The Rebirth of Evelyn Knox

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Listening to Hyperion's enraged laughter, the other two pillars looked at each other helplessly.

Aurora stared at the direction the Terran army had left in with lingering regret. "I attacked Harlan because I believed he was going to bring us harm. Now that he's escaped… I hope I was wrong."

The black haired man stared at her suspiciously. "What…? Why would you say that? And… you weren't even sure?!"

The platinum blonde hesitated for a while before sighing. "It was… just a feeling I had based on how he was acting."

"Ahahaha… isn't that just saying you just felt like it? How can you be so unreasonable? Did you not even consider the possibility of him not being a traitor?!"

Kaizen looked at the two of them in confusion. "What's wrong with him?"

His wife shrugged. "Who knows?"

Although Kaizen and Kaling also didn't feel comfortable with the fact that Aurora so readily attacked the headmaster without a concrete reason, the fact that the Terrans protected the man and escaped right away was a dead giveaway of the fact that the platinum blonde wasn't wrong.

Aurora frowned. "Hyperion's mind isn't right."

Kaizen nodded grimly.

Kaling hesitated. "Hasn't he always been stupidly melodramatic?"

The black haired man couldn't help but bristle in anger. "Don't talk as if I'm not even here!"

But before he could continue arguing, his face turned pale as he felt all three of the pillars mobilize their spirit power at the same time.

Hyperion pointed at them in disbelief. "Y-You—!"

Aurora looked at him coldly. "Surrender, or perish."

The dark haired man could feel his world turning bleak in moments. Standing between the two sentinels that only Aurora could control, while facing three opponents on the same level as him or higher… could he resist even if he wanted to?

As Hyperion collapsed on his knees, Kaling immediately sent a phantom dark sphere into his head. Facing the threat of death, he didn't dare resist, and shortly after, he seemed to have completely lost his soul, his face turning blank.

Kaling frowned as she saw the black, cockroach-like insect crawling around Hyperion's brain. "There's a… bug…? No, isn't this… the Imperial Impostor Tea Bug?!"

Aurora had suspected that there must be something wrong with the man, but she didn't think it would be so insidious. "Kill it. The longer it stays in his head, the more his loyalty and personality will shift to favor the creator."

The female pillar immediately acted on Aurora's instruction, but no matter how she tried to squeeze the insect in Hyperion's head, it only seemed to consume more and more of her spirit power. "T-This thing is strange! The more I try to kill it, the stronger it becomes! I've never heard of the Imperial Impostor Tea Bug doing this."

Although it was called a 'bug', in reality, it was a plant that looked like and behaved like an insect. The seed of this plant had to be created within the belly of its creator using a special technique, and only after ten years of nurturing would such a seed be ready for consumption.

The most terrifying part of it was that this seed was like dirt, and when mixed with any kind of liquid, it was almost impossible to tell if there was anything wrong. Unless someone was specifically using a formation to test for it, the dissolved seed was essentially invisible and undetectable.

Once it took root, it remained equally difficult for others to tell there was anything wrong with the person being manipulated. And horrifyingly enough, if left alone for a long time, the effects became permanent as the bug crawled around the brain to change things to 'its taste'.

However, once someone probed the manipulated person's head with spirit power, it was extremely easy to find and destroy this bug. For Kaling to fail to do so made no sense at all.

Kaizen frowned at his wife's words. "Could it be something else? Or a mutant, perhaps? Should we confine him and wait?"

Kaling also felt that might be the case. "Although I've never heard of such a thing, it's possible that someone in Terrazyme came up with a new technique for a more resistant type of Imperial Impostor Tea Bug. Perhaps we should freeze him and wait—"

Aurora shook her head in denial. "No. We cannot lose him, and we cannot let his loyalty shift. He's the last person we have for the fourth position."

The black robed couple looked at her hesitantly. "Then…"

Aurora nodded. "Use your Yin-Yang cleansing. It can obliterate everything within a specific area, can't it?"

