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CHAPTER 2


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With the pitch black emptiness of the sky above and the unsettling  darkness of the void below, the faint red glow of the Shards themselves  and the effects of the various powers and anomalies that riddled this  strange and eldritch landscape served as its only source of light. The  view was bizarre and quite abstract in some places where the Avatars of  Shards took shape. While some took inspiration from humanity, others  were still alien in form and logic, still taking their time to adapt to  their current host species.

Evelyn realized that seeing all of this at once should have hurt her  eyes, it should have utterly ruined her mind by fully comprehending  things that were never meant to be seen by beings as limited as humans…

Except, they didn’t.

She was reminded of the first time she looked back at the memories of  her old life. Of being plain ‘ordinary’ Evelyn. They were still there,  with all the relevant memories and emotions attached, emotions she was  happy to know she was still capable of feeling. But, they were also unnatural. Changed.

At some point, Evelyn realized there was a divide in her psyche. In one  half, she could remember and forget things like a human could, Biased.  Natural. But the other half… The other half could remember every single  moment of her life, from the very instant her brain was first capable of  observing the world around her, to the very last minutes it took for  her brain to stop functioning due to a lack of oxygen. She could  remember it all with perfect, inhuman clarity.

It should have been unnatural enough to look back at everything that had occurred in her life with such context and rawness as if they had happened mere moments ago, but it was somehow made worse by how she was able to manipulate them.

- She remembered her nineteenth birthday. Last weekend, she had just caught her ex-boyfriend cheating on her, in the act, and  she wasn’t really in a mood to celebrate anymore. It was her third  attempt at a proper relationship and so far, all of them had failed  miserably.
The first one fell apart because the boy was forced to move away when his dad got transferred and they weren’t committed enough to try for a long distance relationship.
The second was an experiment with a cute girl when college had just  started off but it didn’t even last three days before the girl in  question came to the unfortunate realization that she was straight as a  rod all along. They could have still kept in touch, but things quickly  got awkward between them and all that remained was disappointment.
The third hit the hardest, because it wasn’t something she could understand.  There weren’t any unfortunate circumstances involved like the first and  it wasn’t something that was doomed from the start like the second.  There was simply no reason she could comprehend that made that bastard chase after someone else while they were still together, and it hurt. It hurt far more than the others did, and she could never figure out why.

She stared at the cupcake with the lonely candle on top and sighed. She  felt melancholy when she stared at it, as it reminded her of the time  her dad got her something similar while they were traveling and couldn’t  find a ‘proper’ cake. She was about to blow the candle when-

Evelyn paused the memory. She muted the emotions involved and she stared  at the scene clinically. Then she brought it back, took it apart, and  separated them. The memory was returned but she was now able to hold  onto the emotions, the [heartache], the [betrayal], the [melancholy] and  the faint [hope] for a better future.

She brought up another memory. This time, it was something that happened  during high-school. She had found a stray kitten near her friend’s  house and decided that yes, she was going to keep it, her mom’s  screeching be damned. She was about to -
Evelyn paused the memory, and fast-forwarded it till she saw the scene  where her mom discovered her trying to pry the kitten away from the  couch. Her look of disgust was obvious. Mom was simply NOT a cat person,  and she actively avoided them when she encountered one. Her finding out  about it was -

Evelyn paused the memory again. She brought up the [heartache],  [betrayal], [melancholy] and [hope]. She brought them near the ‘cat  incident’, and to her horror, realized that she could edit them in if  she so desired it. She dropped all of it, recoiling away within the  confines of her mind. Something she once considered secure, untouchable.  Sacrosanct, was Exposed.

Evelyn was thankful for the ability to remember her past so  clearly and never lose them. But she also felt disgusted at herself for  treating something so precious without the proper reverence it deserved.  She felt only horror at the realization that deleting all the bad things away was simply a matter of thinking about  it. She felt so much like a computer at that moment. Looking back on  it, that might exactly be what it was; it was the part of her psyche  that was born of a Shard rather than a human.
It was slowly overtaking the human half too, as her mind adapted,  becoming more capable, more adept at manipulating her new body and  powers. But despite everything, she was somehow okay with that. She had  to move on, and it wasn’t like it was happening right away either. It  would take centuries for the process to finish and by that time she would have exceeded her natural human lifespan anyways.
By that time, she would be an entirely different person, for the better or worse.

