joc slumped over, the tendrils catching him before he could fall from the tree. He had spent the better part of an hour, trying to figure out what to create and how to do it exactly. Although he had the knowledge burned into his mind, it was really just the broad strokes and he lacked practice.
He knew how to use the tree, but still the creation of life is not a process that you can just complete at the snap of your fingers. Actually with this tree you could but… The thing you create is probably going to die the instant it's done 'baking'; so careful thought must be put into your creations if you want them to have any level of life expectancy.
[… The thing needs air…so lungs…blood…so a heart… a head …so a brain… Blood needs to get around the body … So veins … UGGG… THIS IS ALL SO FUCKING COMPLICATED!...] joc was going through the checklist of what his creations needed. But he quickly found that creating a living thing from scratch was one tall order. As he thought about what was needed he quickly found himself falling through a rabbit's hole; the body of living creatures were complicated systems that were poorly understood.
[…FUCK IT…JUST TRY SOME THING!..] joc becoming impatient, as well as realizing that his understanding of the basic parts of life was less than subpar, had decided to just wing it and to just try something. The tree not only produces the creatures but was also supposed to help in their creation; so joc hoped that the abomination of a tree could fill in the gaps.
joc started to gather the mana in his body, but it wasn't an easy endeavor. Trying to direct the mana was extremely difficult for him, even though his body was completely saturated with it. The level of damage that has been done to his soul was ridiculous, in any normal circumstance he wouldn't be able to feel mana at all; Let alone directed.
The only reason he could feel the mana currently was because of the level of saturation, the purple liquid that was being pumped into him was highly concentrated mana; but it was off, it felt similar yet foreign.
It took a while but joc was finally able to gather the mana and instead of manifesting a spell he directed the mana to flow back towards the tree. Operating this abominable tree was actually fairly straightforward, all you needed was the catalyst, a bit of mana, the tree and an operator; No fancy spells needed.
All you had to do was pass mana from your own body through the catalyst then into the tree. Now this would've been a bit tricky and would've taken a good level of skill in mana manipulation. But luckily in this case for joc, it was all the more simple for him, as he was both the catalyst and operator; all he needed to do was gather the mana in his body then directed towards the tree.
As the mana slipped into the tree, joc 's started feeling a weird out of body sensation. He then started to feel a strange pull on his mind; it was much like that maddening hunger. The pull at first was weak and wispy before it slowly and steadily became stronger. Soon his vision had started to blacken; the tree was pulling on his very soul trying to drag it in. As more and more of his soul was being pulled from his body, his vision progressively got darker and the feeling and control over his own body became fainter.
But in exchange he started to feel a new sensation, he could feel his roots absorbing the concentrated mana, he could feel his fleshy branches swaying in the wind, he could feel his pulsating black heart, he could feel the frigid air on his bark; He was becoming one with the tree.
Just before joc was about to blackout and be fully dragged into the tree, he felt something for an instant… For but instant it felt as if he was seeing through God's own eyes... He was looking down upon the many lands; he was looking down upon the entire world from upon high. He could see all of the world's secrets laid bare before him, he saw everything, understood everything. It felt as if the many lands were his to shape as he sees fit.
Within his sight there was a man standing upon a hill in his homeland, the roughlands. The man seemingly noticed his gaze and turned up to look upon the heavens. His eyes and skin were crimson red, his hair was of silver… His face was that of the demon King and place upon that face was a soft smile. "Friend… For as belligerent you were… it seems you are a better man than me… You did that, which I feared could not be done…so don't let hate cloud your mind… For I know deep down you are still the same…don't let your rage sour what you truly hold dear." The demon King's voice was soft and kind.
Joc brought his hands down from the heavens and instead of smiting his enemies; he brought them over to shape the roughlands. He smashed his hands into the hills gouging up large quantities of grayish red rocky soil. He scooped up the rocky soil and crushed it between his hands, turning it into rich fertile brown soil which he let falls from his hands. He then smoothed the mounds of rich soil into great fertile fields. He used a fist to punched craters into the soft earth, then using a finger he drew lines from the craters throughout the fields.
He brought his face down from the heavens and blow on the barren land, breathing life into it and filling the craters and lines into lakes and rivers. He then brought his attention over to the cities and towns which laid undisturbed, there he carefully put his fingers into the earth and dragged up ores to the surface.
He then moved his sight to the ancient field of battle, that straddles the border of the roughlands and the demon lands; the place where so many had died in combat to defend their homes and families. There he dredged up the countless bones left behind and crushed them between his hands; creating a large mound of bone dust that he then used like Clay.
He molded countless numbers of Clay warriors; they had goat like heads covered in bony plates that almost looked like helms and sprouting from the top of their heads were the horns of a ram. Their torso and arms were like that of humans, but their legs was like that of goats and ended in hooves. Their entire body was covered in bony plates that almost appeared like a suit of armor, they had hands which bore long sharp claws and In between their bony plates was shaggy wool.
Joc Brought his face down towards the clay figures and was about to breathe life into them… When his soul was finally dragged into the tree ending the short instant of godliness, which seemed like it was never going to end; that in reality it only lasted a single second.
