Just as the core of a god's power is their divine persona, the power of an Aeon also has a core.
It is an existence like a divine persona; whoever obtains the corresponding persona can become the corresponding Aeon.
"You really have some nerve!"
Hearing Su Mo's words, a strange light flashed in Herta's eyes.
Don't misunderstand. This wasn't because she was attracted to Su Mo or had any romantic interest in him.
For a genius of her caliber, such basic physiological needs had long since faded. No matter how good-looking Su Mo was, she would never fall into a lovesick daze over it.
Herta's gaze stemmed entirely from recognition. This was the first time she had met someone with more guts than her.
According to Su Mo, Xipe wasn't necessarily the only one who could be the Aeon of Harmony, Qlipoth wasn't necessarily the only one for Preservation, and Aha wasn't necessarily the only one for Elation...
If these words got out, with the possible exception of the Masked Fools of the Elation, the other factions loyal to their Aeons would undoubtedly come looking for trouble with Su Mo.
This would be true even if they knew that Su Mo's purely theoretical hypothesis was likely correct.
As a fellow researcher who often made shocking statements, Herta greatly admired Su Mo's attitude.
This is what academia should be like!
The Interastral Peace Corporation, with their "this is forbidden, that is forbidden" attitude, completely lacked a spirit of seeking truth from facts. How could one conduct research like that?
"Are you really one to talk?"
Su Mo glanced at Herta with a somewhat strange expression.
He was only talking to Herta. Herta, on the other hand, had dug into the IPC's history right under their noses. If she wasn't an Emanator of Nous and had numerous collaborations with the Corporation, her investigation into the Aeon of Preservation wouldn't have been settled so easily.
"Can't be helped. There are always a lot of people looking for trouble. Anyway, you're strong enough. Even if those guys target you, it'll just be a bit of a hassle. They won't dare to actually do anything to you," Herta said with an indifferent shrug. "Compared to that, I'm more interested in your research."
"The power of an Aeon comes from their Path, and the Aeon itself holds absolute control over that Path. If you want to study the origin of the 'seat' of an Aeon, you must first study the origin of the power of the Path itself."
"In this field, there are almost no reliable hypotheses. Do you have any with a higher degree of reliability?"
An Aeon is the master of their Path. Even if an Aeon were to bestow all the power of their Path upon another, they would still retain absolute control over it. This had been personally proven by Aha, the Aeon of Elation, so there was no doubt.
However, even for an Aeon, if they were to betray their Path, the Path would abandon them and no longer grant them power.
This had been personally verified by Tayzzyronth, the Aeon of Propagation, the Swarm King.
From these two points, it was clear that an Aeon recognized by a Path was an Aeon. One not recognized by a Path was no longer an Aeon.
People often focused on the stories of Aeons ascending, as if secretly hoping to replicate the miracle and achieve apotheosis in a single step.
Even Herta herself, along with other geniuses, focused more on the Aeons themselves, trying to observe their actions to understand their thoughts and secrets.
Only Su Mo's perspective was completely different. He wasn't concerned with the individuals who became Aeons, but directly with the fundamental power of the Paths themselves.
If Su Mo had reliable findings in this field, that alone would be enough to earn him the title of genius.
"Of course I have findings. They involve not only the Paths but also the very essence of the Aeons."
Su Mo nodded slightly. He was about to say more when he sensed a presence and looked back.
At that moment, the door to Herta's office opened, and Asta walked in with a young woman in a traditional cheongsam. She was graceful and gentle, with a slender figure and beautiful features.
"Ruan Mei? Have a seat. I'll introduce you in a bit! Su Mo, hurry up and continue. What kind of findings could possibly touch upon the essence of an Aeon?"
Seeing her friend arrive, Herta didn't stand on ceremony. After a quick greeting, she immediately urged Su Mo to continue his explanation.
At this moment, her old friend was less important than Su Mo's ideas.
Herta's behavior would be considered extremely rude to an ordinary person, but the people present were used to her ways.
Ruan Mei and Su Mo exchanged glances, a silent nod of acknowledgment passing between them.
After glancing at Holou, who was delicately nibbling on her refreshments, Ruan Mei took out a silk-wrapped package of plum blossom cakes and pushed it toward the others.
Then, she too began to listen intently to their conversation.
She might not have cared about any other research, but anything related to the Aeons was of great importance to her.
Seeing this, Asta, who had finished guiding them and was about to leave, stared with wide, disbelieving eyes.
Honestly, this was the first time she had seen Herta be so enthusiastic toward someone else, and the first time she had seen Herta adopt the posture of an eager student.
