Data & Results...

Despite what he said, Ixa can't forgo either skill of his, no matter how torturous it is on its victims or himself, they were too useful, and besides-

"It only worked when I focused it onto a single person, so my intent will only result in a painful death if I do just that...I'll only do it if necessary, again..."

'It's kind of funny...I said I would save this philosophical mumbo-jumbo for later, yet I'm already figuring it out, mostly with placing self-restraints on using the disgusting, ugly nature of my abilities...

They deem it necessary I figure this stuff out for myself even though it isn't really important at all, as I'll still use them as I desire, regardless of using them for the wrong or right reasons...'

For a moment, Ixa thought to himself if that really was the case, if he would really use them regardless of just what exactly they do to a person.

But before he could get to that answer, he got a response from System.

[ I have finished my investigation into the state and nature of the rabbit's body.]

"Oh! That was fast."

[ It has already been nearly an hour since we returned, I wouldn't say that, please return to your main body, I wish to show you something.]

Confused, Ixa's consciousnesses that were split across the bodies recollected back together into his root body.

Back in the welcoming darkness that is his lack of vision, he 'sat' and waited for System to explain as he felt with what they said before, they have something big to say.

[ System reviewed my initial scan while studying the current body, as I need all the data I have on the body to determine why it isn't rotting, and I noticed something strange: the body is changing.]

"I'm sorry, WHAT?! How is a dead body growing?"

[ Calm down, it isn't growing, as I looked through its body, I saw something was developing in the center of its body, and on closer look, it was its own necrotic core.]

"I- I remember you putting a <Necrotic Essence Core> in my information for <Fallen Treant>, does it have something to do with that?"

[ Actually, yes, as you know, necrotic essence is the elements of death and life with a or multiple souls, and your core is made with your very own body and soul as I analyzed, as for why that is relevant, here is my analyst on the body first.]

A red screen appeared like his status, except it is in a shape of a diamond, not a square, separated into 4 smaller diamond-shaped sections.

The one on the right showed a diagram of the rabbit's body, the area in the center seems to be empty, with line-like structures holding an ovular core like his own in the center, spreading past the open space to the edges of the body.

On the left shows a triangle turned at a 90° angle with the image of the diagram behind it, the bottom one has sentences upon sentences of data of the body, like height, weight, amongst other obscure specifications of the body, while the top holds notes seemingly handwritten.

[ As you see, a part of the inner body has been cleared into empty space, the surrounding flesh has been changed into this...]

On the left panel, the triangle disappeared, and on the diagram, it zoomed in on a part of the small cavity where normal flesh used to be.

On the border of this space, a sort of structuralized greyish wall of flesh took place of the normal kind, past that border, multiple structures formed like a complex web, weaving through them, some of them branched off each other, but the main ones, they all intertwined together like thread to a singular point at the centermost of this entire bodily chamber.

A dark grey core, it looked almost liquid, as if it were being pressed down by some invisible force enough to where it takes shape as a solid core, nearly black in coloration, but at its center, it burned and glowed a bright shine of grey, almost no distinction to white.

As it sat there, grey light traveled through the linear structures, originating from past the borders, and as the mysterious light coalesced naturally as the structures got more and more concentrated with less branches, until it all collected together into the entwinement surrounding the core.

The light at the center flickered violently like a blob of flame under water...

And grew.

[ The lines connected to the core breach past the border of this strange flesh and extend to the very rims of the body.

In the space, it takes on the previously shown qualities, but once it passes it, it becomes like that of regular flesh, and this space has only been expanding, so far, it only has consumed the abdominal area, and these structures holding the core not only serve as supports but seem to direct this wall of changed flesh to spread and consume.]

As it spoke, the video continued, following along with what she said.

[ As it converts and drains the normal flesh of its remaining life as a corpse outside of the border and sends it through the structures, the edge of the interior border flakes, and they somehow are attracted towards the core like its own center of gravity, dancing between the lines as they meet the core, sinking into it, being absorbed along with it.]

