Everything had happened far too suddenly. Id had not been mentally prepared in the slightest.
She had just been happily watching the live broadcast from the depths of the sea of consciousness.
Who could have expected that Conductor would fire at the Herrscher—and fire herself out of existence in the process!
Everyone had clearly been carrying out Conductor's plan properly all along. So how had everyone suddenly disappeared?
Could Conductor's plan actually fail?
With everyone gone, what was she supposed to do? Continue executing the plan?
There was no way she could accomplish it alone, right?
I... can't do anything at all. Don't leave me here by myself.
Sob... I really...
Just as Id's heart was on the verge of collapsing, Conductor's voice echoed from the depths of her mind. "No need to panic, Id. We're all still here."
"Conductor!"
The moment Id Vill-V heard Conductor's voice, her spirits lifted. She checked the sea of consciousness and discovered that Conductor was indeed alive and well. One by one, the others also began coming back online. She patted her chest and let out a long breath of relief.
"What the heck? You scared me to death."
For a long time now, Id had already regarded the mature and steady Conductor as her emotional pillar.
If she had truly lost Conductor, she honestly would not have known what to do.
Conductor continued explaining, "Everything is still within the plan. The other Vill-Vs and I made a few temporary adjustments."
"So I was the only one left in the dark?" Id Vill-V laughed helplessly. After all that, she had been the one excluded. "Throwing a party without inviting me, huh!"
Although her soft, syrupy tone carried a trace of complaint, the reassurance in her eyes at knowing Conductor was still there was impossible to hide.
Pure Evil seized the opportunity to strongly back Id and farm goodwill. "Exactly, exactly! Just look at her... Id is so pitiful, kept completely in the dark by you all. If it were me, I'd at least show her something fun to watch."
Yes, Id had already seen scenes like tearing apart the Herrscher of Reason with her bare hands, staring directly at the Cocoon of Finality, and violently beating Imaginary Constructs—utterly inhuman spectacles.
"By the way, without me acting as the messenger, how were you all communicating?" Id muttered resentfully.
Conductor tapped her temple and explained, "A human being cannot fully understand all of their subconscious activity. These plans—you actually knew them too, Id. They were simply buried deep within your memories."
"As for what we did—well, it's a long story. You'd probably get a headache listening to it, so we didn't tell you."
"Then make the long story short. Memory sharing is convenient for us, isn't it?"
Seeing that Id genuinely cared about the details, Conductor had no choice but to explain at a speed that could only exist within memory itself. "All right... you're right. We did indeed die once. More precisely, we returned once to the origin of the world. There, life and death no longer differ, and eternity and a single instant are indistinguishable."
The reason they had not dumped all those memories into Id's mind at once was mainly to help her sort through them properly.
Id stared in shock. "What? The origin of the world? Holy crap—did I, without even realizing it, imitate Otto... and charge at the Imaginary Tree once?"
Conductor shook her head. "Well, 'origin of the world' does sound rather grand... Let me put it another way. Perhaps calling it the 'terminal branch of the Imaginary'—or describing it as Origin and Finality—would be more appropriate."
"Isn't the 'origin of the world' just the Imaginary Tree? So I wasn't copying Otto—I was copying Elysia instead?" Id asked in confusion.
Conductor said, "People within the world see only the tip of a great tree and mistake it for the entire tree. Honkai has bound the terminal branch of that tree, and so Origin and Finality reside there as well. That is where everything begins. That is where everything ends."
Id clutched her head. "No matter how you put it, I still don't understand! How did this suddenly involve Origin and Finality? We can actually pull something like that off?"
If she were really that amazing, then what was there to fear about a Herrscher? She could just chat directly with the Cocoon of Finality and discuss when Honkai should finally end.
She could understand every single word individually. But when combined together, she still had no idea what earthshaking feat she had supposedly accomplished.
"Of course we don't possess that kind of ability. But according to our theory, if the Herrscher of Reason—who wields the power of Truth—cooperates with the spatial authority of the Cosmic Juggernaut, and we anchor it using the gravitational center point of a pseudo black hole, then it becomes possible to achieve 'Imaginary Renormalization.'"
"And we could hitch a ride on the Herrscher of Reason's Imaginary Renormalization—like Prometheus stealing fire."
"But... we failed."
"Huh? We failed?" Id scratched her head. "Was it because we don't have Prometheus-level computing power? And if we failed, why were we just able to communicate with the origin of the world? Also, what does renormalization have to do with black holes?"
Clearly, although Id wanted an explanation, she simply could not keep up with the complicated terminology and plans.
"Now, now, Id, don't dump every question on me all at once. I know you're anxious—but calm down first."
Regarding her many doubts, Conductor patiently continued.
"As for your first question, we do not require Prometheus' computing power."
"Do you remember Welt's three hundred thousand consciousnesses? The Herrscher of Reason is highly unique. In a sense, They are a more qualified vessel than Prometheus."
"And our consciousness served as a Trojan program, slipping into the Herrscher Core just like those three hundred thousand consciousnesses. That was the bullet I fired into the Herrscher of Reason—what Expert calls the 'Imaginary Singularity Link Bridge ver3.5.'"
The naming conventions for Expert's equipment were, as always, impressively straightforward.
"You're well aware of our ability to divide and integrate consciousness. That's also why I temporarily altered the plan. If we had missed this opportunity, there might never have been another chance this perfect to seize a Herrscher identity. Other Herrscher Cores wouldn't permit such a maneuver—unless you're willing to wait for the Eleventh Herrscher."
The original plan had required Pardo's assistance. Once Pardo gained the ability to 'open doors,' they would attempt to open the Imaginary Singularity.
But unexpectedly encountering a living Herrscher of Reason had presented Vill-V with another opportunity—the very plan Conductor had just described.
Pardofelis could open doors through her own ability. And as a genuine projection of Finality, a Herrscher could naturally communicate with the origin of the Imaginary.
But that opportunity... was accompanied by enormous risk.