Everwood Palace. Underground facility.
Aksai carefully arranged the bodies of the dead tree devils on the runic platform in the underground facility of Everwood Palace.
He positioned each corpse strategically, ensuring that he could easily access and examine them.
Swoosh. Swoosh. Swoosh.
A scalpel coated in Spirit essence was used like a freestyling paintbrush on the bodies of Aksai’s fallen enemies. As he began the dissection process, Aksai’s hands moved with practiced efficiency.
“Hm. The woodland zombification has really transformed the bodies of the dead humans. So much so that they can’t be called human corpses anymore.”
His keen eyes scrutinized every detail, from the texture of the skin to the structure of the bones. With each incision, he extracted samples of tissue and fluid, meticulously cataloging his findings.
“Can it really be called a puppet art at this point? This form of technique can disrupt all life in any world,” Aksai said as he made a few hand signs and spread his Spirit Sense.
The runic platform hummed softly beneath him, its arcane symbols glowing faintly as it facilitated Aksai’s research. Aksai tapped into its power, using it to enhance his analysis and delve deeper into the mysteries of the tree devils’ biology.
Despite the experiment taking longer than he had previously imagined, Aksai remained focused and determined. He knew that unraveling the secrets of these creatures could provide valuable insights into their origins and capabilities.
***
A few hours later.
“Alright. I have obtained some primary results. Now it’s time to test the live guinea pigs,” Aksai thought to himself before sending a command to his Scarecrow fiends.
Before long, Aksai stood before the two captured tree devils, their bodies restrained on the runic platforms. Despite their weakened state, they writhed and twisted, emitting guttural groans as Aksai prepared to conduct his experiments.
Scree. Scree. Scree.
It was as if the snakes’ hisses and beastly growls were mixed to create a new form of sound.
With a steady hand, Aksai made a series of incisions along the tree devils’ bodies, carefully dissecting their flesh to reveal their inner anatomy. Each cut elicited a reaction from the creatures, their limbs twitching and convulsing in protest.
“Hm? This instinct-driven reaction… It’s almost like these creatures are alive. Interesting.”
Undeterred by their struggles, Aksai continued his examination, pouring various concoctions onto their exposed tissues and administering mysterious potions orally. The tree devils squirmed under his touch, their movements growing more frantic as they fought against the foreign substances invading their bodies.
“What… what is that?”
As Aksai worked, he made a crucial discovery. Embedded within the tree devils’ flesh were metal-like rods, their surfaces gleaming with an unnatural sheen. These rods seemed to be intricately connected to the creatures’ nervous systems, acting as conduits for external control.
Aksai’s expression turned grim as he discovered these metal rods. He enveloped these metal rods with his Spirit Essence to learn more about them. In the next moment, however, he felt as if his mind was faintly connected to the demon tree that had appeared in the middle of Serenity Peak.
This was not all. Aksai’s mind also felt connected to a different life form that had some form of symbiotic relationship with the demon tree. Images of ancient trees, and various tree life forms in various sizes and shapes started flashing in his mind one after the other, almost overwhelming him and taking over his consciousness.
[ Abnormal mental state detected. Countermeasures are taken to prevent memory and will override. ]
Aksai suddenly felt a jolt in his head as the neural link fabric came forth to aid him. It stopped Aksai from getting negatively affected by the metal rods. The metal rods weren’t really connected to Aksai’s central nervous system. As such, he couldn’t turn into a tree devil.
The illusory connection Aksai felt to the demon tree as well as the corrupted druid was only the residual reaction of the metal rods. He wasn’t really connected to them. Otherwise, the corrupted druid would have really known what Aksai was up to.
However, Aksai had to admit that he would have stayed mentally distraught for a few days if he had let the demon tree affect him any longer. It would have also affected his ability to conduct experiments on the tree devils.
Aksai immediately retracted his Spirit Sense from the metal rods. He used Spirit essence to lift them into the air after separating them from the tree devils’ dissected bodies.
As soon as Aksai removed the metal rods, severing the link between the tree devils and their puppeteers, something he had conjectured took place. Instantly, the creatures went still, their movements ceasing as if a switch had been flipped.
Similarly, as he cut away the metal-like vines coiling around their forms, the tree devils fell completely silent, their struggles coming to an abrupt halt. Their already compromised ability to move and scream was completely ceased, turning them into dead tree devils just like the rest of the bodies laid over other runic platforms.
“These creatures… they are reanimated with beating hearts. They are alive on a flesh level. But they don’t have souls anymore. At least not the souls of people to whom the bodies originally belonged. This is how the tree devils can cast spells.
Instead of souls, there’s a foreign will. A will that is connected to the demon tree. The corrupted druid is using his connection with the demon tree to control these many tree devils.”
Aksai recorded his preliminary findings on the neural link fabric’s database.
With the source of their control identified and neutralized, Aksai stepped back to observe the now motionless creatures.
“This is a higher tier of puppetry art. A puppetry art that can only be used if one has a certain connection to the demon tree. It means that the puppetry art is perfectly suitable to be used with my Spirit bloodline.”
It was a breakthrough moment, one that shed light on the mechanisms behind the tree devils’ behavior and opened up new avenues for research.
Armed with this knowledge, Aksai knew he was one step closer to understanding and ultimately defeating the threat that loomed over Serenity Peak.
“Hehe. I will defeat this calamity alright. Eventually. When I’m ready. But when I do, I’ll become a calamity in the eyes of Sharang’s denizens as well,” Aksai thought to himself and chuckled.
He then proceeded to study the anatomy of the tree devils some more.