The Glorious Evolution

Even the Titan wore a faint, nostalgic smile as he watched his old friend weave an Array onto a germ-sized, frequency-spiritual egg... The precision required was a million times greater than that of a surgeon operating on a grape while blindfolded!

Levi heightened his senses to their absolute limit until the microscopic egg swelled to the size of a soccer ball in his perception... His mouth parted slightly in awe at the mesmerizing sight before him.

A gray Hex had been woven across the shell, its three million IIthorien words layered with such impossible precision that they resembled the delicate spiraling grooves of a seashell... except every curve was an inscription, every line carried meaning, and every microscopic stroke served a purpose.

The words flowed into one another without ever touching, forming layer upon layer of impossible symmetry.

From a distance, it looked like an intricate piece of ancient art... Up close, it was something far beyond that... a perfect little universe of language, folded into a single shape.

It was one of the most intricate and beautiful things Levi had ever seen.

”Ash’Kral...” Levi muttered against his will. ”You have truly mastered your craft...”

”I know.”

Ash’Kral replied without an ounce of arrogance in his tone... It sounded less like a boast and more like he was simply stating a fact when it came to Arrays.

”So, how does it work? Does it prevent the Spider Array from detecting it?” Levi asked curiously.

”No... escaping its detection is easy, but after the egg hatches, the parasite will eventually be found since the Array is engraved on the shell,” Ash’Kral explained calmly. ”You want Simon to carry the Wire Parasite for at least a week...”

”So...”

”So the Spider Array will see your egg... It will touch it, pass its threads straight through the thing, and feel something too boring to alarm anyone... like detecting harmless probiotics.” Ash’Kral smirked. ”The bell still hangs and swings; it simply doesn’t ring.”

Levi stared at the egg for a short while and then turned toward Ash’Kral.

”...Sleeping Bell.”

He murmured, finally understanding the meaning behind the Grand Array’s name... but he knew there was always a catch, and he didn’t hesitate to ask.

”The Array has one problem... energy.” Ash’Kral tapped the stone beside the egg. ”It was designed to draw energy from the egg’s frequency... but it has no way of actually extracting it. So, every flicker costs the Array a little of its own stored energy. It keeps burning itself down just to maintain the inscriptions, and once it’s placed on the target, the clock starts...”

”How long?”

”You’ll have about three hours before the Array begins losing its structure,” Ash’Kral said. ”Once it does, you should pray that Simon never leaves the mansion... Otherwise, the Spider Arrays on the four gates will notice it, and this time... they will ring the bell.”

Levi frowned... Ash’Kral had told him that the Array would help him keep Simon under surveillance for at least a week. So, how could the Array die on him only three hours after initial contact?

However, before he could ask about it, Levi realized that he had possessed the solution all along... and Ash’Kral had clearly kept it in mind.

”I guess there’s no escaping from using you, huh?”

Levi commented as he summoned the Lantern of the Lost Keeper, his smile affixed to the peaceful Omnithar Genie.

”Your wish is mine to grant, Master.”

The Omnithar Genie bowed his head in acceptance before Levi could even request anything... He was eager to help Levi with anything as payment, no matter how small or great.

”I want you to sustain the Array’s energy levels for a month... Is that possible first, and how much will it cost?” Levi asked.

The Omnithar Genie scanned the egg and the Array for a few seconds... then told him that he could fulfill the wish since the Array was imprinted upon a spiritual creature. Afterward, he added that the price would be equivalent to roughly three million credits’ worth of energy.

”The tenfold price tag is really troublesome...” Levi frowned.

Levi had assumed the price would be somewhat lower since he had already created the egg and Ash’Kral had constructed the Array... All he wished for was to keep the Array running for a month or less.

And yet... it would cost three million credits?

Levi couldn’t even fathom the price if he wished for the creation of a perfectly undetectable Wire Parasite Technique from scratch.

It might reach tens of millions, if not more!

”How about two weeks?”

”The price will be cut in half... which translates to around six thousand four hundred Grade ’B’ Growth Totems, more or less.”

”Six thousand four hundred Totems...”

Levi ran the number through his mind for a few moments before nodding in acceptance... He still had no clue whether his plan would work or not, and he was taking quite a high risk.

Still... if everything worked out, it would be worth every penny.

Without further ado, Levi went through his reserves and pulled out the majority of the Growth Totems he had stored away.

