In an elegant hall combining splendor and solemnity, despite their differences, the four strongest organizations gathered for unprecedented talks. Headed by World Serpent, or rather the Fire-Moth, as this name was restored with Mei's return, everyone gathered here to discuss the past and future.
The strongest orthodox power, Schicksal, was still led by Otto, and he appeared in person here, flanked by Bianka, Amber, and Ana, along with an escort of Valkyries from Immortal Blades. There was no tension on his face; he appeared as if he were back in his home, with his usual smile and a wine glass in his hand.
Opposite him sat a stern-looking man, the previous Herrscher of Reason and current leader of Anti-Entropy, Welt Yang. While he appeared much less at ease, he still carried himself with the confidence of someone who once possessed the power of a Herrscher. With him were two professors, along with Bronya and Ryoma; all escorted by the rare elite combat personnel they trained from a young age.
Then there was Far East Branch, now separate from Schicksal in all but name. Leading it wasn't Theresa, as one might expect, but Cecilia, who fully returned to the light after what happened to Kiana. She now sat at the same table as the person who caused all that suffering, but she didn't show it; instead, she smiled serenely. She was accompanied by Theresa, Cheng Lixue, Kira, and Kiana, and a few elite Valkyries from St. Freya.
And lastly, the hosts. Mei was the one leading them, but there were two more figures sitting by her side. One looked like a young girl, but her mere presence caused all guards present to have their backs covered with cold sweat. The other was almost the direct opposite; her grace overshadowed even Otto, and her beauty dimmed all other women; just by sitting there with a slight smile, the whole room appeared more noble.
-"I believe we can begin."-Mei spoke up.
Despite her voice being the same as before, the feeling she gave off now was entirely different; like a CEO in charge of a massive corporation, confident and decisive. Others looked at her in surprise, but she didn't flinch; she only smiled slightly and tossed out a few binders of documents.
-"I guess you are interested in what we are, so let me show you some good faith and explain our origin."-Mei pointed to the binders everyone received.
No one rejected her goodwill, and they quickly read the provided documents, their faces showing a mix of surprise and shock.
-"So that was the previous era. Fifteen such heroes, and yet…"-Welt sighed.
-"I can understand that those heroes were your ancestors?"
-"Hah! Such a degrading need as procreation is truly an insult to my Infinity."-The young-looking girl scoffed.-"I'm Mobius, the one that Pink-Fat-Woman called Infinity."
-"I'm Eden, the Gold."-The noble woman introduced herself as well.-"Due to the modifications we underwent, our bodies are far beyond what one would consider mortal, and so is our lifespan."
-"But that causes me to be interested. How can Young Miss Mei lead you?"-Otto looked at them with interest.
-"I'm indeed the same Mei who awakened as Herrscher of Thunder, but I'm also a person from the past era. You can consider my situation a reincarnation or a rebirth."-Mei didn't hide her situation.-"Not long ago, I restored most of my memories; thus, I returned here."
-"But I don't see your name among those Flame-Chasers."
-"Because she is not."-Mobius explained for her.-"Mei of the past era was a genius in the field of quantum physics and Honkai research, but her body was… inadequate to undergo operations, and finally perished due to certain circumstances."
-"I see."-Welt pushed his glasses up.-"But how can such a thing be achieved? Especially as, by the data you provided, only one Herrscher allied with humanity back in your time."
-"That will have to wait for a while. Before we can proceed, we need to introduce two more people."-Mei looked at a person standing in the St. Freya crowd.
Fu Hua walked out of the group of Valkyries and moved to Eden's side.
-"Teacher Hua?"-Kiana looked at her with surprise.
-"Sorry for keeping it from you, but I'm also a MANTIS; Hua, the Vicissitude."-She apologized lightly.
-"So… you really are an antique, Teacher?"
This caused many people to feel their mouths twitch, while Fu Hua had a vein appear on her forehead.
-"Kiana, behave yourself. Sorry, Hua. Also, you don't need to feel bad about not telling us; I believe you have your reasons."
-"She indeed has them, and it's connected to the last, but most important person in our story."-Mei smiled at Hua.
-"There is no need for suspense. Eno, this is the person you are speaking about."-Otto smiled.
-"Yes, but the Eno you know is only a part of who he truly is."-Mei once again took a stack of documents.-"Those are all major Projects that Fire-Moth researched; if you read carefully, you might find people responsible for them familiar."
