After indulging in a brief fantasy, Sylvia suppressed her wild imagination and continued to test her new abilities.
With a mere thought, a spatial rift tore open, and a Void Lance extended from within.
The special effects inherent to the Herrscher of the Void suppressed the manifestation of fire, but within this Void Lance, the powers of Abundance, Destruction, and Permanence were anything but lacking.
Furthermore, perhaps due to the traits brought about by the Herrscher Core, Sylvia gained a few spatial-attribute abilities while in her Herrscher of the Void form.
For instance, she could perform rapid, short-distance blinks and instantaneous spatial teleports within a small radius.
These were things her [Aether Editing] skill simply couldn't achieve.
The primary issue with that skill was its casting speed—it wasn't fast enough to be viable in active combat.
"Hmm... did I just go from a melee fighter to a mage?"
Sylvia raised a finger, and under her absolute control, the Void Lance expanded and shrank, lengthening and shortening at her whim.
It shifted into a flowing ribbon, then into a shield... it was remarkably versatile. She could even stack several layers of spatial tunnels to accelerate and launch it like a railgun. Her short-range blinking was equally fluid and seamless.
After a brief assessment, she noted that the Herrscher of the Void mode leaned heavily toward ranged attacks, offering excellent mobility and defensive capabilities.
Moreover, unleashing these attacks caused very little commotion. It was a stark contrast to the straightforward, brute-force style of the Herrscher of Flamescion.
But if there was one thing that satisfied Sylvia the most, it was that the absolute nuisance of the Flamescion's greatsword—which practically forced a background track to play whenever she fought—was finally resolved here.
It wasn't that the Void Lance couldn't sing. Rather, even during combat, the Void Lance didn't need to be carried around constantly.
When she manifested it, she could just fire it straight at the enemy and be done with it. The song barely had a chance to play. If she really needed to, she could summon a specific lance to float beside her just to buff herself.
Wow, this was so much better. Otherwise, carrying her own BGM into every single fight would make it hard not to brand this thing as her personal quirk.
As for the part about the so-called core increasing her power, compared to the blessings of several Paths, it seemed a bit underwhelming.
Sylvia dismissed the Void Lance and sat down on the sofa, crossing her legs. She casually traced her fingers over her black tights.
"Well... not bad. I'll just treat it as a new outfit, plus I got a bit of spatial ability out of it."
Concluding her research on the Herrscher of the Void, Sylvia turned her gaze to the new gacha pull opportunity she had obtained from Robin. Who knew what she would pull this time.
Keep it rolling!
Sylvia silently chanted for a pull in her mind.
The purple light descended smoothly without a single ripple, landing gracefully. It brought Sylvia a skill plucked from who-knows-where:
--+--
[Wish of the Child of God (Low-Spec Version)]
['A skill that merely unleashes a fraction of the nature to grant wishes, completely indistinguishable between oneself and others. Surely, her wish will reach the heavens.']
['An ability copied from the Magical Girl Miyu Edelfelt. However, the original power to grant wishes indiscriminately was far too difficult to handle, so it has been simplified into a luck stat boost.']
['Anyway, they share the same voice actress, so don't even try to say there's no connection.']
(T/N: Talking about Robin's JP VA and Miyu Edelfelt's JP VA, cause this gacha pull is from Robin)
--+--
"…Damn! We're playing voice actor memes now?!"
After a moment of stunned silence, Sylvia couldn't help but shout out.
Are you out of your mind?! To explicitly add a line in the skill description just out of fear that people wouldn't catch the voice actor joke? That takes a special kind of sickness.
Sylvia curled her lip.
This thing was a passive skill. While a boost to her luck stat sounded nice on paper, there was really no telling how effective it would be in practice. After all, Sylvia's baseline luck had always been painfully average. It was hard to say how much of a difference a mere boost would make.
Whatever. Time to head back. She could observe its effects slowly later on.
With that thought, Sylvia recalled the power of the Herrscher of the Void and teleported back to Penacony.
After spending the night at the Reverie Hotel, early the next morning arrived.
Sylvia wasn't planning on entering the Dreamscape just yet; she was thinking about heading out to investigate the matter regarding Misha. Right then, a knock echoed at her room door.
Thinking it was a staff member offering room service, Sylvia hurried over to open it. To her complete surprise, when she pushed the door wide, Robin was standing there.
Her small face was faintly flushed, and her gaze flickered nervously. Her fingers twitched restlessly as if she were incredibly anxious.
