Logically speaking, at this point, everyone should have been gathered inside the hibernation pods, preparing to enter sleep according to plan.
But the sudden alarm interrupted everything. The clamor of footsteps quickly filled the once silent headquarters base.
Yet when Hua and Pardo stumbled out of Michael's office, dazed, they didn't know where to assemble.
As Flame-Chasers, they had the right to directly enter the command center and participate in decision-making. But in the past, both had more often followed the regulations for ordinary MANTISes, gathering at Anti-Entropy's training grounds.
But under the current circumstances, was there really any need to follow regulations? Many had already laid down in the hibernation pods ahead of schedule. The command center's smart devices were mostly smashed. Anti-Entropy's training grounds hadn't been cleaned in nearly three months due to the suspicion cast upon the MANTISes…
It seemed wrong to assemble anywhere; perhaps assembling itself had lost all meaning.
Fortunately, hurried footsteps echoed from the end of the corridor. A sudden chill made both girls shiver, and the dim corridor light reflected off the newcomer's white hair.
"Kevin?"
"Hm. You two are here too?"
Since Mobius performed several supplementary surgeries on him, reversing his body temperature, he hadn't exuded that bone-chilling cold for a long time. But this time was an exception.
He, Hua, and Pardo stood there, looking at each other silently. They all understood what the arrival of Finality might mean.
Soon, Eden, who had left earlier, returned. Then came Sakura, Su, Mobius, Aponia, Kalpas, Vill-V… Almost all the Flame-Chasers, guided by tacit understanding, quickly arrived at the command center.
Finally, Mei rushed in with some staff from the intelligence and strategy departments. Only ten minutes had passed since the alarm first sounded.
Within Fire Moth, already having lost almost all hope, its members fragmented, such a rapid assembly might seem commendable to some.
But if one carefully counted the heads, fewer than thirty people were present. And listening closely, after Mei's arrival, the entire base fell back into near-deathly silence. This meant that even though nearly thirty thousand ordinary soldiers survived within Fire Moth, they were unwilling to fight this final battle.
Yes, why bother?
Dr. Mei, based on her research of residual phenomena from the Divine Key within the Finality Crater, had assured everyone that Finality's authority most likely couldn't affect the Divine Keys.
Meaning, as long as they buried their heads like ostriches in the hibernation pods of the Fifth Divine Key, quietly waiting for Finality to arrive, quietly waiting for Finality to destroy the world, quietly waiting for the radiation outside to dissipate, and finally emerging to rebuild civilization—wouldn't that be fine?
Why fight Finality?
If it was to save the civilization they once sought to protect, that civilization was already dead. Even defeating Finality couldn't bring anything back.
And if it was to forge a new civilization, hiding in the Divine Key was sufficient. Why go seek death?
Mei believed this was the thought process of the vast majority, even for most Flame-Chasers, they likely harbored similar sentiments.
The reason they were willing to appear here was perhaps only because…
Mei had once relayed Michael's words to them—
He was going to prevent the arrival of Finality. If Finality truly arrived, it most likely meant he had failed.
Some of them came here less with the intention to fight, and more to confirm the failure and death of a certain person, and of course, another person.
And the root cause of all this was ultimately that humanity had lost to Corruption, and also lost to itself.
Although Mei could use countless excuses to console herself and others, and perhaps others accepted those excuses, ultimately, Mei couldn't shirk the responsibility that belonged to her.
She was, after all, the leader of humanity, the leader of Fire Moth. When an army is defeated, even if the soldiers feel the commander did nothing wrong, does the commander truly bear no responsibility for the defeat?
No… They hadn't completely failed yet!
Mei pressed her lips together, just about to say something, when chaotic footsteps suddenly sounded again from the corridor outside the command center.
A few seconds later, a head of bluish-grey choppy hair peeked around the doorframe, offering the crowd a strained smile:
"Aiyo? We're not late, are we?"
Ato and Blanka walked confidently into the command center. Kosma and Dystopia followed silently behind them. And trailing behind them was a little tail, clearly Griseo.
The common feature among the five was that they were all wearing bulky spacesuits.
"You… how…"
Mei's mouth opened, momentarily forgetting what order she was about to give. The others present were also startled by their appearance.
Mei had slightly altered Michael's plan. The Carabia siblings, originally slated for Project Ark, were ordered to take the newly developed cutting weapon into the Sea of Quanta to search for the Mu continent Bubble Universe.
Project Ark ultimately, as if by fate, fell to Ato's family, along with Dystopia and Kosma—the five of them.
According to the plan, the spaceship carrying them was scheduled to launch one hour before the Hibernation Vault officially activated. But now…
"Plans change! Anyway, with the current situation, the rocket probably can't launch on time. Might as well come see what this so-called Finality thing is all about."
