Chapter 1

The 30th century is not the future that the optimists of the 20th century dreamed of with hope and longed for.

There are no colonies on thousands of exoplanets in the Milky Way, nor a utopia of universal peace filled with people immortalized by nanotechnology or perfect virtual realities.

What exists is an Earth that—after the opening of the Lemegeton Gate a thousand years ago by reckless sorcerers and corporations—was forced to share its space with what was once considered impossible.

Reality became malleable with the public revelation of witchcraft, once myths supposedly disproven by science, and the Kyōkai; a twisted reality used as a basis for supernatural beings, was born as a consequence.

The previously scarce Aether in the atmosphere thickened rapidly after the disaster, and after centuries of chaos, the planet's geopolitics were redrawn by the will of entities that previously only existed in myths.

New races were born and ancient ones revealed themselves after the period of chaos that lasted for centuries before global stabilization...

These days, it was common to hear in the news about a wild Wyrven from the Elven Realm flying over the Atlantic or about the birth of a new Gate/Singularity created by Demons of the Eternal Night or a mischievous Fairy in a nearby neighborhood.

It was the new normal after a thousand years since the initial magical chaos.

In this setting of technology and sorcery; where even Elves and Dwarves have appeared, the Empire of Nipon stands as a bastion of harmony between nature and technology, and its most precious jewel is its land: the Floating Island of Sakura.

Seen from afar, Sakura—which is actually the ancient Japanese archipelago merged into a huge artificial island-continent sustained by a network of gravitational engines—was the perfect fusion of technology, nature, and spirituality.

And Kaminagi, one of its districts, was a forest-city where skyscrapers are wrapped in bioluminescent vines, where some communities were like distant villages separated by considerable distances, and where sandalwood temples housed numerous worshippers chanting prayers.

In a secluded corner of this district, where the noise of magnetic bicycles is replaced by the whisper of cherry blossoms, lies the residence of Emma's family, the Futsu.

The morning at Emma's grandparents' house always began with the same ritual: the rhythmic sound of a bamboo broom sweeping the patio and the aroma of miso boiling in the kitchen.

Emma woke up—not to the sound of a deafening alarm clock, nor to the faint sunlight filtering through the shoji paper and bathing her face—but to the sensation of a speck of dust dancing on her nose.

She slowly opened her eyes with golden irises and looked at the wooden ceiling of her room.

For a few seconds, he remained motionless, listening to the distant murmur of the island. To anyone else, he was simply a young man with an absurd physical talent and a questionable taste in antiques. But in the silence of her mind, Emma knew the truth.

"Another beautiful day in this game world full of classic fantasy races, dungeons, and gods," he thought, sitting up with a yawn.

Emma was a reincarnated one...or perhaps a transmigrant, I had no idea to be honest.

He didn't remember exactly how he died in his previous life, or if he even did; he only remembered the glow of LED screens, the smell of instant ramen from a convenience store, and the feeling that the world was a mess because of the destruction of his guild in Wars of Atlantis, a popular game at the time.

And so, he was reborn into that world.

A world where nations are presented as Factions that influence an Academy of Magic and Sword, where students (players) create guilds to fight each other in simulated wars or conquer dungeons, and where there is no fixed story in progress, only random events to keep the player's attention and female characters of incredible proportions and excessive beauty.

He was born into this game world—which is supposed to be in the future—with the consciousness of a 21st-century man, which explained why, while other children played with magical drones, he sought nothing more than to buy scraps of what he called "Classic Artifacts" when he had time.

Emma stood up and walked toward her bookshelf, which took up three of the four walls of her room. It was her most sacred treasure.

In a world where, according to the game's story, the past she knew was destroyed by the chaos of Lemegeton, objects from the "Old World" were archaeological rarities. But for Emma, ​​they were pieces of her soul, regardless of whether they were exactly the same as in the original world or not.

There, protected by static fields to prevent dust from damaging them, lay faded plastic action figures whose names history had forgotten: warriors with spiky hair, transforming robots, and magical heroines with short skirts.

He had posters restored with alchemical resin of series that nobody could watch anymore, and a collection of DVDs that he treated with more care than a priest treated the relics of the Church of Westphalia.

To the residents of Sakura, Emma was a buyer and collector of historical junk. For him, those objects were his anchor to the past.

In a world where gods existed and where Demons and Ghosts were a real Tuesday afternoon threat, reading a 2020 manga volume was the only thing that reminded him that he was still "him," albeit with a very different name and appearance.

