Impeccable Body

The purple-black magic circle slowly unfolded.

Unlike the teleportation magic Rachel used earlier to escape, this time she cast Soul Magic.

"Soul magic usually requires preparing a magic material that can protect and stabilize the soul state at a critical moment, and your Golden Apple happens to serve this purpose."

Under Rachel's instruction, Shane placed the Golden Apple in the center of the magic circle.

Then he walked back to stand opposite Rachel.

The girl raised both hands, fingers spread, palms aimed at Shane.

"When I was in Azarath, my magic instructor once taught me a lesson about Soul Conflict Magic, and your soul is currently experiencing that exact condition."

As the magic circle continued to build and refine, Rachel slowly described Shane's soul issues.

"That hidden past of yours contains mental fatigue and blandness, which caused you to generate a strong sense of rejection when you were forced to absorb the cultural spirit of Viltrum."

"Due to overly fierce conflicts of belief, and the emotions you forcefully suppressed just to survive."

"Your soul and a portion of your mental power split apart."

Shane's eyeballs rolled around in their sockets, watching those purple-black magic smoke tendrils pierce the top of his head like tentacles, and he shook his head with some discomfort.

"Uh, are you saying I have schizophrenia?"

"Don't interrupt!"

Rachel scolded coldly, then denied Shane's question.

"I don't know how Earth's medicine defines it, but you don't suffer from schizophrenia; you suffer from a fracture of the soul."

"To protect yourself from being driven crazy by that hellish environment, your soul slowly split into two parts starting from when you became a Viltrumite at the age of three."

"One is ordinary Shane, who holds a yearning for a stable life in his heart."

"The other is Viltrumite Shane, who lacks emotion and, in order to protect his past memories, adapted to the culture and rules of Viltrum, and would even actively participate in competition."

The girl fell silent for a moment, seemingly thinking of the teenage boy with vacant, ashen eyes she saw in the memories just now.

"Because of your past experiences, you easily mastered the survival rules of Viltrum. You knew that the more outstanding you performed, the safer you would be relatively, and the greater the success probability of a future escape."

"But in the process of striving toward excellence, everything you needed to accomplish made your original soul more and more painful."

Seeming to reach the critical juncture of casting the magic, Rachel suddenly closed her mouth.

Her ten fingers danced earnestly, her expression resembling that of a surgeon performing a high-difficulty suture.

There was one thing Rachel had not said aloud.

Originally, Shane's soul was very likely to completely transform into two entirely different souls under this continuous fracturing.

At that point, it probably really would have turned into schizophrenia.

The Viltrumite Shane would probably never recognize his past self from then on and would attempt to kill his past self on a cognitive level.

Yet precisely when Shane was ten years old, he suffered a mental breakdown and experienced an outburst.

This caused his soul not to split completely; from a magical perspective, a bloody teenage boy with only half a face, apathetic expression, and exuding a dense, pungent smell drifted behind Shane's back.

As the soul magic sutured them, that strand of soul gradually sank into Shane's body, merging into one with Shane's original soul.

A trace of sweat actually welled up on Rachel's forehead, suggesting the surgery had reached its most crucial part.

Things were not so easy on Shane's end either; his brows were locked tightly, as if his brain was enduring a certain agony.

He gradually recovered that portion of emotion lost for over a decade.

Killing other "unqualified" young Viltrumites.

Destroying "inferior products" under-age.

Failing to completely fulfill training objectives, receiving punishment from the instructor who crushed more than a dozen of his bones.

Traveling to other planets to accomplish conquest missions with the goal of genocide.

Negative emotions accumulated over many years were released in one breath into Shane's initial soul that yearned for peace.

Shane's face turned flushed red, steam even rising from the top of his head, and his brain matter was boiling under extreme agony.

Ugh-ah—

This pain on the soul level was different from the physical damage he had suffered in the past, so much so that he could not help crying out in pain.

Meanwhile, out in outer space, a ring flashing with dazzling yellow light was hurtling toward Earth at top speed.

