Page 4060

'Splendid. Then let your allegiance be recognized by all Idkin.'

And a harsh, guttural sound rang out in all directions, making Jercash's eyes look around with mild confusion while his smile remained untouched.

Really? They were allies, just like that?

Huh.

The snake-squids slithered closer, but he could already discern a change in their aura. No hostility whatsoever. Not even any tension.

He was about to inquire further when yet another strange thing stole his attention.

Sparking lights manifested around the Yigorosks, particularly at the tips of their tentacles. Then, at each point, air distorted briefly before a bunch of small, pale and fleshy pods blinked into existence. Their tentacles all wrapped around the pods with a relaxed ease, and then more sparking lights appeared beneath the Yigorosks, soon giving way to a bunch of squishy blobs for them all to lie on. Sit on? He couldn't tell.

And the blobs moved but not much. In fact, the squids seemed to have lost considerable mobility all of a sudden.

Then he heard some truly strange noises--like hissing steam and guttural crying--as he watched the fleshy pods being torn open and pressed up against... the Yigorosks' mouths, maybe?

The questions in Jercash's mind were lost as he could only stare with wide-eyes. Perhaps he was misinterpreting their weird body language, but it seemed to him that these guys... had essentially just whipped out a bunch of cold beers and reclining chairs in the middle of his testing ground.

One of the Yigorosks slid slowly over to him, making that same guttural cry that he was hearing all over the place, though this one seemed a bit more muted.

Jercash didn't even know how to start the conversation now, which was certainly a rarity for him.

'May our friendship prove ever fruitful!' said the squid next to him, apparently.

"Uh. Yeah. Hah."

'It is so nice to relax, finally,' said the alien freak. 'We all knew you were a trustworthy ally, but we have procedural standards that must first be adhered to. You know how it is, yes? Uptight worrywarts making sure everyone and everything is exactly perfect before allowing us to let loose.'

"Heh... hah... yeah..." He very much wanted to ask why they seemed so convinced that he was a 'trustworthy ally' already, but his better judgment was keeping his mouth shut. Perhaps he could find some other way to ask, though.

If he could stop being stupefied by the scene in front of him, that was.

Page 4059

As the Yigorosks approached, his grip on the baton tightened with anticipation. If they leapt at him, he would displace them--or as much of them as possible--in an instant. He had plenty of holding cells prepared for long-term study.

Or did he? If not, they'd just have to double up with other specimens. That would be fun to watch.

'What are your intentions for us, aura warrior?'

Jercash blinked, making his smile disappear with surprise, only to return a moment later. He had to look around in order to make sure someone wasn't pranking him. At this point, he could certainly distinguish a true psychic voice from that of an everyday reaper, but still. This almost felt too good to be true.

"You can speak to me!" he said with absolute delight. "How wonderful!" He searched through the oncoming wall of bladed tentacles, hoping to find the exact source of the voice, but it was quite the challenge even to distinguish their squiggly bodies from one another, let alone who which of them had spoken first.

'You have been gathering our softer brethren in your realm,' came another voice. 'What are we to make of this?'

'Do you seek to aid us?'

'Or a war?'

'That is so often the case with your kind, is it not?'

Oh, boy, so many new voices. And no way to tell who was who. Or were they actually all one? They did say "us," but hmm. His curiosity only continued to grow.

'Tell us your desire, aura warrior.'

And that term. Jercash knew of it. Quite the ancient moniker. And not necessarily appropriate for him.

But he wasn't about to deny something that may yet prove useful.

"I have many desires," he said, still smiling. "As do you all, I suspect. Perhaps we can help each other out. Or do you still consider us aura warriors to be your enemy?"

'Only those who would deny the Providence of the Originator are our enemy. Are you one such being?'

What? Jercash had to avoid making a face, but he still couldn't stop his head from tilting. "The Providence of the Originator. That's a new one. I'm afraid that I'm not quite sure what you're referring to. Could you clarify, please?"

'The Originator will return to your realm and protect it. Would you seek to resist his efforts?'

"Oooh. That Originator. Right, of course. Yeah, I'm sure we'd have no problem with each other!"

Page 4058

For more primitive psychic entities, the lure functionality of this baton was all that was needed. It would keep them wholly occupied and docile while he did whatever he wanted in examining them.

There was a false belief that many seemed to have regarding psychic abilities--even among psychics themselves, Jercash knew--that intelligence was directly correlated with it. This was not true at all. Purely instinctual, unthinking beings could absolutely still exhibit telekinesis and much more.

Such as with feldeaths, for example.

So this baton was nearly ideal for that task. Not so much for feldeaths, perhaps, but for less powerful creatures? Sure.

That was why it was also a fairly good metric for measuring intelligence. If they could resist the lure, then they were either very strong or very smart. And strength was quite easy to gauge, too. Dangerous, but easy.

The other main function of the baton was aura displacement. Strictly speaking, aura was not something that could be directly destroyed or even disrupted, as it was not one singular thing but instead an amalgamation of characteristics blending together.

But displacement was a slightly different trick. Aura was intertwined with spacetime. So manipulating space meant manipulating aura, at least partially.

This was why "domains" had come into the picture, Jercash figured. Strengthened "fortresses" of aura, where displacement was made more challenging. Historically, they had probably been developed as a defense against displacement attacks.

But that didn't make them perfect counters. Domains could be very strong, yes, but only when thoroughly cultivated. And moreover, displacement techniques, by comparison, seemed like they still had plenty of room for advancement, too.

As far he'd been able to tell through his historical research, the study and development of displacement had hit something of a wall over the eons--and multiple times, too. It struck him as no coincidence, either. Likely the doing of the pesky birds--though perhaps that was just his own bias talking. Whoever it was, they didn't want anyone developing even better counters against them.

Unfortunately for them, Jercash had been all over it for decades now. With a bit of help from Lozaro and the boss. Sadly, neither of them seemed to share quite the same interest in the subject as him, but that was fine. They had plenty of important projects of their own to worry about.

And he kinda enjoyed having something like this all to himself, anyway.