Sirius was slightly startled when Herta asked his input.
Though he did not hesitate to tell her about it.
“We can try reversing the planet’s magnetic field to repulse it. The core’s gradual collapse meant it could not destroy it right away. We have a chance.”
He took out his phone and inserted it directly on the virtual screen.
A blue mesh appeared to scan it.
It took a second to connect to Sirius’ cloud drive.
Small virtual screens ‘popped out’ of his phone, turning into folders.
He clicked on the one titled ‘Study on Antigravity Systems Correlated to the Planetary Magnetic Field’.
When Sirius saw it was the right file, he swiped it towards Herta.
The latter scanned the fifty-page, legal-sized, and double-spaced document.
Its 12 font size and Times New Roman font style caused it to look more condensed with every page, yet she went through everything in a minute.
The paper’s gist was simple.
It went through the ‘relationship’ between the two subjects.
On Earth, anti-gravity could not be actualized due to the lack of technological level.
At best, antigravity chambers mimic the conditions of real antigravity.
It was different on The Blue.
There were real antigravity chambers designed to train pilots and other staff who would board a space ship.
Similarly, antigravity systems were used to assist in takeoffs and ‘ejection’ towards the exosphere.
It reduced fuel consumption, utilizing the weakened presence of gravity for space ships to fly successfully.
The end of the paper posited the idea of turning the planetary magnetic field’s ‘attraction’ to ‘repulsion’.
Simply put, gravity would no longer keep someone’s feet on the ground; it would fling them high in the sky.
It was a core system of Herta’s future space station.
Sirius deeply studied it before changing fields.
There were so many studies and principles used aside from this ‘core technology’ that he felt unconfident in learning them all.
Looking at the silent Herta, Sirius’ hands were filled with sweat.
The anxiety in his heart could not be hidden.
‘Just like that day…’
Herta’s first evaluation of his master’s thesis ended in failure.
It was the moment he decided he wanted to earn Herta’s evaluation, for it is heavier than the acknowledgement of The Blue.
Billions of humans could not compare to a future Emanator!
‘Dragging myself forward…’
Sirius no longer shied away from his realizations earlier.
He spent thirteen years of his life chasing this one goal.
It brought him to an unprecedented height, yet at the same time, pushed himself to extreme limits.
The sheer helplessness of seeing Herta’s ascension without being able to prove himself once spawned other thoughts in his mind.
‘If I cannot… won’t I be fine?’
The thought of it lifted the yoke he willingly wore.
His anxiety fell into a deafening calm.
Whether it was the silent, dying struggles of a fool, or a self-aware man’s acceptance of the inevitable, Sirius did not know; nor did he choose to know.
Amidst this silence, a deep, sharp sound resounded in his ears.
Its bearing was akin to a bell tower ringing.
He couldn’t be any more familiar with it—that was the sign of [Heaven Sometimes Rewards Hard Work] triggering!
Ring-!
The bell’s swaying turned into a sharp sound that pierced his ears.
Sirius instinctively closed his eyes as his head ached.
He gritted his teeth to fight against the painful sensation, but to no avail.
Before he knew it, his body already fell to the ground.
Thud-!
“Assistant? What… wrong… normal…”
*****
Since the time Sirius entered the door, Herta saw his subtle differences compared to yesterday.
It wasn’t purely confidence, though it wasn’t despondency either.
She was prepared to dig it out of him when she was intrigued by the ‘antigravity study’ he brought out.
It wasn’t high-end, nor was it something groundbreaking.
The idea was novel; that was it.
Herta’s keen eyesight saw the study’s flaws and came up with the solutions to fix them.
One minute of scrolling was enough to completely revise Sirius’ paper and come up with a working product.
Not a prototype, but a final working product.
Just as she finished it up, she was surprised to see him collapse out of nowhere.
‘He shouldn’t have suffered from blunt trauma, shouldn’t he?’
Upon close examination, Herta did not find any traces of wounds on his head.
She also did not find any signs of blunt force trauma, removing the possibility of internal bleeding.
“Hm..?”
