Another Flame-Chaser falls.
As always, the screen cuts to the Flame-Chaser archive interface.
And, as always, players couldn't help but twitch the corners of their mouths.
Once again, they really wanted to travel back in time and slap their past selves for ever praising this interface's design.
What a joke! It's just a convenient delivery mechanism... for emotional stabs.
While everyone was simmering with grief and sarcasm—
Sakura's character card appeared front and center.
Crack—
With a sharp shattering sound, Sakura's character card fractured... and returned to its place.
It's worth noting that the game's UI had now fully distorted.
Black mist filled the entire Elysian Realm, and ominous "eye-like" marks flashed across the screen—the same symbol engraved on the chest of the Herrscher of Corruption.
Elysia paused for a moment.
Not for long.
Then, silently, she exited the Flame-Chaser archive.
Back at the main menu—
Before she could even click, a warm and "thoughtful" reminder from Fairy Elysia popped up:
[The final stage is about to begin]
[Follow your heart—move forward]
MiHoYo even thoughtfully nudged you forward into the next cutscene.
I mean...
There were no words.
"..."
"..."
In silence, the story moved on.
The camera panned to Aponia.
A crimson sky. A collapsing Elysian Realm. A world unraveling.
A deeply unsettling sight.
But what was even more worrisome was...
If the camera had shifted to Aponia at this moment—then was she the next sacrifice?
Players, though silent, began to feel unease rise within.
Being mentally prepared didn't mean being numb to the pain.
It was more like their execution was postponed, but the blade was still descending.
The pressure of inevitability.
...
Back to the narrative.
Aponia, in the deepest reaches of the realm, was continuously reading the Herrscher of Corruption's memories and broadcasting them to everyone within Elysian Realm.
"Still the same…"
After watching a segment, she sighed. "No matter how much human emotion she acquires, her essence remains that of a virus. My ability... likely won't work."
Aponia was using her authority as the vessel of the Elysian Realm to observe the Herrscher's memories.
Only Aponia, having become one with the Elysian Realm, could still exercise surveillance even after being corrupted.
Though her original goal hadn't been to peek into memories—it was to redeem her.
Players truly hadn't expected this.
Redeem the Herrscher of Corruption? You'd have better luck expecting the sun to rise in the west.
And, sure enough—
Aponia quickly realized: no matter how much emotion she devoured, the Herrscher remained a virus at her core.
Her judgment faltered.
Worse still—her continued use of her powers was accelerating the Herrscher's infection.
In-game, Aponia's model and portrait showed more and more of that sickly green glow spreading over her.
Her time was clearly running short.
So she had to decide—
Should she embrace the corruption and enter deeper into the Herrscher's mind?
Or retreat from the memory and suppress the infection?
But... which path offered hope?
It was a question with no clear answer.
Faced with this unknown, Aponia—who had always seen the future—finally hesitated.
"This is... the feeling of being unable to foresee the outcome... and still having to make a choice?"
"I haven't encountered this in so long... perhaps that's why I'm weaker than most in this moment."
She was being honest.
A scenario so common for others, yet foreign to her.
After all, she was once a prophet. And not just any prophet—one who saw the future with 100% accuracy.
As for the players...
They couldn't empathize, but they could understand her current indecision.
"Moments like these... usually someone gives a little push, right?"
Elysia mused aloud. "But who would it be? Eden just left—she wouldn't suddenly reappear."
"And the others… They're not exactly the type to show up in the depths of the realm or offer words of comfort."
"Far away, yet right before your eyes," Hokuto answered cryptically.
"Huh?"
Elysia blinked.
But she quickly understood what Hokuto meant.
Because—
Aponia's next thoughts betrayed her conflicted heart.
Though she was hesitating over this crucial choice—
The dominant feeling in her heart... was relief.
Even if she didn't know what future awaited, she still felt a faint belief that this had meaning.
"Elysia... this must be... your wish, too."
Elysia had affected everyone.
Sakura, Aponia, even Kalpas...
"Then so be it."
Aponia made her choice.
She opened her arms in a welcoming gesture.
"Come... Herrscher of Corruption. Please—enter my embrace."
She chose to accept the Herrscher of Corruption—so she could descend into her depths.
Everything went smoothly. No unexpected resistance.
But once inside...
Instead of surreal or abstract sights, the first thing Aponia saw as her consciousness returned was—
Kalpas!?
Why was he here!?
"Kalpas...? Why...? Did she imprison beings she deemed valuable after absorbing their data?"
[Ran into Kalpas inside the Herrscher of Corruption? Is this another blood pressure trap??]
[My pressure's already high enough—my meds are running low.]
[Herrscher of Corruption, kindly get lost.]
[Why is Kalpas here?! I don't recall signing up for this!!]
Even Kalpas himself seemed... confused?
Well, that made sense.
Because the voice... was Mobius.
She had dubbed this entire segment herself using audio manipulation tech.
Meaning—Kalpas, Vill-V, etc.—none of them recorded lines for this.
It was all Mobius.
Which, in a twisted way, perfectly fit the current arc.
Unaware of this, Aponia approached cautiously.
She called softly: "Kalpas."
"Well, took you long enough, Aponia," came his strange tone. "You're here to get me out, right?"
"You...?"
Aponia shook her head.
That tone... no, it wasn't him.
To put it bluntly—this Kalpas was way too OOC. He didn't greet her with a blunt "Scram," but with gentle words?
Definitely fake.
But...
As she studied him, Aponia did sense a strange familiarity.
Something off—something she couldn't quite place.
"What's wrong? I thought you'd be happy to see me."
"This place is interesting, but that's enough. Let's go."
Aponia's suspicion deepened.
That tone... Elysia's?
Could it be… this was a counterfeit recreated by the Herrscher, based on her own interpretation?
With a serious expression, Aponia asked:
"Kalpas... didn't you enter this place of your own will?"
"Willingly? I've still got things to do. Staying here forever... how could I?"
Kalpas continued speaking in that weird, Elysia-esque tone.
Players: ...
Hearing Kalpas talk like Elysia gave them full-body goosebumps.
Fan content is meant to respect characters—not emotionally murder the audience!
[Who are you?! Take off Kalpas' skin and get out!!]
[There's no way Kalpas would say "Let's go."]
[My scalp is tingling.]
[Honestly, this doesn't even sound like Elysia. It's more like... someone else entirely.]
Even Aponia couldn't take this anymore.
And right then, she noticed Vill-V standing in the distance.
She left Kalpas and approached Vill-V.
But Vill-V... also had the same issue.
Her speech and tone—completely unlike herself. In fact, it sounded almost like Elysia again.
Faced with this absurdity—
Aponia began to form a terrifying hypothesis.
"Could it be... not just their appearance, mannerisms, and speech… even their emotions... were stolen by the Herrscher of Corruption?"
"So... her corruption of the Flame-Chasers... was actually out of love?"
"She didn't lie. When we risked everything to fight her, she was genuinely trying to... save our lives, in her own way?"
???
Love?
The Herrscher of Corruption is "corrupting" the Flame-Chasers just to stop them from dying?
She does this because she "loves" them???
That's some seriously deranged yandere logic...
Actually no—this goes beyond yandere.
This isn't love. It's a full-blown disease.
Players were floored by this revelation.
Thanks to Aponia's analysis—they weren't sure if they could ever look at the Herrscher of Corruption the same way again.
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