The nightingale watches through the mist, observing the witches' magical power fluctuations.
In the monochrome world, few encounter such vibrant hues. Their inner Magic Power surged with memories of seeking the Holy Mountain, while daily practice sharpened their mastery. Yet what moved Nightingale most was the divine radiance on their faces.
During their time in the mutual aid group, though inspired by Wendy's gentle encouragement and driven by Hakkara's resolute actions, the sisters never truly found peace in their days of hiding. Even the slightest disturbance would jolt them awake, while the Church's relentless pursuit and the oppressive gaze of suspicious onlookers weighed heavily on their spirits. Even when venturing deep into the mountainous wilderness, this suffocating pressure showed little relief. No one knew if they could ever reach the Holy Mountain and find a place to settle. The atmosphere in the camp often grew gloomy during those days, with most sisters wearing blank, numb expressions.
Now they no longer suffer from hunger or fear the Church's persecution. Every face radiates an unprecedented divine radiance. Seeing the crowd's relaxed, natural smiles, Nightingale felt it in her heart. The Holy Mountain truly exists—but not in the wilderness, but in this remote border town.
Just then, she sensed a faint tremor of Magic Power.
A purple mist began swirling, with Magic Power continuously being channeled into it, forming a miniature storm. Yet only the Nightingale could perceive this tremor. After recovering from her shock, she stared wide-eyed, holding her breath to capture every detail—unlike Anna and Soloya, who only realized it later, this was her first direct witness to the gathering of Magic Power.
The center of the storm is Lily.
She was so absorbed in the microscopic world under the microscope that she didn't notice the Magic Power within her had undergone a qualitative transformation.
The mist grew denser and denser, its swirling motion accelerating until it became solid, its contours rippling and losing the initial vortex-like shape. Finally, Magic Power coalesced inward into a compact mass, gradually ceasing its motion.
Her newly born Magic Power was neither as hard and smooth as Anna's cube nor as soft as Soraya's silk. It was fist-sized, with a circular body and eight pairs of wriggling tentacles—four pairs facing downward and four upward—making it look like a... worm at first glance.
...
Roland never expected the first natural biology class to make an impact, and to his surprise, the first witch to evolve was none other than Lily.
Given her previous expertise in food preservation, Roland had assigned her only routine tasks and knew little about her beyond that. After hearing Nightingale's report, he nodded indifferently. Only after the class ended did he let Lily stay behind alone.
"What? You mean my abilities evolved?" Lily's face lit up with surprise. "I never saw the microbe you mentioned." "Of course not," Roland shook his head with a grin. "Microbes are thousands of times smaller than microbes. Even with optical microscopes at their limits, you can't see the fundamental building blocks of matter." "I thought you had to understand the microbe theory to evolve abilities," she mumbled. "I don't believe everything in the world is made of tiny particles. Rock and steel, which are so solid, would crumble into a pile of sand if they were just a bunch of microbe-sized particles stacked together." "So... the microparticle theory isn't the only way to evolve abilities," he thought. "What did you see?" "Hmm..." Lily paused. "Several purple worms. I think Magic Power summoned them. It can transform all the creatures you mentioned into the same shape." "Worms?" He froze slightly. "Same size as microbes?" "Pretty much," she nodded. "And when I looked at that drop of water later, it was still completely transparent." "Then... let's test it."
Since Lily's abilities aren't as visible as Anna and Soloya's, testing them is far more challenging.
Roland was startled when he first saw the microbes arranged so neatly under the microscope. They acted as if they had a collective mind, displaying remarkable coordination and uniformity.
The subsequent sub-experiment will examine its efficacy, onset time, and the impact of the Magic Power Stone on it.
The three-day test saw the girl, though known for her habit of arguing, follow Roland's instructions with meticulous care despite her complaints.
Through extensive sample comparisons and discussions with Anna, he gained a general understanding of how Lily's new ability functions.
Among these purple mutant swarm, it is obvious that they are divided into two categories: mother and replicon.
When Lily unleashed her Magic Power, the first mutated microorganism to emerge was the host organism.
The mother entity resembles black fire, existing indefinitely as long as Magic Power is supplied. It must stay within five meters of its creator, or it will vanish spontaneously. As a summoned creature, it is also affected by the God's Stone, which instantly disperses the mother entity within its range.
When the host is present, the surrounding microorganisms are rapidly assimilated into replicators. What baffled Roland was that these replicators were the direct outcome of the ability, much like Soraya's coating, now free from the constraints of God's Stone of Punishment. Simply put, the Magic Power mother insect created by Lily transformed microorganisms into a completely new form of life, and this life form is genuinely real.
The replicated microorganisms retained the host's assimilation characteristics and actively degraded other microorganisms. However, the test results perplexed Roland—assimilation did not appear to continue indefinitely. In some samples, identical volumes of replicator aqueous solutions were added, with some microorganisms being completely transformed while others exhibited coexistence of replicators and unmutated microorganisms.
With no more sophisticated instruments available, this part can only be guessed.
After discussing with Anna, Roland developed a preliminary hypothesis: the assimilation frequency of replicons correlates with their size.
Lili's capability is evidently incapable of distinguishing microbial species. Consequently, among the vast number of replicators produced by the host, there are both undetectable viruses and bacteria, as well as microscopic protozoa and unicellular algae visible under a microscope. The ontological structure of these replicators determines their assimilation capacity—the larger the original organism, the more frequent the conversion into replicators and subsequent assimilation.
Additionally, replicators cannot sustain life through divisional reproduction. When the assimilation cycle is exhausted, the last batch of replicators can survive for only about one day. Boiling water can also kill most replicators—being emerging life forms, they are not significantly different from other microorganisms.
Interestingly, when a host is present, these replicons cluster around it like a swarm of insects, forming orderly queues resembling soldiers awaiting orders.
Due to limitations in observational methods, many aspects of Lily's new abilities remain unclear. For instance, whether the maternal body and replicants can exert diverse effects on life, similar to bacteria and viruses, or whether they can replace various fungi in chemical engineering and food production. Unfortunately, the young girl currently has no grasp of these concepts, let alone the ability to command them to execute corresponding instructions.
Nevertheless, replicants have demonstrated extensive developmental potential in medical applications. Even without any intervention, the complete assimilation of lethal bacteria or viruses can achieve rapid anti-inflammatory and bactericidal effects—this seemingly irrational drug has evidently paved the way for the advancement of medical science in the domain.