She considered this fact dispassionately.
"I must’ve pushed my [Anodite] core too hard," she concluded, analyzing the lingering stress fractals within her crystalline matrix. Overexerting her metaphysical core during the forging of [Diamond Moon] had left her inert longer than she anticipated.
She stretched, metaphorically, extending her senses outward for the first time in days. Immediately, a strange pulse met her—faint but steady, like the echo of a lullaby woven through mana streams. A melody adrift, lying dormant in her network.
“Oh,” she whispered to herself in realization. “[Diamond Moon].”
It was still in hibernation. Perhaps she had ordered it so subconsciously before collapsing into her own inert state. The pulse was steady, rhythmic, but dulled—waiting for permission, for a call to purpose.
“Let’s change that.”
She issued the simplest of commands.
The response came immediately, though not through words exactly—no Shard spoke as humans did. But in the network, the moment [Diamond Moon] stirred, it was as though distant celestial bells began ringing softly through the currents. The very mana around Alex softened in resonance, harmonizing gently as the Shard came alive.
Then came a signal from the newborn entity:
[Begin?]
Alex smiled—again, metaphorically. Each Shard’s linguistic structure was technically flat, conveying multiple concepts simultaneously in an ultra-compressed data pulse. But even so, the nuance of tone, cadence, shape… varied from Shard to Shard.
[Diamond Moon]’s “voice” sang like ocean waves under moonlight—something slow, sad, and longing, despite lacking true emotion.
A quick diagnostic confirmed what she already knew: [Diamond Moon], like all the others, had no real emotions yet. At least not as Alex understood them. But the Shard had… absorbed something.
An observation? A resonance? Hard to tell. The data signature was faint and complex—recorded as “observed prolonged sadness,” though [Diamond Moon] didn’t know what sadness was.
Alex decided not to question it for now.
[Begin.]
With that affirmation, [Diamond Moon] pulsed in reply, and Alex watched as mana gathered toward the Shard like tides pulled by gravity itself.
And then… it happened.
From [Diamond Moon]’s core, a ribbon of opaline energy unfurled, twisting into a flowing current—the [Moon River]—an ethereal stream of soft lunar mana that glided through her dimension with sublime grace. It twisted and weaved through the turquoise and pale-green ambient mana of Alex's vast crystalline realm, forming intricate arcs and spirals.
It was beautiful.
Yet… after approximately one kilometer, the flow stuttered.
Alex’s internal alerts flared. Data indicated structural instability. The native dimensional mana was resisting, attempting to convert the foreign lunar energy back into its turquoise baseline.
“Hm… incompatibility with the relay systems…” she mused.
The diagnostic confirmed it: the existing network relays weren’t optimized for lunar mana. Additionally, the [Moon River] wasn’t dense enough to resist the environmental pushback of the dimension itself.
She extended her awareness into the flow, tasting the mana. It carried a flavor—if one could call it that—of pale moonlight, weaker than her usual core energy but refined, almost gentle. Fascinating.
But the practical problem remained.
Pulling in more of the passive computational threads from her [Administrator] Shard, Alex quickly designed a compensatory framework. She directed her crystalline constructors—her beloved [Architects], nearly 2,894 of them—to begin immediate structural modifications.
As they swarmed into action, Alex noticed, with some bemusement, that many of them were still in the awkward forms created during the chaotic final moments of [Diamond Moon]’s birth. Some were little more than crude spheres of crystal, others malformed animal shapes: a crystalline horse with too many legs, a fish with no tail, a sad-looking cube with feet.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
She corrected them swiftly, refactoring their crystalline lattices until most resembled proper entities again—birds, foxes, serpents, wolves, dolphins.
Once corrected, they set about weaving new support structures into the environment:
Ethereal Rings: delicate, floating circles of condensed turquoise crystal, acting as stabilizers for the [Moon River], gently altering local gravitational flows and mana dynamics to hold the river’s form steady.
[Moonlight Fountains]: smaller replicas of [Diamond Moon] itself, anchored at specific points along the river, creating shimmering lagoons where lunar mana could pool, stabilize, and slowly diffuse without immediate reversion by the native dimensional forces.
