Raiden Mei and Lin / Migratory Birds Flying Toward the Sun

"... Why do you say that?" Yue stared at the little girl who was always smiling.

"Because my sister also said that throughout history, humans have killed each other, but in the end, they still make peace with each other, because that's just the kind of creature humans are."

"..."

The little girl, babbling incoherently, was called by her parents. She waved to the moon and said, "Goodbye, sister," then skipped and hopped to take her parents' hands and walked out of the dessert shop with a smile.

The moon gazed at the warm silhouettes of the family of three from behind, while she sat alone, forlorn, at the table.

The sundae is melting.

Chapter Seventy Raiden Mei and the Forest

"Human, is... is that okay?"

Theresa quickly stepped forward to ask the man who gave her a sense of familiarity.

Lin followed the direction she was pointing to and saw a pair of eyes filled with resentment.

The moon remained fixed on their backs, watching their every move, and when it saw Theresa approach Lin, it seemed she intended to come forward.

Theresa felt a certain fear of Yue for some reason. Perhaps it was due to the bacterial type Honkai Beast originating from Yue within her body, and Yue's unwarranted hostility towards her also made her somewhat afraid.

"...fine."

Lin noticed Yue's little gestures, and he could understand them.

Feeling lost about one's identity, past, and future is a kind of resentment that has nowhere to be vented and is something that is difficult to eradicate at its root.

"However, the sudden appearance of someone I know feels..."

Theresa looked at Lin with a strange expression, while he buried his head in confirming the next thing to do.

"It's very peculiar."

"You are confirming my significance and value to you," Lin said calmly without looking up. "You are thinking about who I am to you in the cycle, a familiar stranger you met by chance and who suddenly became kind, a friend or partner with whom you have built a solid friendship through the cycle, or a servant with whom you formed a contract due to various accidents."

"... So, what is it?"

"You did indeed make a pact with me, that I would never forget you no matter where I go, and that I would love you forever. Even if the sun and moon were gone, and time were reversed, the pact would not disappear."

As Lin spoke, his neck throbbed with pain. He subconsciously touched the spot where he had been bitten, the place where the girl had left a timeless contract.

Is the current Theresa the same person as the Theresa of that time?

Mr. Lin is constantly struggling with the question of his identity: Is the person who had memories in the past the same person who has lost his memory now? And will the person who regains his memories in the future be the same person who was in the past?

But no matter how much I think about it, it's meaningless.

Even if he is not the same person now as he was in the past, he is still "Lin". Even if he becomes a different person in the future, he is still "Lin".

Who exactly are you?

"Why are there so many 'you'? What exactly do you mean by the Ash Project and the Trinity? What does this world and the Honkai mean?"

Mei confronted the man before her, questioning everything about him: how he once loved humanity, yet in the end he personally wiped them out; how he watched over those who came after him in the Imaginary Tree, yet prevented them from obtaining the truth; how he was called a traitor by the Flame-Chasers, yet also how they pitied Flame-Chasers.

She didn't even know if the "Lin" in front of her was the same person as the Lin she had first seen, or if it was the same memory.

"Who exactly are you? Did you really die in Previous Civilization?"

Are you now a ghost in the Imaginary Tree?

"Is your plan related to your extermination of humanity? Were you ultimately controlled by the Honkai?"

Why were you, as a traitor, also assigned to the plan?

This helmeted man, a man I thought I had seen through but who has become mysterious again, does he still love humanity?

He hates humanity, so why is there a rainy cemetery in the Imaginary Tree?

"..."

The man calmly looked at the purple-haired girl who was questioning him, and even the sound of her breathing under her helmet was so clear after her emotional questioning ended.

"Raiden Mei, you should control your emotions more."

"Answer my question!"

Raiden Mei, like an angry little lion, had crackling blue light flashing between her hair.

