Stelle didn't remember anything right now. Whatever March 7th said, she listened. She had no objections at all.
"Arlan from the Security Department has lost contact nearby. I need to go bring him back," Dan Heng said. "March 7th and Stelle—I'll have to trouble you two to look after them."
He really wanted March to be more cautious about a person with an unknown background, but even if he said it, March definitely wouldn't listen.
Besides, Kiana and Acheron were both here.
After receiving the Astral Express's request for help, they had been willing to reach out despite the danger. Dan Heng still trusted Kiana and the others fairly well.
"Of course. No problem."
Kiana nodded and watched Dan Heng leave first, heading off to search for Arlan.
"Oh, right, Stelle—why don't you take this with you?" March 7th said, pointing at the baseball bat to the side. "The Legion's running around the station like rabid dogs. Miss Kiana and the others are super strong, and I can protect you too, but the way ahead still isn't safe. You'll be safer if you have a weapon for self-defense."
When Stelle heard March 7th say she could bring the baseball bat, her eyes immediately lit up. She picked it up at once.
She weighed it curiously in her hands, then swung it a few times.
The grip felt pretty good.
"That bat really suits you."
Watching Stelle play around with it, Kiana smiled with some emotion. Another generation of protagonists wielding a baseball bat.
She herself hadn't really used one.
Mainly because before she grew up, she had gotten a badge from the system that boosted her unarmed strength. She could deal absurd damage with her bare hands, which was far more cost-effective than carrying a weapon.
And if she wasn't fighting barehanded, she used pistols.
In the badge and Stigmata classifications, baseball bats and swords both belonged to the same category—melee weapons—which didn't suit her.
"Really?"
Hearing the compliment, the newborn ash-gray-haired girl's eyes brightened. She swung the bat a couple more times, harder and with more confidence.
She thought so too!
This bat and her were a perfect match!
"Heh-heh." March 7th let out a polite but slightly awkward laugh. Among all those curios, this was basically the only thing suitable for self-defense.
Whether it really suited her or not…
That wasn't all that important.
"Alright, alright—we should leave here too and go meet up with the others!"
March 7th led Stelle onward. Kiana followed at a comfortable distance behind them, quite interested in their interactions.
Because Kiana was paying so much attention to Stelle, Acheron's gaze also drifted to her, giving Stelle a bit more notice than before.
They hadn't gone far when another wave of Voidrangers came scurrying over.
"Ah! Antimatter Legion! Don't be scared—watch me go beat them up!"
Just as Acheron placed her hand on her sword hilt, ready to finish these enemies with a single strike, Kiana pressed down on her hand.
"Give them a chance to train a little," Kiana said with a smile. These stray mobs were perfect for practice.
"That's right—I can handle it!"
March 7th raised her bow and fired at the Voidrangers. Six-Phased Ice froze the enemies in place, and Stelle gripped the baseball bat in her hands. Thinking of what Kiana had just said, she nodded confidently and charged in.
Even though she remembered nothing—
Even though the bat was something she had casually grabbed from Herta's collection just moments ago—
Stelle wasn't flustered in the slightest.
Like a wolf charging into a flock of sheep, her moves were crisp and decisive. Her combat technique seemed carved into her bones, as if she'd memorized it long ago. Together with March 7th, she easily dealt with the enemies.
"Nice!"
Kiana clapped enthusiastically, without the slightest sense of danger. She looked less like someone fighting through an invasion and more like someone sightseeing.
"Hehe, I'm pretty awesome!" March 7th scratched her head shyly, then looked at Stelle beside her. "Seriously, you can't judge by appearances. I didn't expect you to be this good too."
Stelle copied her and scratched her head.
She didn't know why she could do so much either. She could only chalk it up to having absurd talent!
"Let's go. If we run into more enemies on the way, it'll be up to you two to show off your power."
"No problem! Leave it to us!" March 7th patted her chest. "You two just follow behind us."
Stelle nodded. Honestly, with enemies at this level, she felt like it wouldn't matter even if a few more waves came.
And also—this bat was amazing!
When it came to smashing Voidrangers, it was one swing, one kill.
Clearing out enemies as they went, March 7th led Stelle with confidence until they reached the central elevator in the Atrium.
"Once we take the elevator, we'll get to the Master Control Zone!" March 7th said as soon as she spotted it.
Stelle nodded and stayed close behind her.
Kiana watched as March 7th fiddled with the elevator for a while, then let out a complicated sigh.
"I knew it…"
"It's broken?"
"I didn't do it!" March 7th shouted as if terrified of being misunderstood. "It's definitely the Antimatter Legion's fault!"
