[CN Part 2 Finale] - Full Plot In-Depth Recap and Translations (2st Half - Phase 3)
NOTE: FOR A BETTER EXPERIENCE, READ THIS AFTER PLAYING THROUGH THE FINALE.
The main story of part 2 comes to an end with a great 5-and-a-half-hour finale.
Foreshadowings resolved. Characterization is finished being refined. Some plot threads are left for the future epilogue.
All for a truly emotional and rich ending, which arguably makes for the best chapter of part 2.
Originally the Recap and the Analysis would be a single post. However due to wanting to include as much information as possible in the in-depth recap as setup for the following analysis it ended up exceeding the character limit and such will be divided into 3 posts.
- Recap (1nd Half Phase 1 and 2)
- Analysis - TBA
Plot Recap
The plot is divided into 3 phases in-game:
- "Journey of Chasing Shadows" - Great Purge
- "Journey of Chasing Shadows" - Authority / Remnant Memories
- "Journey of Chasing Shadows" - The Truth and Transcending Finality
Phase 3 - Setup: Liberate her
After defeating Marut, Dreamseeker returns to the Green Space (the Great Dream's Weaving Mill) and reaches the "Leylah of the Present day".
Reaching her, Dreamseeker figures out that "Leylah" was essentially the core of the Dreamseeker System and that the Imaginary Constructs had invaded it and were forcing the continuation of the Great Purge started by her, even though she is near exhaustion.
To prevent her death, which would allow the constructs to run rampant through the system, Dreamseeker decides to dive into the core (her mental image space) and liberate her.*
^(*)^(Combined with what was told at the very beginning of the story, Kiana's message of "time running out" was refering to "Leylah" reaching her limit as the system's core and the collapse (Honkai) that would follow.)
Phase 3 - A Fool's Dream
Returning to where we left off in Leylah's story.
- After dealing with the Shadow Disaster in Ruimu, which had grown to a giant size, Leylah fell into a deep sleep for 15 years.
- By the time she woke up, Ruimu had fallen into an eternal night because she had been there so long, which gave it the pseudonym and reputation, leading to a boom in tourism and commerce.
- The people, to thank Leylah, also built her a residence based on the design she carried in her luggage- proof she had personally extinguished the last radiance left behind by Senadina, and yet she chose not to depart.
Dreamseeker arrives at a recreation of Ruimu in Leylah's mental image space.
There she finds out that the Imaginary Constructs had hidden themselves in the sturdiest place within this place - the memories of Senadina in Ruimu that shouldn't exist, as the goddess had died millennia prior in Difeng - mere "Phony Imaginations".
These "Phony Imaginations" were the scenes we previously saw in "To None May God Pray" flashbacks between Leylah and Senadina - After dispersing them and dealing with the constructs, the true memories reveal themselves.
The harvest festival.
After Leylah woke up, the people almost unanimously voted for her to play the part of the Goddess and ride the small boat during the harvest festival. (Breaking the record just like she had done when presenting the God's Residence model in the contestt in true History - to everyone's praise.)
Leylah didn't expect this request, but it took her mere moments to prepare as she thought back to her youth, when she acted as Senadina's little representative and helped everyone solve their troubles when she wasn't around.
Phony Imagination - Leylah was shy and embarrassed. Senadina handled the boat, pushing Leylah to take everyone's wishes, prayers, and embellished notes alongside her.
>Leylah: “If it weren’t for Senadina being by my side back then… I probably would never have stepped forward at all.”
True Memory - Leylah's shyness and embarrassment cleared the moment she stepped on the boat. She handled it skillfully and received everyone's wishes, prayers, and embellished notes.
>“Even if Senadina is not by her side… she still can step forward.”
By her side
Phony Imagination - Features the scene of Senadina telling Leylah that shadow is the power of imagination and light is part of the shadow.
>“Senadina: Yep! Without light, shadows cannot exist, Light and shadow complement each other, just like every time you channel the power of shadows, I’m by your side to support you!
“Leylah: With Senadina… supporting me…”
True Memory - Why Leylah decided to stay on Ruimu:
- After her deep sleep, the backlash from the curse was greatly reduced, and the shadows on Luna had also vanished like the rest of the continents.