"…"
Mei took a deep breath. As her chest rose, a harsh sound like a bellows echoed in her ears.
She instinctively touched her chest, but quickly realized—the sound wasn't coming from her breathing.
She quickly looked around. Neither the Flame-Chasers nor the ordinary soldiers seemed to know the source of the sudden noise. Only in the next moment, when a heavy, slow exhale followed, did everyone belatedly look up.
But above them was only the silver-grey metal ceiling, nothing else.
Suddenly, Mei felt someone beside her. She shifted her gaze and saw a pair of doll-like hands placed on the command center console.
The next moment, the main screen of the command center lit up again, quickly switching to the feed from the camera left on the surface.
"Doctor, you all left rather quickly…"
"No. 17!"
No time for further words, Mei turned her attention to the main screen. The pervasive noise made the image somewhat blurry, but didn't obscure the overall picture.
But when they clearly saw the night sky… no, the night sky no longer existed.
The night sky that had accompanied humanity for tens of thousands of years was replaced by a colossal face. Its skin was deathly pale. Blood-red, cross-shaped star pupils cast a vacant gaze towards a point on the surface below that held no real significance.
It breathed subconsciously, yet it also seemed to be weeping. The piercing sound didn't reach everyone's ears through air vibrations, but rather seemed to resonate directly within their hearts.
"What… is this…"
Despite the vast distance, despite the screen, many subconsciously took a step back. But for many others, their gazes grew increasingly shocked—
"Isn't that… Michael!?"
Although the skin was unnaturally pale, although the pupil shape and color, and the entire facial expression were vastly different, the identical features made it effortless to connect this image to Michael.
"Well! Michael is a Herrscher too, after all. Maybe the instruments detected his Honkai energy?"
Kevin didn't state it explicitly, but everyone understood his meaning—
Right! Michael was also a Herrscher. So why couldn't it be that he succeeded in stopping Finality, returned to the Moon, and accidentally triggered the Moon's warning system?
Although everyone wanted to agree with his guess, something felt wrong.
Firstly, being a Herrscher didn't automatically mean abnormal Honkai energy readings. Without using Authorities, identifying a Herrscher by Honkai energy signature alone is difficult. So the question arose: what Authority did Michael use?
Secondly, if it were merely abnormal Honkai energy, that might be plausible. But the current situation involved a massive face floating in the sky! What was that?
Lastly… where was Elysia?
But… for the Flame-Chasers, even though a little thought revealed Kevin's suggested possibility was minuscule, they still didn't immediately dismiss it.
People always need to hold onto some hope, even if they know it's false hope, it's better than no hope at all.
But there was still one non-human entity present, one who wouldn't deceive herself like humans:
"Regarding that point, I suggest everyone not hold out too much hope."
Prometheus spread her hands unromantically.
"When Captain Michael's core operates at full power, the Honkai energy reaction intensity should be around ten thousand HW. In other words, if the reaction intensity is below ten thousand, we cannot rule out the possibility that it is Captain Michael himself."
"You can't be so absolute, can you?"
A cold, viscous voice hissed, like a snake flicking its tongue in the dark:
"What if he underwent his third metamorphosis? Then the Honkai energy reaction would be even stronger."
The speaker was Mobius, which was somewhat surprising, yet perhaps not entirely unexpected.
No. 17 shook her head, extended a clearly jointed finger, and pressed lightly on the console. A red number instantly appeared in the top-left corner of the main screen—
"0? 0 HW? What the hell? Mei, is your detection equipment broken?"
"Hmm?"
Mei ignored Mobius's taunt. She roughly understood why Mobius was acting this way, so she didn't mind.
"This should be due to a formatting issue. Let me switch it."
She walked to the console, quickly typed a line of code, and pressed Enter crisply. The number in the top-left corner flickered, then began flashing rapidly between "0" and "9999999.99".
"Beyond detection range?"
Mobius's face nearly turned as black as the sludge she released in battle. There were things she wasn't unaware of, but she too preferred to cling to an almost impossible possibility.
But now, faced with irrefutable evidence, she couldn't argue, only bite her lower lip tightly until she tasted iron…
"Considering this reaction is so powerful, far exceeding the combined Honkai energy output of the previous twelve Herrscher cores at full power… I believe no further explanation is needed. Rather than believing Michael successfully completed his mission and returned, it's more believable that Finality has descended using his body."
"In fact, this itself is highly probable. Captain Michael's body bears the traces of containing the first eleven Herrscher authorities. Like land with pre-dug riverbeds, when water flows over, it automatically forms rivers."
No. 17 really spoke without a shred of sentiment… And ironically, Mobius herself knew she was correct.
In fact, what No. 17 described might not even be the worst-case scenario—the worst case was… that was Michael. Michael himself.
