*Swoosh!*

At this late hour of the night, navigating through the thick darkness present among each of the trees of the forest, a figure was in motion.

All around it, it was possible to see a current of wind that apart from seeming to accompany this figure, also increased its speed.

However, the pace at which he was moving was still a calm pace, especially if one took into consideration what he had been doing just a couple of minutes ago.

Running while maintaining the same cold expression to the hilt, Jay’s body, presenting wounds all over his body, was making its way through the forest.

The most striking of all was, of course, his missing arm, but one couldn’t leave behind the other wounds either, which it had to be mentioned, were so deep that his regeneration had trouble dealing with it.

Though of course, it also couldn’t be said that the regeneration could show the same power as when it had been dealing with the aberration, as the energy in Jay’s body at the moment was limited.

The previous regeneration had been a combination of three factors, having Jay’s passive regeneration ability as a base, following with the help of the parasite’s energy and ending with the energy of the consumed monster parts.

Things that at this point, were no longer available for continuous use.

In fact, the simple fact that the wounds were even slowly regenerating was already something incredible considering Jay’s body was almost completely shattered.

As for the reason for this, one did not have to look too hard to find that the origin had been the confrontation against the aberration.

From the very beginning, under the orders of whoever was possessing him at the moment and with the help of the parasites, Jay’s human body, which had already been at a limit, had not only been put under extreme pressure but had also undergone a fundamental change.

To a greater or lesser extent, every part of his body, however small, had been forced to change.

This, of course, while it had seemed like something of no consequence because of the cool, calm demeanor of whoever was controlling Jay’s body, it was anything but that, with muscles about to burst, nerves overloaded and tendons about to snap among other things.

If it had been just this, thanks to the energy source they had assimilated and was boosting regeneration, maybe things would have been fine.

However, the straw that broke the camel’s back was, in particular, the last attack it made against the aberration.

For this attack, Jay’s new monstrous body, even with all its physical power, was only sufficient to serve as a base, as it alone was not enough to deal with the aberration._.

In addition to the new body, whoever controlled Jay’s body also used something that had been available long before the change, Jay’s poison-producing ability, which had been manifesting itself in the fight in the form of a purple breath.

A poison that, having gone through dozens of tests, according to its calculations, was going to be harmful enough to prevent the aberration’s regeneration on direct contact.

This poison in question was used on nothing but the sharpest parts of the claws of its body, ready to be inserted into the deepest parts of the aberration.

With all this, the chances of survival had already increased considerably, but proving that this was not the way it did things, the one who controlled  Jay’s body decided to put the cherry on top of the cake.

The cherry in this case was to get a boost strong enough so that it no longer needed to make more poison or prolong the battle any longer, the use of something Jay normally always kept as his final trump card, the [Overload].

In that way, making use of all that Jay the human, along with the physical capabilities of his new monstrous body, could offer, he managed to perform an attack that would put even rank (B) supers in trouble.

The cost was great damage to his entire body from the aberration’s new weapon and almost all the energy available in his body being instantly depleted, but he had succeeded, he managed to open the aberration’s body and land a lethal attack.

Lethal because normally, the wound would have been regenerated, but thanks to the poison specially made to avoid that, the aberration could do nothing more than let out a screech of pain.

Thereupon, using its remaining energy, the ‘human’ had escaped from the place, leaving behind a deformed mass with exposed organs that in a desperate attempt to heal itself, began to change its body again, its cage returning to its soft form and aiding in the recovery of its body.Â

As to whether this would succeed or not, it was no longer something that mattered to him.

As a result, he had managed to escape, with a body in an incredibly deplorable state and one that he was only able to control thanks to having turned off most pain receptors.

“…”

Still, his calm expression remained the same, indicating that he really wasn’t worried.

As for why, it had to do with the direction of the forest he was heading into.

Although the battlefield between him and the aberration had changed quite a bit, thanks to his almost photographic memory, he was able to remember exactly where a certain person was.

Person who was going to be key in the recovery of his increasingly deteriorated body.

***

After moving for another couple of minutes, Jay’s body had reached a place that he could recognize by a few broken trees and especially by a person who was lying against a tree.

The same tree where Jay had tried to treat Faith.

Moving closer towards this person, his features were becoming more and more noticeable.

With her messy hair, dirty face and weak complexion, one would expect even the most attractive people to look bad, and this would be true in the vast majority of cases.

But for this girl, who found herself gazing upward as the moonlight faintly illuminated her graceful facial features, it only enhanced her beauty.

In contrast to her radiant and abrasive energy from everyday, she now undoubtedly exuded a cold and desolate air that would make anyone else want nothing more than to help.

Unfortunately, there was no such person in the vicinity.

*Shac*

Without care to step on the leaves on the ground, a crunching sound came as Jay’s body moved towards Faith, raising his remaining hand to make contact with the esper.

“…Hello…?”

However, at that moment, the esper’s faint but audible voice echoed in the surroundings.

Her head moved slightly, as if trying to turn towards the direction from where the sound of the leaves had come from, but failing to do so.

“Is… is someone there?” She said again, her voice sounding more raspy than ever before.

