"I've finally managed to clear a line through to her," Stephen replied, peering down at a fresh update from Asta. "But the localized energy waves out there are scrambling the connection. She's currently stuck on a starskiff with rather basic communication gear. It's going to take her a bit longer to project her consciousness over to a puppet."
Xuan Qiu felt a bit speechless. In his memory of the original story, Herta had returned to save the day almost instantly. Now he finally understood why she was running so late—the sheer scale of this battle was literally jamming her signal.
"I just hope she picks up the pace," Xuan Qiu grumbled, wiping sweat from his forehead. "Otherwise, I'm going to have to cut our losses and run."
Maintaining a high-intensity battle with a legendary summon while simultaneously projecting his own life field to shield the space station was draining his energy at a frightening rate. After all, protecting something fragile is always infinitely harder than tearing it apart.
He looked up at the void where Zygarde and Yveltal were locked in combat.
Every massive collision between the two titans unleashed staggering shockwaves. If it weren't for Xuan Qiu's barrier acting as a buffer, the space station would have been torn to absolute shreds by the sheer kinetic tremors alone, even without taking a direct hit.
Watching them fight, though, Xuan Qiu noticed a strange mechanical hitch. In the native lore of their world, the relationship between these three was supposed to mimic the Hoenn trio. Zygarde, much like Rayquaza, possessed the unique ability to completely suppress the other two. But right now, they were fighting on equal footing. Xuan Qiu realized his own strained energy reserves were actively holding Zygarde back from unleashing its true power.
Even so, no one on the platform dared to underestimate him. For a non-Emanator to stand toe-to-toe against a Lord Ravager's envoy for this long without collapsing was a terrifying display of strength.
Beside him, Stelle and Welt were completely mesmerized, their eyes glued to Zygarde's mechanical form. Every time the dragon drifted into a blind spot behind the hangar bays, the two of them would subconsciously lean over the railing, practically poking their heads out of the safety barrier just to catch a glimpse.
Thankfully, March 7th and Dan Heng noticed the danger in time and yanked them back by their collars. Otherwise, the raw energy tremors rippling through the void would have crushed them instantly.
"I can excuse Stelle since she doesn't have her memories," March 7th sighed, rubbing her temples as she watched the two of them get pulled back, still staring longingly out the window. "But Uncle Yang, you're a responsible grown-up! Why are you acting like this too?"
The crew wasn't entirely sure of Stelle's normal personality yet, assuming she was just young and naturally curious. But Welt was supposed to be the reliable, composed anchor of the Astral Express. March 7th had never seen him lose his cool like this.
"My deepest apologies," Welt coughed into his hand, adjusting his glasses while his gaze subtly drifted right back toward the glass. Zygarde had just been pushed back by Yveltal, skidding across the cosmic void directly in front of the platform. "I simply... get a bit carried away when observing an exceptional design. I shall exercise better caution."
"It's quite alright, March," Himeko chimed in with a gentle smile, the heavy tension finally fading from her expression. "No matter how old a man gets, the moment he encounters something that speaks to his inner child, he loses all pretense. Even Welt is no exception."
"Is that a fact?" March 7th turned her head to look at Dan Heng.
Dan Heng instantly looked away, completely avoiding her gaze. He silently refuted the theory; he certainly didn't harbor any secret, childish obsessions.
"Everyone has their own unique traits, after all. A few exceptions are perfectly normal," Himeko added smoothly.
"Wait, Himeko! Why is everyone acting so relaxed all of a sudden?" March 7th panicked, suddenly remembering the apocalyptic stakes. "There is a literal Lord Ravager's envoy trying to erase us outside!"
"We cannot directly intervene in a clash of that scale," Himeko explained calmly. "But looking closely at Mr. Xuan Qiu, our situation hasn't reached a terminal point yet."