Perhaps most people were still reeling from the fear induced by Finality's arrival, but Mobius was clear-headed enough. She had already considered the worst possibility, merely refusing to believe it out of stubbornness—
Where was Elysia?
Although she "disliked" the woman intensely, she had to admit Elysia held an incredibly high place in Michael's heart. And she wasn't actually…
She certainly didn't know Michael's complete plan, but from the fragments he left behind, it wasn't hard to guess his original plan didn't require Elysia's participation. And from Mobius's observations, it was clear Elysia also had a plan, one that didn't require Michael.
The end result was that on their wedding night, both vanished without a trace. Although there was no proof, Mobius felt she could hypothesize—Elysia was dead. Elysia no longer existed.
Assuming this premise, coupled with Earth's current state… under these circumstances, Mobius wouldn't be surprised by anything Michael did, even actively becoming Finality to destroy the world.
Moreover, if Finality's authority truly was Time, as Mei, she, and Vill-V had deduced ten days prior, and His method of destroying Earth wasn't true destruction but reincarnation, then this possibility became even stronger.
"Return everything to its initial state, start over, and all mistakes can be rectified."
Mobius strongly suspected this was his thinking, but she didn't know whether to voice this deduction… It seemed, whether she said it or not, it no longer mattered.
Mei also remained silent. She boldly met the gaze of the "Michael" image on the screen, seemingly brewing some emotion, or perhaps making a decision.
But just then, the piercing alarm sounded again.
"What's going on?"
Prometheus pressed her temples, frowning for the first time:
"Doctor! Detected something approaching the base at high speed from underground! Estimated time of arrival… It's already here!"
"Brace for impact!" Kevin shouted, being the first to steady Mei.
But the anticipated impact never came. Not even the slightest tremor.
While everyone was puzzled, a massive white shadow emerged inexplicably from the ground. It seemed like an illusion; passing through people or objects caused no collision. Only those it touched felt a momentary mental daze.
Only after the white shadow disappeared above everyone's heads, and they turned their attention back to the screen, did they realize it was merely a colossal index finger.
"AAAAAAAAAHHH!!"
Screams erupted unexpectedly. After Nuwa started, the few ordinary soldiers from the intelligence and strategy departments Mei had brought all clutched their heads, squatting on the ground and screaming as if they had seen something utterly terrifying.
"Please… be quiet…"
Aponia tried to use her Discipline to counteract the effect of the white shadow, but surprisingly, it had no immediate effect.
"Vill-V, send these people back to the hibernation pods. Aponia, please go check on the situation there too!"
After Mei made her swift decision, she looked back at the main screen. The giant figure obscuring the night sky was gone. The night remained dark, starless.
Only a full moon hung alone in the sky.
The unsettlingly loud breathing sound had also vanished.
"Prometheus, can you access the New Atla feed?"
No. 17 finally disregarded correcting her name. "One moment. I've been trying to access it, but the electromagnetic signal there is somewhat chaotic… Got it."
The main screen went black. At first, Mei thought there was an issue with the camera, but when No. 17 turned the volume to maximum, they could faintly hear the sound of wind.
"The external oxygen shield of the base left by the previous civilization has been destroyed. The air outside New Atla is now thin, so the sound is faint."
Anticipating questions, No. 17 provided the explanation beforehand.
"…"
Kevin scratched his head, swallowing the question he was about to ask.
"Can you switch to other cameras?"
However, No. 17 switched through a dozen cameras. They were either damaged or, like the previous one, showed only a dark, swirling dust storm.
"Negative. The entire far side of the Moon is enveloped in a storm."
As soon as she finished speaking, the Moon seemed to hear her words. The storm abruptly ceased.
And what appeared before people's eyes was a colossal, blood-red cross…
The sound of the wind had died down. Filling the void it left was a powerful heartbeat—
Thump-thump—Thump-thump—Thump-thump—
This sound inevitably reminded people of certain past events. Even Kevin couldn't help but swallow hard. If one looked closely, they could see frost clinging to the hair at his temples—the remnants of cold sweat.
Tap, tap, tap…
Mei lowered her head, tapping the tabletop three times with the knuckle of her middle finger. The Flame-Chasers assumed she was about to give an order. Though filled with mixed emotions, long-ingrained habit made them hold their breath and listen intently.
But Mei let a long silence stretch, until Kalpas clicked his tongue impatiently. Only then did she slam her hand on the console:
"Everyone, this is the last time I will issue an order in the name of the leader of Fire Moth. No. 17, remember to relay my command to everyone inside the hibernation pods—
"This is the final battle for our civilization. After fighting for so long, everyone must be tired. So this time, I won't force anyone anymore."
"If anyone is still willing to make one last, meaningless struggle for our civilization, then gather by the platform of the Second Divine Key in three hours—the time we originally scheduled for hibernation. I will wait for you there."