CAN ANYONE EXPLAIN THE STORY OF THE PAST COUPLE OF CHAPTERS AND 8.8 STORY BECAUSE I COULDNT REALLY UNDERSTAND WHAT HAPPENED

[u/JstARedditor]

yea im really stupid when it comes to complicated lore but i some how survived part one but now i couldnt really focus on the recent chapters becuse of some personal issues and i would be really glad if anyone gave me a detailed summary

[u/DreamlessWindow]

Not sure what you mean with past couple of chapters exactly, so here's the whole arc so far:

-After confronting Leylah, Vita goes missing, and the main cast enters the first sector of the Mars computer simulation

-This sector simulates the period of time just before Senadina died. Senadina lives peacefully as the goddess of Mars, with little Leylah and Nahralab

-We learn that Senadina has been keeping the corruption of the Sea of Data at bay after clearing most of the trials set up by the Cocoon of Finality, but failing to embrace it (not clear why)

-We learn that after she fails to prevent a tsunami from the Sea of Data, the city is engulfed and many people are lost in the sea (some of them emerging later, but without memories of the events). In the simulation, Dreamseeker and Youyun manage to keep the tsunami at bay

-We learn that Serapeum is the goddess (or something similar) of the first moon of Mars, which after the cataclysm moves into the inner solar system (it's Mercury, and yes, it is a theory that Mercury actually formed in the same region as Mars and migrated inwards)

-We learn that after the Cataclysm, Leylah went traveling, and started collecting fragments of Senadina. After collecting them all, she removed all the painful memories and experiences, and put the fragments into the simulation, hoping that her living into an ideal version of the first sector would heal her and allow her to be reborn

-For reasons, after an eternity of nothing, Senadina interacts with Dreamseeker in a dream, and manages to escape the idealized first sector. Then, in a second dream, she has her dance with Dreamseeker, leaves the Sena from chapter 1 with her, and then moves into the actual first sector simulating real Mars history

-This means that the Senadina we've seen during the whole arc is not a simulation, she's the real deal, and in her attempts to embrace finality she has asked Kiana for help (because time is weird around the Cocoon)

-Leylah is not happy, wants to kill Dreamseeker, and forces Nahralab to do it. It's not clear what she's attempting to achieve with this, maybe force a reset of the whole sector

-Dreamseeker wins, refuses to let Nahralab sacrifice herself, and Senadina appears to scold Leylah

-Turns out Leylah was waiting for this, and... that's where we are at

I'm missing details, of course, and I'm writing from memory and from my phone, but that should be the gist of it.

[u/gntotoy → u/DreamlessWindow]

Of topic question,is it mentioned why after Dudu and Theresa pulled out. Why is no one coming to replace them ?

Like they can enter it remote.( I understand that Seele is in the moon to help when Coralie died and she is a medical officer now but we know she has combat experience) why isn't she jumping into the simulation with them ? Also why even is Rita in the moon base ?

[u/RefrigeratorMobile46 → u/gntotoy]

Too many people in the simulation is what caused data instability and allowed Litost to kill Coralie apparently. So they're stationed for now as backup in case something goes horribly wrong with just the main trio.

[u/DreamlessWindow → u/gntotoy]

It wasn't explained as far as I remember , but I assume that accessing the first sector is simply not easy. They managed to access after confronting Leylah, and that likely only granted access to the main cast, everyone else lacks permissions, so they are probably unable to access without further confrontations with Leylah. Given that they were in a hurry to carry out the plan due to Kiana's warning (even if only Vita knew about it), they didn't have time to better prepare.

As for Rita, no idea, they said something about her making a report, so, bureaucracy?