Chapter 209: End of Civilization
In the brightly lit room, Irene sat beside a row of cultivation pods, watching the forms slowly taking shape inside them. "Flame-Chasers, huh," she murmured, chin resting in her hand. "Cloning their bodies really is no small feat."
Feathers drifted continuously from the wings at her back, tiny wisps of white curling into the pods one by one, fine-tuning the conditions within.
MANTIS physiques weren't easy to replicate — least of all this particular group, who had undergone the original MANTIS surgeries. The fact that those had ever succeeded at all was practically a miracle in itself.
Cloning them now was an even taller order. It was all too easy for the Honkai Beast genes to overwhelm the human component, producing not a MANTIS soldier but a full-blooded Honkai Beast instead.
Frankly, not even Mobius had data on where exactly that line fell. It was pure trial and error.
Of the current batch, the slowest-progressing pod was Elysia's. Her situation was the most complicated — she was a natural-born Herrscher on top of carrying Honkai Beast genes.
Fortunately, complicated didn't mean dangerous. Nothing had gone wrong so far, probably because Elysia's nature as a natural-born Herrscher was simply too strong for the Beast genes to suppress.
Even so, her clone was coming along slowly. The smoothest of the lot, on the other hand, was Pardo's — likely her Super Luck at work, because that pod hadn't caused a single hiccup.
[Can I go outside too?] Pardo poked her head out at that moment. [I noticed Irene-nee made two sets.]
"Well, you can't all just live in my head forever, can you." Irene smiled. "Remember what my ability is? Logic of Continuation."
"I've been wondering for a while what that ability truly means at its core. But..." Irene gazed at the pods before her. "I think, if this actually works — I can give you all a new life."
"Feel your own heartbeat in your own chest, without borrowing my body. Isn't that worth something?"
[Thank you, Irene-nee.] Pardo nodded immediately, though she did wonder — once her soul was no longer housed inside Irene, would she still be able to use Quantization?
But even if she lost that skill, Pardo had no regrets. It had never really helped her all that much — if anything it was more of a liability — though her Super Luck had always kept the worst of it at bay.
[Hey, Irene, can you do me a favor?] Elysia surfaced at that moment, peering at her own slowly-forming body. [Shave a little off the weight for me, would you?]
[My figure is perfect in every way, but — you know. That one thing.]
"Sure, no problem." Irene nodded with apparent cheer. "In that case, let's round it off at sixty kilograms."
Irene immediately felt something knock the mental projection of herself inside her Palace of Consciousness upside the head, followed by Elysia's voice.
[No rounding up. If anything, you round down — it should be fifty.]
"Oh, well, round it again then — let's go straight to a hundred—"
Irene didn't get to finish the sentence before a solid thwack landed on her head — Elysia, from inside the Palace of Consciousness, had apparently done something to her mental projection.
[I actually think Irene had a point.] Mobius chose this moment to join in, clearly sparing no effort when it came to dunking on Elysia.
Or perhaps she was just in an exceptionally good mood, given that she was about to get a new body.
[Oh, Dr. Mobius, not you too.]
Listening to the commotion in her head, Irene let out a quiet laugh. Then Pardo spoke up again: [By the way, Irene-nee — once my soul isn't in you anymore, will you still be able to transform into me?]
"Guess we'll find out when we get there." Irene shrugged.
Just then, the door to the cultivation room swung open, and Kiana crept in with all the subtlety of someone who absolutely had a guilty conscience.
"Hm, what's up?" Irene turned to look at her. "Did Mei catch you sneaking snacks again?"
"That's not it." Kiana shook her head firmly. "I just wanted to come see Mom. We barely got to talk last time, and I have questions for her too."
"Oh, that's fine." Irene glanced at the pods, confirmed nothing needed attention, and then held her hand out toward Kiana.
"Here — I'll guide you in."
— Palace of Consciousness —
Kiana and Sirin opened their eyes to find themselves standing in Irene's mental realm. What greeted them first was a blur of pink and green tumbling past at high speed.
Wait — what had they just seen? Kiana and Sirin followed the motion with their eyes and watched Elysia, brandishing a little pink dress, chasing Mobius across the room.
