"Now then… let's properly reintroduce ourselves, Silas."
Silas looked at Elysia in surprise. He hadn't expected her to come to him so openly—to lay her heart bare like this. But if she was willing to be honest… then so was he.
"The third Flame-Chaser, [Eclipse], Silas." He met her gaze steadily. His voice was calm. "It's been a long time, Elysia... or may I say that?"
"It really has been a long time, hasn't it?" Elysia's voice grew light, almost playful again. "So, how does it feel—our first proper meeting after reincarnation?"
A faint smile touched his lips. "Just like the first time we met."
Elysia laughed, her eyes sparkling. Elysia laughed. "That makes me really happy. You used the Sigil I came up with when you introduced yourself. It means… you've accepted your place among the Flame-Chasers. I thought… maybe you'd reject it now."
"I've always been proud to stand as a Flame-Chaser," Silas said quietly. "Fighting alongside all of you… was my greatest honor."
Elysia blinked, caught off guard. His words held no deception—no hidden bitterness. He meant them. But if that was true… then why…?
"Silas… can I ask you something?" Her voice was barely above a whisper.
Silas hesitated. What had she discovered? Did she want the truth about the Rebellion Purge? The 12th Herrscher Incident? Those were answers he couldn't give—not because he wished to deceive her, but because he couldn't bear to tarnish her image of him.
Yet… he couldn't lie to her either.
"Ask," he said at last. "I'll answer… whatever you wish to know." Even if you hate me for it afterward.
Elysia took a deep breath.
"That last banquet…" Her voice was steady, but her fingers curled slightly. "I sent you an invitation. Why… didn't you come?"
Silas nearly choked.
That's what she's worried about?!
"I… had Kevin return the invitation to you with my reply," he said carefully. "He must have told you—those who attended did so because they believed in you, Elysia. Those who refused… also did so because they believed in you."
Elysia looked down, her lashes hiding her eyes.
That wasn't the answer she wanted.
Seeing her expression, Silas had a sudden sinking feeling.
He asked cautiously, "Wait... did you really want me to be there?"
The moment the words left his mouth, he realized how dumb the question was. Of course she did—she wouldn't have brought it up otherwise. The fact that she had asked this first and above all else said more than enough.
He immediately tried to recover. "Sorry, I'm being dense. That wasn't what you were looking for, was it? The real reason I didn't go... was because..."
He paused, casting his mind back to that day.
"…Because at the time, I thought you didn't trust me."
Elysia's breath hitched.
"I—" She opened her mouth, but no words came.
Silas' answer had caught her completely off guard.
Silas, as if a dam had burst inside him, continued speaking:
"After I received that invitation, I went around and checked with the other Flame-Chasers. None of them had gotten one. You became a Herrscher—your initial goal was probably to unite the rest of us, right? I know you. You're someone who fears loneliness, who's afraid of being left behind. You must've been worried that becoming a Herrscher would make us angry with you, would make us drift apart. But you were wrong. We've always believed in you, Elysia. o me, the story of the Fourteen Flame-Chasers… was always your story."
"You didn't send invitations to anyone else, because you were afraid of being hated. You wanted to give them the freedom to choose. But you—you sent one to me. And on that card, you asked me to come and slay you... as a Herrscher."
Silas's voice wavered for the first time.
"Do you know how much that hurt?"
He clenched his fists, recalling how it felt in that moment.
"I fought so long, gave everything I had for humanity, and yet... you thought I would come to kill you just because you became a Herrscher..."
It was the truth. He had planned to attend that final banquet—to witness the end of Elysia, the most radiant, unblemished soul of their era. But that invitation… its words had pierced his heart like a blade.
"She doesn't trust me." That was all he could think, in despair.
"Of course," Silas added, forcing his tone back to neutrality, "that wasn't the only reason. The Ascension Project was in its final stages, and—"
But Elysia cut him off. "Then why?"
Her head was bowed, her expression hidden beneath her pink bangs, and her voice was trembling slightly.
"After the Binding Tragedy… why did you refuse to see me? No matter what I tried, you avoided me. The one time I finally found you…" Her hands clenched. "You were on that operating table, dying, and I could do nothing but watch! I thought… I thought you hated me because of Lilith!"
The raw pain in her voice struck Silas like a hammer to the chest.