This time, there were no looks of surprise or shock; everyone only read in silence. They were aware of many creations of the previous era, but only now did they understand that they stood on the shoulders of the giants.
-"To think that Stigmata were man-made."-Welt once again couldn't help but marvel at the great disparity between the eras.
-"And all done by Eno."-Otto agreed with him.-"But I believe that some of the Projects are missing."
-"Yes, two projects need understanding of some details, so allow me to explain first."-Mei nodded and proceeded to explain matters about Elysia and how humanity was defeated by Herrschers, prompting them to develop plans aiming to aid the next era.
After that was made clear, she then explained how I implanted a Herrscher core into myself, turning into a Herrscher while rejecting the Will of Honkai. And finally, she brought them to the end of Final Banquet and Project TRUE-PROMETHEUS.
-"Eno, in essence, is not a human, but the second Herrscher of Origin, but his mind was modified to act as a terminal for all the Stigmata, a repository of memories and souls of humanity."
-"And I thought I was a cruel utilitarian."-Otto shook his head.-"Taking all the humanity on his back, that's an entirely different level of cruelty."
Bianka, who was reading all those documents, even if she couldn't comprehend everything, still could understand how much I had done for the previous era, and how much suffering it must have brought. With all those thoughts in her mind, her hands gripped the paper so tightly that it almost tore. What she, nor anyone else, noticed was a pink light appearing on her for the briefest of moments.
-"But why did you gather all of us here?"-Cecilia looked at Mei.
-"To end a project we started fifty thousand years ago, or rather, a fight that lasted for that long."
-"What do you mean?"
Mei looked at everyone and recounted the battle with Final Herrscher.
Three days after the Final Banquet. All the MANTIS gathered on the deck of the Moonlight Throne, preparing for the departure to the final battlefield, the moon. I stood on the bridge, watching everyone bid their farewells.
-"Won't you join them?"-Mei asked me.
-"No need. I'll be back soon, so why make such a big deal?"
Hearing that, Mei grabbed my hand, looking at me with worry, her eyes unintentionally falling on the pink ends of my hair.
-"Is everything fine?"
-"It's fine, just hard to focus."-I forced a smile.
-"Sorry."-She lowered her head, feeling responsible for my state.
-"Don't feel responsible; I also accepted the final part of the Project."
-"It's still my idea."
-"It'll be all right. After the fight, all those memories will disappear."-I tried to cheer her up.
-"If everything goes smoothly."
-"Have faith in everyone."
-"You know that we are facing what is effectively a god, so how do you expect me to have faith?"
-"I'm also a god; how about believing in me?"
-"I'd rather not."
We continued our senseless talk until the time to leave arrived. Mei gave the order, and the battleship departed. An hour later, we began deploying our weapons, looking at the final cooldown.
-"Eno."-Kevin approached me.
-"What's the matter?"
-"No matter what happens, kill that bastard."
-"That's the plan."-I nodded to him.
One by one, other Flame-Chasers approached me, exchanging well wishes and short small talk before taking their positions. Due to my task, my position was in the back, so for the first part of the battle I was only an observer.
Time ticked away, and soon, the last seconds remained. The whole world held its breath when the timer reached zero, as if time itself stagnated. Then, an enormous figure emerged before everyone's eyes, towering over the moon. She possessed a unworldly beauty, but no one had a wish to appreciate it; instead, with a simple signal from Kevin, all MANTIS moved.
Before the enemy could act, they were buried under myriad attacks, from Kevin's Judgment of Shamash Zeroth Power to Vill-V's countless guns and mechs. All that could be used was used; no one held back, not even leaving a drop of strength for a next attack. This strike was truly everything our era could offer.
And our enemy didn't dodge; they just took the strike directly, and the damage it received was truly catastrophic. The entire ground beneath everyone's feet turned gold from the Final Herrscher's blood; there was no part of its body left unharmed, but it survived. I could see the blood slowly flowing back to its body, a show of how powerful its regeneration was.
-"Three days."-I instantly calculated the time it would need to fully regenerate.
-"It's enough."-Mei assured me.
-"Then let's go."
I took Mei and Mobius to where the figure was embedded in the moon, each of us starting work with trained efficiency. Mei used the body and the residual power around us to create a passage into the Cocoon of Finality, giving us access to the real source of Honkai. At the same time, Mobius used the blood of the Final Herrscher along with tools and reagents prepared beforehand to create a Pseudo-Core, which she used to gather the power of Finality that we siphoned from the Herrscher with that first strike.
