Irene released her hand, and the card instantly flew out. With the card as the center, a layer of digitized radiance swirled around it.
Data gradually coalesced before Irene, and a blue-hued Miss Elf appeared. Little Corruption opened her eyes and looked around.
"?" Little Corruption looked at the palace surrounding her, then turned her head to look at Irene. "Excuse me, beautiful young lady, may I ask where this is? Is it heaven?"
"Are you an angel? You can call me Little Corruption~ So angels are such cute girls too~"
As Little Corruption spoke, she approached with great familiarity—or rather, quite practiced ease—and draped her arm around Irene's shoulder. The kindness radiating from her was exactly the same as a certain Miss Pink Elf.
Irene could confirm that this was not hypocrisy, but genuine kindness. And Irene was actually quite familiar with the prototype of this kindness.
"Mm, you might have misunderstood. I am not an angel." Irene blinked, revealing a major piece of evidence of her Herrscher transformation: her cross-shaped pupils.
"Hmm?" Irene felt Little Corruption's hand on her shoulder stiffen for a moment, but it soon returned to normal. Little Corruption scratched her face.
"Mm, so is this the gathering place for Herrschers after death?" Little Corruption looked Irene up and down. "Mm, Sister Eden and Uncle Su's imprints?"
"Wait, what is this feeling from the outside environment? Is this the Elysian Realm?"
Although Irene hadn't explained it to Little Corruption yet, due to the special nature of the Elysian Realm itself, others could exit at will when entering.
However, as a Herrscher of Corruption with a special attack bonus against data, Little Corruption was uniquely blessed in this environment.
At first, she hadn't reacted when she just woke up, but now that she had recovered her wits a little and probed the outside situation slightly—wasn't this the Elysian Realm?
Little Corruption even discovered Elysia and Eden's data through the surrounding data streams. What was going on? Had she returned?
"Mm, yes. The situation might be a bit complicated. Why don't you read this first?" Irene looked at Little Corruption before her. For a moment, she didn't know how to explain the situation either. after thinking about it, she used her previous method to mold a Book of Knowledge and handed it to Little Corruption.
"Mm, is this a gift for me?" Little Corruption took the book Irene handed over and opened it without any wariness, beginning to read the memories within.
Irene took this opportunity to pull out Little Corruption's card again and began to read her skills.
[[Regret Realm] · Little Corruption · Miss Faded Elf]
[Type: Possession Card · Logic of Continuation]
[Ability: Mobile Realm: Possesses the digitized data of the 13 Flame-Chasers. Can switch to the emergency data form of any one of them at any time, possessing their weakened abilities.
Herrscher of Corruption: Possesses the Authority of Corruption. Corruption virus can infect biological or mechanical bodies. Possesses extremely high privileges on the data level, and extremely high infectivity, latency, and lethality on the biological level. Extremely skilled in the former; hasn't used the latter much.]
[Evaluation: A mobile Realm, the final paradise. However, all of this is built upon scorched earth. In the end, it is merely a Realm built upon regret. The Elf is still beautiful, but the colors have faded.]
"...So that's how it is." Little Corruption released her hand. As a Herrscher of Corruption, her spiritual power was inherently strong, so quickly receiving the memories Irene transmitted was not difficult.
Moreover, the memories Irene sent were not complex. They largely introduced their current situation and the ending she was originally supposed to have.
However, Little Corruption merely glanced at that ending and tossed it aside. Her evaluation: What is this garbage? How could she have developed into that?
Although, if she put herself in those shoes slightly, Little Corruption couldn't say she didn't understand what kind of changes the 'self' in that story would undergo if severely stimulated.
But that didn't stop the current Little Corruption from expressing her lack of understanding regarding the other 'self' in that story.
Little Corruption let the finished Book of Knowledge scatter with the wind and turned to look at Irene, a light of hope flickering in her eyes.
"So, I still have a chance to prevent the things that will happen in the future, right?"
"I don't know." Irene delivered the optimal answer directly to Little Corruption. "It's not just about the present; actually, I'm a bit strange about what exactly you are."