The video ends with the play button back in place.

[ I studied the core and found it wasn't solid, it was just <Necrotic Essence Material> condensed to such a degree it takes an almost completely solid quality, I don't know what this is trying to achieve, but considering how this is influencing the functionality of the body, and that it cannot sustain the state of the core, I could only have one guess, and that is it is in the midst of some kind of transformative phase of its form; essentially, this is the body's reaction to your presence as you manipulate the elements of its body, life and death, as a form of controlling it.

At its 'core', the elements are bending and twisting the body to better suit your presence as its new 'host'.]

"...I...I don't know if I'm more amazed at myself for understanding what came out of your text box of a mouth, or disturbed at the matter that any body I possess is going to become...what exactly?"

[ I am unsure, however, this is where your necrotic essence core comes in, as you are the cause of the transmutation, you can also direct it, as in control the process, to either slow down, speed up, or even halt it in its entirely, this process is tied to your own core as that is the center of your being, be it your abilities, what you are, and who you are, as it holds all of it, and all of it is what this change originates from.

Anyway, there are other functions of your nectrotic essence core, but not only are they unknown to me, but they are locked behind your physiological growth as a Fallen Treant, so only with advancements and research can I find out what they are; I had only found out this one because it seems to be one of the innate traits of your race, and it collaborates with my research on your core and what was happening with the body.]

"Okay...before I even begin to ask how I do that, I have a few questions, one, you said 'Necrotic Essence Material', as in the elements of life and death without a soul, are you saying its soul isn't in there? Two, does it change anything if it was necrotic essence? And now three, how do I do it?"

[ 1. Yes, strangely, it seemed to have moved on already...considering we haven't confirmed anything about the 'how' a soul moves on besides the method you used, we are in the dark.

2. I do not know, the only reason I figured this out now due to multiple collaborating details, being my active study of your core and your racial traits, the rest came about of circumstances, be it you questioning and directing me to look into why the corpse's body wasn't rotting, the process of this transformation being an intrinsic reaction to your presence and control over it, or simply the fact that this is completely new territory compared to everything we've seen, which, while little, is comprehensively a lot for the span of not even a day.

3. Try and focus on your core, as regularly it is hard to sense for you not only because it is physically not connected to your body, but also due to the insensitivity of your body, once you interact with it, I reason to believe it to be natural from there.]

"Here's to hoping it doesn't turn out useless or something vile, my abilities are already rather 'unpleasant' to say the least, I don't need another one that is nauseating to know, or even see happen."

He focused on his body, and the minute feelings that pasted, be it how the dirt felt against his roots, to the cool air felt at the tips of his body, all through the dim sensitivity his body inherently works with.

Ixa scanned his entire body like this from top to bottom, and he managed to pick out an extremely subtle feeling between the four spikes, again, it was mostly just a cold feeling in the air, what else was he supposed to feel in the middle of nowhere on a cold night in the middle of a dirt field, right?

He concentrated and pushed himself to try and feel more of his core.

The core responded as it started to shine in its red luminosity.

The dark of his absence of vision changed, he didn't know what did, but he felt there was some subtle shift, and something appeared, it was his body, he was viewing it from a 3rd perspective.

He lacked color, he was like a blank black canvas, with white outlines.

The only thing that retained its color was his core, which was flickering between grey and red, as if struggling to decide upon something.

As it grew more rapid, he started to feel dizzy, from before where he struggled to even feel any exhaustion besides the mental kind, now it felt like it was overwhelming him.

It was like a dam bursting, sensory overflowed, disrupting his thought process like blips, as if his entire mind goes quiet when it overloaded it, and paired with the exhaustion, it almost crippled his mind as is, nearly sending him unconscious.

The core reflected his state of mind, the red becoming more dominant, haphazardly taking over every time the grey had even a moment of time to take control, and as if it were infectious, the color started to spread from itself to his body, painting the canvas.

