Honkai: Fire Moth Herrschers

"Oh my, Michael, you actually read that kind of paper? It wasn't just because Mobius wrote it, was it?"

Elysia echoed Kevin's words, handling Vishnu like it was nothing.

Michael ignored her and followed Mei's train of thought.

"In her paper, she argued against a lot of ideas in quantum mechanics. She used an analogy—applying superposition and collapse from quantum mechanics to the real world. It was like 'Schrödinger's cat' but called 'Mobius's Snake.'

Now, it's one of the big examples people use for quantum mechanics, right?"

Before he could finish, something clicked in his mind.

"You're saying Vishnu's state is like 'Mobius's Snake?'

Just now, it was in a superposition of both 'charging at Elysia' and 'not charging at Elysia.' But when we observed it, the state collapsed into 'not charging at Elysia?'

But… how do we explain its physical form? Shouldn't its body already belong to one of the collapsed states?"

"That's why I can't say for sure," Mei replied.

"Superposition in quantum mechanics is usually about tiny particles. When this happens in the real world—the world we see—it doesn't make sense. That's why 'Mobius's Snake' is such a weird case."

Michael wrinkled his nose, clenching his right hand as his mind raced.

Quantum-type Honkai beasts did have superposition states. When the superposition broke, they collapsed into one state, turning grayish-white and empty-looking.

Vishnu's blue glow had faded a bit, but it wasn't grayish-white yet.

That probably meant it still had other superpositions left and hadn't fully collapsed into one state.

And when it came to Quantum, it was hard not to think about Imaginary.

"Maybe its state is kinda like the Herrscher of the Void's powers," Michael said.

"Take Imaginary Space crystals—"

He pointed at the pale purple crystals sealing Kevin's mouth.

"Or the lances of the Void. They actually exist inside Imaginary Space. The Herrscher of the Void just projects them into the real world. And when needed, they can switch between Imaginary and real space.

So, what if it's the same with quantum superposition? Since we can't see quantum states at our level, maybe the one we do see is just part of it. The other superimposed states could exist inside the Quantum Sea instead?"

"It's not actually that complicated," Mei shook her head.

Even she felt a headache coming on when thinking about quantum mechanics. As the saying went, if someone said they fully understood it, they probably didn't understand it at all.

And now, quantum mechanics was showing up in the real world—without experiments, just pure speculation.

"Forget that for now. If it really is superposition and collapse, the real question is… is the collapsed state permanent?

Can it go back into superposition?"

On the holographic screen, Vishnu's deep blue glow was returning.

Mei's question had already been answered.

Michael suddenly smacked his forehead.

"Ugh… cough, cough. I can finally talk," Kevin coughed, covering his mouth.

"Huh? Where's Michael?"

Michael was nowhere to be seen in the war room.

Mei tapped her fingers idly on the table. Suddenly, she wasn't paying attention to the battle on the screen anymore. She turned to Kevin.

"What did Michael say when he explained the Quantum Sea and the Imaginary Tree to you? Can you repeat it to me?"

"He uploaded a paper about it, didn't he? You even said it was a complete mess."

"...Right."

Mei leaned back in her chair and pulled up Michael's paper. She hadn't taken it seriously before—just dismissed it as pure speculation without any real data.

As a scientist, she had never liked theories without solid calculations or experiments to back them up.

But then again… wasn't human science originally built on the wild ideas of ancient philosophers? Even though many of their conclusions had been proven wrong over the centuries, their ideas had still pushed science forward.

With that thought, Mei started reading Michael's report from the beginning.

Kevin glanced at the screen and asked quietly, "Mei, aren't you worried about the situation?"

"Worried about what? Worried that Michael can't handle Vishnu?"

"Uh..."

...

"Boom—Boom—Boom—Boom—"

Elysia and Sakura kept running through the wasteland.

It really was a wasteland—dark brown soil, nothing else. No ruins, no rubble, not even Honkai beast corpses.

Vishnu had eaten everything.

There was nothing they could do. Michael's orders were clear:

"Don't let it devour too much."

But that part of the order didn't matter as much as the first:

"Engage it."

Right now, stalling for time was more important.

And Elysia's way of doing that?

