When did the Aeons come into existence in this world?
It was a rather peculiar question, not because it was too difficult, but because it was too simple.
In the Honkai: Star Rail universe, even a schoolchild could easily give the answer.
"According to the Interastral Peace Corporation, the oldest known Aeon is Qlipoth, the Preservation. Their ascension to godhood is considered the decisive factor that ended the Dusk Wars. The day of their ascension marked the first year of the Amber Era, which was 2,157 Amber Eras ago," Herta began.
The Amber Era is one of the universal galactic calendars promoted by the IPC. Each time Qlipoth, the Aeon of Preservation, strikes their hammer, it marks the end of one Amber Era and the beginning of the next.
Due to the variable intervals between Qlipoth's hammer strikes, the length of each Amber Era fluctuates significantly.
Converted to the Trailblaze calendar, one Amber Era is roughly equivalent to 76 to 240 years.
It was currently the 2157th Amber Era, a fact which could be used to directly estimate the lifespan of Qlipoth the Preservation.
"However, in my judgment, the Corporation's propaganda is full of hot air. According to my research, the Dusk Wars didn't end immediately after Qlipoth's ascension. On the contrary, the Leviathan Beasts remained active for at least another hundred Amber Eras before they completely disappeared."
Herta spoke words that were nothing short of heresy, enough to get her silenced by the IPC, and then added with a dissatisfied pout, "I was a little interested in this period of history, but after the IPC found out about my research, they kept making trouble for me, not wanting me to ruin their propaganda. Later, because those guys were so annoying, I stopped my research."
It was only because of who she was that the IPC would bother with such entanglement. If anyone else had researched these matters, they would have likely vanished without a trace.
For the fanatical followers of the Preservation, questioning these facts was tantamount to challenging their faith.
And for the employees of the IPC, Qlipoth was their public face. If anything that damaged the Aeon's image was exposed, it would directly affect the Corporation's profits.
Threatening profits was far more likely to provoke hatred than threatening faith.
Even Herta couldn't just do as she pleased.
"Putting the Dusk Wars aside, according to existing data, the age of Qlipoth the Preservation can be calculated. There's no issue with that, is there?" Su Mo asked in return.
During the waiting period, he had already used Schwi to review all the public data on the space station, gaining a more comprehensive understanding of the Honkai: Star Rail universe.
Combining this with the information he had from his previous life, he had formed a rather deep theory about the truth of this world. This was why he dared to directly engage with the topic of Aeons.
"There's no issue with that," Herta nodded.
The Amber Era calendar was established based on Qlipoth's first hammer strike. Although it was a calculated time, the margin of error wouldn't be too large.
Whatever happened back then, a calendar created by Qlipoth themself wouldn't be wrong within the same frame of reference.
"The 2157th Amber Era... converts to 500,000 years at most."
Following Herta's answer, Su Mo deduced this fact.
"In other words, even one of the oldest known Aeons is, at most, a mere five hundred thousand years old."
Five hundred thousand years was an immense number for an ordinary world. Even the gods in the world of Campione! were generally only a few thousand years old. The Aeons were a hundred times older.
However, on a cosmic stage, this period was far too short.
In Earth's history, humanity walked out of Africa a hundred thousand years ago, and civilization was established only ten thousand years ago. The oldest tribal gods were only about ten thousand years old. It was perfectly reasonable for gods born from this foundation to be, on average, a few thousand years old.
But for an interstellar society, a few hundred thousand years was too short.
The universe was born over thirteen billion years ago. Earth-like planets had existed for at least a few billion years.
In the world of Honkai: Star Rail, there was no shortage of civilizations that were millions of years old.
On such a vast timescale, five hundred thousand years was but the blink of an eye.
"As such young beings, the Aeons immediately possessed the power to influence the entire universe, and there's more than one of them... Don't you find this puzzling?" Su Mo raised this point.
In the thirteen-point-seven billion years prior, not a single being capable of influencing the entire universe had appeared. Yet, in the short span of less than five hundred thousand years, so many Aeons had emerged at once.
Beings capable of shaking the very framework of the cosmos had all appeared in a cluster within such a brief period.
To an ordinary person, the existence of Aeons might be as self-evident as a law of the universe. But upon closer inspection, one would find it to be extremely illogical.
Why did the Aeons appear concentrated in this specific time period?
Why did they possess the power to influence the entire universe?
If the birth of Aeons was a natural phenomenon, why hadn't a single one appeared in the preceding thirteen billion years?
Hearing the questions Su Mo laid out, Herta fell into a brief, deep thought.
After a few seconds, she spoke.
"Regarding the Aeons, there is a relatively niche hypothesis that they have existed from the very beginning."
"There are isolated cases showing that representative symbols of Lan the Hunt were discovered in the ancient era before the Xianzhou Alliance left its home planet. But at that time, Lan the Hunt had not yet been born."
