Warp.
In The Herta's palm, a wisp of the Power of Existence drifted up and down.
She stared intently at that wisp of the Power of Existence and spoke with Herman in her mind:
'When the Power of Existence acts upon the Warp, it can transform the Warp's very essence, giving it the potential to grow into a spiritual universe!'
'After that, I applied the Power of Existence to Honkai energy as well, and that transformed Honkai energy too, granting it the potential to create Planet-class Honkai Beasts. It even established some sort of resonance with the god of Honkai at the far end of the cosmos.'
'Herman, tell me. If I apply this Power of Existence to more research projects, could it cause those projects to undergo transformations as well?!'
Herman said with a smile, 'There's a very good chance. Just try it.'
'All right. Then I'll test them one by one.'
The Herta gave a slight nod, then gently reached into the void. In an instant, a Soul Gem that had only just come off the Soul Gem factory's production line landed in her hand.
Clearly, the first experimental project she had chosen was the Soul Gem.
She gently waved the magic wand in her hand, and the Power of Existence fused with the Soul Gem.
At first, the appraisal data was exactly the same as usual, without the slightest change.
The Herta was already preparing to archive it.
But then a tiny cry suddenly came from within the Soul Gem.
"Hm?"
The Herta raised the gem before her eyes.
Inside the gem, the mass of light that had originally possessed only energy and no form had somehow condensed into the shape of a tiny animal. It had long ears, red eyes, and an exceedingly adorable appearance.
The illusory little creature made entirely of energy curiously peered outside.
When it saw The Herta's face, it even tilted its head.
Herman, who resided within The Herta, felt the corner of his mouth twitch at the sight and silently thought:
After the Power of Existence was infused into the Soul Gem, it activated the Soul Gem and produced a soul familiar.
And this familiar looks exactly like Kyubey!
I never expected... infusing the Power of Existence into a Soul Gem would cause this kind of transformation.
And while Herman was inwardly marveling at this, The Herta had already extended her Spirituality perception into the gem.
Through it, she sensed a young, newly formed consciousness, like a child who had just awakened and was trying to recognize someone:
"Mom."
The familiar uttered those two words.
Hearing that form of address, the corner of The Herta's mouth twitched slightly before she fell silent. Only after a long while did she ask the familiar inside the Soul Gem:
"What abilities do you possess?"
"I can sense the talents of young girls and identify which children among the masses are suited to embarking upon the Magical Girl · Path of Spirituality, then guide them onto that Path."
The familiar said earnestly, "I can create more magical-girl subordinates for Herta Mom."
The Herta drew a deep breath. "Don't call me Mom. Call me Herta, or Creator if you like. Also, I don't need magical-girl subordinates. I'm already powerful enough, I control the Herta Sequence, and I have extensive cooperation with the IPC. There are plenty of people in this world who want to serve me."
"However, if you personally want to cultivate magical girls, then go ahead."
"Madam Herta, you're willing to let me cultivate magical girls?"
"Mm."
The Herta gave a slight nod.
The familiar cheered, "Yay!"
"Right, I haven't given you a name yet. Do you have any thoughts about what you'd like to be called?"
"Please bestow a name upon me, Creator."
"..."
The Herta sank into thought.
Meanwhile, Herman, who had been listening to the conversation between The Herta and the familiar, now understood Kyubey's true ability. It was to cultivate magical girls.
Of course, Herman understood that this Kyubey was different from Kyubey the Incubator in the setting of Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
The Incubator Kyubey of Puella Magi Madoka Magica cultivated magical girls purely to exploit them, extracting the energy generated by the reversal of their emotions in order to counter entropy and save the universe.
But in the world of Honkai: Star Rail, the Kyubey created by The Herta from a Soul Gem plus the Power of Existence was not that sort of Incubator. They were familiars born specifically to cultivate magical girls.
Their essential nature was closer to that of familiars from traditional magical-girl settings. The sole meaning of their existence was to cultivate magical girls.
More precisely, all of this was because Herta, who created it, was a kind person. Deep down, she hoped more magical-girl miracles would emerge in this universe, allowing those miracles to save a cosmos being ravaged by Path-obsessed lunatics.
'Its name will be Kyubey. As for the messengers born from Soul Gems... they will be the Incubator race. Just as the name implies, they are messengers responsible for incubating magical girls,' Herman said within The Herta's mind.
'Kyubey, Incubator? Incubating magical girls? It does fit quite well.'
After responding in her mind, The Herta raised her head and stared at the familiar inside the Soul Gem. "From now on, your name will be Kyubey. In the future, I'll fill the Soul Gem production line with more Power of Existence and create more Incubators. You can select more suitable candidates throughout the cosmos and turn them into magical girls."
"Yes, Kyubey understands, Madam Herta." Kyubey cheered.
