"Who called you?"
Herta crossed her arms and asked Lucian casually.
"A Masked Fool." Lucian replied after closing a call from Sampo, speaking just as casually. "He warned me to watch out for other Masked Fools causing trouble in Jarilo."
"Huh? A Masked Fool warning you of other Masked Fools? Are you kidding me?" Herta said skeptically, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, probably because he loves this place." Lucian explained briefly with a smile, then changed the topic. "Anyway, are you heading back, or will you keep hanging out with me?"
"Hmph, who'd wanna hang out with you?" Herta huffed, turning her head away. "Since you have free time, why don't you call Droidhead now? I wanna meet THEM ASAP."
"Sure, but..." Lucian paused, looking hesitant. "We gotta do it somewhere else."
It was said that when one did bad things, one shouldn't do them more than three times.
Given that he already used Disarm on Nous three times, he was afraid that something worse would happen if he continued messing with THEM.
Considering this, it was better to summon Nous in an isolated place.
He truly cared about Jarilo-VI, after all.
"Why?" Herta asked, not understanding Lucian's reason. "Is summoning Droidhead to Jarilo dangerous or something?"
In her eyes, bringing an Aeon here would definitely attract a crowd, which would be good for Belobog's development and tourism.
In that case, why did Lucian seem a bit resistant?
Was the way he summoned Nous not as harmless as she thought?
Would it upset THEM?
Herta started to make various guesses about Lucian's methods for summoning Nous.
"Don't worry about that. Just come with me."
Lucian, not elaborating further, immediately teleported himself and Herta to a desolate planet with no life forms.
On this desolate planet, even if Nous accidentally triggered an overwhelming energy tide, no innocents would be harmed.
"Alright, you stand behind me this time. If Droidhead wanna look at you, THEY will have to look at me first."
Herta explained the plan she had just thought of to Lucian.
If Nous ignored her again and still focused on him, THEY would have no choice but to look at her this time since he stood behind her, right?
Lucian, understanding this, had no objections.
In any case, if things went awry, he could always enter the script since the script cooldown had finished.
As for Herta, she was an Emanator of Erudition, an Emanator of Nous, so he didn't need to worry about her safety.
A few moments later, the two of them stood in their positions, with Herta in front, while Lucian was behind her, using Disarm on Nous's projection as before.
However, after a while, nothing happened.
"Hey, you still haven't started yet?" Herta frowned and asked in a puzzled tone.
Lucian was, in fact, also puzzled.
Why wasn't Nous responding this time?
Had the previous encounters caused THEM to lose interest?
"Hmm, let's try something different..." Lucian said thoughtfully before activating Sham Diviner to divine whether they could meet Nous today.
In the next second, the result was, fortunately, 'No,' but given that the result of Sham Diviner was wrong, the answer instead changed to 'Yes.'
Sure enough, in the next moment, a humming sound echoed briefly before Nous's colossal projection instantly appeared in the sea of stars—THEIR red gaze focused on the desolate planet where Lucian and Herta stood.
A few moments ago, Nous's metallic shell had been peeled off again.
Nous, having already experienced it several times before, knew that it was the same mysterious power from that uncalculable lifeform.
Unlike before, however, knowing that THEIR first two attempts had yielded no results, THEY were reluctant to observe again and decided to simply ignore him.
However, just then, the cosmos suddenly gained new data—there were new variables, variables that would affect THEIR previous calculations.
Because of that, THEY decided to recalculate and soon found that it was actually another mysterious power—a mysterious power that could interfere with THEIR calculations.
"A new problem..."
Nous muttered to THEMSELF, intrigued by the new interference.
In the next second, THEIR new calculations showed that a certain coordinate held the answer, and so THEIR projection arrived at the coordinate of that new mysterious power, only to find that it was actually the power from the same lifeform—the Emanator of Abundance, who had defied THEIR calculations before.
"THEY're here! Quickly! Stay close behind me!"
Herta immediately stepped closer in front of Lucian, to the point of almost touching, shielding him from Nous's gaze.
"Droidhead, let's see how you ignore me this time!"
As she spoke, Herta sounded and looked excited, but unfortunately, Nous's gaze shifted—it seemed to pass through her body, ignoring her existence completely, and was completely focused on Lucian.
"Well, looks like THEY're still ignoring you. Not my fault." Lucian remarked with pity.
Instead of pure anger like before, however, Herta was now both amused and annoyed.
"Hmph, just hold me tight..." Herta whispered, pressing herself hard against Lucian.
"..."
Lucian raised his brows, feeling surprised by her action.
Did she ask to be embraced?
Seeing Herta act so forward, Lucian naturally didn't resist, boldly wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her into a tight embrace.
Herta, equally bold, leaned back against his chest, causing her smooth, pale back to press firmly against him.
In that instant, Lucian could smell the faint fragrance of her body and feel the pressure of their closeness—her waist against his arm, and even her rounded buttocks pressing awkwardly against his crotch, stimulating his senses.
