Noldrei had gotten the result he wanted.
Kevin, in the end, had successfully usurped the power of Finality.
The Will of the Honkai had lost, but that didn't mean the Cocoon of Finality had lost. This might sound convoluted, but the explanation is quite simple.
The Will of the Honkai was merely the entity sitting on the throne, while the Cocoon of Finality was the throne that constituted material reality. In the past, before the power of the Honkai was decentralized, the Cocoon of Finality possessed all the supreme authorities of the Honkai.
After the "slanderous advice" offered by Prometheus and Elysia, the Will of the Honkai ultimately had its authority shattered into pieces.
And now, the Will of the Honkai no longer had the power to oppose Kevin.
Thus, upon receiving the news of Kevin's successful usurpation of Finality, Noldrei immediately set out to meet with him.
Upon meeting the now-ascended "Finality Kevin," Noldrei noticed something dissonant.
"If Kiana had been the one, given her mental fortitude, she would have needed to hold most of the Herrscher Cores in her hands to claim the authority of Finality. Yet you, Kevin, were able to obtain it relying solely on your own power."
"The gap is still immense..."
Noldrei sighed, marveling at the strength of Kevin's will.
In this world where the mind could separate from the body as an objective entity, he was no longer surprised by such things.
Kevin didn't care about the nature of Finality's power. He was far more concerned with Noldrei's attitude toward the future of human civilization.
Kevin rose to his feet. "That is for my descendants to ponder. Rather than things that are already history, there are some matters I wish to ask you."
Noldrei looked at Kevin with equal calmness. He knew, of course, what Kevin was asking about.
He had pushed human civilization to this point with the sole aim of reversing the crisis of struggle brought about by proliferationalism.
As far as he was concerned, his work had only just begun; it was not yet time to stop.
"About the future. About humanity."
Kevin asked, "Do you truly intend to destroy and reforge the very civilization you built with your own hands?"
Noldrei explained, "I have no intention of destroying civilization. It's just that, in its current state, it will endlessly trend toward the world I came from. I will not allow it to walk that same path again..."
Kevin cut off his plea. "You and I both know that is tantamount to smashing the current world to pieces and rebuilding it. And this time, there won't be a Honkai crisis looming outside to maintain that coercive threat. In that scenario, humanity can only erupt into the most violent internal conflict imaginable—only then can you advance your true agenda."
"I imagine those people never once thought that the person they trusted never actually trusted the new world they created, did they?"
Kevin's rebuttal was razor-sharp.
Noldrei had indeed chosen not to trust in their creativity. It wasn't because he didn't believe in human ingenuity, but because human creativity itself already existed within the applicable scope of proliferationalism.
In fact, proliferationalism was the ideology that believed in human creativity the most.
"Kevin, oh Kevin... I truly don't trust their creativity, because a person cannot put into practice a reality they have never even witnessed. Just like me, now. I believe this world will be different, not because its people are different, but because this world possesses a material basis that my own world lacked. Like the power of Finality you now bear, like the Imaginary Tide that has caged the solar system."
The world Noldrei came from had no Imaginary Energy, so he knew full well that even with it, this would simply be the rise of another living civilization.
To say nothing of the fact that the Imaginary Energy here bore so many marks of having been tampered with.
Kevin had no intention of debating this point. Upon obtaining the power of Finality, he understood his position and his role. There was no possibility of reconciliation with a madman like Noldrei, who was driven by an insane devotion to his own future.
"Easy for you to say. But I know that you will not halt your steps for the people of this era. Your eyes see only your anti-proliferationalism. Even if your next actions might destroy the new world we have worked so hard to build, you will press on."
Noldrei did not refute Kevin's words. This was his ideology, the principle he had followed since his birth.
No explanation he could offer would matter.
In his history, he had tried many times to alter this irreversible process, but humanity still plunged into a river of fate, rushing toward a new world of endless struggle.
Centralization, decentralization, purges, education, brainwashing—he had tried every method imaginable. In the end, all of it failed before the overwhelming tide of life's reproduction.
Whatever Kevin said was useless. Noldrei carried the hopes of the majority of humanity from 130,000 years in the future for a new world.
How could he possibly stop for a new civilization, one just now rising on a new wave of proliferationalism fueled by geneticism?
Kevin tried to reason with him. "Human civilization has only just begun to rise; it has only just completed its theoretical integration. The people of Earth have worked so hard to unite, and now you plan to dismantle them? Have you not considered the living conditions of the majority of humanity?"
"Following your intended course of action, they will either rapidly devolve into the state of your original world or collapse onto an even more tragic path."
A laugh escaped Noldrei. "Even if I do nothing now, with the amplification of Honkai Energy, I'm afraid it won't even take a few thousand years for all of you to experience the true suffering of the people of the future. The loss of humanity's own subjectivity will drive life to eternally pursue ever greater struggle and progress."
Kevin was silent for a long time. "We don't disbelieve the future you speak of. We disbelieve that you can solve the problem. If you could have solved it, you never would have had to leave your world."
Noldrei had no rebuttal. He truly had no solution.
The people of this era, after his public teachings, were already fully capable of understanding what that future of endless struggle entailed.
It was precisely because some could understand such a future that they could also understand the limitations that bound Noldrei within it.
The Cocoon of Finality had grasped this very contradiction, which was why it dared to entrust its power to Kevin, and why it had truthfully informed him of the danger this contradiction posed.
Kevin looked at Noldrei, his voice cold. "Your future people's infinite pursuit of the binding of power and responsibility—its purpose is to cope with the ultimate contradiction of life's reproduction, a contradiction brought about by proliferationalism!"
"The crisis of life's reproduction is the endless expansion of collective power and responsibility!"
"While the people of the future set aside their own suffering, they are also constantly trying to create new suffering for the even newer life that follows them."
"And the suffering of humanity's internal struggles stems precisely from your endless borrowing from and repayment to the life of the future!"