Who Said Elysia Was Bad in the Last Chapter? I'm Cutting Ties with Them Completely / I Want to Make Up for Your Regrets

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"Wait, this Elysia isn't following the skill mechanics!" Flame Willow was the first to notice something was wrong. "She wants to tank the damage, build up three Crystal Wedges, and unleash her ultimate directly!"

"This is bad, I can't clear those wedges in time!"

Xia Ling and Flame Willow wailed together.

Who Said Elysia Was Bad? Cutting Deeply

That was right. This was another fighting style Elysia had come up with.

A beautiful girl had to learn to adapt to circumstances and change her combat approach according to her own situation.

Like now—although Elysia could not use this body to perform her dance-like combat techniques, as long as she made use of its high health pool, victory was not impossible.

Under Elysia's deliberate control, the first two Crystal Wedges had been placed very far away. From her earlier observations, she had already learned that Flame Willow did not excel at speed, while Xia Ling, who did, dealt pitiful damage.

So even if they noticed Miss Fairy's little scheme now, they could not stop it.

With a sweet smile, Elysia fired an arrow into the sky. At the same time, all three Crystal Wedges shattered in response, transforming into a pink Flawless Dome.

"Accept this bouquet with gratitude, okay~"

What followed the Flawless Dome was a true rain of arrows.

"Help! Murder! Flame Willow, hurry up and give me some healing!"

Xia Ling pushed her Acceleration Talent to its limits and darted from the edge of the arena straight back to Flame Willow's side.

If it were only a few dozen arrows, Xia Ling could still dodge them with ease.

But trying to evade a rain of hundreds of rapidly ricocheting arrows either meant something was wrong with your brain, or you were an Eastern player with only one hitbox.

"I can't block this many arrows! Put up a shield, and I'll just ignite your Honkai Energy!"

Flame Willow barely blasted away one wave of arrows before hurriedly speaking.

Xia Ling quickly released all the Honkai Energy in her body, forming a bright yellow shield. Flame Willow then activated the Honkai Energy that composed it.

"After holding out through this wave, I'll basically have no combat strength left. Flame Willow, can you handle it?"

Feeling the Honkai Energy within her gradually heat up and grow restless, Xia Ling gritted her teeth and increased her output once more.

"Then I'll just go for a suicide attack later. Don't forget, we can also use the relics we permanently obtained from previous trials." Flame Willow took out a familiar relic. "Perfect time to test the King's Set. Dying in a trial is no big deal anyway—we can just revive."

"Fine. Once I run out of energy, I'll leave the node immediately so I don't get caught in it." Xia Ling nodded and continued squeezing the Honkai Energy inside her.

Neither of them avoided Elysia during their conversation. From their perspective, this Elysia was merely a virtual boss in the trial and had no ability to understand their tactics.

But Elysia did not see it that way.

"Eh? A combat style that calls for sacrificing yourself at every turn isn't good, you know~ Even in a virtual trial, you should cherish your life."

Elysia puffed out her cheeks in dissatisfaction. She had encountered plenty of abilities in the Previous Civilization where unleashing an ultimate amounted to suicide—and she had also bid farewell to plenty of people because of them.

Some of those people had cherished their lives, while others had faced death with composure. But without exception, they had all ultimately died because of their own abilities.

"I can't let little Flame Willow become one of those people."

"Fine, I'll give little Flame Willow a small lesson first, then go easy on her. She needs to understand that against enemies that are simply too strong, even self-sacrifice might not bring good results."

As Flame Willow triggered Kevin's support item within the shield, an azure ice storm appeared on the battlefield, and the Flawless Dome's durability continued to fall.

Finally, just as the dome was nearing collapse, Xia Ling's shield also began to totter.

"Flame Willow, my Honkai Energy reserves are running low. I'm pulling out. Get ready," Xia Ling said solemnly.

"Okay." A flame-colored glint ignited in Flame Willow's eyes. "The moment you leave, I'm going in."

Xia Ling took a deep breath. The semicircular Honkai Energy shield instantly contracted, exposing her directly while leaving only a tiny shield covering Flame Willow alone.

The instant she was exposed to the rain of arrows, Xia Ling also withdrew from support status and returned to the reception room.

Meanwhile, Flame Willow burst into towering flames.

Having fully activated herself to the brink of death, Flame Willow's kneeling body suddenly regained its vitality.

