Humans are in chaos, despicable outsiders.

The captain sighed.

"So, what do you want to do in this world? This isn't the World Bubble, you know. The leaves on the Imaginary Number Tree aren't so easy to interfere with."

Imotek gave a curious look...

...

"Since you've asked so sincerely... Ouch—!"

"Brownie, why did you suddenly knock on me???"

The captain clutched her head in a grimace, her speech physically interrupted by Brownie beside her.

"Forget about the captain's sudden illness, the captain and the others are here to find me... A few months ago, Brownie was driving in the Sea of ​​Quanta when something rapidly sinking towards the bottom of the Sea of ​​Quanta hit him head-on—that thing that wasn't watching where it was going in the Sea of ​​Quanta knocked me into a turbulent current... When Brownie woke up, I was here. The captain and the others must have followed the clues left by the turbulent current to find this place..."

"Ahem... That's right, the Sea of ​​Quanta has been getting increasingly turbulent lately... We initially thought Brownie had been trapped in some previously unnoticed bubble of a world, but following the trail, it turned out to be a world on the Tree of Imaginary Numbers..."

The captain spread his hands and shrugged.

"And we'll probably be staying here for a long time... Well, actually, we were also swept here; and the Quantum Sea has been getting increasingly turbulent lately... Even if I'm special enough to ignore all of this... my crew might not be so sure. Anyway, we haven't dared to go down there recently."

The captain shook his head with lingering fear, seemingly still shaken by the turbulence that had swept his entire ship into a different world.

"The turbulent currents of the Sea of ​​Quanta? I've been there a few times...it should be considered calm there, right...?"

Imotek looked at the travelers from the Sea of ​​Quanta with some confusion.

"Oh, don't even mention it. It was around the time Brownie went missing... Hmm, you guys should understand the relationship between the Imaginary Tree and the Sea of ​​Quanta, right?"

The captain nodded at Imotek before continuing...

"The tree, for some unknown reason, is trying to extend its roots deep into the quantum sea, as if trying to retrieve something. But the sea won't allow it, and the two entities have been locked in a fierce battle... and it's still arguing..."

"..."

"I think I roughly know what's going on... Wow, is the Imaginary Tree really that protective of its own???"

Imotek gasped and asked the captain a question—

"Miss Captain, how long do you think they'll fight?"

"How long? To be honest, they've been fighting since the beginning, it's just that this time it's much more intense. Using real-world time calculations, it will probably take about half a year for this to calm down... It seems that Miss Imotek knows the reason for the chaos in the Quanta Sea this time?"

"Oh... I might not only know the reason... but I might even be the one who started it all!"

The white-haired girl gave an awkward smile...

"what?!"

.....

"So, you—no, I mean, you—a venerable lady, the divine child of the Imaginary Tree... temporarily sealed a part of your divinity at the bottom of the sea for a plan to make human civilization great again?"

"That's not wrong..."

Imotek nodded.

"No wonder the Tree of Imaginary Numbers reacted so violently... In its eyes, it must be that the Sea of ​​Quanta has kidnapped its own little one..."

The captain nodded in sudden realization...

"However...theoretically, the Tree of Imaginary Numbers shouldn't react much...and my other self should be asleep, if nothing unexpected happens...the Tree of Imaginary Numbers would only react this strongly if it were actively being called upon...?"

Imotek wore a puzzled and perplexed expression.

"Well... Captain, I've got a lot of experience with this—usually when you think everything's going smoothly, then something unexpected has actually happened..."

"I can't afford to have that happen..."

Wiping the cold sweat from her forehead, she pushed the thought of "Did I crash?" to the back of her mind...

"However, given the commotion the Imaginary Tree caused in the sea... this accident might have caused a loading screen to freeze, like when it's at 99% and then becomes unresponsive..."

The captain looked at Imotek, who was sweating profusely, and offered a word of comfort.

"Then I hope this accident causes the system to crash for a few months..."

"Wait a minute... if that version of me woke up... why didn't I just return to reality or go to the Imaginary Tree to resurrect my mother... instead of wandering around in the sea?"

As if he had just realized something, Imotek gave a bewildered look.

“My beautiful lady, do you think it’s possible, um, I mean, possible... that another version of you got lost in the sea...?”

"...Absolutely impossible!"

Imotek, realizing something, guiltily turned his head away.

......

Deep within the Sea of ​​Quanta, a blonde girl, recently awakened, wandered atop its bizarre geometric shapes. She casually tossed aside the quantum crabs and jellyfish—which had been impaled and impaled on her sword—her face a mixture of bewilderment and exasperation.

"You bastard! You left me everything except the coordinates of the original world, didn't you? I'll beat you to death when I get back!!!"

Miss Goddess's roar echoed throughout the deserted Quantum Sea, but unfortunately, no one could hear it; only the lingering sound remained.

"Hello?! Is anyone there?! Help the child!"

Chapter 214 A Gathering of Heroes: Sky Dome City.jpg

One day later, on the sky island of the Destiny Headquarters.

"The holder of the Heavenly Judgment? With power levels at least several times higher than those recorded in the Destiny Database? Vanished after eliminating a large-scale secondary catastrophe of Honkai?"

