"The entire cosmos has turned into a pot of porridge. We still do not even know where the enemy is!"
The above was taken from the Intelligentsia Guild.
…
"One useless organization. Who gave them the nerve to represent all organic life?" Herta delivered a merciless roast.
"Having passion is already pretty good, stop nitpicking. Now you are the one being picky." Silver Wolf looked thoroughly displeased.
Why did she have to meet with this woman anyway?!
She would never forget it for the rest of her life, the scene of this woman cold-bloodedly deleting every single account she had painstakingly leveled up, completely wiped, unrecoverable in any way.
What, puppets are so amazing? Being an Emanator of Erudition makes you that impressive?
Piss me off enough and I will throw all your puppets into a washing machine and spin them till they cry!
After viciously fighting it out in her head with Herta, Silver Wolf raised her head and stared straight at her.
"What do you want with me, coming in person? Don't tell me there is actually something you, the great genius, cannot do and need my help with?"
"There is something I am quite curious about," Herta replied.
Resting her cheek in her right palm, her gaze lowered faintly, she smiled as she looked at the small Stellaron Hunter before her.
"That device of yours that attracted the attention of the entire cosmos in one go, do you still have one? Lend me one."
"Aren't you a genius? Make one yourself." Silver Wolf curled her lip in disdain.
"If there is a ready-made one, why should I waste my precious time?"
"So finding me does not count as wasting time?!"
"Finding you is easy."
"Hey!!"
…
"Hey, Kafka, why did you stop me? If you had not held me back, I would have cracked her skull open today. It was hard enough just to run into her real body."
Listening to Silver Wolf's nonstop ranting, Kafka let out a soft laugh and comforted her.
"Herta rarely appears in person. That alone shows how interested she is in this problem. Offering some help is not something every person should do?"
"That sounds completely untrustworthy coming from a Stellaron Hunter," Silver Wolf said flatly.
"So, Kafka, what are we doing now?" Firefly, who had prepared everyone's travel provisions, asked with faint anticipation in her eyes.
"Hmm," Kafka drawled. "Since there is nothing for us to do right now and Elio has not sent any new assignments, then why don't we find a nice spot and chat for a bit?"
Her slender fingers painted with purple nail polish gently pinched her chin as she pretended to ponder, then she smiled.
"Yay!"
…
On a temporarily stationed planet, the Herrscher of Sentience curiously watched the toys the little Herta puppets were fiddling with.
"What do you want this for?"
"To make something that lets those idiots open their eyes and see clearly where the people actually are."
Herta extended a hand and accepted the modified device handed over by the little Hertas.
"You want to use this to let everyone know where Irontomb is controlling everything from?" Screwllum asked as he watched her play with the new toy.
Although he did not know how Irontomb managed to control so many inorganic beings, such abilities were meaningless to Screwllum, the king of Intellitrons and a genuine genius of the Genius Society.
No genius would fall here, let alone him, the one most likely to inherit Rupert's will and the person most likely to ignite a Third Mechanical War. These control methods were far too crude and limited.
Still, being unaffected did not mean Screwllum felt nothing about Irontomb's actions.
Most of the time, he, the king and de facto leader of Intellitrons, would not intervene in the behavior of mechanical intelligences.
Whether they built kingdoms and civilizations of their own, or became bandits committing evil, it made no difference to him.
But actions like Irontomb's, actions that once again pushed organic and inorganic life into opposition, were something he would not allow.
He was devoted to human studies.
One could even say that on the surface, his humanity was richer than that of the two geniuses present.
At the very least, he would not leave behind strange creatures or special environments just for experiments.
Irontomb's goal was obvious to anyone paying attention, the extermination of all organic life.
According to his calculations, this would bring no benefit to the cosmic development, only endless destruction through perpetual war and confrontation.
Of course, Irontomb was a Lord Ravager. Precisely because of that, they were not surprised by his actions. They were simply thinking about how to smash him to pieces.
Is it hard to kill an Emanator? Very hard.
Is it hard to kill an Emanator who can travel through data and has deployed countless bodies across the cosmos? Harder than trying to IX.
But that is for ordinary people, for mediocrities.
Look at their lineup here.
Three geniuses working together, a mere Lord Ravager would be nothing but a withered corpse in a grave. He would not even get a blanket.
Pressing down the completed device, a wisp of Quantum energy that Herta had deliberately captured burst forth from its core, transmitting at a unique energy frequency to nearly every force in the cosmos capable of receiving it.
The Interastral Peace Corporation, the Garden of Recollection, the Family, the Masked Fools, the Xianzhou Alliance...
These factions had originally been discussing the source and meaning of the earlier signal, but all of that vanished the moment the second signal arrived.
In its place was rapid mobilization, elite units heading straight for the destination.
After all, the source this time was Lady Herta.
They would not easily trust a signal sent by some unknown force, but messages from Lady Herta were trusted a thousand percent.
Everyone knew that Lady Herta had no interest in the cosmic situations. Only novel things could attract her. Although the occasional experiment caused small problems, those were insignificant in the face of her personal charm and excellent reputation.
Very soon, starships from various factions warped in. When the ships stabilized, a sudden sound rang out.
"Woooo—!" A dazzling Express streaked across the starry sky and arrived.
The Nameless had arrived!
"Oh, this time someone interesting showed up." One hand on her hip, Herta looked with keen interest at the familiar figures stepping off the Astral Express.
And a Knight of Pure Beauty too?
"Stelle!"
Fresh off the train, Stelle looked around in confusion, unsure who was calling her.
Then she saw a Herta who was bigger then her puppet.
