harleyscars Chapter 51 Elio's Hourglass
Chapter 51 Elio's Hourglass
At a secret base of the Star Core Hunters, Silver Wolf, holding the hourglass she had been eyeing for a long time, finally couldn't help but speak:
"Elio, you seem to take it everywhere you go. The sand inside keeps flowing, sometimes fast, sometimes slow... but it's still half gone."
Will it never run out?
"That's not the case." Elio shook his head, looking into the silver wolf's eyes—the outline of a black cat was reflected in those pupils, which was himself, and also a wisp of the Last King's divine body. "It's just that some sand... will flow back."
"Because I'm curious, why?"
Elio's thoughts drifted back to a time when he wasn't like this.
"Ah! Why is it Sora?! If the main character draws the wrong card, there's nothing we can do!"
He opened his eyes and saw that March 7th hurriedly pushed away Danheng, who was trying to give him artificial respiration.
Meanwhile, a young girl with blue hair was recording this scene with her equipment, muttering to herself, "Why can't we switch between the male and female leads?"
Seeing that he was fully awake, the blue-haired girl immediately pushed her way to the front, her smile bright and her eyes gleaming:
"Hello, pioneers! Welcome to this world! Without further ado, join us, the nameless ones, and let's save the world together!"
Qiong was a little confused: "Is it that direct? Did we skip some steps?"
"Oh right!" the blue-haired girl exclaimed suddenly, "I forgot about this."
She clasped her hands together, and an input box and a virtual keyboard appeared in the air.
She glanced at it, then casually flipped the keyboard so that it was facing the other person instead of herself, making it easier for Qiong to operate.
Please enter your name.
Qiong entered her own name: Qiong.
The dialog box disappears the moment the naming is completed.
The character "穹" solidified and floated in the air. The blue-haired girl reached out, picked it up, and put it on her head.
"Uh...that's my name..."
"Ha~ You said this is your name, if you call it, will it answer?"
"Don't bully others!"
March 7th unceremoniously gifted the blue-haired girl a bag, then turned to Qiong to apologize, "She's Qingyuan, she can be a bit too familiar at times, and she always likes to pull off some weird and strange things."
"What's so strange about this!" Qingyuan retorted. "Even Aha would praise me for doing a great job."
March 7th showed a helpless expression, while shaking his fist: "Take that person's name off your head."
"Okay, okay, I'll change, alright..."
Qingyuan raised her hand and touched her forehead, and the character "穹" transformed into "银河球棒侠".
Time flows on, memories fade... Later, Sora stood before Eriol, her voice trembling as she questioned him:
"Why did you do such absurd things to Qingyuan? Making her suffer from entropy loss—is this your so-called salvation?"
"This just means we succeeded."
"When she completely disappears one day, it will prove that we have truly succeeded." Elio's voice was calm. "As for the reason... you wouldn't want to know."
Qiong ultimately failed to save Qingyuan's life from the Star Core Hunter.
Until he met Xi Lian, the purple-haired woman, in the void of the world.
"I am the void of the world, who once held Archivist, and saved Him from being discovered by the world."
But I can't watch Qingyuan die like this.
Xi Lian said softly, "Leave her in the empty space."
In this way, she can escape the end and return to this world when the journey begins.
Each time, I give her a blank space, hoping she will find new possibilities.
The emptiness of the world is infinite... As long as I live, she has an infinite number of chances.
Until the end comes, he becomes the Last King, turning the end into the beginning, and embarking on a journey back to the past.
On the day she reappeared in this world, the train had just left the space station and was heading to Belloberg.
She appeared abruptly from the boundless starry sky, and Elio, along with the Star Core Hunters, put her on the train.
He tried countless times and finally understood:
Only through innovation can she be given a new life.
—But Elio shouldn't have known these things. How did he find out?
Because the Last King, along with all the Star Gods, is in ■■■■■■.
Furthermore, the entire Honkai Impact universe is slowly integrating the Tree of Imaginary Numbers and the Sea of Quanta, completing its ascension.
In this contest that will sweep across all existence in the universe, Archivist, as the vanguard, will bring both the greatest benefits and a host of "bugs".
What else is there that he shouldn't know?
