Chapter 220: Kevin: Mei...?
The others didn't quite understand what Irene was doing, moving about as naturally as if she were just stretching a limb — but they trusted her enough not to press the matter.
There had to be a reason she was doing this. They could always ask later. And besides, they hadn't missed what Irene and Rita had just said to each other.
Even so, aside from Kiana and Little Senti — who had gone quiet and thoughtful — none of the others knew about the connection between Kiana and Durandal.
Kiana closed her eyes. When she opened them again, Sirin had taken the wheel. She turned, reached into empty space, and tore open a portal.
She knew where Shenchen Pharmaceuticals was. These past two days hadn't been wasted — they'd taken a couple of turns around the surrounding area.
Just as Irene had said: at this point, the line between enemy and ally had become almost meaningless. Everyone's goal was the same — bring down the Honkai. Which was why even strolling openly near Schicksal's base hadn't earned them so much as a second glance. They were drawing closer to a certain turning point.
The friction between Schicksal and Anti-Entropy had been steadily fading. Both Irene's side and Otto's were keeping a lid on any further conflict.
Though it was equally possible that Otto was busy cleaning up Anti-Entropy's image so that the two organizations could merge back together — after all, once the plan was complete, Schicksal couldn't afford to go a single day without a master.
Rita watched Irene leave, then raised the instrument in her hand and activated the core inside. One by one, the cores from the puppet bodies strewn across the warehouse lifted free and drifted toward the device, slowly fusing into a whole.
Then Rita pressed her earpiece.
A screen materialized in front of her moments later, Otto's image appearing on the other side. "It seems the matter has been resolved. Correct?" Otto said, looking at her.
Rita nodded, then tilted the instrument to display its contents — a nearly-completed Herrscher of the Legion Core.
"Miss Irene entrusted this to me. Should I send it back to Schicksal immediately?"
"No — I'll come collect it myself." Otto said idly. A portion of it was still on Kevin's end; he'd have to go in person for that.
"Understood." Rita nodded. "In addition — regarding Lord Durandal."
"That's a matter for Miss Irene to handle." Otto smiled. "Sisters ought to be reunited. Regrettably, I have no way to help them with that."
He managed to look genuinely wistful about it, then added: "Though I must say, I'm rather looking forward to seeing how that reunion plays out."
Rita said nothing. This was not a moment for speaking. She also shot a pointed look at the cluster of Immortal Blades members who had very obviously been straining their ears — silently telling them to get back to work.
The members in question immediately snapped to attention and resumed hauling bodies off the floor, doing their best to look like they hadn't heard a thing.
These puppets might still have some research value. Some of their weapons had come from exactly this kind of source — study a Honkai Beast long enough, and the next day it could become raw material for new gear.
Though honestly, these puppets didn't look all that impressive. Conservative estimate: not weapon-grade. Good enough to hand off to the research division for some light study.
But — they had definitely just caught something rather earth-shattering. What did "sisters being reunited" mean, exactly? That was a staggering amount of information to absorb. Lord Durandal had a sister?
Right, and the key detail: a deal struck with Miss Irene. Was this implying the sister was in Anti-Entropy?!
That was a monumental intelligence drop. And from the look of things, their Overseer had already tacitly approved this deal — which meant they might soon be facing Lord Durandal... on the Anti-Entropy side?
Absolutely not. That was the last thing they wanted. That could not be allowed to happen.
If someone followed her defection over to Anti-Entropy and they ended up in some kind of hostile standoff — well, at that point they might as well defect along with her.
No one understood better than the members of the Immortal Blades squad just how devastatingly beautiful Lord Durandal's combat strength truly was.
Not that they wanted to admit it, but if Lord Durandal entered the battlefield, the Immortal Blades squad would probably be reduced to cheerleaders and post-battle cleanup crew.
Because Lord Durandal's efficiency was simply that absurd.
Rita closed the communication interface and turned to find the Immortal Blades squad had — for reasons she couldn't quite fathom — collectively sunk into a visible cloud of gloom. She frowned.
