In the Kabaneri world.
The energies of Houraiji Kyuusyou and Delta intertwined in midair, eventually condensing into a rotating cocoon of light. The cocoon glowed with a violet radiance, like a flower bud breaking free from a nebula. With every rotation, fragments of shimmering light spilled outward.
The cocoon continued to expand. Fine patterns gradually emerged across its surface, like the translucent scales of a butterfly's wings before it breaks free. Each tremor sent several tiny transparent spores drifting gently downward.
Boom—!
A muffled explosion tore through the air as the cocoon suddenly shattered. Countless spores scattered in every direction like dandelion seeds awakened by a violent gust of wind.
They feared neither rain nor tearing winds. The moment they touched the air, they began reproducing asexually. From particles nearly invisible to the naked eye, they rose swiftly along ascending air currents and ultimately merged into distant cloud layers.
The pale violet spores seemed to possess life, sweeping across the globe along the path of the wind.
Wherever they passed—whether running humans, roaring Kabane, or fleeing animals—any being that came into contact with the spores would freeze in an instant, losing all ability to act, as though someone had pressed a pause button.
As the area covered by spores grew wider and wider, an invisible dream expanded with it, like a tide washing over the boundary of reality, gradually devouring the real world.
Mima Amatori stood atop the roof of a modified steam vehicle, gazing at the distant clouds glowing with an eerie violet light.
His subordinates collapsed one after another beside him, their eyes closed, as though they had fallen into a deep sleep.
Before he could determine the cause, an overwhelming drowsiness suddenly struck him, like shackles of lead weighing down his eyelids.
His vision blurred. The surrounding scenery warped into distorted waves. He clenched his fists desperately, trying to remain conscious, but his awareness sank little by little into darkness, as though plunging into an abyss...
When he opened his eyes again, the blinding sunlight made him instinctively raise a hand to shield them.
He rubbed his aching temples and looked around in confusion. On the unfamiliar street, traffic bustled and pedestrians moved back and forth. Everything carried a sense of unreal dissonance.
"Where am I?"
His memory was like a blank sheet of paper, completely empty. Yet deep in his heart, a voice kept reminding him that he had forgotten something extremely important.
On the other side, the dream world had finally stabilized.
Houraiji Kyuusyou and Delta withdrew their intertwined energies and opened their eyes at the same time.
"Feeling better?" Delta asked first, her gaze settling on Houraiji Kyuusyou.
"Yeah. Much better." Houraiji Kyuusyou stretched her arms, feeling the long-suppressed energy within her finally released. Her limbs felt lighter than ever before. "That sluggish feeling that was stuck in my body is completely gone."
"Good. How's the dream?" Delta continued.
"Very stable. Even the Kabane transformed by Honkai energy can be pulled in." Houraiji Kyuusyou closed her eyes to sense for a moment before answering. "Those mindless Kabane, after merging with the spores, have gained a rudimentary consciousness. Now they can be controlled by the dream."
As she spoke, she was already acting within the dream—precisely guiding all Kabane consciousness into predesignated zones. At the same time, Delta manipulated the spores parasitizing plants, stones, soil, and water sources, causing vines in reality to grow wildly along the spores' guidance, tightly binding the immobilized Kabane and bringing them fully under control.
The spores themselves carried consciousness. They were the medium through which the two controlled reality.
The entire process required neither of them to run about. A single thought within the dream world was enough to accomplish everything.
"Next, we just wait for the Honkai energy to crystallize. Once that happens, this operation will be over," Delta said calmly as she observed the scene before her.
This was a combined technique specially developed by the Queen of Insects for their fused abilities. It was effective not only against creatures with collective consciousness—even mindless beings could be granted a simple awareness and then controlled. Its efficiency far surpassed their individual actions.
Originally, the spores did not spread very quickly. Covering the entire globe would have taken considerable time. But Delta used magic to manipulate air currents, forcibly shortening the process by more than half.
The depths of the dream space fell silent. Houraiji Kyuusyou quietly turned her head, her gaze landing on Delta's breathtakingly beautiful face.
Before, an indescribable restlessness would rise within her heart, like a deer frantically pounding against her chest.
It must be my imagination...
She hurriedly averted her eyes, secretly letting out a breath as she tried to suppress the strange emotion.
Delta had long noticed her gaze but offered no response.
She knew very well that Houraiji Kyuusyou's restlessness was no accident—it was the effect of "Yuri Charm."
This was a passive skill from the magic world. As long as one simultaneously possessed the "Magical Girl" and "Valkyrie" classes, it would automatically activate.
Its effect was straightforward: it reduced jealousy among women while significantly increasing attraction toward women. Especially toward those with high favorability—even originally heterosexual women could be influenced.
Just as the two believed everything was under control, Houraiji Kyuusyou's perception suddenly faltered, as if pricked by something.
She abruptly looked up, her gaze locking onto the Siberian region of the dream world. That area had been completely under their control, yet at this moment, a strand of Honkai energy that did not belong to them was quietly spreading like a creeping vine.
Even more startling, wherever that fluctuation passed, the dream scenery twisted soundlessly. The once orderly domain of consciousness was being forcibly rewritten into something unfamiliar.
"What is it?" Delta sensed her abnormality and asked.
"In this world... besides us, is there someone else?" Houraiji Kyuusyou's tone carried both uncertainty and vigilance.
"No idea. Normally, no one should come here." Delta's voice held a trace of confusion. "Are you saying someone has intruded into the dream world?"
Houraiji Kyuusyou nodded and raised her hand, sharing the scene she perceived with Delta. "Not intruded. Someone directly seized my control over the Siberian dream sector. Look—"
In the image, two figures—one purple, one white—stood within the rewritten dream space, their auras utterly out of place in this world.
Delta stared at the purple figure, tilting her head in puzzlement. "Sirin, the Principal of Honkai Academy? Why would she be here?"
At the same time, within the Siberian dream sector.
Sirin suddenly lifted her eyes, her gaze precisely meeting the direction from which Houraiji Kyuusyou and Delta were observing. She had long since sensed their surveillance.
In truth, she had come to the Kabaneri world specifically to find Houraiji Kyuusyou.
The other's dream ability could perfectly cooperate with her simulation system. As long as they conducted countless future simulations within the dream and found the most satisfactory timeline, they could swap reality and dream—turning reality into a dream and making the dream the new reality.
Originally, she would not have needed to go through the trouble of searching for a "system host." But this time, because she had split her complete descent form, the simulation system had encountered a problem.
If she used her own role to conduct simulations, the "Sirin" within the simulation would only follow instinct—killing and destroying—never developing in the direction she desired.
Nor would it be under her control.
More troublesome still, the accumulated data of slaughter and destruction within the simulated universe had caused excessive data inflation, interfering with her complete descent. Now, her complete form not only had special advantages and resistances against humans, civilizations, and Aeons—it even possessed special advantages and resistances against the entire universe itself.
Such an "account" was practically ruined.
Fortunately, things had not reached the point of no return. As long as the simulation system did not treat her as the protagonist during simulations, it could still function normally.
And Houraiji Kyuusyou's dream ability was the key to solving this problem.
Sirin appeared instantly before Houraiji Kyuusyou and said,
"Need a cheat?"