"Come on, Professor Mobius, just try it on~ I promise it'll look adorable."
"Get lost." Mobius ran without looking back. There was no universe in which she was letting Elysia wrestle her into that frilly thing, especially not in front of an audience.
"Don't be like that~ it'll look so cute~"
Eden looked up from what she was doing and smiled with gentle exasperation in the direction of the chaos. "It seems Elysia and Mobius are both in fine spirits."
"Frenemies is the word, I think." [Irene] glanced up briefly as well before returning her attention to the design drafts spread before her.
She was working on new Herrscher outfits for her dear one. And — while she was at it — one for herself too, because when Griseo had drawn them, she'd drawn two sets, hadn't she? So it was only fair.
"Frenemies — yes, that fits perfectly." Eden nodded in agreement. Mobius complained about Elysia constantly, yet had never once put a dedicated lock on her lab door to keep her out. And Elysia teased Mobius endlessly but had never seen Mobius actually reach for a knife. Perhaps that was exactly what Irene meant by frenemies.
With a small smile, Eden turned her attention back to the designs before her. As the finest fashion designer the Previous Era had to offer, she had created the outfits for nearly all Thirteen Flame-Chasers. Coming back to the craft felt like reclaiming something she thought was gone.
Pity she had lost all her finest gemstones. She had half a mind to set a few into Irene's outfit, but — well, that was a problem for another day. She was, frankly, broke. An entirely novel experience.
Meanwhile, Irene took one look at the Mobius-and-Elysia situation, shrugged, and let it go. They'd sort themselves out soon enough — if only because she had already spotted Little Corruption creeping toward them from across the room, almost certainly about to assist Elysia in forcing the dress onto Mobius.
"Irene-nee's place sure is... lively."
"Well, everyone here has quite the personality." Irene glanced around. "Oh — there she is, over there." She pointed, and Kiana and Sirin immediately took off at a trot.
Irene followed behind them with a smile. Watching the three of them tumble into each other's arms, a warmth spread across her face — a full-on auntie smile. Yes. That was exactly right.
Hmm, should she invite Theresa over too? Four people in one embrace — now that was a picture.
Right, no time to waste.
Irene blinked back into reality, pulled out her phone, and sent Theresa a message.
[Knock knock, you there?]
Theresa didn't keep her waiting long.
[Here, what's up? I'm kind of busy.] Theresa typed back with one hand, the other holding a volume of Homu comics.
[Busy doing what, exactly. But fine — if you're busy, never mind. I was just going to mention that Kiana's here with me right now, meeting Cecilia. Since you're busy, I won't bother you.]
[Wait. I'm not busy anymore. On my way — where are you?] The moment she saw Cecilia's name, Theresa set her Homu comics aside.
[In the cultivation room. Still tending to everyone's bodies.]
[Got it. Be right there.]
Irene smiled at her phone, pocketed it, closed her eyes, and slipped back into the Palace of Consciousness.
The moment she returned, she found Cecilia with her arms around both Kiana and Sirin. Irene took in the scene and smiled.
"I called Theresa over too. Couldn't very well leave her out."
"Ah, but I'm already out of arms." Cecilia held on to Kiana and Sirin. "There won't be room when she gets here."
"That's your problem to figure out." Irene laughed. "Oh, right — Kiana, there's something you should know too. You'll find out eventually anyway."
"What is it?" Kiana lifted her head to look at Irene.
"It's about the real Kiana — her current situation." Irene held Kiana's gaze. "She's not dead."
"She's not dead?!" Kiana shot upright out of Cecilia's arms, staring at Irene with wide eyes. "But — I remember—"
"That's right." Irene nodded. "Luck, probably, combined with something extraordinary about her. She didn't die — she fell into the snowfield and was buried under the snow. The Valkyrie squad at the time was actually conscientious enough to go looking for her and found her."
"The only side effect was that her hair turned gold." Irene said it with a hint of a knowing smile, letting her gaze drift toward Kiana. "I imagine that rings a bell."
"Gold hair? That rings a bell." Kiana blinked — and then suddenly remembered a figure she had seen recently: sweeping gold hair, a long lance held at her side, a bearing that crackled with presence. And the inexplicable sense of déjà vu she'd felt just a few days ago.
