In the game, Elysia's question prompted players to think.
Mei also seriously considered the question.
However, she didn't give Elysia an answer immediately and decided to think it over more carefully.
Elysia then agreed with Mei to meet again the next morning.
They would witness the birth and end of the [Thirteenth Herrscher] together.
Mei would give her answer then.
"Remember, tomorrow morning, let's meet here again."
Seeing Mei and Elysia make that promise, some players couldn't help but start posting on-screen comments:
[Ever since the Elysian Realm update, the MiHoYo writers have turned evil. I feel like they're going to cliffhang the chapter here.]
[Cliffhanger alert.]
[Feels like there's an 80% chance we're getting cut off here.]
But the MiHoYo writers, for once, truly surprised the players.
The story didn't end here!?
Instead, it continued with a new chapter.
From "Elysia's Arc," it transitioned into "Hua's Arc."
[The writers actually didn't cliffhang it? Could it be they've returned to their roots as people who don't cut chapters?]
[Based on my understanding of the MiHoYo team, maybe they think we're just not panicked enough yet for a cliffhanger.]
[…Don't jinx it. I really want to see where they do decide to cut.]
In the story—
Mei and Elysia parted ways.
Soon after, the sky darkened.
Mei stood alone in the plaza, thoughts filled with everything Elysia had said that day.
Once she found the answer, she would be leaving this place.
Would she really leave…
It was something Mei had never truly considered.
"..."
"These final moments… rather than spend them back in reality… let me continue feeling your [memories] a little longer."
In the quiet night of the Elysian Realm,
Mei wandered alone, as if flipping through a treasured book, imprinting every corner of the Realm into her memory.
Unknowingly,
She ran into Hua.
"Good evening, Mei."
Only when Hua greeted her did Mei snap out of it. "Hua? Good evening."
They talked about the Flame-Chasers system.
Hua told Mei that although the [Thirteen Flame-Chasers] had initially been rejected, MOTH had offered a compromise: to approve a smaller group—just five Flame-Chasers.
Elysia, Kevin, Vill-V, Su, and Hua.
Mei was surprised. Mobius, Aponia, Kalpas—fine, she could understand. But the rest? Were they really worse off than the approved five?
Hua went on to explain MOTH's rationale at the time:
Griseo was still a child and unstable. Kosma could go berserk. Sakura had scandalous ties to the Cocoon of Deception that the higher-ups feared.
And as for Pardofelis—
The reason was unbelievably absurd.
Nobody in MOTH's upper ranks had ever heard of her.
[Pardofelis's presence is literally too low.]
[Yet in the end, she still charged into the battlefield of Finality without hesitation.]
[That comment just reminded me of the treasure-burying scene… I'm gonna cry.]
...
Even so, despite constant rejections,
Thanks to Elysia's efforts, the name "Thirteen Flame-Chasers" was passed down.
According to Hua, Elysia had done a great deal back then.
Though... much of it was rather strange, it was still fun.
So, in the end, they all went along with her.
Players could already imagine Elysia sweet-talking all these troubled kids into doing strange, joyful things.
That must've been such a heartwarming sight...
Elysia, watching this part of the story, started to get a feeling.
Could Hokuto be trying to connect her event story to the main plot?
But well, even if it was linked to the main story… it should be fine.
Just think of it as a big, multiplayer reminiscence—a joyful one at that.
No tragedy. No problem.
While Mei and Hua spoke deep into the night—
The scene shifted.
It became a memory.
A moonless, windy night.
Elysia found Sakura and quietly told her that [Rin had been identified as the Twelfth Herrscher].
And then, Sakura decided to save Rin.
It was essentially the same as the scene where Seele met Sakura in the bubble world during the main story—only with different characters.
So this part didn't stir much emotion from players.
What truly made them uneasy was...
The reason for this story's existence.
It was because Sakura had secretly snuck into the archives and used the printer to print a file about the Twelfth Herrscher.
She stood in silence, holding a stark white page, hands clenched tightly.
At the same time,
A familiar voice rang out: "Hi, Sakura. What a coincidence. The day we parted... was on a night just like this, wasn't it?"
Tension spiked for every player watching.
But the story suddenly ended here.
Another cliffhanger?!
Before they could react—
The night had passed.
Mei stood alone in the garden, waiting for Elysia to arrive for their promised meeting.
But despite waiting a long time, Elysia never showed.
Instead, she ran into Fairy Elysia.
This was the final scene Elysia herself remembered from the real world.
Fairy Elysia, having played around too much, had gotten locked out of the archive room and had to spend the night in the garden.
The incident with the archive room troubled Mei slightly.
But she was more concerned about Elysia's promise, so she didn't dwell on it.
She said goodbye to Fairy Elysia and kept waiting in the garden.
But even after the sun rose high into the sky, Elysia still didn't appear.
So Mei decided to check elsewhere—maybe she'd simply remembered the meeting spot wrong and Elysia was waiting somewhere else.