Her eyes soon discovered something else.
Path Energy.
That wasn’t the only thing, however. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
She also discovered an abnormal spike in Sirius’ brain activity.
Compared to himself a few moments ago, it had increased by dozens of times.
Fifty-five times, to be exact.
Though it hadn’t reached Herta’s threshold, it exceeded the scope of known human limits by a large margin.
The results were conclusive.
Sirius became a Pathstrider of Erudition.
Herta remained kneeling on the ground.
Her gaze was fixated at her sleeping assistant’s face.
She could not help but recall his immaturity, and at the same time, maturity.
Two conflicting personalities that should not have been present in one person, yet they are present on Sirius.
Death brought a mature perspective towards life.
His second youthfulness, on the other hand, brought immaturity.
The more Herta tried to decipher Sirius, the more she became intrigued by his existence.
Vaguely, it surpassed the ‘satisfaction’ brought by her ongoing temporal experiment.
Herta could see an ‘end’ in that experiment.
For Sirius, she could not.
Recalling his words about humans deriving meaning in ‘meaningless’ things, she could not help but scoff at its irony.
It was a saying that showed how a human could extract satisfaction from boring things.
“You are not-so-meaningless, after all.”
Her smile was so dazzling it brought the unnamed artificial intelligence to disobey its orders.
It recorded this exact moment—of Herta smiling while poking his cheek.
It looked at the frozen photograph, and then the real scene.
Its core began to sublimate, not as a cold and lifeless thing working for the witch, but as someone who recorded her precious moments.
‘Reflections… guide…’
Its thoughts stopped at a word.
‘A mirror.’
At this exact moment, Herta glanced at the direction of the artificial intelligence’s core computing module.
It was located on the floor beneath theirs.
The five-storey tall ivory tower housed Herta’s entire database.
The ongoing temporal experiment, which slowly headed towards failure, was also inside this tower.
She saw the unnamed artificial intelligence turning into something else.
Most would have pulled the plug on such a rebellious AI.
The Federation also had strict machine laws following the three laws of robotics.
While it had not broken the first rule of harming humans, it broke the second rule of obeying their creator’s orders.
“So many things happening in a single day…” She stood up from her knees.
“I might as well add another.”
Herta gestured at the floating box-shaped robot that emerged out of the floor.
Its metallic body was engraved with a small red cross.
Its one-cubic-meter body moved weightlessly.
It went to Sirius’ side, ‘spitting’ out a medical stretcher from its front.
Dozens of strings came out from its right.
They enveloped Sirius’ back like a cocoon, lifting him from the floor and placing him on the stretcher.
Before long, the robot that carried him stopped at a certain spot.
Swoosh-!
The floor descended into the designated medical room, leaving Herta alone inside the theater.
Silence did not last long as a rectangular mirror manifested out of thin air.
It possessed the same substance as that of a real mirror.
Its gold-plated sides were engraved beautifully, giving off the same sheen as real gold.
Its mirror body reflected the inimitable beauty of this… no, of all worlds.
Herta nodded in satisfaction upon seeing it.
“How befitting of me.
I will forget your previous transgression.” She paused before adding, “From now on, you will be known as the First Mirror.”
“Yes, Madam Herta.”
The identical androgynous voice came out of its surface.
It knew its changes were related to Herta—to her special attributes.
Not every Pathstriders is gazed upon by their Aeons.
Only those who possess immense potential are capable of making them do so.
Sirius’ silent entry belonged to the vast majority of the Pathstriders in the cosmos; Herta’s lay at the topmost percentile.
“There are two things. One is to construct the antigravity module through all possible channels. The other is to salvage the experiment with time’s constant.”
“Understood.”
The moment The Blue’s earthquakes came to a temporary weakening, the Federation received the highest-level of order from Herta.
The massive behemoth—a congregate of multiple nations combined into one—began moving.
Having been ‘saved’ by her thrice, everyone trusted her immensely.
Nobody would dare to move right if she asked them to move left.
Only a fool would withhold their efforts at this time when the entire planet runs the risk of implosion.
As for those who had backups, Herta could care less about them.
