"No... no..." Sherry Birkin knelt helplessly on the ground, clutching her head as she said despairingly, "I can't find it... I can't find it at all! This sub-consciousness is too weak... I simply can't find it!"
She was nearly breaking down. "This is my fault! I created Mongal-Mongal's sub-consciousness! I taught it how to split! It's my fault... my fault!!"
A warm hand rested on her shoulder, and Shepard's slightly low voice came from behind her. "But if it hadn't been for this sub-consciousness, perhaps we wouldn't even have been able to accurately locate the planet Mug-Faro in the first place, right?"
"What good is that? We're completely finished... If we can't find Mongal-Mongal's core consciousness, all we can do is die here! And it can still have those tens of thousands of sub-consciousnesses board warships and travel to every corner of the Milky Way Galaxy! The Mind-harp's barrier won't last forever! Once the barrier is lifted, it can continue multiplying and devouring everything until it swallows the entire Milky Way Galaxy!" Sherry Birkin screamed herself hoarse.
"Then stop it!!" Shepard slapped Sherry Birkin across the face. A bright red handprint immediately appeared on that delicate cheek, only to vanish an instant later.
Sherry Birkin stared blankly at Shepard.
Shepard grabbed her by the shoulders and shouted, "Get a hold of yourself! We're still alive! As long as we're alive, there's hope! In any case, until Mongal-Mongal crawls all over my body, I will never give up!"
Suddenly, she froze for a moment before asking, "Does Mongal-Mongal's sub-consciousness need to keep devouring things in order to grow stronger?"
Still dazed, Sherry Birkin answered instinctively, "It has some effect, but it isn't decisive. Devouring ordinary lifeforms mostly just increases its scale. It makes its consciousness stronger, but not by much. Mongal-Mongal's