At her current level, could she cross through time itself?
Sylvia's strength had already reached a new height, but the only thing she knew of that had a direct connection to time was Finality. Its Aeon moved backward through time, walking from the future toward the past, while Elio, who followed the Path of Finality, could glimpse countless possible futures.
Even then, all Elio could do was observe those futures and choose the one he wanted. That counted as indirectly interfering with fate, but he still couldn't directly affect the concept of time itself.
Sylvia was only an Emanator, and an Emanator of a completely different Path at that. There was no telling how far she could push it.
Time might be hard, but crossing space should be a little easier.
Still, she'd need plenty of tests and practice. If she handled it well enough, maybe she could slash all the way from the space station and hit Polka Kakamond with a single strike.
Sylvia's hands were already itching to try, but she was standing in the middle of a street. She'd better find Mei later and test the technique with her instead.
After all, the effect came purely from swordsmanship, which made its power surprisingly easy to control. The only problem was that she lacked a suitable lightweight blade.
The Herrscher of Flamescion used a greatsword. Sylvia could swing one around as easily as a feather with her current strength, but it still wasn't a good fit for this technique.
For now, she'd probably have to reshape the Subspace Lance and use it as a substitute.
"Eh, no big deal. The Subspace Lance is pretty sturdy."
That left the final purple card. Time to see what she'd get.
"Come on, give me something that can deal with that woman..."
Sylvia rubbed her hands together.
It wasn't that she didn't trust Herta and Screwllum. Polka Kakamond was simply far too good at hiding. Even after all these years, nobody knew where she was or what she was doing.
Sylvia didn't doubt that four geniuses working together could deal with one person. The problem was finding her in the first place. Who knew how long that would take?
Sylvia herself had no good way to deal with causality-based abilities, so all she could do was put her hopes in the gacha.
'My absurd-luck passive, it's your time to shine!'
"All right, reveal!"
Sylvia gave a small shout, and the purple summoning screen lit up.
As expected, the purple glow lasted all the way to the end. Then a strangely shaped projectile dropped into Sylvia's palm.
She stared at it in confusion for a moment before her eyes widened.
Wasn't this thing a four-star upgrade material from a game in her previous life?
--+--
[Countertemporal Shot]
["A spiral bullet forever going against the arrow of time, like a hound eternally chasing the immortal that defies time."]
["Run. Hide within the gaps of any moment you choose. It'll always find you and pin you to your destined fate."]
--+--
"Seriously?"
Sylvia stared at the rather ordinary-looking object in her hand.
If that description was accurate, this thing really might work against Polka Kakamond.
Sure, it was disposable.
She only had one, and it'd be gone once she used it. But with an effect like that, how was this only purple rarity?
Sylvia scratched her head. Then again, the thing really had only been a purple item in the game, but that was because it'd been an upgrade material there.
In reality, this thing might be capable of taking down an Emanator.
Sylvia couldn't make sense of it.
Whatever.
As long as it worked.
Her absurd luck had pulled through again.
Sylvia was very satisfied. At the very least, she now had a trump card that could potentially deal with Polka Kakamond.
The only remaining problem was figuring out how to launch it.
Ordinary ranged weapons were built around specific ammunition sizes, and this thing didn't match any standard type she'd ever seen.
Could she make a suitable launcher with the Herrscher of the Void's authority?
Sylvia rubbed her chin.
Come to think of it, the Signal Bullet Mei had given Boothill had also transcended time in a way.
When Boothill fired it into the sky, Galaxy Rangers from across the stars had arrived.
There was no way their ships could match the Astral Express in warp efficiency. On top of that, the Galaxy Rangers were scattered throughout the universe, so their distances from Penacony would've varied wildly.
Yet they'd all reached Penacony at almost the same moment after the shot was fired.
It obviously hadn't been an ordinary signal. There had to be something unusual about it.
'Hmm... When I think about it that way...'
Maybe this one-use shot wasn't quite as impossibly precious as she'd first thought.
Sylvia carefully put it away, then hurried toward the Express. She couldn't wait to drag Mei off somewhere and test her new sword technique.
--+--
Mei had returned to the Astral Express some time ago and was helping Pom-Pom plan changes to the train's interior.
