Eden herself was surprised by her success.
It wasn't that she didn't believe she could succeed, but she hadn't expected it to be so effortless.
But Chang Yuan knew the real reason—the obstacles that would have hindered Eden had been eliminated by him.
After all, he hadn't just taken out the council members; he had also dealt with their subordinates.
Although the council members were the top decision-makers, their subordinates still held some power. To consolidate all authority, Chang Yuan had to eliminate them as well.
Since they were all complicit, he didn't feel any guilt. In fact, he had inadvertently cleared many obstacles for Eden.
"Hmph, then let me congratulate our big star, Eden. So, big star, can I get your autograph?"
"Of course, my friend."
Eden didn't refuse Elysia's request.
She took out her pen and signed her name on the ticket.
After signing, Eden finally noticed Elysia's ears.
"Your ears... what happened?"
"Hmm, it's just a side effect of gaining more power."
Unlike Fire Moth's efforts to keep things hidden, Chang Yuan had used his authority as a high-ranking official to inform the world about Honkai.
Now, the entire world knew about Honkai and had united to fight against it.
"I see. But it's cute. It suits you."
"Right? I think so too."
Elysia happily accepted her friend's compliment.
The two then caught up, exchanging stories and swapping personal phone numbers.
"Hmph, Eden is almost living her dream. I wonder when my dream will come true."
After leaving the concert, Elysia held Chang Yuan's hand and began fantasizing about the future.
"Who knows? But it will definitely be a beautiful future."
Several months later...
"Hey, hey, Chang Yuan, the temperature in this area is dropping rapidly. Could it be the Fifth Herrscher?"
Vill-V pointed to a specific area on the global projection, her expression grave.
"Most likely. But it's fine. Someone will handle it... Wait, no! Prepare the fighter jets! Elysia and I will head out."
Initially, Chang Yuan wasn't concerned. After all, in the original timeline, the Fifth Herrscher had been torn apart by Kalpas.
But then he suddenly remembered—Kalpas had been brought over as part of Aponia's package.
That meant there was no one to deal with the Fifth Herrscher this time.
"Got it. I'll arrange it. You go ahead."
Seeing Chang Yuan's rare moment of panic, Vill-V's expression turned serious.
She immediately used her authority to issue the necessary orders.
By the time Chang Yuan reached the fighter jet, Elysia was already waiting inside.
Seeing Chang Yuan arrive, Elysia immediately signaled the pilot to take off.
Although they moved as quickly as possible, by the time they arrived, dozens of cities around the epicenter of the ice outbreak had already been affected.
The innermost cities were completely frozen, while the outer cities were covered in snow, with temperatures continuing to drop.
"Did we... arrive too late?"
Seeing this scene, even Elysia, as a MANTIS soldier, felt the biting cold.
A wave of sorrow washed over her.
How many lives, how many families, had been shattered?
"It's not too late yet. If we kill the Fifth Herrscher now, we can minimize the casualties!"
Chang Yuan's sharp command snapped Elysia out of her thoughts.
He was right. It wasn't too late. They could still save more people.
Without hesitation, Elysia jumped out of the fighter jet and sprinted toward the source of the cold.
The closer she got, the more her senses dulled.
By the end, she even felt her body freezing.
At temperatures close to absolute zero, even molecules slow down or stop moving.
In such conditions, energy flow becomes extremely sluggish.
Fortunately, even Honkai beasts couldn't survive in such an environment.
So, Elysia encountered no obstacles along the way.
Finally, at the epicenter of the near-absolute-zero cold, Elysia saw the figure.
She immediately tried to draw her bow, but her stiff, trembling hands struggled to nock the arrow.
This movement instantly caught the Fifth Herrscher's attention.
In an instant, she waved her hand, sending a wave of freezing air toward Elysia.
Elysia's first arrow missed its mark.
After a brief adjustment, Elysia prepared to fire a second arrow.
But the Fifth Herrscher, now prepared, wasn't about to let her succeed.
She immediately began creating an ice crystal to permanently encase Elysia.
At that moment, a flash of lightning appeared in the distance.
"Seven Thunders of Retribution, Zeroth Power Level—Heaven's Wrath!"
In an instant, a massive blade of crimson lightning struck toward the Fifth Herrscher.
Caught off guard, the Fifth Herrscher had no time to dodge.
She was obliterated by the lightning before she could react.
The area struck by the lightning was reduced to scorched earth, with a hundred-meter-long trench carved into the ground. Everything touched by the lightning had been reduced to molecules.
This attack had cut through half the city, aimed directly at the Fifth Herrscher.
And this was just the result of a focused attack. If Chang Yuan had chosen an area-of-effect strike, the entire continent would have trembled.
However, completely destroying a continent was still difficult, as the Third Herrscher's authority wasn't focused on destruction.
Its main ability was controlling electromagnetic fields, not annihilation.
With the Fifth Herrscher's death, the ice lost its energy source, and the temperature in the outer cities began to rise rapidly.
However, the cities closer to the epicenter wouldn't recover so easily.
Once ice reaches a certain temperature, it becomes extremely difficult to melt.
The ice created by the Fifth Herrscher at the epicenter was no exception.
But Chang Yuan wasn't concerned about that. His focus was on the frail figure in the battlefield.
Elysia, in her haste to kill the Fifth Herrscher, had completely disregarded her own safety.
By the time she saw the Fifth Herrscher, she realized her physical abilities had been severely diminished.