2 Chapter 2 – A Strange Rebirth

A buzzing mechanical sound echoed wildly inside a room with 10 glass tubes filled with liquid, and black figures that looked like a human, with various characteristics: fat, slender, women, and men, were encased within them. They shared similarities with their face being as flat as a tiled floor.

In the surroundings, many pipes connected to the top of the tubes, pumping bubbles of air inside. A buzzing sound from the equipment inside the room echoed, and many monitors around the tubes lit up the room with a cold, blue light.

Cables spread across the cold concrete gray floor. The shadows on the ground danced around from the moving light from one of the tubes.

*Woosh*

The sound of the automatic door opening rang, and a bright light basked the room from outside, lighting it up completely and casting long shadows on the wall behind the tubes.

Something small and black floated in front of the door. It was Ossa, the extraterrestrial spirit, who had just made a contract with a certain human called Rai. And he was here to fetch the new vessel for the young man.

[Hmm… Which one should I choose?]

*Zoop*

After Ossa entered, the door behind was closed automatically.

The spirit looked around at black figures inside the tubes, looking around as if he was shopping for a vegetable in the market, as he pointed his small clawed hand to one another. The black figures within the tubes were the commodities.

Indeed, these base bodies were precious commodities, especially for Extity. They were the highest and the best grade of base bodies available in the organization, usually preserved for Commanders' regeneration if they were defeated in a fight.

However, Ossa was forced to use one of these base bodies for the human he had just recruited from a parallel world. It was a part of the contract they had negotiated just earlier.

[A body with lean and well-defined muscle with top 10% physical strength in this world. His requirements are too high for a human.]

But that might be worth it. Ossa had been thinking of giving that human a worthy base body since the start because the quality of his Dark Magicule was truly astonishing, almost rivaling the 3 Commanders of Extity.

No normal base body would be able to harness such Dark Magicule. Only the best one would ever have the chance for Rai's soul to settle.

[That base seems good. Hmm, if I remember correctly, it was the base for the last Commander who ditched Extity 10 years ago, Razor. Their power is similar, but Razor could only create blades. The muscle and body's appearance fit perfectly.]

Ossa approached the base body located on the corner, the 1st body to the left. It had an androgynous appearance, well-defined muscles with a flat face. The waist was a bit slim for a man, it was more similar to a girl.

He used his claw to operate some buttons on a panel in front of the tube.

[The face would morph according to the soul, so let's leave it at that.]

The machine hummed louder as smoke came out from the pipes connected to the tube. Bubbles began to form inside as the liquid got sucked from the hole that was opened with a clank on the bottom of the tube.

A whirring sound followed suit, and the top of the tube connected to the pipe was opened. The liquid inside had already decreased by half, and the base body inside slumped slightly as it lacked support, leaning against the glass tube with its soft body that had yet to be shaped to be truly a human.

Long shadows extended from Ossa's body like two tentacles, picking up the base body that had lost its support like a crane machine and bringing it out of the tube, bringing it closer for him to inspect.

[Hmm, it's shorter than that human. 165cm only, is it? But I guess he needs to make do with this. This is the only body with the 'well-defined muscle' he asked for. And it can still grow depending on his compatibility, so it's not a problem.]

A loud rumbling sound followed suit. Ossa's body slowly bubbled, just like water came to a boil under intense heat. It slowly grew in size as the shadowy mist around the spirit rat-like body became thicker and unbearable.

The light from the monitors flickered rapidly, casting a long shadow and leaving the room in the dark every a hundredth of a second.

Then after growing until his body was bigger than the base body, Ossa opened his mouth wide, revealing his sharp teeth, which was unusual for a rat, and–

*Chomp!*

–chomped the base body whole.

Processing a soul into a new body needed delicate steps. It couldn't be done hastily or instantly.

As the leader of Extity, Ossa had done this procedure multiple times. Meddling something with a base body was easy for him.

A gurgling sound echoed in the dimly lit room as the monitors stopped flickering. The large shadow that was once the extraterrestrial spirit was slowly getting smaller but still big enough to hold a human inside.

Oddly, the rat-like body belonging to Ossa moved around, processing the base body inside him.

A spirit's body wasn't similar to a physical body but more like a lump of condensed Magicule taking shape. And that shape was what Ossa looked like currently. The rat-like shape had inflated to something similar to a balloon.

A few seconds passed, and something crawled out from Ossa's darkness body.

The first thing that appeared was what looked like a hand. It pierced the darkness covered in black mist—a pale, white hand, unlike the black color of the base body from earlier, trying to reach out the air outside.

Then a head with dark hair that looked straight from the abyss. The closed eyes with long eyelashes fluttered open.

Gasping for air, a soft and subtle voice rang from his throat. His appearance, as beautiful as a korean idol, was finally clear when the dark liquid covering his face dripped down.

What crawled out from the darkness next was his body, covered in a tight black t-shirt. His body with lean muscle stood out as the monitor lit up his appearance.

Finally, his legs were spit from the darkness, covered in long black pants, and he was whole, standing there while looking down at his arms.

The creature of darkness, the extraterrestrial spirit Ossa, turned smaller, returning to his rat-like appearance, surrounded by dark mist.

[That was exhausting.] A complaint escaped its mouth. [Welcome to this new world, I guess. How is it, your new body?]

A figure that had just crawled out from the darkness earlier grinned. Tightening his fists into a ball, Rai could feel power gushing inside his body. He felt… powerful.

"It's amazing."

Turning around, his obsidian black eyes met with Ossa's figure.

"I think I will really love this new body."

[I am glad you think that way.]

A low, calculated, evil laugh escaped the spirit's lips. How could Rai not like the body? It was created with the finest materials, and Ossa even carefully infused the majority of his power into it.

[Now then, without further ado, how about we attend the initiation for new members of Extity?]

There was no time to waste.