How Many Monsters Are in the Divine Court? Himeko Couldn't Sleep
"Sounds like there are lots of fun punching bags~"
The little girl's voice was bright and clear, full of carefree amusement.
Two tiny canine teeth gleamed white beneath the carriage lights.
Himeko stood a few steps away.
At those words, her fingers tightened around the empty tray.
Her nails scraped across the grooves in its metal underside with a harsh, dull screech.
She looked at the white-haired little girl sprawled over the back of the sofa.
Her sunglasses had slipped to the tip of her nose.
There was not a trace of childish innocence in those pale blue eyes.
Only the cruelty of someone who would knock lives over like toy blocks.
Himeko felt as though a block of ice had pressed against her back.
The chill climbed her spine, vertebra by vertebra, straight to the back of her head.
She forced her stiff lips into a smile and tried to sound as gentle as usual.
"Everyone... must be tired after that battle."
Himeko swallowed against her dry throat.
"I'll make everyone some coffee."
She turned, her heels sinking into the red velvet carpet.
Her strides were too long; her usual composed elegance had deserted her.
Her left heel even caught on the edge of the carpet as she turned.
Himeko caught the nearby mahogany handrail with one hand and barely steadied herself.
She didn't dare look back. She hurried out of the observation car.
The ceiling lights in the corridor cast a soft, warm glow.
But Himeko felt cold all over.
The sound of her heels striking the metal floor echoed down the narrow passage.
One step. Two.
She walked faster and faster, almost breaking into a run on the way back to her bedroom.
The airtight door closed behind her.
It gave a soft hiss as the pressure equalized.
Himeko leaned against the metal door and let out a long, shaky breath.
Even the air deep in her lungs seemed to tremble under the strain.
She went to the solid-wood desk.
With practiced movements, she started the small coffee machine on it and dropped in two coffee blocks.
The machine whirred as it ground them.
Hot water entered the packet with a faint hiss.
Thick white steam rose, fogging the machine's metal faceplate.
The bitter aroma of coffee soon filled the cramped room.
Usually, that smell calmed her. Now it did nothing to settle her churning stomach.
Himeko picked up a white porcelain cup to catch the coffee.
A stream of dark brown liquid poured into it.
But her wrist was shaking.
Badly.
The rim of the cup kept knocking against the machine's metal spout.
The bright clinks rang out sharply in the room.
Gritting her teeth, Himeko gripped her wrist hard with her other hand.
Only then could she set the cup steadily on the desk.
She pulled out the leather swivel chair and sat down.
Her fingers flew across the Holographic Keyboard, calling up the Astral Express Data Bank's deepest access level.
The blue Holographic Screen lit up, illuminating her pale face.
It showed footage from surveillance cameras outside Herta Space Station.
The image was blurry; the energy field had interfered with every instrument on the station.
But the blue sphere of light was still clear enough to steal her breath.
Himeko dragged the progress bar to the instant the sphere burst and froze the frame.
She opened the physical-parameter analysis tool in the sidebar.
Her fingers rapidly entered the concepts Welt had just mentioned.
Spatial origin, gravitational collapse, absolute repulsion.
She tried to build a mathematical model of Zeno's Turtle to explain that Limitless defense.
The processor raced.
The progress bar stuck at ninety-nine percent.
The coordinate axes on the screen twisted violently, and the function curve became an endless knot.
Beep.
A huge, glaring red warning box appeared on the screen.
[Error: Spatial distance divided infinitely; mass parameters cannot be defined.]
Himeko refused to give up.
She pushed the coffee cup aside and brought up a different analytical framework based on quantum mechanics.
This time, she isolated the purple beam that had torn through Outer Space.
The video replayed silently on the screen.
The purple light swept past. The massive Antimatter Legion Commander and more than a hundred warships vanished in an instant.
Himeko entered the commander's armor strength and antimatter yield.
She tried to work backward to find the beam's minimum destructive power.
The main cannon of an Interastral Peace Corporation planet-killer?
The Xianzhou Alliance's Jade Calculation Array?
She compared it against every known weapon of mass destruction.
