Vill-V had neither the interest nor the time to study that sort of thing. Even if she did figure it out, the most she could do was engrave a few symbols onto weapons to give them a bit more cultural flair, or add some extra patterns to Griseo's Project ARK...
A sleeping Griseo surrounded by a flock of sheep actually sounded rather nice.
Occultist, who had always remained secluded deep within their consciousness, had already issued a warning: "Candles blaze bright, dread gathers solemnly. What I fear draws near, and the dread god shall awaken."
Magician: "Scholar, you might as well say it plainly. Basically, some world-destroying god of slaughter is about to be summoned, right?"
Id activated panic mode. "@Everyone. Help me!"
Vill-V's consciousness space had now been decorated to resemble NERV's command center, complete with the classic music that played when an Angel attacked.
In fact, Vill-V's consciousness space could be decorated however they pleased. Even the memory constructs in the original Honkai plot could freely arrange their consciousness spaces, so naturally Vill-V could do the same.
This time, the one who had decorated the stage as NERV's command center was Pure Evil.
Pure Evil imitated Commander Ikari's pose, pressing her hands against her mouth as she said coldly, "Stand up, Id. You mustn't run away. Are you even a man?"
"Uh... probably not anymore?"
"Pure Evil, stop trying to feminize Id through roundabout means. Since the enemy can move, there must be a flaw somewhere."
Conductor, seated at the center, remained as calm as ever. She quickly soothed Id's emotions, then crossed her hands and turned to Expert beside her. "What does Expert say?"
Expert spread her hands. "There's no way around it. Abilities involving 'time' in the Honkai universe are extremely varied. Even if a solution exists, it would most likely involve dimensions entirely beyond our understanding."
"Hmm..." Conductor fell silent for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Preparation time?"
Expert pulled out a watch dial. "Fifteen minutes. That would be enough to achieve full-body acceleration."
"Well, would you look at that. So Expert was hiding another trick up her sleeve after all. Looks like my grand finale will have to be postponed yet again." Magician spread her hands with an expression that plainly said, I knew it.
Conductor rolled her eyes. "Give it a rest, Magician. Your grand finale is the one thing I least want to discuss. I'd rather pretend it doesn't exist."
But Conductor was clearly dissatisfied with Expert's estimate. "Too long. Can't you make it faster?"
Expert grimaced. "Under normal circumstances, it would take at least a month. I'm only giving such a short estimate because I've factored in successfully activating the Zeroth Power of both the Second Divine Key and the simulated Fenghuang Down."
The moment Id heard "Second Divine Key" and "Zeroth Power of the simulated Fenghuang Down," her entire body started trembling uncontrollably.
Having already suffered at the hands of both those things, Id could only stare pitifully at Conductor with a complicated expression.
If she didn't keep staring pitifully, she would soon be reduced to incoherent babbling.
"Expert really does live up to the name. She says there's no solution, then immediately pulls one out anyway. Though this one is still too little, too late."
Looking at the watch dial in Expert's hand, Conductor remembered the Vill-V's Worn Pocket Watch she had only just given to Seele. Her eyes lit up, then she let out an almost imperceptible sigh. "Oh dear, a fifteen-minute time stop? Forget it. If it takes that long, the Abyss will have been cleared out already. Looks like we're going to die here."
Conductor rejected Expert's proposal, allowing Id to breathe a sigh of relief. But when she heard Conductor's final declaration that they were going to die here, Id became confused. "Huh? Didn't you just say there was hope? How did that turn into a death sentence in the blink of an eye? Waaaaah—I don't want to die yet."
"You won't die, because I'll protect you."
Pure Evil continued acting out EVA references. Apparently, not having been allowed to decorate the stage for so long had left her exceptionally excited.
Ever since Magician secretly set up a Screaming Magic Labyrinth, decorating the room now required making an appointment with Id first.
Id had no desire to die inside her own consciousness, much less be scared to death by herself...
