Psychic Parasite

"Then," Rishana frowned, "Shouldn't you have known when Madam Mary made us hallucinate that?"

"Are you for real?" Jyorta laughed, watching Rishana look stupefied at his sudden comment, "Madam Mary is a Sky Controller. When she made us experience the hallucination, she was just affecting our brain signals to make us perceive that. The five of us were influenced separately. And, the four apart from you in the scene was a figment of imagination that she inserted into the scene based on our actions in the respective illusions. She was manipulating five illusions at the same time and linked them into one scene to make it seem like we were all pulled into it."

Seeing their eyes widen in shock, Jyorta smirked, "What I do is use the hallucinations through my aura. So, if I make a scene, I am pulling everyone into that one scene. So, if someone breaks out of the hallucination, they can disrupt the whole by interfering with their aura. But in Madam Mary's case, she was devising it according to the individuals. If a Sky Controller tries something on you, unless you too are a Sky Controller, you wouldn't even realise."

"Emotions, thoughts, feelings, desires, etc. Both a Ground Controller and a Sky Controller can perfectly affect all of them without any problems." He looked at Rishana, "So, I was in the same situation as you. Judging by your actions, the time we spent in that was different. You were there for less than a couple of minutes while I was in it for more than 10 minutes."

"So, there is something like that." Rishana nodded, amazed. She then noticed the figure of a Steel Porcupine stare at her face in close up. Its forked tongue even touched her nose. The sense of touch, the smell wafting from it, the feeling of weight it exhibited, and its presence, overall, made her spring up in fright.

Duvic fainted, Sreshta sat in shock while Bilena watched it with fear; tears streamed out of her eyes once again as her legs trembled.

The Steel Porcupine moved back a little, sitting on two legs as it craned its neck, poising its head with a slight forward tilt; from its menacing expression came a comical voice of a three-year-old as it looked at the four students before it, "Hello folks, I am Ridusrebi, your friendly neighbourhood spi…child mascot. If you want to hear a song, press 1. If you want to sing a song, press 2. If you want to make a song, press 3."

"And," Its voice turned comically villainy, "If you want to change your underwear, press 4."

Its voice turned child-like once again, "The thing is, people don't take baths much these days. The more you bathe, the healthier you become. I recommend becoming marine creatures. They take a bath All...The...Time!"

It extended its hand towards Rishana, "Here, let's shake hands. The bond of friendship we forge now will last for all eternity. Oh, did I really say that?"

It shook its body in shyness, displaying an exaggerated blush on its face as its forked tongue hissed, "Let's shake hands, pretty lady."

Its actions were awkward to say the best, but the way it talked and its constant actions made Rishana drop her guard. She extended her hand hesitantly, inching it closer and closer before the Steel Porcupine grabbed her hand with both its hands, shaking it up and down, "Pretty lady, you may be pretty, but you should eat more. I don't like them skin and bones."

"What?" Rishana retracted her hand in reflex, alarmed as she thought it would prey on her next. She then watched the Steel Porcupine wave its hands in a fluster, hiccupping as it tried to make an excuse, tumbling in the process. It hit its hand on the table, "No! I didn't mean that! Stupid Steel Porcupine! Idiotic primal genes!"

It then woke up, faced its back to Rishana, and made a human-like coughing sound, turning around as it smiled, "Hello big sister, I hope my brother Ridusrebi didn't annoy you. He has an annoying habit of talking nonstop once he starts. But fret not big sister, the most pinesome Steel Porcupine in this world will help you."

"Ugly idiot brother of mine, stop pestering big sister." The Steel Porcupine looked at its left, speaking with an admonishing tone.

It then turned to its right, hissing as It showed a face of anger, "Ugly idiot brother of mine, she's your sister-in-law. You have to address her with respect."

"She is my sister." It faced the left, scowling.

"She's your sister-in-law." It faced the right, barking.

Then it suddenly faced forward, looking at Rishana as it raised its hand, emitting two different voices, "What do you say, sister (pretty lady)?"

"I…uh," Her eyelids twitched as she looked at her teammates, seeing them watch the scene with interest. From an expression of fear, it turned to confusion, and later to amusement. Even Duvic that had fallen unconscious had woken up at some point in time and watched the play with all seriousness.