The problems Su Mo pointed out couldn't be ignored, but her own knowledge of the Aeons was equally vast.
"If the Aeons have always existed and have only recently begun to manifest one by one for some unknown reason... Hmm, although it's a stretch, it could explain how they possess universe-level power. They are beings who are, and always have been."
Reaching this point, Herta seemed dissatisfied with this tenuous explanation, but she had no better one.
"When studying the Aeons, one must not only consider how they change over time but also how they interfere with time itself."
"Take Terminus, the Aeon of Finality, who travels against the flow of time. Even though they are born in a distant, destructive future, they can still traverse the river of time and return to the past. Other Aeons may not be able to do this to the same extent, but it's highly probable that they have unconscious means of influencing time."
Hearing this, Herta pondered for a long while before asking in astonishment, "Are you saying that the miracles of the Aeons before their birth are the result of their unconscious influence on the upstream of the river of time after they were born?"
Concepts involving time travel were often complex, but for her, this hypothesis posed no barrier to understanding. It was merely a test of imagination.
According to Su Mo, the prehistoric miracles of Lan the Hunt were relics formed by their remote perception through time and space after their birth.
"Correct. For a god, this is a basic operation," Su Mo replied calmly, his expression unfazed, as if this were commonplace.
Interfering with time to strengthen one's own existence, deepen one's mark on the world, and enhance one's power—this might seem rare to the uninitiated, but in the realm of mythology, it was a fundamental practice of any developed pantheon.
Just like the previously mentioned Father Zeus. By using predestined fate and theological patches, a god who was born later could be packaged as a primordial deity who had always existed and secretly controlled all things.
This not only greatly enhanced the god's presence in the mythology, but once the hypothesis was fully accepted, that god would truly become a singular deity who transcended all time and fate.
It was like turning fiction into reality. A god born later could become an "eternal" being through this operation, transforming a false hypothesis into truth.
In this field, the already successful Abrahamic faiths were clearly more experienced than the Greek mythology, which had failed in its attempt.
With Su Mo's professional expertise in mythology, he could see through the cause of this phenomenon at a glance.
"A very valuable hypothesis."
Even Herta, after some thought, had to admit that Su Mo's theory was more plausible.
It not only provided a reasonable explanation for the temporal phenomena but also avoided the catch-all, theological explanations.
Always existing in the universe but not manifesting for some reason... what's the difference between that and not existing at all!
"According to your theory, this phenomenon is just one piece of interference data from the Aeons themselves on the universe. In other words, you also believe that the Aeons are nascent beings who only emerged in the last few hundred thousand years?" Herta asked with great interest, sensing the value in Su Mo's thinking.
Just a moment ago, Su Mo had said it was illogical for the overly young Aeons to suddenly ascend to a power beyond limits.
But from the sound of it, he still supported the fact that the Aeons were only a few hundred thousand years old?
Wasn't there a contradiction between the two?
"Correct. The ascensions of the Aeons have been recorded in numerous indelible records. It is also an undeniable fact that they emerged explosively in the last few hundred thousand years," Su Mo acknowledged this foundation, then changed the subject. "Based on this fact, I have a rather simple question."
"Did the Aeons truly appear out of thin air, without any root, trace, or reason?"
"Or is it that their existence itself has some other foundation, and they only underwent a transmutation under the right conditions, ultimately elevating themselves to a power capable of interfering on a cosmic scale?"
Unlike ordinary evolution, transmutation refers to the phenomenon where a substance changes at an exponential rate in a very short period, completely transforming into a different, unrelated substance.
The magnitude of this change is more intense than a supernova explosion, and the time it takes is shorter than a flash of lightning.
It is a complete leap in the level of life itself.
For example, if Su Mo were to find a wild bird with no intelligence, directly bestow upon it the persona of the One True God, and elevate it to a supreme deity, the magnitude of that change could barely be called a transmutation.
According to existing data or legends, Lan the Hunt, Nous the Erudition, Tayzzyronth the Propagation, and others all met the conditions for transmutation, ascending from mortal beings to the status of Aeons.
Although Lan's story is still debated, the trajectories of the other Aeons are not in question.
While such things are not often seen in the macroscopic universe, similar phenomena are not uncommon in the microscopic universe.
Herta was naturally no stranger to this.
"Transmutation... There's no problem with that theory. But what you're trying to say isn't just about the phenomenon of ascension, is it?"
Herta looked directly into Su Mo's eyes. She keenly sensed that the target of Su Mo's research was not the individual Aeons themselves, but a more fundamental power.
"Mm." Su Mo nodded calmly. "There's nothing much to study about the phenomenon of ascension. It's simply an individual meeting the conditions to open a Path, being accepted by the position of an Aeon, and becoming the corresponding Aeon."
"In fact, as long as the same conditions are met, any individual can become an Aeon."
"So, when studying Aeons, the individual Aeon itself is not important. What's important is the position of the Aeon. Where does this 'seat' itself come from?"