Chat Group: Starting by Swapping Bodies with Elysia?

Cosma, already resentful about being turned into a magical girl warrior, looked at the pink-haired girl in the distance with sparks of excitement in her eyes.

The current her was a… well, a 'twin-tailed magical girl' warrior. Though not exactly what she'd imagined, as a chuunibyou teenager, she was completely enamored with the power this 'transformation' granted.

"Here I come!"

In her twin-tailed magical girl state, Cosma even abandoned her usual taciturn demeanor, flashing a 'psycho beauty' smile. Her slender waist lowered, leg muscles tensed, followed by an explosive charge.

Perhaps out of dissatisfaction with 'Elysia' underestimating her, she didn't even bother drawing the weapons that came with this 'prototype' armor. Instead, she intended to let this meddling senior of hers know with her own fists:

The times, they are a-changin'!

The name of this era is Twin-Tailed Magical Girl Warrior Cosma!

A magical girl warrior who fights evil all over the world… Heh!

Imagining a bright future, even subconsciously ignoring her previous resistance to becoming a girl, Cosma, empowered by the twin-tailed battlesuit, closed the distance to 'Elysia' in an instant. She raised a gauntleted fist to strike. She assumed 'Elysia' hadn't reacted to her speed at all.

It can't be helped, can it? After all, the power of this twin-tailed magical girl warrior is so immense. How could a mere human without any armor keep up with my movements?

'Regretting' that this battle would end so quickly, before she could even truly unleash the full power of a twin-tailed magical girl warrior, Cosma consciously held back some of her punch.

Despite her resentment, both out of consideration for the fact that the other party was a pretty girl and out of gratitude for the chance to experience this unprecedented power, she didn't want to inflict too much damage, even if the other party had been arrogant.

'Elysia' simply smiled.

"Crack—!"

Instead of the expected sensation of impact, there was a feeling of shattering silicone, and the sound confirmed the abnormality.

Unable to control her power, Cosma shattered a layer of crystal and then made intimate contact with the wall.

…I didn't hit her? When did she?!

Wincing in pain, Cosma got up and looked at 'Elysia', who was now standing in a different spot, utterly bewildered.

The shattered crystal on the ground was proof – she'd hit a decoy!

And she hadn't even seen when the other girl had made the switch.

"Mhm~ A little careless, aren't we? You need to concentrate more during a fight." 'Elysia', leaning against the wall, heels clicking on the floor, looked at the bewildered emerald-haired twin-tailed girl with an easy smile.

According to the records in the Elysian Realm, Elysia was the only one besides Kevin who could consistently overwhelm Kalpas. In fact, Kalpas couldn't even touch the hem of her clothes during their fights.

Without a doubt, [Elysia] was a top-tier agile and nimble fighter. Her combat skills were even more refined than Sakura's when the latter unleashed her ultimate techniques.

And after obtaining 'Elysia of the Elysian Realm', Jiang Qiao had surpassed the original Elysia in every way when it came to utilizing the [Elysia] body – and that's not referring to the still-developing crybaby Elysia, but the fully realized version.

As for the Cosma in front of her – a small fry who couldn't even fully utilize the power of a twin-tailed magical girl warrior… pathetic, pathetic!

Her tight-fitting shorts brushed against the wall, her slender waist flexing with her movements. The pink-haired girl casually stretched her limbs. This effortless demeanor and the previous 'lecturing' tone sent twin-tailed magical girl warrior Cosma's anger soaring.

Prompted by Dr. MEI, cyan-colored arm blades materialized on her forearms. According to Dr. MEI's analysis, the biggest difference between this 'prototype' and the later models was that its 'Attribute Orbs' were neutral.

They would automatically convert and match weapons based on the user's characteristics.

The attribute Cosma manifested seemed to be wind, and the weapon was a pair of arm blades – Gale Wound. Vayu Cyclone Blades.

After drawing her weapons, the already highly agile twin-tailed Cosma's speed increased to 1.2 times her normal speed.

And Little Cosma's excitement soared again with the appearance of her weapons.

Weapons!

The cool weapons that the 'heroes' in movies and TV shows used – now she had them too!

Subarashii, this power is so wonderful – except for the part where I have to be a girl.

But Cosma didn't want to think about that now. She just wanted to fully unleash this power and get back at 'Elysia', this somewhat 'bad' senior.

This time, I'm watching you closely—

Hmph, you think you can escape? █████!!

You're in my grasp, there's no escape!