"Furthermore, information dealers on the black market have reported that the Second Herrscher, Kiana, has been appearing in Sky City very frequently? It seems she's practically a permanent resident there?"

The events of the previous day were quickly reported to Otto and Theresa, the two leaders of Destiny—

Immediately, two calls rang out from different offices—

"Nine Heavens!"

"Rita—"

"Get ready now. A special plane will take you to Sky City soon! Find out everything, no matter what the intelligence is—and if possible, bring back the Second Herrscher/Kiana this time!"

...The two unlucky Valkyries who were chosen had barely returned to headquarters when they were given another urgent mission.

"Lord Jiuxiao, Miss Mei, we meet again..."

Perhaps to save money, the flight dispatchers from both East and West Fate combined their flights into one, leading to the current situation.

Penglai Temple Nine Sou sat alone in his seat, with an entire row of empty seats around him. Across from him, a small squad of Undying Blade Valkyries cowered behind their vice-captain Rita as if facing a formidable enemy, mentally cursing the entire logistics department responsible for flight scheduling that day.

"Good morning, Ms. Rita—hey! Why are you all staring at me like that? Alcoholic beverages aren't allowed on flights...?"

Looking at the group of Valkyries of the Undying Blade who were on high alert, Jiu Xiao curled his lip.

"Hmm...you guys go and rest in another cabin first. I'll talk to Miss Jiuxiao."

The Valkyries, granted a general amnesty, nodded to their vice-captains and scurried into the rear cabin.

"Tch... Am I that scary...?"

Looking at the Valkyries who could be described as having fled, Jiu Xiao curled his lip in dissatisfaction.

"Rita hopes that Lord Jiuxiao has some idea of ​​what he's done..."

Seeing that Jiu Xiao still seemed very dissatisfied, the maid's lips twitched involuntarily.

"Ahem, let's not talk about that anymore. Since they've all been sent away, they're all on our side now... Let's discuss the intelligence and plans... Feel free to share any guesses you have."

Seeing that all the Undying Blades had slipped away, Jiu Xiao decisively chose not to continue the act.

"Wait... do Jiuxiao and Miss Rita know each other?"

Mei covered her mouth and asked in a slightly surprised voice.

"Ah, Rita is not only an acquaintance, but also one of our own. Mei, please feel free to speak your mind if you have any questions or thoughts..."

"Um... I wanted to ask... is Miss Rita also taking Kiana back with her this time?"

"That's right. His Highness the Bishop wishes to take Miss Kiana to a laboratory in West Africa to participate in the experiment of the Second Divine Key, the Thousand Worlds One Vehicle."

“Experiment…Miss Rita, could you…?”

"I'm sorry, Ms. Mei, we have to take Ms. Kiana back with us. There's no room for negotiation on that..."

Rita smiled and shook her head.

"However, Miss Mei doesn't need to worry too much... This experiment will not cause any harm to Miss Kiana, and Miss Kiana was actually aware of it."

Kiana knows?

Mei wore an incredulous expression.

“That’s right, Kiana knows, Raiden Mei, everything we’ve done is essentially just a show for Otto.”

Jiuxiao took over Rita's words and comforted Mei, who was standing to the side.

"this...."

"To be honest, Mei-san, if we really wanted to do something to Kiana-san... we'd only be the ones getting beaten to a pulp..."

"Currently, the only one under His Holiness the Bishop who can contend with a fully-fledged Herrscher is probably Lady Durandal, and... Miss Kiana, barring any unforeseen circumstances, is a Herrscher with multiple cores. Bishop Otto won't go looking for trouble for himself..."

"Let's leave the topic of Ms. Kiana here for now... We still need to consider another heavyweight figure..."

"An unidentified wielder of the Heavenly Fire Judgment... According to reports from the scene, the swordsman was able to annihilate that... um? humanoid Judgment-class Honkai Beast... without suffering a backlash from the Heavenly Fire Judgment??"

"Leaving aside the question of why wild Judgment-class Honkai Beasts would appear in Sky City, the fact that one could use the Judgment of Heaven's Flame without any side effects... that's already the mark of a truly significant figure. According to the historical records of Schicksal, only the original wielder of the Kaslana family bloodline could accomplish this..."

"And this ancestor is someone from at least tens of thousands of years ago, from a previous era..."

Rita opened her palm and showed a document to Hōraiji Kūshō and Raiden Mei.

"However, there is a puzzling point—according to all the eyewitness reports, the holder appears to be a woman... while in the Destiny's documents, this Kaslana's ancestor was male."

"Do Jiuxiao and Miss Mei have any clues or guesses?"

Rita turned her gaze to the two people in front of her, seeking their opinions.

"She liberated the Heavenly Fire Judgment, and it was a woman who wasn't harmed by it... Miss Rita, Jiuxiao... Could it be that the records in the Destiny's documents are wrong...? Perhaps the ancestor of the Kaslana family was indeed a woman?"

Raiden Mei put forward a very bold hypothesis, leaving the other two looking at each other in bewilderment...

"Hmm... let's just consider it a possibility..."