"Welcome to my world, Sixth Herrscher."
The Herrscher glared angrily. She seemed to want to say something, but the space around her was tightly bound by Mikael. She could only make "woo woo" sounds.
"Tch, every time I come here, I seem to become a chatterbox..."
Mikael mocked himself for a moment, and then activated his powers without hesitation.
Compared to the Second Herrscher's core, his affinity with the Third Herrscher's core wasn't very high. The Third Herrscher core he constructed now was already version number who-knows-what, but he still couldn't completely exert the strength that the Third Herrscher had once displayed.
Naturally, he couldn't strengthen the emitted electromagnetic waves to a state of ionizing radiation.
But it didn't matter. Inside this imaginary space that had been forcibly cut off by Mikael, he held almost complete authority. Many things that were impossible to do outside could be done easily here.
Under the formless ionizing radiation, the Sixth Herrscher's cells all over her body began to die. Even though she tried her best to divide her cells, she still couldn't keep up with the speed at which they were dying.
"Ugh!"
Her anger quickly turned to fear. Her eyes, filled with despair and anticipation, looked towards the crimson sky above.
Mikael couldn't help but follow her gaze. Inside this imaginary space, the man-made definition of "direction" didn't exist. So Mikael couldn't use "direction" to determine what the Sixth Herrscher was looking at.
But almost at the same moment that he looked towards the sky, a gaze, although it was extremely well-hidden, but impossible to ignore, looked back at him.
He didn't actually see anything, but he definitely felt like he had been stared at by something, causing his whole body to tremble instantly.
That feeling, it was like the night that he became the First Herrscher, when he was unarmed and suddenly encountered that advanced-class Honkai beast--both terrified and helpless.
There was even a hint of… familiarity?
But all of those feelings mysteriously disappeared.
It was like the tide had risen and fallen, leaving behind only a slightly darker mark on the wet sand.
When Mikael's mind returned to the present, he found that the Sixth Herrscher's power seemed to have been strengthened.
The speed at which her cells divided had suddenly multiplied, far surpassing the speed at which ionizing radiation was killing her cells--if this continued, the Herrscher would be able to return to her original state in less than a minute!
"How can this be! Did she reconnect to the Imaginary Tree and gain energy? But shouldn't she just be an illusion in a bubble world? No, but... she was able to connect to the Imaginary Tree before and form a core again… what kind of setting is this!"
But before Mikael could think of a solution, the Sixth Herrscher's abnormal state disappeared, and the speed at which her cells divided quickly slowed down, even slower than before.
"Huh? Did she get her cheat codes disabled?"
Although Mikael was extremely surprised, how could he let such a great opportunity go? He directly supercharged the ionizing radiation. As the last cell in the Sixth Herrscher's body died, she gradually turned to ashes and drifted away, leaving only the water-blue gem behind.
Mikael picked up the gem. The scenery before him quickly changed, and he was soon back in the bubble world, his two feet overlapping with the footprint he had left in front of Ellie.
He raised the Herrscher core and waved it in front of Elysia as if to show off:
"Look! I took care of it! Looks like my method still works best!"
His eyes were still slightly red, and there were still tear stains on his face, but under the light of the Herrscher core, he clearly saw that Elysia was the same. She was just using a smile to hide everything.
She stepped forward a little, took a deep breath, and asked, "So, are you going to leave now?"
"…" Mikael pondered for a moment and shook his head, "No, although I can leave now, I still have some questions I want to ask Mei."
"Cough cough!"
The night wind was getting stronger and stronger. Even though she was wrapped in the coat Kevin had left behind, Mei was still shivering from the cold. She could only use the collar to cover half of her face, coughing constantly.
Her physical condition wasn't good, judging from her overall constitution, but she seemed to have some kind of indescribable talent—for example, the spatial fluctuations in front of her.
Sure enough, as she slowly raised her head, Mikael and Ellie crossed through a spatial rift and appeared in front of her.
Seeing Elysia's unharmed figure, she raised an eyebrow, looking a little incredulous.
"You've taken care of it?"
"Yeah, here's the core."
Mikael reached out his hand, but Mei didn't take it.
It was then that he suddenly realized--for this world, the Sixth Herrscher's core was already irrelevant.
"So, you came back here… is there still a question you wanted to ask me?"
Mei didn't ask how Mikael had managed to avoid that unsolvable choice. It was meaningless.
"I want to know the time and location of the Fourth Honkai Impact and Fifth Honkai Impact."
"Oh? So your world has only just passed the Third Honkai Impact?"
When she thought of that point in time, Mei couldn't help but sigh.
Before the Third Honkai Impact, she and Kevin were still carefree students. Many others were the same. But the Third Honkai Impact had changed a lot... no, perhaps that was originally their predetermined destiny.
