“What were the results?”
Little Herta stood on tiptoe and leaned against the edge of the instrument console, curiously asking Herta as she operated the equipment.
At the center of the instrument Herta was operating stood a cylindrical glass chamber.
Inside, the special purple imaginary energy gathered at its center like a cloud of mist.
This was the special imaginary energy that had escaped from Little Herta’s body.
Herta was analyzing it.
“The results are consistent with Ruan Mei’s previous tests.”
“It possesses properties similar to those of multiple Paths, but it isn’t Path energy.”
Herta opened the glass chamber and reached in with her right hand.
As though sensing a magnet, the purple imaginary energy clung to her like iron filings, forming a thin layer that made her hand glow bright purple.
“It has a certain corrosive effect on living organisms.”
Herta examined her glowing right hand, then loosely clenched it.
The purple imaginary energy gathered in her palm and changed shape, eventually forming a glass goblet.
“Clink—”
She tapped it with a finger, producing the same clear chime as an ordinary glass.
Herta then snapped it in two.
Starting from the fracture, the goblet rapidly disintegrated and reverted to purple energy.
Under Herta’s control, it began to spin and transformed into a golden imaginary portal.
A small wrench on a nearby workbench passed through the portal and landed in her palm.
Herta closed the portal and continued experimenting.
Lightning, a whirlwind, frost, flames, and finally a cloud of black particulate smoke appeared in her palm one after another.
The last corroded the metal wrench into scrap before the energy was exhausted and completely dissipated.
‘How amazing.
But why do these phenomena feel so familiar?’
As Little Herta watched Herta manipulate the imaginary energy in all sorts of elaborate ways, she found it fascinating yet was also struck by a sense of déjà vu.
She felt as though she had seen this particular combination of phenomena somewhere before.
“Compared to abstract concepts, reproducing physical phenomena consumes less energy.”
Unaware of what Little Herta was thinking, Herta tossed aside the ruined wrench and held out her hand.
“Give me some more.”
“Is it powerful?”
Little Herta asked Herta. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
At the same time, she placed her hand on Herta’s and shouted, “Upgrade the specs.”
Invisible imaginary energy escaped from Little Herta’s body into the air, then gathered in Herta’s palm and manifested as the same purple energy as before.
“I wouldn’t call it powerful, but it has a wider range of applications than the energy of any single Path. It’s one of the most unusual forms of non-Path imaginary energy I’ve ever encountered.”
Depending on the Path, imaginary energy itself had different inclinations.
The energy of the Destruction could no more treat tenosynovitis than the energy of the Abundance could be destructive.
Yet this energy violated that rule.
It could possess the destructive power of Destruction energy as well as the healing capabilities of the Abundance.
If Herta had to name it, she would probably call it something simple and straightforward like ‘Can-Do-Anything Energy.’
Versatility aside, there was one more thing Herta had to confirm: what effect this energy’s corrosive properties would have on living organisms incapable of adapting to it.
“4423, go select three lab mice with varying levels of imaginary energy adaptability.”
Herta ordered Little Herta.
She needed three lab mice to observe the effects of this imaginary energy’s erosion on living organisms.
That would allow her to determine whether organisms exposed to it but unable to adapt would suffer a ‘Path curse,’ like Pathstriders who strayed from certain Paths.
For instance, a Pathstrider of the Propagation separated from the swarm would contract Entropy Loss Syndrome.
“Do I have to?”
Little Herta was reluctant to run errands.
“What do you think?”
Herta looked down at Little Herta and said,
“Come to think of it, I still haven’t settled the score with you for stealing my spaceship.”
“Tch. You’re no fun.”
Faced with Herta’s threat, Little Herta reluctantly accepted her temporary role as a laboratory assistant.
She soon returned with three lab mice.
Based on their adaptability to imaginary energy, she placed them from left to right in three separate cages before Herta.
Once she had the three mice, Herta divided the purple Honkai Energy into three equal portions and placed one inside each cage.
The moment it entered the cages, the purple imaginary energy surged toward the three mice and sank into their bodies.
At first, nothing changed.
As time passed, however, the mouse with the lowest adaptability gradually became less active.
Eventually, purple circuit-board-like patterns appeared across its motionless body, while its pink skin turned deathly pale, as if coated in a layer of paint.
Similar patterns also appeared on the second mouse, and its skin likewise turned white.
However, it didn’t die.
Instead, it became abnormally aggressive and repeatedly rammed into the cage’s barrier, attempting to attack Herta outside.
Herta ignored the raging second mouse and took out the dead first mouse for examination. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
“Genetic breakdown and death from multiple organ failure.”
After confirming the first mouse’s cause of death, Herta raised a hand and bound the slightly more adaptable second mouse with blue ribbons of imaginary energy before examining it.
“This genetic alteration… Is it transforming the target it erodes into a silicon-based life-form?”
Herta discovered that the mouse could no longer be considered a carbon-based life-form.
Imaginary energy had replaced its blood and altered its genes and brain, giving it an instinct to attack ‘silicon-based life-forms.’
As for the third mouse…
It had adapted to the imaginary energy.
The energy hadn’t altered its host’s genes and instead circulated through its body with its blood.
As if it had stepped onto a Path, the mouse received a physical enhancement.
“Honkai Energy…”
Just as Herta was nearly finished with her examination, Little Herta, who had been watching the mice from the side, suddenly murmured under her breath.
She finally understood why the phenomena Herta had demonstrated had seemed so familiar.
Weren’t those the Authorities of the first through seventh Herrschers from Honkai Impact 3rd?!
And wasn’t converting mice into silicon-based life-forms basically the same as turning animals into Honkai Beasts?!
‘Honkai isn’t going to break out in Star Rail too, is it?
Wait, Honkai: Star Rail already has Honkai in its title, and Welt himself came straight from Honkai Impact 3rd.’
In her previous life, Little Herta had been fortunate enough to learn what Honkai was.
Put simply, as civilization developed, the rising levels of Honkai Energy within Imaginary Space would create imaginary singularities that invaded reality.
The resulting phenomenon would possess different characteristics depending on the civilization.
It wasn’t something created exclusively by the Cocoon of Finality, but a natural tidal phenomenon of the objectively existing Imaginary Tree.
The Cocoon of Finality merely exploited and controlled that phenomenon.
Yet the level attained by civilization in the Solar System had been enough for the Cocoon of Finality to bring forth an at least Emanator-level Kiana to embrace It.
If Honkai erupted within this universe-spanning civilization, already connected by the Trailblaze, what scale of ‘Finality’ would emerge?
‘Hmm, no.
If Star Rail’s civilization is analogous to the Solar System civilization in Honkai Impact 3rd, then wouldn’t the equivalent of “Finality” be the Path of Finality?’
‘Could the Paths themselves be the “Honkai phenomenon” of this universe-spanning civilization?’
Another bizarre theory had emerged.
Little Herta felt as though she had discovered Fu Hua.
She suddenly stopped worrying about Honkai breaking out in Star Rail, because something equal to it—or perhaps even worse—already existed.
★ ★ ★
T/N: If you spot mistranslation, do tell me!