Inside the Valkyrie dormitory.
"Uwaa, it looks like we went too far this time."
"Eli! A hero can't flee before the battle even begins!"
"Uh, what should we do now?"
"I've connected to the global data network, but I haven't found any trace of Elias. I also detected the activation of Hyperion: Moonlight Throne ARK earlier."
Prometheus spoke.
"In that case, Elias either went into outer space or entered the Sea of Quanta... Either way, he's gone somewhere we'll never find him unless he chooses to return."
Eden shook her head with a bitter smile.
"If only we hadn't been in such a hurry..."
Five minutes after Elias left, the women discovered that he had embarked on a long voyage. He had thoughtfully left a letter on the living room table informing everyone that he was making his escape.
Elysia stared at the letter's contents, sweating awkwardly.
The very first line read...
"Everyone, do you know why birds fly? In my eyes, it is because the sky is there. Life should be free. Our world is too small, like a birdcage, so I wish to venture beyond it and see what lies outside.
"Therefore... Farewell, everyone. Today, I set off on a long voyage. The savior is now on vacation, so I'll leave the safety of the world in your hands. I'll bring back souvenirs. Bye-bye~"
The women's expressions became complicated. Although no one said it aloud, they all knew that their recent schedule of more than thirty high-intensity dates every day was the reason their beloved white-haired boy had fled.
And so, after exchanging glances...
"Let's hold a self-reflection meeting. Once that's over, we'll go find him!"
"Mm!!" xN
Escape? They would never allow Elias to escape!
They would catch him, lock him in a dark room, and have their way with him—no, grind up their affection levels!
...
Several days later, within the Sea of Quanta.
A colossal battleship over a thousand meters long sailed across the infinite sea like Noah's Ark voyaging through a dreamlike ocean, carrying the savior of civilization aboard it.
"Ahh, I'm so idle. This is so peaceful~"
Elias sat comfortably in the bridge's command chair, holding a glass of red wine in his left hand and a cup of instant noodles in his right. He ate while admiring the beautiful scenery beyond the battleship.
He felt completely healed.
Although the Sea of Quanta was called a sea, that single word could not begin to convey its vastness. It was another dimension of almost limitless breadth, with no apparent end.
It contained all things. Within this quantum dimension of infinite possibilities, anything could happen and anything could be encountered, though most of those things were dangerous.
The same applied even to Elias.
After all, although he possessed the exalted status of a Quantum Pseudo God, compared with the entirety of the Sea of Quanta, the current Elias was still nothing more than a tiny grain of sand.
No matter how fond the Sea of Quanta was of him, it could not keep its attention focused on Elias at all times... After all, it was busy fighting the Imaginary Tree. That was its actual job!
Thus, it was perfectly natural for Elias to encounter danger within the Sea of Quanta. However, dangerous things were usually beautiful as well, and he now possessed the power to deal with them.
"I've encountered quite a few interesting things in just the past few days. I'd love to show Ely, but I suppose I'd better not~"
Elias sighed wistfully, then shook his head a second later.
Fifty thousand years ago, he and Elysia had embarked on a journey together, visiting every city and traveling to every corner of the world.
However, compared with this endless sea that was perpetually filled with the unknown and adventure, their former journey still fell slightly short.
"Speaking of which, I drove off something strange yesterday. I have no idea where it found the courage to attack me. It was lucky it escaped so quickly. I was planning to bring it back to Mobius as a potted souvenir. Slurp~"
Elias spoke regretfully while slurping the noodles he had just prepared, then took a sip of red wine.
Meanwhile, Ai sat atop a floating chakram, swinging back and forth as though she were on a swing.
All one could say was that after fifty thousand years, everything had changed. His traveling companion had gone from Miss Pink Elf to Miss Green Cabbage. Elysia had been ruthlessly replaced.
The AI girl tapped her fingers across a projected screen, organizing the data they had collected from the Sea of Quanta during this period.
It was no exaggeration to say that this data was infinitely valuable. If any institution researching quantum phenomena in the primary world saw it, they would immediately kneel and call Elias "Daddy," begging him to feed them data.
After all, the Sea of Quanta was not somewhere ordinary people could remain. Without quantum adaptability like Elias and Seele possessed, a normal person would be decomposed by this endless sea within minutes.
"Captain, based on the data Hyperion collected yesterday regarding that enormous organism resembling a cluster of crystal orchids, along with the residual information from the destroyed bubble worlds we've encountered recently, I have determined that it was the existence known as Sa."
As Ai spoke, she projected a file in front of Elias.
"Cough, cough, cough! Cough! W-What did you say?"
Elias' eyes widened in astonishment, and the cup of instant noodles slipped from his hand and fell to the floor.
