"Sigh, Little Herta, oh Little Herta."
After pausing on this Third Emperor interface for a while and thinking it over, Lumina also understood why Herta had become like this.
Iron Tomb's goal was Nous, the Erudition. If Iron Tomb had truly seized Nous, the Erudition's head, then the entire Cosmos would be all but destroyed.
After all, at that point, Iron Tomb's strength would likely become the strongest combat power below the Aeons.
It would absolutely lead to a wave of slaughter and misery, since the Aeons do not concern themselves with such matters.
If Lumina could figure this out, Herta could naturally figure it out as well.
So she gave up the option of fleeing and went alone to confront Iron Tomb.
If she could defeat Iron Tomb, that would naturally be for the best. And even if she couldn't, Iron Tomb would have to merge with Herta.
At that time, the Iron Tomb that merged with Herta would completely lose the chance to destroy Nous, the Erudition.
Its strength would also instantly drop from being invincible below the Aeons to the level of the Third Emperor.
Although this would still mean half the galaxy would suffer, compared to the total destruction of the entire galaxy, this was considered the best possible outcome at the time.
To sacrifice oneself for the safety of the Cosmos and the lives of the entire galaxy is, in itself, a noble act.
Not to mention, Herta is also a Genius, an Emanator of Erudition.
If anyone else from the Genius Society were to take her place, they would likely find it difficult to make a decision like Herta did.
Well... Screwllum is an exception.
As for Ruan Mei... uh, I'm not sure.
"As expected, no matter what, it still has to be Madam Herta."
Lumina sighed softly to herself.
"What are you doing?"
Lumina didn't even try to hide her voice. Hearing this sigh of admiration about herself, Herta asked in confusion.
Although Herta remained calm on the surface, her heart was already blooming with joy.
Because she could feel the admiration in Lumina's words toward her.
Although she didn't know why Lumina admired her, a free benefit is a benefit worth taking.
"Here, see for yourself."
Hearing this, Lumina didn't say much else.
She just silently dragged the video's progress bar forward a little, and then, wrapped in a burst of green light, slowly brought the phone to Herta.
"This is one of Elio's scripts. Although it has nothing to do with the present and is absolutely impossible to happen, I think it's pretty interesting."
Lumina yawned, rested her hands on the sofa, lay her little cheek on them, looked at Herta, and gave a sign.
"Elio... Destiny's Slave?" Upon hearing this, Herta muttered in confusion.
Although she hadn't watched the video on the phone yet, through Lumina's previous sigh, Herta could guess that this script should be related to herself.
And it was... the not-so-pleasant kind.
Without thinking too much, Herta sat up straight on the sofa and tapped play on the phone in her hand.
On the phone's frame and screen, there still lingered some residual warmth unique to Lumina... This made Herta's expression, from start to finish, not undergo any change at all as she watched the content on the phone screen.
"That's it?"
After watching it, Herta's expression didn't change, nor did her gaze.
It was as if the video playing on the phone was more mundane than daily life.
If one had to say there was a change, there was a slight one.
That was when Herta saw herself being annexed by Iron Tomb, becoming the Third Emperor, and froze for a second. That was all.
For Herta, she did not doubt at all that she would make such a decision.
If such a scene were to happen at this moment, she would also choose to take such an action.
Because she is Herta, so she would do this.
There were no other superfluous reasons, nor was there any need for any reason.
However, saying so, the final outcome was definitely still uncertain.
After all, with Lumina here, Herta really did not believe that Iron Tomb, this Lord Ravager, could stir up any waves in Lumina's hands.
If you want to get this genius's head, ask Lumina if she agrees first.
A beautiful girl is Lumina's reverse scale.
At that time, unless Iron Tomb was also a beautiful girl, even if an Aeon came, they couldn't save it.
-
"It's just a script. Reality won't follow the script's content to the letter." Herta glanced at it for a moment before losing interest, tossing the phone lightly into Lumina's hands.
"That's true enough." Taking the phone, Lumina expressed her complete agreement with Herta's words. "But since it's a script, and a script from [Finality] at that, there's still a certain possibility it could happen."
