With Elysia, Just Like the First Time (Please Subscribe!) / Anxious and Unable to Sleep (Please Subscribe!)

Even though Raiden Mei had not won, it was not a big problem.

Raiden Mei was very strong, but she was still somewhat lacking compared to these Flame-Chasers.

She was already incredibly overpowered, but unfortunately, every Flame-Chaser had a max-level build.

Though she kept getting humbled in The Past's Paradise, everyone had gotten used to it.

Mei... welcome to The Deepest Place in person.

Poor Raiden Mei was toyed with by Elysia and Aponia.

Looking back after finishing The Past's Paradise storyline, one could see that this had merely been a trial set by the two of them.

She could do nothing about Aponia's abilities, so the two could only return to the negotiating table.

"Please relax. You should understand that we were never enemies from beginning to end."

"I know you still have concerns, but... as you thought, your prophecy was merely a test."

"The end is near, Mei. Can you tell me why you are so determined to 'step into it'?"

She recalled the past, and that man.

"My companions and I spent a long time caught in some kind of scheme, secretly manipulated by certain people."

"Being arranged by others... and being arranged by fate are no different to me."

At this point in the story, though it was clearly an ordinary sentence, Welt stopped reading.

There was nothing particularly remarkable about it, yet it somehow gave Welt a sense of familiarity.

It was so right. Absolutely right.

Though it was still unknown who that man in the sentence was, Welt's sharp gaze instantly fell upon Otto.

Wasn't this talking about those victims persecuted by Otto?

Down with Otto's tyranny!

Otto's hand froze as he swirled his wineglass. Welt looked as though his anger had reignited and he wanted to come over and beat him up.

This passage Su Nian had written... that "man" felt strangely familiar.

Only two sentences mentioned him, and the information revealed was pitifully scarce, yet it was as though he had been named outright.

This was practically calling him out by name!

It was only short of revealing Otto's other deeds.

He knew why Welt had made that expression again.

"To think she used such a setting. Raiden Mei must be someone carrying a great burden too. Sigh, those calculating scum will do anything. They truly deserve to die... don't you think so, Archbishop Otto?"

Welt directly took a jab at Otto. He was no longer Schicksal's Archbishop, but when Welt addressed him by that title, he deliberately made a "slip of the tongue."

No, this was no longer a veiled jab. It was an outright accusation.

Otto closed his eyes and stopped responding, his mind filled with countless thoughts.

Su Nian... could she have met him before the competition? Did she dare write him into her novel?

He had never harmed Shenzhou, after all.

Of course... perhaps it was just his own paranoia.

Otto did not keep dwelling on it. Whatever the situation was, he could just wait and see after the plot continued.

"I believe the result can be changed. Even if it cannot, I want to decide for myself how I reach that result."

"There are too many endings we cannot change, but before then, there are just as many things I can do."

"And because of that, the [ending] will reveal an entirely different meaning."

This was why Raiden Mei wanted to resist Aponia's prophecy. She valued the process, not the result.

This was the most philosophical line in this segment of the story, and also the one that carried Mei's strongest personal flavor.

MiHoYo liked to use content rich with philosophy.

The process was the most important, yet many people often cared only about the result.

What came next was... the true leader of the Elysia fans!

"Mei, do you know? Once... someone told me the exact same thing. At that time... she too rushed without hesitation toward an ending that had already been fated."

"From beginning to end, I could not see her fate, so I thought things had taken a turn. I thought she had achieved, in a way I did not know, what I could not accomplish."

"But as you saw, we failed. I chose to remember everything about that person, using the gift bestowed upon me by heaven."

"I saw how she lived, saw how she fought, saw her walk through mud, saw her crowned with thorns... attending her own last banquet in new attire."

"Just as you and I are now, on that day, she stood before me and told me of the fate that she would disappear ten days later."

Fourteen days later, the new clothes Eden had prepared for her would be finished, and her eyes still held genuine joy and anticipation. Sixteen days later, Kevin's birthday would arrive again. She softly sang a ballad, leaving him one final gift.

Mei and the girl from back then had made the same choice.

"What you have sought all this way, the reason The Past's Paradise exists here, the secret protected by the true Deepest Place..."

"The location of the Thirteenth Herrscher. You have earned the right to go there."

This was... Aponia's true purpose.

When death was about to descend upon Raiden Mei, she had still made the same choice as her.

