"Mmm… mm…"
Perhaps because Elias and Elysia had been holding each other so tightly while sleeping, with their hearts pressed so close together, their heartbeats had synchronized perfectly. In such a state, even the moment they awoke matched exactly. When their eyes opened and met—
(Ah, today will be another wonderful day.)
The white-haired boy and the pink elf both thought so.
It had been some time since the storm between the elf and the snake had passed. Elysia had become MANTIS-003—the fourth fusion warrior—and had returned to the top under Elias' lead.
Whether in training room rankings or in keeping Mobius in check, she had regained her former standing—no, improved it considerably.
"Good morning, my dear Ely."
"Mhm. Good morning to you too, Elias."
Elias leaned close and playfully bit her elf ear, while Elysia kissed the dragon horn on his forehead.
Since undergoing their fusion surgeries, they had each become more like the other's ideal.
Elias adored Elysia's elf ears—he could hardly go a day without touching them dozens of times. At this very moment, they still bore quite a few of his teeth marks.
Similarly, unlike Mobius who preferred tails, the pink elf loved Elias' dragon horns, which were now marked with traces of her pink lipstick.
"What should we do today~?"
"Let's get up first before deciding. Lying in bed thinking about it just makes me feel like I'll fall asleep again."
"Ahaha~ Then why not just spend the whole day doing this? Let's keep doing the things we love~"
"Ely, don't tempt me into corruption first thing in the morning. You know I can't resist." Elias pinched her nose helplessly.
If Elysia had the intent, leading him astray was all too easy. Just the slightest hint from her and he was certain he could fall into depravity at the speed of light, caring nothing for the fate of the Previous Era.
"Hehe, same goes for me."
The pink elf affectionately rubbed her cheek against his. They were far too weak to each other's charms—no request could be refused.
After cuddling for a while and getting dressed, Elysia happily deleted the number on her scale.
Since becoming a fusion warrior, her rate of weight gain had slowed noticeably.
Maheśvara's Meta-Morph couldn't yet let her indulge in unrestrained feasts, but it had greatly reduced her worries about weight.
Or rather, the truly unbelievable part was that despite having Maheśvara's Meta-Morph, Elysia's weight could still creep up little by little!
From Elias' observation, the pink elf's appetite had once been only a third that of a paramecium. Now it was approaching half!
"Oh, right—has Mobius been… indisposed lately? She's been oddly well-behaved at night."
Elias paused. At first, Mobius would occasionally show up at night to "snack and drink." But these past few weeks, she'd been unusually restrained—though her resentment toward Elysia had only grown.
"Maybe the doctor's conscience finally kicked in? Anyway, it's about that time, Elias—could you go to the cafeteria and grab one of the limited-edition cakes for me before they're gone?"
"Oh, sure, no problem…"
Elias raised a brow. He instinctively felt something was off, but couldn't quite say what.
Elias didn't suspect Elysia of anything. After all, girls took longer to change clothes and get ready before going out—and as a gentleman, he understood.
On the other hand, it wasn't until she watched the boy leave their room—no, their love nest—that the pink elf let out a sigh of relief. Then she flipped out of bed and dragged someone out from underneath it.
Yes! The dignified Miss Elysia… had been hiding someone under the bed!
"Hi~ Good morning, Mobius."
And yes—she was hiding the snake!
"Mmmmph! Mmmph mmmph!"
Though it was hard to make out the words, the sheer intensity of her tone made it obvious—Mobius was cursing.
"Aww~ Who told you to sneak in and disturb us again last night? Don't worry, I'll untie you now."
Elysia smiled sweetly as she loosened the ropes.
There was no way Mobius could ever be "well-behaved." The chances of that happening were about as high as Fu Hua suddenly growing up to not be flat.
She still tried to "mooch food and drink" every two or three days. But every time, the pink elf would effortlessly knock her out and stuff her under the bed.