Amidst a series of strange sound effects of indeterminate origin, twin-tailed magical girl warrior Cosma, wielding her dual blades, charged towards 'Elysia', who was leaning against the wall.

Seeing this, the latter finally perked up a bit.

"Hmm~ If that's the case, then I guess I should get a little serious too."

—Serious?

Don't look down on me!

The incredibly confident Cosma gritted her teeth, her mental focus at its peak.

She watched the beautiful girl raise her hand, making a gesture. Then, a sweet voice echoed in the air:

"Domain Expansion. Idle Death Gamble [Modified]…"

At that moment, strange sound effects, seemingly from nowhere, filled the air. The intro alone was strangely captivating, making anyone nearby want to sway along.

The surrounding environment changed instantly.

"This is the new thing you wanted to test?"

MEI, who had followed them into the domain, looked around at the changed scenery, somewhat surprised.

As the Herrscher of Thunder, she could keenly sense the changes in her surroundings.

The moment Jiang Qiao began chanting, MEI noticed that a certain area had become rich in Honkai energy – equivalent to the core area of a Great Eruption.

Normally, such a place would be extremely deadly to humans, but strangely… the Honkai energy didn't seem to be harmful at all.

The corrosive properties that should have been present were completely gone.

…Of course, the strangest thing was that MEI realized she couldn't manipulate the Honkai energy within the domain.

You could argue that Jiang Qiao, as the Herrscher of Origin, was interfering, since the Herrscher of Origin was second only to the Finality in terms of controlling Honkai energy.

But this Honkai energy was clearly unowned. As a Herrscher, a regional controller of Honkai energy (excluding the top two), the Honkai energy wasn't even acknowledging her presence… This was unscientific!

"Mhm~ Inside this domain, everyone's Honkai energy will be extracted – and we'll compete in a 'game' to determine the winner. So… violence is prohibited, okay?"

"Now then—"

"Let's begin~"

With the girl's smile, a huge slot machine slammed down – this was the form Assassin's Game took when used by [Elysia].

The Honkai energy of both sides would be converted into 'game coins' and inserted into the machine for a spin.

The symbols on the reels were the chibi heads of the Thirteen Flame-Chasers – different Flame-Chasers represented different scores and effects. Only three matching heads would count, and… three Elysias were the ultimate jackpot.

While Cosma was still confused about why she couldn't move, her meager power was converted into Honkai energy, and the reels started spinning.

With a ding, the result appeared:

[Aponia] - [Kosma] - [Griseo]

Little Cosma couldn't even figure out why her own head was on the machine – but without a doubt, this result…

[Target personnel detected, triggering special 'Homework' effect: Strength halved]

Fairy Elysia, acting as the announcer, declared the game's outcome.

Feeling the power drain from her body, Cosma was completely dumbfounded.

Not… isn't the rule of this game that three matching symbols are needed? So, yours has penalties too?

And what's this 'family homework' supposed to mean? I don't even know those two!

"Aiya…"

Looking at the result, Jiang [Elysia] was also a little surprised.

Although this domain was hers, the unmodified Idle Death Gamble [Modified] had generated itself based entirely on the 'Elysia' template.

And the result… it seemed [Elysia] was too much of a playful spirit and had added a bunch of weird things.

"Well then, it's my turn."

With hands slowly coming together, the girl smiled.

The lever was pulled—

The symbols spun and fell into place.

[Mobius] - [Mobius] - [Mobius]

With a clang, three chibi snake heads lined up perfectly.

[Target personnel detected, triggering special 'That Annoying Woman' effect: Local defense super-enhanced, overall recovery ability MAX]

"If Dr. Mobius saw this, she'd definitely charge you royalties," MEI commented dryly, even her absolute rationality finding this a bit much.

"Mhm~ How could she~"

"So, game over – now for the real fight?"

Specks of green light materialized in [Elysia]'s hand. She looked at Kosma with a friendly expression.

The latter's expression was worse than crying, her whole body twisting in protest – this isn't fair! You give others debuffs and yourself buffs?!

If she'd still had the will to fight before, after this round of Idle Death Gamble, Little Cosma wouldn't want to continue even if you beat her to death.

Unfortunately—this was a test. How could they stop halfway?

Although this 'despicable' behavior seemed a little unfair and inappropriate for a test, Dr. MEI simply wiped her glasses—huh? Did something just happen?