Before he could be pushed out of this state entirely in exhaustion, he felt something the moment the drastic struggle between the two eclipsed, as his body would be colored entirely red, he didn't know what they represented, however, something about the confliction gave him some faint idea in his mind of what to do, so, he firmly grasped the notion within his mind, and gave it his all.

Freezing in response due to his sheer concentration, the core stopped fighting with itself in colors, right in the middle of changing colors, a majority of it in red with only a bit of grey.

According to the hidden notions in his mind, Ixa pushed forward, and the core seemed to finally stop conflicting as a decision was finally made.

The colors swirled in the core, generating an awkward mix of pinkish-red, with gray spots, taking the previous color's place in the 'canvas', and the feeling of exhaustion extinguished; the center of his body from his roots to just before his spikes was vivid red while from that point, the red was flecked with grey spots more and more, turning a pink till it became so constant to where gray overtook the red.

In that moment, another core made its appearance in the distance, like water pressed into a sphere, it was hollow besides a grey flame, barely considered grey as it was almost white, on the ground.

Ixa felt 3 separate ideas enter his mind subtly, and this time, he was able to tell what they were thanks to his experience finally catching up to him with all of this time seemingly spent in his mind or simply just not in the physical world.

'Or is it just the world but altered with a different view? Bah! Curious thoughts for later.'

They were as System said, the ability to halt the progress of this 'transformation', slow it, or speed it up.

There was no reason to stop or continue it, besides simply figuring out just what the transformation does, only once he knows what it does can he decide if he should ignore this ability or apply it every chance he gets with all the bodies he'll gain under his control.

'Let's progress it and see what happens.'

He decided upon an option and acted on the respective option present in his mind.

•••

[ What is going on? Ixa? Unconscious? Strange...]

System saw as his core changed colors without pause, and how it only got faster, with red being the more predominant one of the two.

As it looked into what was going on, System noticed a strange interaction between the body and consciousness, but before System could analyze, a more drastic change took place, it logged what it noticed before and continued to observe.

The core stopped transforming in an instant in the middle of switching colors, and from the center to its further edge, a mixed color of reddish-pink appeared.

The rabbit's corpse responded in sync to its appearance, it started to twitch at an abnormal rate.

It continued to do so until is stopped randomly a few seconds later.

Nothing was happening.

That was until a moment later, its flesh started to darken, fur shriveled, eyes sinking even more to the point you couldn't tell if they were even there anymore, and the flesh took on that unmistakable color of grey from before.

The strange corpse of the rabbit started to disappear in its entirety, however, its insides were revealed.

As parts of the outside flaked, they were gravitated towards the core, and the moment one of the linear structures wasn't connected to a part of the edge of the body, it immediately was reduced to something similar to ash and was also absorbed by the core.

The body slowly condensed in this manner in such a way the main line constructs where all the secondary lines branched off from wouldn't disappear until all the branches connected to it served its purpose: there was no senseless destruction.

The core was completely different from the start, it was burning bright like a light grey cinder contained into a little ball, only its very edges were white.

The moment one of the main structures turned to ash, another did, almost one after the other.

The body was finally gone, no white remained, only the grey light.

As it floated just above the ground, it started to float higher, and as it did, so did it where Ixa was.

On cue, Ixa's core blew up in the nonphysical realm into a mass of particles retaining the same color as his core.

The opposing core started to flare up in both realms, bulging at different parts, like something in it was trying to break out.

The core got bigger and bigger but was forced back to a small size, like it was-

While in Ixa's realm, tendrils shot of the storm of particles, encapsulating the core, like it was trying to protect him from it-

[Don't tell me all of that was- ]

•At the Same Time•

"-it is trying to-!?"

~BOOOOOOOOM~

While Ixa couldn't see what the explosion did, System saw the core explode in a very strange way.

It didn't just flat out explode outward, but into a shape, particularly...

In the shape of a bunny.

A name appeared in their minds, from where they do not know:

Necrotiasic Rabbit