Even though both were fusion warriors, just like there was a gap between Shesha and Maheśvara, there was a vast gap in strength between Mobius and Elysia.
Every time, the snake was taken down with a single blow from Elysia, then sealed under the bed without Elias suspecting a thing. In fact, lately Ely was starting to look forward to Snake's nightly visits.
"Thanks, Mobius. It's all thanks to you that I had such a 'wonderful' night yesterday~"
"***********!!"
Hearing the elf's "thanks," Mobius turned into a furious telegraph machine, deeply regretting ever performing Elysia's fusion surgery.
The original contract? Elysia hadn't followed it for even a second. These days, Mobius could only sneak bites to eat when Elias came to the lab. She regretted it to death!
"My, my~ How can a cute girl say such awful things? Let big sister Ely punish the impolite little Mobius-neechan with something fun~ Let's see what kind of pink dress suits you."
"Elysia, you damn—! I should have used a pig's genes for your surgery!!"
Mobius snarled through gritted teeth.
By the way, she had already lost her mature form and now looked like the loli version from the captain's ship.
Sure, loli Mobius was cute. Add Shesha's Meta-Morph and she gave off a strange mix of innocence and allure. But… the big "slimes" were gone.
That was entirely Mobius' own doing—
In the truest sense of the phrase, she'd brought it on herself.
In order to test the limits of Shesha's genes, she had spent this time deliberately killing herself in various ways to revive afterward. She even nearly dragged Klein into it once.
The good news: Shesha's immortality was indeed amazing. The cost of each rebirth was simply a large amount of Honkai energy… and becoming physically younger by a few years.
The bad news: what you lost wasn't easy to grow back.
Sure, with Elias' Herrscher of Rebirth authority, he could restore her to her original size in an instant, making her truly able to switch between "cool beauty" and "loli."
But even Mobius was too embarrassed to ask for that. And… being cute did have its perks.
Recently, more and more poor fools had fallen for her looks and ended up on her operating table.
After all, how many could refuse when such an adorable little girl asked for help in her sweet voice? But those who agreed soon found themselves mysteriously lying in the First Research Institute's lab…
"I don't have time to play with you! Let me go—I've got a few fusion surgeries booked today!"
"Don't worry, I just want one picture."
"Get that damned dress away from me!"
"Come on, come on~ Afterwards I'll even show the picture to Elias. Maybe he won't even recognize you."
"E!ly!sia!"
Mobius was certain now—the pink elf before her was her lifelong nemesis! She struggled to resist the advancing pink dress, but the gap in strength was too great.
In the end, the snake was forcibly dressed up and photographed.
But Elysia didn't follow it up with the usual, "Mobius, you wouldn't want this picture made public, would you~?" kind of blackmail. No—her plan from the start had been to make it public!
Snake: (At least give me the chance to be threatened!)
By the time she crawled out of the room, exhausted in both body and spirit from being toyed with at dawn, Mobius had already sworn to herself that no matter the cost… she would one day defeat Elysia!
Mobius: "Patience. I will endure! Once I complete my next evolution, Elysia, you're finished. I can now confirm fusion warriors have the potential to go further—just a little more time…"
Her recent research had revealed that fusion warriors might be able to transform into Honkai Beasts—the so-called "Artificial Cascade" form.
She was currently working on a method to minimize the side effects of this transformation. If successful, she would become a second-phase big boss!
Then she could finally suppress the pink elf again.
Elysia: "I'll be waiting~"
In the meantime, thanks to ongoing fusion surgeries, Fire Moth now had many fusion warriors—currently their strongest weapon against the Honkai.
Though fusion surgeries and Meta-Morph procedures carried extreme risks—even with Mobius herself operating, the success rate was painfully low—and most fused with low-tier Honkai Beasts like Chariot-class or Templar-class…
Something was very different this time.
Under the protection of Elias' Herrscher of Rebirth authority—
Those who should have died from failed fusions, or transformed into Honkai Beasts, were instead all saved without lasting harm!
