The scream was sudden. Mei, jolted awake from her nightmare, froze for a second before quickly rushing towards the engineering department. She recognized the voice – it was Vill-V's.
However, when she arrived at the scene, she was met with a large splash of crimson. Vill-V lay collapsed in a pool of blood, a long blade, crackling with lightning, pierced straight through her chest.
The moment she saw the body, Mei felt her mind go blank. Just hours before, Vill-V had confidently promised to repair the Seven Thunders of Retribution overnight. Yet, in that short night, she lay fallen before Mei.
"Wait, the scream just sounded. Maybe she can still be saved." Fortunately, Mei hadn't completely lost her composure. She hurried to Vill-V's side, trying to sense any signs of life.
Luckily, while the blade had pierced Vill-V's chest, it hadn't completely destroyed her consciousness. However, the intense electromagnetic energy radiating from the blade had instantly destroyed all electrical signals within her body, fatally disrupting her system.
"Seven Thunders of Retribution?" Mei looked at the long blade. Its wild Herrscher energy was already surging, indicating it had just been forged.
Normally, someone struck down by the Seven Thunders would lose their life in an instant. But fortunately, Mei was the Herrscher of Thunder.
She reached out, grasped the hilt, and channeled the blade's wild energy into herself. Simultaneously, she placed her other hand on Vill-V's chest, attempting to maintain her heartbeat.
Just as she was desperately trying to save her, the other Flame-Chasers arrived on the scene. What they witnessed was Mei gripping the Seven Thunders and pulling it from Vill-V's chest.
"..." Kevin's expression turned grave. Elysia had told them to cooperate with an act, but he had never imagined Mei would actually kill someone.
"Raiden Mei, you..." The eyes of the others were also filled with disbelief. They recognized the weapon in Mei's hand as the Seven Thunders of Retribution.
The Seven Thunders was a weapon only Vill-V could craft, forged from a Herrscher core intrinsically linked to the Herrscher of Thunder. In the Flame-Chasers' eyes, the sequence was obvious: Mei had used her authority to find the fragments, convinced Vill-V to forge it for her, and then, upon its completion, used it to kill the creator.
Mei was aware of the Flame-Chasers' arrival, but she was currently focused entirely on maintaining Vill-V's fading consciousness, having no time to address Kevin. Wordlessly, she directed the long blade to automatically return to the scabbard lying nearby.
This behaviour, in the eyes of the Flame-Chasers, looked almost identical to Sakura's in the past.
Of course, Kevin didn't immediately conclude Mei was the murderer. His eyes cold, he waited until Mei had roughly stabilized Vill-V's condition before asking, "Can you explain what happened?"
"It has nothing to do with me." Knowing explanations would likely be futile, Mei answered coldly. She lifted Vill-V, intending to take her back first. Su possessed great medical skill; if Mei could just keep the Flame-Chaser's consciousness stable, recovery might be possible.
But just as everyone breathed a sigh of relief, Klein's voice suddenly echoed from the hall.
"Just moments ago, the Elysian Realm firewall suffered a large-scale intrusion. Please proceed to a safe zone immediately."
Before her voice faded, violent explosions erupted throughout the Elysian Realm. Rolling waves of data, like black fog, swept over everything, devouring it all.
Data erasure, program disintegration. Mei's eyes widened as she watched helplessly as the hall shattered like glass, sinking into the void of the data sea.
The Elysian Realm was collapsing. Everyone, Flame-Chasers and herself alike, was going to die!
"Raiden Mei, get out of here!" While Mei was still somewhat stunned, Kevin had already reached her side. With a wave of his hand, he froze the surrounding space.
Although the realm's disappearance was happening at the data level, which even Kevin couldn't stop, his attack could generate massive amounts of redundant data, thereby slowing the external erosion.
At this moment, any shred of suspicion vanished from the Flame-Chasers' eyes. They all acted simultaneously to buy Mei time to exit the Elysian Realm.
Yet, despairingly, no matter how Mei called out to World Serpent, there was no response from the outside world. Even Klein seemed to have been submerged in the tide of corruption.
[If everything disappears, then I won't die.]
Another strange message seemed to appear in her mind. Mei clutched her head, her thoughts chaotic. Intense pain assaulted her, making it nearly impossible to think.
[Key.]
Right, Vill-V had said the Seven Thunders was the key to the Eternal Paradise.
She endured the pain and desperately drew the lightning-wreathed blade. A terrifying surge of thunderous might emanated from the void, then transformed into an infinite wave of energy.
In an instant, this energy surpassed the limits of the program. Even the annihilating data wave momentarily froze.
"Elysia!"
She called out this name, then, drawing upon the power of the Signet of Setsuna, she unleashed a strike with all her might.
Elysia—was it the girl's name, or the name of the legendary paradise?
It didn't matter. Because Elysia would always respond to your expectations.
In that instant, a rift appeared in the space of the Elysian Realm. Through the crack, one could vaguely see a garden filled with a sea of flowers.
There were towering structures, warm morning light, melodious songs, a flawless paradise.
The moment the Eternal Paradise appeared, the data corruption abruptly halted, as if time itself had frozen before eternity.
"So this is..." Su rarely opened his eyes fully.
"A world belonging to Ely?" Eden smiled faintly.
"Let's go." Mei looked back at the Flame-Chasers and stepped into the rift first.
And so, like something out of a fairy tale, the Flame-Chasers followed Mei's footsteps, entering the legendary Flawless Realm together.
...
Paradisal realms are born from cognition. This meant the world as Elysia perceived it should be such an eternal, pure, flawless haven.
Upon stepping inside, a peaceful and stable atmosphere immediately soothed the Flame-Chasers' tension. The waves of corruption were held back outside the paradise, just as Ely might have hoped, leaving them with a final glimmer of hope.
Handing Vill-V over to Su for treatment, Mei voluntarily separated from the Flame-Chaser group.
Wandering alone through the romantic garden, her feelings were complicated.
Though the flowers bloomed so vividly, she felt an inexplicable emptiness. Perhaps the paradise was too vast, perhaps its beauty transcended reality, or perhaps... this garden, as brilliant as scattered blossoms, was missing the girl who was herself like a scattered blossom.
Following the steps upward, at the end of the garden, Mei saw an unexpected figure.
"Liuli!?"