I Can Copy And Evolve Talents

Chapter 1250: The Similitude Of Them All

Northern was silent for a few seconds, weighing the complications of what Anike was asking. The logistics alone would be a headache.

He held her gaze.

”There’s no problem. But you need to know—traveling with me carries a higher level of danger than traveling alone.” He paused, letting the air absorb his words. ”It also carries a higher level of security.”

Anike smiled.

”Don’t worry. She’ll be completely responsible for herself and won’t be a burden to you.”

Northern sighed. He’d tried to sway her with reality, but it looked like Anike had already thought this through. He scratched at his hair—it had been irritating him since he’d rushed through drying it after his bath.

”Okay, I guess...” He studied her face. ”I’ll be leaving soon, though. Does she know about this?”

Anike’s smile turned pleasant in a way that immediately made him suspicious.

”Not in the slightest. I want you to kidnap her.”

Northern gave her an absurd look.

”Anike, you wouldn’t be trying to stylishly get rid of her, would you?”

She regarded him with immediate reproach.

”What? She’s next in line, you know. She needs to learn. So much.”

Northern kept his face carefully neutral as he studied her, hiding his suspicion behind a practiced blank expression.

”Hmm. I see...” He paused, then sighed. ”So you want me to kidnap her?”

’This is honestly a waste of my time.’

But these were things he had to do for new friends. These were the things humans did to expand relationships, build connections. Having a Seraphae in his crew wasn’t a bad idea, after all. As he built his nation of peace, there could even be an alliance between their peoples. He could develop strong diplomatic relationships.

’Strategic value. That’s valid.’

He hadn’t intended to think about it, but now that he was... forming relationships with kingdoms should actually be on his priority list. Some already knew him from the past few days—saving their kingdom while traveling from the Academy to South Drywall had made an impression. For the others who didn’t, it would be relatively hard.

Or maybe easy.

Northern didn’t know. But it was worth considering.

He divided himself into two right before Anike’s eyes.

The sudden split gave her such a shock she nearly threw a punch on reflex.

”Bless Astrin! What’s that? How?”

She exchanged frantic glances between the two Northerns, her head swiveling back and forth.

”You can create clones too? Of course you can!”

The two Northerns offered her a synchronized, delightful smile.

It was eerie.

Then the one on the left waved his hand casually.

”I’ll be leaving now. To kidnap your protégé.”

He flew backward as if the winds themselves were pulling him, his form receding into the darkness. Soon he disappeared behind the veil of the dark storm.

Anike’s gaze lingered on where he’d last been visible. Then she brought it back to the remaining Northern. Her head felt fuzzy. She held it steady, exhaling slowly.

”I don’t know... I want to ask what more you can do. Or at least one thing you can’t do.” She shook her head. ”But don’t tell me. I have a feeling I might just pass out.”

Northern allowed a small smile to touch his lips.

’There are things I can’t do.’

At the moment, though, he was struggling to find one.

’I’m sure there are. I’ll think about it later.’

***

Meanwhile, Northern flew downward, descending through the layers of activity.

Everybody was busy doing their own thing—flying from dome to dome, crossing the bridges that connected them, gliding over the river below. There were more Arethamine on the water itself, but some Seraphae still flew just above the surface, their wings catching the ambient light that seemed to emanate from everywhere and nowhere at once.

The place looked like something out of a fairy tale.

Since creating Omnisphere, Northern had kept it active perpetually, even in his sleep. The constant stream of information had become background noise—comfortable, familiar. There wasn’t much that surprised him anymore. He couldn’t quite note each person’s signature in a way that would let him recognize them individually—not yet—but if he spent more time with them, he would. Pattern recognition was just a matter of exposure and time.

Judgment’s heat signature, for example, was as flawlessly uniform as every other Seraphae’s. If anyone besides Northern was operating Omnisphere, it would be remarkably easy to get lost in that uniformity and assume there were only two distinct signatures total—Seraphae and Arethamine. Nothing more granular than that.

The Arethamine signature was the only one that differed from the Seraphae.

This was remarkably distinct from humans. All humans, despite being the same race, displayed several spectrums of heat signatures that made them easy to tell apart. Individual variations in body temperature, metabolic rate, even emotional state—all of it created unique patterns. But the Seraphae and Arethamine? They were like two separate, perfect entities. Almost as if each race breathed with one collective heart, moved with one collective will.

’Collective uniformity. Their evolutionary development is rather fascinating.’

Northern was genuinely impressed, but even so, it wasn’t difficult for him to work with. He’d been training his mind to process information in cognitive layers—multiple streams of thought operating simultaneously, each one independent yet interconnected. Before, Northern could think like three different people at once, running parallel analyses without losing track of any thread. Now, with Aoi’s help, he could think like ten different people.

Ten was the highest he’d reached so far, the current limit of his cognitive architecture. But there was a high probability that as days went by and Aoi learned more, adapted more, he’d be able to expand that number. Twenty someday. Maybe one day even a hundred different parallel thought processes.

Thinking about it, Northern couldn’t help but feel this was the precipice of Omniform—the true purpose of the ability. Unlimited parallel processing. Unlimited perspective. The capacity to be everywhere and everyone at once, to see from every angle simultaneously.

’Found her!’

He stopped mid-air, his momentum halting instantly as if he’d hit an invisible wall. Then he redirected, angling sharply toward the edge of the river where the water poured down in a magnificent cascade into the world far below.