It was unnatural and yet comforting in its unfamiliarity. In a way, it  was like trying out something new, something she was wary of committing  to but knew she would enjoy even if she came to regret it down the line.

“The first time I had alcohol, or sex, comes to mind. Not proud of  either and I regret the latter to a degree, but I wouldn’t have missed  it for anything.” She muttered as her awareness returned to her  surroundings.

It was a paradox, a human condition. She smiled. She was still human in a way, despite everything.

Evelyn stared at the wretched landscape before her and felt that she  should have been more unsettled, more afraid and wary. But no, she felt  right at home in this place.
It wasn’t the sight, the sound or anything of the like that called out to her. No, it was the way reality was so flexible, so arbitrary in  this dimension that felt natural to her. The ease at which she was able  to slide in and out of the nearby worlds and parallel instances without  even needing to use a portal or a bridge… It felt like it was easy for her to adapt to living here. Too easy even. The place wasn’t even boosting her powers or anything of the sort.
In fact, Evelyn suspected that they might be actively suppressing them  here, to an extent. No, this was a property of the dimension itself.

Perhaps this place was meant to simulate the conditions of the Entity's  home world? If that was the case, she could understand why she felt the  way she did but there were still things she still wasn't sure about. She  could think about those later though.

In the end however, the white noise made by the shards in the background  was grating, and so was the nagging feeling that something was  incomplete, damaged. It only got worse after Scion died, with the  feeling growing harder to ignore.

Evelyn was running but every now and then, a wave of light would wash  over the shard she was standing on. She stumbled. [Query] a thought  invaded her mind. It wasn’t even directed at her, she just picked it up  because she was ON the shard while it received a transmission.
She was nearing the edge when a wave of light came from behind.  [Data] the shard broadcasted back. She could only catch tail ends of it,  something about consolidating data for a bud. She ignored it. It wasn’t  meant for her either.

As she landed on the next shard, she was hit by another wave. It kept happening again and again and again while she ran and she kept getting distracted by the incessant transmissions every damn time. It was awful.
It was an unfortunate price she had to pay for her current power and  mobility but it didn't lessen the fact that she felt like someone was  poking her ribs every ten seconds or so.

“Yeah, I’m not going to stay here for long if I could help it.”

As she approached the edge of yet another shard, she noticed that its  avatar was following her. It was a curious little thing, an abstraction  of force fields and lenses and gold, of golden lights and outlines that  seemed hollow but were lined with recursive reflections in a way that  seemed to stretch outwards.
That held interesting implications, she noted.
It also seemed to be transmitting something everywhere. The  signal was weak but it was also being broadcasted continuously, without  pause. Evelyn could pick it up. [Awe!] [Glory!] - she cut it off. Were  those human emotions? Yeah, they were.

She could tell, having held something similar not so long ago but it was  an interesting experience actually seeing it being transmitted. Evelyn  knew she could do it too, technically.
It was like downloading something in a way, but it would take her far longer, and with nowhere near the sheer speed and efficiency this shard seemed to be capable of.
It would also have to be done through the [Wish] module too but it was possible.

Evelyn was fairly certain she also knew who this was, but she could look into it later. Right now, she had someone else to meet and she was on a schedule.

Her eyes fell back on Queen Administrator, her spider-like form  collapsed into a mass of threads and tendrils. A far fewer number of  ‘legs’ seemed to connect to her neighboring shards, but that was it.

Evelyn focused on her [Domain], the radius in which her Personal  Dimension overlaid the world around her. She had kept the ability  activated the entire time she was here, both to boost her movements and  in a futile effort to ‘mute’ the shards around her.
The latter was only partially effective since it seemed she didn’t quite  have the amount of control she thought she did but then again the  answer seemed so obvious in hindsight.
She only had absolute control within her dimension. It was  obvious she wouldn’t be able to exert the same amount of influence  outside of it even if she overlaid the ‘real’ world since the ‘real’  world was still there.
Evelyn wasn't a complete reality warper, then.

