"I've been staying on Jarilo this whole time. Godzilla has also been calm, with no intention of going out. So under what circumstances did he reach Welt's world, and what is the history of that world?"
Herta fell into deep thought...
-----------------------------------
"Is it really okay to just tell Herta like that?"
Hanging up the call, Welt looked at Himeko and asked.
"Don't worry. Compared to others, I'm more willing to trust Herta. When it comes to major issues, she never lets people down."
Himeko gently shook her head and said softly.
Hearing Himeko's words, Welt nodded slightly.
Just as Himeko had said, although Herta occasionally causes some unpleasantness...
But from a certain perspective, there was no one more suitable to confide in than Herta.
On the one hand, Herta's wisdom is enough to handle everything short of direct actions from Aeons.
On the other hand, she is one of the rare members of the Genius Society who actually has a bottom line.
At the very least, she's far better than Ruan Mei.
Geniuses are geniuses precisely because every action of theirs can affect countless lives, which is why they're revered and feared.
Herta's moral boundaries may sometimes be flexible, but when there's no better option, she's the best one.
...
On the other side, after ending the call, Herta murmured to herself.
"Incredible, truly incredible. Even the past can be changed. That's a feat even the Aeons themselves cannot accomplish! Just how was it done? The body never left, still sleeping peacefully without the slightest trace of decline. The spirit? Could it be the spirit?"
Herta sharply recalled the incident when Godzilla descended upon Penacony.
That event alone was enough to show how powerful Godzilla's spirit was.
After all, if the spirit were weak, it couldn't possibly have forced the people of the Reverie Hotel into retreat.
"The problem now is, we don't know to what extent Godzilla can change the past. Just one world that isn't connected to the interstellar network can't prove anything."
Limits have always been a favorite topic for geniuses.
Well then, that's the question.
Whether it's Herta or the other geniuses she has good relations with, none of them are particularly skilled when it comes to matters of memory.
"Tch, I'll have to explore the connections between dreams first."
...
Meanwhile, as several factions took their own actions in response to the quietly altered past-
Schicksal.
"No sign of Honkai energy, comes and goes without a trace, destructive power astonishing… appearance extremely similar to the movie character Godzilla."
Otto stood straight in front of the enormous screen filled with flowing data, deep in thought.
[ T/N: Holding popcorn and waiting for Otto against Godzilla. ]
The great Honkai outbreak in Nagazora was enough to draw his attention, and worried that Theresa might not handle it properly, he had even arranged additional support.
But the end result was… beyond words.
A movie character suddenly crossing dimensions into reality and delivering a crushing blow, with the Herrscher reaction vanishing without a trace after that attack, as if it had never existed.
Fine. He admitted it. With the power Godzilla had shown, even a newly born Herrscher, one whose accompanying Honkai beasts hadn't even appeared yet, truly needed to be handled cautiously.
Judging by the destructive force of that attack, it was unknown whether the Herrscher of Flames, if she were to be born, could surpass him in terms of fire's temperature and control.
So the question now was,
"Just how did Godzilla appear?"
A complete mystery.
Otto was certain that no creature called Godzilla had ever existed in this world before.
At most, there were just the scenes in movies where Godzilla appeared as the King of Monsters.
Could it be a world bubble? But a world bubble capable of nurturing such a beast shouldn't have collapsed.
And Otto was very curious.
"Would this Godzilla's cells be as miraculous as in the movie settings?"
The ordinary people of this world did not know of Honkai's existence.
Thus, there was always a gap between the organizations fighting Honkai and the common people, the relationship of protector and protected.
And because of that, the protected would often create works with no relation to Honkai.
Otto had gone through these works. Combining them with Godzilla's ability to appear and disappear without a trace, his mind raced.
"If that Godzilla's ability is related to space-time…"
Then, could it return to the past?!
...
Bang! The solid wooden table was slammed violently by the blonde woman before it.
Clad in a military uniform, the woman's face was full of rage, trembling slightly.
"Gone! All gone!"
Her entire mecha unit was gone!
Because of that suddenly appearing Godzilla, her entire mecha unit was wiped out! They couldn't even recover resources, everything had been vaporized!
She had invested a massive amount of funds into creating that mecha unit. If not for other places also needing money, she would've put every last cent she had, even for just a single screw!
What was supposed to be the force to capture the newly awakened Herrscher of Thunder had been obliterated in an instant.
The blow was devastating.
The only thing to be grateful for was that her daughter, Bronya, had been unharmed in that fiery baptism, only because she happened to be in the same building as the Herrscher.
If she hadn't been remote-controlling the mecha from afar, she too might have been wiped out in that attack.
"Raiden Mei, St. Freya…" Cocolia bit her thumb hard, hatred surging in her heart.
