The timeline of Finality.
There was nothing here. No light, no stars, and even time itself seemed too lazy to move. It was like a river that had reached its end, leaving behind nothing but a dry riverbed.
Terminus, the Aeon of Finality, sat at the very lowest reaches of that river.
Every day, They did only one thing: stare upstream, watching the still-living true timeline fall toward Them little by little, descending toward the Four Apocalypses.
Today, They noticed something was wrong.
The universe's descent toward one of the Four Apocalypses, the Nihility apocalypse, had slowed. This was extremely strange.
After all, ever since the day They were born, the universe had already been descending toward Finality at a fixed and unstoppable rate.
What exactly happened?!
Could it be related to The Herta?
Terminus traced that tiny change backward, following it all the way to the Warp of The Blue system, where They saw the girl in the pointed hat busily squeezing wisps of transparent flame from her fingertips and flicking them into the ocean known as reality.
Every time one of those wisps fell into it, the universe's descent toward the Four Apocalypses slowed by the slightest amount.
Terminus understood two things.
The slowing of the universe's descent toward Finality was indeed Herta's doing.
And because Herta only sprinkled a tiny amount of that special energy into the greater universe each time, Terminus also understood that the energy's production was extremely limited.
At that moment, the Aeon of Finality thought of something. They called out toward the other end of the timeline of Finality, "Spirituality."
...
At the other end of the timeline of Finality was a small, clean place.
It was a territory the Aeon of Spirituality had marked out for Herself.
Calling it a territory was generous. In truth, it was nothing more than a quiet corner with a table and a chair, and nothing else.
She sat in the chair, holding a Light Cone made of Memoria and staring blankly at the images within it. The Light Cone was called My Birth... and upon it were Herta Puppets, one after another.
At that moment, the Aeon of Spirituality heard the call and raised Her head.
"Terminus."
She answered calmly.
Terminus' shadow fell along the edge of Her territory, and They immediately got to the point.
"The universe is falling more slowly. Your past self did it. She developed a new form of energy."
"Mm." The Aeon of Spirituality nodded. "The instant that energy was born, I knew its name was the Power of Existence."
Terminus' expression turned solemn. "Can you produce it here?"
The Aeon of Spirituality shook Her head.
"I can't."
Terminus frowned deeply. "You're her future self. If she can produce it, why can't you? If you took action, with the power of an Aeon, you would surely be able to mass-produce the Power of Existence and completely put an end to the Nihility apocalypse among the Four Apocalypses."
"The reason is very simple. The timeline of Finality is false... The true timeline of this universe isn't Finality, but the timeline where my past self currently exists."
"My past self can extract the Power of Existence from various objects that contain traces of history... But in this timeline of Finality, all such objects bearing traces of history, such as Rubert's mechanical lever, or... other things steeped in history, have already been completely destroyed and vanished."
After saying this, the Aeon of Spirituality raised her hand and barely managed to extract a single illusory wisp of the Power of Existence from the countless ashes of the timeline of Finality. It looked as though it would disperse completely in the very next second.
"See? This is the Power of Existence I extracted from the timeline of Finality with all my strength. Even with me, an Aeon, going all out, I can only extract this single wisp, and it cannot be preserved."
"After all, the so-called Power of Existence is the 'weight acknowledged by all beings in the universe.'"
"In that past timeline, countless endless people lived their lives, were born, and died. The gravestones engraved with their lives were existence. The final stone tablets recording civilizations after their destruction were existence as well... But in the timeline of Finality, those countless living beings themselves are already gone."
"That is why the Power of Existence is so difficult to condense."
"The Power of Existence in my hand right now is like a flower in a mirror or the moon reflected on water. It looks real, but the instant you touch it, it disappears."
Terminus stared at the Aeon of Spirituality's palm for a long while before finally letting out a sigh.
"What a pity."
"From here in the timeline of Finality, at the downstream end of the river of time, I can see it perfectly clearly. Every time Herta in the upstream timeline scatters one portion of the Power of Existence into the universe, the arrival of the Nihility apocalypse slows by the slightest amount."
"If she can keep scattering the Power of Existence, the Nihility apocalypse, one of the Four Apocalypses, may genuinely be postponed without limit. And that is something I hope to see as well."
"But as things stand, whether in the past or here in the present timeline of Finality, the production of the Power of Existence is severely limited."
The Aeon of Spirituality chuckled softly. "Don't worry. As long as we keep waiting, sooner or later, Nihility really will be postponed indefinitely, just as you said... After all, another me exists in the true timeline of the past!"
"And not just the Nihility apocalypse. With my past self's limitless curiosity, she'll keep researching and researching until she completely understands the Four Apocalypses, overturns them all, and allows the universe to continue existing forever."
"Just sit here in the timeline of Finality and watch."
Terminus nodded. "All right. I'll wait. Hopefully she'll research more incredible things."
After saying that, Terminus fixed Their gaze on the Aeon of Spirituality's hat.
That look seemed to say:
You're Herta too.
In fact, you're Herta who opened a Path, became an Aeon, and reached the timeline of Finality.
If your past self can produce all those incredible research achievements, why can't you, the ascended version of Herta?!
The Aeon of Spirituality ignored Terminus' gaze. The reason was simple: She knew She could not do it.
Her past self had Herman and therefore possessed the fifty-percent Research Point bonus from Universal Genius. She also possessed World-Shaking Wisdom, which allowed her to comprehend all kinds of extraordinary knowledge from beyond the universe, and she even had a Simulated Laboratory.
But now Herman was gone, and every one of those bonuses and the laboratory mentioned above was gone with him. Naturally, She had also lost the possibility of surpassing everything, leaving Her with only a few thousand Research Points at most.
Placed upon the Aeon of Spirituality, those Research Points amounted to nothing more than the intelligence of a top-tier genius. Whether She could even surpass Zandar was questionable.
And most importantly, when The Herta of the past said, "Herta has no limits," she had never been referring to Herta alone.
She meant Herta plus Herman.
Only when the two were together did they have no limits.
Take either one away, and it no longer worked.
And ever since the day this possible timeline of Finality was born, Herman had never been by Her side. That also meant the possibility of transcending fate had disappeared along with him.
Seeing that the Aeon of Spirituality remained silent, Terminus asked no further questions and simply left. They needed to continue watching the upstream flow of time and observing The Herta.
...
And so, the Aeon of Spirituality was left alone once more.
She sat back down in Her chair, holding a Memoria Light Cone and repeatedly running Her fingers over My Birth, unable to stop Herself from thinking:
If only we could trade places.
My past self could become the god, while I could go be with Herman.