She flipped the long stocking at the heel, slid it over a jade-smooth foot, then drew it to mid thigh like silk riding a gentle tide.

Her hair was combed neat, then bound into two long, thick ponytails, twin willow whips swaying.

She straightened the straps and veiled her shoulders with a gauzy shawl, like dawn mist settling.

Mm...

Don’t worry. You look adorable.

Before the queen’s tall mirror, Selene rested both hands on Artemis’s shoulders, then leaned close to whisper like moonlight at her ear.

I don’t care about that stuff! Heat pricked her pride first; then Artemis squirmed, because being handled like a child made her skin crawl.

Oh, really? Then why do your eyes keep clinging to the mirror like a magnet on glass?

…!

She tore her gaze away like a bird startled from a branch, and Selene’s smile waxed like a crescent.

How does it feel to be cut off from sorcery—like stepping into a quiet lake?

Like the ground gone under my feet.

That’s the daily weather for millions with no sorcery at all. In you, her Flash Energy has plugged the baseplate for now, like a cork in a bottle.

To show good faith, she gave me the unlocking method, a key like a silver reed. Don’t doubt my loyalty to Mysidia.

When our cooperation with Arcadia is formalized, I’ll undo it, like untying a simple knot.

Sincerity? Hah, sincerity?

She tried to sneer, but the sound came off too soft, like velvet on steel. Words failed; her cheeks burned like embers.

Is this body wired to blush and leak tears at the slightest poke?

Inside, she was stone-still, yet heat rose like steam from hidden springs.

Wait—only unlocking the baseplate? When do I change back?

You won’t change back.

…Huh?

You won’t change back.

That damn woman reshapes bodies with a palm like clay under rain! Putting me back should be easy!

Selene grimaced, a cloud across the moon. She told me this herself.

The ability is tied to runes and must tug on concepts when used, like threads in a loom.

You know this: ordinary people’s concept belongs to the Human set, like leaves in a grove.

But some Longlifers carry personal concepts of their own, like lone stars.

Her personal concept repels the Male concept, like oil and water.

Why?! The Human concept shouldn’t have special affinity with one side of Gender!

Maybe she polished her own concept, like carving a seal?

This… this is absurd, like the sky flipping over the sea!

Artemis, a shut-in old scholar who’d studied for decades, one step from Sorcery ascension like a climber near the peak, felt eclipsed.

Yekase, with a face and temper like a lively twenty-year-old, had already passed her milestone, like a comet streaking ahead, and could even tweak concepts with ease!

(Actually, she hadn’t.)

Only the great alchemist Alicia Alicia, hidden in her own city like a tiger in bamboo, could do that as far as she knew.

Could Yekase already stand equal to that dangerous woman she didn’t dare disturb—like a moth facing a flame?!

(Actually, she couldn’t.)

Thud!

Artemis sank weakly to her knees before the mirror, like a wave breaking on stone.

I… lost to my own arrogance and shortsightedness, didn’t I…

It’s not too late to change, Selene’s voice washed warm, like spring rain at her ear.

What’s done is done; we still prepare for the road ahead, like sailors trimming sails.

Magus-King Endymion is in Arcadia, diving into ancient sorcery like a diver in deep water.

Here, we have only our daughter, Artemis. How does that tale sound?

D-daughter?!

Reason rang clear, like a bell. It was the neatest cover, still a bit inconvenient, but preserved her standing like a seal kept intact.

Let Selene carry decrees. In a dozen years she could take the city chair from her own hand like passing a torch.

Call me “Mother” once, will you?

…Can’t do it.

Selene didn’t press. She took Artemis’s hand and led her out, like moonlight guiding over polished stone.

Then, about the joint academy… what do they want exactly?

Higher library access, teaching resource support, and joint courses, like keys, tools, and shared maps.

Artemis waited a few seconds and realized Selene had finished. That’s it?

I thought they’d kidnap half our faculty for permanent station, like hauling a net from our waters.

Then it wouldn’t be cooperation.

What about when they kidnapped me?!

Ms. Luciferin is from Huaxia. You may not know that landscape.

The Sinister Organization’s public face mirrors the Church like twin façades, but its hidden grip is stronger, like iron under silk.

In that climate she sparked a nationwide awakening of thought—gentle hands alone can’t lift a mountain.

In other words, a disruptor of order?

You could say that.

I only hope Mysidia, as the City of Magi, can stay neutral like a lake, a pure research city, keeping our people away from every storm.

Will the Church and the Sinister Organization allow it?

Artemis fell silent, then shook her head like a leaf in wind.

...

By then, Yekase was back on Arcadia, like a traveler returning to a high terrace.

Before, they weren’t familiar enough, and the Ambition Divine Ship was a last-fortress grade, like a citadel at sea.

She hadn’t brought the three from the Baroque Workshop into her lab.

Now the knot could be untied. Using Sandryon’s personal spatial packing, she turned the lab into a detachable module, like a house in a crate, and moved it into the ancient city.

She set it within the restored academy ruins, like a lantern in an old hall.

