BXBX NOVEL Chapter 122 Duplicate Selves
Lee Seng's tail and body shimmered brightly. His tail grew and split into two tails, fluttering behind him as the energy within him grew. Keng pushed through Lee Seng's energy threshold and a white and golden hand shot out. In one motion, a humanoid landed onto the floor. Lee Seng turned to look at the humanoid Keng.
"Huh, he wasn't lying." Lee Seng squatted down to watch Keng's shimmering form die down. Keng looked at Lee Seng. Keng looked exactly like Lee Seng, but instead of having brown hair, Keng had white hair with gold streaks. Keng glanced down and noticed he was naked. Lee Seng's eyes followed and realized the same thing and quickly shielded his eyes.
"Can we even manipulate clothes?" Lee Seng asked, aloud. Keng stood up and turned to look around. He had taken the last form he was then. Lee Seng peeked through his fingers and watched as Keng turned around. "Yup... Exactly like me. Down to the weird dot on my butt cheek..."
"I thought I'd come out as a fox, not a human." Keng answered. He turned back and Lee Seng watched Keng's pelvic area showed nothing.
"Why do you have everything but... that?" Lee Seng pointed. Keng looked down and then shrugged.
"I'm a Fox Spirit. I may have decided to take the qualities of a male with my voice, but it doesn't mean I'm a 'male' or 'female'." Keng explained. Lee Seng shuddered and stood up.
"Can you use your own voice? It's weird to hear myself say that." Lee Seng waved his other hand as his eyes peered through the cracks of his left hand. Keng cleared his throat a couple of times and slowly sounded like himself again.
"There." Keng spoke in his voice. He moved forward and grabbed Lee Seng's left hand and removed it. "I don't get the concept of covering yourself. Why do humans do it? Shouldn't you be proud of everything down there?" Keng pointed straight at Lee Seng's crotch and Lee Seng embarrassingly took a step back.
"J-j-j-just cause you're a Spirit who decided to take the qualities of a man, doesn't mean I'll easily accept it!" Lee Seng turned. Keng grinned and hopped onto Lee Seng. Lee Seng stumbled forward and shouted in surprise at the sudden weight. "Keng, what're you doing?!? Get off!"
"C'mon, Lee! I've always wanted to do this! There are many things I wish to do now that I have a human body." Keng chuckled. Keng held on as Lee Seng was forced to grab onto Keng and hold onto him. He could feel the extra weight of Keng's tail swinging around causing him to stumble around and quickly try to adjust to the weight.
"Okokokokokokokok! Get off!" Lee Seng released Keng, who puckered his lips like he was pouting and released himself. He landed and shook his head.
"You're no fun."
"Can we manifest clothes onto you or something?" Lee Seng turned around and waved at him. Keng shrugged.
"I don't know. I'm just as clueless as you are." Keng shrugged. Lee Seng took a deep breath and nodded. He clapped his hands together and stared at Keng. Keng nodded and began to think about clothes appearing on his body. The two stood there, for what seems like an eternity, and watched as nothing happened.
"Eh, screw it." Lee Seng pulled his shorts off and stood in his boxers. He threw the shotrts at Keng. "I guess we can't shapeshift clothes."
"I guess not." Keng pulled on and stood like a superhero when he was finished. Lee Seng rolled his eyes and shook his head.
"What exactly happened when I was... evolving?" Lee Seng asked.
"Mmmm, you were in a Dark Matter cocoon, I guess. The evolution process takes quite a while and if you did what you did then, that cocoon would literally explode anywhere and everywhere. You're lucky you got to your room in time. It could've been rough if you didn't make it."
"What happened while I was in the cocoon and you came out? How did you even come out?"
"Well... I'm not entirely sure either." Keng shrugged. "One second I was sleeping, the next second I could hear banging and shouting at the door from the Soul world." Keng pointed at Lee Seng's chest and Lee Seng glanced down.
"The Soul world... so the Soul bead/orb thing?" Lee Seng asked. Keng nodded and Lee Seng's mind scrambled even more. "This makes less sense because I don't fully understand the concepts of the Soul world. How does it even manifest a world?"