As a brilliant scientist, Himeko's mind was incredibly sharp. After analyzing the flow of the battle, she had already pieced together the boundaries of Xuan Qiu's capabilities and his likely contingency plans. If Herta truly failed to show up, the developer could easily use his teleportation skill to slip away. And since he had spent so much energy keeping the structure intact, it proved he still needed something from the space station. If he couldn't save the physical building, his next logical step would be to save the key people inside it.
She was already planning to ask him to take the Astral Express crew along if he chose to retreat. No matter where they ended up teleporting, having the Express crew at his back would be an excellent insurance policy for whatever came next.
Standing a few paces away, Yanqing watched the exploding sky with tightly clenched fists, a deep sense of frustration burning in his chest. It stung his pride that as a Cloud Knight and the designated "Young Sword Master," he lacked the raw strength to even step onto the field when a true cosmic threat materialized.
Meanwhile, Stephen had completely bypassed the danger. Because his presence was just a projection, he had manually floated his avatar straight out into the open vacuum of space to secure the absolute best seat in the house.
"Yveltal looks incredibly imposing, and Zygarde gives off this absolute sense of overwhelming security," Stephen murmured to himself, floating amidst the cosmic dust. "And that Xerneas from earlier was a masterpiece too. Xuan Qiu really is a genius when it comes to designing these creatures."
Just as he spoke, Zygarde intercepted a massive blast of dark energy from Yveltal. The resulting shockwave slammed into the station's outer hull, and though Xuan Qiu's barrier absorbed the brunt of the impact, the sheer distortion made Stephen's holographic form flicker wildly, blurring his view.
"This projection gear is far too low-spec," the boy muttered, annoyed. "Next time I run an update, I'm building a container that completely ignores local energy fields."
"Is this the Lord Ravager who thinks they can throw a tantrum on my space station?"
A sharp, dripping-with-arrogance voice suddenly cut through the air behind him. Stephen didn't even need to turn around; he knew that tone anywhere. Herta had finally logged back in.
"Herta, you took your sweet time!" Stephen huffed, turning his projection around. "If you had stayed offline for another five minutes, your precious collection room would have been reduced to floating debris."
Herta didn't let the complaint bother her. She knew exactly what Stephen was like—painfully quiet around strangers, but a massive chatterbox the moment he felt comfortable with someone.
"I didn't anticipate an intrusion of this specific tier," Herta admitted calmly, adjusting her dress. "I can only blame my own lack of foresight. It seems I'll have to bring my actual mirror along next time I travel."
For the first time, the master genius openly acknowledged a flaw in her scheduling. Originally, she had viewed this entire space station as nothing more than a convenient storage box for a Stellaron and a few odd curiosities; whether it survived or blew up wasn't something she deeply cared about. But things were different now. The core processing servers for the Simulated Universe were running inside these walls, and she couldn't afford to let her life's work turn to ash.
She turned her gaze toward the glass, her eyes narrowing with intense fascination as she studied the two colossal entities trading blows in the dark.
"Don't worry," Herta said, her voice dropping into a cool, decisive tone. "Once I clear this mess up, I will make sure to give that young man, Xuan Qiu, a proper reward for his troubles."
The moment her consciousness docked, she had instantly reviewed the station's internal surveillance logs. She completely understood the sequence of events and had easily guessed what Julian and Stephen were angling for, but she didn't mind. Herta was many things, but she never let people work for her for free.
"Hehe, you're too generous," Stephen smirked. "I'll be sure to pass along the thanks."
The young prodigy never expected their little scheme to slip past her anyway, but both he and Xuan Qiu understood her character perfectly.
"Are these the 'Pokémon' from that game you two keep whispering about?" Herta asked, her eyes wider than usual as she watched Zygarde fire a volley of green arrows. "I originally dismissed it as a simple piece of commercial entertainment, but I never expected these designs to hold such incredible weight when backed by Path energy."
A sharp, brilliant glint flashed across her porcelain eyes. "And these entirely uncataloged life-forms... oh, I know for a fact that Ruan Mei is going to absolutely lose her mind when she sees these samples."
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