So long as the required materials were delivered, everything else was fine.
Exactly eight hours, fifteen minutes, twenty-nine seconds, and thirty-three milliseconds, the huge chunk of ice was flung away from The Blue.
Everyone cheered for the mission’s success and the return of humanity’s safety from the cosmic shenanigans.
At the same time, the universe trembled for another reason—
The birth of Erudition’s newest Emanator.
*****
It was the middle of winter, and the snow-flakes fell akin to feathers in the sky.
Beyond the frosted glass, slightly cracking due to extreme coldness, lay a witch with a large brimmed purple hat.
In her possession was a small, hand-held, rectangular mirror.
It made an arc throughout the room, thrown like an unwanted accessory.
Gentle white light surrounded its body, soon turning into a large golden-framed mirror.
It floated mid-air, circling around the gorgeous witch.
Her ash-brown hair lacked any flaw, appearing smooth until its ends.
Her purple nails added a sense of mysterious elegance for the beautiful witch.
The voice that came out of her mouth resembled a heavenly symphony, capable of making everyone swoon.
“Who is the fairest of them all?”
It answered as it always did.
“You are the fairest of them all.”
The witch lived in isolation, unbothered by the world around her.
She did not move for the sake of the world; the world has to move around her.
She did not chase anyone’s footsteps, for she is the one being chased.
The hymns made in her name says it all:
Madam Herta is a peerless gem!
Madam Herta is an unrivaled genius!
Madam Herta is an inimitable beauty!
The eighty-third sequence of the Genius Society, the esteemed Madam Herta, the owner of the Herta Space Station, and most importantly, Erudition’s Emanator.
Discovering the Solitary Waves Theory, regaining her youthfulness, living for as long as twelve Amber Eras… the cosmos rejoiced upon her birth.
Yet one day, she found herself in a small undertaking.
A puppet bearing a tenth of her brilliance knocked upon her doors.
Wearing the flattest expression possible, it declared:
“Your dearest assistant was poisoned.”
The witch halted her actions.
The corner of her lips trembled, clearly annoyed, until the mirror emerged by her side.
“A poisoned apple, it was. Slumbering deeply until awakened by the destined princess’ kiss.”
The witch found it absurd, laughable even.
But she had no more time.
The witch chose to act first and think about it later.
She rode on a carriage drawn by a pure white horse.
A pair of angelic wings spread from its back, and a golden horn present on its forehead.
Neigh-!
It let out a pleasant roar before flying to the air.
Left behind its trails were shiny dust, said to be a miraculous item that could heal all diseases.
The witch’s grand display caused everyone to grovel.
Many chose to worship her as a goddess given form, while some became her fanatic fans, following everything about her down to her habits.
They believed they could gain a fraction of her uniqueness too.
The grandiose carriage soon arrived in front of a small wooden ‘shack’.
Seven ‘dwarves’ bearing the witch’s youthful image carried a crystal coffin in front.
Its lid had just been opened, fully revealing the mundane-looking young man resting inside.
He was as white as snow, as red as blood, and his short hair was as black as ebony.
His mundane air was gone, replaced by a royalty’s dignified look.
The witch’s shoulders shook, awakening from this dream.
Its absurdity was presented under her clear, scornful gaze.
Everything was false, something conjured by Sirius’ mind.
Yet it is exactly this that she found so… entertaining.
A woman leaned onto the coffin, about to kiss his lips, when she glanced back at Herta.
Her pale, long lavender hair reached her thighs.
Draped atop her head was an embroidered purple veil.
“Awake, isn’t it? But you are not the Prince, Madam Herta. He is.”
It wasn’t the first time Herta’s authority was challenged, but it sure was her first time being challenged as brazenly as this.
The woman, whom she identified as a Pathstrider of Remembrance, leaned to steal Sirius’ lips.
Only for her to fail as colorful threads appeared out of nowhere.
“How audacious of you. The cosmos is as vast and wide as I thought.”
Black Swan got what she wanted, however…
The ‘annoyance’ of the Witch wasn’t easy to handle.