Humans are in chaos, despicable outsiders.

"grown ups!?"

The jackal, realizing the girl's unspoken meaning, became somewhat flustered.

"Are you going to terminate the Stigmata Project...?!"

“Terminate...? No, no, no—Jackal, this is just part of a much bigger plan.”

"And you... and the Honkai energy vaccine you developed and modified... will be an indispensable part of some great undertaking."

"A much grander plan?! You mean the Stigmata Project is just one part of this plan—!?"

The jackal's expression revealed a sense of urgency and anticipation, as well as an undisguised, fervent curiosity.

"That's fine then..."

"This will be a sublimation of civilization and race... not the cold and ruthless evolutionary survival of the fittest of the Holy Mark Project... but from now on, humanity will embark on a path of ascension, where everyone will be like a dragon..."

Imotek held a bottle of pale gold potion in his hand. It seemed to be a modified version of a Honkai energy vaccine. The faint, extremely thin gold color seemed to come from the legendary Imaginary Tree.

"What a beautiful creation..."

The jackal was deeply attracted by the potion in the girl's hand; she had a definite premonition—

If the grand plan spoken of by the white-haired girl succeeds, humanity will surely defeat the Honkai completely.

"My lord, what do you need me to do...?"

"Mass production of this potion—you can do it, right?"

Imotek tossed the medicine he was holding to the jackal, and amidst the jackal's surprised expression, he posed a question.

"This time, my lord, I will not let you down! I will go and prepare for the research right away!"

The jackal, overjoyed at finding such a treasure, carried the peculiar vial back to his laboratory.

......

"Hey, human—what's the difference between this vaccine and the previous ones?"

The Sirin doll, who had been watching the show every day for a long time, suddenly appeared. She looked at Imotek, who had made someone run to do things for her with just a few words, and showed a curious expression.

"Difference? Actually, there isn't much difference—if you say..."

The original vaccine was a crucial factor in activating the Stigmata Project, while this golden vaccine is the factor that directly connects humanity as a whole to the Imaginary Tree.

"It contains a portion of diluted divine blood, or rather, energy directly from the Imaginary Tree; of course, the amount is extremely small."

"With these, they will become part of the Golden Tree itself and will no longer be troubled by the disaster of collapse."

"One person can do it...?"

The Sirin doll gave a strange look.

"Such a small amount is certainly not enough for one person... But what about everyone—?"

"The concept of humanity will be elevated... to a state akin to that of gods."

"The golden tree, the leaves, and civilization... When a race, a civilization, has the ability to skip over, and live beyond, the leaf—that is, the world in the normal sense—"

"Then they can claim that their race and civilization have truly passed the test of collapse..."

"Ah, although it does have a bit of an element of helping someone cheat... but if you can skip class openly and legitimately, why not do it?"

Imotek, leaning back on his throne, gave the Sirin doll a mocking smile.

"Wow...you bunch of truants who take advantage of loopholes are really disgusting!"

"Haha, as the saying goes, there are no taboos in everything - since the plan is feasible and worth a try, there is nothing to worry about."

"Besides... this doesn't really count as cheating—"

"It's fine to treat it as a reward for defeating the final boss..."

Chapter 244 Greed comes at an extra price.

Deep within the Sea of ​​Quanta, a group of people wandered aimlessly.

Finally, seemingly having exhausted her patience, the large Seele impatiently looked at Snow behind her, who was treating it as a leisurely stroll, and began her daily question—

"Hey, hey, hey, golden god—where's the person who was supposed to come and pick us up?"

"We're going to be stuck here for half a month, are you sure you can manage?!"

With her hands on her hips, the long-haired Seele glared at Snow with annoyance, a stark contrast to the timid short-haired Seele.

"I'm really anxious... In our world, on the ancient land of China, there's a proverb that says, 'Haste makes waste.'"

The god, who was asked this question by Da Xi'er every day, simply smiled gently and looked helplessly at the girl in front of him.

Unable to bear the loving gaze from her mother, Da Xi'er succumbed once again, shrinking back and kicking the crab and slashing the jellyfish to vent her anger.

"The main problem is that there are so few people here, and this little guy is so timid that I have to hesitate for ages just to ask him a question. You just don't know how to speak up at all—"

"I'm dying to breathe!"

Da Xi'er, who had just kicked a crab away in a fit of rage, complained loudly. If this continued, she'd probably really go crazy...

"Ah...someone seems really impatient..."

