Vill-V's real goal is... to forge the Key of Origin? / You may have lost the Flame-Chasers, but you still have me, right?

"Sigh..." At this point, Vill-V couldn't help but sigh.

"You origin beings are truly a wondrous existence..."

Chapter Ninety-Three: Vill-V's true purpose is... to create the Origin Key?

"So... is this Vill-V you just said that if I return to the cocoon myself, I might accidentally achieve my goal?"

Elysia wasn't stupid; with Vill-V's prompting, she immediately figured out the cause and effect.

"That's right. If you return to the cocoon, in principle, although there is a possibility that your consciousness will dissipate, it is also equivalent to canceling your existence to a certain extent, which will naturally cause the Origin Power in Xia Ling's body to begin to dissipate."

"And when she goes to the Origin Land again, it's like going through the process again, so she can naturally become a complete Origin Herrscher."

"However... theoretically speaking, you could also achieve your goal by taking back the Origin Power from Xia Ling and then sending her to the Origin Land through my back door."

"But given Xia Ling's current situation, losing the Origin Power would greatly affect her strength, wouldn't it?"

Elysia's first thought was Xia Ling's safety.

"As expected of Elysia, the first thing she thought of was this kind of question..."

Vill-V shook her head helplessly, seemingly lamenting the immense influence that love has on people.

"Even if you directly extract Xia Ling's Origin Power now, at most it will only affect her from being able to manipulate multiple powers simultaneously and perform combos... But what I really want to say is that doing so would be too wasteful."

"Your Origin Power can actually be used for better purposes... Of course, this requires your cooperation."

"My... cooperation?"

"After all, the Origin Power will change its attributes and abilities based on your wishes." Vill-V shrugged. "Without your cooperation, there would be no prerequisite for implementing the plan."

"Even if I were Vill-V, I could only figure out the causes and consequences of these problems at most, but I couldn't control the power of Origin Power."

"So, what do you need my cooperation with?"

"Well... the whole plan might be a bit lengthy and take a lot of time. In addition, most of the plan is actually being carried out secretly within the plan about the Key of Blankness that I told Xia Ling about."

"So, in reality, when the plan will start depends on when Xia Ling decides to take action."

"Of course, we're not idle now. In the meantime, there are two preparatory tasks regarding the plan..."

"One is that you need to extract some Origin Power for me and store it in these Soul Steels. I want to use them to make the cover of a storybook."

"The storybook that was given to Xia Ling already used some of the techniques used in creating the Key of Blankness. Now we can modify it to make it portable for controlling the different powers on the Key of Blankness."

Vill-V paused for a moment, then revealed a sly smile.

"As for the other one... you can go to Eden first, and then design a set of clothes for Xia Ling that you plan to give to her in the future."

"Or in other words... you could call this outfit one of the components of the Zeroth Divine Key — the Origin Key."

Back in the present, Xia Ling, still clueless about her situation, is unaware that Elysia and Vill-V have prepared a grand gift for her without her knowledge.

Compared to her doubts about the Origin Authority, she was clearly more focused on the pleasures presented before her, such as Kiana and Mei had just received the Ending 4 token, and the Fourth Floor that had already been opened and which she had specially "taken care of".

"Mei, look, this crystal flower seems to be a collectible as well..."

Amid Kiana's exclamation, Mei then noticed that in her backpack, in addition to the usual collection of Shattered Standee, there was also a black crystal flower.

[Vill-V's Key]

Alright, from now on... let them accompany you as Elysia.

Even if I leave, these four crystal flowers will never wither, so...

Everyone, can you smile?

[Having all four keys leads to different outcomes in the exploration.]

"So this is what Sister Xia Ling meant by playing the fourth and fifth endings in a row... So the condition for unlocking the Ending 4 can only be obtained in the Ending 5?"

"Four keys... I remember saying before that Eden has one, while Aponia gave her key to Griseo for safekeeping. It seems that as long as we follow the plot, we shouldn't need to specifically try to collect the keys."

"But it seems like it's almost over..."

Looking at the trial grounds that were being teleported to the Fourth Floor, Kiana murmured, "Even if we add the Sixth Floor, this story is already halfway over... And counting seemingly dead Kevin, Pardo, and Mobius, Flame-Chasers is exactly half dead."

"Could it really be that in the end...?"

Before she could finish speaking, Kiana's worries were interrupted by Mei's exclamation.

"Wait, what about the nodes on the Fourth Floor...?"

"Um?"

Kiana looked over in confusion, then also fell into a daze.

The node on the Fourth Floor has no branches at all; there is only one path from beginning to end.

This is not the biggest anomaly. As the eroded color further permeates the Fourth Floor... the nodes of the Fourth Floor also exhibit considerable consistency.

Apart from the first encounter between Mei and Kiana being Unexpected Encounter, and the last encounter being Wish Fulfilled, the intermediate encounters were all unexpected Narrow Encounter!

"This..."

"I have a bad feeling..."

"There are only five points where we'll meet on Narrow Encounter," Mei reassured her. "It shouldn't be what we're imagining... right?"

"In short, let's take a look at the current point in front of us. Since the subsequent points all belong to the same category, the plot development will basically have common points."

"And this one and only Unexpected Encounter before us... should determine the main theme of this floor."

"But if you put it that way..."

Kiana's face was filled with... conflict.