The Data Bank terminal's cooling fan spun furiously.
A beastlike howl rose from the case, and scorching air blasted from the exhaust vent.
Three minutes later, the screen froze again.
A cold line of text appeared.
[Conclusion: The physical laws of the target area were rewritten. No quantifiable energy exchange occurred.]
This wasn't physical destruction.
The monster hadn't been smashed apart. The very concept of its existence had been erased.
Himeko stared at the words on the screen.
Her breathing grew harsher.
Her chest heaved like a broken bellows.
Acid surged up her throat.
She picked up the cup on the desk, hoping a drink would quell her nausea.
The cup had not reached her lips.
Her wrist suddenly jerked again.
Scalding black coffee spilled out.
Brown liquid splashed over the back of her hand, reddening a broad patch of skin.
More coffee spread across the desk, soaking several paper star charts before running over the edge.
It dripped onto the white carpet she took such care of.
A dirty brown stain bloomed across it.
Himeko didn't reach for a tissue.
She couldn't even feel the burning pain on the back of her hand.
Only a few words spun madly through her mind.
Imaginary Divine Court. Seventh Seat.
If a single Seventh Seat could piece space together as casually as toy blocks...
Stretch distance infinitely, so no attack could ever reach her...
Without even drawing on an outside source of energy...
What about the six ranked above her?
The Female Lord who had stood in the ruins and casually scolded the Seventh Seat...
She was only the Fourth Seat.
With a casual squeeze of her hand, the Fourth Seat had created a rocky star capable of shattering the station's dome.
The sight of her pinning the Doomsday Beast dead with a single spear thrust was more terrifying than any horror film.
Worse still was her attitude.
The Female Lord had looked at the Doomsday Beast as if it were a pest she could crush without a thought.
She could control stone, and she possessed a divine pressure that made Himeko's soul shudder at a glance.
What about the Third Seat?
The Second Seat?
The one who had laid down the Divine Court's rules and left monsters capable of tearing stars apart afraid to voice a single complaint...
The one they called the "First Seat"...
What on earth was that being?
An Aeon?
But in the VIP Lounge, the Female Lord had held her teacup and said it plainly.
They merely observed Aeons.
Himeko's fingers dug into the armrests of the leather chair.
Her nails left several deep white marks in the leather.
Sweat slicked the spaces between her fingers.
The Interastral Peace Corporation's Ten Stonehearts?
The Xianzhou Alliance's six generals?
The Antimatter Legion's Lord Ravagers?
She ran through every major power in the galaxy.
And realized, with a sinking heart...
Beside the words "Imaginary Divine Court," those names that shook the universe seemed painfully insignificant.
If the Divine Court grew bored, it could turn the entire galaxy upside down whenever it pleased.
If one day they decided the Astral Express would make a fun punching bag too...
Who could stop them?
Welt's Pseudo Black Hole? Dan Heng's spear? Or March 7th's Six-Phased Ice?
The Female Lord's cool voice from the corridor still echoed in her ears.
That lofty arrogance with which she had dismissed the Antimatter Legion as ants squabbling...
It hadn't been an act or an empty threat.
It was the absolute coldness of someone who truly held a blade capable of destroying the universe.
And now the most unpredictable of those blades...
That little white-haired monster who could casually conjure a spatial paradox...
Was sitting on the sofa outside.
Eating candy and planning to find punching bags on Jarilo.
Himeko couldn't sleep.
Normally, she only had to lie down and listen to the rumble of the Astral Express's engines to drift off peacefully.
Now she was terrifyingly alert.
She raised both hands and pressed the heels of her palms hard against her throbbing temples.
She pressed with all her strength.
Two distinct red marks appeared on her fair forehead.
The blood vessels pulsed beneath her skin, tugging painfully at her nerves.
She turned her head.
Outside the window, the starry sky stretched dark and deep.
She let out a long sigh.
Just then, Pom-Pom's nasal voice came over the carriage speakers:
"Attention, all passengers! The Astral Express is about to make a spatial jump. Please return to your own carriages, pom!"