Sylvia drew a deep breath.
What had just happened wasn't Polka Kakamond's doing. Had it come from the card she'd drawn instead? If so, that dream had lasted far too long.
Sylvia couldn't even tell how many Amber Eras she'd witnessed within it. She'd watched from the birth of Permanence to THEIR death, and it had felt like an eternity.
Had her mind not gone completely blank, the sheer amount of information would've overwhelmed her.
"Herta, how long was I in there?"
"What do you mean, how long? You walked in and stared into space for a few seconds."
Herta made a baffled remark before her little flying duck avatar zipped over and stopped inches from Sylvia's face.
"Something's wrong. What happened to you just now?"
"Uh…"
Having a flying Herta duck stare her down from point-blank range was more than a little ridiculous. Still, after thinking it over, Sylvia concealed everything related to the system and told Herta and Screwllum what she'd seen in the dream.
Once she'd finished, Screwllum ran a full system diagnostic but found nothing unusual. That left Herta with no choice but to suspect the problem had come from Sylvia herself.
"Judging by the rumors, what happened to you sounds a little like the High Elders of the Vidyadhara. But why now, of all times?" Herta frowned. "The Lord of Silence certainly isn't kind enough to help you. Could this be your own 'luck' at work? Maybe going through this inside the Simulated Universe was safer than doing it outside."
Sylvia's luck was a passive ability, so Herta didn't bother asking her for an explanation. Sylvia herself probably had no idea why it had happened.
And in truth, she didn't. She couldn't understand why she'd seen those visions the instant she entered the Simulated Universe, nor what conditions the consumed card had used to choose its time and setting.
"Whatever. Go run the test first. We'll talk about this later."
Even as Herta sank into thought, she didn't forget to hurry Sylvia along and make her test the unfinished build.
"Yeah, yeah. Stop rushing me."
Sylvia didn't leave the Simulated Universe to inspect her current condition. Instead, she began the test as usual.
--+--
The unfinished build didn't take much of Sylvia's time. Despite all its incomplete features, it still uncovered some information about Permanence, and nearly everything matched the scenes she'd witnessed in the dream.
Unfortunately, most of it appeared as text rather than images. That might've been fine for another Aeon, but Permanence's Path clearly placed great importance on physical form, so the test produced limited results.
Limited by Herta's standards, at least.
Nothing unexpected happened during this test, either. The Lord of Silence never intervened, and Herta left disappointed. She seemed genuinely upset that she hadn't gotten the chance to face Genius #4 head-on.
According to the displays Sylvia had seen around Herta Space Station, Herta held Polka Kakamond in high regard. She'd even said outright that the two of them would certainly get along and that she wanted to invite Polka to join the Simulated Universe project.
Apparently, even today's shocking discovery hadn't changed Herta's opinion of her.
With that thought, Sylvia exited the Simulated Universe. Once she came to her senses, however, she realized she'd unconsciously revealed her draconic features again.
This time, immense power flowed through her body—and it wasn't just one kind.
Another force, fierce and aggressive, resonated with the power of Permanence. The two seemed naturally close, and under Permanence's lead, the unruly new power became remarkably obedient. It took a completely subordinate role.
Together, their combined strength wasn't merely one plus one. It was at least three.
Sylvia wasn't referring to the faint power of Trailblaze within her. This was something else, a power she knew well and had even witnessed perish within the Simulated Universe.
Propagation.
Her experiences there made its origin easy to recognize. She'd already felt the power of Propagation firsthand.
This was absolutely insane.
Sylvia feared insectoid limbs might start sprouting from her body, but thankfully, nothing appeared beyond her draconic traits. She let out a relieved breath. She could accept becoming a dragon girl, but she wasn't ready to become an insect girl.
Then she frowned again. Why had the power of Propagation suddenly appeared from nowhere? She'd assumed that only her connection to the Path of Permanence had grown stronger.
Sylvia knew Propagation had split away from Permanence. The problem was that its power had only ever manifested among the Swarm, and she'd never heard of any active faction that followed the Path of Propagation.
Even though she'd witnessed Permanence's ancient memories, where could she possibly have absorbed Propagation's power now that the Path had already split apart?
