"That's right, Elysia... it's Seele."
The tent flap was gently lifted, but when Elysia turned to look, she didn't see anyone. The flap seed to have been lifted by the wind, yet its shape truly looked like a pair of hands were holding it...
"My dear Aponia, using telekinesis to scare people isn't very nice, you know!"
The tent flap lowered, and no one saw how Aponia had entered the tent.
"Seele... Why does this involve Seele again? Isn't she..."
Kevin ran his hands through his hair, clearly ssing it up; obviously, the current situation was beyond his comprehension.
"That's right, Seele did indeed die. But who ever told you people only get one life?"
"I know the Sixth Herrscher is hard to kill from the perspective of her authority, but she definitely died! Even her Core was made into a Divine Key..."
"Alright, i, aren't you going to manage your little tagalong? His constant questions are wasting a lot of ti."
For so reason, the questions about Seele seed to have touched a nerve with Mobius, causing her to react with sudden, intense rejection.
"Oh? Is that so? But we still have enough ti. Vill-V still needs to install restraints on her ankles and hips. That should be plenty of ti for you to explain."
For i, Kevin's questions echoed her own doubts. She believed the outco Mobius described, and precisely because of that, she wanted to know the process to achieve it even more. This wasn't just out of a scientist's [curiosity], but also a kind of [intuition].
The outco Mobius spoke of and her attitude of trying to cover things up clearly indicated that the process of achieving this result was extrely important. But strangely, Mobius had never ntioned it to her before.
Was it because the process was too cruel? No, i considered herself different from Michael; Mobius was like-minded with her and wouldn't need to worry about such sensitivities.
The only explanation she could think of was simply that Mobius herself hadn't been confident about it before... She and Vill-V always liked to act first and report later, using initial results as leverage to apply for funding...
i wasn't far off, but there was still so discrepancy with reality. If Mobius could see her train of thought, she would surely snort disdainfully—Why always imagine her as so complicated? Why couldn't it just be for the simple reason that it involved Seele?
She had secretly used Seele as a sample behind Michael's back, performing that experint with a near-zero success rate—that was one thing. At that ti, she was like a desperate gacha player who'd spent a fortune and still lost the 50/50; in her obsession for experintal success, she had thrown caution to the wind. Only after the experint showed initial success did she feel that tiny bit of lingering fear.
And after the Sixth Honkai Eruption ended, she couldn't quite say whether Seele's return from the Bubble Universe to the real world was rely due to fluctuations in the Sea of Quanta, or the power granted by the [Stigma]. If it was the latter...
She didn't regret it, nor was she scared afterward; she just didn't know how to explain it clearly.
"i, I'll explain the specifics to you later. Anyway, I once used Seele's body as a sample to develop sothing called [Stigmata]..."
She had intended to call it genetic technology, which was indeed the external manifestation of Stigmata, but from a certain perspective, it was more than that. For a mont, she didn't know how to describe it, and in the end, could only fob it off as 'genetic technology'.
"Was it that ti I ca to you for the Mahāmāyūrī ta-Morph surgery and you refused ? Seele was in the container behind you, wasn't she?"
"Uh... Uh..."
Ely's rapid-fire question caught Mobius completely off guard. Luckily, she was stubborn enough; as long as she adamantly denied it, others couldn't find proof.
anwhile, i lowered her head thoughtfully—If she rembered correctly, after the Fire Moth base moved underground, Lezrun, in order to continue his experints, had once used the influence of the Liechtenstein family to try and transport two batches of live test subjects to the underground city.
At the ti, she had wanted to rescue these subjects and use the situation to pressure the governnt into making greater concessions, but both batches mysteriously disappeared. She couldn't get any evidence, and Lezrun didn't get his materials. Could it be...
She gave Mobius a deep look.
"Ahem! Ahem!" Mobius tried to cover her embarrassnt with continuous coughing. She even clutched her chest, putting on a pained expression, seemingly trying to distract everyone with this display of illness, but it was ultimately futile.
However, to ensure the mission could proceed, Elysia wisely chose not to press further.
"Anyway, as a Herrscher, Michael has considerable adaptability to anything related to Honkai. So, for certain reasons, that ti he was severely injured by the Husk - Nihilius... I implanted a Stigma derived from Seele onto him."
"Stigmata? Does that count as a form of human existence?"
"In my view, it does."