"Miss Kiana, do you have a way around this?" March 7th looked at Kiana and the others for help, still muttering, "If Teacher Dan Heng were here, he'd be great… He knows a bunch of weird stuff. Maybe he even knows how to fix elevators."
"An elevator, huh…"
"I don't," Dan Heng said.
He walked out from somewhere.
"It's not broken. It's just that because the space station is being invaded, the elevator's access permissions have been temporarily locked."
As she spoke, Kiana produced a card from thin air. "This works. Mei and I used it to come up earlier."
Even though she wasn't from here and hadn't visited many times, Ruan Mei had still helped her obtain an access card for moving around the station.
"Huh? This looks like an access key. I think I have something similar," March 7th blinked, then suddenly smacked her forehead. She rummaged around and pulled out a keycard. "Asta gave us this when she asked us to help! Oh right—Dan Heng, did you find Arlan from the Security Department?"
"He's in the monitoring room. He's a little injured, but his life isn't in danger," Dan Heng said, taking the keycard from March 7th. "Wait here. I'll go bring him over."
"Be careful on the way," March 7th called after him.
Stelle watched Dan Heng take March 7th's keycard, thoughtful.
He knew where the person was, but he hadn't brought him back.
And he had taken March 7th's keycard.
Was it because he wasn't sure whether he could trust them?
She couldn't figure it out.
Her barely-functional brain couldn't support that much thinking. Stelle turned her curiosity toward Acheron, who remained quiet and spoke very little.
Acheron had that kind of presence where just looking at her made you feel she was incredibly strong. Stelle hadn't seen her make a move, but she was definitely a terrifyingly capable expert.
But that wasn't what Stelle was thinking about.
She quietly moved closer to Acheron and spoke up out of curiosity. "You don't like talking either?"
In their group, Stelle had had almost no interaction with her. And with Stelle's curiosity about everything, of course she wouldn't miss the chance.
Acheron lifted her gaze to Stelle. "?"
A faint hint of confusion lingered in her eyes. Stelle didn't know what she was confused about, and she didn't move, maintaining the posture of someone trying to start a conversation.
"It's just that there's no need to speak," Acheron replied. "I'm not the protagonist today, and besides…"
Before she could finish, Acheron's eyes narrowed slightly. A Voidranger—Trembler suddenly appeared, its target being the group gathered at the elevator.
"Whoa! A big one!" March 7th cried out in surprise. That thing didn't look easy to deal with—it was the troublesome kind.
"I'll do it."
Acheron placed her hand on her sword hilt. Space and time stalled for an instant. In the drained, colorless world, she simply struck once.
Before it could even scream to call in more Voidrangers, that product tempered in the furnace of war turned to ash and scattered into nothingness.
So awesome… I want to learn!
Stelle stared at Acheron with eyes sparkling, watching as she casually used a single move to erase that enemy that had looked so powerful.
Clean.
Decisive.
Cool.
"So awesome!"
March 7th blurted out the praise without thinking. A move that could one-shot an enemy with a single slash was just too cool!
"I want to learn!"
Since March had already said what she was thinking, Stelle immediately said the other thought in her head too, looking at Acheron with an eager expression.
Learn?
The sword had already returned to its scabbard. Hearing Stelle's request, Acheron paused for a moment.
Looking into those eyes, she inexplicably recalled memories from the past—back when she had still been a shrine maiden at the shrine, Kiana had once learned swordsmanship from her.
The same look.
Back then, she had pestered her softly for a long time. Acheron's heart had softened until she had no way to refuse, and in the end she had agreed to teach Kiana the Hokushin Ittō-ryū.
But not long after that, Narakumi was stolen, Almighty Thunder descended, Kami ran rampant, and Kiana strayed farther and farther down the path of punching things with her fists.
"That looks super hard—you can't learn it!" March 7th hurriedly tried to smooth things over, afraid Acheron would be put on the spot.
"It isn't that I'm unwilling to teach you," Acheron shook her head, showing her helplessness. "It's that the slash you saw is, in truth… the power of Nihility."
Even if she was willing to teach it, no one could truly learn it from her.
"Nihility is really scary!"
March 7th pulled Stelle back as if worried the memory-blank Stelle might do something reckless and try to touch Nihility.
Touch Nihility, and you'd end up with nothing.
Not everyone could endure Nihility's erosion and walk this road as far as Acheron had.
"What's Nihility?"
Stelle, with her empty memory, looked at March 7th in confusion. Her eyes were as clean as a newborn child's.
"Nihility is… Nihility," March 7th said. "Anyway, it's a super scary thing. If you accidentally get contaminated by it, you're done for!"
She wanted to explain, but after thinking for a bit, she realized she'd forgotten how the databank described Nihility. She awkwardly thought it would be great if Dan Heng were here.