Was that card really so domineering that it could pull a divided Path back into its source?
Then again, modern Propagation had already been severely diminished and was incomplete in its own right. The card hadn't dragged in every lesser branch that had once split from Permanence, either. Viewed that way, perhaps it wasn't quite so outrageous.
After quickly sorting through those thoughts, Sylvia relaxed her brow and decided not to dig any deeper. She'd made enormous progress and could crush her former self with ease. Her strength hadn't merely risen by a small margin.
Phantylia made a convenient point of comparison.
Suppose Phantylia's strength, using only the Path of Destruction, was one. Under normal circumstances, Sylvia had been roughly her equal. In her current dragon-girl form, however, Sylvia had reached the equivalent of about one and a half Phantylias.
If she fully transformed into a dragon, her strength would rise even further. She'd reach at least two and a half to three Phantylias. She'd need to transform once before she could make an exact comparison, but that range felt about right.
Sylvia could sense the dormant power waiting inside her.
More importantly, gaining the power of Propagation had strengthened her tremendously. The combination of Propagation and Permanence had restored a portion of the shattered Path of Permanence's former glory in a strange way.
Sylvia had once been no more than a half-baked Emanator. Now, she could at least claim a secure place as an Emanator of Permanence. She even felt as though she could hang the Vidyadhara High Elders up and beat them like rugs.
In terms of raw stats, anyway.
Even so, Sylvia was more than satisfied. She could also feel that the addition of Propagation had granted her several unusual abilities.
For example, she could now enlighten life.
Sylvia sensed that the space station beneath her feet consisted of inorganic matter. Yet she could transform that inorganic matter into organic material, then make the organic material 'come alive.'
It was a result of Permanence and Propagation working together.
As far as Sylvia remembered, the Vidyadhara had once possessed the ability to reshape matter. They could alter the plants and animals within the Delve of Scales into any form they wished. Then one day, that ability had suddenly gone out of control, possibly because of Propagation's birth.
The exact details remained unknown.
"…"
This was bad.
Sylvia's face stiffened. What in the world had she become?
Could Permanence always do this, or was the combination of Permanence and Propagation simply that absurd? Shouldn't this sort of thing belong to Abundance?
Just then, Herta walked over and tugged Sylvia's arm.
"Wake up. Did everything that happened today wear you out? Go back and rest, or take a nap in the medical bay. Stop standing around here staring into space."
"Oh… right—huh?"
Sylvia nodded at Herta, then suddenly realized something. The Herta puppet before her could, if Sylvia wished, be made to produce a smaller Herta out of thin air.
"What was that 'huh' for?" Herta asked with a frown.
Sylvia answered before thinking.
"Uh… I think I can make you pregnant now."
"?"
Even someone as experienced as Herta couldn't respond to such an outrageous statement. She stared at Sylvia in silence, practically projecting a question mark into the air.
"I know my puppet possesses extraordinary beauty, but that's no excuse for blurting out whatever comes into your head."
Herta glared at Sylvia. She might've thought highly of her, but she clearly didn't enjoy jokes of that sort.
"No, that's not what I meant. I think I've become an Emanator, more or less. I've also gained a few… unusual abilities."
"?"
Herta's irritation turned to confusion.
"Permanence has been dead for countless years. How could you become THEIR Emanator? And… hold on. Why am I detecting Propagation from you?"
When Sylvia deliberately released a trace of Propagation's power, Herta immediately seized upon the important point. Sylvia then drew out the power of Permanence as well.
"I dreamed of Permanence's birth and death. When I woke up, the power of Propagation had appeared inside me. Permanence and Propagation are incredibly strong together."
"Oh? Then try it." Herta's interest surged. "Make this puppet produce one. I want to see how it works."
She urged Sylvia to get started.
"Uh… all right. I'll try."
Herta herself had agreed, and Sylvia was eager to test her new ability. She extended a finger, sending a refined stream of power toward the puppet.
Sylvia didn't turn Herta's puppet into flesh and blood. That wasn't necessary. She did, however, release a little extra power to make the puppet resemble a draconic descendant.
