After waking from his dream, Hachiman Hikigaya kept replaying the conversation he'd had with his Stigma will.
In the future, Herrschers would inevitably operate with high intensity in the form of organizations.
And those 'unaffiliated factions' would be completely unable to keep up with the advancement speed of the 'Finality faction.'
"This is so dark! Way too dark! My whole life has been like walking on thin ice..."
Brother Hachi lamented the future lives of Herrschers, but then suddenly felt that such a development seemed perfectly logical.
At first, Hachiman Hikigaya had been worried that the Mother of Stigmas, after seizing the Cocoon of Finality, would further concentrate power in her own hands.
But he never could have imagined that the concentration of power would manifest in such a way.
It wasn't achieved through top-down commands, but through a bottom-up resonance of demand.
Hachiman Hikigaya didn't understand the full picture yet; he was still unaware of the details of the Imaginary Renormalization group. The very existence of the Cocoon of Finality was the result of a Stigma being alienated.
After waking up, Hachiman Hikigaya asked his comrades around him.
He found that apart from a few specific individuals who met certain criteria, most people had not actually received any notification from their Stigma will.
Hachiman Hikigaya didn't know where the line was drawn between insiders and outsiders.
When Manabu Horikita was summoned, he immediately understood what everyone wanted to discuss.
The two real-world modes of existence for Stigmas and humans had been clearly explained.
There was the organized alienation controlled by the Cocoon of Finality, and the autonomous fusion controlled by humans themselves.
To counter the reactive force brought by organizational compulsion, the Mother of Stigmas chose to release those individuals and then recruit suitable new members from among humanity.
The upper echelon of power constructed by the Emperor of Finality was a typical model of Herrscher reproduction.
She relied on the middle class of Stigma wielders.
And the Stigma wielders, in turn, further expanded their own Stigma Spaces through ordinary humans, guiding the development of their own Stigmas to reach even higher stages.
In short, the Cocoon of Finality, by structuring human civilization into classes, forced Stigma wielders into a state of intense internal competition. The productivity that erupted from this was then reinvested by the Emperor of Finality into the most fundamental aspect of human civilization: the reproduction of life.
The new world architecture was complete. Human civilization had constructed its own perfect social entity upon the foundation of Honkai Energy.
The Emperor's power had reached its peak.
All that remained was the political process of delegating power for execution. There was no longer any possibility of changing the interests of the classes.
After analysis with his comrades, Hachiman Hikigaya realized that the current Far East government was not of much use anymore.
It was more of a large, service-oriented community group, not even having crossed the most basic Stigma-class threshold. People like them were still at the stage of the Kaslana Stigma Space, only barely possessing the potential for their own Stigmas.
Hachiman Hikigaya thought for a long time, finally looking toward Manabu Horikita and Hei.
As of now, they were the only two qualified to establish a Stigma organization.
"Don't look at me. I have no interest in being some kind of foreman here in the Far East." The moment Hei realized he was being watched, he immediately waved his hands, indicating his withdrawal.
He was a lackey who followed the Emperor. When he could be living it up above everyone else, why would he come down here to personally grind it out? Was he insane?
It wasn't as if Kiana was the type of emperor who would cast aside her loyal hounds once the hunt was over. In the annals of human history, her personality couldn't even be classified as cruel.
But if you asked Hei to follow Noldrei, he would rather kill himself on the spot. That master was truly difficult to serve.
Noldrei was generous with his rewards, but the risks were absurdly high.
Manabu Horikita mulled over Hachiman Hikigaya's words and asked, "Are you saying that our boss is planning to start pushing the power of the Stigma further downwards?"
"That is indeed what I'm thinking. There's even a high probability that the entire Far East will undergo the process of Stigmatization. That is, Stigma organizations will permeate every aspect of our lives, and those who can't keep up will be... eliminated by the new Herrschers?"
Hachiman Hikigaya wasn't sure. He did know that a Herrscher was on a completely different level, capable of crushing a typical Stigma wielder.
Only a few powerful Stigma wielders, whose bodies and wills had been tempered to a certain height, were qualified to fight a Herrscher. Otherwise, an ordinary Stigma warrior facing a Herrscher was just cannon fodder.
"Elimination is impossible. The leadership wouldn't do something so wasteful. The most likely outcome is continued outward expansion," Kiyotaka Ayanokōji said, being more cold-blooded. Just from the formulation of the policies, he could tell that the ultimate leader behind the scenes was planning for civilization from an extremely high vantage point.
Elimination? That method was far too wasteful of manpower.
"How do you expand?"
Hachiman Hikigaya was a bit lost. Surely they couldn't just chase people out of the Far East?
"By breaking down traditional national borders, of course. The supreme leader of Academy City has captured aliens and is using even greater power to terraform Venus. I believe there's a high probability they will use land swaps, or redistribution of new land, as a means of expansion."
"As things stand now, only Herrschers possess the power to terraform planets and travel between stars."
Kiyotaka Ayanokōji offered a possibility that no one had considered before.
Manabu Horikita was surprised that Kiyotaka Ayanokōji could come up with such a brilliant idea.
Using interstellar land swaps between planets to gain greater jurisdiction over territory.
"Interesting, very interesting indeed..."
Manabu Horikita agreed that this was an excellent idea.
In fact, the research on Honkai Beasts within Academy City had already reached a very profound level, including the recycling of Honkai Beast body materials and research into new synthetic metals infused with the Honkai factor.
These things were constantly improving Academy City's interstellar travel capabilities, and this research had accelerated dramatically after obtaining the ruins of the Venusian civilization.
Manabu Horikita thought for a moment and said, "In that case, the current national organizations are more akin to the relationship between states in North America. Has the leadership also considered how to unify language? For example, designating a certain language as the official one, or with our current learning speed, should we create a new language from scratch?"
Hachiman Hikigaya didn't know about these future arrangements. But based on what he had seen in the Stigma Space, after the Stigma will explained the Mother of Stigmas' method of governance, he believed the next step wouldn't be language unification, but complete linguistic freedom.
Instead, the method of acquiring language would likely become unified.
For example, a direct knowledge infusion from the Stigma Space, allowing you to learn how the locals speak overnight.
And honestly, Hachiman Hikigaya really believed this kind of thing was possible.
He had no idea how awesome life would be for future humans. Brother Hachi now wished he could use a time machine to jump ahead and see it for himself.