So, without much hesitation, Mei stated the time and coordinates of the two Honkai Impacts, but she still didn't forget to remind him, "The development of the Honkai has a randomness to it… or let me put it another way, quanta will collapse due to your observation, and the development of world lines is the same way. The development of your world can't fully correspond with the development of our world, so those two data points are just for reference."
"Hmm… Hmm…"
Mikael responded casually, seeming a little distracted.
He was clearly thinking about something else. So, Mei didn't say anything, and instead gave Ellie a look--she was still unable to contain her curiosity and wanted to know what exactly had happened.
But she had only taken two steps when Mikael spoke again:
"Dr. Mei, I think my previous assessment was wrong."
"Huh?"
Mei turned her head, her expression gradually becoming serious--this was the first time that Mikael had added the honorific "Doctor" to her name.
Mikael rested his chin on his hand, and said each word clearly, "My previous expression may have been wrong too, maybe the bubble worlds aren't all illusions… uh, it looks like I need to re-explain things:
"Imagine a tree. The countless worlds are the branches and leaves on that tree. We'll call this the Imaginary Tree. And the Imaginary Tree grows in a sea. That sea is the Sea of Quanta.
"The sea and the tree compete for nutrients. As such, there will be withered leaves that fall into the water. In the water are countless tiny bubbles. The bubbles reflect the leaves that fell in. Those are bubble worlds."
Whether it was that Mei was too intelligent, or that this metaphor that Mikael had plagiarized was too vivid, she had already understood what Mikael was trying to say:
"Are you saying that those bubbles that reflect illusions are bubble worlds, but that not all bubble worlds are like that? The leaves that have fallen into the water have already gone down a path of irreversible decline, but they may not just fall into the water all at once. In the places where they haven't been fully immersed in the seawater of the Sea of Quanta, they might form a world that is similar to a bubble world?"
"Correct, but there's no prize for being right." Mikael said quickly while constantly biting his fingernails, "Because, strictly speaking, it's not necessarily objectively correct. But your world is indeed different from a typical reflection. Even if it really is a reflection, it's a very… very… very awesome one."
This sudden use of down-to-earth language made both Mei and Ellie's mouths twitch, but Mikael didn't notice. He was still talking quickly: "The main issue lies in two points: first, you are people who can interact and have their own thoughts. This is different from a typical reflection. In my understanding, many bubble worlds probably only leave behind a few sentences of images. Interaction is completely impossible.
"Second, remember how the Herrscher re-formed her core after it was taken away? As a fellow Herrscher, I can say with certainty that this was because the Herrscher was still connected to the Imaginary Tree and was able to obtain the power again from the Imaginary Tree. If it were a normal bubble world, I think it should have stopped at that. However, there are also many things called Imaginary Husks in the Sea of Quanta… and after the Herrscher died, this world didn't immediately start over…"
"Forget it. The more I explain, the more confusing it gets. In short, you may not be as simple as illusions..."
"So..."
"So..." Mei followed and adjusted her glasses.
"So..." Elysia couldn't help but stand on her tiptoes.
"Well..." Mikael hummed a sound, quickly turning his head away, leaving only a profile. "So... I want to keep this world."
This was the question he had been contemplating and exploring--the structure of this bubble world was stable, and its position in "space" was also fixed. This meant that it was one of the rare bubble worlds that possessed an ether anchor point.
And the location of that anchor point--Mikael lightly stamped his foot. The heel of his boots hit the building, making a crisp sound.
If that were the case, it would also mean that Mikael could do what a certain dumb goose had done and turn the ether anchor point, along with the entire bubble world, inside of himself...
Although he didn't understand the principle behind this, thanks to the Herrscher of the Void's power… or rather, his "I'll-just-figure-it-out-with-my-gut" power, he was able to complete this task.
The reason why he did this wasn't because of his emotions.
He was very clear that this Ellie wasn't that Ellie, and he couldn't think with emotion forever.
He couldn't turn the power of the bubble world into Star Armor for battle either--one, he didn't know how to do it, and two, as a Herrscher, he didn't seem to need to do so.
What truly attracted him to this bubble world was this-- the area was neither too big nor too small, and there were almost no humans, which made it perfect to use as a battleground.
That's right, he wanted to use this bubble world to replace the imaginary space that he had cut off, and make it "his world".
It had happened twice already. Twice he had dragged opponents into that world and each time, he had a feeling that he was being watched. That made him feel a newfound sense of caution.
And, although that was a space that had been cut off by him, it was still an imaginary space and was connected to the Imaginary Tree in an indescribable way. If the opponents were also Herrschers, Mikael was worried that the other Herrschers might accidentally connect to the Imaginary Tree in the imaginary space and obtain greater powers.
But none of that was a problem with this bubble world.
