Stepping out of the principal's office, Misfortune's figure tore through the barrier of space and entered the subspace Mobius had carved out in the depths of Academy City.
"Grandma, I'm back."
"How many times have I told you to call me Big Sister?"
Her icy green serpent eyes swept over lazily. Mobius was reclining atop a mass of strangely shaped liquid matter, faint waves of Honkai energy rippling around her body.
"Okay, Grandma. No problem, Grandma."
The purple-haired girl smiled wickedly and flamboyantly, showing not the slightest intention of correcting herself.
Mobius stared at her utterly consistent expression and sighed helplessly. "What about Honkai Academy? Is your enrollment settled?"
"Mm." Misfortune nodded crisply.
"Good." Mobius tapped her fingertip lightly, and ripples spread across the liquid beneath her. "The threshold there isn't low. You need at least planet-destroying Pseudo-Herrscher-level combat power to qualify."
Her tone shifted as she studied the girl. "This body of yours—have you noticed any abnormalities?"
"Abnormalities?" Misfortune raised her right hand and clenched her fist, her brows knitting slightly. "It feels... like an ordinary person who only has superpowers. Physically weak."
"That's not an abnormality," Mobius explained. "Your body hasn't fully activated yet. The fact that you passed the entrance assessment means once it finishes replenishing its energy, destroying a planet will be the bare minimum."
This body was her masterpiece, forged personally using Kryptonian genetic data as a template and fused with countless top-tier gene sequences.
"What kind of energy does it need? Honkai energy?" Misfortune pressed.
"Honkai energy, cosmic radiation, stellar heat, even magic will do." Mobius stroked her chin thoughtfully. "Emotional energy from living beings can work in a pinch, but that kind of thing easily disturbs the mind. Best to avoid it."
"Got it, Grandma." The purple-haired girl nodded obediently, her gaze sweeping across the empty subspace before she suddenly asked, "Is little sister still hanging around with that chuunibyou idiot version of me?"
Mobius silently complained inwardly. Impressive. Even insulting herself without mercy. She could clearly sense Misfortune's undisguised disdain for Houraiji Kyuusyou—this wasn't tsundere behavior. It was genuine dislike.
Before Mobius could respond, the girl abruptly threw out another question. "Grandma, do you know Sirin?"
"Sirin?" Mobius arched a brow, puzzled. "Why are you suddenly asking about her?"
"I fell in love with her at first sight."
The offhand remark left Mobius momentarily stunned.
"You two know each other?"
"Nope."
Mobius pressed a hand to her forehead and sighed, internally roasting the girl eight hundred times over. What first love at first sight? It was clearly lust at first sight—she just wanted Sirin's body.
She shook her head. In a way, it did fit a Herrscher's nature—having a preference for women.
"What if she doesn't like you?"
"If I want Sirin, I'll get her. If I can't get her, I'll take her. If I can't take her, I'll steal her. I don't care whether she likes me. Where there's a will, there's a way."
Mobius looked at her serious expression and found herself completely speechless.
At that moment, Misfortune noticed Mobius' figure beginning to turn translucent and asked curiously, "Grandma, where are you going?"
"Want to come along?"
"Yes!"
Mobius raised her hand. Honkai energy coiled around her fingertips and turned into a streak of light that wrapped around Misfortune's wrist.
The two figures instantly blurred and vanished from the subspace.
...
Parasyte World.
Saintess Prayer bridge.
Red Queen detected their arrival. The instant the spacetime restriction lifted, two figures shifted from illusion to reality and appeared in the center.
Mobius narrowed her icy green serpent eyes slightly, her gaze landing on the main screen as the corners of her lips curled upward. "We meet again, everyone."
On the screen, Kevin was fighting a massive Parasyte fusion creature.
"An interesting lifeform," Mobius murmured.
Melin, standing nearby, smiled. "Miss Mobius, are you interested in this species?"