And I started to create a Stigmata from the Final Herrscher, implanting my own will into it. Stigmata of such power surpassed even the Stigmata created from my blood; in fact, I used my own stigmata as the foundation of the new one. It took my new mind an entire day to get the job done, a time comparable to hundreds of years with my previous efficiency.
This created a Stigmata that was the origin of all Stigmata, the foundation of all human consciousness. All human history and memories were used to create it, meaning that all the humans' souls had to pass through it as well. Such a creation deserved a name of its own, and Mei already suggested one when she created this plan: Alayavijnana.
With it, taking Mei's passage and Mobius's Final Herrscher's Pseudo-Core, I embarked on a journey to meet with the Cocoon of Finality. As it existed in a space between worlds, in the same realm as the Imaginary Tree, time had no meaning here, nor did any other laws one was used to in the real world. The only truth here was power.
Taking a step forward, the ground underneath my feet crystallized into a familiar azure crystal, a most direct show of my influence on this space. Step after step, each requiring strength far beyond what I could muster; only by using the human memories in me as fuel could I traverse this world.
After who knows how long, I finally stepped before the Cocoon, and while holding the Pseudo-Core, I touched it to truly steal the authority of Finality. Instantly, I felt a powerful impact from the Will of Honkai, annihilating a chunk of my 'self', but it quickly got repaired due to the Stigmata. Such a process continued, sustained by the burning of immeasurable amounts of memories, but I couldn't yield; the only hope for any real victory was here, at my fingertips.
And then, I felt it. It was a fire, something I was familiar with. Opening the hand where I held the Pseudo-Core, it was no longer there; instead, a small flame was there, holding the power of Finality. As it entered my body, it reached deep into my soul, creating a chain reaction that made all my other flames merge.
My golden flame that carried life, the blue fire that burned away even fate, the black-and-red flame that brought death, and now the fire of Finality capable of returning everything to its beginning. Together, they created a flame like a night sky; mostly azure, but shimmering with countless stars. It carried the powers of all previous fires, but together it possessed power greater than a simple sum of its elements; an entirely new Authority: Rebirth.
With it in my hands, I walked back to the real world, returning just in time to see the crumbling Final Herrscher, no longer existing due to being replaced by me. Under the watchful eyes of everyone, I controlled the Fire of Rebirth to envelop the earth, making sure it didn't consume ARK or any other hidden base.
It was a rather bittersweet moment; we won, in a way, grasping a Pyrrhic victory from the hands of absolute defeat. Yet no one celebrated; they just watched how everything we fought for was consumed by the flames, reclaiming the souls and memories of everything that ever walked the earth. One day, these souls will be reborn once again; as for memories, they will exist within Alayavijnana, a source of power for the future.
I didn't even notice when I got immersed in the feeling of those memories, no longer a burden but a strangely natural part of me; as if I were a librarian and Alayavijnana the library. This power resonated with the Core of Origin within me, causing the void around me to crack, creating a kaleidoscope-like space. From within it, a figure carved out of a reflective, mirror-like prism emerged, looking at the world.
But THEY gaze only at me, an anomaly. Inheriting the name of Anāsrava, yet not born from it.
As I felt the new power emerge within me, a claw suddenly appeared by my side, striking at me without any warning. As it pierced into my body, it stole part of the Fire of Rebirth, trying to also claim the new power, but was unable to do so. Soon, it receded back from where it came, but the damage it caused was catastrophic.
Losing part of the Authority of Rebirth made the flame uncontrollable, enveloping me as I tried to save everyone else. With my last moment of sanity, I sealed those affected by the flames with the new power I gained, but in despair, I could only watch as Mei was consumed alongside me; our connection, due to the core within her, caused me to be unable to save her. In the last act of desperation, I preserved her memories within crystal, hoping that she could recover them one day.
In the end, only Hua, Eden, Su, Rin, Misteln, and Mobius, who were not close to me during the attack, weren't sealed, while Mei, like the rest of the world, returned to reincarnation. I, meanwhile, suffered the fate of being constantly burned by the Fame of Rebirth, throwing me into Samsara. But the cruelest irony was that this caused another power to take root within me; one that is antithetical to the first, causing them to clash to establish dominion over me.