The five abilities are: Possession, Mind Control, Sleep, Devour Dreams, and Nightmare Blade.
The first three are the most common abilities of Nightmares. As spiritual beings, and even more so as dream-based beings, they could possess living beings, living within their consciousness, only appearing to the target when they dreamed, often transforming these dreams into nightmares. This was usually the source of nightmares' sustenance in the material world.
The problem with possession is that to possess a target, they must be dreaming and defenseless. Furthermore, if the target's mind and will are strong enough, they can expel the Nightmare directly. Of course, if they fail to do so initially, it will become increasingly difficult to expel a Nightmare in the future.
The second ability was mind control. After possessing the target, it was possible to change the target's thoughts and control them to act as the nightmare desired. This, however, depended on the level of the nightmare's infiltration and the target's will. This ranged from simple control like blinking or yawning to complete body control, placing the target in a sleep-like state within their consciousness while the nightmare took over.
If given enough time, it was even possible to completely change the target's mind, such as making a proud king act like a needy dog. However, the target must be in a deep sleep while the nightmare lethally influences their mentality and memories. This was a long and tedious process, as changing memories isn't really the focus of a Nightmare Devouring Spirit.
Sleep is more direct, it can put the target to sleep, simple and straightforward. However, Nightmare Sleep clearly focuses on nightmares, so when it uses Sleep, the target is always forced to have a nightmare. This ability ensures that during the possession of a nightmare, the target will continue to sleep. However, it can be used not only within the target. Sleep is an ability that can be released to force the target to sleep if their spirit is weak. The stronger the target, the less effective it is, to the point where it can go from sleeping directly to just yawning lightly.
After these three, the Nightmare Devouring Spirit's signature abilities appear. It can first use Sleep and then Devour Dreams. This can feed the Nightmare Devouring Spirit with the target's mental energy, not only fulfilling its energy needs but also slowly improving the nightmare. The stronger the target and the deeper the nightmare, the better.
Unlike a regular Nightmare, which practically only consumes the target's spiritual energy filled with negative feelings, the Nightmare Devouring Spirit literally consumes part of the target's spirit, making its very existence stronger.
This ability somewhat reminded him if Hila's power to devour the spiritual remains of the dead to grow, but comparatively speaking, a nightmare grew much more slowly than her because it took time to digest the target's spirit. Besides, it first needed to place the target on a strong nightmare to be able to consume more.
Of course, even if only part of the target's spirit is devoured, this causes injuries to the soul that are very difficult to heal, and the longer a Nightmare Devouring Spirit "eats," the greater the chance the target will have its soul shattered.
This creates a series of problems for the target, the main one being spiritual weakness.
Of course, consuming the target's soul in the end is the real "delicacy" for the Nightmare.
Like sleep, devour dreams can be used outside the main body, as long as the target is within a moderate distance of the user, asleep, and having a nightmare. The closer the target is, the better the effect. Thus, the best effect is actually devouring the host itself.
If the spiritual difference between the Nightmare and the target is too great, the Nightmare may directly devour the target's soul.
Perhaps the universe is fortunate that the Nightmare Devouring Spirit isn't very strong, otherwise, it could be a serious plague. After all, after possession has been used for long periods, it is very difficult to both find and remove a nightmare that refuses to leave.
Its entity appears exactly the same as the target's mind, and attempting to remove it manually is nearly impossible.
The last, the Nightmare Blade, is the Nightmare Devouring Spirit's only real attack and its only form of direct defense. It is a spiritual attack that cuts the target's soul. It is extremely effective against flesh muscles like pugilists, which are indeed the Nightmare Devouring Spirit's preferred targets.
Psychics and mages are very difficult to deal with. The former has high mental resistance, while the latter can sense its effects and has spells to counterattack.
The mechanic has high intelligence, which slows down the Nightmare Devouring Spirit's success rate, but without help, it's basically the difference between eating a soft candy and a hard candy.