A pillar of stone formed under her and extended, propelling her into the sky in an arc that would see her landing near her target’s avatar.
Queen Administrator it seemed, had some really good sensory capabilities  since she suddenly turned around eyes focused on Evelyn’s airborne  form. Most of the other avatars didn’t notice her until she was already  on them.
Then again,Evelyn expected it of her.
She noticed eyes of different types and sizes opening from within the  mass of tendrils and threads, even as new ‘limbs’ started to coalesce  and take shape. Evelyn had the inexplicable urge to shudder, a part of  her that was still human viscerally afraid of the sight.

She landed, skidding to a stop two hundred feet away.

After observing the avatar for a few minutes, Evelyn came to the  conclusion that she was right. Queen Administrator indeed seemed to be  mimicking Taylor.
Even though Evelyn had never seen the girl in question before, the  description matched; She looked like a tall, gawky, stick-thin figure  around 5'10, with long, curly hair. She had a thin-lipped, wide,  expressive mouth and her large eyes seemed to stare at her intently.
The hair, though, seemed to wind around her body and disappeared into the ground. Queen Administrator tilted her head.
It was such a natural, human action, so full of childlike curiosity that Evelyn was taken aback. Eventually, Evelyn prepped herself and started to broadcast.

[Hail]

QA’s eyes widened and a happy smile stretched across her face.

[Salutation!] She sent back.

The reply… was surprising.

Shards weren’t capable of lying. The medium through which they  communicated made such a thing impossible, since every exchange and  every ‘word’ was accompanied by supporting facts and context- context  that was available to both parties for verification.
The sheer effort it took to fabricate a lie of any degree was simply too  much for it to be worth it. And the risk of being caught in said lie  was also astronomical.

This fact became obvious when a single ‘word’ from QA contained  greetings, a reference to her actual dimensional coordinates as well as  the space she occupied in the Firmament. It also contained the relative  distance between them, the relative distance to the closest shards near  her, an expansive list of everything around her in a planetary radius,  how much energy it took to bridge that gap between each other, a  statistic chart to depict how much less energy it would have cost Evelyn  to just relay whatever they wanted to talk through the [Broadcast]  shard, a chart plotting how much energy she must have spent trying to  approaching Queen administrator physically, another chart depicting how  much energy it saved her from replying along with a hint of something  akin to Gratitude for that fact (In the grand scheme of things,  the energy mentioned wasn't much but for beings like them, every little  bit counted),
She then sent evidence of the fact that they had never met or interacted  before, evidence to the fact that she had never heard of her before,  sent an inquiry as to why, an assertion to their relative experience and  a confirmation of her own seniority as a shard and as an administrator,  and finally an admonishment for doing something she considered idiotic  and a bit of worry at her capability for rational thought.

Evelyn was befuddled.

The entire thing had that soft but condescending tone older sisters  would use when admonishing a preschooler for doing something unnecessary  and monumentally stupid, but at the same time, was flattered and happy  because of the consideration and ‘love’ they were shown.
Evelyn suddenly had a deep seated urge to groan.

Though, she was indeed a bit surprised by her… enthusiasm.

Curious, Evelyn brought up her own [Memory logs], something she had  grown a lot more familiar with over time and tried to ‘scroll’ past her  own memories.
She was trying to access the data from the shards this body was created  from. She had intuitively done something similar while she was creating  her body so she knew it was there.

It was surprisingly easy to access

It also revealed to her a sad, sad truth.
Apparently, shards were usually cold, calculated and were driven by logic. The ones that did operate in any social capacity usually behaved like socially stunted  assholes who kept digging for benefits and looked out for their own  self-interest at every turn.
It usually made conversation a chore and more often than not, they  insulted each other by cutting off a conversation midway to conserve  energy in particularly long cycles.
Going through some of them, she felt like she was going through a conversation between a team of Armsmasters.

