Chapter 583: The Urban Legend of a Vampire, Young Himeko

Inside an unknown bubble world.

"Ahhh, why did things turn out like this..."

Elias lay sprawled across the table with a lifeless expression, staring at the shiny silver bracelet currently fastened around his wrist. He felt that only a song about lamenting behind prison bars could properly express his current mood.

Then he looked at the young woman sitting across from him.

To explain the situation simply...

He had been arrested...

Elias: (Guys, this isn’t funny!)

Elias let out a deep sigh, speechless at his ridiculously tumultuous fate. Once again, the question ’Why did things turn out like this?’ surfaced in his mind. He had clearly only come to this bubble world for a relaxing vacation, yet somehow he was now sitting in a police station.

Something must have gone wrong somewhere!

And so Elias recalled what had happened several hours earlier.

...Several hours earlier...

After defeating the Ferryman with a casual strike, Elias, Rosemary, and Ai arrived in this bubble world, ready to enjoy themselves and relax properly.

Since they had no specific travel plans, they simply chose a city at random and descended. The three of them arrived in a city called "Sapphire City," which neighbored "Nagazora City," an area heavily afflicted by Honkai.

However, everything in this bubble world was peaceful.

Although this bubble world was similar to the proper world and likewise faced the trials of Honkai, the presence of both Schicksal and Anti-Entropy meant the situation was completely under control.

Elias had no intention of getting involved. He was here for a vacation, not to fight Honkai. Even if the sky collapsed today, it would have absolutely nothing to do with him. The savior was taking the day off from saving the world!

However, he did not go shopping or on a date together with the two women.

After all, Elias occasionally wanted to stroll through the streets alone.

The season in this bubble world was oppressively hot. Not even the faintest breeze stirred in the sweltering summer heat. The world seemed to have turned its brightness all the way up, and the blazing sun was so dazzling that it was impossible to look at directly.

Elias wandered through many places. After temporarily setting aside every burden on his shoulders, this Flame-Chaser of salvation seemed to have truly become nothing more than an ordinary young man, although perhaps one who was far too handsome.

Everywhere he went, the rate of people turning their heads to look at him was one hundred percent. Everyone who saw him felt that even in this hellishly hot weather, something beautiful still existed, as though a white angel had descended upon the city.

Elias first used the authority of the Herrscher of Wind to summon a cool breeze through the city as a greeting gift, then casually wandered the streets and bought quite a few useless souvenirs.

Since his black card did not work in this bubble world, he simply paid with gemstones instead. After all, he normally received far too many from Eden, and whenever Elias was bored, he would even skip these priceless jewels across the surface of lakes for fun.

At lunchtime, the three reunited at a HOMU HOMU restaurant and ate together. Elias challenged himself to try black-truffle chocolate grilled steak, which Rosemary considered nothing short of culinary heresy.

"It’s kind of weird, but surprisingly not bad."

"My Lord, please don’t eat strange foods."

"Ahem, you’ve got to try everything at least once. By the way, how did things go for you two? This bubble world is pretty nice, isn’t it? Peaceful, ordinary, completely uneventful... It’s absolutely amazing!"

Elias declared that this was practically his ideal world.

He was even slightly tempted to retire here.

Ai and Rosemary did not know whether to laugh or cry, though they could understand his feelings. After all, this man’s daily life was simply far too extraordinary, which was exactly why ordinary things attracted him so much.

Every day of sailing through the Sea of Quanta could be described as one perilous incident after another. Now that the waters had finally calmed and he could stop to relax properly for once, it was only natural that he found the experience healing and joyful.

"As long as My Lord is happy. Ai and I had a wonderful time shopping too, and we also heard some interesting news... Are you familiar with urban legends?"

Rosemary spoke somewhat mysteriously.

"Hm? You mean those stories supposedly passed around through a friend of a friend? Everyone knows urban legends are always real. Why? Does this city have some interesting urban legend too?"

Elias paused, then asked with interest.

"It does. While Rosemary and I were shopping, we heard quite a few people discussing something. Apparently, a terrifying vampire has recently appeared in Sapphire City."

Ai raised both hands and curled her fingers like claws, deliberately lowering her voice as she spoke. Unfortunately, with that breathtakingly beautiful face of hers, she could not look frightening no matter how hard she tried.

"Oh? A vampire? That’s certainly an old-fashioned but classic urban legend. But... I don’t think it’s very credible. After all, I’ve never heard of a vampire Honkai Beast."

Elias crossed his arms and shook his head.

Since this was a world connected to Honkai, whenever some inexplicable phenomenon occurred, it was usually caused by a special Honkai Beast. Many urban legends were simply methods Schicksal or Anti-Entropy commonly used to cover up the existence of Honkai and dispel rumors.

So many urban legends in this world were actually true.

However, Elias had never heard of anything like a "vampire Honkai Beast." And if he, the ultimate Chimera MANTIS, said no such creature existed, then it truly did not exist.

After all, Elias himself was practically a living encyclopedia of Honkai Beasts. His body was the fusion of every Honkai Beast.

Still... it was an urban legend, after all.

"An urban legend is a strange and uncanny yet captivating story passed from person to person. Half true, half false, yet endlessly fascinating. Searching for truth within a fabricated story might be meaningless, but... precisely because people can’t prove it’s false, they want to uncover the truth even more."

Elias propped his head up with one hand while using a silver spoon in the other to stir his after-meal tea.

