The past year or so was a period of transition. The uprooting of traitors with high status caused a more stable development for Fire MOTH.
Not a single Herrscher appeared since then, too.
With only the exponentially growing numbers of honkai beasts to deal with, the difficulty was lowered from hell to normal.
Mobius' research on complex lifeforms, Vill-V's analysis of Edict Edges, Mei's progress on the Sea of Quanta…
Everyone progressed with rapid speed.
Bam-!
A huge jellyfish-shaped honkai beast crashed into an entire skyscraper. It flattered the thirty-storey tall building in one go, causing a huge amount of dust and smoke to flood the entire city.
Buzz-!
The cloud of dust disappeared upon contacting the sea of flames. It only took a moment to clean up a city-wide mess.
After confirming its death and the completion of the after-battle treatment, Hua's white hair reverted to its gray color. Her crimson pupils turned into the usual deep blue.
She looked at the direction where the huge honkai beast fell. The rubbles of the skyscraper piled up high enough to reach twenty meters.
Atop it, a girl with strikingly similar appearance as her stood. It took a blink for Senti to appear beside Hua. Only, she retained the crimson pupils of Hua's Active Honkai Reaction form.
"It's different here."
"Hum?"
Hearing the familiar words, Hua knew what she was about to say. She still gestured for Senti to continue, however.
"This kind of progress was unheard of… That box was something we did not have."
Although "childish", Senti understood where the current Fire MOTH's capital came from:
Aleph.
"...He said it would take a long time. Aleph must have thought of this."
One of the reasons why the original Fire MOTH fell was due to them not being able to catch up with Honkai's improvements.
When civilization becomes stronger, so do the honkai beasts they would have to face.
Things were different in Senti's parallel world. Aleph's existence alone acted as the stabilizer to the entire world. It was just that he suddenly disappeared while confronting the sixth Herrscher.
Since then, they lost their Aleph. Things began to progress drastically in an extremely horrendous way. Things had returned to the days prior to his appearance.
In the end, they lost the initiative and the gap between humanity and the honkai grew larger, to the point they could do nothing but fall after the twelfth eruption.
The extinction of humanity save for the thirty thousand or so spelled the end for the Previous Era.
It is not the case now.
Instead of the honkai, it was humanity who was always a step ahead.
The damage inflicted by Aleph to the Cocoon caused it to fall into a slumber for half a year. It stagnated the progress of honkai beasts within the said duration, giving Fire MOTH enough breathing time to implement their plans.
With the half a year of time gap, they were able to remain a step ahead.
"It's very like him. In my world, he was also the type to plan meticulously. Some of his arrangements lasted until the time I 'woke' up."
Senti crossed her arms while speaking. She is extremely proud of Aleph's accomplishments in her memories. His plans remained far-fetching even when he disappeared during the sixth eruption.
In short, she was his self-proclaimed number one fan-slash-glazer.
"Hm?"
A brief yet strange sensation caused Hua to jump. She instinctively looked at her surroundings but found nothing unusual.
Her eyes met Senti's.
"You felt that too?"
"Um."
"Oh… Ah..?"
The latter stopped talking when she saw something. Hua followed her line of sight and saw the sky turning from day to night.
"It's not supposed to do that, isn't it?" Senti asked. "Hey?"
She took hold of Hua's arm sleeve and shook it.
Unfortunately, Hua did not answer her. Her attention was wholly on the dark sky. A streak of white light drew a faint white line in the cosmos.
It was Senti's turn to follow Hua's line of sight.
The moment she saw it, her mind was pulled back to the vision of being inside the dark blue backdrop. A clear white slate reflecting an entire world was present from within.
This time, she could fully remember what she saw.
"That's it!" She exclaimed. "I saw you from the other side. No… I mean… When I was in my world without Aleph…"
"The transparent white wall."
"Yes! It's that one! It's strange I forgot about it until now…"
The nature of complex information was not yet fully studied. Even Aleph's projections only told them of its general gists, such as their characteristics of being incomprehensible, constantly changing, and the likes.
Once complex information affects their memories, even they would not be able to notice it themselves.
Hua did not know any of it. The never-ending flow of questions in her mind stacked further up.
Aleph's disappearance, the circumstances he faced, the enemy he fought…
It seems like…
'I knew nothing at all.'
Her heart sank further.
Aleph's disappearance subtly changed everyone.
For Hua, the fact she could not give him the slightest bit of help remained stuck in her mind. The feeling of powerlessness—the same thing her other self from fifty thousand years later—was engraved to her very being.
Hua was inclined to do nothing back then. That, along with the Cocoon's influence, caused Senti's premature appearance.
As she had expected, the Herrscher persona made out of her memories was unaffected by the regrets plaguing her. Senti was the most ideal version of Hua, no matter how ironic it is.
"...Hey. Since when did a door appear?"
Hua looked towards the place Senti pointed at.
There, she saw a white door. It was an unassuming white wooden door that could be seen in brick-style houses.
However, the more they looked at it, the more strange it felt. It was to the point they felt their heart throb.
The metaphysical connection of their status as a [Pathstrider] became fully active.
It was unknown how, when, or why. The thought existed out of thin air.
'I am sorry for making you worry.'
That familiar voice was enough to prompt Hua to walk towards the white door.
Senti, who was in a daze, soon followed her.
Before she knew it, Hua was holding the old-fashioned doorknob.
Then…
Click-!
…their surroundings drastically changed.