["Herta, back when the Swarm Disaster happened, didn't any civilizations try to resist?"]
[To Stelle, the Disaster was indeed terrifying, but its spread seemed far too "smooth." The historical Swarm Disaster only lasted a few Amber Eras, sweeping across the entire cosmos in mere centuries—already beyond what could be described simply as "crushing resistance."]
["I understand what you mean, Stelle, but asking such a question only shows you haven't deeply understood the concept of Propagation. —Of course, that's not your fault; after all, bringing inorganic life into the scope of Propagation is indeed something beyond ordinary reason."]
——
Teyvat, Mondstadt.
Inside a certain cave in Dragonspine, the alchemy table glows with faint blue light. Sucrose is diligently recording Lady Herta's words, occasionally looking up at her teacher who is focused on an experiment, her face full of puzzled confusion.
"Organic life? Inorganic life?" Sucrose pauses her pen, trying to comprehend these two similar-sounding yet completely opposite terms.
"Probably referring to living things and non-living things, right?" Albedo sets down his test tube and explains calmly.
Sucrose pushes up her slipping glasses; ice crystals condensed on the lenses fall in a clatter. "But, Teacher Albedo, Lady Herta said including non-living things in the scope of Propagation... doesn't that mean even stones and machines could reproduce like small animals? That's just too..."
...too unreasonable.
After witnessing the Disaster that swept across countless planets, Sucrose had already formed a preliminary judgment about its absurdity, and the content was still within the scope of her knowledge. But making inorganic things "propagate"... she understands each word separately, yet together they make no sense.
If it were creating life from inorganic materials, Teacher Albedo, who is extremely accomplished in alchemy, could do it—but making stones give birth to stones, machines give birth to machines...
"Teacher Albedo, can something like that really happen?"
Albedo's expression turns thoughtful. "If we use chalk (the material of the Primordial Ones) to create life, then endow that life with the function of Propagation, that might be possible through alchemy. But as long as Propagation occurs, possessing 'life' is an indispensable prerequisite."
"Propagation without life... I'm sorry, Sucrose, I can't imagine what that would look like either."
——
Honkai Impact 3rd.
"Pfft—!"
During lunch at St. Freya Academy, when Kiana heard Lady Herta explain that inorganic life would Propagate, she nearly spat out the milk in her mouth.
"Inorganic life? Isn't that just machines? Are you telling me robots can give birth to kids now? How is that possible?" Kiana wipes the milk from the corner of her mouth. She briefly imagines two robots Propagating to produce a little robot... the image is genuinely a bit abstract.
"…It really is hard to imagine." Himeko beside her also shows an incredulous expression. "It's not rare for inorganic life to have intelligence, but Propagation is a function exclusive to organic life. Blending organic and inorganic... it sounds more like magic from a novel."
Mei puts down her chopsticks, closes her barely-touched lunchbox due to nausea, and glances at the dense swarm on the screen. "But I think the very idea of 'making humans give birth to bugs' already feels like magic."
"But there's a world of difference between organic and inorganic life—"
Just as Himeko is about to continue, Kiana suddenly lets out a series of "waaah!" exclamations from the side. It turns out Herta has switched the Simulated Universe scene again—this time, Stelle is in a factory.
Looking at the various brand-new weapons and equipment placed outside the factory, Himeko deduces this must be a military factory belonging to some civilization in the cosmos.
Stelle stands at the factory's wide-open doors, hearing the roar of machinery operating inside. Strangely, however, a continuous stream of insects flies out from the factory windows, wings buzzing as they head toward the sky.
As the screen perspective follows Stelle into the factory interior, Kiana instinctively covers her mouth tightly.
Partly from shock, partly because she doesn't want to spit out the milk she just drank.
Swarms of insects tumble down from between mechanical arms—every time a precision steel stamping die closes, it "births" a dozen or more different kinds of small bugs. The raw materials for these dies are clearly various machines and steel creations, yet in the moment of closure... it's as if a god has kissed iron into rotten flesh, twisting inorganic life into grotesque creations.
The deeper Stelle walks into the factory, the weirder the scene becomes:
On the automated assembly line, mechanical hands that should be installing gun triggers are instead embedding insect eggs into rifle rifling.
The pipes at the top of the workshop seem to have turned into the intestines of some giant insect species—not only dripping mucus but every few minutes "birthing" a mass of mucus-wrapped egg sacs from the valves. These sacs hatch into insects within seconds of leaving the production line, then begin gnawing on anything nearby they can bite.
The entire military factory seems to have become a nest for insects; countless bug tribes are born on the assembly lines—even though their original material was nothing more than cold iron.
"Why can even this be done? Aeons are way too ridiculous! Giving birth to bugs from people is one thing, but why can machines turn into bugs too?!" Kiana points at the automatically operating die on the screen. "It's clearly using iron as raw material! Not bug eggs or anything—why do bugs come out?!"
"It seems this is the true manifestation of Propagation's power..." Himeko looks gravely at the bug-filled factory. "Aeons... it looks like this is another topic that needs immediate research."
——
["How about it? Pretty shocking, right?" Herta lets out a "hehe" laugh. "I told you earlier: manipulating Propagation in organic life is only one part of Tayzzyronth's authority."]
["Under THEIR authority, THEY can even alter the concept of Propagation itself—turning every concept of reproduction and replication into 'birthing bugs,' making all creatures only able to give birth to bugs, making mechanical production only able to manufacture bugs, even down to the microscopic cellular level—"]
["—Stop, stop, stop!" Stelle quickly interrupts her. "If THEY're so powerful, then why did THEY fall?"]
["Because the clash between THEM and Voracity was too widespread and affected the Paths of other Aeons—especially the newly appeared Order's Ena. In existing records, THEY strictly maintain the order of the cosmos. To THEM, Voracity and Propagation are nothing but troublemakers, so THEY had to put an end to this chaos."]