A few days later.
Sirin opened her eyes.
She had already absorbed most of the Honkai Energy in Babylon Labs, and the remaining amount could be siphoned at any moment.
“My Queen, you’re awake.”
Bella, who had been holding Sirin in her arms over the past few days, noticed Sirin waking up immediately.
“Yeah.
Thanks for your hard work these past few days,” Sirin said, jumping down from Bella’s arms and patting Bella on the shoulder.
Although Bella felt no fatigue whatsoever and took immense pride in being able to hold Her Queen, hearing Sirin’s words still made her heart swell with joy.
“It is my duty!” Bella declared firmly.
“Mm.
Next up is you, Bella.
I need to modify and upgrade you,” Sirin added.
While Bella’s strength as a Judgment-class Honkai Beast was decent, in Sirin’s eyes, it was nowhere near enough.
Therefore, the first thing Sirin did upon waking up was to start planning Bella’s reinforcement.
If nothing else, her body had to be massive enough and tough enough!
“Understood!” Bella replied, obeying any order from Sirin without hesitation.
“Let me take us outside.”
Sirin waved her hand to open a spatial portal, leading Bella outside of Babylon Labs.
She looked up at the sky, or rather, toward outer space far beyond.
The satellites of Schicksal and Anti-Entropy were constantly monitoring Honkai Energy fluctuations across the entire globe.
Sirin’s upcoming modification of Bella would definitely draw their attention.
However…
Snap!
Sirin gently snapped her fingers.
A spatial portal opened up directly in the sky above them.
After that, any satellite attempting to observe Babylon Labs would only see the other side of the portal.
Anything below the portal remained completely invisible to them.
As for the detectable Honkai Energy reactions, they were currently right next to Babylon Labs.
As long as the satellites weren’t intentionally searching with extreme scrutiny, it was nearly impossible to single out Bella’s Honkai signal.
Still, this concealment could only last for a limited time.
As time went on, hiding Bella’s presence would become increasingly difficult.
“Let’s get started,” Sirin looked at Bella.
“Yes, My Queen.” Bella nodded.
She squatted down and curled up into a ball.
A white eggshell made of condensed Honkai Energy gradually materialized, enveloping Bella entirely.
Bella soon transformed back into a giant egg.
Before long, the egg holding Bella returned to the physical world, expanding at a speed visible to the naked eye.
“I still need to gather more Honkai Energy,” Sirin calculated her own reserves.
Without draining her personal stock of Honkai Energy, helping Bella grow to the scale Sirin envisioned would require a substantial amount of power.
However, Sirin didn’t actually intend to rely purely on Honkai Energy to complete Bella’s upgrade.
Doing so would unleash a far too massive Honkai Energy signature.
Then, she stepped through the door into the Imaginary Space.
Sirin had never visited the Imaginary Space before, so she didn’t know what it looked like inside.
However, the Imaginary Space lacked any inherent form; it reshaped itself according to the definition set by its master, Sirin.
Thus, what met Sirin’s eyes was a fairy-tale garden straight out of her mind.
The girls she had brought into the Imaginary Space and assimilated earlier were all sound asleep inside beautiful castles scattered across this garden.
Sirin felt curious about everything in the Imaginary Space.
Above all, it gave her an incomparable sense of safety and tranquility—like home.
With a single thought, the entire garden instantly collapsed into a tiny garden planet, floating quietly in the palm of Sirin’s hand, while her surroundings turned into the vast, silent void of outer space.
Although she was still inside the Imaginary Space, without her active maintenance, whether it was the garden planet, the void of space, or whatever she was about to create, everything would eventually fade away.
Sirin set the garden planet aside, letting it orbit around her gently.
She looked down at her palm.
Various gases and matter suddenly materialized in her hand, rapidly gathering together into a swirling vortex.
As more gas and matter accumulated, the pressure and temperature inside the vortex soared higher and higher, growing intensely hot and expanding in size.
Before long, a super-high temperature and high-pressure sphere took shape.
A moment later, when the internal temperature and pressure hit critical mass, nuclear fusion ignited!
None of this heat or radiation affected Sirin in the slightest.
Thus, a miniature star was born right in the palm of her hand.
“A pity it’s too big…” Sirin sensed the sheer amount of Honkai Energy required to bring this star into physical reality and felt a touch of regret.
There was no way she could pull the whole thing out.
The star born in her hand might look small up close, but in reality, it was far larger than Jupiter—nearly one-third the size of the Sun.
After all, even the smallest real star was bigger than Jupiter, which had a diameter of nearly 140,000 kilometers.
However, Sirin never intended to drag a full-sized star out into the physical world anyway.
She waved her hand, splitting off an extraordinarily identical tiny star from the original one.
It looked identical to the larger star because this tiny star was a projection of the larger one.
Finally, Sirin successfully brought the star’s projection out into the physical world.
Though what arrived in physical reality was still a projection—in truth, a projection of a projection.
And this was precisely the core Sirin had prepared for Benares: a star core linked directly to the inside of the Imaginary Space.
Sirin returned to the physical world, her internal Honkai Energy instantly depleted by nearly half.
In her hand floated the glowing, radiant projection of an Imaginary Star—or what one might call the Shadow of a Star.
This Shadow of a Star was wrapped in a thin layer of Honkai Energy, sealing away its light and thermal energy.
Sirin walked over to Bella.
By now, the egg Bella had turned into had grown significantly, reaching about 10 meters in length.
“What nickname should I give Bella later?
Stellar Dragon?
Ether Dragon?” Sirin thought enthusiastically, coming up with cool titles for Bella.
At the same time, she slowly fused the Shadow of a Star into the egg containing Bella.
No extra Honkai Energy was needed—it now possessed the raw thermal and nuclear power of a star.
Under Sirin’s guidance and control using her remaining Honkai Energy, Bella rapidly adapted to the projection of the Imaginary Star.
To accommodate the power of the Imaginary Star projection, the egg containing Bella began expanding at an even faster pace.
A few days passed…
“Woah…”
Sirin looked up at the massive egg standing in front of her, practically towering as high as Babylon Labs, her eyes wide with amazement.
Ever since Benares adapted to the projection of the Imaginary Sun on her own, Sirin had been keeping watch from the side.
In just a matter of days, she had watched Benares’s egg swell to nearly 100 meters tall.
“My Queen, is this Lady Benares?”
Behind Sirin, several silver-haired, red-eyed maidens gazed at the colossal egg in awe.
“That’s incredible!
Even in our dragon forms, none of us are anywhere near as big as this egg!”
“Well, Lady Benares is our commander!
Of course she’s gonna be bigger and way stronger than us!”
The girls chattered back and forth enthusiastically.
“Ehem~ It won’t be long before you get to see her look even more majestic and cool!”
Sirin replied with a smug little grin.
These silver-haired, red-eyed girls were the very ones Sirin had drawn into the Imaginary Space earlier and assimilated.
By now, their human memories had completely faded away.
Not only did they possess immense power, drop-dead gorgeous figures, and breathtaking beauty, but they also no longer had to worry about aging or dying.
On top of that, they could shift freely between human and dragon forms—turning into gigantic dragons to battle for their Queen, or taking on human form to serve as her maids.
Reborn anew, they were to be commanded by Benares as an Imperial Guard eternally loyal to Sirin, sworn to protect their Queen with their lives.
…
“My Queen!
I freakin’ love and adore you so damn much!”
Watching Ren writhing and rolling around on his bed through the surveillance monitor, Bronya knitted her brows slightly.
A subtle tang of jealousy pricked at her heart.
Does he really fall for that Queen named Sirin?
Isn’t she just a purple pufferfish?