(Ceruno)
The Consciousness Ocean had come to a complete standstill. We had no spare processing power to handle the information and emotions pouring in from across the world. These were the sustenance "we" depended on to survive, yet now they were piling up like this, with quite a lot even going to waste.
To put it in terms we had used back when we were human, we were too busy even to eat.
Still, Miluno was working so hard~
She was doing her best to keep the Earth Crystal suppressed by the Great Will without letting it be devoured completely, locking the two sides into a pointless war of attrition. Once all the Earth Crystal's Plan B options failed, the "last resort" I had proposed would become our only remaining choice.
When that happened, however reluctant the Hive Consciousness might be, it would have no other option.
The Great Will's invasion, my reunion with Miluno, and all the other factors coming together had given me this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to advance my plan.
Miluno really was my hero~
Keeping those thoughts hidden deep inside, I began waiting for the moment the Earth Crystal could no longer hold out.
That moment would not be long in coming.
The conflict with the Great Will had severely depleted our "capacity." All of it was pointless expenditure, and we had no time to replenish it... In truth, we could not replenish it anyway.
Unstable contact between light and darkness caused annihilation explosions. Although the Great Will was also being depleted by that annihilation, her sheer scale was enough to overwhelm us. Even in a one-for-one exchange, she would still be the one laughing at the end.
That was not the only pressure on the Earth Crystal. The independent consciousnesses within the Hive Consciousness were also