I found myself standing above that ocean of eternity again. The sky of pure whiteness overlooking the skein of infinity. The Principle of Life.

Unlike all my previous times, the Grail was silent. It said nothing as I squatted down on the surface of infinity.

Without a single word, my right hand reached down and scooped up a small puddle of the Universe.

It felt strange. It didn't feel like water. It's much more viscous than water, bearing more of the consistency of molten lava. I should know, Marius once forced my hands into a vat of it, and this puddle in my hand felt just like the yellow-hot liquid rocks right before the nerves were burned away and I could no longer feel anything.

With gaps forming between my fingers, that semi-liquid of boundlessness fell back into this ocean.

Since this place was the Principle of Life, then these things must be the most fundamental building block of the Soul.

I scooped up some more and tried to mold them like they were wet mud. I didn't know what I was going for and instead just chose a random shape.

I formed a ball.

It didn't last very long as the moment my hands stopped compressing the mud of eternity. It fell apart into a pile that slowly scattered back and rejoined the rest of everything.

It was then that I woke up once more, and I could feel the whispers of the Grail returning as I stared at an unfamiliar ceiling with unfamiliarly bright lights. It told me that I should stay as far away from that hole in reality as much as possible.

A hole? Ah, it must mean Death.

No, that wasn't ever going to happen.

I knocked on the sides of my brain harshly, as though to try and rattle the Grail akin to a rat inside a cage and force it to stay quiet.

Like always, that never works. The Grail is never silent unless I am in the presence of Death.

I let out a long and drawn-out sigh. I haven't experienced true silence in years, and now that I have, it is cruel to have such a dream taken away from me. I want to have that peace of mind once more. I want to be filled with that wonderful scent that chokes the voice of the Grail.

I got up into a sitting position and looked around my new room. It was… sterile. The very opposite of my old place of residence. It was bright as well. It's not so bright that it hurts my eye though.

My nose flared as I took in a deep breath. I caught the tiniest hint of cleaning chemicals that were used to rid this place of any germs. Bringing my arm up, my nose closed in and I caught a whiff of more of those chemicals used to scrub me clean.

Hrmm.

The door to my room slid into the door frame as another human woman walked in. She was taller than me and had an air of sophistication around her. Her features were definitely not European as I've never seen anything close to her.

"Greetings Miss Valerie Tepes. My name is Ramona Kusaka and I shall be your doctor. Can I offer you anything? Some solid human food? Blood?"

Hearing the human speaking of food made me suddenly realize how parched my throat felt.

"Some blood please."

"I thought your species might say that." There wasn't a single bit of hostility in Kusaka's voice. She isn't the least bit judgemental, "That's why I took it with me before I came here."

Reaching into her lab coat, the human woman took out a single bag containing a deep red liquid. Even from so far away, I could feel the tiniest chill emanating from that bag.

This human held it inside her coat without any complaints. She seems to really want to construct a good first impression.

Taking the blood, I tore into it with my sharp fangs before squeezing it, letting the liquid squirt into my mouth.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spot Kusaka grimacing a bit. I couldn't care. My throat was like a desert with how parched it felt. In a few seconds, I demolished the one-liter bag of blood. My bedsheet was coated in red, and so was my chin and my shirt.

"Do you have any more?"

Strangely, the human didn't seem to panic at such a bloody sight as most humans would. Before Gasper left, I would sometimes wander into the kitchen and find captive humans screaming the moment they saw blood.

What a strange human.

"Yes, we do. But before that, we here at the Neo-Illuminati wish to test your abilities first and foremost."

I sniffed the air. I couldn't smell that wonderful scent.

"Where is Death?"

Ramona looked confused. "Death?"

"The one who rescued me. He was garbed in a colorful jester outfit as to celebrate a life long lived instead of being mournful."

I noticed how Kusaka's eyes never once left me. Ramona cupped her chin as her eyes gained depth to them. It was as though her mind was focused on something else other than what was in front of her.

