From where Ixa was, once the sound of the explosion quieted down, the tendrils snapped back with force into the silent storm of particles, collected into a single point before transforming back into the solid ovular bead in one fluid moment.
It lowered itself back between Ixa's barbs.
• • • • • •
For System, it saw the formation of the body firsthand, and recorded it.
It looked like a swarm of ash, grey chunky liquid, mashed together to make some kind of semi-liquid form filled with various blotches of white ebbing into black.
From the centermost part of it, System saw it transition from the previous state into a solid shape.
No organs was formed, just solid flesh, muscles, tendons, and all other sorts of body parts started to shape, paws, legs, its main torso, but amongst them, anomalous structures also took their places, like those linear structures from before, except they seemed to tie everything together.
No head began to form, it ended off with just a neck.
Another was...roots, white roots made of a dull light, filing apparently purposely left empty spaces between the innards of the body, moving like tentacles into those crevices in the legs that linked into the torso and arms, forming a sort of cluster in the center as it settled in.
As the insides were finished, the external formation started.
A firm layer of gray crawled up and around the surface of the body like living viscous semi-liquid, hardening as it spread, no fur, just a grey skin, yet, if one were to touch it, they wouldn't feel anything, it wasn't cold or warm, nor the familiar feeling of skin, just...nothing, whatever it was made of somehow invoked the feeling as if you weren't touching anything, not air, but literal nothing, it was disorienting.
The body was made for the same function of existence, an animal like all the other living things in the world's natural hierarchy, but...
Something was different, something that separated it from the rest of the things living, even from the waking dead, it belonged in a completely different system of existence.
There were almost no crevices or bends like a natural body would have besides the ones involved with natural function, its body was systematic, rabbit legs, small arms, if any proportional change were to be confirmed, it looked overall bigger, thicker.
Or it could be because it was malnourished before, we'll never know.
No nails grew to replace the previous ones, their paws were simple stubs, however, a weird pattern was made up at the center of the palms, like the roots of a plant would have, intertwined at the center, spreading outwards, extending to the individual digits for each of its hind and fore paws.
It was made of a different material, black, however, at the center of each palm, you could see a dim light further back into its body.
Probably the most unique part would be its head.
Before, the mutation had its head roughly rounded out instead of the normal narrow shape, it seemed to keep that part and extrapolated on it.
From the base of the exposed neck, a sort of cold, dark grey metal-like material erupted from the inside of the neck, initially as a sort of goo, and as it stretched and conformed, it shaped up its face, similar of composition to Ixa's body.
It formed sharp points across the head like a multi-sided dice, primarily, the cheekbones, as they exaggerated, creating two sharp points pointing diagonally downward, roughly at a 45° angle for both of them, among other smaller sharp points around the head, four straps made of some kind of pinkish-red rubbery substance, grew on the sides of these two exaggerated points and the sides of the forehead, attaching to four closely-knit holes at the back of the head, which seemed like the only normal flat surface.
The face was sturdier and bigger than the rest of the body, almost overlapping where it met the rest of the body if not for a empty line demarcating its face from the rest of its body, it was a extra layer thick compared to the body, almost like it was some kind of mask.
The line circled the entire head, from the chin to right in front where the ears were, a semi-circle around them.
No mouth came to form, two conclave indentation shaped themselves in two of the facets before two pitch black holes stretched back into the head, difficult to discern how far it reached, where the eyes used to reside.
Two rabbit ears started to shape themselves like clay, first taking shape of being taper from the base, then, the opposite, having sharp points like Ixa's roots at the tips while have a stable base, until the thick semi-liquid decided on both, tapering at both ends with an even middle section, the centers of the ears were shaped in a steep concentric pattern, leading a singular black point.
The base of the ears firmly settled into their place; the body was nearly complete.
The last thing...
Two dull white lights appeared far back in its empty sockets, and it seemed to creep forward.
Only once they moved forward enough, it was apparent it was the roots that were in its body.
Once it crawled sufficiently forward, it all began to completely solidify as it floated downwards.
It finished the moment before whatever force was keeping it floating dissipated, as it landed on the ground, sitting down.
It remained like that for a moment, until like a puppet, its strings got cut, and it fell to the ground like the corpse it was before.
• • • • • •
For Ixa, he only caught a glimpse of what it looked like as everything happened too quickly for him to process, as everything disappeared, and he returned to the usual void of his vision.
"System?"
[ -ah, your awake Ixa.]
"How long was I out?"
[ Roughly 13 minutes.]
"What happened out here while I was handling it? I didn't get to see too much of the minute changes to the body."
System brough out its interface and showed him the recording.
"..."
[ Yeah...]
"I guess we both don't know what to think of it, huh?"
