Honkai, why do you only throw me into high-level battles?

"Sunk cost" is a dangerous thing. It can easily cloud judgment.

On a small scale, it's the "I already bought it" or "I'm already here" mentality, the self-justification for accepting a disappointing reality. A manifestation of "loss aversion," the instinct to avoid losses at all costs.

On a larger scale, it's the gambler who keeps doubling down, their rationality crushed beneath the weight of their losses, hoping for a miracle turnaround.

Cocolia was that gambler, driven by desperation and a single-minded obsession.

It was, in a way, inevitable.

Just as Tesla and Einstein had been forced to accept Cocolia's unauthorized expedition, despite their anger and suspicions, joining her to legitimize her actions and mitigate the potential damage to Anti-Entropy, Cocolia now felt trapped by her own choices.

She knew the rational course of action was to retreat, to regroup, to plan their next move.

But the entire operation had been unauthorized. Even the scientists' participation had been secured through a costly bargain – the blueprints of the "Divine Key."

Up to that point, things had been relatively normal. They'd even hoped to use this mission to mend the growing rift between the factions.

But the disaster had changed everything. The catastrophic consequences, the loss of life, the damage to Anti-Entropy's resources, especially Cocolia's own forces…

The conservative faction had only lost the Arahato.

If she retreated now, admitting defeat, her position within Anti-Entropy would be irrevocably weakened. Someone had to take responsibility for the losses, and that someone would be her.

She might even face the same fate as Raiden Ryoma – imprisonment, disgrace.

She couldn't accept that.

So, driven by ambition and self-preservation, she doubled down.

"The battle is over, the crisis is averted, victory is within our grasp! We've come this far! We can't give up now!" she raged internally. "If we can activate these ruins, obtain the key, unlock the gateway to the Sea of Quanta… then all the sacrifices will have been worth it!"

"I, Cocolia, will be Anti-Entropy's true hero!"

And her reasoning wasn't entirely flawed. The eruption in Southeast Asia would distract Schicksal, diverting their attention and resources.

This was the perfect opportunity. A chance they couldn't afford to miss.

But first, I need to keep those two annoying scientists out of the way, she thought, deciding to act preemptively, even if it meant a permanent schism.

If she admitted defeat, her faction would be destroyed anyway.

If she succeeded, she would have the leverage to negotiate.

I have nothing left to lose. I'll gamble everything on this! She took a deep breath, her outward calm masking her inner desperation, and gave the order.

"Begin!"

The process was already familiar. The scientists' lack of cooperation was irrelevant.

Her forces sprang into action, collecting countless Honkai beast corpses and feeding them into the energy furnace.

The dormant furnace roared back to life, its glow intensifying, illuminating the dark depths like daylight.

The intense heat vaporized the surrounding water, creating a churning vortex of bubbles around the engine and the attending mechs, as if trying to consume them.

But such a minor inconvenience was nothing to Anti-Entropy technology.

The engine roared, channeling its power through thick cables into the ruins, reactivating the dormant barrier system, its crystalline dome shimmering with renewed energy.

"Hahahaha!" Seeing the initial phase proceed smoothly, Cocolia couldn't contain her triumphant laughter.

"Mophead, we have to do something!" Tesla yelled, frantically pushing the useless controls of her escape pod. "We have to stop her!"

"Don't bother, Dr. Tesla," Cocolia interjected, a smug smile on her lips. "For your own safety, I've taken… certain precautions."

"What are you talking about?" Tesla felt a surge of dread.

"You have such a temper, Doctor. I wouldn't want you to accidentally press the wrong button and flood your little escape pod. The consequences… well, I'm sure you can imagine." Cocolia smirked, then issued her orders. "Dr. Tesla is a valuable asset, a brilliant mind. As her colleague and… concerned partner, I have to ensure her safety. Weld her escape pod shut!"

Tesla stared at the communicator, dumbfounded.

Cocolia, ignoring her outrage, added with mock concern, "Be careful not to damage the life support systems."

"Cocolia!" The whine of welding torches, mingling with the roar of the energy engine, drowned out Tesla's furious roar. Being imprisoned by her own technology was a profound humiliation.

"Dr. Einstein, I'm sure you understand my position," Cocolia said, turning her attention to Einstein, her tone deceptively friendly. "Neither of us wants to lose a valuable colleague, do we?"

