Chapter 617: Greater Lord Rukkhadevata from the Teyvat Bubble World

"P-Please... who are you?"

Inside the storage compartment of the Ferryman’s Hyperion, an unbelievably adorable little white-haired girl timidly stared at Elias and the others. Looking at her, all five of them simultaneously thought, I’m dying from cuteness.

Even Elias sucked in a sharp breath. If Elysia were here, she would probably already have hearts in her eyes, screaming as she kissed, hugged, nuzzled, and lifted the little girl high into the air.

She would probably even ask the little white-haired girl what color sack she liked before trying to abduct her back home.

Elias could perfectly imagine that scene. After all, Miss Pink Elf had always loved cute creatures the most.

And this little girl genuinely did possess that kind of charm.

If the maximum score was one hundred and Elias had to rate her cuteness, he would place a hand over his conscience and give her one hundred million points!

"Emmm... I really want to keep her in the dorm~ And wow, she even has elf ears, my second-favorite kind!"

Elias’ eyes lit up.

The little girl had a pair of pointed elf ears. Her long, grayish-white hair was tied into a side ponytail, with a clear green gradient at the ends, while a tender young leaf grew from the right side of her head.

Her deep green eyes contained clover-shaped patterns and were ten thousand times more beautiful than the most expensive emerald. The little girl wore a white flower-bud dress and white footed stockings, while her hair ornament combined a four-leaf clover with heart-shaped leaves.

She looked like a child of nature.

Or rather...

A little shuttlecock.

"I-I’m not a shuttlecock."

The little white-haired girl protested in a tiny voice.

"Oh?"

Elias blinked in surprise.

He hadn’t put up any defenses just now, but this little girl had actually managed to read his thoughts.

Now that was interesting!

Still, Elias didn’t like other people eavesdropping on his mind. After all, he had far too many secrets. So the corners of his lips lifted slightly. He didn’t even bother using the Authority of the Herrscher of Transcendent Sentience to block her.

Instead, he simply began thinking furiously.

An enormous torrent of knowledge was instantly read by the little white-haired girl. The vast amount of information was far too profound for her to understand, and before long, her brain overloaded and practically started smoking.

"Awuwuwu..."

The little white-haired girl clutched her head with both hands, her eyes turning into spinning spirals. She felt as though her brain was about to break and hurriedly withdrew her mind-reading ability.

"Uh, what happened to her?" Himeko asked.

"Nothing much. Her brain just overloaded. Still, she’s quite an incredible little thing. I didn’t expect there to be a treasure like this aboard the Ferryman’s Hyperion. Emmm... But how should we approach her?"

"Ahem! Leave it to me, Captain!"

Ai slapped her chest confidently.

That expression of confidence made Elias trust her not even a little.

The next second, the girl somehow pulled out a lollipop.

"Little girl, don’t be afraid. We’re not bad people~ Here, have a lollipop to calm down."

Ai smiled and held the lollipop out toward the little girl.

She looked exactly like some female pervert trying to lure away a child with candy. Elias and the others’ eyes twitched violently as they silently thought, Ai, don’t tell anyone you know us when you go outside.

"Uh... th-thank you, but no."

The little white-haired girl nervously waved her hands and refused. Even a five-year-old knew not to eat things given by strangers, much less someone like her.

"Huh? Why are you refusing? I didn’t put anything weird in it. Look!"

"Ai, stop. This already counts as harassment. You’re going to get dragged into a dark interrogation room by the police."

Watching the silly cabbage girl lick the lollipop several times to prove it wasn’t poisoned, then hold it out toward the little girl again, Elias covered his face with one hand.

He genuinely missed the Ai he had first met.

That elegant, mature, and composed AI girl.

Sigh~ How had she turned into this idiot after only a little while?!

She had clearly been completely corrupted by the cesspool of the internet. Later, Elias would have to run a scan with the Herrscher of Corruption antivirus app. He estimated he would find a mountain of junk data and malware inside her.

"Ahem. Little girl, don’t worry. Miss Ai is just... a little unusual. She doesn’t mean any harm. And the Ferryman who imprisoned you has already been defeated. You’re free now."

Rosemary smiled gently. The mysterious and elegant witch was as reliable as ever.

She would have looked even more reliable if she wiped the glistening droplet from the corner of her mouth.

"Huh? Free? That person really was defeated?"

The little white-haired girl widened her eyes in surprise. But it was only surprise. There was no joy or sorrow, as though whether the Ferryman lived or died had no effect on her circumstances.

By now, Elias’ eyelids were already fighting to stay open.

So he stopped beating around the bush and simply sat cross-legged on the floor in front of the little white-haired girl. Even sitting down, Elias was still taller than she was while standing.

Resting his chin on one hand, he yawned and spoke.

"Let’s stop circling around the subject and get straight to the point. Little girl, are you... an Ether Anchor that gained sentience?"

"Huh? What?" x4

The moment Elias said that, Luna, Rosemary, Ai, and Himeko all widened their eyes. Their expressions toward the little white-haired girl immediately gained several layers of novelty and shock.

If someone else had said it, they might not have believed it.

