Honkai Impact 3rd, But I'm Ren Amamiya! (Chapter 144-145)

Chapter 144: The Serpent Emerges from the Sea

"If it's possible, of course I'll help. What exactly do you need me to do?"

Ren agreed to Bronya's request without hesitation and immediately asked for the specifics.

Although he had already tamed the Herrscher of Thunder, Shadow Mei, and made her his Persona, Ren was still not entirely familiar with her abilities...

To be more precise, the reason a Persona user might not fully understand their Persona's abilities was that Shadow Mei herself didn't have a particularly deep understanding of her own authority.

All she knew was how to brute-force everything by zapping people with lightning.

Compared to Shadow Mei herself, Cocolia's cronies, who had subjected Raiden Mei to numerous cunning plots, had a much deeper understanding of the miracles the Herrscher of Thunder's authority could perform.

"The Bronya has already had Project Bunny back up the relevant data from Cocolia's lab... While it would be better to conduct the experiment with the help of Mr. Welt and Dr. Tesla, considering the special environment of this impression space, and with your active cooperation using the authority of conquest, Ren, The Bronya believes the current conditions are sufficient for an experimental attempt."

Without the aid of Anti-Entropy's most advanced equipment, the accuracy and success rate of retrieving Seele from the Sea of Quanta would undoubtedly be much lower.

However, the unique environment of the Imaginary Space compensated for this drawback.

Coupled with the living target of Seele's quantum projection, it was possible that an experiment conducted here would have a higher success rate than one in the Anti-Entropy labs.

Taking all the current conditions into account, Bronya believed it was enough to support a trial experiment.

She didn't expect to find Seele, lost in the vast expanse of the Sea of Quanta, in a single attempt.

However, this retrieval experiment, launched from the Imaginary Space into the Sea of Quanta, would surely yield a wealth of invaluable data, laying a solid foundation for future attempts to truly bring Seele back.

The silver-and-blue Project Bunny 19C materialized, glowing with a deep blue light. Streams of data flashed across the virtual screen in front of Bronya.

With the power of the Herrscher of Reason, Bronya and Project Bunny had entered a state of intense, high-powered calculation.

"Coordinate calculation complete. Ren, please use the Herrscher of Thunder Persona and exercise the authority of conquest to strike here, here, and here... these nodes I've marked!"

In a short time, under Seele's tense, silent gaze and Kaslana's faintly rippling, indifferent stare, Bronya finally completed the interference calculations between Kaslana's Stigmata space and the Sea of Quanta.

She materialized two dozen funnels with the authority of the Herrscher of Reason, arranging them in the sky in a seemingly chaotic yet strangely ordered pattern, marking the points to tear space.

"Leave it to me—Persona!!"

This was both Bronya's request and a matter of Seele's true freedom. When they needed his help, Ren would not hold back even an ounce of his power.

The crimson World Arcana instantly dyed a world of silver and blue. The click of a grayish-blue pistol was barely audible.

Jizo Mitama and its replica both entered their enhanced modes.

The corrosive mist of erosion pierced through the crimson lightning that poured from the sky. Four layers of enhancement were bestowed upon the Persona that answered Ren's call.

"Shadow Mei... see those funnels in the sky? Hit them all with your full power!!"

The Persona Shadow Mei appeared in response to Ren's call. Under the fourfold enhancement, she entered her "Trickster God" state.

The crimson horns on her white-haired forehead became even more vibrant.

The giant demonic arms floating behind her no longer carried the Judgment of Shamash tachi but instead held a massive, dark red guitar.

Even her attire changed to a red-and-black, rock-and-roll style performance outfit.

Shadow Mei: Trickster God glanced at Ren and the real Raiden Mei below, clicked her tongue almost inaudibly, and then the purple halo behind her erupted in a brilliant light.

The giant crimson arms strummed the strings of the scarlet guitar, and the sound of thunder resounded.

Demonic crimson lightning crashed down from the sky, splitting into two dozen thick bolts in an instant.

The crimson lightning, spreading like the branches of a giant tree, struck Bronya's funnels fixed in the sky with zero time lag, piercing and tearing through both the coordinate-marking funnels and space itself!!

"Get ready. Something's coming."

The space of the Kaslana's Palace was torn open by the crimson lightning, the rifts overlapping and merging into a massive hole. A deep and dangerous aura emanated from the faintly blue, glowing spatial cave.

The moment the spatial cave formed, Kaslana, who had been watching with her arms crossed, suddenly spoke up, alerting Ren and the others.

