"Hand it over."
"Hand over what?"
Kiana looked at Herta's outstretched hand in confusion. She didn't remember owing Herta anything. Every time they met, the conversation revolved around that exact topic.
After she refused, there was usually no follow-up.
Acheron reminded her from the side, "The Stigmata."
"Didn't you say you wanted me to help improve that so-called Stigmata system?" Herta suddenly grinned. "I told you from the beginning to let me take a look. You insisted on refusing. And now you've come begging me instead?"
"That's not the same!"
With Acheron's reminder, Kiana recalled what had happened before. It wasn't as though Herta had never encountered Stigmata.
When she personally invited Ruan to join the Simulated Universe project, she had invited her in person.
That was also when Kiana met Herta for the first time.
As for the Stigmata that had piqued Herta's interest—
It was Yae Sakura's Stigmata, the one that carried her consciousness within it.
How could Kiana possibly hand something that important over to Herta?
No matter how brilliant Herta was, what if something went wrong?
That was her friend.
"Fine, fine. Call it whatever you like. Just give it here already. You can create those things anytime, right? Try sticking one on my puppet and see if it works."
"Let's be clear first. I don't know if a puppet can even bear a Stigmata. If it fails, that's not on me."
Special Stigmata couldn't be equipped by Herta anyway. So Kiana simply generated a basic Stigmata and branded it onto the hand Herta had extended.
Herta had deliberately designed her puppets to differ from ordinary humans. The joints clearly revealed their inhuman structure.
There was no failure prompt.
The Stigmata imprinted itself just like that, leaving behind a familiar pattern on Herta's hand.
Herta withdrew her hand and examined the mark with interest. She brushed her fingers over it and narrowed her eyes. "Not bad at all."
Still immersed in surprise—and a grudging admiration—Kiana looked at Herta strangely.
This woman truly was a genius among geniuses.
Kiana had already prepared herself for failure.
Yet Herta's puppet had actually managed to equip the Stigmata.
That alone proved just how advanced Herta's craftsmanship was.
"Such a tiny thing," Herta murmured, "yet it compresses an absurd amount of information. And once imprinted, it begins to thaw, altering the host's genes."
It was like adding a compressed file.
The moment it touched a human body, it began decompressing—and rewriting the body's genetic code.
Altering human genes, adding new elements to them—neither she nor Ruan found that particularly difficult.
What intrigued her wasn't that the Stigmata could modify genes.
It was everything else it could do.
"What's even more interesting is that it works on non-living entities as well. As remarkable as my creations are, I never intended to turn puppets into humans."
"What?"
Kiana's eyes widened in surprise. She had assumed the Stigmata succeeded only because Herta's puppets shared so many similarities with living beings.
Apparently, that wasn't the case.
"In other words, this little thing doesn't just work on humans—it works on mechanical intelligences as well. Fascinating. Truly fascinating. So what exactly is the underlying logic of its transformation?"
"Even more intriguing, this Stigmata resembles the Light Cones produced by the Garden of Recollection in certain aspects. And it has additional applications besides."
Herta lowered her hand and looked at Kiana with heightened intensity. "No wonder Ruan is so obsessed with you. You carry quite a number of mysteries. How about we make a deal? Let me study you."
"Whatever you want, I can provide it."
"Think about it carefully. This is a promise from me—Herta."
Acheron stepped half a pace forward, her expression calm as she blocked Herta's heated gaze. "Let's focus on the Stigmata. It should be more than enough to hold your interest for a while, shouldn't it?"
A promise from an Emanator of Nous.
A promise to grant anything one desired.
Kiana did not doubt Herta's integrity. If she gave her word, she would keep it.
But agreeing to it felt a little too much like selling herself.
"Let's talk about the Stigmata first," Kiana said. "We can discuss anything else after that."
"Fine."
Herta didn't press further. Compared to the blunt refusals she'd received before, at least this time Kiana hadn't rejected her outright—she had merely shifted the topic.
Progress.
Give it a few more tries and she might succeed.
Herta was confident of that.