She wanted to treat Lin as a friend, as a senior, just like she treated Elysia. She also had many complicated feelings for this man that she couldn't explain, but he only treated her as... a child he could use for amusement? His attitude and tone were condescending and casual.

"... Raiden Mei, before I answer your question, I also need to ask you a question."

Is the birth of a human being a mistake?

Mei was stunned for a moment. "What..."

"I know you're unhappy with all the questions I've set up for you, constantly trying to confirm your identity and make you realize whether you're Herrscher or a human, but these are also questions I've encountered before."

Mei then noticed that the gaze beneath the helmet was unlike any Lin she had ever seen; it lacked any sharpness and gentleness. His tone was calm and his pace was slow, like that of an old man.

"When I was born, my parents did not want me to be born as a human being. They saw me as a guide for the future of humanity. But the future of 'humanity' is not 'humanity'. This view was opposed by my... adoptive father, the man who gave me my name."

"That man loathed humanity yet loved humanity. He wanted me to live as a human being. Good and evil are both human nature. He hated human evil, yet believed that the existence of evil was what made humanity human."

"Later, I became a soldier, a team member, a captain, a savior, a traitor, a sinner, Herrscher... I often questioned my identity. After the Ninth Honkai War, humanity declined, and the cause of this decline came from within humanity itself."

"Back then, we all knew that the end of civilization was inevitable. Even if we couldn't save it, we still had to fight, but that made everything that had happened before meaningless."

"From the moment humans are born, the countdown to death begins. Therefore, the birth of humans is meaningless, and after the extinction of civilization, the past is also meaningless. It was a mistake long before everything was born."

Raiden Mei couldn't believe that these were the words of the person who had given everything for humanity and buried all her sorrow and sacrifice in the cemetery.

He was as cold as a corpse, illustrating how foolish he had been in the past.

So, is that why he wanted to exterminate all of humanity? To end the meaningless human civilization and give it a quick and painless end, all because of his love for humanity?

Her pent-up rage erupted towards the corpse that had died ten thousand years ago:

"Why do we need meaning! You clearly love humanity so much, yet you believe that humanity cannot exist without meaning?! Even if it's a mistake, I will perpetuate that mistake!"

"This is what you taught me. Even if you deny it now, I will stick to it until I defeat you!"

Now you loathe the past: the soldier who marched against the tide of sorrow, the human who roared before the gods, the child who wept among his comrades.

But I will always remember you as you were.

Forest.

"Come on, fake!" The Herrscher of Thunder, Raiden Mei, drew her blade and aimed it at the emotionless corpse, her voice hoarse.

Like crying.

Chapter 71 Migratory Birds Flying Towards the Sun

"..."

With swords drawn, Mei drew her weapon against her respected senior, her unpredictable friend, and the culprit of destruction—this was the last thing she could do for that warrior.

"... That's why I said you should control your emotions more, Raiden Mei."

"I've had enough of your fallacies. If that's all you have to say, then don't expect me to give you a response anymore." Mei gripped the hilt of her sword tightly, the cold glint of the blade reflecting on her cheeks, her pale purple eyes radiating a unique glow when she used Honkai Energy.

Even if I tell you everything you want to know right now?

"And then, will you also hand over your conspiracy?"

"If I were the main villain, I wouldn't tell anyone about the plan before it even begins."

"You really are meticulous." Mei sneered, the man's reflection on the blade. She pouted. "Then I'm all ears. Do you have anything else to say in your defense?"

The man wearing the helmet stood like a lifeless sculpture, just like the Lin she knew. His slow, deliberate voice came from under the stuffy helmet. "Then let's start with what you care about most: the nature of the Honkai."

"..."

Has it finally arrived?

Mei never expected to get the answer she wanted under these circumstances.

"You may have also thought that since the manifestations of Honkai are various disasters, such as war, infectious diseases, abnormal climate, comet impacts, and even inexplicable biological invasions, is Honkai a periodic disaster specifically designed to destroy civilization?"

