***
The process was complete as he opened his eyes once again, feeling the way his bottom depressed against the ground and checking for any numbness. There was none.
'Only a few minutes have passed.'
He knew the reason instantly, and it was simple. Since his current spirit stat was roughly 110, it could handle extra of those memories unlike last time. His spirit's expansion to 100, at that time, was due to the memories weight creating something capable of carrying it, but now, with his stat at 110, there was extra room for more.
'This process didn't evoke the consequence of time.' He concluded, meaning, in the future, if he wanted to integrate his memories, he would, firstly, have to increase his spirit stat through training to create more space, bypassing the 'Consequence of Time'
'Right.' He thought.
The portion of the memories now integrated didn't involve too much consequences, he just reached out to portions where it dealt with the core of his identity, who he was… and he understood.
His eyes slowly began to condense light, not literally, as he felt his spirit stat being called upon by something else, no, someone else… no, Him.
An uncontrollable smile slowly crept across his face.
'He's coming.'
Meanwhile…
'Look, I apologize, I apologize thoroughly. Hey! Are you there? No more jokes there, ever. You win, keep it, treasure it and protect it, please.' Instinct frantically begged.
Then, as if coming to realization, his eyes, which had been unfocused, suddenly gained clarity.
'Wait… why the hell am I begging you?' He asked himself rhetorically, as if, he himself couldn't believe what he was doing.
While that happened, Haki controlled the scene by transferring Instinct into his "internal world". He wanted to, literally, observe what was going on.
As he did that, Instinct, still in some sort of epiphany appeared for the very first time.
At first, he appeared as just a perfect copy of Haki. His Face, height, lips, everything was carbon copy. But as more of Haki's Spirit was drawn by… Him, and invested into this Mental Avatar that Instinct had become, the image changed, gradually, it became clearer, then stranger, revealing how Instinct truly looked.
The initial naked form stood there, still on the verge of epiphany, with his eyes closed and head raised directly at the 'sky', directly at the point where Haki's third-person point of view watched with a slight smile.
Suddenly, from the ground, Silver fog appeared mysteriously, then, it begun swirling around his feet, slowly rising up along his legs. As it did, different colors emerged: Purple. Then another: Blue.
These three fogs, Silver, Purple, and Blue mixed together, now circling around him from top to bottom. They spun faster, then slower, then slowly closed in on him, hugging tightly to his body, and as they did so, the rotation gradually came to a stop.
The fog was now on him, no longer a ring around as it encompassed his entire form, covering his being. If someone were to look at him, they wouldn't be able to find his body, not even its outline.
One particular area of his form though was not fully covered. His eyes…
As the last vestiges of fog, now coming from the ground in thin strings, merged into the mass around him, filling out its density…
*SNAP*
His eyes suddenly snapped open and for a brief moment those eyes met directly with Haki's gaze above.
At that instant, his striking red irises were revealed. But as seconds went by, the eyes began to glow slowly, with a faint, warm red light. The light became so predominant that it covered his entire eyes, leaving only an entity completely shrouded in silver, purple and blue, with two distinct soft glows of red shining from within.
'Here he comes,' Haki said from above. An ear-splitting grin now splattered across his face while his eyes turned to slits.
At that moment, while still looking up, a voice came from this entity—Instinct.
"HMPH!"
*SWOOSH*
Wind currents rapidly built up from the ground where Instinct stood.
CRACK
His legs depressed the ground so much they left large craters beneath his feet. At the exact moment of his shout, something rose out from him, like something was being expelled from his very core.
A new spirit-like entity, entirely similar to Haki, emerged from Instinct's shrouded form, slowly rising upwards, its head also poised toward the 'sky' like the previous Instinct.
It rose to meet Haki, who now appeared in his own full form, at the same eye level.
As it ascended, its outline sharpened. The first thing to become vivid were its eyes, those same striking red irises, clear and unwavering, locking onto Haki's from only a breath away.