[ More so I don't even know where to begin to think of it, from its bodily structure it seems designed for a number of functions unknown, to processing how it was created, and the final product which is rather...as Dua put it, 'disturbing', disregarding when he mentioned it before, it was the original body plus your effect on its eyes.]
"...do you know what I saw on my end?"
[ I do not.]
Ixa explained what he saw on his side, and made sure to speak of every detail, from the extreme exhaustion he was put through as felt as the conflict got more intense, to finding the way forward through the confliction of colors and how it turned out, to finally how his core exploded into a mass of fragments, particles, or whatever the proper word for it is.
[ Hmmm, one of the things I noticed was the biometrics of your body, while I don't fully understand them, I noticed the activity in your overall body spike, however, the points of activity switched between the body and the core.]
"The two colors represented one of each?"
[ I assume so, from what you told me and trying to sync the time between what I and you seen, the grey appeared around when your core spiked, while the red was for the body.]
"Any ideas as to why they seemed to conflict?"
[ ...considering their reaction, and how they mixed, there could be a number of reasons, from how each part consisted of one of the three functions, 3 colors, 3 options to handle the core, or it could be their inherent reaction to one another as you pushed the sensitivity of your body to the extreme to detect it, which could suggest your body purposely lacks the ability to perceive your core as a part of your body as it sees it as something foreign? Only with more information can I figure it out. Remember, your body is still a mystery.]
"Fair."
[ Well, on the bright side, we have something new to try.]
Ixa's consciousness moved with the routine of
As he got up with strained control over the body, he surveyed his surroundings.
It only was around a dozen minutes, but that much time without any perception of his surroundings besides the faint feeling of the air and the earth has left Ixa feeling a bit antsy, he didn't like the feeling of not being able to affirm his surroundings.
Funnily enough, not at all because of the creepy forest he calls his home.
He found things normal, and he focused on the new body of the bunny.
'It's so...just...'
He couldn't think, there was no proper descriptor for how he saw the body, disturbing? Strange-looking? At its clearest, he could say he was curious.
He picked up the body with a bit of effort, it was similar to a doll, dangling, he felt around the body.
"No feeling to the skin."
He looked at the black parts at the palms of the arms and legs.
"Colder than the skin, but have an actual feeling to them, they feel a bit too soft..."
He pulled on the strips connecting to the back of the head.
"Rubbery."
The last part he felt over, the head.
"Multiple facets, edges, cold and smooth, similar to my root body, just not...roots."
He felt over the two extreme points on its cheeks.
'Sharp...wonder how much?'
"Only one way to find out."
He left the guard's body to fall on the ground and attempted to possess it.
However, he was rejected.
"...what?"
Every time he would try to enter the boundaries of a body in whatever state he was in during intermission between bodies, he would feel an instant change of surroundings and the weak sensory of the body, but he met resistance with its body, like it was actually something that could obstruct him.
'What in the-!?'
He pushed and shoved from every part of the body, and it did not give at all.
[ ... ]
System didn't have much of a clue either.
They were both stumped, various thoughts passed through their minds, everything handed to them has been a process of figuring things out to nailing down the solution.
[ Maybe the black material is the access points?]
"No, they give the same resistance."
[ The holes in its eyes?]
"I thought so to, but it was just mistaking me being able to go through the holes, I met resistance once I made contact with the white roots."
What they didn't notice was that as Ixa shifted focus on the different points of the body, each part seemed to respond to his thoughts.
The black material shifted from a solid back into a gooey substance, the roots shifted back from where they crawled from as if adhering to how it was blocking the way.
It was reacting to Ixa's thoughts and presence as he interacted with them.
What Ixa didn't realize was that when using his sense for the dead and living, nothing appeared for the bunny, it was completely absent from that spectrum.
Yet, he was still able to locate it in his transitive state...
That sense of his can be attributed similarly to one's sense of smell, or taste, only applicable when there's something to taste, or smell, else it remains inactive...
A lack, absence, of a sense...
Before he had a body, he depended heavily on it, but the moment he had access to the sense of vision, it took a back seat, and slowly, Ixa just left it on the backburner, dipping into it and leaving it as he existed.
Basically, he mistook his ability to perceive the body as that sense.
Only later, when they were at a roadblock with what to do, did Ixa started focusing on that sense again.
'Huh?'
[ What?]
"I...I can see the bunny."
[ Yeah...? That unique sense of your body seems to have substituted for your ability to see very well.]
"No...as in I can tell where it is, what position it is in, but I can't see it with that sense.
[ Really? Why is it exempt from it?]
They only got more confused from there, it was like a conundrum, it was made of both elements of life and death yet absent from the sense that detects both extremes of those things.
