"If it's possible, of course I'll help. What exactly do you need me to do?"
Ren agreed to Bronya's request without hesitation and immediately asked for the specifics.
Although he had already tamed the Herrscher of Thunder, Shadow Mei, and made her his Persona, Ren was still not entirely familiar with her abilities...
To be more precise, the reason a Persona user might not fully understand their Persona's abilities was that Shadow Mei herself didn't have a particularly deep understanding of her own authority.
All she knew was how to brute-force everything by zapping people with lightning.
Compared to Shadow Mei herself, Cocolia's cronies, who had subjected Raiden Mei to numerous cunning plots, had a much deeper understanding of the miracles the Herrscher of Thunder's authority could perform.
"The Bronya has already had Project Bunny back up the relevant data from Cocolia's lab... While it would be better to conduct the experiment with the help of Mr. Welt and Dr. Tesla, considering the special environment of this impression space, and with your active cooperation using the authority of conquest, Ren, The Bronya believes the current conditions are sufficient for an experimental attempt."
Without the aid of Anti-Entropy's most advanced equipment, the accuracy and success rate of retrieving Seele from the Sea of Quanta would undoubtedly be much lower.
However, the unique environment of the Imaginary Space compensated for this drawback.
Coupled with the living target of Seele's quantum projection, it was possible that an experiment conducted here would have a higher success rate than one in the Anti-Entropy labs.
Taking all the current conditions into account, Bronya believed it was enough to support a trial experiment.
She didn't expect to find Seele, lost in the vast expanse of the Sea of Quanta, in a single attempt.
However, this retrieval experiment, launched from the Imaginary Space into the Sea of Quanta, would surely yield a wealth of invaluable data, laying a solid foundation for future attempts to truly bring Seele back.
The silver-and-blue Project Bunny 19C materialized, glowing with a deep blue light. Streams of data flashed across the virtual screen in front of Bronya.
With the power of the Herrscher of Reason, Bronya and Project Bunny had entered a state of intense, high-powered calculation.
"Coordinate calculation complete. Ren, please use the Herrscher of Thunder Persona and exercise the authority of conquest to strike here, here, and here... these nodes I've marked!"
In a short time, under Seele's tense, silent gaze and Kaslana's faintly rippling, indifferent stare, Bronya finally completed the interference calculations between Kaslana's Stigmata space and the Sea of Quanta.
She materialized two dozen funnels with the authority of the Herrscher of Reason, arranging them in the sky in a seemingly chaotic yet strangely ordered pattern, marking the points to tear space.
"Leave it to me—Persona!!"
This was both Bronya's request and a matter of Seele's true freedom. When they needed his help, Ren would not hold back even an ounce of his power.
The crimson World Arcana instantly dyed a world of silver and blue. The click of a grayish-blue pistol was barely audible.
Jizo Mitama and its replica both entered their enhanced modes.
The corrosive mist of erosion pierced through the crimson lightning that poured from the sky. Four layers of enhancement were bestowed upon the Persona that answered Ren's call.
"Shadow Mei... see those funnels in the sky? Hit them all with your full power!!"
The Persona Shadow Mei appeared in response to Ren's call. Under the fourfold enhancement, she entered her "Trickster God" state.
The crimson horns on her white-haired forehead became even more vibrant.
The giant demonic arms floating behind her no longer carried the Judgment of Shamash tachi but instead held a massive, dark red guitar.
Even her attire changed to a red-and-black, rock-and-roll style performance outfit.
Shadow Mei: Trickster God glanced at Ren and the real Raiden Mei below, clicked her tongue almost inaudibly, and then the purple halo behind her erupted in a brilliant light.
The giant crimson arms strummed the strings of the scarlet guitar, and the sound of thunder resounded.
Demonic crimson lightning crashed down from the sky, splitting into two dozen thick bolts in an instant.
The crimson lightning, spreading like the branches of a giant tree, struck Bronya's funnels fixed in the sky with zero time lag, piercing and tearing through both the coordinate-marking funnels and space itself!!
"Get ready. Something's coming."
The space of the Kaslana's Palace was torn open by the crimson lightning, the rifts overlapping and merging into a massive hole. A deep and dangerous aura emanated from the faintly blue, glowing spatial cave.
The moment the spatial cave formed, Kaslana, who had been watching with her arms crossed, suddenly spoke up, alerting Ren and the others.
"Shadows from the Sea of Quanta, pulled through with the opening? I was expecting something like this."
Faint blue ripples spread across the surface of the spatial cave.
One after another, quantum shadows fell out of the opening like dumplings from a pot, invading the Kaslana's Palace on the Imaginary Tree through the connecting passage.
Ren was not the least bit surprised by the swarm of quantum shadows.
The Persona Shadow Mei: Trickster God continued to strum her scarlet guitar, playing an intense, rhythmic rock song.
The lightning of judgment that shot from the giant guitar strings tore apart all the attacking shadows with equal prejudice, holding back the entire vast army of quantum shadows in mid-air, not letting a single one touch the ground of the Kaslana's Palace.
"How is it, Bronya? Have you found Seele's location?"
Letting Shadow Mei: Trickster God play her lightning song high in the sky, annihilating all the quantum shadows invading from the other side of space, Ren turned to his side and asked Bronya, who was still frantically processing information, her fair forehead beaded with sweat.
"The Bronya can't be sure... A life signature fluctuation from Seele was detected on the other side of the spatial cave, but the true distance cannot be calculated. Seele, can you see this spatial passage torn open by the lightning in the Sea of Quanta?"