I take one of the slightly yellowed figures—which depicted a beautiful young woman with blue hair in pigtails and exaggeratedly large eyes—with an affection and fervor that some might mistake for fanaticism.

He murmured in an affectionate voice that made him look like a madman, "Good morning, Miku-chan. Even today, you're beautiful."

-Emma, ​​if you keep religiously staring at that piece of plastic 'Hatsune something', breakfast is going to turn into a living organism - her grandfather Goro's voice boomed from the hallway, startling her and almost making her drop her Miku.

"I'm coming!" Emma replied quickly while cursing under her breath, gently putting Miku back in her place.

Then she dressed in a simple black T-shirt and gray linen trousers. She didn't need fancy clothes; her well-proportioned and attractive body was, in a way, her true attire.

Looking in the mirror, he saw a seventeen-year-old with a look that sometimes seemed to have an age that did not correspond to his body.

His golden eyes, his unique hallmark after his successful Ascension to level 90, shone with an intensity that he tried to extinguish by relaxing his eyelids.

This was his current appearance, which was simply too similar to the temporary Explorer he had worked so hard to raise, only for him to die and be deleted by the game system before he could make him a permanent NPC.

It was strange how he ended up becoming this guy...but that's how things were. He had no intention of dying again; that's what he trained so hard for.

Emma slowly slid the door open and left the room, and the smell of miso soup and grilled fish hit him immediately.

The traditionally designed wooden hallway creaked under his feet, a sound his grandfather had never wanted to fix because he said that "a warrior must know when his house speaks to him."

In the dining room, the food at the chabudai was served with military precision. Her grandfather, a man who looked as if he had been carved from a mountain rock, sat on the floor with his back straight, reading a holographic newspaper.

He didn't look up when Emma came in, but the air in the room became noticeably heavier.

"You're three minutes late," said the old man. His voice was like the clash of two tectonic stones. "Your sense of time is as poor as your left guard was during yesterday's exchange."

Emma sat down, crossing her legs, and picked up the chopsticks.

"Grandpa is always so optimistic in the morning," Emma replied playfully, though she didn't dare start eating until Grandma appeared with the tea.

Emma's nanny entered with silent steps. She was a woman of a beauty that some would say defied human logic. Her hair was like threads of golden silk that shimmered faintly in the light.

He placed the teapot on the table and looked at Emma with a tenderness that concealed a dangerous intelligence.

"Stop pressuring the boy, Goro-chan," she said, sitting down. "Emma-chan did a good job yesterday in the Valley of Cursed Ashes. The Abyssal Monarch she defeated wasn't just any demonic beast. It will take the Solomon Union at least three months of confusing investigation to even vaguely understand what happened."

"He won by brute force," Grandpa Goro grumbled. "If he'd used the force-filtering technique I taught him last month, he wouldn't have had to take the full force of that final blast. Now his clothes are in tatters. He's a waste of fabric."

Emma ate in silence, used to these reprimands. His grandfather and his nanny were an enigma he had decided not to try to solve for his own sanity. He knew they weren't normal people, even though they didn't appear in the game. (Which was normal; it was a student and teacher environment.)

In this world, where strength was measured by ranks and licenses, the three lived outside of all records; something abnormal that was better not to question.

"By the way, Emma-chan," Aoi said, changing the subject, "Keiko-chan says she wants to go to the Heisei Festival after she finishes her morning prayers. She had a rough night. The island barrier has been dealing with the singularity formation denial and the resulting miasma... she's exhausted."

Emma stopped chewing, frowning. Kimiyo Keiko's situation was always the weak point of her patience.

Due to her magical energy trait, Keiko was considered the most talented Miko of the Crystal Sanctuary, being known by the population as "Hime-Miko" for her enormous spiritual power and exceptional skills in Theurgy; although that's a rather cool nickname for what the government clearly considers one of its cheap purification terminals.

If Keiko and the other three Mikos did not perform their daily rituals, the island's ether would become chaotic due to the accumulated miasma of unmanifested singularities, causing the spiritual contamination of the Kami.

This results in the plants soon wilting and the jade crystal-based technology beginning to fail.

It was a heavy burden for a sixteen-year-old girl, one that she accepted with a serene smile that broke Emma's heart.

