"Alright, you two chat first. Gimme a moment."
Right after Herta said this, the Herta puppet she was using powered down, becoming a lifeless puppet.
A while later, Herta, having rushed straight from her home to the space station, appeared before Lucian in person in her true form, her graceful figure fully present.
Lucian looked Herta up and down, then silently smiled at her.
Seeing his smile, Herta, without realizing it, felt slightly flustered inside and quickly spoke up in a slightly rushed manner.
"Don't get the wrong idea! I was just worried my puppet wouldn't be able to withstand Nous's energy, that's all! It's not like I came in person just to see you, okay!"
Hearing this, Lucian raised an eyebrow, then chuckled, feeling amused.
"I didn't say anything. Why do you think I'd think that?"
He looked at Herta innocently and spoke in a sincere tone, which made her breath catch for a moment, leaving her unable to come up with a response right away.
"I... I... I could tell just by your expression! You were totally thinking that! Definitely!" Herta insisted adamantly, then immediately put her hands on her hips and changed the subject. "So, what trump card did you prepare this time? Can you escape from Droidhead's hands again this time?"
At this, Lucian raised an eyebrow once again.
"Why do I need to escape?" Lucian said, pointing toward the vast space outside the window, his tone flat, almost taken for granted. "Nous? What could THEY possibly do to me?"
[DING! Script cooldown complete. You can now activate the script again.]
[Script: 1]
[Activate?]
'No.'
Hearing the System's message, Lucian smiled inwardly and immediately rejected the System's offer to activate the script. Learning that the script was available once again, he felt even more confident, as he now possessed a true trump card to escape in case BGM failed to defend against Nous.
"Heh..."
Herta sneered upon hearing Lucian's response.
"It hasn't even been that long since we last met, and you're already this cocky? I'll admit your abilities are exceptional, but last time was just a projection, right?"
"What happens if you actually piss THEM off this time and THEIR real body shows up? You still gonna be that confident then?"
"And if you seriously get yourself killed by Droidhead, where the hell am I supposed to find another test subject as tough and freakishly weird as you?"
"I haven't even finished digging into your abilities yet."
Hearing Herta's relentless words, Screwllum, who was standing nearby, inclined his head slightly. If one looked at him carefully, his metallic face carried a programmatic elegance, along with a trace of concern that was difficult to detect.
"Lucian, Herta has a point," Screwllum chimed in with concern. "Confronting an Aeon's projection, especially one with clear intent, carries an extremely high risk factor. Perhaps waiting for a more stable opportunity, after more comprehensive defensive protocols are in place—"
Lucian waved his hand, cutting off Screwllum's advice, then smiled faintly.
"Just get your recorders ready. You might get to witness a spectacle for the ages."
With that, Lucian operated Herta's central console, downloaded one of Robin's songs, and then set it to loop throughout the entire space station.
"What are you doing?"
Herta asked with a frown, and Lucian only smiled in response.
"Well, just watch and prepare yourself."
Hearing this, Herta and Screwllum exchanged a silent glance, then quietly watched as Lucian busied himself.
All across Herta Space Station, the terminals in various areas suddenly had their permissions taken over by Herta's central console and began looping Robin's song. Next, Lucian immediately activated BGM, designating the song as its background music.
"What's going on? Why is Madam Herta playing a song for us?"
"Oh! It's Robin's 'If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking'! Madam Herta has great taste!"
"Perfect timing. Guess we can take a break."
"Hm? Is it just me, or do I suddenly feel this weird surge of courage… I feel like I could solo an Aeon…"
"Now that you mention it, I kinda feel the same..."
Every researcher in the space station put down their work and listened to the song.
In the Master Control Zone, Asta was confused by the sudden situation, so she sent a message to Herta to ask what was happening. Only then did she learn that Lucian had arrived and was about to cause trouble here.
'Madam Herta is always saying Mr. Lucian is incredible. Is today finally the day I get to see his amazing moment? In what way is he amazing, exactly?'
After the previous encounter with Lucian, Asta began to feel genuinely curious, eager to see just how capable someone so highly valued by Herta really was.
*Buzzzz—*
A few moments later, as everyone in Herta Space Station began to relax, enjoying Robin's song, an overwhelming, indescribable sense of 'presence' began to descend upon the space station.
It could not be captured by sight, yet it could be clearly felt.
Cold.
Pure.
Vast.
Completely devoid of emotion.
It was none other than the power of the Erudition!
Data streams from across the galaxy surged in an instant, while geometric structures underwent frantic reconstruction!
*Buzzzz—!*
A phantom of a mechanical head, composed of logical light-trails and cold data symbols, slowly condensed in space, and within seconds, it became visible to the naked eye.
THEIR gaze, in the very first moment, was like countless invisible probes, piercing deep into the space station.
"W-What the hell is that?!"
"H-Hey... that looks like... Nous? Holy shit, it's really Nous!"
"Quick! Take pictures! Record it! Document everything!"
In an instant, countless people on the space station, especially the researchers, went completely wild.
It couldn't be helped.
In their entire lives, this might be the only chance they would ever get to see an Aeon directly with their own eyes!
Among them, Asta, who had also witnessed Nous appear, was badly startled before immediately going completely wild as well.
"No matter what, this is visual data that must be recorded! Everyone, start recording immediately!"
Right after giving this order, Asta herself pulled out her phone and began recording Nous like crazy.