His mind then suddenly was plunged into darkness that was filled with a great symphony; it was a beautiful symphony, but he couldn't focus on it. His mind was so occupied with trying to hold on to all that he saw in that short instant of godliness; but he couldn't it was fading as fast as it had come. The only thing in the end that didn't fade was the images of his Clay warriors. Soon the music that was playing all around him reached a fever pitch, which seemed to make the darkness fade away; giving way to a brilliant light which glow warmly.
Suddenly and jeeringly his soul was yanked out of the tree and jammed back into his body. […ugg…what….was…that is it?...the fuck…why do I feel so fucking tired…] joc looked around confused, to the current him it seemed as if he had only blacked out or fallen asleep. He couldn't remember that godly vision or that symphony in darkness. Those two images and memories were completely wiped from his mind.
[…did anything fucking happen?...did I do something wrong?...] joc looked around trying to find some sign that anything happened. Nothing looked out of place until they finally looked up towards the sky and the branches of the tree. The flower buds had had bloomed and in their center were massive ashy grey, opaque fruit. He could see the ever so slight shadow of a humanoid figure within them… That that appear to be wiggling […fuck that is creepy…what the fuck in…] joc thoughts were cut short when the fruits started falling off the tree into the pool of concentrated mana.
All the fruits seem to break on impact, releasing their charges into the purple liquid. They looked strangely familiar to joc but it was a familiarity he couldn't quite place. They had the horns of an ram, a goat like head, the legs of a goat, and there body seemed to be covered in bony plates that had the appearance kind of like that of a suit of armor. In between those bony plates were shaggy brown wool and their bony plates and skin were ashen gray of color. They all seemed pretty confused; they were all looking around and stumbling about in the chest high liquid.
But Joc couldn't really blame them; they were just 'born'. Things that did confused joc though, is how these creatures were created. He knows that their products of this abominable tree that he is fused to but… He has no recollection of operating the tree nor does he have any mental images prepared for such a creature.
He knew he was going into it blind but this seemed a little bit much. Because For as much information that was seared into his mind about the tree and how to use it. He didn't actually know the specifics on how it worked; the information only provided more general broad strokes about the tree and its usage. For example he knew that the tree was supposed to aid in the creation, but it was only supposed to help and from joc perspective it seems like it just sort of did everything.
[…fuck it I am going to try again…] joc concluded that he needed to try again. This conclusion was fueled by one part curiosity and two parts this nagging sensation in the back of his thoughts that were telling him operate the tree again. So as the bony individuals were gaining their bearings joc begun the process to operate the tree again…
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Joc was on the ground next to the purple liquid which has swirling's of red in it. His body was twitching strangely, red blood seeping from his jagged toothed mouth. […again… again…. again…. again… again…so close… so close… I'm so close…] His mind had gone haywire, consumed by the desire to use the tree again and again and again. Apparently it seems that the information that was seared into it joc's mind lack to mention that using the tree of course had a maddening effect.
In joc's mind it felt as if there is something just out of reach and using the tree is the only way of getting close enough to it, to try reaching for it. But for some reason it always stayed out of reach and he couldn't remember what he was reaching for in the first place. All he knew in his manic state was that it was very important; that if he obtained it he could do anything and everything.
The problem was that using the tree took a toll on his body and all the creatures that then produced from him trying these subsequent attempts. Came out as violent mutated abominations, that were either twist versions of things he had saw before… or simply mutilated masses of twisted flesh and bone.
The only reason why he wasn't dead now was because the ram horned humanoids, have been killing all of the abominations and cut him out of the tree. "Again… Again.. So close… Need to…. Need it… So close… Again" joc lips barely whispering the words from his mouth. The herd of bony goat men surrounded him just kind the standing there milling about, unsure of what to do. That is until One of them which had the most blood soaked on it, spoke. "baaaa…"
Most of the other goat men started to nod their heads vigorously, but one of them seem to disagree " BAAAAAA" many of the goat men brought their viscera stained hands to their chins. That disagreeing goat man had made quite the compelling argument."baaaa?" Another one of the goat men asked the important question that the others either hadn't realized or were just avoiding.
"baaaa...." The first goat man tried answering but then quickly trailing off. The crater was quite steep, they might be able to climb it on their own but… How are they going to carry joc. The second goat man for his part just pointed towards the massive abominable tree "BAAAAA"
All of the other goat men's eyes lit up the second goat man was completely right… They do need to get rid of the danger this tree poses, as well as the fact that its tendrils once dead could probably make good rope. The third goat man just stared at the tree for a few seconds then at the spot where they cut joc out. "baaaa?" He of course had to ask the question of how there were going to kill it, after all it didn't take too kindly to cutting out joc; It did thrash about quite wild.
All but a few of the goat men turn their eyes towards the tree as well. The third goat was right it would particularly difficult to kill it. Fourth goat man who had particularly long wool stared at the many corpses floating in the purple liquid and he got a brilliant idea, he let a short bleat to get the others attention. Once they turned towards him and he had their attention, he went about demonstrating. He grabbed one of his hair's and pulled it out with ease. He then grabbed multiple hairs and twisted them together then pulled, this time it took more force. "BAAaaa"
The idea was actually pretty good, they can just use the corpses and just twist the skin and/or sinew so that way they could use it as rope. Also his argument about the tree was quite convincing, the many other goat men look to each other and nodded their heads they were in agreement.