As she said this, Sylvia's eyes dimmed and she lowered her head, confused as well. Why was this half of Authority so inferior compared to Rust Iron and Bronze?
It made her the one dragging things down.
"Well… this is actually my fault."
Ham scratched her head awkwardly and rubbed her fingers together as she laughed. "Back then it felt too dangerous, so I set a lot of restrictions, and even deliberately wrote the true purpose wrong."
"Even though half of it was taken, if you combine the remaining control with what you still have of Empathic Communion, you can basically ignore power gaps and dominate any life whose soul domain has not ascended."
"But even if I can command all Dragonkin, it probably cannot help…"
"That is not right. I said any. That is not limited to Dragonkin. In theory, from the most basic microorganisms up to anything that is alive."
"And under true Fate level domination, the expanded Silver authority can even control matter itself. Because it was too easy to turn into world tuning mode, I put many limits on it. Even that Edward has not unlocked them."
"But right now, all we need is Empathic Communion. So it will all depend on you, Sylvia."
The ground suddenly shook. Ham rushed forward, placed a strand of light into Sylvia's hand, then smiled as she tore open a Rift and pushed her through.
"Ham!"
All Sylvia could see was Ham smiling, and behind her, a blood red sky being torn open by Rend. After the world spun, she fell onto the land outside.
In her hand, she still gripped that strand of light.
"So… it has already started?"
Her voice trembled as Sylvia climbed up and wiped the corner of her eyes. This was not the time to stay silent. That child entrusted this to her, so it had to have a purpose.
If so, then all she needed to do was use it with everything she had.
If this was the last chance.
"What is this, Magic? It does not seem like it."
She held a soft light in her palm, but Sylvia did not feel any Magic fluctuation. She frowned, unable to figure it out.
"Could its use be…"
"Silver authority… Empathic Communion?"
Thinking it through, Sylvia felt this had to be it. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, clenched the light, and activated the long unused authority of the Silver Dragon.
In that instant, the light flowed into her body like a tide and spread rapidly outward. From it, Sylvia actually read a piece of information.
It was clearly Ham's final work.
"I already put the message together. You just need to forward it. Dawn will cover the cost first."
"Hurry up!"
Deeper inside was a long string of hidden compressed information. Seeing this, Sylvia frowned even more. Messages? Cost? What was she even talking about?
Was this meant to be sent to someone? Or…
"Forget it. I can only keep going."
She took another deep breath and clenched her fist tighter. Sylvia poured all her strength into the authority of the Silver Dragon. Even if she did not understand it, she could still extract key information like letters and words.
That meant Ham needed her to pass this information to someone. That god named Dawn? Or someone else?
The search range kept expanding, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of kilometers, and the number kept rising faster and faster. Sylvia did not dare miss any direction, so it expanded into an extreme spherical sweep.
It reached hundreds of thousands of kilometers and kept growing. The consumption became heavier and heavier, already turning into a burden.
Still, there was no response, like a lone whale calling in the ocean. It did not stop. Mental Power was almost burned out, yet Sylvia kept expanding the range.
It was fine. If Mental Power ran out, there were still other powers. Magic, or even her own soul, should barely be enough to burn.
If she just held on a bit longer, it should work. If the one who needed this message was within this range, maybe just a little more expansion would be enough.
"Damn it. One or two every time, still pushing like this. Good thing I am watching."
"I told you, you idiot. Without me watching, you would have been done sooner or later. Good thing I left a line last time. Borrowing mine should be fine. By the way, is the remaining faith still enough? You need to save some for later."
She felt it. She quickly threw away the seeds in her hand, connected the search range to that reserved cable, then burned the faith she had stored to widen the channel enough to transmit information.
Then, she started the call.
"Where are you? Pick up. If you do not, it is really over."
"Hm?"
While watching Lilith try to take Bella apart for research in a chaotic scene, Belial tilted his head and happily looked at the message sent by his earliest friend in his space.
"Nice, finally online. I finally have someone I can chat with properly. Let me see… huh?"
When he opened it, Belial saw that the person logged off at light speed, leaving behind a forwarded chat message. That made him a bit annoyed.
"Alright, let me see what you need me to do this time… huh?"
After opening it, Belial felt an unclear sense of awe, then frowned.
"Little brother, for the sake of at least a tiny bit of biological blood relation, and a shared enemy."
"Hurry up and save me. I can even call you big brother later."
"…"
"Who the hell sent this?"
"What on earth is this talking about, and who is it calling little brother?"
His first reaction was pure confusion, and he even wondered if the message had been forwarded to the wrong person. That idea fell apart almost at once, since only a few people knew about his private translation space, and none of them were that careless. Since it came from an unknown but well-meaning sender, there had to be some other meaning behind it.
"If this is talking about me, are they asking me to help out? At least explain the situation clearly!"
Even Fourth Cataclysm gives you a red target and a kill count, but here I only get one sentence. Isn't that asking too much of me?
"No, wait, there's something strange about this feeling…"
Belial suddenly sensed a faint fluctuation coming from his body, something that appeared right after he finished reading the message. If his senses were right, it felt like a pulse of Dragon Blood, which was pretty much useless to him at the moment. That made him frown as the memory clicked into place.
"This feels familiar… right, this was what I felt the first time I logged in."
He clapped his hands, finally understanding, and figured it was another proxy job asking him to fight for someone. Fine, he would go take a look, since it was probably just another batch of fools daring to provoke him, and he could clean them up all at once. With practiced ease, he sent his will along that faint channel through the power of Thousand-Year Dragon King, and once he caught a trace of the aura, even Mephist realized it seemed to belong to someone he knew.
When his awareness finally arrived, he took a look.
"Oh…!"
"So it's Silver Dragon Maiden, the one I dragged along like a pendant last time. That works, we're acquainted at least, so I'll just pull her in as well."
After all, the more people in a group chat, the livelier it gets. From the look of it, though, she seemed to be in a pretty bad state, so he decided to check first.
"Open up, let me in. It's me, damn it, Reiner!"
As her consciousness blurred toward collapse, Sylvia was still pushing Silver Authority outward without stopping. This was likely that child's last request and last chance, and no matter what, she could not give up. But she was truly at her limit, with her vision fading, ears ringing, and everything cold and dark.
Then, vaguely, she felt as if she touched something, and a bit of light poured in, accompanied by indistinct voices. There was a sound like glass breaking into a Shard, and Sylvia jolted awake, finding herself surrounded by blinding white as golden light fell from the sky. Space itself shattered into countless mirror-like Shard fragments, raining down as a blazing sun descended from above.
The light was so bright she could barely look at it, until Sylvia was granted the right to see its true form. A vast, golden, radiant shadow reached into this place, and when she looked up, she saw it clearly.
Bearing the Solar Crown on its back, a golden dragon head filled with divine presence hung down from the high heavens. Its blood-red, gem-like pupils tightened slightly as they fixed on Sylvia, who seemed no bigger than a speck of dust before it. Faced with that sight, questions rose in her mind.
What was it?
Who was it?
The first word that came to Sylvia's mind, and the only one that fit, was god. Its appearance and presence matched that of a true deity, yet there was no oppressive pressure, only a faint sense of familiarity, as if it reminded her of someone.
"Ham?"
"…No, it's just very similar to Ham?"