Alex watched as the first of these miniature moons solidified, each one orbiting slightly above or below the main current, creating pockets of luminous calm amidst the flowing energy.
The visual effect was breathtaking: rivers of silver light, suspended in midair, flowing like silk ribbons caught on an eternal breeze. They arched across the horizon, fading in and out of view through crystalline fractals, with occasional lagoons of concentrated lunar energy glowing softly like resting stars.
Still, she noticed further instabilities.
The [Moon River] was functional… but its flow became more tenuous as it stretched farther. It would take time, more data, and more refinement before it could reliably extend across her entire dimension.
"Another problem to solve later," Alex decided.
She allowed herself a long, appreciative pause, absorbing the beauty of what she and her Shards had created here. But soon, her mind turned to other matters.
She directed her awareness toward the [Dreamy]—the heart of her Shard network’s shared cognitive space.
Upon entering, she was immediately greeted by the presence of three distinct Avatars:
: A radiant stag, its form composed entirely of light, with stars orbiting around its antlers and lush grass springing to life with every step it took.
: A mummy, wrapped in endless, shifting scrolls of constantly rearranging symbols and languages, an infinite text shifting too quickly to ever be read fully.
: A massive, one-meter-long butterfly, its wings refracting every imaginable color, each pattern a mimicry of a different butterfly species in its network, with a translucent body composed of literal nectar.
“Darlings,” Alex greeted them affectionately, amused, “what have you three been up to?”
Alex chuckled softly.
Around them, the landscape of the [Dreamy] was adapting, now more lush and vibrant, no doubt thanks to 's influence. The air was thick with the scent of pollen and nectar, and luminous flowers bloomed from crystalline soil. It wasn’t perfect yet, but it was vastly improved.
She quickly reviewed the progress each of her Shards had made:
had grown to an astounding 5 kilometers in size. The solar mana it emitted was now more refined, integrating subtle magic into the energy streams that sustained the network.
Interestingly, he had selected a new host beyond Victor.
Victor's dreams had revealed a desire to heal, to nurture life. Admirable… but desired a host to battle the darkness of Remnant directly.
Thus, he had chosen Sun Wukong, a mischievous monkey Faunus training to be a Huntsman.
"Good choice," Alex mused.
had surpassed expectations, reaching 1.5 kilometers. Its Technician host was adapting well, using his powers to create magical scrolls infused with Dust, effectively crafting programmable spell scripts.
The latest breakthrough?
He could now write five separate texts simultaneously, across a 100-meter radius, and imbue these writings with Dust effects. This innovation had enabled the creation of literal spell scrolls.
One experiment read:
“Push everything around me in a semi-sphere, excluding myself.”
And it worked—violently.
He had begun selling these scrolls for extra income, using the profits to fund his free prosthetic work.
No wonder had grown larger than anticipated.
was now 1 kilometer wide, connected to 156 butterflies, each one magical and unique. Many had died through natural causes, but the Shard maintained its network steadily.
Human researchers on Remnant had noticed these new, vibrant creatures and were desperately attempting to study them—though, naturally, without much success.
Alex lingered for a moment longer, allowing herself to revel in the quiet success of her creations. She sent waves of appreciation through the network, receiving affectionate, if restrained, pulses in return.
Finally, she exhaled (if such a thing were possible).
“It’s time to deal with what’s happening outside…”
And with that, she left the [Dreamy], her crystalline presence retracting gracefully, returning to the infinite expanse of her dimension—her mind clear, her network strong, and her purpose as sharp as ever.
[Current Shard Status]:
: 5 km, refined, with multiple hosts
[Diamond Moon]: Operational, flowing [Moon River]
[Harmony]: Managing ecological harmonization
[Lensing]: Resting after lunar analysis
: 1.5 km, expanded multitasking and spell writing
: 1 km, maintaining magical butterfly network
[Ripperdoc]: Awaiting host triggers
[Administrator]: Supporting parallel processes
End of Chapter