"Su, I thought you were a reliable person. But no—really, I can't believe this! Should I say it's only natural that you and Kevin grew up wearing the same pair of pants? How else could you have caused this ridiculous mess?!"
Elias took a deep breath to calm the frustration boiling in his chest.
All those careful precautions, all the countless safeguards to prevent fate's correction—and yet, he never imagined those two could still find such a bizarre angle to make history align itself!
(When I get back, I'm confiscating your kid. From now on, Kalpas can do the babysitting—you two clearly can't be trusted!)
"Where are the others?"
"All other Flame-Chasers remain asleep within the Elysian Realm, my Lord. Do you wish to awaken them?"
"No need. It's not the time yet."
Elias shook his head. Awakening them would only make sense once he returned to the true original timeline. For now, he had something else to confirm. He called out inwardly—
(System, tell me, what's the situation now? Has the world undergone any interesting changes?)
Elias asked with genuine curiosity.
This, too, was part of his experiment.
In all his previous temporal journeys, the mechanism had always been the same: his soul was transmitted to the corresponding spacetime, and from that foundation, a new body was constructed.
When the traversal ended, his soul would return to the original timeline's body. No matter how long the journey lasted, not even a single second would pass in his "present." In other words, whenever he traveled to the past, his present was put on pause.
But now, things were different.
Thanks to the Great Hibernation, Elias had, without returning his soul to the original timeline, directly crossed from the Previous Era to the Current Era—and not to the year 2015 when he left, but straight into 2017!
His present had been paused, and yet he had arrived in the future!
It was like when that so-called emergency food in a certain game tells you, "This area isn't unlocked yet—come back later," and you still manage to glitch into the unreleased map.
Elias was very curious to see what the world had become.
System: (My lord—aaaaah! You've glitched the system way too hard this time! Things have gotten completely out of hand, you know that?!)
Elias: (Calm down and explain slowly. To me, this isn't much different from the ten cycles I went through in the Previous Era, trying every possible way to alter fate for the twenty-fourth time.)
System: (...)
In those ten cycles, Elias had tested every possible solution to counter the Honkai, eventually achieving the unprecedented feat of eradicating it—with global casualties numbering fewer than ten.
Yet despite exhausting all past possibilities, he still couldn't find a way to save a certain Miss Pink Elf while also freeing the Herrschers of the Current Era from the Honkai's shackles.
But this time, his actions had truly stunned the system.
Elias had bypassed the paused present and arrived at the future that should have been inaccessible—in other words, he had accidentally discovered a bug in both the system and the world.
System: (I'm completely speechless, my lord. Allow me to explain—while you did return from the Previous Era, you didn't reach the original timeline.)
(The world automatically adjusts to your altered past, performing necessary corrections to ensure continuity with the future. Normally, small inconsistencies are repaired seamlessly by the world itself. But...)
(This time, your bug is too massive! Even the world itself doesn't know how to fix it!)
Elias blinked in surprise, feeling as though he might have gone a bit too far this time.
He could almost picture a programmer with "World" written on his forehead staring helplessly at the enormous glitch he'd caused—hair flying, hands clutching his head, on the verge of mental breakdown.
Elias: (Uh... so what's the current situation exactly?)
System: (Eh~ since the bug can't be fixed, might as well not fix it at all. Let's just rewrite the code instead... Simply put, this timeline is now an IF route.)
If the original Honkai Impact 3rd story is called the A Timeline—
Then the story after Elias' first traversal would be the B Timeline.
And the timeline he just glitched into—the future that should have been impossible to reach—is the C Timeline.
Elias: "Oh, I see~"
System: (You're awfully calm about this, my lord! But this is serious! This timeline does provide a logical explanation for your existence, but it's not your original timeline! Don't you plan to return to your proper spacetime?!)
Elias: "Why panic? I just accidentally came to a parallel world, that's all. I still have a way to return to my original timeline. So for now, I'll just treat this as a vacation in another world."
System: (...)
Looking at Elias' completely composed expression, the system was at a loss for words. Its host truly lived up to his title—the Savior who had saved the world twelve times.
For a moment, even the system couldn't help feeling proud. How fortunate it was that it had not been bound to one of those useless hosts who only knew how to lie around and wait for their system to spoon-feed them skills.
Up until now, all it had ever given Elias was the opportunity to travel to the past. Every ounce of power, every Authority, every shred of knowledge—he had obtained with his own hands.
