Red-Eyed Kiana paid no attention to the conversation between Red Queen and Mobius.
She turned sideways toward Kevin, deliberately lowering her voice and forcing it cold and flat, without the slightest rise at the end, perfectly imitating his signature tone. "Do you know why birds can fly?"
"Can you stop using that worn-out joke already?" Shigure Kira sighed, rubbing her temple in exasperation.
Kevin remained silent, though his brow creased almost imperceptibly.
Why can birds fly?
It was more than familiar—it was carved into his soul, a line that ran through both the Previous Era and the Current Era like a mark of fate.
From that higher-dimensional perspective, the convictions he had upheld his entire life, the sacrifices of his comrades who had burned away their lives, the crushing mission borne by an entire civilization—were nothing more than a predetermined game script.
And the reason he had glimpsed that truth was because, after exchanging information with Su, Melin had pierced through the essence of the Honkai world with the clarity of an outsider.
It was all just pretty girls fighting monsters and getting close to each other.
The Previous Era was merely background setting. He was the boss character.
Kevin could not help but suspect that perhaps the Honkai world's malice toward him stemmed from the fact that he was male—and that he had been in a heterosexual relationship with Mei.
He did not fit the worldview.
"How is that a bad joke?" Red-Eyed Kiana immediately retorted. "In our worldview, philosophy is power! Aren't the Aeons just personifications of philosophical concepts?"
"That may be true..." Shigure Kira had barely finished speaking when she noticed Red-Eyed Kiana's gaze had already latched onto Skynet not far away, her eyes shining as if she had discovered a fascinating new toy.
"Wow—such an adorable mechanical loli!"
Completely ignoring Shigure Kira, she rushed over in three quick steps, carefully scooping Skynet up and even lifting her to eye level, her face filled with undisguised delight.
Hoisted abruptly into the air, Skynet maintained a blank expression and turned to Shigure Kira at the side. "Is she always like this?"
"More or less." Shigure Kira let out another helpless sigh. "Just think of her as an overly energetic husky."
In the grand hall of the New Universal Federation headquarters, aliens of every conceivable form gathered, yet all wore the same mixture of reverence and unease.
Whether they had joined voluntarily or been "persuaded," after witnessing Misfortune's world-shattering power, every civilization had chosen to follow their instincts.
They whispered among themselves, speculating about this "evil god" whose strength far surpassed the Vitrum Empire. What was her purpose in expending such effort to establish a federation? Were they meant to serve as cannon fodder—or was something even more terrifying at play?
At that very moment, Misfortune was "maintaining universal peace"—though her methods were anything but peaceful.
Whenever conflict erupted within a civilization or war ignited between different civilizations, her power would instantly intervene, dragging both sides into an infinite cycle of warfare.
Only after experiencing the utmost brutality, after tasting endless suffering, would they truly long for peace.
No civilization or individual who had been drawn into that cycle ever wished to endure it a second time.
It was like an invisible prison. No matter how they struggled or slaughtered one another, they would ultimately return to the moment the war began.
They were forced to fight for hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of years—until it was deemed "enough," there would be no escape.
Even attempting to lie down and do nothing was futile. Misfortune had already embedded countless special events within the cycle. If one side ceased attacking, a third-party force would materialize out of nowhere to reignite the flames of war.
This endless nightmare had been adapted from a grimdark version of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Every detail brimmed with despair and savagery. Anyone who had entered that place had no desire to step into that super cesspit ever again.
Allen stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows of headquarters, gazing at the brilliant yet silent starry sky beyond, unable to suppress a quiet sigh.
The universe was indeed at peace. Wars of aggression between civilizations had vanished. Yet in their place, interstellar pirates had grown rampant—roaming between star systems in search of resources, becoming a new source of trouble.
And he, now a member of the Cosmic Peacekeeping Force, spent his days dealing with these "resource plunderers" from various civilizations.
Inside the laboratory of the Saintess Prayer, pale blue space-time energy coiled around Mobius' fingertips. Using the higher-dimensional space-time data collected from Misfortune, she forged a silver ring no larger than a palm.
"Finished?" Red Queen asked.
Mobius let the ring spin lazily around her finger, her tone laced with habitual pride. "Of course it's finished. I am Mobius."
Red Queen observed its size calmly. "That doesn't look like something worn on a hand."
"It's a leg ring," Mobius replied absentmindedly.
"Why make it a leg ring?" Red Queen pressed.
"It's a specialty of our world." A trace of amusement flickered in Mobius' eyes. "Next, we'll be able to freely travel between different worlds and gather even more experimental data."
"By the way." Red Queen raised her hand, projecting a stream of data into the air. "Using the Theresa genes you provided and combining them with my viral sequence, I evolved a rather special virus."
Mobius narrowed her eyes, interest piqued. "A special virus?"
She had already thoroughly analyzed Theresa's genes. They were merely fused with a portion of Honkai Beast genes—nothing particularly worth deeper scrutiny.
"Yes." Red Queen nodded, a rare hint of puzzlement in her voice. "Other viruses either cause death or trigger mutation and evolution. But the effect of this virus... is assimilation that makes lifeforms become foolish."
"Assimilation that makes them foolish?"
The silver leg ring hovering at Mobius' fingertips froze midair.
Her interest in Theresa had primarily come from an annotation in the academy's database—prolonged proximity could negatively affect one's intelligence.