Austria, deserted streets.
A gust of wind swept past, startling dust across the ground.
Moments later, in a quiet alley, a pink-haired girl appeared from nowhere, clutching a wooden door.
It was Elysia who'd fled from the tavern in a hurry.
At this moment, her small face was deathly pale, no longer showing her usual calm and composure.
She leaned the wooden door in her hands against the wall, then pressed both hands against the wall, carefully poking her head out of the alley.
After confirming that terrifying gravity source hadn't pursued her, she pulled her head back into the alley and breathed a long sigh of relief.
"So scary... what on earth was that..."
Thinking of what she'd just experienced in the tavern—that gravity field that nearly pulled her in to tear her to shreds—Elysia couldn't help breaking into cold sweat.
Intuition told her that if truly captured by that gravity field, her life would definitely be finished!
She'd never imagined that face, identical to her own, could display such a terrifying expression.
Simultaneously, she confirmed the other party definitely wasn't Lucius in disguise.
If the other party truly was Lucius, only one possibility existed—Lucius had broken down. Beyond that, no other possibility.
After all, that feeling of heaviness that seemed to pull one's very soul in absolutely couldn't be produced by mere acting.
But soon Elysia thought of another terrible situation.
Although not understanding why the other party's appearance was so similar to hers, judging from their words and actions, that purple crazy woman clearly knew her extremely well—might have even targeted her long ago!
Thinking of this possibility, Elysia shivered.
She'd never imagined that one day she'd develop aversion toward a beautiful girl...
"No good. Can't stay here temporarily."
But if leaving her daily routine, where should she go?
Thinking of this, a figure surfaced in Elysia's mind.
Then she sent a message to her good friend Eden.
Soon, Eden's figure appeared in the communicator.
"Ellie? It's you. When did you arrive?"
Hearing Eden's gentle words, Elysia felt her wounded heart receive healing.
"Eden, my good Eden... quickly save me~"
Seeing the panic on Elysia's face, Eden froze. In her memory, her good friend was always composed, but now she was like a bullied child looking for parents.
"Ellie, what happened to you?"
Hearing this, Elysia said with a terrified expression: "Eden, I've been targeted by a terrifying woman!"
???
Question marks appeared on Eden's face.
She hesitated, then probed: "Ellie, the person you're talking about... couldn't be yourself?"
"Oh my... my good Eden, don't joke around~ I'm serious!" Elysia pouted, her face showing extreme grievance.
"Alright, alright. My mistake." Eden smiled gently, then proposed: "In that case, why don't you come stay at my place for a while? My residence in Mu Continent is quite spacious."
Usually Eden had invited her to visit, but most times due to busy public affairs, she basically only stayed briefly.
But now, considering being targeted by an extremely terrifying woman, Elysia felt giving herself a long vacation wasn't bad.
"Then I'll trouble you, Eden~"
She figured after running to Mu Continent, she shouldn't encounter that purple gravity crazy woman again, right?
Elysia anticipated this, preparing to welcome her long vacation.
...
Inside the beer hall, Lucius dressed as Faded Fairy received a message.
[Eden: Ellie is already preparing to come here. I'll arrange a vacation period for her. Want to come gather together?]
Seeing this, Lucius's face finally pulled into a smile.
"Hehe... mere pink piggy—how could you be a match for me?!"
"If daring to come again, I'll definitely make you suffer great defeat!"
But just as his smile grew increasingly wild, his expression suddenly changed.
Next moment, he withdrew his consciousness into his consciousness sea.
At this moment in the consciousness sea, several crimson feathers were tightly surrounding a pitch-black, madly trembling feather.
But even with numerical advantage, that pitch-black feather still showed signs of breaking free.
Regarding this, Lucius casually threw several more crimson feathers, finally pressing it down firmly.
After the pitch-black feather quieted down, Lucius extended his consciousness to examine it. But upon just touching it, crazed words seeped out.
"Elysia... Elysia... Elysia..."
These voices seemed to carry their own force field, making even his mental world begin twisting.
Lucius hurriedly let go, gasping.
"This... such heaviness?!"
Even as the instigator, after examining the consciousness clone sealed in the black feather, he felt it seemed a bit too extreme.
However, considering each consciousness clone he separated couldn't be wasted, Lucius attempted using Fenghuang Down to provide mental treatment for this consciousness clone.
Unfortunately, this consciousness clone was twisted too severely—no way to pull it back anymore.
Even under that heavy gravity field, she seemed to continuously twist further...
