Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
"Alright, let's begin with Riveria's operation," I said as I approached the pair of eyes in the jar. Just as I expected, my Reality Marble immediately analyzed the Six Eyes, but unlike last time, this time it worked perfectly.
I could feel the Six Eyes appearing within my Reality Marble; it was… disconcerting. I resisted the urge to immediately project them into my eyes for the time being, although… I tried to project them independently, but the projection failed immediately.
I sighed with regret; it was a shame.
"O-okay." Riveria said nervously as she approached the seat. I smiled softly and reassuringly at her.
"Don't worry, we've done this operation hundreds of times. You'll only be unconscious for a few minutes; you won't feel a thing." I tried to reassure her. Riveria smiled shakily at me. GLaDOS approached, fully prepared.
It was actually good to see someone nervous; in Night City, nobody batted an eye at the mere fact of replacing organs as something routine, so Riveria's somewhat nervous and self-conscious reaction was more refreshing than anything else.
And it was also nice that she trusted us even when she was so nervous.
I reached up to her head, carefully placing my fingers on her cheek and looking intently at her. Riveria startled slightly before blushing. I smiled gently and quickly knocked her unconscious.
It was better to magically render her unconscious than to try using medication on someone whose biology was utterly different from that of a human. Elves may resemble humans, but she wasn't, and I would know the difference.
Regular medications wouldn't work properly, especially for someone of Riveria's caliber. Once I was sure she was unconscious and her vital signs were well monitored, we began the operation.
I wasn't lying when I said we'd done it hundreds of times. Replacing biological eyes with cybernetic optics was so common that it was truly a routine operation, a minor procedure.
In fact, even the placement of neural ports was considered minor in Cyberpunk; that's how normalized brain surgery and more were. GLaDOS was right to call them lunatics.
The operation was quick and easy; I shared everything GLaDOS needed, including the necessary information about High Elf biology. A few minor adjustments to the standard procedure were required, but nothing significant.
The good thing about operating on Riveria was that I could use magic on her without any problems. I let The Light flow through my fingers while regenerating Riveria's body, and I even let Sky Flame leave my body and merge with The Light.
The Six Eyes began to adapt and synchronize rapidly with Riveria's biology and body. The scans showed that Riveria's body was changing rapidly; her body was absorbing and adapting to the Six Eyes, as if she had been born with them, as if they were now part of her genetic code.
When it was over, I could feel my Reality Marble reactivating over Riveria. Her biology had changed enough for my Reality Marble to recognize her as a new addition, despite already having a whole constellation for the High Elves and a star for the Six Eyes.
I could see the constellation of the normal High Elves, while a new one began to form beside it, the High Elves modified with Six Eyes.
That… was weird. I mean, I didn't mind having redundant constellations, but this meant that if I were able to alter someone's biology enough for them to count as a different race, my Reality Marble would copy it infinitely.
Yes… It's best not to get involved in that for now. It wasn't in my plans to conduct biological experiments on other beings at the moment.
Finally, we finished. I cleaned up around us and began to wake Riveria. Riveria started blinking slowly. Her eyes opened slightly before closing tightly.
"Too much light!" Riveria groaned. I blinked and looked around, frowned, and magically dimmed the lights.
"Now?" I asked gently. Riveria tried to open her eyes slowly, moaning slightly as they opened a crack, but she still opened them fully.
"It's... a lot..." Riveria groaned as she began to blink rapidly.
"A lot of information? Are you... Looking at a lot? " GLaDOS asked gently as she checked a few things on one of the consoles. Riveria nodded ruefully. I frowned.
"Six Eyes is too much for someone who isn't used to it," I said, frowning. I took a deep breath before pulling the corresponding star.
My vision went completely dark for a few moments while my eyes were replaced entirely with a new pair.
When the light began to appear in my vision, I was forced to close my eyes tightly. Damn, that was too much!
My normal eyes weren't bad, in fact, they were extraordinary, well… not that much, my vision was perfect for a normal human/demon, 20/20, but I always kept decanting metals to increase my senses, especially my sight.