Ultimately—the overconfident Kosma was sent flying with a swipe of a bow, collapsing on the ground and performing a live-action 'open mouth, closed eyes.jpg'.

As for why she was sent flying by a bow… little Cosma wanted to cry. She'd plucked up her courage to fight the despicable [Elysia], thinking that [Elysia] wielding a bow wouldn't be very good at close combat.

But as soon as she got close, Jiang Qiao dropped the act and just started chasing Kosma around, whacking her with the crystal bow – this works just fine.jpg

"Mobius's effect isn't very reliable, is it?" The crystal bow in her hand dissolved into specks of pink light. [Elysia] commented regretfully – it was completely useless!

In her estimation, it was even worse than Pardofelis's. At least Jiang Qiao knew that three Pardofelis symbols brought good luck to the winner (the downside was that it wouldn't work if they touched a door).

"How was it, MEI? How's the data collection?" [Elysia] approached Cosma, pinching her puffy cheeks with a smile.

"If you hadn't used that strange move, perhaps the collected data would have been more comprehensive," MEI rolled her eyes, then casually said, "But it doesn't matter – this was just for reference anyway."

"Can we replicate it?"

This was clearly the question [Elysia] cared about most.

While twin-tailed Cosma was indeed cute, shouldn't such an interesting thing be made more widely available? If so, just having one bracelet wouldn't be enough.

MEI shook her head, then, as if thinking of something, asked seriously, "Creating an exact replica is impossible. We probably won't be able to find the material called 'Attribute Orbs'. But we could consider using other things to replace them…"

Although the beginning of the process was somewhat playful, it had to be said that MEI was very interested in this thing called the [Transformation Bracelet]. Unlike the mostly playful [Elysia], she was seriously considering analyzing it and equipping Fire Moth warriors with it.

After all…

Even though Kosma's performance was very average, even what she had shown was enough to equip Fire Moth's armed forces and make up for their gradually lagging combat power.

Armor could be replaced with Soulium armor – the technology Jiang Qiao brought back from the future included the 'Keys of the Blankness' technology. The required Honkai energy resistance could be achieved by implanting simplified stigmata with 'conceptualization' technology.

In short, most of the twin-tailed armor could be replaced with other technologies without too much loss in overall performance.

The only problem was – they didn't have Attribute Orbs.

Attribute Orbs were the core product of the [Transformation Bracelet] technology.

The upper limit of the conceptualized armor and the source of its metaphysical properties almost entirely came from this thing.

Of course, they could use Herrscher cores as a substitute – but if they did that, then the device would basically lose its practical application value.

After all, there were only so many Herrschers. If it were the original Herrscher of Dominance, they could consider using its core as a substitute, but the new Herrscher of Dominance's core, which was like sand and had almost no special abilities, was obviously unusable.

But this didn't stump MEI. She turned her gaze towards her "daddy" and, with a sudden idea, asked seriously, "Can you replicate the structural composition of the 'Attribute Orb' as a crystal, [Elysia]?"

She knew [Elysia] could use some of the Herrscher of Reason's authority.

And the Herrscher of Reason's authority – as long as it was within the realm of human possibility, it could create it.

MEI wasn't sure if the Herrscher of Reason's power could work on something that was clearly from another world.

But—everything followed certain principles.

In her eyes, the most powerful aspect of the Herrscher of Reason wasn't 'reconstruction', but the very inconspicuous 'analysis'.

The ability to 'analyze' was by no means a mere 'side effect'. After all, it symbolized humanity's pursuit of 'truth'.

It was just that, most of the time, the power of reconstruction was more impactful and visually impressive.

Hearing MEI's words, [Elysia] instantly understood her idea and nodded thoughtfully.

"I'll try."

Through the authority of 'analysis', Jiang Qiao could peer into the basic particles of the 'Attribute Orb'.

The portion of the Herrscher of Reason's authority that she possessed began to activate – the small pink dot in the center of [Elysia]'s azure eyes gradually expanded, transforming into divine orange gears that slowly rotated.

The 'Attribute Orb' embedded in the [Transformation Bracelet] on Cosma's wrist was like an onion being peeled under the power of 'analyzing all things' and 'dissecting truth'.

Its molecular arrangement, physical properties, and even the extremely mysterious metaphysical properties were being deconstructed, turning into streams of data that illuminated her mind…

"Not quite enough…"

[Elysia] frowned slightly and whispered.