"…You're right, Ms. Cocolia. Thank you for your concern. I, too, am worried about Dr. Tesla's impulsive nature. However, I'm curious…" Unlike the enraged Tesla, Einstein remained calm. She'd lost all faith in Cocolia. There was no point in getting angry. "How do you intend to explain your actions to the Sovereign when he returns?"

Welt was the symbol of unity, the core that held Anti-Entropy together. Even though she considered Joachim impulsive and immature, she and Tesla had always upheld his authority as Sovereign. Even when he was absent – sometimes requiring them to drag him back and force him to work.

"…I will present him with… satisfactory results," Cocolia replied, her voice faltering slightly. She didn't understand the scientists' reverence for Welt.

To her, the Sovereign was a distant, almost mythical figure, powerful and enigmatic. Otherwise, how could he have stood against Schicksal and Otto for so long?

"Is that so? I hope so." Einstein saw through her bluff. She decided to remain silent, a form of passive resistance, and self-preservation. Cocolia was clearly unstable. Provoking her would be foolish. She needed to survive to hold her accountable.

Einstein's silence pleased Cocolia. She turned her attention back to the task at hand – reactivating the ruins.

With the barrier restored, the next step was to drain the water.

But there was a problem. The equilibrium points calculated by Tesla and Einstein were no longer valid after the battle and the flooding. They needed to recalculate.

But Cocolia couldn't rely on their cooperation anymore, and she didn't want to waste any more time.

She reasoned that the worst had already happened. The previous earthquake hadn't caused further damage, and no new Honkai beasts had emerged. She no longer needed to be cautious.

She'd also taken the precaution of bringing the energy engine inside the ruins. Even if another disaster occurred, the barrier would have a stable power supply.

Driven by a reckless desire for success, she ordered the full-power drainage sequence to commence.

Under the watchful eyes of the scientists, one furious, the other resigned, the water level within the ruins rapidly decreased. The entire structure swayed and groaned, trying to find a new equilibrium as its center of gravity shifted.

But the water level kept falling, the center of gravity kept changing, and the tremors continued.

Fortunately, no further disasters occurred. They all breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Soon, the water was completely drained, and the ruins, like before, rose from the seabed, a ghostly palace suspended in the water.

"Hahaha!" Seeing her plan succeed, Cocolia laughed triumphantly, leading her forces towards the deepest part of the ruins.

At the end of a long corridor stood a massive, strange device. A towering, wing-like structure, radiating a deep, ocean-blue light, encased within a cylindrical container, like a slumbering angel, waiting to be awakened.

If Lin Wei were there, he would have been surprised by its resemblance to another device he'd seen in the Elysian Realm, one with a completely different purpose.

"Is this… the Eye of the Deep?" Cocolia opened her mech's cockpit, stepping out, her slender figure clad in a dark blue uniform. She reached out towards the device, her eyes filled with a strange fascination.

"Mophead, do something!" Tesla yelled, still trapped in her escape pod.

Einstein hesitated. Should she attack? It felt… dishonorable.

"Doctors, do you see this?" Cocolia called out, her voice filled with excitement. "This is the Eye of the Deep, a marvel of the Previous Era! A device built by the advanced civilization of Mu to explore the Sea of Quanta! Despite being buried for millennia, it remains intact! A true miracle!"

"I understand your excitement, Ms. Cocolia, but I urge you to exercise caution," Einstein replied, her tone flat. "And I'm curious, how do you know its name? The blueprints you provided didn't mention it."

"Hmph, I found it in other documents. Is that so surprising, Doctor?" Cocolia's excitement was dampened by Einstein's question. "What matters is that it's in our hands now! We can finally complete what they started!" Her excitement returned. "We! Anti-Entropy!"

"Hah! You're not worthy!" Tesla scoffed.

"Hmph, Dr. Tesla, your shortsightedness is truly disappointing." Cocolia retorted, annoyed. "This is a miracle, something even Schicksal hasn't been able to obtain!"

"I found this place! I led us here! I secured this victory for Anti-Entropy!"