Although what she and the others were doing could be solved with technology, it was extremely expensive and inefficient—not to mention anything traditional—so the state chose the cheapest option that fit the religious desires of the citizens of Japan and the tastes of the Kami.

"Does the Shogun Council of the Nine Families still force you to double your purification shifts compared to your companions?" Emma asked, her voice slightly cold.

“It’s the price of national stability, Emma,” Grandpa Goro replied, finally closing his newspaper. “She’s a tool for them and the imperial family… That’s why your departure for Academy City in Atlantis isn’t a vacation. The Council has allowed her to go because they believe that in Academy City she’ll be able to ‘attune’ to the Radiant Crystal and thus obtain a unique artifact. They want to transform her into a more powerful Miko by the time she returns…”

Emma squeezed the chopsticks until the wood creaked. She knew the risks of doing that, and she didn't like it at all.

The Radiant Crystal, divine item or not, was too risky.

"I'm not going to let them use her like that, not even for her father."

"Then make sure you and your future guild are strong enough that no one can ask your permission, even if they want to impose a specific destiny on their own princess," the grandfather declared. "And speaking of Atlantis... remember, you won't be going alone with her. The little cat is joining the journey as well. Her 'awakening'... is an uncontrollable variable in the three of your plans, I understand."

Emma sighed, remembering the chaos.

Kaguya Hanako, her other childhood friend, had just awakened as a cat-type Therian only two days ago; something not particularly rare in this world, though not common in a non-Therian nation like Japan.

But this was not a welcome transformation; Hanako was both a thaumaturge and a level 45 computer genius, and her newfound instincts were clashing violently with her logical brain.

For a genius who had designed her own energy flow diagram in her spiritual circuits to make Thaumaturgy more logical, it was irritating.

"Hanako sent me a message last night," Emma said, regaining her composure. "She says that if anyone tries to put a Bell on her again 'for aesthetic reasons,' she'll hack into the Neo Tokyo Lord's office's intelligent support system to cause chaos...talk about threatening cyberterrorism..."

Aoi let out a small laugh.

"That girl's got a temper. Emma-chan, after you eat, go to the shrine. Keiko-chan needs to see you. The calm your presence brings is the only thing that truly helps her rest."

Emma nodded. She finished her breakfast quickly, got up, and went to her room to pick up a small gift she had been preparing for Keiko.

It was an old music player that he had managed to repair with scrap parts that he bought for more than ten thousand sakuras, loaded with melodies from his previous life.

♦♦♦♦

Kaminagi

That is the name given to the most traditional land on Sakura Island, a place of residence for numerous sacred temples, powerful noble families of the Empire and simple villagers; also being the quiet home of the Futsu Family and their... as their grandfather Goro liked to call it, "territory".

Futsu Emma now walked indifferently along the stone paths of Sakura Island. Around her, life flowed with a normalcy that, deep down, still seemed abnormal to her.

The priests devoutly observed the flow of divine energy between the sacred trees.

Some children dressed in a style reminiscent of the Edo period floated a few meters above the air inside bubbles twice their size, and girls in similar clothing ran around chasing illusory butterflies projected by toys.

In an Edo-style convenience store, a woman was seen leaving, cooling the air around her—a Yokai [Yuki-onna]—carrying groceries as if it were the most normal thing in the world, and you could also see a guy handing out flyers who was actually a biosynthetic android with a real soul.

I could even see what looked like high-level samurai patrolling the area... Normal around here.

It was truly another world.

Upon arriving at the gates of the Crystal Sanctuary, Emma greeted the small priestess who was cleaning with a slight bow and climbed to the top of the sanctuary, passing through several Torii gates that gave the illusion of becoming larger with each one she passed.

There, in the center of the purification pavilion, he saw Keiko.

She was kneeling, dressed in her red and white hakama that couldn't quite hide her two "breast globes," surrounded by crystals floating in the air that absorbed the chaotic ether she drew from the environment while softly and constantly chanting some kind of Shinto sutra, trying to eliminate the miasma to restore harmony with her spiritual power.

Her face was pale, almost translucent, but she looked sacred with the soft white aura that surrounded her.

Emma stopped a few meters away. She didn't want to interrupt the ritual, but her mere presence made the crystals vibrate with light.

Keiko opened her eyes. They were the eyes of someone who had dealt with too much for her age, but upon seeing Emma, ​​the glow that surrounded her body faded.