"In short, we just need to prevent it from happening."
After a simple reminder, Lumina didn't give it much more thought.
Aside from the fact that this Herta-turned-Third Emperor looked a bit creepy, it was completely a trivial matter. Lumina saw no reason to waste any brainpower thinking about it.
Unless this was something that would inevitably happen in the future, it would only be a minor incident that couldn't pique Lumina's interest in the slightest.
"Um... Little Lumina, if... if this really happened, what would you do?"
Just as Lumina looked back at the phone screen, preparing to continue watching the video, Herta suddenly asked this question.
"Um, I mean, if I really became the Third Emperor, what would you do?"
Herta asked this not out of worry, but out of curiosity.
She was curious about what choice Lumina would make if faced with such a scene.
Would she end it with a single strike, or look for another way?
Hearing this, Lumina stopped her movements, raised her head, and gazed straight at Herta.
"Don't worry, I won't let you, or myself, be put in a position where we have to make a difficult choice. Such a thing will absolutely never happen."
Want Lumina to make a difficult choice? Rest assured, Lumina would never make such a choice.
Since she knew such a thing might happen in the future, Lumina would naturally solve all the problems from their root.
For example, Lumina was definitely going to dismantle this Iron Tomb.
Although Lumina didn't pay much attention to the contents of this script, she would eliminate anything that posed a threat to Herta.
You ugly thing, you're trying to steal my Little Herta's head, aren't you?
If I don't tear you into one hundred and eight thousand pieces, I'll write my name backward!
In Lumina's mind, she had already marked Iron Tomb with a "Must Die" tag.
This "Must Die" tag would be absolutely unavoidable unless Iron Tomb was a super beautiful girl.
Of course, even if it were a super beautiful girl, Lumina would still give it a brutal beating for Herta's sake.
How dare you try to swallow my Little Herta's head?
Such a good-looking head, not keeping it to nibble on a few more times would simply be a huge loss, alright?
Lumina snorted coldly in her mind.
"I said if, if!" Although Lumina's answer warmed Herta's heart.
But she obviously did not answer this question directly.
What Herta wanted to know was what action Lumina would take when facing the Third Emperor.
"There is no if." Herta really wanted to know this, but Lumina just wouldn't let her know, which left Herta feeling a bit speechless.
Under Herta's speechless gaze, Lumina slowly spoke: "If such a thing were to actually happen, if you, Herta, were swallowed by some mysterious power, or controlled by some power..."
"Then I will spare no cost to restore you to normal."
Lumina's voice was very, very calm, as if she were talking about a very normal thing.
But when it entered Herta's eyes, it made her feel very sweet.
Look, she would spare any cost to make this genius restore to normal... It seems I am still completely different in Lumina's heart.
Herta's heart was filled with sweetness, warmth, and countless joy.
Driven by these emotions, a few traces of happiness also surfaced on her peerless face.
Spare any cost, this must include beautiful girls, right?
A beautiful girl could never be one of those costs.
In other words... I, my position in Lumina's heart, is above all those beautiful girls!
Thinking of this, Herta was instantly ecstatic.
But to prevent Lumina from seeing any flaws and thus ridiculing her, she forcibly suppressed all the joy in her heart.
Yet, the slight curve of her lips and the traces of happiness on her face still betrayed her thoughts.
Lumina: "?"
Herta's expression was, of course, seen by Lumina.
Although she was somewhat confused, she didn't say anything.
After all, her words were indeed a bit "sentimental."
Lumina was a little worried that if she continued speaking, she might awaken some desire in Herta's heart, and then Herta would do something to her.
Though that seemed not too bad...
An image involuntarily surfaced in Lumina's mind, and she muttered softly to herself.
Moreover, Lumina was certain that Herta's internal thoughts were likely a bit different from the actual situation; she could definitely tell.
Shaking her head, Lumina stopped thinking about it and focused her gaze back on the phone screen, continuing to play the video.
If Lumina had heard Herta's inner thoughts just now, she would have been utterly speechless.