Pugilists and non-spirit-focused Espers are these guys preferred targets. Their souls aren't as tasty as those of the other three, but depending on their level, they'll still have more delicious souls than ordinary people. After all, genes are also in the soul, Super genes transform them into rare delicacies.
What impresses Ringo most is that this information was in their DNA. It's normal for a carnivorous creature to know what kind of prey to pursue when it's born. This genetic information is there, and it's the same now, but nightmares have even more "informative" genes, even specifying that some "delicacies" are hard currency in the nightmare world.
Ringo took a deep breath. He felt this evolution was well worth it. Even though two abilities are mostly support skills and the other two aren't very useful in combat, their overall usefulness isn't really low.
Ringo sighed and transformed into Nightmare form again. His form resembled an ethereal space creature, he could easily be mistaken for an alien now.
With a simple movement, he floated away from the magma. Yes, he floated, not swam, just like a Nightmare. His current form is spiritual. He's weightless and can move through space. Technically, he doesn't even need oxygen to survive. As long as he eats spiritual energy every now and then, he'll be fine.
Of course, he needs to maintain Nightmare form for this. His human form still has normal needs, well, as many as an evolved being can have.
As he ascended faster and faster, he thought about this evolution. He thought he wouldn't have direct control over it, at most he might have some choices like Han Xiao. But no, he seemed to have entered a high-dimensional state and seen all the species in the galaxy, or at least most of them.
Was this some kind of high-dimensional form? He didn't know, but he thought so. Had his ability connected him to this space? He could only sigh and rejoice at this.
But what truly surprised him was the fact that he had managed to merge a human with a Nightmare Devouring Spirit.
I mean, their compatibility rate is almost zero, it should be impossible, but he did it.
This opened new doors for him.
Han Xiao lost abilities every time he evolved, unless those abilities still existed in his next species.
But he... he could probably keep them all!
Not only that, but if the abilities synergize, they can even generate mutations!
He didn't think he could transform into every species in the universe with his ability, picking up abilities from all sides. His evolutionary ability takes a long time to do something like that, and he realized that the more genes he absorbs, the longer it takes.
That time is still short now, but what about in the future?
Even with its Super Growth accelerating the process continuously, the more it "eats", the harder it is to accommodate everything.
Just like Esgod, could he reach a genetic limit? He could probably evolve to go further, but that would take time. It could take millions of years for him to reach his goal of being the ancestor of all races, maybe even longer.
He only had over a hundred years until the circus burned down. He doesn't remember exactly what the future plot entails, but he still knows about the imminent danger.
He doesn't have time to play around, that's why these level-up evolutions are so important to him. During this time, an evolution that would take years can be completed in seconds!
So he won't foolishly neglect these evolutions, but will continue to climb with them, ready to become stronger and stronger!
He wouldn't just survive, he'd reach the top of the food chain in this universe!
After this evolution, he was infinitely close to Rank B, but he still didn't feel like he'd crossed that line. His next goal was to get more energy. The magma pressure was good, but very slow. He was thinking about his next step.
Maybe using electricity at voltages so high they could roast him in seconds, maybe being thrown into a radioactive pit... doubt, doubt, but for now, he really wanted to sleep.
Thus he floated out of the lava, this time without causing the lava to splash out or stir the sea. He quickly crossed the sea abyss to the top. Outside, it was night, under the moonlight. He stood atop the water, floating as his short lilac hair swayed, not from the wind, but simply from a spectral sway.
His pupil-less black eyes surveyed the surroundings.
Now that he was like this, he could feel it, like a nightmare, he saw the world in a purplish hue. Furthermore, everything seemed darker, while the souls of living beings seemed especially bright, like fireflies on a dark night.
He could tell the strength and quality of a soul easily with a glance.
Not only that, as a spiritual life form, he didn't even need eyes to see, perhaps because his brain was accustomed to it, his evolution had led him to acquire a more human sense in this form. He could even free himself from this humanoid form and expand his senses.