Soft. Warm.
He opened his eyes, and a familiar face came into view.
That face was delicate and cute, and at this moment it was blooming with a gentle, radiant smile. But the instant Theo saw it, a nameless fire surged up in his chest.
"Ah, Theo, you're awake?" A sweet, soft voice rang out, carrying careful concern.
"How many times have I told you, don't wear that helpless look on your face." Theo propped himself up and swept his gaze around. Nothing unexpected. He was back in this place again.
The Great Tomb of the Nameless Titan, more specifically the Demiurge Matrix.
And the girl who had just been giving him a lap pillow was none other than the owner of this place, or rather, the toughest squatter in this Scepter System.
"So I failed again, huh."
Coming back here meant that once more, he had been kicked out of the prologue's first stop in Amphoreus, still stuck at the very first beginner's map.
The clear condition for the beginner area was to help Tribios obtain the Coreflame of Janus.
"Damn."
What kind of bullshit difficulty was that? Even the beginning area is this hard to clear. Theo didn't even dare imagine how the later maps were supposed to be cleared.
What kind of sane game starts the very first main chapter with you having to fight the "Emanator of Destruction, Irontomb" and a whole bunch of others who came over like they were delivering dimensional reduction strikes?
Sure, the Honkai Star Rail universe isn't exactly a nice place to live, but places like Belobog or the Xianzhou Luofu arcs at least still leave you some room to struggle.
What the hell is Amphoreus? A map where the grand finale is straight-up destroying the universe and then remolding the universe?
Most crucially, facing threats from the black tide and the final boss, the Chrysos Heirs' side was completely outmatched in raw stats. A portion of them still provided some key functional support, but among the demigods tasked with actual combat, almost none were still qualified to participate.
People like Mydei, for example, still had a bit of personal spotlight in the early story, but by the late stages they mostly turned into cheerleaders shouting slogans, basically doing rapid-fire comedy routines.
In the end, the truly key figures were only that reincarnating duo. One was Phainon, going through thirty million cycles of reincarnation, desperately dragging out time. The other was Cyrene, also going through thirty million cycles, desperately nourishing the original Seed of Memory, and at the same time waiting for her chance.
But here came the problem. Those thirty million cycles weren't even finished yet. The Astral Express crew that would give them hope and change hadn't arrived. Demiurge still looked like a far-off dream. And he, a transmigrator, had crash-landed here ahead of schedule.
A very cruel reality lay before Theo. He was facing a choice. Either hide in this Tomb of Demiurge and play dead, wait for the future little gray-haired girl to come visit, then wait to get swept into dust by the Irontomb's ultimate move, and finally be resurrected by big sister Cyrene.
Or, be proactive, like Phainon, and go blow himself up together with Lygus!
And very obviously, Mr. Theo chose the latter.
Just transmigrated, a fresh job-change, even carrying cheats, and you want me to avoid their edge? Do you think I can wait such a darn long time?
And then, he face-planted four times in a row on the the beginning area map.
"I still haven't even seen Tribios."
"According to history, before Tribios accepted the Coreflame of Janus, she was always placed under soft house arrest by the priests of the Temple of Janus, with her contact with the outside world restricted. At that time, Tribios was basically no different from a prisoner."
The soft little pink-haired girl gently explained to the new companion that had just refreshed into the Tomb of Demiurge.
"Little Theo, you yourself are an outsider. Even the guards will be extremely strict with you, let alone.... there should also be some Chrysos Heirs assigned to watch over Lady Tribios stationed there."
"And besides, even if you do manage to contact Lady Tribios, what can you actually do?"
"Give some information, what else? Too bad I don't know how to activate the codex yet. Otherwise, using my power to unlock entries wouldn't be bad either."
Patting his butt as he stood up, Theo sighed helplessly. With no newbie gift pack, even having cheats made it hard to take off directly.
After transmigrating here, Theo seemed to have also become a native of Amphoreus. His entire being was digitized, his body regressed to around thirteen or fourteen years old, and for some unknown reason, he had fused with several games that had been on his phone at the time, combining into his current cheat.
Yes. Kids. There is a piece of despair-inducing news.
There was MiHoYo on that phone! And Teamfight Tactics, and Azur Lane. If there had also been Fate-Stay Night and Arknights, that would have been an instant kill.
After that, he transmigrated here. The system automatically set the great tomb of the Nameless Titan as his return point, and locked the Temple of Janus as Chapter One, the beginning area of his Flame Chase Journey.
Aside from being able to see something like an auto-chess-style tactical team interface and a personal status panel, everything else was almost completely blacked out.
When he saw that auto-chess interface, Mr. Theo felt it barely counted as good news.
Because maybe there was a chance to assemble a one-cost War God, 2000 attack speed, Rageblade build.
But the bad news was, the blade wasn't even in the gacha pool right now!
If he didn't clear the beginning area, not even Tribios would join his team!
"Looks like I really have to find a helper." But who to look for was a problem.
All the Cyrenes in the Tomb of Demiurge were bound souls, sacrificial seeds of memory fused into Demiurge.
Although there was currently one he could see and touch, before long this one would probably also turn into part of Cyrene, just like the tens of millions before her.
Right now, this Cyrene couldn't even be used as a teammate. She probably couldn't even be brought around a few times as a mascot.
In his digitized field of vision, he could clearly see the floating frame above this little Cyrene's head.
HP below 1%, basically no different from Otto before charging the tree. If this little pink-haired girl's obsession were comparable to Otto's, she might have already grabbed her tiny staff and charged out to slaughter Lygus.
But unfortunately. The most brutal, savage version of this little pink-haired girl was nothing more than her future self throwing punches.
What a waste of the Pure Children of Anāsrava title, seriously.
"But then again, at the time of the beginning area, who could I even find to help me?"
Theo fell into deep thought. At this point in time, most of the other demigods hadn't even been born yet. If he really had to name someone from the same era, it seemed only Aglaea fit, but Aglaea herself was probably somewhere unknown right now, preparing to be a seamstress.
And Aglaea's own strength was just so-so at this stage. If he really ran into Aglaea in her loli phase, who would even be helping whom?
"Then that leaves only the one up in the sky."
Amphoreus had quite a few named characters, but they were mostly concentrated around the period when Aglaea took control of Okhema. Cipher, Aglaea, Phainon, Mydei, Castorice all popped up around that time one after another.
But aside from those demigods who were already chosen by fate, in Tribios's era, there should actually still be one more person who not yet at their strongest, but one he could absolutely cling to.