It was a narrow desert, with the sides walled by yellow marble. Faint wind brushed past, lifting small portions of the smooth sand, gentle in its actions. The air was blazing hot, the humidity non-existent. Underneath a sand dune rested a being, having prepared a trap for its prey.

Its surroundings were dark but its senses were focused on the faint vibrations the flowing wind undulated. The fluctuations allowed it to sense the presence of any approaching foe. It suddenly sensed its brethren but was confused at its actions.

'Why is it walking out in the open like that? It is also walking dangerously close to the traps laid by other Frenzy Beasts.' Just when it was thinking as such, its vision was affected. The earlier darkness vanished and was replaced by a languid tunnel suffused with a gentle purple hue. Something within the tunnel made it feel weak, wishing to lie down and rest for eternity.

When it tried to move, it suffered a lot of resistance, despite its path only filled with air. The tunnel walls looked rigid but sand fell off from it with the slightest touch. The moment it sensed its surroundings, it noticed the presence of a massive beast lurking within the tunnel, positioned 20 metres below.

It was a serpent, its body as wide as the tunnel. Its eyes shot open, the reptilian features caused a bone-chilling sensation to seep into its spine. The reptilian beast started to move.

"Where did it come from?" Letting out a couple of chirps, it exerted all its strength to move up the tunnel, moving through the resistance. Soon, it reached the top and burrowed out, landing on a familiar sandy dune.

The moment it did so, its surroundings changed. The purple hue vanished and was replaced by blinding light and the dry air. The tunnel it burrowed out from was collapsing as sand continued to fall into it, carried by the wind.

Through its senses, it failed to detect the presence of the serpent. When it felt confusion, the scene before it was overlaid by a green hue. A stalk of grass grew, like a vine, soon reaching the ceiling. A bud formed at its tip and the vine bent forward under the weight.

It continued to grow, with its middle touching the ceiling while the bud on its front hovered above the sand.

"R-Rhachis Ancestor Spindle?" It screeched in fright, its body shuddering in fear, its mandibles unconsciously clanking at each other. It watched a vine appear from the bud and gently touch its head.

'If I dare resist, others will be implicated. Sorry leader, I failed the mission. I can only place hope on the rest that had been moved to a different facility.' It stared with a resolute gaze, watching the vine drill its way into its head.

It neither screamed nor struggled, bearing the pain while infusing its Will into its Wisdom Parasite unconsciously, 'Us Crust-Mantles would one day be free! We will be free! No one will be able to challenge our freedom by then! We won't lead pitiful lives! Our leader will avenge us! Mark my words! We will be free!'

The vine drilled into its brain and ended up killing it. In its final breath, the Tier 2 Crust-Mantle watched the vine before it disappear, replaced by a Tier 1 Crust-Mantle on whose back sat a human. A psychic arm appeared from his head, carrying the spindle that drilled into its head.

'Hah, none of you are any better. All of you should die!'

"Huff…puff…" Jyorta broke out of his immersion, heaving ragged breaths while his brows were scrunched. He gritted his teeth, clenching his hand into a fist, pulling out some grass in agitation. His breathing grew ragged while his face was flushed red.

Tears streamed out of his eyes while his vocal cords moved up and down, uttering the words, "All of you should die."

His eyes widened in surprise as his right hand slapped his cheek. The pain broke his thought process for a moment while the aroma in the air forcefully stabilised his emotions. The face mask continued to placate his emotions, suppressing them.

But, something was being built up within him, trying to force its way into exploding. It was a raging volcano that wanted to drown everything in its magma. The blue soul extracted all the memories from the immersion, using the two Soul Corneas to corrode them.

It unearthed the memories of his life, those that were vividly etched in him. They alleviated his emotions a little, barely balancing his alignment. The blue soul worked in full capacity, trying to influence the impression in his mind through the sheer volume of memories it sent.

It was a battle, his mind in a dangerous state. If he was either interrupted or prolonged from taking an action, then Jyorta would possibly delude himself into thinking he was a Crust-Mantle. Reliving the memories of a being was incredibly dangerous.