At this moment, they were so close, their position so awkward and unspeakable, that it felt as though they were about to merge into one.
"I'm this close now, let's see how you ignore me!"
Herta declared loudly, seemingly throwing a tantrum at Nous and not caring at all about the physical closeness between her and Lucian.
Sure enough, this tactic seemed to work as Nous's gaze, now unavoidable, enveloped them both.
"Nous, I have a question for you—"
Herta called out from within Lucian's embrace, wanting to ask the question she had always wanted to ask, but before she could, the surrounding Imaginary energy suddenly surged, and an overwhelming pressure struck them.
*Rumble—!*
In the next moment, with a loud rumbling sound, the planet beneath their feet began to disintegrate, turning into blocks of data!
"What the—?!" Herta looked down in surprise, gazing at the trembling ground. "Droidhead is trying to calculate you! THEIR computational power just skyrocketed to billions of quadrillions—no, I can't even sense it anymore..."
Herta, her eyes widening with every second, paused for a moment, then turned her head to Lucian.
"What did you do to THEM?! No, what are you?! What's making an Aeon like Nous go through all this effort to calculate your existence?!"
At her question, Lucian truly didn't know what to say.
"Why?" Lucian smiled wryly. "It's because I peeled THEIR skin? Or maybe because I altered reality?"
Luckily, he hadn't summoned Nous on Jarilo-VI, or it would've been restructured into data, just like this desolate planet.
"Dammit! No matter—let's get out of here first!" Herta exclaimed, grabbing Lucian's hand tightly. "Aeon's power is beyond what we can withstand! Even if THEY're just a projection—this level of computational power is too much for us to handle!"
Even though she was an Emanator of Erudition, which made her chances of survival high, it was still better to be safe than sorry.
"Calculate me?" Lucian raised his eyebrows, then smiled faintly. "We'll see once the real one shows up."
As his words fell, he took out a sword from the System's storage space—one in the style of the Xianzhou's swords—then swung it vertically at Nous's projection with a calm expression.
Seeing this, Herta froze, looking dumbfounded—her expression, as she looked at Lucian, was as if she were staring at a lunatic.
What was the point of attacking a projection of an Aeon?
Would it even do anything?
Besides, what was he even doing?
He was merely swinging that sword, not even touching the projection?
Did Nous's calculation already affect his mind, making him go crazy?
As all these thoughts crossed her mind one after another, Herta, at a loss for words, suddenly noticed that something was off with the surging Imaginary energy.
Seeing Lucian still calmly gazing at Nous's projection, she followed his gaze and soon saw that THEIR projection was actually cut in two!
Yes, cut in two!
Lucian, seeing that Immortal Kneel worked on Nous's projection, inwardly sighed in relief.
Given that Nous had no hands to catch his sword and that THEIR projection was a unique life form of sorts, THEIR projection evidently could only be cleaved apart by the effect of Immortal Kneel.
Thanks to that, Nous's calculation was interrupted, causing the surrounding energy tide to instantly calm.
'What just happened?'
Herta, looking dazed, thought in stunned silence, her mouth open wide, before quickly turning her head toward the culprit behind her.
"You... Did you just cut Droidhead into two?" Herta asked softly, her tone skeptical.
Lucian, holding his sword in his right hand while his left was still wrapped around her waist, shrugged helplessly.
"I had no choice, did I? THEY attacked me first, so this is self-defense."
Hearing Lucian's absurd answer, Herta was so stunned that she didn't even care about the closeness between them, not struggling at all as he kept embracing her so naturally.
"Self-defense, you say...?" Herta muttered, the corner of her lips twitching. "You—that's an Aeon's projection! Not a vegetable! How could you even cut it? Is your power close to conceptual? Are you the same existence as the Aeons?"
Until today, she had never heard of someone damaging the projection of an Aeon.
One should know that once a being ascended to Aeonhood, THEIR life structure transcended all comprehension by sentient beings.
In simple terms, what Lucian had just done was like a novel character coming to reality and slashing their own creator, literally breaking the 4th wall.
Such a fact left Herta, a rational researcher, unable to hide her shock or make sense of it.
Of all the possibilities she could think of, she could only arrive at one bold assumption—Lucian's power was close to or truly 'conceptual' in nature.
In other words, his power was at least on par with the Aeons.
Upon hearing Herta's assumption, Lucian couldn't help but chuckle.
As expected of a genius, she had already figured out his true power so quickly.
"Wanna know? I'll tell you later." Lucian teased casually. "Anyway, this is beyond your involvement from here on out. Let me send you back first."
As his words fell, he released his embrace on Herta, then gently pushed her back, teleporting her safely back to Herta Space Station with Absolute Hit.
Now alone, Lucian sighed tiredly, then turned toward Nous's projection that had returned to normal.
It seemed as though Nous was now trying to go all out by using the power of the Path of Erudition to trap him and slowly study him—not aiming for damage, just control.
'System, activate the script.'
[Random character script starting...]
[Robin]
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[A bonus chapter for every 500 Power Stones.]
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