"...What about the other one? Didn't you say: [A human existing in two ways]? If one form of existence is the Stigma, what's the other? The Herrscher Core? No, besides Michael's, Herrscher Cores are inanimate objects, otherwise they wouldn't have been made into Divine Keys."
Mobius's mouth twitched, and she finally looked at Aponia. "Actually, I stayed up all night worrying about this. Back then, I didn't know Seele had a second form of existence. And without cross-referencing both forms, we still couldn't accurately pinpoint the existence of Michael's consciousness... You agree, right, Aponia?"
Elysia first nodded. Mobius's ntion of cross-referencing reminded her of the Third Honkai Eruption, when Michael and she had used the intersection point of two Herrschers and an Imaginary Tunnel to deduce the space where the [Imaginary Tree] was located. Presumably, this was what Mobius ant by cross-referencing.
But when she heard Mobius's final question directed at Aponia, her eyes widened in shock— "Aponia, how are you also..."
She didn't need Aponia's answer; she instantly understood everything. —As soone who could see fate in advance, Aponia might have even foreseen the current situation a year or two ago, so making so preparations was only natural.
"Ely, do you rember that necklace of Seele's tied around Michael's right wrist?"
"Uh, wasn't that the one you asked him to construct before, and then gave to Seele? It seed to specifically use Soulium as the material?"
Since that day, Michael had always kept that necklace tied to his right wrist. She had seen it with her own eyes when he handed his Core over to her.
"Wait, are you saying—"
"Correct. Michael probably never uploaded the battle report for the Sixth Honkai Eruption. If he had, you would know that I copied Seele's personality, on the last night before she left. However, he probably only knew I copied one personality, hidden within Seele's subconscious, hoping she could replicate Michael's miracle when the Herrscher descended. But actually, I copied two personalities— This was, in a sense, an unintentional act on my part, because the two copied personalities weren't separate individuals, but rather Seele's own split consciousness. I rely transferred one part of it into a vessel."
Aponia's vacant eyes blinked gently. Without needing further explanation, one could guess that the so-called vessel—was the necklace made of Soulium.
"Scan complete. Small amounts of Soulium are fused within the flesh of Michael's right wrist. It should be the remnants of the necklace."
Due to Michael's body growing enormous, the necklace beca embedded in his flesh. Thanks to Soulium's properties, it mixed with his flesh and blood before it could be consud by the Vishnu ICHOR factors . So, basically, the copied consciousness of Seele is also drifting within this giant's body.
"You guys are really... pulling bigger and bigger stunts..."
Elysia gave a wry smile.
"Hey, hey, hey! Are you guys done chatting? The restraints are all inserted! Ti for you lot to do your thing! After you're done, don't forget to send the Seventh Herrscher Core over to . I'm gonna go catch so Zs first... Yawn!"
......
In the blood-red space, Michael sat on the ground, ditating with his eyes closed.
Suddenly, his eyelashes trembled slightly. He opened his mouth and said, "You've crossed the line."
As soon as the words left his mouth, dozens of monsters resembling Honkai Beasts materialized in the circular space ten steps before him. But before they could roar and lunge at Michael, with a soft grunt from him, flas erupted from below, incinerating all the Honkai Beasts in an instant.
The advantage was clear, yet he didn't dare let his guard down. He knew he could easily destroy these erosive entities not because his own power truly held the upper hand, but because the enemy had penetrated too deep. Like a spent arrow that can't pierce silk, their strength was exhausted from the distance. If it were his own power approaching that purely bestial [instinctual] existence, the outco wouldn't be much better for him either.
This was why the two sides could maintain a balance. Since neither could overco the other, they could only maintain a dynamic equilibrium... Hmm... it felt quite like a bipolar world standoff. [Analogy to Cold War era geopolitical balance].
This was due to the special nature of power within the world of consciousness. For two beings who didn't possess psychic abilities... Wait a minute, could Mobius have anticipated this, which is why she didn't include Mitrá in the body she provided him? That she could calculate so much under such critical circumstances was sothing Michael hadn't expected at all.
This so-called contest of consciousness wasn't a competition of purely material power. If comparing external material power, Michael, whose Core was reduced to dust and who couldn't control the Seventh Herrscher's authority, was naturally no match for this monster he himself had essentially created through consumption—Indeed, the flas just now were rely a manifestation of consciousness.
In a contest of consciousness, what mattered were the completeness and firmness of one's consciousness. Although his Core had beco a pile of dust and its authority was temporarily unusable, it had indeed completed Michael's consciousness. As for firmness...
