Theresa also said, "Exactly, exactly! Elysia has always been such a perfect existence."
The others all agreed strongly.
It was Eden who spoke with deep emotion: "It's not just Ellie—the thirteen Flame-Chasers are all portrayed so outstandingly. They're really shaped so well. I love this version of Eden so much; it really fits me."
SAKURA also said, "To be honest, at first when he wrote my little sister's death, I wanted to kill him. But as the plot developed, I have to admit—my role turned out really great!"
Aponia agreed: "Yes… I can't even imagine being able to present this side—sacred and holy… Director Hessian really did an amazing job."
Kevin also said, "Exactly—especially me! It's practically me in real life. I just hope reality doesn't actually head in such a tragic direction."
The rest spoke one after another.
Without exception, they were all extremely satisfied with their portrayals.
At that moment…
Himeko suddenly asked, "Since Elysia's ending is about to be revealed soon, the Flame-Chasers' endings should have something too… right? What are they like?"
Uh…
The entire lounge fell silent.
Some knew only partially, others knew nothing at all.
And… no one could guess what that dog director was thinking.
So.
Everyone tacitly chose to keep watching the TV.
On the screen.
After Elysia left, the sky darkened… This really did have Elysia's style.
Mei's thoughts were in turmoil.
Once dawn arrived, Elysia would dispel the fog shrouding that island for her.
As long as she reached it, she would learn everything that happened at that banquet—the truth about the 13th Herrscher, and… the answer she sought.
After that… she would have to leave this place.
...
Leave...
Would she really leave?
She had never considered this question.
Having entered in the posture of a successor, she should naturally leave as one too—it was only right. She hadn't even imagined the possibility of returning here like Raven had.
But at some point, the present felt like yesterday's dream.
Yet this journey of pursuing the past, and the memory bodies she met along the way… had become… so real.
When the time for parting arrived, was her relationship with them truly only that of inheritor and bearer?
When seeing off one successor after another, what would they think in their hearts?
And that girl who greeted her with a smile at the very beginning—had she already foreseen today back then?
"…"
She didn't know.
But for answers she didn't know, her choice had always been to seek.
"Instead of spending the final moments back in reality… why not…"
"Let me feel your memories a little longer."
Mei wandered through the Elysian Realm, savoring everything around her, and encountered Fu Hua. They chatted freely.
At that moment.
The TV perspective switched to SAKURA.
She was in the archive room, holding a freshly printed file in her hand.
The contents transformed into memory scenes.
It was a hazy moonlit night.
"Ready to set out, SAKURA?"
SAKURA heard the voice and nervously pricked up her ears, looking around—
When she saw it was Elysia, she finally relaxed.
She said, "Yes. I told Rin the rendezvous point. We'll depart separately… I'll act as the decoy to shake off the pursuers."
Elysia said, "Sounds like a very risky plan…"
SAKURA said, "There's no time to prepare anything safer. I can only go all in. What about you—are you okay?"
Elysia said, "Me? You mean reluctant to part with you? Of course that matters."
SAKURA said, "You were the one who told me Rin had been identified as the 12th Herrscher. If we both disappear…"
"You'll likely come under suspicion, maybe even be held accountable."
Elysia said, "They probably won't guess it was me. Even if they do… what can they do to me?"
SAKURA guessed, "Maybe… they'll lock you up, just like they planned to do to Rin."
Elysia said, "I'm Elysia, who once sat at the head of the thirteen Flame-Chasers. What place could possibly hold me?"
SAKURA said, "Thirteen Flame-Chasers… huh. At first I thought it was just one of your whims, but I never expected you to keep insisting on it until now."
"If this is the goal you've chosen, then I'll be its firm supporter."
"It's just…"
SAKURA put away the rare smile she had shown and returned to her usual seriousness.
"Elysia… Rin… is she really okay?"
Elysia asked, "Which aspect do you mean?"
SAKURA said, "Fire Moth would never identify her as the 12th Herrscher without any basis. If… I mean if she really became humanity's enemy, then I—"
"SAKURA!"
Elysia interrupted her: "Do you think… Rin has shown any abnormality?"
SAKURA said, "…No. I can guarantee it. She's still the same Rin as before—my little sister."
Elysia affirmed, "Then she's human. No matter what Fire Moth discovered, they won't understand Rin better than you do."
