"Holy—Kevin, Su, Kalpas, Kosma?! What are you four doing here?!"
Elias stared at the four men at the neighboring table in shock.
The husky, the blind man, the masked berserker, and the chuuni teenager—he wouldn't mistake that lineup even after fifty thousand years. Only the Flame-Chasers of Fire Moth could possibly assemble such a configuration.
Elias had never expected that simply walking into a random ramen shop to slurp some noodles would result in running into the brothers he once fought alongside in the mission to pass down the flame—no, to pursue the flame.
The reunion came so suddenly that all he felt was shock. There wasn't even time for emotion.
"Hm? I think I just heard Elias' voice."
"Same here. Must've been a hallucination."
"Uh… maybe not."
"Elias—holy shit! Mei?!"
The four of them turned their heads in unison.
The moment they saw Elias and Mei—
Kevin sprayed noodles from his mouth.
Su's eyes snapped open.
Kalpas' mask nearly fell off.
Kosma had already composed a thousand-word essay in his mind.
"Elias, who are they…?" Mei asked.
"Haha, didn't expect to run into everyone here. Let me introduce you, Mei. They were my companions in the Previous Era—Kevin, Su, Kalpas, and Kosma. Just like Eden and the others, they're Flame-Chasers."
"These four are Flame-Chasers too? Uh… why does their style feel a little different?"
Mei's expression turned subtle as she looked at the four strange men slurping noodles. It was hard to associate them with the legendary Flame-Chasers.
(So there are men among the fifteen Flame-Chasers after all? I thought aside from Elias they were all women… Wait, I can't let my guard down. They might be cross-dressing.)
Thinking of a certain flat immortal, Mei felt that possibility wasn't entirely absurd. Before Elias had transferred to St. Freya Academy, Fu Hua had once been hailed as the number one male Valkyrie.
And leaving the other three aside, Su in particular… could genuinely be described as beautiful. After all, the title Fairy of the Lake wasn't undeserved.
"Relax. They're weird, sure—but they're my good brothers."
"Good brothers? Then that's fine."
Mei blinked and let out a quiet sigh of relief, her expression toward Kevin and the others softening considerably.
As long as they weren't romantic rivals, everything was acceptable.
"Uh… Elias, have you already gone to the Previous Era in this timeline?" Su asked cautiously.
"Yeah. Didn't Hua notify you all that I'd returned? By the way, why are the four of you gathered here slurping noodles?"
"Team-building. And lying low." x4
The four answered in perfect unison.
After speaking, all of them began trembling slightly, like sieves shaken in the wind—as though recalling something utterly terrifying.
These were men who had once faced Finality itself without fear.
And yet now, unmistakable fear appeared on their faces.
Elias raised an eyebrow. Aside from himself, there was currently no one capable of threatening Kevin and the others.
"Lying low? What happened in Elysian Realm that made you four come out to hide? Don't tell me it's haunted?"
"If it were ghosts… that'd actually be better…"
Kevin's voice wavered. He took a deep breath and looked at his own hands—only to realize they were still trembling uncontrollably.
Elias frowned. Could it be that the Herrscher of Corruption of the Current Era descended? That shouldn't be possible. The non-memory Flame-Chasers aren't afraid of that thing anymore.
Kevin, however, clearly didn't want to elaborate and attempted to change the subject.
Kevin: "Ahem! So Hua informed us Elias returned? I don't recall hearing that. Do you guys?"
Su: "Of course not. As for why… I believe there's no need to speculate. Sigh. I never thought Hua would one day become like this."
Kalpas: "Hmph! Naturally. The moment anything related to Elias is involved, the brains of those women short-circuit."
Kosma: "Long time no see, Elias. And… Mei."
Unlike the original storyline, these Flame-Chasers were not mere memory constructs. They could freely leave the Elysian Realm and interact with the outside world. In fact, quite a few of them maintained varying degrees of contact with reality.
For example, a certain [Stars] had not only held art exhibitions as a professional painter, but was now also an adult comic artist.
Earlier today, however, a crimson-level crisis had erupted in the Elysian Realm—serious enough to make even Su open his eyes.
In order to avoid that crisis—and to enjoy some long-overdue team bonding—Kevin had dragged the other three to a newly opened ramen shop in the city.
And then they ran straight into Elias.
"By the way, why is Mei with you? Wasn't she just in the Realm looking for test subjects?" Kevin asked in a low voice, hooking an arm around Elias' neck.
"Test subjects? Mei isn't Mobius. And Kevin, this is Mei—not MEI."
"Hm? Not MEI? That can't be right. She looks exactly like MEI. Don't try to fool me, Elias."
Kevin immediately assumed a guarded stance, looking ready to break through and flee at any second. Su, Kalpas, and Kosma did the same.
The four of them stared at Mei as if facing a great enemy.
"Isn't that reaction a bit rude toward a young lady? No wonder you've all been single for fifty thousand years. What exactly did MEI do to make you this terrified?"
"…Cooking." x4
"Hiss—Alright. That is terrifying."
Elias shuddered violently. The hairs on his body stood on end, and PTSD nearly triggered an artificial cascade.
"Wait. Don't tell me you're talking about—"
"Yes. The Realm isn't peaceful today. MEI is training her culinary skills—and she's even recruiting taste-testers. To preserve our lives, we had no choice but to flee. So, Elias… the one beside you really isn't MEI?"
Su's eyes were wide open as he stared warily at Mei.
"Definitely not. My Mei's cooking is delicious—her skill rivals Sakura's. They just look alike. You know about alternate counterparts, right? It's something like that."
"I see. Then she truly isn't MEI."
The four sighed in collective relief.
Delicious? MEI's cooking couldn't even be classified as edible.