Make Vishnu chase them all over the Fuller District.

Sure, this place was full of Honkai beast corpses. But it was better than letting Vishnu head south, where the city was still standing.

Or worse—breaking through the firewall and getting into Mu Continent.

That would be a disaster.

So, this was the best option.

And the result? Pretty obvious.

While Michael and Mei were busy discussing strategies, Elysia didn't have time to check Vishnu's Honkai energy readings.

But just looking at it… yeah. It had grown.

Over seventy meters tall now.

That devouring speed was insane.

And honestly?

Elysia was pretty satisfied with that.

"Roar—Roar!"

The ground tremors suddenly stopped. Elysia and Sakura turned around to see Vishnu, abruptly stopping its pursuit, roar twice, the glow on its body intensifying again.

But it no longer tried to chase Elysia and Sakura. It could sense the massive amounts of Honkai energy emanating from these two tiny humans, but it couldn't catch them, so why bother...?

It gave the two a reluctant look, then turned and headed towards the urban area where the buildings were still intact.

"Elysia!"

"It's fine. Naughty Honkai beasts deserve a good beating!"

She turned around, ready to nock an arrow, but saw Vishnu's huge body suddenly freeze.

No, not completely frozen. Something seemed to be pulling on its tail. It struggled for a long time, its limbs flailing, kicking up dust, but in the end, it stumbled, its hind legs buckling, its forelimbs digging deep into the earth to resist the immense pulling force from behind.

"That's…"

"Alright, I'll finish the rest of this fight." Michael's voice easily reached Elysia's ears through his spatial powers.

"Hmph—" He grunted. Even with a Herrscher's physical strength, trying to pull Vishnu, which weighed nearly a hundred thousand tons, was a bit too much.

A blue light flickered, and Michael's arms transformed into two twenty-meter-long mechanical arms. The hydraulic actuators continuously contracted, and Vishnu's body slowly began to slide across the ground.

"Still not enough, huh…? After eating so much, it's time for you to lose some weight!" He shouted. His hair grew longer unconsciously, and golden threads, manifestations of his spatial powers, began to descend from his waist.

The golden threads wrapped around Vishnu's tail, just like how it used its blue threads to hunt.

"Haaa—"

This time, Vishnu was actually pulled. Michael first swung it parallel to the ground, then, using the momentum, flung it into the air before slamming it down hard.

"Boom—"

The ground completely caved in. Under the violent tremors, even the densely packed high-rise buildings in the urban area began to collapse rapidly from north to south, like dominoes pushed over by a giant hand.

The dust kicked up by the impact blocked out the sun, plunging the world into darkness for a moment, as the sunlight couldn't penetrate the thick dust cloud hanging in the air.

Just as Vishnu managed to flip itself over using its hands, three giant lances of the Void silently struck its three vital points – its head, neck, and heart.

"Gurgle?" Vishnu curiously swiped at the lances of the Void with its claws, but they passed right through.

Through the thick, black dust cloud, it heard a calm voice.

If translated into human language, it would be – "First time."

Vishnu's head instantly exploded, blue blood gushing out like a fountain, quickly soaking the ground.

But then everything suddenly vanished. Vishnu returned to its position before it had turned around.

However, the lances of the Void piercing its neck and chest seemed to be anchored to its body. Even as it collapsed into another state, the two lances didn't change their "relative positions."

"Second time."

Before Vishnu could react, its head fell to the ground, rolling quite a distance.

Its neck turned into a fountain again, spraying a massive amount of blue blood into the air. Under the increasingly thick dust cloud, a sea-blue rain of blood began to fall.

But then everything disappeared again. Vishnu returned to the state where it had just been slammed into the ground, but… it was useless!

As long as they kept killing it, its collapsed state would eventually reach its limit.

And as long as they killed it fast enough, it wouldn't have time to return to its superposition state.

Vishnu seemed to have realized the danger. The blue light on its body had faded to its extreme, leaving only a few scattered blue specks on its grayish-white form.

It quickly moved its blue tentacles, trying to devour the lance of the Void piercing its chest.

But the tentacles still passed right through the lance, as if it were merely a projection.

"Third time."

"Splat—"

Under the dust cloud, the blue rain of blood fell once more.