Of course he knew what Sa was.
The devourer of the Sea of Quanta... No, describing that creature in such a grandiose manner would be giving it far too much credit.
Sa was a being whose civilization had been destroyed. It had attempted to reconstruct its civilization and replace the Cocoon of Finality, yet despite developing for untold billions of years, it had not even reached one-tenth of the Cocoon's strength.
It was the major villain after the conclusion of Honkai Impact 3rd. Although it was supposedly quite powerful, its presence was embarrassingly unimpressive.
Not only was it repeatedly betrayed by its own subordinates, but Hua could beat it up simply by activating her Artificial Cascade. Kiana could stand on the moon and nearly erase it from the edge of the solar system with a single shot.
Although that had not been its true body...
Yesterday, Elias had encountered Sa's true body.
It resembled an absurdly enormous crystal orchid, growing parasitically within the Sea of Quanta. Its bloated main body was larger than an entire planet.
At the time, Elias had been piloting Hyperion past it while singing, only to be suddenly attacked...
Ai: "According to the data analysis, Sa appears to have been continuously absorbing energy from bubble worlds within the Sea of Quanta, using it to expand and strengthen itself. However... compared with you, Captain, its method is appallingly inefficient."
Elias: "Exactly! Why would anyone need to make eating a bubble world so complicated? The energy that thing accumulates over several centuries is less than what I consume in a single day. What a complete clown."
Sa absorbed energy from bubble worlds by interfering with them in a manner similar to the Cocoon of Finality, guiding them toward destruction and then absorbing the energy released after their collapse.
This method was far inferior to Elias'.
After all, Elias directly merged entire bubble worlds into his body. Not only did this prevent any energy from being wasted, but the bubble worlds could continue supplying him with an endless stream of energy afterward.
Moreover, as a Quantum Pseudo God, Elias had long since received the Sea of Quanta's permission to absorb bubble worlds. He had no need to sneak around and eat scraps like Sa.
One could say that Elias was currently the Sea of Quanta's favorite child. It practically wished it could feed him with its own hands. Bubble worlds? A trivial matter! As long as something existed within the Sea of Quanta, Elias was free to eat as much as he pleased!
After all, the Sea of Quanta was currently in a state somewhat akin to fighting the Imaginary Tree for custody of Elias.
Sa, however, was different. She had neither the Sea of Quanta's recognition nor Elias' unique nature. Therefore, she could only absorb bubble worlds in secret. The process was not only troublesome but yielded very little energy.
Ai: "To that creature, the ten ultra-high-output Honkai energy reactors aboard Hyperion, as well as you yourself, Captain, were probably irresistible delicacies."
Elias: "Tch~ Something at that level wanted to eat me? Had it not fled so quickly, it would already be a potted plant!"
There had been serious flaws in Sa's path of development from the very beginning. Although she had spent hundreds of billions of years continuously expanding and strengthening herself by absorbing energy from bubble worlds...
She had forgotten to evolve her brain as well. As a result, she could not fully control her increasingly enormous body. Her development went astray, transforming her into a complicated, bloated, sluggish, and oversized higher-dimensional organism that lacked advanced information-processing capabilities.
Simply put, her hardware was powerful, but her software was garbage, preventing her from utilizing her full abilities.
She was like a tentacled monster with a hundred limbs, yet could precisely control only one or two of them.
Upon encountering Elias by chance, Sa attempted to devour him and complete a new evolution.
However, Hyperion's main cannon blasted her into a miserable state with a single shot.
This Hyperion was equipped with a planet-destroying Moonlight Throne main cannon. At full output, one blast could even decompose thirty percent of the Herrscher of Finality's Honkai energy.
After all, energy decomposition was the Moonlight Throne's defining characteristic.
Sa was enormous and catastrophically lacking in agility, so she had no chance of dodging. After taking the shot head-on, hundreds of millions of years' worth of accumulated energy within her body was directly decomposed by the Moonlight Throne.
Upon seeing hundreds of millions of years of cultivation erased by a single blast, Sa immediately realized that she had provoked the wrong person. Without the slightest hesitation, she turned and fled at full speed.
She even tore open space itself in an attempt to escape.
But would Elias let her go?
Although the main cannon needed time to cool down after firing, the most terrifying weapon aboard Hyperion had always been Elias himself!
Thus, he charged directly onto the battleship's deck and unleashed a maximum-output Shamash Assault at Sa.
He gave Sa an immediate and extremely effective weight-loss treatment, burning away an entire quarter of her body. That attack alone destroyed at least several billion more years of her accumulated power.
After all, the Shamash Assault unleashed by the current Elias at full strength was far more terrifying than the main cannon of a planet-destroying battleship.
Sa: "What kind of monster did I provoke?!"