"…"
The speaker had no intention, but the listener took it to heart. Mei tossed the box back to Raven.
In that brief gap, she steadied the scabbard at her waist with her left hand.
That was one of the standard opening stances of the Hokushin Ittō-ryū.
Whoosh!
After a sharp flash of blade light, when the box returned to Raven's hands, it had been cleanly bisected, as if beheaded.
Yet Raven's gloves—and the phone inside—remained completely unscathed.
The faint traces of electricity trailing the blade light were proof of the Herrscher of Thunder wielding her own Authority.
Looking at what Raven held, Mei raised an eyebrow: "…Indeed, just an ordinary phone~"
"The electromagnetic field induction—no strangeness at all."
Raven: "…"
Mei acted as if she hadn't noticed Raven's silence and continued: "I can replace the box for you—one for one."
"…"
Raven remained silent.
Mei explained: "I'm no longer a member of World Serpent, so I shouldn't have to strictly follow World Serpent's rules, right?"
Raven finally spoke: "…To be honest, I can understand Kosma's feelings right now."
"But Mei, let's be clear upfront—I have professional ethics too."
"Since you've already admitted you're no longer part of World Serpent…"
"I won't be telling you anything more."
Mei put one hand on her hip: "But you don't seem to mind me knowing certain clues."
Raven shrugged noncommittally: "Who knows?"
"Maybe we're just two destined rivals who somehow ended up getting familiar over the past few months for no particular reason."
"…"
At this point, Raven fell silent for a long while before speaking again: "…Mei."
"Hm?"
Mei sensed Raven had something more to say—and she did.
Raven sighed and said: "Fine, I'll tell you. Actually…"
"The Stigmata Project can be said to have already been completed."
Mei's face showed surprise: "…What did you say?"
Raven patiently explained: "I mean, although I don't know the specific details or principles."
"The things I'm doing now are probably the final wrap-up work of the Stigmata Project."
"To be honest, when I was told this, I was pretty shocked too…"
"My expression was probably just like yours right now."
Mei was puzzled: "This is too strange. After Arc City, World Serpent hasn't conducted any new large-scale experiments at all."
"I thought Kevin was just preparing to take action."
Raven wasn't surprised: "That's our blind spot."
Mei said sarcastically: "Blind spot?"
"What, did Jackal give up on human experimentation, or is Gray Serpent planning to devote himself to charity?"
Raven gave the answer directly: "It's Hare."
Mei murmured: "Hare?"
Raven continued: "You've heard the name before, right?"
Mei replied: "But that's all."
Raven shrugged: "No problem, I'm not much better off."
"According to Gray Serpent, while Jackal was conducting her attempts, Hare was doing the same in her own way—a completely different way."
"—Rearranging the execution blueprint of the Stigmata Project."
"Just like I said earlier, the entire project has now reached the final step."
Although the dialogue felt dry and info-heavy, the amount of information was undeniably massive.
Mei quickly asked: "So what exactly did she do?"
Raven, however, didn't answer directly but said something else: "Seeing is believing—you'll understand soon enough."
As soon as she finished speaking, Raven started counting the faded house numbers along the street and quickened her pace forward.
Finally, in front of room 1984, after Raven politely knocked, an old man wearing a jellabiya robe emerged from inside.
The old man familiarly put on a Bluetooth earpiece, dialed a number on his phone.
Then, without a word, he pocketed it and sat down on a concrete block in the small courtyard.
Mei was puzzled: "…What is he doing?"
Raven answered: "Waiting to enter the dream."
"Enter the dream?"
Mei became even more confused.
Raven nodded: "Yes, literally falling asleep and dreaming."
"Through World Serpent's technology, he can enter his own dream state anytime, anywhere."
Mei immediately followed up: "But what does this have to do with the Stigmata Project?"
Raven replied: "Don't rush—you'll see soon."
The old man's eyes gently closed. Not long after, faint snoring could be heard.
As purple fluorescence gradually rose, the old man vanished in the blink of an eye.