"When you put it that way, it sounds much more romantic. Fine~ I’m starting to get interested too. If I get bored later, I’ll try looking for this vampire."

"Then My Lord should be careful. I hear vampires can turn the people whose blood they drink into thralls, and those thralls become the vampire’s possessions and playthings."

"Haha, if I really do run into one, it’s the vampire who should be careful. But now that you’ve put it that way, Rosemary, I’m even more interested. Ahh~ If I were a vampire, the first thing I’d do would be turn you and Ai into my thralls. Rawr~"

"Hehe~ If it were My Lord, Rita would gladly accept. In fact, she might even look forward to it very much."

The elegant witch smiled beautifully. Looking at her long, snow-white neck, Elias realized that he genuinely had the urge to lean over and take a bite, leaving behind his own Signet—or rather, teeth marks.

His witch was simply far too alluring.

Elias suddenly found himself wishing night would arrive sooner.

However, considering Rosemary’s mortal body, even if he deliberately held back tremendously, she probably would not last three minutes before passing out. If he applied even a little too much force, her life could even be in danger.

(Hmm... I really need to arrange an upgrade for Rosemary as soon as possible. Meta-Morph would still be the best solution, but I don’t have any Honkai Beast materials on hand right now, so I’ll have to wait until we return to the proper world. For now... I suppose these Ether Anchors will have to do.)

With that thought, Elias constructed two large backpacks.

Then he stuffed several dozen Ether Anchors into each one.

"Rosemary, Ai, take these. I thought about it carefully, and one Ether Anchor each is nowhere near enough. Neither of you may be worried, but it leaves me feeling incredibly insecure."

"Uh, My Lord, isn’t this a little too much?"

"More is better. They’re useless to me anyway. Maybe from now on, I should just leave all my Ether Anchors with you two."

"B-But we can’t possibly carry all of these."

The corner of Ai’s eye twitched as she stared at the two enormous bags. Were she and Rita supposed to carry backpacks this huge whenever they fought from now on? There was nothing elegant about that at all!

Elias paused, nearly having forgotten that unlike him, neither of the two women possessed spatial authority.

After considering the problem for a moment, he constructed two rings for Rosemary and Ai, then used his authority to create an independent space.

The principle was simple, essentially the same as the storage rings from Shenzhou cultivation novels. Elias used the two rings as anchors and fixed a spatial portal within each one. The portals connected to an area of imaginary space that could be used for storage.

As for why they had to be rings...

Elias: (Because aren’t storage rings always rings in Shenzhou novels? Though mine don’t happen to contain the soul of some old grandpa who can refine medicine, or some stunning beauty.)

Ai: "..."

Rosemary: "..."

The two women’s cheeks turned bright red, and imaginary white steam seemed to rise from their heads as they carefully held the rings in their palms.

"All right, I’m going back out to have fun. If you run into any danger, don’t hesitate to use the Ether Anchors in a fight. If you still can’t win, just shout my name at the sky. I guarantee I’ll appear within one second."

After saying that, Elias drained his tea in one gulp. He then used a ruby to pay for the meal and left immediately.

After confirming that the white-haired young man had departed, Rosemary and Ai exchanged glances, then slipped the rings onto the ring fingers of their left hands and revealed happy, satisfied smiles.

...

"A vampire, huh? The subject of this urban legend may not be original, but it’s definitely a classic. Now I’m interested."

Having just finished a milk tea, Elias immediately bought another cup of chilled watermelon juice from the same shop. In this scorching summer weather, such a drink could practically be considered nectar from heaven that absolutely had to be tasted.

Looking at the pinkish-red fruit juice in his hand, Elias licked the corner of his lips and found himself increasingly interested in the vampire.

"I’ve heard having your blood sucked by a vampire is supposed to feel pretty good. Though rather than being the one getting sucked, I’d rather be the one doing the sucking~ I wonder what blood tastes like to a vampire."

Elias recalled the vampire lore stored in his memories. Supposedly, fresh blood was like fine wine to vampires and was also essential to their survival.

Just then, a red figure blocked his path.

"You there, stop!"

"Huh?"

Suddenly being called out to, Elias turned around. His magnificent heterochromatic eyes instantly widened.

Before him stood a young woman who seemed even more blazing than the scorching summer sun and redder than a rose.

Her fiery crimson hair was tied into a ponytail, and her pale golden eyes shone brightly. She wore a dark blue uniform jacket over a white inner layer, the outfit outlining exceptionally graceful curves.

There was also a conspicuous black beauty mark on the left side of her chest. Holding a small notebook and pen, she stood seriously in front of Elias and blocked his path. (Image)

"I’m a vigilante of Sapphire City. There have been several attacks in the city recently, and I need you to cooperate with my investigation."

"Huh? Himeko? You’re so young."

Elias blurted the words out involuntarily. If she had simply been an ordinary beauty, of course he would not have stared. The problem was that this was a bubble world counterpart of his girlfriend, and a nineteen-year-old version at that.

Compared to the mature and elegant older-woman appearance of Himeko from the proper world, the bubble world Himeko before him was far younger and more inexperienced. Her face carried less amusement and far more stern seriousness.

Overall, excellent! Amazing! Gorgeous!

However, Himeko froze when he called her name.

"Hm? How do you know my name?"

"Uh... intuition?"

"...Highly suspicious. You’re coming to the station with me."

"???"

Elias immediately stared at her in utter confusion, and the watermelon juice slipped from his hand.