"Let alone the so-called things that will happen in the future."
"Mm, now is story-sharing time, right?" Little Corruption clapped her hands. "I just saw that part of the story about the other 'me' in your memories."
"Mm, how should I put it?" Little Corruption made an 'X' sign over her chest. "It wasn't like that at all. The first person I met was Elysia."
As Little Corruption recounted her tale, Irene understood the reason why the Little Corruption before her had transcended Destined Death. It was because this Little Corruption's story was completely different from the one she knew.
When she followed Mei, the first person she met and had deep contact with was Elysia. The first thing she learned was love and care.
Because the one she contacted was Elysia, Aponia never threatened Mei, and Mei never took the Corruption to find Kalpas to seek death.
Thus, there was no talk of fear or the desire to survive. After several rounds of data accumulation, Little Corruption immediately separated from that Mei.
She transformed into a physical entity. Although her initial appearance aroused everyone's vigilance, Little Corruption still tried to contact everyone using the kindness she learned from Elysia.
Under the payment of sincere kindness, the original vigilance was slowly dispelled. As for why she turned into Elysia's appearance? In this point, she was exactly the same as the original Little Corruption.
She simply felt that Elysia was truly cute, so she wanted to become as cute as Elysia.
And Elysia didn't mind—or rather, she was very supportive. During that time, in the words of Mobius over there, 'the annoying bastard turned into two, and one of them particularly likes to ask this and that.'
Later on, Little Corruption's imagination became even more massive. She forcibly played out new tricks with the Corruption virus. Although limited to the 13 Flame-Chasers, she could indeed replicate the Flame-Chasers' combat data.
If needed, she could overlay that combat data onto herself and use the Corruption virus to simulate the required special effects for battle. This was the origin of the first skill on the Character Card.
Although there wasn't much room for growth since it was combat data, those 13 Flame-Chasers themselves could basically be said to stand at the pinnacle of combat power.
So even a weakened version was enough to let Little Corruption stand in the first tier. Not to mention, fundamentally, she was still a Herrscher of Corruption. In a 1+1 scenario, it would equal 2 no matter what.
After thoroughly possessing her own combat power, Little Corruption left the Realm to fight for the people truly living in the world. And to fight to cross Finality and protect humanity.
"Feels like I've heard a very wild unofficial history." Irene shook her head. But Irene still hadn't heard what Little Corruption meant earlier by 'still having a chance to prevent the things that will happen in the future.'
"So, what happened next?"
"...Project Stigma." Little Corruption lowered her head slightly. "We failed to prevent the implementation of Project Stigma, but Project Stigma failed. The Spiritual Adam failed to fulfill the responsibility he was supposed to bear."
"Wait a minute, wait a minute. What do you mean Project Stigma failed, and the Spiritual Adam failed to fulfill his original responsibility?" Irene looked at Little Corruption. "What happened?"
Little Corruption looked at Irene. "In the literal sense, the entire world still fell into a slumber. But although the Spiritual Adam took form, he could die."
"Since you think so much, you perhaps should know the responsibility the Spiritual Adam bears."
"Yes, I know." Irene nodded. The Spiritual Adam was the spiritual aggregate of all humanity. But precisely because of this, Irene was very confused.
"But how could he die?"
"Do I look like a scientist?" Little Corruption spread her hands. She had replicated Mobius and Vill-V's combat modes, but they were just combat modes. Her IQ really wasn't as high as those two!
So she only knew the facts: the Spiritual Adam was not eternal. It was gradually decaying and even dying, dragging all of humanity along with it into a state of spiritual death.
There was no way to terminate this process, only to delay it. Aside from that, the spiritual death of humanity had become a foregone conclusion. Project Stigma had failed and became humanity's Finality.
They thought of many ways to solve or delay this problem. However, regrettably, the effects were poor, only able to delay the process.
What Little Corruption did was create a second Realm, embedding this spiritual Realm within the Spiritual Adam to protect the majority of people. But this Realm would also dissipate sooner or later.
Irene nodded after listening. Now she understood why Little Corruption had asked just now if she could still prevent everything that would happen in the future.