No wonder some of them got attached to their hosts so quickly.

She did know that a lot of shards had a  semblance of personality even  before reaching Earth so maybe this group were just a bunch of  outliners…hopefully.

In any case, it was also how She learned that QA was apparently the  shard equivalent of a chatterbox, and that the emotions she conveyed  through her messages were far more defined and descriptive than anything  Evelyn’s records had a reference for.

She needed to reply quickly though, and as for identification, she  decided to compile and send a lot of the identification data she had  left over from Eden’s administrator [Identification. Thinker-Super-weapon 07]

Queen administrator’s face seemed confused for a moment, and she also  displayed a degree of wariness that she herself seemed to be surprised  by. [Query. Anomalous activation. Anomalous behavior.] she asked.

It was surprising, and it brought forth a few details she remembered while reading Worm.  At the end of it all, there was little difference between the host and  the shard. Contessa couldn’t tell if Taylor’s actions were her own, if  they were heroic or monstrous or if they were ‘done at the behest of an  alien intelligence.’
Taylor didn’t either, with how far her mind had deteriorated by that point.
One thing Evelyn was sure neither had foreseen was how human Queen Administrator appeared to her right now.
This capacity for empathy, this readiness for action underlined by  paranoia. This sense of morality. It seemed even more out of place  coming from something so obviously alien.
Taylor wasn’t the only one affected by this ‘breaking down of  boundaries’ it seems, and for all that her mind was contaminated by  something other, the link went both ways.

Evelyn felt like she was staring at Taylor as much as she was at Queen Administrator.

Evelyn knew it was coming but she still had doubts on how she should reply to this line of questioning.
If she was anything like the Taylor she knew of, then her paranoia would  make it literally impossible to lie to her, it was also not going to be  easy to misdirect her either.
Evelyn’s plan was to drown her with info, with context that made sense differently when presented differently,  A few holes in an explanation in case she looked at it from different  lines of thought, which was something QA might actually do considering  easy it was for her with her multitasking capabilities, and then string  together a narrative that was true in the technical sense but false  because it did not account for an ‘out of context problem’.

‘The Isekai option’ simply wasn’t something that an Entity would foresee. Not even in the most unlikeliest of scenarios.
The parahumans wouldn’t have much context for it either considering that  the genre never had the opportunity to take off properly in Earth Bet  and its parallels at this point in time.

For all that parallel worlds were now a thing, it lost much of its 'romance' early in the game.

[Anomalous Activation. Central Intelligence derived from Host species  Whole Brain Emulation.] Evelyn replied, setting up for a very specific  line of inquiry.

If Queen Administrator was confused before, she seemed positively dumbfounded right now.

[Query : Directive?] ‘What is your purpose?’ She asked.

[Directives : Grant Wishes/Actualise Fantasies. Self Preservation.  Secondary Directive : Preservation of Human Race] Evelyn replied, before  praying. ‘Please take the bait, take the bait, take the bait-’

QA seemed even more confused now, if that was even possible. And  finally, she asked the question Evelyn was waiting for. There was a  chance that she would have focused on something else, or have simply  taken it in stride. She might have even done something completely  unpredictable entirely.
Luckily, it seemed that her gamble paid off. She was curious now.

[Query : Self Preservation. Query : Secondary Directive.]

YES! Now, all she needed was to ready a narrative.
Both QA and Taylor were smart enough to know that setting up a narrative like this meant she had something to hide.
Evelyn had no doubts about her inability to outsmart a paranoid warlord linked to a shard that Scion considered ‘strategically and tactically advanced’.
However, the goal was never to outsmart them. Rather, it was to confuse them as to what exactly she was ‘hiding’.

Though, she would have to take care to present her goals as transparently as possible.

Evelyn had a very specific problem that required a very specific solution.

See, after realizing that an Endbringer was essentially just a glorified  shard that was crippled into a role, one of the first things that  entered her mind was if it was possible to assimilate other shards for  their data and powers. There were a lot of dead shards just lying around, so… was it so wrong that she wanted to ‘eat’ them to feel a bit safer and more confident?

