Chapter 272: Success with the Cleansement Manoeuvre

For some reason, the Mind Hound could feel pain, despite being in the Mental Realm. It rolled around, screaming in pain as its tongue shout out, pulling out the spikes one by one. As it clenched using its tongue, the spikes collapsed one by one, its experience fragments gushing out from the force.

The attacks had caused depressions on its head, the holes threateningly huge. The Mind Hound expended part of the Will it had stored up, healing its injuries, causing its form to shrink. It was now only 23 metres in size, losing most of its accumulations over the past 8 months.

It glanced around, noticing some more spikes head its way.

"Aieee!" Letting out a whimper, the Mind Hound turned around and flew away, eventually disappearing from view.

The spikes decisively stopped, returning to their humanoid forms. They were part of the reserve force Minaela Marble had decisively sent to the Mental Realm the moment things had gone south.

Of the spikes, none were equivalent to Tier 4. They were only Tier 3. All the Tier 4 beings had already sacrificed themselves to attack the Mind Hound. In its hurry, it thought all the spikes were at Tier 4 level, capable of injuring it. That's why it escaped.

If they had clashed, it would have discovered that the recent batch of spikes were weak, unable to damage it. They would simply be absorbed into its body upon contact, unable to mount any resistance.

The final batch of troops numbered 20 Tier 3 beings. The forms of their Wisdom Parasites looked in a daze at them from within the Limitless Tower. There was nothing the serpentine figures could do to them now, as the Tier 3 beings were beyond reach.

The moment they arrived at the Mental Realm, they had decisively severed their links to reality, taking flight before the forms of their respective Wisdom Parasite could fight and interlock with them.

Now, the serpentine figures gazed in helplessness, taking a look at the figures of their host in reality. Now, they couldn't return to reality, their fate was now to stay in the Mental Realm until they lost their Will and ego and turned into a Cogent Phrenics.

The links connecting them to reality had limited length, preventing them from chasing after their respective targets. Severing their links to reality only meant their deaths, but staying there without doing anything also meant their demise.

While they were in a dilemma, their targets were busy scooping out all the experience fragments and destroying the Tier 3 equivalent Cogent Phrenics.

After the Mind Hound's shout, and due to their close proximity, the forms of all the surviving Tier 3 equivalent Cogent Phrenics had become weak. Now, they collapsed after a couple of hits, dissolving into experience fragments.

The 20 Tier 3 beings who arrived the latest did all the work in destroying the Cogent Phrenics. The remaining humanoid forms scooped the experience fragments and presented them to the 10 Shifters.

Having consumed too much experience fragments, one of the 10 Shifters, the one on floor 111 of the Limitless Tower was unable to endure any longer. His ego was on the verge of collapsing. Moreover, his form no longer resembled a human. He had wholly turned into a Lava Turtle.

On seeing another humanoid form present some experience fragments, he barely managed to shake his head, implying that he had reached his limit. He then glanced at his body in reality, finding that there were no problems with it.

Unlike the others, he had managed to make a proper breakthrough. To ensure that they had enough time in the Mental Realm, all the 10 Shifters had made a proper breakthrough, finishing phase 1 before arriving in the Mental Realm.

Also, unlike the participants, they had enough accumulations to finish their breakthrough to Tier 5. Before this, they didn't have confidence. But once the Cleansement Manoeuvre was being planned, Central Command had invested in them.

After giving them the Unranked Skill of the Lava Turtles, their Sync Rate was raised to 100 percent through the Frenzy Fruits. After that, many Ground Controllers that possessed the Unranked Skill, Regen healed them, pouring their energy into them in the process.

This filled the energy in their Heart Crystal, also ensuring their body could keep up with the enhanced Nurturing rate. They did everything in their hands, investing a tremendous amount of resources to ensure the 10 Shifters would finish their breakthrough without trouble.

But there was still no guarantee. Thankfully, it seemed his body managed to last long enough. It meant his final Sync Rate was above 50 percent. Or even if it was lower, it wasn't far off from 50 percent, making the collapse of his body really slow, giving him enough time to finish his task in the Mental Realm and return to reality.

With a thought, he removed the layer of formless energy preventing the two crystals in him from coming into contact. One of them was the crystal of his Wisdom Parasite, while the other was his, the core of his ego, will, etc. The moment the formless energy disappeared, the two crystals fused, erupting with a subtle phenomenon.