"Tell me about this timeline. What's different between it and my original one?" Elias asked curiously.
System: (Yes, my lord. In this timeline... you're dead.)
Elias: "???"
System: (And not just once—you've died four times.)
Elias: "What the hell?!"
Perhaps finding verbal explanations too cumbersome, the system decided to transmit the memories of this world's Elias directly to him.
After reviewing them, Elias fell completely silent.
He had only one thought in his mind.
(If fate were a scriptwriter, then it must be working at HoYoverse! Was it really necessary to make it this tragic?!)
Counting his first arrival in this world, Elias had now traversed four times in total.
Across those four journeys, he had averted countless tragedies, rewriting the destinies of many. And due to his unique nature, those changed fates would never again be overwritten by fate's correction.
For instance, Sirin never became the Herrscher of the Void. Wendy, Ji Xuanyuan, and Himeko never died, and so on.
To preserve the logical consistency of those past events, the very instant Elias first arrived in this world in this new timeline—
The world split his existence across four different time points simultaneously.
First time point.
Elias was an ordinary student at Qianyu Academy. During the lowest point in Raiden Mei's life—when she was being mercilessly bullied by her classmates—he was the only one who stood by her side, her lover.
When Mei was about to awaken as the Herrscher of Thunder due to Cocolia's schemes, triggering a Honkai Eruption that would annihilate all of Nagazora City—
Elias risked his life to awaken Mei's humanity, soothing her Herrscher persona and successfully preventing the Honkai Eruption. However, due to his close contact with the Herrscher, he was fatally corroded by Honkai energy, dying in Mei's arms.
Second time point.
During the Second Eruption, Elias was stationed within the Babylon Labs as Sirin's sole source of warmth and hope. To protect her, he voluntarily underwent human experimentation and ultimately awakened as the Herrscher of the Void.
Though he destroyed the Babylon Labs and became a four-core Herrscher, in order to shield Sirin and everyone in Siberia from the incoming Schicksal missiles, Elias exhausted all his Honkai energy and was struck dead by a Honkai Fissile Bomb.
Third time point.
He adopted Bronya, Seele, and other children orphaned by the Honkai, founding the orphanage known as the House of the Hearth.
To protect the two girls from their destined participation in the X-10 experiment, Elias took their place instead—his body eventually collapsing into quantum particles and dissipating entirely.
Fourth time point.
He was a young teacher at St. Freya Academy. When Kiana was forcibly awakened into the Herrscher of the Void by Otto...
He took Himeko's place and donned the Vermilion Knight: Eclipse armor, delivering "The Last Lesson" to Kiana—burning away his life to save her, and ultimately dying within the imaginary space.
Although each event altered the original story, the methods differed significantly from those achieved through the system's intervention.
Thus, there was no time-freezing or inability to move forward to the future as normally imposed by temporal travel.
As a result, in this spacetime, Elias could exist logically—time paradoxes no longer applied, and even the altered Previous Era could connect smoothly with this IF Current Era.
Elias: "*%@!#$%!"
He smacked his palm against his forehead, at a complete loss for words, while staring at the four CG images displayed by the system—
One where he died before Mei, one before Sirin, one before Bronya and Seele, and one before Kiana.
Elias now had the overwhelming urge to flip the nearest table.
"I wanted to change all the tragedies, not turn myself into one!"
System: (My lord, in your original timeline, you did pretty much the same things. The only difference is that the you from that timeline didn't die—this one did.)
"Uh…"
Elias froze for a moment. Viewing those memories from an outsider's perspective, he finally realized just how reckless he'd been before—completely disregarding his own well-being.
But now came the real problem.
Even though this was another timeline, the one who had done all those things was still Elias. After saving each of them and dying in their arms, the depth of emotion Kiana and the others must hold toward him was beyond imagination.
If Elias were to meet the Kiana, Mei, and Bronya of this timeline now—he could already picture the outcome vividly.
When someone you once lost suddenly reappears before you, the only thought that remains is to never let them go again—no matter the means.
"I'd better grab the final piece of the puzzle quickly and return to the original timeline. And… I'd better cover my face."
Murmuring to himself, Elias conjured a platinum mask and put it on. He couldn't afford to be recognized.
As for how to return to the original timeline—
The method was, surprisingly, "super simple."
