Chapter 195: Miss Elf's Invitation
— Elysian Realm Hall —
"I'm back." Little Corruption slipped out through a data rift, glanced over at Irene and Elysia, and gave a casual wave. "No problems on Mobius and Klein's end."
"If anything, it's the first time I've ever seen Dr. Mobius look like that."
"Oh? Sounds like there's a story there." Irene raised an eyebrow, visibly intrigued. The moment Little Corruption put it that way, she understood — no problems meant no problems, and if there were no problems, then it was her turn to have a little fun.
Elysia, standing nearby, was watching Little Corruption with equal curiosity. Truth be told, she'd wanted to follow Klein over to see Mobius herself — Mobius had been acting a little off these past couple of days.
"Is Mobius fully sorted out now?"
Well — it wasn't really about anything dramatic. The thing was, the puppet Klein had been restless lately. Restless with nothing to do. For Elysia herself, that was perfectly normal.
After all, the beautiful Miss Pink Elf genuinely had nothing in particular she needed to do — being at a loose end was just her natural state. But Klein was a different matter entirely.
The puppet Klein had worked for fifty thousand years without ever once taking a break. Elysia had occasionally put together little diversions over those fifty millennia — things like a desert island survival theatre — but even through all of that, Klein had been running at full capacity.
Not only did she handle all of Mobius's research and daily needs, she also maintained the Realm. The workload was immense, and Elysia had felt sorry for her. But Mobius had never seemed to think anything of it — and Klein herself hadn't either.
So when Klein had recently started wandering around asking if anyone had work for her to do, it had been genuinely bizarre. Elysia had even gone to Mobius about it, but Mobius had said nothing — just that there wasn't any work for Klein at the moment.
Honestly, at the time, Elysia had half wondered if Mobius had been replaced by someone else. Since when did Mobius not work Klein to the bone?
"Mm, she's all sorted." Little Corruption nodded at Elysia. "Dr. Mobius was just a bit anxious and insecure about it all. Once she got it off her chest, she was fine~"
"An anxious, insecure Dr. Mobius — that really is a rare sight." Elysia nodded thoughtfully. It seemed Klein's return from the dead had put no small amount of pressure on Mobius after all.
But judging by Little Corruption's demeanor, things over there were either completely resolved or mostly so. Whatever remained wasn't something anyone else could help with — it was for Mobius and Klein to work through on their own.
Once both of them had nodded along, Little Corruption turned to Irene. "Oh, right — one more thing, Irene. Mobius has finished synthesizing the reagent."
"The simplified version?" Irene raised an eyebrow. She hadn't expected Mobius to produce results this fast either — after all, Mobius didn't have what the Herrscher of Reason had, the ability to just run through the entire process using raw Authority.
Little Corruption shook her head. "The full version. It's Dr. Mobius, after all — even brute-forcing a complete reverse engineering job, she still worked out every single step of the process. Effectiveness will need field testing outside, though."
The conversation pulled Himeko and Theresa — who were still lingering in the hall — right over. Himeko looked at Irene and asked, "Is this reagent the same one you injected me with before?"
"That's right — I handed the last of my sample over to Dr. Mobius." Irene nodded. "Though honestly, I hadn't held out too much hope."
She believed in Mobius's personal capabilities, of course — one of the three great pillars of the Previous Era's civilization. But asking Mobius to reconstruct the formula from nothing but a sample, with zero other intelligence to go on, was genuinely asking a lot.
The two doctors — with the Herrscher of Reason as a cheat code — had only managed a simplified version, with a mere one-twentieth of the original's potency. And Mobius had already produced the full version.
"Am I really being underestimated this badly?" Mobius's voice cut in at exactly that moment. "I'm Mobius. That reagent was complex, yes — but not complex enough to actually stop me."
At Mobius's entrance, Irene, Little Corruption, and Elysia exchanged a single glance — and then Little Corruption, moving with the speed of a trained pickpocket, fashioned a handful of paper streamers out of Corruption energy and distributed them to the other two.
And then, with a swiftness that left no room for reaction, she darted to Mobius's side and set off the party popper in her hand.
"Oh, long live Dr. Mobius! Dr. Mobius, brilliant beyond compare! Dr. Mobius, beauty that shames the fish and the geese!"
