Caught Between Advance and Retreat
Gray Serpent looked at Admil, remained silent for a long time, and then asked, "What are you going to do now?"
Admil looked at the girl lying in the treatment pod and said with a deep gaze, "Since I created this calamity, then I have a responsibility to end it..."
"You mean, the Eighth Herrscher is the Stigmata you're currently researching?" Gray Serpent also looked at the girl in the treatment pod. "If that's the case, would killing all these Stigmata Awakeners have a sufficient negative impact on the Eighth Herrscher?"
"The Eighth Herrscher was born from the Stigmata; in other words, it might be more accurate to think of her as a composite of Stigmata." Admil walked to the treatment pod and placed his hand on the button on it. "All Stigmata Awakeners awakened the Artificial Stigmata I created because their own desires were strong enough. As for the Honkai ... yes, the Honkai with the progress of civilization. Once the Stigmata Project succeeds, its combat power will not be weaker than that of the Fusion Warrior. Moreover, if we don't consider the influence of the Awakeners' lifespan, we can produce a large number of Stigmata Warriors in a short period of time, and even... the threshold is lower than that of the Fusion Warrior."
"From what you're saying, the Eighth Herrscher was born from the Stigmata, and as a composite of the Stigmata, even if all the Stigmata Awakeners were killed, there would be no way to hinder the Eighth Herrscher, is that right?" Gray Serpent asked. "Or are you worried about the results of your experiment?"
"The experimental data and procedures are all here." Admil pointed to his head. "I don't care. If doing this can weaken the Eighth Herrscher, then I won't hesitate. However, killing them will have little effect on the Eighth Herrscher. She has already separated from the existing Stigmata Awakeners as an independent Stigmata individual, or rather, she is the fusion of the consciousnesses of these Stigmata Awakeners... And in that spiritual realm, the Eighth Herrscher is an absolute god. As long as there are people supporting her dream, she is immortal."
The red light in the Gray Serpent's eyes flickered. "So, to deal with the Eighth Herrscher, all the victims need to be killed, right?"
"That's right, but not entirely. After the body dies, human consciousness might be preserved for a period of time, allowing the Eighth Herrscher to struggle," Admil said. "According to my speculation, the Eighth Herrscher Herrscher created in response to the strong desires of those who awakened their Stigmata. Although her essence is still Honkai, her goal is to fulfill the desires in the hearts of humanity. She connects human spirits to the dream world, and the victims will gradually merge from independent dreams into the overall dream. She will create a spiritual Earth. At the same time, she herself may continuously absorb the consciousness of those she attacks, and then preserve them in the real world in the form of Stigmata."
This is the fifteenth version of the Stigmata Project, the Adam of Spirit.
Unlike the Adam of Spirit, the Eighth Herrscher can only operate in the realm of consciousness. She has no physical body in the real world and can only act by possessing the bodies of the victims she attacks.
Furthermore, the Eighth Herrscher is not a true Stigmata in the true sense. In essence, she is still Honkai, Herrscher, and cannot achieve the goals pursued by the Stigmata Project. The result will only be that the Eighth Herrscher devours and merges the consciousness of all mankind, and in the end, the bodies of all mankind die, and their minds gradually dissipate afterward.
This is simply... a beautiful dream that will drown all of humanity, rather than a salvation.
Although Admil acknowledges the Adam of Spirit, he believes that the future he envisions is not like that at all. All the means are aimed at ensuring the survival of humanity, but this will only lead to the extinction of humanity. At the same time, he also believes that the Adam of Spirit is a last resort. If humanity cannot overcome the Honkai, then there must be a plan that can guarantee the survival of humanity.
This plan may not be implemented, and it should absolutely not be implemented unless absolutely necessary, but it is also absolutely indispensable.
"The trouble you've caused this time is quite significant." Gray Serpent's voice was calm and indifferent. He was already used to Admil's personality. Admil's earlier talk of writing a will was just a way for Admil to tease him. He might actually write one, but that didn't mean he had no other options. This guy's way of speaking was truly problematic...
