In the laboratory.
When the Fragment Star Emperor first emitted that unusual fluctuation, Saine was adjusting a connection to its origin between its chest and abdomen.
That area should once have been capable of holding an immense amount of power of destruction.
Now, all that remained were layers of damaged laws pressing against one another.
If he continued to leave them piled up there, the damaged structures would needlessly consume the portion of the Fragment Star Emperor's origin that had just been replenished.
Saine had originally intended to separate one of the layers.
But as the alchemical probe approached, an extremely faint resistance actually emerged of its own accord.
"Stop for a moment."
Over in Destruction Time-Space, the mechanical apparatus carrying out the operation immediately stopped in place.
Saine drew the corresponding light screen closer and studied it for a moment, then had another set of apparatus feed a small amount of origin into the same area.
The Fragment Star Emperor did not reject the latter.
Its tattered black wings trembled gently. After a while, even the alchemical probe that had approached first no longer encountered such strong resistance.
This was already somewhat different from its previous responses, which consisted solely of pursuing origin and avoiding harm.
Before this, Saine had already spent some time working to awaken its intelligence.
The core factors used in the experiments came from a portion of the emotion power Locke had provided in the past.
Of course, that power could not be directly equated with a fully developed intelligence.
But the Fragment Star Emperor already retained an extremely powerful survival instinct. What Saine needed to do was not create an entirely new consciousness from nothing, but gradually build enduring responses around that instinct.
The first few attempts had produced very limited results.
After the