The morning of June 29, 2017, at Anti-Entropy’s Salt Lake City base.
Black Seele watched White Seele, who was still sound asleep, with a complicated mix of emotions in her heart.
Yesterday, in celebration of Anti-Entropy’s 70th anniversary, they needed to go out shopping. This task was originally Tesla’s responsibility, but since she was still in Washington, it ultimately fell to Seele and Kiana, who happened to be free.
“Although she’s still a bit timid, I know that her relationship with Kiana… has gone from strangers to ordinary people who are somewhat familiar with each other. With Bronya as the intermediary, I’m afraid they’ll quickly become very good friends.”
“Even if it won’t reach the level of her relationship with Bronya, it still means that her relationships with others are gradually deepening. And as her relationships with others deepen, that means…”
Black Seele didn’t dare to keep thinking.
She knew that Bronya had appeared by Seele’s side no later than she herself had, and at the most critical moment, helped her walk out of the shadows. So whether it was Seele and Bronya kissing or anything further, Black Seele—who could watch the whole thing—had no objections.
On the contrary, because she had witnessed everything Bronya had done for Seele, in her heart, Bronya had always been second only to Seele herself. Seele knew this well too—she just wasn’t willing to admit it in front of Bronya.
But now, Seele was gradually building relationships with people other than Bronya, and this made Black Seele feel uneasy from the bottom of her heart.
Undoubtedly, everyone has 24 hours in a day. Unless someone has time-related abilities, no one gets more, and no one gets less.
The closer Seele grew to more and more people, the more time she would spend talking with them and keeping them company. And the more time she spent with them, the less time she would have to focus on herself. And once their interactions decreased, maybe she and Seele would…
Of course, Black Seele also understood that, to Seele, she was an extremely special existence on the physical level. Extremely special.
But still… she was afraid. What if…
“Honestly, what am I even thinking? I must have caught it from this idiot. Perfect timing—it’s time to wake her up.”
“Hey, wake up. Those kids are still waiting to hear your story.”
Seele heard the voice and groggily opened her eyes, and then… a wriggling caterpillar appeared in her field of vision.
“Ahhhhh!!!”
Fifteen minutes later, in the hallway of the Salt Lake City base.
[Haha, that makes four people now. They’re asking what that horrible scream just now was about.]
“Ugh… it’s because the moment I opened my eyes, I saw a caterpillar on my pillow. You know perfectly well that’s the thing I’m most afraid of.”
[Huh? You’re blaming me? Who was it that swore up and down before bed last night that she was going to get up early today and tell those kids a story? I think if you hadn’t worn yourself out so much yesterday when you went out with Kiana, you wouldn’t feel like you didn’t get enough sleep…]
“I am grateful that you woke me up… but… next time, could you please use a different method…?”
[Huh? I don’t even have a physical body. I can’t just yank your blanket off… Of course, if you want me to go play with those kids in your place, that’s not impossible either.]
“Mm… if you ever feel like it someday, just let me know, and I’ll get a good sleep.”
[Huh? I was just saying that offhand. How did you actually take it seriously? Aren’t you afraid…]
“This body belongs to both of us to begin with, and right now, I’m the one controlling it the vast majority of the time. That’s not really fair to you. Besides… if you came out and walked around more, maybe you’d make lots of new friends too, just like me…”
“By the way, it’s been several months now. About that name you like so much… have you thought of one?”
Black Seele knew that since she had brought it up herself, it meant she had been keeping it on her mind. If she didn’t give her an answer now, she would definitely keep thinking about it.
[…Seele.]
“I’m here.”
[I said, that’s the name I like… Don’t overthink it. I just figured that since we already share a body, we might as well share a name too. I can mention it to Bronya later… Someone’s coming.]
“It’s Seele. Why are you… spacing out here all this time? I see. You must not have slept well last night and you’re too tired, right? Dr. Einstein said that if you have time, she’d like you to come by.”
“…Okay.”
