While Kiana was speaking with the Queen of Insects, Maria's gaze wandered around the underground laboratory.
Through the transparent bulletproof glass, she saw a room where a group of researchers in white lab coats were being held.
They crouched in the corner, legs drawn up, trembling uncontrollably.
Maria frowned slightly. "What happened to them?"
Following her line of sight, the Queen of Insects looked toward the group. "Each and every one of them is steeped in sin. Simply executing them would be letting them off too easily."
Steeped in sin?
Maria knew that what the Will of Ruler defined as sin was vastly different from the standards of the human world.
On the side of the Will of Ruler, killing was not some unforgivable crime. Reviving the dead was an effortless matter to them. Sometimes, taking a life was even regarded as helping someone escape suffering.
Only those who maliciously captured people for human experimentation were considered truly guilty of grave crimes.
"What exactly did they do?" Maria pressed.
The Queen of Insects looked at Kiana in confusion, as if to say—does that even need to be asked?
Kiana spread her hands helplessly. "Don't look at me. She's new. She doesn't know anything."
"New?" The Queen of Insects did not dwell on it. She walked to a lab table, picked up a tablet from its surface, and handed it to Maria. "I've organized everything. Take a look yourself."
Maria accepted the tablet and began browsing the experimental records and videos.
What filled the screen were cruel experiments conducted on superpower users. Among them, those involving healing and self-regeneration abilities were the most frequent.
People with healing abilities often had to pay a price to use their powers.
There was one girl whose ability allowed her to transfer others' injuries and illnesses onto herself.
After these researchers learned of it, they resorted to every possible method to force the girl to take on the diseases of the powerful and wealthy, transferring them into her own body.
They watched her endure the torment of sickness without the slightest trace of pity.
Those with self-regeneration abilities suffered even worse fates. They were treated as living organ banks, their organs harvested at will.
Superpower users whose blood possessed healing properties were drained day after day.
All kinds of superpower users were nothing more than lab rats in the eyes of these researchers.
Humanity in this world had long studied superpower users, yet they had never managed to understand how such powers were born. All they could do was crudely exploit those abilities, treating the users as tools and consumables to be squeezed dry.
Maria fell into prolonged silence as she read through the inhuman records.
In truth, even before seeing them, she had already guessed how the human elite viewed superpower users. In the eyes of ordinary people, superpower users were threats to their lives and rule. Naturally, they would never be treated as human.
Maria could not help recalling the Human Contract Alliance's assault on Chiba Academy.
On the surface, the Human Contract Alliance acted in the name of humanity. In reality, it was merely safeguarding its own interests.
Her gaze shifted to Kiana and the Queen of Insects, who were chatting nearby.
The Will of Ruler possessed overwhelming power. Because of that, they could act entirely as they pleased, without weighing gains and losses—doing whatever they wished.
Today, if they pitied superpower users, they could overthrow ordinary human rule and establish an entirely new social order. Tomorrow, if they felt sympathy for ordinary humans, they could just as easily topple the superpower users instead.
Everything depended solely on whether the Will of Ruler felt like doing it.
With sufficient power, one could redefine good and evil, rewrite the rules themselves.
In the underground laboratory, Maria rested in a room arranged by the Queen of Insects.
She took out a delicate little box. Opening it, she removed a purple crystal radiating a mysterious glow—a Honkai crystal.
Using the Schariac family's ability to manipulate Honkai energy, she began absorbing the Honkai energy contained within the crystal.
"That strange feeling is gone," Maria murmured softly.
She raised the hand absorbing the Honkai energy and held it before her. Purple patterns rapidly surfaced across her entire arm, spreading like creeping vines, climbing upward to her cheeks and neck.
In the Honkai world, whenever she absorbed large amounts of Honkai energy, Maria would always feel an inexplicable force influencing her.
But after coming to this world, that sensation of being influenced had vanished.
However, the problem of Honkai energy eroding her body had not lessened in the slightest.
After absorbing the entire Honkai crystal, the Honkai energy inside her body rampaged like an unbridled beast, coursing wildly and eroding her from within.
She did everything she could to forcibly suppress it with her ability to control Honkai energy. But having absorbed too much, she gradually found herself losing strength.
The Queen of Insects keenly sensed the abnormal fluctuation of Honkai energy and rushed over immediately.
Pushing open the door and seeing Maria on the verge of losing control, she froze in place, confusion filling her mind.
What in the world was going on?
Where had this Honkai energy come from?
The Queen of Insects could clearly distinguish between the Honkai energy of the Will of Ruler and the Honkai energy from the Honkai world.
Forget it.
That wasn't important.
She stepped into the room and closed the door behind her.
After an unknown amount of time, Maria regained consciousness and slowly sat up from the bed.
She immediately sensed something wrong with her body. A strong sensation of bloating and pain came from her abdomen.
The girl instinctively lowered her head. In less than a second, her entire body froze.
"Ahhh!!!"
Her scream shattered the room's silence.
Maria stumbled out of the room. Her abdomen was swollen high, like a woman several months pregnant. Her face was flushed with shame and panic.
She rushed straight toward Kiana and the Queen of Insects, her voice trembling as she demanded, "What happened to me?"
Kiana had been chatting with the Queen of Insects. Hearing the commotion, she looked up. At the sight of Maria's appearance, she was stunned for a moment—then she covered her mouth and began to laugh, her shoulders shaking. The laughter sounded especially abrupt in the quiet room.
The Queen of Insects, however, looked utterly baffled. Tilting her head, confusion filled her eyes as her gaze moved between Maria's swollen belly and her flushed face.
"Is something wrong?"
Maria's embarrassment turned to anger, her voice rising. "Do I look like nothing's wrong?!"
She paused, took a deep breath, and forced herself to calm down. "Explain it to me."
Kiana stepped forward and gently patted Maria's shoulder in reassurance. "It's just your Honkai energy being concentrated in your abdomen. A normal phenomenon. It'll pass soon."
"Just that?"
Maria let out a long breath of relief.
For a moment, she had thought she was pregnant.
It was only Honkai energy.