Honkai: Man(Sludge) From Future

The familiar form of the Hyperion was right there.

Durandal could, of course, tell that this Hyperion, which traversed the Sea of Quanta, was not the same one from her Schicksal.

The new "Rita" looked at the two who called themselves sisters.

Especially the one that looked like a giant, pink paramecium.

"Pardon my forwardness, but may I ask if you two have seen a strange entity transmitting information throughout the Sea of Quanta?"

Kiana reverted to her human form. "You don't need to be so tense," she said. "He's already left."

To her surprise, this news seemed to stun Rita even more. "So such an entity really exists?" she asked, a hint of shock in her voice.

She had only been drifting toward the center of the high-concentration information on a whim, yet here she was, truly receiving confirmation that such a being existed.

"Yeah, he just said hi to us, then took some people and left. Told me to get ready to invade a parallel world, but where am I supposed to find a parallel world for him in this situation? Have you seen any?"

Kiana very straightforwardly asked Rita about parallel worlds, acting like someone asking a bus driver for directions on the side of the road.

Rita looked at the white-haired girl with considerable astonishment, growing curious about the identity of these two sisters.

"Even if you ask me, I can't say for sure. After all, I don't know why I've encountered this situation either. I was just nearby investigating the cause of a collapsing Bubble Universe. It was only after sensing such an abnormal concentration of information in the Sea of Quanta, and then feeling it decrease in this direction, that we decided to come and investigate."

Rita looked at the current scene with surprise. She had assumed whoever remained here would be ordinary. Now it seemed they were anything but. It was more likely they were the vanguard of a force reaching its demonic claws into parallel worlds.

"It seems there's no need for further investigation... The high concentration of information has caused turmoil among the inhabitants of many Bubble Universes. It would be one thing if they were just ordinary worlds, but Bubble Universes are much more fragile. The more frequently one interferes with people's consciousness, the more it affects the anchor points within the Bubble Universes. That's equivalent to an entire small world disappearing..."

Rita felt utterly helpless. She had wanted to stop this act of destroying Bubble Universes at their very root.

But who would have thought the culprit had merely swept through them as a side effect of dealing with a parallel world? This meant that conventional force would be completely useless. Even the Ferryman captain of the Hyperion couldn't escape the influence of this power, let alone the people living inside the Bubble Universes.

Rita admitted to herself that she was definitely no match for an entity of this level.

Durandal felt a pang of pity for this Rita who had come to investigate. Perhaps because she shared the same face as her own Rita, Durandal felt a certain innate fondness for this new version.

"It's alright," Durandal consoled her. "He's gone back now. Unless another problem arises, he probably won't casually mess with Bubble Universes. Besides, the cost is a bit of a waste for him. He usually prefers to assign others to do his work."

Fallen Rosemary Rita nodded. "I see. So he's the type who likes to heavily rely on his subordinates?"

'No, he just wants to stay home, watch kids' anime, and play video games!'

Kiana and Durandal screamed the same thought internally.

But they had no intention of correcting this Rita's misunderstanding.

'That's right, he's just as bad as you think! It's best to stay as far away as possible. That's the only way to protect your own normal values!'

Durandal wasn't sure how much longer she had before she, too, was turned into a little pony one day. When that time came, she could only resign herself to her fate and sacrifice herself to the tiger.

'I get the feeling these two ladies want me to leave quickly...'

Rita saw the urgency in the Kaslana sisters' eyes, which made her feel both uneasy and confused.

However, it was indeed not a good time to linger. Who knew if that entity might return?

But before leaving, Rita still wanted to tempt fate and ask one more question, like a gambler trying to get just one more piece of information.

"I'd like to ask one more thing. Do you two... have any connection to that entity? Do you need my help?"

Rita's question warmed Kiana's heart a little. She hadn't expected the Rita from this parallel world to be so helpful.

"No need. My family just wants to see if we can go to a parallel world and catch some Herrschers. We're running low on Herrschers here, so getting some fresh blood would be good for us. If you're not a Herrscher, you should leave quickly. What if he comes back and gets curious about you?"

Kiana didn't care what kind of expression Rita would have after hearing this information.

Rita's expression was indeed a bit off, but she quickly understood what the two meant.

Leave now, don't stay here. It's not good for you, and it's not good for them.

This Rita, who roamed the Sea of Quanta, didn't say much more. She simply nodded to show she understood their intentions.

She left the same way she came, fleeing even faster than she had arrived.

Durandal sighed with emotion. "I never thought there were really beings who traveled through the Sea of Quanta like this. It seems this Rita must also have an organizational background. I just wonder if people from other civilizations have appeared."

Where there was one, there was bound to be a second.

Durandal felt like she was Chekhov's gun in some cosmic play. The moment she appeared, she was destined to fire a round at some entity on the stage.

"I can't believe we actually caught a fish. But the fish we caught is a bit problematic. It seems she only came over because a Bubble Universe was destroyed. Does that mean if Noldrei messes with a few more Bubble Universes, we can get more people to come over?"

Kiana's flash of insight sent a shiver down Durandal's spine. As her sister, she also had a Bubble Universe inside her.

"Kiana, you can't tell him about this when you get back!" Durandal quickly tried to stop her sister's agile mind.

Why did she have to have a wild imagination just like Noldrei at a time like this? In your eyes, the people inside Bubble Universes aren't even considered human, are they?

"Of course not! I'm not stupid. If I told him, wouldn't he send me out every day to observe parallel worlds and catch Herrschers? If the Crown Princess can't eat good food, drink fine wine, and travel everywhere, what's the point of being the Crown Princess?"

Kiana threw her hands up. A job like this should be left to someone who needed it more.

Just as the two sisters were chatting, a surprisingly familiar voice appeared beside them.

"Strange, I definitely sensed a parallel world interfering with mine... How did...?"

The moment their eyes met, a strange thought flowed through their minds.

'Was I really this much of a pure-hearted idiot back then?'

'So this is what I look like after ascending the throne, huh?! Is this outfit design this cool?'

Appearing before Kiana was an older version of herself. The cool outfit she wore was the very imperial coronation battle robe Kiana had always dreamed of.

"Sis, she has a purple glow in her eyes!" Kiana exclaimed in amazement.

Herrscher of Finality Kiana blinked, never having imagined that a version of herself like this could one day step into the Sea of Quanta.

Which leader was so bold? Who dared to throw a version of herself—a version who was more likely to screw things up than get them done—into the Sea of Quanta?