"Shadows from the Sea of Quanta, pulled through with the opening? I was expecting something like this."

Faint blue ripples spread across the surface of the spatial cave.

One after another, quantum shadows fell out of the opening like dumplings from a pot, invading the Kaslana's Palace on the Imaginary Tree through the connecting passage.

Ren was not the least bit surprised by the swarm of quantum shadows.

The Persona Shadow Mei: Trickster God continued to strum her scarlet guitar, playing an intense, rhythmic rock song.

The lightning of judgment that shot from the giant guitar strings tore apart all the attacking shadows with equal prejudice, holding back the entire vast army of quantum shadows in mid-air, not letting a single one touch the ground of the Kaslana's Palace.

"How is it, Bronya? Have you found Seele's location?"

Letting Shadow Mei: Trickster God play her lightning song high in the sky, annihilating all the quantum shadows invading from the other side of space, Ren turned to his side and asked Bronya, who was still frantically processing information, her fair forehead beaded with sweat.

"The Bronya can't be sure... A life signature fluctuation from Seele was detected on the other side of the spatial cave, but the true distance cannot be calculated. Seele, can you see this spatial passage torn open by the lightning in the Sea of Quanta?"

Bronya's brow furrowed, and she bit her silver lip in frustration. Her fingertips danced across the virtual screen in front of her, her silver-gray eyes reflecting the constantly refreshing stream of data, her pretty brow remaining tightly locked.

A task that should have been handled by a professional team was now being undertaken by Bronya alone.

The pressure she was under was immense. Even with her experience exploring the Imaginary Space, the chaotic and disordered nature of the Sea of Quanta still presented great difficulty in processing the unknown information stream.

With the quantum projection as a reference model for the real-world coordinates right beside her, even if she couldn't fully parse the unknown information stream she was receiving, Bronya could indirectly calculate and adjust the data errors of the real-world coordinate model through Seele's responses, thus obtaining more accurate experimental data each time.

"No, Seele can't feel it... The spatial cave that Big Brother Ren and Bronya-Oneechan opened seems to be very far away from Seele..."

Seele closed her eyes, trying to concentrate on her main body still drifting in the Sea of Quanta, doing her best to sense everything around her.

The booming sound of thunder continued to echo, but upon closer listening, the intense sound was being received entirely by her quantum projection in the Kaslana's Palace.

Her main body in the Sea of Quanta could only hear the usual sound of [flowing water]. There was nothing else.

【There's really no sound. Not just you and Seele, but even the native shadows, which are more sensitive than the quantum neighbors, are showing no signs of disturbance. If this spatial cave was opened near Seele, these native shadows wouldn't be able to stay still. They would have already swarmed through the spatial singularity into the Kaslana's Palace like cockroaches.】

Veliona's voice echoed in the minds of both Ren and Seele simultaneously. She enveloped Seele with the power of the Stigmata, creating an ark for her to navigate the Sea of Quanta.

While her own supreme psychic power might slightly interfere with Seele's perception, it couldn't affect her own.

Thus, she could be absolutely certain that Bronya's coordinate model for locating Seele was flawed.

Although Seele's quantum projection was used as the coordinate source, when it came to actually opening a transport channel in the Sea of Quanta, Bronya, who was not very familiar with its detailed parameters, had made a slight error, causing the transport channel to open far from Seele's main body.

"Don't be discouraged, Bronya. This is just the first attempt. With the experience from this failure, I'm sure you'll be able to pinpoint Seele's coordinates in the Sea of Quanta more accurately next time," Raiden Mei said gently, comforting Bronya, who had a faint look of frustration on her face and was even biting her lower lip due to the failed experiment.

However, before Bronya could respond to Mei's comforting words, Hare, standing on Ren's other side, suddenly turned serious.

Her purple-blue eyes stared intently at the spatial cave, as if she had seen something incredible through the rippling blue waves.

"Watch out, Ren! A very strong Honkai energy signature is approaching fast! It's about to reach the area of the spatial cave!"

Bronya had been completely engrossed in checking and correcting the spatial coordinates.

It wasn't until Hare's serious warning to Ren that she finally noticed the rapidly approaching, massive Honkai threat in the Sea of Quanta.

"It's indeed a massive Honkai energy signature... Completely different from the enemies we've encountered before. The Honkai energy reaction from this shadow, even with a rough calculation, is fluctuating between three to five times that of a complete Herrscher!!"

Pausing her work on the spatial coordinates, Bronya turned her attention to the rapidly approaching, powerful shadow. Her eyes widened in astonishment at the ridiculously high Honkai energy fluctuations detected by Project Bunny.