"This King's Set only lasts one minute..." Flame Willow, whose sense of pain had been completely blocked, felt the nearly berserk Honkai Energy in her body, as well as cells destroying themselves to provide power. "It's fine. One minute is enough!"

With that, Flame Willow shot forward, arriving before Elysia almost instantly.

"Alright, that's enough~"

Elysia raised her bow to block, but Flame Willow's flames forced her several steps back, nearly knocking her off balance.

"Such high output efficiency... This body alone can't fight her head-on at all. Looks like I can only try to stall for time."

Elysia used the momentum to retreat. At the same time, a cluster of petal-shaped crystals erupted around her, temporarily stopping Flame Willow's advance.

"Hm? These flames are that domineering? No, this doesn't seem to be fire..."

Elysia was somewhat surprised as she felt the blazing flames spreading from where she had come into contact with Flame Willow.

"Is she catalyzing Honkai Energy? It seems impossible to extinguish in a short time. I can only seal it off first..."

In that brief instant, Elysia had already understood the essence of Flame Willow's ability. She sealed several burning points with crystal, temporarily cutting off the flames' spread.

Yet Flame Willow quickly charged at her again. Knowing she could not shake Flame Willow, Elysia immediately changed tactics. Enduring Flame Willow's relentless attacks, she drew her bow and fired several arrows at the ground in rapid succession.

Although Elysia's health nearly bottomed out within those dozen seconds, and blazing flames that could only be sealed temporarily clung to every part of her body, it gave her enough time to prepare the battlefield.

Then, crystal flower seeds covering the ground began exploding in batches according to a strange pattern, rapidly stacking crystallization on Flame Willow.

"Your strength is slipping away~"

Soon, pink crystals began spreading across Flame Willow's entire body, completely sealing her within crystal.

"This is bad. This Elysia is so smart—permanent crowd control counters burst damage." Xia Ling slapped her forehead and sighed in the reception room.

Sure enough, although Flame Willow could quickly burn away the pink crystals after being crystallized, Elysia's flower seeds had already reached a sufficient scale.

Under Elysia's carefully timed detonations, Flame Willow had almost no room to breathe. Though the flower seeds were also being consumed at an extremely fast rate, lasting through the remaining half-minute was clearly more than enough.

Seeing that the timing was about right and that Flame Willow was getting closer and closer, Elysia watched the flames and aura around Flame Willow gradually begin to fade, then smiled at her.

"Mhm, this should be about enough. Next, shall I go easy on little Flame Willow?"

Afterward, the crystals on Elysia's body that sealed Flame Willow's flames began rapidly disintegrating on their own.

As the crystals broke apart, the flames Elysia had fully released from their restraints rapidly swelled, instantly swallowing Elysia's figure and burning away the last trace of her Honkai Energy barrier. This also meant Elysia's health had bottomed out.

Before Xia Ling and Flame Willow's astonished eyes, a results screen appeared on the system display.

Elysian Realm trial—Safe difficulty, successfully cleared

Rewards have been sent to your mailbox

(Ahem, since I selfishly increased the difficulty for those adorable girls to satisfy my curiosity, I can't let little Xia Ling lose the rewards that belong to her for no reason.)

Elysia, whose consciousness had returned to the reception room, looked at the two staring dumbfoundedly at the screen and revealed an indulgent smile.

I Want to Make Up for Your Regret

"W-what just happened?" Xia Ling's eyes were wide and round as she patted Flame Willow beside her.

That pat was no small matter—it sent Flame Willow straight to the floor.

Only then did Xia Ling remember that Flame Willow's body was practically at death's door.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry! System, repair her first! I forgot Flame Willow was almost dead!"

Very soon, Flame Willow's condition rapidly reversed, restoring her to a completely unharmed state.

"Hiss, I didn't expect Elysia to go easy on me, only for you to nearly finish me off."

After the treatment was complete, Flame Willow bared her teeth and rubbed every part of her body. "That fully unleashed state really hurts. If the King's Set couldn't block pain, I might not have been able to endure it."

"Put that aside for now..." Xia Ling continued her earlier question. "How did you win?"

"Without a doubt, Elysia went easy on me." Flame Willow answered with complete certainty, then hugged Elysia beside her and nuzzled against her. "Wuwuwu, I knew Elysia still cared about me."

Elysia blinked after being suddenly hugged and replied, "Oh my, you're so naughty. Do you want to do something with me?"

"I know Elysia went easy on you. I mean, why?" Xia Ling was utterly baffled. "System, come out. It's time for you to clear things up."

