“The performance isn’t over yet. You can’t leave early!”
Eerie laughter echoed from all directions as hundreds of puppets came rushing in from every side.
“Seele, I’m counting on you.”
Bronya gently patted Seele in her arms, then leaped into the air. Dark Seele wiped her damp eyes and charged at full speed toward the coordinates Bronya had given her.
“Heavy Bunny, ride on.”
[Ride on]
The motorcycle spun through the air a few times, and hundreds of floating cannons appeared around her.
“Fire!”
All the floating cannons fired at once. The puppets and randomly generated monsters rushing toward them were all blown away.
“This feeling is… No wonder they kept guiding me to attack them earlier…”
The attack was devastatingly effective, but a wave of weakness immediately spread through Bronya’s entire body. She realized that her connection to the Herrscher of Reason’s core… had been severed.
Even though the core was still inside her body, she couldn’t use the Herrscher’s authority. It felt as though someone had carved a piece of flesh out of her heart.
Still, she had achieved the result she wanted. While Bronya went all out with her firepower, Dark Seele struck with everything she had, blasting a massive hole through the Theater of Domination. Bronya barely steadied herself and escaped together with her.
“Fools. You saved a monster, but you gave us the authority of the Herrscher of Reason. Either way, we’re the ones who come out ahead.”
After leaving the Theater of Domination, Bronya found herself alone again outside the workshop she’d been assigned to investigate. Exhaustion washed over her entire body. She leaned against the wall and immediately contacted Anti-Entropy.
Rewinding a bit earlier — after White Seele rushed into the workshop, a strange dizziness came over her, and she discovered that her connection with Dark Seele had mysteriously vanished.
After calling out multiple times with no response, White Seele understood. This workshop had to be dangerous, and she had most likely already fallen into the enemy’s trap.
“If neither Seele nor Big Sister Bronya is by my side… I really do get scared.”
Still, White Seele quickly pulled herself together and immediately got in touch with the Anti-Entropy doctor.
“Seele, let me summarize. After your Stigmata awakened, another Seele was born inside your body. And the moment you entered the workshop, nothing happened to you, but your connection with the other Seele was cut off. Is that right?”
“Y-yes… that’s what I mean, Doctor… Do you believe what I’m saying?”
She understood. Suddenly telling someone that another person has always existed inside your body — it’s only natural to be doubted. She might even be thought to have delusions.
“I was indeed skeptical at first. After all, your experience is just too bizarre. But just moments ago, we also lost contact with Bronya, and we’ve confirmed that she is currently not in a normally observable space.”
“Sigh!”
“Back when Kiana’s condition was unstable, Anti-Entropy invented a device that could directly detect a Herrscher’s core. And considering we don’t know what kind of methods the enemy might use, to prevent communication signals from being blocked, we had Bronya wear a similar device as well.”
“According to our observations just now, Bronya is neither in the normal real-number world nor in imaginary space. She’s been transferred to a rather special space.”
“If it’s that special, then anything could happen. Seele, have you and the other Seele ever been separated before?”
“…Just a few months ago, after entering the Sea of Quanta through the Eye of the Deep. It’s just that at the time…”
“It’s perfectly normal not to want to share secrets like that with others. A space similar to the Sea of Quanta… that does make sense…”
“Seele, the area around that workshop is very likely one of the entrances to that special space. Since the other Seele has no physical form, don’t leave for now. I’ll contact the Overseer and Miss Theresa right away.”
“Okay.”
And so Seele waited for several hours. It wasn’t until dawn was just beginning to break that she saw that familiar figure again in her mind space.
“Seele, thank goodness you’re alright!”
White Seele quickly walked over and hugged her from behind.
Dark Seele’s emotions surged violently, but she never said a single word.
“Ah, you look exhausted. Get some rest first. Tell me what happened earlier once you’ve recovered.”
White Seele exited the mind space and immediately contacted Einstein.
“…You’re fine on your end? Bronya just got in touch too. She said she entered the same space as the other Seele earlier… Seele, a dangerous place is no place to linger. Since we’ve confirmed you’re safe, it’s best to return to base and explain the details there.”
June 30th, noon. Salt Lake City Base.
Seele slept until she woke up naturally. Without her other self waking her up, she really wasn’t quite used to it.
After lunch, on her way to the meeting room, she ran into Bronya. The two walked together, exchanging information as they went.
“Neither of you is hurt. That’s a relief to Bronya.”
In the meeting room, they found Einstein, who hadn’t slept all night, Walter and Theresa with serious expressions, and Tesla, who was joining via video conference from Washington.
“Since Dr. Tesla isn’t fully caught up on the situation, let me give a brief summary.”
“Last night, while investigating the workshop, Seele and Bronya entered a special space called the Theater of Domination. To cover Seele’s escape, Bronya attacked the puppets inside the theater with everything she had.”
“The result is that although the Herrscher of Reason’s core is still inside Bronya’s body, she can no longer use the Herrscher’s authority.”
“What?! How could something like that happen?!”
“Based on our deductions, the opponent this time is most likely the Herrscher of Domination of the current era. Now, let’s have Bronya explain the details.”
“After Bronya entered the theater, the puppets inside kept launching verbal attacks, trying to break through Bronya’s psychological defenses by using distorted interpretations of her past experiences. They also kept guiding Bronya to attack them…”
It took over half an hour for Bronya to recount the entire incident from beginning to end. However, regarding the parts about the two Seeles, she didn’t go into detail and referred to them simply as “Seele” throughout.
“From what we can tell so far, at least within the Theater of Domination, the puppets’ vicious words weren’t just meant to break through psychological defenses. They also have a degree of thought suggestion and mental manipulation ability.”
“According to records left by the previous era, the Herrscher of Domination is also known as the Herrscher of a Thousand. It consists of one thousand individuals… Although the enemies Seele and the others encountered differ in many ways from the previous era’s Herrscher of Domination, it’s still the most likely answer.”
“And based on their abilities, the next most likely target… is Kiana.”