But since Elias was the one saying it, then it had to be true.

They had never seen a living Ether Anchor before. It really was true that the Sea of Quanta was so vast that absolutely anything could exist within it!

"After all, this storage compartment was where the Ferryman kept his Ether Anchors. He burned them to open the World’s Interstice, but... apparently, he didn’t burn all of them."

Elias glanced around as he spoke.

Thinking about it, that made sense. To the Ferryman, this had only been a test. Naturally, he wouldn’t have staked everything he possessed on it.

Besides, opening an entrance into the World’s Interstice large enough for a single person didn’t actually require that many Ether Anchors.

In short, the most likely reason this little white-haired girl appeared here was that she herself was an Ether Anchor.

Elias had never seen a living Ether Anchor either, but he knew they could take practically any form.

So it was reasonable enough.

However...

"Emmm... Let me correct that. More precisely, you seem to be an Ether Anchor that developed human consciousness? This body isn’t your true form. Your actual body is... that little tree over there?"

Elias’ gaze shifted toward one corner of the storage compartment.

There stood a tree with withered leaves and branches. It looked sickly, but the fluctuations it emitted were unmistakably those of an Ether Anchor.

And there was clearly some kind of connection between it and the little girl before him.

"H-How do you know that?!"

Cold sweat appeared on the little white-haired girl’s face as she stared at Elias. She felt as though she were gazing into an unfathomably deep white abyss.

In the past, the existence of the "unknown" would have filled her with excitement.

But now, it only made her tremble with fear.

Because the little girl could clearly sense that, forget her current crippled state, even at her absolute peak, she probably wouldn’t have been a match for a single one of Elias’ fingers.

"Hehe~ Of course I know. I’m very strong, so there are a lot of things I can sense. For example... you’re incomplete right now, and it looks like you’ve been contaminated by something too..."

Elias narrowed his eyes, staring at the little white-haired girl with interest. His magnificent heterochromatic eyes seemed capable of piercing through every falsehood and comprehending the truth of all things.

"Do you feel like introducing yourself now? Just so you know, I’m very sleepy, so I don’t have much patience at the moment."

A small flame appeared at Elias’ fingertip, then slowly circled around the tree-shaped Ether Anchor.

The little girl’s face instantly turned pale.

She could feel that it wasn’t an ordinary flame.

It seemed like a world-destroying fire where even a single spark could ignite an entire world.

Her true body was afraid.

So, intelligent as she was, she immediately made her decision.

"G-Great existence, I am willing to answer your questions to the best of my limited knowledge."

The little white-haired girl placed one hand over her chest, then gave Elias a slight bow, assuming a submissive posture.

"Mm~ Then speak. Where are you from? What are you?"

"My lord, I come from a... bubble world called Teyvat. In my homeland, I am known as the Irminsul. In your understanding, it appears I would be called an Ether Anchor."

The little white-haired girl glanced toward the tree behind her before continuing.

"And I am the incarnation of the Irminsul—the Ether Anchor. I am known as the G-Greater Lord Rukkhadevata. Please just call me Buer!"

The little white-haired girl hurriedly added that last part.

Within her bubble world, the title "Greater Lord Rukkhadevata" inspired reverence from countless people and symbolized one of the seven highest beings in the mortal world.

But before Elias, Buer knew very clearly that she had no right to call herself a "Lord."

Right now, she was merely a weak, powerless, pitiful existence who could be destroyed with ease.

Therefore, she had to remain respectful, cautious, and humble so as not to displease Elias. Of course, if the final outcome was still going to be her death, she at least hoped he would make it quick.

"Oh? Teyvat again? That bubble world’s been showing up a lot lately. How many times has this been now?"

Elias was quite surprised.

His gaze shifted toward the sickly tree nearby. He hadn’t expected this to be Teyvat’s Ether Anchor, much less that the Ether Anchor itself would have developed self-awareness.

This really was an unusually novel and interesting situation.

His curiosity dispersed a little of his drowsiness.

"Keep going. How did the Ferryman capture you?"

"Yes, my lord. One day, the Ferryman suddenly descended upon the Teyvat bubble world aboard a massive silver-white steel vessel—the Hyperion—and attempted to seize the Irminsul."

Buer frowned, helplessness appearing in her eyes.

Ordinarily, any outsider who invaded Teyvat would be attacked by the Heavenly Principles. In fact, several Descenders from beyond the world had already been dealt with by her up to this point.

Unfortunately, some time earlier, the Heavenly Principles had come into contact with an extremely terrifying form of energy, causing her to descend into chaos and madness. She had exhausted all her strength to seal herself away.

That had prevented a greater disaster, but it also left her unable to deal with the Ferryman when he later descended upon Teyvat.

There were, of course, other fighting forces within the Teyvat bubble world.

But due to the Honkai energy contamination brought by the World-Destroying Divine Spear, large numbers of Honkai Beasts had begun appearing throughout the world. At that time, every nation within the bubble world was busy fighting the Honkai, leaving no one free to help.

And so, the Ferryman reached the Irminsul completely unimpeded and found the Ether Anchor of the Teyvat bubble world.

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