"Well..." Keng thought aloud. "Everyone has... a soul, you could say. Humans, animals, and most monsters do. The concept of your soul and my soul is different. I'm a Fox Spirit who was put into your body to hatch and grow from my father or... The man in the fox mask.... Let's just say, your soul stays within your body. It's an easy concept we can get behind and depending on the person... Their soul may be in a different place.
"Yours is usually in your chest righ there." Keng pointed. "My soul is the embodiment of me. When I was put into you, our two souls mingled with each other. Your body kinda found something was wrong and history can explain that. The Soul world is a manifestation of you and I binding together. I will always be with you and you with me. Our pact has turned the Soul world into the Soul bead. The stories of nine-tailed foxes holding their beads so they can collect souls and whatever, is true to a degree. The Soul bead acts like that."
"Okay, so my soul and your soul manifested the Soul bead because of your pact? How does that explain how I was pulled into the Soul world then?" Lee Seng asked.
"Well, your Soul world always exists. I guess in a way, it could be your brain creating dreams and nightmares."
"So once we made the pact, we made the Soul bead. And the golden orb fused with the soul bead?"
"Mmmhm. It merged with it, giving you unknown effects. I don't know much about it, but I think it has something to do with our affinities." Keng theorized.
"Affinities? Like in a magic sense?"
"Yeah. Each Fox Spirit and their host is different." Keng motioned at Lee Seng. "When my father gave you me, he also boosted your Dark Matter in the process. As a Biohuman, your affinity for 'magic' is gravity-based. With that as an example, our affinity is based on the golden orb we got from the Hat Man."
"So I'm guessing we both don't know what it is, then?"
"I have no clue what it is. The host, you, chooses it. Like the Hat Man said, some foxes ask for a different colored bead while others pick from what's given to them. My father has made a pact with the Hat Man to ensure generations of his children will go through the same trials in order to grow with their paired host."
Lee Seng nodded and the two sat down in front of each other.
"So, the orb is based solely on the host. Wait, does that mean there's just human hosts?" Lee Seng asked.
"Mmm, I don't think so. The Hat Man did say you reeked both of a fox and a human at the same time. I'm not sure what the means, but I guess usually the host loses their old self and becomes the embodiment of the Fox...?" Keng brushed his chin as he thought aloud. "I just know my father chose you, so you're my host."
"Okay," Lee Seng nodded. "To summarize all of this, I always had a Soul world and you used it to meet with me and create a pact."
"Mmmhm."
"And once we created a pact, it took your soul and my soul and merged them together."
"Yup."
"Our merged souls created a Soul bead that takes the souls of monsters and humans?"
"Basically, yes."
"O-okay... Then when he went to the Hat Man it was one of the trials your father, the Man in the Fox mask created for us?"
"Yup. We don't know what the Golden orb did, but it made the Soul bead into a Soul orb."
"Alright, so we are on the same page. Then these Fox powers are yours and mine, so we both have to figure out how to use them."
"Yup. Just like you have to figure out how to use your gravity powers, growing the Fox powers is necessary to continue further into the evolution line." Keng added. "If you can learn how to use your powers and the Fox powers together, we'll have a better chance of continuing up on the evolution line and getting more information that my father has locked in my head." Keng tapped his head.
"This is a lot of information to take in." Lee Seng mind was trying to quickly process everything. Every question he had only brought up more questions. Lee Seng made eye contact with Keng and nodded. "Alright, I guess the only way to figure things out is if we both work hard for it. You have a better understanding of the base Fox powers. I should learn what you know so I can use it when I need to. So we can do that while I continue to gather souls for evolution. That just means I'll have to figure out shapeshifting on my own. I'll probably end up in the library soon doing research on it."
"Sounds like a plan. I guess this would be a good time to go over the fact you can actually manipulate your tail." Keng pointed, standing up. "We'll go over the Dark Matter Eater stuff first, so get up and let's start."