"Ruan studied Stigmata for a while as well, so I know a little about them," Kiana said thoughtfully. "I just didn't expect them to work on other forms of life."
The Stigmata Ruan had studied was Yae Sakura's crystal—the one that carried an entire Stigmata world within it.
Her focus had been more on Honkai resistance, the effects of Stigmata on the human body, and the abilities they granted.
"To be honest, I'm curious too," Herta nodded. "It granted my puppet special abilities out of thin air. If it works on puppets, would it have the same effect on mechanical intelligences—or even memetic lifeforms?"
"...I don't know."
Kiana shook her head, unwilling to think too deeply about it. None of this was scientific to begin with. It was easier to treat the Unfinished Road as a universal solution.
Honkai had always been omnipotent.
She took out a badge she had just purchased and handed it to Herta. "I want to connect this power to the Stigmata system."
"And what's this supposed to be?"
Herta turned the badge over in her fingers. For a moment, she couldn't even determine its material.
"Uh, it's called a badge. It provides certain enhancements. Different badges grant different benefits."
Kiana explained how to equip it.
When the badge vanished and the puppet gained an additional talent in one aspect, Herta's expression turned strange.
"I've collected all sorts of peculiar objects. Trinkets that can turn someone into a superhuman overnight aren't uncommon," Herta said, looking at Kiana. "Whether it's Stigmata or this badge you mentioned, both rely on Honkai energy. You can mass-produce this energy, can't you?"
"There's a price to pay, of course."
It consumed Honkai Cubes to generate. How was that not a price?
Herta nodded, appearing calm on the surface.
But inside, she was anything but calm.
In fact, she was shaken.
Even when facing Nous—the great mechanical head—she had never felt this way.
If before she had merely been curious, now she was treating both this energy and Kiana with true seriousness.
She had only just arrived in this world, yet she had already discerned the essence of this power.
It assimilated and eroded Imaginary energy.
That alone wouldn't be alarming.
What was frightening was that it was growing every second.
Not only Imaginary energy—even the power of the Paths was not exempt.
If it had no upper limit...
Would this become another Swarm Disaster?
No.
It would be even more terrifying.
If this energy could truly assimilate and erode any form of power without restriction, then sooner or later it would...
What on earth was Ruan thinking?
She knew this energy was highly corrosive. She also knew Kiana was walking a path toward godhood.
But no one had told her—
That this energy would actively convert all other forms of energy.
If things continued at this rate, sooner or later this world would become completely assimilated by Honkai.
And then what?
Would this Honkai energy spread further?
Back in the laboratory, Honkai energy hadn't been this active. It hadn't proactively converted other energies.
"What else can this Honkai energy do?"
Faced with Herta's question, Kiana stalled. After thinking for a moment, she answered uncertainly, "Honkai can do anything?"
"Are you joking?"
"I mostly just use it for fighting. And Stigmata, badges, weapons—they all rely on Honkai energy too."
Herta: "..."
She was speechless.
So the person who could wield Honkai energy—and was even walking a path toward godhood—had no idea what else it might be capable of?
But omnipotent, huh?
Even if it was meant as a joke, being able to make such a claim only underscored how versatile this energy truly was.
Forget it.
If there were a real problem, wouldn't the Aeons intervene?
Better not worry too much for now. At least at present, there were no signs of it spiraling out of control. Its only notable trait was strong corrosiveness.
"Fine. I'll look into it," Herta said with a nod.
Those questions could likely be answered through her own research. Asking this white-haired girl—who didn't seem particularly sharp in this regard—was less efficient than investigating personally.
Then she changed the subject. "Ruan came here with you before, didn't she? Where's her laboratory? I'll use it."
Building a lab took time.
And the technological level of this world wasn't especially advanced. Constructing a laboratory that satisfied her standards would require additional effort.
Since Ruan had already conducted research here,
There had to be a laboratory left behind.
Even if their research directions differed, the equipment and facilities could still be useful.
Why not use what was already available?
"The lab?" Kiana scratched her head awkwardly. She had put the laboratory away. After storing it, she had completely forgotten about it.