SAKURA sighed, "I understand… I believe in Rin, and I believe in you."
"Mm."
Elysia nodded. After a moment of silence, she asked, "By the way… do you want to… sync your memories in the Realm one more time?"
"If we don't record those feelings from just now, it feels like such a waste."
SAKURA said, "…No. It's better this way. I don't want the me in there to know what happened to Rin."
"Even if it's just a memory body, I hope… I don't have to face that kind of difficult choice again."
Elysia said, "Got it. Next time we sync memories, I'll remind everyone on that side to keep it secret from you."
"…Safe travels, SAKURA."
SAKURA said, "Thank you, Elysia."
"The true meaning of Setsuna no Mei… I really like it."
"The roads of the martial world are long. Farewell for now."
The memory scene faded.
Moonlight passed through the open door, casting SAKURA's silhouette in the dim archive room.
She stood silently, saying nothing, quietly clutching a sheet of pale white paper in her hand.
Then Elysia's voice suddenly rang out: "…Hey, SAKURA, what a coincidence…"
"The day we said goodbye… it was a moonlit night just like this, wasn't it?"
The TV screen returned to Mei.
The first ray of light streamed in.
Laughter and cheerful voices came from the distance, making Mei think of Elysia.
She had always been smiling like that—even when saying goodbye to her, it was illusory yet eternal, flawless…
The garden was empty; she had arrived earlier than the agreed time.
Mei waited there in the garden.
Time passed quietly.
Elysia still didn't appear. Instead, Fairy Ellie suddenly showed up.
"Ah, cute human! Meeting you so early in the morning—is this fate destined by fairies too?"
"…"
Mei said helplessly, "Although I'm pretty much used to it by now, I still want to sigh—not bad for something modeled after Elysia."
Fairy Ellie said, "Oh? So today you're not with the mature me?"
"Could it be… you came alone to see me? Fairy Ellie is so happy!"
Mei said, "No… I made plans with Elysia to meet here, but she seems to be late."
Fairy Ellie said, "That's really rude. If it were me, I'd come early to wait for you and cherish every last moment with the cute human~"
Mei asked puzzled, "…Last moments??"
Fairy Ellie said, "Yeah. Once you learn the full truth, won't you leave here? Yesterday when we were fixing the typewriter together, the mature me said that."
"She's really reluctant to let you go."
"She said that to make sure you always remember us, she's preparing tons and tons of surprises on the final island—so many that whenever you dream, you'll come back to the Realm."
"That way, maybe you won't want to leave."
"I laughed at her for being too naive. You've suffered so much here—how could you possibly not want to leave!"
"…Uh, would you?"
"I…" Mei couldn't answer.
She changed the subject: "Forget about me—what about you? Why are you here? As the archive room administrator, is it really okay to leave your post?"
Fairy Ellie stammered, "Well… um… there's a reason… After you two left yesterday, no one came to the archive room anymore. I figured idling was idling, so I went out to enjoy the scenery."
"The afternoon sun was warm, the flowers in the air smelled sweet, I snuggled up to a soft little kitty, and before I knew it, I fell asleep."
Mei remarked, "So fairies need sleep too."
Fairy Ellie said, "When I opened my eyes again, the sky was already dark and the kitty was gone. I hurried back, but… but…"
"The archive room door was locked!"
Mei asked, "Locked? Didn't you lock it yourself?"
Fairy Ellie said, "There's nothing dangerous in the Elysian Realm—I don't have anything to guard against."
Mei said, "I don't know about dangerous things, but there are thieves. That cat you slept with might have been an accomplice."
"Anyway… anyway…"
Fairy Ellie said, "I tried every unlocking spell I knew, but I still couldn't pick the lock… In the end, I had to spend the night in the garden."
Mei said, "Every time I hear about your magic, there's always something unsettling about it… So you still couldn't get into the archive room?"
Fairy Ellie was puzzled too: "Yeah, this is the first time something like this has happened."
Mei felt something was off and asked, "Besides that typewriter, is there anything else important in the archive room?"
Fairy Ellie said, "Of course! There's also an adorably charming, flawlessly perfect fairy administrator!"
"…" Mei looked at her speechlessly.
Fairy Ellie quickly added, "Okay, fine, nothing else."
"Ah, could someone be targeting the one-and-only me?! No way—Fairy Ellie won't allow such atrocities!"