"You're late, Emma-kun," she said in a weak but sweet and charming voice; the kind that makes you feel very comfortable and even makes you wonder what it would be like to hear her sing.

From his tone he clearly seemed happy to see him and he didn't even try to hide it.

"I know," he replied, gently approaching. "But I've brought something that doesn't need rituals to work."

Saying that, Emma sat on the polished wooden steps of the pavilion, right at the edge of the purification circle.

Keiko let out a long sigh, and the crystals that floated around her slowly descended to rest on their stone pedestals.

The violet glow that denoted the miasma contamination had faded, replaced by a pure white luminescence that emanated against the maiden's own skin.

"You shouldn't push yourself so hard before the trip," Emma said, extending her hand.

Keiko took it. Her fingers were icy cold, a physical consequence of purifying contaminants that disrupt biological life. However, at the touch of Emma's hand, a faint blush returned to her cheeks.

From Emma's body, a subtle but powerful energy began to flow towards her with hardly any resistance, making her body feel warm and comforted.

For Keiko, touching Emma was like stepping out of a dark room into the midday sun. She didn't understand exactly how Emma's spiritual nature worked and how it affected her magical energy, but her ability to ignore the spiritual resistance of others as if it harmonized with their essence was incredible.

More than that, this feeling... It was almost addictive. Keiko almost moaned with pleasure, and not the spiritual kind... but she restrained herself with willpower, responding to her concern without showing anything inappropriate to the one trying to help her.

“You know this is my duty, Emma-kun. If I don’t filter the miasma residue from the spiritual flow, Sakura Island will begin to sink in less than forty-eight hours. As a Miko, it’s my responsibility to maintain the stability of our land,” she replied, letting her head tilt slightly to one side as she shook her body a little, her slender legs hovering anxiously, her voice weak. “Besides, Father…the Emperor and the Shogun Council of Nine are anxious. They’re afraid my soul won’t be able to attune itself to the Radiant Crystal.”

Emma squeezed his hand gently, feeling a pang of anger.

In her previous life, teenagers worried about exams or who they liked; here, Keiko was treated like a piece of machinery that must not stop moving...even by her own family.

Of course, even in her anger, Emma noticed Keiko's current state based on the familiar scent of her body, which her senses easily perceived. He simply chose to let Keiko believe he knew nothing...

"You're not an automatic purifier, Keiko. Don't let even the Emperor convince you otherwise." Emma pulled out the small music player she had repaired. "Here." A small device with songs from a time when singing wasn't a ritual to appease the Kami, but to soothe the soul.

Looking at it tenderly, Keiko took the device as if it were a treasure, even though it was a relic that some might not see as being any worse than being in a museum.

"Thank you... You always bring me things that seem to come from another world," she said with a sad smile, holding his hand tighter. "Sometimes I think you have a way of looking at things that doesn't really fit with our world, after all."

Emma felt a lurch in her heart.

Keiko's intuition was sharp...Perhaps, it was to be expected from a shrine maiden with spiritual senses heightened by the blessing of the gods and her high innate spiritual power.

"What are you saying about a guy who just reads too many old manga?" he replied matter-of-factly. "Speaking of strange things... Have you talked to Hanako today?"

Keiko let out a small laugh, her first genuine laugh of the morning, while still holding his hand.

-I spoke to her through the holoarcane about ten hours ago... She's still locked away, as if that's going to solve anything.

Keiko's gaze as she finished with the one she considered a little brother (and now sister) was loving, but genuinely worried - But what bothers our Hanako the most is not that... it's the change.

Emma grimaced. Hanako's case was the hottest (and most forbidden) topic of conversation in the area.

“I’m still having trouble processing it,” Emma admitted, gazing at the cherry blossoms. “Hanako was… well, he was my best friend. The guy I played old shooters with on our private network and argued with about encryption algorithms. That overnight the Cat Archetype rewrote his soul and body as a Therian girl is… baffling…”

"It's destiny, Emma-kun, one caused by the inevitable resonance with an archetype of the collective unconscious, something that isn't alive and can't be controlled," Keiko declared firmly, though her eyes held compassion. "The awakening of an archetype doesn't change who you are at your core, but it does adapt your body and soul to the function its purpose demands. Hanako was always someone who preferred to observe from the shadows, someone with a mental agility that surpassed everyone else. The 'Cat' archetype simply... materialized that essence when Hanako's soul resonated with it."

