He knew that their decision would be made throughout the two evolutions... if they decided to work together, they wouldn’t punish him with pain and shitty mutations, but actually help him get closer to fulfilling the Soul-Split Theory.
No more talking, Levi broke the resonance and focused on his upcoming evolutions... would they torture him again, or did his words get to them by some miracle?
As Levi waited silently, his heartbeats kept increasing steadily... nervousness was slowly gnawing at him with each second that went by without pain.
’Maybe it worked... I actual... Arghhhhhhhhh!!’
Before Levi could celebrate his success at uniting the three seeds temporarily, the two seeds’ coats split, and tiny golden and black roots pushed downward to anchor into Levi’s pelvis as well.
They wanted to attach their roots to the sacrum just like the Crimson seed did... however, there was only one route to it, and the Crimson’s root already inhabited it.
This forced the newer roots to try and squeeze in through, uncaring if their roots were touching each other... the one who would pay the price was always Levi.
Right now, he wasn’t being tormented by just two seeds, but even the nine-sense seed joined in on the fun!
Cold, heat, and headache... all three flaring periodically each time the roots touched each other on the way down!
’You motherf*c.... arghhhh!!!!’
Thud!
Levi was in so much pain, he rolled down the bed and fell in front of the glass window, his naked torso and twisted face planted all over the glass... fortunately, no one could see or hear him inside his studio.
’That’s unfortunate, I genuinely believed he managed to convince them.’ The Titan sighed in disappointment.
’Old Bark... look closer, my friend.’
Ash’Kral grinned widely as he gazed at the two-colored spiritual roots starting to knit around the crimson root, making it resemble a three-color braid.
’Hmmm... is that normal?’ The Titan frowned in confusion, ’I have never seen three origin roots in one soul, so I don’t know what I am looking at.’
Ash’Kral laughed with his tiny wings raised up high.
’This... this is a new beginning, my friend! The three roots are meant to remain separate in the soul and body... but the three trees are actually combining their roots into one!’
’It can’t be...’ The Titan was taken aback. ’What about the pain?’
’But it can!’ Ash’Kral grinned, ’The pain is normal... it has been an automatic response for so many years, each time their roots or branches touched... although they seemed ’cool’ with each other for now, it’s still going to take a while before they get used to having contact without flaring.’
’Shit... are you telling me the boy has actually convinced them to unite?’
The Titan stood up, his mouth slightly agape as he watched Levi rolling from one side of the studio to the other nonstop... his voice was a mixture of curses and agonizing screeches.
It didn’t seem like a victory to him at all.
’He convinced them to accept a truce until he commits to the Soul-Split Theory... whether he fails or succeeds, they have everything to gain as long as they swallow their ego for a couple of months and hold hands until he grants them their personal space.’ Ash’Kral laughed.
It might not seem like much, but Ash’Kral knew just how massive this was towards finding the Three Body Problem’s final solution of uniting the three origin seeds into one.
This truce was a step in the right direction, a step none of his previous partners could get out of the three trees... none of them had a way to convince them, but Levi’s solution ensured they got personal space.
It seemed like it was the only thing that could get those three divas to hold hands temporarily.
’Look, our mutations are coming along!’
Ash’Kral laughed, the pain doing literally nothing to break his spirit... his own body was going through the same process as Levi’s, evolution and all, yet the same grin never left his face.
He watched his body grow larger while his fur turned from black to milky white... and then, the central eye became smaller while the rest of his body got enlarged, giving birth to actual limbs.
His appearance slowly started to resemble a foxlike creature, but holding undeniable traits of a bat... his soft white fur was now banded with sharp lines of gold, crimson, and black that patterned his body with mystical beauty.
Large ears rose tall from his new head, their inner folds marked in deep crimson and edged in black. Across his face, golden markings stretched in elegant, angular designs, drawing attention to his piercing crimson eyes... one had a golden pupil and the other a black pupil.
What was Ash’Kral without his wings?
The old, tiny wings, which wouldn’t be used as wings for a toy, were gone... in their place, a large pair of elegant and leathery wings were born.
They were decorated with flowing patterns of gold, black, and red, appearing somewhat hypnotic... yet, their beauty added to Ash’Kral’s new otherworldly appearance.
Last but not least... the tails. Ash’Kral had no tails before, but now, three tails had emerged from his tailbone!
The three tails were white as well, but each one was striped with a different color: crimson, gold, and black. Even the stripe designs were different, resembling the three trees’ appearance. The crimson tail had a nanoflower design. The black tail was circling Ash’Kral’s tail with a thick line from the base that kept narrowing until the tip.
The final golden one was patterned by a chain of triangles.
A closer look revealed faint Ilithian runic inscriptions etched into each tail, lending them an aura of ancient power.
Every detail of his appearance transformed him from a joke to an actual nightcrawler with an aura of absolute majesty.
Meanwhile, Levi wasn’t having it any easier... his chosen organ for the newest mutations was Skin... for which seed you ask? Both!
The Sun and Void seeds had chosen to mutate Levi’s skin, each one desiring to make his skin much more receptive and protected from their harmful energies.
But with them having the same idea, this led to neither side wanting to give up on their choice and pick another organ.
Accepting a truce didn’t mean they stopped hating or competing with each other.
Thus, they brute-forced Levi’s skin together... starting with golden light rippling underneath Levi’s skin, but showing on the surface as stripes of liquid gold spread across his arms and chest, forming chained triangular patterns.
After covering his limbs and torso, they linked up in the center of his chest in an illuminating triangle.
They almost resembled the Radian stripes that showed when Levi awakened his half-radian bloodline... but there was no presence of a sun symbol on his stomach or forehead.
The new tattoo seemed of much higher quality and represented the Sun Origin Tree more than just any Radian bloodline.
At the same time, black lines showed up in circular designs, weaving endless rings and loops over his body... the start of a circle was the end of another, making them connected across his entire body in the center of his chest again in an infinity circle inside the golden triangle.
Although Levi’s skin turned into a canvas for the two trees’ art class, the two colors never touched somehow... gold and black ran apart yet in harmony, as if bound by an unspoken law to never cross each other’s paths.
’Dear lord... Ash’Kral is right.’ The Titan remarked in astonishment at the sight, knowing that if the two trees still wanted to piss each other off with no care for consequences, they would have ruined their designs.
Instead, the last two-colored stripes climbed over Levi’s neck and face until the final mark settled on his forehead: a glowing golden triangle framing a single black circle at its center.
The circle had no beginning and no end... an infinity sealed within the light.
Only then did the pain subside steadily until Levi’s fingers let go of the carpet... before, he was lying flat on the ground with his toes curled up, throwing gangbanging signs while his fingers held the carpet for dear life. His screams had already gone hoarse, but they were the only thing that could help him vent a little.
Levi’s breath slowly steadied, his body alive, but his consciousness was already done for... he remained passed out for over fifteen minutes before his consciousness pressed the reboot button, waking him up.
The moment he woke up, the first thing that came to his mind was to curse the shit out of the ancestral trees... but he kept his cool, barely, and started to touch his skin to see if something was added or had gone missing.
’What the?’
However, he found that nothing had changed, leaving him confused... he felt his skin being ripped apart nonstop for nothing? He refused to accept it. Just as he was about to ask Ash’Kral about what happened, he told him to join them in his Spiritual Leywell.
Once Levi got inside, he was met with the sight of Ash’Kral’s latest appearance, leaving him stunned.
"The hell happened to you?"
"Evolution, my little friend," Ash’Kral smirked while sitting at the table on all of his clawed paws, resembling a winged mixture of a bat, a fox, and a cat.