"A bunch of idiots who chose the wrong evolutionary path," Misfortune glanced at the screen, her tone laced with disdain. "At a time like this, they chose fusion instead of dispersing to survive—evolving into a form that could persist as single cells. They're practically asking to die."
"Perhaps they truly are seeking death," Mobius said calmly.
"Sacrificing themselves so humanity can survive?" Misfortune let out a mocking laugh, her voice dripping with contempt. "What a boring script."
As her words fell, everyone on the bridge turned to look at her.
Her long dark purple hair cascaded like a waterfall. A trace of wickedness lingered in her crimson eyes. The white gown adorned with star patterns gave her an eerie aura. Anyone who saw her would instinctively think—she was no benevolent figure.
...
Earth.
On the frozen earth, Kevin lowered his gaze to Mickey, whose body was frozen in the ice with only half of him remaining. Emotion was unreadable in his ice-blue eyes.
"What you're doing is meaningless suicide."
Mickey's presence was already faint, his voice broken and intermittent. "It's not meaningless... If we die, maybe you'll stop... stop destroying this planet, stop harming humanity."
"Nuclear weapons couldn't stop you. We knew that. So we had to make a choice." Mickey's eyes turned toward the distance, as if gazing at the cities where humans lived. "Drag all humanity into a desperate fight with you... or sacrifice ourselves."
"You chose the latter," Kevin said evenly.
"Yes." Mickey replied. "We knew that even if all humanity fought you, we couldn't win... Rather than make pointless sacrifices, we decided to gamble."
He paused, forcing a faint smile onto his face. "From the looks of it... we won the bet."
"I like this planet. I like the humans here... Goodbye, Shinichi."
As his words fell, Mickey's presence completely vanished. The remaining half of his body gradually lost all signs of life within the ice.
Kevin stood in silence, watching him for a long while. A flash of ice-blue light flickered, and his figure was instantly teleported back to the Saintess Prayer bridge.
The moment he stepped onto the bridge, he saw Mobius standing at the center. His brows drew together almost imperceptibly. "Why are you here?"
"And why shouldn't I be?" Mobius let out a soft laugh, her tone tinged with teasing.
"I invited her," Red Queen's voice sounded at the right moment.
Kevin's gaze swept over Misfortune standing beside Mobius, but he said nothing further.
Yet the moment he fell silent, the purple-haired girl's voice rang out. "Grandma, can I hit him?"
Beside her, Skynet immediately waved her tiny fists in agreement. "I support you! This guy acts cold all day. You should beat him until he breaks down and cries for his mom!"
Kevin: "..."
Why does everyone want to hit me?
Is the aloof persona really that annoying?
Su watched the scene unfold and couldn't help confirming with Mobius, "Is this your granddaughter?"
Mobius glanced at him calmly. "Is there a problem?"
"No problem at all." Su quickly shook his head—he truly hadn't expected Mobius to actually become a "grandma."
At that moment, Saint Kallen spoke up. "By the way, can this world return to normal now?"
"It already has," Red Queen replied.
Saint Kallen looked at the city on the screen, which had somehow already been restored, and couldn't help exclaiming, "That fast?"
"We've gathered some inconsequential data. It's time to move to the next world," Red Queen said flatly. "This world's aftermath will be handled by someone else."
To her, those Parasytes were nothing more than thinking, emotional masses of muscle tissue—hardly worth mentioning.
The fleet slowly activated, breaking through the atmosphere and sailing toward the depths of the universe.
Not long after the Saintess Prayer departed, an ice-blue radiance tore through the starry sky, and a massive fleet descended abruptly.
From a higher-dimensional perspective, Ganyu observed the empty cosmic region before her, not a single allied unit in sight. Her brows furrowed slightly, confusion filling her mind.
Strange. Why are there no Imperial garrison forces in this universe? Were they wiped out? By whom?
She couldn't find any information at all.
Without dwelling on it, she swiftly issued orders, transferring five million ships from other universes to station in this one, then turned back to the mountain of work awaiting her.