"The Eighth Herrscher lives and dies with the spiritual realm she constructs; attacking her is equivalent to attacking the dream itself," Admil said. "The damage she suffers in the dream will transfer to other victims. To put it simply, if you break her body in the spiritual realm, she can reassemble herself, but it will consume the spiritual power of other people in the dream."
"So, your solution is..."
Admil adjusted his glasses and said, "The simplest, most brutal, and most effective solution is to unite all the mental Fusion Warrior to fight the Eighth Herrscher, exhaust the Eighth Herrscher in the dream world, and at the same time, kill all the victims in reality."
"Then your plan will definitely fail," Gray Serpent said. "And even if it succeeds, afterwards, I'm afraid that even if Yu Feng and the World Serpent try their best, there will be no way to let you live."
"Yes, that's why I said I wanted to write a will," Admil said with a shrug. "This is the worst-case scenario that came to mind first. If things get really bad, humans have no other choice. It's just my life... It's nothing compared to humans."
"Then, what about a solution with an even lower probability of success?" Gray Serpent continued to ask.
"We need a mental Fusion Warrior who can seize control of the Spirit World from the Eighth Herrscher. To do that, that Fusion Warrior must first possess the same abilities to compete with the Eighth Herrscher for control over those trapped in the Spirit World. This places extremely high demands on the Fusion Warrior ..." Admil frowned. "I can find a way to provide that path, and I know that there is indeed only one Fusion Warrior on Maple's side who can do this. However, turning the tables is still too difficult. Compared to that Fusion Warrior, the Eighth Herrscher can continuously expand her abilities, pulling the victims into the dream world and making them part of it. To ensure the success of the plan, unless..."
"As long as you come up with a solution, Lord Mobius and his men will definitely have their own way of doing it as well," Gray Serpent said. "Now that we have a pretty good idea of the truth, no matter how we handle things afterward, what we need to do now is report this to Lord Mobius and his men."
In the dream world.
Zhu Yufeng took a few steps back and stood still, looking at the Eighth Herrscher in front of him. The opponent's body was completely unharmed. Judging from the result alone, no one would have thought that the Eighth Herrscher had been destroyed by him several times before. Each time, the Eighth Herrscher would recover in a short time, as if all his methods were useless.
In terms of strength, the Eighth Herrscher is far from being comparable to the Finality. The only difference is that she is quite similar to the Finality in terms of immortality. Even in a head-on battle where he has been exhausted, it would not be difficult for him to crush the Eighth Herrscher again. What he hesitates about is the authenticity of the Eighth Herrscher's so-called infinite weight.
If he were to expand his mental awareness to observe, he would find that every time he destroys the Eighth Herrscher, this world becomes more blurred, and some things become blurred or disappear from the world.
He had learned that the source of the Eighth Herrscher's Eighth Herrscher was the victims she had swallowed into her dreams. Therefore, as long as the spread of the Eighth Herrscher's meme weapons was contained and the number of victims stopped increasing, he still had a chance of winning against the Eighth Herrscher.
He has now locked onto the Eighth Herrscher, and it's impossible for the Eighth Herrscher to add meme weapons to attack humans right under his nose. That's all he can do.
Also...
"If this continues, even if I don't eventually be worn down and killed by the Eighth Herrscher, Disaster, who is currently being swallowed into this Dimension, and May, who might also be swallowed up, will all be..."
Zhu Yufeng lowered her eyes.
The situation has become really troublesome... We can't kill this Eighth Herrscher, but we can't let her continue to suffer like this either.
Seeing that he had stopped attacking, the Eighth Herrscher also deactivated her Herrscher form. Throughout the battle with Zhu Yufeng, Remiel never showed any hostility.
"Why... why are you stopping them from finding their dreams?" Remiel asked persistently. "It's their wish. If you don't want them here, they can leave at any time. If they didn't want to stay, they wouldn't be in this world."
That's probably because your passive nature made them forget the difference between dreams and reality.