"Next, you'll follow Herta 05 and learn general knowledge from her. Once you've finished your studies and established a basic worldview, you can go out and select suitable magical-girl candidates."
After The Herta finished speaking, she waved the magic wand in her hand, and a spatial gateway opened.
Whoosh. The Soul Gem · Kyubey left the Warp, flew toward the Soul Gem factory, and landed atop Herta 05's head.
"Ow! Who hit me?"
Herta 05 rubbed her head and looked left and right, trying to see who had ambushed her.
"Whoa, there really are Hertas." Kyubey looked around at the interior of the Soul Gem factory and exclaimed in amazement, "So many Hertas. Every single one of them possesses a fraction of Madam Herta's elegance."
Hearing the sound, Herta 05 realized something and reached up toward the top of her head. After grabbing the object and bringing it before her eyes, she revealed a surprised expression:
"A Soul Gem? And it's a Soul Gem with self-awareness?!"
Could Madam Herta and Miss Ruan Mei have conducted some special experiment involving biology and souls again, ultimately creating this unusual Soul Gem?
As Herta 05 speculated inwardly, she heard Kyubey's young voice. "I'm Kyubey, a creation of Madam Herta. She told me to follow you for a while so I can learn proper values and basic knowledge."
After hearing that, Herta 05's expression darkened:
Of course. It's one of Madam Herta's experimental creations!
My weekends! My holidays! They're all doomed! Aaaaaaah...
Herta continued wailing endlessly in her heart.
...
After confirming that the Power of Existence worked on Soul Gems and could cause the familiar Incubator nurtured within a gem to hatch, The Herta began conducting deeper research into what mutations might arise when the Power of Existence was fused with even more projects.
The Herta worked with astonishing efficiency. The very next moment after sending Kyubey to the Soul Gem factory, she had already begun the second round of research experiments.
The second experimental subject was chakra.
The Herta had once eaten a chakra fruit, making her essentially the progenitor of chakra and the Ten-Tails' jinchuriki within the setting of Honkai: Star Rail. As long as she wished, she could distribute chakra to others, allowing the inhabitants of an entire planet to possess chakra and thereby recreate the feats of the Ninshu from Naruto.
Therefore, producing chakra was not difficult at all. On the contrary, it was exceedingly simple.
She merely raised a hand, and a vast amount of chakra surged from her palm, taking on a distinctive form—a chakra life-form, a Tailed Beast!
It had the head of a fox and nine tails growing from behind it.
The Nine-Tails!
The instant it opened its eyes, it fixed its gaze on The Herta and let out an adorable cry.
The Herta completely ignored the Nine-Tails' attempt to ingratiate itself with her. Her eyes held only intense curiosity:
What exactly will happen when the Power of Existence fuses with chakra?!
Hum.
The Herta flicked a finger, sending the Power of Existence shooting into the Nine-Tails' body. In that instant, the Nine-Tails' body began releasing limitless quantities of steam, like water brought to a violent boil.
Its color changed as well, shifting from its original fiery red to golden-red, while a sacred, transcendent aura that seemed to surpass all limits surged from it.
The Herta needed only a single glance to confirm that under the influence of the Power of Existence, the essential nature of the Tailed Beast before her had already undergone a qualitative transformation.
Meanwhile, Herman, who resided within The Herta, raised an eyebrow upon seeing all of this. 'Nature chakra? Senjutsu chakra? No... better appraise it first!'
Herman immediately used the Research System's Attribute Appraisal, and a special result appeared:
Transdimensional Chakra. Chakra that surpasses even senjutsu chakra, reaching the level of the Otsutsuki God and transcending dimensional boundaries—super-super chakra.
Herman glanced over the appraisal information and immediately understood:
Of course. The Power of Existence... enhanced the very essence of chakra. Which means the Nine-Tails is now a Transdimensional Nine-Tails.
If the Tailed Beast Bomb fired from the original Tailed Beast chakra could destroy a ninja village...
Then a Tailed Beast Bomb powered by Transdimensional Nine-Tails chakra should be capable of destroying a star.
As expected, the Power of Existence is extraordinary. It doesn't merely enhance Soul Gems and the Warp... it can even enhance chakra!
After marveling at the result, Herman relayed the information from his appraisal to The Herta.
"Transdimensional Chakra? The Power of Existence truly is extraordinary." Excitement gleamed in The Herta's eyes. "It's time to conduct even more tests."
Next, The Herta went even further, infusing massive amounts of the Power of Existence into projects such as the Devil Tree, the Dark Plane, and the Super Herta Astral Computer.
Changes appeared in an instant.
The first was the Devil Tree. Its roots began extending deeper and deeper into the Warp, allowing it to extract an ever-growing number of increasingly distinct concepts from the emotions of all living beings.
The Herta could even sense that the Devil Tree was now capable of producing more than just Devil Fruits. It could even condense fruits capable of turning people into Pathstriders.
