The existence of two consciousnesses in one body is a horror story, and it is the same even for a Herrscher.
This wasn't multiple personalities, but the genuine existence of two completely different consciousnesses, which could, in some sense, be described as "souls."
Imagine a small room that can barely fit one bed, inhabited by two occupants with opposing personalities. Since only one person can sleep in the bed, they will inevitably fight for a place to reside.
Currently, this was the Sixth Herrscher's situation.
Another consciousness was interfering with her control over the Authority of Creation!
As the true Herrscher consciousness, she should have absolute mastery over the Authority. Even if Seele's consciousness were resurrected, any attempt to use the Authority would require a "tug-of-war" with a vast power disparity. For the dominant Herrscher consciousness, maintaining control over the Authority and preventing the other consciousness from seizing it should be easy. It was equivalent to having four-fifths of the tug-of-war rope on her side; she only needed a little more force to win the match.
However, after she obtained the Phase Transfer device, her consciousness had already relaxed significantly. Coupled with Kevin's ambush with the grenade, this caused a momentary slackening of her grip on the Authority.
And this unfamiliar consciousness did not miss the opportunity. With that less-than-a-breath lapse, it forcibly interfered with her use of the Authority of Creation.
The "tug-of-war" was now pulled back by half.
"Who are you! Why are you in this body!" She roared at the air, a sense of humiliation wafting through her heart. "You are not Seele! Her consciousness completely vanished! How did you get in here!"
"What is she doing? Acting?" Kevin frowned, looking at the Sixth Herrscher's "performance." He hesitated, unsure whether to attack. What if this was another one of her traps?
"Wait, Kevin, observe a little more. The Sixth Herrscher seems to… have another consciousness in her body."
"Another consciousness? Has Seele not died?"
"No…" Elysia clearly heard the Sixth Herrscher shout, "You are not Seele." She herself was unsure what was happening to the Sixth Herrscher. This was a unique Herrscher; every action she took since her birth had defied human expectation, so anything was possible.
But what they hadn't expected was that in the next second, the roaring Sixth Herrscher abruptly stopped all movement. Her expression instantly cooled, becoming an emotionless indifference.
Her deep crimson pupils rotated silently, seemingly searching for something, then settled on Kevin.
Kevin immediately retreated a distance. Just as he thought the Sixth Herrscher was about to attack again, she made a move that caused his eyes to widen.
The Sixth Herrscher chopped her own chest with a hand-blade, aiming straight for the location of her Herrscher Core.
"What in the—"
"Despicable human!" In the moment just before her fingers could pierce her chest, the Sixth Herrscher's expression changed again. She flung her hand away, glaring at the utterly confused Kevin.
For some reason, Kevin felt that the phrase "despicable human" wasn't aimed at him.
"Is it because of this! You undying pest!" The Sixth Herrscher violently ripped off the Phase Transfer device on her wrist. She shrieked, "You actually died in that place and retained your consciousness!"
Elysia's mouth slowly opened, astonishment filling her eyes. She looked disbelievingly at the Sixth Herrscher, who was self-roaring as if driven mad.
The operating principle of the Phase Transfer device originates from the Second Herrscher. She could open a gateway to the imaginary space, connect to it, draw energy from it, and use it for various space manipulation abilities.
That is to say, according to Delta's design, this device was intended to achieve spatial transfer through the two actions of entering and leaving imaginary space. However, upon activation, it did not lead to the imaginary space, but to an unnamed, strange space where the five senses were lost.
Even Delta, the designer of the device, never figured out what that space was or why it connected to that specific area.
But after that, research on the Second Herrscher did not stop. Fire Moth researchers gradually discovered that in addition to the imaginary space, the Second Herrscher's core seemed capable of opening a gateway to the "Dirac Sea."
The Dirac Sea, also known as the Sea of Quanta, was a human conjecture about the universe and space. Before the Second Herrscher, no one would have thought its existence would be verified in this manner.
"The material world is immersed in a sea of negative-energy electrons," and that sea is the Sea of Quanta. They exist within the material world.
So, did the Phase Transfer device connect to the Sea of Quanta? Not entirely. Based on various investigations and deep discussions, they found that that space was not the Sea of Quanta either.
It was, accurately speaking, a seam.
There exists one or multiple layers of barrier between the material world and the Sea of Quanta to prevent matter from the material world from falling into it. The Phase Transfer device likely connected to one of these seams—a place that was neither the material world, imaginary space, nor the Sea of Quanta. It couldn't even truly be called a "space."
But the existence of the seam caused it to simultaneously possess characteristics of both the material world and the Sea of Quanta. If consciousness could survive after leaving its container, the only possible place for it to reside would be the Sea of Quanta, which was speculated to be composed of pure energy.
If a person happened to die within that seam, his consciousness survived the erosion of the Sea of Quanta within the seam, enduring the torture of having no sensation and being unable to verify his own existence. Then, another "container" just so happened to use the Phase Transfer device to enter the seam.
And the existence of this container, besides the original body, involved something that had already been verified to exist:
The Herrscher Core.
It was the common consensus of most researchers that a Herrscher Core might contain the Herrscher's consciousness. They were unsure if this counted as another state of "survival," because a new Herrscher would be born after the Core gained a new body. Thus, the Core contained what might be the Herrscher's consciousness.
Herrschers do not store consciousness in the brain, but in the Core. This discovery led them to abandon the insane idea of directly implanting the Core into a human body to try and let humans master the Authority.
But now, this idea was realized under such a bizarre set of coincidences.
Whether this was coincidence or inevitability was unknown, but what Elysia knew was that, at this very moment, inside this Herrscher's body, besides the mad Herrscher, there was another person they knew.
A person who, when the injured Herrscher entered the seam, took advantage of her weakness and was battling the Herrscher consciousness with his willpower.
Lin.