Players had truly mastered the art of stabbing themselves in the heart.
In-game, Mei's thoughts echoed theirs.
"After knowing the outcome, even once joyful memories... would turn into sorrow, wouldn't they?"
Elysia paused to ponder: "Hmm... maybe there'd be a faint sense of melancholy. But I think it wouldn't be pain, but rather joy."
"Joy in having once held happiness, and expectation for future miracles."
"You see, everything has two sides, right?"
"Even after going through all that, Kevin still remembered... how to smile."
When players heard Elysia speaking to Mei:
[Elysia is so optimistic.]
[Honestly, I feel the same—it really resonates.]
[But… Kevin doesn't smile anymore.]
[Kevin: Do you still dream, Herrscher of Thunder? I no longer do.]
...
Everyone had their own thoughts.
They couldn't quite tell if it was sadness or grief—they just felt complicated.
Still, this memory was certainly worth recording, not something to be forgotten.
Mei felt the same. She could sense the meaning behind the memory.
Seeing Mei understood her made Elysia visibly happy.
"Mhm! I knew it—Mei gets me. But, like you said, results matter too."
"You see, even in the already-set Elysian Realm, people still care about outcomes."
"For example, you can't mention Kalpas's homeland... can't eat anything Mobius gives you... can't reject Elysia's requests... can't tell Sakura…"
Just then—
"Hmm? Can't tell me what?"
Sakura suddenly appeared in the archive room.
The atmosphere instantly turned tense.
Players collectively stopped breathing.
Because what Elysia had been about to say—they could all guess.
It had to be about Sakura's younger sister, Rin!
If Sakura found out about that… it would definitely end badly!
"Sakura? Oh my, I suppose I can't hide it anymore. I was just telling Mei how beautiful you looked that day ♪"
Thankfully, Elysia found a passable excuse and stepped aside to show Sakura the photo, successfully redirecting her attention.
Players let out a sigh of relief.
Miss Elf really came through.
But then—Miss Elf started babbling about the Realm's typewriter, saying it could print anything that had happened in the past. There was nothing it didn't know!
Player nerves shot up again.
Don't jinx it, please.
If Sakura learned Rin's fate through that machine...
They were worried.
And in-game, Sakura really did glance at the typewriter thoughtfully after hearing Elysia's explanation.
A chill ran down players' spines.
This could go very badly!
But Sakura didn't pursue the matter and instead asked where Vill-V was.
To avoid the conversation going in the wrong direction, Mei quickly told Sakura Vill-V's whereabouts.
Sakura left the archive to find her.
The in-game perspective shifted to Sakura.
She arrived at Vill-V's workshop and retrieved her weapon—Seven Thunders of Retribution.
Honestly, this part of the plot wasn't much—rather ordinary. But in context, it felt ominous.
[Sakura suddenly retrieved her weapon. Is something going to happen?]
[This is giving me suspense thriller vibes.]
Players watched the story unfold with hesitation, surprise, and uncertainty.
But after retrieving her weapon, the scene cut off abruptly.
There was no explanation of what Sakura planned to do.
No hint of where she was going.
This unknown only deepened players' unease.
Sakura's arc ended, and the perspective shifted to Mobius.
And Mobius… looked like she was scheming something, with a storm brewing behind her eyes.
She found Kalpas, and after a clash, they talked—seemingly with the intent of using Kalpas for her own ends.
But to everyone's surprise, Kalpas was... smart?
Or rather, he wasn't as unhinged as players had assumed?
In any case, Kalpas's image in their minds shifted a bit.
He made it clear Mobius wouldn't be using him, and even mocked her in return.
"At this point, you finally drop your pretense of getting along, and start resorting to those dirty little tricks."
"But Kalpas won't be your tool. Watching you fail miserably is quite the treat... hahaha…"
Mobius simply responded with her usual sarcasm.
"Getting along? You're really misunderstanding things in weird places, my dear Kalpas."
"We were never all on the same page. Who did you think was pretending? ...The Flame-Chasers?"
"Ha… do you really think that exists? From the start... we were always this fractured."
[...]
Even though everyone always knew that this chaotic group of strong personalities could never truly get along—
Hearing someone say it so bluntly still stung.
[So the Flame-Chasers were still this fractured even after 50,000 years?]
[Who besides Elysia has ever even tried to mend those rifts? Sometimes, conflicts don't just disappear on their own.]
[Is it possible… Mobius is just being tsundere?]
[I just feel like something's going really wrong with this story arc.]
...
These scenes definitely had players on edge.
They could sense something going wrong in the Elysian Realm's atmosphere.
But for now, their attention was focused on the key players—Sakura, Mobius...
No one had yet suspected that the source of the Realm's unraveling might be someone who had been near them the entire time.
Not only did they not suspect it—when the game shifted back to Elysia—
They even sighed in relief.
[Miss Elf is still sunshine and smiles, so different from the others.]
Elysia and Mei were continuing their memory journey.
"The next memory—I want to take you somewhere special."
She led Mei back to the Elysian Realm's main hall, once the meeting place of the Flame-Chasers.
"It was also here that I proudly declared the name of the Thirteen Flame-Chasers to the world."
Elysia recounted to Mei the founding of the Flame-Chasers.
It should've been a celebratory tale.
Yet her voice sounded faintly lonely.
Even the BGM in the game turned soft and melancholic.
Back then…
Elysia had meticulously prepared everything in this place.
She even asked Vill-V to prepare desserts for thirteen people.
Thankfully, she didn't cater to Kevin by serving thirteen bowls of noodles.
She waited eagerly for everyone to gather for the first time.
But on that day, only Aponia, Eden, Kevin, Hua, and Vill-V showed up. Including herself, just six—barely half.
It matched Mobius's earlier words perfectly.
Kevin had even coldly revealed one truth: MOTH never recognized the Thirteen Flame-Chasers.
At that moment, the game gave Elysia a close-up shot.
And for the first time, players saw a lonely smile on Elysia's face.
The level of detail in the rendering—
It hurt.
That lonely smile might've been okay on another character's face, but on always cheerful, ever-lively Elysia—
The contrast was unbearable.
[I feel kinda heartbroken for Elys...]
[The Flame-Chasers spent their lives saving the world and were never even acknowledged. That hurts.]
[Sure, Mobius, Kalpas, Aponia… they're problematic. But still… it's not like MOTH was wrong either.]
[The saddest thing is Elysia. Everyone's making trouble, the higher-ups keep debating, and she's the only one constantly fighting to secure rights for the team. But even her own teammates don't understand why she's doing it all.]
[...Stop it, stop it. I can't hold it together anymore.]
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