The boundaries of knowledge no longer exist.
To avoid making a losing deal, Bo Shizun simply stopped trying to deduce these things—after all, this was the most "reasonable" approach.
The entire burden of the Collapse Iron Universe rests entirely on His shoulders, making Him the sole god.
The other star gods not only didn't help, but also caused trouble, and they owed him two bushels of grain.
"Elio?" Silver Wolf waved his hand in front of him.
At first she thought Elio was organizing his thoughts or waiting for the right moment.
But after waiting for a while, until she waved her hand tentatively, she realized that Elio was simply... daydreaming.
"I'm sorry..." At this moment, Eriol didn't know how to explain to Silver Wolf - the world has a bug, will someone come to fix it?
Yes, they will. They're coming soon.
"I was just spacing out," he finally replied.
"You can zone out too? Could it be..." Silver Wolf's words were cut short as his expression changed drastically. "Watch out! Eriol!"
A scalpel sliced through Eriol's body and vanished. Eriol collapsed limply.
Before he fell into a coma, his last thought was: She's really unlucky... Leading by example, working overtime every day.
"Polka Kakame! I knew Eriol was spacing out for no reason, so you were trying to get him killed!"
Silver Wolf rushed forward, picked up Elio, and checked him to find that his vital signs were stable, and he seemed to have just fallen into a coma.
……
"The familiar ceiling." Elio opened his eyes, surrounded by the worried faces of the Star Core Hunters.
"What's wrong? Why are you all looking at me like that?"
"You forgot? Polka Kaka tried to assassinate you! But for some reason, he failed," Silver Wolf explained.
"Her?" Elio was puzzled. He was indeed unconscious, but as a wisp of divine body of the Last King and a top-tier mechanical monster, unless he willingly walked towards that future, he was by no means someone that could assassinate him.
But he ultimately chose to believe Silver Wolf's account—even though he felt it was more likely that Silver Wolf had lost a game and carelessly threw the handheld console, accidentally hitting him.
"About this hourglass..." Elio's gaze fell back on the hourglass in Silver Wolf's hand, "It's connected to a somewhat sad story, and it's also related to you."
I think I should tell you. After all... in many possibilities, she is also your ally.
He revealed the truth about the hourglass: it was the countdown to Qingyuan's life.
When the last grain of sand is gone, the Azure Kite will completely disintegrate and dissipate due to entropy loss.
"Entropy disorder...she has it too?" Sorrow and sympathy welled up in Firefly's eyes. "Was she also a member of the Grammer Knights, or a similar creation?"
"No." Elio shook his head. "It is her own inherent deficiency that led to her falling into irreversible dissociation."
The missing part... I guess it might be related to the Star God, or even that she might be a Star God who failed to fully ascend.
But no matter what I tried, I couldn't save her.
"Oh? You care about her that much?" Kafka asked with interest. "Could it be that, in some other possibility, she is also a Star Core Hunter?"
“That’s right. In fact, you can now consider her one of the Star Core Hunters,” Elio said. “She will resolutely carry out my orders and has believed since her birth that Akivilli and I can bring the galaxy an escape from the end.”
He recounted the stories of the Star Core Hunter and the Azure Kite in other timelines.
In their initial encounter, Qingyuan boarded the train, but always led the story in unexpected directions: allowing Seele to rule Belloberg with an iron fist and rebel against the company's tyranny.
Cute little figures fill the fairy boat, and chibi characters frolic everywhere.
By transforming Onfaros into an eternal paradise, mocking Lagos, and after its complete demise, even using Lagos's head as the official design for Onfaros footballs—perhaps Lagos has other respectable qualities, but Qingyuan doesn't care.
These actions may bring about a positive outcome in the short term, but in the long run, they hasten the arrival of the end.
So, Elio tried to pull her into the Star Core Hunters, intending only to keep an eye on her and prevent her from wandering off, but to his surprise, she complied.
She claimed to be a transmigrator from another world. Elio had once believed her, but doubts arose over time, and now it has been completely confirmed:
Her reality was fabricated, and her fate was anchored.
Elio couldn't understand what kind of being would bestow such a cruel fate upon her.
On one occasion, he asked Qingyuan: "After joining the Star Core Hunters, how much are you willing to pay for my orders?"
