Before the journey began, Elysia already had a feeling—it would be a dreamlike adventure she would remember for the rest of her life.
But after the journey started, she realized she had still underestimated it. Under Elias' guidance, she experienced a blissful trip that would forever change her life.
During their travels, Elysia saw nature's most beautiful scenery. She experienced kindness born from human goodness, yet also endured persecution born from human cruelty.
Of course, the latter was always resolved by Elias.
"Thank you, Elias. Without you, I'd be so lost whenever those things happened—I'd be confused, unsure what to do, and probably suffer so much… I'd even miss out on all these sights. Haha, I really love traveling with you!"
On the train bound for their next destination, Elysia leaned gratefully against the white-haired boy's chest. She could feel herself growing fonder and fonder of him.
Click!
Along with the sound of a camera shutter, Elysia captured the most beautiful moment of the day. She then placed the photo into a pink album, smiling in satisfaction.
Taking a photo each day to preserve its most beautiful moment—this had been her habit since the first day of their journey.
Elias glanced at the album in Elysia's hands. In his Imaginary Space, there were already eleven such albums neatly kept.
The system had at least shown a bit of mercy.
It preserved the mementos from each reincarnation—precious keepsakes filled with memories between Elias and the Flame-Chasers. Like Elysia's photo albums, Eden's golden chalice, Sakura's forget-me-not flower, Kalpas' mask, Kevin's limited-edition instant noodles, and so on...
"There's no need to thank me, Ely."
"True~ But it still feels strange somehow. Elias, you seem so used to traveling," Elysia said curiously.
When they had first set out, she was completely at a loss about what to do, but Elias had already led her decisively toward their chosen destination and handled everything perfectly.
No matter what unexpected events arose, Elias always found the best solution.
But what surprised Elysia most was that—even when they reached a foreign country—Elias could speak the local language fluently, despite the fact that neither of them had ever gone to school!
(Ely: Wait, I thought we agreed to be illiterate together!)
All in all, Elias was like a seasoned traveler who had already explored the world many times, taking Elysia across continents to see all the beauty it had to offer.
"What's strange about that? In your eyes, I've always been incredible, haven't I, Ely? My secrets are more numerous than the stars in the sky—you might need an entire lifetime to uncover them all."
Elias leaned against the window, resting his chin on his hand as he admired the sunset outside. The crimson-gold sky reminded him of the skies above the Elysian Realm, stirring a wave of nostalgia in his heart.
"That's fine. I'd gladly spend my whole life on you, Elias—because I like you the most!" Elysia said without a trace of hesitation.
Bathed in the golden glow of dusk, the white-haired boy before her looked divine and untouchable. For a moment, Elysia's heart skipped a beat—but even as she lost herself in that sight, her fingers instinctively pressed the camera shutter again.
Elias' lips curved upward slightly, and he reached out to rua the pink-haired elf's head.
"Ely, guess where we're going next."
"Hmm... Nagazora City?"
Elysia studied the map for a moment before answering. It was a baseless guess, but she somehow felt confident about it—certain that she must be right.
However, Elias shook his head. That had been the answer during their last cycle, though back then, Elysia had guessed Dusk Street instead.
"Wrong again. Actually, we're going... here."
"..."
Elysia fell silent in disbelief. Elias had turned the map over, and the destination he pointed to was halfway across the world—at a place whose name she couldn't even pronounce.
She had a strong suspicion she'd actually guessed right, but Elias had changed the destination on the spot just to keep her from guessing correctly.
"Eh? This city is way too far, isn't it? I don't believe it. This doesn't fit the pattern you've always followed when choosing our next destination. Also—why did you just say 'again'?"
"Ely, patterns are made to be broken. And as for 'again'... you must have misheard."
"..."
"Alright, alright, I won't tease you anymore. But our next destination really is this city. There's someone very important to me there—I have to go see her."
Elias gazed gently at the city marked on the map, tracing the name of that city with his fingers. Seeing his expression, Elysia was too surprised to speak.
In the past, Elias had only ever looked at her with such tenderness. Elysia couldn't help but wonder—just who could this person be, to make her beloved Elias care so deeply?
"Someone very important to you, huh? How important, exactly? Compared to me?"
"Hehe~ About the same as you, I'd say."
