Chapter 201: The Furious Raven
"Irene, what exactly is—" Kevin's expression at that moment was something to behold. A look like that on a normally stone-faced man was a rare sight indeed.
"Oh, nothing much." Irene tapped the side of her own head. "You know how I have the ability to carry souls. I asked everyone's opinion, and they all wanted to come along, so here we are."
"..." Kevin opened his mouth. Most of them had come out. If he remembered correctly, Irene already had a whole crowd living inside her head to begin with. Add in her companions from the Elysian Realm, and — how many people were in there now? How was Irene still standing?
Kevin wasn't a psychic-type, but he knew well enough that housing souls within another person's body wasn't impossible. In fact, there were those who could do exactly that.
Fu Hua, who had taken up Fenghuang Down — the Zeroth Rated Power could indeed transfer a soul into another's body. The Herrscher of Sentience herself was also capable of it.
But Irene wasn't either of those. Irene was the Herrscher of Death. And from what he could tell, she'd been able to do this long before now.
That left only one explanation: raw, innate talent. Still, Kevin couldn't understand why Irene carried the aura of Origin. What had Elysia done?
While Kevin was still turning the question over in his mind, a flash of pink light rippled at Irene's side — and Elysia appeared before him, draped in Hua's form.
"Oh my, so it really does work — borrowing Little Corruption's power to come out." Elysia looked down at herself with a note of appreciation. Little Corruption's Authority really was something useful.
After all, Little Corruption herself was essentially a humanoid interface assembled entirely from layered Authorities. Stacking another image on top and handing control to someone else wasn't beyond the realm of possibility — especially for one of the Thirteen Flame-Chasers. In that regard, Little Corruption practically had it down to second nature.
Her entire combat style was built on mimicking the Flame-Chasers' techniques, which meant replicating other people's Authorities cost her some effort — but mimicking the Thirteen Flame-Chasers was like riding a well-worn track. She had both the functions and the templates on file. All it took was slotting in the model and handing the reins to Elysia.
Of course, Little Corruption was still inside Irene's mind. With only that thin channel of released Authority to work through, the most she could really manage was conversation. Anything like actual combat was out of the question.
Kevin looked at Elysia and opened his mouth as if to say something — then his gaze sharpened. He studied her carefully. This wasn't the mental projection of Elysia from the Elysian Realm.
"Mm-hmm, I'm back." Elysia gave a small nod. "Well? Surprised? Happy?"
"Yes." Kevin nodded. If she was truly back, how could he not be happy? This was Elysia, after all. But how had it happened?
Kevin studied her. He knew Elysia must be privy to something — especially this Elysia.
Elysia smiled, then turned to look at Irene. "Irene, could you give Kevin and me a little private space? There's something I'd like to speak with him about."
"Sure, no problem." Irene nodded, then stepped back a short distance. She had her own errand to run in her consciousness space anyway — there were certain people in need of calming down.
Specifically, a certain Kalpas who was champing at the bit to march out and give Kevin a good beating. The reason was simple enough: the whole business with Griseo.
Griseo had said she hadn't suffered much, but Kalpas still couldn't get over the fact that Kevin had been completely oblivious to it — had only found out because of Irene. If Irene hadn't known, or hadn't said anything, who could say what would have become of Griseo afterward? He didn't even want to think about it.
There was a Kevin in the form of a mental projection, but Kalpas had considered the matter and decided that version was probably innocent. The real one walking around out there, though, was long overdue for a thrashing.
And on that opinion, of all people, Mobius — who normally couldn't stand Kalpas — had raised both hands and both feet in agreement. She wanted to hit Kevin too. She was just, regrettably, a frail researcher without the physical means to do it.
Well. What could she say. With so many people packed inside — and every last one of them a personality in a category of their own — the space inside her head had become remarkably lively. The kind of lively that most people, if offered, would politely decline.
While Irene withdrew into her consciousness space to pacify the others, Elysia pulled Kevin off to one side. Kevin glanced back at Irene, who stood with her eyes closed.