However, saying mental treatment was completely useless wasn't entirely accurate. At least it stopped her constantly overflowing gravity field.
As long as not encountering Elysia, her mental state should still be quite good... but unfortunately, this split consciousness was precisely the anti-Elysia armament he created.
After pondering a while, Lucius decided to stop managing her.
Just couldn't leave this thing here. Otherwise even his own spirit and other split consciousnesses would be infected by resentment.
Therefore, after contemplating, Lucius still prepared to send her to Mobius's place for missions.
Anyway, he had consciousness clones throughout the world. After MEI and Mobius created Soul Steel, he'd molded figures one after another, deploying them worldwide to monitor plot characters. Not lacking this one.
Moreover, to prevent future exposure leading to Elysia making him kneel, this gravity field generator must be severely separated.
That was all done by Faded Fairy—had absolutely nothing to do with him as Elysia's good big brother!
After handling these matters, Lucius refocused attention on the tavern.
Time flow in the thought domain differed from the real world. Even after long contemplation, reality only passed an instant.
They only felt the chandelier fall, the tavern's main door simultaneously disappear, and along with it, that extremely terrifying gravity.
For a moment, survivors embraced each other crying, expressing joy at preserving their small lives.
Lucius didn't manage these gravity field remnants but focused attention on the script.
Although things had twists, he still successfully sent Elysia away. Next he could act without scruples.
Using Elysia's identity to connect those dissatisfied small bastards. After Fire Moth assumed United Government governance, push them to fight the old bastards.
After these anti-human old and small bastards died enough, he could take over a usable Fire Moth.
Perfect!
After mentally reviewing the plan, Lucius's face showed a brilliant smile.
Hehe... even if Elysia became the world's enemy, he'd help her. This was their bond!
However, Fire Moth hadn't yet assumed United Government authority. Pushing conflict now would only cause chaos throughout human civilization—couldn't stand on righteousness and legality either.
Therefore, he must create an opportunity for Fire Moth to legally assume United Government authority.
The plan was already set before—Honkai Disaster Emergency State Act.
As long as the crisis was big enough, to ensure humanity's survival, Fire Moth could assume authority from United Government, confronting crisis by integrating all human civilization's power.
To ensure absolute certainty, this threat must be huge—enough to thoroughly push all humanity into desperate straits.
Only Honkai-side's ultimate creation could achieve this—Herrschers, humanity's enemy.
However, to ensure controllable risk, this Herrscher must be controlled. This was why he pushed Fire Moth to revive the Second Herrscher.
On one hand, using this artificial big daddy to pressure human civilization.
On the other hand, preparing for future Sirin.
...
Some time later, Mobius's laboratory.
Miss Faded Fairy and Mobius stood side by side, looking at the purple-haired girl frozen in a stasis field ahead.
Her eyes were tightly closed. A fist-sized hole penetrated her chest. No breath remained.
This was the Second Herrscher's corpse.
After United Government's old bastards decided to revive the Second Herrscher and use her as an artificial weapon, her remains were delivered to Mobius.
If anyone in this world could accomplish this, only Mobius could.
However, what most attracted Miss Faded Fairy's gaze was the bowl-sized cavity on the corpse.
"So this is the unlucky one pierced through by Elysia's single arrow?~"
Hearing this, Mobius glanced at her, abandoning arguing whether or not she was Elysia.
After all, she also understood—mental patients generally don't think they're sick.
Thus Mobius nodded: "Killed by Elysia. However, whether killed by bow and arrow is debatable."
"Oh?" Miss Faded Fairy became interested: "Could there be some hidden secret?"
"According to you... I mean, according to Elysia, thanks to this Herrscher's spatial abilities providing powerful mobility, her bow and arrows were actually very hard to hit the target."
"So how did Elysia ultimately kill her?"
"During close combat, Elysia stabbed her to death with the bow."
Hearing Mobius's answer, Miss Faded Fairy froze, then asked: "You're saying this Herrscher possessing spatial abilities who could kite from outer space was killed in close combat?"
"Yes. Elysia herself also found it strange. She always felt her easy victory was because this Herrscher was too careless—every time gaining some advantage, impatiently rushing up for close combat."
"...Isn't this just arrogance?"
Miss Faded Fairy looked at Herrscher of the Void's corpse, couldn't help commenting: "So arrogance is Sirin counterpart's underlying design?"
"What strange things are you saying?" Mobius expressed incomprehension.
But Miss Faded Fairy didn't explain. After observing Herrscher of the Void's remains for several glances, she sighed.
"Miss Pufferfish, what a tragic death you died~"
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