《A Beholder's Path》Chapter 9 : Diplomacy

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My avatar was always supposed to be temporary. A short-lived container to safeguard my consciousness from the unknown dangers of traversing an eldritch portal. It was intentionally designed to be as small and streamlined as possible, even at the cost of its functionality. The plan always was to use it as an intermediary to find or create a better body as soon as possible.

This matter is somewhat complicated by the demonic corruption. Possessing the corpse of a recently deceased is no longer an option. Instead I must modify my avatar to isolate and hide myself from the world, while still letting me interact and explore said world.

I have a few ideas, but I must first gather materials. The best option would be living bodies with no willpower to resist me reshaping them. Something like the dozens of soulless fairies floating around me. The fairies that are currently controlled by a tree. An evil tree perfectly capable of crushing a reckless otherworldly thief, even in its dying slumber.

On a totally unrelated note, I am a pacifist. There can be only one reason to resort to violence, (overwhelming power,) otherwise diplomacy should always be the go-to approach. Diplomacy is a great and delicate artform I have perfected over more than three occasions. It roughly consists in tricking your enemy into willingly offering whatever you want practically for free while making him think he is ripping you off…

Sorry. I meant to say diplomacy roughly consists in establishing a friendly rapport and building a mutually beneficial relationship with your new associate by relying on open-minded dialogues.

One might think that one of the negotiating parties being asleep would complicate the process, but they would be wrong. On the contrary, for those capable of conversing through dreams, it makes the sleeper more attune to his true feelings, which is well worth sacrificing rational thinking for.

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So, it is time to establish the terms of our cooperation. I wish to receive ownership to all the fairies, so I must offer something that looks to be of an equivalent or greater value. Now, what would a tree want? Magical Power? Healing? Water, sunlight or food? I can offer none of that.

What can I offer? I have a lot of knowledge, but it will take a lot of work to make it relevant to this world. Instead I am going to give a once a lifetime opportunity. I am going to bless it! By letting it come into contact with the demonic corruption.

I know I have previously presented demonic corruption as a disaster to avoid at all cost, and it usually is, but it is not inherently evil. As its name suggests, corruption does not destroy, it simply taints and changes things. The issue is that those changes conflict with the affected creatures, often leading to a premature but very painful death if the creature cannot withstand the transformation.

I do not wish to risk the precious life of a potential test subject in this endeavor, but the trees that have turned demonic around the portal have proved that this is possible and provided me a template to follow. I will just have to guide the effects of the corruption for it to empower the tree instead of killing it and make it relinquish its control over the fairies.

When I transmit the idea of endless destructive power to our new friend, it exudes a content feeling, which I will take as it is consenting to the deal.

The first step is to contaminate the plant by gradually infusing it with my power while reassuring it to avoid getting smashed by an instinctual attack. That went well enough, though I will probably have to endure a few blows when the painful morphing starts.

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The crippling weakness of my avatar prevents me from marshalling enough energy to provoke a significant change in one go, so I have to periodically send small amounts of energy into inside the trunk and control its excruciatingly slow transformation for a few hours at a time while I wait for my power to recover.

I lack the patience required to enjoy this slow and steady process, but I supposed it is good news for the experimental subject that every change is so gradual, giving me ample opportunity to rectify any mistakes. After all, I have no idea what I am doing. It was fascinating learning about the consequences of otherworldly interaction, I just wish it were a little faster.

…

I was guarding against a hostile reaction from the world or the tree lashing out in pain after having been fundamentally changed, but the transformation has been so quiet it is boring. I have already planned out the rest of the process, so I will now take this opportunity to start designing my new body.

…

Finally, after a whole week, it is done. The tree is now much bigger than before, with its thin twisting branches supporting tongues of black flames instead of leaves. I made sure to get rid of the dying parts of the tree, in a healing method similar to amputating and regrowing. It is not awake yet, I intentionally made it sleep a bit longer, but in a couple of days it will be at its peak.

More importantly, I have made use of this opportunity to sever its link to the fairies and experiment on the effects and behavior of demonic corruption. With this, I finally have all the knowledge and materials necessary to start crafting an appropriate body and truly commence my adventures.

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