"Hold on. No way."
"That's right." Irene drew the words out with evident relish. "She goes by Bianca Atazhina now. Or, as you might know her~" Irene let the pause stretch. "Durandal~"
"DURANDAL IS MY SISTER?!" x2
"Okay, what are you jumping in for, Sirin — if we're counting by actual age, you're older than Durandal, aren't you?"
"So? Can't I be excited too?"
"Fine, fine, jump in all you want." Irene looked at Sirin with mild exasperation. Whatever — the question of how they sorted out their family hierarchy was entirely their business.
The generational math was already a mess anyway. So let them work it out however they liked. If Sirin wanted to call Durandal her big sister, so be it — because at the end of the day, Sirin as she was now was the same age as Kiana. Which meant calling Durandal older sister wasn't wrong at all.
"So my feeling a few days ago was right." Kiana tapped her chin thoughtfully. "I kept thinking Durandal looked so much like Mom."
"I just couldn't place the name at the time. Didn't even make the connection."
"Well, she is mother and daughter — looking alike makes sense." Irene shrugged. "Theresa doesn't know about this yet, by the way."
"I'll tell her myself." Cecilia smiled at Irene. "But — if it's possible, Miss Irene..."
"If there's an opportunity, I'll make it happen." Irene nodded. If the chance came, she absolutely intended to bring Durandal over — though right now wasn't the time.
And honestly, it wasn't something she even needed to arrange herself. Kevin would handle it. Knowing him, he had probably already clocked the family resemblance and was already planning to throw Durandal into the Stigmata Space for some tempering.
That man's eye for these things was frightening. And time was running short — Kevin wanted everyone's power to grow, and he wasn't going to hold back from anyone.
Even if Kevin hadn't noticed yet, it didn't matter. She could nudge him — and while she was at it, use the opportunity to pull Siegfried out as well.
Kevin would never let Siegfried out on his own initiative — the whole point of putting him in there was to forge him. But if Durandal brought him out herself, Kevin wouldn't object.
Two birds, one stone. Why not.
Oh, right — now that she thought about it, Irene suddenly remembered that she had apparently completed another quest. Time to give herself a small upgrade.
She wondered what it would be this time — a new skill, or a new companion? If it was a new companion, then...
Irene looked at the ever-growing crowd in her Palace of Consciousness and sighed quietly. The headcount just kept going up.
[Fallen Ice]
[Description: Successfully resolved the Herrscher of Ice and Rock incident (Completed)]
[Reward: End of Civilization · MEI]
The card fell into her hands — and on it: MEI, standing on a barren and ravaged earth, her back to a field of countless graves, her gaze hollow and vacant as though the light behind her eyes had already gone out.
Irene's eyes went wide.
"Elysia — stop playing around. I just pulled something massive over here!" Irene immediately called out to Elysia, who was currently colluding with Little Corruption to wrestle a dress onto Mobius.
"Hm? What? What is it?" Elysia swung her gaze over, eyes bright with curiosity. "What happened? Why so urgent?"
"I pulled MEI!"
At those words, almost every head in the room lifted at the exact same moment, all eyes locking onto the card in Irene's hand. Elysia moved so fast she might as well have teleported, appearing behind Irene and peering over her shoulder at the card.
"Irene — this is... a MEI from another world?" Elysia stared at the image, her voice quieter now. The figure before her was almost unrecognizable from the person she had known.
The white lab coat that had always draped around her — now caked with dust, as though it had never been clean. Her hands, once pristine, streaked with grime.
And behind her: an uncountable number of graves. The crosses marking them were rough-hewn, clearly thrown together from whatever materials had been lying around — different in shape, different in material, uniform only in their grief.
Every trace of the poised, composed intellect Elysia remembered was gone. In its place, only a faint and pervasive aura of death — as though the woman standing there had already died long ago, and only her body remained, upright out of habit.
And behind MEI — Elysia's gaze found it. A gravestone, with a shattered Judgment of Shamash driven into the earth above it.
"This is... the End of Civilization..."
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