Considering how troublesome it would be to communicate that way, Lilith directly asked Bella. "Do you now truly have a soul? Your own?"
"It should be mine. For example, I can feel things now, and after the body adjustments, I can sense real biological pain."
"It is not simulated like before. It really hurts. This is the first real pain in my life."
Bella was also amazed by her own change. Did this count as cyber ascension, or an electronic spirit coming to life? If an AI had a soul, what exactly was it supposed to be? Was her original consciousness still driven by computational arrays, or was it now led by the soul?
"…How did you get a soul? Does it have something to do with your core?"
After thinking it over, this seemed like the only possibility. Lilith did not even pursue the issue of the fire and explosion anymore, because creating a soul was obviously far more important.
At this, Bella blinked. "I do not really understand either. When we were reconnecting the Energy Core during body modification, black mist formed directly from Belial's body and went inside to adjust the structure."
"Then, I am not sure why, but the core's outlet just opened, and there was a burst of energy leakage."
"After Belial forced the leaking energy back into me, I suddenly realized I had an extra soul."
"…Why are you looking at me like that? Did the explosion just now break something we should not have touched?"
Seeing the strange look from Lilith, Belial bit his fingernail. Had he gone too far this time? When he was modifying the body and sent a bit of consciousness to probe the energy core, he saw a small red, unclear thing.
Without thinking, he reached for it. It seemed to be drawn out by the Lord and rushed outside the core, causing massive energy leakage. That triggered a huge explosion, and after a lot of effort, he managed to pull the energy back, holding that tiny red thing, only to find it refused to go back in and instead drifted into Bella's head.
Then it was like discovering that his electronic pet had suddenly come alive with a soul. Even Belial did not really understand the situation. Just now, King Ghidorah and the dark template seemed to react strongly for an instant.
It felt like he had done something instinctively, or maybe done nothing at all. By the time he came back to his senses, things had already turned out like this.
"Have all the dragons gone out?"
"Yes. Other than me and you, all of them have left."
"Lord Bahamut."
Sylvia stood behind the White-Haired Dragon Maiden and bowed her head with respect. Since the day this being awakened, every Dragonkin, from Ancient Dragon down to ignorant hatchlings, followed his orders from the deepest blood instinct.
"I am telling you, do you really have to call me by that name?" "I already said my name is missing. You can only call me Ham now!"
Ham turned around, revealing a pair of helpless blue eyes. Looking at Sylvia, who now stood behind an invisible barrier with an attitude completely different from before, she rubbed her temples with a pained look.
"Alright, Lord Bahamut."
Her teeth started to hurt.
Well, even if they were a race created from her own genes to survive absolute harsh environments, having natural genetic closeness toward her was only normal. Still, things were not that simple, and she was still Ham; she had only recalled past matters, not changed into someone else entirely.
So seeing Sylvia like this made goosebumps rise all over her. To put it simply, if you are not acting normal, I get scared.
"But forget it. Sigh, it is kind of novel, isn't it?"
Ham could only think this way. In all the Fate she had seen and all the loops she remembered, Sylvia had never lived to see this day, so this was the first time, and there was no guide to copy.
If anything, the real absurd part was that she was technically Sylvia's ancestor.
What to do? Try to make their interaction return to something familiar. She got it.
With that thought, Ham activated her shocking wisdom. Even if she could not copy Fate this time, she, Ham, was still unmatched in the world.
"Come on, like this. Put your hand on my head."
Ham took the confused Sylvia's hand and placed it on her own head, then tilted her head. "Then try pressing my head into the ground and see if that brings back the old feeling."
No need to say more, the feeling was already back.
Sylvia admitted that hearing this almost overheated her brain, and she nearly pressed Ham's head into the ground for real. Her five fingers had already started to apply force.
In the end, Sylvia just did what she used to do and gently rubbed the girl's white hair. She was right, she could feel it, Ham was still Ham.
If anyone was acting wrong now, it was herself.
Her attitude now came purely from fear of the unknown and fear of the gods of legend. Relying on this child like this was really unworthy of her.
Before this, after Ham suddenly awakened, she had warned her of a shocking matter.
Fate was about to awaken.
Another being holding a true name was merging with the Fate Authority that had been cut away by Bahamut using Rend. Because of that, the not fully dead Fate and Divine Kingdom were reviving.
The place of descent was obvious. It was where the other half of the Dragon God soul resided, where Ham was, Dragon Valley.
"The details are hard to explain clearly. To put it simply, the guy who attacked me while I was asleep is trying to steal my account."
"He probably wants to swallow me, take back the true name, that other login password. Then he would be Bahamut and naturally become Fate."
"You should tell the other dragons to run as fast as they can. Otherwise, I cannot say what they will turn into."
Hearing this, Sylvia was first shocked, then deeply worried. All the other dragons were gone, and the only one left here was Ham, which meant…
"You are going to face those beings alone? The ones in Abyss, and also… Fate?"
When Sylvia asked this, she only saw her scratch her head and nod directly. "Yes, because other than me, no one can hold them back. At least that guy is not Bahamut yet, so I can still interfere a bit."
Sylvia reached out and her lips moved. She wanted to say something, but could not find a reason. Convince Ham to run together? Impossible. They both knew escape was not an option.
There were only two choices now. Run and fail, or let Ham go stall for time. Her thinking was very practical, not the kind of reckless charge a typical kind the Lord would make, because that would only betray everyone without helping.
Besides, even if she tried, she could not convince this child anyway. Ham was not the girl she once cared for who was not even a hundred years old, but Bahamut who had lived from ancient times through countless reincarnations.
She herself did not even have the resolve to act, so how could she persuade someone else.
"Alright, do not look like that. I will probably be fine. Probably."
Sylvia wiped the corner of her eyes, then after a moment of silence, asked another question. "Ham… what exactly is Fate?"
"From how it looks now, it should not be just a conceptual term. Is it something else?"
"In short, it is not something good."
Ham hesitated for a while and gave this forced explanation. Sylvia believed it, because if Ham herself thought so, and was willing to reincarnate repeatedly just to smash Shard, then it could not be anything good.
But that was not what mattered now. Under her sharp gaze, which carried a faint pressure, Ham finally revealed a little more truth.
"Well, to put it this way, high level dragon species are actually the result of me cutting Authority into four parts."
"Rust Iron is the foundation itself. Bronze records the past. Silver reflects the present. Gold carries all three of them."
"As for the most important future, I do not directly control it. Or rather, I do not hold the future, I choose the future."
"With Bronze to review the past and re reflect everything, and Silver to grasp the present, deriving the future I want is not hard. Honestly though, it all sounds pretty ridiculous."
"Laplace's demon might fit as a description, but later I found out this thing is unreliable. When interference from past and present grows beyond what we can stop…"
"Then instead, I become a tool for them to control the future. And because of my own issues, I cannot even deny those futures."
Ham said this with self mockery. Sylvia frowned as she thought about it. Laplace's demon? What was that supposed to be?
"Well, not understanding is expected. In short, when these Authority come together, they become Fate. But there is something else important. Sylvia, other than Rust Iron, the other half of the Silver authority is on you."
"Me? What can I do? My power is too weak. It cannot help at all."