Chapter 197: Gratitude
Irene opened her eyes. The violet crystals covering her body slowly crumbled apart, dissolving into her flesh. She blinked, gazing around with a vaguely dazed expression.
All around her stretched a vast, dazzling expanse of violet starfield — breathtaking, the kind of sight that made you want to lose yourself in it.
Irene raised her hand. The Honkai energy swirling in the space around her responded instantly to her call, coalescing around her. She gave her wrist a lazy flick, and the energy swayed along with the motion.
Like an extension of her own arm — not a hint of lag. Though that aside, where exactly was this place? And where was Elysia?
[——] Just then, Irene heard a sound rise from somewhere behind her — deep, resonant, like the call of a whale. She turned.
The starfield had been split open, as though something had forced it apart from within. And from inside that torn expanse of stars, an enormous pupil stared back at her.
[——■~~]
Another long, whale-song call. Irene opened her eyes again. Her crimson irises now bore golden and violet traceries shaped like a bird in flight.
"Ugh..." Irene felt a sharp sting spike through her skull. She shook her head, and Elysia, who had been beside her, reached out to steady her.
"What's wrong? Irene, are you feeling unwell?" Elysia looked at her with concern. It was the first time she'd tried transferring her Authority to someone else — she genuinely had no idea if something might go wrong.
"I'm fine." Irene shook her head. "I just feel like I saw something. Or maybe... learned something."
She gave her head another shake, clearing out the last dregs of the fog, then raised her hand — immediately wanting to test her newly acquired ability.
The moment her hand came up, a dense surge of Honkai energy wrapped around it and condensed into a rough crystalline fist, violet and solid around her fingers.
"Oh, now that's a lot more punch than before." Irene flexed her hand experimentally. Her fingers inside the crystal moved without any interference whatsoever — it was like wearing a very thick, very sturdy glove.
This was probably the origin of Elysia's pink crystal ability, she thought. As for why hers was violet while Elysia's was pink — probably just because Elysia liked pink.
Constructs of pure Honkai energy weren't new to Irene. She'd generated them before, but back then she'd always needed Taixuan Sword Qi as the intermediary bridge — using the Taixuan cultivation method to fully condense and shape the material. Now she didn't need any of that. A single thought, and it was done.
The quality was considerably higher than anything she'd managed through Taixuan Sword Qi as well. How to put it — in terms of sheer material quality, setting aside any special properties, it wasn't far off from a Divine Key.
No wonder Elysia had never really bothered with Divine Keys. When what you can make yourself is practically on par with one, why would you?
Elysia looked at the crystal in Irene's hand, and her lips slowly pushed out into a pout. Irene noticed it immediately — something was off. She turned to look.
"Something wrong? Did something go wrong?"
"No, nothing. Just a certain villain." Elysia propped her chin in her hand, expression somewhere between resigned and rueful. What was she supposed to do about it, really?
It was supposed to be such a romantic handover of power — two beautiful girls sitting on a swing beneath an endless starfield, one entrusting her Authority to the other.
The Authority of Origin was, in every meaningful sense, equivalent to Elysia herself. Entrusting it was like entrusting herself to Irene.
Elysia genuinely couldn't imagine anything more romantic than that. And yet some complete scoundrel had chosen this precise moment to barge in and piggyback on the moment. If he wanted to give a gift, he could find his own opportunity.
She'd already opened up access to Irene — finding another moment wouldn't exactly be hard. This was supposed to be one beautiful girl's private time with another beautiful girl.
And he had to go and mix his present in with the one she was giving Irene, sneaking it along for the ride. The audacity. She couldn't even figure out where to file a complaint.
"A villain?" Three mental question marks appeared above Irene's head. Who in the world would be a villain here? ...Oh. Actually, probably her. Fair point.
She'd taken Elysia's gift and immediately, without thinking to check on Elysia first, gone straight to testing her new abilities. That was genuinely a bit terrible of her.
So Irene decided to give Elysia a surprise in return. She turned her attention inward, feeling the power flowing through her — and that power sent back a quiet confirmation that what she had in mind was possible.
