Evernight exchanged a glance with Demiurge.
The two of them pulled 'Cyrene' aside.
Demiurge spoke first:
"I think you're overcomplicating things, Sis. According to the logic of this Simulated Universe you're building, it doesn't require you to split your memories into such fine-grained detail."
Evernight nodded beside her and added:
"All those unrealized possibilities, even fabricated histories, sedimented within the Remembrance—they aren't just useless scraps to the world, you know."
"I know that... But injecting the data directly will cause an error."
'Cyrene' shook her head helplessly, but Demiurge just smiled and took her hand:
"It's not about the data. It's about committing fully to the role of 'Fuli.' Sis, before you can reverse-engineer the world, you need to complete Fuli first."
Fuli was born in the future, then gazed back upon the causes of the past. That was the truth.
But first, to extract the anchoring reality that defined that birth and thus established the cycle...
Logically speaking, the starting point of the cycle's establishment...must be in some worldline, an existence that attempted to record or salvage memories, striving at the end of the universe to recreate all memory, and thereby becoming Fuli.
Only then, as Fuli, would it go back to fill in the causes.
Using the effect to affirm the cause, casting down countless Pure Children of Anāsrava to make Fuli's birth an inevitability.
So then, since we're using Remembrance to evolve this world...
Since we've chosen Fuli as the foundation for this world and are aiming for such a high degree of realism...
"...Why not push authenticity to its limit? First, simulate the birth of Fuli within the Simulated Universe. Then, have 'Cyrene' enter and, as Fuli, complete the entire cosmic cycle."
Evernight's mind was racing.
Before personally experiencing the Simulated Universe, she would never have come up with such an idea.
But now?
These guys were already playing on such a grand scale, even having a rough prototype.
Evernight felt that no matter how wild a notion she proposed, this crew could probably make it happen.
"She's right. Sis, you've been too focused on the cycle itself. But stepping outside the cycle, as 'Fuli,' THEIR existence must logically come first, with the effect then anchoring the cause."
"As long as we can construct that logic completely, I think the error issue can be fully resolved."
The geniuses who had been listening to the two Pure Children of Anāsrava followed this line of thought into their own contemplations.
And Screwllum, who had been tracing the source of the error, was the first to react.
"Allow me to thank you both, Ms. Evernight, Ms. Demiurge. Thank you for your assistance; you have resolved my confusion."
"It's an honor to be of help to geniuses."
A smile played on Demiurge's lips, and she looked genuinely pleased.
"Life is the seedbed of knowledge and wisdom. Genius is but one facet. We belong to the same garden; there is little distinction."
Screwllum gently refuted the excessive modesty in Demiurge's words.
Herta, meanwhile, pondered why they hadn't thought of it themselves.
But Divine Herta was the first to speak up:
"It seems the data I provided on the Simulated Universe became shackles, limiting our thinking instead."
"Quite self-aware, aren't you? Well, try harder next time."
Herta tilted her head toward Divine Herta, gave a light chuckle, and said nothing more.
'Cyrene' looked at Demiurge and Evernight and asked: "Will you two have time later? I think you'd be quite suitable for testing this Simulated Universe."
"Demiurge and I are researching Light Cones—planning to overhaul them to mitigate risks. We probably won't have much free time soon."
Evernight felt not the slightest psychological burden about turning down such an offer.
As for Demiurge, Evernight had talked her into sharing that same lack of burden.
"...You're really going through with it?"
"Of course. After being hunted for so many years, did you really think I had no temper?"
Evernight's smile was dangerous.
Judging by how she'd killed a whole host of Memokeepers without a second thought, Evernight was clearly the type who had no qualms when it came to action.
If she were given an option to topple the Garden of Recollection, she probably wouldn't care how heavy the price.
Thankfully, 'Cyrene's' own moral standards weren't that high either—after all, they weren't directly harming anyone.
"Do as you like. Just be careful."
"Don't worry. I value this chance more than you think, and I want to fail even less than you do."
With such a favorable situation, Evernight was definitely aiming to make a big gamble.
If not overthrowing the Garden, then at least establishing an organization capable of standing against it.
Amphoreus certainly had potential...
--+--
After seeing off Evernight and Demiurge, 'Cyrene' didn't even have time to catch her breath before Herta grabbed her to start on overtime.
This time, following the previously discussed plan, they intended to start from scratch and reorganize Fuli's logic.
Though the workload increased, the geniuses were buzzing with enthusiasm.
A brand new archive began to take shape.
Evolution from the initial chaos began, incorporating everything.
Except Fuli.
Ruan Mei condensed Fuli's proto-body into a seed.
A seed destined to witness the cosmos.
Then, using the proto-bodies of other Aeons, she propelled the entire Simulated Universe forward.
Accuracy and realism were temporarily set aside.
Even the developments beyond the Fourth Instant remained a chaotic unknown.
No—heck, the simulation might just reach its end before even getting to the Fourth Instant.
But it didn't matter much.
After all, they weren't trying to build something that could predict the future.
And besides, even the Erudition can't calculate accurately anymore. Even if they succeeded, what use would it be?
This thing's efficiency couldn't possibly surpass Nous's.
Within the Simulated Universe, the world kept hurtling toward its final end.
And no matter how you looked at it, this world had become utterly miserable.
One misstep, and it was the end.
The Aeon proto-bodies inserted into it continuously adjusted the cosmos according to their respective settings.
But ultimately, the Simulated Universe read a certain possibility from those chaotic Memoria masses and computed it as the Finality of this operation.
The Harmony became the culprit that triggered the Finality.
All distinctions between individuals vanished. Every will, under Xipe's symphony, achieved unity.
In the end, the entire cosmos, beneath that harmonizing crescendo, undoubtedly marched toward its finale.
And when this computational result reached the point where all things returned to chaos, the buried seed finally sprouted.
The individual that had witnessed everything sought to inherit the memory of the entire universe.
And in that moment, within the Simulated Universe, it carved out the Path of Remembrance and became the one and only Fuli.
The process was paused here.
As for what process Fuli actually underwent at that logical starting point to achieve birth—no one knew.
As long as the logic was sound and Fuli could be born, then this timeline was a viable possibility.
And 'Cyrene' was, at this very moment, stuffed by Herta into the interior of the Simulated Universe, replacing the simulated Fuli within it.
And based on this logic, they once again attempted to close the causal loop to complete this entirely new cosmic simulation.
--+--