Ethereal Fragment

The Ethereal Fragment is a crystalline shard whose ordinary auction description conceals its value as both a temporary mana aid and a component for high-tier casting media.

History

The Mispriced Auction Lot

Vanitas identifies the unassuming shard in a sponsorship auction through knowledge retained from the game. Other bidders regard it as nearly worthless, but he knows that it can become a component in a Sovereign-tier staff and purchases it despite Astrid noticing his interest. Once it is in his custody, the Spectacles identify it as the fractured tip of an ancient dragon's tooth rather than an ordinary crystal. (Chapters 19–24)

From Emergency Aid to Gauntlet Core

Carrying the Fragment lets Vanitas sustain spellcasting beyond what his unaided reserves should permit during the fight with Aldred, though it does not remove his physical strain. He later entrusts it to Roselyn together with Numen's Azure Shard. She embeds both fragments in a black-steel gauntlet, first as a prototype and then as the finished Astrea AG. II, changing the Fragment from a loose reserve into part of his principal casting medium. (Chapters 27, 55, 80, and 90)

Abilities and properties

• The archive identifies the Fragment as part of an ancient dragon's tooth and a viable component for Sovereign-tier media. (Chapters 19 and 24)
• While carried, it supplies enough support for Vanitas to exceed his otherwise sustainable output, but the source does not present it as an unlimited reservoir. (Chapter 27)
• Inside Astrea AG. II, it contributes to spell potency, mana recovery and detection, and more efficient control alongside Numen's Azure Shard; the corpus does not isolate which effect belongs to which component. (Chapters 80 and 90)

Ownership and custody