However...
"What price do we need to pay?"
The benefits were obvious. The world would be preserved, and life would be prolonged--of course, all of that seemed unnecessary for a civilization that had already been destroyed.
What was the price then?
"I… I might throw some strange things into this bubble world, or pull some people in to fight..."
"That's not a problem." Mei knew that this was just the appetizer.
"I… if the situation forces me to, I might need the help of you and Ellie."
"Oh?"
"Okay, to prevent you from dying for various reasons, causing the bubble world to collapse or start over, I'll stop the movement of space in this entire bubble world…
"And this Sixth Herrscher's core can be the foundation to operate this world's authority. Although I can't completely analyze it, I can still have close to one-thousandth of the Sixth Herrscher's power. I'll freeze your cells' movements together with it.
"But..."
Mikael couldn't bring himself to say the words that followed.
"But, it's not enough to form all 'movement' by only using space, cells, and even electromagnetic waves, heat, and Honkai energy. Which means that time will not actually stop. The most obvious sign would be that our consciousnesses will continue to run as they normally do until our will collapses, and we turn into nothing, right?"
Mei stated the words that Mikael was hesitating to say so bluntly.
"Yes… Wait, no! I promise, just give me five years. In five years, I'll have the power to control consciousness. Then, this won't be a problem anymore."
"It seems like you know a lot…" Mei took off her glasses and smiled: "I agree!"
"I agree too! After all, you can be said to have fulfilled a maiden's wish!"
"You guys…"
Mikael raised his head. Someone had once told him that doing so would stop his tears from falling.
"What kind of strange logic is that? It'll just make them overflow!"
"But you need to give me some time. You probably can't stop artificial intelligence from running, right? I need to set up some tasks first. These five years can't be wasted for nothing. At the very least, I need to do something to contribute to your world's victory over the Honkai!"
It was hard to imagine that those words were spoken by Mei. After all, it was completely illogical. Because in Mikael's view, only consciousness would be able to function normally. What was the difference between that and a vegetable? Wasn't this a kind of torture?
"Oh my! Don't make that face! Are you thinking that this is too cruel for us?" Ellie smiled and took his hand. "Actually, for Mei, she should be wanting this very much! For a scientist, your proposal means that she can have five whole years to think, calculate, and verify her guesses about the truth without being disturbed by anything trivial."
"Then, what about you… Elysia?"
"As for me… I also want to talk to you occasionally, and if there is a chance, I super duper want to see the Elysia in your world!"
"Yeah... that day will come."
Mikael stood alone on top of the building. The night was gradually fading away, and on the eastern horizon, the first rays of sunlight had torn through the curtain of darkness.
But the next moment, everything visible stopped moving.
Only a pair of footprints remained on top of the building.
......
"So… you were only in there two hours earlier than us, but you've experienced two days in that world!"
Kevin clicked his tongue in amazement.
Mikael only selectively talked about some of the things that happened in that world. He didn't even mention Mei or Ellie's name.
He looked at Kevin, who was standing on the tidal waves of ether blocks, not even paying attention to the fact that he was in the Sea of Quanta, and was looking around like a curious baby. A fire instantly flared up in Mikael's heart.
He hadn't imagined that Kevin and Hua would dare to follow him in. It was also his fault that he hadn't even considered that he would accidentally stumble upon the entrance to the Sea of Quanta, and hadn't even managed to leave a word for Hua.
But these two had good luck. They fell into the Sea of Quanta and came out unscathed, and they hadn't gotten separated…
Of course, Kevin's luck was even more outrageous. When he was sucked into a spatial rift, he wasn't torn to pieces. And when he came out, he was thrown into the Void barrier, avoiding the fate of being squashed by the water pressure…
Mikael could only say: "This man completely defies logic!"
All logic, laws, and theorems, they all seem to completely fail when they come across this guy... Well, he couldn't say that. At least, gravity didn't fail.
He still needed to teach them a lesson. He raised his hand and gave them a flick on their foreheads.
"Ouch!"
"My Kevin giegie! You can't just step wherever you want! Do you know that if a hundred million people are thrown into this place, nine hundred ninety-nine million nine hundred ninety-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine will die?"
"Wait! Mikael, why did you only hit me! What about Hua?"
"She's a girl, and she's younger than you."
Kevin glanced at Hua without making a sound, then he lowered his head and accepted his reality.
"Alright! I was originally worried that my Void barrier wouldn't last long enough. Now that you're all here in the Sea of Quanta, let's act together. But Kevin… this part, you have to keep it a secret after we return to Fire Moth!"
Mikael glanced at the countless bubble worlds. He and Kalpas had fallen into the Sea of Quanta together. The absolute distance between them shouldn't be too great.
"Found it! Bro Kalpas, I'm coming!"