"Hmm?" Rita tilted her head, eyeing the nearest members. These idiots. They'd been thinking all sorts of things they shouldn't have been, hadn't they?
Shenchen Pharmaceuticals
Irene and the others leapt out of the room and surveyed the scene — Herrschers of the Legion and Kevin scattered across the floor in every direction.
"Looks like a decent turnout on this end too," Irene remarked. "By the numbers, that should be just about everyone."
"Indeed." Kevin nodded. "Sounds like things wrapped up on your side as well?"
"Of course." Irene nodded, then glanced around. "Where's Durandal? Shouldn't she be with you?"
"I put her into the Stigmata Space." Kevin looked at Irene, then over at Kiana — a clone, technically, but still carrying Kaslana blood in her veins.
Since they were already here, Kevin figured — why not? He turned to Irene. "She can go in too, if she'd like. Want to make it a group trip?"
Kiana scratched her head and leaned over to Irene. "What's a Stigmata Space? Is it actually useful?"
"A special space that awakens your Kaslana bloodline, more or less." Irene glanced at Kiana, shrugged, then pointed at her back. "The Kaslana Family has hereditary Stigmata — you already know that, right?"
Kiana nodded right away. Siegfried had covered the basics with her. Actually, calling it "basics" was understating it — this was common knowledge for anyone who'd spent any time in Schicksal.
"You have the Kaslana Stigmata, but you haven't actually tapped the power it should be giving you." Kevin picked up the thread. "The Stigmata Space can help with that."
"Durandal is already inside."
"Is it safe, Sister Irene?" Kiana still turned to Irene first. Even though Irene had told her Kevin was her ancestor, under current circumstances, she trusted Irene more.
"Kevin's not wrong about any of it, actually." Irene nodded at Kiana. "And it's not just Durandal in there — Mr. Siegfried is too."
"Wait — Dad's in there too?" Kiana stared, first at Irene, then at Kevin. "Hang on — does the trial really take that long?"
"Not necessarily." Kevin shook his head before Irene could answer. "If you can pass the trial, it won't take long at all. Siegfried could have come out quickly too, but he tripped over his own feet and got stuck."
"Come on, don't be too hard on him." Irene looked at Kevin with a trace of exasperation. "No wife, no daughter — in a situation like that, asking him to pick himself back up and keep going? Isn't that a bit much?"
"It's not a matter of being too much or not. It's something that simply has to be done." Kevin shook his head. Many warriors of the Previous Era had faced exactly this kind of predicament.
He understood. After all, he had lived through it himself — more times than he could count. Every time a comrade fell, it carved another wound into him.
But you still had to stand back up. Because there were still people behind you who needed protecting. And even when those people had faded away entirely, Kevin still had to stand — because he still had to fight the Honkai.
He still had to protect this era. He still had to protect human civilization.
So he still hoped Siegfried would find a way to rise. Perhaps it was asking too much — but in the face of the Honkai, there was only so much room for sentiment.
Kevin looked at Kiana. "Because you are already a Herrscher, I won't push you. The Stigmata's enhancement for you would likely be negligible."
When it came down to it, Stigmata had originally been derived by reverse-engineering Herrschers in the first place. A Herrscher awakening a Stigmata didn't stand to gain much from it.
Take Mei — she had Stigmata, and powerful ones at that. Powerful enough that they could actually kill her. But even so, when facing a Herrscher at the apex of power, the bonus those Stigmata provided was negligible, nearly nonexistent.
So Kevin wasn't going to force Kiana to awaken her Stigmata. For her, focusing on mastering her Herrscher Authority was already more than enough.
As for Durandal — Kevin genuinely wanted to see just how far someone like her could grow. Since Durandal already had a Bubble Universe as an external boost, tacking on a Stigmata on top of that hardly seemed unreasonable.
"I'm going in." If her deadbeat dad was trapped in there, Kiana couldn't just pretend she hadn't heard about it. Kevin, seeing her mind was made up, wasted no time opening the entrance to the Stigmata Space.