It was an almost instinctive sense. Irene understood: this was the Authority of Origin. Not quite wish-fulfillment — a more accurate description would be that it guided events toward the outcome you most desired.
Like how Elysia had used this Authority to edit the underlying logic of the Honkai itself — to reshape Herrscher Cores, to guide and redirect and create from Source. That was the Authority of Origin.
Not omnipotent. It was guidance, after all — whether something was achievable still depended on the wielder's own power. But its rank was extraordinarily high, given that it could rewrite the Honkai's foundational logic.
It could bypass many things. And right now...
Irene gently took Elysia's hand. "Would you like to come outside with me? Not as a data projection in the Realm — as you, really you. Would you like to come back and see?"
"...Huh?" Elysia startled at her words, raising a finger to point at herself. "Me? That shouldn't be possible. I tried before, and it didn't work."
She did want to go back, naturally. But there was nothing she could do about it — her physical form had already been destroyed. The fact that she could synchronize memories through the Realm's mental projections at all was already her own Authority doing the heavy lifting.
Going back in person was simply no longer an option.
"Before, it definitely wasn't. But now you have me. I can bring you out."
Irene looked at her. Elysia's physical form had dispersed, yes — but the absence of a body didn't mean the absence of a soul, nor did it mean she could never leave. Elysia had simply never had anything capable of carrying her soul out into the world.
As for the original timeline — honestly, there had been a simpler path. Elysia could have gone out through Mei; Mei herself would surely have agreed. But by that point, Elysia had no reason left to go.
The Previous Era had truly ended, and so had the Elysian Realm — it had been completely incinerated by Anti-Kevin Armament Model 777, leaving not even a fragment of data behind.
And Elysia was no fool. The High Ground of Origin was a very particular place, and she had already sensed the trap Kevin had laid inside the Cocoon of Finality.
She understood what he was trying to do. So why go back out? To join the others in taking down Kevin? Elysia couldn't do that.
There was nothing left in the world worth clinging to. Hua and Mei counted for something, yes — but going back would mean fighting one of the last few friends she had left.
Even if it was because Kevin had done things she herself didn't like, even if it was necessary — she couldn't bring herself to. Because she knew that if she appeared, Kevin would be affected. He would be hurt. And so would she.
So in that time, Elysia had accepted her fate. Let the Authority pass on. She would remain at the High Ground of Origin and wait for the others to scale the wall of Finality.
As long as they could manage it — then nothing would have been in vain.
But now was different. Everyone in the Realm was still here. Rin had been revived. Griseo had come back. Kevin's plan hadn't reached the point where the whole group needed to band together to end him.
And now there was Irene, who she had grown so fond of. Given all that — Elysia decided she wasn't done with the world just yet. She still wanted to go back and experience its wonders. Who would choose to stay cooped up in the High Ground of Origin with no one to talk to?
Elysia looked at Irene. "How do we do it? I want to come back."
"Just reach out your hand." Irene extended her arm toward Elysia, palm open — like a gentleman inviting a girl to dance. Elysia answered in kind, softly resting her hand in Irene's.
Then the two of them drifted down from the staff. There was a sensation of falling, of being gently pulled — and then they were sitting once again in the garden from before.
"We're really back." Elysia raised her hand to look at it. It was clear that Irene had brought her into one of the Realm's mental projections — which was perfectly logical. The underlying technology wasn't a simple matter of creating data constructs to synchronize memories.
Their method had been a bit unorthodox: they had genuinely split off fragments of their souls and placed them inside the mental projections. In a certain sense, the projections were them.
One could say that scattered throughout the current era were mental projections left behind by people of the Previous Era — which, at their core, were essentially soul fragments scattered everywhere.
As for why — well, the technological tree that desperation and apocalypse force you to climb tends to end up in some unusual places.
Safety and reliability are things you think about when you have the luxury of safety. In those days, speed, efficiency, and raw capability were the priorities — everything else came second.
And so the mental projections were born. A method that was, in essence, a little unorthodox.
Beside her, Irene reached over and lightly ruffled Elysia's hair. Then her attention shifted to her system panel — and a faintly peculiar look crossed her face.
