Earth's Alpha Prime

292  The Culprit bechind the scenes (Part-2)

Yinad's pupils constricted as he met Jay's cold gaze. Jay had just relinquished his iron grip on his half-brother's throat, letting him slump unconscious to the ground. The weight of Jay's attention shifted squarely onto Yinad, and a sharp chill ran down his spine. The glint in Jay's eyes left no doubt—his life could be snuffed out in an instant.

Pride flared in Yinad's chest, momentarily drowning out the fear. He refused to bow, even when the odds were impossible. With a sudden, defiant surge, he summoned every weapon he had—arrows and daggers from his storage space infused with Aura as they launched toward Jay with sentience of their own.

However, the response was immediate and the streaks of silver burst into existence, moving too fast for the eye to follow. One by one, the Aura projectiles shattered mid-air, reduced to harmless fragments before they came anywhere close to their mark. The only sign of their destruction was a flicker of argent light, dancing through the air like a shadow. Jay remained motionless, not deigning to raise a hand, his power effortlessly holding the offensive at bay.

Jay's lips curved into a thin, humorless smile. He lifted his wrist and made a subtle flicking motion. A bullet-sized sphere of swirling Arcane element coalesced at his fingertips, thrumming with dangerous intensity. He flicked his fingers, and the projectile shot forth, a blur too swift to intercept. It punched clean through Yinad's shoulder, slicing away his half-regenerated arm and leaving him gasping from the sudden, searing pain.

Jay's voice was low, a warning edged with menace. "Try that again, and the next one will take your head. Let's see how well you recover from that."

For a moment, defiance sparked in Yinad's eyes, but it quickly dimmed as he realized Jay wasn't bluffing. His breathing came ragged and shallow, and he stilled, his body tensed but compliant. He watched warily as Jay closed the distance, every step a deliberate show of power. When Jay leaned over him, the silence hummed with unspoken threats. Then Jay's gaze shifted to the Omega Chosen, Olivia. She met his eyes and gave a slight, somber shake of her head.

Jay's brows lifted, curiosity replacing his face. "Interesting. We can't see through your thoughts."

Before Yinad could process what that implied, Jay's expression turned wickedly intrigued. "Let's see what secrets you're hiding and how Urzo planned all of this?" Jay's palm hovered over Yinad's head, fingers splayed as if ready to crack open the mind beneath. A marble-sized sphere of condensed energy whirled just beside his other arm, a silent promise of destruction should Yinad so much as flinch. The air crackled with the threat, heavy and suffocating. Yinad's body tensed with impotent rage, every instinct screaming at him to fight or flee, but the cold rationality that had kept him alive this long forced him to remain still.

The only choice left was patience—waiting for the Devil himself to find what he sought or for the slimmest of opportunities to escape, even if the odds were vanishingly small.

Jay's mind probed deeper into Yinad's consciousness, unraveling the events that had transpired recently. What he found was within expectations. A possession seed was indeed embedded within Yinad's mind, but it lacked the deeply rooted presence typical of Urzo's full control. Even more intriguing was the realization that Yinad himself was unaware of both Urzo and the seed's existence.

Determined to learn more, Jay delved further into the intricate web of Yinad's memories. The visions surged around him, a torrent of moments spanning back to Day-1, each fragment revealing the trials, victories, and struggles Yinad had faced. Finally, he uncovered the key moment: Day-6, when Yinad had secured a piece of spatial storage equipment. Amid the collection of magical fruits he had gathered, a Stamina Fruit had appeared—innocuous and overlooked, yet it was this fruit that carried the medium for transmitting Urzo's possession seeds.

Jay pieced it together from there. Urzo had used Zeix's unique ability to manipulate inventory spaces, sending the fruit from afar as part of his grand strategy. Any ordinary individual would have fallen to Urzo's scheme without even realizing it. But Yinad was different. He had long prioritized developing his Spirit Attribute over the other four, understanding that it unlocked the true potential of his third Innate Talent. The ability that granted his Aura a rudimentary sentience, enabling it to instinctively seek out and target whoever he designated as an opponent.

