In order to conduct a deeper exchange with Project Bunny, Conductor handed control of the body over to Magician.
The moment Magician appeared, she was captivated by the wandering drones before her. Her eyes sparkled as if she had discovered prey.
"Yahoo—allow me, the great battlefield magician, to draw a magnificent rest to the finale of the Fourth Honkai Eruption!"
Magician waved her wand, and one top hat after another flew out from the hat in her hand. In no time, the hats piled up on the ground like a small mountain.
The wandering drones quickly detected the anomaly and moved in to investigate. But before they could approach, the hats automatically rose into the air and dropped down over them, covering them completely.
"Oh, a new twist! These enthusiastic audience members have chosen to step into the magician's black box of their own accord!"
"Goochi goochi—" Magician skipped happily to the hats covering the drones, lifted one, and reached inside to fiddle with something.
Regardless of what Magician was doing, Project Bunny's topic continued.
Project Bunny: "On what basis does a Herrscher arrive at the conclusion to destroy humanity? Is it instilled in them by Honkai? According to your view, Honkai's original intent does not appear to directly lead to humanity's extinction, correct?"
Project Bunny: "Then, assuming humanity could provide a Herrscher with an answer that satisfies her, would it be possible for the Herrscher to lean toward joining the human camp?"
{Magician pulls a Homu out of a top hat.}
Conductor held up the Homu and said, "As for whether 'Honkai' whispers in their ears, it seems not—at least the Honkai of the current civilization does not. Before Prometheus became the Will of Honkai, 'Honkai' itself possessed no capacity for thought."
Project Bunny: "As you stated. Otherwise, your cognitive bomb would not have produced such a significant effect."
"In other words, the decisions a Herrscher makes are in fact influenced by her own logic, values, and way of thinking."
Conductor: "On the surface, this seems to offer hope that a Herrscher might break free from Honkai's control. Or, from another perspective, perhaps if the human will of the Herrscher's host were firm enough, she could overcome the Herrscher consciousness and seize control of the Herrscher Core."
"But unfortunately, judging from the case of the Herrscher of Wind, such illusory hope does not truly exist."
"In other words, the moment a person becomes a Herrscher, she belongs to Honkai's side. There is no room for negotiation."
Faced with this conclusion, Conductor sighed softly. "The instant one becomes a Herrscher, the threads of Honkai's destiny bind themselves to her. Unless one can sever those threads of fate—like Elysia did, cutting the destiny that bound the Herrscher to Honkai—her ending will inevitably follow the path of a Herrscher's fate."
{The Homus before Magician assemble into a gigantic mech. Magician opens the cockpit and climbs inside.}
(Conductor: ??? How did I end up inside a mech?)}
Seated in the swaying cockpit, Conductor continued, "It is like the metaphor proposed by Spinoza: a stone is thrown into the air and then falls to the ground. If that stone possessed consciousness, it would believe that it moved according to its own free will."
"The Herrscher of Wind is that stone who feels free, and Honkai is the unseen cause that determined the stone's trajectory."
"It is like someone who fights against Honkai and seeks to save the world, yet through their own subjective reasoning ultimately concludes that accepting Honkai and destroying the world is salvation."
"Or like an individual who deeply loves their partner, and through their own efforts achieves the result of killing the one they love—yet believes it to be their own will."
"Thus, even if a Herrscher takes no action, she will still be guided by Honkai toward humanity's destruction. The most typical example is Sakura's younger sister, Rin. Even if no human had harmed her, various circumstances would still have driven her to transform into a Herrscher. This is the fate of a Herrscher."
Regarding Rin, Vill-V had reason to believe that Dr. Mei had genuinely kept her promise to Sakura to protect her younger sister and had taken real action to do so. Yet human effort could not triumph over fate, and thus the tragedy of the Herrscher of Corruption was born.
This was the miserable ending of Honkai's Herrschers.
Project Bunny: "If it is indeed due to the threads of fate, then regarding the Herrschers of the Previous Era, this would constitute an insurmountable obstacle. No matter what strategy or action humanity adopts, there would be no possibility of incorporating a Herrscher from Honkai's side into the human camp."
"Only if Elysia incarnated as Origin and severed the threads of fate binding humanity could a Herrscher potentially break free from the shackles of destiny."
"As Wendy once said, 'Free will no longer exists.' After in-depth data analysis, it is inferred that this metaphor may imply that humanity's free will has already ceased to exist."
"In a certain sense, after the descent of Honkai, the free will of the Previous Era's human civilization truly died—just like the Herrschers."
Project Bunny: "According to data analysis, even if you, Mr. Vill-V, were to hand over all the information and technology you possess to humanity, it would still be futile."
"Humanity has no hope of victory."
This was Project Bunny's conclusion based on an objective analysis of massive volumes of data. Anyone confronted with such a result would feel despair.
Conductor sighed. "Yes... humanity has no hope of victory. That is why no plan can defeat Honkai."
Vill-V had always concealed information about the future—not to safeguard her own interests.
She longed just as much to confide the stories bottled up in her heart, to discuss these matters with others, to hear perspectives on them, to receive unexpected solutions from someone else—to lay down the heavy burden of deciding humanity's future alone.
The strength of a single person was far too small. Vill-V understood this well.
Even Dr. Mei had realized it. That was why, as the initiator of the Stigmata Project, she was also its opponent. She yearned for someone to present a perfect ending that surpassed the Stigmata Project.
But Vill-V could not do the same. It was not because she believed there was no one in the world wiser than herself.
It was because knowing the future yet being powerless to change it—only able to watch events unfold and witness the beautiful things before one's eyes shatter—was a despair most people could not endure.
Just as the final hero of the Previous Era, Kevin, did not tell the humans of the Current Era about the Herrschers. The truth was too cruel.
Even Su waited until a successor had passed his trial before entrusting her with the Project VALUKA and all the truth.