And because of that, Raiden Mei could go there.

The reason The Past's Paradise existed here would be revealed to her.

At this moment, some viewers suddenly realized something.

Had there been a Herrscher that Su Nian had mentioned in passing before?

It was the Thirteenth Herrscher Aponia was speaking of now!

At the time, Su Nian had only written that Moth of the Fire had publicly "claimed" that Kevin killed the Thirteenth Herrscher.

They had originally thought Su Nian had run out of ideas and could not come up with a new Herrscher Authority.

Or perhaps humanity's civilization had been destroyed to such an extent that it truly needed a sliver of hope, and thus needed such a Herrscher?

The facts proved that they had still underestimated Su Nian.

How could Su Nian, who could write this kind of story, possibly be so perfunctory!

Now, the foreshadowing had paid off, and Su Nian's standards were still as high as ever.

Was this in your calculations too!

Who was the Thirteenth Herrscher, and what exactly did she do?! Stop teasing us and serve it up already!

Worthy of the Pit-Digging Immortal. Brothers give you their hearts, and you dig pits to play mind games with them.

Aponia said that—there was a Herrscher among the Thirteen Flame-Chasers?? Who was it?

Someone noticed the key point. The memories of all Thirteen Heroes of Fire had now been shown to them.

Who was close to both Kevin and Eden, and was also a girl?

Though those criteria covered a wide range, with at least three or four Flame-Chasers fitting them.

But... the first person they thought of was that pink-haired girl.

She was also the person Raiden Mei had met from the very beginning.

Holy shit, hadn't Su Nian established earlier that "visitors are more likely to encounter Flame-Chasers who share the same will as them"?

And the first Flame-Chaser Raiden Mei met when she entered The Past's Paradise...

Was Elysia.

Faced with death, the answers the two gave were exactly the same.

They truly could be called the same will...

The answer was easy to reach, because only she fit.

It was obvious...

Elysia was the Thirteenth Herrscher!

With only a little sorting through the clues, one could understand the connection between the Thirteenth Herrscher and Elysia.

And now, it was time for the answer to be revealed.

[Before me, no creation existed in this world]

[If anything is eternal and imperishable]

[Then it is settling within my body]

"Open that final door..."

"...noble and pure soul." Aponia's voice was joined by that familiar voice.

White light flashed, and there she was on the park bench before them—the same girl, in the same pose.

"You have finally come here. Let me introduce myself once again."

"The second of the Thirteen Heroes of Fire, [True Self] Elysia. And my other identity... you should have guessed it long ago, shouldn't you?"

"But when you truly stand before the [Thirteenth Herrscher]..."

"Hi~ How does it feel?"

Just like... their first meeting.

The foreshadowing had paid off. Mei began exploring with Elysia, and the answer she sought was also Elysia.

The Past's Paradise storyline had already ended here.

Elysia was the character in The Past's Paradise whose image underwent the greatest reversal.

It was not because it was especially difficult to guess that she had become a Herrscher.

Rather, because even from earlier on, Elysia had been far too enthusiastic, far too wonderful.

Combined with the story's intentional and unintentional guidance, quite a few players at the time had fallen for it and thought she was a bad woman.

While accepting her flirtation, players also instinctively remained wary of her.

They had even prepared themselves to be betrayed by her.

Yet in the end, when they suddenly looked back, they realized it was hard to find a girl as wonderful as her anywhere in the world!

She sincerely liked everyone and sincerely treated every companion well.

Honkai Impact 3rd fought for all that is beautiful in this world!

And for Elysia fans, Elysia was the beauty of this world!

Whenever they saw pink, they seemed unable to help thinking of her.

And now, this scene had been recreated here.

Su Nian applied to temporarily cut off the show's livestream, and she saw it at a glance while using the computer.

Now, she had to relax for a while.

Lying on the sofa, Su Nian already felt as though her mind was scattering and she was about to lose her sanity.

If she did not rest, what she wrote would only turn into utter garbage.

Including the official channel, the program had sixty-five livestream rooms in total. Now, Su Nian was the first contestant besides the official channel to shut down her livestream.

The livestream room had closed, yet no one was posting anguished pleas of "Please write a little more" anymore.

At this moment, even the comments had fallen silent. Su Nian wrote quickly, and there was simply too much content.

Even though the truth behind Aponia's prophecy had now been revealed, they still did not know... where they should even begin complaining.