"You passed your Authority to Irene."
"That's right." Elysia nodded. "Don't you think Irene is a perfect fit? After I found out what happened with the Herrscher of Reason, I thought — why not try the same thing? It's better than leaving the Authority of Origin sitting inside me, going to waste."
Kevin was quiet for a moment, then nodded. "Then how did you manage to come out?"
"I hid inside Irene's mind and she smuggled me along." Elysia put her hands on her hips with an air of complete self-satisfaction. "I did die — I lost my physical form, after all. But Irene has the ability to carry souls, so here I am."
"I see." Kevin nodded, then looked up again at Irene. He could feel it — a wild, turbulent aura erupting in waves from somewhere within her, like something kept barely in check.
"The others are the same."
"Ahaha, Kalpas is just being enthusiastic~" Elysia scratched the back of her head. She could feel the surging aura too.
"Don't worry though. Kalpas just hasn't seen you in a long time. He'll be fine."
"Mm." Kevin looked toward Irene again, hesitated, then gave a slow nod. He turned back to Elysia. "There's one more question. That faint trace of Finality's aura on Irene — where does that come from?"
Kevin caught it the moment he asked — Elysia's body went rigid. Her expression shifted, and the color in her face was not good. This was not a simple matter.
This was Elysia, after all. If even Elysia's expression went that dark, was the situation truly that dire? Had something gone wrong when Irene inherited the Authority of Origin?
A faint thread of grievance drifted off Elysia. She still couldn't let it go. It had been such a romantic moment, right at the end — one girl entrusting her most precious possession to another, hoping she would use it well. And then that moment had to be ruined by that meddling intrusion. What a waste of a perfectly good atmosphere.
But Elysia, for all her dramatics, wasn't entirely unreliable. She steadied herself and looked at Kevin. "Because Irene is the Chosen One. She's a little like me — but also quite different."
"..." Kevin looked up at Irene, brow furrowing. "Chosen for Finality?"
"Not quite, I wouldn't say." Elysia thought it over and shook her head. "Right now it's only a trace of aura. All it means is that Irene has been noticed. Whether she can actually complete it — that still depends entirely on Irene herself. But I believe in her. Beautiful girls have special privileges in everything they do, after all."
"...Understood." Kevin nodded. He was silent for a moment, then looked at Elysia — as though something had just occurred to him — and said quietly, "Welcome back."
At the sound of his voice, the thread of grievance around Elysia vanished entirely. She looked at him and a satisfied smile spread across her face. "Mm~"
"But Kevin — do you really intend to keep going?" Elysia watched him with a flicker of worry. Kevin could be so stubborn sometimes.
She knew it probably wouldn't change anything, but she still wanted to try.
"..." Kevin looked toward Irene — eyes still closed, that faint trace of Finality's aura drifting from her — and was quiet for a long while before he spoke.
"I never wanted it to come to that. If there were any other way, I would want an easier ending more than anyone."
His voice had shifted to something unusually soft — entirely unlike his usual tone. Elysia, standing beside him, let her own expression soften in turn.
Kevin was not truly cold-blooded. He was not the kind of person who could sacrifice anything and anyone in the name of fighting the Honkai. It was simply that some things had to be done, and he had become the one who bore the doing of them. He wanted, more than anyone, never to reach that point — but there was no choice. There truly was no choice.
But now, watching Irene with her closed eyes, feeling that faint and barely-perceptible trace of Finality's aura — if there were a chance. If, perhaps...
Kevin crushed the thought before it could fully form. Fighting the Honkai left no room for wishful thinking. And yet, somewhere in his chest, a small ember of hope quietly took hold.
So Kevin looked at Elysia and said softly, "I'll still do what I have to do. But if there truly is a better way—"
He stopped mid-sentence, turning the words over carefully, then continued: "Then let's try to prove it."