In the eyes of ordinary researchers, Herta was always aloof and dismissive. She wouldn't even deign to look at the culmination of someone else's life's work.
But now, with Su Mo, she was not only actively asking for his thoughts but was even neglecting her own friend, Ruan Mei.
In fact, judging by their conversation, it seemed Herta was the one seeking knowledge.
As expected of the man who could refuse an invitation to the Genius Society. If someone had told her this could happen before, Asta would never have believed it.
After noticing that Ruan Mei was also immediately listening intently to Su Mo's words, Asta's gaze toward him became even more reverent.
Regardless of his research on supreme beings like Aeons and Paths, the mere fact that he could command the respect of two geniuses was enough to make him famous throughout the universe.
This is the world of geniuses!
With a sigh of admiration, Asta left the office with a sense of awe, quietly closing the door behind her.
---||---
Inside the office, Su Mo was halfway through his explanation.
"...It is generally believed that the ascension of an Aeon signifies the opening of a Path. But as I said before, the Path is the source of an Aeon's power. The order of events must be made clear: it is not the Aeon who opens the Path, but the Path that chooses the corresponding Aeon. The Path exists before the Aeon."
"That being the case, to investigate the birth of an Aeon, one must first investigate the conditions for opening a Path."
"Looking back through all of history, in the few hundred thousand years that Aeons have been born in droves, what has been completely different from the past?" Su Mo posed the question.
In these last few hundred thousand years, Aeons had appeared one after another.
If the birth of an Aeon was the result of some kind of transmutation, it meant that this short period indeed possessed the necessary conditions for Aeons to be born and for Paths to open.
So, what special conditions had arisen in these few hundred thousand years that allowed the universe to become a cradle for Aeons?
Hearing this, the two geniuses before him began to ponder.
"If we take the birth of Qlipoth the Preservation as the starting point for this special change, could it be the invasion of the Leviathan Beasts? No, the Leviathans existed long before that." Herta shook her head, unable to come up with an answer.
There was very little data from before the Dusk Wars. Any small world that had encountered the Leviathans had been mostly devoured, leaving no records behind.
Even with her intellect, she couldn't analyze much without sufficient information.
Ruan Mei, after a moment of thought, offered a guess.
"Could it be... the breaching of the Imaginary Space?"
As mentioned before, the small worlds of the Honkai: Star Rail universe were all surrounded by an invisible Imaginary Space. Ordinary civilizations could hardly cross this barrier.
Using the theory of the Imaginary Tree, each small world is a leaf on the tree. Though two leaves may seem close, they are in fact unable to break through to one another.
Besides the Aeons, the earliest recorded breach of the Imaginary Space in history seemed to be related to the Leviathans.
The Leviathans were monsters that were difficult for intelligent life to comprehend. They could devour everything, organic and inorganic, even entire worlds.
Like pests on the Imaginary Tree, after devouring one small world, a Leviathan would breach the Imaginary Space and move on to the next.
Many believed that the Star-Rail Astrariums and Subspace Crystalline Walls created by Qlipoth were originally intended to protect small worlds from Leviathan invasions.
"Not exactly, but you're close," Su Mo said, not trying to be mysterious. "In my opinion, the key condition that prompted the birth of the Aeons was none other than the dawn of the interstellar age."
"Breaching the Imaginary Space is just a superficial phenomenon. The truly effective condition was the interstellar civilization created by the fusion and exchange between various small worlds."
Hearing this, Herta and Ruan Mei exchanged surprised glances.
Five hundred thousand years ago, when Qlipoth ascended, was indeed when the prototype of the current interstellar society was born. There was no problem with that.
But…
"Are you trying to say that the birth of the Aeons is related to civilization itself?" Herta asked, slightly astonished.
In the current interstellar society, the status and power of the Aeons were self-evident.
Although some Aeons paid more attention to their factions and performed many miracles, it was generally believed that the existence of Aeons was beyond mortal comprehension. They didn't need mortal faith; mortals simply felt a spontaneous desire to believe in them. They couldn't even begin to understand them.
Even Herta herself held similar views. She couldn't imagine what significance mortals held for the Aeons.
That's why she had once written that the so-called Aeon factions were nothing more than collections of lonely gods and blind followers.
To an Aeon, civilization was perhaps worthless.
However, Su Mo's theory negated this possibility. He seemed to believe that not only did civilization have meaning for the Aeons, but that interstellar civilization was the very reason for their birth.
This was a rather fringe, even absurd, idea.
With the power of the Aeons, they could destroy the entire interstellar civilization. How could they be said to have been born from it?