The [Transformation Bracelet] was undoubtedly a very advanced metaphysical item. Modifying DNA sequences, subverting life, and warping reality – something of this level, across worlds, was quite difficult even for the authority of Reason, especially since Jiang Qiao was only using a portion of the authority from her youth – about 15% of the original power.

"I need the Herrscher of Reason's core."

Just this level of the Authority of Reason wasn't enough to fully analyze the transformation bracelet.

Hearing this, MEI nodded, then sighed.

"...In that case, let's put this matter aside for now."

"Kosma, you can leave now."

Hearing this, Cosma stood there blankly. Noticing the taciturn 'girl's' hesitation, [Elysia] chuckled. "Don't worry, we'll call you for more tests later. Once this thing is put into production, you might even be one of the first to receive it."

Hearing this, the emerald-haired girl reluctantly took off the bracelet on her wrist. With a flash of light, she transformed back into a boy.

While becoming a girl was a little embarrassing, if he thought of it as the 'price', Kosma felt he could probably accept it.

Besides… being a girl didn't feel too bad?

Recalling the sensations of the transformation, Little Kosma subconsciously thought this. But after realizing it, he slapped himself in the face – no, how could he have such treacherous thoughts?! Get a grip, Kosma, you're a boy!

Casting longing glances back at the transformation bracelet, Kosma left the lab with reluctance.

The amused [Elysia] also composed herself and looked at MEI, asking, "Did something happen?"

He knew that MEI wouldn't care about a mere Herrscher core. With her efficient personality, if it could be done quickly, MEI would have dragged him straight to the storage location of the Herrscher cores.

But MEI had let Kosma leave – alright, Jiang Qiao could understand that MEI still didn't fully trust Kosma, but there were definitely other reasons.

"You should have seen the data, right? The location of the First Honkai Eruption was Berlin in Northern Europe," MEI adjusted her glasses and said slowly, "Therefore, the core of the First Herrscher has always been kept at the Fifth Research Division in Europe."

The original Fire Moth was established by multiple countries and affiliated with the United Nations. 乥

To combat the Honkai, Fire Moth built branch bases and research institutes all over the world.

—While this was partly due to the need to share the burden and conduct research, as mentioned before, there were also political factors involved.

Because various countries, due to their own considerations, couldn't simply allow an organization like Fire Moth, which wielded such power, to operate freely within their borders.

In this context, the relationship between Fire Moth headquarters and its various branches was more like the relationship between Schicksal headquarters and Schicksal's North American branch in the future – they were nominally one entity, but their power was separated to some extent. At most, they would share research results, and if one was in trouble and couldn't handle it, the others would have to help.

Through the efforts during the Third and Fourth Honkai Eruptions, with the help of Mobius, a Fire Moth elder, and Vill-V, MEI became the official spokesperson for Fire Moth. Also, because Fire Moth headquarters was originally located in Mu Continent, the center of the world, her control over the Fire Moth branches in the Asia-Pacific region gradually solidified.

But… Europe was special.

If the Previous Era had two cores, the largest was Mu Continent, and the slightly smaller one was Europe.

The factions within Fire Moth were also divided into two groups as a result.

For example, Mobius, a well-known scientist from Mu Continent, belonged to the Mu Continent faction. As a founding member, she had considerable influence in this faction, even though many people in this faction didn't like this colleague who lacked social skills.

As for the European faction…

To put it bluntly – the main force behind the assassination attempts on Dr. MEI in the later Fire Moth hierarchy was probably from that faction.

No one was willing to hand over a treasure like a Herrscher core.

After all, everyone had witnessed the power of the Herrschers.

Mu Continent was alright. Dr. MEI, who came from the Far East, was originally from this faction, and her father was a famous researcher in this field. Mobius, a Fire Moth elder, was her recommender and also had high hopes for this genius. So even if there was opposition to MEI within Mu Continent, they wouldn't resort to killing one of their own.

But Europe didn't care about that.

We're not even in the same faction. You're a newcomer who just joined the organization, and you want to take away our Herrscher core with just one plan?

The cores of the Second, Third, and Fourth Herrschers were fine; they were taken down by Fire Moth headquarters in Mu Continent. But the First Herrscher's core belongs to Europe.

This resistance only eased slightly after the Great Eruption broke out in Europe and the European faction's Fifth Research Division suffered heavy losses.

But the fact that the first Divine Key wasn't completed until the end of the Previous Era shows that even after Europe fell, the people there didn't stop their machinations.

Naturally, the situation was the same now. MEI said softly, "The Fifth Research Division… is very resistant."