"Janna? Who's that?!"
Houraiji Kyuusyou's smile vanished in an instant. Her hair stood on end, making her look like a great demon lord.
Seele silently took a step back and gave Ryn a little push, leaving this scoundrel for Houraiji Kyuusyou to deal with herself.
"Ah, this... Is there some misunderstanding? Let me explain!"
"You can explain in your next life!"
Houraiji Kyuusyou threw a punch at Ryn's face, sending him flying.
"You bastard! You came to my world and didn't even look for me, and you even went off to seduce other girls!"
Then, Houraiji Kyuusyou gave Seele an apologetic look before huffing and walking back to Kiana and the others.
Houraiji Kyuusyou, Kiana, and the other two exchanged glances, their faces breaking into bright, sunny smiles. They then spoke in unison to the phantom of the Sea of Quanta:
"We've been waiting for this moment for a long time. Send us away!"
"Don't! Let me explain first! It's not like that with Janna!"
Ryn shouted as he ran towards Houraiji Kyuusyou. If he didn't clear this up, and Houraiji Kyuusyou, in a jealous rage, went to cause trouble for Janna and got herself slapped to death, that would be a huge problem!
*Voom—*
The great will of the Sea of Quanta waved its hand and sent Houraiji Kyuusyou and her group back to the world of "Honkai 2."
「Isn't a scene like that much more interesting?」
"......"
「Alright, alright. Next is to prepare for the space-time travel to send you two over.」
"Hey, now that I think about it, we only know we're being sent fifty thousand years ago. We don't know the exact time, do we?"
「What's the point in knowing that? What difference would it make? As long as you're not late, it's fine. I've left you plenty of time.
Just remember one thing: if you don't want the future to change too drastically and lose everything you have now, then don't cause too much trouble in the past.」
"What are you talking about? The end result is that everything gets wiped out by Finality and everyone dies anyway. It shouldn't be a big problem no matter what I do, right?"
「No, what I mean is... don't get those guys who survived into the Current Era killed...」
"..."
The Sea's words rendered Ryn speechless. How was he supposed to know who survived into the Current Era and who died in the Previous Era?
A Fu Hua who lost her memories, lost her power, and isn't of sound mind.
A Su who had already immolated himself, ascending to become an Observer god.
A Kevin who is sustaining himself by fishing for quantum crabs in some unknown Bubble Universe.
Right, these three can't be killed. It's best not to even meet them. After all, they don't know him now, so they couldn't possibly have known him in the past.
And then there are those miscellaneous AIs and armed dolls, like Ai-chan, Ada, Book of Cangxuan, and so on.
Cortana... she doesn't matter, she's not from the Previous Era. He has already established a quantum entanglement with her. When he's bored, he can look for her and see which patch of dirt she's buried in.
No, no, that's not right. He wasn't going to the Previous Era to carry out a massacre. Why was he checking off names like he was Hitler?
Ryn nodded one moment and shook his head the next, which made Seele, standing beside him, a little confused.
"Brother Ryn, aren't we just going to show the Previous Era the finished product of the Stigmata to provide them with a blueprint? Is that very difficult?"
"It is. The Stigmata system uses our genes as the vessel to contain it. The number of people who can awaken Stigmata is extremely small.
Not to mention whether they will believe us when we show them the Stigmata, the question of how to show it and to whom is also a problem..."
Ryn spread his hands with a troubled look. What if those guys from the Previous Era try to push their luck and dissect Seele or something? He definitely wouldn't stand by and watch. He might even resort to violence.
Those who could research Stigmata must have been from the highest-tech research institute of the Previous Era. If he killed one of them, it would probably create an irreconcilable feud.
Wouldn't that mean he'd just have to kill a whole bunch of them?
Furthermore, once his Herrscher identity was revealed, he'd be hunted by the entire world.
Could he just do nothing then?
Of course not! It was possible that he'd kindly help Finality cleanse the surface of the Earth before Finality even had to descend.
「......」
Now it was the Sea's turn to be silent. It hadn't been that long. How did this kid become so extreme?
「I'm suddenly thinking about something...」
"Oh? What is it?"
「I'm thinking... in other worldlines, Seele's journey to the past was an accident. Even Seele herself didn't realize she had traveled to the past.
But now, in your worldline, taking you, Ryn, along with her... is this the right choice?」
Seele held Ryn's hand and said to the Sea with a determined expression, "I don't know. But if it's together with Brother Ryn, then no matter how bad the outcome, Seele is willing!"
「It's not a question of whether you're willing... It's... forget it, it doesn't matter. If things go south, the timeline reverses, and the worldline shatters, that's the Tree's problem, not mine~」
The Sea of Quanta could already imagine the Imaginary Tree's indifferent attitude towards the world's development, but because this was the only worldline that successfully defeated the Honkai, it would ultimately have to swallow its pride and silently clean up Ryn's mess.
That stuck-up prude, always putting on a high-and-mighty act, who knows what's going on in its head. A happy ending for everyone is a great outcome, but it insists on calling that a fairy tale and that everything must follow the proper sequence of time.
If you just reverse time and restart every time something goes wrong, then the world becomes an unchanging straight line, and everything loses its meaning.
「Are you ready? I'm about to throw... no, send you over.」
"???"
Ryn and Seele's eyes widened. Did they hear that right? Did the great will of the Sea of Quanta just use the word "throw"?
「You heard wrong. How could I possibly throw you!」
The great will of the Sea of Quanta said one thing, but did another...
A chaotic, blurry door that was impossible to decipher instantly opened in front of Ryn and Seele.
Ryn and Seele were holding hands, just about to say some words of comfort to each other when...
The great will of the Sea of Quanta kicked Ryn square in the back, sending him into the door.
"Ah! My back! It's broken! It's broken, ahhh!"
"Brother Ryn!"
The Sea of Quanta gently patted Seele's head, then grabbed her hand and threw her in like a bowling ball.
"!!!"
「A strike! A perfect game! As expected of me!」