This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

Chapter 772: Chapter 772: Kain Vs Isolde: Two Hearts at War

Bea slipped through the spatial crack formed from the Empty Throne Effect like water seeping through a narrow gap under a door.

One moment, she was a microscopic presence next to Kain. The next, she was gone—vanished from perception and sliding into the mental space of the Manticore-Demon hybrid.

Even Kain could barely sense her. She was on her own.

The fused mental space inside was filled with oppressive heat and pressure. The air reeked of sulfur.

The ground beneath her—if it could even be called ground—was a jagged, shifting landscape of obsidian shards and smouldering rock, that, while not physical, she could sense would be incredibly damaging to a mental creature like her.

And echoing throughout the cavernous space were two loud, unsynchronized heartbeats. Each beat was strong, but they clashed. Like territorial drummers of different genres trying to overpower each other.

The mental space was neatly divided into two distinct domains, each a reflection of the creatures that comprised the hybrid,with Bea initially appearing to be on the side she believed belonged to the Dreadclaw Demon based on all of the black stone around her, reminiscent of the obsidian colour of its skin and fur.

A short distance away, separated by a no-man’s-land of fractured earth and unstable energy, lay the Manticore’s domain.

The contrast was stark.

Where the Demon’s realm was a place of suffocating darkness, the Manticore’s was a hellscape of fire and pride. Towering rock spires, sharp as knives, pierced a stormy red sky, and the air shimmered with heat rising from dark, volcanic stone. The ground was littered with bones—some fresh, some bleached white by time—arranged in grotesque displays as if they were its trophies. Naturally, none of these ’souvenirs of war’ were real. They were likely a mental expression of all the creatures it had defeated.

Throughout the space, a low growl seemed to hum in the atmosphere itself, as if the land were alive and ready to strike.

Bea had seen mental spaces before, but never like this. Perhaps it was because these contracts were far more powerful than any other creatures’ minds she’d invaded before–much closer to indigo-grade.

Soren’s fused green-grade dragons had been hollow, their shared consciousness little more than an empty room with ’doors’ to each dragons’ mind.

Nikolai’s newly advanced blue-grade Hemogloom Slagbeast’s had been a little more complete. It resembled a maze that would occasionally have some mentally constructed creatures skirrying about.

But this? This massive expanse was like a world. A complete, living, breathing realm shaped by two apex predators who had been forced into an uneasy alliance.

And Bea had to tear it apart.

’I guess I’ll need help to take down this whole space…’

Without hesitation, Bea multiplied.

Hundreds of splits burst into existence around her, each one a flickering shadow of her consciousness. They scattered like whispers on the wind, some darting into the Demon’s obsidian wasteland, others slipping into the Manticore’s scorched hunting grounds.

Her plan was simple: exploit their instincts and any magnify any unfavourable feelings they may have toward each other.

Her splits emitted negative thought particles under Bea’s direction that were specifically aimed at inducing division between the fused pair.

Based on how hunting and defeating other contracts was so important to it that it kept mental representations of its ’spoils of war’ or ’trophies’, the negative thought particles were aimed at showing the Manticore the Dreadclaw Demon stealing its prey.

She plucked faint memories from its mind—moments of triumph, of prey brought down by tooth and claw—and twisted them. Now, in these false visions, the Demon was always there at the last moment, snatching victory away with a swipe of its massive claws. The Manticore’s prized trophies—the bones that littered its domain—were suddenly tainted, each one a reminder of stolen glory.

The resentment was immediate.

The ground beneath the Manticore’s spires trembled. The growl in the air deepened into a snarl.

To the Demon, she painted a different betrayal.

She showed it battles where the Manticore turned its back, leaving the Demon surrounded by enemies. She crafted vivid scenes of the Manticore strutting away afterward, its mane billowing as it piled high the spoils of hunts they had fought together—prey it never shared.

The Demon’s shadows writhed in fury.

The fault line between their domains—already unstable—widened.

Bea didn’t stop there.

She darted to the no-man’s-land between them, where the previously fused domains were becoming like oil and water.

Here, the conflicting energies bled together—heat from the Manticore’s land clashing against the oppressive darkness of the Demon’s. It was unstable, constantly shifting, the perfect place to wedge her influence.

She amplified every flicker of doubt she’d seeded, stoking them until they burned hotter—feeding each side’s paranoia and she felt the hybrid’s coordination falter in the real world.

Cut off from Kain and Chewy, her energy reserves were limited, but she still used all of her remaining energy to flood the area around the fault line with a high density of not only negative thought particles, but also using her disorienting Mind Chorus skill. The two skills worked synergistically, screaming betrayal into the Manticore, mockery into the Demon. She filled their minds with images of each other as enemies.

A cacophony of accusation and rage, echoing through their shared consciousness like a storm.

The fault line split.

White light sheared the skies apart. Heat faded. Heartbeats separated.

Bea withdrew as the mental world collapsed, the last image burned into her mind: the mental representations of two beasts, teeth bared in hatred, glaring at each other across a chasm of their own making.

——————

In the arena, the hybrid staggered.

Its roar was two voices at war, a guttural snarl layered over a bestial shriek. Cracks of light spiderwebbed from its chest, glowing brighter with every passing second.

Aegis didn’t hesitate.

He slammed a stone pillar into the hybrid’s side, the impact sending shockwaves through the arena. Vauleth also took advantage of the moment and, after dodging an attack from the Phoenix hybrid, dove from above, claws raking its back, leaving deep grooves in its smouldering hide. The hybrid’s body jerked, muscles spasming under conflicting commands—one half trying to fight, the other half recoiling in distrust.

Then, at the same time Bea returned to the physical world, the hybrid split with a blinding flash.

The Manticore and Demon crashed to the ground apart, their bodies steaming as the fusion unravelled. The Manticore’s mane was singed, its tail lashing in fury. The Demon’s fur was matted with sweat and soot, its claws digging into the stone as it rounded on its former ally with a snarl.

They didn’t even look at Kain’s contracts.

They looked at each other.

And for a single, breathless moment, it seemed like they might attack one another.

Kain grinned.

“One down.”