Honkai Star Rail: Destiny Card System of the Multiverse — Chapter 96

Chapter 96: The Departure of Kafka and Blade

Just then, a harsh, violent fracturing echoed from the depths of the Ambrosial Arbor. It sounded as if countless thick, ancient roots were frantically tearing through the soil, shattering the bedrock in a frenzy of unrestrained growth. A new cycle of the Arbor’s cursed revival had triggered without a whisper of warning.

“Kafka. It is time to go.”

Blade’s figure plummeted from the sky like a dark meteor. He landed with a heavy thud, his Shardsword held horizontally. With a casual, almost contemptuous flick of the cracked blade, he forced a wedge between Stelle and Kafka.

Stelle instinctively stumbled back two steps. As the reality of the ambush registered, she lunged forward again. “Don’t you even think about taking her away!”

At that precise moment, the restraining cuffs on Kafka’s wrists clattered uselessly to the jade-tiled floor. She slipped from the platform, her long boots flexing slightly to absorb the impact of her landing. Her movements were crisp, fluid, and utterly unbothered.

“Questioning time is over, Stelle,” she purred, rolling her freed wrists. She offered a lazy, teasing wave. “I’ll be taking my leave now. See you later~”

“Let’s go, Bladie. We still have two more stops to make.”

Without waiting for a response, she spun on her heel and vaulted gracefully toward the floating platforms of the Matrix of Prescience.

“Don’t go!” Stelle lunged, her fingers desperately swiping at the hem of Kafka’s coat.

Instead of fabric, she met the cold, flat steel of Blade’s Shardsword against her chest.

“Do not approach.” Blade swept a glacial glare over her. He didn’t strike to kill, but the blunt force was more than enough to send Stelle stumbling backward. She crashed directly into the arms of the pursuing March 7th.

Unable to brace herself, March lost her footing. The two girls went down in a tangle of limbs, hitting the ground flat on their backs with a synchronized groan.

“March! Stelle!” Welt and Dan Heng had just drawn their weapons, stepping up to intervene. Seeing the girls fall broke their momentum, drawing their eyes away for a crucial fraction of a second.

Blade seized the opening to retreat. As he stepped back to the edge of the precipice, his crimson gaze locked dead onto Dan Heng. His voice was a chilling, hollow rasp. “Imbibitor Lunae… your price will eventually come.”

With that grim promise, he threw himself backward off the platform.

Hearing that accursed title, Dan Heng’s composure shattered.

He stared at the empty space where the Stellaron Hunter had just stood, a surge of pure, unadulterated fury boiling over. He marched to the edge, thrust his middle finger into the abyss, and roared, “Get lost!!!”

“Get lost!!!”

He was practically vibrating with a rage that had absolutely nowhere to go.

‘Why do I have to shoulder the sins of Dan Feng for the rest of my miserable life? The Dan Feng from that alternate timeline clearly succeeded in his desperate gamble, so why does Blade insist on hounding me for a crime I didn’t even commit?! When this is all over, I swear I am going to drag Vidyadhara High Elder Baiheng out and get to the absolute bottom of this mess!’

March 7th groaned, rubbing her bruised lower back as she scrambled to her feet. She looked absolutely devastated. “It’s over, it’s totally over! Kafka ran away! How are we supposed to explain this to the Master Diviner now?! She’s going to lock us in a dark room and make us write ten-thousand-word self-criticisms!”

Stelle dusted off her coat and shook her head, her expression surprisingly calm. “It’s fine. If she wasn’t lying to me earlier… we actually don’t need to explain anything at all.”

“Hey!” March’s eyes went wide as saucers. She reached out, slapping a hand against Stelle’s forehead. “You didn’t actually get brainwashed by her, did you?!”

Not long after, a sleek starskiff slipped quietly away from the borders of the Divination Commission.

Blade sat rigidly in the pilot’s seat, his hands gripping the controls with an expressionless, statuesque stillness. The cabin was suffocatingly quiet, filled only by the low, thrumming hum of the engine.

Silver Wolf slumped in the back seat. An unopened lollipop dangled limply from her lips as she listlessly tapped at the handheld console in her lap. The pixelated character on her screen had died ages ago, the health bar completely empty, yet she couldn’t even muster the energy to hit restart.

As Kafka settled into the seat beside her, she felt a sudden weight against her shoulder.

Silver Wolf leaned against her, burying her face in the fabric of Kafka’s coat. Her voice was muffled, laced with a rare, quiet melancholy. “Kafka… is Stelle doing okay now?”

“Back when she was with us… she was the only one who would sit and grind co-op games with me for a whole afternoon. She was the only one who would split her last lollipop with me. Now that she’s gone, Sam is the only one left who will play with me.”

Kafka raised a hand, her gloved fingers gently brushing through the hacker’s messy hair. A soft, genuine smile touched her lips. “She’s doing wonderfully, Silver Wolf. On the Astral Express, she has that energetic pink-haired girl keeping her company and making a racket every single day. She has Dan Heng and Welt looking out for her. Every day brings a new planet, a new destination, and a new adventure.”

“She has found her own place in the universe again. She found a new family. We should be happy for her.”

Silver Wolf didn’t argue. She just pressed her face a little deeper into Kafka’s shoulder, her voice dropping to a tiny, vulnerable whisper. “But… I still miss her a little.”

Blade had remained a silent, brooding statue at the helm this entire time.

After a long, heavy pause, he finally spoke. His raspy voice was low, carrying a strange, almost imperceptible trace of approval. “Imbibitor Lunae has accepted her.”

Kafka arched an elegant eyebrow, her gaze shifting to the swordsman’s broad back with distinct amusement. “Oh? It’s a rare day indeed to hear a compliment slip past your lips, Bladie.”

Blade’s grip on the control stick tightened slightly. He didn’t look back, his crimson eyes fixed on the endless sea of stars ahead. “The look in his eyes just now… it was no longer the hollow shadow of the past. He is Dan Heng. Not Dan Feng.”

“To be able to face his own history without flinching, and to actually have the gall to flip me off and tell me to get lost… interesting.”

Silver Wolf lifted her head, blinking in mild confusion. She didn’t quite grasp the violent, complicated history Blade was referencing.

But it didn’t really matter. As long as Stelle was happy, that was enough. She pulled the lollipop from her mouth, finally hit the start button on her console, and the screen lit up with a new life.

Kafka covered her mouth, a soft, airy laugh escaping her lips. “It seems that on this Luofu mission, you’ve changed quite a bit yourself, Bladie.”

As her velvet voice faded into the quiet hum of the cabin, the starskiff accelerated, disappearing completely from the Divination Commission’s airspace.