"You." Elysia shook her head. Fair enough — that stance was acceptable. At the very least, after learning about the aura on Irene, Kevin wouldn't go charging in blindly. As long as he didn't do anything reckless, surely it wouldn't spiral into something truly catastrophic. Surely.
"Griseo came out with you?" Kevin shifted the subject. He didn't want to keep talking about this for now. He turned his head toward the Hyperion, which was slowly lifting off in the distance.
"Of course." Elysia nodded. "Little Griseo has grown up. She's become brave — and not just brave. She's developed a love of adventure too."
Drifting through space on a lone voyage for so long, witnessing so many extraordinary things — Griseo had long since cultivated a spirit that couldn't sit still. She still painted, which made it easy to overlook. But it was there.
And it had to be said — some of the sights Griseo had witnessed were extraordinary. Out there in the vast expanse of space, there were spectacles that simply defied description.
Not the kind that photographs could capture, nor the kind that analysis could convey. The majesty of the cosmos, witnessed with one's own eyes — no photograph, no written word could do it justice.
Griseo had recorded them in paintings, and the ship's systems had taken automatic photographs too — though all of that was still aboard the ship. Kevin had been focused entirely on getting the people out. There'd been no time to bring everything else along, especially when he'd sensed something very large, very close, watching him.
It wasn't exactly dangerous — at least not to him. But Griseo was right there beside him, and if that thing decided to move against her, he'd have been hard-pressed to handle both. So he'd made the call: take Griseo and leave.
That place was impossibly far from the Proper World. Unless it chose to give chase, it would have no way of following. And even if it did manage to track them down eventually, that could be dealt with then.
On the way back, he'd kept watch to see whether the thing followed. It hadn't. That, at least, had let him breathe a little easier.
"That's good then." Kevin nodded. He knew Griseo had been trying to reach them for the past few days — but how could he have agreed to her coming along? That was a task for him alone. Griseo wouldn't have liked what it entailed, so he would never ask that of her. She was better off where she was, with Irene.
Once it was done, Kevin planned to leave. The intelligence exchange had been made. That Irene could bring everyone from the Elysian Realm along with her was good — it spoke to her ability. The preparations he needed to make, he had made. Even if he were to stand face to face with all of them, he could probably — maybe, possibly — keep a straight face and carry on.
This was his promise. And it was something he had to do. The path to salvation was narrow. Sometimes only one person could walk it to the end. Kevin didn't want that person to be him. But he had to be the one walking at the front.
Just as Kevin was about to turn and leave, his earpiece crackled to life. Gray Serpent's voice came through.
"Sovereign. A Herrscher has descended. It's the Herrscher of Ice."
Kevin heard the words and frowned. That quickly? The Herrscher of Sentience had only just descended not long ago. Was the Honkai accelerating? That was not a good sign.
"Location."
"Coral Island." Gray Serpent's voice was as steady as ever — though somewhere in the background, there was the sound of something being slammed against a wall.
"Send me the coordinates." Kevin responded flatly, but as the crashing sounds on the other end grew louder, he found himself asking anyway, "Where are you? Is someone looking for you?"
"Nothing to worry about. Just a certain raven throwing a tantrum." Gray Serpent replied evenly. "To her, it's nothing more than a trivial loss of property. No real harm done."
"Understood. I'm heading out now." Kevin nodded and ended the call.
On the other end, Gray Serpent pocketed the disconnected phone and opened the door. The moment it swung open, Raven was right there, fury blazing on her face, already shouting: "Give me that thing! I'm going to go blast that Herrscher of Ice myself!"
The anger on Raven's face was the kind that only came with devastating financial loss — a raw, gut-punching grief and rage. She'd nearly finished building the seaside villa on that island. The amusement park was almost done. She'd already paid out most of the money. Why — why — did the Herrscher of Ice have to erupt right there? Was it out of its mind?
She'd already promised the kids that in just a little while, she'd take them all to the island villa.
"Calm down, Raven. The Sovereign is already on his way to handle it."
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