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"Kaito..."
Hearing the Boss's voice, thin as a thread, Kaito paused. Only then did he remember that he had used his real name when he entered the game.
"Wandering through the world, destroying it so wantonly... do you really have no companions?"
Elysia staggered to her feet. She didn't charge forward to fight; her only goal now was to stall. Every second gained was a victory.
Kaito mused for a moment, barely deciphering the Boss's dialogue through the game's filter. He looked down and muttered a single word: "LOL."
When the Boss's blood-stained hand reached out halfway, Kaito had already retreated two steps, refusing to give her any chance to close the distance.
"To save your own life, you'd even say things like that about 'companions'?"
To show respect—or perhaps to satisfy a gamer's peculiar sense of ritual—Kaito drew his lance, preparing for the final blow.
The Boss's crystal-like eyes made him hesitate again. Honestly, those eyes were beautiful; he'd have to talk to the Boss later about making a character with eyes just like those.
"Goodbye."
The lance pierced through her heart without a ripple of emotion. Kaito was about to move on when his arm was caught by the Boss. Her grip wasn't strong; in fact, it was quite weak.
Kaito didn't mind the blood on his arm. After all, a final Boss deserved some special treatment from a player.
"We..."
For once, the pixelated face seemed to hold a flicker of genuine emotion. A gaze full of resentment seemed to defy the girl's underlying source code...
Who knew? Kaito personally liked characters with distinct personalities. These new-age Bosses were easier to "cheese" anyway.
"We shall meet again in the next cycle," the girl said, staring intently at his face as if trying to etch it into the depths of her soul.
Kaito gave a dry laugh. He couldn't tell if this was a scripted line or if the Boss actually retained data from previous stages.
"I look forward to it."
Standing on the desolate earth, he thrust the lance deeper. Honkai energy surged around the girl in a protective swirl, but it could not change reality.
[The New Maginot Line has completely collapsed.]
[Vill-V should have been treated as a deserter, but... no one cared anymore.]
[What was thought to be the darkest era was merely the prelude to a new turning point.]
[The various continents finally revealed their true military might. Though it was a drop in the bucket, it served as a much-needed shot of adrenaline for the survivors.]
[Elysia is dead. The girl who loved to smile no longer possessed a shred of her former beauty. Under the crushing pressure of the deep sea, a body of flesh and blood simply couldn't hold out. In a universe where output far exceeds durability, it's too easy to be killed by 'cheap' mechanics if you don't have a counter.]
[The newborn Herrscher, however, showed no interest in desecrating the bloody corpse.]
[Elysia's remains became the final piece of the Stigma Project puzzle.]
[Alaya-Vijnana underwent a massive evolution. As the anchor connecting the Stigma Space and reality, the Stigma Terminal—Alaya—truly gained its potential and the power of equivalent exchange after the addition of 'Origin.']
[No constraints, no limits. As the primary designer of Alaya, Vill-V ignored everyone's opinions.]
[The only saving grace was that the Herrscher didn't seem to possess any ultra-large-scale weapons of mass destruction, giving humanity a sliver of time to struggle.]
"But the Stigma Project isn't without its selfish motives," Mei said with a cold laugh.
As a girl forced into solitude, she had her own resentment and obsessions, all of which naturally gathered within this research institute.
Mobius didn't answer. She sat quietly to the side, staring at the dazed Alaya in the distance, as if trying to find a trace of an old friend in her.
"Why can't there be selfish motives?"
Vill-V spoke, her dark circles prominent under her eyes. "I want to see the Honkai die with my own eyes."
Mei continued to sneer. With what? You? The "Great Inventor" who led humanity's greatest hope, Elysia, to her death at the Maginot Line?
Of course, she only sneered internally, because she couldn't actually beat Vill-V in a fight.
"Alright, stop arguing."
Mobius rose slowly and ruffled Alaya's head. Alaya gave a hazy response.
"The selfish motive was my idea."
Mei froze. As a senior she had met at the Mu Continent seminar years ago, Mobius still commanded a degree of respect from her.
"The flesh perishes, and the soul naturally follows. But while the flesh takes thousands of years to decay, the soul takes much longer to fade."
"We cannot reverse this process; we can only record and collect the dust of fallen souls. We cannot return them to their bodies."
"These 'Soul Wanderers' will bloom into miracles once more because of Elysia's possibility."
Without Elysia, this process would have been delayed indefinitely. Finding that connection point was simply too difficult.
"The power of souls will respond to expectations once more through the Stigma Project. I'm simply thinking... that we can all reunite in the future... that's all."
That was her selfish motive. She wanted to witness that era personally. And while she was at it, she wanted her friends—and those who could still shine in the next cycle—to participate in the era of building paradise.
"An 'evil' doctor having such a pure thought?"
Mei continued to nitpick. Do you know how much of the Wanderers' power will be wasted on this single 'reunion' due to the principle of equivalent exchange?
Mobius gazed silently at Mei. Mei stubbornly tilted her head up, meeting her gaze without flinching.
[In the end, it was Mei who backed down. She was too young—too young to involve herself in matters of such magnitude.]
[Though Mobius once described her as a person with perfect control over logic and emotion, she was only sixteen this year... she didn't have that level of resolve yet.]
[A girl in the springtime of youth; even a bookworm has her own prayers. Aside from Mobius, no one cared about the feelings of a sixteen-year-old girl.]
[Human numbers steadily decreased as the Stigma Soldier initiative expanded. Because of the two-pronged approach, the ratio of Stigma Soldiers... rose at an absurd speed.]
[Perhaps humanity really was coming to the end of its thousands of years of dominance.]
[The mechanics of the Herrscher of the Void were simply too broken. And the only 'Holy Maiden' who possessed her own mechanics had buried herself at the New Maginot Line for a sliver of a chance to save everyone—a chance that barely even existed.]
The Moon
"Alaya, it's up to you now. I'm sorry for placing such a heavy burden on the two of you."
Mobius ruffled the girl's head one last time. The girl gave a hazy response.
"Actually, Professor, you should call me the Prometheus Prototype, or Unit 0."
On the vast moon, only two AIs remained: Alaya and Prometheus No. 17. Perhaps more would be added in the future.
But for now, excluding the prototype made from a Herrscher Core, the series hadn't met Mobius's requirements until No. 17.
Mobius's voice was very soft. "No. Compared to those cold numbers, both you and Prometheus should have names of your own."
After a long silence, Alaya took the initiative for the first time, reaching out to grab a corner of the Professor's lab coat.
She looked up. "I still don't understand what to do. If we continue with the previous process, there's a high probability we will repeat the same mistakes."
"Then, in the next cycle, let these two Herrschers appear early. Treat it as an early warning for humanity. And while you're at it, 'lock out' the authorities of these two monsters."
Mobius spoke without much hesitation, as if she had already thought about it ten thousand times.
"Remember to pick a child who's a bit... slower. And if possible, pick some children with tragic lives. Every civilization has people it has failed."
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