A certain mechanical sound wave, audible only on the soul level, shouted continuously.

"Intelligent life locked on. Zhent Thragg of the Virgo Supercluster, you possess the ability to inflict immense fear upon others!"

Rachel's gaze narrowed. The Golden Apple placed in the center of the magic circle leaped up into the air; the artifact, which previously could not bear a mark even from Shane's unconscious grip, was now squeezed like a fruit, exuding golden liquid.

Those liquids tumbled in the air, finally transforming into a ten-meter-long golden thread that sank into the center of Shane's eyebrows.

The next second, a cool sensation suddenly enveloping his soul and brain allowed Shane to breathe a sigh of relief.

Rachel also let out a sharp breath, lowered her hands, and once again scrutinized Shane's current soul state.

The black Sinful Energy was rapidly decreasing, and the blood-colored soul entity was no longer mottled, instead becoming pure and transparent.

A golden diamond-shaped gem, similar to the one on Rachel's head, gradually took shape between Shane's eyebrows.

Suddenly, however, Shane let out an unfathomable muffled groan.

The itchy sensation from three days ago struck again, and it came even more violently than any previous time.

The speed of the Yellow Lantern ring, which had already broken through the atmosphere, gradually slowed, and the "recruitment broadcast" also became intermittent, as if it had lost its target.

Still, the power of the Fear Spectrum briefly radiated across Shane's entire body.

Rachel's expression changed.

"How could this happen?"

She saw that in Shane's soul under the magical perspective, that bloody hue was disintegrating at a rapid pace.

Even the golden gem at the center of his brows was melting like ice cream under the sunlight.

In Coast City, Hal Jordan, whom Batman had warned recently not to approach Gotham under any circumstances, simply could not sit still any longer.

That Yellow Lantern ring was currently floating back and forth thousands of meters above Gotham, which was far too provocative to his professionalism and career.

A flash of green light soared into the sky, and Hal Jordan flew toward the Yellow Lantern ring with gritted teeth.

"Get out of here, there is no one you're looking for on this planet!"

Green light and yellow light intersected above Gotham.

As the Green Lantern ring, operating at full capacity, radiated light above Gotham, Shane could not help emitting another muffled groan, though the tone this time actually sounded quite comfortable.

Consequently, the Batcave exploded as well.

The Dark Knight watched various mixed energy curves fluctuate constantly on the screen, while the Viltrumite particles inside the Observation Chamber began evolving rapidly once more.

Batman strongly disliked this feeling of falling out of control.

Flinging his black cape, he chose not to launch the Batwing to fly high and question Hal Jordan, because the abrupt arrival of the Yellow Lantern ring was indeed unavoidable—the other party was simply doing his job.

The engine of the pitch-black Batcycle emitted a low rumble, transforming into a sharp arrow rushing toward Nightwing's coordinates.

"Tell me you've found Shane!"

Nightwing, who had spent a good long while before managing to relocate Shane and Rachel, had already changed into his superhero costume and was lying quietly on the roof of the abandoned factory, peering in through a rusted hole.

Suddenly hearing the commotion in his earpiece, he looked up again to survey the yellow and green lights flashing in the night sky.

Nightwing shifted his body carefully, his voice lowered to a bare whisper.

"Yes, I've practically watched the whole process."

"How is Shane doing right now?"

"How am I supposed to understand magic stuff! But judging from his expression, it seems like a good thing?"

Rachel looked with a tense expression at Shane, whose entire body was undergoing changes she could not comprehend. Seeing his expression finally calm down, she could not help asking.

"What's wrong with you?"

Shane lowered his head to look at himself, clenching his fist with a hint of surprise.

"Affected by something or other, it seems I've evolved?"

Rachel was taken aback.

"This manifestation is called evolution?"

"Do you know what just happened to you on the magical side perspective?"

"Your soul, the divine power of the Golden Apple, and the magic—they've all been absorbed by your body!"