"!!!" ∑(ΦдΦlll)
Elysia's brain froze completely. Someone as important as her? Elias actually had someone like that?!
(For real? How do I not know about this? Weren't we supposed to have grown up together?!)
"That's way too suspicious! Since you said that, I have to meet her myself—I want to see just who this amazing person is, the one worth crossing half the world for!"
"Hehe, I think you two will get along quite well. But before we go, I still need to prepare something. We've got... two days left." Elias glanced at the calendar as he spoke.
The days he remembered were always special—like the dates when the Herrschers of the Previous Era had first descended.
But the day two days from now held a far greater meaning to him—one he could never forget.
...
Two days later, they arrived in that city.
Elysia curiously looked around, finding nothing particularly unusual.
Yet, although it was their first time here, Elias moved through the streets as if he had been here countless times before—familiar with every turn, effortlessly leading her to their destination.
"We're here. This is the place."
"Eh... really?"
Elysia blinked, half-suspicious that Elias had brought her to the wrong address.
Before them stood a rundown private pharmacy.
Despite it being daytime, the doors were tightly shut. Dust covered the ground and the shelves near the entrance—it was clear the place hadn't been cleaned or opened in a long time. It looked abandoned, perhaps closed down for years. No patients in sight.
"Let's go, Ely. We don't have much time—we need to rescue her quickly."
"Eh? Wha—what do you mean?"
Elysia tilted her head in confusion.
But, as usual, the cryptic Elias didn't explain further. Instead, he simply pushed open the pharmacy's creaking door and stepped inside—holding a fairly large birthday cake in one hand.
...
In the deepest room of the pharmacy—
A barefoot green-haired girl walked across the cold floor. Her name was Mobius. The girl's body was frail and delicate, as if it could break with a single touch. Her pale skin contrasted sharply with the filthy, cluttered room around her.
She moved with practiced familiarity, taking a bottle of painkillers from the medicine cabinet.
It was a powerful analgesic. Once taken, it didn't just block pain—it dulled every sensation. But the side effects were severe; prolonged use could cause nerve paralysis and cognitive impairment.
"When this dose runs out, your release—or death—won't be far, Father."
Mobius tightened her grip around the pills, murmuring to herself.
Of course, she wasn't taking them herself—nor was she trying to poison her father. The bedridden man had instructed her to do so while he was still lucid.
He knew full well the drug's side effects. But compared to the unbearable agony he endured every moment, he would rather lose his senses entirely. The agony of the Honkai disease had already driven him past the brink of endurance.
"..."
On the bed, the markings of Honkai corrosion had already spread up to the man's neck—a clear sign of the disease's final stage.
The man's body was thin, his eyes hollow. After years of taking painkillers, his nerves were severely damaged, his cognition impaired—he seemed to have even forgotten how to speak.
"Take it."
Mobius handed the pills to the emaciated man lying on the bed, her eyes filled with a cold, detached pity.
It was not the gaze a daughter should direct toward her father, though this man indeed deserved pity.
Mobius' father had once been a renowned pharmacist. He had a beloved wife, but she passed away shortly after giving birth to Mobius.
Even so, the man didn't collapse under grief. He continued to live actively, devoted to his work and to developing medicines that could save others.
He also tried his best to fulfill his duties as a father.
At least at that time, he was a good, compassionate doctor and a decent parent—beloved by many in the neighborhood... until he was stricken with Honkai disease.
When Mobius thought back to what he had been before and after his infection, the contrast was so stark she could hardly recognize him as the same person.
After being corroded by Honkai energy, her father changed completely. When he realized that all his knowledge and skill couldn't cure his own disease, his gentleness turned to rage, his optimism to despair. The man became grotesque.
He abandoned his private pharmacy, spending his days bedridden, living off painkillers. He became decadent, hopeless, and violent—eventually turning that violence against his own daughter.
He showed Mobius the ugliest side of humanity.
"You look disgusting. I... will never become a human like you!"
Mobius stared straight into her father's eyes as she spoke.
How laughable.
How ridiculous.
How pitiful.
To fall so far just because of a disease—to become so wretched, so broken, so stripped of emotion, memory, and even the pride and dignity that defined humanity!
This wasn't what humans should be. Just the thought that there were others like her father in this world made Mobius feel sick with disgust.
