The aftershock of the explosion slowly dissipated in the sky, leaving behind only a faint rainbow.
The rainbow swayed gently overhead, affecting no one at all, as if adding a bright stroke of color to the dull lives of the crowd below.
The panic among New York's citizens lasted only for a fleeting moment. When nothing further happened, they returned to their orderly routines as though nothing had ever occurred.
Shielding her face with her arm, Edison slowly opened her eyes. The blaze had vanished, replaced by a stretch of brilliantly colored clouds.
Standing in the middle of those radiant clouds, Edison muttered blankly, "Is this... the world after death? Am I dead...?"
Watching the train glide slowly across the clouds, she pinched her cheek in a daze...
It did not hurt at all...
Ah, right. Because of the Interferometer, she could no longer feel pain. Nor could she pass into any afterlife.
"This cloudburst firework turned out pretty well, don't you think?" Magician Vill-V beamed at the stunned expression of her audience and spoke smugly. "I spent quite a while perfecting a formula that looks gorgeous, has no irritating odor, and doesn't hurt anyone. Even the method of igniting it with autocannon fire took some thought."
In truth, the Honkai energy within the cluster sphere had vanished the instant before Vill-V opened fire, as if it had never existed at all. Not a single trace remained.
The Cosmic Juggernaut's method of absorbing Honkai energy was brutally direct—it communicated with the Imaginary Tree without blind spots and absorbed the target Honkai energy on the spot, annihilating it entirely without the slightest leakage.
What replaced the Honkai energy cluster sphere was merely Magician's firework primer shell. Everything that followed was part of her grand firework performance. Even the so-called Clamor Armament Model-5 she brandished was loaded with nothing but colorful cloud-firework charges.
Vill-V adjusted her conductor's cap, which had been blown askew by the wind, and glanced at the instrument panel before nodding in satisfaction.
"Not bad. Two thousand HW. A little less than I expected, but it will do. If I remember correctly, the Honkai Reactor was the prototype for the Moonlight Throne. I thought its Honkai output would exceed three thousand HW."
Although the Cosmic Juggernaut could still use its authority, something seemed to have gone wrong with drawing Honkai energy from Imaginary Space. So Vill-V had been forced to absorb Honkai energy from this world for temporary use.
Even though two thousand HW was only comparable to a single strike from Wendy of the Current Era, as long as she was not clashing head-on with absurd figures like Welt, Otto, or Hua, the Cosmic Juggernaut's standard energy consumption would suffice.
Still seated on the floor, Edison had yet to fully process what had happened. She looked at Vill-V and asked, "It's resolved... really resolved?"
"Mm, resolved. I told you—it was a small matter."
Clatter—
Vill-V shut the carriage door and plopped down into the driver's seat, pulling the whistle cord to prepare for departure once more.
Holding a rolled-up paper tube, she announced in a deliberately high-pitched voice, "Passengers, please return to your sofas. The train is about to initiate a jump. Kindly prepare yourselves."
Edison looked around. Aside from the driver's seat, there was not even a wooden bench in the carriage—let alone a sofa.
Fine. Whatever the case, from the result alone, this mysterious conductor did not deceive me. She truly resolved the crisis.
Swaying unsteadily to her feet, Edison leaned weakly against the wall and asked in a detached tone, "Conductor, where are you taking me? To hell?"
She had already accepted the possibility of paying any price. Even if the conductor before her was a devil in disguise.
From the mere ability to open space itself, it was clear that the means this conductor wielded were beyond modern humanity. She was very likely a messenger sent by some higher-dimensional existence.
Perhaps that higher-dimensional being was unwilling to let its experimental subject die and had sent her to retrieve her.
What awaited her afterward might simply be dissection and research.
"Huh? Hell isn't a popular destination, miss."
Vill-V turned back toward Edison with a smile lingering at the corner of her eyes.
Yet it seemed Edison still did not trust her. She kept her head slightly tilted, secretly observing Vill-V, as if weighing something in her mind.
Did this Miss Nancy truly want to visit hell that badly?
Under that scrutinizing gaze, Vill-V's eyes shifted slightly. She tugged down the brim of her conductor's cap.
"Well, if you insist on taking a little trip to hell, I suppose it's not impossible."
Rumble—
In the span of a few words, the train seemed to have reached its station.
Vill-V sprang from the driver's seat once more and yanked open the antique carriage door with a flourish.
"Before that, someone is waiting for you. Why not go see them first... and then decide?"
Edison stood and stared blankly outside the door.
Tesla and Einstein were there.
"Tesla—"
She had never expected to see them again. Tears nearly surged from her eyes.
Is this a final, tender dream before death? If it is... then please, do not let me wake.
When Tesla saw Edison's disheveled state, she was so startled that she slammed on the brakes. Amid the sharp screech of tires against asphalt, the sports car skidded to a halt on the roadside desert.
Tesla's brand-new Rolls-Royce suffered a blown tire from her violent maneuver, but Dr. Tesla did not care in the slightest.
After all, it had been a gift from Schrödinger and that stingy old rooster.
"T-T-T-You... ah, as long as you're fine..."
Dr. Tesla had not expected Vill-V to move so quickly. She had not even prepared a proper farewell, and the tear streaks on her face had yet to dry when Vill-V returned with Edison.
"Mentor Tesla, I'm back—and I even brought you a souvenir. Fresh off the production line: a brand-new machine girl~"
Vill-V took Edison's hand and led her out of the train.
After being deeply modified by an eleven-dimensional existence, much of Edison's body was no longer human. The substances composing her might not even exist anywhere on Earth.
When she had been holding the Honkai Reactor aloft in the sky earlier, she had been crackling with electricity. Now she looked as though her power had been completely drained—the "light bulbs" embedded across her body no longer glowed.
Vill-V, however, was even more surprised than Dr. Tesla.
She was surprised that Reanna still sat intact in the vehicle. That scoundrel Otto had not yet taken over Reanna's soulium body to stab anyone.
In the original storyline, at this point Otto should have been unable to restrain himself. He would have seized control of Reanna's soulium body, only to be cursed out by Joyce as a "bastard."
According to the Conductor's original plan, once Otto saw the fireworks in the sky and believed victory was assured, he would choose to wipe out the remaining rebels in one fell swoop and seize from Dr. Einstein the "final soulium"—the Ninth Divine Key, Star of Eden.
In the Anti-Entropy visual novel, that scoundrel Otto would even mock them to their faces, spouting lines like, "This body was destined to be mine." Or, "Few enemies are worthy of Otto Apocalypse personally carrying out the execution."
Was that really something the serious Otto would do?
He could not possibly have been trying to stimulate Joyce's ascension—or even facilitate the founding of Anti-Entropy, could he?
It now seemed that this world's Otto was far more patient than she had imagined. He was not nearly as reckless as the Otto in her memories from the Anti-Entropy visual novel.
Or perhaps... Otto now has a different objective. For example... me.