Herta Space Station, a private laboratory.
An elegant inorganic life-form, clad in a tailcoat, wearing a gentleman's top hat and a monocle, possessed of an indisputably flawless visage—a beauty radiating the antique grace of Jiangnan.
The laboratory was suffused with the faint aroma of food, as two researchers focused intently on probing the mysteries of synthesized snacks.
Screwllum's mechanical fingers swiped across a holographic screen, earnestly scrolling through the scan data of the Universal Synthesizer.
To him, that machine's 'comical' mechanical architecture was far more fascinating than the snacks it ultimately produced.
At another workbench, Ruan Mei bent over to observe a marvelous reaction within a petri dish; the transformation of living matter's form during the synthesis process was the truly captivating subject.
Regrettably, with only this fragment of recorded data, Screwllum simply could not find a point of entry.
He pondered for a moment, then turned and walked toward Ruan Mei, his tone gentle:
"Proposal: Travel to Jarilo-VI to observe the situation."
"Addendum: Calculating based on Madam Herta's mobility efficiency, her true body may have rendezvoused with Mister Caelus ten minutes ago."
"Madam Ruan Mei, might I ask whether you would care to accompany me?"
One system-hour earlier, Screwllum, Ruan Mei, and Herta—three Geniuses—had together finished debugging and perfecting the final stage of the Simulated Universe · Swarm Disaster.
And then, Herta had been lured away by a single text message from Caelus… she was even prepared to deploy her true body!
Screwllum, Ruan Mei, and Herta had known each other for ages; beyond being project collaborators, they counted as friends among themselves, and they all understood Herta's temperament well.
If a puppet could do the job, she would absolutely never budge an inch—even for a conference that would decide the fate of several star systems, she would only ever attend via puppet.
For something to make this 'shut-in' personally venture out and travel such a distance, one could only imagine how alluring the bait Caelus used to hook Herta must have been.
Naturally, Screwllum would be interested!
"Very well, then let us go take a look together."
The corner of Ruan Mei's mouth curved unconsciously into a faint smile.
Every time she met Caelus, he could bring her surprises—like a blind box of delight that could be opened again and again.
On the astronomical scale, the distance between the Jarilo-VI star region and the Herta Space Station could be considered close.
Screwllum nodded, adjusted his monocle, and made an 'after you' gesture, his manner courteous and refined:
"Ladies first."
The two Geniuses had no need to move so much as half a step; to minds capable of deconstructing the riddles of the universe, observing across this trifling distance was no more than the minor matter of casting a projection toward a set of coordinates.
However, in the very instant the two Geniuses each displayed their talents, mapping their projections onto the planet of Jarilo-VI—
Screwllum's mechanical eyes suddenly flashed, and Ruan Mei's eyelids snapped open.
The laboratory's atmosphere abruptly plunged into an eerie silence, as though the entire world had come to a standstill.
Screwllum and Ruan Mei exchanged a single glance.
The next second, both Geniuses' true bodies vanished in unison.
...
Jarilo-VI.
"For a Genius, the importance of posing the question even surpasses that of the answer."
Her hair swayed amid starlight as Bronita's feet left the ground, as if some mysterious force enveloped her slender, delicate frame, lifting her free of gravity's pull to float upward.
"Others regard Herta's thinking as incomprehensible magic; to Herta, your thinking is much the same—but so-called magic, too, has its principles. There exists no unsolvable problem in this world."
Bronita's pretty face was calm and dispassionate as she bore the gaze of Nous, yet she showed no reverence for the Aeon.
"The me of right now, Bronita, possesses a mode of thought that differs from Herta's yet stands on the very same plane."
"So then, O being who claims to be all-knowing—pose your questions to me!"
The near-orbit of Jarilo-VI fell into absolute silence; across the entire firmament resounded only the girl's voice, while the IPC's world-shaking fleet stayed as quiet as a kitten.
Three kilometers away in orbital space, two utterly different energies bent the curvature of this region; Screwllum and Ruan Mei, having sensed something amiss, had rushed over with their true bodies at the first instant.
And so, they heard Bronita inviting Nous to question her.
Screwllum: "..."
Ruan Mei: "..."
"What on earth happened here?"
Ruan Mei's expression was one of pure bewilderment, her brows interwoven like slender willow leaves—exquisite, graceful, and tender.
But still so confused?
"Who… is she?"
A new Genius had been born on this planet?
Why did her manner of speaking resemble Herta's somewhat?
It felt as though, in sheer degree of narcissism, she even surpassed Herta!
Screwllum was silent for two seconds: "...Quality answer: I do not know."
The aftershocks of the Aeon's gaze-force washed over a vast region like a tide; in a world where all was utterly still, only the girl's words—like a secluded orchid in an empty valley—echoed on.
In a world where every thread of thought had stalled, one second passed...
Two seconds passed...
Three seconds passed...
"Hey, Machine-head, say something!"
At the very first ripple in space she had already detected Ruan Mei and Screwllum, yet Bronita paid them no mind at all; hands on her hips, she gazed at that machine and urged it on.
Nous gave no answer—only silence, those things that for all the world looked like eyes-as-ears flickering with a crimson glow.
"Nothing to say? Tsk—I really do want to clip these earrings onto you and see just what it is you think about all day!"
Clicking her tongue in displeasure, Bronita lifted her little head, and her resplendent, golden, pearl-like earrings swung with the motion.
In the terms of a fantasy novel, this is what's called uniting one's body with the Path.
"Can it really talk? I don't see a mouth anywhere?"
Stelle bounced up and down, but no matter what, she could not glimpse Nous's other vantage point.
"No."
