Threads of the Soul

Recoiling in horror, Bearemy quickly opened his arms to drop the puppy so that it might not get struck by the roaring bolts of lightning. But, even with the years spent honing his reflexes with twitch shooters and countless other games, which was definitely the only reason he played them and no other reason whatsoever, how could Seth even dream of reacting to lightning?

Yet despite Seth's Ill-equipped reaction time, he did not end up dropping the charred and smouldering corpse of a once adorable puppy. In fact, he didn't drop anything at all.

Staying suspended in the air where it had been previously held, was the puppy in question. It's fluffy body shrouded in a blinding light as a constant stream of electricity arced from the metal sphere towards the radiant puppy, connecting the two like an umbilical cord of pure plasma energy.

Seth as he stared at the extraordinary sight through his puppets eyes, blinking softly in confusion with his own actual eyes which caused the man he was talking with to repeat himself.

Clearly the man was thinking that Seth was confused by what he was talking about, rather than the floating ball of light that had once been a sweet, adorable little puppy. It was understandable though, many people got confused when he discussed the wonders of online currencies and how he was prepped to make millions with them and digital auto generated art right before the world ended. Ah, how the world could be so cruel sometimes.

"So anyways, like I was saying the value in them comes from the fact that they are unique. It's really an interesting process..."

Seth had completely toned the man out, not just from the shock of what had happened but the entire conversation. As if he was going to listen to such inane ramblings, the only reason he had started talking to this man was because people had warned him about said ramblings. He could stand here, completely zoned out and not utter a single word for an hour and people would simply think he was trapped in a one sided conversation about the most ludicrous things.

So, with his wonderful disturbance blocker in place, Seth completely focused his mind on Bearemy and Corvus as he observed the interesting development that was taking place. He just hoped that he was right about what he had done... It would be a shame if he had just fed the puppy to her evolution progress.

As if to feed those doubtful thoughts, the metal sphere opened on one side and the lightning tether, which emerged from the centre of the opening, began to retract. It was like a metal beast had ensnared the little puppy with its tongue and was drawing it in for a tasty little treat.

Once the illuminant ball that was the puppy was inside the gaping maw, the metal jaws clamped shut and it returned to a completely solid metal sphere once more. At the same time, new words wove themselves into existence before Astra's glowing and unblinking eyes.

[A new condition has been met. Altering metamorphosis process to accept the new condition...

Alteration Complete. Recalculating the rate of completion...

Calculation Complete. Current completion rate, 50%. Acquiring additional nutrients for the process.]

Another pair of lightning serpents lunged out of the floating magnetic ball and plunged into the scavenged remains of the Shelled Drake, tearing into it with renewed vigour as if they were eager to complete the process and see the result of all their work.

It wasn't long until the original serpents, assisted by the new pair, had hollowed out the entirety of the Shelled Drakes shell. Not even a crumb of food small enough for a Blink Rat was left, and if one did come looking anyways there would be no doubt it would be consumed alongside the Drake.

Once the inside of the shell was completely barren, they burst forth from the back and immediately began tearing into the back legs and the tail like savage beasts. Meat disappearing at an extraordinary rate that seemed as if the serpents would never be satisfied. Yet, just as Seth was beginning to worry that they might need to collect more meat from inside the walls, the serpents stopped.

All at once they halted, suspended in their positions for a brief moment before they dissipated into nothing more than faint sparks and wisps of light that soon dissipated themselves.

CLANGCLANGCLUNK

A deafening and cacophonous racket, like a bucket of forks being tossed down a flight of stairs, filled the air as the metal ball began to fall apart. The shards of metal, which had just moments before defied gravity, were now utterly beholden to its will as they clattered to the ground and formed a mangled heap of scrap underneath a floating figure.

The figure descended slowly, her hair fluttering in the non-existent wind, a rhythmic pulsation illuminated her nervous system before gradually fading away. Cradled within the figures arms, arms which were still marred with zigzagging scars and coal black fingers, was an adorable ball of fluff.

Astra touched down onto the ground, swaying softly as her legs threatened to betray her, before they eventually fell into line and obeyed her commands. Righting herself up, Astra lifted her hand up and gazed at the sparks arcing between her blackened fingers, before turning her attention to the adorable ball of fluff cradled within her arms.

A faint smile crept its way onto her lips as she ran her fingers through its fur, fur that had once been the purest of snow white, but was now dashed with hints of an electric blue at the tips. There was even a pattern of blue around its eyes and down the ridge of its snout, as if it was wearing a mask of some kind.

As for Astra herself, there was little change to her appearance at first glance, but upon further inspection the only true difference was her hair. Where before only the tips of her hair had been white, now it was almost half way down her silky locks that were pure white. At the half way mark, her hair gradually blended into a more ashen grey which in turn blended into the almost void-like brunette she had originally been. But such blackness was only at the roots of her hair for barely an inch. Even the hair dye she once had framing her face, which had stubbornly clung on throughout everything even if it faded a little, had finally given up and melted away at some point.

However, that seemed to be the only notable change in her appearance. Her fingers were still black as soot, lightning scars still webbed their way up her forearms and even the claw mark scars still lingered on her chin and neck.

It was almost as if, during the intense evolutionary process, she had pushed her body to remain the same so that if someone had, for some reason, drawn her portrait that they'd only need to change one small feature. How considerate of her.

But of course, such a thing was nonsense. The logical explanation was that the real changes were all completely internal. No one would be able to see the rigorous, almost metallic, nervous system she had developed to handle extreme loads of energy that would have harmed her before. Not without cutting her open, of course.

Nor would they be able to see the small flicker of light within the mystical realm of her body that Seth referred to as his 'Abyss'. Instead of the soul core that Seth could see in his own, in Astra's there was a small mote of light, hardly big enough to be considered a core.

It was more like the seed of a flower yet to bloom. That's not to say that she didn't have a soul, far from it. But this was all she was able to see within this endless abyss within herself.

However, the most curious development of all was not something someone else could see, nor was it something even Astra herself was aware of. The only being aware of it was the seemingly all knowing system, yet it was something the system or guardians simply deemed important enough to notify her of.

Beneath Astra's lovely new locks and safely confined behind her skull, was her brain. And upon that brain, just at the very tip between the two hemispheres was a tiny, almost unrecognisable growth. A growth that had wired itself into the rest of her brain, not only receiving signals but not yet developed enough to give some out of its own, if it even could do such a thing in the future.

Completely unaware of the situation blooming within her own head, Astra flexed her fingers. With a wave of her hand, a streak of lightning cut through the air and carved a deep, glowing furrow into the road as she dispelled the remaining energy within her body.

"How do you feel?"

No longer burdened by the magnetic pull, Corvus had freed himself from the spine crushing hug of the statues before approaching Astra without a hint of fear in his puppeteered body.

"I feel... powerful. Like I could fry that thing on my own if I had the energy."

Glancing over her shoulder, Astra looked past Corvus towards what remained of the Shelled Drake, if it could even be called remains at this point. All that was left was a completely hollow, and slightly scorched, shell as well as the spiked end of the creatures tail, with barely a few metres of meat left.

At least that could make a decent meal for a dozen people. Now they just had to figure out how to evolve the rest of the people, and what had happened with the dog in her arms.