There was one thing MEI had not explicitly told the original Elysia when answering her question.
Her decision to continue rescuing Earth's survivors in batches, even after resolving to evacuate humanity to the Moon with Pardo's power, was not born from sentimentality.
It was the result of a cold, rational analysis.
Vill-V was right about one thing.
The Kindling of Earth's human civilization must be cast far and wide.
MEI did not approve of Vill-V's methods.
But she recognized the logic behind them.
With her sense of purpose renewed, MEI now intended to construct a vast fleet of Arks on the Moon.
Their design would be based on The Prometheus, the vessel she had already completed once before. That prototype had been destroyed alongside the Newborn World Serpent Headquarters when the Herrscher of Stars annihilated the base.
This time, MEI would not place all of humanity's hopes aboard a single ship.
From now on, whenever they rescued a new group of survivors, she would prepare an Ark and send that group beyond Earth in search of another home.
One after another, the vessels would be cast into the sea of stars like message bottles.
Each one would be an independent attempt.
A trial voyage.
A separate chance for Earth's civilization to survive.
Meanwhile, as the months and years passed, MEI would use the Herrscher Authorities of Reason, Void, and Death to study the results of every voyage and continuously refine the new Project ARK.
Every failure would produce data.
Every success would reveal another possibility.
And through that process, she would eventually complete the final Ark, the vessel that would carry everyone gathered here away from the Moon.
The longer MEI could postpone that final departure, the more thoroughly she could prepare for it.
Moreover, conducting the project on the Moon would place them safely beyond the current reach of the Herrscher of Stars' weaponized Sea of Quanta Portals.
However, for this plan to proceed smoothly, one condition had to be secured above all others.
Their enemies could not be allowed to possess any means of spatial teleportation.
"Elysia."
MEI turned toward Sim Elysia.
"Did you recover the Second Divine Key?"
The first step was to confirm that the Key of Eternity, Cosmic Juggernaut, was back in their possession.
After that...
Dr. Einstein's Sea of Quanta Portal cannot perform long-distance teleportation within the Proper World.
MEI silently reviewed everything she knew about the device.
It possesses only two primary functions.
First, it can open a passage into the Sea of Quanta.
Second, it can sever sections of a continent, form them into World Bubbles, and transfer them into the Sea of Quanta.
Her reasoning was straightforward.
At its current stage of development, the Sea of Quanta Portal cannot threaten the Moon.
But we cannot allow the Herrscher of Stars to improve it any further.
Therefore...
MEI began formulating their next operation.
Its objective was obvious.
We must defeat the Herrscher of Stars as quickly as possible.
MEI understood how powerful the Herrscher of Stars had become.
However, compared with the Herrscher of Blood, who constantly concealed her true location, and the Herrscher of Thunder, who had become equally elusive and vanished after every attack, the Herrscher of Stars was the easiest of the three to track down.
She had not allied herself with the other two.
Just like the Herrscher of Death, Seele, before her, she made no effort to hide.
Her location could be discovered with relative ease. In fact, whenever members of the Newborn World Serpent approached, she would attack them first, relying upon her overwhelming and unpredictable power.
That arrogance made her dangerous.
It also made her vulnerable.
"I successfully recovered the Second Divine Key," Sim Elysia reported.
"Good."
MEI immediately turned toward Pardo.
"There is no time to waste. Wait here while I modify the backup base."
She was already preparing to don the Key of Blankness again and access the Authority of the Herrscher of Reason.
Then she asked the most important question.
"Pardo, can you teleport this entire base directly to the Moon?"
"Uhh..."
The cat-girl(?) scratched her head.
"I've never tried moving anything this big before."
She hesitated, glancing around the base.
"But... I think I can do it? Probably?"
"Excellent."
MEI nodded in satisfaction, treating Pardo's uncertain answer as confirmation.
She then turned toward everyone else.
"All right. There is no longer any reason to hesitate."
Her gaze passed over every person gathered there.
"From this moment onward..."
"We will save as many people as we can."
Vill-V's execution carried consequences of its own.
Even so, its immediate benefits were impossible to deny.
With Vill-V gone, MEI had not only severed many of the chains of resentment within the Newborn World Serpent.
To put it bluntly, she had also created the perfect scapegoat.
Why had fewer than ten percent of Earth's people survived?
Because Vill-V had helped the Herrscher of Blood and the Herrscher of Thunder conceal their movements.
Why had Dr. Einstein become the immensely powerful Sixth Herrscher?
Because Vill-V had guided events toward her Herrscherization.
Vill-V's shadow undeniably loomed over both disasters.
Even so, laying all the blame upon her would have been far too convenient.
The Newborn World Serpent's prolonged inaction had also contributed to the catastrophe.
So had the indecisiveness of its leaders.
By forcing those failures into the open before her disappearance, Vill-V had, in her own ruthless way, driven events forward.
And now...
"It's ready."
MEI worked with alarming speed.
It was obvious that she was pushing herself far beyond her limits.
In only half a day, she used the Authority of the Herrscher of Reason at full power to strip away every unnecessary section of the backup base.
She preserved only its most essential core, then reconstructed it into a compact planetary-base configuration.
MEI's reasoning remained remarkably clear throughout the process.
First, she had already confirmed that the Authority of the Herrscher of Reason would remain usable on the Moon.
With that essential condition secured, they only needed to organize and preserve their most important facilities, equipment, and data.
Once Pardo teleported the core of the backup base to the lunar surface, MEI could use the Herrscher of Reason's Authority to expand it again.
Even if they later discovered that they had forgotten an important resource or overlooked some crucial detail, Pardo could return to Earth and discreetly retrieve whatever they required.
That was the advantage of possessing such extraordinary reach.
In another sense, the relocation would also serve as a preliminary test for the future.
If humanity ever discovered a truly habitable planet, how would they rebuild civilization upon it?
The lunar base would allow them to begin answering that question now.
MEI was making full use of Pardo's Emanator-level abilities while remaining entirely within the limits of Pardo's agreement with Ling Ke.
In fact, Pardo's ascension as an Emanator of Harmony had caused MEI to place far less importance on Kiana becoming the "God of Earth."
More precisely, that objective was no longer an immediate priority.
If Kiana could still become the God of Earth, then naturally, MEI would welcome it.
One Emanator-level protector already offered humanity an extraordinary safeguard. Adding a God of Earth would grant them an even greater margin for error when they finally ventured into the unknown reaches of the universe.
But if circumstances demanded it, MEI was now willing to abandon that plan entirely.
At their current rate of collapse, they might not even survive until the Twelfth Honkai Eruption.
Pardo, on the other hand, only needed to wait until the so-called Civilization Trial ended. Once it did, the restrictions upon her would disappear, allowing her to wield her full power freely.
And as long as they had Pardo...
As long as humanity had an Emanator standing beside it...
For a civilization forced to leave its homeworld, she is the greatest safeguard we could ask for against the endless unknowns of the universe.
For the first time in what felt like an eternity, MEI could see a path extending beyond mere survival.
Earth's human civilization in this era still has a future.