She would never accept it.
Humans should be proud, strong, beautiful, immortal—even if they had to fight the gods themselves, they must never lose! Just like that blurry white figure she often saw in her dreams.
At that moment, an ideal and an obsession were born within Mobius' heart: she would make humanity evolve.
"Father, you're beyond saving. If you had faced your illness head-on, fighting to the very last moment without depending on drugs, then even if you lost in the end, at least you would have kept your pride and dignity as a man. But... you gave up."
Mobius could feel flames rising in her heart.
"You chose to rot away, to abandon your pride as a human, to stop struggling for life! Humans like you—I will never acknowledge!"
Mobius clenched her fists, her eyes burning with anger and rejection.
The man on the bed contorted his face into a furious snarl. He looked as ugly as a dying, stray old dog. His eyes seemed to say, 'How dare you talk to me like that? I should have left you as a stain on the wall.'
Overcome by shame and rage, the man sat up, trembling as he raised his hand to slap his daughter across the face.
But Mobius showed no fear—her eyes were still full of defiance and mockery.
"Go ahead. Hit me. Once you're done, we'll be even."
Even if it came to a fight, a man in the late stages of Honkai disease could hardly win against the young Mobius. But she decided not to resist—considering it a small repayment for being born.
And she wanted to remember the pain that was coming—to let it etch into her heart the vow that she would never become such a human.
Still, she instinctively closed her eyes.
Just as she gritted her teeth, bracing herself for the blow—and as the man's trembling hand was about to fall—
"Beating your daughter? What kind of scum does that?"
"Eh?"
A third voice suddenly cut through the silence of the room.
Mobius opened her eyes to find a white-haired boy standing before her. He had firmly caught her father's wrist, and no matter how much the man struggled, he couldn't break free.
"Hey, little snake, I've come to find you."
The white-haired boy turned his head and gave Mobius a gentle smile. For a brief moment, that cold, suffocating room seemed to grow a little warmer.
Mobius froze instantly.
She was certain she had never met this boy before, yet an indescribable sense of familiarity welled up within her. His figure overlapped perfectly with the vague white silhouette she had so often seen in her dreams.
"Y-you... who are you?" she stammered.
"Me? Just a passing ally of justice. Anyway, we can talk later—after I deal with your old man."
"Ahhh! Aaaah! Let go—aaah!"
"Tch. You scream as horribly as ever. Let's get this over with quickly, just like always."
Elias gave Mobius' father a look of utter disgust, set the cake he'd been carrying onto the table, then pulled a vial of crimson serum from his pocket and unceremoniously jabbed it into the man's chest.
Mobius' eyes widened in shock.
Before her eyes, the dark Honkai marks that covered almost her father's entire body began to fade, visibly receding from his skin.
She knew how her father had searched the entire world for a cure, finding nothing. Yet this white-haired stranger had just pulled out an effective remedy as if it were nothing.
"I—I don't feel pain anymore... The marks... they're gone? I'm cured? I'm cured! Hahaha! That damned disease—it's really gone!!"
Under the serum's effects, Mobius' father rapidly regained his sanity.
He looked over his body in disbelief, confirming that the traces of Honkai corrosion had truly vanished—and then burst into wild laughter.
However—
"Don't celebrate too soon."
Elias cracked his knuckles, his golden eyes glinting coldly. He released the full weight of his suppressed aura, and the oppressive force instantly snuffed out the man's fleeting joy.
"I didn't heal you just to let you off easy. How else would you clearly understand your mistakes? Do you even realize what day it is today, you bastard? It's the little snake's ninth birthday!"
"On this day—more important than any other—you dared raise your hand against her? You're the worst excuse for a father I've ever seen in this timeline!"
"Now then... are you ready to repent?"
Elias spoke coldly, then seized Mobius' father's right arm once more. With a merciless grip, he controlled it—and made the man slap himself across the face, again and again.
Smack! Smack! Smack! Smack! Smack!
The sharp, echoing sounds of slaps were so loud they could be heard even outside the building. Elias showed no mercy, striking until Mobius' father's face was swollen and bruised beyond recognition.
By technicality, this man might have been considered his future father-in-law—but... when had any of Elias' father-in-laws ever met a good end?
—
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