The more he lived their memories, the more he understood. And, the greater he could understand them, the deeper he was influenced and fell into. As he had comprehended the memories of quite a few Crust-Mantles, the influence their memories had on him was deepening.

Even though the blue soul was negating them after every session, his comprehension of them still remained. So, the moment he comprehended them again, he comprehended troves of their memories at every instant, greatly overwhelming all the defensive measures he had put in place.

It took three hours before Jyorta's anger died down. But, his emotions were still affected. There was a possibility he would attack himself if he were to see his reflection in a mirror. His mental state was in a dangerous inclination.

Thankfully, there weren't any risks of an interruption in the meditation rooms. So, Jyorta could take his time mending the damage he had suffered. To negate the influence of the Crust-Mantles on him, he had to firm his belief in humanity.

The best example of this was the memories of his previous life. But, it wasn't enough to completely negate the influence. After all, there existed no enemies to humans in his previous life. Humans dominated the world. The only enemy of humans were fellow humans.

Thereby, he had to also make use of his current life's memories. But, he spent a large part of his budding life in a state of coma, decreasing the number of vivid memories he possessed. He only had the memories of his childhood under the impression of a child's naivety.

His memories from the military academy were too little. But, they were his best bet in negating the influence. But, it wasn't easy to use sheer quantity to overwhelm the quality.

It was the case of bamboo growing on flat land. It was tall and was blue in colour. The land didn't wish for it to grow but was incapable of annihilating it in the short term. So, it wished to hinder its growth by planting green bamboos around it.

But, the height of the green bamboos was only one-fourth of the blue bamboo. So, they were unable to hinder its growth to the desired level. Even though its growth speed was hindered a little, it still grew faster than the green bamboos. Sooner or later, it would dominate the region.

This was Jyorta's current condition. The blue soul extracted all the memories from the immersion, corroding the white layer over them. Once their ego fragments were destroyed, the growth of the blue bamboo was temporarily hindered.

The blue soul sent the memory fragments to the brain once again, extracting them after the brain went through them. It corroded the white layer over it, continuing to repeat the process.

Ego was something established over time, taking years to form. When an ego was damaged, unless the person experienced something to heal it, the damage would be irreversible. At most, only time could heal it. But that would require years to even a decade.

The blue soul was currently using this method to damage the ego on the memory fragments. Every time they were extracted from the brain, a faint white layer would form over them. It was the ego developed in his mind under the influence of the Crust-Mantle's memory fragments.

As he had comprehended years' worth of memory fragments, the ego had been considerably developed. The blue soul repeated the process, damaging the ego repeatedly until it was no longer generated.

Soon, it was completely expended. But, this process alone took 4 hours. Jyorta lay on the grass, his expression tired, his emotions still partly affected. He was still far from completely negating the influence.

'Even with my corrosion, I am still facing such difficulties. No wonder Gajara Rahi suffered from multiple personality disorder.' His eyes were blank, lacking the glint of wisdom they usually possessed.

'To grow the foundation of my blue soul, I have to absorb and comprehend the memory fragments of other beings. At higher Tiers, the requirement would become tremendous. Even after absorbing so many memory fragments, my Tier 2 blue soul has yet to reach peak capacity. I can't fathom the requirements at Tier 3 and beyond. Even now, after just a day's worth of comprehension, I am facing such difficulties. I am surprised Gajara Rahi was even able to remain remotely human.'

"There is nothing easy in this world." He muttered, laughing helplessly. The final piece of memory of the Crust-Mantle was of him killing it. Now, he witnessed first hand the result of his actions, from the perspective of the foe he had slain.

He was in the memory, as a foe. This conflicted with his image, making him ignore his actual self while inclining more with the Crust-Mantle's. This was another reason he was influenced by the memories to such depths.

'Thankfully, it died and the memory stopped. If it had lived any longer, I would have gone past the line of no return. The blue soul actually failed to pull me out in time.'

'The domain of the mind is mysterious indeed. The domain of the soul can only partially affect it. I should remember it. My methods aren't supreme.' He sighed, closing his eyes to sleep. The blue soul continued with its task, trying its best to bring his inclination back to normal.