Mobius stood there, face completely plastered with confetti, watching the three of them grinning at her. She slowly raised her fist. Were these three sharing a single braincell?
"You three—!"
"Okay, okay, Dr. Mobius~" Before Mobius could fully erupt, Elysia smoothly steered the conversation elsewhere. "Everyone's been looking forward to what you've come up with, you know."
And as for Mobius's death glare — Elysia met it with the serene composure of someone who had long since made peace with consequences, smiling sweetly at Mobius without the faintest trace of guilt over what had just happened.
And somehow, faced with Elysia smiling at her like that, Mobius found she couldn't even summon the anger. After all these years together, how could she not know exactly how this ridiculous person's mind worked?
For Elysia, the concept of I know I was wrong and I won't do it again simply did not exist. It was always I know I was wrong, and I'll absolutely do it again. Fifty thousand years of the same thing, over and over — Mobius was almost used to it by now. Tch. The terrifying power of habit.
"Once the item's ready, I'll have Klein manufacture it, then take it out myself and find somewhere to run the field test. I'll package up the data for Klein as well."
"Thank you, Dr. Mobius." Irene nodded, then thought of something. She looked at Mobius and pointed at herself. "There's also one more thing — I've had a bit of an anomaly on my end."
"Oh? What's wrong, Lab Rat?" Mobius raised an eyebrow, watching Irene point at herself. "A physical issue? Aren't you the Herrscher of Death? Shouldn't you have me beat in that department?"
In biology, Irene couldn't hold a candle to Mobius. But if you were talking about recovering or repairing a biological organism? Mobius couldn't hold a candle to Irene's Authority of Death. That was a fundamental difference — like a game where a highly skilled player is genuinely unbeatable on mechanics, but the moment you're talking raw damage output, even the most skilled player can't match someone with a cheat code active.
"And yet, this is precisely a problem that's come up on the Herrscher side of things." Irene spread her hands. "Out of nowhere, I've started being able to borrow other Herrschers' Authorities — or their Honkai energy?"
"Oh." Mobius's eyebrow shot up, interest immediately piqued. "Tell me more. Does borrowing require their consent? Is it forcible? Or does it require you to activate some specific ability?"
"During healing, for instance?"
"None of the above." Irene shook her head. "Completely unrestricted. Freely, at will — I don't even need to do anything consciously."
"At the time, I simply brought my hand close to the lightning Mei had wreathed around herself, and I naturally borrowed her ability. Like this."
As she spoke, Irene reached her hand toward Little Corruption beside her. Little Corruption cooperated without hesitation, projecting her Honkai energy outward — and the moment Irene made contact, her hand was immediately sheathed in Honkai energy that looked exactly like corrupted data.
Then Irene pulled her hand away and, almost casually, carved a data rift into the empty air beside them — indistinguishable from the ones Little Corruption had been opening moments before.
"This..." Mobius's brow furrowed deeply, eyes fixed on the data rift. "Do you have any other information? Or is that all you know?"
"That's all I know." Irene shook her head, repairing the data rift and dispersing the Honkai energy from her hand. "After this happened, I brought everyone here — I haven't run any other tests."
"What I do know is that this is definitely not a capability the Herrscher of Death should have."
If anything, this felt more like the Herrscher of the Legion's ability — the Legion could genuinely take other people's Authorities. In the original story, both Bronya and Fu Hua had fallen victim to it when the Legion stole Little Senti's Authority.
But there was no reason for it. She couldn't be the Herrscher of the Legion — she was only the Herrscher of Death. So why was this happening? And in terms of degree, this seemed to go even further than the Herrscher of the Legion.
After all, the Legion had to defeat someone or use some method to plunder — Irene just needed to touch.
"That much is certain — the Herrscher of Death shouldn't have this ability. But..." Mobius's brow remained furrowed. She was undeniably a genius, the foremost expert in Honkai biology — but Herrschers were another matter.
Too little data. It wasn't that she hadn't dissected Herrscher corpses — Mobius had personally handled nearly every one of them. But each corpse had been different. Almost no commonalities, making generalization nearly impossible, and Irene's situation was even more unprecedented than that. Nothing like this had ever been theorized.