Suddenly, Keiko's tone turned playful, leaning slightly towards him, causing her large breasts to sag as she looked into his eyes - Although I understand that it might be a shock for you...after all, she's a very beautiful girl now...isn't she?

At his insinuation and his mischievous attitude that seemed to border on flirting, Emma blushed immediately, scratching her cheek.

"That has nothing to do with it! It's just... it's weird. His instincts are now... aggressive. The last time I tried to go into his room to bring him food, he almost gouged my eye out because he said I 'invaded his territory without a pass.'"

"Give her time," Keiko said, letting go of her hand with weary eyes but rising gracefully. "Tomorrow, the three of us will go to the doctor for her final checkups... It might be the first time Hanako has left her room since the incident. You have to be patient with her, Emma. She's dealing with a new biology, with female hormones she doesn't understand, and with a male ego that refuses to accept that he now has to buy lacy underwear."

Emma imagined the scene of Hanako going to a pantyhose store with a passive-aggressive attitude and felt a chill.

-This is going to be a disaster to deal with, isn't it?

"Probably," Keiko said, walking toward the sanctuary exit, her red hakama billowing in the breeze. "But at least we won't be bored. Get ready, Emma-kun. The Academy's Air Transport Ship arrives in six days... And I've been told the Third Princess of Westphalia will be on board."

The third princess of Westphalia.

Upon hearing that title, Emma frowned slightly.

There was no one who didn't know that person's nation, one of the 8 superpowers of the Age of Magic.

The Westphalian Empire—once of Germanic origin—was not just a nation; it was a military order of continental scale.

Their culture is a reflection of their history: the steel that was tempered under the fury of the Dragon and the faith that kept them united in the face of the chaos of the demons.

His worldview was "Order over chaos."

For a citizen of Westphalia, the universe is a battleground between Divine Order (reality) and Chaos (The Singularities, the Mirror World and the 72 Pillars of the Underworld).

They see their Empire as humanity's shield against evil. Their motto is "We stand so the world does not fall."

They were a religious nation that described other nations like the Solomon Union as "dangerous merchants" who make pacts with the enemy and Columbus's Latin Confederation as "Beast Alchemists" who play with creation.

They were almost medieval, denying the use of technology except in a purely military context, and even that was limited by their culture of knights and paladins.

They were an empire that only respected the Kingdom of Goryeo because of its similar code of honor.

As for the Japanese Empire... Let's just say there's a certain respect for its harmonious techno-spiritual integration with the Kami of its religion; although they're not convinced that this country creates androids with human rights, souls, and reproductive capacity.

But what is truly problematic about Westphalia is its wariness of the non-human, such as Elves and Dwarves, and Hanako was now non-human; a Therian.

In Westphalia, ancient races, nascent races, and Therians are viewed with theological suspicion or pity.

Regarding the latter, it concerns the Therians, whom the Great Western Church classifies as "Altered Humans" who tragically deviated from the divine design of the Heavenly Father due to forces beyond this world.

Although not openly persecuted, Therians of their nation are barred from the upper ranks of the Order of Paladins, and becoming the Commander of a Knight Order from a noble family was the pinnacle of their careers.

...At least the fact that the Therians could work there meant that the third princess, Philia von Westfalia, wasn't going to cause any trouble.

Especially considering she was famous as a "Benevolent Saint." And since Saints were similar to revered Great Heroes and Sages, she should possess Dignity.

Even so, the fact that the princess of a racist nation with the power of a god was in the same boat as them...was, at the very least, not ideal.

"How troublesome," Emma grumbled, to which Keiko nodded as she watched him leave.

♦♦♦♦

Emma left the crystal sanctuary and used her district's "very cheap" teleportation circle system to go to the Neo Tokyo District, the most technologically advanced area on the island.

There, the buildings were not made of wood, but of a ceramic compound that glowed with violet and blue neon lights.

In Neo Tokyo, androids were even more common than in any other district.

And Emma could see more than one wearing gadgets in their ears that reminded her of the Angeloids from Soga no Otoshimono, like Ikaros; which was a sight she still found interesting.

Emma entered with surprising ease and naturalness the luxury residential areas where important officials and engineers of the Empire commonly lived, with a naturalness that made you wonder if she didn't belong there.

The Samurai on guard simply let him pass as if nothing had happened, and soon, Emma arrived at her destination.

The Kaguya family's grand residence was, in Emma's eyes, a high-tech bunker fused with a mansion that, instead of being luxurious, was elegantly functional.

