But anyway!
According to Kiana's understanding, the more powerful a world is within the Tree-Sea system, the greater its share—yet such worlds are undoubtedly rarer.
Take a world like Honkai: Star Rail—it already encompasses numerous smaller worlds. Some of these are just a single planet, while others span entire galaxies.
But if we follow their logic, then worlds like Honkai Impact 3rd or Genshin Impact might very well be the same.
The only difference is that the worlds within the Honkai: Star Rail universe have been interconnected—their pathways opened and connected.
In their setting, every world begins shrouded in immense Imaginary Energy, as if trapped deep within a cage, making escape nearly impossible.
Sound familiar?
It's kind of like the relationship between leaves on a tree.
Each leaf on the Imaginary Tree is a world, but between them lie branches—or simply vast stretches of imaginary space.
That space acts like a barrier, isolating each world like an island.
Maybe worlds like Honkai Impact 3rd or Genshin Impact just… haven't been discovered yet. Because they haven't managed to break through the imaginary space surrounding them.
Especially Genshin Impact—it might have even bigger problems.
Some say it's a leaf on the verge of withering; others say it's a World Bubble already adrift in the sea.
But that's not really relevant to the Honkai Impact 3rd universe.
If we think of the Star Rail universe as a somewhat abstract concept—a theoretical collective—then countless leaves, without ever moving, have been linked through and connected by rails, forming a conceptual whole: a greater cosmos.
That… actually makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?
So when Kiana wants to connect to the Honkai: Star Rail universe, what she really needs to do is break through the surrounding imaginary space and clear away the immense imaginary energy at the edges of her world.
If she can extend outward, she might truly make contact with the world of Star Rail.
That would be pretty great.
As for why the greater universe of Star Rail is portrayed as an endless starry sky enveloping planets and galaxies—it's probably because the gaps between the higher-dimensional branches of the Imaginary Tree are nearly impossible to observe directly.
You almost have to simplify things—reduce the dimensions—to make it easier to grasp.
Maybe it's precisely because each planet, each star system, is like an isolated island—the entirety of the world its inhabitants once knew—that when they're joined together, they seamlessly form a larger universe.
Take Kiana's current world, for example.
Even though they haven't ventured beyond Earth, civilizations once existed on Mars and Venus.
The size of their universe? Most likely just the solar system.
Sure, probes have been launched, and observations claim they've left the solar system—but if we consider theories like the "False Sky," even the starry skies they observe light-years away could be illusions, mirages, or reflections of other worlds.
After all, every probe that left the solar system lost contact.
Everyone's used to it by now.
From the vague future she glimpsed before, Kiana only knew that after overcoming the Honkai, humanity would develop and advance toward the stars—sailing the sea of stars.
Hence, the Stellar Alliance was conceived under this very idea.
Any cosmic civilization would need a stronger, unified voice—a central authority to foster greater unity.
The nation-states of today simply wouldn't fit the needs of that era.
Uniting all together into a planetary-scale polity would be far more suitable.
So, Kiana proposed the Stellar Alliance—drawing some inspiration from the Xianzhou Alliance's framework.
As for the Vega race mentioned earlier—what exactly are they? Even Kiana isn't entirely sure.
But in her vision, a future Mobius, having become an Aeon, would create several races—and the Vega would be one of them.
Even if among billions of possible futures, the chance of Mobius becoming an Aeon is nearly zero… if it happens, then Kiana has every reason to try and bring that future closer to reality.
Even if the overall outcome isn't ideal, she could still attempt to extract and preserve this positive fragment.
The same goes for someone like Sakura.
And as for what exactly the Path of Infinity or the Path of The Moment are… that's a matter for later.
Actually, even though Paths tend to be exclusionary—and Aeons might clash due to philosophical differences or similarities—it's generally not an issue unless it escalates into a life-or-death divine war.
The philosophical concepts of the current eighteen Paths are already deeply interwoven—each containing elements of the others.
Even when Harmony consumed Order, there were plenty of underlying intricacies.
Otherwise, one supports the weak through strength, while another subjugates the weak through strength—they might seem similar, but they're not really alike.
You can always find differences—that's what makes each Aeon's perspective unique.
And it's not like Kiana goes around claiming that every one of the Thirteen Flame-Chasers will become an Aeon.
Only those she's seen with even a sliver of possibility does she mention, offering help to push that door open whenever she can.
After all, no matter what…
Herrschers may be linked to the Cocoon of Finality, which in turn connects directly to the Imaginary Tree—so in essence, they're not that different from Aeons.
But the disparity in scale, existence, and dimensionality is just too vast.
At best, a Herrscher might compare to an Emanator—and maybe not even that.
If someone like Mobius could truly become an Aeon in the future, now that would be something.
Not that Elysia, as the Herrscher of Origin, couldn't become an Aeon—it's just that at the time, Kiana didn't see that possibility for her.
That was partly because she hadn't looked far enough ahead.
If she were to check now… things might be different.
But aside when she's creating videos and exploring related content, she doesn't actively scan for more concrete details about the future.
Keeping some anticipation for what's to come is part of life's fun, after all.
Besides!
Who says a Herrscher can't become an Aeon?
Or that a Herrscher can't match—or even surpass—an Aeon?
Aeons are just slightly bigger ants in the Tree-Sea system.
The real ceiling is the Imaginary Tree and the Quantum Sea.
Kiana doesn't know if she'll become an Aeon in the future, but she knows she definitely won't be weaker than one.
Otherwise, what would be the point of having a system? She'd be way too lame.
That just wouldn't do.
Kiana rested the book on her curled-up legs, leaning back slightly against the sofa as she pondered slowly.
Now that her thoughts were more organized, things were much clearer.
The Previous Era referred to the time when civilization struggled against the Honkai.
The Current Era, in contrast, was about utilizing Honkai energy to develop society—gradually exploring the universe and aligning with the world of Star Rail.
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