Chapter 59

(T/N: Changed "Guardian Angel" to "Guardian Spirit")

During the Lunar New Year in China, the first major Honkai incident broke out in the southwestern port of China.

With Liangzhou City as the center, a total of 28 cities were affected by the Honkai disaster.

Preliminary estimates put the number of victims and missing persons at 720,000.

The number of people directly or indirectly affected by the disaster was about 60 million.

24 million residents lost their homes and residences forever.

The Chinese authorities identified the Honkai incident as a high-intensity earthquake caused by a plate collision.

It was also the most destructive, widest-reaching, heaviest disaster loss and the biggest geological disaster in recorded history.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year at five o'clock in the morning, under the dim sky where the volcanic ash had not dissipated, a little girl was squatting in the ruins looking for something.

She looked exhausted, her crouched body was crumbling under the hot wind like a puppet whose time was about to run out.

Her originally pink and fair skin had already been piled up with a thick layer of dust and her hands that kept digging up the rubble were also covered with dust and blood.

But she had no intention of resting at all.

Although the changes made her physically and mentally exhausted her bright pink eyes still exuded an unyielding determination.

It was as if she had known for a long time that this kind of action would give the results she wanted.

Finally, the girl's movements stopped.

Sunlight came in through the gap between the horizon and the volcanic ash.

A transparent gemstone reflected a faint golden color under the first ray of sunlight in the morning.

"..."

After seeing the gem, the girl pursed her lips.

The nearby wind gradually cooled down and the magma flowing in the cracks also solidified quickly under the blowing of the cold wind.

The girl couldn't help shivering slightly.

At this time a few black spots suddenly appeared under the sunlight in the east.

The girl raised her head and glanced indifferently at the fleet group in the sky.

She didn't hesitate anymore.

She put the gem into her arms and then walked away with tired legs, taking advantage of the dark sky, and quietly left.

She would never forgive what took Emiya away.

But after recovering the core, Elysia got a satisfactory answer from it.

For humans, death is the end of consciousness, an eternal farewell.

But her Guardian Spirit is not human.

Even though the contract was severed and the body is lost, Emiya as a Guardian Spirit has no real "death."

Even if he was forcibly repatriated by "that" thing with its coercive force that dominates this world, Emiya would return to the world that originally belonged to him.

Therefore, although she was a little lost, Elysia was not sad, nor did she feel much grief.

Emiya's disappearance was just an accident caused by the intervention of external forces.

Now that this has been figured out, there is nothing for Elysia to be sad about.

Among the ruins, the Guardian Spirit stayed here while the flawless elf continued to move forward.

Behind her is the newly awakened sunshine, and in front of her is the dark sky covered by volcanic ash.

A dark road with no end in sight.

But the flawless elf still believes that no matter how far away the stars in the sky are from her, one day she will be able to catch up with the Guardian Spirit who is far away.

Whether that day is a thousand years later or ten thousand years later...

Relying on the warm feeling remaining in her chest the girl's footsteps pointed towards the unknown.

—The place of origin.

Elysia sat on the floating scepter in a daze, her white feet with bare skin dangling gently in mid-air.

Since that boy suddenly appeared here and suddenly disappeared without warning an unknown amount of time had passed.

After he left, Elysia realized that she could only be left hanging in this stunningly beautiful space, unable to do anything.

"That boy was my mother—"

Every time she recalled the images she saw from those memories, she who claimed to be extroverted would always have an urge to cover her face.

Elysia really doesn't have a mother.

She was raised in an orphanage since she was a child.

Although she did have someone who could be called "mother," that "mother" was just a volunteer working in the orphanage.

Although "mother" is also an excellent woman with a kind character and selfless dedication, but based on her work ethic that "mother" is destined not to be a real mother.

Every child living in the orphanage deserves a mother's love.

On this point...the boy who called himself a "Guardian Spirit" was completely different.

It was only about seven years, but if you look at the boy's memory from the perspective of an onlooker.

Elysia can confidently assert that the she over there, the she from that world will never experience a happier and more carefree life than those 7 years.

Then again, he has clearly poured all his love into the "Elysia of that world," but in the boy's memory, Elysia can still feel his confusion and awkwardness from time to time...

Even if the "Elysia" that the boy is taking care of is not strictly speaking for herself, when she reads the boy's self-loathing towards her Elysia still feels a rather uncomfortable feeling.

Those who treat the world tenderly can't treat themselves tenderly.

If the "her" in that world knew how her Guardian Spirit viewed the relationship between the two, maybe "she" would be genuinely angry at that boy.

Thinking about what was there and what was missing for an unknown amount of time, Elysia finally noticed something very wrong.

"Huh? Why am I still here?"

In Elysia's memories, she had already completely disappeared from this world after returning to Honkai.

She—the Herrschers of Origin named Elysia should have died long ago.

Even if her figure reappeared in the "Land of Origin," the reappearing her should not be the real "Elysia."

She is just a phantom that has Elysia's memories;

Elysia's personality was re-condensed by a "third party" who came here in order to allow the successor to inherit the power of "Origin."