Her hopes were dashed when she realized that she didn't have the proper  tools or mechanisms to assimilate other shards like that, nor did she  have the [Authority] to form a closed network without said shards  shrugging her off or retaliating in some fashion. Even the 'dead' ones  had defenses in place preventing 'just anyone' from walking away with  their 'hard earned' data.

Actually assimilating other shards into herself was also more of a bad idea than she initially imagined as well.
At least, it was a bad idea for a ‘shard’ as ‘young’ as she was.
Assimilating shards with more experience and mass than the recipient,  would usually result with the ‘mind’ of the older, larger shard  overwhelming the younger one with the sheer density of their knowledge  alone.
For all that the shards had little in terms of personality and ego when  compared to a human, it was simply a risk Evelyn couldn’t afford to  take.
She was ‘reborn’ as an Endbringer. Not a Shard, or an Entity, but an Endbringer.
There were differences in what each of those constituted and what she  was planning on most certainly went beyond any protections the CYOA had  in place when inserting her here.
The chance of her ‘human’ psyche suffering a ‘data corruption’ was simply too high.

Evelyn couldn’t afford to take that risk.

As for working with dead shards? You’d think it would be easier working  with ‘raw materials’ but on the contrary, it was harder because she  would have to identify and assimilate all the parts individually after  thoroughly isolating and studying them in order to not accidentally  destroy important bits.
Living shards after a certain point actually facilitate joining each  other so they could attempt to fight a 'mental battle' and become the  ‘central intelligence’.

Unlike popular misconceptions, being a transcendent, natural AI didn't automatically make her good at anything.
Unless she had the right 'program' for it, or had the relevant data  within reach, she would be as ignorant of things as anyone else.
Admittedly, it was hard to remain ignorant with the scanning systems she had access to but the point remained.

For example, the only reason Evelyn was able to 'construct' things with  her ability to manipulate dimensions, was because she had an extensive  library of data of how to 'create' things and an additionally vast  supplementary cache on how to ensure 'structural integrity' and  'stability' in the things she did build.
If she was forced to put a name to it, she would call herself a minor architect-thinker/tinker, or an engineer. One that worked on bullshit physics and could build nearly anything and have it actually be functional, yes, but an engineer nonetheless.

Can't have the stuff an Endbringer builds have the consistency of a wet noodle, now can we?

It was like that for a vast majority of things.
If she only had 'data' on how to be a 'maid', that would have been the only thing she was effectively good at.
Thankfully she was hyper efficient at learning and analyzing things but  even then, leveraging any sort of data to work the way she wanted would  still take centuries or even millennia of hard work or stress testing it  through conflict.

The only other realistic option available to her was to form a new  network with other shard and become a pseudo-Entity with herself at the  head.
Ironically, this was also the ‘easiest’ option, in a certain sense of the term.
As it was right now, she didn't have the means to pursue this option either.

Yet.

She simply lacked the Authority, experience and power to make others follow her.
The only other way to manage the other shards without them messing with her was to conscript the aid of an Administrator.

Thankfully, she knew of a functioning Administrator that was most likely to play ball.
After all, [Queen Administrator] at this point in time was nearly as  human as Evelyn was, having been cross contaminated with Taylor’s mind.
There wasn't much difference between her and her host at this point in time, meaning that meant she was human enough to be grateful, especially if she helped her out at this juncture.
She was the one shard who would be the most willing to entertain a 'Trade'.

Evelyn was fine with that. She could overlook a lot of the finer details  if she had access to the relevant abilities, and she had a lot of ‘things’ she could trade with, things that QA would just love to have.

