(Black Spider's POV)
-Interesting...- Black Spider didn't try to do that again, but instead, he began to nurture Korak's soul, as he had planned.
Korak let out a soft moan, not of pain, but of comfort, even the persistent voices in his mind seemed to lessen in intensity. It was slight, but still a relief to him.
After a few minutes, Black Spider withdrew his hand, without changing his expression, and spoke. - Well, for now that's it, we can continue with this for a while before trying to extract the fragments.
Korak's spirit seemed much stronger after Black Spider finished the job, so his solution seemed efficient, which was clearly shown in the birdman's features, leaving Vanessa very excited for a while.
Even Korak's gaze towards Black Spider softened, it was clear the man was grateful. He bowed his head slightly and said a simple. -Thank you.
Black Spider wasn't unhappy with the simplicity of the action, he knew what Korak was going through, so he simply nodded slightly to him, knowing that this brought the pair closer to him, making them more loyal. That was enough.
After the pair left, Black Spider quickly went to his room, trying to understand this new power.
Curious, he picked up a crystal that still contained fragments of soul from the last battle against Dark Star, held it in his hand, and did something he had never done before: instead of sending his Nightmare energy into the crystal and devouring it, he sent his evolutionary energy.
As soon as the evolutionary energy touched the souls, Black Spider felt that sensation again. This time he didn't hesitate, his energy was sent continuously while the fragmented souls rapidly synchronized. Soon they reached the same "wavelength", and at that moment, the souls began to merge.
His evolutionary energy couldn't quite sense what was happening on a spiritual level, but his nightmare energy could, so he quickly mixed them together, trying to understand what he was doing.
Memories, experiences, ego, desires, and mindset. Everything seemed to be fighting amongst itself as Ringo worked. Not only were the souls physically merging, but the mindset of the new soul he was creating was adapting to the new construct.
If he had to explain it simply, it was as if a carnivore and an omnivore were merging, the omnivore eats vegetables, the carnivore doesn't, so the new soul would be omnivorous, but would have a preference for meat.
Something like that.
But there were also situations like a carnivore merging with a herbivore, in that case, there was a clear contradiction. That's where Ringo's evolutionary energy came into play, choosing one side as the correct one or transforming them into omnivores.
Contradictions were continually purged and gave way to certainties, only Ringo's evolutionary energy wouldn't have been able to see this happening in real time. It would have been something much more automated. If it weren't for the power of the Nightmare, Ringo wouldn't even have noticed it was happening. Perhaps only in the future would he be able to control this ability perfectly, but thanks to the Nightmare's energy, he managed to do it much sooner.
In the end, the new soul would be an amalgam of the old souls. Ringo's clone worked for several hours, if he had simply let his evolutionary energy do the work, he could have finished quickly, but because he was editing everything manually with his Nightmare energy, it took him much longer.
In the end, only one soul remained in the crystal, a soul far stronger than an ordinary one.
Black Spider wasn't quite sure what this power was for, he felt he hadn't discovered everything, only part of it, but for now, what he knew was that he could fuse souls.
With that thought, Ringo, who was observing the process, thought about his own soul, remembering the parasite, his heart raced. Could this finally rid him of it?
//-//
(Ringo's POV)
Ringo breathed heavily and, without hesitating any longer, using his evolutionary energy, he focused on his own soul, trying to do what he had done before, but as soon as he tried, a terrible headache attacked him.
-Urrrgh! - He couldn't help but groan in pain, trying to use his evolutionary energy to contain it. He succeeded, but as soon as he tried again, he felt the adaptation to the headache was directly deactivated, causing him to groan in pain again.
Ringo stopped, annoyed and exasperated, but he should have expected it.
The parasite inside him has its own defenses, and although Ringo is the main soul, the parasite still has some control over its power, trying to attack it with its own power would not work.
Ringo had been strengthening his soul for a long time, so he should have noticed this ability before, after all, there was a parasite in his soul, but he hadn't noticed. Why? Now he knew the reason.
He probably should have discovered this power a long time ago, but it was only now that he had achieved it, making it clear that the parasite had deliberately hidden it from him!
The parasite had far more control over him than he had anticipated... this also began to worry him, would reaching Grade S really solve everything?
In the novel, it became clear that achieving this Grade was a sublimation of life that could end all negative status conditions such as curses and mental parasites, but the soul that was the parasite was merely itself with different memories, a split personality.
Judging by the parasite's reaction, it became clear that this ability is effective on it. Ringo took a deep breath, frowned, thinking of a solution, but for now he gave up trying again.
Even so, his concern had not lessened in the slightest, but his patience with this Parasite was rapidly running out.
Knowing his next destination, Ringo made a decision, he would ask Austin for help. He didn't really want to expose himself to a BGA, even if Austin wasn't a psychic, a mage is very versatile and could at least tip the scales in his favor.
He just needed Austin to hold off Parasite for a few minutes, he could do the rest!
Ringo pretended to have given up, but in reality he was just keeping his ideas to himself, just as the Parasite could act and think without him knowing, he could do the same, so they both just stayed quiet.
He only hoped that Austin wouldn't act against him, after all, Ames was there, and he hoped that would be enough.