The closest analogue was the Herrscher of the Legion's situation — but Irene wasn't the Herrscher of the Legion, so that should probably be ruled out.
"I can't solve this for you." Mobius shook her head, then turned to look at Elysia. "But judging by this one's expression, she might know something."
"Herrscher problems are best left to Herrschers to solve."
"Oh." Irene turned to look at Elysia, who was practically vibrating with eagerness. "So — do you want to know what might be causing it?"
"Mm-hm." Elysia nodded, then held Irene's gaze with her warmest smile. "Beautiful girls can do anything. And Irene is such a beautiful girl — of course something like this would be within her reach."
The words landed, and the room fell silent. Irene stared at Elysia, utterly speechless. Could she manage even a shred of reliability?
"Hmm..." Himeko glanced sideways at Theresa. "She doesn't exactly inspire confidence, does she."
"Keep your voice down — we're on someone else's turf." Theresa nudged Himeko with her elbow. "Though Irene's situation really does sound like nothing I've ever heard of."
"Alright, alright, I'm not joking anymore." Elysia laughed and looked at Irene with genuine seriousness. "I do think I might have an idea. And I also might have a gift for Irene."
"For the sake of that gift — would Irene come with me somewhere?"
"Hm?" Irene looked at Elysia with faint puzzlement. Elysia wasn't the type to hold back a gift — if she'd had one ready, she'd have produced it on the spot.
What kind of gift required going somewhere quiet first?
"Oh, just come with me." Elysia scratched her cheek lightly. "Giving you this gift means showing you the real me — and doing that, I'm still a little... shy~"
"I already know about that, though." Irene raised an eyebrow. The real Elysia — that would be Elysia as the Herrscher of Origin, wouldn't it?
In her past life, she had fully collected the 3-star Herrscher of Human. Every skin, every version — the complete set. She'd even found ways to admire the model from every angle, Origin form included.
"Knowing about it and seeing it revealed are two different things — that part belongs to me." Elysia poked Irene's cheek. "How could they possibly be the same?"
"So are you ready?" Irene poked back, squishing Elysia's cheek in retaliation. "And besides — I genuinely don't see the difference."
"..." Mobius narrowed her eyes at Elysia. "What, are you two going off to find a quiet place together?"
"I'll handle this one~" Elysia took Irene's hand and pulled her toward a portal. "Come on — let's find somewhere quiet~"
"How do you like it here?" Elysia's voice sounded beside her, the white light gradually fading — and when it cleared, a beautiful garden lay before Irene's eyes.
The two of them were seated side by side on a garden bench, leaning gently against each other.
"This looks familiar." Irene glanced around the little garden. Wasn't this the very garden where Elysia had revealed her identity as a Herrscher to Mei?
"Honestly — how do you know everything? It takes all the romance out of it~" Elysia poked Irene's cheek with mild displeasure.
"Sorry for being insufficiently romantic." Irene propped her chin on her hand, watching Elysia.
"Honestly — if you don't understand romance, girls won't like you, you know." Elysia squished Irene's face between her hands. "Well. Perhaps I should introduce myself properly~"
"My name is Elysia — Miss Pink Elf, beautiful and radiant." Elysia's gaze turned gentle, and the space around Irene began to fill with a soft pink radiance.
"Second seat of the Thirteen Flame-Chasers. True name. And also the thirteenth Herrscher — the Herrscher of Origin. Though personally, I prefer 'Herrscher of Human'~"
"Of course, Elysia~" Irene's gaze softened as the world around Elysia was gradually swallowed by that warm pink light.
As the radiance faded, Irene found that she was no longer seated — she was standing. Beneath her feet lay a still, frozen sea that refracted colors like a waking dream.
[Mmmm~~~~]
A long, low, resonant hum rolled through the air. Irene looked down and saw an enormous manta ray gliding silently beneath her feet — and then a delicate, enticing fragrance drifted to her.
"This is probably your first time actually seeing it — even if you knew beforehand~" Elysia, staff in hand, moved through the space beside Irene like a fish through water, graceful and fluid.
"So — how does it feel, seeing it with your own eyes~?"
"Like the first time."
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