“Thank you, Maharell.” Duvara stated in praise, “You truly bear the demeanour as the leader of the merchant group.”
Until now, no one could be called the leader of the merchants. But as the Crisis this time was truly dangerous, Duvara let out such a statement, recognising Maharell’s contribution to the city.
This forced the rest of the merchants to come forth with their wealth in a bid to not lose to Maharell. It was Politics 101. Everyone knew it but they had no other choice but to participate, as avoiding to do so would implicate their growth and status in Ellora Trade City.
“Now, let’s come up with a defensive plan.” Duvara continued the meeting as everyone proposed various manoeuvres to protect the city the best.
At the same time, the soldiers of Ellora City were patrolling the streets in a hurry, unleashing waves of Prana everywhere.
“There’s one here!” One of them shouted and hurled his spear into a terrace decor that was shaped to resemble a Pranic Beast mouth. The spear slammed into it and broke it, causing a tiny creature from within to fly out and flash around.
Mutated Beginner Silver Grade Pranic Beast—Empyrean Zinger Scout!
It was one of the scouts Inala had dispersed throughout the city. After Duvara fought him and observed the miniature forms displayed by the Empyrean Zingers, he commanded the city’s soldiers to sweep through the place and find every single Empyrean Zinger that was still in hiding.
And as he had expected, there were still many lying around, hidden amidst the smallest of creases, discretely watching every move made by the citizens.
“Kill it!” The soldiers shouted upon detecting the Empyrean Zinger, intending to destroy it. But against their wishes, the tiny cretin was fast, capable of using its Secondary Nature of Internal Inertial Gravity to vary its body weight and glide around while making sharp turns in the air to avoid every single attack.
Like a leech, it leaped from one building terrace to another, unfurling its wings to cover a large distance in the air. When speed was necessary, it jumped to a high enough altitude, increased its weight to the maximum, and dove down at tremendous speeds, breaking the sound barrier. 𝑜𝗏𝒍xt.𝒞𝑶𝑀
Just the resultant sonic booms threw off the soldiers, creating chaos. Once the Empyrean Zinger came close to the ground, it reduced its body weight to the minimum most, using the momentum to curve its body upward and generate lift once again.
Its flight path resembled a Damped Harmonic Motion wave, allowing it to remain in flight for extended durations.
More than thirty Empyrean Zinger Scouts were currently in Ellora City, causing chaos throughout the place as they all fled from one region of the city to another. They intended to do so for the next week until it was time to alert Inala.
“Kieek!”
“Chirp!”
“Kuaaak!” From time to time, they unleashed short cries that reverberated long distances. And whenever this cry originated closer to the City Lord estate, Inala could hear it, able to know everything that had transpired.
This meant that even while imprisoned, Inala was able to keep up with everything that was happening in the city.
‘The water level in the river is dropping down even faster.’ His eyes shot open as he stared at Battalda and unleashed a sharp cry in pain, ‘Fuck! The pain’s gotten worse!’
As he slowly healed his limbs, the pain receptors in the region became active once again, causing him to experience unimaginable pain, as a result weakening his mental defences.
Inala was using more energy than before to ensure he didn’t leak anything that would come back to bite his ass later.
By the fourth day in the cell, he was exhausted to the limit, having not had a wink of sleep all along, subsisting solely through the Lifeforce in a Life Bomb. He was reaching the limit of endurance, feeling it hard to guard against Battalda’s mental attacks.
Upon observing his increasing rate of success, Battalda worked harder, gradually able to obtain greater pieces of information. On the sixth day, he finally broke through, obtaining an answer when he asked, “What do you know about the changes in the Angan River?”
The energy packet he sent into Inala’s mind returned with valuable information, consuming more than ten Prana in response. But the moment he absorbed the information, Battalda trembled in fear as his face paled in response, “T-T-The Millinger Catastrophe?”
“It reached this point, huh?” Suddenly, Inala spoke. The moment he flexed his jaw, the gag snapped, allowing him to speak.
Stage 1—Jaw!
His jaws transformed into an Empyrean Zinger’s as Inala opened them wide, causing three Empyrean Zingers to fly out and target the three Information Team members.
A Prana Bomb slammed into their jaws and accurately knocked them unconscious.
One of the Empyrean Zingers expanded in size. It condensed a Prana Bomb and controlled it like a Spirit Weapon, making it revolve rapidly as it slammed into the sludgy dome Hanya had erected, consuming the latter in a matter of seconds.
Once the Prana within it was consumed, the sludge vanished. Following that, the Empyrean Zinger casually yanked out the nails that hammered Inala’s limbs to the floor.
“I feel free now.” Inala got up as Lifeforce surged through his limbs, healing them rapidly. And the moment he activated his Secondary Nature of Internal Inertial Gravity, his mashed-up limbs ballooned to their original size, keeping them structurally propped up.
The Lifeforce then surged through them and mended the damages. Since the broken bones were arranged in the corrected order by Internal Inertial Gravity, all this Lifeforce had to do was mesh the pieces into a singular whole.
As a result, his recovery time shortened drastically.
While his limbs were healing, Inala stared at the unconscious figure of Battalda, grinning as he touched the latter’s forehead, seeping Prana into it, “From today onwards, you’re mine.”
Mystic Bone Art—Prana Domination!
He had evolved it to be effective against all humans. Of course, it was still a ways off before he could apply it to the Pranic Beasts. But that was a large project.
His accumulations were only enough to evolve it to apply to all humans. And in this situation, that was more than enough.
The three Empyrean Zingers returned to the biome in his stomach as Inala continued to lie down on the floor in his initial position. He broke off the nails in half and stuck the head on his limbs to make it seem as if he was still hammered down to the floor.
He waited patiently as his Prana surged in the bodies of Battalda and his two subordinates, gradually permeating his influence on their Bones and Spirit Containers. It took some time before the process ended, allowing him to smirk and casually lie down on the prison floor.
Battalda woke up soon after, trembling in fear upon feeling a foreign imprint on his bones and Spirit Container. He opened his mouth, intending to call for help when he realised he couldn’t do so, forcefully kept shut by Inala.
His body too positioned itself behind Inala while his hands touched the latter’s forehead, the same position he used to extract information from Inala.
The two Information Team members were also in their original positions, maintained there forcefully by Inala. When a couple of guards passed by on patrol, they observed the situation to be the same as before.
“They are very hardworking. We should learn from their example.”
“I can understand why they’re so valued. Maybe if we work as much as them, we’ll also rise through the ranks.” The two guards chatted casually and passed by the prison cell, unaware of what was actually happening.
Hearing their remarks, Inala’s smile only widened.