She probably wouldn't have time in the short term.
With complicated emotions, Kiana chatted with Robin for a few moments. Although Robin felt somewhat regretful, she expressed her understanding and extended an invitation for her to come to Penacony to attend the Charmony Festival.
Kiana pinned the conversation. She could guess what Robin wanted to talk to her about.
At the same time, she glanced toward Acheron.
"Hm?"
"... Mei, you mentioned before that you wanted to find the Galaxy Ranger, right?"
"I once met a special person in the depths of Nihility and promised to return something to its rightful owner."
Acheron nodded. This unfinished matter had always remained in her memory. Even when she used to be forgetful, she had never forgotten it, and she certainly would not forget now.
She also took promises very seriously.
Kiana looked at her phone with a hint of emotion and said softly, "No rush. Maybe we'll run into them sometime soon."
She had slept for a very long time. Fortunately, she didn't have too many social connections, so handling everything wasn't as troublesome as she had imagined.
However, when Ruan Mei heard that she planned to go home for a while—especially to retrieve the Stigmata—she accompanied her back and handled some matters along the way.
"Herta already knows about your situation and wants to meet you at the space station. Do you want to go see her?"
On the eve of departure, Ruan Mei—who was planning to return to Herta Space Station to continue her unfinished research and temporarily wrap up a project—mentioned something unexpected to Kiana.
"Herta?"
"Mm. She mentioned it to me a couple of days ago."
Kiana felt a little puzzled. Hadn't she already met Herta before? Why would Ruan Mei specifically say that Herta wanted to meet her—again?
She knows about my situation.
"Is she interested in Honkai too?"
"Herta... for her, anything that is a difficult puzzle will attract her interest."
A difficult puzzle...
Well, Honkai certainly counted as one. Even in her current state, she couldn't claim to fully understand it herself.
"What do you think, Ruan?"
Meeting Herta wasn't a problem. Besides, what she planned to do next might require discussions with certain people.
She could retrieve the Stigmata from Jyahnar at any time, but using her own power to bring the Stigmata world into reality...
Her thoughts were still unclear.
And Ruan Mei... she already had too many research topics to handle. Kiana felt embarrassed to bring this to her immediately and planned to figure things out on her own first.
"Would you like to hear my suggestion?" Ruan Mei said. "Personally, I recommend that you go talk with her. Herta... her talent is indeed astonishing."
"Alright. Then I'll postpone going to Belobog to find Jyahnar for now."
Kiana trusted Ruan Mei's judgment unconditionally. Since she felt Kiana should talk with Herta, she immediately pushed back her plan to go to Belobog.
There weren't many things she needed to do at the moment. She planned to go to Belobog to neutralize the Honkai there and check on Jyahnar—who had been left on her own for quite some time—and retrieve the Stigmata crystals left behind by Izumo.
After that, she would accept Robin's invitation.
Make a trip to Penacony.
Once those things were done, there seemed to be nothing urgently requiring her attention anymore. She could fully devote herself to researching how to recreate the Stigmata world in reality.
When she returned to the space station again, several days had already passed. It looked much the same as when she had last visited.
What surprised her was the Astral Express docked at Herta Space Station. Kiana hadn't expected to encounter the Astral Express again so soon after waking up.
Truly worthy of being the protagonists.
Such a strong sense of presence.
Silently giving the Astral Express a mental thumbs-up, Kiana didn't plan to look for the Nameless this time since she was here to meet Ruan Mei.
As before, the one she met was Herta's puppet. Kiana was actually quite curious about what Herta's real body looked like.
Being stared at constantly by the puppet—even though it was cute—still gave her an unsettling chill down her spine.
Rubbing her arm uneasily, Kiana took the initiative to break the silence. "Miss Herta? Maybe say something? Just staring at me isn't helping anyone."
"Let me study you."
Herta not speaking would have been better; once she did, she dropped a bombshell that made Kiana's head buzz.
Wait, is that something you can just say casually?
Ruan Mei and Acheron both instinctively turned their gazes toward her. Ruan Mei's expression remained as unreadable as ever, while Acheron's reaction was far more direct.
A frown.
Displeasure.
"I must refuse!" Kiana rejected Herta's sudden request without hesitation.
"Tsk, I knew it," Herta said irritably. "Last time I asked you to help test the Simulated Universe, you reacted the same way."
