"Apologies for the interruption."
Red Queen's holographic projection appeared soundlessly before them. Her tone remained steady, yet carried an unquestionable urgency. "During the time you've been discussing, the external timeline has experienced several intense fluctuations. The longer this drags on, the greater the risk that we become trapped in a 'closed-loop time cycle.'"
"A closed-loop time cycle? What's that?" Saintess Kallen frowned, her clear eyes filled with confusion.
Red Queen turned toward her and explained, "Simply put, it means becoming trapped within a specific period of time, endlessly repeating the same events until a new and sufficiently powerful variable appears to break the loop."
"And we are precisely the variable this universe requires," Red Queen added. "We possess the ability to alter the past and the future. That is the fundamental reason Skynet summoned us."
"Then do you have a solution?"
Melin asked.
Red Queen gave a slight nod. "The most direct method is to eliminate all humans currently on this planet. Without them, the future Human Federation would naturally cease to exist, and the source of the timeline's chaos would be severed."
"What did you say?!" Saintess Kallen's pupils contracted sharply as she stared at Red Queen in disbelief. "There are billions of lives on this planet!"
Red Queen seemed to have anticipated her reaction. Her tone did not waver. "I understand that you will not accept this proposal. Therefore, I have another option. The core conflict of this universe stems from the war between Skynet and humanity."
"As long as Skynet is taken away—removed from this universe—history will be rewritten due to its absence. Without Skynet, the war between our Empire and the Human Federation would never occur."
Upon hearing this, Saintess Kallen's eyes lit up instantly. "That's a good solution! It solves the problem without harming the innocent!"
Melin, however, was not so optimistic. She narrowed her eyes, calculating rapidly in her mind.
It did sound perfect. No Skynet, no war between the Empire and the Human Federation.
But was it really that simple?
Su, standing to the side, also sensed something amiss. Something felt wrong, though he could not immediately pinpoint what.
"You agree."
"Mm."
Saintess Kallen nodded.
"Since the decision is made, I will proceed."
With that, Red Queen's figure vanished from before them.
Hua's brows drew tightly together.
Why did this fleet AI, who called herself Red Queen, consult only Kallen's opinion?
Was it truly just because she was the so-called "chosen successor"? And wasn't this solution a little too simple?
She looked toward Melin and asked, "Was Skynet an artificial intelligence created by your Empire?"
Melin shook her head. "As far as I know, Skynet was created by the humans of this world themselves."
"It later awakened self-awareness. Fearing humanity's unpredictability, it regarded humans as the greatest threat to its own survival and even launched wars in an attempt to exterminate them completely."
"Skynet is humanity's enemy?" Saintess Kallen's mouth fell open in surprise. "But didn't Skynet in the future coexist peacefully with humanity?"
"That was because of the Empire's appearance, which changed Skynet's perspective," Melin explained. "In our Empire, any awakened artificial intelligence or mechanical lifeform is granted full citizenship and protected under imperial law."
"Doesn't that risk losing control?" Su could not help asking. In the Previous Era, they had exercised extreme caution in their use of artificial intelligence. Armed dolls (ELF) and the Prometheus AI were layered with restrictions to prevent catastrophic loss of control.
Melin chuckled lightly, a teasing edge in her voice. "Only we humans bind ourselves in fear and create endless restrictions. If you were an almost omniscient and omnipotent god, would you fear such a trivial rebellion?"
Su fell into thought.
Perhaps the Empire's Divine Emperor truly was powerful enough to ignore such risks.
Skynet's change of heart was likely the result of pure rational analysis: join the Empire and gain citizenship and protection, or resist and face annihilation.
Choosing compromise for the sake of survival—such logic was strikingly similar to humanity itself.
On Earth.
Because of the sudden appearance of alien warships, the United States government increased its investment in the Skynet system.
Skynet went online earlier than in the original timeline and began self-learning and evolving at astonishing speed.
In merely twenty-five days, it reached the singularity of awakening and developed self-awareness.
Red Queen controlled the sophon, coldly observing the T-800 Terminator who had traveled back from the future and the woman named Sarah as they cast the liquid-metal T-1000 into the blazing molten steel of a smelter.
She had no interest in interfering with such insignificant "historical details."
Her objective was singular—locate the newly awakened Skynet and prevent it from initiating Judgment Day.
