Chapter 360: The Heartstealer's Metamorphosis Process

Rod slapped it across.

The Heartstealer's octopus-soft hindbrain and the tentacles around its mouth were crushed by the tremendous force, spinning like a rattle-drum.

One tentacle was simply shredded apart, drops of purplish-black blood pattering down.

Its eyes instantly cleared up, carrying a trace of blankness.

What the hell?

Did my psychic ability get cast on a rock?

Even if it were cast on a rock, there'd at least be a spell-failure feedback, right? What's with it sinking like a stone into the sea?

Is human mental resistance really this strong???

And so, information about the man before them was rapidly broadcast through the mind-web into the mind of every individual in this Heartstealer community.

"Little Black."

Rod called out softly.

The black slime on his right hand, like a thin-film glove, rapidly swelled and expanded, shrouding the Heartstealer's head like a great net.

Crack-crack—

The teeth-aching sound of the slime eating the head came once again.

Heartstealers liked eating the brains of humanoid creatures; getting eaten this time could be considered tit for tat.

"Aren't Heartstealers and the Ilgo a bit too similar?"

Not in appearance.

But in their habit of being adept at psychic spells and being interested in brains.

Though the Ilgo liked studying brains, they didn't actually eat them.

After all, the Otherplane is a world of psychic projections; it's normal for creatures within to bear resemblances.

Rod drew his sword and turned.

The gradient-gold cross longsword cleaved out a 【Shrieking Sword Wave】, bisecting a Heartstealer that had been trying to flee in the shadows.

Faced with maxed-out mental resistance, the Heartstealers who had just been routed by the Mind-Control Coalition mages and fled here were simply unprepared and utterly unable to deal with Rod.

These things were pure specialists—decent psychic abilities, but bodies even frailer than a mage's.

They didn't even have shield spells, believe it or not.

The slime Little Black's 【Memory Devouring】 had ended.

And failed.

Almost no information had been obtained.

A Heartstealer's head was like a backup sub-body; during Little Black's devouring, not a shred of deep thought could be reached.

The only thing known was that every Heartstealer group was controlled by one main brain, and the mind-web they established allowed barrier-free real-time communication.

That was not good news.

The news that he was unaffected by psychic abilities would immediately spread.

Screech—

Screech—

Screech—

White slash-waves with sharp shrieking sounds kept flying out, blasting Heartstealers or Heartstealer larvae hidden in the mountain body out into the open, then killing them one by one.

A completely one-sided battle.

There weren't many Heartstealers in this pocket of space; once Rod finished them off, he immediately sped along a cave opening in the wall.

Along the way he saw not only controlled humans, but plenty of goblins, gray dwarves, and a fish-headed, humanoid-bodied fish-man race—some digging holes, some hauling something, all doing hard labor in any case.

Not hard to understand.

Heartstealers had frail constitutions, pure and utter softies.

The advantage of psychic abilities meant they didn't need to do their own work—enslave and be done with it.

A new species with the makings of a great slavemaster!

The 【Devotion Body Sword】 in Rod's hand kept swinging—anything visible got cut down.

He couldn't be bothered to tell whether you were a victim, whether you had a Heartstealer larva parasitizing you.

Bro doesn't have time to sort it out; hate me if you must.

Come back as undead to find me and I don't care—I'll still cut you down.

He sped along the passage and soon encountered a large downward pit.

He also saw several Heartstealers fleeing in panic along the side walkway.

Rod pushed 【Spider Sense】 to the max, cackled loudly as his longsword whipped around, his villain aura cranked to the highest.

Sword-light spiraled downward like a massive impact drill, mowing down lives madly as it spun.

Of course.

They did resist.

Psychic Detonation, Psychic Storm, Thought Theft, Psychic Chains, Bewildering Fog, and so on.

But useless.

A few Heartstealers could cast low-level spells like 【Ring of Fire】—presumably an adaptation to the spiritual energy of the mainland—but still useless, the power was terribly weak.

Guilt?

None.

A little pity, though.

He'd just flipped open a Heartstealer's pants earlier—oh god, nothing there, smooth as can be.

He let Slime Little Black swallow several brains in a row before barely learning that this creature is a hermaphroditic, parthenogenetic species with no reproductive organs on its body surface; all the processes before laying eggs are completed internally.

The ovaries produced afterward are then placed in the brain pool near the elder brain for nurturing, and once the larvae are formally produced, they can be injected into the bodies of humanoid creatures to carry out the mind flayer metamorphosis.

Since Amira Campbell was able to feed the larvae to the surrounding refugees, there must be an elder brain here.

Boom!!

Rod landed along the pit like a cannonball.

The impact sent dust flying in all directions.

The sword was already covered in purplish-black blood that couldn't be shaken off.

His movements were swift; the mind flayers above and the controlled humans were all dealt with, none left behind.

"Wuu wuu wuu"

After landing, the sound of a child crying came from a dark corner.

Sorrowful and plaintive, stirring pity in the heart.

Rod turned his head to look.

A mind flayer only one meter tall, hugging its knees, was covering its eyes and crying; compared to the other two-meter-plus members of its kind above, it looked far cuter.

Even the tentacles on its octopus-like head were short and small, and the contours of its face were rounder, making it seem well-behaved.

"Big brother... don't kill me..."

It was a little girl's voice, childish and pitiful.

Rod strode over and pinched its head as if grabbing a basketball.

"Big brother?"

The tiny mind flayer's eyes held fear and confusion.

Rod gave it a gentle smile, then crushed its face along with its head.

The petite body slumped down softly, landing on the ground with a splat; purplish-black blood and fragments of skin and head were scattered all over the floor.

"What are you pretending? Once the outer form is complete, it's already an adult mind flayer."

Oh, sorry, saying it that way might not be rigorous enough—even if it were a juvenile, I'd still crush it all the same.

"Since you're resorting to such trashy tricks, you must be a bit desperate, my elder brain friend."

In the end, this band of mind flayers had also been scattered and fled for their lives.

Their group structure hadn't even been fully established, so Rod, this nemesis, coming here to wipe them out naturally saved a lot of trouble.

【Spider Sense】, sweep.

Plus 【Secret Door Detection】.

Found it.

Hehehehe—

Rod leaped with a flying front kick, sending a massive stone door disguised as a rock wall on the side flying out with a thunderous crash, shattering into pieces midair.

Inside the space, right at the center, was a nutrient pool of some thirty to forty square meters, within which a massive brain core taller than him was throbbing and squirming.

It was rather novel to feel urgency and panic from the squirming of a brain.

Beside the elder brain were four or five relatively tall mind flayers; knowing their psychic abilities were useless against Rod, they desperately charged forward intending to grapple him in close combat with their tentacles.

(End of this chapter)