The Glorious Evolution

Levi was too occupied with the sensations flooding his mouth to notice their expressions... or how Ash’Kral kept his tongue withdrawn for the remainder of the evolution.

He tasted blood... but it tasted nothing as it did before.

The sensation struck with such force that he almost mistook it for another attack on his nerves.

Metal, salt, proteins, moisture... impressions arrived separately, each exact enough for him to follow, yet all present at once... hell, he couldn’t even recognize half of them.

He knew the blood came from his own mouth... and yet, its contents divided in his awareness, exposing structures and relationships he could distinguish without effort.

His attempts to concentrate on one detail left the others available, waiting for his attention.

In simple terms, it was like tasting soup and being able to distinguish every ingredient at once... even unfamiliar spices.

He might not know their names, but he could isolate each flavor, judge its amount, and taste how it affected the others without separating anything from the bowl!

’What the hell...’

The thought vanished under a contraction at the base of his tongue.

Throughout his main soul, the tree completed its expansion, becoming a Pre-Mature Crimson Tree within both his soul and body.

The pressure along his limbs eased, and his fingers loosened against the floor... then, his scalp began to itch.

The ethereal green in his hair began to vanish!

Every sense seemed to have its own personality, and whenever one took charge of his evolution, it made sure that personality showed in his mutations, right down to his hair.

Naturally, Taste had no intention of letting him walk around wearing another sense’s colors!

Black spread from the roots, moving down each lock until it replaced every trace of green. Even through his exhaustion, Levi followed the change with his Harmonic Spine.

But before he could appreciate getting his original color back, the ends began turning purple.

The shade deepened into a dark plum, strongest a little above the tips and softer at their edges.

More appeared among the inner strands, half-hidden under the black hair on top.

Levi lifted his head, and his fringe parted.

There it was... a whole layer of purple tucked inside his hair, visible around his temples and between the loose curls falling over his forehead.

His roots and crown stayed black. In the shadows, the colors almost blended, but wherever the light touched his hair, the plum ends and inner strands became clear.

The moment his hair finished its transformation, the evolution process concluded at last.

Levi pushed himself upright and tested whether his tongue would finally obey him.

It withdrew into his mouth right away... although the length felt unfamiliar, the muscles adjusted when he moved it, folding and settling without interfering with his breathing.

Letting out long exhales and sweating all over, Levi tried to rest his palms on his knees... but then he noticed the Soulleech Maw’s extended tongue still lying flat on the ground.

It appeared to huff and puff in exhaustion, leaving Levi with a wry but amused smile.

”First time?”

”...”

The Soulleech Maw didn’t recognize sarcasm yet... it simply raised its forked tongue toward him, twitching both tips as a string of pitiful whines escaped its mouth.

It seemed convinced that showing him the damage would earn it some sympathy.

Unfortunately, it chose the wrong one to complain to.

”Welcome to the club.” ℴℴ𝘮

Levi’s smile softened when the Soulleech Maw answered him with another whine.

”Alright, alright... go sleep it off. I’ll wake you when it’s time to check what you got.”

He brushed a finger along its petals.

The little nightmare leaned into his touch, allowing him a few strokes before drawing its tongue back inside... its mouth closed, and its petals folded together as it withdrew into his palm.

Levi waited until it settled, then pushed himself to his feet.

His legs held, and that alone was worth appreciating after an evolution.

He gathered his discarded things and headed for the bathroom... whatever else the Nine Senses Seed gave him could wait until he washed the blood, sweat, and traces of the floor off his tongue.

A few moments later, hot water poured over his head and shoulders.

Levi braced a hand against the wall as hot water parted his black hair, revealing the dark plum-purple strands underneath.

The matching tips clung to his temples as he bowed his head, letting the warmth ease the ache in his neck.

Then, curiosity got the better of him.

He opened his mouth and extended his tongue.

The muscle slipped past his fangs, lengthening until its forked tip reached the falling water... it measured no more than fifteen centimeters, making it long, but not long enough to resemble the tongue of a nightmarish creature.

The visible black tattoo gave it a mysterious vibe... Levi couldn’t care less about its appearance as he curled it upward to catch a few drops.

Then, he stopped moving and raised his brows in surprise.

’Oh...’

He expected warmth and received far more.

The drops struck his tongue, and their properties separated in his mind... temperature, density, dissolved minerals, traces of other substances he couldn’t identify.

Even the water itself carried an unfamiliar taste.

He knew what drinking water felt like. He knew the difference between a cold mouthful and a hot one... yet this went beyond either.

The heat became something he could examine through taste.

As a drop cooled against his tongue, that part of its flavor changed while the others remained.

He could follow the change without confusing it with the minerals within it or the density of the liquid holding them.

Levi drew his tongue back and swallowed.

