The Herrscher of Origin.
Elysia, that woman, loved to imbue 'Origin' with all sorts of fluffy concepts like love, romance, and wishes. In Noldrei's eyes, these were nothing more than 'intermediaries.'
The Herrscher of Origin's method of use was transformation, but its essential function was mediation. The universal connection of things can only be realized through mutual mediation, and mediation can only arise and exist within universal connections.
So, what was this mediating activity?
It was 'people.'
The key to the Herrscher of Origin's authority lay in mediation. It didn't possess much power on its own, but after connecting with other things, it could carry out activities like mediating and transforming, thus gaining corresponding power.
Something that was supposed to be filled with emotion and touching moments became utterly bland and tasteless after Elysia explained its source of power to Noldrei.
Elysia was completely speechless. All her teachings, filled with emotion and meaning, had been reduced to nothing in an instant.
"I see, so this is the power of the Herrscher of Origin? Such a strange power... doesn't this mean that the stronger I am, and the stronger my friends are, the stronger my ability becomes?"
Durandal quickly understood Noldrei's lesson.
If she had to comprehend concepts like 'love,' flowery incantations, or convoluted explanations of authority, she might have been much slower, and might not even have been able to grasp some parts.
But when Noldrei used the word 'intermediary' to describe it and explained it to Durandal, it was as if the clouds had parted. She immediately understood how to use the authority of the Herrscher of Origin.
Durandal looked at Noldrei and said, "It's like historical decrees, the Stigma symbols that communicate with the Honkai, and the signets in the Elysian Realm. They are all relationships between things built by human hands. In that sense, the Herrscher of Origin is the key button for communicating with the Herrscher Cores."
"The most important thing is that Elysia can only establish this communication; she can't take it away. She has the power of production but not the power of negation. That's why the Herrscher of Finality is needed at the end to centralize control over all the Herrscher Cores and complete the cycle of authority within the Cocoon."
Noldrei nodded in admiration. "As expected of Durandal. If I told Kiana all this, she'd probably think Elysia was a real estate agent. Durandal, do you know about the cabinet system of the Ming Dynasty in Shenzhou?"
"The outer court held a power called 'ticket drafting.' It meant that if the emperor wanted to review local affairs, he had to go through this handover process. This was because it was impossible for the emperor to personally supervise every single task in his vast empire. So, he needed people to perform this screening and auxiliary process."
"But this process determined what kind of empire the emperor saw, thus allowing the ministers' power to participate in the execution of imperial power through mediation. In order to control this ministerial power, the emperor needed the power to negate this mediation, to display his absolute authority."
"So, the emperor created another power: 'red ink approval.' This meant the power of decision belonged to the emperor, while the process of execution lay with the ministers."
"The meaning of 'Origin' is very simple: Elysia has the power to decide the path of a Herrscher's birth. The planning and execution of this path determine the process of the Honkai's world destruction."
"The Honkai only decides whether or not to destroy the world; it doesn't have the ability to do it directly. Otherwise, the Honkai could just launch a surprise attack and destroy human civilization while it's not looking. Why bother sending down Herrschers one by one?"
"The Herrscher of Origin decides the process of world destruction, but this process doesn't belong to Elysia either. In the beginning, Elysia clearly didn't have this authority. She only knew her identity as a Herrscher and was unclear about the extent of her powers."
"The birth of the Herrschers in the current era is the product of Elysia truly possessing the power of the Herrscher of Origin."
Durandal understood the situation. The Previous Era's Elysia had not died and had always occupied the position of the Herrscher of Origin.
This led to most of the Previous Era's Herrschers fighting alone, but the low level of organization in the Previous Era caused many paths that should have succeeded to fail.
In the current era, Elysia continued to occupy the Honkai's 'chancellor' position, preventing the current era's Herrscher of Origin from being born right away.
Consequently, the current era's Herrschers also fought alone. The Honkai's emperor, the Will of the Honkai, believed the entire process had spun out of its control and wanted to create Finality to directly negate all past Herrschers.
However, at this point, the Herrscher of Origin's executive power was key to the birth of Finality.
On top of that, the power of 'red ink approval' had been infiltrated by Prometheus No. 17, and the inner court had betrayed the Honkai emperor's internal power.
Thus, in an alternative way, the Will of the Honkai could be made to hand over its right to use Honkai Energy.
In other words, after the Will of the Honkai issued the military order to 'end everything with Honkai,' the imperial power would become military power and fall into the hands of the Herrscher of Finality.
The Herrscher of Finality would then ascend to the throne as a 'great general' or 'shogun' and launch a 'Chenqiao Mutiny' to usurp power.
Elysia really wanted to say that wasn't how it was, it really wasn't. She wasn't a treacherous minister within the Honkai. But on second thought, what she was doing was indeed exactly that, so she didn't refute her identity.
No matter how Durandal looked at it, Noldrei's explanation was crystal clear and even very easy to understand. Durandal now had a deep understanding of what the people of the current civilization had done.
It was 'Schicksal and Anti-Entropy launching a rebellion,' colluding with 'court minister Elysia,' with 'the eunuch Prometheus No. 17' as the key node.
This allowed military power to fall into the hands of a third-party military organization, the Herrscher 'Kiana Kaslana,' who then reorganized the central government and distributed power.
Durandal felt a pang of sorrow. She said gravely, "I never thought there would be so much scheming and corruption within the Will of the Honkai. It's no different from the infighting among us humans!"
Perhaps thinking of Schicksal's tragic past, Durandal seemed to see humanity once again consuming its own vitality in the internal friction of shifting conflicts.
She thought of how Noldrei, in such a crisis, could turn the tide and reunify the organizations with just the strength of Schicksal and Anti-Entropy, and she understood his outstanding political work capabilities.
"Since the Honkai is so pathetic, it's only right that we humans achieve the final victory!" Durandal was full of confidence, certain that she could successfully master the power of the Herrscher of Origin.
Noldrei lamented, "I don't know who designed this Herrscher system. It's full of internal contradictions and loopholes. I've thought about it over and over, but I just can't figure out why the 'wise' Will of the Honkai that Otto encountered would create such a thing. Where did all its wisdom go?"
Elysia opened her mouth to speak but stopped, wanting several times to explain that she wasn't that kind of bad woman.