"W-what?" Ash questioned in a bit of shock.
He honestly didnât care about the titles, having already realized they didnât do anything for him personally. If anything, they only did what he couldâor shouldâalready be doing himself.
[Relax, you wonât lose your Bloodline or your Race. You are a progenitor, though not in the purest sense. Remember, at the start of the Third Cycle, you witnessed the birth of the very first progenitors. Each came into existence in unique waysâno progenitor is ever born naturally.]
Elysia went on to share all the details about progenitors.
In essence, starting in the 22nd Cycle, the Records of Eternity began to âbirthâ them.
Usually, each cycle brought forth countless new races across universes and realities.
But that cycle marked the start of people from different races developing strange abilities and titles. This sparked a trend of plundering bloodlines, stealing and merging them until entirely new races emerged.
Honestly, it wasnât all that different from what Ash might doâjust far less efficient and riddled with problems. In the end, it gave rise to more âProgenitors,â who defined their races not by birth, but by the titles they claimed.
For instance, Seraphiel, the phoenix progenitor, was born in a spectacle that embodied everything she and her kind would become known for.
Ash remembered clearly when all the progenitors were coming into existenceâshe was the third. Her birth was nothing short of extraordinary, taking place when only a handful of universes had begun to form.
Then, the entire void ignited, consuming universes that never had the chance to take shape, along with budding worlds and countless other things. The flames raged for eons, until only a single ember remainedâone that refused to fade.
In that moment, a supernova of multicolored flame burst forthâsilent in the void yet roaring across realitiesâgiving rise to a colossal avian of living fire. Wings of pure inferno spread wide, scattering solar flares like feathers, each one birthing a new sun in the darkness.
It was then that Seraphiel, the phoenix progenitor, was truly born, declaring herself the flame of all flames... and the one that would never end.
Hearing and remembering this, Ash understood.
When he had created his race, he hadnât defined it at allâhe had simply given the Records its name, not realizing they were checking to confirm he truly possessed an undefined bloodline or race.
[And I was created with the use of the Title... Now, neither of us really knows how this taint might affect us. But Iâd never let things get to a point where I could be used against you!] Elysia said, clearly irritated.
She had been made solely to push her Master beyond all limits... and now she was tainted? Even if the records didnât point directly at them, she was determined to leave no stone unturned.
[A/N: Important thing to note... Ash isnât tainted directly for a few reasons. It will be touched upon soon!]
Ash steadied himself. He was never one to worry about complications, not even when his family treated him like he didnât matter. He always just got things done. Exhaling, he spoke plainly.
"Where do we start?"
If Elysia had a body right now, sheâd be wearing the brightest smile.
[With me, of course. Itâs not a big deal. We were already preparing to make me your brain, so letâs get on with it. Use pure desire to create exactly what you want.]
She didnât need to say muchâAsh had created her, after allâand he knew exactly where she existed beyond the elaborate frameworks heâd designed.
Closing his eyes, the vast expanse of his inner cosmos shifted at his will.
At the deepest layer of the fabricâwhere reality folded into impossible geometriesâsat Elysia... or, in other words, the Nexus.
It appeared as a glowing orb of pure white light, intertwined with the unnamed essence, threads of boundless potential running through it like living veins of creation.
Nothing would happen to Elysia in this moment, aside from slipping into a brief stasis. As she did, so too did the countless other sub-nexuses. For them, though, it would feel like no more than a split second.
With all the time dilationâand Time itself halted within his inner cosmosâthe others would barely notice.
Without hesitation, driven by a thought born of absolute desire, he began.
As always, Ash never created anything ordinary.
Everything he made was beyond what anyone else could hope to imagine.
Now, he was in the midst of manifesting an entirely new brainâbut not in any way that could be predicted. Rose-pink essence swirled around his hands, condensing into a divine lattice of light and shadowâneither flesh nor crystal, but something beyond both.
From this lattice emerged a spirit body.
She possessed timeless beauty, with long white hair flowing like liquid moonlight, alabaster skin glimmering with trapped stars, four graceful horns curving from her forehead, and twelve vast wings of translucent rose-white essence unfurling behind her, each feather inscribed with faint runes of infinite knowledge.
Her eyes opened slowly, twin flames flickering in her pupils, marked with the same symbols as his.
The body hovered before him, flawless and expectant.
Ash slipped his hands into the folds of fabric, carefully drawing out the fused coreâunnamed essence and Elysia intertwinedâholding it as one might cradle a newborn star.
The orb glowed brighter in recognition, threads of light reaching toward the waiting form like roots yearning for earth.
He brought it closer.
As soon as the core touched the spirit bodyâs chest, light burst forthâgentle, silent, radiant.
The nameless essence streamed like liquid starlight, flooding her being, filling every vein, every feather, every strand of hair with limitless potential.
Thoughts, feelings, memories, awarenessâeverything that was Elysia flowed into her in one smooth surge, the old core fading as the new body glowed, wings unfurling as she drew her first real breath.
The hollow shell of the old core scattered into dim sparks, vanishing into the cosmosâgone for good.
"Now... letâs go big or go home," Ash muttered, feeling his inner cosmos stir once more. A brilliant white light engulfed Elysia entirely as she underwent an evolution five hundred times over.
[A/N: I know I said no more powerups.... Letâs just say I miscalculated!]
A cocoon instantly enveloped her as he waited patiently, curious about what she would become.
In creating this new vessel, he had used more of his own blood than ever before, which was why she ended up looking so much like him. Beyond that, he hadnât added many functionsâonly the ability for her to develop new ones born from his desires, though for some reason he always had to set a limit.
Once per cycle, she would gain a new function.
That was before the evolution.
When the cocoon finally broke, Elysia opened her eyes, smiling at him with an expression both timeless and fresh, her voice no longer echoing in his mind but resonating in the airâclear, warm, and real.
"Master..."
Before he could react, she shrank to a delicate sizeâno larger than his palm, yet just as divineâand slipped seamlessly into his forehead.
Within, his mortal brain awaited. Mortal, yes, though by nature he was far from it... yet in the grand hierarchy of power, he was nothing more than that.
She entered like dawn breaking through nightâsoft, yet unstoppable.
The organic matter yielded instantly, absorbed into her essence as she expanded to fill the space completely, luminous roots threading through every neuron and synapse, replacing flesh with something eternal.
There was no painâonly clarity.
When it was over, his old brain was gone.
She was his mind nowâhis thoughts were hers, his knowledge hers, yet she remained herself: free, sentient, able to manifest beyond his body as the First Primavus Spirit, or dwell within as the flawless, limitless core of his consciousness.
Ash exhaled, eyes opening to a cosmos that suddenly felt sharper, deeper, infinite.
Elysia reappeared with a smirk.
"Hehe, weâre just getting started."
With the Nexus gone, the next order of business was clear.
"Well then, letâs begin with this bloodline, my lovely spirit."