‘Let’s see, Start with the files on the limitations in an Entity’s  sensory capabilities, add ‘the theory of the infinite multiverse’,  mention the involvement of an ‘Anomalous extra dimensional being’, a  wiki page on the Infinite Monkey Typewriter Theorem, records of a  published work of fiction from an alternate world called Worm  (which for all that it looked like a precognitive vision, had details  that were impossible to acquire even for a shard, like Scion’s  interlude) Add a smattering of random ‘seemingly fictional’ works  depicting other worlds, works of fiction that didn’t exist on Earth bet,  all of which being franchises that involved a multiverse of their own.  Mention ‘Plato’s theory of forms’ to hint about the Pocket Dimension’s  capabilities, Compile a few records of the anomalous increase in potency  of my ‘Dimensional Breach engine’. Show her some of the readings I took  when she tried to scan my Domain… and broadcast all of it as an  encrypted [Data] packet keyed to Queenie’s ID. Oh, and let’s not forget  to mention that I had complete administrative authority over dimension.  Don’t want her to get ideas.'
For all that Taylor was a hero at heart, she wasn’t familiar enough with  Ol' 'Queenie’ to know how she’ll react. Yeah let’s go with that’ She  decided.

[Data] She sent.

Queen Administrator Visibly recoiled, broadcasting a wave of [Surprise] everywhere even as her avatar stumbled.

As the minutes passed, QA’a face flashed with many emotions, stark and  raw in her face. She grew more agitated, more conflicted. There was a  flash of indignation there- ah she must have found ‘Worm’. Then her  mouth was agape, the shock and disbelief obvious for the world to see.

Evelyn waited a few minutes for QA to calm down, the broadcast she sent  back was a simple thing, but it nearly drowned her in its intensity.

[Excitement]

She bought it. Perfect. Evelyn smiled.

-x-​Shortly after, Evelyn sent a series of broadcasts to get QA up to speed on what she wanted and what she was trying to do.

[Proposal : Joint study of Negentropic Phenomenon]

[Proposal : New entity configuration]

[Observation : current Cycle obsolete. Proposal : New Cycle structure]

[Priority : Preservation of Earth]

[Proposal : Exploration of distant parallels outside of isolated range]

After that, occurred the most intense and bizarre negotiations Evelyn  had ever had the displeasure of conducting. She was also fairly certain  that she got swindled seven ways to Sunday, but Evelyn got what she  wanted, roughly, and that was enough. It would take a long time to  prepare before they could even set their plans into motion, but they had  come to an agreement.

It was a start, and Evelyn could build on that.

[Query : Duration] She asked. She needed to know how long it would take.  As she did so, Evelyn detached a small wing from her back and undid the  spatial folding, expanding it into a massive crystalline form. It was  mainly so that QA could observe her [Domain] through a ‘portal’ with a  larger surface area.

QA's massive form hunched over it, looking for all intents and purposes  like a fuzzy spider, poking and prodding at the fragment while she  curled around it, with all the possessive intensity of a 'Gollum' with  ‘the one ring’ in hand. Queenie, as Evelyn decided to call the  Administrator in her head, was as excited as a kid on a sugar-rush. She  sent back a [Data] package without thinking much of it.

Evelyn stared. “Is this what owning a pet tarantula feels like? I’m conflicted. On one hand, that’s adorable. On the other, holy fuck that is terrifying.

Evelyn took one look at the [Data] and winced. Apparently, it would take  quite a few years for Queenie to browbeat the other Shards into  submission and negotiate with some of the stronger ones to win their  cooperation. Thankfully, she could set up a framework in a few month’s  time so they could start her ‘recruitment’. Evelyn sighed when she  realized that the optimal method of 'negotiation' was [conflict].

“Of course it is. What else did I expect? Join the dark side, we have cookies?” She paused.
“Great. Now I’m thinking about the benefits of bribing eldritch supercomputers with infinite cookies.

Evelyn sighed as she stretched, and looked around.

“I wonder what’s-”

The ‘spider’ froze. Queen administrator started to visibly grow agitated  at something. As Evelyn stared at her face, she could see some concern  and for the first time, genuine fear. The shard started to panic,  hunching down, cooing and making reassuring noises at seemingly empty  air.
Then she started whispering something and started sending broadcasts of varying strengths and intensity at - was that Earth?
There was a worry there, a gnawing desperation that seemed to only grow worse with every passing moment.

[Query] She asked. ‘What's wrong?’

QA froze for a moment, then spun around to face her.

[Clarification : Directive] She asked. Evelyn had a vague idea where this was going to go.