"There's such a terrifying monster lurking in the Sea of Quanta?! And we just happened to attract it with the spatial cave we opened..."

Realizing the strength of the shadow attracted by the spatial cave, Bronya first took a sharp breath, then instantly broke out in a cold sweat.

Thankfully, she was with Ren.

Thankfully, only Ren could fully master the authority to tear space.

Even if that shadow did cross the spatial cave and successfully invade the Imaginary Space from the Sea of Quanta, with Ren, the strongest Persona user, present, it couldn't cause too much trouble.

If Cocolia had gone ahead with her original plan, even if she had the support of the radical faction of Anti-Entropy and had managed to seize the authority of the Herrscher of Thunder, they would have had no way to deal with the powerful shadows invading the real world from the Sea of Quanta...

Even with the powerful shadow about to cross the spatial cave now, even if they mobilized the entire Anti-Entropy and boosted Welt Yang's power back to his peak, it would probably be difficult to defeat this unknown shadow. The best-case scenario would be mutual destruction.

Bronya didn't even know where this unknown, powerful shadow ranked in the hierarchy of the Sea of Quanta.

If shadows of this intensity were scattered like landmines at every node in the Sea of Quanta, just waiting for someone to come along and detonate them... The thought gave Bronya a splitting headache.

"A shadow of this intensity must be a Emperor-class existence even in the Sea of Quanta. They can't be common, or else Seele probably wouldn't have survived until now... Seele, what's wrong?!"

Bronya subconsciously glanced at Seele, and her pupils suddenly dilated, a look of horror appearing on her delicate face.

The reason was Seele's extremely strange state.

Her slender, delicate body was distorting like a projection with a bad signal, filled with a sense of impending collapse.

Even her facial features and body were blurred almost beyond recognition, her whole form transformed into a teal-blue, humanoid shadow.

Finally, in the span of a single breath, before Bronya could do anything, Seele's constantly changing and disintegrating figure completely disappeared before her stunned eyes!!

Chapter 145: Welcome Back, Seele!

"Don't panic, Bronya! Seele's fine... In fact, not only is she fine, she's rapidly approaching the spatial corridor we opened!"

Ren keenly sensed Bronya's panic and called out to her in a steady voice, successfully snapping her out of her daze.

Even though Seele's quantum projection had suddenly dissipated, as Veliona's Persona user, Ren's connection with Seele was not broken.

The moment Seele's image dissolved into a deep blue light, Ren learned from Veliona what was happening to her.

"The shadow that's rushing towards the spatial cave has extremely powerful senses. It was able to detect the anomaly caused by the tearing of space in the Sea of Quanta from a great distance. Seele just happened to be in its vicinity and was caught in the current stirred up by the shadow when it burst into extreme speed. She's now being forced to hitch a ride, following behind the shadow towards the spatial cave."

After Ren relayed the information he had received from Veliona through their mental link, Bronya was visibly relieved. She quickly returned to her serious state, fully focused on analyzing the data.

"A suspected energy signature of Seele has indeed been captured behind that shadow... However, besides Seele, there are thousands of other shadow signatures of varying strengths that were also swept up by the powerful shadow's momentum. Everyone, get ready to receive Seele and to fight!!"

With the information from Ren, Bronya gathered all her concentration.

In the blink of an eye, she had captured Seele's main body's signal in the Sea of Quanta and discovered a large number of shadow signatures that had been swept into the quantum current along with Seele, now speeding towards the rift.

Bronya took a deep breath, her head held high with fighting spirit, her silver-gray eyes burning with an unquenchable flame of conviction.

She had thought this experiment would end in failure and had already begun to think about how to close the spatial corridor.

She never expected this turn of events to be a blessing in disguise. Because of the powerful shadow attracted by the corridor, Seele's main body, which had previously been unable to sense its location, was now chasing after the exit along with the rhythm of the Sea of Quanta.

The hope of a real reunion with Seele was within reach. Bronya glanced gratefully at Ren's back, her heart filled with understanding.

"Here it comes!"

Ren paid no mind to Bronya's gaze. He was fully focused on the spatial corridor, which was now rippling violently, ready for battle.

What truly made Ren on high alert was not the mysterious shadow with a strength roughly estimated to be three to five times that of a complete Herrscher, but Seele, who had been swept into the current it had created and was about to emerge from the corridor with it.

Because of Seele's presence, Ren's hands were tied. He couldn't go all out against the emerging mysterious shadow as he usually would, giving it a devastating opening blow.

