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Coiled around the Rarefaction Cell is a pink mass of writhing Rot, around the size of a Slugcat. As it shifts, its tentacles seem to caress the Cell.
Ori holds out a paw to the Rot abomination - and is met with a paw in return? No; a tentacle reached out from the mass to shake his hand, and it became a paw inside his purifying aura.
Then, could this Rot abomination be restored to its former self? Ori doesn’t know - but he has to try.
Ori takes a bracing breath, and shines. Deep in concentration, he doesn’t notice more and more tentacles latching on, dragging him closer and closer to the waiting maw of the Rotbeast’s core.
An eternity passes, a war between Light and Decay in miniature.
Contact is made. It feels nothing like the wet tendrils. No, this bizarre mix of silky skin and soft fur… A slugcat? Ori opens his eyes - when did he close them?
In this in-between state, this Rotcat looks more like a jellyfish than anything, chunks of its body at the end of long tendrils of Rot.
Despite being next to the core of a Rot creature, wrapped within its tendrils, Ori feels the safest he’s ever been.
This pseudo-winged embrace reminds Ori of Ku.
Slowly, the mass of rot coalesces into a smiling face. No - the still-forming reddish slugcat smiles.