"You're not seriously unwilling to lend me a lab, are you?" Herta eyed her suspiciously. "I'm helping you, you know."
"The laboratory was packed away," Acheron explained on her behalf.
"It's fine!" Kiana quickly added. "I still have the equipment. Once we set it up again, it should be good to go. Come on, I'll take you there."
"That's more like it."
Herta followed without much interest in the planet's scenery. Phenomena caused by a Stellaron were nothing new to her.
She had personally dealt with one before.
And that very Stellaron was now inside someone.
"Does Ruan still have the observational data from this planet? Let me see it later," Herta added.
"...Alright."
They headed to the Underworld and returned to the former laboratory site.
Herta looked at the empty space and then at Kiana.
She didn't need to say anything.
The meaning was clear.
Hurry up.
"Don't rush me. We need to tidy up first. No one's been here in a long time. We have to clean it up before setting things up, right?"
As she spoke, Kiana pulled two cleaning robots out of her Imaginary Space and set them down, letting them begin sweeping the laboratory.
"You carry things like that around with you?"
Herta's gaze turned strange.
Even Acheron hadn't expected her to pull out cleaning robots and was mildly surprised.
"Well, my Imaginary Space is big enough. They don't take up space. What if I ever need them?" Kiana explained. "See? Now they're useful."
"Did you stuff your entire house in there?"
"That's a bit of an exaggeration, isn't it?"
Kiana felt slightly embarrassed.
She had indeed stuffed quite a lot of things into her Imaginary Space—and into the system's backpack as well. All sorts of odds and ends.
Herta snorted softly.
Seeing that cleaning would take some time, and knowing that her consciousness was merely projected into the puppet rather than her real body being present, she simply idled in place.
At that moment, Acheron's phone suddenly rang.
She instinctively glanced at it.
"What is it?" Kiana asked curiously.
"Welt," Acheron replied after checking the message. It was probably about what they had discussed earlier. After a moment's thought, she said, "I'll go take a look."
"Go ahead, Mei. Don't worry about me. I'll just work with her on the Stigmata system here."
"Alright."
Staying here would only mean watching from the sidelines. She could be of more help assisting Welt and the others.
After all, this was Kiana's matter.
They couldn't leave everything to the Nameless.
Acheron left to meet Welt.
Kiana didn't ask what it was about and instead began organizing her Imaginary Space and backpack.
Once the robots finished cleaning, she set up the laboratory equipment again. She even took out some research materials she had casually tossed into storage before.
Since Herta was helping her,
Providing existing data to better understand Honkai would save time.
When the laboratory was finally arranged, Kiana walked over and waved a hand in front of Herta's face. "All set. Herta, wake up."
"...Hmm. Tch. You really are something."
Herta reconnected to the puppet and looked at her oddly before glancing around at the barely passable laboratory.
Kiana blinked. "What did I do?"
"Nothing." Herta waved her hand dismissively. "I just contacted Ruan and had her send me a copy of her Honkai data."
"Huh? You just contacted Ruan?"
"Why are you so surprised?" Herta said flatly. "She's on the space station. It's not difficult to reach her."
Ask Kiana?
With that simple-minded expression of hers, what would she know?
She'd probably just say, "I don't know either."
"No, I mean... Ruan should be really busy right now, right?" Kiana explained awkwardly.
"Busy? Not really." Herta thought for a moment before replying, "When I saw her earlier, I realized she'd somehow rescued a fox. Quite interesting, actually."
"A fox?"
Kiana looked bewildered.
Ruan saved a fox?
That didn't sound like something Ruan would do.
And wasn't she on the space station?
Where would a fox even come from?
"Tch. Ever considered upgrading that brain of yours? Obviously not an ordinary fox. It's a Foxian from the Xianzhou."
"A Foxian?"
That sounded even stranger.
How did Ruan end up connected to a Foxian from the Xianzhou?
Which Xianzhou ship was it from?
"If you can't figure it out, then stop thinking about it. Hurry up and give me a hand."
If she couldn't study her, she could at least make her run errands.
Herta ordered her around without the slightest hesitation.
First, sort these materials.
Then they would proceed to the next step.