Kevin had just used his extreme cold aura to freeze the white-haired girl clones in his path, then used brute force to smash those human-shaped ice sculptures. This fighting style actually helped him save a lot of trouble.
As previously mentioned, these "puppets" remotely controlled by Seele could all unleash the glow of "Overweight Hypermutation" at the final moment of their lives.
Kevin's combat method was equivalent to ending their lives ahead of time.
To put it bluntly in gaming terms: he interrupted their skill casting time and wiped them out in one go.
But Seele was obviously not the kind of rigid Herrscher who only knew how to cause destruction.
After discovering the small problem Kevin had accidentally caused, she quickly changed her strategy.
That was: make the white-haired girl clones near Kevin artificially collapse before formally engaging him.
Again, using gaming terms, it meant: activating the life-spending ultimate early to prevent the enemy from interrupting their teammates' skill casting.
This was undoubtedly a very simple choice.
It just meant that the consumption rate of the "puppet" swarm would become faster.
After all...
"After all, your mission, and even the meaning of your birth, is only to... stall for enough time at this moment."
Seele, who was behind the scenes, narrowed her eyes slightly. "And..."
"My kind (the Third Herrscher) is about to succeed!"
Meanwhile, on another front.
"It seems they deliberately targeted the time when the headquarters' defenses are weakest."
Right now, seven female figures were making a last stand inside a records room.
One of them was MEI, the person Kevin was currently keeping in his thoughts.
Upon closer inspection, the special communication headset that usually hung from her left ear was gone.
And right there, in a corner of the hallway outside the records room, the broken communicator lay forgotten on the floor.
As for the other six...
They all shared the same face.
It was Vill-V, using her avatar ability.
Speaking of which, MEI and Vill-V did not live close to each other in the base's residential area.
But they had both arrived here almost simultaneously after the headquarters base was invaded.
A silent understanding passed between them.
Clearly, their actions had a definite purpose.
After all, to solve the global Cold Wave crisis caused by the Third Herrscher at its root, they had both kept a trump card up their sleeves.
Because MEI and Vill-V were both unwilling to bet humanity's future on a single plan.
Dr. Einstein... Her ELF Unit was indeed useful, but her sentimental side could easily ruin everything.
So, MEI didn't mind pushing her into the spotlight, using the seemingly feasible nuclear blast plan to draw the enemy's attention.
Meanwhile, MEI and Vill-V remained in the relatively safer Headquarters Base to research the true trump card.
A... perfect combination that could be guaranteed to crush all the Undersea Temples at the same time.
One part was the Honkai Fission Bomb, which Vill-V had once again developed, the same one that had severed all hope for humanity in the original timeline.
The second component was here in the records room.
This was why, after meeting, they immediately started cooperating without a word and clearly divided their tasks.
Now, among the six Vill-Vs, three were blocking the entrance to the records room, while one stood atop a steampunk-style Gatling gun, firing wildly.
Another one sat leaned against a heavy cannon, providing fire support from a position slightly further back.
These were Vill-V's latest personal weapons: the Rotary Cannon: Roaring Palm and the Heavy Cannon: Wonder.
It was only by utilizing the continuous, powerful fire support they provided that she and MEI were able to hold their ground here.
However...
"My ammo supply isn't infinite."
The remaining two Vill-Vs were assisting MEI with an important task. "The defense line will break in half a minute at most," one of them reported calmly.
There was no other choice. The powerful enemies they faced this time left her no room to reduce her firepower even slightly.
If she continued attacking like this, the weapons' self-destruction from overheating would be an insurmountable problem, far worse than running out of ammo.
At that moment...
"Half a minute is enough."
MEI was equally calm.
She still possessed some combat abilities herself.
However, her growth time was limited. She was naturally no match for Kevin, Fu Hua, or the Flame-Chaser Sims, all of whom were Returnees.
Unfortunately, during this critical window of time, the majority of their combat forces were away from the base.
