A few moments later, Levi woke up in his small cottage... the green haze of the aether realm faded slowly in his spiritual vision until he found himself back in the Boundless Expanse. Immediately, he was taken by surprise, feeling rejuvenated and filled with life like he was reborn.
Ash’Kral watched him sit on the bed with a faint smile.
"You woke up earlier than expected..." He said. "Did you succeed in taming the Soulleech Maw? I thought it will be somewhat of a challenge to you."
Hearing this, it clicked in Levi’s mind that Ash’Kral thought he was put in a dream by the Soulleech Maw to see if he had what it took to wield it.
Yet, Levi didn’t blurt out the truth... he just looked at him with a confused expression and said, "I think so. I had a dream... or maybe not a dream... I don’t know for sure. But, I did meet the Soulleech Maw, and it seems to have accepted me."
Ash’Kral’s expression brightened up a little.
"That thing doesn’t judge or choose... It only knows how to devour souls and scare the shit out of the living back in my days. For it to accept you this quick... that’s rare."
"I guess it was fond of me due to the quality of my soul?" Levi shrugged and then asked, "What is it, though? What does it do? It didn’t talk... I just felt what it wants and needs... I can tell, it needs souls..."
Ash’Kral nodded in understanding, not seeing anything weird about what he said... his knowledge of the Soulleech Maw was limited just like everyone else.
"The Soulleech Maw is a spirit parasite... It grows into its own being and feeds on souls while producing the aetheric flames as a byproduct of the process... I never had one myself, so don’t expect me to teach you how it works. I only know that once it grows to its mature state, it becomes something terrifying."
"Devours souls and produces aetheric flames..." Levi raised a brow, "Are you talking about the terrifying flames that left me wishing to die?"
"Exactly."
Levi showed genuine fear as he brought his palm to his face... he knew that lying to Ash’Kral was a delicate matter. He needed to show genuine emotions to avoid raising Ash’Kral’s suspicion that something had happened differently in his ’dream’.
This was the first time he was about to hide something from him, and he needed to be good at it... Otherwise, the Soulleech Monarch would have another chat with him.
"You don’t have to worry about these flames ever in your life, though." Ash’Kral smirked in approval, "The moment the Soulleech Maw was linked to your soul, you inherited its immunity to the Aetheric Flames."
Levi’s lips parted a little in daze... then, he exclaimed excitedly, "You’re telling me I can wield those terrifying flames now without the fear of getting burnt by it?"
"Yes."
"Holy... this is huge."
"It is... but don’t get your hopes too high." Ash’Kral jumped on his bed and said calmly while pointing at his palm, "The Aetheric Flames isn’t exactly an Aspect that can be learned or accessed... as I mentioned, it emerges during the process of the Soulleech Maw’s devouring souls... You can consider it as its feces, which are mixed with undying memories, thoughts, emotions, and pain of the devoured soul... the more painful experiences a soul went through and was devoured, the more flames are produced and the stronger they burn."
"Feces..." Levi’s lips twitched, "You just had to ruin it for me."
Ash’Kral chuckled and said, "I thought you always wanted the truth from me."
"Then, tell me the whole truth." Levi frowned, "How come you were able to summon the aetheric flames using an array?"
"Fine by me." Ash’Kral shared casually, "My array connects to the Aether Realm... the entire realm is filled with dormant aetheric flames produced by them over eons... once they are touched, they come to life."
"Makes sense..." Levi nodded in understanding, recalling what happened to the door... and then swiftly switched the subject, not wanting to prolong the lie in case he messed up, "By the way... why do I feel good?"
As he said this, Levi jumped off the bed with his long, ethereal green hair spreading in the air like it was floating on its own.
"Also... the hell is this?" Levi curled his lips as he touched his hair, which was long enough, it touched the floor.
"The emergence of the Soulleech Maw almost got you killed... we had to use the Primordial Tree of Life’s leaf to save you." Ash’Kral then pointed at his hair, "As for your hair... what can I say? Your evolution revolved around aetheric flames, and so as your main mutation... You couldn’t escape having it mutated when hair follicles are the easiest to influence during one’s evolution."
"Mutation... I look like a salad of lettuce." Levi smiled wryly, "I have to cut it off... if Shia were to see me, she would ignore me for a week out of jealousy."
"When you finish cutting your hair, princess... You should join us in the Spiritual Leywell."
