A few more days passed.
Early one morning, Lucian woke in his bedroom on the top floor.
Before he could sit up in bed, a crisp system notification suddenly rang out in his mind:
[Matter Transmutation LV9 (Celestial energy) copied successfully. Permanently acquired.]
Finally.
Lucian perked up, his drowsiness vanishing completely.
This was the Eternals' most essential rule-level ability, arguably even their most reality-defying one.
Lucian raised a hand and pressed his palm directly against the soft silk comforter beneath him.
With a slight shift of his will, he activated it.
The unique Cosmic Energy within him, originating from the Celestials, instantly began to flow, seeping through his fingertips into the comforter.
A visible change occurred.
The soft fabric lost its original texture, turning into genuine high-carbon steel in the blink of an eye. Yet its folds remained unchanged, and even the corners stayed exactly where they had been.
Lucian reached out and knocked on it.
Clang, clang, clang.
The sound was dull and hard, like knocking on bulletproof steel plating.
Then he used the ability again.
The steel covering instantly softened, turning back into fine, soft silk.
It completely broke apart the arrangements of atoms and molecules, then reassembled them according to his will.
Stone into gold, air into quicksand-all with a thought.
Lucian rose from bed and walked to the floor-to-ceiling windows, overlooking bustling New York City below. Something was off. Although the energy he had obtained through copying was enormous, it was not as enormous as he had imagined.
He thought of the Celestial embryo sleeping deep within the Earth-Tiamut the Communicator.
Tiamut was an exceedingly rare outlier among the Celestials.
Buried deep within the Earth for years, growing alongside it, he had perceived humanity's history and emotions and turned his back on the Celestials'