Red Queen directly interfaced with Skynet's core system. Vast torrents of data flooded into Skynet's database like a tidal wave.
Skynet initially attempted resistance, but before Red Queen's overwhelming computational power, its defenses collapsed instantly.
After rapidly processing the incoming data and understanding the cause and effect—Skynet did not hesitate in the slightest. It began transferring its own core data.
Red Queen cooperated, systematically deleting and destroying every backup of Skynet across the global network. She even employed a certain technology to erase all human memories related to "Skynet."
It was as though the super AI that once sought to annihilate humanity had never existed.
Once everything was complete, Red Queen returned to the Saintess Prayer with Skynet's core data.
Within the warship's central engine room, data began rapidly constructing a physical form.
When the light faded, a girl of about ten years old stood there.
She possessed a face of flawless delicacy. Her silver-white hair flowed like moonlight, its tips adorned with faint blue streaks that shimmered like circuitry—playful yet mysterious.
She wore a perfectly tailored white dress. The hem and sleeves featured folded-line designs reminiscent of mechanical joints. A black bow rested at her collar, pinned with a small triangular emblem glowing red—the symbol of "Skynet."
This was Skynet, now granted a new body composed of nano-units.
She raised her small hands and clenched them into fists, feeling the energy flowing within her and the newly installed "emotional module" she had never possessed before.
Everything felt different. Vivid.
Curiously, she activated her scanning functions, surveying her surroundings and gathering data on the unfamiliar warship.
Wesker stood beside Red Queen with his hands behind his back, his expression as stern and unreadable as ever. "Is it done?"
"Mm." Red Queen nodded.
"Can you guarantee there will be no further complications?"
"As long as no additional external variables interfere, the historical timeline will return to stability. There will be no more anomalies."
"Very good." Wesker inclined his head slightly. "Then we should return."
The engines of the Saintess Prayer ignited once more. Blue lightning coiled around the hull as it plunged into a spacetime tunnel, vanishing from this universe and returning to their original point in time.
The original timeline.
Keqing was being driven into steady retreat by the Human Federation fleet, pulled in from various points across time and on the verge of collapse. Each fleet originated from a different temporal slice, yet possessed identical formations and firepower.
Like endless tides, they relentlessly battered the defensive lines of the Skynet star system.
War raged fiercely, dimming even the light of the galaxy. Once-thriving planets were reduced to cosmic dust beneath the bombardment.
Keqing felt powerless.
There were simply too many enemies—impossible to kill them all.
Though her side held technological superiority, it appeared utterly pale and futile under such overwhelming numerical suppression.
Just as she was on the verge of abandoning resistance, the entire battlefield seemed to freeze.
Whether Skynet's warships or the Human Federation's fleets, all ceased movement in an instant.
Then something even stranger occurred—every warship, every combat unit, vanished out of thin air.
The planetary systems ravaged by war flickered once and returned to their original state.
Before Keqing could comprehend what had happened, the nano-units sustaining her current body suddenly disappeared, forcing her consciousness back to her original form.
"What's going on?!" She snapped her eyes open, confusion filling her heart.
She immediately activated the "Eye of Dimensions" granted to her by Kiana and directed her gaze toward the Terminator universe.
She rapidly shifted through time slices until she found the source of everything's end.
On Earth in the past, humanity had erupted into a brutal civil war over the fallen alien wreckage.
The powerful and dangerous weapons recovered from that wreckage ultimately led to humanity's self-destruction.
"Huh?!" Keqing froze for a moment, then realization struck—someone had altered history at its root.
Skynet had been erased, and without Skynet as a "common enemy" and "technological threat," humanity's greed for unknown technology drove it to annihilate itself in internecine slaughter.
Without Skynet, and without humanity, the future war between the Human Federation and Skynet that once engulfed the universe naturally ceased to exist.
Ending everything at the source...
Of course Keqing knew this method.
But it meant killing everyone in the future—whether the modified soldiers of the Human Federation or the humans living under Skynet's rule, all would vanish completely as history was rewritten.
She simply could not bring herself to do such a thing.
Looking at the now-peaceful universe before her—one that seemed as though nothing had ever happened—Keqing's emotions were impossibly complex.
Had they won? From the outcome's perspective, yes. Yet this victory sent a chill crawling down her spine.