Raiden Mei had been taken to St. Freya by the Hyperion when it arrived, while her own mecha unit had been almost entirely destroyed in Nagazora.
With so little strength left, trying to snatch Raiden Mei back from St. Freya was nothing but a pipe dream.
After all, St. Freya was full of Valkyrie cadets.
Not to mention the teachers there, and the headmaster.
Bang! The more she thought about it, the more frustrated she became!
...
St. Freya Academy.
Founded by Theresa Apocalypse, she has been constantly working hard to oppose her grandfather.
Although she will shamelessly reach out to her grandfather in Schicksal for funds when the academy faces a financial crisis, St. Freya Academy is still an independent institution.
"Grandpa, give me money!"
"Ugh, so bitter!" mumbling and mumbling, Kiana's face suddenly turned purple.
She shot up from the bed, clutching her throat with both hands, trembling slightly, looking as though she was about to pass out.
"Hm?" At this moment, Himeko, who heard the commotion outside, pushed open the door.
"Uwaa!" A stream of unknown liquid spewed from Kiana's mouth, full of vibrant green.
"Phew, much better." Patting her chest, Kiana let out a long sigh of relief.
"Wait! Where's Mei?!" Still not understanding the situation, Kiana immediately began looking for Mei.
She didn't notice that someone nearby had already vanished in an instant.
"Hey, shouldn't you greet me first!"
Bonk! "Ow!"
....
"Honestly, young people these days have no manners at all." Theresa clapped her hands and muttered with her head turned slightly.
"Well, someone decided to use bitter melon juice as an energy drink."
Himeko helplessly placed the fruit basket on the nightstand, glancing at the half-empty bottle of bitter melon juice.
"She kept whining about being thirsty, so I was just trying to be nice." Theresa pouted, muttering.
"Even if she's thirsty, you don't just force bitter melon juice on her!"
Finally managing to move her tongue enough to talk, Kiana raised her fist angrily.
Who in their right mind would drink bitter melon juice like water?!
"By the way, Mei! Where's Mei?! Where did you take her?!"
Kiana grabbed Himeko's arm, her tone anxious.
At that moment,
"Kiana, I'm fine." A gentle voice echoed inside the ward.
Himeko used her other hand to pull open the curtain.
At some point between the aunt and niece's bickering, Mei had woken up. She was leaning against the bedhead, hands folded neatly on the blanket, smiling softly at Himeko and Theresa.
"Mei! Thank goodness you're okay!" Kiana's eyes lit up with joy at the sight of gentle Mei, and she was about to throw off the blanket and rush over.
Bonk!
"A patient should behave like a patient!" Theresa scolded, her face dark, her tone sharp with authority.
Himeko's eyes narrowed slightly, her gaze sliding downward, calculating how she might pull the stool away without Theresa noticing.
Rubbing her head, Kiana shouted in protest at Theresa.
"Who even are you? Even my dad's never hit me like this!"
At these words, Theresa froze on the spot. After a long moment, she squinted, the pressure in the room visibly dropping, her tone low.
"Didn't that idiot father of yours ever tell you who I am?"
"Nope!" Kiana said confidently. "My dad disappeared when I was little. I've been looking for him too."
Pfft!
"...Then how have you been living all this time?"
"Just like that. Under bridges, in parks, on benches, sleeping wherever I can."
Pfft!!
"Siegfried !!!!!"
....
After a round of "friendly" conversation, Kiana finally accepted that this short girl standing on a stool, yet still shorter than her lying down, was actually her long-lost aunt.
"I'm very sorry for causing you all trouble."
Mei bowed apologetically to the two.
"Haha, what trouble? This is our job." Himeko laughed heartily.
"Um, about my body's condition..." Mei hesitated, at a loss for words to describe her situation.
That inside her was another consciousness, one that wanted to destroy the world?
"Well, that can wait for now."
"How can it wait! This is a huge deal!"
Kiana immediately protested.
Bonk!
"Quiet!"
Suppressing Kiana for the moment, Theresa coughed lightly and spoke seriously.
"We already have a preliminary understanding of your condition. We'll talk more later. For now, we'd like to know a bit about that Godzilla-like creature. Were you conscious at the time?"
When Himeko first showed her the recording of the scene, Theresa thought it was some trailer she had found somewhere. But then, Himeko told her it was real.
The Herrscher situation was severe.
But for now, there were no signs of an outbreak. And yet, that beast, which looked exactly like Godzilla, was different, in all their investigations, they hadn't found a single trace of Godzilla's existence.
As if it had never been there.
Only the still hot crater on Nagazora's surface proved its violent rampage.
"I'm sorry, my consciousness was hazy the whole time." Mei said apologetically.
Then both women turned their gaze toward Kiana.