"... If you don't want your Simulated Universe anymore, maybe I could satisfy your curiosity," Kiana replied helplessly. "I don't know what kind of strange reactions Honkai energy might produce with your Simulated Universe, but it definitely won't be anything good."
"Honkai energy... what a strange name," Herta said. Through Ruan Mei, she had come into contact with this new phenomenon and showed considerable interest in it. "According to Ruan Mei, you're already walking the path toward ascension?"
Kiana glanced at Ruan Mei beside her and nodded. "I guess... you could say that. Honestly, I don't know how to accurately describe my current state to you."
"Honkai, Honkai energy... your path doesn't seem related to Aeons at all. It doesn't resemble a Path either, and it doesn't have its own defining trait."
As long as one could endure the erosion of Honkai energy, anyone could use its power. And the power itself was extremely peculiar—it could erode and affect living beings, the dead, machines, and even intelligent constructs. There was almost nothing it couldn't influence.
It could even erode the power of Paths, including the notoriously troublesome Path of Nihility. That alone had surprised Herta for quite some time.
No wonder Ruan Mei had suddenly become interested.
With something like this placed right before them, she thought, no genius could possibly suppress their curiosity.
"That's true," Kiana agreed with a nod. Even now, she didn't feel that Honkai energy had anything similar to a Path.
How did that saying go? The Aeons in this universe felt more like embodiments of philosophy.
Honkai had nothing to do with that.
Even the destruction of worlds wasn't Honkai energy's original intent—it was merely a side effect.
"So then..."
Before Herta could finish speaking, the space station suddenly trembled. Immediately afterward, everyone present felt a sudden wave of heat.
Her words interrupted, Herta's mood worsened instantly, and the sensation of heat allowed her to quickly lock onto the source.
"This is... an Antimatter Legion invasion?"
Kiana spoke in surprise. Even without seeing what was happening outside, that sensation could only make her think of one thing—Destruction.
Were these guys really bold enough to attack the space station?
No—
Kiana suddenly jolted awake to a realization.
Wasn't this exactly when the game's main storyline officially began?
The Legion invades the space station. The Stellaron Hunters secretly infiltrate it and place the Stellaron restrained by Herta into the protagonist's body.
And then, the story truly begins.
Right. When they had just arrived at the space station, they had seen the Astral Express docked there.
Which meant—
Stelle, or Caelus, was about to appear.
"Miss Herta, it seems your space station is under attack by the Antimatter Legion," Kiana said, sounding rather eager. "Do you need any help?"
"You seem excited," Herta remarked.
"I am," Kiana said seriously. "I'm very curious—and very interested. This is your territory, Miss Herta. For the Legion's foot soldiers to dare attack the space station without even a single Lord Ravager showing up… they must have completely lost their minds."
"I really want to see what kind of Voidranger they are—what species could possibly be this hard-headed."
Thinking about how the plot was now officially starting, Kiana couldn't help feeling a spark of excitement.
The Legion of Destruction knows no fear. To destroy enemies—or be destroyed—is all part of walking the Path of Destruction.
Kiana's way of putting it was rather amusing.
Attacking her space station—weren't they just brainless?
Brainless.
Yes! Memorize that one. Next time she met some idiot who couldn't understand human language, she'd use that exact phrase.
"Then go take a look," Herta waved her hand. "As long as you don't flip my space station upside down, do whatever you want. Oh, and Ruan·Mei—I still have some things I want to discuss with you."
After bidding farewell to Ruan Mei and Herta, Kiana impatiently prepared to head out and see what was happening outside.
As for what Herta wanted to talk to Ruan·Mei about, it was probably academic matters—or her own situation.
She wasn't particularly curious.
Many areas of the space station were already showing Fragmentum phenomena. Along the way, Kiana spotted quite a few Legion Voidrangers.
This wasn't her first time encountering such a situation. Back when she had been searching for Mei, she and Robin had gone on tour performances across various worlds to help where they could. She had encountered worlds facing Stellaron crises—and Legion invasions—more than once.
"I'll handle it," Acheron said, seeing the Voidrangers ahead, her hand resting on her sword hilt.
"Then I'll leave it to you, Mei~"
Come to think of it, since reuniting, Kiana hadn't actually seen Acheron fight with her own eyes.
In an instant, the entire space seemed to lose all color. By the moment the space returned to normal, the Voidrangers wandering the corridor had already turned to ash and vanished completely.