Seele went along with a few casual words from the base staff member, then went to the place where the children lived. Like her, they had all become orphans directly or indirectly because of the Honkai.
After finishing the story for the children, Seele arrived at Einstein’s office.
“Sorry, Seele. Please bear with Dr. Tesla complaining for a bit longer.”
After that, Seele heard a roar coming from the other end of the phone:
“Those old fossils are impossible to communicate with! They just keep repeating the same circular arguments and kicking the ball back and forth. I’m furious!”
“What did that mech say? ‘Cowardly and afraid of trouble, greedy and disloyal, bullying others by abusing power’—I say every single one of those is accurate.”
“…Dr. Tesla, I hope you didn’t say those things in front of the Federation Senate members. Setting aside what that mech actually said, even if it was equipped with a language module, the very fact that a security mech is capable of personally insulting people doesn’t make logical sense.”
“Hmph. Before supplying any mech to Congress, I inspected every single one of them from top to bottom. There’s no way a problem like that could occur. If you ask me, there’s an 80% chance it was an operational error on their end, and a 20% chance they’re using this incident to frame us.”
“Frame us? What else did they say?”
“Sigh, the same old stuff. They said Anti-Entropy’s methods for containing Herrschers are too lenient, and that letting Kiana move around freely is irresponsible toward the people of the Federation.”
“I told them over and over that Kiana’s current state is very stable and that she can control her power, but I practically wore my lips out, and they still won’t believe it. They even think this mech incident is a Herrscher conspiracy.”
By this point, Tesla had laughed out of sheer anger:
“Please. Do they even know what a Herrscher is? If a Herrscher wanted to attack Congress, why would they need to go to all that trouble? Using schemes and plots to increase distrust among humans, in order to intensify social instability and disrupt human society—what kind of Herrscher would be that weak? If Ganesha or Pavanti rammed into Capitol Hill once, the panic it caused would be far greater than this.”
“A bunch of pampered old lords who only know how to hide behind the scenes and collect their pay without doing anything. When the Herrschers were running rampant and so many people died, they only made a couple of symbolic noises. But the moment their own interests are involved, they immediately jump out.”
“They don’t want to learn more about what a Herrscher is. The moment they hear the word, they start imagining conspiracy theories. They don’t want to leave professional matters to professionals, and instead amateurs lecture the experts while acting all high and mighty. These people should be handed over to Otto to deal with. Once they get a taste of that man’s ruthless methods, they’d behave.”
“…Those old codgers are causing trouble again. Messy-hair, let’s talk later.”
Tesla hung up the phone. Einstein shook her head and sighed.
“Sorry, Seele. I kept you waiting.”
“…Dr. Tesla sounds like she has it rough.”
“In that regard, you don’t need to worry. This isn’t the first time she’s been summoned to Congress for talks. She’s blunt and hot-tempered, but oddly enough, she’s never once suffered any real loss.”
“Mm… somehow that makes me even more worried…”
“Doctor, did you call me here for a mission?”
“Take a look at this.”
Einstein tapped a few times on the computer screen, and a photo appeared in front of Seele.
“A Chariot-class Honkai Beast?!”
“Yesterday, when Mr. Welt and Bronya were out, they discovered that at an exhibition being held beside a certain building, a large number of Honkai Beast statues had appeared. Just as they were about to investigate further, some of the statues came to life and began indiscriminately attacking the crowd.”
“What?! Then…”
“Those Honkai Beasts were no match at all for Bronya and Mr. Welt, so no one was hurt, and the matter was pushed aside by other business.”
“Those Honkai Beasts may be insignificant in front of a Herrscher, but they are absolutely not something ordinary people can handle. If Bronya and Mr. Welt hadn’t arrived there, the consequences would have been unimaginable.”
“After the incident, Anti-Entropy immediately traced the supply chain of that batch of sculptures. As of now, we’ve traced them to two workshops, and we expect to find their exact locations within today.”
