"Hmm..."
Staring at the visualized data on her terminal, Lynelle's expression was tangled with conflict.
"Oh no, did I... play it too safe earlier?"
"This tunnel seems... a bit too narrow, doesn't it?"
The truth was, for reasons mentioned before, Lynelle hadn't dared to use any overly aggressive methods when infiltrating the Elysian Realm servers.
What else could she do? She was just a poor, helpless Herrscher of Corruption.
In this era, where the main story hadn't even begun and power levels hadn't inflated yet, the Flame-Chasers' abilities were... just a tad bit overpowered.
This wasn't even a matter of elemental counters.
Never mind that Lynelle wasn't at her full power—even the fully developed Corruption in the original storyline had found the Flame-Chasers to be formidable opponents, each hiding their own trump cards.
At her current level... a little caution was wise.
But that caution came with a price—the situation she found herself in now.
Because she hadn't dared to make any bold moves during her "construction," while Lynelle had managed to create a backdoor into the Elysian Realm, the data capacity it could handle was... somewhat limited.
Forget about squeezing her whole self through—she couldn't even stuff a weakened clone created with her Corruption Authority inside. It was a case of "started narrow, no room for a person, advanced a few dozen steps, still no room for a person."
"Mmm... Should I try to open a bigger backdoor? But never mind whether this vulnerability might be discovered in the meantime—this backdoor alone took me several weeks. By the time I carve out one big enough for me to get through, the main story will practically be starting..."
"Ah, forget it."
After a moment's hesitation, Lynelle decisively made up her mind.
"Small is small—it's not like I absolutely have to go in using a human form. Once I'm inside, if I want to get bigger, I can just munch on some data and convert it... Besides, a smaller data footprint might actually help me stay under the radar."
"Still, I'd better make some preparations. Wouldn't want to get caught by Aponia or the sneaky ones like Mobius or Vill-V..."
--+--
Meanwhile, the Elysian Realm lately hadn't been all that peaceful either.
For one, not long ago, nearly all the Flame-Chasers with relatively strong mental senses had felt a familiar energy ripple sweep through the realm.
To be precise, it was a type of energy fluctuation they could never possibly forget.
Yet, when Mobius and Vill-V—the first to detect the phenomenon—went together to find Elysia, they found the pink-haired girl staring back at them with just as much confusion, seemingly completely in the dark about what had happened.
As much as they wanted to suspect this was Elysia's doing, everyone knew that aside from her playful jokes, Elysia had only told one lie in her entire life.
So, since Elysia insisted it really wasn't her, the two had no choice but to let it go.
As the ones besides Elysia who understood the power of Origin best, both Mobius and Vill-V knew well that if someone had touched the Land of Origin, or awakened the Authority of Origin through some other power, then such a phenomenon wasn't impossible.
After all, the Elysia of the Previous Era was dead, and the Elysia in the Elysian Realm couldn't leave it. If it wasn't a problem with the Land of Origin, then it couldn't possibly be... another Elysia popping up outside, could it?
As for what was really happening out there... that had nothing to do with them, the residents of the Elysian Realm. Kevin was the one in charge of World Serpent now—he'd handle everything.
And then there was the other matter...
"Oh? So Grey Serpent has already finished investigating what happened back then?"
The pretty, pink-haired girl blinked, then immediately broke into a delighted expression: "Splendid, splendid! He's worked so hard, hasn't he~?"
"So, my dear Natasha~ You certainly didn't come just to tease poor little me and leave me hanging, right?"
Ahem! "O-of course not..."
Facing Elysia, who was leaning in slightly and gazing at her with sincere, direct eye contact, Raven's face flushed a little, and she edged back slightly to create some distance.
Even though she'd known Elysia for a while now, she still hadn't quite gotten used to the other girl's practically non-existent sense of personal space.
As for how she'd met Elysia... After a certain mission some time ago, following a suggestion from that poetry-writing, child-minding Grey Serpent, Raven had started trying to take off her hood during missions—after all, his reasoning had been rather sharp.
Even though she'd talked back a bit at the time, she had to admit afterwards that he made a good point.
Then, before she'd even been on a few missions like that, during one of her trips back to the Elysian Realm to mooch some drinks from Eden, she unexpectedly made the acquaintance of this mysterious Flame-Chaser she'd never met before—Elysia.
Since the name 'Elysia' popped up practically everywhere in the intel she'd gathered from the Elysian Realm, and Raven had never managed to meet this enigmatic figure before, her curiosity was piqued. The two quickly hit it off and chatted merrily.
After a few more trips in and out of the Elysian Realm, going back and forth, Raven became quite familiar with Elysia.
The content of their conversations gradually shifted from Raven's one-sided curiosity to open-hearted exchanges.
Naturally, this included Raven's childhood stories—like her reasons for joining World Serpent.
And as everyone knows, the turning point in Raven's childhood... was precisely during the Second Honkai Eruption.
Though she didn't quite understand why Elysia seemed so excited after hearing Sirin's story—almost losing control of her expression, looking like she was about to cry from joy—Raven could still easily tell that this Flame-Chaser named Elysia was deeply interested in the Second Herrscher Sirin, and that Lynelle who had helped Sirin retain her humanity.
Well, wasn't that a coincidence? Due to certain reasons, Raven felt the same way.
So, Raven shared the details of the Second Honkai Eruption from her perspective, along with some of Grey Serpent's subsequent findings regarding Lynelle, with Elysia.
"In our previous investigation, we verified Lynelle's ability characteristics. If the data Grey Serpent collected is accurate, then she most likely is the Herrscher of Corruption of this era..."
"Also, I'm not sure how Grey Serpent evaluated Lynelle's power to conjure various strange abilities and items, but in my opinion, it's almost like wish-fulfillment. She can even perfectly simulate the First Herrscher, Welt Joyce's power..."
"So..."
Elysia's eyes grew brighter and brighter as she listened.
"Lynelle is also a Herrscher?"
"And she even has an ability akin to wish-fulfillment?"
"Mhm..."
Raven studied Elysia carefully for a moment, then spoke a bit hesitantly.
"And there's one more thing... I never mentioned it to you before."
"Actually, that Miss Lynelle... she looks at least eighty percent similar to you. Apart from her aura being a bit milder and her being a little shorter, she's practically your spitting image."
"If you hadn't personally told me you never had any descendants, I'd have almost instinctively assumed she was your junior or something..."
--+--
T/N: While I am an inexperienced Translator, I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.