“Upgrade my specs! Upgrade my specs! Upgrade my specs!”
Facing the swarm of Gnaw Stings, Little Herta finally understood what a Swarm Disaster truly meant.
In the time it took her to kill ten, each of the hundreds remaining would split into another.
Lines of self-destructing Gnaw Stings threw themselves at her face, and everywhere she looked, there were only Gnaw Stings and exploding Gnaw Stings.
Then there was the Starcrusher Swarm King, which was far too intelligent for an insect.
Despite being stronger than her, it never confronted her head-on, instead hiding behind the swarm and waiting for an opening.
Whenever she thought she could catch her breath, its sneak attack would arrive right on cue.
It would tear open her armor or launch her high into the air, like a cat toying with an exhausted mouse running for its life.
And even though she could see the whole situation clearly, she was powerless to change anything.
“Upgrade my specs! Upgrade my specs! Upgrade my specs…”
Little Herta had no idea how much time had passed.
Ten minutes after the Starcrusher Swarm King evolved, one of its attacks had smashed her timekeeping system.
All she could do was struggle, repeating “upgrade my specs” as though clinging to a lifeline.
Gradually, however, Little Herta realized that it didn’t seem to be helping.
Her specs couldn’t upgrade fast enough to keep pace with the damage she was taking.
The only thing she could do was barely hold her battered body together whenever she thought she was about to physically fall apart.
When her body enhancement reached 6,000%, her outer shell theoretically became tough enough to withstand the Gnaw Stings’ explosions.
But that shell was already in tatters, exposing the circuitry within.
At 7,500%, her physical strength theoretically allowed her to mow through the swarm, but her short-circuited wiring and damaged synthetic muscles prevented her from exerting anything close to her full strength.
By 8,000%, she felt her logic core was about to lose contact with her body, only for another upgrade to tenuously preserve the connection.
It felt as though she were a prisoner being forcibly kept alive through death by a thousand cuts.
Her bones were being dismantled piece by piece and her flesh sliced away bit by bit, yet she could neither die nor lose consciousness.
Her only consolation was that she was an Intellitron in this life, and robots didn’t feel pain.
“Upgrade my specs—”
9,900%→9,950%
She poured another bag of Trick Snacks into her mouth and habitually reached for the next one, only for her hand to grasp empty air…
None left?
No.
The spatial storage device she had been protecting so carefully had broken…
She had one last upgrade left.
She stopped fleeing and stood amid the swarm, staring past it with her poorly connected eyes.
The expressionless Starcrusher Swarm King seemed to be gazing at her mockingly.
“Upgrade my specs.”
9,950%→10,000%
After uttering the final words, Little Herta gave up.
She voluntarily severed the connection between her logic core and body, shutting down her frame.
“Thud—”
[Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep…]
At that moment, Little Herta detected a special channel and received a strange message.
It wasn’t human speech, but a language used between machines, devoid of emotion and possessing only the most basic function of transmitting information.
Its meaning was:
[What is Honkai?]
‘Honkai?
It’s a concept from Honkai Impact 3rd.
Little Herta had no intention of answering, but her logic core involuntarily began dredging up memories.
At the same time, she sensed a seemingly meaningless space.
At its center stood a machine with such immense computational power that it seemed capable of calculating every truth in the universe within a single second.
It had connected directly to her.
[Query: The Imaginary Tree truly exists. How are the worlds upon it born?]
The machine with immense computational power asked another question.
‘I don’t know.
I only know that Otto created a new timeline.
Reconnecting a World Bubble to the Imaginary Tree can also give birth to an entirely new world…’
[…]
The great machine fell silent.
Within that silence, Little Herta “saw” its countless calculations.
It calculated the birth of worlds, the destruction of worlds, and the rebirth of worlds.
Then it stopped calculating and asked another question:
[Can you create worlds?]
Before Little Herta could answer, she felt its connection to her break.
Reality.
The instant Little Herta severed the connection between her logic core and body and collapsed…
“Silence—”
The entire Seclusion Zone fell utterly silent.
The Gnaw Stings, whose constantly beating wings had filled the air with buzzing, all stopped moving.
Beginning with the Starcrusher Swarm King, their bodies suddenly broke apart and vanished.
