180 Upon Closer Inspection... (2/2)

Since then, Reed had begun devoting his time into grasping the intricacies of cognitive manipulation techniques and their associated counter-defenses. Never again would he permit such a heinous thing to befall his psyche again, not while he still drew breath. It was one thing to be toyed around in reality by forces greater than him, but he would not tolerate being oppressed inside of his own damned mind by a goddamned fragment of a bastard...

That was the thin line in the sand for Reed. He would not let the parasitic, freeloading, piece of shit asshole hiding within him act like he owned the place anymore. And as far as Reed was concerned, it would only be a matter of time until he booted the motherfucker out once and for all, consequences be damned.

Nevertheless, it'd be a fair while before that dream of his would come true considering the current level of mastery he possessed with cognitive Anima techniques.

He was only barely managing to keep out the brunt of the nonsense that was barraging on the metaphorical front door of his mind. That alone spoke volumes of the state of his goal of one day purging Him from his body...

Lu'um herself was in no better situation than Reed as well, all things considered. One would think that someone like her, who was a bonafide grandmistress when it came to Anime techniques, would not have encountered any issues with mental contamination brought upon by the swarm of souls, but...

It had simply not been her day today. Her unusual mental state, brought on by Reed's peculiar behavior had created a tiny mental chink in what would've been her otherwise impenetrable mental defenses.

Her weakness, borne of Reed's genuine sincerity and bizarre consideration, had come to bite her in the ass in the strangest method possible.

In the end, only Reed possessed the almighty ability to turn a well-intentioned and constructive act of affection into a negative ailment for his partner. Not even the Infestation or their masters, the Outsiders, had such a twisted ability in their arsenal.

Although Reed should have felt something for them, the poor souls stuck in limbo beneath the fissure, he couldn't help but feel a sense of... indifference for them. For someone who had been touched by death and abused by many people, including Fate itself to some extent, whatever compassion he once held for the fallen and oppressed had slowly evaporated since the Twilight War.

He'd simply seen too much it. Of suffering, death, and injustice. They were immutable concepts that could not be purged, even with the greatest of intentions and capabilities. The Ancient Mulians were irrefutable proof of this, thought Reed.

For all, they had accomplished with their mastery of Anima, it had not been enough to prevent the Infestation from ravaging the greater multiverse in the end.

There was too much misery to go around, so Reed had developed a somewhat callous heart. He had not gone off on the deep end yet, but it had definitely started to affect him.

Reed just couldn't afford to care for the souls around him, not with the already stacked plate of problems on his hands. Rather than focus and sympathize with the dead, he preferred to keep his mind on the living.

Perhaps one day when he was far stronger and more capable than now, he'd consider attending to the grievances of the deceased, but until then...

He'd block out their cries, to the fullest of his abilities.

The descent into the fissure's deepest section ended up taking them longer than they had anticipated, but after an hour of dealing with having their sanities tested, Reed and Lu'um reached the source of it all.

At the bottom of the fissure laid the unresponsive body of the titan, or rather only a portion of it. Still what had been unearthed along with the fissure was so large it could have overshadowed the entire city of Itroch and more.

Were it not for the gravity of the situation though, Reed would have probably said something incredibly inappropriate. The reason being stemmed from what he had only know discovered about the unconscious titan — the enigmatic being's actual gender.

Reed couldn't have been blamed for not knowing, given the limited number of times he had observed the titan. This was also not considering how much of the titan he'd been allowed to see, for much of it still remained buried under the earth.

From a distance, a gigantic mound could be seen below them, covered in an expansive field of silver hair. Though concealed, it was fairly obvious what it was to Reed, even if he wasn't an authority on the anatomy of the fairer sex.

So it's like that, huh... I'm a dumbass. Of course, it's like that with this twisted family of His. Unbelievable...

Were it not for the bright patch of crimson staining a certain part of her immaculate hair, it would've proved a troublesome headache for them, but this time the situation had been quite easy to identify.

The source of the injury this time was near the woman's collarbone, a little bit below her neck itself. A gnarly, rotting lesion had grown across the female titan's skin. It was completely different from the other sites Reed had visited in regard to the severity of the damage inflicted.

Horrible couldn't even begin to describe it. What little flesh hadn't turned a sickly shade of green, purple, or black had already disintegrated into nothingness. As unbelievable as it sounded, there were even portions of the titan's uppermost chest where bleached bone could be seen.

The past injuries in the other fissures they'd seen had been nothing more than a prelude for the true extent of the deterioration that currently threatened the female titan's life... and by extension, all life on Mulia.

”...Ah, fuck.”

Reed couldn't have worded it better if he had intentionally tried to.

They were now, for all intents and purposes, responsible for something larger than they could've previously imagined...