- Upon hearing of Ruimu becoming the city of Eternal Night, Nahralab and Litost would rush over and watch over her during her deep sleep.
- So as not to make them return to a life of roaming and searching for her, having regained inner peace in her reintegration with humanity, and for Ruimu not to lose the "Eternal Night" that brought it economic growth, she decides to stay.
>Leylah:
...Yes, I should depart. But I cannot, nor do I want to.
If Difeng is a city blessed by Senadina, then Ruimu… is the city Leylah lifted by her own hands. I have a duty to protect it, and protect the people living in it.
With enough effort, I also have the possibility of turning Ruimu into a city of prosperity and peace.
Even if… I don’t have Senadina by my side.
By now, part of the truth emerges:
- After waking up in Ruimu, Leylah would choose to end her long journey.
- Because of the many myths born from her actions during her journey, the people of Ruimu would give her the title of Goddess.
- Under her, not just Ruimu but all of Langqiu would live hundreds of years of prosperity.
- Until the events of the Great Shadow Disaster and all that transpired after, leading up to the Dreamseeker System's creation.
All that's left to figure out at this point is what led to Leylah's mental degradation and what that destructive power was that previously killed Dreamseeker.
The Goddess' 3rd Death
Reaching the tower, Dreamseeker deals with many Phony Imaginations and "Leylah"'s attempts to stop her from getting rid of Senadina.
Until she finally reaches the final one at the very top of the tower - who willingly walks towards her death.
>Senadina: My little Leylah got up so early today. I thought you’d stay in bed a bit longer.
Senadina: “Although I can watch the sunrise with Senadina tomorrow, I can’t miss today’s sunrise either.”- I’m guessing you will say something like that, right?
Dreamseeker: Sorry, I… came here to say farewell.
Senadina: I understand.
Dreamseeker: Sena, you…
Senadina: If the sun doesn’t descend, then people won’t be able to see the new day’s sunrise. But I have faith; my Leylah will certainly see it for me.
Dreamseeker: Hmm. I will. Goodnight, Sena.
Dreamseeker: …The “Great Purge” should be over.
Dreamseeker: …Even the Sena in your imagination is braver than you.
Dreamseeker would not unleash the fire bearing all the pain she ran away from towards "Leylah".
>Dreamseeker:
There are always some things that cannot be put up with, and there are always some things that cannot be forgiven.
The world that you duped.
Sena, who spent many hundreds of millions of years lost in confusion.
The people who lost their data bodies due to the Purgers’ massacre.
The pain you bear now is not even one ten thousandth of that which you inflicted upon others.
I once said that one day, there will come a day when I will turn that fire toward the one who has always fled from pain.
I ask of you, be well ready-
Phase 3 - Truth
Only when the corruption and the Imaginary Constructs' control over her had ceased, Dreamseeker would clear away the fire.
However, due to her exhaustion, the "Fool's dream" had already shattered.
Dreamseeker would give her a mere pity moment before asking her to deliver the truth of her identity, and such "Leylah" would finish clearing up the holes left in the story:
What led to the Great Shadow Calamity:
Unbeknownst to Leylah at the time, the period of tranquility after staying in Ruimu was a mere "period of returning to respite before demise".
The shadows plotted and discreetly ate away at her psyche for years.
Because of this, when Leylah lost the Astral Ring, she would begin to lose control. Afterward, she would create the Fool’s Dream, an attempt to fight the loss of control, where "Senadina's departure was just a false alarm".
However, it was the very realization that the so-called false alarm was a mere delusion that would bring about the biggest face of despair (which the shadows sought) and cause the Great Shadow Calamity.
What was the Destructive Force:
Leylah wasn't aware that even if the Sea had embraced a civilization, it would still face Finality if they went past the point of development it would tolerate. As such, the Dreamseeker System's initiation would bring about the true Great Eruption.
Following its destructive force, Leylah would, by instinct, sacrifice herself, burning away her own body to fill Luoxing with Chaos to cancel out the impact of the eruption to the greatest extent.