Bronita pursed her lips, hands thrust into her pockets:
"Machine-head can't talk, and won't answer either. Questions and doubts are the essence of thought—no taboos, no boundaries, no end—unless He throws in the towel and quits."
"That said."
Bronita's tone shifted, a light and breezy laugh escaping her: "The me of right now might just be able to exchange a few words with Him."
She raised a flawless little hand, her slender five fingers spreading apart; through the gaps between them, her eyes—transformed into gear-shaped magic circles—looked toward the machine Aeon high above infinite space-time.
"Machine-head, let's have a little chat!"
The IPC employees inside the steel battleship were still mired in shock and confusion, the astonishment in Oswaldo's eyes yet to dissipate.
"What is she saying?"
Ruan Mei's pupils throbbed for an instant, and a rare ripple appeared in that cool, aloof voice:
"Establishing direct dialogue with Nous?"
"Probability: Extremely low."
Screwllum, too, grew graver than ever before.
Beneath the focus of countless eyes, Bronita's fingertip was the first to break the congealed space-time.
At first it was only her index finger trembling lightly; this minute gesture was like a stone cast into a placid water surface—and yet, if one's vantage shifted to look down upon Jarilo-VI from the deep space of the cosmos, one could see a glimmering azure-blue morning star sparkle.
As if a nonexistent droplet had fallen upon the starry sky, stirring ripples and a crisp echo, a magic circle traced out of rings rose into being.
It was not the magic circle of a fantasy world, but rather something gear-shaped—like the Diankai of the Intelligentron race—a science-fictional array disc through which information and knowledge flowed.
The platform bearing everyone suddenly quaked violently; March 7th staggered back two steps and crashed into Stelle's arms.
The surrounding space began to warp, and from within the void there faintly emerged glimmering azure-blue streaming particles, writhing through the emptiness to weave some sort of topological structure—as if something were about to coalesce into substance.
"[Analysis]"
Bronita's soft murmur resonated in the very depths of everyone's eardrums.
Her seemingly empty palm appeared to be straining against something, the knuckles turning faintly white.
BOOM!
A net-like web of lightning and raging winds blanketed the heavens; with a crackling snap, that geometric construct of only the faintest outline burst apart!
As if suffering some sort of backlash, Bronita let out a soft grunt, both hands clutching her forehead, which throbbed with pain from an information impact that was colossal even for a Genius:
"Haha—it really worked!"
"She succeeded!"
Both Ruan Mei and Screwllum unconsciously advanced half a step; as Geniuses who had been graced by Nous's glance, their understanding of [Erudition] was second to none.
This unknown, mysterious girl had, in an extraordinarily short span of time, genuinely established a connection with Nous.
"Establishing a direct two-way information exchange? How did she manage it?"
An almost imperceptible note of fervor actually crept into Ruan Mei's voice.
"Inconceivable."
Screwllum pressed down on his hat to keep it from being blown away by the wind.
"Better take it easy."
Caelus steadied the swaying girl from behind.
Bronita had just now actually attempted to use the Authority of the Herrscher of Reason to reproduce Nous; even with the fusion-amplified projection ability of Bronie, projecting an Aeon was still far, far beyond reach!
"Mmh, it's way too many layers above the [Narrative] tier."
Bronita leaned back naturally, reclining in Caelus's embrace.
As Bronita's other half, Caelus could vaguely grasp a tiny bit—it was that chapter in Honkai Impact 3rd where the Herrscher of Truth underwent Feathering, with all those jargon terms like [Narrative] and [Story] that had nearly left him utterly bewildered.
The Authority of the Herrscher of Reason is [Construction]—that is, conjuring out of thin air the creations of civilization that would otherwise require extraordinarily complex processes to produce.
In fact, this ability could be further divided into two parts: [Construction] and [Depiction].
Construction draws from reality; Depiction draws from the fictional.
In theory, the Authority of Reason encompasses all experience and all possibility: Construction transcribes reality, Depiction makes fantasy manifest.
Nous, originally a stellar computer used to solve all things, is an Aeon ascended from a machine.
Bronita attempted to reproduce, to depict, that stellar computer that solves all things.
But unfortunately, the upper limit of the Herrscher of Reason is the "limit of narrative."
Bronita, fused from Bronie's youthful, mini-sized projection ability, had not yet reached that level of power.
"If a full-Eidolon Herrscher of Truth were used as the fusion material instead, she might just be able to reproduce and depict Nous—at the very least, reproduce the stellar computer that solves all things."
Caelus mused.
But right now he didn't even have Truth, let alone a full-Eidolon Bronya.
"Worth it, totally worth it!"
Bronita tossed her head, and the starlight dancing among the tips of her hair scattered with the motion into a ring-shaped band of light: "Mirror, catch all this information."
"Huh? Th-this is wha—aaaahhh!!!!"
Upon the mirror's surface, hundreds of millions of hexagonal light-spots instantly appeared.
"Wait! Madam Bronita! It's too much! I'm going to burst!"
The mechanically synthesized voice suddenly spiked to a frequency no human could produce; the fourth Mirror, Adrose, let out a cry like the heroine of a doujinshi.
Bronita paid it no heed; she glanced at Screwllum and Ruan Mei, and nodded in acknowledgment.
Then, she turned to face the IPC's fleet.
"Heh."
The girl slowly raised a fair hand.
____
Gift for Everyone: Once we hit 50 Powerstones, I'll release +1 bonus chapter
________________________________________
If you want more chapters, please consider supporting my page on (P). with 50 advanced chapters available on (P)
👻 Join the crew by searching Leanzin on (P). You know the spot! 😉