Ash’Kral and the Titan chuckled as they watched Levi use a high-frequency razor-sharp small blade to cut it off... in less than half a minute, Levi’s hair returned to its original length, not crossing his cheeks.
Then, he wore a new piece of black cloth around his eyes and straightened his hair slightly upward... he used his Harmonic Spine to do a 360 of his appearance and nodded in satisfaction.
"Now, it’s not so bad... when shortened, it tends to look like a soft platinum rather than green."
After getting his appearance straightened up, Levi swiftly sank his consciousness inside his Spiritual Leywell... somewhat eager to see the fruits of his labor.
The instant his vision switched to his wisp inside his Leywell, Levi was left awed to see the three Origin Seeds orbiting around their own souls while the real spiritual version of the seed was embedded in three humanoid, but featureless souls.
Each one reflected a different hue... gold, black, and crimson.
"I really did it..."
Levi murmured; the pain he went through faded from his mind as he gazed at this miraculous scene.
"Yes, you did." The Titan said with a proud smile, "Good job, Kid... you went through hell, but you pulled off what no one else could in the presence of three Origin Seeds."
"You should check your resonance access and ultimate ability... I am certain the three seeds should have rewarded you for keeping your word, even when you made the other two slightly pissed." Ash’Kral said.
No hesitation, Levi focused on his resonance access of each seed and was left stunned... not because they were good to him, it was the opposite.
"Nine Senses Seed has increased my resonance to 25%, which is amazing... but the other two." Levi sighed, "17% each... 2% increase... I guess they were more than just a little pissed."
Ash’Kral frowned in displeasure, also not too pleased with the other two seeds’ reward.
"I guess they are forcing your hand to evolve them as well... it’s bad enough to choose the Nine Senses Seed to inhabit the main soul, but you can’t leave them behind for too long." He said.
Levi nodded... he realized that even though he kept his word and gave them their own space each, they hated the notion of being seen as secondary characters compared to the Nine Senses Seed that inhabited his main soul.
When it came to their ego... it was still huge, and regardless of what Levi said or did, he couldn’t really change how they see or think of themselves.
After all, if it were so easy for them to get along and accept each other, the Three-Body Problem wouldn’t have remained unsolved for this long.
They see themselves as three main characters, and they deserve the rightful treatment.
Still... Levi was just glad that none of them allowed their ego to ruin his evolution. For now, he decided to leave the conversation of putting their minds at ease until he decided to evolve them... which wouldn’t be long, as he desired to stay away from evolutions right now.
Even when he had survived the evolution, the trauma was permanent.
"What now?" Levi asked as he took a seat next to them, "I can sense my main soul’s spiritual prowess to hover around Solarbound second stage, give or take... but, I can’t really sense the other two?"
If Levi had to describe it... he felt like he was in possession of three doors and had the keys to all of them. However, two doors were closed and needed the key, while the main door was always open, no key required. If he wanted to sense his other souls or have control of them, he needed to unlock the doors... but, if he did, the main door would close automatically.
"That’s natural... You are now in possession of three individual souls... they might all belong to you, but you can’t control all of them simultaneously." Ash’Kral said calmly, "After all, you only have one body and mind."
"Seems fair." Levi nodded for a moment and then focused on the Sun Soul, "Should I give it a try and switch?"
"Go for it while you still can maintain your rationality and control." Ash’Kral added sternly while pointing his paw in their direction, "If you look close enough, you can see that your soul’s interior was slowly being changed to golden and black hues... that, my friend, is persona corruption of these two brats."
"..."
Levi was left speechless, noticing exactly what he mentioned when he took a closer look.
"Are they punishing me?" He asked, not too happy with this.
"Of course not... they wanted their own personal souls for this exact reason." Ash’Kral shook his head, "When all three seeds shared one soul, none of them bothered to relax since they knew the other two would make it impossible for them... but now? They are free to express themselves, and unfortunately... this expression comes with a price that you have to pay."
"Wait a second..."
Hearing what he said, Levi suddenly felt a chill course down his spine after recalling one important note.
The Void Seed withheld all of Levi’s persona corruption from his battle against the Mad Emperor!
As this thought coursed his mind, Levi was left horrified to see the Void Soul turning darker and darker at a noticeable speed... in less than three seconds, his gentle gray soul had become as dark as the void!
It was like the f*cker was waiting for him to figure it out before unleashing everything that belonged to him.
Levi didn’t know why... but as he stared at the Void Seed, all he heard was: You didn’t think I would hold onto your corruption forever? Did you, now?