Again, she turned her head around looking for the person responsible for the noise, though with her eyes still being completely closed.

“Jay… it’s you, isn’t it?”Â

“…”

“It has… it has to be you, that monster that would have killed me by now otherwise… you know, I was sure you’d somehow know how to get out of that one.” She continued, the pace at which she spoke being heavy and choppy, “Sorry for not opening my eyes, but right now, there are few parts of me that work.”

Dropping her head back against the tree behind her, the esper continued, “That monster… it really f*cked me up completely, you know… When I woke up I could move a little, but I only managed to crawl to this tree before everything started to go wrong…”

Taking short one-second breaks to catch her breath between words, the esper seemed to be having trouble being able to hold a conversation for very long.Â

But still, she decided to continue her apparent monologue.

“I’m not feeling very well, I’ve lost control of most of my body… but at least I can talk, so that’s something. As for my eyes… to be honest, besides the fact that it’s hard to open them, I’m afraid to do so, I don’t know if they’re going to work after all.”

Unexpectedly, the esper who was normally reserved with her words, now found herself talking non-stop.

“As they say out there, ignorance is bliss… or something like that.” Said the esper trying to form a smile but failing for some reason, “But you know, even if things ended up like this, I don’t regret coming, even if I didn’t help much.”

Taking a big breath, the esper began to tremble slightly.

“I… I really, really, really, really don’t regret it… I don’t… I swear.” Choppy words shattering with the fragility of glass came out of her mouth.

Although she feared that her eyes were not working, one could see that this was not true by the fact that at this moment, several salty drops were falling from them.

Creating a small path that wiped her cheeks, the tears followed their path until they fell to the ground, creating splashes so small that no one noticed.

Although Faith was an esper with great talent and even greater skill, at this moment, there was not a hint of the strong and courageous person she always displayed.

One could only watch as a young girl, scared and not knowing what to do, expressed herself in the only way she had left knowing that her time was running out.

“I really… don’t regret it…”

With those words as her last words, between sobs and an amalgam of emotions, Faith stopped talking, not being able to stay awake no matter how much she wanted to.

Faced with this, the one who had been listening to all this, just kept the same cold expression as always, seeing that the esper no longer seemed to be about to do anything, he made his move.

His hand began to move again, his intentions being as clear as day.

He wanted to assimilate the person before him so he could regenerate the damage sustained to his body.

In just a few moments, his hand was already touching Faith’s face, only lacking for him to give the command and the parasites would begin the assimilation.

However…

“…?”

Even though he had given the command, none of the parasites seemed to be paying attention to him.

Raising an eyebrow in surprise, whoever was controlling Jay gave the order through the [Mind Network] again, this time imposing his will on the other parasites.

*Gii!*

Still, all this caused was that the parasites began to tremble, forcibly resisting to follow the order they had been given.

Sensing this, for the first time in the night, the normally expressionless face changed, to one of visible confusion.

Then, just as he was about to send out an absolute order….

‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’

“!”

Immediately, the confused expression on Jay’s body changed to one of surprise at the sudden voice of no one more and no one less than… the body’s true owner.

Simultaneously, the parasites, also having heard the voice, became even bolder and began to openly rebel, causing an uproar in the [Mind Network].

“…”

However, the surprise quickly disappeared, for even if the [Carrier]’s consciousness had awakened, the one who was still in control of the body was not him.

Therefore, he was still in control of the situation, and he only had to make the consciousness that was interrupting him go back to sleep before taking care of the unruly parasites.

The one controlling Jay’s body then closed his eyes and concentrated his consciousness on the part where the [Carrier] consciousness was.

Quickly, his vision was filled with a space similar to the inside of Kai’s mind, with countless stars floating in what seemed to be an almost infinite space.

And in the middle of it all, floating in nothingness, was Jay, who it had to be mentioned, was looking incredibly coldly at the one who had just entered.

“Thanks for dealing with the monster, but your time’s up.” Jay said, not taking his eyes off the being in front.

“…”

The other ‘person’, on the other hand, merely remained silent as a special kind of energy gathered in his palms, one that would be ineffective against other beings but deadly against consciousnesses like the two of them.

Psychic energy.

Only one blow, and the consciousness of the [Carrier] would again enter a deep sleep, hopefully, it would be a much longer one.

Then, with a little impulse, the ‘person’ shot up to where Jay was…. or at least that was what he had wanted to do.

Suddenly, he had a very bad feeling, coming from behind his back, or rather, from right behind him.

“!”

Turning around as fast as he could, horror filled the face of this ‘person’, who had faced even the aberration without even breaking a sweat.

Though of course, this reaction was understandable, after all, what was in front of him was something completely different.

Occupying an enormous amount of space and releasing a crushing pressure that was capable of bending any kind of consciousness, a giant eye surrounded by dozens of tentacles stood in front of him.

“Do me a favor… and make sure you keep him under control.” Jay said with a tone of nonchalance.

Immediately, without waiting any longer, the [Parasite: Mental Dominator] followed his [Carrier]’s orders and trapped the invader with its tentacles, burying it completely before disappearing into the void.

Then, letting out a sigh and with a tired look on his face, Jay said, “It’s time to go back.”