- Dreamseeker: The Radiant Flame - Leylah's Instinct to protect Luoxing.
- "Leylah": She was born from all of Leylah's unresolved thoughts, the obsession to use the Dreamseeker System to accomplish something after witnessing failure - The Embodiment of Obsession.
Right after Leylah's sacrifice, the Dreamseeker System was on the verge of collapse, and the Embodiment of Obsession began acting:
- She forcefully accessed the system core and stabilized the Chaos to halt time on Luoxing and compensate for lost system functions, at the cost of suffering the erosion from those constructs that remained from the Great Eruption.
- She would grab the Instinct and, in accordance with Leylah's plan of Leylah herself being the Dreamseeker, made the Instinct into the Dreamseeker, giving it a shell not to let it dissipate.
- Finally, due to witnessing Leylah's failure, she rejected her completely. She thus started the plan of reviving Senadina and entrusting everything to her - thus changing the computer's objective from "saving Luoxing" to "getting back Senadina".
By now, having lost everything, she'd look towards Dreamseeker (her mirror opposite) and question Dreamseeker in a desperate attempt to clear the confusion and emptiness in her own mind.
>Dreamseeker: I know what you were originally planning to use to call me into question and mock me. So, I can now give you my answer so that you don’t keep on having unnecessary expectations about me having a mental breakdown.
Dreamseeker: Leylah did indeed make a mistake, but her existence wasn’t one. Her existence was a fact- A fact that needs not be excused, but one that must be accepted.
Dreamseeker: I absolutely won’t avoid Leylah’s past, or deny the meaning that possibility holds towards humanity. The former is not a burden, and the latter is not a poison.
Dreamseeker: Her issue wasn't “believing in possibilities,” as you put it; it was believing in just one possibility. This issue too lies in her placing her possibility onto everyone.
Embodiment of Obsession: A clear and logical assessment… don’t tell me you want to say you aren’t Leylah?!
Dreamseeker: I’m not just Leylah, not just your opposite; I’m also a mountain piled up from every choice that I made. This mountain isn’t tall, and perhaps doesn’t have anything special. However, it has my name written on it.
Phase 3 - Attaining the Full Authority of Shadow and then...
With the immediate issues now resolved, comes the question of allowing Luoxing to move towards the future - and for that, Dreamseeker needs the full Shadow Authority.
To achieve that, Dreamseeker would replace Embodiment of Obsession as the Core of System and attempt to regain the full Shadow Authority. Tho it's a gamble, as the latter would gain freedom.
Outside the mental image space, Dreamseeker takes the nail surrounding the Embodiment of Obsession to begin the process. Two unexpected persons then meet her:
Leylah of the Past and...
>"Leylah:" Do you hate me? Hate the me that bears a shadow that ordinary people could hardly endure, and that you now must take on this same weight or an even heavier weight?Dreamseeker: Would you hate Litost and Baiji?
"Leylah:" Litost was the first to notice the abnormality in me. Baiji took the lead in reclaiming humanity’s possibility from the gods’ hands… I am the one who feels guilty for them.
Dreamseeker: So I just have a few unwillingnesses. An unwillingness to accept that I only now could arrive at this place, and an unwillingness to accept that only after Luoxing’s plight has actually dragged on for a billion years can it now at last see the hope of being settled.
Dreamseeker: Retrieving the entire authority of shadows is merely the first step. There’s still much, much more awaiting Dreamseeker to do.
“Leylah”: I grant you the “possibility of inheritance”. Of course, just as you said, it’s absolutely not the sole possibility.
…Kiana.
>Silver-haired Girl: Are you afraid? Have you thought about, even if you gamble everything, you may not welcome a perfect ending?
Dreamseeker: After all, what is perfection?
Dreamseeker: From what I've seen, the situation on Earth is already perfect enough, yet even now, our friends on Earth are still working hard to resolve the issues left behind from that time.
Dreamseeker: The ending Luoxing wants to write down is by no means perfect, but it is an ending that can be written down by its own will.
Dreamseeker: When I look at it from afar, I just feel… a deep expectation.
Silver-haired Girl: I admire your “fearless will”. This journey has been hard on you.
