"The future..." Shu murmured the word, looking up, staring at the gray-white girl. "Then the future you wish to see... what is it?"
...
"Before that, could I talk with [Him]? You don't need to guarantee my safety..."
...
How much memory was truly stored within this void space? Besides the entity that created this place, likely no one knew.
Countless objects formed from "memory" floated in this space. They varied in size, and the amount of "memory" they contained differed entirely. Perhaps they weren't that important, or perhaps one among them was unforgettable to someone.
But regardless of their former status, right now, they were displayed here like collectibles, arranged with a strange aesthetic sense.
This was a world of pure white. The mist permeating the air even obscured the distant horizon.
At the center of the mist, the great stone from Depascal square now rested here.
A faint wisp of mist trembled, then began to twist painfully within this space.
[He] was the "Herrscher of Memory" mentioned by Shu and the others, the Mandela Effect entity born here alongside the girl. But unlike the girl's appearance, [He] had been just this thin, pale wisp of mist since birth.
The world's concept of this place wasn't just the girl's form; it was more defined by the near-perpetual white mist. Thus, this place was called the [City of White Mist], and [He] was the White Mist.
The White Mist enveloped everything, buried everything, carefully hiding all things within itself.
And now, after suffering Shu's extraordinary blow, it roiled, seeming about to vomit up the "memories" collected with such difficulty.
"Forget... cannot forget... must not forget..."
Broken whispers spread through this world. After a brief, violent struggle, the wisp of mist finally stabilized, appearing weakened.
"Cannot forget..."
The White Mist's voice was much softer now, its color paler, as if it might dissipate at any second.
He and the girl shared the authority of memory equally. The girl's authority was retrieval, browsing, and replaying.
The White Mist's authority was modification, collection... and storage.
He didn't grow stronger by storing more memories.
On the contrary, the vast amount of memory stored using his authority occupied nearly 80% of his power usage capacity.
Over the past three months, the massive influx of jumbled memories had weakened him progressively, to the point where he couldn't even activate his authority immediately when the group burst in, leading to his current predicament.
He feared Shu, feared the power Shu wielded that could easily harm him. Like the girl, he feared death.
And there was still so much in the world that needed him to "remember"—the girl from Babylon, the musical score from the Mediterranean, the warmth beneath the sea...
He couldn't die.
But his authority no longer allowed him to continue this grand undertaking. The split authority meant the utilization rate of the entire Herrscher core couldn't even reach 1%.
Faced with the imminent threat and the looming crisis of insufficient power, he found a solution.
Devour the girl, "remember" the girl, make the separated authorities whole again. Then, as the complete "Herrscher of Memory," remember the entire world.
If successful, the world would henceforth live within his "memory." No one would ever be forgotten...
"But then there would be no future..." the girl's voice echoed from within the mist. She emerged, her face pale.
The White Mist stopped trembling. The ethereal whispers resumed.
"The future... the future is that everyone we remember will never be forgotten again. No one will be overlooked, no one will quietly depart..."
"That's just you not forgetting!" the girl took an agitated step forward, her face growing paler. "You're unwilling to alter anyone's memory! Those who have already forgotten will never remember what they lost!" The girl clenched her fists, her eyes filled with profound disappointment.
"I can..." The White Mist's flow accelerated, the ethereal whispers quickening.
"You can't!" The girl shook her head forcefully, cutting the White Mist off. "You had the chance, the ability, to tamper with their memories, to make the four of them hostile towards each other, to weave deep-seated hatred into their memories!
"But you didn't! You just collected their memories as they were, storing them within your authority. The most extreme [Modification] you used on them was merely facilitating their own self-memory repair!"
"You had so many opportunities, so many ways to avoid the current situation... But you just used your authority to silently collect those scattered memories here..."
If it were her...
The White Mist remained silent. He couldn't refute the girl, just as he couldn't be as "extreme" as her, resorting to any means necessary to "remember the world."
"I can't do it..." After a long pause, a forlorn whisper came from the distance. "Memory is memory... It shouldn't be tampered with, concealed, shouldn't be incomplete... I don't want to harm any memory."
Even though he couldn't see any of the memories he collected and stored. That was the girl's authority – to see what the collected memories actually were.
All he could see were masses of mist, as monotonous as himself. To understand the specific content within the mist, he had to invade and destroy the memory.
The girl wanted his authority; didn't he also wish to borrow hers, just to properly see the memories he cherished so dearly?
"You can't bring yourself to do it..." The girl closed her eyes in pain. "You couldn't even bring yourself to devour and absorb me..."
Yes, merging the authorities was the girl's idea. The water cycle was also the girl's idea. The White Mist had been a faithful executor from start to finish. The only thing he refused was the girl's request for him to devour her.
Did he actually think he, too, was a part that needed to be "remembered"?
Ridiculous! How could a tool have feelings?! How could one feel affection for a tool?!!
They didn't need such things! She didn't need them!
The moment the White Mist refused, the girl knew all her plans were unfeasible.
If the White Mist wouldn't even devour her, how could it possibly modify others' memories, allowing them to regain what they had lost?
Even if he obtained all memories, the White Mist would only store them separately, letting everyone "live" within their own memories.
And such a world, living in the "past"...
Has no future.