Chapter 277: Aura Personification—Hallucination!

Of the three Ring Worms that had burrowed out, two were faster as they latched onto the piece of meat. The third was a tad slower.

But, the instant the two Ring Worms bit onto the piece of meat, they disappeared, leaving behind the third one that wriggled in confusion. An instant later, it retreated into the ground. This time, the scuttling sounds were a notch intense.

'The key is when they touch the piece of meat.' Jyorta thought, steadily retreating from the scene, intending to return to the area dominated by the Spiked Lizards to regain his bearings first.

Suddenly, he noticed a soul fly his way incredibly fast. Without any hesitation, Jyorta activated his corrosion. The two Soul Corneas expanded in size while turning jet black. Similarly, the two psychic arm barriers around him also turned jet black while Jyorta pulled out his sword.

Using his faster reaction speed as an Esper, he willed the effect of his two Souls Corneas to be limited to the soul. The moment the approaching soul collided into them, a significant chunk of it was corroded.

The soul was attached to the body. The only connection between the domain of the soul and reality was the former's reliance on the latter. Therefore, when the body moved, the soul could only follow suit.

After passing through the first barrier by the Soul Cornea, almost half of its soul was corroded. When it came into contact with the second, most of its soul was corroded, causing it to dissipate.

Jyorta used the face of the blade to defend against the foe. His two layers of barriers shielded him further. He willed them to send an outward force the moment contact was established.

"Ugh," Jyorta grunted from the impact, almost losing balance. His foot slid on the floor for a couple of feet, barely managing to keep his footing, thanking his stars that no rocks were on his path. After he managed to block that attack, he heard a thud.

The Frenzy Beast that had attacked him lifelessly fell on the floor. Through the vision of his blue soul, he noticed that its soul had fully dissipated, causing it to die. Through the senses of his domain, he observed the figure of a Floating Spider, the size of his head.

Its body lay sprawled on the floor, motionless. Its face had half corroded, forming a murky pool on the floor. He was shocked at the outcome, feeling surprised at the effectiveness of his corrosion. Before he noticed, his abilities had grown tremendously. He managed to kill a Tier 1 Frenzy Beast so easily just by defending himself.

He hurriedly deactivated his corrosion in both his psychic arms and the Soul Corneas. The faint stench of rust and acid wafted out from the dead Floating Spider. Momentarily, the scuttling sounds became twice as intense.

Faint screeches resounded from time to time, loud sounds that echoed throughout his path. Jyorta felt mentally strained by activating both his psychic domain and his soul domain. He hurriedly retreated, retracing the path he had walked on, arriving before a large boulder.

He abruptly stopped, the instincts in him had warned him. It stemmed from the Wisdom Parasite in him. This instinct was one of the reasons it was called a Wisdom Parasite. This instinct had saved the lives of many soldiers innumerous times.

Even though he failed to detect anything amiss through both his domains, he trusted this instinct. Moreover, he had an objective for coming before this boulder. After taking in a short breath, he adjusted his mind, the blue soul sent a couple of memory fragments to his brain.

He emitted a gentle flux of aura, converging it only around the large boulder, overlaying an aura personification atop it.

Aura Personification—Hallucination!

He immediately closed his eyes, also shielding it with his hand, sensing a bright light flash from the boulder, the source numbering around 30. They were the Frenzy Beast, Two-Faced Fireflies. They were startled, having fallen under the hallucination.

They took up flight, revolving around the large boulder while emitting light from their bodies. Fifteen seconds later, his eyes adjusted to the brightness. He retracted his hand from his eyes and was startled to notice a transparent silk thread hover before his face.

The silk was a centimetre in diameter, looking tremendously tough. Thankfully, he had always trained himself to always minimise the movements of his limbs, keeping it around his body as much as he could, making it a habit.

That was the only reason his hand wasn't caught in it while he used his hand to shield his eyes and retract after they adjusted to the brightness. He quickly looked up, involuntarily tensing up, barely managing to prevent himself from shrieking out in fright.

