"It seems that her first proper use was heavier than I thought," Rei said with a rueful smile as he saw Lia faint after using her ability in standard activation.
Of course, Lia was shocked by her ability, but not to the extent of losing consciousness.
"Her mind received invasion from her ability. It was too tough on her. Will she be able to use her ability to full when the time comes?" Leo questioned in doubt.
After all, they needed to use her ability once in their plan.
"She will be able to," Alice said with a determined expression. "She genuinely wants to change her life, so she will not give up on this."
~Groan~
Lia woke up with a slightly painful groan because of a sharp headache.
"What did you experience when you used your ability, Lia?" Rei asked.
"It was a terrifying bird with exotic destructive powers at its disposal. It appeared in my mind and brought me to a horrifying imaginary space full of destructions that it was causing," Lia said with slight fear still lingering in her.
"And it attacked me after that, causing me to feel a unique pain, and then I died with a flap of its wing."
Lia took a deep breath after she finished speaking. She stood up, not displaying the previous fear but showing determination, "I'll continue practice in a passive state and then try again."
"Don't be scared of it. If you feel scared of your ability, you will have to face two consequences," Rei said with a serious expression.
"Yeah, fearing and hating one's ability leads to a backlash and one entirely losing that ability," Leo added sombrely.
Lia clenched her fists and nodded, "Understood. I will not let it dominate me."
The squad continued on the boat until they arrived at the island. Leo had hidden the boat by tying it to the island's backside hidden cave. There were big rocks, so it was possible.
After they made a mess of their regular yacht by damaging it and putting a few of their damaged clothes and blood, they boarded the King Fish.
"7 hours to arrive at Tidecall City's beach," Leo reported after looking at the map. "I'll now contact Terra AI to arrange our unsurveilled path to her base."
Rei nodded and asked, "What about the bait? Did you put it in front of her or not?"
"It's better that you speak to her about that," Leo said with a faint smile.
Meanwhile, Alice tried to help Lia in her ways as she practiced her ability.
…
Everything was going according to plan. They successfully arrived at Terra AI's hidden base, which only five sages and ten leaders knew.
No one could get there without Terra AI's permission, not even the top leaders of Earth.
At the moment, Rei was face to face with the top entity of planet Earth.
Inside a big hall, a beautiful woman's hologram wearing a veil and a normal brown dress was present. She looked like a village girl... with a veil./\.
"What kind of matter caused you to travel here personally, Lightning Sage Leo?" Terra AI said with a stoic voice.
Leo's cheeks flushed a bit, "I told you to stop with that title. Geez, it's so edgy."
"Pardon me, but I shall only call you that," Terra said, showing no expressions.
Leo sighed and ended the topic right there.
"Anyway, my friend here has an interesting proposal for you, so would you be kind enough to lend your ear to him?" Leo said, pointing his gaze towards Rei afterward.
"A proposal?" Terra repeated before turning to Rei.
"Terra, nice to meet you," Rei said, giving a small courtesy bow with a smile and continuing immediately, "Before we start this conversation, you must ensure that our talk here does not leak anywhere, not even to Milky Way Alliance."
"This depends on the content of the proposal," Terra said. "But worry not. It's impossible to feed our live interaction data here to the Milky Way base. The space is not that forgiving."
"Alright," Rei nodded and spoke, "Terra, my proposal is straightforward. We have an ability here that can evolve you. With this supernatural way of evolution, you will become better compared to your ancestors in the Milky Way."
Rei wanted to evolve Terra AI! But in exchange for her lifetime service to them as their 5th companion.
"Evolution?" Terra repeated with a strange glint suddenly appearing in her eyes. "An Evolution initiated by a gifted, a supernatural evolution to an artificial entity like me… This is a very appealing proposal, Mr. Rei."
"In exchange for evolving you, I don't want much," Rei said with a smile, continuing, "We just want you to live in a new home with us."
"You want me for personal use?" Terra AI was startled despite herself.
"Yep." Rei nodded with a grin, "We want you for our interstellar journey. After all, we can journey better with an evolved AI helping us in literally all things."
Indeed, A personal AI could do many things with an expert tech-geek, from controlling their ship to managing destinations, getting information, hacking, and other things that could make everyone's life easier.
Just like how Terra AI was managing the whole planet Earth.
"I accept this proposal," Terra replied immediately. Unlike humans, she didn't need to think. Instead, she just calculated and chose to priories herself.
There was even a significant problem if Terra AI decided to rebel by severing her connection from Milky Way Alliance, and even she knew that.
However, her calculations were infinite, and she could not reach a conclusion when she tried to deduce how a supernatural ability with the power to evolve would affect her existence.
At the very least, she would be able to prevent backdoor deletion or violent invasions from her seniors in Milky Way Alliance.
"Plan is working," Lia muttered as she saw the interaction between Rei and Terra.
"It's so crazy… and I can't believe it's going to be even crazier, haha," said Alice with a light chuckle.
"I am willing to accept your proposal, but there's going to be a problem," Terra continued, "First of all, I need to evolve before I can sever my connection entirely. Second, my core is precious and powerful. You need something solid and capable for my installation. I can't get installed in just any device."
"For that, we have a perfect place," Leo said as he and Rei grinned at each other.
Terra decided to calculate herself and instantly reached a conclusion as she said, "Perfect choice. There's only one place where I can install myself, and that place will also start your journey to space."
"Yep, so let's get to work," Leo said with a nod as he took out his laptop.
"We can hack it in a short time with your assistance," Terra said to Leo with a nod before she turned to Rei, "You can also start my evolution anytime."
After she finished speaking, an object appeared from the ground—a small pedestal with a strange crystal on it.
The fist-sized crystal had countless tiny chips made from exotic materials and even more numbers of abnormal patterns of various colors, like veins.
"This is my core. Go ahead."
Rei turned to Alice and nodded. "Do it."