Ignoring Seele's long-haired complaints, Snow seemed to sense something and looked up at the bizarre, shimmering quantum sea above his head...

"God is the ultimate in transformation, the wondrous being that encompasses all things, and cannot be described or questioned..."

"Heh heh, the other 'me,' this time you're going to be outmaneuvered—"

A faint smile appeared on the blonde girl's face as she gently clenched her fist towards the ocean above.

An unnamed storm began to gather near the Eye of the Abyss on the Pacific seabed, and the Honkai Beasts active in the vicinity seemed to be summoned, heading towards the convergence of the Quantum Sea...

--------

"Sister Snow, what did you mean by what you just said?"

In the Sea of ​​Quanta, the short-haired Seele curiously watched the blonde deity who seemed to be doing something to the outside world, and mustered up her courage to ask her a question.

"Ah... that saying—'Gods symbolize the limits of change in all things in the world, and do not exist in any specific, objective material form...'"

With his eyes lowered, the golden-haired god explained to the girl with a faint smile.

"Hey, does it mean something that you suddenly said that, sister?"

Short-haired Seele, somewhat curious, continued to ask further questions.

"Well, it's nothing... It's just that you'll be able to go home soon... and the larger version of you will finally be able to find someone to chat with."

With a mysterious smile, Snow shook his head at Seele and told her some good news...

In the jackal's laboratory, a bottle of golden potion flickered when no one was looking, seemingly conveying some unknown message.

The abstract, ethereal concept of "blood of the gods" is given a more special meaning as it is materialized.

The infinite extension of the divine.

Through the golden potion placed in the World Serpent's laboratory, his azure eyes indifferently scanned a corner of a certain plan, and then he deduced the whole picture.

"So this is your plan...Imotek?"

Snow stood silently on one side of the geometric shape, seemingly deep in thought...

"To imprint the fate of civilization and race on the golden tree...thus achieving 'eternal' existence..."

"Now it is, then it was, and forevermore..."

"But...greed comes at an extra price—"

"The other me... let me see what human determination and that golden, shining belief are."

.....

"What! One of Anti-Entropy's underwater research sites in the Pacific Ocean has been attacked by a large number of Honkai Beasts?"

Just as Theresa had sorted out her relationship with Durandal and Kiana and adjusted her mindset, she heard another very shocking piece of news.

“That’s right, Lady Theresa. The two Entropy executors stationed at the research site have sent requests for assistance to Entropy headquarters in the Americas and to us.”

"Lady Theresa, how should we reply?"

"Sigh... let Jiuxiao and the others go make the trip again—"

Theresa glanced at the mountain of documents beside her, and at the glare from her adjutant behind her that seemed to say, "If you dare to sneak out of here, I'll kill all your Houmu figurines." Reluctantly, she suppressed her plan to personally lead the operation once more.

"Snow Apocalypse, where are you? Come back and help me with these documents!"

The clueless Theresa still doesn't know who the bad guy is who has repeatedly doubled her workload.

Meanwhile, in the Valkyrie dormitory at the distant Schicksal headquarters, a grief-stricken roar echoed—

"Damn it! Am I working overtime again?!"

.....

"Uh, Jiuxiao this time..."

Once again, a regular visitor arrived at Schicksal's office. However, this time, the purple-haired Valkyrie had a sour face and glared at Theresa in front of her.

The eerie and tense atmosphere even made Theresa consider whether she should exchange her S-rank Valkyrie with her grandfather and swap her for Durandal, the queen of infighting who was the best at getting things done.

"You're coming with me this time—!"

"But I have so many documents here, Jiuxiao, you've seen them too."

Theresa gestured with her chin, indicating the piles of paper documents beside her and the large amount of unprocessed information on her computer.

"Since I started working here, I haven't been able to catch up on a single chapter of the Houmu Adventure manga!"

Theresa said that everyone works overtime, so why hurt each other?

“Squeezing around—I’ve found you a new friend to handle all this messy paperwork.”

With an expression that said, "I knew you were going to say that," Jiu Xiao waved to someone behind him and called in a woman who looked exactly like Theresa.

"Let me introduce you. This is Mr. Stargazer. Theresa, just think of yourself as someone from another parallel world, a guest from another world who came from the Sea of ​​Quanta."

“Ms. Stargazer is very good at handling these miscellaneous official duties, and she says she can cover for you for a few days; therefore, Archbishop Theresa—”

"Come out to work with me, and I'll introduce you to some new friends—"