New Zealand. Anti-Entropy Base.
The command room hummed with the rapid-fire clatter of over twenty expert-level personnel hammering away at their keyboards across every conceivable field, punctuated by the detection pings and status readouts of various electronic instruments.
Tesla and Einstein stood before a miniaturized three-dimensional projection — a roughly ten-square-meter rendering of New Zealand and its surrounding waters, hundreds of violet-red dots blinking across every corner of the virtual landmass.
Several large red dots had been marked in the surrounding sea zones with unmistakable prominence.
"So the final answer is the classic pick-one-of-three?" Silver Wing asked, resting her chin in her hand as she stood at one corner of the projection platform, studying the three specially marked final coordinates.
"No — no need to choose. This problem has a calculable optimal solution, provided you have a way to influence the flow of Honkai energy across the entire calculable range."
Einstein's hands swept back and forth across the holographic display, adjusting parameters, mapping flow routes, brushing aside several smaller sub-screens until only a single virtual screen remained — one overlaid with a complex web of violet routing lines.
"We can simplify it further. By directing the Honkai energy along a fixed vector, we can funnel a portion of the Honkai energy within New Zealand's borders toward the sea. The chain reaction will carry along most of the remainder."
"At that point, activating the Gem of Desire at the target location will yield a 76.54% probability of triggering a Great Eruption."
Einstein drew a circle on the virtual screen with one finger and pushed it toward the silver-haired girl. "This region is one of the critical nodes. You can begin preparing in advance."
"Understood."
Silver Wing produced a black-red tachi wreathed in sinister, dazzling light, snapped her fingers once with casual ease, and the tachi dissolved from the tip of the blade into crimson particles.
The flowing luminous particles coalesced like digital fragments, assembling into a pink-haired girl with a single high ponytail.
"Rin — I'm leaving this to you and Elysia."
"Yes, ma'am~ Silver Wing sis! Mission guaranteed~!" The girl feigned a look of exaggerated seriousness, gave the most adorably goofy salute imaginable, then bounced and skipped her way out of existence.
"That the consciousness of the Herrscher of Corruption — whose very life essence is the ultimate virus — managed to be preserved is something I can just about wrap my head around." The red twin-tailed girl who looked like a high schooler but was actually pushing a century old squinted and blinked in rapid succession, watching the cheerfully departing girl with a complicated expression.
"But how on earth did you reshape her into that form? Even future-era technology shouldn't be capable of something like that."
Little Bianca hadn't hidden her identity as a visitor from a future timeline, which made Silver Wing's uncanny foresight and foreknowledge a very clear indicator of her own origins — another person from the future, just like Bianca, except manifesting here as a descending consciousness.
"That question is complicated, and unfortunately I'm not a researcher — I can't explain the underlying principles to you." Silver Wing shrugged with a smile.
In her divine life-form that transcended Herrschers, she wielded the sublimated Authority of Corruption. Rin channeled her fully deified Honkai energy in total support of Elysia — enough to partially reconstruct the Authority of the Origin Herrscher.
The combination of the two, used to redirect the Honkai energy flow of an entire nation, wasn't exactly child's play — but it wasn't especially difficult either. It simply required a little time.
"Tch, fine, fine." Tesla clicked her tongue with an unladylike smack.
Proactively triggering a Great Eruption in a remote location to keep it away from populated cities — it sounded simple and logical enough, but under normal circumstances it was pure fantasy.
Tossing a few Honkai reactors into some stretch of ocean would certainly trigger a large-scale Honkai event, but it wouldn't necessarily birth a Herrscher — and it would permanently elevate global Honkai energy levels in the bargain.
Playing it that way was nothing short of suicide.
Unless someone could precisely predict the exact moment when each massive, Herrscher-birthing Honkai eruption would occur — but deliberately manufacturing a Herrscher was equally indistinguishable from suicide.
"Full model calculation will take approximately five hours and forty minutes."
"OK. Then I'll leave it to you two. I'm going to go do a little psychological counseling for Wendy."
Silver Wing waved goodbye to the pair and turned to leave the data center, making her way through the metal corridors until she found Wendy's room. She knocked. Received an answer. Pushed the door open and walked in.
"Bronya sis!"
The black-and-green-haired girl bolted upright from the bed, fixing Silver Wing with a gaze brimming with admiration and longing.
"Wendy — how has the rest been?"
"Bronya sis, I'm fine."
"Does the thought of becoming a Herrscher make you anxious, Wendy?"
It was a simple but cozy dormitory room. Silver Wing crossed to the bedside and drew close to the girl sitting up in the bed.
"As a Valkyrie, my duty is to save as many people as I can."
"That's a wonderful belief to hold — but you don't have to put on a brave front, Wendy. Whether it's fear, agitation, or dread — you can say it. I'll be right here with you."
Silver Wing half-embraced her, smiling as she pressed the tip of her index finger under Wendy's chin and gently tilted it this way and that.
"Hmm… Wendy, trust Bronya sis."
Held in the half-embrace and brought so close, Wendy was delighted — a faint blush rising to her small face, which deepened further still when her chin was gently lifted.
Without the slightest resistance she sank into the warmth and softness the other girl brought her, like a little cat cradled and petted by its owner, utterly content to be handled however she pleased.
Those eyes — as clear and limpid as emeralds — carried a faint trace of intoxication and enchantment.
"Mm. I'll definitely keep Wendy safe."
Silver Wing held the soft and fragrant slight figure of the girl close — though judging by their builds and the fullness of their chests, Silver Wing herself looked more like the little sister — yet her bearing was all elegant, impishly charming big-sister energy.