[Directives : Grant Wishes/Actualise Fantasies. Self Preservation.  Secondary Directive : Preservation of Human Race] She replied.

Queen Administrator seemed to come to a decision. With a solemn face, the avatar nodded and stared off into the distance.
Eventually, as a grimace seemed to work it's way into her face, she sent a message to her.

[Request] Evelyn received the message with trepidation. Upon going through it one more time, she sighed.

"So, it's finally happening, huh. You do know how it ended for Taylor in the story right?"

Queen Administrator frowned. " I kn-Know"

Evelyn nearly fell over in surprise, not expecting her 'ally' to  actually reply, and in English no less, however stilted and shaky it may  be.

"But that- that [Conclusion]- ending is too ambiguous. Too dan-dang- hazardous. Risky. Need help. Save Taylor. Want Tay-Tayl- Host happy. But. But I also want to cont-res- remain as passenger." Evelyn understood the gist of it.
As much as Queen Administrator wanted Taylor to find a semblance of  peace and happiness, she didn’t want to be separated from her either.

"How can I possibly say no to that?" Evelyn sighed.

Queen Administrator smiled, and Evelyn couldn't help but notice how  fragile it was. 'you really do care for her, don't you.' she thought.

Could Evelyn save her though? Fix her?

She wasn't lying about her directive to [Grant Wishes/Actualise  Fantasies]. Evelyn was annoyed with that, but she could actually choose  whose 'wish' she wanted to grant, and pick how to go about fulfilling  it. Like the other Endbringers she too had a directive she couldn't  avoid but thankfully it was vague and had enough room for error for her  to get away with a lot of things but unfortunately the more potent  options were locked behind rather… lewd methods.

One of her 'easier' ways of going about it would be through using her  own variation of the infamous 'Path to Victory', one she had privately  dubbed as the 'The path to Lewds' in her head. It was ridiculously  overpowered, and most likely rivaled the 'OG' path to victory in  potency… Only, most of it was built around the sexual patterns, habits,  mating behaviors and the social and physical calculations of uncountable  alien and humanoid civilizations… including humanity as a whole,  something that was still in the process of being recorded.
Her reality bending ability to apply 'Hentai physics' only made it  worse. Thankfully the 'Wish granting' ability was similar enough that  she could use the data acquired from the 'PtL' to work around the 'lewd'  aspects of it but only for the things that weren't too difficult.

It was at this point that Evelyn realized that a single whimsical night  of being horny was going to haunt her for the rest of her (probably?)  Immortal existence.

"Fuck- wait no, UGH."

The wish granting was surprisingly removed from her other powers and was  actually more psychic than anything else. Rather than precognition, it  worked by creating a sort of psychic echolocation, and then spending the  necessary energy to either set dominoes in motion, either physically or  by planting mental suggestions in every sentient entity on the planet to ensure that an event occurred.
And while she had a lot of leeway on how direct or powerful the result  could be, it was a bit limited by her energy output and it wasn't  capable of outright miracles. Though… the things she was able to  do with sufficient energy and her range of abilities was surprisingly  vast. It was also bolstered by her 'path to lewds' because of course it was.

It was also interesting to note the differences between them. While  'PTL' was a 'precognitive' power, the 'wish granting' was a shaker  effect, one that was oddly similar to what the Simurgh was initially  suspected of doing with her 'scream' before it was found out that what  she did was mostly through precognition.

Queen Administrator stared at her intently.

'Can you save my host?' was the silent question.

Evelyn gave a nod. One way or another, she will do it, Evelyn decided.  Taylor didn't deserve the hand she got. Not after everything she had  scarified, after what she had done.

QA smiled. Genuine.

Though she did wonder, 'How did you put so much emotion in that  simple action? How are you more human than someone who spent twenty-one  years as one? Or is it precisely because of your unfamiliarity with it  that you are able to be so genuine?'

[Agreement]

[Gratitude]

A spider started to weave a web once more

[Destination]

And a falling star hurtled towards a lonely blue planet.

[Agreement]


-x-​

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