"Haha, come on! Let me be the one to pull the first trigger in Vill-V's duel against the Honkai!"
"Starting with me... taking the first bullet."
In that fleeting instant, the phantom train overlapped with the Cosmic Juggernaut. Vill-V's body was pierced by the lance.
The spear rapidly split apart, countless bloodstained branches scattering outward.
However, at the very moment she was impaled, Conductor also drew a small handgun and aimed it at the Herrscher.
"You've fallen into my trap, Herrscher."
"The moment you caught me, I caught you as well!"
Bang!
The authority of the Cosmic Juggernaut tore open space. The bullet spun, and at the very instant it left the barrel, it was already embedded in the Herrscher of Reason's chest.
…
"Found them!" In Laboratory B-2-4, Dr. Einstein, who held the beacon of the Cosmic Juggernaut, quickly locked onto the signals of the two. She immediately activated the preheated spherical gravitational singularity generator.
The spherical gravitational singularity expanded several times over in an instant, devouring all visible matter around it—then collapsed into nothing.
Seeing this, Dr. Tesla's expression turned tense. If a pseudo black hole were operating stably, shouldn't it be continuously outputting gravitational force?
Why did it just flicker once and vanish?
A black hole capable of restraining a Herrscher... was that really all?
"Hey, hey—is this a failure, Chicken-Nest Head?"
"No. We succeeded, Dr. Tesla." Dr. Einstein entered the final closure command into the system and pulled up the pseudo black hole's data. "We are not conducting a pseudo black hole experiment this time, so the parameters are completely different. Only when observing a pseudo black hole do we maintain it in a stable state."
"Our objective this time was to create a renormalization process—nothing more."
"Oh, you mean creating a gravitational anomaly point—a singularity—and then eliminating it?" Tesla's expression grew strange. A "singularity," according to general relativity, should exist. Yet in reality, it should not.
"That's not something humanity's current technology can achieve, is it? Quantum mechanics can't even find the corresponding scale of a singularity. Not even the smallest Planck scale can measure it!"
Generally speaking, renormalization was merely a research method within black hole singularity theory.
In general relativity, a black hole singularity is a point where density becomes infinite and spacetime curvature becomes infinite. Such infinities are notoriously difficult to handle in physics. Researchers therefore attempt to resolve the issue through the technique of renormalization.
Renormalization is a widely used method in quantum field theory, employed to deal with infinite quantities so that physical laws remain valid across broader ranges.
But as a theoretical tool, renormalization was never meant to be implemented in reality. No existing scientific equipment could realize mathematical theory within real-number space.
"But there is one person who did—"
"Minister Vill-V. As the creator of the Second Divine Key, she can be said to be the foremost scientist of this era when it comes to understanding singularities."
"And eliminating a singularity—according to Dr. Mei's intelligence, the Cosmic Juggernaut she created possesses precisely that capability."
"Oh, Chicken-Nest Head, why are you praising that woman so much? And don't sound so respectful!" Tesla thought to herself, If Ein is this respectful, doesn't that mean I have to lower my head too?
She then asked, "So what's the point of carrying out this renormalization process?"
After all, renormalizing a black hole singularity didn't seem to have anything to do with restraining a Herrscher.
"It does." A flicker of excitement and exhilaration flashed through Dr. Einstein's eyes as she looked at Tesla. "After renormalization, the singularity may be replaced by a finite structure. In other words, the Herrscher Core may become invalid—or it may be replaced with another controllable form of matter."
"Which means... Professor Planck can be restored!"
At the mention of Professor Planck's possible recovery, Dr. Tesla's eyes lit up. But she quickly realized another problem.
"Wait—why has Vill-V's beacon sub-frequency signal also disappeared?"
Einstein turned toward the temporary communication panel displaying NO SIGNAL, her expression equally stunned. "Vill-V... she didn't anchor the signal to the Herrscher of Reason?
Was she unable to do so? Or did she deliberately choose not to?"
Tesla knocked helplessly on the beacon. Even pounding it with her exoskeleton mechanical arm failed to restore the signal. She had no choice but to abandon the attempt.
"Even the Second Divine Key can't escape renormalization, can it? Can they really come back alive?"
"Old Lady Planck... Little Liar Vill-V... don't you dare die so easily..."
...
Id Vill-V suddenly saw a flash of blue-white phantoms before her eyes. Then she felt herself dragged into darkness. Her entire body seemed to sink into a mire, unable to breathe.
No matter how hard she struggled, it was useless. It felt as though nothing existed around her—only chaos.
Quantum superposition space? Where was the Cosmic Juggernaut?
Was this what Conductor meant... by loading her life into the chamber?
If this continued, she would suffocate, lose consciousness, and die in less than thirty seconds.
Oh, right. I was caught by the Herrscher of Reason... and killed.
Why...
Why...
Why... Conductor?
Why... am I not dead?
What should I do?
I... cannot die...
I promised Vill-V... I would replace her... and fulfill our promise!
Vill-V felt her thoughts growing increasingly chaotic. Memories from the past surged forth, only to be smoothed over and devoured by the surrounding void. It was as though everything she was lay exposed within this silent, unfathomable space.
The suffocating sensation vanished. She felt herself dissolving into particles, gradually dispersing and merging into the space.
At that moment, a faint green feather emerged from her chest, driving back the surrounding darkness.
Gulp.
Vill-V suddenly returned to the Cosmic Juggernaut.
"Hah... hah... hnngh... hah..." Id Vill-V collapsed over the driver's seat, gasping for breath. She had no idea what had happened, but it seemed she had successfully returned to the Cosmic Juggernaut.
She lifted her head. Outside the train, it did not appear to be the Sea of Quanta. At least, in Vill-V's memory, the Sea of Quanta was not a place of bright sunlight and lush green trees.
"Why... did I come out?" Id Vill-V's hands trembled. She had always remained curled up deep within her consciousness. How had she suddenly been pulled out?
Could it be—?
Vill-V recalled the riddles of Pure Evil, the words of Lecturer and Expert, and the final moment when Conductor—and her own body—had been pierced through.
"Aside from me... is everyone else gone?"