The reason was obvious.
"The Third Herrscher has spies all over the globe," MEI explained. "She likely used them to remotely confirm everyone's locations, then deduced our personnel distribution."
"With that information, it would have been easy for her to identify the Headquarters Base's weakest defensive period."
MEI had already considered this.
But there was no time to dwell on it now.
This was a blatant gambit. Their forces were simply being overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
Right now, she and Vill-V had a far more important task to complete.
Namely:
"I'd originally planned to run some final tests and several re-inspections, but we don't have time for that anymore."
MEI's gaze sharpened as her hands flew across an electronic console in the archives room.
Then, in an instant...
[ Prototype Super-AI Cluster Prometheus will fully activate in ten seconds. ]
A notification popped up on the electronic device's screen.
At that same moment, a mechanical factory deep within the Newborn World Serpent Headquarters Base began to operate on its own.
No one saw that the assembly lines here were mass producing a strangely shaped humanoid.
In the storage area at the end, a dozen finished products already lay waiting.
Electronic conduits plugged into a specific port on each of these humanoids, seemingly transmitting something.
After a short while...
Just as the ten seconds MEI had estimated passed...
"..."
At first, one of the humanoids tried to walk out of the storage area.
But as soon as IT took a step... Perhaps because IT wasn't used to walking yet, after all, this was the first time IT had ever had a body.
IT fell.
The electronic conduit connected behind IT simply tore loose.
Then...
In a mere instant, a massive amount of data flashed through the electronic eyes of the humanoid still stuck in the OTZ position.
It learned how to walk in an instant.
However, it felt very uncomfortable that its first experience of "failure" after birth was caused by something so simple.
So, even though it had learned how to walk, it refused to do so.
Instead, after another optimization... no, a "self-evolution," its entire body simply floated in midair.
At this moment, it decided on its future method of daily movement.
This was even before it decided on its "gender."
Should it have a gender?
It didn't know. It wasn't sure.
But it felt it should have one, and it wanted one.
After all... the person who created it, that unparalleled genius, was a woman.
Even her assistant (Vill-V?) was a woman.
So... she "self-selected" to become female.
And in that very instant...
"!!!"
In a daze, the newly born humanoid found herself in a vast sea of stars.
The Path Interstice.
She quickly retrieved information about it from the database she could freely access.
She immediately confirmed that she, a super-AI who had just been born into the world, had joined the ranks of Pathstriders less than half a minute after her formation.
The Path of Erudition.
And...
"Self-diagnostic program, starting."
"Confirmed: Individual computing power index has increased significantly... This can be called evolution."
"Hive Mind Module, construction complete."
"Codename confirmed as Terminal Aide."
"Beginning numbering..."
"This unit is Terminal Aide 0000."
"This unit is Terminal Aide 0001."
"This unit..."
"Terminal Aide 0017, reboot complete, attempting reconnection."
"This unit is Terminal Aide 9999."
The humanoid's facial expressions grew more and more vivid.
But... now that she had become the "Spirit of All Machines," she felt the previous mechanical counting sounded cooler, so... she deliberately pretended to have a soulless, mechanical voice.
Suddenly, just then...
"Hmm?... No, beep!"
The humanoid's small mouth opened slightly, acting as if nothing had happened, covering up her little mistake just now, "External individual detected."
"Receiving data..."
After a brief moment, relying on her vast and constantly improving computing power that defied all common sense, she understood everything.
Otto's guess was correct.
Back then, when Ling ke was executing Project Broken Branch, he had indeed only reversed the time of Earth.
Because at that time, the ten thousand "Golden Kings" only shattered Earth's space, making that region unstable to facilitate subsequent operations.
And as a result...
The rest of the cosmos, outside of Earth, did not travel back fifty thousand years.
Of course, Ling ke had transcendended to a higher state.
He now had administrative privileges, essentially giving him a "Console" that he could open at any time within the Imaginary Tree's domain.