Though she had never given up over the years on improving her culinary skills…
Just recalling it slightly made all four feel phantom pain in their stomachs.
That wasn't food meant for human consumption.
Back then, even Kevin—who possessed the Chimera physique—had foamed at the mouth after taking a single bite, nearly dying on the spot.
And over the years, MEI's culinary skills had not improved—they had regressed.
The unanimous consensus among the Flame-Chasers now was this: they would rather drink Mobius' suspicious potions than ever eat MEI's cooking again. The former might at worst cause some strange but survivable side effects.
The latter could melt your stomach. It was lethally effective.
"Speaking of which, this is actually your fault, Elias," Su said.
"Hm? Why?"
"If you hadn't once told MEI you believed that one day she could cook normal, delicious food, she wouldn't have spent all these years relentlessly training her culinary skills. You… have truly doomed us."
Su clutched his stomach with a pained expression. Clearly, he too was one of MEI's victims.
"Uh… sorry…"
For once, Elias actually felt a twinge of guilt.
Back in Fire Moth, he had tried MEI's cooking before. He had nearly been rushed into surgery by Mobius. If not for possessing the authority of the Herrscher of Rebirth—
He estimated there had been a fifty percent chance he would have actually died.
And it wasn't just him.
(Thinking back, I once even force-fed MEI's cooking to the crashed Herrscher of Finality. Although Finality lived up to her status as a god and didn't die… her reaction wasn't small either.)
Elias would never forget that scene.
After being force-fed MEI's cooking, the supposedly crashed Herrscher of Finality had turned deathly pale and let out a pained groan.
The Goddess of Honkai, who should have remained offline for five full days, clutched her stomach and woke up on the spot—furiously demanding to know what kind of poison Elias had just fed her.
Elias: "That was close. I almost couldn't win that fight."
Mei: "To cook something that terrible… what kind of person is she? Is it really as exaggerated as you're making it sound?"
Elias: "Let's skip that topic. My PTSD is acting up. But… I'm actually a little touched. MEI really worked so hard to improve her cooking for my sake."
Kevin: "Elias, take a brother's advice. Don't eat it."
The other three nodded solemnly in agreement.
They knew very well that the white-haired boy before them was the type of hero who would do plenty of foolish things for love.
Elias would absolutely volunteer to eat MEI's cooking.
"Ahem! Anyway, Kevin, what was the reason you went to sea this time? If my memory isn't off, the last time I saw you, you were still in the Sea of Quanta."
Elias chose to change the subject as well.
"Don't tell me it was because you were fighting Su over custody rights again? Didn't I say to let Kalpas take care of Adam?"
"…Hmph!"
Kevin's face darkened as he turned away unhappily.
Yes. This time he had been fighting Kalpas over custody.
And Kalpas had shamelessly abandoned any sense of fair play.
Kevin: "Kalpas! I always thought you were the kind of brute who would fight me head-on! I never expected you to disappoint me like this—calling Su over to gang up on me two against one!"
Elias: "Oh ho?"
Kalpas: "Tch! I'm crazy, not stupid. And if that blind man weren't still useful, I wouldn't have teamed up with him—I would've tossed both of you into the Sea of Quanta together."
Su: "Kevin, you don't even know how to take care of a child. Was Adam supposed to follow you and eat noodles three times a day—or worse, Honkai Beasts? And unlike you, I at least know medicine. I can treat him if he gets sick."
Though Mobius and MEI were technically options, as a tsundere yet genuinely responsible male mom, there was no way Kalpas would hand a child over to those two mad scientists.
By this point, Elias more or less understood.
This time, Kevin had been jointly kicked into the Sea of Quanta by Kalpas and Su.
In terms of strength, Kevin crushed them individually. But since he wasn't the deranged shut-in from the original storyline—rather, a bright and cheerful young man—
He had grown complacent.
He had overturned.
He had gone to sea.
Elias: "How embarrassing…"
Kevin's eyelid twitched violently as he recalled what had happened that day.
The moment he arrived at the agreed duel location, Su—already in artificial cascade form—temporarily restrained him using Fenghuang Down.
Then Kalpas, also in artificial cascade, struck with Judgment of Shamash in one hand and Star of Eden in the other, blasting him straight into the Sea of Quanta.
The entire process hadn't even lasted three seconds.
They had clearly premeditated the ambush. He hadn't even been ready to start fighting.
So although he hadn't lost any HP, he still ended up going to sea—only recently being fished back out.
Kevin: "The more I think about it, the angrier I get! You two launched a sneak attack! That doesn't count! You've got no real skill!"
Kalpas: "Heh~ Weren't you having a great time in the Sea of Quanta afterward?"
Kevin: "…That's beside the point!"
Throwing this non-shut-in version of Kevin into the Sea of Quanta was like tossing a husky into a newly renovated house.
With such a vast territory to roam, he had the time of his life.
At first, the others had planned to retrieve him after a few days.
But after checking with the Cosmic Juggernaut, they discovered Kevin was already having the time of his life across multiple bubble worlds.
He had even caught Sa once and beaten it half to death—nearly driving it out of the solar system.
So they decided to leave him there.
At that period, his presence didn't change much anyway.
Honkai hadn't descended yet. Staying in the Realm would only waste rations. And without a white-haired husky demolishing training rooms and slurping noodles, the Elysian Realm had become significantly quieter.
Kevin: "Do you hear yourselves?!"
Elias: "I understand completely. Back in Fire Moth, I once considered just throwing you outside to be free-range. A Chimera can chew on Honkai Beasts and won't starve anyway. Keeping you at the base only resulted in destroyed training rooms and endless noodle slurping."
Kevin: "…You bastard!"