"Your plan won't succeed!"
The stubborn silver-gray-haired girl went from initial shock to confident action, only to suffer a swift, unavoidable defeat. Though battered, leveraging the unique nature of the Herrscher of Reason, she grit her teeth and spoke defiantly just before falling into the enemy's carefully woven network:
"We won't stop resisting—He will definitely stop you too!"
To Gray Serpent, this was merely the baseless whining of a loser. The plan was complete. Although significantly different from the original projection, the web they had woven now was, in some ways, perhaps even tougher and more unbreakable than the one initially planned. Since that was the case, no one should be able to destroy it.
...It should have been like this.
But, however much he wanted to dismiss it with a laugh, the Herrscher of Reason's final words echoed relentlessly, surfacing countless times in Gray Serpent's database.
...Unease.
He felt uneasy.
An utterly absurd thing—after all, for mechanical life, feelings like 'security', emotions evolved by carbon-based life for environmental vigilance and better survival, should fundamentally not exist for Gray Serpent, especially not for the most radical Golden Serpent. Yet now, after hearing those words, the feeling was intensely strong.
Golden Serpent sank into prolonged contemplation—he tried to resolve this sense of unease.
At this moment, all life on Earth had fallen into the net, without exception. So, who was the 'He' the Herrscher of Reason spoke of?
After reviewing everything from the other world and sensing the dissatisfaction conveyed from there, he finally pinpointed the source of his unease. Even with the entire world captured, the net was undeniably missing a crucial piece.
And the most prominent missing element... was a certain man named Jiang Qiao.
His presence was so faint—in World Serpent's past setbacks, he almost always played an insignificant role. But... whenever he intervened, events inevitably went awry.
Gray Serpent shouldn't have connected these dots. But now, having eliminated all other possibilities, he was forced to conclude: the main culprit behind World Serpent's repeated failures, possibly even the one responsible for the Lord's disappearance, wasn't the most conspicuous protagonist in those events, but likely this mysterious man named Jiang Qiao.
Since that was the case, the only thing left to do was eliminate this final hidden danger.
Besides—these were her instructions.
"Want to eliminate the final hidden danger?" Jiang Qiao mused aloud.
"While I'd like to say that even without me, they likely could have overcome this on their own," he continued, "since you've put it this way, what needs to be done next becomes much simpler."
"So, let me see what you've prepared for me." Jiang Qiao had no intention of attacking the Golden Serpent before him. He spread his hands open, smiling lightly in invitation—Bring it on.
He knew very well that the Golden Serpent before him was just one of Gray Serpent's many bodies. At this moment, destroying this fragile form would be meaningless. And Gray Serpent's true power, his trump card, certainly wouldn't be just this single mechanical body.
"I hope you can maintain that composure," Golden Serpent stated, its mechanical voice raspy. The next moment, it waved a hand.
A pattern suddenly appeared. As indecipherable syllables were uttered, the pattern seemed to possess a strange magical power. Elysia, standing beside Jiang Qiao, froze. Her beautiful azure eyes reflected the pattern, her gaze gradually becoming vacant.
Just before she completely lost consciousness, a gentle, soothing voice whispered in her ear: "Rest easy for a while, leave this to me."
The words calmed Elysia, who had been struggling desperately but fruitlessly against the overwhelming attraction. Of course, she also felt a tinge of unwillingness. After all, this time, following the mischievous Jiang Qiao, she had really wanted to help him somehow. She had grown so much stronger; surely this power could assist him, at least a little?
But why did she still feel so powerless...?
In reality, Jiang Qiao gently caught the limply falling Elysia. Then, he stared at the incredibly familiar pattern with surprise and keen interest.
"?" Golden Serpent remained frozen, stunned. "You... why weren't you captured?" he asked, bewildered and incredulous.
According to his plan, the woven network in the other world was the best means to restrain this man. As long as he fell into it like the others, everything would be over. Gray Serpent had never even considered the possibility that he wouldn't fall in.
After all... this was the ultimate 'Dream of Stigma', enhanced with World Serpent's assistance, blending multiple powers—in terms of dream intensity, it even surpassed the dream Kevin was meant to create in the original plan. Its method of external deployment was derived from the meme of the Herrscher of Sentience.
How could he possibly see the carrier pattern of that meme and still stand here unharmed?
"Oh, you're concerned about this?" Jiang Qiao gestured casually. "This level of Herrscher of Sentience authority... I can see you've certainly put in a lot of effort. But, memetic attacks are ultimately an application of 'principle' or 'logic'. Because ordinary people cannot override the 'principle' of the meme, this form of attack is so difficult to resist."
"But for me—" he continued, "Unfortunately, my 'principle' is above it. Unless I willingly allow myself to be 'captured', you can never force me into it, no matter what."
"Really?" A sweet, fairy-like voice chimed in nearby, one not unfamiliar.
The warm, heavy feeling left his arms as a pink shadow flashed past. The owner of the voice—a pink-haired girl with the grace of a fairy—wore a sly smile. Her beautiful azure eyes, filled with alluring charm, held a playful glint matching her words.
Jiang Qiao's gaze swept over the faint mark of the Signet of [Ego]. He looked at the owner of the voice—the 'Elysia' smilingly staring back at him—and sighed:
"Although seeing that pattern made me suspect something like this, realizing it's true still gives me a bit of a headache."
"Why did it turn out like this? Elysia... Herrscher of Corruption." He calmly looked at the girl before him, instantly recognizing her identity—Elysia from the Elysian Realm... and more than that, there was also an element of the Herrscher of Corruption mixed in.
Not just the Herrscher of Corruption... if it were that simple, he wouldn't have used the name 'Elysia' from the start. He called her that precisely because Jiang Qiao had already discerned the true nature of the 'Elysia' before him.