Ixa went over everything again and paid very close attention to the minute feelings.
Slowly, he began to feel each as if it were his own body.
A twitch of the left ear, the strange bubbling of the black substance of the paws as it transformed from solid to semi-liquid and back, to his hindlegs stomping the ground.
'Wait?!'
He found himself controlling it, no sight, but still moving it, yet he had not possessed it.
[ Well...I guess that answers our question, only that one though, this body presents many more.]
He returned to his body, and he had dual sensory, of his body and the rabbit, without the use of
"It's like an actual secondary body to my root one..."
[ Agreed, however, remember you still have your core, you saw as much as I did that no new core was formed, while there was something similar in its center, it is very much different now than when it was forming, and most likely serves different functions than your real one.
"Yes, I will remember to keep it safe System...well, do you want to take this body for a test run?"
[ Sounds like a fun plan.]
Ixa pushed the hindlegs into the dried dirt, laid low as he tensed up, and sprung forward towards the exit with a strong jump.
Previously, he didn't exhibit any of the strengths of the previous Rabbit due to his only recently achieved consciousness and lack of freely flowing thought, but now, being much more awake, and with a 'new' body, he would like to see how far it could be pushed.
With his perception of the dead trees and the miniscule life signals that made up the ground, which Ixa didn't think much of at the moment, he had his route already in mind.
As he swiftly traveled through the dead forest, the air blowing against his body, rousing the brittle leaves from their places on the ground as he rushed by, Ixa took in all the sensory given.
It was actually higher in this body than his normal one, he was allowed to enjoy the cool air, the crunch of leaves under his paw, at least a little.
As he made a sharp left past a tree, a large root suddenly appeared in front of him.
Already prepared as he saw it long ago, he jumped, flying into the air, rising above it.
He slipped a little on some dead leaves once he landed but overall kept his pace as he continued forward.
He felt no adrenaline, no pulse, he felt the tension, release, and constriction of his muscles a bit as he made tight corners and kept a strong pace, but past that, nothing else body-wise.
His pathing was a small distance away from the small enclosure of where his body was; he was circling it.
Nothing eventful happened during it, and System stayed silent as he was studying the body's currently capabilities...
It took around 6 minutes to go around, as the trees made a dense enclosure, strangely, it could compare to Ixa's own body, twisted around each other, making it impossible for anything besides small bugs to pass between them.
The space between the trees only grew larger as they all spread out in the outer area, leading to some paths being created leading into the enclosure, but only resulting in dead ends.
Some of them were simple to tell as you could see the end from the entrance, being really short, others actually interconnected with other paths in the wall of trees, making paths that one couldn't tell if it would lead to the inside or just another part of the exterior.
Ixa chose the shortest route around, hugging the wall of trees and picking the correct paths as he never was restricted to his eyes...not that he had any.
Once he made it around and re-entered, he found his starting point had actually left an indentation in the ground.
"I guess this bunny is rather strong now...or has it always been this strong?"
[ It was smaller before, so I assume not.
Anyway, I have decided to make a
"Oh, that's a pleasant surprise, alright, lets see what it has got."
'Status.'
The red square screen appeared in the dark, with black tinted text written.
| Name/Species: Necrotiasic Rabbit
| Stats
STR: 7
AGI: 13
VIT: 6(?)
INT: 0(8)
| Skills & Abilities
???
???
???
(Still being researched, info can and will change)
"I assume to explain the intelligence, it itself is zero due to it not being conscious, and me controlling it gives it mine?"
[ Yep.]
"What else do I want to explore...hmmmm?"
[ How about seeing if there are any open functions of the body?]
"Alright."
He gripped the sharp points on the cheeks, they weren't much different than before, he hasn't obtained full control over the body by just taking a run.
For example, while he could make the black on his palms change state, that's all it did, he wasn't very sure what to do with it.
He tried reaching into the holes in his eyes, but the stubs were just too big.
Ixa thought back to anything else he tried before, and he remembered the roots in those holes.
He willed them to crawl back.
They did so until the light disappeared entirely from the holes, leaving just dark pits for eyes.
It seemed there was space back in his head, now...
"Let's try extending them."
He called them forward as much as possible.
As they moved forward, it came so far to the point they were about to escape the tube.
And a moment later, they did.
The moment they escaped the hole, from its taper end, it started to open up like a flower, but with no gaps in-between the petals.
It started to fill the indentations with no seams.
Once it did so, light grey particles could be seen being housed in it, floating around inside, some flowed back into the head, while others arrived from it.
The moment they finished, he finally had physical vision, although...
"These exaggerated points take up almost all my vision."
He tried to look down at himself but couldn't.
"I'm going to have to get used to that..."