At this point, players began to feel a strong sense of unease.
Eden, standing nearby, couldn't hold back anymore.
"Elysia, don't you think this plot development feels a little… off?"
"Mmm, it does feel a little weird."
At first, Elysia hadn't thought anything of the dialogue between Fairy Elysia and Mei.
But considering Mei's monologue and the atmosphere, something did feel "a little" wrong.
"Elysia, do you know what happens next?"
Eden wanted to confirm whether Elysia would appear again in the upcoming scenes.
"The next part… I don't know anything about it..." Elysia's answer said it all.
"..."
"Eden, it's okay... Let's just keep watching."
...
The Elysian Realm wasn't big.
But even after searching for a long time, Mei didn't find Elysia—or any other Flame-Chaser.
Only when she returned to the marketplace did she see them again. Su was there too—maybe he could help locate Elysia.
With that hope,
Mei approached them.
At that moment—
The Flame-Chasers were discussing something.
"That's impossible!"
Kevin flatly denied it.
Su replied, "I thought so too, which is why… I kept verifying."
Aponia offered a hypothesis, seemingly trying to deny something: "Perhaps there's a blind spot in our perception."
Then Mobius spoke: "Is it really so hard to understand? Do you all still think she's hiding somewhere, watching our reactions and laughing herself to tears? She's never made this kind of [joke] before!"
Seeing the Flame-Chasers talk like this,
Players' unease deepened.
That's when Mei stepped in and asked if they had seen Elysia.
All of them fell silent in an instant.
As if an invisible wall had formed between Mei and the others. On the other side of the wall, silence began to creep in.
[No no no, don't do this—don't let the air suddenly go quiet here.]
Elysia's finger trembled slightly as she tapped the screen.
Still, she kept watching.
Kevin broke the silence and asked Mei, "...Why are you looking for her?"
Mei replied, "It's not that I have [something] to say. We agreed to meet here, but she hasn't shown up. That's why I'm looking for her."
Kevin: "..."
"If you don't know, just tell me."
Su suddenly interjected, "Sorry, visitor. Elysia... seems to have run into some trouble."
"She's currently…"
A pause.
Mei received Two words:
"She's gone."
That made Mei even more confused. "'Gone'? What do you mean by that? Is she hiding, or..."
"Ah, looks like the little lab rat here has been left in the dark,"
Mobius dismissed Mei's guesses.
"Su always talks in riddles. Let me translate for you—"
At this point, players all paused simultaneously.
They began taking deep breaths.
Several, over and over, just to suppress their anxiety and continue watching.
The game screen suddenly went black.
Lines of subtitles flashed.
The light disappeared.
Laughter and joy echoed in the distance, reminding Mei of Elysia.
She always laughed like that—even when saying goodbye. Eternal, flawless...
Yet dreamlike…
"The woman you're looking for…"
The unease players had barely managed to suppress now surged again.
[MiHoYo!! No no no NO! Writers, don't you dare!!]
[All I wanted was for Elysia to hang out with us in the Realm… that's all I asked!]
But no matter how they pleaded, the story coldly laid out a fact—
"..."
"She's dead." Mobius gritted her teeth as she said it.
Instantly,
The atmosphere in-game turned stifling.
But outside the game, it was even heavier.
Given the current popularity of Elysia's livestream, the chatroom went completely silent.
Countless viewers' minds went blank.
Only after a long, long time—
Did the game screen auto-transition.
The Flame-Chaser archive that Elysia had just praised for its good design appeared, neatly lined up.
Then, Elysia's file suddenly expanded at the center.
And then...
It shattered.
Crack!
Elysia instinctively tapped her broken archive.
Crack!
Another crisp snap, and a glitched archive opened.
Players: ???
That sharp double snap woke them from their daze.
They began to process what just happened.
What?
Dead?
Who's dead?
Elysia?
Elysia… she's dead?
How could she die? Isn't she just a memory?
No way. That's impossible!!
What the hell!! Writers, are you even sane?!
A player slammed their desk in fury, ignoring their reddened palm as they pounded their keyboard:
[RNM! Do you even know what you're writing, writer?!]
[F***, she's already a memory, and you still won't let her go!!]
[So this is what you meant when you said the story wouldn't be "calm"? Go to hell!]
[You designed the archive that way on purpose, didn't you? Just for that crack sound?!]
[It felt like I just heard my heart break. F*** you, writer!]
...
The chat exploded.
But Elysia and Eden were still in shock.
Especially Eden.
Eden: "..."
Eden: "..."
"Elysia… died?"
After a long silence, Eden finally voiced her disbelief.
"Elysia... shattered?"
She said again, barely a whisper.
"Elysia…"
"Eden, are you okay?! I'll come to you right away!"
Elysia was the last to snap out of it.
After all, she had always believed the Elysian Realm was a happy story.
Because... the map was so beautiful, the story so cheerful...
So… how could this happen?
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