"This answer is correct, but not entirely correct, because the manifestation of Honkai is the destruction of civilization, but the ultimate result is to promote the progress of civilization."

To promote... the progress of civilization?

This crucial intelligence was casually uttered by Lin, his tone barely changing, as if it were just an ordinary matter.

"Or let me put it another way."

"Honkai, the exam."

"Earth, the examination room."

"The Great Honkai, a test question."

"The Herrscher is the examiner."

"Human, exam candidate."

The concise, clear, and overly explicit metaphor, when spoken by Lin, had a rather comical quality, leaving Mei somewhat at a loss for words.

Is it really that simple?

Even knowing that this was just a convenient way of saying it by Lin, Mei, who was originally preparing to face this shocking Mei, still experienced what an O. Henry ending is like.

Lin didn't linger on the topic at all, and he immediately continued, "Then, it's 'me,' Lin."

"..."

"Human, Lin, okay, next one is..."

"Wait a moment!"

"..."

Mei stared at Lin, who remained motionless but whose innocent face was likely behind the window, seemingly radiating some kind of humor, with an uncertain expression. She gritted her teeth and asked, "Don't you want to say anything? About yourself, your purpose in exterminating humanity, and what about you in the Imaginary Tree, beside the Herrscher of Erosion?"

"... I am 'Lin', and he is also 'Lin'."

"..."

"..."

"Then what?"

"And then what?"

"You are all Lin, so why are there two Lin!"

Lin and Mei looked at each other through the viewing window, only a few steps apart. The tense atmosphere had turned into an atmosphere that was hard to describe as either more tense or more relaxed.

After a long silence, Lin sighed and slowly said, "Raiden Mei, do you think the body dominates consciousness, or consciousness dominates the body? Would a person cease to be a person without consciousness, or would a person cease to be a person without a body?"

Although she didn't know why Lin would ask this question, Mei already had the answer, "Consciousness."

"That's right. So, do you think that in cases like Vill-V's, where consciousness is divided into multiple parts, each part can be considered Vill-V?"

Lin's words made Mei instantly understand something she hadn't been able to comprehend before. Her eyes widened, as if she couldn't quite believe the answer in her heart.

Trinity...

"That's right, the Lin you saw in the Imaginary Tree, and I, are both Lin. We have different parts of consciousness and memories."

This explains why the Lin in the Imaginary Tree is more like his early self, while the Lin in front of us is more like his later self.

Why... why did you do this?

Mei asked hesitantly.

"It is for humanity, and also for our companions."

Such seemingly casual words struck Mei's heart like a giant hammer. She stared blankly at the man in front of her who had recently said, without a trace of joy or sorrow, that the birth of humanity was meaningless. He continued, "Since you have already seen my memories, you should know that I once entered the Herrscher Core during my battle with the Herrscher of Death, and my ideology was altered, which became one of the reasons why I was later chosen as Herrscher."

"This altered ideology was the condition for the implementation of Ash Project, and it was at that time that I first discovered that Herrscher were not independent individuals, but were linked to a huge concept through a 'gate'. Herrscher were merely projections of that concept."

The Herrscher... is it just a projection?

One shock after another swept over Lin with his incessant words. He pointed at Mei and said, "There is a theory that if we look at our world from a higher-dimensional perspective, it's like a magnetic tape made up of countless pieces of information. The concept that looks at our world does the same thing. It projects its image onto different positions on the tape, thus forming the Herrscher. It can also use its own power as a magnetic head to reassemble the parts that have already been played."

"Reorganization... you don't mean..."

"Time reversal is impossible in a complete Intrinsic World, but it should be easy to do in World Bubble." Lin rejected Mei's shocking conjecture. "However, it is still possible to reassemble fragmented information into a similar beginning."

"Based on the three points that 'Herrscher can connect with the Origin through the Gate', 'Ideology can be changed', and 'The Origin will reorganize the original information', Mei and I conducted an experiment."