Kevin, now the wielder of Finality, found himself in a position of opposition against Noldrei.
This news not only shocked the survivors of the Previous Era, who had just begun to relax, but it also nearly caused everyone in Academy City to blow a fuse on the spot.
It had been decided that the authority of Finality was to be inherited by Kiana. The main purpose was to use her current body and power to suppress the Honkai crisis.
For hundreds of millions of years, the Honkai had not only destroyed the Venusian civilization but also the Previous Era of Earth. Perhaps even the era before that had been wiped out by the Honkai as well.
Noldrei had led everyone down the path of turning the tables and besieging the Cocoon of Finality. Regardless of how human civilization developed in the future, the current Council of Academy City stood unquestionably behind Noldrei.
Anyone who stood against him—never mind Kiana, not even Welt Yang would stand for it.
They were indeed worried about the future struggles of proliferationalism that Noldrei spoke of, but they were even more opposed to letting the Honkai crisis flare up again.
No matter how chaotic or doomed humanity's internal struggles became, at least it was their own mess in their own pot. But the Cocoon of Finality had to be crushed!
This generation didn't view Herrschers as the highest ruling class, nor did they think the status of a Herrscher was anything special. But it was uncertain what would happen after future power transitions.
At the very least, the Herrscher Cores would become the best tool for the Honkai Emperor to rule the Earth.
Who would dare say the new world led by the Director of Academy City wasn't good? No one could utter such words.
Even those unprogressive people in the backwoods were being forcibly pulled out and integrated into the new society.
The new world wasn't overpopulated. Compared to the grand future goal of exploring the universe, there were far too few new humans.
They were even facing extreme resource shortages, just waiting for Noldrei to lead them on a charge into the solar system, toward a good life of happiness and well-being for all.
And now you're telling everyone that your Director, who holds humanity's ova in his hands, is doing it all to maintain his own foundation of rule? To make proliferationalism blow up?
Never mind if others believed it, just Kiana alone...
"Impossible! Didn't he tell us about this when he first started leading us? The problems humanity would face in the future under these conditions! He made it crystal clear to us from the very beginning. We humans just chose to follow him down this path when faced with the Honkai crisis."
Kiana didn't care one bit about whether Noldrei had unleashed some new demon.
Even according to the education in their schools, everyone knew very well that everything had its pros and cons; there were no perfect solutions.
You could only solve the main contradiction—the biggest threat—first, and then consider the secondary problems created by your methods.
Kiana pointed out the window and asked loudly, "Go ask the people of Academy City outside right now! Ask them if they're willing to go back to that stagnant old world, full of industrial smog and cruel order! Ask them if they're willing to go back to the old world that controlled people's resources for survival just to stabilize internal conflict!"
"Noldrei only controls the channel for new life, but those people from the old era wanted their living flesh and blood!"
"And who knows if the Will of the Honkai wasn't just spouting nonsense at the end? If it was pissed off at humanity and deliberately mixed some shit into its final words, are you just going to eat it all up?!"
Kiana's verbal assault skills were growing by the day, making it seem as if Kevin had actually done just that.
Kevin's face immediately darkened. He had never faced such a severe personal attack.
If this wasn't his own descendant, the two of them would probably be fighting across the table right now.
Kevin didn't have much of an emotional reaction. The only reason he had informed everyone of this matter was because the information the Will of the Honkai had given him was simply too shocking.
Besides, after surrendering the authority of Finality, he had no intention of continuing to live anyway.
He was planning to end his own life and go find MEI.
Raiden Mei quickly grabbed the agitated Kiana, at least preventing her from jumping up on the spot and demanding to take over the authority of Finality from Kevin.
"Calm down, calm down. While I also believe the words of the Will of the Honkai are untrustworthy, Kevin wouldn't tell us something completely unbelievable. Besides, since the Will of the Honkai has already retreated, there's no reason for it to leave behind something that sounds..."
After being exposed to the concept of 'Creditorship of Life,' Raiden Mei also felt that the theoretical basis wasn't entirely without merit.
"Sounds like... it actually makes a lot of sense."
Raiden Mei had to admit that the Will of the Honkai possessed wisdom. She had always thought of it as some kind of high-end intelligent AI system.
But the Will of the Honkai had not only clearly grasped how the right to reproduce converged into the power of life's reproduction, but it had also deduced from this that the organization controlling the right to reproduce was, in reality, practicing 'Creditorship of Life'.
Unlike the life-difference class hierarchy between elders and juniors in primitive social structures, Noldrei had placed new life at the very center of the social collective.
He had used the external binding of power and responsibility to shape a natural and necessary duty for new life to solve the problems of the collective.
In this new society, there were no differences in education, no head starts in life, and no differences in talent in the traditional sense.
It was a seemingly free path, but in reality, it had already shaped an inevitable destiny for new life.
This destiny even transcended the simple limitations of distance from the past.
Even if new life escaped the collective, fleeing to some lifeless corner of the universe, they would inevitably face the terrifying problem of propagation and the reproduction of life.
And those who escaped from the collective would still carry the limitations of that collective with them as they faced and contemplated these problems.
Not only did they fail to escape the suffering of the collective, but by losing the organization of the collective, they had completely abandoned the ability to solve that suffering. They had gone from being spiritual orphans to being orphans in true, physical existence.
The content of Kevin's story had become the reins that would bind the next era of humanity.
Raiden Mei had naturally taken all these issues to heart, but she knew that the people of today would not care about such problems.
Since leaving primitive society, humanity had never considered problems of this magnitude. Everyone had just escaped the suffering of industrial civilization, and now they had to consider the suffering of the future?
Never mind how long it would be before that future suffering arrived, but dropping such a huge problem on Kiana's shoulders was a bit... like entrusting it to the wrong person.
Kiana had always believed that Noldrei was absolutely good to her.
But now Kevin was saying that once she took on the authority of Finality, a divergence of paths that would put her in direct opposition to Noldrei was inevitable.
In that case, Kiana would definitely choose not to inherit this so-called power of Finality.
Raiden Mei knew better than anyone else: what Noldrei truly wanted was anti-proliferationalism. Cultivating the soil of proliferationalism in humanity was not his goal.
His purpose was to make proliferationalism sprout so that humanity, in a conservative backlash, would create the power of anti-proliferationalism. That was the result he truly wanted.
If Kiana were to follow Noldrei's current line of command, that would be the real mistake. It would only lead to Noldrei becoming even more disappointed in her.