When did beautiful girls ever become one of the costs in "sparing any cost"?
Beautiful girls are undefinable, so they naturally couldn't be included in the costs.
Lumina would save Herta, but she would absolutely never use a beautiful girl as the price to save her.
On the contrary, no matter which beautiful girl faced this situation, Lumina would spare any cost to save her.
As long as the person was a beautiful girl, whether it was Herta or anyone else, Lumina would do so.
Fortunately, Lumina didn't know about Herta's inner thoughts, so she didn't make such a speechless remark.
Otherwise, Herta would probably have lowered her head gloomily and directly turned black...
[If it's the Agate World...]
Lumina didn't know this and continued to watch the video on her phone screen with great interest.
"Celenova is so beautiful, both tall and big," Lumina couldn't help but sigh as she looked at Celenova on the screen, whose legs were longer than her body.
With legs like those, Lumina felt she could play with them for a lifetime.
Lumina's "lifetime," without a doubt, had to be marked with a question mark or simply represented by ∞.
In other words, Lumina could get her hands on Celenova's legs, touch and play with them every single day, and absolutely never tire of it.
"Hmm... It seems I haven't had much contact with Celenova." Lumina fell into deep thought.
But this deep thought quickly yielded a result: "I should interact with Celenova properly later, and strive to become very close friends with her..."
To be honest, given Celenova's constant military campaigns and her terrifying status as a [Lord Ravager], Lumina felt that taking advantage of Celenova was simply as easy as it could possibly get.
After all, by all normal logic, Celenova should be the kind of dense "older sister" type who looks extremely domineering and mighty on the surface, but can be directly led away just by giving her a lollipop...
"Since Amphoreus is the birthplace of the Iron Tomb, will Celenova come to Amphoreus later on?"
Lumina began to formulate a series of plans targeting Celenova.
Of course, all these plans depended on Celenova being "well-behaved."
If Celenova were as "unreasonable" as Phantylia, Lumina wouldn't mind having another pet, giving Phantylia Kitten some company.
Hmm... Lumina had already decided, she would call Celenova Little Bunny then.
[But on the other side of the galaxy, the Xianzhou Alliance will stray from the [Trailblaze]... and witness the ascension of the eighth Lord Ravager]
"Huh? Little Jingliu became a Lord Ravager?" Seeing this scene, Lumina was somewhat surprised.
"Hmm... It might not necessarily be Jingliu." However, Lumina quickly reacted.
The Lightning-Lord who appeared beside Jingliu, wasn't he Jing Yuan's Lightning-Lord?
Since it was just a video, Lumina couldn't feel any pressure, nor could she sense her aura through this video, so she couldn't tell.
Whether this Lord Ravager targeting [Abundance] was the Lightning-Lord or Jingliu.
Or... both of them?
Lumina knew about the remnants of Propagation.
But she never expected that Jingliu and Luocha's plan was to use the remnants of Propagation and their hatred for [Abundance] to create a Lord Ravager targeting [Abundance].
The Lightning-Lord was already an Avatar of [The Hunt], possessing a natural advantage against [Abundance]. Now, with the addition of a [Lord Ravager] forged from the power of [Propagation], he might actually be able to slay the Aeon of [Abundance].
Of course, this was just Lumina's estimation based on the power of these two. The actual situation would depend on what kind of state they truly achieved when combined.
After all, so-called mechanics were still inferior to the boost in strength they provided.
If you only had mechanics without strength, wouldn't you just be defeated in a single encounter, falling at the first blow?
A single strike would do nothing more than tickle the Aeon of [Abundance].
"Although this might not necessarily happen, if it does, I'll go test the waters first," Lumina pondered.
No matter what, as an Emanator of [Abundance], she definitely couldn't just sit and wait for the Aeon of [Abundance] to die. That would be of no benefit to her at all.
As for becoming Jingliu's enemy?
Lumina felt... that shouldn't happen.
At least, that was what Lumina believed.
What the future would bring was not a problem Lumina needed to consider.
In any case, Lumina would absolutely never give up on Little Jingliu.
That was the only point she was certain of.