Of course, there was currently only one type of Path Fruit it could condense—the Fruit of the Path of Spirituality.
As the name implied, this Path Fruit could cause a qualitative transformation in a person's soul, allowing them to embark upon the Path of Spirituality.
As for fruits belonging to the other Paths, the Devil Tree could not yet condense them. The reason was simple... The Herta was currently only the Lord of Spirituality, the Aeon of Spirituality, so only the Path of Spirituality was open to the Devil Tree.
The lords of the other Paths would hardly lift their restrictions for the sake of a tiny fruit tree, so naturally, condensing fruits belonging to those Paths was excruciatingly slow.
According to The Herta's observations and Herman's Research System appraisal, if the Devil Tree wanted to condense Path Fruits other than the Fruit of Spirituality, it would require at least ten Amber Eras.
A single Amber Era lasted at least sixty years, meaning the first batch of Path Fruits would need more than six hundred years to mature.
After The Herta finished examining the changes to the Devil Tree, she discovered that new transformations had also occurred within the Dark Plane and even the Super Herta Astral Computer.
Once the Dark Plane fused with the Power of Existence, its dimensional boundaries began expanding at tremendous speed. It was no longer restricted to the regions surrounding The Blue system and instead began extending toward more distant reaches.
This meant the abilities of the super genes were no longer confined to The Blue system alone, directly freeing the little Hertas from that limitation on their combat power.
As for the Super Herta Astral Computer, once it absorbed the Power of Existence, its computational capacity began soaring as though the entire machine had undergone a generational upgrade.
The Herta now wondered whether her Super Herta Astral Computer could be considered the most powerful computer in existence apart from Nous in terms of computational power.
Very soon, Herman's Research System appraisal helped The Herta confirm that her Super Herta Astral Computer truly was the strongest computer in terms of computational power apart from Nous, making it the undisputed second-greatest computational power in the universe!
All of this caused The Herta to marvel inwardly:
The Power of Existence is like a universal form of energy. It can upgrade anything and everything!
If that's the case, could the Plasma Spark Tower also...
As the thought crossed The Herta's mind and she poured the Power of Existence into the Plasma Spark Tower which illuminated half the cosmos, became even brighter and illuminated even more galaxies.
The Power of Existence really is a universal form of energy... But if this energy can combine with all kinds of research projects, then what happens if it combines with a dimension itself?
As The Herta's thoughts shifted, the Power of Existence descended upon Soul Society.
The Warp · Soul Society shook with a tremendous boom.
That single tremor made Soul Society larger, more stable, and more real.
The endless souls throughout the entire world could all feel that the world they inhabited had become more real.
This was no illusion. Its degree of reality had genuinely increased at the foundational level of existence governing the greater universe, which also meant that Soul Society's chances of evolving into a spiritual universe had increased dramatically.
"Soul Society is changing." Polka Kakamond held a surgical knife as thin as a cicada's wing and unleashed the Bankai of her Knowable Domain as she stared at the world of Soul Society and slowly said:
"It is developing toward becoming a true universe... If it succeeds, a genuine universe capable of contending against Nihility will be born in Herta's hands!"
"Logical analysis: Soul Society's level of existence has just risen again." Beside her, Screwllum, wearing a monocle, began his analysis. "Conclusion: Madam Herta has made further progress along the path of scientific research."
Ruan Mei, standing nearby, said nothing.
She merely raised her head and gazed for a long while at the pitch-black sun hanging high in Soul Society's sky. Then she lowered her head and gently ran her fingers across the blade of Fading Plum Blossom.
Herta, she said inwardly, you've taken another step ahead.
Then I can't stop either.
...
Inside the Warp, after The Herta finished observing the changes to Soul Society, another crucial point occurred to her.
Soul Society can cause an illusory afterlife realm to transform... evolving toward becoming a spiritual universe.
Then what if I introduce the Power of Existence into the real world?!
It's worth trying... Even with the Power of Existence currently at my disposal, it's fundamentally impossible for me to fill the entire real world.
But in the future timeline of Finality, my future self—the Aeon of Spirituality—exists.
As long as my present self guides the Power of Existence into the real world... some unusual change is bound to occur in the future. When that happens, I only need to contact my future self to learn exactly what that change was.
Intense curiosity rose within The Herta. Possessing tremendous initiative, she unhesitatingly converted a portion of the Power of Existence and released it into The Blue system of the real world.
A change followed. Although extremely subtle, it genuinely occurred.
The universe's descent toward the Nihility apocalypse of the Four Apocalypses slowed ever so slightly.
Although that change was infinitesimal, it had undeniably happened. Naturally, this extraordinary development drew the attention of the Aeons who stood at the very highest level of the Star Rail universe.
Their gazes all turned toward The Blue system, settling upon the woman in the pointed hat whose entire being radiated an aura of mysterious intellect.