That's what she believed?
It was true that Lilith had something to do with why he avoided Elysia.
But it was never because he hated her.
He just… didn't know how to face her.
Lilith had been the only one who ever confessed to him. Even after he rejected her, she stayed by his side, trusting him unconditionally until the end. And he'd failed to protect her. The guilt—and something deeper, something he couldn't name—had festered in his heart.
And then, in her final moments, Lilith had whispered:
"I've always envied Elysia… for having your heart."
Those words had become an insurmountable wall between him and Elysia.
That, and…
It had been the first time Elysia had seen the darkness in him. The side of him that would sacrifice anything—even his own humanity—to protect those he cared for.
She must have been disgusted.
And yet…
When she'd granted him the title of [Eclipse], when she'd welcomed him as a Flame-Chaser…
He had genuinely, truly… felt happy.
But in the end, he convinced himself she could never love someone like him. And somewhere along the way, he had started to believe that maybe… maybe he'd developed feelings for Lilith, too.
He didn't know how to deal with it. So like a coward, he ran from it all—ran from Elysia.
"I... I've never hated you," Silas said at last, his voice tinged with bitterness.
He had always looked at her as a character in the game. At first, it was a way to cope with rejection, a self-defense. But over time, it had become a form of self-hypnosis: if he convinced himself Elysia could never love a single person, then maybe... maybe it wouldn't hurt so much.
Silence fell between them.
Then, after what felt like an eternity, Elysia spoke again, her voice softer now.
"When you first confessed to me… I was surprised. You were the first boy who ever had. I turned you down because… I felt I didn't know you well enough." A faint, wistful smile touched her lips.
"I thought we had time—time for me to understand you better, to give you a sincere answer. But then, not long after, you left my team. And we barely talked after that. Still... I watched you. I saw you grow, step by step, into a hero."
To her, his feelings had been pure and sincere. She hadn't wanted to respond with a half-hearted answer, so she chose to wait—until she could reply properly.
"I was never a hero", Silas thought.
"And then…" Elysia's voice grew quieter. "I saw Lilith confess to you. She looked so beautiful that night…" A pause. "I don't know why, I didn't want to see what happened next. I turned and walked away, like I was running from something."
Silas remembered that night, too.
Lilith had asked to meet him. She'd dressed up, said she had something important to say. And under the moonlight, she'd confessed.
He remembered the hope in her eyes... and how that hope slowly dimmed when he said no.
And yet, she still smiled at him, still promised that she wouldn't give up. That one day, she would surpass Elysia.
He had told her then: "You don't need to surpass her. You're you. Unique, irreplaceable. I turned you down not because of Elysia, but because… I just don't think I'm ready. I don't believe I have what it takes to respond to your feelings."
The truth was... he didn't know how to love anyone.
Even his confession to Elysia had been a heat-of-the-moment reaction—driven by Kevin teasing him, nothing more than a foolish impulse.
And now he realized...
But…
Wait... Elysia was there that night?!
In reality, she hadn't been the only one. Lilith had drawn quite a bit of attention with her outfit, and when people saw she was looking for Silas, most of them quietly dispersed—after all, rumors about Lilith and Silas had long circulated among the bored ranks of MOTH.
Silas now understood what Elysia was trying to say.
But… the current him... he couldn't love her as purely as before.
He...
He had once believed he was the chosen one. He had even survived the early, unstable MANTIS surgeries. He thought he could change fate.
But in the end—what had he really changed?
Dystopia died during the 8th Herrscher's invasion. He couldn't save her.
Ato perished in the 9th Herrscher incident. Again, he failed.
Every MANTIS outside the Thirteen Flame-Chasers fell in the Binding Tragedy. Still, nothing changed.
He wanted to save Elysia, but humanity kept losing to the Honkai, over and over again. He couldn't fight against the tide. All he could do was watch Elysia walk toward her end.
Fate, in the end, stubbornly returned to its original path.
Yet…
At the very last moment, he had wrenched destiny aside. He had saved twelve of the Flame-Chasers and ten thousand elite survivors. That was the limit of what he could do.
And yet, looking back now—did it really matter?
Did he truly defeat fate?
He didn't know. But at the very least, for that one fleeting instant… he had twisted fate.
And this time—he could do even better.
