Chapter 203 - Fortis

Hao Xuan stood in front of the glass tank naked, going over all the information Poriverse had collected about the creature in the tank and his own hypothesis afterward.

The creature's origin was still unknown. It broke free from the pull of three supermassive black holes that had swallowed millions of planets, so suffice it to say, it was anything but ordinary.

The most likely theory was that it was a creature from beyond the universe, a creature of the chaos.

Of course, that was only a theory and Hao Xuan wouldn't know for sure until he communicated with it.

He stood atop the tank and pricked his finger. A single drop of blood fell into the murky liquid, making it thrash about.

'So far so good. Now for the real deal.'

He closed his eyes and jumped into the tank. The temperature inside felt neither cold nor hot, and it was actually very comfortable.

He felt millions upon millions of small hair-like tendrils condense out of nowhere and pass all over him.

At first they slowly caressed his skin, like a toddler seeing something new for the first time. Hao Xuan could feel several overwhelming emotions from these tendrils. From curiosity to whimsical mischievousness.

It was uncomfortable at first but he quickly got used to it and relaxed. The tendrils could feel the change in his body and several of them slowly pierced through the skin on his hands, feet, and face. They were smaller than a strand of hair so initially, Hao Xuan didn't feel any pain.

But as time passed, they increased from a few dozen to hundreds and then thousands and then tens of thousands.

"Khuk!" putting up with the pain, he stayed as calm as possible.

The murky white liquid soon turned pink as blood defused from Hao Xuan's body and flowed out into the tank.

'Relax, relax. Let it explore.' he told himself as the tendrils extended further into his body.

From his skin to the bones, and then to the organs, they 'inspected' everything.

The creature's inquisitive nature was easy to see. But Hao Xuan got worried as time passed.

This creature was like a newborn infant and it had just got its hands on a new toy. How often had a toddler broken a toy on accident while playing with it?

He could handle this much, but there was a very real limit to what his body could endure and it was fast approaching.

The tendrils slowly made their way through his body and then like a magnet, came into contact with his nervous system.

An actual current went through his body as the tendrils quickly went up the nerves and connected with his brain.

"sxf349tndeWMFkjtosghtgek"

A string of random letters and numbers appeared in front of his closed eyes and a piercing headache appeared. His heartbeat quickened as he suddenly got a bad feeling.

"Stop! Don't!"

He shouted inwardly. The tendrils paused, confused. He could feel they didn't understand what he meant, only that it wasn't good to go any further.

With his eyes tightly shut, he imagined a book. An English alphabet book.

"A for apple, B for ball, C for cu..." still connected to his brain, the tendrils could see everything he could. Like teaching a child, he used English as the language to communicate with it. English had the fewest characters and was easiest to understand in his opinion, that's why he choose it.

Like obedient children, the tendrils didn't make any unnecessary moves and digested all the information he had to offer.

For six straight hours, Hao Xuan showed everything from languages to numbers and other information to the tendrils who only needed to see it all once. Like a sponge, they absorbed everything and soon started to form their own sentences.

"Who...you?"

Two words floated in the darkness. His eyes were closed but he could see them as clearly as day.

He unconsciously let out a smile. The hard work had paid off.

"My name is Hao Xuan. Nice to meet you."

"Nice...?"

"Yes. Very nice to meet you. Do you know what that word means? Nice?"

"...yes....nice....enjoyable....good..."

"Exactly. What's your name?"

"Name...?"

"Yes."

"Dont....have...one..."

"Hm, how about I give you one then?"

"Give...name? To...me?"

"Yes."

"....okay.."

"How about 'Grey'?"

"No!"

"..."

"...."

"What about Valens?"

"...no...too...ugly..."

"Ugly? How can a name be ugly? And how do you even have a concept of ugly?"

"Feeling....."

"You have a feeling it's ugly?"

"Yes. Hao Xuan....ugly....too.."

"You little b*stard!"

"No, YOU!"

"...."

"...choose....own...name.."

"Fine, whatever. Choose your damn name then."

There was silence for a few seconds, followed by, "...Fortis!"

"Fortis? Sure I guess. Your name, your choice," Hao Xuan shook his head. The tendrils moved around merrily.

"Do you know what you are?" he followed up.

"Me..? Fortis?"

"Yes, what are you? Where did you come from?"

"..don't know..."

"...well, I wasn't expecting much. Anyways, what do you want to do now?"

"What to...do?"

"Yes. Do you want to stay in this tank or leave? There is a lot to see out there you know~" he said teasingly and images of the beast world, his old life on earth, the movies he saw and the things he imagined flashed past his eyes.

The tendrils moved about in excitement upon seeing so many new and different things but became stiff as soon as the images stopped.

"More....show....more!"

Hao Xuan smiled. The bait was successful.

"These are just memories, you can see the real thing for yourself and experience it!"

"...how?!"

"If you come with me. I can take you there, show you places."

He felt like a villian trying to lure out a child with candies, which wasn't entirely wrong.

"..yes!...Show Fortis....everything!"

"Of course, but I have to do something first. Other people, bad people, might try to hurt you if they see you around, so you must listen to me!"

"Okay!"

"Good. Show me your physical body first. What do you look like?"

"Look like? Fortis is like this," an image of the murky liquid came up.

"What? You ARE the liquid?"

"Yes."

"Then what are these tendrils?"

"Also Fortis!"

"Hmm...can you change shape? Turn into something smaller?"

"Smaller?"

"Yes, something like this," Hao Xuan showed him images of hundreds of animals from earth, the ones he liked.

"....no...all ugly...." one of the tendrils extended and pierced through Hao Xuan's brain.

"WAIT! DO-" Hao Xuan shouted but it was too late.

His memories from earth, all of them came flooding out. From the moment he was born till he came to the beast world, everything flashed past his eyes in an instant, like a movie. For the first time, he saw the image of his father, his birth father.

He held Hao Xuan in his hands right after he was born and looked down at him lovingly while several people bickered in the background.

"My precious little son," he smiled while caressing Hao Xuan's tiny face.

"AHHHHHH" his head felt like it was about to burst open and he let out a scream in response.

The tendrils abruptly came out from his body in fear.

The memories went back into a corner of his mind and he opened his eyes, looking at the surrounding liquid furiously.

*Blop*

Hundreds of small bubbles appeared out of nowhere and liquid started becoming clear. The murkiness gathered together and concentrated in the middle of the tank, slowly forming a shape.

Hao Xuan didn't do anything, floating silently, fuming, waiting for a physical shape to appear so he could whoop its a*s.

The liquid slowly became clearer and clearer until all the white murkiness was gathered in one small area.

A few minutes passed and small crystal-like tentacles stretched out, followed by a six inch wide white head with two ears and eyes on each side.

Hao Xuan frowned looking at the completely ordinary octopus in front of him.

Fortis slowly moved his tentacles back and forth, still not having full control over his new body. With a plop, he smacked headfirst into Hao Xuan's face.

From Hao Xuan's perspective, all he could see was a white squishy material and two slanted eyes staring back at him, forming a somewhat cute grin.

Hao Xuan's right eye twitched as he felt another headache coming on. He extended his right hand and peeled Fortis off of his face. His small tentacles wrapped around Hao Xuan's hand, gripping tightly.

Hao Xuan smiled looking at the cute octopus, "Sever!"

****

Authors Notes:

Fortis: https://ibb.co/tMYNvmq