“Although we don’t know who the other party is, considering that they may have the ability to artificially cultivate Honkai Beasts, the workshops are most likely just a front. The other party very likely has its own base, just like Anti-Entropy.”
“While we can’t rule out that it’s a base belonging to Schicksal or World Serpent, so far there’s no direct evidence. And based on Anti-Entropy’s experience, this operation doesn’t fit Otto’s style either.”
“After discussing with the leader, we agreed that since the other side hasn’t revealed their true objective, we must not alert them. We should follow the clues we currently have and conduct a secret investigation.”
“And considering that Kiana’s condition hasn’t been great recently, Ms. Fu Hua is still searching for traces of the Herrscher of Sentience, and Ms. Theresa and the leader also have relatively important work, you and Bronya are currently the most suitable candidates. Of course…”
“I’m willing. So, Doctor, you mean for me and Bronya to investigate the two workshops separately?”
“Mm. The time will be tonight. Rest well during the day.”
[Alright. If there’s going to be a fight, leave it to me. When it’s time to use your brain, you take over. For now, just listen to the others and get some proper rest.]
“Huh?!”
[What, did you think I didn’t know? You were planning to use this time to go to the training room for extra practice, with the reasoning, “I don’t want the mission to fail because of me, and I especially don’t want to hurt Bronya because my strength isn’t enough,” right?]
“As expected, I can’t hide anything from you.”
[I already told you, leave the fighting to me. You don’t need to worry about that.]
“But…”
[But what? Are you trying to say that you hope one day you’ll be able to defeat your enemies with your own strength, and when that time comes, you won’t need me anymore? Is that it?]
“That’s not what I mean, other me—no, I should call you Seele now. You and I are equal individuals. If I keep turning to you for help every time I face a difficulty, that’s not fair to you. I believe the reason you protect me is so that I can grow up healthily like everyone else, not so that the moment I face trouble, I turn back into that coward who only knows how to hide in a box and cry.”
“Only by trying to face powerful enemies myself and solving difficulties that seem impossible can I grow. Once I become stronger, then together, won’t we be able to defeat even greater and more powerful enemies?”
“Our connection is so close. Maybe… when it comes to fighting, I’ve actually been holding you back all along. You said you can control the full power of this body. If I become stronger, maybe I can raise the upper limit of this body, and then you’ll become even more powerful than before.”
[…Sigh, okay. It seems that to convince you, I’ll have to think of another reason… What difficulty level are you planning to challenge on your own?]
“The difficulty from a few days ago, plus ten more levels.”
[What?! Isn’t that the highest difficulty? If you get hurt during training, won’t that affect tonight’s mission even more?]
Seele immediately showed a look of realization, as if only now understanding.
“Sorry, Seele. I was so eager to improve myself that I automatically ignored the risks involved… I’ll listen to you and rest properly.”
[Sigh. You’re the one who does the thinking, and yet sometimes you’re like such an idiot that I have to remind you before you notice.]
“That just means that when it comes to using your brain, Seele is even better than me.”
Seele returned to her room with a smile, resting while thinking about the night’s operation.
June 29, night. Seele arrived in front of the workshop she was to investigate. Even though it wasn’t far from the city, the surrounding environment was as gloomy and eerie as a haunted house.
“Seele… won’t be afraid anymore!”
She mustered her courage and charged toward the front door.
[Wait, what’s going on?]
The scenery in front of Black Seele changed. When her consciousness cleared, she found herself in an unfamiliar space.
“Teleported to another space? This is troublesome. Seele, this place isn’t good. Let me…”
Black Seele’s eyes widened, and she froze in place.
Because she hadn’t heard any answer.
In this strange otherworldly space, even though she had no physical body, she could stand on the ground and move freely, just like she once could in the Sea of Quanta.
And White Seele, who had always been inseparable from her, was not by her side now.
“Damn it!”
Just as Black Seele was overcome with anxiety, a voice drifted over from the distance and fell upon her ears:
“Welcome to the Theater of Domination!”