A violent gale pierced through the rippling spatial waves, which were like boiling water, sweeping the crimson sand of Kaslana's Palace into the sky and creating a sandstorm of epic proportions. Ren did not act rashly.

He simply stood firm in the storm, calmly watching the dark-colored giant serpent that had just slithered out of the spatial corridor.

"Shadow Mei, lure that serpent shadow away from the front of the spatial cave!!"

The moment the colossal, sky-piercing black serpent shadow emerged from the spatial corridor, Ren swung his right arm and gave the command to Shadow Mei hovering above him.

The crimson lightning demon moved swiftly. Crimson musical notes composed of thunderbolts charged at the black serpent shadow from all directions, producing a dull roar upon impact with its massive, thick body.

Although the attack successfully hit the black serpent shadow, Shadow Mei frowned slightly.

As part of the tactical plan to lure the enemy away, and to prevent the black serpent shadow from going on a rampage in front of the spatial corridor due to excessive injury and potentially harming Seele, who was about to pass through, Shadow Mei did not use her full power.

But even so, the black serpent shadow's reaction was far too calm, as if it didn't even care about her herding attacks.

The black serpent shadow was shrouded in a thick black smoke. At a glance, one could only make out its rough, sky-piercing serpentine form and a pair of enormous, scarlet, vertical pupils.

Shadow Mei's gaze could not penetrate the black smoke surrounding the shadow, making it impossible for her to assess its injuries and adjust the strength of her subsequent attacks.

So, Shadow Mei could only fire crimson lightning bolts of varying strengths. Her slender figure darted through the sky around the black serpent shadow.

Fortunately, she finally succeeded in attracting its attention, luring the terrifying serpent shadow away from the spatial cave connecting the Sea of Quanta and Kaslana's Palace.

"I'm leaving Seele's reception to you, Bronya!"

Ren instructed Bronya beside him, then directed his Persona, Shadow Mei, to drive the black serpent shadow coiled in the sky away from the area.

The shadows that had been swept into the current along with Seele were not strong. Most of them were small fry. The few stronger ones could be easily handled by Hare and Raiden Mei.

Therefore, Ren focused all his attention on this mysterious and powerful black serpent shadow.

Putting aside its strength for a moment, just its giant serpent form was giving Ren a bit of PTSD, forcing him to take it seriously.

"You can count on me, Ren!"

Bronya nodded seriously at Ren's back, making a promise. Then, she eagerly looked up at the spatial corridor, from which numerous shadows were still falling.

After a few breaths, under Bronya's joyful gaze, a dark red sphere with a familiar energy signature spewed out from the spatial corridor. The dark red sphere bounced off the other falling shadows, accelerating its descent.

During its fall, the dark red sphere trailed a long tail of flame, as if it were a melting snowball. The circular space, the size of a single room, gradually shrank and eventually disappeared, leaving only a delicate young girl in a sea-blue one-piece dress, landing lightly from the sky.

A cerulean scythe flashed, slicing the quantum shadow that lunged at her in two. Seele, like a blue butterfly in a dream, landed gracefully and lightly on the ground, for the first time truly setting foot on the familiar crimson desert of this Kaslana Palace.

"Big Brother Ren, Bronya-Oneechan, Seele is back!!"

Looking at Ren's back, who had lured the black serpent shadow away from the spatial corridor and was still fighting it, Seele's azure eyes overflowed with a watery tenderness.

Even though she knew Ren, who was in the middle of a battle, couldn't hear her, she first smiled gently in his direction before turning her gaze to her Bronya-Oneechan, who was quickly approaching.

"Seele, welcome back!!"

Bronya drew close to Seele, her silver-gray eyes glistening with moisture. A gentle smile appeared on her flawless, delicate face.

She tightly held the hands of the long-lost Seele, completely ignoring the fact that Seele had greeted Ren first.

"Welcome back, Seele... But let's save the pleasantries for later. We need to eliminate these shadows that have invaded Kaslana's Palace as quickly as possible and then go help Ren."

Raiden Mei looked up at the sky.

The spatial corridor torn open by the conquering lightning had shrunk considerably compared to before, but the influx of shadows from the Sea of Quanta showed no signs of slowing down.

In fact, due to the current stirred up by the black serpent shadow, it was becoming even more intense.

"There's no need for that trouble. According to Ren, this Palace is our 'safe house'. We Phantom Thieves are not fighting alone here..."

Hare waved the banner in her hand, and thousands of purple banners shot out, piercing through the attacking shadows.