"Even if I have to use door-smashing magic, I'll stop their wrongdoing!"
Mei remarked, "Your actions sound a lot more like atrocities…"
"Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures! Cute human, I'm off!"
Fairy Ellie waved and left.
More time passed.
Elysia still hadn't come.
The agreed time had long since passed.
Mei couldn't help but think: "Something's wrong… Elysia would absolutely never stand me up. But no matter how you look at it, she's way too late…"
"Did I remember the meeting place wrong?"
"…I'll look elsewhere."
With that, Mei began searching through the Elysian Realm.
After searching fruitlessly, she spotted the Flame-Chasers gathered together.
Su was there too.
She could ask him to use his ability to foresee something.
As she approached,
she heard the usually silent, ice-cold Kevin say in extreme shock: "…This is impossible."
Su also said, "I thought so too, so… I double-checked repeatedly."
Aponia said, "Perhaps… there's a blind spot in our vision."
Mobius also said, "Is it really that hard to understand?"
"Don't tell me you still think she's hiding somewhere right now, watching our expressions and laughing her head off?"
"She's never made that kind of joke."
Aponia said, "Oh… I didn't expect to hear affirmation of her from your mouth. Looks like Mobius was quite shaken too."
"…"
Normally, Mobius would never stay silent in the face of such remarks.
But at this moment, she went against her nature, lowering her head without a word.
—Or perhaps because before she could retort, someone else joined the conversation.
"Um…"
"Excuse me."
Mei walked over.
Mobius looked at her: "…Oh, look who's here?"
Aponia asked, "Hello, Mei. Is something the matter?"
Mei got straight to the point: "…Has anyone seen Elysia?"
The speaker had no intention.
But the listeners did.
Everyone present fell completely silent.
In that instant—it was as if an invisible wall separated Mei from those four.
On the other side of the wall, there was only endless silence.
Until the ever-silent Kevin broke it: "…What do you want with her?"
Mei told the truth: "It's not about anything specific. We agreed to meet, but she never showed up, so I'm looking for her."
Kevin: "…"
Mei continued, "If you don't know, just tell me directly."
Su spoke up: "Sorry, Visitor. Elysia… seems to have run into some trouble."
"She's temporarily…"
After a brief pause, Mei received three words.
"Missing."
She said in surprise, "…Missing?"
"What do you mean by missing? Is she hiding? Or…"
"Sigh…" Mobius let out a breath: "Looks like this little lab rat is still completely in the dark."
"…?"
Mei looked at her in confusion.
Mobius said, "Su's words are always hard to understand. Let me translate for you—"
The light vanished.
Laughter and cheerful voices came from the distance, making Mei think of Elysia.
She had always been smiling like that—even when saying goodbye, it was eternal, flawless…
Yet illusory…
Mobius's latter half came through: "The woman you're looking for…"
"…"
"She's dead."
??
?????
In that moment, Mei was stunned.
The entire nation's audience was stunned.
All the actors who had appeared in Honkai Impact 3rd were equally stunned.
The official chat group exploded with messages.
"Huh? What? What does that mean? What the hell is this? Elysia's dead? No way!!"
"No… what the fuck? What the actual fuck? Dead? You're saying Elysia's dead?"
"Ah!!!!!!? What the hell!"
"WTF? WTF? What happened? Dead?"
"???????"
"What the hell is this? That's Elysia we're talking about—the second Flame-Chaser Elysia! And this is inside the Realm—how could she possibly be dead?"
"Zero-frame opener? Playing it like this? Elysia can't die."
"What the hell is this plot? I really don't understand it."
"Damn it, hearing that made my heart skip a beat—tell me it's fake!"
"No way, I can't recover from this. Mobius saying Elysia's dead? This isn't a joke, right?"
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible! Anyone can die, but not Elysia."
"Hahahaha, happy now? Excited now? The dog director really cut your Elysia open for you—go ahead and see if she's pink-turns-black."
"Fuck you, I can't get into the Honkai world, but I can sure as hell get into your house, right?"
"…"
Countless messages surged wildly in the group. Clearly, no one believed Elysia was dead.
Fire Moth Interstellar Entertainment Company.
In the lounge.
In that instant, the entire room fell into a terrifying silence.
Everyone stared at the words Mobius had just spoken on the TV screen…