She then noticed Jyorta sitting on the chair, eyes closed, sleeping. Rishana looked at the Steel Porcupine, unsure as to what she had to do. She then heard Jyorta's voice, "Does it look scary?"

Rishana gazed at the Steel Porcupine that looked constipated for some reason. She saw that despite its spikes being menacing, its struggling expression of holding back something made it seem harmless. It was a comical sight. She shook her head, "It doesn't look scary this way."

"Do you know the best way to kill one?" Jyorta opened his eyes, speaking in a tole of calm. Rishana was surprised for a moment before shaking her head.

"Well, you'll know soon enough." Jyorta snapped his finger, making it disappear. The study room was back to normal, "It seems all of you have calmed down considerably. Frenzy Beasts aren't scary. They just look that way."

"And," Jyorta chuckled, "This is how they behave all the time. Because of the Frenzy Parasite, they are aggressive against humans and other Frenzy Beasts. But within their own race, they aren't always growls and howls."

"You mean to say something like before can happen in reality?" Rishana looked at her palm, finding a unique sensation at the place the Steel Porcupine's hands had touched her. It was a feeling she hadn't known. The sense of touch was real. She was unable to understand why, expressing her doubts.

"The hallucination affects all your senses. Unless the level of your detection ability surpasses my hallucination, even your Skills function accordingly to the hallucination." Jyorta smiled, snapping his finger, "For example, how high up from the ground are we?"

Rishana frowned in confusion for a moment as she noticed something amiss. The wall behind Jyorta wasn't whole, rather it only retained a small portion that she saw while focusing on him. The moment she looked around, she noticed the sky all around.

There was faint dangling as her line of sight moved up and down in a harmonic motion. She looked down as her eyes widened in shock, feeling her heart thump louder and louder. Thundering beats resounded in her ears as the thumping equivalent to getting her chest hit by a fist coursed through her lungs.

Her voice failed to come out as she was afraid. "This is an illusion…an illusion…an illusion."

She looked at Jyorta, "Right?"

Their floor was placed on the tip of a sharp hill, balanced by a contact area of less than a square centimetre. As a faint wind blew, their floor moved up and down a little like a boat on an almost still lake.

There was only the table and their chairs on the floor. To Jyorta's back was a piece of wall that balanced against their weight. After all, on one side sat Jyorta alone while on the opposite sat the three girls. Duvic was sitting perpendicularly to both of them, facing the monitor.

"Use your Skill to find out." Jyorta smiled, watching her activate her Tier 1 Skill. A second later, Rishana felt her head spin as she stammered, "T-Two… K-Kilometres?"

"Bingo!" Jyorta clapped, "Now that it's proved your Skills are affected by my hallucinations, I'll be training you using it."

"Wait! What do you mean by that?" Rishana asked in a fluster. The others three too hurried to stop him.

Jyorta smiled, "The key to survival is first mastering your own abilities. Second, you have to adapt to the surroundings."

Seeing their actions, Jyorta's eyes shone with intelligence, looking at Rishana, "Remember how you shook hands with the Steel Porcupine. That is how the hallucinations work. Whether you believe it to be real or not doesn't matter. Your body would consider everything real."

"I have set two conditions: the first is the desired Skill level, the second is a time limit. Until either one is met, you will be under my hallucinations." Jyorta's voice rang out as his figure wafted away like smoke; his final sentence echoed like it was omnipresent, "Remember, the only way to survive and meet up with everyone is to rely on your Skills."

"Wait! Jyorta Bone!" Rishana shouted as the scene broke into pieces, causing a swirling mass of white to wash over her before her vision turned blank.

The wind blew gently, occasionally turning violent. It was a rocky area, surrounded by rock pillars that seemed to be made from compressed mud. There were indentations and protrusions of all sizes on them, with a portion of the protrusions breaking off at times due to the strong winds.

Lying atop a protrusion was Rishana; her eyelids trembled as she woke up, feeling a headache as she found herself in alien terrain. She looked around; her heart thumped in tension as she gazed down, watching the rock pillars extend downward beyond a point at which she couldn't see anymore.

"Jyorta Bone!" She fainted.