Uh, even if you ask me that, I have no idea what happened.

Not only did my data monitoring show everything was normal, but even if something really had gone wrong, I couldn't interfere with the trial system before the trial ended. During high-difficulty trials, the system would even mute me.

"You're way too useless. What kind of system spirit gets muted by its own system?" The system's words left both of them speechless.

Ahahaha... that was just a minor design flaw. But based on what happened to you just now, I speculate that saving Klein earlier may have had some influence on subsequent events, causing Elysia to go easy on you at the end.

"But if it was because of saving Klein, shouldn't it affect nodes related to Serpent later on?"

Don't ask. The answer is that Elysia loves everyone.

(Mhm, that's right. I didn't expect this system to understand me so well~)

"Alright, looks like you can't give us any real answer." Xia Ling pinched Elysia's cheek. "Flame Willow, try challenging another Herrscher Trial next time."

"Hiss, I couldn't even beat Elysia on safe difficulty, and next time you want me to challenge another Herrscher on normal difficulty?" Flame Willow pointed at herself, looking as though she had just been told to fight Sukuna.

"It's fine. I believe in you." Xia Ling gave her a thumbs-up. "Besides, I'll be going with you too, won't I?"

This week's trial came to a temporary end. After claiming the clear rewards, Xia Ling's assets had reached 5 Hope and 8 Originium Ingots.

Of course, she still could not exchange them for anything yet.

"By the way, System, why do I feel like my Hope has always been overflowing? Can I take that as you encouraging me to prioritize exchanging for Collapse Paradigm? Or does the system judge that Cipher Plates can do more?"

Well... indeed. The things Cipher Plates can do may be far more powerful than you imagine.

Let me give you an example. If you used the combination of "Arrival" and "Anger" in reality, what effect do you think it would trigger?

"I remember the linked phrase for those two seems to be a random four- to six-star recruitment." Xia Ling pondered, then suddenly reacted and turned her gaze toward Pink Fairy Lady on the sofa. "Wait, you mean?"

(Hm? Why are you both looking at me?)

Miss Fairy became confused when Xia Ling and Flame Willow suddenly both turned to look at her.

That's right, exactly what you think.

For once, the system did not speak in riddles and directly gave an affirmative answer.

That is also why the system created a separate trial for the Elysian Realm. If you can enter the Elysian Realm and form Bonds with the Herrschers, you can use Cipher Plates to summon their memory forms into the real world.

So, Host, with so many powerful fighters available, aren't you instantly more motivated now?

(Eh? Does this system mean little Xia Ling can use Cipher Plates to summon us into the real world?)

Within the Elysian Realm, Elysia's expression had reached the height of shock. Fortunately, none of the other Herrschers were there, or they would have seen Elysia's rare loss of composure.

(But isn't this a problem Mobius researched for a long time without solving...? This system seems far more powerful than I imagined.)

"Combat strength doesn't really matter... I think I can manage on my own. Besides, many Herrschers probably don't want to reappear in this world."

Unexpectedly, Xia Ling shook her head. "If they aren't willing, I won't forcibly pull them out."

"What truly makes me happy is that I can use this to summon Elysia."

When Elysia saw Xia Ling say she wanted to summon her, a smug smile curled across her lips.

(Hehe, as expected. Miss Fairy's charm is still just a tiny bit greater than everyone else's, right?)

However, the words that followed soon wiped that smile from her face.

"After witnessing the story of the flawless person called Elysia, although Elysia ultimately received a fulfilling ending, I... think that ending, while fulfilling, was not perfect."

"I've always wanted Elysia to personally visit the final St. Freya, to see with her own eyes the future she created, where Herrschers could reclaim their humanity—to see the girls who inherited different wills."

(Wait, little Xia Ling is saying...)

"That's right. I've always wanted to see how happy Elysia would be when she saw the Herrscher of Flamescion, the symbol of humanity's eternally burning flame." Flame Willow nodded in agreement.

"This time, she wouldn't need to learn through someone else's retelling what beautiful flowers the seeds she planted had bloomed into. She could even witness that process herself."

"Being able to make up for that regret is what makes me happiest."

(Little Xia Ling means... I... I succeeded? I really... turned the Herrschers of the future into Herrschers of Humanity like me...?)

In the Elysian Realm, Elysia's initial shock had turned into a complex mixture of joy and relief. Her lips could not stop curving upward, yet her eyes grew moist.