Even if the boy...the mother of her "self" from another world came to the "Land of Origin" by accident, she should naturally disappear shortly after the boy left.

Right?

Holding the realization that "I will definitely disappear in the near future", Elysia who is very interested in everything in this world, naturally cherishes every minute and every second of her time.

So, while reading the memories she got from that boy she was stunned for an unknown amount of time in this Land of Origin where there was nothing.

When she finished reading over the memory of the boy, she suddenly realized that her body didn't seem to show any signs of disappearing.

Then, Elysia realized it.

"—In other words, is there a possibility that I am not a phantom but the real Elysia?"

She was different from the boy's memory, a completely different "Elysia" from another world.

If you think about it carefully, she would naturally appear here in the form of the "Herrscher of Origin," which is very strange in itself.

If she is a phantom, there must be a "phenomenon" that projects the "phantom."

In other words, if the she that appears here is the figure reflected in the memory of that boy.

Then, her image should be that little girl who was raised by that boy.

Not the current "Herrschers of Origin" who reappeared in the Land of Origin to reverse the fate of mankind.

Right?

"So, am I alive?"

After realizing this, Elysia instinctively felt joyful.

For the continuation of human civilization, she can indeed sacrifice her life, but Elysia has never been the kind of person who does not cherish her life.

If there is a chance to live again, Elysia will not refuse.

She will even accept the luck of getting a second life with gratitude.

However, after she realized that "she might somehow come back to life," a second rather serious problem appeared before her eyes.

"-Generally speaking..."

She seems to be...trapped in this land of origin, completely unable to get out.

After realizing that she might not be able to go out, Elysia couldn't help being a little dumbfounded.

"Origin" is a fairly omnipotent power, it will grant the wish of its holder and shift the fate of the world in the direction that meets the wish of the holder.

However, due to the overly powerful versatility of "Origin," the price of fully using it is also extremely high.

In order to erase the threads released by the "cocoon" that directly interferes with the fate of mankind, Elysia even paid the price with her life.

Even at the last moment of her life, Elysia failed to fully control "Origin" in a true sense.

Although if she uses the power of "Origin" here again at the cost of death, she is almost certain that she should be able to leave this Land of Origin and return to the real world.

But if she lost the second life she got by chance to return to the real world, it would be too much to lose.

"But that being said... Do I have to stay here for the rest of my life?"

Elysia bit her thumb, her beautiful face couldn't help showing a distressed expression.

Fortunately, after she reappeared in the Land of Origin this dreamlike starry sky was completely brought under her control.

Therefore, she can change the scenery at any time.

She will not truly fall into a situation of doing nothing because of a long wait.

But even with the scenery that can be changed at will, the wait is still quite long and boring.

So, after reviewing the memories from the ancient past she could only sit on her scepter like this, silently staring at the beautiful but unchanging star trails in a daze.

"Anyone is welcome, can you come here sooner... Come over to inherit the power of 'Origin'..."

Alas—

While looking forward to the arrival of the visitor from the bottom of her heart, Elysia couldn't help but use some words in a dejected tone.

She let out a long sigh.

But at this moment—

A faint shooting star suddenly flashed across the starry sky that was originally unchangeable.

The light from the shooting star was so weak, if she didn't look carefully, Elysia would have seen the shooting star as one of the many star trails covering the night sky.

However, the current Elysia is so bored that she counts the stars one by one in the sky.

Therefore, after noticing the meteor that did not belong to the Land of Origin she was shocked.

She did not hesitate to follow the direction of the meteor across the sky and flew over.

The pink figure and the shooting star quickly merged into one in the star-studded night sky.

Then, this dreamlike land of origin fell into the silence of no one.

Amid the disgusting feeling, Shirou gradually woke up with chills all over his body.

The sky outside the window was already pitch black and the curtains were slightly rolled by the chilly wind.

He pressed his hot forehead and slowly stood up from the ground with his body lying sideways on the ground.

Just when he stood up straight his legs became uncontrollably weak.

The right half of his body was completely numb.

His abdomen and upper arm all had traces of clothes folds.

Even though he was lying on the ground to the point where his whole body was uncomfortable and his forehead was uncontrollably hot from the cold.

This low-grade fever caused by the simple cold was actually better than the oppressed thinking he had before he lost consciousness.

The pain is easier to bear.

He walked to the door of the storage room and turned on the ceiling lamp.

It's eight o'clock in the evening.

The night of early spring was even colder than expected.

After confirming the time, Shirou walked into the kitchen.

Although he didn't have much appetite his body, which hadn't eaten anything since morning was eager for nutrition.

Coincidentally, Shirou had the idea of calming down his thoughts as quickly as possible by taking advantage of the time it takes to cook.

Take advantage of this opportunity to tidy up your messy mind.

Just as Shirou walked into the kitchen to put on his apron with such an idea, he was stunned.

"What is this?"

He lifted his collar and looked towards his shoulder—

A crystal flower surrounded by thorns quietly attached to his skin.