Durandal felt compelled to correct Elysia's misunderstanding.
"Actually... Kevyn was supposed to be Kevin, a man. Su was the same—he should have been male. But because I appeared, a unique butterfly effect rippled back through time, and they became women."
Elysia simply stared, her expression a perfect mask of "You've got to be kidding me."
Faced with that look of pure disbelief, Durandal had no choice but to recount the explanation Genius had once given her.
"So, you're saying the causality of this world is linked," Elysia mused, trying to wrap her head around the absurdity of it all.
"Because your arrival changed the 'effect,' it retroactively altered the 'cause.' Even though Kevin and Su were already teenage boys when you arrived, they couldn't resist the reversal of fate and became the Kevyn and Su we know today?"
"Exactly," Durandal nodded. That was the logic of it, however strange.
"But... won't you keep changing things now that you're here? Doesn't that mean this world will be in a state of constant flux?" Elysia pointed out the flaw in the theory. If that were true, nothing would ever be certain again.
Durandal shook her head. "There's no need to worry about that. My arrival broke the established laws of causality. My decisions will change the future, but those changes won't ripple back to alter the past again."
"Then... what was the future like before you changed it?"
Elysia looked around at their desolate surroundings.
"We failed, didn't we? The whole world ended up looking like Nagazora City. That's why you chose to start fresh and build your own path instead of joining Fire Moth."
Durandal remained silent. She sighed inwardly; Elysia was as sharp as ever.
Even with the barest minimum of information, she had managed to guess almost everything.
Just as Durandal opened her mouth to speak, Elysia gently pressed a finger against her lips. Her eyes crinkled into a smile, yet her tone brooked no argument.
"Since this incident with the Third Herrscher produced a 'dungeon' that leads to the original timeline, then the Fourth, the Fifth, and every Honkai eruption thereafter will likely produce something similar.
"In other words, you don't have to give us the answers right now. We just need to follow you into these dungeons and inhabit the bodies of our other selves. We can learn everything that way—perhaps even truths you aren't aware of."
"That's true," Durandal conceded, though she frowned slightly.
"But it's too dangerous. If you fail to recover your memories before I resolve the Honkai Eruption, you could be trapped in the dungeon forever, unable to return to reality. I can't let you take that risk."
Elysia didn't push the point, but she did offer a suggestion. "Your concern is valid, but it's not an unsolvable problem. Once we get out of here, we can talk to Mobius and the others; they might find a way around it."
"Personally, I think it's a good idea for every member of Schicksal to experience these dungeons. Honestly, it would be more effective than any team-building exercise.
"Letting them face the original, cruel 'future' will make them realize just how vital it is to fight the Honkai alongside Schicksal."
"For me, at least, my sense of belonging here isn't just about friendship or love anymore. If we could even let ordinary people see this... it would be more effective than any propaganda Eden could come up with."
Elysia paused, a thought occurring to her. "By the way, given the state of Nagazora City, most ordinary people won't be able to inhabit their 'other selves' like I did, right? Because they... well... and what about Kevyn and Su? Is it really okay for them to inhabit male bodies? Maybe we should keep them away from the dungeons?"
Despite her words of caution, Elysia's expression betrayed her—she looked like someone eagerly waiting for a comedy of errors to unfold.
"Taking the civilians of Nagazora City as an example," Durandal explained, "most of them wouldn't have an 'original self' to merge with because, in this timeline, they are already dead."
"They would enter just as I do—as themselves—and wouldn't suffer from memory loss."
"As for Kevyn and Su, they are fundamentally different individuals from the Kevin and Su of this world. They won't merge, so there's no need to worry."
"The real concern is if Mei enters a dungeon and merges with the Mei of this world. Once she recovers her memories, I have no idea how she'll face both Kevin and Kevyn at the same time."
Durandal's answer dashed Elysia's hopes of seeing Kevyn and Su in a bind, but the prospect of a "love war" between Mei, Kevin, and Kevyn was just as entertaining.
Elysia wasn't disappointed; if anything, she was now impatient for that day to arrive.
Of course, as much as she looked forward to the chaos, she could already guess how it would end.
From her own experience, even though she had gained the memories of the Elysia from this dungeon, those memories felt distant—like looking through a veil. They lacked a sense of reality.
If Mei regained her memories in a dungeon, there was no doubt she would choose her Kevyn over this world's Kevin. But for Elysia, the joy was in the journey, not just the destination.
"Alright," Durandal said, her gaze shifting toward the horizon where she sensed the Third Herrscher. "Next, we eliminate the Third Herrscher and put an end to the Third Honkai Eruption in this dungeon."
"Eliminate?" Elysia blinked. Had she not regained her memories, she wouldn't have questioned the plan. But now that she knew the truth, she realized Durandal had other options.
"I have no choice," Durandal said. She knew Elysia well enough to read her mind.
"The Third Herrscher in this dungeon has completely consumed Miyuki's consciousness. Even if I wiped out the Herrscher's will, the body would still act on instinct, continuing to destroy human civilization."
"Beyond that, to leave this dungeon, I must destroy it. I can't guarantee that Miyuki would be able to suppress the Herrscher Core once I'm gone."
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T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL