"What... what is going on? Who am I?"
"Don't doubt it. You are Michael. You are me, and I am you."
The white shadow had completely fallen away from the other Michael. He spread his hands as if it were a simple matter requiring little thought.
Michael looked at him, then down at his own reflection in the starfield below, suddenly unable to distinguish the boundary between reality and illusion.
"If you can't tell the difference, you can think of me as Finality, though that would be somewhat disappointing."
Finality seemed to see right through Michael's thoughts. Perhaps the Authority of Sentience was no barrier to him, or perhaps, as he claimed, he was Michael, and naturally knew what Michael would think.
"What? What are you still hesitating about? Are you suspecting I'm deceiving you with my Authority? You possess the Authority of Sentience too; you should be able to sense that none of this is false."
He was right, but for Michael, the existence of another version of himself wasn't particularly terrifying; the fact that Finality's authority had already been usurped wasn't particularly despairing; the possibility that everything he had done was merely part of some predetermined fate couldn't completely break him either.
But what happened when all three combined?
Michael looked up again, but took a step back.
He did possess the Authority of Sentience, but facing the unknown Finality, how could he know the other wasn't suppressing him with a higher-level authority, making it impossible for him to discern truth from falsehood?
"Alright, alright. I know this whole story is bizarre, but… you'd better just accept it!"
As the words fell, a massive amount of information was forcibly crammed into Michael's mind.
It was Finality—no, it was Michael's own truth, the truth of hundreds of billions of fifty-thousand-year cycles, hundreds of billions of reincarnations.
But such a truth… was impossible…
"No, impossible… The universe has only existed for 13.8 billion years, and the Moon formed between 4.4 and 4.6 billion years ago… How could there be hundreds of billions of cycles!"
"Oh? Is your imagination really so limited? Across endless cycles, Finality's tendrils have long spread throughout the entire universe. The whole universe is within my control. If not for that, there would be no need for the Honkai; perhaps aliens would have destroyed Earth already? And the flow of time on the Moon is naturally under my control too. The only exception is the space near the Finality Crater, because that's the node connecting me to the outside world, unaffected by the cycles."
Michael was momentarily speechless.
Origin diverging from Finality, Origin gaining its own consciousness, diverging from Finality—or rather, Elysia descending into the mortal world—was never something that "had to happen."
According to Mei, the probability of Elysia's birth was astronomically low, something like one times ten to the power of negative fifty-something.
This meant that if she hadn't happened to be born in this specific era, the possibility of meeting Elysia…
Was virtually nonexistent.
But Michael had succeeded. His luck was indeed good enough. It only took hundreds of billions of cycles to get one chance to meet Elysia.
However… there was one more thing that needed clarification beforehand:
"Michael, you, me, we were never some outsiders who transmigrated here. We are merely personalities born from the quantum entanglement of someone's consciousness with the Cocoon of Finality. That's all."
"No, that's impossible!"
Almost everything Michael thought he knew had been shattered. While adding this one more blow didn't change much overall, he still instinctively resisted, unwilling and afraid to accept these facts.
"Don't you feel it yourself? How much attachment do you have to your so-called 'past life memories'? Have you ever felt even a shred of longing for the world, parents, or family in those 'past life memories'? How much interest do you have in the parts of those memories unrelated to this world?"
"I…"
"Wake up, Michael. Those aren't your memories. If you still don't believe me, try to recall: in your so-called 'past life memories,' is your own name anywhere to be found?"
Michael couldn't refute it. He could only do as "Finality" suggested, simultaneously using the Authority of Sentience to repair his own consciousness—which was being battered to the point of near dissolution by the memories of hundreds of billions of fifty-thousand-year cycles—while searching for his own name within the "past life memories" he'd possessed since birth.
But just as Finality implied, no matter how hard he searched, wherever his original name should have been in those memories, there was only a layer of fog. If he tried to force his way through the fog to find the truth, the only name he could retrieve was "Michael."
It was as if he was destined to be called this name from birth.
But given the civilization depicted in his memories, it was impossible for him to be named Michael.
"I… I…"
If the appearance of Finality Michael had merely made him doubt the uniqueness of his "I," it hadn't dealt an irreversible blow to his worldview—after all, he himself had used clones; he had seen the Elysia and Mei from Bubble Universes; Su had even shown him Michaels from other worlds. He wasn't incapable of accepting another version of himself…
But when he was forced to admit that the memories proving his origin were merely someone else's, his so-called "self" ceased to exist.
Because it meant that when he first arrived in this world, his goodwill towards it, his affinity and admiration for the Flame-Chasers, and his love for Elysia—none of it stemmed from his own desires. It was all forcibly imposed upon him, telling him—
You must do this.
"No! That's wrong! If I wasn't a transmigrated consciousness, then how did I escape Finality's grasp back then?"
"Because I am Finality. If I want myself to escape Finality's grasp, isn't that simple?" — Michael resolved that if the other gave an answer like this, he would attack immediately.
Because he knew clearly that his method of escaping Finality's grasp wasn't through the other's charity, but by genuinely exploiting a loophole in the rules.
Evidence from multiple Bubble Universes showed that the boy named Michael did exist, that his consciousness in the prime world truly died in the First Honkai Eruption, and the Sixth Honkai Eruption proved that, with preparation, this method was effective for every Herrscher.
However, the other Michael disappointed him—
"Oh? You mean Michael No. 2? Simple. He is also Michael. Or rather, within the entity known as 'Michael,' he and you share the same kind of existence. In fact, my relationship with him is even closer."
"What exactly do you mean? If you really are Michael too, then speak plainly, stop talking in riddles. You should know Michael dislikes ambiguity."
Truth be told, he was getting impatient. While time didn't exist in the Imaginary Space, just as Earth's time looped within fifty thousand years while the Moon could record its flow, time in the real world was passing at an unknown rate.
And the authority of the Twelfth Herrscher hadn't arrived yet. It was still rampaging on Earth, causing untold damage to humanity.
Compared to him, Finality Michael seemed much calmer, almost as if it didn't concern him.
Right. He had, after all, lived through hundreds of billions of fifty-thousand-year cycles, becoming a "god." Such an immense span of time was enough to turn an optimist into a lifeless husk, or a stable person into someone mad and neurotic.
But regardless of the outcome, one thing was certain—in his heart, aside from the obsession with saving Elysia, his self, the world, none of it mattered anymore.
Thinking carefully, his attitude towards Michael was indeed somewhat playful, like deliberately teasing someone with one vague riddle after another.
After all… Michael was the only person he could talk to in these hundreds of billions of fifty-thousand-year cycles.
Even if… it was just another version of himself.
"Alright, I might as well spell it out."
Finality Michael shrugged and said:
"To be precise, in the era you're familiar with, there have been five instances of time interference—yes, the anchor point for the first time interference was when you were ten years old."
"Even as Finality, I must abide by the rules imposed by the Imaginary Tree. To allow him to contain Finality's authority, I had to make him a Herrscher right from the start. Unexpectedly, due to the world's rules, he didn't even survive the First Honkai Eruption."
"So I had no choice but to set an anchor point before he became the First Herrscher, rewind time to that point, and use the remaining part of my personality to create Michael No. 3, which is you. This way, I could exploit the loophole in the world's rules. Regardless of whether your consciousness or his was erased the moment the Herrscher consciousness was born, the result would be the birth of the Herrscher of Humanity—Michael."
Heh, that made sense. Although Finality was, in a way, a god beyond human imagination, he still existed within this world and had to be bound by its rules…
If he were truly an omniscient, omnipotent god, he wouldn't need to go through all this painstaking effort. He could probably just snap his fingers, stretch languidly, and the Honkai would vanish completely, and Elysia wouldn't have to die.
The fact that he didn't do so clearly indicated he was constrained by some rule, preventing him from eliminating the Honkai, or perhaps even if he did, it wouldn't yield the desired outcome.
What rule could it be?
Michael quickly recalled the conclusion Su had drawn from observing Bubble Universes—if the Honkai didn't exist, then Elysia wouldn't exist either.
"Wait, you said… the remaining part of my personality… What does that mean?"
Michael seemed to have caught a loophole in his words, a flicker of meaningless excitement rising within him.
Finality gave a sarcastic smile. "Is that hard to understand? To ensure the plan's success rate, I naturally chose certain traits traditionally considered more suitable for a 'protagonist' to shape Michael No. 2—like decisiveness, rationality, optimism."
"And you, No. 3, are the personality I molded by combining the remaining, less desirable traits I had left—hesitation, emotionality, pessimism, and so on."
"So, during the few days when both you and No. 2 existed simultaneously, my consciousness was in a chaotic state. Of course, after No. 2's consciousness was erased by the world's rules, the personality traits belonging to him returned to me."
"Therefore, you can think of me as Michael No. 2 if you like. Therefore, our current state isn't necessarily creator and created. Rather, it's more like we jointly divided everything that belonged to the original Michael—personality, body, and authority."
"You… I… You, did the original Michael have to split his personality? Couldn't you use the Authority of Sentience to copy it?"
Michael finally couldn't resist voicing the thought. If all the other Herrscher cores were merely Finality's projections in other dimensions, then it wasn't strange for him to possess the Authority of Sentience. The fact that he could split personalities and create clones already proved he possessed at least the Authorities of Sentience and Domination.
But if so, couldn't he just copy his entire consciousness? Why did he have to break apart his original personality?
"Is that hard to understand?"
Finality Michael tilted his head, expressing surprise at Michael's confusion.