And finally she achieves it, taking on Goddess Leylah's image.
>Dreamseeker:
Professor Youyun, I suddenly felt something.
Just now… a palm-sized hug seems to be embracing the world.
Phase 3 - ... Transcend Finality
Regaining all authority that Leylah once held, what's left is to contend with the chaos surrounding Luoxing.
Its nature was the fear of the "future" nurtured for 1 billion years by the Dreamseeker System until it became a planet-sized Shadow that engulfed Luoxing whole.
As Leylah's authority is not enough to contend with it, Dreamseeker will mimic the Rite of Shaping.
She must grasp the thread of Finality that Senadina had used a billion years ago to attain as much of Finality's power as possible and pull all of the Chaos into her body.
Then, by creating previously impossible possibilities in the system, she can create the possibility that "Chaos can be conquered". After all, the future that chaos fears is woven from a myriad of possibilities.
Though during this process she'll turn to a temporary enemy.
Through this, she'll achieve what Senadina couldn't do - Transcend Finality.
During this conversation between Dreamseeker and Embodiment of Obsession, we get a few lore drops:
- Leylah created the Dreamseeker System as a temporary measure to polish the past and create a solid enough footing to move toward the future. And once Luoxing starts moving in that direction, the system becomes unnecessary.
- The Embodiment of Obsession regarded the system as everlasting. But her actions, be it enduring the Imaginary Constructs so no other person nor the system had to suffer, or pushing the sectors into the Chaos, did indeed make it so that the system could still exist today, though at the cost of being frozen in time.
- As to why it took one billion years to restart the system, and why Vita was the one who did it, it was because it would have caused the Great Eruption. But after Kiana became the Herrscher of Finality, this no longer occurred, and Vita could come in and break through the Embodiment of Obsession's blockade to start it.
- It is also because of Kiana's ascension that the shadow left behind by the Cocoon of Finality a billion years ago now resonates with Dreamseeker and allows her to take on this challenge.
- Finality = Time -> Primal Fear
Finally, Dreamseeker requests the Embodiment of Obsession to help Helia and Coralie deal with the remaining stray constructs that survived Dreamseeker's prior actions and, if they so wish, bring them to join Dreamseeker in the process.
Which finally leads us back to after "Leylah" (the Embodiment of Obsession) appears in front of Coralie and Helia.
The two ask why the Embodiment of Obsession chose to help after regaining her freedom, and we learn that Dreamseeker handed over the simulated Senadina's Astral Ring to her, which had gained a radiance equal to the original (who was destroyed alongside Leylah) because of Dreamseeker's journey.
This allowed Embodiment of Obsession to face the Senadina within her heart.
Realize that she had already come to accept that Senadina would always strive towards death and that she was simply clinging to the source of the obsession and the Fool's Dream, wishing to give equal happiness to Senadina as the one in the dream.
A happiness that she had forgotten that Senadina had already held from the moment she named her Leylah (Senadina's favorite name).
Embodiment of Obsession gave the Astral Ring back to the silent Senadina in her heart, finally allowing herself to take the first step forward.
>Embodiment of Obsession:
And the wishes I left in the light shall very soon become true.
”There will be a day, I will become brave like you.”
I now seem to be on that day.
Wishing to bear witness to Dreamseeker's success firsthand, she willingly assists Coralie and Helia in reaching the time Dreamseeker is located in.
So that they may pass her towards Dreamseeker at the moment of grasping the Thread of Finality and undergoing Herrscher Metamorphosis, and from there fully resolve her Obsession (marking the end of her own existence).
>Helia: A little bit dangerous, yet it makes you eager to get to action… -Isn’t this an Adventure’s real meaning?
Coralie: Right. And this time, the end of this adventure doesn’t lie on a bad egg that needs to be defeated but on a friend who needs a little bit of help. Feels like we are heading straight to a reward node.
Helia: Ahah. Yeah, then… are we setting off?
Coralie: Hmm, I can’t wait anymore!
The battle would then begin. To reach the real Dreamseeker, they first fight her vestiges and eventually find the path she took to reach the shadow of Finality.