Then those eyes became slits too, just like Haki, but the strange thing was that as it did that, the initial slit on Haki's face became normal, calm eyes again, leaving only the grin. But this too disappeared into a calm expression while the entity in front of him gained the earsplitting grin instead.
As more of this outline sharpened, it still resembled Haki, but its skin slowly darkened from bottom to top. His feet, his shins, then his thighs, they darkened up until his head.
The darkening continued as his skin gradually turned darker, eventually becoming entirely black. Not just any black though as his skin almost carried a glassy shade that caught the faint light of the Internal World in thin, subtle highlights along the lines of his muscles. Every contour on his body became even more pronounced under that color; chest, shoulders, arms, all looked like they had been carved from a single piece of night.
Then his hair changed.
What had started as a copy of Haki's black hair began to bleach from the roots outward. Strands near his scalp turned silver first, then the color ran down like liquid metal, swallowing the black color as it went.
In a few breaths, his entire head of hair had become a long, wild mane of silver-white that looked less like hair and more like cold, white flame. It billowed and writhed as it was brushed by the wind.
It grew longer as it changed, too. Past his shoulders, past his back, then down to his waist and a little beyond. Each lock became thicker and heavier, yet it moved like it weighed nothing at all.
*CRACK*
From his forehead, two shapes pushed outward, breaking through the ever growing black mist around him.
Horns.
They grew smoothly, curving back over his hair in a natural arc. They were black, like polished obsidian, starting thicker at the base and tapering to cruel points near the back of his head. They weren't monstrous in size, but they were definitely impossible to ignore.
The black mist that had been surrounding him suddenly clung to him all at once, not like the way mist had clung to Instinct— that "clinging" was a representation of the mist turning into his naturally emitted energy.
This time around, it clung to this entity's skin like tight fitted clothing, then it begun to harden. Starting with his shoulders first. The fog there condensed into overlapping plates of dark armor that hugged his frame perfectly.
Sharp patterns shimmered faintly along the surface of the material as lines of black light flowed quietly. The same happened at his forearms, hips, and legs. Armor formed where it was useful, leaving his black torso bare, the dense muscle on his chest and abdomen exposed, and making the contrast between his flesh, armor and hair even more jarring.
Then, behind him, the fog thickened instead of hardening at first, then it split into two parts as two massive shapes unfolded from his back.
Wings.
They spread outward slowly, feather by feather coming into focus as each feather was pitch-black, layered in endless rows with sharp edges. When the wings were fully extended, they framed his entire body, like a pair of shadow curtains pulled wide.
His hands finished forming last. His fingers were long and elegant, ending in slightly elongated nails, sharp enough to look dangerous without being grotesque.
Finally, his eyes.
For a moment, they were the same striking red irises Haki knew, glowing faintly. Then, as the last vestiges of black mist gathered around his eyes, it settled and got absorbed fully.
At that moment, something shifted as his entire his aura darkened even further.
A thin, black haze surged out from his skin and armor, wrapping around him like a living shadow. It pulsed once, then again… and with each pulse the red in his eyes compressed, tightening into two tiny points before… Inverting. Inverting colors.
Contradictory to the black mist, his eyes now glowed white. It wasn't an ordinary white, but an eerie, dense whiteness that looked like it was trying to contain something, and that something would soon burst out with blinding light.
If anyone were to have the words for it, they would be… White Holes.
By then, his outline was fully solid, looking like an angel-demon.
He was a dark, otherworldly mirror of Haki, with silver-white hair, black wings, horns, armor, and those impossibly white, pupil-less eyes, like two cold white holes staring straight at him.
Then, his expression changed slowly.
His eyes became slits too, just like Haki in front of him, but the strange thing was that as they did, the initial slit on Haki's face became normal, calm eyes again, leaving only the grin. But this too disappeared into a calm expression, while the entity in front of him gained the ear-splitting grin instead.
Haki floated there, facing him with a leveled expression, now, in comparison, he was bare and human-looking, with only his red eyes and waist-length black hair being intriguing features.
"Hell."