On the ceiling was a sprawling field of web, forming complex patterns akin to what one would witness in a kaleidoscope. Crawling over it were Floating Spiders, hundreds of them, as far as the light intensity allowed him to observe.

Thanks to his training, he had swiftly corrected his barriers, preventing his figure from being seen by the others when the Two-Faced Fireflies emitted light.

As he observed their actions, he could understand the source of the scuttling sounds. The Floating Spiders worked in groups, spinning silk around the prey they had captured. He also noticed a piece of meat 30 metres away from him.

Through his enhanced eyesight, he noticed a thread of silk span from the piece of meat and trail to the ceiling. It seemed weak, unable to even pull up the piece of meat. But, when a Ring Worm grabbed onto the piece of meat, the silk rope pulled it with a tremendous force.

Moreover, the moment it began to pull, two strands separated from the rope and attached themselves to the Ring Worm, preventing it from escaping. It all seemed automated, like a hunter setting up a trap for his prey and waiting at another location, reaping lives one after another.

The silk thread shrunk into a dot instantaneously; the force slammed the Ring Worm into the web, getting it stuck. The Ring Worm struggled to move its body, trying to break free of its constraints, either by shredding apart the silk or shedding the skin in contact with it.

Before it could do so, at least four Floating Spiders pounced on it and began wrapping their silks over its body, constricting it more and more. Eventually, it was wound into a cocoon, now no longer able to break free.

Numerous such cocoons existed; their sizes displayed most of them to be Ring Worms. Some Floating Spiders flew towards the ground at their maximum speed, attaching one end of a silk rope before flying back to the ceiling in a hurry.

At the next moment, a Floating Spider wrapped a silk rope around a piece of meat and dropped it to the floor. Moreover, it did so by making the second rope spin around the first, allowing it to make spirals before the piece of meat fell on the floor with a loud thud.

'That spiral is what caused two strands to break and attach themselves to the Ring Worm. Interesting!' Jyorta nodded, realising another point, 'So, the one I killed only planned to set a spot for the silk rope behind where I stood. I was in its way, but it failed to sense me and died as a result.'

He then gazed at the Two-Faced Fireflies flying around him, still under the effect of his aura personification. Moreover, thanks to his manipulation, they only flew within the range of his aura personification.

'Going blind is quite dangerous. If I had been caught by that silk rope, it would have been difficult to escape unless I expended all my energy reserves and used my corrosion without limit.' Jyorta shuddered at the thought, gazing at the Two-Faced Fireflies near him.

He calculated the energy he had expended to kill the Floating Spider, making a mental note of his energy reserves. 'It would be hard to control them all. Moreover, it taxes my mind too much.'

Using his domain, he sensed the strongest of the 30 Two-Faced Fireflies. He then focused the effect of his aura personification on it, watching the others slowly come to their senses. A couple of seconds later, they stopped emitting light and hid under the large boulder, taking up spots in its cracks.

They were only the size of his fist, easily able to hide in the smallest of places. The remaining Two-Faced Firefly spun in circles, escaping from whatever prey it saw under the hallucination.

The blue soul continued to send memory fragments to his brain, helping in realistically changing the scenery in the hallucination. He made changes, directing the path the Two-Faced Firefly flew in. Eventually, it landed on his right shoulder, curling up in exhaustion before stopping its light emission.

Jyorta felt some aversion seeing it up close but on seeing its actions, he felt it was kind of cute. With a smile, he subtly changed the hallucination, causing the Two-Faced Firefly to panic and take flight. He controlled its actions, making it fly before him while he followed behind.

The moment a Floating Spider flew with the intent to kill it, Jyorta directed part of the aura personification on it, watching with amusement as the Floating Spider clamped its mandibles 30 centimetres above the Two-Faced Firefly.

He only changed the contents for it a little, making it hallucinate the position of the Two-Faced Firefly 30 centimetres above its actual position. The Floating Spider made a curve and returned, missing its prey by a wide margin, feeling confused.

After it missed five times, it became afraid, scurrying at its fastest speed to the safety of the web above. Jyorta chuckled at the scene as he continued to tread forth, feeling a bit relaxed now that he could see with his eyes.