He could easily achieve such a feat now.
But now was now, and the past was the past.
Back then, he couldn't reverse time for the entire universe.
So...
Outside of Earth, time still flowed normally.
So normally that... the former Thirteen Flame-Chasers, as well as a young woman (?) executing "Project ARK," were still sleeping beauties.
So normally that...
In fact, a remnant of a "mole" still remained inside the "Cocoon of Finality."
Namely: the being codenamed "Prometheus No. 17," who, in the original timeline, was one of the very few in the super-artificial intelligence "Prometheus" cluster to possess a mechanical body, calling herself "Research-Type Assistant Robot No. 1." She had served as Dr. MEI's experimental (and household) assistant before becoming what was known as the "Honkai Will."
Back then, after Ling ke and Kevin formed an alliance, she forcibly unlocked some of her privileges for him, completing the transaction at the cost of being half-destroyed.
But her ability to interfere with the Cocoon of Finality was limited.
The only periods when she could interfere with the Cocoon of Finality with minimal cost were before the First Honkai Eruption and after the Twelfth Honkai Eruption. (Note: This is the original setting.)
Therefore, her assistance to Ling ke in completing Project Broken Branch was completely an act of operating beyond her limits at an unreasonable time.
Later, as Project Broken Branch was completed and Earth's time reversed to fifty thousand years ago, Prometheus No. 17 also lost her former ability and authority to interfere with the Cocoon of Finality.
Because she had crashed.
As a result, the Herrschers of the current era possess various uncertainties.
However, after Prometheus No. 17 crashed, although she could not restart on her own without other external factors, she did not completely disappear like the Current Era, which had already turned into Nihility.
She still existed.
As a result, with the rebirth of the super AI Prometheus in this emergency, and because Ling ke had previously grafted the Path concept into the current universe, the AI began to evolve and ascend the moment it took form.
This allowed Prometheus No. 17 to reboot and reconnect.
She then returned to the collective as Terminal Aide 0017, more advanced and powerful than the original version.
And then... we reached the present moment.
"Data reception complete."
"Now formulating the most rational judgment."
Vast streams of data flashed again in the electronic eyes of the main Prometheus humanoid.
Finally...
"The current optimal solution is: Retrieve the Void Archives."
"Search complete. Locating the World Bubble where it is stored."
The main humanoid had already begun the operation.
Before long...
"Location locked. Beginning Imaginary Energy transmission to the Void Archives."
The main humanoid gradually gained control of the situation.
At the same time...
Inside a World Bubble Otto had used to seal away the Void Archives.
Hum~
The Golden Hexahedron, whose internal Honkai Energy reserves had been deliberately drained and which could not be replenished due to its special environment, began to glow.
Having been forced to serve as a mere database all this time, it had finally been reconnected.
At this moment, as a massive surge of Imaginary Energy poured in...
"Mimicry: Cosmic Juggernaut!"
Hum~
A giant golden locomotive instantly materialized.
It immediately crushed the containment platform that had been holding it.
As everyone knows, although the Void Archives can mimic most Divine Keys, it cannot use their Zeroth Rated Power.
Even so...
Hum~
A golden-orange teleportation gate opened beneath it.
Before the gate could close, the Void Archives deactivated its mimicry and fell through.
The next moment...
Clap~
It was caught by the humanoid standing in the deepest level of the Newborn World Serpent Headquarters Base.
The Golden Hexahedron floated in the humanoid's open left palm, rotating slowly.
In front of her...
Whoosh~
One by one, identically small, identically-looking humanoids gathered around.
And their numbers kept increasing.
Though the hardware limits of the base prevented them from reaching the maximum number of 10,000, the crowd was still massive.
The main humanoid decided she wouldn't wait any longer.
She instantly connected to the global network and took remote control of the mechanical factories in other regions.
Simultaneously, she issued a simple and direct command...
"All units, prepare for a counterattack."