Amid the excitement and commotion that filled the space station, Nous's red light suddenly focused on a certain location on the upper levels of the space station.
Seeing this, Asta immediately searched for the destination of the red light through the space station's energy detection function and soon discovered a high-energy reaction in Herta's Office.
'Has Madam Herta attracted Nous? No, Madam Herta has failed so many times before... Is it Mr. Lucian? Nous's projection appeared at the very moment he arrived... Is this his doing?'
Asta deduced the correct answer almost instantly.
If that were the case, she had to admit that Lucian really did have some serious tricks up his sleeve.
To actually draw Nous's attention, it was no wonder he had become Herta's guest of honor.
===
Inside Herta's Office, Screwllum's entire body stiffened.
Every gear within him, every logical unit, seemed to emit a silent scream as awe and shock rooted themselves deep within the very code of his existence. To face an Aeon at such close range made it nearly impossible for this elegant mechanical gentleman to keep himself from instinctively bowing.
It couldn't be helped.
Before him was, after all, the very source of the Path of Erudition!
Nous!
A true Aeon projection!
"THEY... really came... Meeting an Aeon is actually this easy...?"
Screwllum's voice carried a rare tremor as he questioned reality.
If the previous incident on Jarilo-VI, where Lucian drew Nous's attention, could be dismissed as a coincidence, then this time was an unmistakable summoning. Earlier, he had watched Lucian count to five on his fingers, and when the count reached five, Nous really did appear.
"Screwy, hurry! Talk to Droidhead! Use all your processing power and see if THEY respond to you!"
Herta frantically shouted at the stiffened Screwllum.
Screwllum snapped back to his senses and immediately activated the highest computational output of his intellitron brain, sending out an intellitron signal.
Unfortunately, it was completely useless.
A few seconds passed as Screwllum tried to communicate, but Nous remained the same as ever, utterly indifferent, as if he were nothing more than insignificant dust.
Just then, a torrent formed by countless 'gazes' focused on Lucian alone, ignoring everything else entirely.
"Nous, we meet again."
Lucian greeted Nous calmly, utterly fearless, since he could see that under the effect of BGM, Nous evidently could not harm him, nor could THEY imprison him like before.
Put simply, THEY could only glare helplessly from outside the space station.
"**********"
Surprisingly, Nous seemed to speak this time, as some kind of signal was transmitted from THEM.
Screwllum, who noticed it, immediately received the signal, translated it, and conveyed it to Lucian and Herta.
"Nous says: it's you again..."
Clearly, that 'you again' meant that Lucian, who had summoned Nous more than once, had done so often enough to be remembered by THEM.
"Hah! Even Droidhead is getting annoyed with you!" Herta chuckled, looking proud. "Well, that's a good start. As long as there's signal fluctuation, there's a chance for communication."
Lucian, beginning to get used to this, showed no surprise at all, his expression remaining calm as he kept his gaze on Nous.
Not long after Herta's words fell, however, an indifferent intent—one that analyzed everything without concealment—suddenly swept in like an invisible tide.
"Not good!"
In the Master Control Zone, a white-haired boy with dark skin, pink eyes, as well as a scar over his nose and on his exposed forearm, shouted in panic as he rushed over to report to Asta.
"Lady Asta, there's an ultra-high-energy flow around the space station! It has exceeded the station's defensive limit!"
When Asta heard this, fear instantly enveloped her entire being.
How could she stay calm?
If even the space station's defenses couldn't withstand it, everyone here would die!
"Wait, Arlan, something's off..." Asta said with a frown, glancing at her surroundings. "If the space station really couldn't handle this level of energy, why is everything still okay?"
Indeed, everything around them was perfectly fine.
Aside from the detectors showing warnings of extreme energy overflow nearby, there was no abnormal sensation at all.
"Eh...? What's going on?"
As Arlan's confused question fell, everyone suddenly crowded around the windows, prompting both him and Asta to follow.
In that instant, they saw asteroids, space debris, and even small planets within a radius of several light-years deconstruct, turning into geometric data before vanishing.
Yet the space station they were in, which was right in front of Nous, remained intact.
As for the Blue, although it looked like it was directly beneath the station, in reality, several layers of space actually lay between them, thanks to Herta's spatial encapsulation technology. As a result, it was fortunately not affected by the extreme energy overflow unleashed by Nous.
Now, before everyone's eyes, all kinds of objects around the space station, except for the Blue, were gone, reduced to nothingness.
"What's going on out there? D-Does Nous attack us?"
"Don't be ridiculous. If an Aeon were actually coming for us, you really think we'd still be standing here? We'd be straight-up ashes by now."
"He's got a point... Besides, Madam Herta's an Emanator of Erudition, right? Why would the Aeon of Erudition go after THEIR own Emanator?"
Just as everyone was puzzled—
*Buzzz!*
An invisible and obscure energy suddenly spread outward like thick ink dropped into clear water, and the moment it appeared, it instantly eroded Nous's energy and disrupted THEIR calculations.
In the next moment, a mass of fog appeared out of nowhere, enveloping Nous's projection.
Inside her office, Herta's eyes widened in disbelief as she witnessed the phenomenon.
"No way... isn't that the power of Enigmata? What the—! Did the Aeon of Enigmata just make a move on Droidhead?!"
===
[A bonus chapter for every 500 Power Stones.]
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