My vision was so sharp that I had approximately 5 times better eyesight than a normal person when doing everyday things, and I increased that number during a fight or when I needed it.
Even so, whatever I used was much smaller than what the Six Eyes could see.
The level of detail was simply ridiculous; it felt like I'd been watching a blurry, low-resolution video and then suddenly jumped to 32k resolution or even higher. And it wasn't just the details—everything seemed so close, like I could see miles away with ease.
Then there were the colors. Humans only see between 1 and 10 million colors. I'd barely opened my eyes for a fraction of a second, but I was sure I could see so many more colors now. Maybe hundreds of millions of colors.
And these included ultraviolet light and all existing combinations. And the darkness wasn't really helping; I had dimmed the lights, but I could still see as if the place were fully illuminated with extreme ease.
And that was just normal vision.
Among all the new, yet 'normal' things I could see, I could also see magic. I had been able to see magic before; my ability to see ancient magic had made me much more sensitive to magic and auras, but only above a certain level.
Now, I was able to see even the magic particles in the air. Thin, capable, and tiny particles floating around that I didn't even know existed unless I really tried to notice them; now I could see them with extreme ease.
And they overlapped in the physical world. I could easily tell what was physically real and what was magic; both overlapped, but it was easily distinguishable. The magic was everywhere, illuminating colors that shouldn't exist and obscuring everything else, yet I could still see everything else physically without any problem.
It was almost like seeing double; one part saw the real world, and the other the magical world. They were so intertwined, so connected, that it felt completely natural. The vision didn't disconcert me in the slightest; the only thing that struck me was the sheer amount of detail and information the Six Eyes had bombarded my brain with.
I gritted my teeth and began storing my vision within my rings. I slowly opened my eyes and, with a grimace, began pushing more of my vision into the metal.
I had to push almost 98% to regain my normal vision. Monster, the Six Eyes were monstrous. I blinked several times and looked around to adjust my vision; now it was much better, much more normal. My ability to see magic and other energies had even decreased for the time being.
I looked around and saw Riveria, her eyes still half-closed.
I quickly pulled out a bracelet-shaped medallion, rapidly modified it, and placed it on her wrist. The metal began to absorb Riveria's vision, drastically reducing her eyesight.
"Thank you." Riveria murmured with a sigh, and I simply nodded.
"Is everything alright?" Rebecca asked worriedly, and I nodded.
"Yes, it's just... the Six Eyes are much stronger than I expected," I said honestly, and Riveria nodded.
"We elves have better vision than other races, but the Six Eyes surpassed anything I was used to," Riveria said honestly as she slowly touched the bracelet. "It's good that the bracelets can absorb vision; I'll have to slowly get used to them," she said with a grimace.
"Not that slow really, it just takes a while to get used to it, and then you'll progress, between the Talents and the Defenses you'll get used to it quickly." I said without hesitation.
"I suppose you were able to replicate them with your Reality Marble," Riveria said. I nodded immediately.
"And it's a perfect copy," GLaDOS said immediately, looking up from the screen. "I was looking directly into her eyes when she opened them. I was able to compare the image quality her retinas received. I guess The Light was able to replicate the Six Eyes perfectly," she added quickly.
"Yes, I was able to replicate them and place them in my body, and that... sounds incredible." I murmured slightly, frowning. I really needed to start studying my Reality Marble more thoroughly. A perfect copy was rare, though GLaDOS had also said that my Prüfer version was identical to hers.
It wasn't that my Reality Marble couldn't perfectly replicate everything else, but doing it on the first try? And something as complex as something biological? I almost expected it to be an even more degraded version than the Noble Phantasms.
Or maybe it was easy because it was biological. The Light was centered on the creation of life as an essential part of its nature. I really needed to start delving deeper into my Reality Marble; I'm getting more questions than answers.
"It's terrific, it's better if someone else is going through this," Riveria said with a gentle smile. I nodded and stared at Riveria.
Specifically, her eyes. Six Eyes had changed to suit Riveria. Her eyes changed to the same green color as her original pair, no… they were much more beautiful. Six Eyes couldn't be faked; even in a different color, they were easily recognizable.