The original layout had mostly been handled by the space station, so naturally, some parts didn't quite match Pom-Pom's tastes. After confirming that the Express Crew would soon receive a large sum of money and asking Sylvia for her opinion, Pom-Pom had recently started planning a full interior renovation.
The moment Sylvia returned, Pom-Pom closed the notebook in their paws.
"Are we leaving now?"
"Give me a minute. I need Mei for something, but it won't take long."
"All right! Then this conductor's going to prepare for departure!"
Pom-Pom nodded and hurried away.
Sylvia immediately caught Mei by the wrist, her eyes shining with excitement.
"Come on. Help me practice a new sword technique."
"A new technique? What kind?"
Mei looked puzzled.
Sylvia only gave her a mysterious smile before teleporting both of them to Separius.
--+--
The manor was still there.
Ruan Mei wasn't around at first, but her laboratory remained intact. As for the dragonkin she'd created, they were usually left under the supervision of an AI controlling one of Herta's puppets.
Whenever one of the little ones got too unruly, Bella handled the tougher discipline.
Recently, Sylvia had decided that leaving them with nothing to do was a terrible idea. She'd ordered the AI-controlled Herta puppet to take them around and have them build homes for themselves.
Some liked living in groups, while others preferred solitude. Some belonged near water, while others preferred the skies.
For the sake of her research, Ruan Mei had combined traits from far too many different species, creating all kinds of unique individuals. There was no way they could all comfortably live in the same place.
Spreading them across the planet would make things much easier.
Sylvia teleported into the manor grounds.
She hadn't planned to bother Ruan Mei, but the moment she arrived, the scientist caught her and hauled her straight into the lab.
"Come here. I want to give you a thorough examination."
Before Sylvia could protest much, Ruan Mei had already started scanning her and collecting a fresh set of physical data. She checked Sylvia's condition from several angles, clearly fascinated by how her body had changed after becoming an Emanator of Permanence.
Ruan Mei even proposed collecting additional biological samples to study whether Sylvia's current state could be inherited by future offspring. Sylvia rejected that idea on the spot.
"What a shame... A descendant of an Emanator of Permanence would provide an unprecedented amount of information."
Ruan Mei still didn't seem ready to abandon the idea.
"I remember you saying you found me interesting as well. What if I took part in the project personally?"
"Nope. Absolutely not."
Sylvia crossed both arms into a large X without hesitation.
Ruan Mei's attitude toward creating life was already far too casual for Sylvia's liking. The dragonkin wandering around outside were proof enough of that.
"...All right. If you ever change your mind, come find me."
Ruan Mei sighed.
She wasn't opposed to taking a more direct role herself, but her real research target was Permanence. In simple terms, her own body wasn't an ideal subject for what she wanted to study.
Artificial cultivation was also an option, but she'd already produced more than enough dragonkin that way. She wanted data from something different.
"You should give up on this plan. I'm not agreeing to it."
Sylvia finished straightening herself out and left the laboratory without looking back.
Outside, Mei was already waiting with her long blade in hand. When Sylvia emerged, she gave her a look that clearly said, 'Go ahead.'
Sylvia didn't waste time.
The Subspace Lance appeared in her palm, then stretched longer and thinner before flattening into the shape of a blade much like Mei's.
Sylvia tested its weight a few times.
A little too light, but good enough for sparring.
She gripped the sword with both hands and held it level, the tip aimed straight at Mei.
"Heh-heh~Hidden Move—"
Sylvia hummed under her breath as she settled into position and announced the move.
Then she stepped forward.
The blade flashed.
Before the first strike had even fallen, Sylvia felt a strange sense of displacement.
Space and time seemed to ripple around her movement.
Then—
At the exact same moment, a second and third slash appeared, all three blades descending on Mei from different directions.
Mei's eyes narrowed.
That hadn't simply been speed.
It was different from Mei's own technique of layering multiple slashes together.
Her strikes relied on overwhelming speed. She could swing twice or even three times so quickly that the attacks overlapped and looked like a single slash.
There was still a gap between them, no matter how tiny.
Sylvia's technique was different.
The latter two slashes hadn't only appeared together. They'd somehow caught up with the first.