Wendy, this child, was in truth the type with a sensitive heart and a deep-seated lack of a sense of security.
It was precisely this personality — so strikingly similar to Seele's — that had allowed Bronya the Duck to shoot Wendy's affection rating sky-high in no time at all in the original timeline.
And now, having been neglected, betrayed, and used as a test subject — having reached out in that cold and indifferent world and caught the hand that 'Bronya' sis had extended to her — Wendy gradually surrendered herself to Silver Wing's gentleness.
It wasn't quite playing with the feelings of a pure-hearted girl — after all, Silver Wing genuinely wanted to heal Wendy's legs, and the care she showed the girl was real. It was simply perhaps not quite as much as Wendy, without her rose-tinted glasses, would have perceived.
While Silver Wing soothed the quiet unease in Wendy's heart, Daylight watched from the background of her own body — enjoying the comedy of a rather different kind of sisters' reunion, and also…
She'd already rated the Little Rubber Duckling's special vulnerability to Rita quite highly — but it seemed she had still underestimated the combined lethality of the loli factor and the duckling factor working in tandem on Rita.
"Kiana, have you had lunch yet? Even though it's not a data-body, this body gets hungry easily — I can polish off twenty of these buns in one go, easy, don't worry, I saved some for you too!"
"Ah, Rita — did you buy chocolate drops~?!"
Her voice rang out with the bright, delighted chirp of a child spotting a treat — Little Bianca, her mannerisms rendered slightly childlike by the influence of her young body, fixed her eyes on the packaging in Rita's hands with an expression of visible hesitation:
"Chocolate or steamed buns… Ah, just give me both."
Clear, bright pupils. Eyes curved like crescent moons. Little Bianca broke into a happy grin.
"Hehe, thank you~"
"Huh — Rita, what's wrong? Are you alright? Are you feeling unwell?"
Little Bianca, having received both the chocolate and the buns, looked up with a face full of worry at the maid who had clapped a hand over her nose and was swaying on her feet as though she'd suffered a heatstroke.
"I — I'm fine… Lady Bianca."
Rita took two steps back and forcibly composed herself.
It might be a little embarrassing to say out loud, but Rita had been genuinely on the verge of having a nosebleed.
Ah! Paradise — this place is paradise!
Lady Bianca is SO adorable! So adorable, SO adorable!
Slurp slurp~ (drooling sounds)
"Right then — in the name of this fine food, Kiana: run twenty laps with me first."
Little Bianca held up a single finger, gave her little sister a wink, then grabbed her by the hand and made to drag her outside.
"Huh? Running laps?"
An entire day had passed since their return to the Anti-Entropy base, and Kiana still hadn't fully recovered from the reality of having recognized her future sister — who only looked twelve years old.
How to put it…
She felt less like a big sister and more like a little sister.
Kiana shot a glance at Rita, who looked on the verge of fainting from sheer bliss, and gave her own head a sharp shake to clear it — steadying herself just as an enormous force yanked her forward.
She's so tiny… how is she this STRONG?!
"Wait — sis!"
Kiana planted both hands stiffly behind her back and fidgeted in place. "Could you maybe tell me a little more about the future first?"
She had been wanting to meet her sister all this time — but now that they had actually recognized each other, Kiana found herself a little flustered and at a loss, the way any pair of long-separated sisters might be after reuniting, not quite sure how to act around each other.
Her sister, though, was completely natural about it — not a trace of awkwardness. Which made sense, when you thought about it: from her sister's perspective in time, she and 'herself' had already become a real family.
Bianca's easy familiarity had drawn Kiana out of her own shell too, and the two had grown close quickly — so right now, Kiana very, very much wanted to know what the future held.
"The future, hm — there's a lot worth talking about, but looking back on it now, it also feels pretty ordinary."
Little Bianca's words carried not the slightest trace of stiffness or distance, as natural as if she were talking to a little sister she'd grown up alongside every single day:
"We play soccer together on the lunar pitch — you and Mei and Bronya on one team, me and Rita and Auntie on the other."
"Everyone barbecues together, cooks together, decorates the Christmas tree, celebrates New Year's, prepares birthday presents for each other…"
The soft, childlike voice narrated moments from the future one by one, and simply listening was enough to feel the warmth and happiness woven through them.
Rita sat quietly off to one side, listening — some of what was said concerned her too, such as the detail that in the future she and Lady Bianca lived together, and traveled all over the place together.
Such ordinary, unremarkable everyday things — yet the warmth they radiated was like a clear spring welling up in the middle of a desert.
Something trembled and surged in Kiana's heart, like magma churning and rushing up from the ocean floor. Her eyes, beyond her control, grew wet…
Just hearing it was enough to make the Kiana of right now feel so happy she wanted to cry — that was the future being described.
"There are plenty more plans for the future too — and we'll make all of them happen. Though there was one tiny little hiccup…"
The future Kiana had fallen into slumber.
"But the future is definitely going to be wonderful!"
Little Bianca's unwavering tone and radiant smile sent both Rita and Kiana drifting into their own quiet reveries.
"Lady Bianca — if that's the case, is it really alright to change the future?" Rita asked, hesitant.
"My coming to this world was actually an accident," Bianca said, scratching her head.
"As for what changes to the future that implies — I've talked it over with Silver Wing…"
At that, Bianca's expression turned slightly uncertain.
"Alright, alright — sister bonding time is hereby concluded. Time to move, my lovely girls."
Silver Wing's voice, bright with a playful lilt, drifted in suddenly from just outside the door.
"The plan is about to begin."
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