Of course, he didn’t touch the Divine Grade Solar Totems, nor even the S- and A-Grade ones... He couldn’t afford to waste them on a wish when he knew their rarity priced them many times higher than the actual amount of energy contained within them.

Unfortunately, the Omnithar Genie couldn’t care less about ’rarity’ or ’exclusivity’... The price was always measured in energy.

”This isn’t even close to enough.”

Levi sighed as he stared at the mountain of Totems protected from the Shadow Corruption by a veil of darkness... Steeling his heart, he opened the dimensional network and started buying Solar Totems, Vile Totems, and whatever other reasonably priced sources of contained energy he could find.

”My apologies for my shortcomings...” The Omnithar Genie bowed his head politely. ”If I weren’t limited by the Lantern, I would have been able to extract any type of energy from any available source to fulfill your wish.”

Levi told him that it was all right... He understood that if such a thing were still possible for the Omnithar Genie, he could have simply handed him most of Alzhukar’s collection of Artifacts and other treasures.

The Genie could have then broken those items down and extracted every ounce of usable energy within them.

Unfortunately... he was no longer considered a simple Genie in the eyes of the universe, which had stripped him of multiple innate powers.

After scouring the markets and online auctions selling Growth Totems in bulk, Levi finally collected the required price... Believe it or not, the total cost truly landed within the estimated range!

”Damn... You must have been doing this for a long time to be this precise.” Levi was genuinely impressed by his calculations.

”You can only imagine...”

The Omnithar Genie replied, his voice as quiet as the wisps floating around him... Realizing that he might have struck a nerve, Levi dropped the matter and waited a few seconds for the delivery.

He had paid extra for express delivery.

As expected, the Ratokki Clan didn’t mess around when it came to their jobs, even if they hated every second of them.

Whoosh!

A small dimensional portal opened in front of Levi, and then a tired, irritated voice resounded from the other side.

”You requested no packaging... Are you ready to receive your order?”

”Yes.”

Without hesitation, the portal expelled a flood of Growth Totems in Levi’s direction... hundreds every second, resembling an endless beam!

Levi opened an aetheric bag coated in a layer of protective dark energy and caught the Growth Totems, expanding the bag nonstop until it resembled a small mound.

”It is our pleasure to be of service, and... blah, blah, you know the rest.”

Having finished his job, the Ratokki closed the portal, his voice as deadpan as ever... Levi ignored the common occurrence and told the Genie that he was ready to voice his wish.

”Then stand back, Master.”

Light burst from the Lantern’s windows and struck the ground in a ring. Then, it carved itself into a Hex, its lines cutting across the gray floor like blades.

The Hex spun faster and faster until its inscriptions blurred into a single burning circle... Before Levi could react, the colorless void above split open and fired a beam straight down onto the Lantern!

Then, the Omnithar Genie’s manifestation took form within the center of the beam... a humanoid void filled with a billion moving constellations, its face concealed behind a blank mask of obsidian crystal.

The only difference was the absence of the golden bracelets and collar, replaced by peculiar gray inscriptions that matched those engraved across the Lantern’s surface.

As Levi voiced his wish aloud, the Omnithar Genie gave a slight nod of acceptance before pointing a finger toward the mound of Growth Totems... So many Totems that they could support an entire region for a week.

Yet, all Levi could do was watch as they rose by the hundreds and swung into orbit around the beam like debris caught in the gravity of a star.

They circled twice, and on the third pass, they came apart, unraveling into golden particles... swallowed whole by the beam.

It continued for ten seconds until the entire mound disappeared.

Only then did the Omnithar Genie utter,

”The price is paid.”

A hand emerged from the beam, constellations sliding down its finger like water before settling upon the microscopic parasite egg for a brief moment.

”The wish has been granted.”

The beam shattered into prismatic mist... and the Hex slowly dimmed until the castle returned to its depressive, colorless state.

The Omnithar Genie flew back inside the Lantern in a cosmic, misty form, causing it to shake several times before settling silently upon the floor.

”...”

”...”

”...”

Levi, Ash’Kral, and the Titan stared at the Lantern without uttering a single word... They already knew that the Omnithar Genie hadn’t lied about being able to fulfill Levi’s wishes related to spiritual matters.

Yet, knowing it and finally witnessing it with their own eyes were two completely different things.

”Boy... you really did catch yourself a wild Genie.” Ash’Kral chuckled, the reality of it finally dawning on him.

Levi broke into laughter, the pain of losing a fortune’s worth of Growth Totems disappearing instantly.

”I sure did...”