Let's rewind a little.
Shortly after the Herrscher of Blood triggered a global riot, while the Newborn World Serpent was holding an emergency meeting...
"It looks like this incident has caused quite a stir."
"Even Sim Kevin attended the meeting."
"If he hadn't, you never would have been able to sneak in, would you?"
"My other self~"
The location was the Newborn World Serpent Headquarters, where the seven Vill-Vs were being held in separate confinement cells.
Earlier, MEI had "thoughtfully" fitted every one of these traitors with a "collar."
They might have been mere avatars, but every one of them was still a Pathstrider.
Each so-called collar was a liquid explosive injected directly into the neck. It was specifically designed to restrict the abilities of Extraordinary individuals.
The principle was similar to the miniature bomb once implanted within the heart of a certain Herrscher of Thunder.
However...
Unlike that Herrscher, who had effectively turned one of the four fundamental forces of the universe into a power bank, Vill-V was herself a professional weapons master.
Not only had she prepared for a situation like this long ago, but another Vill-V, Sim Vill-V, also existed in this era.
And Sim Vill-V had no reason to fear this particular restraint.
Of course, that did not mean a MANTIS could simply ignore an explosive buried deep inside the body.
Even many fully fledged Herrschers would fear such a device. Only beings capable of reconstructing their own bodies by hand, such as the Herrschers of Reason, Blood, and Death, could truly disregard it.
Vill-V's physical defenses were not somehow tougher than Soulium.
The actual reason Sim Vill-V remained unafraid was much simpler.
She had never been forced to accept the implant in the first place, and she had secretly constructed a device capable of blocking its activation signal long ago.
After "going missing" ahead of time, Sim Vill-V used the tricks in which "The Great Magician" specialized to slip unnoticed among the seven imprisoned Vill-Vs.
Avatars, after all, could be dismissed at any time.
Of course, if the Original Body had simply dismissed one, MEI and the others would have detected the disappearance of its liquid bomb signal at once.
Prometheus Prime was monitoring every signal in real time.
But as previously mentioned, Vill-V was a weapons master.
Even within the Newborn World Serpent Headquarters, she had left behind numerous concealed trump cards.
Her greatest trump card, however, was not something she had installed inside the base.
Rather...
"I never said that 'Avatar' was the only Path Ability I awakened!"
Those were the words the Original Body had once murmured to herself.
And then...
"I also never said that I hadn't stepped onto a Path."
Sim Vill-V possessed a "little secret" of her own.
The truth was that Aponia was not the only Sim who had become a Pathstrider.
Sim Vill-V had quietly become one as well.
She had kept that fact hidden, just as MEI had never explicitly revealed what else her "Incorporeal Might" could accomplish beyond telekinesis.
At the same time, the Original Vill-V had awakened several different Path Abilities.
Thanks to her unique talent for "Consciousness Partitioning," each of her personalities possessed a distinct special ability.
Furthermore, every personality could use every ability.
There was no need to switch to a particular personality before using the Path Ability associated with it.
Those restrictions did not exist even while "Avatar" was active.
There was no need to list every Path Ability she possessed for now.
Only three mattered here.
"Shapeshift," "Possession," and "Displacement."
The first two were among the several Path Abilities awakened by the Original Vill-V.
Their names alone made their effects obvious.
"Displacement," however, was the Path Ability awakened by Sim Vill-V.
Strangely enough...
Although both Vill-Vs contained multiple consciousnesses, Sim Vill-V had failed to awaken a different Path Ability for each personality as the Original Body had.
The single ability she did awaken, however, was exceptionally useful.
Its function was simple: mark a target beforehand, then instantly exchange positions with it.
With the energy reserves of a Flame-Chaser-class MANTIS, Sim Vill-V could use "Displacement" to exchange places with a marked target anywhere on Earth.
She could also mark far more than one target.
By combining these concealed abilities through a carefully planned series of "Displacements," the two Vill-Vs completed their escape in less than half a minute.
They silently removed every liquid bomb implanted in the confined bodies, replaced the prisoners with several lifelike dummies to deceive their captors, and successfully escaped.
Afterward...
The "Vill-Vs" made a special trip to visit their fellow prisoner, Dr. Einstein.
They did nothing unnecessary.
As planned, they simply handed Dr. Einstein a communicator they had secretly developed, one capable of easily penetrating the isolation chamber's signal jamming.
On the surface, the device appeared to be nothing more than a pair of colored contact lenses.
Once worn, however, it could be controlled through brainwaves and project images directly onto the wearer's retinas.
Audio messages were transmitted harmlessly through the delicate tissue of the eyes using a method similar to neural signal conduction, delivering sound directly into the user's mind.
In an astonishingly short period, Vill-V had overcome, one after another, research problems that would have taken an ordinary person years or even decades to solve.
Brainwave technology, miniature quantum computers, and so on and so forth.
Her greatest talent lay in repurposing her previous "works" while continuously "innovating," all while secretly preparing for her true objective.
It was much like a certain Mr. Stark secretly constructing the Mark I armor inside a dilapidated cave while under the watch of a group of terrorists.
And today...
"Why did you help me?"
When Dr. Einstein saw Vill-V again, the blue-haired woman with a small red streak in her bangs looked visibly haggard.
That was the question she asked.
After hearing it...
"Everyone has the right to choose the path they wish to follow, don't they?"
Vill-V left behind that single sentence and showed no interest in what happened afterward.
Instead, the Original Vill-V immediately activated her concealed Path Ability, "Possession," shifting her consciousness into Sim Vill-V before departing.
Without question, Vill-V's claim that "Everyone has the right to choose" had been nothing more than a convenient excuse.
She simply was not that kind of person.
For now, however, no one aside from Vill-V herself and Aponia knew what she truly intended to accomplish.
But it was precisely because of Vill-V's sudden actions that Dr. Einstein gained the ability to contact the outside world...
BOOM!
A powerful Herrscher fluctuation erupted from within the Newborn World Serpent Headquarters.
First, a dense barrage of red-and-black Gravity Rays shot outward in every direction.
This attack was no mere greeting.
The newborn Herrscher was testing the Authority she had only just obtained.
She swiftly familiarized herself with her new "self" and learned exactly what she could do.
Therefore, her next attack...
Bzzzt~
A massive Pseudo-Black Hole erupted from a single point and rapidly expanded upward.
Within only a few breaths...
It had already devoured the entire Newborn World Serpent Headquarters.