"Herta?" Such an eye-catching target allowed Stelle to lock on instantly.
She looked at the figure with surprise. As beautiful as a witch, striking and graceful.
Paired with the surrounding Herta puppets, her identity was obvious.
"I did not expect you to personally appear this time. What a surprise."
Even Himeko could not help feeling astonished at seeing Herta's true form.
After all, Herta rarely showed herself in person.
It was not because anyone wanted to harm her. Even beings on the same level would only speak politely upon meeting her, unwilling to put themselves at odds with her.
Rather, it was simply that with Herta's lazy nature, the fact that she would go out on her own sparked curiosity.
"Herta…" Stelle blinked and stared straight at her.
"Hm? It is me. What, stunned by my beauty?" Herta flicked her hair, clearly pleased with herself.
"So you are actually this pretty."
"…I already said the puppets were modeled after me when I was young. I was already cute and beautiful back then, of course I am even more beautiful now."
Faced with Stelle's habitual bursts of strange remarks, Herta rolled her eyes.
"Besides Lady Herta, there is also Lady Ruan Mei and Screwllum." Dan Heng swept his gaze around slightly. "These are all major figures."
Just these three geniuses alone were beyond what ordinary factions could even dream of inviting.
Even top-tier forces like the IPC or the Xianzhou Alliance would find it extremely difficult to invite all three at once.
And now, these three geniuses had gathered, clearly because of the same issue affecting the cosmos.
"Let us skip the reminiscing for now. Shouldn't we discuss something more important?" Black Swan from the Garden of Recollection approached gracefully, smiling.
"Long time no see!" Miss Memokeeper who came with her happily waved at Stelle.
People from different factions gradually assembled. Yukong personally came as the helmsman of the Sky-Faring Commission, a gesture of respect.
"Lady Herta, Lady Ruan Mei, Mister Screwllum. With conflicts breaking out across the cosmos, did you issue this invitation because you have found the culprit behind this incident?".
"It is obvious that Irontomb is hiding in the Quantum Sea, a field we have never touched before. With your help, entering the Quantum Sea and resolving this crisis should be easy."
Taravan, the IPC representative who arrived the fastest, spoke up.
An Emanator of Preservation personally coming was both a sign of respect and a reflection of Taravan's own curiosity about how Irontomb managed all of this.
That unknown realm.
"See that?" Herta did not bother with suspense and pointed directly at a distant Imaginary vortex that had already taken shape, annihilating everything around it.
"An Imaginary vortex. the IPC has also considered using Imaginary vortices to enter the Imaginary Tree, but all attempts failed. The closer one gets, the greater the pressure. Even approaching it is a luxury." Taravan said.
"That is because your technology is lacking." Herta laughed softly.
She was a genius who had reached the Imaginary Tree and the Quantum Sea long ago.
Although the destructive force inherent to an Imaginary vortex was enough to destroy most things in the cosmos, to her it was nothing more than a door she could enter whenever she wished.
"According to my scans, there is a special energy source at the boundary between the Quantum Sea and the Imaginary Tree that remains within a fixed range. If you want to deal with him, at the very least you need people who can actually be useful."
"The boundary between the Imaginary Tree and the Quantum Sea?" Yukong murmured softly, amazed by Herta's research.
Most factions were still infants taking their first steps in this field, while Herta was already far ahead.
The gap was obvious.
So this is the strength of the eighty-third seat of the Genius Society.
"Lady Herta, I think we should temporarily put the proposal of entering it on hold. We do not know what lies inside. Even with you, rashly charging into enemy territory is extremely dangerous. With one misstep, the hunter could become the prey." Black Swan said gently.
"I share Miss Black Swan's opinion. We cannot rashly investigate such an unknown domain." Himeko agreed.
"…Actually, I have wanted to ask this since earlier. How did you all even end up together?" Seeing Argenti nodding in perfect sync with Himeko, Herta could not help complaining.
"This lady, radiant as a violet in full bloom, please forgive me for neglecting you earlier. I was deep in thought about how to return the cosmos to an environment suitable for spreading Pure Beauty. My name is Argenti, a knight of Pure Beauty, here to set the cosmos back on the right path. May my strength contribute even a small part."
"As for how I met the dear friends of the Astral Express, I can only say that everything was arranged by Pure Beauty. Praise Pure Beauty."
Right. I should not have asked a Knight of Pure Beauty that kind of question.
It had been so long since dealing with them that Herta had almost forgotten how unwavering their faith was.
"In short, you all ran into each other because of Irontomb. Fine, I understand. Then let us begin. What are your thoughts?"
At Herta's question, everyone looked at one another and began discussing.
This incident affected all of them, so there was no time for idle catching up.
Just as the discussion grew lively, a white, jade-like arm quietly raised itself.
"Um, I mean, just if, if it is possible, could we maybe block those vortices first? That way, would he be unable to directly influence the cosmos and control his damned iron junk machine army?"
As soon as the words fell, all eyes turned toward the one who had spoken, March 7th.
The scariest thing was the sudden silence.
March 7th shrank her shoulders slightly, carefully glancing around.
She thought, she did not say anything wrong, right?!
"Hmm, Little March's suggestion does seem to have some feasibility." Himeko nodded slightly, looking at March 7th with approval and backing her up.
"At present, we do not know how Irontomb influences the cosmos, but if we can block those Imaginary vortices…" Black Swan mused.
Stelle blinked. Hearing everyone discuss its feasibility, she imitated March 7th and raised her hand.
"So, does that mean we are going to… need something to stuff them up?"