"Ah. Solitaire is currently messing around in Southeast Asia. Most of the details are classified but I will say that it involves trying to militarize ASEAN and set them up as a counterweight to China."

I have no idea what anything Kusaka said even means. 'Militarize'? 'ASEAN'? 'Asia'? What are those? Are they places?

For most of my life, the limits of my world were the edge of Marius' castle grounds. Even when I gazed at the world beyond the mountains, never once have I ventured forth towards it. Only Gasper had the fortune to do so.

"So he's not here…" I asked. My tone was one of immense disappointment.

"That may not be the case. In a rare few instances when persons of particular interests are involved, our leader may choose to personally witness their testing."

Hearing her words raised my mood instantly. Oh, that's good, I thought. I won't have to hear that incessant whispering of the Grail anymore.

"Let's go then," I said as I stepped barefoot on the ground.

"Before that, let's get you some shoes."

Ramona yanked out a drawer and reached inside, taking out a set of very strange shoes. The material wasn't clothes, but instead hard and had a minor reflective sheen.

"Form-fitting memory-plastic shoes. It remembers your foot size and adjusts to turn into a perfect fit."

"What's 'plastic'?"

Kusaka paused just as she placed the shoes right in front of me. "Plastic… is a type of synthetic polymer that's used in a large majority of the world. I'm not surprised the vampires didn't have something that became popular in the 50s."

50s? Polymer? So many strange words I had no idea what they meant.

Kusaka must've seen my blank stare.

"Guess we'll need to give you a proper education. This lack of common memes makes communication very difficult." She nodded to herself, "Alright, let's get you to the testing room. Follow me."

I placed my foot into the 'plastic' shoes—

"—?"

The instant the soles touched my skin, I could feel the plastic slowly closing in on my feet. It wasn't that which surprised me, but rather it was how smooth the shoe's interior felt. It was like touching the surface of a frozen lake or perhaps tracing my fingers over a pebble from a riverbed.

I moved out the doorway to my room and found two more humans standing guard. They were clad in heavy… armor? I think those are meant to be armor, but they felt strange. The Grail grew louder just by being near them.

I hid the wince and followed Ramona until we entered another sterile room. The walls, floors, and ceiling were pure white while the room itself was devoid of anything save for a table with a series of glass tablets. Ramona didn't follow me.

Then, a loud voice came from the ceiling.

Ramona's voice called out, "Hi Valerie. Given how you're the bearer of the Sephiroth Graal, I would like to start with a test that determines the exact definition of 'life' for the Holy Grail."

I approached the table. The tablets all had a circular indent on them filled with… no, that's not water.

"Inside each of those Petri dishes are microorganisms suspended in a liquid solution. From left to right, each microorganism gets progressively simpler until the final one is an experimental self-replicating RNA-based lifeform that stands on the precipice of what can be considered 'alive'. Even more than viruses." Ramona's voice paused for a bit.

"I would like you to try and alter those microorganisms in whichever way you deem fit."

I loomed over the leftmost tablet. I could only see a clear water-like liquid with my naked eyes. But at the same time, when I listened to the whispers of the Grail, I could hear how those pools of not-water were filled with life. Tiny artificial life. Not natural, the Grail told me.

What would be impressive enough that Solitaire comes to see me again? What would rouse Solitaire's interest?

Perhaps… reattaching these lifeforms back to nature?

So I decided to give them a more natural spin. Without even touching those pools of not-water and simply staring at them, I changed their basic components.

A bloom of holy light radiated from me.

If lifeforms were a 'sheet of music', then with the Grail I can control each 'note', replacing and inserting new ones as I feel like it.

I listened to the 'sounds' those artificial lifeforms gave off. The 'sounds' the Grail whispered into my ears. The Grail translated the 'sound' each lifeform was emitting into something that I could hear, yet was unable to truly understand.

I was a musician. A songwriter. The only Composer of Life. So I created a new piece of music by taking out every single piece of those lifeforms and replacing them with new ones. By the time I was finished, those artificial lifeforms on those 'Petri dishes' became reattached to nature.

