The Next Morning...
Levi had just finished enhancing the Titan's wisp by investing heavily in Terraforge Laws-based resources. Ash'Kral crafted the same array for them and handled the process in his territory.
With his enhanced wisp, the Titan split it into two pieces and brought them inside Arthur's Spiritual Leywell... he left the rest with Levi's.
Right now... everyone remained quiet, letting the Titan focus before he could commit to the transformation.
He told them that he needed to read the entire Shadowlife Codex since each one was different based on their genetic libraries and such... the standard version implemented included the systems. Still, the libraries depended on the Seed's journey ever since its creation to the point it landed in Khu'zan's hands and now, in Arthur's.
'He said if he deletes everything... Arthur will lose all abilities, techniques, and mutations he has worked hard for.' Levi thought inwardly, gazing at the Titan in intrigue. 'I wonder what he is seeing inside the seed... does it really have actual visual libraries within it as they have told me?'
Levi was curious to share the Titan's vision... when he asked about it before, they told him that the interior of a Shadowlife Seed was like a massive library with countless shelves, and each shelf had thousands of leaves with IIthorien inscriptions written in them. Each leaf had millions of inscriptions arranged neatly like DNA instructions, but for the Shadowlife Seeds.
'I can tell you want to take a peek badly,' Ash'Kral chuckled.
'I wasn't hiding it.' Levi sighed, 'If it wasn't for worrying about breaking Elder's concentration and ruining his efforts, I would have requested to get included.'
Levi's curiosity was too hard to tame, and almost always put him in trouble... but when it came to his little brother's chance of reaching divinity, he wouldn't take any chances unless he was sure his presence wouldn't affect the Titan negatively.
'Well, you can join me... I am chilling outside and watching him do his thing, using a minor array. It doesn't impact him negatively,' Ash'Kral offered lazily.
'... asshole, why didn't you tell me?'
'You never asked.'
'...' Levi's brows twitched, 'You really are one of a kind...'
...
After Levi switched back to his real consciousness in the real world, he found Ash'Kral sitting with his paws tucked on top of a floating rock. He was watching a small array on the ground, which was rippling like a lake mirror... but it reflected the Titan's vision within the Shadowlife Seed.
He was indeed... chilling lazily.
"You will be the death of me with your shenanigans... now, scoot over."
Levi pushed Ash'Kral's rock aside in irritation and used his spiritual vision to spectate too... the moment his vision aligned with the rippling mirror, he was left utterly stunned.
"What the..."
The library stretched out farther than the eye could follow... rows upon rows of towering bookshelves arranged endlessly in a circular design. It was sliced from the middle by a long path, separating the infinite design from the middle, connected to thousands of smaller paths, leading to different sections.
The vast hall was divided into two distinct halves by the middle path... on the left side, the atmosphere was gloomy and covered in moving mist. Each leaf on the shelves was wilted, curled, and nearly black as though drained of life long ago.
Even the shelves looked old and brittle, their wood cracked and dry like it hadn't had a touch of life ever since its creation.
The right half contrasted it entirely... warm holy light poured down from above, illuminating rows of vibrant shelves.
The leaves here were golden and white, emitting a rich sense of vitality as if every leaf was a living entity... soft sounds of running water, drifting wind, and bird chirps echoed across this side.
Levi watched in awe as these two opposite sides maintained a delicate balance, their atmospheres never crossing beyond the boundary of the central path that separated them.
Since Levi was watching from a high angle, he couldn't help but marvel at the design resembling a joint tree between death and life... the trunk was the middle path, the mini-roads amidst them represented the branches, holding into the leaves.
This entire construct was captured in a thick spherical fog, making it impossible to see beyond it.
"Shadowlife Seeds are truly a work of art... but if they looked like this from within, what about Origin Seeds?"
Just the thought itself left Levi with wild guesses, incapable of imagining their Origin Codex.
"Don't even think about it." Ash'Kral shut him down before that idea was born in his mind, "Ancestral Trees never allow anyone within their Collective Origin Codex Libraries unless they had a minimum of a 90% resonance access... this is the heart of the seeds, the brain, the soul, they're everything. Once inside, anyone could erase, modify, and add their own inscriptions if they were decent Array Masters... but adding is one thing, and not affecting the stability and perfection of the Codex is another."
Hearing this, Levi dropped his desire to visit his Origin Seed's Libraries... he could tell that it was the most sacred place for the seeds, and they protected it as dearly as they could.
Getting access inside of it was the same as handing someone a knife and putting it in front of their hearts... only those they trusted wholeheartedly with their life would have a chance to bless their eyes with their Origin Codex.
"This wildly resembles a software code source... if one got access to it, they could either improve it or absolutely ruin it with bugs and such through their unskilled hands... who is more skilled than the creator of this perfection?" Levi shared with a shake of his head, "No wonder Elder is taking more than a year with the transformation process... he understands that one mistake in a line, and Arthur might lose his enhancements like they were never his."
"That's the least of your worry." Ash'Kral disclosed solemnly, "One stupid mistake and your brother might lose his senses, organ failure, get an unexplainable disease, and even... death."
Levi nodded with a stern expression as he watched the Titan standing before a bookshelf in silence, holding into a leaf on the deathly atmospheric side. At this point, Levi began to understand the nature of Seeds much better and why they were capable of genetically modifying everyone.
The Shadowlife or Origin Codexes were linked to the genetic Codex of lifeforms the instant they were integrated into one's body and soul... the Shadowlife Seeds then offered its gifts and rewards by modifying and upgrading the genes based on the knowledge in its possession mixed with the evolutionary formula that gave them better readings and access to higher forms of enhancements.
If one messed with the Seed Codex... the host would be impacted just as badly because it wasn't a simple process to manipulate one's genes to benefit them... but it was far, far easier to break them apart and ruin the genetic codes.
What the Titan wanted to do was replace the Shadowlife Codex with the Origin Codex while still allowing Arthur to maintain what he had earned... this meant he needed to read a lot to ensure he didn't miss anything before he committed to the replacement process.
"You guys should stop wasting time on me and think of your own problem at hand... it's going to take me a while before I can show some results."
The Titan's wisp inside Levi's Spiritual Leywell smiled as he watched them keeping an eye on his other wisp.
Hearing this, Levi was reminded that two more evolutions of his own still awaited him in less than a week... he still hadn't figured out a way to keep the branches from getting entangled.
"My brother is in your hands, Elder." Levi requested with a sincere tone, "Please take care of him... he is everything I have left."
"If I wasn't comfortable with Arthur, I wouldn't have done this..." the Titan said softly, "He is now under my care, and you don't have to worry anymore."
"Thank you... truly."
Listening to their conversation, Ash'Kral rolled his eyes in annoyance as he mumbled, "Where is my thanks?"
"Also, I haven't forgotten, I will check on your little brother's Radian genes and see what I can do to awaken them once the process ends." The Titan mentioned.
"Ah... I appreciate it." Levi showed a pleased smile, "If he were to awaken them, his path will get so much easier considering Origin Seeds need insane amounts of energy to grow."
"I have it covered."
"... and I am the asshole?"
Seeing them continue to ignore him, Ash'Kral scoffed and then jumped on the array, ruining it with his paws... then he showed both of them a tiny middle finger.
Levi and the Titan merely chuckled at the sight, taking great enjoyment in pissing off Ash'Kral any chance they had... but soon, the crushing weight of reality returned for Levi.
"Now... how am I going to solve the branches' dilemma without pissing off any of the three Divas?"