"Wait. My powers are fla-based, so how about this? I gain the ability to burn the energy of universal laws.
By channelling the power of the Origin Singularity, I can bug them out, which manifests as 'burning them away'.
The 'burned' energy becos 'degraded', lowering its quality or purity, so any powers or abilities that depend on those laws beco weaker and less effective.
I could even use it defensively, burning the energy of incoming attacks to weaken them before they reach ."
Ranus nodded at his words.
[That's within your limit. The ability to 'burn' universal law energies.]
"Not just law energies, but abstracts too. Things like Immortality, Regeneration, maybe even stuff like 'Fate'..."
Evan was thinking about several Executives of the Demonic Hand and Peak Ranked Demons he knew from 'Aidos Online'.
Figures like the Second Finger, who manipulated the 'ambient spatial laws', or the First Finger, who manipulated 'Fate', ca to mind.
[You're seeking sothing close to the power of 'Finality', which erases things from their roots.]
"Roots?"
[In this case, the 'Root' refers to the universal law energy itself, and you want the power to burn it away.]
Ranus' analogy made sense, and Evan silently agreed before continuing to refine his wish.
"Universal laws have Ranks, so I'd like this ability to scale alongside my own law comprehension rank.
For instance, I should be able to burn laws equal to my rank, but only disrupt those above it. As for resisting my law-destroying force…"
He paused for a mont, a faint smile appearing as he nodded to himself.
"That's a good na. Anyway, the only way to resist it would be by using a greater amount of energy than what I'm consuming to burn the laws or a higher-ranked Unique Authority, I guess."
Ranus said nothing after Evan spoke, and the boy was about to continue, but he stopped himself, eyes narrowing slightly before shaking his head.
"What I have in mind might get a bit too powerful, so let's do this.
Restrictions for Benefits, I suppose.
I'll make it so I don't have access to this power all the ti. It becos a transformation of sorts, a state I can enter only temporarily."
Ranus raised an eyebrow and finally spoke. [So, a restricted form? Reasonable. That does trim down a good portion of its value. But you said 'Restrictions,' so there are more of them, no?]
At this question, Evan nodded and said, "Yeah. Also, it can only be used with Cosmic Energy, so it's locked until I beco a Cosmic Superior."
Evan was fine with sothing he didn't need imdiately. The current him was already strong enough to handle almost anything on future Aidos anyway.
[I suppose that raises the limit of what you can handle since your body wouldn't burn itself out.]
Evan didn't even comnt on Ranus' scary-sounding statent and continued with his explanation.
"So when I do activate it, I want the transformation to make an Active Embodint of the Singularity's Origin.
Heck, I might as well literally turn into it—wait, no. Let's just beco fire."
[Beco fire? Are you looking for intangibility here?]
"Close, but not quite. Just very high resistance," Evan replied, shaking his head.
"Like I said earlier, I'd be able to burn laws to degrade them, and maybe cause a little destabilisation from the resulting impure energy.
Still going with what I said earlier, it'd depend on my comprehension rank."
[Progressive scaling tied to your growth, huh?]
"Yes!" Evan sat up, turning to Ranus and pointing. "Whatever you said!"
The man chuckled at his reaction, but Evan had already returned to structuring his power.
"Since it's supposed to reflect the Origin Singularity of my Flas, I don't need to understand a law to 'burn' it. Singularities can bug out what they don't comprehend, after all.
My flas should inherit that ability to bug ou—Wait, I've already said that, haven't I?"
Evan looked up at Ranus as he asked, and the man nodded silently, prompting Evan to quickly move on to the next part of his explanation.
"Now, limitations. Uh…"
He trailed off for a mont, taking the ti to think of sothing that would be effective but wouldn't harm him too much.
"So, massive energy cost, I guess. The higher the law's rank, the more energy I spend trying to burn it."
[Makes sense. Actively embodying the Singularity, as you call it, would strain your existence heavily, so staying too long would consu imnse amounts of cosmic energy and break down your body, soul, or both.]
"Aha! That too! Add that to the limitations list."