And as Michael looked into his eyes, he finally, belatedly, understood the other self's thinking—
"After all… this is the possibility of meeting Ely that I obtained after hundreds of billions of cycles. How could I bear to hand such an opportunity over to a mere copy of myself? Even if I can't meet her as my complete, true self, it must still be half of me."
Michael pursed his lips, feeling a wave of complex emotions.
He even wanted to rush forward recklessly, clap him on the shoulder, and comfort this other self—if everything he said was true, this was the single chance bought with hundreds of billions of fifty-thousand-year cycles of solitude!
Hundreds of billions of fifty-thousand-year cycles! Equivalent to hundreds of trillions of lifetimes! A mere five thousand, or fifty thousand years is enough to erode anyone's consciousness and personality completely. Even with the aid of the Authority of Sentience, even maintaining prolonged solitude to avoid external influence, preserving one's self over such an immense duration is practically impossible.
And the original Michael did it. And the almost impossible Elysia appeared.
But in the end, he was the one who met Elysia.
Although he was indeed part of the real Michael, by now, he and the Michael before him were distinctly separate beings…
As for the hundreds of billions of worlds he destroyed, Michael didn't know how to judge. He only felt the weight on his shoulders grow heavier, yet he didn't know how to evaluate this other self—
Precisely because he was also Michael, he understood. Those memories brought him not just love for Elysia alone, but admiration, regret, and… love for the entire world, the entire era, the entire Fire Moth organization, all the Flame-Chasers.
But to gain something, something must be given. And in hundreds of billions of choices, for the almost impossible chance of Elysia appearing, he chose, time and time again, to personally extinguish that admiration, regret, and love.
Until he became numb to it all, feeling no love for anything or anyone besides Elysia.
Until he became someone who lived only for Elysia…
But asking himself honestly, as the other him in this world, even after experiencing so much with this era and these people, would he truly have made a different decision?
Michael couldn't make any guarantees… because he was Michael too…
However—being unable to judge, being able to understand, did not mean agreement, did not mean acceptance, and did not mean forgiveness.
But at this moment, what could he possibly do to make amends for everything?
"Then… how can you prove all this to me? I can't possibly believe mere words. At least give me some… evidence to prove what you're saying."
Finality Michael smiled upon hearing this. He could see that Michael actually already believed his words and the memories he had provided. His request for evidence wasn't born out of suspicion.
Rather, after such a massive shock, although he deeply believed the facts, he still couldn't accept them wholeheartedly.
He still held onto a sliver of hope, hoping this was all just an illusion cast upon him by Finality.
But he also understood that if Finality could truly plunge him into an illusion so silently, why would he need to do all this?
But… "If you absolutely must have evidence, it's not hard to find. After all… I haven't lied."
"…"
"Remember the Bubble Universes?"
"Which one?"
"Hmm? Forget it, perhaps that's too broad. Let's talk about the one you anchored within yourself, the one that will soon become the Elysian Realm, and the one Su observed, where the Honkai Eruption only occurred after you and Elysia reached adulthood—those two Bubble Universes are actually residual images left after the destruction of the world from before the first time interference in this era."
Michael ground his back teeth. If he remembered correctly, the Elysia from the Bubble Universe had once told him that the Michael she knew lost his original consciousness after becoming the First Herrscher, and she killed him with her own hands.
His chest heaved rapidly. Seeing this, Finality Michael knew he still wasn't fully convinced.
So he took a step forward and offered the second piece of evidence—
"If that's still not enough to convince you. Then… what about the Moon?"
"The Moon?"
"Correct. Earth's time is trapped in an endless loop. But as Earth's satellite, the Moon—specifically, the space near the Finality Crater—has faithfully recorded everything. You saw the inscription Mei erected on the Moon, didn't you? Also, the Divine Key beneath the Finality Crater. Although I deliberately set fate to ensure the general circumstances of each cycle, due to the uncertainty of quantum motion, Herrscher authorities can't be perfectly identical. But the Divine Key under the Finality Crater…"
"Could it be… two hundred fifty thousand years… Could it be!"
"Exactly. Corresponding perfectly to the five time interferences—which is, in a way, reincarnation!"
"No… This… No…"
Could it be… Could this era have already been destroyed five times?
"You can certainly understand it that way, though it's slightly different. Origin is part of Finality, after all. After losing Elysia, I could no longer truly reverse fifty thousand years of time."
"What I did was merely patch up the timeline of this era. But that place seemed to have adapted to the fifty-thousand-year fluctuations during previous cycles. So whenever I interfered with Earth's time, the time there automatically adjusted forward by fifty thousand years."
"Furthermore, the space near the Finality Crater itself, shattered by my countless battles with humanity, paradoxically reflected illusions from the Bubble Universes corresponding to each time interference."
After saying all this, the last trace of a smile vanished from Finality Michael's face.
"Well? All your questions have been answered. Now, we should begin the final step."