The Martial Unity

Rui thoroughly used Plurichroma to understand how the catoblepas communicated different colors and sounds. He thoroughly covered all bases, taking his time with the various shades of each color.

He went even beyond the normal human range of visible light and audible sound, getting even more data and only stopping when the catoblepas could no longer sense the light and sound.

He was finally done.

He immediately returned to communicating the image of the Divine Doctor in his mind, embodying it once more as he deployed it through subconscious non-verbal communication.

Instantly, the non-verbal communication of the catoblepas shifted.

"MOOOEEEAAAUUU!"

They began thrashing and struggling in a futile attempt to run away, growing increasingly emotionally distressed.

Rui sharpened his eyes as he began processing the flood of information pouring from their subconscious non-verbal communication. The monster-cow cattle radiated a myriad of subconscious non-verbal data points corresponding to different sounds and colors each moment.

Each moment, he weaved together tapestries of sounds and colors corresponding to a single image of color and sound.

A single frame.

Image after image, frame after frame, he began constructing a temporally continuous series of images and sounds.

A video.

A video of none other than the man he had been searching for the entire time.

The catoblepas peacefully grazed on the nigh endless plains of grass that stretched as far as the eye could see in the Valley of Prisms. A cool breeze brushed past the entire valley as a layer of clouds shielded it from the harsh sun.

A serenity, unlike what one would expect from the Beast Domain, permeated the entire region.

It was a peaceful day.

That was until he appeared.

A strange attire, armed with belts featuring countless small instruments, tools, and artifacts, immediately drew the attention of those around him. It seemed to cover every inch of his bronze skin, leaving only his face exposed.

He was impossible to ignore.

Yet as eye-drawing as his attire was, it was his eyes that truly shackled one in their unfathomable depth.

A deep curiosity twinkled from deep within them.

It was an intensely inhuman curiosity. The same kind that a viper would show. Not even the slightest shred of compassion or empathy twinkled in his eyes. Yet, much to Rui's surprise, he could not detect any malice, either.

A small smile cracked at the edge of the Divine Doctor's mouth as he beheld the Valley of Prisms, slowly turning to the grazing herd of cows nearby. They didn't bother with him, having sensed that his physical threat-level was insignificant to them.

His smile deepened.

CLACK

He unfurled a pair of goggles with strange lenses, harnessing it to his eyes before correcting for the impaired vision of the Valley of Prisms and its distorting of light. He pulled out a second artifact, a gas mask, that he also put on.

"Commencing trial 1..." Gleeful interest flashed in his eyes as the gas mask distorted his voice. "Experiment to confirm the intensity of omni-derivative fear-hallucinogen deterrent."

Suddenly, Rui experienced a deep sense of fear gripping his heart. Yet, unlike last time, the fear wasn't his own.

It was the catoblepas' fear that they had experienced at the moment in the distant past.

"MOOOOOEEEAAAUUU!"

They began moving away from him.

But alas, it was too late.

FSSSSSSS!

Green gas expelled from the gas cylinders tucked at his side, spreading across the air at incredibly rapid paces.

Rui shook as his vision of the world shifted.

Or rather, the vision of the world in the memories of the catoblepas.

The bright blue sky turned a malevolent red in an instant. Clouds became smoke. The Sun shifted from a purveyor of life to one of death as its harsh fires spread across the sky and to the world around them.

It was a horrifying scene.

Especially if one believed it was real.

It had been so overwhelming that the catoblepas literally froze in horror, toppling over as their muscles spasmed.

The Divine Doctor walked over with his hands behind his back, observing the outcome with interest. In the visions of the catoblepas, however, his very being had shifted from a human to a literal physical monster, causing even more fear to grip at their hearts.

"Median timeframe for trauma-induced muscle-spasm: one- point-two seconds," the Divine Doctor remarked clinically. "Estimated intensity index as weighted for diffusion rate and molar density is four-point-three."

His expression fell ever so slightly.

A single remark escaped him.

"Suboptimal."

This was the sole shared memory that they had of the Divine Doctor as their individual memories of the man began diverging from this point forth.

The trauma had clearly stressed their brain as the memories beyond that point began to grow more distorted and broken. Clearly, despite their strong recollection of the Divine Doctor, the catoblepas had already begun subconsciously suppressing and forgetting the memories relating to him.

Visions of what may as well have been Armageddon tormented the catoblepas as the Divine Doctor continued testing his fear-hallucinogen on them for quite some time. He spoke to himself things Rui was unable to make out due to the distorted and broken memories regarding the man. For some reason, only the original memory of the Divine Doctor was completely intact.

Yet, what happened became evidently clear to Rui even from the broken memories of the herd of catoblepas.

The man was a maniac.

He went about his days spreading potent hallucinogens across the entirety of the Valley of Prisms. From species to species, plain to plain, and creature to creature, everything and everyone was reduced to a test subject to what appeared to be experiments to optimize his fear-hallucinogen.

So much so that Rui was undoubtedly certain that this was the cause of the mass displacement of the land-dwelling fauna of the Valley of Prisms, no creature was going to remain in a place where that made them experience heart-wrenching terror every second of every day.

Furthermore, it would explain why there was a mass emigration of fauna without any hint of environmental factors or outcomes as a result. The literal fear that the Divine Doctor had single-handedly spread was the sole reason that the demographics of an entire region had radically shifted!

--