After her defeat, Kiana picked herself up off the ground, unwilling to accept the outcome. She chased after Kevin in the direction he had left, gradually fading from Mei’s sight.
“You’ve shown me what you wanted me to see. Now, I think I deserve an explanation.”
The moment Mei finished speaking, the ground where Kiana had fallen seemed to cave in, and a figure emerged from beneath the earth.
“As expected of Mei—there’s really no hiding anything from you.”
“Enoxia?! So all of this is…”
“Strictly speaking, I was the mastermind behind this plan. Sirin and… the people from World Serpent were the ones who carried it out. So you can rest easy about your own safety, as well as Bronya’s and Seele’s. If anything unexpected happens, Sirin will use the Herrscher of the Void’s authority to send them straight back to the real world.”
Seeing the warm smile on Enoxia’s face, Mei let her guard down just a little.
“So, what exactly is your goal in all this?”
Enoxia raised her right index finger and flashed a mysterious smile.
“Don’t be in such a hurry. Before the mystery is solved, we need to gather all the pieces of information first. There are still some important things you haven’t discovered yet. Come with me.”
Raiden Mei followed Enoxia’s lead and walked back outside the lunar base. Enoxia pointed ahead.
“You were so drawn to Kiana the moment you arrived that you didn’t have time to look around. From here, you can see Earth directly.”
Mei followed Enoxia’s gaze. On the “Earth” before her, beams of light shot out from both poles, and a strange pattern seemed to cover the planet’s surface.
“So this is… what happens to Earth after the Stigma Project succeeds. Of course, since this is just a simulation I created, it’s essentially nothing more than a texture map. The real thing is even more spectacular than this.”
“So… this entire space is an illusion you’ve constructed…”
“Not entirely. This is essentially a World Bubble—I just made a tiny little modification to it. Oh, and this base, as well as the Finality Impact Crater you just saw, actually exist on the real moon. I just copied and pasted their data here. Of course, the details can’t be perfectly replicated—like the lunar soil from earlier, there’s no way it could be exactly the same as the real thing.”
“Finality… Impact Crater?”
“Oh, yes. On the actual moon, this is where the warriors of the Previous Era fought against the Herrscher of the Finality. And for the record, Kevin was one of them.”
“So, what exactly is the Stigma Project?”
Hearing this, Enoxia instinctively frowned, a pained expression flashing across her face.
The reason was simple—she recalled the time she had asked World Serpent the same question, and this was how they had answered:
“The Stigma Project is the ‘story of stories.’ It is created by stories, yet at the same time, it governs all stories.”
“To borrow the words of others, it is the ‘absolute idea of being-for-itself,’ the ‘infinity of the concept itself.'”
“And according to our own understanding, the Stigma Project is a kind of ‘reaction’ that emerges as civilizations spiral upward—the result of the act of ‘narration’ detaching itself from its origin and coming into existence on its own.”
Enoxia: “What the—! (Herrscher of Corruption profanity)”
Obviously, explaining things that way—making simple things complicated—was clearly intended to make sure the other person didn’t understand.
“To put it simply, the most intuitive way to describe the Stigma Project’s process is that the Stigma humans living in the Stigma Space and the Earth humans living in real space essentially swap places. Hmm… that might be oversimplifying it a bit.”
“First of all, Stigmata are fundamentally a type of biotechnology—essentially, a connection. It’s a biotech that links a person’s physical body with the Imaginary Space, allowing the data of those who died years ago to be preserved. At the same time, it’s also an unfinished failure—which is why there’s a difference between those who have awakened their Stigmata and ordinary people. A truly successful Stigma would allow a person to wield Honkai through their own body. It’s precisely because of this imperfection that the Stigma Project—as a fallback plan—exists to compensate.”
“And this ‘truly successful Stigma’ has another name within World Serpent: the Ideal Type. The monsters that separated you earlier and caused all those strange phenomena were, in theory, Ideal Types that haven’t fully matured yet. World Serpent calls them Seeds of the Ideal Type.”
“Once the Stigma Project begins, the dreams of all non-Herrscher, non-Stigma-awakened humans will be woven together, forming a ‘spiritual Adam.’ From that point on, all those people will live forever in their dreams. Until the Stigma Space and the real-number space completely merge, they can enjoy eternal weekends, basking in everlasting peace within this paradise.”
At this point, Mei, who had been listening intently, spoke up:
“To sustain something on such a massive scale… the price World Serpent has to pay must be unimaginable.”
Enoxia shook her head.
“For them, the price is negligible—it’s nothing more than Kevin’s personal martyrdom. He will remain absolutely lucid, forever, until the very end of the universe.”
“And the final outcome of the Stigma Project is that the Ideal Types—beings that have preserved data and possess extremely high resistance to Honkai—will survive as the new ‘humanity.’ That way, human civilization can be preserved even after the Finality descends…”
Enoxia went on explaining for quite a while—after all, once you start getting philosophical, the Stigma Project becomes incredibly abstract.
Mei was silent for a long time before finally speaking.
“Why… are you telling me all this? From what I know about the Herrscher of Corruption, you—being able to digitize yourself—should be able to survive even if the entire Earth becomes Stigma Space.”
“You’re right. But conversely, if a better plan than the Stigma Project succeeds, I’d still survive, wouldn’t I? But now that I’ve told you all of this, you’ll definitely try to stop it. And to do that, you need the power to make a difference.”
“What you just witnessed was a possible scenario—one where you lack the strength to even sit at the table, leaving Kiana to face Kevin alone. And the result… as you saw, without your support, Kiana’s chances of victory are infinitely close to zero.”
Mei’s expression shifted.
“So… what do I need to do?”
Enoxia took a deep breath.
“Simple—join World Serpent. I know you still have a lot of doubts right now. When the time comes, Kevin will give you your answers in his own way.”
