After he left, Su had been praying constantly.
As a staunch MANTIS, he shouldn't have been so superstitious, but he was so desperate that he took the initiative to find Aponia and ask her to divine Kevin's fate.
The conclusion Aponia gave was...
She was completely useless.
Every choice she made only made things worse.
But after studying the ways of the new civilization, Aponia understood perfectly well why she kept making things worse.
It was simply because her abilities weren't enough.
It was like a financial mogul who knew the patterns of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, but when they actually entered the market, they were completely undone by insufficient information, a lack of understanding of the internal structures, and not knowing enough about the market makers.
In the end, whatever they bought, tanked.
Aponia could only see the threads of fate, but not the invisible hand that pulled them.
So, the nun had given up.
Even when Su came to ask her for a result, Aponia only had one thing to say.
"I dunno!"
Fate had declared itself blind.
If she could truly see fate and had the ability to manipulate it, Aponia would have solved the Previous Era's Honkai crisis long ago.
Would she have needed to wait for people from the Current Era to come and rescue her?
The facts proved it. She had seen Noldrei and Kevin reconciling, and she had seen Kevin letting his descendant, Kiana, inherit Finality.
She had even seen Noldrei and Kevin coming to blows, and Noldrei and Kiana coming to blows.
But what use was any of it?
She couldn't intervene. No one could intervene. There was no being capable of stopping them from acting recklessly.
It was like a prime minister facing a foolish king, a republic facing a dictator, or two political parties sabotaging each other.
Everyone below knew it was wrong, but no one could stop the error from occurring.
Right now, Aponia felt like an ancient court official trying to admonish the emperor—completely useless.
And Su still came to her seeking answers? He was really overestimating this useless nun, wasn't he? She was already thankful she hadn't been turned into one of His Majesty's tentacle playthings.
Currently, three supreme authorities existed on Earth: Noldrei, who held the standard of civilization; Kiana, who held the Mother of Stigmas; and Kevin, the temporary worker serving as a transitional figure.
"Su, fate is already set. Even Elysia, who can change fate, can't do anything. Look, she even brought snacks to eat. I don't understand how Elysia's new body can still get a little tummy."
Su felt like kowtowing to Aponia, but he also knew she really didn't have the ability.
Seeking her help was truly asking for too much.
"Su, what on earth happened? What's gotten you so worked up? Finality has already lost. What else could possibly trouble the people of this new era?"
Elysia had noticed Su had been restless ever since he returned. Since Kevin had already obtained the power and Noldrei had also gone to the Cocoon of Finality, what problem could possibly withstand their combined strength?
Su gave a bitter smile. "Even if I wanted to explain, I couldn't possibly describe why. It's just... too terrifying. It's like facing Finality itself, but even more... unsettling."
Facing Finality was just a matter of civilization's extinction, everyone dying together.
But facing the eternal suffering brought about by internal civilizational conflict... Su felt that an early death might not be such a bad thing for humanity.
The Previous Era never had to consider this problem, since they never defeated the Honkai.
But the Current Era was different. Noldrei and the throne of the Honkai Emperor were in complete opposition, which made Su, who had just seen a glimmer of hope, feel even more despair.
"Noldrei is indeed the greatest warrior of all time, but the battlefield he fights on is completely different from ours. As the creator of everything in the Current Era, he has taken human civilization under proliferationalism and, in a completely oppositional manner, created a perfect existence of the Cocoon of Finality."
"The two empower each other, target each other, and only when one is utterly and completely defeated can the final victor emerge."
"The problem now is that the proliferationalist human civilization created by Noldrei has an overwhelming advantage against Finality."
"Before it yielded, the Will of the Honkai found proliferationalism's own internal paradox of rebellion."
"But..."
Su's already bitter face grew even more so.
"But the Will of the Honkai only gave us the paradox of rebellion; it didn't provide any solution. It only provided the theoretical basis for humanity to accept anti-proliferationalism, then it patted its butt and left."
"The situation now is that Kevin has to bear the burden of resisting the entire civilization that Noldrei has built."
Elysia's eyes lit up as she listened, the snacks in her hand never ceasing their journey to her mouth.
'Amazing! I never thought the Will of the Honkai could pull out such a killer move at the end.'
"So, did they fight?" Aponia asked nervously.
In the fates she had seen, she had indeed witnessed shadows of the two of them fighting.
It was entirely possible for them to come to blows.
Su threw up his hands helplessly. "If they had fought, that celestial body wouldn't look so calm and peaceful right now."
Elysia almost fainted from excitement. She subconsciously flashed back to the scenes of conflict she had been watching in the research institute.
The fact that they hadn't fought meant both sides were restraining their desire for battle.
Noldrei didn't want to snuff out the slim possibility of anti-proliferationalism.
And Kevin didn't want to take Earth's civilization down with him.
Elysia pressed on, "So where are they? They can't possibly be studying how to manage life's reproduction together inside the Cocoon of Finality, can they?"
"I'm worried about that too. They still haven't come out. I have no idea how their conversation went. I don't even know if they're fighting in there."
Su began to fret after speaking. He was completely powerless to intervene in a conflict of this level.
Prometheus floated aimlessly nearby. As a mere eunuch, what right did she have to speak? At most, she could leak information about what Finality was up to outside the palace gates.
But now, it was Kevin inside. For the time being, she couldn't be so blatant.
Prometheus didn't sense any unusual energy fluctuations from the Finality celestial body. There was no sign of the two making a move.
Just as they were worrying...
Kevin was the first to leave the Cocoon of Finality, descending before them.
"Kevin, you... won?"
Su stepped forward and asked tentatively. He knew Noldrei had the ability to transform into others, even using memory fragments to create a perfect imitation of the original Kevin.
Kevin shook his head, then looked at his old comrades.
His gaze finally rested on Elysia, who had completely integrated into this new life.
His face was as still as water as he said, "I did not fight him, and he does not wish to fight me. However, he has permitted me to share the new theory created by the Will of the Honkai with all of you, including everyone in the Current Era."
"But I do not intend to do so. I plan to first inform the Council of all the details, and let them make the decision."
Unlike Elysia, who was eager to see what would happen, Misteln, who had been silent all this time, knew this theory was far more than just words.
The new theory provided by the Will of the Honkai was most likely a way for it to find a sliver of a chance for survival, an opportunity for its future kind to escape Noldrei's control.