Evan was already familiar with that limitation because of BoD, so he didn't hesitate over it.
"Take away Selective Destruction," he said, rubbing his chin. "I wouldn't be able to use Selective Destruction in that state. The flas would burn indiscriminately."
In other words, it wouldn't tell friend from foe. If misused, he could end up burning his own allies.
That exponentially increased the risk of using it and would stop Evan from activating the transformation as often as he did with BoD.
"Let's give it a range of effect, too. Passive law burning for everything within that range, but it's strongest in close proximity."
[So it'll only burn laws within a fixed radius around you? Those outside that range would be safe, and they could flee or fight from a distance, right?]
"That's fine," Evan said.
Then, raising his fingers, he began to count off.
"So basically, it's a transformation only usable with cosmic energy once I beco a Cosmic Superior. It lets actively embody my origin singularity, turning my flas into a law-destroying force that burns laws to degrade them, but it's limited by my comprehension rank, drains my energy fast, harms allies, strains my body, and has short range.
Am I missing anything?"
[Who knows, that's for you to decide.]
Evan shook his head, leaning back in the chair and sighing as he ran through everything in his mind again.
"Nah, I'm not missing anything. Let's go with that.
Oh, and don't limit it by making it a skill. Skills that replicate, restrict, or nullify other skills exist."
Evan knew this best because of his Mystic Eyes, after all.
Then again, there wasn't anyone out there with the exact sa powers he had, so it would be useless even if copied.
The nullifying part, however, was where the real problem lay.
[Hmm…that is a reasonable concern,] Ranus muttered. [It shall be an innate trait of your soul connected to your Unique Authority, then.]
"That works."
After accepting, Evan pressed his palms together and began rubbing them slowly, the motion reminiscent of a praying mantis preparing to strike, before he spoke. "So now, about that freebie."
When Evan ntioned the freebie, Ranus blinked and said, [Ah, right, I did say that.]
The man fell silent for a mont, and then a mischievous grin spread across his face as he spoke. [Okay, you've got ten seconds to tell your wish starting now.
10.
9—]
"!!"
Evan blinked in shock, and just as Ranus reached 8, he started speaking as fast as he could.
"I want you to let pick a specific soul and take it with to the future and reincarnate it in the exact ti period I choose, and I also want you to let stay in that ti period until that soul has been incarnated into a foetus, a growing child, or whatever stage of the pregnancy process the soul enters the body. I want to stay in that ti period until that happens before I continue my journey back to the original ti period I ca from."
Evan breathed heavily after speaking, and Ranus, who had just been about to count 3, raised an eyebrow.
[That's a very detailed wish.]
"Yeah, it's been on my mind for a while," Evan replied. "I was planning to have Jamie help with that, but I'm sure you know better than I do that Jamie isn't exactly in the best state right now."
After the whole fiasco on Cruotis Pri with the Existence Realm Limitation, Evan had figured sothing was wrong with Jamie.
The cracks on his body had been far from normal, and considering that Jamie's body in this universe was nothing more than an astral projection given physical form, it wasn't hard to conclude that this projection was likely on its last legs and close to expiring.
Because of this, Evan had almost given up on having this wish fulfilled, but with Ranus showing up and offering this freebie, he decided to seize the opportunity.
Ranus rubbed his chin for a few monts, then finally said, [Hmm, I suppose that's kind of ta compared to this Origin Singularity stuff you're on about. Fine, which soul?]
"Idrilla Ivy-Rose Rivera. Arch-Human. 23 years at the ti of death."
Seeing how Evan imdiately called out the na and provided other details, Ranus grew curious and asked.
[And exactly what is the value of this soul to you? Why do you want to take them to the future?]
"Well, if you were listening to my conversation with 'Aidos', then you should have an idea of what I'm planning. I need a backup in case Triffid's Safety Net isn't large enough to catch all the souls."
Ranus didn't respond to Evan's words. He simply sat in silence, the glow in his eyes brightening slightly, and a few seconds later, he extended his left hand and curved it through the air as if scooping sothing, and imdiately, a ball of grey light appeared in his palm.
[Voila. You requested soul.]