[User: Irene]
[User Physical Status: Healthy]
[User Honkai Resistance: ■]
[User Honkai Adaptability: ■]
[Talent — Lovable: A cute girl will always have certain privileges. At all times, she will be well-received, and when getting along with others, she will more easily gain their goodwill.]
[Personal Talent — Logic of Continuation: If there is still a choice ahead, the thread of fate will not break. Even a severed spool can be reconnected, granting it a new destiny.]
[Skills: Palace of Consciousness, Mirror Sync, Active Polarization, Mirror Sync, Burst Lattice, Bidirectional Link (effects omitted)]
[Special Skills — Herrscher of Death:
Authority of Life and Death: The Authority of Life possesses the power of creation and healing — capable of raising the dead and restoring flesh to bone. The Authority of Death possesses the power of decomposition — all things may be unmade.
Herrscher of Origin:
Origin: Most things will, to a certain degree, trend toward the desired outcome. However, human power has its limits. One may also actively invoke this at great cost to directly alter established facts.
■: Incomplete — cannot be displayed. This skill currently serves only as a symbolic marker of sorts, and has no practical function at this time.]
[Held Cards: (omitted)]
The panel itself had no dramatic changes. Both Honkai Resistance and Honkai Adaptability had turned to solid black — unable to display — which was the system's way of indicating they had surpassed measurable norms. Only Herrschers were likely to achieve that.
Not that it was surprising. She had always been the Herrscher of Death, and after gaining the Authority, both values had been steadily climbing. She'd stopped bothering to check.
Her Honkai Resistance had been on the lower side to begin with — hence why she'd never grown particularly tall. But now that she'd received the Herrscher of Origin's power, Resistance would tick up another notch.
As for Honkai Adaptability — honestly, Irene had given up trying to quantify it. It was already beyond measurement. The benchmark was roughly that even with every Herrscher aboard the Hyperion standing in a circle around her, none of them could contest her for control of the local Honkai energy.
So those two changes were hardly a surprise — she'd seen them coming. What actually puzzled her was the last entry, the one in the black box. What was that thing?
Incomplete, symbolic marker only?
"What's the matter?" Elysia poked the bewildered-looking Irene in the cheek. "Why are you frowning like that?"
"Nothing. Just saw something confusing." Irene shook her head. There were too many possibilities. Mainly she hadn't looked at her panel in a very long time and had no idea when this skill had appeared.
She couldn't tell what it was connected to. At the moment, the most likely candidate was something she'd picked up back at the High Ground of Origin.
Elysia gazed at the golden-and-violet bird-pattern traceries in Irene's crimson eyes and felt her lips press out into a tiny pout again. What had been done really had been quite shameless.
Just then, another voice reached them.
"I knew you'd be here." Aponia arrived with the older Griseo and the younger Griseo in tow, walking toward the two of them. She was about to say something — and then she saw Elysia.
The words that had been rising to her lips dissolved before they could leave. She stood silent for a long moment.
"I'm back~" Elysia waved at Aponia with a cheerful flutter of her hand. She knew Aponia would be able to sense something. "Did you miss me?"
"Yes." Aponia nodded.
At the same time, she noticed the change about Irene — an aura nearly identical to Elysia's, and far too distinct to ignore. Yet mixed into the familiar Herrscher of Death signature was something else, something faint, elusive. The fluctuation was too small for her to pin down. But Aponia was certain she had felt it somewhere before.
An aura that barely registered, further obscured by the overlapping presence of the Herrscher of Origin's energy — Aponia simply could not identify it.
Beside her, the older Griseo was holding the younger Griseo's hand. She bent down slightly toward Irene: "Thank you very much, Miss Irene, for telling Uncle Kevin about my situation.
"He's the one Kevin rescued, yes — but she had come to understand since then that if Irene hadn't told Kevin about her, the question wasn't merely whether he would have come to rescue her.
It was whether anyone would have even known she was still alive.
After arriving in the Realm, she had learned that everyone had essentially assumed she was already dead. Which made sense — no one had known for certain whether the Ark's design had truly been reliable, and after being out of contact for so long, they had largely given up hope.
So this thanks had to be said.
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Translator's note: Sorry for the delay.
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