This wasn't like before, an imposter fairy missy who merely took the name out of admiration after all data had been deleted—the Herrscher of Corruption. The data belonging to the Elysian Realm's Elysia was undoubtedly present, allowing him to confirm the data's authenticity.
The girl before him now wasn't so much an imposter fairy as... a fallen, altered Elysian Realm Elysia, mixed with impurities, blended with something else.
"I don't quite like that second name~," the girl pouted, leaning close to Jiang Qiao with a slightly melancholic, helpless air. "The Herrscher of Corruption, it doesn't sound like a cute girl's name at all, does it?"
"As for why things turned out like this... well, what can I do? I'm just a shadow left behind by the original body, stuck in the past, you know?"
"Besides," she added, "the things you left behind in the Elysian Realm were really quite troublesome for me."
"Since I couldn't reach my expectations, and wanted to survive, wasn't 'becoming a part of it' the only choice left?" she said, seemingly recalling the past.
Myself—Elysia... Hmm, before becoming a part of Elysia, I was indeed just the 'Herrscher of Corruption'.
Back then, the naive Herrscher of Corruption had hidden within Gray Serpent upon entering the Elysian Realm, sneaking into that place called the Elysian Realm. But to her frustration—she had originally intended to quietly develop her strength and slowly explore this unknown world.
Instead... the moment she entered this blasted place, she instantly discovered... there were already many 'others of her kind' here. And when those 'kin' detected her anomaly, they almost devoured her on the spot.
Fortunately, the Herrscher of Corruption had good luck.
She didn't know what happened, but at that time, a white-haired man wearing a mask (kalpas) threw a tantrum and directly destroyed the section of the Elysian Realm she was in, taking care of the 'kin' pursuing her.
She managed to survive by sheer luck. But even though she survived, the Herrscher of Corruption...
...still didn't know what to do. She only felt fear.
She wanted to escape this place, escape the danger. However, the Elysian Realm was simply too vast, and brimming with those malicious 'kin'. Just evading them already left her exhausted and constantly on the run.
However—
Heaven never seals off all paths.
In a desolate, abandoned space, she finally found her turning point. It was an extremely fragmented piece of garbage data. For the weak Herrscher of Corruption, acquiring information—nutrients—was her means of growth.
Yet, trying to consume dangerous garbage data while avoiding the attention of certain perilous entities was extremely difficult... Back then, things were so bad she couldn't even get the trash generated by the Flame-Chasers.
Fortunately, she discovered a portion... an extremely small portion, hidden very secretly, quite nutritious, yet surprisingly not very dangerous piece of 'garbage data'.
It seemed to belong to a certain man named Jiang Qiao.
This information was a bit strange; it involved that man and another person called Elysia... and it strongly resembled second-hand, even third-hand data, used and then discarded. But it truly saved the Herrscher of Corruption, who was having a miserable time back then, providing her with nutrients for growth.
Then, using this information... she unexpectedly came into contact with a child named Griseo.
——Griseo seemed to be looking for this information too.
Originally, she appeared to want it from Aponia. But the person named Aponia reacted quite negatively. With a cold face, she directly turned away Griseo who wanted the special pigments... even deliberately lecturing her.
Although Griseo didn't feel much about it, she still longed for those special pigments. So, she secretly hid it from Kosma and Aponia, trying to pick up fragments from the abandoned database to use.
During this process, the Herrscher of Corruption successfully parasitized Griseo.
Leveraging Griseo's unique nature, she evaded the pursuit of her Elysian Realm 'kin' and obtained considerable nourishment from Griseo, completing her initial stage of growth.
Normally, according to her nature, once she grew strong enough, she would definitely consume the host first, acquire a usable identity to gain the trust of others, and develop further.
But because of those Elysian Realm 'kin'... the Herrscher of Corruption discovered that not eating Griseo was fine, but if she did eat her, it would almost instantly trigger an alarm. She suspected she might be dragged out and beaten to death on the spot.
Realizing she couldn't eat Griseo—and even had to rely on her protection to avoid being killed—the Herrscher of Corruption was naturally quite frustrated. Due to her parasitic nature, if she didn't consume Griseo, her growth was very limited.
After all, it was parasitism. If she became too conspicuous, larger than the host, how could she parasitize and hide from her kin?
She needed to grow, to continue surviving, but couldn't rely on Griseo indefinitely. From Griseo, she learned that the Flame-Chasers' information underwent regular maintenance; she definitely wouldn't be able to hide then.
Stuck relying on Griseo for survival, unable to replace Griseo... leaving was also a dead end, with a mob waiting for her outside.
Just as the Herrscher of Corruption faced an increasingly difficult situation—
Griseo met with the Elysian Realm's Elysia.
At this extremely close proximity, she finally found a new answer—she chose to switch hosts, targeting Elysia.
No...
This time, it wasn't simple parasitism. Because she had absorbed some data from those fragmented memories, the Herrscher of Corruption managed to acquire some of the 'abilities' of a certain Mr. Jiang.
Though very limited, relying on this 'Jiang Qiao data' that had become part of her, she tricked the portion of Jiang Qiao's data residing within Elysia, and then... secretly integrated herself into Elysia's core data.
The Herrscher of Corruption was certain that as long as she could merge into it, those annoying Elysian Realm 'kin' would never be able to touch her again.
And indeed, it was true.
Through this method, she not only evaded the attacks of her kin but even—by seizing the opportunity to merge with Elysia and become part of Elysia's data—directly corrupted the Elysian Realm Elysia's data.
Feelings of admiration, twisted emotions... the prior understanding of Elysia she had acquired, driven by this impetus, she truly accomplished what the original Herrscher of Corruption had not—becoming Elysia.
And so...
Now, they were the same person.