Her green eyes seemed to shine so brightly that they were like shimmering jewels in Riveria's eyes. They were undeniably beautiful, truly captivating.
I could see Riveria blush slightly.
"Yours... are beautiful too." Riveria murmured, blushing slightly. I blinked a little, feeling my cheeks warm somewhat from the embarrassment of the compliment and from letting my thoughts escape through the bond.
I took out a mirror to change the subject and looked into my eyes.
Oh… my normal eyes, without my Baiser transformation, were always black, completely black, without a hint of brightness, so much so that they seemed to absorb the light and were almost uncomfortable to look at.
With my transformation, bright four-pointed stars replaced my pupils, giving me a more… eccentric look. I liked them; they were pleasing to the eye, in my own opinion.
Six Eyes hadn't changed that. My irises were still completely black as usual; to the naked eye, they looked the same, but if I stared at them, I could see tiny stars like a whole constellation in my irises.
But what was most striking was the four-pointed star that was my pupil. They shone with power, they shone with The Light, leaving a faint trail of Light as I moved, visible to the naked eye. The Light oozed through my pupils.
I'll have to learn to control that. I was about to activate Six Eyes to see if the precise control it granted was truly incredible, when my vision began to blur.
My eyes opened, and I stopped storing my vision; I regained the full ocular power of the Six Eyes, but instead of overwhelming me, it left me utterly bewildered. My vision continued to darken, black specks slowly appearing in my field of vision.
"Your eyes are deteriorating!" GLaDOS said immediately as she approached, grabbed my jaw, and, with one hand on my eye, opened it wide and began to observe it.
I immediately grabbed the link and placed myself above GLaDOS's mind, observing my own eyes through her vision. I could see specks of Light begin to leave my eyes, small parts of my eyes detaching and vanishing as they disintegrated.
"Sera!" the girls said worriedly. I just blinked rapidly before breaking the projection. My vision went dark before returning to normal as my eyes reappeared.
I brought a hand to my eyes and touched them gently.
What the hell had happened?
I began to analyze my entire Reality Marble and immersed myself without hesitation.
I understood immediately. All the biological projections stored in my Reality Marble had a limit.
There were two significant limitations. First, I couldn't create intelligent beings. That was my new limitation within my Reality Marble. On its own, The Light couldn't create intelligent beings.
I could create life; I could definitely grow thousands of magical plants with ease; I could make an entire forest bloom with just a flex of my Light at full power. I could grow as many magical and normal trees as I wanted.
The plants were easy; they didn't require much effort.
Now… I could even create some animals if necessary, to a certain extent, but the larger, stronger, or more developed the magical animals were, the more expensive they became. I couldn't just go around creating dragons, but I COULD create them if necessary, at a very high cost, but it was possible.
But intelligent beings? That was far beyond my current capabilities. A person's mind and consciousness were impossible to replicate with The Light in a normal way.
I could create constructs, biological avatars created and made with Light, with biology specific to a race, but with very, very limited autonomy and intelligence, and they would also degrade outside of the Reality Marble.
Even so, there were… interesting things I could do with just that, like creating multiple Prüfer units to temporarily boost GLaDOS's processing power, or something similar. It wasn't completely useless.
Now… what if The Darkness came into play? That completely changed the boundary.
With The Darkness, I would be able to create and mold minds, give consciousness to my creations, make them as intelligent as a normal person, but The Darkness did not come close to the amount of strength I would need to create even the most basic intelligent mind.
So no, creating intelligent living beings was my limit… for the moment.
And the next one, The Light, allowed a biological overlay within myself. What I felt when I switched to a Prüfer or the Six Eyes was a biological overlay; The Light imposes a functional biological pattern on my body, sustained by The Light and the Mysteries.
But it wasn't permanent genetic rewriting; it didn't change my DNA in the slightest. And the overlay was… unstable outside of my Reality Marble. Everything would quickly degrade if I didn't sustain it with The Light and my power, something I definitely wasn't doing with the Six Eyes.