Magician: "Hey, even I don't have any good ideas in this situation. Pure Evil, what exactly are you planning to do?"
Pure Evil: "As long as the green hills remain, there'll always be firewood to burn. So naturally, we use nuclear bombs to flatten the green hills. Then nobody will have any hills left to burn!"
"Oh, you want to fully transform into a Herrscher." Magician nodded. "That would certainly be dramatic, but it would ruin the dignity of the great magician Vill-V! No, absolutely not."
Every Vill-V was a master of deception, and Pure Evil most of all. Even during a Vill-V meeting, she would never reveal her true plan.
Id: "Magician actually cares about her dignity? Does using nuclear bombs really make you lose that much face?"
Magician: "Hey, don't you think throwing a nuke whenever you can't decide what to do is terribly clichéd?"
Did a Vill-V who had already hurled nuclear weapons with a yield of more than ten thousand tons into space really have the right to say that?
Pure Evil strongly agreed. "You're right. Pardo's still here too."
Conductor: "Huh? Pure Evil, you're actually concerned about Pardo? Did the sun come crawling out of a black hole today?"
Pure Evil: "Of course. Who doesn't like playing with a kitty?"
Id: "I always feel like Pure Evil has some other idea. Last time we let you out to pet Pardo, you nearly ripped all the hair off her scalp. You even used her fur to make a cursed kitty doll... We spent forever afterward explaining to Pardo that the curse on the kitty doll was real, but that we'd already 'destroyed' it."
Pure Evil: "Hehehehehe—"
Conductor gave Pure Evil a strange look. This woman had definitely tampered with the Kitty Joint Escape Plan they had prepared for Pardo.
But this was not the time to investigate.
"We'll set aside the issue with Pardo for now. Expert, tell us about your trump card. Since Vill-V always leaves backdoors in everything she creates, we must still have some ultimate means of retreat."
If there was one Vill-V who excelled most at leaving trump cards and backdoors, it would unquestionably be Expert. After all, Expert did the most work, which naturally meant she had the most opportunities to leave backdoors.
And Expert did not disappoint Conductor.
"That's right. There is indeed one more method, but the price of carrying it out is rather steep... Scholar, how is the research between you and Lecturer progressing?"
Expert tossed the problem to Scholar and Lecturer like passing a ball.
Upon hearing this, Occultist spoke slowly and deliberately. "I speak of fate's turning flow. I speak of the veiled pearl concealed in shadow. I speak of the lost feather of ages past. I speak of rebirth unlike what came before. Though the season brings tribulation, heed this memorial. Forget not its faith. That person is me, that group is me, that multitude is me..."
Seeing Occultist slip into her incomprehensible riddle mode, Lecturer hurriedly cut in to explain. "All right, all right, I'll say it. Progress has been very smooth. By rebinding it, Occultist has completely freed herself from Cosmic Juggernaut's negative effects. And during that process, we've also made a new discovery regarding the Time Fragment..."
"Wait." Conductor abruptly interrupted Lecturer's explanation. "This isn't the time for an academic seminar, is it? Scholar, Pure Evil, take Id somewhere to 'rest' for a while. She's tired."
Inside their mind, Id watched Occultist and Pure Evil approach her with distinctly malicious expressions.
Id: "Wait, why are Scholar and Pure Evil the ones taking me to rest? I'm not even tired! Don't drag me into the little black room! I'm afraid of the dark—!"
After @Everyone, the group owner was dragged into the little black room ○○××.
Once Id's voice gradually faded away, Conductor turned back toward Lecturer, the only one who felt sorry for Id.
"All right. Tell us about your new discovery. And by the way, your plan isn't going to turn little Pardo into something strange, is it?"
Lecturer cleared her throat. "Mm. Regarding your previous hypothesis, that the Anti-Entropy Time Fragment World is also a memory-cognition world generated by the Herrscher Core of Reason based on Id, Scholar and I conducted metaphysical research and verified it..."