier around its soul. So, it was easy to pull out its soul.

The blue soul also pulled in the soul of its Frenzy Parasite. After all, the presence of the being and its respective Frenzy Parasite was a unity. There was no practical difference. That was what fusion meant, which was what the Parasites—whether Wisdom or Frenzy—achieved. So, to understand its presence better, he had to siphon both the souls.

"Do the honours, Bundle Flea." Jyorta smiled, watching the Bundle Flea extend a rope—made by coiling one hundred hair strands—into the Wave Controller Lava Turtle's open brain before fishing out its Brain Crystal.

Halfway along its retrieval, the brain melted into mush. Grabbing its Brain Crystal, the Bundle Flea pulled Jyorta towards the River Whale.

Jyorta sent his Soul Cornea into the River Whale's brain, forcefully summoning its Caterpillar by actuating the brain's commands. The Caterpillar swallowed the Brain Crystal, looking scared at it gazed at Jyorta's expression. The River Whale continued to bleed without stopping.