Capítulo 63: Zero.
—
Wanting to go into Undvik to hunt the data thief down to the ends of the earth and forsaking his travels around the Continent to bring society to an orderly phase, Yoriichi hears Loki's assurance that everything is alright.
"Don't worry, Richard. From my many branches of vision, there is not a single thing to worry about concerning this exploitation. It was just a misunderstanding."
Sure enough, after reading further into Margarita's message, Yoriichi sighs in relief, realizing that it was just a misunderstanding. The exploiter is Nemsy, who wanted to torture the two demons as well and only intended to check up on the three sisters after accidentally hearing Zagreus mumble. The mumble, which mentioned Huginn and Muninn, felt like an underworld encounter.
Thinking hard with Richard's intellect and considering the possible person who could crack open his kernel system, Yoriichi then remembers his old university professor, who was his research and dissertation advisor for most of his master's and doctoral degrees. Suddenly recalling a scene of the old hag smoking marijuana while revising his papers, Yoriichi chuckled, realizing that the senile old bone was still able to one-up him even after all this time.
Turning toward Loki, Yoriichi says, "Thank you for the information."
"You're welcome, Richard."
Shaking his head, Yoriichi continues, "Just call me Yoriichi from now on." Because from Richard's logical perspective, it would be best for his Yoriichi name to be put out there into the world, since there are many possibilities involving magic or science that could influence someone using their name or even erase the atoms composed of that name.
Especially considering that, among the three identities, Richard's name is the most useful for making his life easier. Richard is the one who transformed him from a mere country bumpkin and turned the tiny flame of "Sun" into a real star.
So, if it ever comes down to the final choice of being sacrificed, it is logical to prioritize Yoriichi first, Richard second, and Felix last. Because he possesses all of Yoriichi body's abilities, although not yet permanently, it will be in the future, and Richard's knowledge can be learned anytime he wants, now that he has Richard's intellect, which makes learning easier.
As for why Felix is not second or even first—despite that name being the most useless, limited to knowledge of stone cutting—it is because his instinct tells him that Felix is the one that binds the fusion of the three identities together. If broken, it would result in his complete disconnection from everything in the world, akin to a newborn baby experiencing not just simple memory loss but a total loss of connection.
"Well, okay then," Loki simply nodded over Yoriichi's ever-changing name.
Suddenly remembering why there were so many emergency notifications from Margarita that he hadn't noticed, and realizing that despite his precise biological clock indicating he had been inside Loki's domain for only thirty to forty minutes, the clock showed that seven hours had passed, Yoriichi asked the man in front of him.
"Say, Loki, do you know why your domain has a time difference compared to mine? From what I know, every three realms of this universe follow the same set of time rules. No matter where we are, time always flows at the same rate."
"Wait, give me a minute to understand. Ahh, you asked me about the time difference, didn't you? Sigh. It seems they haven't told you about us yet, have they?"
"What do you mean, us?"
"Well, if that's your friend's choice, I won't interfere. Let's just say that we are different from those who arrived in the second phase."
"Loki, what do you mean by 'we'?"
"See those two large rocks with lightning constantly pouring from the heavens? Good. Now, see that palace with its ornate design that feels like it's from the Asian continent? That's right. We are not the byproduct of the second phase. We are something more—something different and more worrying. We are something that will pull our multiverse together into a single multiverse."
—
"Why?! Why did you tell me this news now?! Why didn't you inform us Heralds earlier?! Even a simple warning about the planned aftereffects of the Order and Chaos would have been helpful!"
Seeing Richard, full of indignation with his emotions amplified in the Cognitive Realms, Ciri let her head hang low and said, "I know you're too smart not to figure it out. If we had told you about what Lilith is doing, Richard, I just didn't want you to be trapped forever. I knew you would sit on it, knowing that everyone in the multiverse is at stake."
"Forget your bullshit! I only consider that as a last resort! Just because it's an option doesn't mean it's the only way! Do you think I couldn't come up with another method?! Screw you and your secretive nonsense!"
After a couple of minutes of silence, letting out his emotions which had spiraled out of control after being hit by one of the strange atoms, Yoriichi continued in a calmer state, "And don't call me Richard from now on. It would be better for one of my names to be buried in history. Many kinds of enemies with strange abilities will arrive later, and my instinct tells me that I might not be able to fight those abilities. So just call me Yoriichi."
Nodding at his simple method to shift the curse to someone else, Ciri then asked hopefully, "So, are we still friends?"
"Fuck yeah, we're still friends! I'm not so petty that I'd sulk just because you hid something from me, especially when you're doing something for my benefit!"
Seeing Yoriichi return to an emotional state after briefly calming down, Ciri let out a sigh of relief. "Good, good, then I'm relieved," she said, followed by a chuckle as she noticed that Yoriichi seemed to be frequently affected by strange atoms. "Hehehe, it seems you're still being hit by strange atoms even with your eyes that can see everything."
"Don't you dare mock me! I allow these strange rules to affect me because it helps correct the attraction of many charm atoms due to my calm mind! And now, you'll have to endure my ceaseless nagging because of it!"
Rolling her eyes and laughing, Ciri replied, "Sure, sure. Whatever you say…"
Noting that it had been nine hours since she met Yoriichi, she asked after a few minutes of silence, "Should we continue traveling the world to fix the chaotic society, or should we stay inside the Sa'angreal and hone our strength to the highest possible?"
"No, we should keep going. We are still traveling. Even though I'd like to focus on researching and improving my abilities, there are many out there that I want to save."
Pausing, Yoriichi then continued, "Moreover, from my observation and calculation of my weakening flame, which has only a dozen atoms of difference, everything we've built so far will be reset when the multiverse joins together. So, it is pointless to get stronger as fast as possible if, in the end, it will just return to zero, because the fundamental rules of the multiverse will change when the final Conjoin completes."
"So, I suggest that you, Ciri, or all of us Heralds focus on studying science and magic to develop different kinds of abilities. This way, your mind will become more dexterous, allowing you to develop your strength faster when we reset to zero."
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