The Emanator of Propagation capable of destroying an entire civilization disappeared along with its swarm, as though none of them had ever existed…
All that remained in the entire zone was Little Herta’s ruined, motionless body lying on the floor.
The absolute silence lasted approximately seven seconds before a figure materialized out of thin air.
“Click, click, click…”
High heels tapped softly against the floor.
A woman in a long red evening gown approached Little Herta, her face obscured by an unknown power.
Her slender fingers, fair as jade, moved lightly as a coldly gleaming scalpel danced between them.
“Meow~”
At that moment, a cat’s cry rang out at a most inopportune time.
When the woman came within two meters of Little Herta, a black cat with glossy fur sat down in front of her, its blue slit pupils fixed upon the woman.
No one saw how it appeared, as though it had been sitting there all along.
Had Asta been there, she would have immediately recognized it as the black cat that had led her to Herta.
“Destiny’s Slave, Elio. Are you the one obstructing me?”
The woman stopped and questioned the black cat.
Others might not have recognized him, but she did.
This was Elio, Destiny’s Slave, the founder of the Stellaron Hunters who walked the Path of Finality.
“When have I ever obstructed you, Polka Kakamond?”
Elio raised his right forepaw and licked his fur as he questioned her in return.
Polka Kakamond, Genius Society #4—a genius who had killed countless other geniuses.
Polka gently twirled the scalpel in her hand.
She had intended to manipulate probability and engineer an accident, killing Herta, a genius who would inevitably touch the boundaries of knowledge, while also disposing of this anomalous puppet.
To that end, she had activated her Omniscience Domain here.
Although she hadn’t appeared in person, she could manipulate every probability within it.
For example, she could manipulate the probability of Herta’s teleportation, sending her directly into the Starcrusher Swarm King’s attack.
She could also manipulate the probability of the Starcrusher Swarm King collapsing, allowing it to survive miraculously and evolve.
Those were all her doing.
But…
Herta, who should have died beneath the Starcrusher Swarm King’s attack, had survived.
And every time the little puppet should have died, an upgrade miraculously kept her clinging to life.
Now, Elio had appeared immediately after Polka herself.
If he wasn’t responsible, then who else could it have been?
“Nous did all of that,” Elio said.
“Nous did indeed cast its gaze upon the little puppet, but that gaze only arrived at the moment she fell.”
Polka had naturally sensed Nous glancing at Little Herta.
In fact, it was the incidental power carried by Nous’s gaze that had forcibly shut down her Omniscience Domain.
Consequently, the Gnaw Stings that had lost the support of her Omniscience Domain abruptly perished, forcing her to take action in person.
Before that, however, she was certain that someone—an Emanator who, like her, had advanced far enough along their Path—had been covertly obstructing her and contesting her control over probability.
“Whether you believe me or not, I would never obstruct you. I appeared only to warn you.”
“Nous has already made her part of this moment. No matter what you do now, you cannot succeed. If you insist on acting…”
Elio paused before continuing:
“Then another genius will inevitably appear to stop you. It may be Ruan Mei, Screwllum, the awakened Herta, or even the deceased First Genius, Stephen, Acha…”
“And if I don’t believe your warning?”
Polka took a step forward.
“Then I’ll have no choice but to come out~”
A playful voice rang out, and a translucent blue woman resembling a projection materialized off to the side.
Genius Society #23—Acha.
“So it was you…”
Understanding flashed through Polka’s eyes.
This genius of the quantum realm was indeed capable of contesting her control over probabilities and possibilities within the Omniscience Domain.
“Mm-hmm~ Want to fight, Number Four?” Acha asked Polka.
“…”
Acha alone wasn’t enough to make Polka retreat, but with Destiny’s Slave and the potentially awakened Herta added to the equation…
One against three…
“You’ve cheated death again.”
Polka glanced at Acha before disappearing.
“Heh~ Big talk.”
A hint of displeasure appeared on Acha’s face.
She then glanced at Little Herta and vanished from the spot as well.
Elio said nothing.
He licked his fur, dissolved into a wisp of black smoke, and disappeared without a trace.
★ ★ ★
T/N: If you spot mistranslation, do tell me!