They already knew she was going to say that, but it wasn't as if they didn't know their own skill, but the cleansing method wasn't something they had ever used on an ally, and for good reason. 

Kaling gulped. "But… the bug is crawling on his brain? It will leave a hole? There's a chance he'll die. Also… direct contact with the Yin-Yang array will greatly damage his soul!"

The platinum blonde sighed. "We can heal him, then. Maybe he will lose some memories, maybe something else. But the remaining part will at least still be him, and we won't lose a pillar… No matter how much damage it will do, just make sure he doesn't die."

"Understood."

As they didn't have any time to waste, the two pillars immediately got to work deploying the formation right outside the valley. Within minutes, with Hyperion at the center, an illuminated great array of light and darkness spun around before shrinking rapidly in size, and flying straight into his head.

Immediately, Hyperion's blank expression turned frantic, and his eyes became bloodshot as he screamed. Even though he currently couldn't think, he could still feel his soul slowly being torn apart as soon as the Yin-Yang array touched his head. "BASTARDS!"

The black robed couple tried their best to make the array circle following the Mutated Imperial Impostor Tea Bug as small as possible. But when they activated it, a chunk of Hyperion's brain still ended up being obliterated alongside the Mutated Imperial Impostor Tea Bug, and his soul suffered a tremendous amount of damage.

A small amount of soul damage would slowly heal by itself. A little more, and it will cause great pain, but still eventually recover.

At some point, expert treatment and treasures became a requirement to recover from a soul injury that was too great.

But when the damage reached a level that was beyond even them, the owner could only suffer eternally, always waiting for that 'lucky chance' that might turn things around, but would never come.

Such people eventually just gave up and chose death when they could no longer endure the suffering.

Hyperion's screaming immediately came to a halt as his expression went slack, and his body started convulsing. Even his spirit power started to rampage.

If not for Aurora immediately suppressing it with her own spirit power, it wouldn't have taken long for Hyperion to go on a truly mindless rampage, or worse, explode on the spot.

As they had already been prepared, it didn't take long for them to heal Hyperion and restore the missing chunk of his brain. His soul, however… could never be recovered.

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"How is it?"

The team of healers and priests had already finished examining the 'distinguished guest', and could only prostrate themselves before the king in apology. "Forgive us, your majesty. The spirit power contained in that attack was too great, and the damage sustained by the circuitry in the body makes it impossible to ever use or store spirit power again."

Rochester frowned as he waved them all away.

Harlan sighed as the door closed, leaving only the two of them in the room. "Guess I'm a cripple now, huh?"

Not only had he lost his hand, but also all his cultivation. At first, he thought that he could still cultivate back from scratch, but perhaps even that was a pipe dream.

Rochester slammed his fist against a pillar, causing a crack to form in smooth marble. "None of this would have happened if you just stuck to the plan you sent me earlier!"

Harlan chuckled as he leaned back on the bed and looked at the ceiling with a smile. "Heh, I don't regret it."

The Terran King couldn't help but feel strange in his heart, wondering what made the man so carefree even in this situation. "Have you lost your mind after losing your cultivation? And when are you going to explain why the hell you got there in advance? You told me I could deal a critical blow to the sentinels before!"

This was the first time they got here since the Terran Kingdom had obtained intelligence on the flaw in the sentinels sensing ability, but before he could make use of it, the opportunity was already gone!

Even if they hadn't managed to get anything else this time, simply being able to ruin a single sentinel would have made their trip worth it.

The next time they went to invade the ancient academy, there would always be one powerhouse less!

Harlan chuckled. "Don't be so angry, your majesty. I'm but a cripple with a weak heart. What if I died from fear?"

Rochester snorted.

The crippled man sighed. "Anyway, it wasn't me who gathered everyone there, but Aurora."

The Terran King could only grit his teeth in rage and disbelief. "How did hell did she know in advance we were coming? Impossible!"

Harlan chuckled. "If there's one thing I learned while studying the secrets of the academy, it's that nothing is impossible, your majesty. Nothing."

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