A living human being had thus lost his unitarity in real-number space due to some incomprehensible technology that looked like magic.
Mei murmured: "This is…"
As the Herrscher of Thunder, Mei could clearly sense that this was neither sorcery nor spatial transfer.
Raven spoke at this moment: "His dream has merged with the Stigmata space—that's what Hare told me."
"You're a Herrscher; perhaps you can verify it yourself."
Mei asked doubtfully: "Verify?"
Raven gave a light smile: "Didn't you just verify the phone I handed him earlier?"
Mei was silent for a moment before saying: "…I'm the Herrscher of Thunder, not the Herrscher of Sentience."
Raven didn't mind: "Is that so? But if you don't follow, then I'll be going ahead."
With that, Raven walked to the spot where the old man had vanished, took out her own phone, and swiped a couple of times.
The next moment, a familiar-looking spatial gate abruptly appeared before the two of them.
Raven didn't look back: "Weren't you trying to tail me?"
"This gate can stay open for about ten minutes. If you want to follow… be my guest."
"Also, the cleanup here is on you."
After Raven stepped through the spatial gate, several monsters appeared. Mei dispatched them all in a few swift slashes.
As she approached the spatial gate, Mei's expression grew somewhat dazed.
Over the past hundreds of days and nights, gates of similar texture had practically become part of her daily life.
During that journey into the past, they had always stood silently.
Like pairs of weathered eyes, watching the joys and sorrows of fifty thousand years.
Accompanied by the narration and the revolving lantern of memories that surfaced in Mei because of those recollections.
Seeing this, the viewers outside the TV completely lost it.
"Fuck, the Elysian Realm is still fucking chasing me!"
"Spare me already—I cried my eyes dry last week, and now they're still swollen!"
"I've barely cried a few times in my life, didn't even cry while watching, but afterward I bawled like a dog!"
"Aaahhh, still planting knives? Dog director, go f*** yourself!!"
"…"
The Elysian Realm arc may not be the most knife-heavy, but it definitely has the strongest aftereffects.
Even though the real Elysia is still alive and her fan count has skyrocketed to unimaginable levels in a short time.
Many viewers are still deeply trapped in the plot—second watches, third watches are just the basics.
Some even livestream challenges: how many watches before they can watch the Elysian Realm arc expressionless.
Extra note: the current longest record is a guy persisting through twelve watches.
But he still fell at the short clip's ending easter egg.
Facing Elysia turning back with a smile amid the dreamlike sea of flowers.
Who could possibly withstand that?
Because of this, Hessian gained new labels beyond "dog director," such as "heartless," etc.
Back to the topic.
On TV, the plot continued to progress.
Mei stared at the spatial gate before her—this thing that felt both familiar and not.
Compared to the Elysian Realm, this one only gave her a hollow emptiness devoid of sorrow or joy.
"…No matter what, standing still achieves nothing."
"World Serpent, let me see what exactly you want to do."
With those words, Mei resolutely stepped through the spatial gate.
The scene shifted.
Instead of showing Mei's back, it cut back to Theresa aboard the Hyperion.
Einstein said from the other end of the comms: "We've tapped into Anti-Entropy and Schicksal satellites."
"Concentrated investigation on the Hyperion's current orbit."
"The conclusion is that there are no detectable anomalies in the spatial environment around you."
Ai-chan added at this point: "Strange… the autopilot system's verification shows no abnormalities either."
"Is there any other reason that could cause the ship to keep deviating from its set course?"
Theresa asked: "Could it be a mechanical issue with the ship's propulsion?"
Ai-chan immediately refuted: "That's impossible, Theresa—did you forget?"
"The Hyperion's core propulsion system has been fully iterated into programmable soul steel material."
"If there really was a problem, I would have detected it long ago."
Einstein was silent for a moment, then suddenly said: "Right, perhaps that's the reason."
Ai-chan: "Huh?"
Theresa's eyes sharpened: "A problem with soul steel?"
Einstein corrected: "More precisely, a programming issue."