Sylvia glanced down the hallway and, sure enough, spotted members of the Family watching from a distance.
"Why did you run over at this hour? Come in, come in."
She quickly welcomed Robin inside. Closing the door behind them and shutting out the eyes of the Family, Sylvia guided Robin toward the sofa. Seeing that Robin didn't seem ready to speak just yet, Sylvia took the initiative.
"I was actually just about to look for you. There's something I haven't told you yet."
"Huh? What is it?"
Robin, who had been struggling to find her words, suddenly snapped her head up. Looking as though she had found a savior, she opened her eyes wide and smiled happily at Sylvia.
Sylvia found Robin's reactions today a bit strange. Involuntarily, she activated her Truth-Seeking Sigil to investigate. Seeing that Robin wasn't an impostor, she finally let out a sigh of relief.
"It's about a bellboy named Misha."
"A bellboy? Does the Reverie Hotel have... wait, I think there is one?"
Robin's initial instinct was to deny the existence of such a position, but halfway through her sentence, she became uncertain. Did they have one?
"..."
Sylvia took note of Robin's hesitation but didn't dwell on it. After all, Robin spent most of the year away from Penacony, so it was completely normal for her to be unfamiliar with the hotel's specific staffing roles.
"In short, I don't know where this Misha came from. Before I left last time, I checked at the front desk. The Reverie Hotel has no record of a Misha, nor do they even have a bellboy position."
"But just yesterday, right after Acheron and I returned, we ran right into this bellboy named Misha."
Hearing Sylvia's explanation, Robin quickly regained her composure. Her brow furrowed slightly. "...Such a thing happened? Could it be a ploy by the Family? Did they deliberately send him to approach you?"
Robin's instincts immediately pointed toward the Family.
"Hmm... it's hard to say." Sylvia shook her head slightly, unable to be certain. After all, between the two of them, Gallagher was anti-Family, so Misha likely possessed a far from simple identity as well.
Right at that moment, ding-dong—Sylvia's phone chimed.
It was a message from Mei:
[Mei: Are you awake? Where are you?]
[Sylvia: In my room. Are you coming over?]
[Mei: Yes, I'm heading over right now.]
[Sylvia: Sounds good.]
Not long after Sylvia sent the message, a knock sounded at the door. Opening it, Mei was already standing outside.
"Good morning..." Mei offered a gentle smile, but the corner of her eye immediately caught sight of Robin sitting on the sofa.
"Good morning, come on in first." Sylvia naturally took Mei's hand, leading her toward the sofa.
Yet, just as they were stepping around the coffee table, a rare lapse in coordination caused her foot to catch sharply against the table leg.
Aha~
The mask Sylvia carried with her let out a faint, mocking chuckle.
"Huh?!"
To think that she would actually trip...
The moment she realized what was happening, Sylvia was utterly stunned. So much so that as her entire body stumbled forward toward the sofa, she couldn't even react in time. Her grip on Mei's hand hadn't loosened either, dragging Mei right down along with her.
Strangely, Mei also seemed to daze out for a split second, failing to react or use any strength to pull Sylvia back up.
"Watch out!"
Robin was the only one present who reacted in time. She quickly bolted upright, reaching out in an attempt to catch Sylvia.
But the moment her weight left the sofa, Sylvia crashed headfirst right into Robin's embrace. Mei followed immediately after, burying her face straight into Sylvia's chest.
"Ouch—!"
"Oof—!"
"..."
By the time Sylvia finally registered what had occurred, she realized that both of her cheeks were being tightly squeezed by two incredibly soft, warm pillows simultaneously, distorting her entire face.
The distinct, fragrant scents belonging to Robin and Mei assaulted her senses from both sides.
Sylvia forced her eyes open, only to be met with a view of smooth, pale skin enveloping her from left and right. She realized instantly what was pressing so firmly against her...
"...???"
Sylvia's mind filled with question marks.
Setting aside why someone of her caliber would trip over a table leg and fall, and why Mei would tumble down right with her—under normal circumstances, even if three people fell, there was no way they would end up in this exact configuration!
Though this sequence of events had granted her the bizarre achievement of a double face-plant, the entire process felt completely absurd.
Was there any difference between the her of today and the her of yesterday? Yesterday, she pulled twice from the gacha and received a bizarre luck stat boost...
No way. This couldn't seriously be the doing of that luck boost, could it?
Come on, man. A luck boost isn't supposed to turn me into a lucky pervert! Is this skill even respectable?!
