Molting the Mortal Coil

Chapter 993: Escalation

While the huge rock was still in mid-air, Sage had already brought out another one and made it glow with energy before throwing it to join the first. Before the first had even reached Chu Shuai, a half dozen more of the big rocks were in the air. Then Sage took off running once again, circling around as he continued to fill the air with glowing stones. The first of the rocks was smashed into pieces by one of the loops of the fiery chain that was wrapped around Chu Shuai like a cocoon. It arched upwards, intercepting the stone and forming into a dome-like arc overhead.

When the stone was shattered apart, it released the source of the glow: its molten core. Lava poured out, falling in a different pattern than the shattered stone and splashing some of its contents onto the group of black robed men. Most of the droplets landed upon the stone of the plateau, but a few touched the corners of their clothing which they rapidly snuffed out. Seeing the effect of the shattered stone, the flurry of incoming boulders was treated with more seriousness. The coiled chains that surrounded them like a wall were lifted up into the air, forming into a full dome over their heads. The arrangement of the chains and their shape was actually more like an, with most of the chain gathered at the top to fully shield them which left opening on the sides between the pillars of chains supporting the cover.

The volcanic rocks continued to fall upon this new cover, shattering on impact and pouring lava over the top of it. The fiery chains were able to resist the heat quite effectively, but the problem was that the lava was quite thick and sticky. After falling upon the chain cover it took quite some time for it to run off to the side, all the while burning against the fiery chains. Sage didnt let up, keeping at a longer range and throwing the magma boulders over and over again as he circled around. Every so often he wound up and threw one with a flatter trajectory, aiming for the gap between the pillars. The eight pairs of Chu Shuais were watching him the whole time and they diverted some of the chains away from the cover above to block the incoming attack. A bit of the lava splashed towards them from the side, but they dealt with that using a few individual chains, extending them from their backs to clean away the bits of molten stone that snuck through.

More and more of the molten material dribbled down around the cover above them, spilling onto the stone ground and creating a little molten moat around them. At the same time this was going on, the tips of their chains had started to move from where they were lying in wait for Sage and instead started extending further and further outwards. Sage had switched to running a bigger circle around them, so they switched to setting a wider trap. Seeing the trap being sprung around him in the future he suddenly skidded to a stop, then he turned towards the group of Chu Shuais and redoubled his efforts, throwing the stones faster than he was before. He tried to do his best impression of stopping just so he could make a wild flurry of attacks.

It was also because this move played right into his hands. He didnt expect the lava from the Heart of Eruption to seriously damage them. Sage was only counting on the fact it was a Heavenly Material to help it pressure Chu Shuai without being completely overshadowed by the mans speciality. The real attack came without any warning. All the droplets of lava that seemed to be extinguished suddenly burst into flame. The many tiny motes of orange fire rose up and swarmed towards the eight copies of Chu Shuai. Most of them were intercepted by fiery chains, but that didnt stop them. They clung to the chains and crawled up them, moving to join the few that snuck past to directly strike the clones bodies.

Unexpectedly, these orange flames didnt burn the outside of their body, instead they ignited the energy of their soul. The flames attacked the Nascent Souls of these clones, which was a surprising thing to learn. Each of the clones had their own Nascent Soul and they were all burned by the Samsara Flame. The Samsara Flame on its own consumed soul energy with its burning and attacked the mind, making them live through many alternative lives and deaths. Yet, this time it wasnt just the Samsara Flames. The orange flames were merely the carrier for another energy.

One of the techniques that Sage had invested his time into was a Spirit Power technique, unlocked through the research into Psionic Crystals. It was given a quite simple name: Mind Invasion. It was a technique similar to that which had affected Sage more than a few times in the past, and allowed an attack upon the Spiritual Sea. This Spirit Power technique would piggyback upon another energy medium, letting Sage inject his Spirit Power into someone elses mind in an attempt to damage it. The Samsara Flame innately affected the mind, which in his opinion made it the perfect carrier for the Mind Invasion technique.

Inside the mind of Chu Shuai, Sage was surprised to find that there existed only a single Spiritual Sea. In the center of the sea there was a tower of mirrors. He could feel that each of these mirrors reflected the mind of one of the clones. They were all reflections of a single original Nascent Soul, but each was somehow acting independently, but also in unison. Sage could see prisms and complicated arrangements of mirrors, which must in someway allow these reflections of the original to act individually. As he saw all of this, his Adjutor was rapidly copying it all down, but his body in this Spiritual Sea was in the form of a huge Mantis made of orange fire. He flew over the sea and approached the tower of mirrors, opening his mouth to spew flame over it.

The fire burned upon it, but he didnt find the opening he was looking for. He intended the Samsara flames to burn away the weakest part of the tower and form an entrance for him, but he was without luck. The tower of mirrors was perfectly sealed and every part of it resisted the flames just as well as the rest.

Seems this technique is going for an impenetrable defense rather than any sort of maze or confusion.

The maze type technique of Sages own Infinite Immaterial Seat was intended to delay an invader for an extremely long amount of time. It wouldnt matter how powerful they were as theyd be stuck in the maze. This technique that Chu Shuai used was quite the opposite. The tower of mirrors was perfectly sealed and even the seams joining each of the mirrors were very strong and tightly fit. This tower was quite resistant to damage. The only problem was that if someone could breach it, there was no telling how many of these mirrors would shatter apart.

Especially since Sage was going to test out this question directly. His giant mantis body flew towards the tower of mirrors, and the large forearm blade swung forward. He smashed his mantis blades against the side of the tower, following up the first strike with another and another. He didnt expect it to shatter with one hit, so he started out with a flurry of attacks. He also didnt use the flames themselves to attack again as that method actually expended more of his energy. The projection in this Mind Invasion had a limited amount of energy in it. Just like the other attacks Sage had suffered in the past, there was a set amount of Spirit Energy contained within the attack. Using his body to attack was far more efficient than using up the Samsara Flame it was coated in to attack.

After a dozen strikes, the tower of mirrors started to shake, the constant rain of claw hits started to make the building vibrate.