"If… just hypothetically, there is an interference signal that happens to be mistakenly received by the soul steel as a control command…"
"Then the actual response of the mechanical system might deviate from the expected response of the control system."
"And if the source of that interference signal remains uncontrolled, the error will only accumulate more and more."
"Ms. Theresa, considering the Hyperion cannot troubleshoot such issues on its own in deep space."
"I recommend you immediately terminate this exercise and begin returning."
"Anti-Entropy's space station will rendezvous with you in low Earth orbit for a complete overhaul of the Hyperion."
Theresa nodded: "Alright, no choice then."
"Returning like this is a bit of a letdown, but safety obviously comes first."
"Ai-chan, execute return according to the emergency withdrawal protocol in the exercise plan!"
"I'll stay on the bridge the whole time to provide you with… the necessary…"
As she spoke, Theresa's tone suddenly grew weak. A powerful dizziness struck without warning.
It was extreme fatigue, accumulated over a long time, launching a total assault at an unguarded moment.
Even an S-rank Valkyrie lost consciousness rapidly at that instant.
...
The scene shifted again.
Time rewound to fifty thousand years ago—in other words, the Previous Era.
"Hmph."
Mobius said listlessly: "I'm done playing. Playing chess with you, there's simply no way to win."
Vill-V across from her asked curiously: "Hmm, is that so?"
"I feel like… as long as you wanted to, you'd have ten thousand ways to beat me, right?"
"Mobius?"
As she spoke, Vill-V even gave an example: "For instance, installing a chip in your brain specifically for this purpose?"
Mobius sneered: "Isn't that your favorite thing to do?"
"Vill-V?"
The two Previous Era Flame-Chasers seemed to be at each other's throats, but Vill-V had no such intention.
"Alright, fair enough."
Shrugging, Vill-V changed the subject: "But from another angle… you really do hate losing, don't you, Mobius."
"Even though your Stigmata Project got pushed back and restarted so many times."
Mobius first corrected: "It's not my project."
"The reason it kept failing to materialize is just because MEI kept frequently revising the definition of defeating Honkai—nothing more."
"She's always loved definitions, don't you think?"
"Just like that last report on the five parallel truths—I mean, I don't think the audience down there really understood what she was talking about."
A certain voice suddenly said calmly: "The important thing is that you understood."
"And the Vill-V in front of you should have understood most of it too."
The sudden voice didn't surprise Mobius; instead, it brought a healthy smile to her face.
"Hm-hm, that was a full-staff report held in the base auditorium, you know?"
"Seeing Erwin rack his brains, looking like he was trying to understand calculus with elementary school math."
"Heh, I almost felt sorry for him."
At this point, Mobius smoothly shifted topics: "Why insist on defining Honkai?"
"Wouldn't it be more convenient to treat it as a primitive concept and define humanity in reverse?"
"…Hm? Vill-V, you didn't say anything just now!"
Seeing Mobius react as if only now realizing it, not only did Vill-V burst out laughing.
Even viewers outside the TV went "whoa."
"Laughed my ass off—thought Mobius had everything under control, turns out she just didn't react in time."
"Snake Snake is still so tsundere and cute, with both loli and onee-san modes—love it love it!"
"I actually prefer Vill-V—one person with multiple personalities, basically like triplet sisters!"
"Heh, bunch of simps. Unlike me—I just want to be Elysia's dog!"
"…"
On TV.
After reacting, Vill-V—who was desperately holding back laughter—shrugged.
MEI spoke again at this moment: "I didn't expect Erwin and the others to truly understand concepts like wave functions."
"Even Su would need considerable time to grasp fields he's never touched."
"But I believe there was one thing that absolutely had to be done back then—"
"And that was to make everyone realize that Honkai is not some mysterious thing beyond comprehension."
"It's just too complex—that's all."
"I believe defining Honkai… is far simpler than defining humanity."
After quietly listening to MEI's words, Vill-V finally spoke: "Hey, good evening, Dr. MEI."
MEI instantly noticed the shift in Vill-V's personality and nodded: "Good evening, Conductor."
"This smell… did you two have instant noodles for dinner again?"