Because of this, Yinad's Spirit stats surpassed even Urzo's, preventing the possession seed from taking root fully. If Yinad had possessed any soul- or mind-based abilities, he might have been able to detect and expel the foreign influence entirely. However, the difference in their Spirit Attributes, though significant, wasn't insurmountable; Urzo had managed to exert subtle influence over Yinad's decisions and emotions.

Urzo capitalized on this and, when his efforts to disrupt Jay's relentless streak of conquering Obelisks proved futile, he set this nefarious scheme into motion. His ambition had been to rule over the Trial World and his first step to manifest that was through seizing control over the Top-1000 power rankers, focusing especially on the Top-10, in order to have leverage against Jay.

Yinad, one of the only contenders in the top 10 of the 7th Trial Continent apart from Jay and Urzo, had been Urzo's ideal target. As the clock ticked closer to Day-20 and the inevitable clash between Urzo and Jay, Urzo resorted to the devious play.

He manipulated Yinad with a false narrative: a communication device appeared in Yinad's storage, disguised as a gift from a desperate survivor. This device, purchased from the Achievement Point store, became the conduit for a story laced with lies. Urzo had leveraged someone under his control with the power to project illusions onto reality and manufactured visuals of massacres and enslavements allegedly committed by Jay's forces. The illusions were recorded, expertly tailored to be convincing, and disseminated through the device to Yinad under the guise of testimonies from anguished survivors.

Urzo's subtle influence on Yinad's mind pushed him to believe the fabricated accounts, ignoring inconsistencies—like how these supposed survivors had escaped Jay's overwhelming power unscathed. This manipulation led Yinad to act, believing he was preparing for a just battle rather than playing into Urzo's scheme.

Jay's gaze grew colder as he processed the lengths Urzo had gone to cause trouble for him. Day-20 loomed close, and with it, the chance to confront the shadowy puppeteer himself. The time to end his irreconcialble once and for all.

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Author Note: Exclusive artwork for every free chapter is now available on my PATRE0N page! You can find the link in my Discord server.

I'm thrilled to share that I'm taking a big leap forward! Alongside Earth's Alpha Prime, I've launched the first sub-book for EAP.

ALTER REALITY: Online

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The first ten to comment for new chapter releases will get '1 ADVANCED CHAPTER' for free on Earth Alpha Prime's Discord server.

In the discord server, I opened a private channel for those Top 10 candidates, where I posted the respective Advanced Chapter.

 ╭── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╮ Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Discord Link for 'Earth's Alpha Prime' :

https://discord.gg/maQC7xDBYZ

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Preview of advanced chapters (Out on PATRE0N!!):

.....................................   Chapter 293: Enchantments & Protection Charms (Public Release on 15th November)

Chapter 294: Origin Glaive Upgrade (Public Release on 16th November)

Chapter 295: Origin Physique (Public Release on 18th November)

Chapter 296: New Power Ranker (Part-1) (Public Release on 20th November)

Chapter 297: New Power Ranker (Part-2) (Public Release on 21st November)

Chapter 298: Breaking the Limits (Public Release on 23rd November)

Chapter 299: Threads of Fate (Public Release on 25th November)

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You can find the link for Advanced Chapters in Earth Alpha Prime's Discord Server.

Gamma-Patron--> 4 Advanced Chapters (1 week ahead of the public!)

Beta-Patron--> 8 Advanced Chapters (2 weeks ahead of the public!)

Alpha-Patron--> 12 Advanced Chapters (3 weeks ahead of the public!)

Prime-Patron --> 16 Advanced Chapters (1 Month ahead of the public!) Omega-Patron --> 20 Advanced Chapters (5 weeks ahead of the public!) ---------------

Stay Safe:)

MN_1223