"Uh, all I remember is that the thing inside Mei disappeared the moment he looked at it, and Mei almost collapsed. Not long after, Aunt Himeko came and brought us here."
Hearing Kiana's words, the two women's expressions stiffened. They exchanged glances, both seeing disbelief in the other's eyes.
The Herrscher... suppressed?
They did not doubt Kiana's words.
From their short time with her, they could already tell,
This white-haired girl's brain was completely empty, the kind that couldn't even lie properly.
As expected.
'Damn Siegfried!'
······
For the time being, putting Godzilla aside, the two decided to first deal with the problem of the Herrscher of Thunder.
"So, I am a Herrscher." Mei shut herself off.
Himeko patted Mei's shoulder and comforted her: "You are you, the Herrscher is the Herrscher, that's completely different. Besides, there are way too many suspicious points about the Honkai outbreak in Nagazora City. It's very abnormal."
Not to mention, that Godzilla appearing was the biggest abnormality of all!
Movies becoming reality, seriously!
"Sigh, don't you feel like things are just getting more and more troublesome recently?" Theresa let out a sigh.
If this goes on, someday even the Homu manga might stop updating… ugh!
Absolutely not! Anything but that! Homu must not stop!
"You all hang around here first, I'll be right back. Himeko, you take them for now!"
Leaving those words, Theresa's little short legs carried her away in an instant, disappearing into the huge building.
Shaking her head, Himeko wasn't surprised.
In this kind of situation, Theresa was probably off to question her grandfather.
"Let's go, I also picked up a little girl who should be your companion."
"Eh?" Kiana blinked, completely clueless who Himeko was talking about.
...
"Little Theresa, long time no see."
Otto smiled as he greeted Theresa.
"Now's not the time for chit-chat, do you know anything about what happened in Nagazora City?!"
Theresa's little face was tense, her tone serious.
"Sigh, what kind of image do I have in little Theresa's heart, really? But..." With a turn, Otto smiled.
"I truly don't know anything about what happened in Nagazora City. Even that giant beast I saw for the first time. Little Theresa should be clear, if a creature of that level were created, the traces could never be erased."
Narrowing her eyes, Theresa still didn't trust Otto.
She knew all too well what her grandfather was capable of.
Staring at Otto's face for a long while, Theresa couldn't stop doubting in her heart.
Could it really not have been him?
"Hmph! Better not be, I'm hanging up."
Looking at the disconnected screen, Otto's smile remained.
He shook his head slightly. If only it really had been his doing.
...
Schicksal was thrown into chaos by Godzilla's sudden appearance in reality, and their rival Anti-Entropy was no different.
"Bedhead, did you see that?"
"Mm."
"Can such a creature really exist?"
"Mm."
"I mean, how dense must its muscles be, what kind of organs could withstand such massive gravity?"
"Mm."
"Can you stop with the 'mm' already?!"
"Okay."
"You ¥% ... ¥# ...!"
...
After a refreshing round of banter, Dr. Tesla AKA Dr. Lobster collapsed onto the sofa, clutching her twin tails with force.
"So just what the hell was that thing! Why would such a bizarre thing appear in this world?!"
Expression calm, with unkempt blue hair, Einstein, standing equal with Tesla in Anti-Entropy, was also pondering this problem.
"No Honkai energy, a complete lifeform, not even the structure of a genetic organism, yet seemingly intelligent."
Anti-Entropy also had surveillance set up in Nagazora City. If it were a small target, maybe it would've slipped by, but Godzilla's size practically pierced the skies, if they still hadn't noticed, Einstein would've suspected misuse of the organization's funds was growing more and more alarming.
Even with Einstein's brain, she couldn't figure out how such a creature could appear in reality.
As if the world itself was mocking them. The knowledge these scientists spent their lives pursuing seemed as laughable as an infant before the world.
No, if the world itself was the goal, then their achievements were as weak as a small ant.
A giant beast hundreds of meters tall… with no Honkai energy…
Could it be that Honkai was beginning to develop in this direction?
"Bedhead, have you figured it out yet? Don't tell me you're useless." Tesla smirked at the deeply pondering Einstein.
At the provocation, Einstein merely glanced at her and replied calmly.
"If you believe that, as a scholar, the best response to the unknown is to slack off, then please close your mouth and stop disturbing a true scientist."
"I %\* ... %¥ \*\*!"
Tesla wanted to continue, but the next second Einstein's brand new notebook slapped straight onto her face without mercy.
She knew Tesla wasn't truly ignoring this matter. It was just temporary slacking off after exhausting all ideas.
"Cough! Bedhead!" Tesla glared at Einstein.
"Rather than arguing, I think what we should be doing now is finding our leader." Einstein said flatly.
At those words, the air instantly grew heavy.
"Easy for you to say. That Welt guy, tch." Tesla turned her head in displeasure.