Chapter 13: Herta, Silver Wolf is Here!
Herta Space Station, targeted by the Aeon of Elation, Aha?
This was, without a doubt, the absolute worst news imaginable.
If it had been any other Aeon, Asta might have hesitated to believe it. But this was Aha. Given the Elation's notoriously chaotic track record, this sounded exactly like something He would pull. Aha's reputation across the cosmos was practically built on this kind of absurdity. Who else would do such a thing? Who else!
"Relax, don't sweat it. Aha vanished the second He chucked me onto this station." Leon waved his hand in a loose, dismissive arc, his tone entirely too casual for the subject matter. "Knowing Him, He's probably squatting in some dark corner of the universe right now, munching on cosmic popcorn and secretly watching the fun."
"Huh? Phrasing it like that just makes it ten times scarier, okay!" March 7th slapped a hand over her face, groaning through her fingers.
Was that supposed to be a comforting reassurance or a straight-up threat?
The mere thought that her every move, every breath, might currently be under the watchful, laughing gaze of the Aeon of Elation made her skin crawl. A violent shudder wracked her frame, raising goosebumps along her arms.
Then, a sudden realization hit her.
"And you..." She dropped her hand and planted both firmly on her hips, leaning forward as if she had just cornered a master criminal. "You still have the nerve to claim you aren't a Masked Fool? If you weren't one of His crazy followers, why would the Aeon of Elation go out of His way to personally drop you here!"
'Wow, I am so smart!' March 7th cheered internally, giving herself a very smug, silent thumbs-up.
"Did you ever stop to consider," Leon sighed, offering a helplessly dry look, "that maybe Aha sent me here precisely because I am the 'fun'?"
As for the actual reason Aha had specifically chosen Herta Space Station as his drop zone? Leon honestly had no clue.
Could Aha observe alternate worldlines? Could that laughing god somehow peek into his transmigrated memories?
That shouldn't be possible.
If Aha could do that, wouldn't Fuli the Remembrance be completely out of a job? Terminus the Finality would probably be screaming in shock at the timeline violation.
...Well, Fuli's physical form was technically already shattered into a million pieces of cosmic ice, but that definitely had absolutely nothing to do with Leon. He was innocent!
"Huh? Aha treats you as the punchline?" March 7th choked on her own breath, completely derailed by his logic. Now that she thought about it, that actually wasn't impossible... wait, no!
She shook her head rapidly, her pink hair swishing. "That is still a massive problem! How can a normal person just bump into an Aeon so easily?" she argued, throwing her hands up. "Even though the Aeon of Elation is supposedly the most human-like Aeon out there, it's not like people just run into Him on the street! Barely anyone has ever seen Him with their own eyes, right?"
"Isn't it just a simple matter of probability?" Leon raised a single, challenging eyebrow. "Wasn't there a literal bug a while back—a Nobless Worm—that got blessed by the God of Mirth with all His power, just to see if it could get accepted into the Genius Society? Are you going to tell me that worm was somehow inherently special, and not just an ordinary, dirt-eating bug that got lucky?"
"When you put it like that... it actually makes a weird amount of sense." March 7th's shoulders slumped. She was mostly convinced, though a lingering trace of suspicion still narrowed her crystalline eyes. "So you really, truly aren't a Masked Fool?"
Dan Heng simply stared in silence, his expression a mask of quiet exhaustion.
Himeko offered a soft, helpless smile. She hadn't expected the usually sharp-tongued March 7th to be talked into dizzying circles quite so quickly.
Still, Himeko thought to herself, someone personally delivered by the Aeon of Elation just to serve as 'fun'... even if this Leon wasn't officially a Masked Fool right now, he probably wasn't too far off from becoming one.
"What is the current status of the Space Station?" Dan Heng interjected, his calm, measured voice smoothly dragging the conversation back to the pressing reality at hand.
"The situation remains under control for now." Asta took a long, shaky breath, the crushing weight of leadership pressing down on her slender shoulders. "The physical damage to the security systems is relatively light. The intruders only managed to rewrite a small fraction of the core data before we locked them out. Repairing the code won't be difficult."
She paused, her gaze dropping to the floor as a heavy sigh escaped her lips. "The real hidden danger lies with the researchers themselves. They have spent years relying entirely on Madam Herta's absolute protection. None of them ever imagined a scenario where the Space Station could actually be breached by the Antimatter Legion. Right now, compared to the physical injuries we've sustained, the sheer mental panic spreading through the staff is far more dangerous."
The sheer logistical nightmare of organizing a desperate resistance against the ruthless Antimatter Legion was already pushing her to the brink. And now, on top of all that, they had to worry about potentially being treated as a live-action comedy show by the Aeon of Elation?
Asta felt like her frayed nerves were about to violently snap.
Driven by the mounting stress, her exhausted gaze drifted toward Leon, carrying a distinct, uncharacteristic hint of resentment.
'This is all your fault!' her eyes seemed to scream.
"Hey now, rich lady, I can..." Leon had barely opened his mouth, fully prepared to offer some wildly inappropriate solution, when Asta sharply cut him off.
"Please, do not call me 'rich lady'," she pleaded. A faint, embarrassed flush dusted her cheeks, softening her earlier glare into pure helplessness. "Just call me Asta."
"Have you tried contacting Herta directly?" Himeko asked softly, her elegant voice cutting through the tension with the most practical suggestion yet.
