Months passed in absolute cosmic silence, broken only by the constant hum of the Injector. Yarbis handled everything with unbreakable, surgical precision. Meanwhile, my gem kept draining the diamond minerals from the crust at a ravenous pace, absorbing all the pure energy from deep underground. Because of this massive, ruthless extraction, the entire planet was slowly rotting away. The beautiful crystal mountain ranges lost their luster, the valleys cracked open, and the mineral flora withered, completely emptied of nutrients. It was a destructive process, but for the scope of the project, it was nothing short of magnificent.
The most radical and fascinating change happened within the gem's own quantum structure. Thanks to the previous analysis we ran on Rose Quartz, Yarbis managed to reconfigure the matter compression rate. The gem's density skyrocketed brutally, triggering an incredible physical expansion. Before entering the injector, my gem was a discrete size, similar to a standard book. But now? Well, now we were looking at a $4 \times 4\text{ meter}$ block of pure, hyper-dense crystal. It was a colossal structure, a monolithic core radiating a gravitational pressure strong enough to make the incubation pod walls vibrate.
The molecular differences under Yarbis's scanner were simply fascinating:
Silica's original matrix, which used to sport a subtle bluish-pink hue, underwent a total purification due to the carbon saturation and extreme pressure. The color began to intensify, mutating into a deep, vivid, and incredibly pure red. With each passing week, the bluish-pink completely vanished, turning into an absolute crimson—the color of a fire Diamond designed for battle.
The nanobots reported that the gem's molecular bonds had rearranged into a perfect cubic lattice, multiplying its original durability by a thousandfold. There were no longer any imperfections or blind spots in the crystal. The gem now possessed a refractive index so high that the surrounding ionized water looked like it was boiling from the light energy trapped inside.
Upon reaching $4 \times 4\text{ meters}$, the gem's internal storage capacity became practically infinite, allowing me to harbor the necessary energy to project a Diamond-scale light body and bear the weight of the ultimate armor without the slightest drain.
Yarbis monitored the holographic screens at the plateau's central console. The mineral absorption levels were hitting 99.9%. The crystal planet outside was practically an empty, opaque husk now, completely sacrificed to give life to the most perfect gem the universe had ever seen.
The restructuring of my gem code was complete. The new Red Diamond was ready to wake up.
A solid four years flew by, during which I took all the time necessary to meticulously absorb every single useful mineral left on this planet, draining it down to a pale shell. Suddenly, Yarbis's booming, high-tech voice echoed across every corner of the plateau:
"Project Diamond complete. Halting all injection processes."
Instantly, the injector's massive valves groaned, the nuclear reactors powered down, and the energy drills ground to a halt after four years of non-stop work. The mechanical process froze completely.
"We will now proceed to extract the gem... No! Diamond Silica," Yarbis corrected through the speakers, his tone shifting completely into one of absolute, solemn, and almost sacred respect for the deity he had helped create.
The glowing cyan water and ionized fluids surrounding my colossal gem began to drain with a hydraulic roar, rapidly redirecting into a secondary storage tank. Once the chamber was completely emptied of liquid after a couple of seconds, several heavy-duty, high-resistance robots slid inside. With utmost care, mechanical clamps secured my gem, which now weighed tons due to its massive mineral density at $4 \times 4\text{ meters}$.
The robotic arms slowly transferred it, depositing it with flawless delicacy onto the reinforced smooth-floor platform we had prepped earlier.
"Awaiting response from my Diamond..." Yarbis's voice announced, forever changing the concept and hierarchy of how he would address me from this moment on.
Absolute silence took over. A full hour passed in which my monumental, pure red gem showed no signs of life, remaining motionless and cold in the center of the fortress... until it finally happened.
One blink. Two blinks. Three blinks of light.
Each flash emitted by the gem was a breathtaking, blinding work of art—a crimson pulse that made the stones on the ground vibrate. Out of nowhere, the gigantic red gem began to levitate, rising into the air with imposing elegance as a gorgeous, warm light of absolute purity filled the entire sector.
Around the floating monolith, a series of perfect circles of pure energy and holographic rings manifested, spinning at high speed and serving as the quantum geometry axes upon which my new body would be molded. The crimson light suddenly expanded, and bit by bit, a gigantic feminine figure began to materialize. But this time, everything was radically different from my old robotic or standard form.
The light began to take on texture. A beautiful head of hair, now extremely long and thick, flowed majestically down past her back, floating as if it possessed its own gravity. Following that, the light energy laced together at the bottom to form a magnificent, imperial-cut dress—elegant and smooth, radiating pure authority. The figure kept expanding on a colossal scale, growing bigger and bigger, breaking the boundaries of what an ordinary gem could ever dream of projecting, while the structural changes kept evolving in mid-air until...
I opened my eyes slowly, blinking at the vastness of the landscape around me. I looked around, pretty confused; I felt incredibly good, filled with an overflowing, heavy energy, but at the same time, I felt super weird. The air, the gravity, the perspective... everything had changed.