Then the puppet's smooth abdomen began to swell.
A second Herta puppet walked over and watched with open curiosity. It even lifted the first puppet's skirt to inspect the structure underneath.
The swollen section separated directly from the puppet. As it detached, its shape continued to change until it became a tiny Herta standing around thirty or forty centimeters tall.
The little figure had Herta's face, but she also possessed white jade dragon horns and wings. Sylvia created clothes for her on the spot.
This newborn little Herta wasn't a puppet. The instant she landed, she opened her eyes, let out a string of excited cries, and clung to the larger puppet's head.
"Interesting. You used my puppet as a template and directly created a new draconic life-form." Herta examined her. "She's inherited a portion of my beauty, too."
"...You're going to raise her, right?"
"Don't worry. Since I told you to do it, I'd already prepared myself. Besides, this little thing isn't simple."
Surprisingly, Herta didn't seem bothered by the child. She pulled the little girl off her head, held her in her arms, and began a full-body scan.
The results astonished her.
The child's physical structure was almost identical to Herta's puppet and leaned toward that of an Intellitron. Yet it completely contradicted the normal structure of mechanical life. Instead, its internal organization closely resembled that of a flesh-and-blood organism.
Herta herself had never managed to achieve such a thing, yet Sylvia had accomplished it through sheer, unreasonable power.
"Very interesting. If the Lord of Silence weren't a problem right now, I'd make studying her my first priority. This could give my puppets a major upgrade."
Had Sylvia merely created a life-form that copied Herta's appearance, Herta wouldn't have cared. However, the combined power of Permanence and Propagation had produced several impossible material properties, which made the child worth studying.
"Mommy!"
Herta installed a version of the Synesthesia Beacon in the child. The first thing Sylvia heard her say was a loud cry of "Mommy!" directed at Herta.
Herta didn't react much. She merely patted the child's head.
"Not bad. She can speak clearly right after birth. She must've inherited some of my intellect."
"…I made her from your puppet. How could she have inherited your brain?"
Sylvia couldn't resist pointing that out. Seeing Herta's young-looking puppet body holding a dragon-girl version of herself made for a rather bizarre image. It looked like the aftermath of something criminal.
Then the child turned toward Sylvia.
One large pair of eyes met one small pair, and Sylvia immediately sensed danger. Before she could intervene, the child drew a deep breath and shouted with all her strength.
"Daddy!"
"…"
Sylvia's lips twitched, and embarrassment washed over her.
Herta, on the other hand, burst out laughing.
"You already did everything. Why are you only getting embarrassed now? Where was that shame earlier?"
"Uh, I'm going home. Take good care of your child…"
Her words had been shocking, but the child clearly preferred Herta, who'd served as the base for her creation. She wasn't nearly as attached to Sylvia, which came as a relief.
Otherwise, would Sylvia really have to follow Herta back to some remote laboratory and live there as a mascot?
Sylvia withdrew her power, shaped several basic Cloudhymn spells into Memory Bubbles, and handed them to Herta as a birth gift for the child. Then she left the space station.
Herta glanced at the tiny Herta, who had already become absorbed in one of the Memory Bubbles.
Good. It looked like she wouldn't interfere with Herta's work.
For now, Herta would send Asta a message and tell her to come meet the child when she had time. After all, Herta doubted her own interest in the little creature would last for long.
--+--
Sylvia returned to her room in Penacony and took several deep breaths alone.
The whole incident had been embarrassing, but at least the test of her new ability had succeeded. Since she could use that ability without trouble, the strength of her transformed state was probably close to what she'd sensed.
She wasn't a proper Emanator, since no Aeon had personally appointed her. Still, if Sylvia looked like an Emanator, possessed the power of an Emanator, and wielded the abilities of an Emanator, then she was an Emanator.
Her situation was probably similar to Mei's.
The power had arrived so suddenly that it had startled Sylvia. Then again, two different Emanators were already after her life, so it had come at the perfect time.
At the very least, she now had far more confidence and didn't need to fear an enemy ambush.
She should celebrate with Mei first.
With that thought, Sylvia sent Mei a message.
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL