As long as enough causality was accumulated, the miracle of magical girls saving the world would arrive. At that time, there would be no need for Phainon/Kaslana to bear the burden of thirty million cycles of reincarnation.
With this thought, Fuli of Amphoreus turned her gaze toward the interior of Amphoreus, observing one magical girl after another who had obtained Soul Gems.
Magical Girl Kaslana wielded Dawnmaker. More importantly, as Amphoreus underwent repeated cycles of reincarnation and recreation, she had already mastered a form of magic that could enchant her greatsword with flames. The name of that magic was Judgement of Shamash!
Meanwhile, Magical Girl Tribbie had mastered a special support-type spell. This magic allowed Tribbie, Trianne, and Trinnon... when deploying the Century Gate, to reduce the consumption of cognition and delay the time before they transformed into puppets.
For example, Magical Girl Hyacine, through repeated cycles of reincarnation, had already mastered a spell called Flight, enabling her to soar into the sky...
As for the other magical girls, they had also learned many unique spells. As for Anaxa, who had not become a magical girl, he had instead begun researching the magical girl system—that is, the Soul Gems. Unfortunately, the technology behind the Soul Gems originated from beyond the world, and had also been encrypted by Herta using special methods.
This directly resulted in the fact that even the most intelligent minds of Amphoreus, working together with a Titan from a previous cycle, could not uncover any meaningful conclusions.
Just who had researched and created the Soul Gems? This question became a massive doubt lingering in Anaxa's heart during every cycle of reincarnation and recreation.
...
At the same time that Fuli of Amphoreus was observing the movements of the magical girls within Amphoreus, in a distant region, the Stellaron Hunters—having just completed a new round of Stellaron hunting and returned to their headquarters—were still laughing.
But suddenly, the black cat lying atop Blade's head jolted and sprang to its feet.
"What happened?"
With her arms crossed and head held high as she walked, Silver Wolf blew a bubble with her chewing gum. When it popped, she turned her head in confusion and asked Elio, "Don't tell me you saw the emergence of another special Stellaron?"
"No." Elio glanced at Stelle nearby and shook his head. "We already found the most special Stellaron long ago. Now we only need to wait for the right moment to act according to the script."
At this point, Elio took a deep breath and said, "The reason I reacted like that just now is because I sensed an extremely special situation. Herta has conducted new research on The Blue—and created something big."
"I can even say with certainty that at this very moment, Terminus' gaze has also fallen upon Herta."
?!
Hearing this, Silver Wolf, who had just blown another bubble, had it burst instantly. Raising an eyebrow, she exclaimed in shock:
"What did Herta do this time? How could it attract the attention of an Aeon? She just became an Emanator, and it hasn't even been three system days since she developed that thing called the God Tree."
Elio said seriously, "She created a special dimension—a unique world where souls can temporarily exist after death."
Silver Wolf's eyes widened. "What do you mean, a place that can contain souls?"
"Exactly what it sounds like. Even if the αWolf attached to your Soul Gem were to leave your soul and enter it... it could continue to exist within the Warp."
Elio continued seriously, "And more importantly, the fact that she created such a world means that, to a certain extent, she has delayed the arrival of the Four Apocalypses—Nihility. She has made real progress on the path of saving the world."
Hearing this, Silver Wolf felt her heart tremble.
At eighteen, she had become an invincible magical girl player—but that was thanks to her future self, the power of αWolf!
In a sense, she was relying on her future achievements.
But what about Herta at eighteen?
She relied on her own research ability to develop one outrageous technology after another—and now she had even delayed the coming of the Nihility apocalypse, becoming, in effect, a savior of the cosmos?!
Herta had improved again.
Thinking this, Silver Wolf took a deep breath and asked αWolf within her mind, "αWolf, in your world, did Herta ever develop this kind of technology—a Warp that can contain souls?"
"No... the Herta of this timeline is extremely special." The will of αWolf, residing within the Soul Gem, fell silent for a long while before replying seriously. "Perhaps everything is just as this timeline's Herta claims—she truly has no limits. That's why she can push forward so many research projects at such an astonishing speed."
"No, she's not the only special one. I'm special too. I have no limits either. From now on, my goal is to surpass Herta," Silver Wolf said with absolute seriousness in her heart.
αWolf was silent for a moment. "As long as you're happy."
Silver Wolf crossed her arms, dissatisfied. "You think I can't surpass Herta?!"
αWolf replied, "Invincible player is your limit. But Herta... she truly seems to have no limits. After all, she has repeatedly drawn the attention of Aeons. Perhaps in the future, she could use her own wisdom to create an Aeon—or even complete her own self-coronation. Of course, either of those is incredibly difficult, but for a genius like Herta, it might actually be possible..."
Silver Wolf's tone grew more displeased. "You're praising her while putting me down."
αWolf said seriously, "But she has already completed self-coronation and become an Emanator. And her research efficiency is indeed far too fast."
In her past, αWolf had once taken over Device IX in place of Polka Kakamond. She had reviewed the relevant intelligence and knew that even ordinary members of the Genius Society had limits to their research efficiency.
That included Polka Kakamond, Dr. Primitive, Ruan Mei, and even the Herta from her own world.
But now it seemed... the Herta of this timeline had no such limits. Even after becoming an Emanator, she continued to advance at full speed.
And the things she researched—each one stranger than the last!
Soul Gems, the Dark Plane, Honkai Beasts, the God Tree, and now the Warp—each of these technologies had never appeared in her previous timeline. All of this pointed to just how special this timeline's Herta truly was.
At this moment, αWolf even believed that if anyone in this world had the qualification to become a new Aeon, it would be this extraordinarily unique Herta.
As for Silver Wolf?
She was still too young. She did not understand the difficulty of breaking through that boundary—it was something that had stumped αWolf for her entire life, driving her into despair.
At this moment, Blade, standing nearby, spoke to Elio: "Herta previously said she had inspiration, and she took blood samples from both me and Nanook. Could it be that she used those materials to create this so-called new dimension—the Warp?"
"Most likely."
"In that case, the Blood of Abundance has at least been given to the right person."
After saying this, Blade began recalling the past in his mind:
Back then, he and Dan Feng, two of the High-Cloud Quintet, had used the Blood of Abundance for an experiment, attempting to revive Baiheng and allow her to reincarnate as a dragon. However, the experiment ended in complete failure. Dan Feng was convicted because of it and was forced to undergo rebirth.
After Jingliu learned of this, she suffered a severe mental blow. Not long after, she fell into a memetic corruption and began to lose her sanity.
As for Blade himself, he was afflicted with the curse of Abundance. While also infected by the memetic corruption, he was relentlessly hunted by the maddened Jingliu, cut into pieces, and eventually wanted by the Xianzhou.
As Blade continued thinking, he arrived at a crucial point:
If, back then, Herta had already become a genius and had been willing to personally oversee the Transmutation into Dragon experiment—using her intellect to revive Baiheng—would the outcome have been different?
Reason told Blade that there was no such thing as regret medicine in this world, and that Terminus would not reverse time for such a matter. Yet the thought still inevitably arose within him.
At this moment, Stelle spoke slowly, "A Warp that can contain souls... did Herta create this new world to separate the soul from the body and achieve some kind of spiritual ascension?"
Elio shook his head. "That's a possibility, but a very small one..."
At this moment, Firefly seemed to think of something and said to Elio and Stelle, "If in the future, the Firefly Cat-Cake swarm dies again, and I lose the group I depend on, then perhaps I could abandon my body and enter the Warp as a soul, allowing my consciousness to continue existing that way."
Stelle immediately rejected the idea firmly. "That won't happen."
"And I won't allow it to happen," Elio said seriously. "Firefly, you are very important. The future of the cosmos needs you."
As Elio said this, he silently added in his heart:
And Kafka, Stelle, Blade, Silver Wolf... but most importantly, Stelle. Only Stelle, who carries the most special Stellaron, can lead the universe toward the most correct and perfect future.
"Alright, enough of the emotional talk," Silver Wolf quickly cut in. "I have a question. Aside from temporarily sustaining souls, does Herta's Warp have any other interesting functions?"
"It does," Elio replied. "The Warp can also collect the emotions of all living beings in the cosmos. I can already see that a large amount of emotional energy has gathered within it, beginning to take shape—forming into something resembling living creatures."
Silver Wolf's eyes lit up at once. "Creatures formed from absorbed emotions? That means there must be beings formed from negative emotions too. In that case, it's basically a dungeon... I'll definitely go check it out in the future."
Elio: "..."
...
On the other side, at the edge of The Blue's star system, Herta—having completed the creation of the Warp—was quickly reminded by Herman, allowing her to realize that the moment she created the Warp, the gaze of the gods had followed.
"The Aeons are all very interested in the technological knowledge I obtained after activating World-Shaking Wisdom." Herta's expression grew serious as she asked Herman inwardly, "With so many Aeons watching me, is there any risk of you being exposed?"
Herman replied confidently, "Relax, there's no way I'll be exposed. Don't underestimate your man."
"???"
A string of question marks popped above Herta's head.
Faced with her confusion, Herman said naturally, "We're together day and night. We even go to the bathroom together and sleep together. Naturally, I'm your man."
After saying that, Herman added with a hint of grievance, "Don't tell me you're planning to find another man behind my back? Let me tell you, whether physically or mentally, I absolutely can't accept you being with another man. After all, we're one and the same now."
"Who said anything about finding a man?" Herta laughed in exasperation. "Men can't help with my research. Compared to that, I'd rather study things that interest me."
Herman retorted, "Who says that? Don't I help with your research?"
"..." Herta fell silent for a moment before saying, "I'm not going to argue with you. Right now, I'm going to plant the Devil Tree within the Warp—in regions saturated with negative emotions. I believe that once it absorbs the fantasy essence of various lifeforms contained within those negative emotions, it will be able to produce qualified Devil Fruits."
"And besides Devil Fruits, I'm also going to construct a Plasma Spark Tower in areas filled with positive emotions... I believe that souls born in such an environment, when exposed to the Plasma Spark Tower, will surely become light—giants of light!"
Herman couldn't help but say, "You've really planned out the Warp technology down to every detail."
Herta replied, "This is just the beginning. Aside from planting the Devil Tree and building the Plasma Spark Tower, I also need to create the Soul Society. After all, the emotional energy accumulated within the Warp will inherently affect souls, driving them into madness."
"But the Soul Society is different. It will be constructed using spiritual power and spirit particles converted from emotional energy. Once completed, it will become a place where souls can truly live. In that case—I will have created an Eden for souls within this universe, completely overturning the concept that souls return to nothingness after death..."
"Alright, I support you. I've reapplied the Universal Genius buff for you," Herman said, clapping.
"Mm."
After responding, Herta opened her eyes in the real universe and extended her hand toward the void. Her Super Spacetime Gene activated, opening a wormhole.
In an instant, space before her split open, and a large number of seeds fell out, floating in the vacuum of space.
These seeds had all been purchased earlier by Herman from the Interastral Peace Corporation. Now, Herta intended to use them to create the seeds for the Devil Tree.
Without any hesitation, Herta immediately began working—swift and decisive.
After all, she had long since mastered the synthesis formula for the Devil Tree seeds, having simulated the process many times within the Simulated Laboratory of the Research System.