"Please bring a better future to the world. I am willing to become firewood for this cause, until I perish completely."
The blue-haired girl smiled, which made him momentarily lose his composure. "Of course, if possible... please let me take a look at everyone more."
I don't want to forget any of those wonderful people.
At the end of a certain road, she once said, "It's okay, Elio, I never regretted joining the Star Core Hunters."
It's just a bit of a regret... What I regret is why I didn't set myself up to be stronger, strong enough that I wouldn't easily feel useless.
When faced with the entire world, even an envoy... is still too insignificant...
Elio tried to save her, but all his attempts ended in failure.
"Next time, please don't worry about my illness."
Over countless timelines, I think you will eventually understand—what kind of person I am.
I'm already so grateful to have met everyone. What's more, I have so many happy memories of being with you all.
Until a certain timeline, Eriol gave Qingyuan an hourglass.
"Take this; it's your life's countdown. It can flow away, or it can flow backward... The choice is yours."
"You don't have to give me the right to choose, just like the guillotine of fate never shows mercy when it falls." The blue-haired girl weighed the hourglass in her hand, and finally put it away.
"But this is your order, and I will carry it out unconditionally as always."
But I am not fate. Moreover, all I ask for is for all beings in the galaxy to escape their doomed destiny.
So why can't you be one of them?
Last time, when Elio mobilized the power of the Last King, he also relied on the memories from the Long Night Moon that carried the quality of a Star God as a trigger, and the almost infinite power of destiny of Xi Lian who was present as support.
Therefore, he was able to glimpse something deeper—the “birth” of the Blue Kite.
An absolute "blank" suddenly emerged from the foundation of the universe. It enveloped the dormant consciousness of "Azure Kite".
Immediately following, Fu Li's glance passed by like an ice mirror, followed by Bo Shi Zun's vast and ruthless calculating gaze.
As if performing some kind of calculation, the Venerable Master Boshi then mobilized the power of destiny and began to draw "reality" on the "blank" space that extended from the blue kite.
Yes, Qingyuan is indeed a "time traveler" by definition. However, this "truth" was created by Boshi Zun himself.
Elio didn't fully understand the deeper meaning behind the Master's actions, but he finally understood why he couldn't save Qingyuan despite exhausting all possibilities.
It turns out that almost at the moment of her birth, the "blank space" representing infinite possibilities had already been drawn and anchored by Bo Shizun.
If it weren't for the fact that for some reason she now possessed a special light cone carrying an independent consciousness, Elio estimated that Qingyuan would still have been unable to escape her predetermined trajectory.
Originally, Elio's plan was to let Qingyuan live happily in ignorance for a period of time before using her as a necessary "sacrifice".
As for the "two choices" mentioned on March 7th, Elio's mind was actually quite clear:
Whether Qingyuan stayed on the train, was among the Star Core Hunters, or settled in Luofu, she was able to spend happy and warm times with her friends and companions.
But how long can this period last? That question was not even part of the original promise.
"Although I gave you options, my real purpose was precisely to prevent you from having a choice."
Elio once thought, "The two paths are essentially similar, and the endings are roughly the same. The only difference is that Qingyuan will ultimately choose to sacrifice herself for some reason."
How many times did I fail before deciding to do this? I've lost count, and I don't want to count.
However, Elio now sees a new "possibility".
Xi Lian, who came from "Blank Space," might truly be able to help Qing Yuan break free from the cycle and gain a new life in a real sense.
Since this happened during the first deduction, and after repeated confirmation at the level of his divine power—
This time, there really is a chance!
On the other side, Onfaros and Qingyuan were unaware of this.
The first installment of Onphalos Chronicles has been released, and thanks to its excellent production and adaptation, it quickly became a hit across the galaxy.
There are also versions 8+, 12+, and 16+. Thanks to Krystalla for handling the logistics.
Some say that the company was behind this, while others disagree.
"This game is priced low and the subsequent DLC is free. How could the company possibly make such a conscientious game?"
If the in-game purchase bonuses don't fill the screen, you're playing a pirated version!
Meanwhile, the Golden Descendants have also launched their own official social media accounts, though they are not managing them themselves...