"Do you have a reason for saying this?" Herta immediately pressed.
She didn't mind her own ideas being overturned. For a researcher, having old ideas refuted was commonplace, nothing to fuss about.
What she cared about was whether Su Mo's theory had a solid enough reason behind it.
Ruan Mei also looked over with a puzzled expression. If Su Mo had sufficient reason, it could overturn the entire universe's understanding of itself.
Faced with their questioning gazes, Su Mo took a sip of tea and then began to speak in a leisurely, almost chant-like tone.
"Before the first year of the Amber Era, the Leviathans devoured and destroyed everything. They broke through the barriers of the Imaginary Space, allowing previously isolated small worlds to come into contact with one another."
"The survivors of destroyed homeworlds had no power to resist the Leviathans. They could only follow the paths torn open by the beasts, constantly encountering new worlds and gathering new companions."
"Destruction creates new life. This was the first fusion and exchange between different small worlds, and the catalyst for the birth of the current interstellar society."
"During this period, Aeons like Long the Permanence, Oroboros the Voracity, Qlipoth the Preservation, Akivili the Trailblaze, and Ena the Order were born."
"After the first year of the Amber Era, for about one hundred and eighty Eras, the Leviathans disappeared. Interstellar society lost its greatest threat, and people no longer had to fear the ever-looming apocalypse."
"After that, Akivili the Trailblaze used the Astral Express to connect the myriad worlds, ushering in the first era of prosperity. Interstellar society developed rapidly, and civilization entered a period of growth."
"Extreme prosperity was followed by destruction. The Swarm Disaster descended, two Emperor Wars broke out one after another, and the Denizens of Abundance plagued the universe."
"During this period, Aeons like Tayzzyronth the Propagation and Xipe the Harmony ascended one after another. Ena the Order was assimilated."
"After overcoming these calamities, Akivili the Trailblaze ushered in a second era of prosperity, beginning the five-hundred-Amber-Era-long Blood-Soaked Age."
"And during this period, Lan the Hunt and Nanook the Destruction were born. Replacing the initial threat of the Leviathans, and later the crises of the Swarm and the Intellitron, the Antimatter Legion became the greatest cancer of interstellar civilization. The Aeon born for destruction became the most dangerous factor in this world."
"To this day, Nanook the Destruction remains civilization's greatest enemy."
At this point, Su Mo finally paused.
The history of the past unfolded before the two women like an epic poem. After hearing his words, even Herta had to admit one thing.
"According to this timeline, the birth of the Aeons is indeed highly correlated with the turning points in the development of civilization."
So many coincidences could no longer be explained as isolated incidents.
Over five hundred thousand years, the birth of every Aeon was closely related to the direction of civilization. Whether it was their birth, their actions, or their fall, the existence of the Aeons could be said to be bound to civilization itself.
"If that's the case, isn't it very similar to the native planetary gods mentioned in the data?" Herta muttered to herself before immediately shaking her head and laughing in self-deprecation. "No, how could that be possible! The Aeons and native planetary gods just have similar names. They're completely different species."
In the world of Honkai: Star Rail, there were quite a few native planetary gods. The homeworld of the Xianzhou Alliance had the Kunlun god system, and other planets had their own ancient mythologies.
Of course, in today's highly developed interstellar society, these mythologies were long lost. Even if they survived, few people knew of them.
Herta didn't know much about them, but a general understanding was enough to see the chasm between the two. They couldn't possibly be the same kind of existence.
Shaking her head to dismiss the fanciful thought, she was about to ask Su Mo something.
Just then, Su Mo looked at the puppet girl before him and asked in a low, haunting voice, "Why are you so certain that Aeons and native planetary gods are not the same species?"
"Huh?"
Hearing this, both Herta and Ruan Mei were stunned.
Herta was speechless for more than ten seconds, then looked at Su Mo with a suspicious expression and confirmed, "Are you serious?"
Did a question of such common sense even need to be asked?
"The gap between an Aeon and a native planetary god is greater than the gap between a human and an insect. Their existential structure, form of existence, source of power, and scale of power are all worlds apart. How could they possibly be the same species?" Herta asked, as if stating the obvious.
Aeons were by no means just larger versions of native planetary gods. This had been verified countless times in the early days of civilization. There was no room for doubt.
To this statement, Su Mo simply replied with a light, rhetorical question.
"Worlds apart? Fundamentally different? No similarity in structure whatsoever? Isn't that the very definition of transmutation?"
"!"
Hearing the word "transmutation," Herta's eyes flew wide open, and she shot to her feet.
Recalling their earlier conversation, she finally understood what Su Mo was trying to say.