Chapter 263: Before The Flood Of Night
Milan’s words were the last thing Amber heard before everything changed... quite literally.
Six months passed inside the sealed laboratory while the blood cocoons held their form and completed their tasks.
When the first of them finally parted, it was Milan’s that opened.
However, the woman who stepped free no longer wore the face or frame of the Loria princess.
She had longer hair tumbled down her back, framing a face whose eyes had deepened into a rich, warmer brown.
Her figure had grown fuller and more voluptuous, the curves accentuated by a slender waist, recalling the very same silhouette Amber always carried.
She stood among the wreckage of glass and dried crimson with an evil little smile already in place, and for a moment she breathed as if testing the fit of stolen skin.
"This... is not bad," she said as she began adjusting to the new form.
Even as the fuller weight of the body settled differently across her frame, it didn’t take long for her power of winning to finish its work.
In just moments, it was no longer like she was wearing a costume—it was as if she had become both Amber and Milan simultaneously, with nothing left unknown to her.
She took one last look around her, letting her eyes linger on every detail.
She drew in a slow, deep breath, savoring the moment and everything it carried with it, and only then did she raise her hand.
Snap!
HUMMMM!!!
In that moment, the tube of collected vitality burst open.
The liquid coursed across the chamber, flowing seamlessly into the second cocoon without spilling a single drop.
The faint blue mark on Amber’s form began to glow, intensifying toward a searing white-hot point until, at last, the final traces of the fluid were gone.
HUMMMMM!!!!!
With one last surge, the cocoon cracked open.
And, just like before, the figure that appeared wasn’t Amber.
This one had shorter hair, a smaller chest, and a slightly narrower curve at the hips.
It was unmistakably Milan’s old appearance, now somehow donned by Amber, who stood upright yet remained completely unconscious.
Milan—now wearing Amber’s look—did not approach at once.
She circled the unconscious woman with meticulous care, steps slow on the blood-streaked stone, brown eyes traveling over the shorter hair and everything else, as if confirming that every detail of the exchange had landed exactly where her catalysts had promised.
Then, after she was satisfied, she closed the last distance and placed a kiss upon the unconscious woman’s forehead, the gesture almost tender in its cruelty.
"Once you wake," she murmured, "you will only have to silence to suffer in."
She turned to leave the laboratory, but before reaching the open, unguarded outer hall, astonishment swept over her at the familiar features that had once belonged to her specimen.
"What... is this?"
She muttered under her breath as she began taking in everything Amber had to offer.
It was important to note that she wasn’t just wearing Amber’s face or casting some illusion—no, she had become Amber in every detail, right down to her star and every experience she had ever lived.
The best part of it all was that she was still Milan, still holding the Constellation of the Winning Catalyst.
In this moment, Milan felt grateful she had changed her approach, because initially, Amber was only meant to be used to open a portal to Kalpa.
But the curiosity sparked by Dream Land and Akasha’s mountain—the mystery of seeing nothing beyond a certain point—was far too intriguing to ignore.
So, before trapping Amber, she had her catalyst not only seal her but also make such a transformation possible.
As the flood of information settled in her mind, she found herself wondering aloud...
"Since when can Stars rank higher than Above Origin...? I never imagined such a thing was possible."
Looking over Amber’s status screen, she saw the rank of Divine—so foreign she couldn’t even be sure if it surpassed the Above Origin rank.
That doubt quickly vanished, though, as the sheer power of Amber’s star left no question. In that instant, she truly began to understand what it meant to be the Ultimate Spectrum.
"The Constellation of the Ultimate Spectrum..." She nearly laughed. "Good thing I caught her off guard... things might’ve gotten ugly."
[Spectrum Affinity]
[Black]
In that moment, she activated one of Amber’s affinities, and Black folded around her at the first clear intention.
Perception seemed to slip away from her, and she vanished from the awareness of any casual glance that might have drifted toward the cave’s entrance.
A faint smile lingered on her newly formed lips as the shadows of the forest closed in around her.
"First," she murmured, "I should find Matt... before making my way to Kalpa."
----
Despite everything that had occurred over the last six months between Amber and Milan, something even more astonishing was taking place... something that alerted beings far beyond the Orin Star System.
Across the Main Hub of Existence, powers that rarely stirred for lesser omens were already in motion, and many of them were prepared to give nearly anything to locate the new bearer of the twentieth-ranked Divine Physique in all of existence.
That’s right...
The Divine Rankings had changed once more—twice now in just a few months—and the ripple of that second change spread through the upper realms of cosmology like a drumbeat following the first.
And... it all stemmed from the same small existence as the first.
HUMMMMMM!!!!!
In the world of Kalpa, a massive wave of divinity swept across the world, making everything shudder beneath an unending, powerful force.
Harlan stood with the two Ancestors of the Academy upon a high overlook, all three of them facing south toward the mountain that was now Lucid Winter Peak.
"Just... what is happening now?"
The male ancestor broke the silence first, as he and everyone else had their eyes on Lucid Winter Peak.
Harlan shook his head, gaze never leaving the distant peak.
"There is only one way to find out." He said, letting out a short breath. "It’s time we finally head to Dream Land."