Hanako's father was the chief architect of Nippon's defense network, and his house reflected an obsession with security.

Passing by maintenance thefts, Emma crossed through the decorative garden and arrived at the armored door of this bunker-mansion, placing her hand over the retina scanner.

He quickly heard the voice of the arcane intelligence (AI) that controls the Smart Mansion, which sounded like the elegant voice of a young woman.

"Welcome, Futsu Emma-sama. I must warn you that Hanako-sama is still in a highly emotionally sensitive state at the moment... Please proceed with caution."

"Entendido, Shizuka"

Emma nodded with a bitter smile.

The hallway was dark, lit only by the LEDs of the servers that buzzed on the walls.

Emma walked to the back room, where a holographic "DO NOT ENTER" sign was flashing red. "Hanako, it's me... can I come in?" Emma said, gently knocking on the door.

There was a hissing sound, definitely not human. Then, the frantic tapping of a mechanical keyboard.

"Don't bother, idiot," Hanako's voice had changed. It still had its sarcastic, direct tone, but now it was higher, with a cadence reminiscent of an involuntary purr. "My mind is still processing a massive transformation, and my patience is running very low. If you come in, I'm not responsible for any claw marks on your face."

"Come on, you can't stay there forever," Emma insisted. "Keiko's worried. And me... well, I miss seeing the guy who used to beat me at Street Fighter in peace."

There was a prolonged silence. Then, the electronic lock clicked sharply. The door slid open a few inches, revealing only a sliver of darkness from which a single violet eye peered out, glowing with a feline light.

"That type doesn't exist anymore, Emma," Hanako said, her voice small and almost vulnerable this time. "The Archetype erased 'Masculinity' and 'Human' from the Archives, just like Kaguya Hanako... What remains is... this. A humanoid with animal ears and a tail that should be commonplace in Latin lands, but here we are; me, just another Therian."

Emma sighed and, defying the warning, pushed open the door.

What she saw was a room flooded with monitors. In the center, standing and almost kneeling on an ergonomic chair that was much too big for her, was Hanako. Her hair, now a bluish-white, fell haphazardly over her shoulders.

A pair of white cat ears twitched irritably on the top of his head, and a thin tail beat rhythmically against the chair seat.

He was wearing a sweatshirt three sizes too big that hid his slender figure (although not a surprising bulge in his chest) and gray shorts—appearing to be wearing nothing underneath, showing off his seductive legs—but none of that could hide the fact that his face, once that of a skinny boy, now had a delicate and captivating beauty.

Hanako looked at him, her pupils dilating for a second before returning to her human form. She shrank back in the chair, hugging her knees.

"Satisfied with what you see?" Hanako hissed, though her tail curled shyly around her waist. "Now I'm a cute 'waifu' like in your stupid old stories. Are you going to ask me to say 'meow' or can we get on with our lives?"

Emma looked at her old friend (now a full-fledged friend) hesitantly, before finally speaking.

"I'm just going to say that white looks good on you," Emma replied with a genuine smile. "And that, catgirl or not, you're still the only person who can hack my terminal in under three seconds. So get ready, Hanako. We're leaving for Atlantis in a week, and I'm not going to let you stay here locked up like some hopeless case."

Hanako looked away, her ears drooping slightly.

"Atlantis..." he murmured. "The Academy City isn't exactly a place of study... It's a place rife with competition to be the strongest guild or the most famous explorer, where the various nations (Factions) battle it out through their talented students... If we go there to form a guild, Emma... we'll have to deal with things that can't be solved with sheer force alone."

Emma looked out the window, towards the horizon where Sakura's Floating Island cast its shadow on the sea.

"I know. But that's why we're together, right? The idiot, the maid, and the hacker cat. It's the perfect team for a low-budget anime. And anyway... it's the only way to get the power we need to try and find a solution, however small the possibility."

Hanako grimaced at those words, as if she didn't know what to say other than "Another silly thing from Emma."

What were the chances of achieving something like that, when even in the entire history of almost a thousand years of the Latin confederation, there was no news of success in permanent physical transformations through sorcery or genetic modification?

The Therians were condemned to be Therians once transformed by the Animal Archetypes in the Noosphere.

That was true even for the gender swap. When the spiritual particles of your body are attuned to an archetype, there is no turning back.

However, her lips still curled slightly.