However, that world or parallel world was truly crazier than imagined. The Spiritual Adam actually became the Finality of all humanity.
"Hey, that's not right." Irene looked at Little Corruption with some confusion. "What about Kevin? Did Kevin not prevent this matter?"
With Kevin's personality, if such a situation occurred, Kevin would exert his effort no matter what. Moreover, unless something happened to Kevin, the Spiritual Adam shouldn't have had any issues.
Listening to Irene's words, Little Corruption was actually the confused one. "During the execution process of Project Stigma, there was no assistance from Mr. Kevin."
"...That's impossible." As soon as Irene said the words, she understood why the Spiritual Adam might have fallen into self-weakening. It lacked Kevin's support.
Little Corruption looked at the expression on Irene's face and vaguely understood what Irene was thinking. "That is to say, in the events you know, Project Stigma was actually presided over by Mr. Kevin, and not by Gray Serpent?"
"Mm, yes." Irene nodded. "In the events I know, Mr. Kevin presided over and maintained the implementation of the entire Project Stigma."
"And in the story I know, even if Project Stigma were fully implemented, a situation where the Spiritual Adam collapses on its own would not occur."
"Then we really were unlucky." Little Corruption nodded. A trace of regret flashed across her face, but that regret was soon smoothed over. "But now we have time to change it, right?"
"Mm." Irene nodded. "It's still early. Project Stigma is still in the drafting stage. We have enough time to resolve this matter."
"Mm." Little Corruption looked at Irene and extended her hand. "Then please let me dedicate my strength to this world once more, even if this is not my world. Is that okay?"
"Of course." Irene nodded and also extended her hand to shake Little Corruption's. "You are very welcome, Little Corruption~"
"I'm already prepared." Little Corruption nodded, then looked at Irene. "Oh, right, can I go outside and say hello to Ellie and the others? I haven't seen them for a long time."
"Mm, you can." Irene nodded. From Little Corruption's perspective, she had known the thirteen Flame-Chasers for a long time.
Even if it was in another world, if Little Corruption really inherited Elysia's universal love, she probably wouldn't care about such small details. Rather, she might enjoy it quite a bit.
After obtaining Irene's permission, Little Corruption began to contact the outside Elysian Realm with great joy.
Outside, the group was still chatting with each other. Elysia had even secretly sidled up and stuck close to [Irene], because she had discovered something. Compared to Irene...
[Irene] seemed to mind being touched even less, and in some aspects was even bolder. She was very easy to get handsy with. However, not minding the touching also meant Elysia couldn't see some interesting reactions.
So in terms of fun, Elysia still preferred the original Irene, who was better to tease~
As for Irene? [Irene] had inherited her views on others from Irene. She also liked Elysia. But because she was inherently a Herrscher, she really didn't have many opinions on certain things.
Simply put, she was relatively naive, but because the amount of knowledge inherited from Irene was too vast, she lacked self-awareness in some areas instead.
Anyway, because of this, [Irene] had no objections to Elysia's daily behavior. Instead, she felt that the more of this contact, the better, believing the main body thought so too.
However, at this moment, [Irene] was also a bit absent-minded, as she was paying attention to the conversation between the main body and Little Corruption in her mind. Hearing that Little Corruption was coming out, she turned her gaze to Elysia and Eden at the side.
"You two, something small might happen in a moment. Something that might exceed your expectations. Please do not be surprised."
"Hmm?" Hearing [Irene]'s words, although Eden was a bit puzzled, she still put down her wine glass and looked at [Irene] with a slight smile. "It does not matter. We will not be surprised."
Having experienced the destruction of the world and lived through so many years, Eden had long since ceased to be surprised by small matters. After a long time, one has seen everything.
Elysia, on the other hand—as a being from the Planet of 'Will Die If I Don't Watch The Drama'—was even more curious about what [Irene] said. "What's wrong? What's wrong? Is something going to happen, Irene?"
Just as Elysia's voice fell, she sensed something and raised her head. The moment she looked up, a blue-purple figure threw itself into her arms.
"Ellie, long time no see!"
________________________________________
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