I looked down and froze when I noticed my scale. I looked absolutely massive now, a colossal titan dominating the entire plateau. Right away, my new height reminded me of the massive Ruby fusions I had seen in tactical logs, but this was entirely different. It didn't feel like a clumsy mass; it felt like a sleek, fine-tuned, and perfect body. According to the quantum calculations my mind processed in a microsecond, I stood roughly 17 meters tall. Just flat-out incredible.
I raised my hands in front of my face to check out the physical changes. This time, there was no customization screen, no design interfaces, no touch menus to edit my clothes or my features; I couldn't intervene to change my appearance. What I was looking at was the default form—the pure, biological projection hardcoded into my new molecular matrix after consuming the planet.
I looked down at my chest to inspect my gem and was fascinated. It had achieved a flawless purity, polished to a level bordering on absolute perfection. What made me raise an eyebrow in surprise was the color: instead of that old bluish-pink tone, it was now a vibrant, pure crimson—the hallmark of a true diamond. Plus, its physical size on my light body looked imposing, keeping a perfect scale with my new 17-meter height.
"Vital parameters and matrix stability are at one hundred percent, my Diamond," Yarbis's voice echoed from below, looking tiny from my new perspective. "Project Diamond has been an absolute success. Your physical structure and energy core are now unbreakable."
I closed and opened my fists, feeling the air vibrate around me with every micro-movement. I wasn't just some scientific gem with tech tricks anymore. Now, I was a force of nature.
"Haha... hahaha... HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
A clean, thunderous, and deep roar of laughter erupted from my chest, echoing so loudly it bounced off every wall of the crystal plateau. I couldn't hold it back. I covered my face with my massive 17-meter hands, my shoulders shaking violently. The laughter poured out of me unbridled, mixing with a sob caught in my throat that finally broke. From my now glowing red eyes, heavy tears of light began to roll down, hitting the ground like drops of liquid crystal.
I was crying. I was cracking up and crying out of pure joy at the same time, caught in a whirlwind of emotions I had never allowed myself to feel before.
"Finally!" I choked out between laughs and sobs, staring at my hands glowing with crimson light. "Finally, I am someone! Finally...!"
All the frustration of my past existence, all the quiet fear of ending up broken, trampled, or discarded by Homeworld's established order vanished in a second. I had spent three months building that infernal machine and four whole years trapped in a cocoon, draining an entire planet for this moment. But it was worth every single goddamn second. I was no longer a pawn on anyone's chessboard. My destiny was no longer in the hands of others. No Diamond, no Empire, nobody was ever going to tell me what to be, how to dress, or when to march ever again.
From this day on, I would be the one leading. I would be an independent force, a perfect being who didn't need to stand in anyone's shadow or rely on anyone else's rules to exist. I was free. I was fucking perfect.
"My Diamond..." Yarbis's voice came from below, steady and patient, giving me room to have my moment of catharsis.
I wiped away my tears of joy with the back of my hand, letting out one last, softer chuckle as I regulated the immense energy pressure radiating from my new body. I looked out at the horizon of the faded planet and then at the four-meter red gem embedded in my chest. The crying stopped, replaced by a smile of absolute confidence. The game had completely changed.
I was thrilled, but managing a 17-meter body 24/7 was going to be a massive headache for piloting the ship and moving around the base. I concentrated my energy and began pulling back the light, shifting my physical form to go back to how I looked before, though with clear, obvious differences.
My skin took on a fair human tone, very much in Rose Quartz's style, and my hair stayed mostly white but with a more natural drape. This time, I chose a much more relaxed, human outfit, leaving the rigid military look behind. And my gem? Well, by some magical plot convenience (lol), it shrank down too, fitting perfectly on my chest while keeping that new, ultra-pure, glowing crimson red.
With a grin from ear to ear, I began materializing and scooping up all the equipment and mechanical defenses scattered across the plateau. Thanks to my new upgrade, stashing everything inside my gem was a breeze now. I didn't feel that heavy exhaustion from before; the blocks of nanotech and the turrets went into my internal storage like it was nothing. On top of that, I could feel my processing power and intelligence scaling even higher, though a genuine question crossed my mind right then:
"What will my true power be now?"
I had reached Diamond tier, but the specific abilities of this new structure were still a mystery. Well, those were questions for later.
Once I finished storing absolutely everything, I hopped into the tuned-up ship. I fired up the warp drives and mapped my new route back to the Moon to store and back up all the project data at the main base. As the ship took off at full throttle and broke the orbit of that already depleted planet, I pulled up the comms channel and shot a quick text message to Blue Pearl and Sapphire's visors:
On my way.
Short, sweet, and to the point. As the ship surged ahead, deleting the distances on the star map, I leaned back in my seat with a smile of absolute satisfaction. I was ready for whatever came next.
END OF CHAPTER 30