Still caught in the middle of the double sandwich, Sylvia sank into deep self-doubt. This trope was so ancient; no manga artist had used this kind of cliché in ages...
My guy, can't you update your card pool? Am I going to have to live my life saddled with this nonsense from now on? That's going to be the death of me. Can I get a refund on this thing?
While Sylvia was questioning her reality, Acheron had already sensed that something was amiss.
She was currently bracing herself against the back of the sofa, looking down at Sylvia, who was pinned beneath her own body, lost in thought.
Just a moment ago, when Sylvia tripped, she had faintly detected a sort of gaze. It wasn't the usual kind of surreptitious spying from the shadows.
It was the gaze of an entity holding a vastly higher cosmic status, peering across countless light-years from some deep corner of the cosmos. It was that gaze that ultimately caused Sylvia to trip.
And in that fleeting moment, Sylvia thought she heard a faint giggle.
Could this be the doing of a certain Aeon? The Aeon of Elation, whose reputation across the universe was rather ambiguous?
Acheron, after all, had very little interaction with the Masked Fools, so she couldn't be entirely certain. But if she had to think about which Aeon's glance would match such a pointless situation, honestly, she could only think of the Elation.
As for why she had allowed herself to be dragged down along with Sylvia, it was because she trusted that Sylvia wouldn't be hurt. At the same time, she was simply stunned by the sudden gaze of an Aeon.
Of course, a small part of the reason was that they hadn't been intimate all night. She had wanted to pin Sylvia down and tease her a bit, so she had simply gone with the flow of the fall. She just hadn't expected Sylvia to fall directly into Robin's embrace.
Acheron looked down, barely catching sight of Sylvia through the gap between their forms. Sylvia's eyes were narrowed, looking as though she were thoroughly enjoying herself.
"..."
After a brief silence, Acheron silently made a harsh mental note against Sylvia's record for today.
As for Robin, who was pinned at the very bottom, she wasn't harmed. But by the time she collected her wits, the first thing she noticed was Acheron directly above her. Her eyes locked with Acheron's.
What just happened? It seemed Sylvia tripped, and then she stood up to help, and then...
Robin only felt a distinct pressure on her chest, not quite understanding the full picture yet. When she looked down, her gaze first landed on Acheron's figure.
She couldn't help but marvel internally; this Galaxy Ranger was not only tall, but her figure was incredibly striking. Robin subconsciously compared it to her own, finding herself slightly lacking.
But when she took a second look, she finally noticed Sylvia sandwiched tightly between herself and Acheron, her cheeks completely squished out of shape.
"???"
Her face began to burn up, but before that, Robin felt utterly bewildered.
"Um... are you alright, Sylvia?! Why did things turn out like this?!"
Robin's face flushed crimson, rare panic breaking her usual refined demeanor. Mostly because this kind of cliché development wasn't even written into modern dream dramas anymore.
"Mmph—mmph—"
With her mouth completely squeezed shut, Sylvia desperately wanted to speak and shake her head.
But no sound could escape, and every attempt to shake her head only resulted in her face rubbing against their chests. Though it was entirely unintentional, Sylvia immediately froze.
"Wait, wait, wait—don't move, don't move. My clothes... they're slipping..."
Because Robin was already wearing a dress that revealed her collarbone, Sylvia's sudden squirming nearly pulled the fabric right down.
Even if Robin wished to foster a closer relationship, baring herself completely like this was far too premature! Besides, they weren't even alone. Even if they were in private, it would at least be somewhat more acceptable.
"Nngh..."
"She is fine," Acheron spoke up on Sylvia's behalf.
Before Sylvia could nudge her with an elbow, Acheron proactively pushed herself up and hoisted Sylvia up by the collar, lest she continue to suffocate Robin.
Sylvia was tossed onto the sofa, looking a bit dazed. Robin, her face still burning, used her small hand to fan Sylvia, whose face was flushed bright red from the lack of air. At the same time, she asked worriedly:
"What just happened? Why did we..."
"..."
Sylvia remained completely silent. She still hadn't accepted the ridiculous reality that her new skill was essentially a 'lucky pervert' magnet.
But Acheron suddenly spoke up: "Just now, an existence with a status far superior to mine altered something here."
"...What do you mean? Was it a prank?" Robin still hadn't fully grasped the weight of the words.
But Sylvia's eyes instantly widened. An existence with a status far higher than an Emanator... what else could that possibly be?
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL