18 You're Adopted, Bunny!

Hello, Occam's here.

And it seemed like I had acquired a new child.

"I find your bloodline to be deplorable."

And she just threw a shade at me.

Before I managed to acquire myself a little sassy piece of work, the moose deity gathered some sort of energy onto its antlers. As familiar blue light was converged into those majestic brambles of sprawling lifeline, numerous fades of strings could be discerned from the many particles that were charged by this fluctuating voltage.

Now that I took a clear gaze and heard it again, it was the very same kind of radiation- I mean, shine, like that one particular video on the internet about the descending rod of a nuclear reactor, together with that distinguished sound of doom.

And that very doom seemed to be targeted at me. I'm not a skeptical person but have I been really sure that this wasn't any attempt to erase me from existence? Maybe the rabbit still holds a grudge and they decided to ask this moose deity to destroy while pretending to be not to?

The sound was getting scarier.

I wanted to run away.

In my attempt to do so, I noticed that whatever that moose deity was casting had probably taken an effect on me, as I couldn't really feel my body nor could I move any part of it.

Hmm yes, the symphony of my carnage. Just a second away after my compliance to my fate, a sharp, searing piece of instrument had crashed five ways into the very center of my existence.

I didn't feel like any normal wound, it just straight up gave me the most vivid and surreal sensation of torment like none other before.

It was as if it was directed directly into my soul.

After two seconds of emulsifying pain and solemn lament of expurgation, the invisible instrument that was etched deep into my soul was then pulled out, stretching the entire half of my soul with it.

It was more than painful, transcendental, even. Feeling of sadness, dread, disgust, and repulsion were swirling all over my body like a flaming tidal flood on top of salted wounds that was dug deeper than any trenches known to living beings.

And as if it wasn't enough, my soul was kept stretched even further and further until it was near spaghettified into a single strand of atomic string.

Before that string was attached to an entirely foreign substance.

It was the rabbit's soul.

And as if my soul was turned into a conceptual book where any people could read by scanning the content and flipping the page, the pages were copied one by one into another different book with a slightly different method of storytelling.

That brand new book was then shoved into the rabbit soul. Which was by just feeling and acknowledging it happening, gave me an empathic cringe of pain that recoiled my whole guts into a stricken flight mode.

The rest of the process was incomprehensible, but it could still be generalized and then simplified into 'resonation'.

Before I knew it, the rabbit that formerly stood beside me had transformed.

The green fur had been repainted into glistening silver. The lower half of their quadrupedal centaur part was still there, but it had been reorganized and tinkered to possess greater flexibility than foundation, similar to that of a cheetah.

The torso part however, got the most transformation out of them all.

The bunny's upper part of the body had been turned into that of a literal human child—except with the pair of floppy rabbit ears and the hands up to the wrist that still were still a pair of big claws they have from before—with the chest gotten covered by a series of handcrafted clothing made from grass and the like. Did this little kid feel human's dignity that quickly?

I couldn't really tell this kid's gender because there wasn't any noticeable trait except for their adorably pretty face, which was the same case as mine when I'm younger.

Right, a slender physique—for the upper body—thick silver eyelashes, and a still growing short hair of silver hue.

A pair of golden gazes began to judge me from top to bottom, as if they tried to use their now set comprehension library to examine me.

"Now that the resonance has been formed, the two of you are able to converse with one another through the 'pathway of the soul'," said the moose. "Now try putting your thoughts into the sentence you wanted to convey, along with the intent to deliver this message to the other side."

"Girl or boy."

"I covered my chest, can't you take the hint?"

"Some men cover their chest because they are conscious of their birthmark, some even need to patch out their chest because they got nasty wounds on them. Who knows, a wandering rabbit like you might know a lot of herbs and those leaves are one of them."

"Why do I even cover my birthmark? I would consider them my pride if anything else."

"Then it must be the latter."

"Do I look like a samurai who fights everyone I meet?" she said with a face full of disgust.

"Seeing how the two of us met?" I took a pause to ensure what I was saying. "Yes."

"Hmmmmmmmm, you got a point." The former bunny furrowed one of her brows. " I can't deny that."

It was a girl alright.

Mom, you finally have a granddaughter now! A sassy lil' wee of our family blood with some possibly gnarly beast as a side dish, but it's still your granddaughter regardless so you don't need to push marriage recommendation like trying to water a flaming propane gas, because that's not how you solve the problem, mom!

"You must be thinking something derogative now," said my little daughter who's actually bigger than me, with an immaculate deadpan.

"I'm thinking of your future."

"You should be thinking about yours more."

"Looks like the two of you have formed a solid bond." The moose deity nodded in confirmation.

"We sure are." My daughter gave a thumbs up.

"Totally."

Seeing how the rabbit was able to perform gestures and comments like how a proper conversationalist did, as in, the human kind of conversation… Maybe? I don't really know if rabbit centaur in this world are just that sarcastic in general.

Now that her wish has already been fulfilled, I want to see if I could haggle my way to have this moose teach me this magic of this world before it disappears into petals.

Moose deity! What can I do for you to make you teach me magic like how you and this rabbit does it?

Yes, this is a solid starter to the negotiation process. Firstly, open up your intent as clear as a day in a glance, and then immediately ask the other side of the conversation with your willingness to make up for what you wanted to receive in exchange, this will give them a good impression of you and a better tolerance to deal with your foreign upbringing!

I don't know if the words I constructed would end up the same on the other side of comprehension in terms of nuance and cadence, but that's the least I can do to have a better chance to grasp that alluring, bewitching opportunity to do some cool magic with my own hand.

Wait, can the moose read this?

"I can."

Oh.

"I'm still going to teach you, regardless." The moose began to gather the same bright hue of blue onto its antlers. This time however, the contrast and sound it makes was much more pleasant and gentle. "This 'magic' you're referring to is known as 'blooming' in this region."

So different region might have a different name for this magic, and maybe a different kind of magic overall.

"To bloom is to harness the available resources within the vicinity of your roots and turn them into a transforming medium, the fruit of your labor, a succulent and sweet, maybe sour and tangy, can sometimes be quenching and refreshing."

The blue hue one its antler was then dispersed into the sky as a majestic performance of dancing white petals.

"The quality of the fruit depends on each existence within this world. And just like how it was with a fruit, it would quickly rot when the host stopped supplying nutrients into it.

"Thus, you need to feed the flower until it is ready to reap. And before the fruit starts to rot, you need to use it, gnaw on it lest you want a foul odor splurged within your leaf-length."

So gather energy by turning yourself into a fusion reactor, and then immediately utilize the generated energy before it disperse due to its instability from a forced method of attaining those resources.

And it seems like we're not exactly the plant in this case.

"Indeed, the blooming is an act of planting seed on the soil of your soul. What must take weeks and years to accomplish is then accelerated to a mere few blink of an eye. The fruit bloomed, but it needs to be eaten before it explodes, and the plant's roots must be pulled and cast away after the deed is done."

What if you're attacked when you're performing the bloom?

"It will mess with your concentration, resulting in the emerging turmoil in your soul that will slowly kill your existence from the inside.

"But if you managed to stay focused, the attack would be like inflicting damage to an indestructible wall."

My new daughter seemed to be bored listening to the one sided monologue of the moose deity, as she couldn't really hear my thought without me relaying it to her.

But I don't care as much! Wait a little bit more, sweety, your papa is trying to learn how to cast those fireballs like you did!

Actually, now that I think about it, I can also ask the rabbit to teach me about magic after this. It might not be as profound as the wisdom of a moose deity, but it might still be worth it.

Just before I could learn the full nature of this world's magic, a dark crack flooded the space near the giant crimson tree. The tree's golden veins seemed to let out a desperate cry on what about to come.

The crackling rift began to get taller and taller, before a pair of black nails shoved themselves out from the inside of what was on the other side.

A part of the rift was stretched open by those hands, enough for it to be a giant window to see what was inside.

Chilling screams thundered from the cracking mold, releasing a nauseous miasma into the surrounding.

And a gargantuan humanoid head with teeth-clenching mouths all over the surface of the face, trying to peek over the rest of this beauteous forest.