For Michael, this was actually a very... contradictory issue.
How could soone who considered himself ntally fragile possibly be strong-willed?
But ironically, that's exactly what happened.
It was so bizarre that Michael himself didn't know whether to laugh or cry, finding it absurd, chaotic, just... what the heck...
Well... but it's not entirely incomprehensible.
What exactly did fragility an? Was it the low spirits after a setback?
"Now, let's imagine a knife. The blade material is S7 tool steel... Michael, you read books on material science early on, you should know the properties of this steel, right?"
"Mm..." Michael nodded and recited the data without hesitation: "Modern swords made from this steel, after oil quenching and tempering, have an edge hardness of about HRC 57 and an impact toughness of 165 Joules. It's a typical example of a blade with insufficient hardness; regardless of the edge geotry, the edge is prone to rolling or chipping... but its advantage lies in its unparalleled impact toughness. No matter how damaged it gets from impacts, it rarely breaks completely... Wait! Who are you!"
Michael rose from his kneeling position, narrowing his eyes as he sized up the 'Seele' before him.
"Let guess... Are you the Seventh Herrscher? Or... the other inside the Core? Or... No, you don't have its [the bestial instinct's] aura."
"Tch, why bother being so specific? You don't sense any hostility from , do you?"
'Seele' beckoned, and an ornate chair appeared out of thin air. She sat down casually, crossing her legs, as if to show she ant no harm.
Michael slowly settled back onto his heels.
"So, want to continue our previous topic?"
She shrugged, but Michael wasn't giving up so easily:
"Compared to that boring topic earlier, I think it's obvious that [Who you are] is much more interesting to ."
"Tsk!"
'Seele's' mouth twitched. Michael's persistence clearly irritated her sowhat, but in the next mont, she started laughing:
"Tsk, look at you, being so impervious to reason. That certainly qualifies as being strong-willed, wouldn't you say?"
This ti, it was Michael's own mouth that twitched.
"Do you really have to change the subject in such a clumsy way? Though, frankly, your way of speaking... it really reminds of soone... Soone... closely connected to the real Seele..."
'Seele' shrugged, as if to say: I never claid otherwise!
"Tsk, going back to that not-quite-appropriate analogy earlier, I wasn't teasing you. Honestly, I might not be able to call you strong-willed, but when it cos to stubbornness, a hundred oxen couldn't out-stubborn you."
"Good. Putting aside the fact that your behavior is just as stubborn as mine, your attitude instead convinces ... you are exactly the person I'm thinking of."
Michael seed to say sothing profound, yet also nothing specific. It was just a tactic to lure the snake out of its hole [trick soone into revealing themselves].
The being opposite him naturally wouldn't fall for such a simple trap. She scoffed, shook her head, and spread one hand, "Tch, let your imagination run wild!"
The exact sa deflection, revealing absolutely no information.
Michael shook his head, not wanting to pay her any attention. Although this being hadn't shown a single trace of hostility from the beginning, within this consciousness space, especially during a ntal struggle, it was best not to indulge in excessive speculation. Overthinking leads to mistakes, making it easier for [It] to find an opening.
But just as he sought quiet, the being opposite him began chattering endlessly:
"Tsk! Tell ... locking yourself in your room back then, what exactly was that supposed to be? Felt like a kid throwing a tantrum, didn't it? Uh... unlikely, not quite right... After all, you're almost twenty. You wouldn't do sothing only a teenager would do, right? Probably not, huh?"
Michael's nose wrinkled, and veins started throbbing on his forehead. This wasn't small talk; she was deliberately poking at sore spots, rubbing salt in his wounds after testing his patience...
Michael took a deep breath. For the sake of maintaining balance in the consciousness struggle within this body, he endured it!
Perhaps his restrained attitude gave the other party the wrong impression, as the being before him continued her high-intensity provocations: "Tsk! But speaking of which! Later, after the Seventh Herrscher had already erged, why were you unwilling to fight for such a long ti? Hahaha, don't tell you were scared?"
"..."
Michael put a hand to his head, not responding to her.
But his thoughts uncontrollably drifted back to the situation at that ti.
As an ordinary person, a sane, ordinary person. He naturally didn't know what exactly had been going through his mind before he took those actions. Not because he couldn't rember clearly, but because from the start, those actions weren't the result of careful deliberation.
For most people, short-term decisions often stem from montary impulse, decisions made naturally, from small things like choosing bread or buns for breakfast, to big things like locking oneself in a room or going out. At the mont of decision, there often isn't a convincing reason in one's mind. Let alone explaining it to others.