"Judging from the introduction of this point, the main theme of this layer... may not be so... healthy."

Unexpected Encounter — As If An Old Acquaintance.

[After detaching from the world of thought, you saw her again... no, it was it.]

Your greatest enemy is now appearing before you in his most vicious form.

Hey, how are you feeling?

Chapter Ninety-Four: You may no longer have Flame-Chasers, but you still have me, right?

Although the introduction to the node already indicated the seriousness of its contents, Mei and Kiana still couldn't help but gasp when they actually entered the node.

Now they understand what the "most vicious posture" in the node description means.

"Tsk... I never had this much high blood pressure when I was in Theater of Domination."

Kiana said in a low voice.

Before Mei could speak, the Faded Miss Fairy standing opposite Mei spoke first.

"Oh dear, you've already forgotten me after just a short time? Mei is so heartless, I'm so sad."

"..."

Mei, who had been able to maintain a Mei of rationality, visibly turned red.

"Mei, calm down. We're still in story mode, so we can't fight her even if we wanted to."

Kiana quickly grabbed Mei's hand.

Although she used to be the one running around like a carefree husky, while Mei was the one pulling the rope from behind, Kiana knew very well that if Mei got really angry, the consequences would be much more serious than if she herself got angry.

After all, the big hole on the rooftop is still there.

Strangely enough, on the Third Floor, the story mode occasionally allowed Mei to experience the scene firsthand.

Upon reaching the Fourth Floor, the perspective reverts to the third-person viewpoint of the First Floor.

Furthermore, this time their position was restricted, causing them to stand behind the erosion, making them look somewhat like two little followers... It's just unknown what the deeper meaning is behind this sudden change in perspective.

Under the gaze of the two, Mei in the story coldly refuted Corruption's "teasing" and directly revealed her identity— the Herrscher of Corruption.

"Don't say that, my dear Mei. I remember that's what she called you, right?"

Erosion put his hands behind his back, leaned forward, tilted his head, and made the same gesture as Elysia.

"I'm being sincere. Just because I'm the Herrscher of Corruption doesn't mean I have to choose my appearance, does it?"

"You should know better than me that no one in the world cherishes this unique and beautiful appearance more than she—that is, me now."

Although it was infuriating, Mei in the story did not let her anger cloud her judgment. To be precise, maintaining rationality in the face of extreme anger is also one of her strengths.

From Corruption's words, the two people beside him deduced an important piece of information.

"She definitely did not have Elysia's data. If she really had Elysia's data, she would not be like this, who is obviously 'imitating'."

"That's right, and Vill-V also said, and we even saw it with our own eyes, that the erosion completely erased Elysia's data from the very beginning."

Mei nodded. "So, her goal... is most likely to target that weapon that Kevin is armed with—Model 666."

"She was afraid, afraid that she would be eliminated along with the Elysian Realm by that device that could delete Elysian Realm with a single click... So she wanted to become Elysia and take control of that device."

"But that was made by Vill-V. Can she really seize control of that device by doing this?" Kiana wondered. "Judging from her current state... by the time she fully becomes Elysia, the Finality probably have already come."

"That's true. From the perspective of erosion, on the one hand, it's the only thing she can do right now, on the other hand..." Mei's voice paused.

"Don't you think this is the best excuse she could find to 'justifiably' kill everyone?"

As the two analyzed the psychological invasion, the plot quickly progressed to the battle phase.

Instead of showing any remorse for Mei's accusations, Erosion continued to raise Mei's blood pressure.

"Although they don't exist in the form you're familiar with, they're right here beside me now. Right here...?"

Erosion pointed to his forehead.

"Once the erosion was complete, they became a part of me, and in turn, I became a part of them."

"So, you could totally see me as a continuation of Flame-Chasers, right?~"

"The battle is about to begin..." Mei took a deep breath upon hearing Corruption's words.

Their anger had reached its peak, and Mei in the story must feel the same way.

Then, I'm afraid she'll lose her temper and take action.

It should be said that Mei really captured her feelings in the story. As the data of the Herrschers was displayed as puppets by the erosion, the battle was about to begin.

Mobius and Chijie, glowing with a faint, eroding green light, appeared before the two.

"By the way... Little E, when did you become like Elysia?"

Little E tilted her head, a look of reminiscence on her face.

"It seems... this has been the case from the very beginning?"

"At that time, after Elysia took me to meet all the Herrschers, she fed me a lot of data."

"?"

Xia Ling glared at Elysia fiercely.

She had specifically told Elysia to be careful and not to be betrayed, but it turned out that Elysia fed her her data the day after she brought Little E back?

"Then... Elysia told me to choose an appearance for myself, but I thought Elysia looked very pretty and beautiful, so I asked Elysia if I could become like her."

"And she happily agreed, right?"

Xia Ling could guess what would happen next without even thinking.

"That's right, but I didn't completely transform into Elysia's appearance. Instead, I chose a color that I liked... Elysia seemed very excited at the time and took me directly to find Sister Eden."

"As expected of you..."

Xia Ling stared speechlessly at Elysia's smirking face and sighed.

"Never mind, that's precisely why you are Elysia..."

"However, the Little E you brought out is indeed very different from the Herrscher of Corruption in this storyline..."

As she spoke, Liulinershanpa VIII Sichu Xia Ling pinched Little E's face, enjoying the soft and smooth touch of Little E's face under the other's curious gaze.