As the true master of Herta Space Station, and an Emanator of Erudition tasked with protecting this very domain, wiping out the current Antimatter Legion crisis would be an absolute breeze for someone of Herta's caliber.
"I have sent dozens of emergency emails, but they have all vanished into the digital void without a single reply." Asta shook her head, a bitter smile touching her lips. "Ms. Himeko, you understand how she operates better than anyone. To Madam Herta, this massive Space Station is nothing more than an oversized, glorified warehouse meant to store her followers and her precious Curios. She has never truly taken the safety of this place to heart."
Asta let out another soft, defeated sigh.
It was the harsh truth. Although Herta was the nominal master and founder of the Space Station, the genius only ever remembered its existence when a shiny, interesting new Curio was discovered.
"I guessed as much. It is perfectly fine," Himeko reassured her, a knowing glint in her golden eyes. "I will send another message to Herta right now. I will simply tell her that the Astral Express has finally brought the rare 'Curio' she requested."
Himeko offered a graceful, confident smile. "Knowing her insatiable curiosity, that should be more than enough to pique a bit of her interest."
"Oh, that would be a tremendous help!" Asta breathed out, finally showing a genuine, fragile smile of relief.
"Actually, I have a much better idea. I guarantee Herta will come running the second she hears about it." Leon suddenly raised his hand high in the air, grinning like a student who knew the answer to a trick question.
"Oh? And what idea might that be?" Asta asked, maintaining a perfectly polite, diplomatic smile. Inwardly, however, she did not hold even a shred of hope for whatever chaotic suggestion this self-proclaimed 'fun-seeker' was about to unleash.
"It is incredibly simple," Leon declared, leaning forward with a conspiratorial smirk. "Just send a message telling Herta that Silver Wolf has paid a little visit to Herta Space Station."
He crossed his arms, looking entirely too pleased with himself. "Given the deeply personal... relationship between Herta and Silver Wolf, I bet Madam Herta will drop everything and warp back here immediately."
"Huh? Who in the world is Silver Wolf?" March 7th blinked her large, expressive eyes, tilting her head in genuine curiosity. "Does this person actually have a good relationship with Madam Herta?"
"Of course! Their relationship is absolutely fantastic!" Leon puffed out his chest, speaking with the utmost, brazen confidence. "The second she hears news of Silver Wolf stepping foot on her property, Herta will definitely rush back faster than light!"
'I just don't know if she'll be rushing back to give a hug, or rushing back spitting mad with a giant hammer,' Leon added silently, highly amused by his own omission.
"Silver Wolf is a notorious hacker and a core member of the Stellaron Hunters. She has a very... complicated history of bypassing Madam Herta's security systems." Asta rubbed her temples, sighing helplessly as she shattered Leon's fabricated narrative.
"Ugh! You jerk, you were tricking me again!" March 7th stamped her booted foot against the metal floor, pointing an accusing finger at Leon's unapologetic grin.
"Wait a moment. The Stellaron Hunters have been to Herta Space Station?" Asta's polite demeanor vanished, replaced by a deep, troubled frown. Her mind raced, connecting the catastrophic events of the past few hours. "Could it be... were they the ones who deliberately drew the Antimatter Legion here as a diversion?"
Asta truly could not be blamed for jumping to such a dark conclusion. The reputation of the Stellaron Hunters across the cosmos was built on terrorism, theft, and planetary ruin. They were not exactly known for their charity.
"No, you have got the cause and effect completely backward," Leon corrected, wagging a finger in the air. "The Stellaron Hunters simply took advantage of the Antimatter Legion's sudden invasion. They used the chaos as a smokescreen to slip into Herta Space Station and complete a little mission of their own."
"And exactly how do you know so much about this?" Himeko reached up, elegantly tapping her chin as she studied Leon with a sharp, thoughtful gaze. "Are you secretly affiliated with the Stellaron Hunters?"
"Of course not. I just happened to spot them sneaking around, so I decided to follow them the whole way for fun."
Leon shrugged, as if tailing the universe's most wanted criminals was a perfectly normal Tuesday afternoon activity.
"And it wasn't just Silver Wolf who came knocking. Kafka was there too." Leon painted the scene with vivid, dramatic flair. "The situation was incredibly tense, extremely dangerous! I hid in the shadows and watched with my own two eyes as those dangerous women forcefully stuffed Stellarons right into the bodies of Stelle and Caelus."
"What?!" Stelle's golden eyes widened in sheer horror, her usual deadpan expression shattering. "There is a literal Stellaron ticking inside my body right now?!"
"What?!" Caelus gasped, clutching his chest as if he could feel the Cancer of All Worlds beating beneath his ribs. "Does that mean I'm some kind of walking Stellaron spirit?!"
"Wait, hold on a second. That makes absolutely no sense. Herta Space Station only possesses a single Stellaron in its containment vault." Asta quickly interrupted Stelle and Caelus's mounting panic, raising a highly logical and reasonable doubt.
She managed the station's inventory personally; she remembered with crystal clarity that Madam Herta had only ever collected one Stellaron for research.
"How could both of them possibly have one in their bodies?"
"Ah, you are entirely correct. There was indeed only one Stellaron available."
Leon met Asta's confused gaze, his voice dropping to a tone of absolute, terrifying calmness.
"So, I just went ahead and made another one."
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