Palitutu's reply caught Sephiroth somewhat unawares. So it really was all as simple as having enough people all together in one location so as to cause enough of a threat that could be used as leverage in order to get them to respond to her call-out. The manipulation continued, indeed.

If it hadn't been for the others, and in particular Jade's suggestion, alongside his own rekindled desire to fix things, Sephiroth might well have turned away from it for the last time. The biggest manipulation being the raw truth of life and death, after all.

"The Soul Divider-" He'd attempt to field Twilight's query, in particular, but occasionally glanced to Palitutu just to keep her in sights; he's not convinced of her logic with regard to it. "-is a huge machine, developed by the Ancients to filter the life energy from other worlds and feed it back into the Crystal as if it were part of the indigenous cycle already in place.

"It takes the form of a gigantic crystal tree which reaches down into the core of the Planet itself-" A pointed look then at Reno, the correlation to mechanisms available on Gaia quickly firing off.

"Quite kind of like a planet-sized, reverse Mako reactor..." But something about what he knew, still didn't sit and the frown deepened as he sought out Palitutu's attention once more.

"But what of our assimilation? Assuming it were possible, surely our own energy would be as risk?"