"Done."

A new person soon entered through the same door I used. He wore a lab coat, a mop of red hair, and strange discolorings on his cheeks as well as a pair of classes. Unlike Ramona, this human had none of the sophistication but instead felt… weaker. He also looked much younger as well.

"Hi," He waved, a gesture of greeting, "My name is Charles. I work in the biologist division. So Ramona told me you can change genes?"

I tilted my head, "What are genes?"

He opened and closed his mouth several times. Before nodding in understanding, "Right. No proper education. In short, genes are short for 'genetics'. They're a special set of instructions that's passed down from your parents to you."

Instructions? Does he mean by the 'music notes'?

I never really understood what each 'music note' meant. All I knew was what they would do if inserted into a 'sheet of music'.

I became excited. Might I finally understand the incessant whispers of the Grail? The Sacred Gear that whispers things that couldn't ever be truly put into words?

"I also have a Sacred Gear that allows me to examine the genetics of everything. Can I check on what you've done?"

Why does he need to ask?

"...Sure."

My excitement was dampened. Charles asking that question reminded me of ways Marius would get my hopes up for fewer dhampirs changed in a session before cruelly crushing it and forcing me to change more.

Taking off his glasses, Charles glanced at the 'Petri dishes', his blue eyes turned green for a brief instant before changing back.

"Interesting. Ramona, I think you should come inside and see this."

My nose picked up a very distinct smell.

The wonderful smell!

I perked up. Joy bubbled up inside me like boiling water as the Grail's whispers ceased.

From the corner of the room, Solitaire strode forward from what appeared like a twist in space. Kaleidoscopic fragments— holograms— unveiled Solitaire akin to flower petals when the bud is blossoming in spring.

I heard Charles take in a deep breath. Glancing at him from the corner of my eye, I saw how he tensed up. Charles' right hand came up to right beside his eyes in a strange display.

"What are you doing?"

"That is a salute."

Solitaire spoke. Its voice distorted, and appeared more like a dozen different voices belonging to different people overlaid on top of each other all speaking the same sentence.

I turned to face Solitaire. It still wore the same white demon mask with black holes for eyes.

"What's a salute?"

I heard Charles quietly hiss.

"A salute is a gesture signifying respect."

Oh.

I copied Charles' gesture.

Solitaire nodded, and I felt compelled to drop my poor attempt at a salute. So I did.

Solitaire then reached into his colorful coat and took out a single yellow paper binder that resembled parchment. It handed the yellow binder to Charles, who started flipping through it with a look of intensity.

"Effectively immediately, you are to report all your findings about the Sephiroth Graal to me and me alone."

"..." Confusion fell like a curtain on Charles' face. The human dropped his salute as he looked like he wanted to reject this command from Solitaire, "But the potential! Think of the potential, Chief Executor! Knowledge progresses when more people know it. If you restrict knowledge you'll hamper technological developments! All the technology we have here is because you revealed magic to the brightest of mankind—"

"This is now a Directive-level secret with redacted versions set at Executive."

Whatever those words meant was enough to silence any further protests from Charles.

"So I'm promoted to the Director of a new division?"

"Yes."

"One centered around her?" Charles pointed at me.

Chief Executor Solitaire didn't reply, as though telling him 'You already know'.

With that, Solitaire left the room through the door, leaving me alone with Charles. He traced his right hand through his hair akin to a brush before letting out a long sigh.

"Damn. I was really hoping this would advance our understanding of genetics."

Moments later, Ramona walked in, looking just as uneasy as I would be right before one of Marius' sessions. "He was watching the result the whole time… and I didn't even know he was there."

Both of them looked at me. Their eyes mirrored that of Marius when he discovered that I possessed the Holy Grail.

"Guess we should get started with your education before beginning more testing," Charles said.

AN: Hmm, I wonder why Solitaire is so interested in Valerie? Could it be that Sea of Infinity? The Face of Eternity? The Principle of Life? But... why the secrecy then?