Kiana gave everyone a quick nod, then jumped straight through. The entrance dissolved behind her, leaving no trace.
Kevin was quiet for a moment, then added: "Don't worry. There's no great danger inside for her. She'll be back after some time."
"Honestly, the one I actually want to meet is Durandal." A point of light drifted out from beside Irene, gradually assembling itself into the shape of Mobius.
"To think that the Bubble Universe Inversion Theory we developed alongside that holy sword actually had a compatible user in the end? I never imagined it."
There was a trace of genuine admiration in Mobius's voice. When the holy sword Durandal was being created, they had been attempting to see whether that theory could be made practical.
But they'd researched it all the way until the continent itself exploded, and found not a single compatible candidate. The success probability had been even lower than the original MANTIS program.
And yet the Current Era had actually produced one — someone compatible, who had, by extraordinary fortune, found the holy sword Durandal, rescued a Bubble Universe, and successfully fused it into herself.
Was this fate?
"Because this civilization still wants to survive." That was how Kevin put it. He had seen too many civilizations fall — from the moment he awoke to now, he had watched too many dynasties rise and crumble.
Every time, right at the end, every civilization, every nation produced forces that surpassed all expectation. None of them wanted to simply dissolve into the smoke of history.
It was always the same. Perhaps fate had nothing to do with it — it was simply what had to be done. When there was nowhere left to retreat, the only thing left was to charge forward.
Some succeeded. Others charged forward anyway, and still failed. But that courage — to press ahead even knowing it was impossible — was something even Kevin couldn't bring himself to deny.
"If it only took your rescue to save this civilization, then this civilization wouldn't be worth saving in the first place, would it?" Irene smiled, looking at Kevin, and reached into her pocket, producing a card.
"There's one more thing I came here to do."
Kevin looked at the card Irene had just produced, puzzled — then his eyes went wide as she pressed it against herself.
A flash of light, and MEI's form replaced Irene's, standing in her place. MEI adjusted her glasses and looked at Kevin. Kevin looked at MEI. The two of them stood in silence for a long moment.
Raiden Mei raised an eyebrow, looking at this woman who resembled her so deeply and yet was so fundamentally different in bearing — and was just about to say something when Little Senti, reading the room perfectly, gently herded everyone away.
"Alright, alright, stop staring — they need to talk. Let's give the two of them some space."
Fu Hua caught on as well and nodded. "Let's not disturb them. We'll head out first."
Gray Serpent, who had been standing silently in the hall, recognized his cue and stepped forward. "If you'll follow me, everyone. You must have worked hard dealing with the Herrscher of the Legion."
At the sound of Gray Serpent's voice, Mobius glanced over at him — and inwardly marveled. Fifty thousand years, and she'd optimized herself into this. She thought briefly about the other ending Irene had described.
She truly couldn't fathom how Gray Serpent had managed it.
And then Kevin finally spoke, after a long pause.
"Mei..."
"Mm." MEI nodded and met his gaze. "You know I'm not the one you knew, right?"
"I know." Kevin nodded. He had been genuinely stunned the moment MEI appeared — but he also understood what it meant when Irene took on someone's form.
Like the Cat before, the MEI standing in front of him now was a MEI from another world, adrift somewhere in the vast Sea of Quanta.
"You two really are a pair — can barely squeeze a sentence out between you." Mobius folded her arms, watching them both.
"...This is fine." MEI smiled — and for the first time, the expression that had been quietly pained softened into something like joy. "I think this is perfectly fine."
"Kevin — Elysia told me some things, about Project Stigma. Mobius told me too. So..."
Kevin's eyes shifted, just slightly — but he said nothing. Project Stigma had been designed by MEI and Mobius. If MEI was willing to offer counsel, if there was a better approach — why would Kevin not want to follow it?
Still, he asked: "With the situation as it is now — would switching to a new plan be too late?"
"No. Because the most suitable candidate has just appeared."
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