Victor ran home, his heart pounding, chest tight with a mix of fear and confusion.

  He threw himself onto the bed, hands trembling, staring up at the ceiling as if searching for answers in places that had none.

  What was happening to him?

  Why had his Semblance suddenly felt bigger, stronger—as if it had slipped out of his control?

  He closed his eyes, breathing deeply, trying to calm down.

  That vision…

  For a second, when he used his power in the forest, he had seen something…

  A strange light…

  A fragment moving toward him…

  And a presence, vast, cosmic, impossible to describe.

  But he was far too confused to understand it.

  "No… must've just been in my head…" he muttered, rubbing his face with both hands.

  Then he remembered the plants growing, the trees awakening before their time.

  His heart skipped a beat.

  "What if…?"

  He leapt up, running straight to his grandfather's room without another thought.

  Old Tom was lying there, as always—frail, pale, his breathing uneven.

  Victor extended his hands, shut his eyes, and summoned his sun.

  "Please… work… please… work…"

  His voice cracked with every word, like the fear inside him was bigger than he could contain.

  "I don't want… to lose my grandpa… please… work…"

  The light filled the room completely, spread throughout the house, like a golden aurora piercing every crack, every wall.

  What Victor didn't see was what was happening all around:

  Outside, vines began to climb up the walls of the house, and creeping plants sprouted between the boards, as if nature itself had decided to move in.

  The rotting wood of his grandfather's bed regenerated, becoming strong, clean, almost new.

  The shelves, the floor… everything seemed either renewed, or strangely half-healed, half-grown.

  Victor's solar power had been unleashed without control, in every direction.

  No focus, no filter.

  And the [Corona Solar], which until then had only observed, finally began to act.

  It immediately recognized what had happened: Victor's desperate will—to heal, to protect, to fix everything—had pushed the power beyond its natural limits.

  The [Corona Solar] is, and always will be, a Shard about heat, light, sun, and growth.

  But not about wood.

  Not about dead matter.

  Not about structures that no longer live.

  What had just happened—the rotting wood regenerating, the old shelves appearing new again—should not have happened.

  It wasn't its function.

  It was the manifestation of Victor's trigger event: his deep desire to not lose his grandfather, to protect him, to save him, to fix everything.

  That will transformed into irrational energy, spreading without control.

  Because of that, the [Corona Solar] immediately established a natural limitation:

  ? No longer would it allow Victor to affect dead or non-living things with his powers.

  ? No longer would it waste energy trying to force transformations outside of its scope.

  It does not like these kinds of [data].

  Even though it knows that one day such data could serve as currency within the [Dreamy], the network is still far too young for that.

  So it immediately transfers these data to Alex—who stores them, analyzes them, and will decide what to do with them in the future.

  The [Corona Solar] continues now, more focused, more efficient.

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  And Victor…

  Victor still does not know that, at that moment, he shaped not only his power…

  But also the very nature of the Shard now living inside him.

  In the realm of fragments, the [Corona Solar] now began, for the first time, to do its work.

  It started to send solar energy to the other Shards, like a true distribution core.

  And I… Alex… reveled in it.

  The sensation of the sun upon my crystalline skin was… sublime.

  Finally, I began to use the relays, newly constructed, to transmit energy to other fragments with minimal loss.

  The network was beginning to truly function.

  And it was beautiful.

  With the influx of data coming from Victor—especially regarding biology, and indirectly about prosthetics—I decided it was time to create something new.

  I requested the system for [data] related to what my host knew about biology and prosthetics, and also pulled information from the Technician, now carrying [Linguagens].

  With that, the idea for a new Shard was born:

  [Ripperdoc].

  A fragment of the [repair] and [experimentation] type.

  Not a Shard that grants pure power.

  But a Shard that loves to mix.

  To fuse technology and flesh, to find ways to create and repair things that, technically, shouldn't work.

  Of course… as any good Shard… it cheats, in many ways, bending physical laws when necessary.

  The [Ripperdoc] wants a host who tests new things, who plays with the boundaries between body and machine.

  Nothing more, nothing less.

  But there was something even more important to do.

  Something that would consume much of my time.

  At least a month.

  It required extreme care.

  If I made a mistake… I'd have to redo everything.

  I decided it was time to build… the [Dreamy].

  The [Dreamy] would be one of the most important parts of the network.

  A central structure, a kind of dream-space where all Shards could interact.

  When hosts clashed—and they would, sooner or later—the loser could transfer [data] to the victor, data that was useful or that the winner deemed valuable.

  To enter [Dreamy], each Shard would need an [Avatar].

  That Avatar could be anything:

  A floating book, surrounded by lights.

  A spatial distortion vaguely resembling an animal.

  A pendulum clock that, with each swing, ages or rejuvenates.

  Yes… Avatars are strange.

  Like the Shards themselves.

  The Avatars could even attempt to send dreams to their hosts.

  Of course… it almost never works.

  Shards speak in a compressed, unified language, impossible to be directly understood by human minds.

  But sometimes… they can act as muses.

  They suggest ideas, inspirations…

  The host rarely understands.

  Usually ends up doing something else.

  Or having a completely different

  But that's how it works.

  And I needed to start now.

  More than ever, the [Dreamy] was urgent.

  Before the network grew too large to control.

  Before chaos set in.

  And so… I dove into the work.

  The crystal fish gathered around me, assisting in the delicate task Piece by piece, crystal by crystal…

  We began to build the heart of the network.

  The dream of connections.

  The [Dreamy].