Was she simply moving at an absurd speed, or had she used some trick to force all three strikes to exist at the same moment?
In that fleeting instant, Mei marveled at the technique and responded at once.
Her scabbard turned into a streak of light as she surged forward. Mei slipped between two of the slashes at an almost impossible angle, then swept her scabbard sideways.
CLANG!
Metal shrieked against metal.
Only then did Sylvia's voice drift over.
"Tsubame Gaeshi!"
"This technique is called Tsubame Gaeshi? Three slashes appearing at once... Yes, I suppose that fits."
Mei's scabbard held Sylvia's blade in place. Judging by her expression, the name had reminded her of something.
Sylvia raised an eyebrow.
Did Izumo have a story about Sasaki Kojirō too?
Well... it wasn't impossible.
Mei didn't stay lost in thought for long.
"I don't know how you did it, but the core of this move should be using three simultaneous attacks to seal off every escape route and corner the opponent."
That was likely the entire idea behind the technique. Three attacks appeared at once, leaving the target nowhere to run and nowhere to dodge.
Mei lowered her scabbard and stepped back.
"But your angles still aren't tricky enough. If I'd wanted to, I wouldn't have needed to block that last strike."
Sylvia stared at her helplessly.
She'd never seen Mei show off footwork like that before.
"Since when were you this good at dodging?"
"I've never needed to dodge before."
Mei smiled at Sylvia.
"Your swordsmanship has improved too. Did you gain another new ability?"
She'd noticed the moment Sylvia attacked. If this had been the old Sylvia, there would've been even more flaws in that Tsubame Gaeshi.
Knowing Sylvia's strange talents, she'd probably gained another ability somehow. Either way, her technique had clearly improved.
Mei's training plan could probably use another update.
Sylvia's face fell.
What kind of compliment was that supposed to be?
What did she mean she'd never needed to dodge before?
Was she saying that whenever they'd fought in the past, Sylvia hadn't even been worth dodging?
"Want to practice some more?"
Mei looked at her with clear anticipation.
That technique had been excellent.
More importantly, Mei could tell that it'd been achieved almost entirely through pure skill. For the first time in quite a while, she actually felt the urge to learn someone else's sword technique.
Sylvia knew exactly what Mei was thinking.
She wanted to continue too, but Pom-Pom was still waiting for them to return so the Express could depart.
"Let's head back first. Pom-Pom's waiting for us. We can keep practicing once we reach the space station. I'll train with you whenever we've got time."
"..."
The anticipation in Mei's eyes visibly faded.
She silently nodded, then took Sylvia's hand.
Sylvia was genuinely surprised. This was the first time she'd ever seen Mei show such strong interest in someone else's swordsmanship.
--+--
Back inside the Astral Express, Sylvia pulled Mei down onto the sofa beside her.
"I remember your sword having a similar effect. You know, where you overlap two or three slashes to increase the power."
Sylvia still didn't quite understand the difference.
Mei's version was terrifying too.
But Mei shook her head.
"It's different. I'm simply fast, and I can't produce three completely different slashes at the same time."
Repeating the same movement three times was always easier than performing three different movements.
On top of that, Sylvia's technique had clearly disturbed both space and time.
The fact that it'd affected time at all was ridiculous.
Sylvia hadn't even used much power.
If she performed Tsubame Gaeshi with the full strength of an Emanator behind it, even Mei couldn't imagine what its upper limit would look like.
"Mm-hmm~"
Sylvia's lips curled upward as she hummed smugly.
Tsubame Gaeshi was like Hokushin Ittō-ryū in one key way: both were techniques based mainly on skill.
They didn't have bizarre, unreasonable effects that simply happened because some mysterious ability said so.
Pure technique had no unknowable "black box" to Sylvia. Which meant that, as long as Sylvia patiently taught her, Mei really might be able to learn it.
Sylvia immediately grew smug.
She curled one finger and lightly tipped Mei's chin upward, narrowing her eyes with a teasing grin.
"Call me your wonderful big sister, and maybe I'll think about teaching you properly~"
Mei laughed at Sylvia's sudden arrogance.
Sylvia getting carried away whenever she found something new wasn't exactly unusual. She only looked imposing at times like this anyway.
One little push, and the act always crumbled.
--+--