"I, Cocolia!" She felt a surge of pride, her ego inflated. "I am the one who brought Anti-Entropy a new future! And you, Dr. Tesla, clinging to your outdated principles, your self-proclaimed title of 'great scientist,' have held us back for far too long!" She pointed at the device, her voice filled with righteous indignation. "Open your eyes and see what this is!"

"I am the future of Anti-Entropy!" She was incredulous. "You stubborn fools, you have no right to judge me!"

Tesla was speechless. Despite her temper, she valued reason and logic. She wouldn't stoop to Cocolia's level of irrational, almost childish, ranting.

"Ms. Cocolia, please save these… unproductive remarks for our regular meetings. Those are the appropriate venues for arguments, not this," Einstein said, her calm tone masking a sharp jab. "And allow me to remind you, if this device is the key to the Sea of Quanta, as you claim, have you considered the consequences of connecting two different dimensions?"

"Consequences? What consequences?" Cocolia scoffed, dismissing her concerns. "It's a device built by the Previous Era to study the Sea of Quanta. Why should there be any consequences for us using it?"

"Times have changed. The Honkai was more active in the Previous Era, which means the world itself existed at a higher energy level," Einstein explained.

"Think of it like the barrier around these ruins. It separates our world from the Sea of Quanta, maintaining a pressure differential. In the Previous Era, due to the higher Honkai activity, this differential was within a safe range, allowing for observation and research. But now, this differential is unknown. Opening a gateway between dimensions without proper calculations could result in a catastrophic influx of energy, far beyond anything we can imagine!"

A leak in the ruins could be contained. But what if the world itself sprung a leak, an uncontrollable influx of energy? The thought terrified her.

Perhaps she was being overly cautious, but such risks shouldn't be taken lightly, especially not by someone as reckless as Cocolia.

"Hmph, fearmongering! You didn't say any of this during the X-10 experiments," Cocolia sneered, her voice filled with resentment. "You sacrificed my children, one after another, and now you pretend to be concerned about the risks? You're disgusting, Doctor."

Hadn't she compromised? Hadn't she tried to be reasonable?

These self-righteous scientists had disappointed her.

Fine. I'll do it myself!

The scientists were silenced, a flicker of guilt in their eyes. Some things couldn't be explained away, not even with the excuse of scientific progress and unavoidable risks.

They couldn't bring themselves to say those words.

It was because of Cocolia's past contributions and sacrifices that they'd allowed her to amass power within Anti-Entropy, a decision they now regretted.

But they were scientists, not politicians. They were learning as they went, making mistakes along the way.

Still, that wasn't an excuse. Cocolia's accusations stung.

"What? No witty retort this time?" Cocolia smirked, then waved her hand dismissively. "If you're afraid, I'll have my mechs escort you to a safer location. You don't need to witness this."

"Cocolia, you…"

"Prepare for energy transfer!" Cocolia ignored her, turning her attention back to the device. "We've paid a heavy price to get here. We can't just leave without activating it, without confirming that it's still functional."

A broken, unusable device, no matter how impressive its origins, was worthless to her. She needed a resounding success.

And…

"I want to see it… I want to see what the Sea of Quanta looks like…" she murmured.

One of her daughters, Seele Vollerei, had been lost in a quantum accident. Ever since learning about the Eye of the Deep, she'd clung to a faint hope – perhaps her daughter was still alive, somewhere in that other dimension.

Like the countless myths and legends about the afterlife, a comfort for the living, a blessing for the dead.

Anti-Entropy's quantum technology was more advanced than Schicksal's, but their understanding of the Sea of Quanta itself lagged behind.

Otto, with his access to more advanced ruins from the Previous Era, knew more about that realm. He'd even sent a Valkyrie on a reconnaissance mission years ago. That mission had transformed Durandal from an impulsive rookie into a formidable warrior.

But such information was classified. Anti-Entropy knew nothing about it.

More Honkai beast corpses were fed into the furnace, converted into energy, and channeled into the dormant device.

The device stirred, its blue glow intensifying.

…

Far beyond the confines of their world, in a realm beyond human comprehension, stood a magnificent cherry blossom tree, its blossoms eternally vibrant, a miracle in the quantum landscape.

Beneath the tree sat a white-haired young man, his eyes closed, his back broad and imposing, like an unyielding mountain, a timeless glacier, radiating an aura of power and isolation.

He opened his eyes, turning his gaze towards something behind him.