The impressions remained clear.

He extended it again, catching another mouthful.

The same properties greeted him... familiar already, despite having encountered them only seconds earlier.

The best part? Everything came so naturally and without an ounce of inconvenience.

”Ash... what exactly is this mutation?” Levi wondered. ”It has enhanced my taste to an unbelievable degree.”

”You received the Tongue of All Things,” Ash’Kral answered, his tone strangely free of his usual teasing about the Ancestral Nine Senses Tree spoiling Levi.

Levi paused, finding the name a bit excessive... but when he considered how much information he gained from a few drops of ordinary water, he couldn’t imagine what would happen if he were to taste something worth tasting.

”Your Harmonic Spine lets you experience the world through vibration,” Ash’Kral explained. ”Your tongue lets you taste what makes that world work... the properties that give a metal its strength, the energy trapped inside a crystal, the interactions that turn harmless ingredients into a lethal poison... all of them become distinguishable to you.”

Levi’s tongue stopped moving.

”And once you taste something, your tongue records its composition. You could encounter a billion unfamiliar materials and compare every one of them against everything you’ve tasted before... without forgetting a single detail.”

”A billion...” Levi repeated, stunned.

His thoughts raced at the realization that he could compare rare ingredients against cheaper substitutes and even trace failed concoctions back to conflicting properties!

Every sample would expand that knowledge permanently... even a failed experiment could become useful years later, when a new ingredient supplied what it lacked.

The alchemists treated his Essence Appraisal and Composition Aspect like an outrageous cheat...

What he showed them was nothing compared to this!

He expected a tongue that would help him concoct better potions... instead, he received a growing research library that could compare its contents against one another, down to the smallest detail!

And yet... Ash’Kral still had better news.

”Boy, if you’re thinking about potions alone, then you’re already limiting yourself,” Ash’Kral shared calmly. ”A drop of blood is enough to record someone’s entire genetic structure... compare that record against suitable materials, and you can taste which combinations support their evolution... and which would ruin it.”

Levi’s heart skipped a beat.

”What other alchemists spend years investigating becomes something your own mouth can help you judge through taste.”

Ash’Kral paused, then simplified the explanation.

”Your tongue already holds a record of your blood. Taste several ingredients together and compare them against it... a good taste means the combination suits your evolution. A bad one means something needs changing. Replace an ingredient or adjust its amount, and the flavor will tell you whether you’re getting closer.”

”You’ve got to be kidding me...”

The realization left Levi stupefied... he could begin developing an evolutionary formula inside his own mouth!

He could test how ingredients worked together against his blood, adding, removing, and adjusting them until he found a promising mixture.

From there, he would still need experiments to refine the proportions, work out the concoction process, and perfect the formula through trial and error...

But he could start that research knowing the ingredients belonged together!

Everyone knew that finding compatible ingredients was the most time-consuming and resource-intensive part of the entire research process!

Then, Levi suddenly remembered something.

Back when he helped Shia evolve Blee’der, he asked how Ash’Kral knew its evolutionary path. The asshole told him to work hard and unlock the Unique Sense responsible if he wanted to find out.

”You once told me that one of your Unique Senses helped you figure out evolutionary paths... but shouldn’t this tongue do just that?” Levi wondered.

Until today, he expected to wait for that mysterious sense before receiving the cheat code to concoct any evolutionary formula himself.

Yet, his tongue already gave him a way to start, using the Taste Sense... a Sense that ranked among the lowest across all the Nine Senses.

”At the time, I didn’t expect you to get this far with the Ancestral Nine Senses Tree,” Ash’Kral admitted, his tone a bit softer than usual. ”The Nine Senses Seed truly likes you... and she trusts you more than you realize.”

Levi paused.

”What do you mean?”

”The Tongue of All Things isn’t a mutation I thought she would ever bestow upon anyone.” Ash’Kral’s attention returned to the black inscriptions. ”She never even gave me access to it...”

”Even you?”

Levi almost grinned at the thought of gaining more favor with the Nine Senses Seed than Ash’Kral... but then, he picked up on the hint of sadness in Ash’Kral’s voice.

”Ash... what’s going on?”

Ash’Kral drew his wings closer to his sides and saw the Titan give him a slight nod... as though telling it to him was time to share some things about their past with Levi, who proved more than once that he was here to stay.

Even the stubborn Ash’Kral had to admit it.

In the end, he let out a long exhale.

”That tongue belonged to Nidharn...”

He spoke the name with a gentleness Levi never expected from someone as cruel and merciless as Ash’Kral.

Levi listened quietly, knowing just how fickle Ash’Kral was about sharing anything related to his past... if Levi so much as coughed strangely, Ash’Kral might change the subject.

Then, Ash’Kral added something Levi never expected to hear.

”He was... my brother.”