"Oh."
Stelle nodded blankly and remembered March 7th's words—Nihility was dangerous. Best not to touch it.
But then what was Acheron?
She looked back at Acheron, only to see Kiana beside her smiling at her.
"Not everyone who touches Nihility can be as lucky as Mei," Kiana said to her. "For you, this kind of power is still too early."
Stelle's path should be the route of collecting Paths.
Before Kiana had crossed over, the story had just reached Penacony. Stelle had already stepped onto three Paths—Destruction, Preservation, and Harmony.
Since she would collect all Paths sooner or later, touching the power of Nihility was probably only a matter of time.
Stelle stared at her in a daze.
"That's right, that's right—Miss Kiana's totally right!" March 7th hurried to agree. "You'd better not have such dangerous ideas. Not everyone has that kind of luck."
"Just call me Kiana."
"Really pretty."
That sudden sentence interrupted March 7th before she could continue.
March 7th stared at Stelle in shock as she looked right at Kiana.
She admitted Miss Kiana was indeed very pretty, but… could you look at the situation they were in right now?
Was this really the time to be focusing on that?
Kiana froze for a moment, then smiled even brighter. Her eyes curved as she looked at Stelle. "Thanks. You're really pretty too."
Acheron, who had been quietly listening, suddenly fixed her gaze on the little gray-haired girl.
Noticing the look, Stelle tilted her head in confusion. "What is it?"
"…Nothing."
Acheron studied her for a while, then withdrew her gaze and spoke flatly. But in her heart, she raised Stelle's importance by several levels.
Before long, Dan Heng brought Arlan from the Security Department over. Using the access key, they activated the elevator and successfully left this level.
The Master Control Zone.
Because of the Legion's invasion, the space station was already in chaos. The Legion's foot soldiers could appear anywhere.
The rescue efforts weren't going smoothly.
Outside, the Legion's offensive was still fierce. The atmosphere inside the station was extremely tense.
"Look, she's here."
Seeing Herta's puppet here, Kiana felt a bit surprised. She had thought Herta would simply leave it alone and let Asta and the others handle it.
After exchanging a couple of words with the crew and splitting up, Kiana took the initiative and walked toward Asta, who had come over after hearing Herta's words.
"Didn't you say you wanted to show off a little?"
Herta's puppet folded her arms, lifting her chin slightly as she looked at Kiana. "See? I even set the stage for you."
A huge swath of Legion forces had been blocked outside the defensive line, surrounding the entire station. At a glance, it was still pretty startling.
Like a vast swarm of locusts.
"If we do nothing, the Legion might break through our defenses," Asta said, her voice full of helplessness as she looked to Kiana for help.
Whether it was dealing with the Legion outside, or helping her persuade Miss Herta to calm down, she needed Kiana to make a decision—fast.
"No wonder you're here. So you want to watch me put on a show." Kiana looked through the glass at the situation outside, rubbing her chin. "No problem. Leave all of those guys to me."
"You're planning to deal with the Antimatter Legion by yourself?" Acheron asked. "If you act here… will it trigger a Honkai energy reaction?"
This mass of Antimatter Legion looked frightening, but to Acheron, they weren't particularly troublesome.
For Kiana, it should be the same.
But to wipe out so many enemies, she would have to mobilize a huge amount of Honkai energy. If she used that much at once, would it cause a chain reaction?
"Don't worry, Mei. We've still got Miss Herta right here," Kiana said half-jokingly. "If any chain reaction happens, Miss Herta will help us out, right?"
"That's exactly the effect I want," Herta said through her puppet. "Alright, stop wasting time. Hurry up."
"Fine. I'll end this quickly."
Using the power of spatial transfer, Kiana was inside the station one second—and the next, she was standing right in front of the Antimatter Legion.
Facing that vast sea of Legion troops, Kiana slowly raised an arm. The power of Honkai surged through her.
"This is…"
Ignoring the attacks rushing toward her, Kiana smiled and shamelessly stole someone else's line.
"…Judgment time."
A singularity appeared amid the Antimatter Legion—then expanded, then exploded. Countless lances of light bloomed from it.
War machines were harvested like weeds.
She set off fireworks in the universe.
A massive anti-planet weapon burst out of the explosion, let out a screech, and showed no fear toward her power. Beating its wings, it unleashed a breath attack straight at her.
An invisible barrier blocked the strike.
Just as Kiana was considering whether to casually deal with the Doomsday Beast as well, an intangible gaze seemed to fall upon her.
Kiana narrowed her eyes slightly and met it head-on.
In the instant their gazes crossed, Kiana saw the Aeon of Destruction—Nanook.