In the next instant, I moved.
Space folded around me as I appeared inside the serpent, right beside Vivi, standing in front of the smaller serpent that floated quietly at the center. Up close, its presence felt even more concentrated. It did not resist, did not react, as if it lacked the awareness to even recognize what was about to happen.
"Alright," I said, my voice calm. "I’ll start."
I connected inward. My will reached the black island at the center of the Dawn World. The moment the connection formed, the chain hidden within it responded. I could feel it awaken, ready to act under my command.
Without hesitation, I stepped forward and placed my hand on the head of the smaller serpent.
It didn’t react. I began.
The process was familiar.
Just like with the world cores, I started pulling the natural essence within it, drawing it out and replacing it with my own. Violet essence flowed from me, entering the core, spreading through its structure, rewriting it piece by piece.
At first, everything moved smoothly. But within seconds, I felt the difference.
This was not a world core. The amount of essence required was on an entirely different scale.
What I poured into it was being absorbed instantly, yet it barely made a dent. The core was vast, far deeper than its small form suggested, holding layers upon layers that needed to be overwritten.
I didn’t stop. My essence surged harder, flowing continuously as I forced my will into it. The violet spread further, slowly replacing the green, pushing deeper into its structure.
The drain was immense. I could feel my reserves dropping rapidly, far faster than anything before. What would have been enough for multiple world cores barely pushed this one forward.
Still, I continued.
There was no room to hesitate now.
The connection with the Dawn World deepened as I pulled more power through it, forcing the process forward. The chain within it tightened its influence, assisting in stabilizing the takeover as my essence flooded the core.
Time blurred.
The only thing that mattered was the exchange. Green being replaced by violet.
Layer after layer.
Deeper and deeper.
Until finally something shifted. At the very center, I felt it.
A dense, black presence.
The true anchor. Without hesitation, I focused on it and pulled. It resisted for a brief moment. The black mass was torn free and drawn directly into the Dawn World, absorbed into the black island at its core.
The moment it left everything changed. The small blue serpent flickered.
Its color shifted.
Blue faded and violet took its place. The transformation settled instantly, the core no longer resisting.
It was mine.
I exhaled slowly and pulled my hand back, the connection stabilizing as the process completed.
Then I looked at Vivi.
"You can start, Lady Vivi."
Her eyes lit up immediately, all hesitation gone.
"Gladly."
In the next instant, her form shifted. Her small body expanded slightly, her mouth widening far beyond its size as she lunged forward. And in a single motion, she swallowed the serpent whole.
For a few moments, nothing happened.
I floated beside Vivi as she remained still, her eyes closed, her presence calm as if nothing had changed. The void around us stayed silent, the massive body of the serpent outside still bound by my chains, unmoving.
Then something shifted. It didn’t start outside but within me.
The Dawn World trembled.
Far inside, the vast internal world I had built began to react. The ground quaked with a deep, resonating force, as if something far greater had just been introduced into its foundation. The continents shuddered, the skies flickered faintly, and the oceans rippled without wind.
The volcanoes responded next.
Each one, representing a law I had comprehended, began to react to the sudden influx. Flames rose higher from their peaks, their intensity increasing as if fed by an unseen source. Some expanded, their structures growing larger, more stable, while others erupted briefly, releasing surges of energy that reshaped the land around them.
It was growth. Rapid, overwhelming growth. At the same time, a surge of information flooded my mind in waves.
Raw, dense, and endless. I understood immediately.
It was Vivi. She was passing everything to me. The knowledge of the galaxy, the structure of its worlds, the flow of its essence, the subtle interactions between laws that governed everything within it.
I closed my eyes and began absorbing it. The information pressed against my mind, heavy yet clear, forcing my comprehension to rise along with it. Concepts that once required effort to understand now aligned naturally, connecting with what I already knew.
Inside the Dawn World, the changes accelerated.
The volcanoes began to transform. Some grew taller, their flames turning sharper, more refined. Others stabilized, their eruptions becoming controlled, no longer chaotic. New cracks formed across the land, channels through which essence flowed more smoothly, linking different regions together.
The entire world was evolving and I heard a notification.
The pressure inside my mind continued to rise as more information poured in from the system itself trying to adjust to what had just taken place.
Inside the Dawn World, the sky flickered again. For a brief moment, everything dimmed, as if the world itself was taking a breath.
Then, something new appeared.
A moon.
It formed slowly at first, its outline taking shape against the sky before solidifying into existence. It wasn’t forced into place or created through destruction. It simply... manifested, as if the world had finally reached a state where it could sustain more than just itself.
Its presence alone changed everything. The sky no longer felt like a closed boundary.
It felt open.
Vast.
Beyond it, the endless black void that once surrounded the Dawn World began to shift. Small points of light flickered into existence, faint at first, then stabilizing into distant stars. They did not flood the sky, nor did they overwhelm it. They appeared sparsely.
Closer to the world, new matter began to take form.
Right before my eyes, fragments of existence gathered and condensed. Small clusters appeared, rough and unrefined, drifting outward and settling into slow, natural motion.
Asteroids.
Scattered across the space around the Dawn World, they moved without chaos, following invisible paths that had just come into being. Some were small, barely noticeable, while others carried more mass, slowly carving their own presence into the expanding void.
There was no sun or a new planet.
Only space. Space that now existed where there had been nothing.
Below, the volcanoes burned brighter.
Their flames no longer felt isolated. They resonated with the changes above, their intensity reflecting the growth of the world itself. The laws they represented sharpened, their presence more defined, more stable, as my understanding deepened.
The entire Dawn World was expanding once again.
And I stood at the center of it all, absorbing everything as it came, my comprehension rising with each passing moment. This was no longer just a world.
It was becoming something far greater.