The man leaned in close, studying the soul, and after a few monts, he added, [Oh? 'The Saintess Of All Those Who Have Died'? That's a super-rare title. Lucky find.]
With those words, he tossed the ball of light to Evan, who quickly reached out to catch it. Just before it touched Evan's palm, it was coated in another layer of energy for protection.
[What ti period?] Ranus asked.
To this, Evan imdiately specified the sa ti period he had told 'Aidos'—exactly 9,980 years in the future.
He planned to go to the ti that 'Aidos' would plant the seed of the World Tree Trifid, as agreed in their deal.
Reincarnating Idrilla's soul into Aidos in that era would ensure that by the ti Evan returned to his original ti period, Idrilla would already be 19 or 20 years old—old enough to be useful.
After receiving the ti from Evan, Ranus raised his hands and clapped, and a massive pulse of cosmic energy burst from his palms, washing through Evan and perating every aspect of his existence—body, soul, energy core, down to his Existence Graph, the blueprint of his soul—before phasing back out.
Evan blanked out for a mont as all his senses, physical and spiritual, went completely offline, leaving him totally empty for that instant.
When he regained himself, it took another second for his mories to reload and catch up to the present mont and understand where and why he was.
Evan felt as if his entire existence had restarted, like rebooting a computer after changing administrative settings, everything resetting to allow the changes to take effect.
Just as he was regaining his awareness, Ranus said, [You should be able to notice the minor adjustnts I made, but you won't be able to sense… what are you calling it again?]
"I don't know… Prismatic Origin Singularity," Evan answered with a half shrug.
[That na's a mouthful, but we'll stick with it,] Ranus said. [You won't be able to sense it until you return to the future, since the universal error that causes your birth hasn't occurred yet.
When you go back to the future where it has happened, you'll be able to sense the power.
Obviously, you won't be able to use it until you reach Cosmic Superiority, so good luck achieving that. I'll make sure to keep an eye on you by then as well.]
Evan scanned his body for any changes, and after a few seconds, he murmured, "Thank you."
[Don't ntion it,] Ranus replied. [Consider it paynt for entertaining .]
The man then stood up from his beach chair and summoned a slot machine, and seeing it appear, Evan asked,
"So I guess I can go have my well-deserved rest now?"
Ranus chuckled as he pulled the lever, but still nodded.
[Yeah, you've gotten your well-deserved reward, so you can go have your well-deserved rest.]
Evan got up from the beach chair, but just as he did, he stopped, turned back to Ranus, and said, "Hey, mind answering a question for ?"
Ranus raised an eyebrow, his gaze still on the slot machine.
[A question? Yeah sure, what?]
"Can you tell what the others you're talking to right now are asking for or have already asked for?" Evan said.
He was slightly curious about what the others had requested, including but not limited to Artemisia and Beatrix.
Ranus paused for a mont after hearing Evan's question before responding.
[Let's make it a roulette. Of the five of them, three have finished their wishes, and two haven't. You get one chance. Choose carefully.]
The man had suddenly turned it into a gamble, and just as Evan was thinking the odds looked pretty good, Ranus added, [Also, I'll only tell you what they wished for if they didn't explicitly say I shouldn't share it with anyone else.]
"…well, there go my odds."
The way Ranus said it made Evan instantly realise that soone had explicitly requested, as part of their wish that Ranus not disclose it, and they were likely one of the '3' who were done.
Evan had a strong suspicion it was Artemisia, so he didn't even bother picking her. Besides, she wasn't the one he was really curious about.
"Alvey Sargon. What did he wish for?" Evan asked.
Ranus went quiet for a mont, and this ti, even his hand on the slot machine froze. A mont later, he burst out laughing, then turned to Evan and revealed Alvey's wish.
"!!"
Evan's eyes widened at what he heard, his jaw dropping in unrestrained shock.
It took him a solid 5 seconds to collect himself, and he imdiately clicked his tongue.
What he'd just heard had turned everything Evan thought he knew about future Gozon upside down, leaving him with only one thing to say,
"Alvey Sargon, you fucking bastard!"
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