Last time, she gave them a big direction to boost output, like a compass. Then she packed up and went north to the Arctic to fight the Shadow Realm War, like a hawk against winter storms.

Now was time to check the interim harvest, like tasting grain.

CEO Bismarck solemnly produced a Y-shaped three-way valve, a fork like a reed, and handed it to Yekase.

Because Mind Energy and Soul Power are alike in nature and easier to fuse, we focused on their conversion with Flash Energy, like rivers meeting.

Indeed.

Your materials mentioned “magionization.” So we thought in reverse, like walking back a path.

If Mind/Flash/Soul are one energy in different conditions, and we remove the Demon King Power that Shadow Curtain International forced in, like stripping paint, and swap in Spiral Force, which academia kept sidelined, like a root under stone—we get four Infinite Powers.

Right.

Mind/Flash/Soul Power. Omega Ray. Sorcery. Spiral Force.

Bismarck wrote the four names on the whiteboard like chalked stars, then raised one finger.

Question: In the material dimension, how many known fundamental forces?

Yekase folded her arms, a cat at ease, and smiled. Four.

So—!

If you’d read my recent paper on Flash Energy closely, you wouldn’t say that, like skimming a sutra and missing the heart.

…What?

It’s good you reached this layer, like climbing to a ledge. Yes, Sorcery resembles electromagnetism in many ways, like twin currents.

And Spiral Force, out of step with other Infinite Powers, feels like gravity, a deep pull.

But those “coincidences” fenced your thinking like hedges, making you ignore conditions that cut against the guess.

Yekase raised her right hand and opened her palm, like a flower.

A metallic sheen of red flame—her signature Flash Energy—welled from her palm, then hung midair like liquid freed of gravity in space.

I said in that paper: Flash Energy arises from low-energy electron–positron collisions, like sparks in a quiet chamber.

Question: In the material dimension, what products come out?

Two or more photons, Fronto answered, like beads of light.

Then through magionization, in the mystic dimension, one unit of Flash Energy accompanies it—mapped from photons as particles, not any fundamental force.

So Balafaruth should be a “photon dragon,” not “mechanical,” like calling a river a road… whatever.

The trio fell silent under the rebuke, like students grilled by Pauli, faces pale as paper.

Yekase toyed with the three-way valve Bismarck gave her, then fed Flash Energy from the stem like pouring mercury.

From the left branch, Mind Energy rose—slow but sure, like a spring filling a cup.

But you still did it. You achieved conversion between Infinite Powers, like turning water into steam.

Call it a lucky strike, or just research: no voyage is smooth.

Revise the paper and move on; results matter like harvest over forecast.

Hearing that, the three finally exhaled, like sails catching wind.

The converted Mind Energy was liquid too. Yekase cupped a bit of the blue fluid, like holding sky, then sniffed.

Good. It held none of her scent, like clean rain.

By the way, how did you do it?

We endowed Flash Energy with rest mass, like giving mist a weight.

And then?

We used two scalars, named H and S, like twin keys.

Left path is H evolution, yielding Mind Energy; right path is S evolution, yielding Soul Power.

Reverse it: remove their rest mass, like lifting the load…

…and you get Flash Energy. So simple?

Can it go to mass production?

We’re in Phase II tests. Optimistically, within next year, like fruit on the branch.

Within next year…

Yekase took several deep breaths, like a swimmer settling, to steady herself.

Her smile tugged up beyond control, like a kite catching wind. Tell me whatever you need.

Even if you want a Shadow Curtain International researcher by name, I’ll find a way to kidnap one for you, like a fox with a plan.

No no no, that’s a bit… let’s not go that far!

Yet Yekase’s thoughts floated off from the lab, flying into the boundless stars like a firebird.

With Flash Energy as core and multiple Infinite Powers balanced, the tech system would spread like rivers.

From micro-engineering to interstellar megastructures, to human gene design, ability enhancement, and finally ageless immortality, like pines in winter.

Then both innate and learned gaps would be leveled like dunes smoothed by wind. No more oppression.

Popularizing Flash Energy is only the first step, and the crucial one, like the first stone in a bridge.

Yekase’s gaze swept their faces one by one, like lanterns counting windows. This first step—we take it.

Our names will be carved into history, a light to guide those after us, like stars on a map.

Bismarck had heard from Jiang Bailu that Yekase loved to brag, adept at rousing pretty words like banners.

Maybe this was one of them; perhaps many had heard the same line like echoes in a hall.

Yet, impossibly, the three looked at the girl called the Crimson Saint, at the dark hair tucked behind her ear like silk, her burning eyes like twin torches, her soft smile like warm bread.

And they felt she could do anything, like a god walking a garden.

They just wanted to believe her, to follow, like geese in a V.

A sense… like a god, perhaps…

Yeah… when we make the textbooks, I want a big headshot sticking my tongue out, Bismarck said, like a kid at a festival.

I’m wearing my coolest shades, Fronto said, like a crow in midnight glass.

Thinking way too far ahead! Kate and Yekase spoke together, like two bells chiming.