[St. Freya Academy]
Kiana pretended to casually put down her phone and looked at Theresa.
"He said he has something to do this morning and can't come."
"Alright! Then we'll leave in the afternoon!"
Theresa nodded. Himeko's physical condition hadn't reached the point where she was about to collapse immediately.
So she wasn't in too much of a hurry to go to Nagazora City.
And leaving a bit later would also let them gather more intelligence to prevent accidents.
Even though the other party guaranteed nothing would happen, being fully prepared would still make her feel more at ease.
However, what puzzled her was that they still hadn't found the Herrscher and the pseudo-Herrscher the other party mentioned.
A pseudo-Herrscher was within expectations. After all, with the Honkai energy in Nagazora City, it was completely possible for one or two pseudo-Herrschers to be born.
But a Herrscher…
The image of Raiden Mei appeared in Theresa's mind.
With the amount of Honkai energy currently contained in Nagazora City, it was absolutely not enough for another Herrscher to be born.
Unless that Herrscher already existed before.
"Could it be that Nagazora City produced two Herrschers at once?"
'Twins?'
'That productive? Nagazora City.'
———
Looking at the Honkai beast letting out painful howls, Levi felt it was because its transformation wasn't complete yet.
He still held to his viewpoint.
Honkai beasts don't feel pain.
This one definitely still had normal biological tissue inside.
Pulling his gaze away from the Honkai beast, Levi looked toward Herta and Ruan Mei, who were busy.
Although they were trying to hide their emotions, their faces still showed expressions different from usual.
Looking at the two of them, Levi evaluated in his heart, "Evil scientists!"
The kind that would make Sirin unable to resist using her ultimate.
He withdrew his gaze and didn't plan to go over to meet them.
After all, in this situation, it was better to avoid contact with Herta as much as possible.
"Tsk! Which bastard figured out my home address and even told Herta about it?!"
No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't come up with any suspects.
But he could roughly determine it was someone from the Elation faction.
Think about it. In the entire universe, who would spend their days meddling in this kind of thing?
Everyone else was busy. Who had the spare time to bother with him?
Only those fools, plus their Aeon, who had nothing better to do all day except look for fun across the universe.
His location was very likely spread by that clown.
He just didn't know whether it was the Aeon of Elation personally who told Herta, or one of the fools under Them.
And on top of that, he had become famous across the universe under the name "Mr. Cold Feet."
So it was most likely those Elation people. No doubt about it.
Levi spat unhappily, waved at Jing Yuan, then turned and walked back the way he came.
"Hm?"
Herta stopped what she was doing and looked up toward Levi, raising an eyebrow as she watched his departing back.
Asta's friend. They had only met yesterday, yet unexpectedly ran into each other here again today.
"Quite a coincidence."
She glanced at Jing Yuan standing not far away. Maybe this General had something to discuss with him.
Herta didn't think too much about it. Right now, her attention was completely drawn to these creatures.
Suddenly, Ruan Mei stopped what she was doing. Looking at the Honkai beast that had stopped struggling, she picked up the notebook beside her and wrote down a few lines.
"A fascinating… creation."
Ruan Mei had wanted to say organism, but felt the word creation suited it better.
Her interested eyes watched as the dead Honkai beast slowly weathered into purple energy and dissipated into the air.
"Death leaves no corpse. Instead it turns into energy to nourish other individuals. There are also no tissues inside that a normal lifeform should have."
It didn't even have the basic tissues needed to sustain life.
"How does it survive?"
She couldn't find an answer based on her previous knowledge, and in the end could only leave the words interesting.
She had developed a strong interest in Honkai beasts.
This interest far surpassed her past interest in studying the Swarm. After all, every insect in the Swarm still followed the basic laws of life.
Even a sparrow, though small, has all its vital organs. Inside them is still a set of organs that maintain life.
But these things in front of her, let alone body organs, didn't even have the basic unit of life... cells.
Clearly they had been ordinary creatures before, yet after becoming like this, there wasn't even a trace of what they used to be.
"Be careful!"
Seeing Ruan Mei remove her protective gear, Herta immediately frowned and reminded her, "This thing is highly corrosive!"
She herself was just a puppet body, and her real body wasn't here, so naturally she wasn't afraid of the corrosion.
But Ruan Mei was flesh and blood.
Before they figured out how to cure the corrosion from this thing, it was better to avoid direct contact as much as possible.
"That's exactly what I want."
Ruan Mei looked at the purple liquid inside the Honkai beast that emitted a strange glow.
Herta immediately understood what she was planning. Her gaze toward her became somewhat serious.
Her actions were undoubtedly putting herself in danger.
Although letting herself be corroded would allow Ruan Mei to understand these things better and faster, if anything went wrong, it could very likely cause irreversible consequences.
But Herta didn't try to persuade her.
She understood the personalities of people like them. Once they decided something, no one could change their minds.
Her slender fingers entered the liquid. The purple energy seemed to find an outlet and began gradually seeping into her body through her skin.
Ruan Mei closed her eyes and quietly sensed the changes happening in her body.
Levi, who had already boarded a starskiff and left, suddenly frowned and looked toward Ruan Mei's direction.
After a long pause, he forced out a single sentence.
"Lunatic!"
'You haven't even fully researched this shit yet and you dare play like this?!'
Those people at Schicksal had researched Honkai for hundreds of years and still didn't dare do something like Ruan Mei, letting their body directly come into contact with Honkai.
Actively letting it corrode the body.
Honkai wasn't like a virus. It was a special kind of energy. The body's immune system basically had no defense against it.
If an ordinary person was invaded, they could just calmly wait for death.
'What a crazy woman!'
The line between genius and lunatic was very blurry. A genius could be called a lunatic, and a lunatic could also be called a genius.
What Ruan Mei was doing right now perfectly proved that point.
Was she a lunatic?
From what she was doing now, obviously yes.
Was she a genius?
The answer was just as obvious.
Someone who could stand out from the entire universe and be invited by Nous to join the Genius Society... how could she not be a genius?
"If I leave and immediately go somewhere else to do a mission…"
Then the Luofu would personally witness a genius fall right here.
Levi stared blankly toward the direction of the Alchemy Commission, as if he could see Ruan Mei's figure.
"Hm?"
A puzzled sound came from Ruan Mei's mouth as she looked up toward the distant sky.
At this moment, the Honkai corrosion had already covered her entire arm. Her fair arm was now covered with purple patterns.
This scene, compared to Levi's appearance back then, even if not exactly the same, was very close.
Jing Yuan was too far away, and since he was constantly paying attention to the soldiers, he didn't see what Ruan Mei and Herta were doing.
Her intelligent eyes were dyed with the red color that only the Honkai undead possessed.
With these eyes now, even from a great distance, with countless buildings in between, she could still see that figure.
She could sense the energy inside his body, so dense it could envelop the entire Luofu.
Turn everyone here into those monsters.
At the same time, Ruan Mei felt there was a bridge connecting her and that figure.
Based on the feedback coming through that bridge, he should be her superior.
At that moment, the other party seemed to notice her existence, and a message came across the bridge.
"Brain-dead."
"?"
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