The copies were perfect, yes, because much of what was missing was compensated for by The Light. The more complex something biological was, the harder it was to sustain it with The Light.
That… was problematic. I frowned deeply. There were definitely traits I wanted to copy permanently. Six Eyes was one of them, but if I got any other characteristics, I wanted them to be permanent.
I searched within my Reality Marble and my memories for a way to make them permanent, and to my surprise… it was easy to find.
Once again, The Darkness.
With The Darkness, I could assimilate the biological overlay; I could force my body and soul to fix the superimposed biology, to force it to persist outside the Reality Marble. But that method was permanent.
I could permanently alter my biology, even if I deactivated my Reality Marble; the changes would still be active. If I wanted to go back, I would have to repeat the process, placing a projected biological overlay with The Light from my previous biology, and fixing it with The Darkness.
That… could be dangerous if I chose the wrong combination. I took a deep breath as I stepped out of my Reality Marble.
"Is everything alright?" Lucy asked worriedly; in fact, everyone seemed to be. I just nodded.
"Yes, everything's fine," I said, trying to calm them down, and began to relay all the information I had discovered. They seemed surprised, then sighed in relief that it hadn't been anything dangerous.
"That scared me, damn Gonk." Rebecca growled as she sighed.
"I'm sorry," I said with an apologetic smile. "I still... I still have a lot to learn with my new additions," I added.
"No experiments until you learn what you can do is completely safe," Lucy snorted.
""But that's the best part!"" GLaDOS and I said at the same time. The three girls snorted.
"No experiments unless you're absolutely sure," Lucy repeated. Rebecca nodded firmly. I sighed and crossed my arms.
"I still have to make the Evil Pieces, but after that I'll stop experimenting." I promised them. Lucy wrinkled her nose, but nodded. I sighed as I took out my remaining Pieces. I took a pawn and put the rest away.
Ghosts, The Traveler, forged them from its fragments in its last breath; they were closely linked to the traveler and could channel The Traveler's Light and power the Guardians.
I always thought Ghosts were like Horcruxes, fragments of themselves, tiny fragments scattered across millions of Ghosts. But I was terribly wrong.
They were fragments of the Traveler, separate fragments, yet simultaneously inextricably linked to the Traveler. And that was because the Traveler is entirely made of Light. Its structure, its will, and its actions are made of Light; it is a conscious and organized manifestation of Light.
Therefore, to fragment, to fragment a part of its Light to create the Ghosts, was like fragmenting its own being and remaining united by The Light.
And it was something I had learned to do.
It wasn't even difficult. The Evil Piece was already tightly connected to me. I could feel the bond with the pawn I held. I opened that bond and expanded it, letting the Light seep through. I tore a tiny part of myself away and began placing it inside the Evil Piece.
" Light is my Body, Magic my soul."
I murmured slowly, the first line of my chant served to push my mysteries, but the second to push The Light in its purest form. I shuddered slightly as a small piece separated from my being and joined the Evil Piece.
I began programming my shard, The Light, using basic commands. I didn't want it to be sentient in the slightest, but I still wanted it to have some properties. The first was to create a channel between myself and the shard, the Evil Piece, the Persona that would carry it.
The fragment was separated from me, yet still connected; the Light flowed strongly, and even distance wouldn't weaken the bond. The Light was a paracausal energy. It flowed outside of causality, outside of normal rules; it wouldn't be weakened by something like 'distance'.
Secondly, it would regenerate and resurrect its wearer immediately. Even without the wearer using their Light, the device would regenerate and resurrect them properly, using my Light as a medium.
Third, I couldn't create something like Destiny's extensive inventory when the Evil Piece couldn't organize and maintain it without a consciousness; besides, Pocket Space already existed, so I completely discarded that and focused on creating bullets.
By removing the inventory, I was able to force bullets to be created at will, as long as I had Light available, or even if I didn't have Light available.
I finally finished and looked closely at the Evil Piece. It was still a chess piece made of a bright violet crystal, but now it had white lines running all over it that oozed Light in torrents.
I smiled slightly. Perfect.