After Rei returned to his mansion, he checked on Alice and saw that she was still sleeping soundly.
Since Alice wore his t-shirt, her limbs were exposed, which were the worst parts of her body.
But Rei had made sure to make Alice feel free and unbothered by her scars on their way home.
"They will heal soon, Alice."
Rei softly muttered before gently caressing her head once and then leaving her room. But as he left, his lips moved once again in a slight mutter.
At that time, his eyes contained a brilliant gleam in each with a faint smile.
And his words…
'For you are the Queen of Evolution.'
…
At 7:00 AM, Alice opened her eyes feeling wonderful, and… refreshed, fulfilled, not tired, not feeling pain anywhere, not hurting inside, and… No lingering despair.
Her clear eyes started filling with tears of all her grievances and feeling of salvation.
"I can live…." Alice mumbled as tears freely flowed down her white, rosy cheeks.
A mysterious light red aura having deep blue digitize-like sparks started spreading from her before it enveloped her.
Immediately, she felt pleasurable itches on her limbs where those sick couple tortured her.
"This…." Alice quickly looked at her arms and saw that her scars were healing before her eyes!
All internal injuries and residual damage were magically healing that not even that capsule could cure.
Moreover, she started feeling stronger.
"Did I get physical-class enhancement ability?"
Alice knew there were so many kinds of abilities, but the most popular ones were physical-class. After all, they were strong and flashy.
Some people were even impervious to normal bullets and metal weapons. Some could turn into copper, some could coat themselves in steel. Some could transform their limbs into metal objects and such.
But a simple general science and chemical could melt their bodies as well, so those having elemental abilities were also popular.
After Alice was fully healed, some information appeared in her mind, and she quickly left her room with a happy smile.
"Rei!"
She shouted excitedly and ran to the hall where Rei watched the news while drinking tea.
Hearing her shout, Rei turned to see Alice and was surprised to see her like that.
As Alice approached Rei, he had already stood up and was waiting for her…waiting for her hug. At least, that's what he expected after seeing her expression. It was a truly happy face filled with the unadulterated joy of simply having to live freely, beautifully, and powerfully.
Alas, though he knew her ability's name, he didn't know how it would affect her. After all, he could only see one's ability's name and not their effect in detail.
For that, he had to deduct it himself from the name.
So, when Alice arrived in front of him and went for a hug due to purely her instincts, an unfortunate thing happened.
~Smash!~
Alice arrived and spread her hands, but… her head hit Rei first as she was going for a hug, which went terribly because Rei was flung as if a truck had hit him.
~Clankle, Crack, Thk…~
A few vases broke before he smashed into a small cupboard of tea sets.
"Ouch…"
"No…I..." Alice was shocked; she knew her body got strong and was controlling it, but somehow that control was lost as she touched Rei.
"Rei, I… I didn't mean it."
"Haha, relax. I know you didn't do that on purpose," Rei said with a wry smile and stood up. "I was also relaxed since I didn't expect you suddenly get such a level of raw physical strength. In terms of physical power, you are at the same level as someone with S-grade physical enhancement, haha."
Arriving before her, he patted her head and smiled, "Queen of Evolution."
"Mhm," Alice nodded excitedly, knowing that her life was now changed!
From being a dried fish waiting to die, she became a phoenix!
Ignore the slightly weird analogy, ahem.
"Alright, you wouldn't have gotten much information on your ability, like its capacity. So let's test it first."
"I want to know the initial impact first," Rei continued before he went to a table near the couch and picked up a pen before giving it to Alice.
"Use your ability on it."
Alice nodded and took the pen before using her ability on it.
A deep blue digitized spark appeared. It strangely seeped inside the pen from its surface before something magical happened.
The pen started transforming as it broke into uncountable tiny black boxes with mysterious dark red patterns before rapidly joining as a brand new pen. It looked like a fancy metallic black pen with cyberpunk-style red patterns.
Rei was surprised by it, but he expected a transformation. However, Alice also got full information on the function of this evolved pen.
"This pen evolved into a laser pen. Apparently, its name is Red Rex."
The moment Alice muttered the pen's name, another mystical thing happened.
~spoof~
The pen turned into a card!
"Woah."
Rei was slightly startled to see a sudden spoof of small and light white smoke that covered the pen before revealing a black card with a dark-red pattern border.
On the card was a life-like picture of the Red Rex laser pen!
"Interesting."
Rei picked up the card from Alice's hand and read it.
——
Name: Red Rex
-> Laser Pierce Power: one-meter thick steel in an instant before slowing.
-> Energy: [50/50] ( Recovery 1 per minute )
-> Consumption: 1 per second upon activation.
-> Range: 60 meters.
——
Rei pointed the laser at an artistic metal vase and pressed the button.
~Zap… Chissss~
The laser instantly pierced the vase before it continued and even pierced the mansion's wall before going outside.
However, it stopped perfectly after extending 60 meters!
"You can easily cut people without any defense with this laser," Rei muttered with a speechless expression.
"It's deadly. If a psycho got this and started using it on normal pedestrians…."
"It's dangerous." Alice nodded.
"How to turn it back into a card?" Rei asked as he handed the pen back to Alice.
"I think only I can do that." Alice took the pen. She willed her power, and the pen turned into a card.
"So you have to touch it personally. Alright, next. Evolve this one," Rei said with a grin as he handed another exact pen to Alice.
"Why the same pen again?" Alice asked with confusion.
Rei gave her the exact copy of the previous pen and had more of those, but there was a reason why he gave her the same pen.
"What did you think when you used your ability on the first pen?" Rei questioned, already having thought of ways to test her ability.
"Nothing," Alice said while shaking her head.
"Then this time, think," Rei said before explaining. "Let's see, think of the pen turning into a mini time bomb upon pushing the button."
"Ah, and image a tiny explosion, not big." However, Rei wasn't even sure if the pen would evolve as Alice intended.
"Alright," Alice nodded with a serious expression and went on to finish the task.
She did her best to imagine what Rei had explained to her. The same phenomena of aura appeared again before infusing into the pen. The pen transformed into a dark green metallic pen with black patterns and stripes.
"Oh… It worked!" Alice was amazed.
"Name?" Rei asked, a hint of excitement appearing in his eyes.
"Pff…" Alice couldn't help but chuckle after checking the pen's name. "It's a funny name. Tiny Blow."
~Spoof~
The same thing happened as Alice uttered the name. Smoke appeared, and the pen turned into a card.
——
Name: Tiny Blow
-> One-time use.
-> Power: 100 degree°c explosions in a perfect one-meter square radius.
——
Rei then held both upper ends of the card and tried to tear it.
~Crrrrr!~
The moment card was torn a bit, it rapidly dissolved into motes and vanished.
"Gone so fast?" Rei was startled. "These cards are fragile, alright."
Alice frowned a bit. She didn't like that the cards were this fragile.
Seeing her expression, Rei chuckled and rubbed her head, "Chill. Your ability is already powerful as it is."
Alice's cheeks turned a bit pink.
"Now, next evolution," Rei continued as he gave Alice another exact copy of the pen.
"Another?" Alice was taken aback.
"Yeah, let's step up the game a bit and see the limit of your ability," Rei said with a broad grin.