That's why moirs are often the most unreliable things. Many decisions made at the ti were clearly just stress responses driven by impulse, but in the light of subsequent developnts, those unintentional decisions beco the beginning or turning point of an exciting story. Later, when recalling this history, people tend to glorify themselves, applying all sorts of justifiable reasons to the decisions they made back then. But in reality, this is no different from hindsight bias.
However... if one doesn't insist on finding a reason to tell others, but rather seeks to account to oneself, properly questioning oneself about the impulse that flashed through the mind when making that decision, what the causes and consequences of the decision were, not to whitewash oneself, but rather to thereby understand oneself more comprehensively, to sort out past events, like a historian engraving those past events in one's mind, only then can one obtain the true treasure from the past—the possibility of not repeating the sa mistakes.
However, this process is undoubtedly extrely painful—Replaying the despair one has experienced in one's mind is tantamount to forcibly tearing open a freshly scabbed wound.
But Michael's face was calm. Perhaps, at so point he himself hadn't even noticed, he had already completed this task. Or perhaps, after being dragged out of the room by Mobius that first ti, what made him unwilling to face reality... was no longer sadness.
"If not sadness, then what could it be?"
Michael looked up, stunned, at 'Seele,' whose expression had turned sowhat gloomy. Only then did he realize that within this consciousness space, his thoughts were likely transparent, easily captured by the other party.
Michael slowly lowered his head. He scratched his cheek, sowhat embarrassed, and said:
"Perhaps there was an elent of just being emotional, but there was actually another important factor— Perhaps, in my eyes back then, it was also a way of resisting fate?"
"Are you kidding ! How is that explanation any different from the self-whitewashing you were thinking about earlier!"
"Perhaps."
Michael shook his head. People naturally don't make decisions based on a single emotion; it's always a mixture of multiple factors that ultimately drives the choice. And regarding fate, that was the one thread Michael felt he could grasp accurately—
"Aponia once told the true aning of fate. In a world without fate, knowing the future is undoubtedly very fortunate. But in a world ruled by fate, it's the exact opposite, because it ans—the future you know will definitely happen."
'Seele' looked away, uncharacteristically refraining from a sarcastic remark.
"She also used this to encourage , believing I was soone capable of changing fate. But Seele... even now, I can't say for sure whether her return to the real world... was due to the fluctuations in the Sea of Quanta triggered by the battle with Vishnu, or because I didn't bring her dicine, and her emotional fluctuations triggered the power of the Stigma Mobius had implanted in her, allowing her to return...
"I daren't claim it was the forr, because that would make others, and even myself, feel like I was shirking responsibility. If it's the latter, then that's my... reason. An impotent and aningless act of revenge that hurt both Mobius and Elysia."
His words paused, and his gaze gradually lifted to the being before him.
She turned her gaze back and shot him a fierce glare.
"Ahem!" Michael scratched his head. "So, when the Seventh Honkai Eruption occurred, I kind of had this thought—maybe I should just do nothing at all. As long as I didn't do anything, things would return to the original track of fate. The Captain [Hiko (PE)] would beco the Herrscher, then be easily killed by Kevin. Humanity might pay a terrible price, but they would surely make it to the end..."
"But how ironic the outco is. When you exhaust all efforts trying to make changes, fate dramatically steers everything back onto its original track. Yet when you try to abandon everything and let fate take its original course, fate ends up being changed by you instead? It really is... Tsk! So what about after that? Even after seeing that Hiko wasn't the Herrscher, you still moped around for a long ti, didn't you? Right until that Mobius pushed you into the elevator..."
"Ahahaha... That..." Michael laughed nervously, so embarrassed he felt like scratching his scalp off. "It's actually quite embarrassing to say... At that ti, I was just completely stunned. I had absolutely no idea what I should do, until Mobius slapped awake..."
"And?"
'Seele' stared at him insistently.
"Alright... I was indeed very scared back then too, because the power I had always relied on, my Core, had betrayed ... And Vishnu needed ti to grow. I had absolutely no idea how to stop the Seventh Herrscher... Uh..."
At this point, 'Seele' suddenly stood up.
Michael looked at her questioningly. She then pursed her lips and, just as abruptly yet silently as she had arrived, disappeared.
Leaving only a sentence echoing in the increasingly real blood-red space:
"Alright, I guess. You're not as rotten as I initially thought."
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