Her blue-purple eyes then settled on Kaslana, who was standing there as if disconnected, becoming increasingly silent.

"This is Kaslana's Palace. It would be more convenient for the master of this Palace to deal with these uninvited, unwelcome guests."

"...Indeed. Leave the spatial corridor to me. You go support Ren."

Kaslana's response was a beat late, but she quickly returned to her usual self. As the Palace Ruler, her authority was activated.

The spatial corridor in the sky, which was already shrinking, now began to close at a visible rate under her deliberate repair.

Small Honkai beasts and imaginary skeletons materialized in Kaslana's Palace. Summoned by the Palace Ruler, they bypassed the members of the Phantom Thieves and met the intruders from the Sea of Quanta head-on.

With their overwhelming numbers, they intercepted and suppressed the quantum creatures that Hare and the others couldn't handle all at once.

"Thank you for your help, Kaslana!"

Seeing Kaslana single-handedly hold back all the shadows pouring out of the spatial corridor, Raiden Mei let out a sigh of relief.

After thanking Kaslana, she eagerly turned around, rode her Persona, and chased after Ren's battlefield. Hare and Bronya followed close behind.

"Shadow Mei, this is far enough! Full power, Megidolaon!!"

Ren stopped in his tracks, no longer intending to hold back. He gave the command to his Persona, Shadow Mei, to unleash her full power.

"I've had enough of this! Damn crawler, how dare you look down on a divine apostle! Fall, and grovel pathetically on the ground! Feel your own powerlessness and insignificance as you gaze upon the glory of a god!!"

Receiving Ren's permission to go all out, a cruel, cold smile appeared on Shadow Mei's face.

The giant crimson lightning demon floating behind her no longer played the guitar but held it in its palm like a tachi, and swung the massive guitar, which was wrapped in a deep, demonic, living lightning, at the black serpent shadow's body.

The sounds of strings and thunder vibrated together. Incessant crimson lightning crashed down from all directions, completely enveloping the black serpent shadow in a scene of apocalyptic divine punishment.

Relentless crimson lightning struck the black serpent shadow's body. To Shadow Mei's satisfaction, her lightning attack finally had a significant effect on the black serpent shadow.

The black smoke surrounding the black serpent was dispersed by the crimson lightning arcs, revealing the true form of the giant serpent shadow beneath.

The dark blue scales reflected a cold, deep light. Sharp, white keratin layers, like daggers, covered its entire body, displaying its flawless offensive capability to any onlooker. Shadow Mei's joyful expression froze slightly.

The crimson lightning attack unleashed by the Persona Shadow Mei: Trickster God had only managed to disperse the black smoke hiding the black serpent shadow's true form.

It had only left some scorched or cracked marks on its scales... She hadn't been able to penetrate the defense of the cold scales and truly harm the flesh of this mysterious giant serpent shadow!!

Even more ridiculously, the cracks on the mysterious giant serpent shadow's scales were healing at a visible rate. In the blink of an eye, the damage caused by Shadow Mei: Trickster God had completely disappeared.

"Don't be discouraged. Maybe this guy just has high lightning resistance. In any case, thank you for your hard work. Come back for now, Shadow Mei."

Ren comforted the audibly gritting Shadow Mei and recalled the very unwilling Persona back to his heart.

Then, Ren pointed the faintly glowing cerulean Key of the Void at his temple, his gaze meeting that of the dark blue giant serpent shadow coiled in the sky.

In those massive, scarlet, vertical pupils, there was none of the violence and cruelty Ren had expected. Instead, they were filled with a familiar sense of indifference and detachment, as if it were separate from the world.

Standing on the battlefield, facing an unusually strong enemy, Ren had no time to ponder the source of this sense of déjà vu. He suppressed the thought and pulled the trigger of the Key of the Void.

"Persona—"

To be able to withstand Shadow Mei: Trickster God's full-power bombardment without taking damage, this was no ordinary shadow. He had to hit it hard!!

"I'll leave the rest to you, Raoul!!"

Ren summoned his strongest Persona without hesitation.

Cerulean spatial fragments shattered like glass.

A crimson-black storm suddenly rose from behind Ren. When the storm subsided, his main Persona, Raoul, with his black-and-gold mechanical bat wings and white-and-red gentleman's hat, appeared, exuding a deep, oppressive, and terrifying aura.

Looking at the Persona Raoul that had appeared in the void behind Ren, the dark blue giant serpent shadow's perpetually indifferent scarlet vertical pupils finally began to look serious.

Its massive serpentine body, which had been relaxed in the sky, now slowly tensed and rose up.