Elias proudly crossed his arms: "Sure, some people's bodies were completely ruined, but I can just make a new one, then whip up a simplified Fenghuang Down for consciousness transfer—easy! Totally safe!"
As a result, instead of gradually appearing after the Seventh Eruption, there were now over a hundred fusion warriors already!
With them stationed worldwide, Honkai outbreaks had been heavily suppressed in most regions. As for the remaining few trouble spots…
Helixcraft could handle them!
Helixcraft's mech army now numbered in the tens of thousands, all upgraded through multiple iterations—each individual mech capable of overpowering a Templar-class Honkai Beast.
One path pursued biological ascension.
The other, mechanical military might.
With both advancing together, unless the Honkai played their ultimate trump card—the Herrscher of Binding—they'd be hard-pressed to counter such divergent development routes.
And that was exactly Elias' goal.
Pursue both routes in parallel, so even if one was countered, the other could fill the gap. And as for that cheat-like, unsolvable Herrscher of Binding… he would handle it himself.
In the cafeteria, waiting for Elysia to arrive, Elias pondered the recent progress of both paths.
(On the biological side, Mobius is already researching Artificial Herrscher transformation. While that may be risky for ordinary fusion warriors, I already have ideas to solve it.)
(On the tech route, Vill-V is just about to crack Soulium research. Once that's done, I can deliver the Herrscher of Reason and Herrscher of Thunder Cores to her so she can start developing Divine Keys.)
Thinking of that, Elias nodded in satisfaction.
Things that originally belonged to the late stages were now being developed early. The pressure on the Previous Era in fighting the Honkai had suddenly decreased considerably.
But he hadn't forgotten that the Honkai's strength would rise alongside the advancement of civilization. Mechs and low-tier fusion warriors could only deal with ordinary Honkai Beasts for now.
Emperor-class and higher Honkai Beasts, as well as Herrschers, might become stronger because of this development. But… that was also part of Elias' plan.
Soldiers to fight soldiers, generals to fight generals, kings to fight kings.
The Emperor-class and Herrschers would be left to Elias himself, Elysia, Kevin, Fu Hua, and the other high-tier combatants of the future.
Right now, those first three could each take on a Herrscher alone—especially Elias, as a Six-Core Herrscher. With him as the ultimate safety net, there was no real problem.
"Let me count how many things still give me a headache… Herrscher of Sentience, Dominance, Corruption, Binding, Finality—damn, it's either underhanded tricks or outright cheats. Wait, no—Corruption isn't a problem. That one's easy to handle."
Elias quietly crossed one name off his mental list.
The Herrscher of Corruption was just his clingy little sister—easy enough to deal with. Just keep an eye on her so soldiers didn't get to her, and as for the Herrscher problem itself… plenty of ways to resolve it.
(Maybe I should start gathering the Flame-Chasers… Sakura, Kalpas, Aponia, Kosma, Eden… and who else? Oh, right, Pardofelis. Even if she's weak like a pet, I can't forget her.)
Elias patted his forehead.
Then a smile returned to his face.
"No rush~ The Fourth Herrscher hasn't even shown up yet. Under my leadership, the current situation in the Previous Era is excellent! Not perfect, but steady progress is fine—we're not in a hurry."
That thought eased him. Everything was going smoothly, and the real challenges were still far off. He had plenty of time to prepare for anything.
And countless chances to restart if necessary!
In short—rock solid!
"Huh, Ely's really slow today. What's she doing?"
Elias glanced at the clock—half an hour had passed.
He had no idea the pink elf was busy playing with the snake; he just thought she was taking her time.
Just as he was about to start eating—
[Alert! Alert! Honkai Eruption detected! Honkai Eruption detected! Fourth Herrscher sighted! All squads prepare to deploy immediately—proceed to target in West Asia, XXXXX Town!!]