In it, they fight all the previous bosses of part 2 (minus "Lantern") as recreations born from fear.
Successfully reaching Dreamseeker and passing Obsession to her, she helps Dreamseeker arrive at the Thread of Finality.
>“Dreamseeker”:
And so, the one dreaming was awoken by the person she dreamt of in her dream.
She opened both her eyes, and as such saw…
The “Future” which the Light dreams of.
I return the right to define existence, allowing humanity to grasp the meaning of life.
Coralie, Helia, are you two willing… to create new possibilities alongside me?
Dreamseeker reappears as “Chaos given Shape”.
Beginning an equal parts death-match with the future it fears most (from the chaos’ perspective) and a sparring match between friends (from Dreamseeker’s perspective) against Coralie and Helia for the purpose of creating possibilities for Luoxing.
As the fight comes to a climax, the two activate the Ultimate Weapon, summoning the data of the Earthlings to pass their blessings upon Luoxing. With Vita’s appearance and a final attack from the two, the fight comes to an end.
>Helia: Go, let this imperfect story…
Coralie: Take on the shape of our expectations!
Coralie & Helia: Dreamseeker!
“Dremseeker”: …Thanks.
“Dremseeker”: Sena. Listen, Fire is about to begin her singing.
>Kiana: The starry sky bore witness to the sprouting civilization’s first cry and the lingering echo of a time stood still.
Kiana: And now, you, as the Herrscher of Temporality, must cry out to it-
Dreamseeker: Luoxing still holds possibilities!
Phase 3 - Ending: To seek her own Dream
Having succeeded, our trio has a final talk.
Dreamseeker tells the two how, both when she was reclaiming the Authority of Shadows and when she was grasping the Thread of Finality, she saw Kiana.
Although there’s no way to come into contact with her directly, Dreamseeker did figure out two things:
- That Luoxing didn’t cause Kiana’s slumber, but rather it was a voluntary choice.
- The reason Cocoon was willing to give a certain amount of the power of Finality, allow Dreamseeker to grasp the Authority of “Temporality”, and complete her Metamorphosis, was also related to Kiana.
>Dreamseeker: “Since she was never limited by anything, the day you all reunite will presumably arrive quite soon, just like…”
Because of their battle to tame the Chaos that had permeated every corner of Luoxing for 1B years, history’s cause-and-effect was affected.
Before the normal time from outside Luoxing can come pouring in, Dreamseeker must re-anchor the cause and effect and use the Chaos to alter the Sectors (Bubble Universes).
However, her authority only lets her, and no one else, walk through the gaps of cause and effect, so they will have a hard time meeting each other during this process. Thankfully, it should be resolved within 2 Earth years.
They take this final chance to have Helia relate a dream in which she, Dreamseeker, and Coralie were classmates. Through it, emphasize that Dreamseeker's constant search for a “3rd possibility” and her empathy-born instinct are what make her special. Something more valuable and powerful than the power from the Cocoon - because it can’t just change “things”; it can even change “people”.
Coralie and Helia also reveal that, after the conquest of Chaos, they were able to regain fragments of their memories related to Sena.
>Coralie: Didn’t Sena say at the time, “It just doesn’t seem right not to have a proper photo among friends”? So next time we meet, you must remember to take her and Songque alone. The five of us will definitely take a bunch of photos.
Finally, Coralie passes on the message from Embodiment of Obsession:
>If the other Senadina can be patient, you’ll be able to see her in 厘芜间 (Liwujian? Liwu-gap?).
To say their goodbyes, they play one final game: “After the countdown, whoever turns around treats the others to a big meal the next time we meet.”
And while Helia and Coralie did begin walking away just to turn around, what they found was Dreamseeker, who hadn’t moved an inch, smiling at them, knowing they won the game because they never turned around in the first place.
>Dreamseeker: “I just knew you two would turn around.”
Then, at time’s bifurcation-
The Dreamseeker stepped onto the journey back.
She wants to seek her original dream, and the first light that rises quietly.
Just like in the past.
And just like in their inevitable reunion.
End of Phase 3.
(I'll upload my Leylah-Dreamseeker centered analysis including Epilogue speculation once it's done)