In his past life, he had considered eliminating the incompetent higher-ups. But how?
He was just one man—no power, no influence, no "system" to rely on. If he tried to overthrow them, the first obstacle would be Kevin. And even if Kevin stayed out of it, there were still Hua, Dystopia, and the other MANTISes to contend with.
He stood no chance.
By the late stages of the Honkai War, he did have the strength to crush the leadership—but who would replace them? Have Vill-V split off a "politician" persona and work herself to death? Mei died of overwork in the end too, didn't she?
How do you even win a war against the Honkai with a team of pig teammates constantly dragging you down? That was a serious issue.
He could lie flat and wait for the next era, wait for Otto to come save everyone…
But…
He wanted to try.
He wanted to save Elysia.
When Silas remained silent, Elysia also paused for a moment before speaking again.
"Silas… can you tell me—when did you start falling for Lilith?"
At the very least… she wanted to know why.
Silas opened his mouth—but no words came.
When had he fallen for Lilith?
He'd never accepted her confession. They'd never been together. And yet…
By the time of the Binding Tragedy, he'd realized—some part of him had loved her.
"I never agreed to her feelings," he said at last. "We were never a couple. But… by the end, I think I had started to care for her."
"But after that… you two were basically inseparable," Elysia said softly.
Silas squinted at her. "She was my second-in-command. Is there something wrong with us showing up together?"
That was just how things were. Most people didn't know the full story, but rumors were inevitable. Especially when they worked so well together—everything he struggled with, Lilith handled for him with ease. Logistics, diplomacy, social relations… she did it all. It was only natural for people to start assuming things.
Their dynamic mirrored Kevin and Elysia's in the original timeline—except Lilith had been actively trying to seduce him the entire time.
And honestly?
As for how others saw it? He didn't care. He had no time for romance. He was exhausted just fighting the Honkai. Who had time for romance?
Saving the world is way more interesting than chasing girls.jpg
But he'd never expected Elysia to misunderstand—and worse, to actually fall for him because of it.
Elysia paused. Wait—so they weren't lovers?
She wasn't convinced. "Then what about the matching earrings?"
"You mean the sun and moon earrings?" Silas rubbed his chin. "She explained it like this—since I was the leader of the Thirteen Fallen Angels and she was my vice commander, me wearing the sun and her the moon was just symbolic."
Elysia narrowed her eyes. She didn't believe for a second that Silas couldn't tell what Lilith was thinking.
Silas began to feel a little nervous under her gaze and shifted awkwardly. "I did ask her if she meant something else by it. She openly admitted she did—said that since I rejected her but still expected her to clean up my messes, taking a little reward was only fair…"
In short, he'd been played like a damn fiddle.
Elysia: "…"
Lilith… you're vicious.
Outside the door, Mobius—who had been eavesdropping—mentally kicked herself. "I need to write this down!"
How did SHE not think of this before?! She'd helped Silas so many times already—wait, wait, 'payment'… didn't she ask him to do things too? Like gathering experimental samples… or getting on the operating table…
Ugh. she want to go back in time and strangle her past self.
Silas, meanwhile, remembered the moment clearly.
He'd asked Lilith: "But the sun and moon only meet at dawn and dusk—just for a moment."
She'd grinned, devilish. "Even if it's just a moment, they get to gaze at each other until the end. Isn't that romantic~?"
"Can I refuse?"
"Then I quit."
"…"
Seeing him helplessly put on the earring, Lilith had declared with smug satisfaction, "And besides, my name is Lilith Atargatis. Moon goddess. Of course I get the moon."
Silas couldn't help but mutter, "Then why not the moon and stars?"
What moon goddess, she was clearly a moon devil.
Lilith deadpanned: "There are countless stars in the sky. What kind of woman do you think I am?"
"…"
Damn. She's got a point.
Snapping back to the present, Silas found Elysia staring at him with an unreadable expression.
Instinctively, he leaned back. "Elysia… is there something else?"
"I'm not giving up!" Elysia declared, clenching her fists.
Silas: "???"
Wait—wasn't the most important thing right now fighting the Honkai? Changing the fate of the previous era?
Elysia stood up and turned toward the door. "I'm going to see Ato and get his examiner qualification revoked."
Silas: "???"
________________________________________
15+ advanced chapters available on Pat/NoobyIdiotka