"Not Black and White": The Abyss, The Hell Association, and the Paradox Helm's Philosophical Cycle

In the era of "The Abyss", humanity was obsessed with the Superego—the pursuit of divine sacrifice and collective redemption, even at the cost of dissolving the self into the song of whales. In the chapter of "The Hell Association", characters grappled with the boundaries of the Ego—when souls are carved by contracts and memories are traded, who can still claim to possess an intact "I"?

This is not a battle between black and white, but a reconstruction from ashes. From the Abyss (the drowning of the Superego) to Hell (the bargaining of the Ego), and finally to the mechanical wasteland (the awakening of the Id), humanity has circled back, repeating the same tragedy aboard the Ship of Theseus—

We replace every plank, yet still deceive ourselves that the one at the helm remains the same.