Bronya's brow furrowed, and she bit her silver lip in frustration. Her fingertips danced across the virtual screen in front of her, her silver-gray eyes reflecting the constantly refreshing stream of data, her pretty brow remaining tightly locked.
A task that should have been handled by a professional team was now being undertaken by Bronya alone.
The pressure she was under was immense. Even with her experience exploring the Imaginary Space, the chaotic and disordered nature of the Sea of Quanta still presented great difficulty in processing the unknown information stream.
With the quantum projection as a reference model for the real-world coordinates right beside her, even if she couldn't fully parse the unknown information stream she was receiving, Bronya could indirectly calculate and adjust the data errors of the real-world coordinate model through Seele's responses, thus obtaining more accurate experimental data each time.
"No, Seele can't feel it... The spatial cave that Big Brother Ren and Bronya-Oneechan opened seems to be very far away from Seele..."
Seele closed her eyes, trying to concentrate on her main body still drifting in the Sea of Quanta, doing her best to sense everything around her.
The booming sound of thunder continued to echo, but upon closer listening, the intense sound was being received entirely by her quantum projection in the Kaslana's Palace.
Her main body in the Sea of Quanta could only hear the usual sound of [flowing water]. There was nothing else.
[There's really no sound. Not just you and Seele, but even the native shadows, which are more sensitive than the quantum neighbors, are showing no signs of disturbance. If this spatial cave was opened near Seele, these native shadows wouldn't be able to stay still. They would have already swarmed through the spatial singularity into the Kaslana's Palace like cockroaches.]
Veliona's voice echoed in the minds of both Ren and Seele simultaneously. She enveloped Seele with the power of the Stigmata, creating an ark for her to navigate the Sea of Quanta.
While her own supreme psychic power might slightly interfere with Seele's perception, it couldn't affect her own.
Thus, she could be absolutely certain that Bronya's coordinate model for locating Seele was flawed.
Although Seele's quantum projection was used as the coordinate source, when it came to actually opening a transport channel in the Sea of Quanta, Bronya, who was not very familiar with its detailed parameters, had made a slight error, causing the transport channel to open far from Seele's main body.
"Don't be discouraged, Bronya. This is just the first attempt. With the experience from this failure, I'm sure you'll be able to pinpoint Seele's coordinates in the Sea of Quanta more accurately next time," Raiden Mei said gently, comforting Bronya, who had a faint look of frustration on her face and was even biting her lower lip due to the failed experiment.
However, before Bronya could respond to Mei's comforting words, Hare, standing on Ren's other side, suddenly turned serious.
Her purple-blue eyes stared intently at the spatial cave, as if she had seen something incredible through the rippling blue waves.
"Watch out, Ren! A very strong Honkai energy signature is approaching fast! It's about to reach the area of the spatial cave!"
Bronya had been completely engrossed in checking and correcting the spatial coordinates.
It wasn't until Hare's serious warning to Ren that she finally noticed the rapidly approaching, massive Honkai threat in the Sea of Quanta.
"It's indeed a massive Honkai energy signature... Completely different from the enemies we've encountered before. The Honkai energy reaction from this shadow, even with a rough calculation, is fluctuating between three to five times that of a complete Herrscher!!"
Pausing her work on the spatial coordinates, Bronya turned her attention to the rapidly approaching, powerful shadow. Her eyes widened in astonishment at the ridiculously high Honkai energy fluctuations detected by Project Bunny.
"There's such a terrifying monster lurking in the Sea of Quanta?! And we just happened to attract it with the spatial cave we opened..."
Realizing the strength of the shadow attracted by the spatial cave, Bronya first took a sharp breath, then instantly broke out in a cold sweat.
Thankfully, she was with Ren.
Thankfully, only Ren could fully master the authority to tear space.
Even if that shadow did cross the spatial cave and successfully invade the Imaginary Space from the Sea of Quanta, with Ren, the strongest Persona user, present, it couldn't cause too much trouble.
If Cocolia had gone ahead with her original plan, even if she had the support of the radical faction of Anti-Entropy and had managed to seize the authority of the Herrscher of Thunder, they would have had no way to deal with the powerful shadows invading the real world from the Sea of Quanta...
Even with the powerful shadow about to cross the spatial cave now, even if they mobilized the entire Anti-Entropy and boosted Welt Yang's power back to his peak, it would probably be difficult to defeat this unknown shadow. The best-case scenario would be mutual destruction.
Bronya didn't even know where this unknown, powerful shadow ranked in the hierarchy of the Sea of Quanta.
If shadows of this intensity were scattered like landmines at every node in the Sea of Quanta, just waiting for someone to come along and detonate them... The thought gave Bronya a splitting headache.
"A shadow of this intensity must be a Emperor-class existence even in the Sea of Quanta. They can't be common, or else Seele probably wouldn't have survived until now... Seele, what's wrong?!"
Bronya subconsciously glanced at Seele, and her pupils suddenly dilated, a look of horror appearing on her delicate face.
The reason was Seele's extremely strange state.
Her slender, delicate body was distorting like a projection with a bad signal, filled with a sense of impending collapse.
Even her facial features and body were blurred almost beyond recognition, her whole form transformed into a teal-blue, humanoid shadow.
Finally, in the span of a single breath, before Bronya could do anything, Seele's constantly changing and disintegrating figure completely disappeared before her stunned eyes!!