Zhu Yufeng thought to himself that the reason he didn't answer the Eighth Herrscher's question was because Remiel had asked it several times in the previous battle, and Zhu Yufeng's attitude was always, "If you can't win with words, you might as well fight with your fists."
To be honest, Zhu Yufeng was truly hesitant. Continuing to attack Remiel would only lead to the annihilation of the people in the Dream World along with Remiel. He didn't care about the others, but Astaroth, Disaster, and May couldn't be involved. If the latter two were involved, he would have no face to see Kevin and Kosma. If Astaroth were involved, he would never forgive himself.
And then there's SEELE... He doesn't even know what SEELE's current situation is. Although SEELE is the former Sixth Herrscher, the Eighth Herrscher's influence on her is limited. After all, this is the Eighth Herrscher 'Eighth Herrscher dream world, her home turf. If the Eighth Herrscher were still the same as the previous one, that would be fine. This Eighth Herrscher is actually able to rely on the human spirit as a support. Even if Aponia and Sue also come and enter the battlefield, they will probably still fall into the same situation as him.
Having not progressed through the later main storyline, or rather, having already transmigrated before that, he would never have imagined that the Eighth Herrscher in the later stages would achieve a similar outcome, except that her opponent became Kevin of the Finality.
"No need to rush, Feng." Su's voice suddenly rang out behind Zhu Yufeng.
"Su? What brings you here?" Zhu Yufeng looked to his side and then saw Su, who was unusually surprised.
"The origin of the Eighth Herrscher has been identified, and her creator has also proposed a solution." Su said, looking at the Eighth Herrscher in front of her. "Indeed... this is completely different from the Eighth Herrscher in my memory. She is a destruction called benevolence."
Sue couldn't quite describe his feelings about Remiel. He had wondered if he would harbor murderous intent towards the Eighth Herrscher a second time if the same situation happened again. However, unlike the previous Eighth Herrscher, Remiel showed no malice towards humanity. She was born simply to fulfill humanity's wishes, yet in the end... she led everything towards a future of destruction.
She meant no harm; she was simply fulfilling human desires. In this world, all human desires could be satisfied. The life they wanted couldn't even be described as within reach; it was practically a dream come true. Even now, Su could openly chat with Zhu Yufeng, while the Eighth Herrscher simply watched indifferently.
Sue couldn't bring herself to kill such an enemy, but the Eighth Herrscher was still an enemy, and she couldn't let her continue to wreak havoc.
"What do you need me to do?" Zhu Yufeng asked.
"Since we are in the realm of the mind, I will naturally fight alongside you, Maple," Su said. "All we need to do is lock the Eighth Herrscher here."
"What about Aponia?"
"She has her own needs to be met."
"Alright, as long as you have a plan, that's fine. Speaking of which, this should be the second time we've worked together, right?" Zhu Yufeng's tone finally relaxed a bit, which showed his trust in his teammates.
"That collaboration couldn't really be considered fighting side by side, could it?" Su smiled.
The melodious harmonica music stopped at some point, and the girl, who had closed her eyes, opened them again when she felt someone calling her name. She yawned and said, "Amo, just let me sleep for a while~ Teacher Feng won't be too harsh on us."
The boy looked at the girl with a hint of helplessness and said, "There's not much time left before class. Although Teacher Feng might not be too harsh on us, it's still not good for us to be late like this, is it?"
"Okay, okay, I'll do whatever you say Amo... Phew..." The girl stood up and stretched. For some reason, she still felt sleepy, although she did feel somewhat awake for a short time when the boy woke her up.
Why don't you use your book to cover up your sleep during class and go back to sleep? Teacher Elysia has said that beautiful girls shouldn't be sleep-deprived. It must be that long dream that's making her so tired.
"... Disaster, you don't want to sleep in class, do you?"
"Huh?! Amo, how did you know?"
The boy looked at the girl speechlessly for a long while before saying, "If our scores aren't high enough, we'll have to choose another university..."
"Oh, it's just one class, it's okay, Amo, you can cover for me."
"..."