All he had to do was traverse the Imaginary Tree back into the past, save Elysia, and instead of using the Great Hibernation to return, he would use the system to end the temporal traversal and reenter the Current Era.
That way, his paused present would resume, signifying his return to the original timeline.
"The sooner I finish this, the sooner I go home! Anyway, nothing else changed, right?"
(Correct. No other major alterations remain.)
"Good. Then this is stable. Also, thanks, system. Thinking about it now—if it weren't for you, I wouldn't have even had the chance to change the past. And even if I had, I would've probably died like the version of me in this world."
Elias gently patted the system interface.
While his system didn't grant him godlike powers to obliterate heaven, earth, and air, he was more than content.
Just having the ability to travel back and rewrite the past—while being able to return safely even if he died during the traversal—was already enough for him.
It was what gave Elias the courage to keep charging forward.
"I think I might've been too harsh on you before. Sorry about that."
(Please don't apologize, my lord. It's my failure for not being able to give you a stronger system. Because of that, you had to risk your life again and again to change fate. I'm a useless system.)
"Don't say that. To me, you're the best system there is. I'll be counting on you again, System~"
(Yes, my lord!)
...
After fully understanding this timeline, Elias decided it was best to act quickly—before complications arose.
"Gray Serpent, how's the Tenth Herrscher in this era?"
"Yes, my Lord. The Herrscher of Dominance has already descended. However, she possesses abilities vastly different from those of the Previous Era. Based on current data, it appears she can seize the Authorities of other Herrschers."
"Excellent! That's exactly what I wanted!"
Elias' golden eyes gleamed brilliantly, like those of a predator who had just spotted his prey.
He had specifically instructed Gray Serpent to awaken him at this point in time—for the sake of the Current Era's Tenth Herrscher: the Herrscher of Dominance!
In the Previous Era, the Herrscher of Dominance had been a weak existence—merely a thousand consciousnesses capable of communicating through quantum entanglement, possessing simple psychic abilities far inferior to other Herrschers' Authorities.
But the Herrscher of Dominance in this era was different.
They were creations of the Honkai itself, designed specifically to counter other Herrschers. After all, as everyone knew, most Herrschers of the Current Era were Honkai defectors who sided with humanity.
Their Authority—the power to seize the Authorities of other Herrschers—was precisely the final piece Elias needed to complete his plan.
Gray Serpent bowed respectfully. "My Lord, in fact, the Herrscher of Dominance was already defeated yesterday by St. Freya Academy and Anti-Entropy."
He handed over a data file containing the gathered intelligence.
"My Lord may not yet know, having only just awakened, but the Herrschers of this era are truly extraordinary. Unlike our time, many of them have chosen to fight for humanity's side."
"The Herrscher of the Void—Kiana Kaslana—used her own Authority as bait to lure the Herrscher of Dominance into one place. Then, in cooperation with both St. Freya and Anti-Entropy, they launched a joint operation and successfully eradicated them."
"We have confirmed the report—the total number of Herrscher of Dominance eliminated was exactly one thousand. Our side also managed to recover several of their Cores."
Gray Serpent looked up reverently at Elias as he presented several Herrscher of Dominance Cores he had long prepared.
As a survivor of the Previous Era, he knew his Lord well. The Savior possessed a power that even surpassed that of a certain Flame-Chaser bearing the Signet of [Discipline]—the power to foresee the future.
It was thanks to that future sight that the Previous Era had suffered so few casualties—almost all of their victories had been guided by Elias' foresight.
And Gray Serpent had long suspected something—if his Lord could perceive every possible future of the Previous Era, then perhaps he could also see the future of the Current one.
If that were true, then his Lord's command to awaken him at this exact moment must have carried a profound meaning.
When the Herrscher of Dominance first appeared, Gray Serpent had already guessed that Elias' true objective was none other than this very Herrscher. Thus, being the capable subordinate he was, he immediately made every necessary preparation—even securing several of their Cores in advance.
Gray Serpent: (All for my Lord! Eli Gate!)
Elias smiled faintly. "Well done, Gray Serpent. But the Herrscher of Dominance hasn't been truly defeated yet—they're merely pretending to be."
Knowing the story as he did, Elias wasn't about to be fooled.
The real challenge was about to begin—the Herrscher of Dominance was preparing to rise again.
"Now then…" Elias' golden eyes shone like molten suns. "Let me test the strength of this era's Herrscher of Dominance. I hope they can provide some entertainment."