"How lamentable. The thought of you all having to live such bitter lives in the future..."
"My heart is breaking!"
"Look, take little Bronya for example..."
"She's so close with her little sister Seele now, but what about a few thousand years later? I'd bet that after a few millennia, a huge conflict will definitely arise. In the end, it'll either be a broken mirror that's hard to mend, or they'll find new loves."
Hearing this, Bronya's eyes went wide with anger. She glared daggers at Prometheus, who was trailing behind Noldrei.
Noldrei was the one who found a new love, and yet he had the gall to turn around and bite her!
This must be Prometheus's fault!
Prometheus was deeply troubled, a fact made somewhat visible by the disarray of her hair.
"And Mei. Ever since she turned into a little pony, she just sleeps in the sun all day."
"Not only does she sleep herself, she even brings her little sisters along to sleep with her!"
"I'll have that woman Elysia learn a thing or two from Mei about what it means to be calm and collected! It'll save her the trouble of coming to bother me all the time."
Raiden Mei shot Noldrei a sidelong glance. It wasn't like she wanted to turn into a little pony; she just gradually grew to like this kind of life after it happened.
That guy Noldrei had tossed Kiana onto the moon.
It wasn't that he was particularly cruel, but rather that he specifically needed Kiana to stay there.
By using the "Fist of Sa," Kiana's control over the power of Finality had grown immensely. But this growth didn't mean she was completely without problems.
Fighting Sa provided Kiana with limited growth; the rest required her to adapt and internalize this power on her own.
Fortunately, she could mitigate the awkward state of power leakage by transforming into a giant insect.
She couldn't do it on Earth, but on the moon, Kiana could hide on the far side.
Otherwise, people on Earth would look up at night and see a giant pink bug wrapped around half the moon.
To prevent the consequences from being too terrifying, Noldrei had no choice but to temporarily leave Kiana on the moon.
"Kiana needs a certain amount of time to get control of her body. Right now, she's only exercising the authority of Finality by relying on her body's power. Kevin's situation back then was also very troublesome. If it weren't for the exceptional quality of his MANTIS body, Kevin also had to expend a great deal of energy to wear down the conflict brought by this power."
Noldrei explained Kiana's condition.
Meanwhile, Sa was still lying prone on Venus, beaten to a pulp without a single patch of intact flesh. Sa was slowly recovering, and Vita had been arranged to conduct a second round of moral education on her.
After 'sparring' with Kiana, Sa should have understood that even without Noldrei, the Current Era was not a collective civilization she could casually provoke.
Tesla had always felt that Noldrei's education of Kiana was a bit too strict. Fortunately, the guy still knew to let Kiana maintain a slow state of recovery.
Although both possessed the bodies of future humans, there were still some differences.
Noldrei had no experience with sleeping and had no need for it, whereas Kiana could slow down her perception of time by sleeping.
And Prometheus could temporarily obtain the power to approve matters through the backdoor she had left in Finality. For the foreseeable future, the planning of Herrscher authorities and the development direction of human civilization were in very good hands.
Prometheus had successfully completed her post-layoff re-employment.
The ten-thousand-year-old digital lifeform was delaying her retirement!
Tesla believed Kiana's current state was extremely dangerous. If the girl opened her eyes and found herself abandoned by her 'dad' again, she might just have the heart to destroy the solar system on the spot.
Tesla asked Noldrei cautiously, "What if she gets angry? She already has the experience of being abandoned by her father as a child, and now she has to face you leaving the solar system and walking through the star gate. This time is completely different! I'm worried she'll snap one day and just get rid of all of us."
Everyone's eyes fell on Noldrei.
Elysia was so nervous her heart was in her throat.
She had only come to see how the inheritance of Finality's authority was going; she didn't want to witness some horrifying, tragic bloodbath.
Noldrei had a plan for this. He said seriously, "I've already informed Kiana. In order for her to recover better and adapt to her new life form, I am preparing to charge through the star gate to find a better solution!"
"..."
Tesla's brain lagged for a moment. She began to suspect that Noldrei was intentionally not helping Kiana directly.
"Are you saying," she asked tentatively, "that she needs to use this method of changing her form to mitigate the power of Finality in her body? Or are you saying you have no intention of directly helping her?"
Noldrei shook his head. "No, she doesn't need to. In fact, her body can indeed control it directly. Kiana's real problem isn't that her body can't control Finality, but that she can't control her body. Her body has perfectly controlled Finality. Her real problem is that she can't control the body that has controlled Finality."
This time, Tesla understood. So, Finality wasn't the problem at all; the problem was Kiana herself.
Noldrei spoke to Tesla seriously. "Do you remember what I told you? A being's perception and action are two major categories. The remaining parts are all methods that constitute these two main activities. Tesla, the universe you see is completely different from what ordinary people see, isn't it?"
"Isn't that obvious?"
The universe Tesla saw through her Herrscher of Thunder ability was on the microscopic electronic level. In the eyes of an ordinary person, the universe was dark, but in her eyes, it was actually filled with all sorts of colorful matter.
"Exactly. Kiana's body's perceptual ability is limited by her own understanding of the material world. The parts of her body she can control are, in fact, only the parts she can perceive."
Noldrei was very calm as he spoke, as if he had long foreseen this moment.
"Just like you, Tesla, Kiana's current level is insufficient to command the full power of her body. She needs a long enough time to adapt to her changes bit by bit on her own."
Tesla asked, puzzled, "Is Kiana's current rate of absorbing civilization's knowledge not enough?"
Hearing this, Noldrei couldn't help but laugh out loud. "It's not that her ability is insufficient. It's that humanity's understanding of the material world is insufficient for her to learn everything about her own body."
"Who here remembers the connection between the Cocoon of Finality and civilization?"
"Elysia, do you remember? The abilities of the Herrschers that are born are directly influenced by the level of human civilization."
Elysia did indeed remember her intervention and modification of the Herrschers.
Everyone present now understood the greatest predicament Kiana was facing.
The Finality in Kevin's hands was still the Finality understood by the people of the Current Era. But the Finality in Kiana's hands had become the Finality that only the future humans from Noldrei's 130,000-year future could comprehend.
The change in its power could no longer be described by simple multiplication.
Even the most stout-hearted Pink Elf™ now realized that things were not developing as they should.
No wonder Noldrei said it wasn't for himself. It turned out the current Emperor of Finality was a super-growth type!
An involuntary wave of admiration for Sa rose in everyone's hearts. To take a punch from such an existence and still be alive—truly worthy of being a monster that has lived for hundreds of millions of years!