At the next moment, the Shifter opened his eyes in reality. But, before his lips could even curl up, blood flowed out of his seven orifices. A moment later, his eyes popped out. Something protested to wriggled out of his spine, causing faint bulges to form on his back.

A moment later, all the bulges disappeared. The Shifter closed his eyes, falling unconscious. Minaela Marble's psychic arm entered the room, noticing his state. After a moment of inspection, she commented with relief, "He has survived."

Immediately, numerous pale blue psychic arms arrived in the room, seeping into his body. They hurriedly healed his damage, recovering his eyes. Within a minute, his body returned to its optimal state. But, the Shifter never opened his eyes.

Suddenly, a psychic arm seeped into his body. It was denser than all the psychic arms combined, despite looking the same size-wise. It was Psychic Ancestor Marble's psychic arm. After a couple of seconds of probing around, he commented, "His mind seemed to have been destroyed from the information overload. There is no hope of him ever waking up."

In the Mental Realm, the operation had reached its end. They had only managed to collect a portion of the experience fragments in their surroundings. But the good news was that they managed to destroy all the Cogent Phrenics in their area.

One by one, after reaching their limits, the remaining 9 Shifters returned to reality. Finally, only 20 Tier 3 beings remained in the Mental Realm. They looked at the vast swathes of experience fragments, glancing at each other.

They began to pile the experience fragments into small clusters and scattered them within the corporeal projection of the Limitless Tower in the Mental Realm. This was to fuel those that made a breakthrough next. For them, these clusters of experience fragments would be a boon, a gift, a tremendous opportunity that would allow them to soar the skies in one leap.

The objective of the Cleansement Manoeuvre were two things: the eradication of the Cogent Phrenics in their area and piling up of the experience fragments within the Limitless Tower.

Without a crystal to act as their core, the experience fragment clusters would only form Static Cogent Phrenics. They were not a threat but were easy prey. Moreover, before they could even form, many would breakthrough in the Limitless Tower and gobble up all the experience fragments.

Soon, Marble City would announce the news of the success of the operation and would invite the individuals who had contributed to Marble City the most to breakthrough here. This was a reward for their service, to honour their contributions, and to also boost the morale of others so that they would serve Marble City even more willingly. After all, by absorbing the experience fragments collected in the tower, one would become a formidable expert, sometimes even becoming strong enough to contend with Frenzy Beasts a Tier higher.

This was one of the methods that Marble City used to produce heroes that were capable of killing Frenzy Beasts a Tier higher. To date, the Frenzy Beasts failed to replicate this feat. Even the Floating Spiders were no exception. After all, they didn't possess the mentality of self-sacrifice that humans possessed.

After seeing that they had completely cleared the area, the 20 Tier 3 beings glanced at each other. With a nod, they gazed at the forms of their respective Wisdom Parasites. To curb this threat, they had to annihilate all the 20 serpentine forms.

Thankfully, their Wisdom Parasites were still young, unlike the case with the others that had participated. This was another reason they were sent last. It was to clean up the battlefield. Soon, all the serpentine forms were annihilated without trouble.

Of the remaining 20 humanoid forms, 19 destroyed each other. The last survivor grabbed all the crystals and stuffed them inside his form, holding the crystal of his Wisdom Parasite in his mouth. He also scooped all the experience fragments resulted from the 19 humanoid and 20 serpentine forms, placing them within the Limitless Tower.

Finally, he swallowed the crystal of his Wisdom Parasite, watching it fuse with his crystal. A chain reaction erupted, involving all the 38 other crystals in his form, causing them all to fuse.

An instant later, all the crystals crumbled into pieces, dissipating into a speck of light. Without the link to reality, he couldn't return. The destruction of his crystal destroyed his ego and emptied his Will, causing his form to crumble into experience fragments.

The experience fragments occupied a corner of the Limitless Tower, slowly forming a cluster. This concluded the Cleansement Manoeuvre.

In reality, Minaela Marble sighed, "Despite all odds, we managed to succeed this time too."

"Our battles would get increasingly difficult in the future." The magenta figure nodded once and disappeared. "To prolong the day when we hit the saturation point in the Mental Realm, we would have to prepare more. Using Ingrained Earth proved to be helpful. Good work, Minaela."

"Thank you for your praise, Ancestor." Minaela Marble bowed, relief plastered on her face.