Sheathed her blade, Acheron asked, "Where do you want to go next?"
Kiana closed her eyes and sensed outward. With her as the center, the entire space station came into her perception.
"This way," she pointed in a direction. "Aside from the Legion, there are other uninvited 'guests' on Herta's space station. Let's go see what's going on."
Stelle had already appeared. Without teleporting, if they walked over now, they likely wouldn't run straight into Kafka or Silver Wolf.
But she didn't need to meet them.
She simply wanted to see Stelle—the protagonist of Honkai: Star Rail.
As for the Stellaron Hunters—
They were parallel lines that would never intersect.
There was no need to provoke them. She wasn't a Nameless, and getting too deeply entangled with the Stellaron Hunters probably wouldn't be a good thing.
"So you offered to help because you sensed those uninvited 'guests'?" Acheron asked.
"Yep!" Kiana nodded, not hiding anything from her, smiling as she said, "They're the Stellaron Hunters. They're in the room where Herta stores her curios, messing with her collection."
"Stellaron Hunters…"
Acheron seemed thoughtful—though in truth, she didn't recall having heard of such an organization.
"That's not important. What they're doing is… quite interesting. I want to take a look. Maybe this even counts as witnessing history."
Witnessing history?
What kind of event could deserve that title?
With a trace of curiosity in her heart, every Voidranger they encountered along the way was erased by Acheron's blade, leaving no trace behind.
They barely needed to fight at all. The only trouble was navigating the maze-like corridors. Before long, Kiana arrived at their destination.
"Who's out there?"
Just as they drew near, a girl's voice rang out from inside.
From the sound alone—it was a familiar voice.
Kiana had deliberately come here after they had already met. Upon entering the room, her gaze immediately landed on the clear-eyed girl standing beside March 7th, her expression innocent and slightly bewildered.
Smiling, she greeted the familiar faces. "March 7th, Dan Heng—long time no see."
"Miss Kiana?!" March 7th stared at her in shock, rubbing her eyes. "Why are you here? No, wait—when did you wake up?!"
Seeing that it was a familiar face rather than a Legion enemy, Dan Heng relaxed his guard slightly. Whether it was Kiana or Acheron, both were powerful allies.
"Just recently. I haven't been awake long," Kiana said. "Ruan mentioned that Miss Herta wanted to meet me, so I came along today. I didn't expect to run into a Legion invasion of the space station, though."
"Yeah, it was super sudden! There are Legion thugs all over the station—we took out a bunch on the way!"
Kiana nodded, then shifted her attention to the girl who seemed completely unaware of the situation.
"And this is…?"
"Oh! She said her name is Stelle. We just met her here," March 7th explained. "But she seems to have amnesia. We were planning to take her back to the Master Control Zone with us!"
March 7th then invited them warmly. "Do you want to come with us? Station Head Asta and all the evacuated researchers are there."
"Are you searching for researchers too?"
"Not exactly. I sensed that there were some uninvited guests here, so I came to check it out."
"Huh?"
Dan Heng glanced at Stelle.
Stelle, being stared at, scratched her head and pointed at herself. "Me?"
She remembered that when she first woke up, she had heard Dan Heng talking about how her coordinates hadn't been sent from the space station.
So… was she not from the space station?
Then who was she? Where did she come from?
Kiana shook her head. "Those two guests have already left."
Two guests… could it be—
Stelle fell into thought. When she had just awakened, she had seen two people standing before her.
Was that who Kiana meant?
She couldn't quite figure it out.
"Then shall we head back to the Master Control Zone together?"
"Sure."
Dan Heng judged that the girl they had just met—Stelle—was unusual. Or rather, far from ordinary.
Seeing how Kiana's curious gaze kept drifting toward Stelle from time to time, he couldn't help but wonder.
Had she come here specifically for Stelle?
With questions in his heart, Dan Heng decided he'd need to pay closer attention to this newly acquainted girl going forward.
"Then let's go!"
March 7th said cheerfully.
Last time, she had asked Kiana to help find Mr. Yang. They did find him—but Kiana herself had met with an accident and fallen into a deep sleep. That had worried them sick.
Even though Miss Acheron had said it wasn't their fault, no matter how you looked at it, they were the ones who had asked Kiana for help.
And then she ended up in a coma.
How could they not feel guilty?
—
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