"No. It's far from over! I've compromised for far, far too long!"
"Elysia... Elysia! Wait for me... Even though Big Sister has always disappointed you, I will definitely take you away from here."
Vill-V clearly understood that this was her own dream. So the thirty-li passage was crossed in a single instant.
She returned to the once-garden—now so utterly ruined it was impossible to discern its original appearance.
It had turned into scorched earth. The black-clad figures were nowhere to be seen.
And there, Vill-V saw her little sister...
Elysia, already transformed into a zombie.
Her entire body was covered in strange diamond-shaped fragments, like shattered crystals embedded into her skin.
She stood there blankly, just like the dolls in the basement, unmoving. The Honkai markings across her body were glaring and painfully conspicuous.
"No... Elysia!"
Vill-V rushed forward and, without caring what she had become, tightly embraced her frail little sister.
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."
Planck shouted loudly, trying to awaken the irrational Vill-V. But she soon realized that Vill-V could no longer hear her voice.
No...
Planck looked down at her own hands. Her form still existed. That meant Vill-V knew this was a dream—she simply refused to let go. She was rejecting reality with her own will.
She knew it was false, yet she still wanted to hold her tightly.
She knew her sister was already dead, yet she still wanted to hold her tightly.
Vill-V was not as strong as she always appeared. On the contrary, the softness within her heart rivaled that of an ordinary little girl.
"Sigh... your obsession runs deeper than Otto's, doesn't it..."
Watching this "touching" scene, Planck shook her head helplessly.
The Herrscher Core had never been something easy to deal with. Even as a Herrscher herself, Planck could not prevent the Herrscher Core from acting this way.
Countless elite scientists of MOTH had fallen to the Herrscher of Reason's core, driven mad by it. That was a lesson written in blood.
And Vill-V herself had to resist the influence of the Collective Unconscious, maintaining her self-awareness.
Now that influence had been strengthened and made tangible by the Herrscher of Reason's core. Losing the boundary between reality and illusion was only natural.
If Planck had faced such a situation, she might not have fared any better.
Planck had only managed to reclaim herself through another Planck from a different world.
But Vill-V had no counterpart from another world to help her.
The world began to sink—along with Vill-V's consciousness.
The surrounding scenery grew increasingly bizarre and kaleidoscopic. Fragments of Vill-V's memories flickered like a revolving lantern, emerging and transforming across the entire world in structures resembling Riemann surfaces—at times forming a spiral, at times a sphere, at times interlocking cups.
This meant Vill-V's consciousness was assimilating into this Imaginary world, becoming imaginary particles.
If the assimilation completed, Vill-V would never return to the real-number world. In other words, her very existence... would be erased from the real world.
Planck looked at the quantum foam rising and falling around Vill-V, regret in her eyes. "It seems I can't bring you back."
At that very moment, something strange occurred.
Color suddenly returned to Elysia's face. She stared blankly into Vill-V's tear-filled eyes, then broke into a radiant smile.
"Hey, cute Big Sister... who are you?"
The world collapsed in an instant. Everything before them shattered.
Like broken mirrors, the world reflected Vill-V's astonishment, Planck's relief, and Elysia's smile.
"Come play again next time, Big Sister~" Elysia's eyes curved into crescents as she waved sweetly.
Seizing the opportunity, Planck grabbed Vill-V's hand and pulled her away from Elysia, flying toward a rift beyond Imaginary Space.
"The Land of Origin..."
Planck murmured under her breath, tightening her grip around Vill-V's hand.
Because Vill-V had turned back, something unexpected had occurred—something even Planck had not foreseen.
Originally, Planck had believed Vill-V's consciousness would be trapped forever within the labyrinth generated by the Herrscher Core.
But unexpectedly, she had made contact with the Land of Origin.
"Congratulations, Vill-V. You've passed the Herrscher Core's trial. Now, you too are a Herrscher of Reason acknowledged by Honkai."
"Though the method was... somewhat different from what I imagined..."
Planck gazed at Vill-V's figure, which was gradually fading like a ghost.
She knew that even after leaving the labyrinth, Vill-V's state of consciousness was far from stable.
If this continued, Vill-V would still lose herself and become a monster of the Imaginary.
Yet at that very instant, a luminous green feather gently manifested before Vill-V's chest. As it appeared, her body gradually stabilized, regaining solid form.
"This is... Conductor?"
Vill-V slowly opened her eyes. Her voice sounded as though five people were speaking at once.
"Not just Conductor~"
Conductor's voice spoke.
"Id worked very hard, didn't she?"
"Was this all part of your carefully arranged script?" Planck had already experienced Conductor's formidable talent for orchestration—an ability that felt like deceiving the world itself.
Conductor shook her head.
"Not just me. I'm not that capable of covering every detail... Though I did give her a little push while going with the flow."
"There are knots in her heart that even Id herself doesn't realize. Only the one who tied the bell can untie it. Her weaknesses, her contradictions, her secrets—these riddles must ultimately be solved by her own hands."
"Right now, she's still stuck in between, half-baked. Hopefully she'll recognize herself soon."
"If it's her, she can definitely do it—reach the end of Helix. But Honkai won't give us much time. So we can only harden our hearts..."
This time, Planck did not respond.
Vill-V turned around and realized that Planck's figure had already vanished.
In her place, the symbolic red sands of Imaginary Space drifted down, signifying that they were about to return to the real world. This journey had reached its end.
"Yes... it's time to say good night. Good night, Sleeping Beauty..."
...
A long time later, the girl with dual-colored hair opened her eyes once more. Her arms burned with searing pain.
She tried to raise a hand to touch them, only to find her body bound tightly, unable to move in the slightest.
Where is this place? Didn't I fail to assassinate Cheng Xin and flee to Pluto? But the gravitational acceleration here feels like Earth's... How long has it been since I last returned to Earth?