Honkai Star Rail: I Played the Villain, Now the Heroines Want Revenge — Chapter 224

Chapter 224: The Emperor’s Bow Arrives

“It seems we’ll have to fight.”

Phantylia licked her lips, her form shifting fluidly, abandoning the Fu Xuan disguise and returning to her true, towering, and terrifyingly beautiful appearance.

“WELT!” Himeko shouted, her briefcase unfolding as she fired a warning shot from her orbital laser at the Emanator.

Phantylia merely tilted her head, the beam sizzling harmlessly against an invisible barrier. “Such a weak little light.”

Just as both sides were at daggers drawn, another figure walked in from the great doors of the Seat of Divine Foresight.

Silver hair flowed over dark, heavy armor. She wielded a giant axe that seemed to absorb the light in the room.

It was Feixiao.

“Orion… do you need my help?”

She looked at you, her eyes filled with a morbid, feverish obsession.

“Of course,” you nodded.

The battle erupted.

“For the Trailblaze!” Welt roared, injured but resolute. He raised his hand, not to create a black hole, but to distort the very space around Phantylia, attempting to fold reality and crush her.

“How adorable,” Phantylia laughed. She snapped her fingers. The spatial distortion shattered, and dozens of dark, ethereal threads erupted from the ground, binding Welt’s limbs and slamming him back against the pillar.

“Dan Heng!” Himeko called, unleashing a barrage from her drone.

Dan Heng, now fully in his Imbibitor Lunae form, needed no prompting. He struck the floor, and a colossal dragon of water, infused with lightning, rose to cleanse the hall. “Cloud-Hymn Blast!”

“Not so fast, Dragon Lord,” Feixiao’s voice was a cold hiss. She met the dragon head-on, her giant axe glowing with a frost that seemed to freeze the air. She didn’t just block the attack; she swung her axe in a wide arc, and the entire water dragon was frozen solid before shattering into a billion icy shards.

Stelle and March 7th charged you.

“Orion, stop this!” Stelle shouted, her bat held high.

You didn’t even flinch. You simply looked at her, your Mystic Eyes of Death Perception activating.

You saw them. The faint, ghostly “lines” of death that crisscrossed her bat, the floor, the very air between you.

She swung, putting all her Stellaron-fueled strength into the blow.

You drew your own blade, a simple, unnamed katana, and with impossible speed, you didn’t block—you simply tapped the most prominent line on her bat.

Tink.

The weapon, which had withstood monsters and automatons, simply fell apart in her hands, crumbling into a dozen pieces.

Stelle stared in shock at the useless handle she was left with.

March, right behind her, loosed an arrow of 6-phased ice. “Take this!”

You didn’t even look. You took one step to the left. The arrow flew past, missing you completely. You were now in front of her. Before she could react, you tapped the center of her bow.

Like the bat, it cracked and fell apart.

“No… my bow!” March cried out.

This was the difference. The outcome was never in suspense.

The strength of three beings who touched the level of Emanator—Phantylia, Feixiao, and yourself—far exceeded the imagination of the Express Crew.

[Inorin’s Note: An Emanator is a being who has been “gazed upon” by an Aeon and granted a fraction of their Path’s power, making them extraordinarily powerful.]

The fight, while furious, was hopelessly one-sided.

In less than a moment, the entire Express Crew was subdued.

They were bound by Phantylia’s threads and Feixiao’s ice, forced to kneel on the cold, jade floor of the Seat of Divine Foresight.

Stelle looked up, watching you.

Her golden eyes were filled with a profound sadness and a burning anger.

“But… but I trusted you so much…”

Her voice broke, the tears she had been holding back finally spilling over.

“And yet… I can’t believe you’re such a person…”

“Was everything before fake? Was it all a lie?”

“The lantern festival… the tea… when you… when you touched my hair in the Matrix… Was any of it real? Or were you just… using me?”

Seeing the tears in her eyes, you walked up to her.

“You are not me.”

Your voice was cold, devoid of the warmth she’d heard before. “You wouldn’t understand.”

Stelle’s gaze became even more sorrowful.

She looked at this unfamiliar, cold version of you before her.

She thought that after spending these past few days together, she understood you.

She thought that flicker of familiarity, that feeling of “home,” was real.

But now she realized… she had no idea who you truly were.

She didn’t know your past, nor what you had experienced.

And she certainly didn’t know the millennia of pain hidden in your heart.

You reached out and gently lifted her chin, forcing her to look at you.

Your thumb brushed her lower lip.

Stelle’s face involuntarily flushed, a betrayal of her anger.

Even now, at a time like this, why did her heart still flutter? Why did this simple, gentle touch feel so right when everything around them was so terribly wrong?

“What… what are you doing?” she whispered, her voice trembling.

You looked at her, your eyes somewhat complex, a flicker of an emotion you had long thought dead.

“I’m sorry, Stelle…”

Your other hand rose, pointing not at her face, but at the center of her chest.

Right where you knew the Stellaron was housed.

Stelle’s eyes widened.

She realized what you were about to do. You weren’t going to kill her… you were going to take the Stellaron.

“No! Stop!”

Welt struggled against his bonds, his voice hoarse. “Orion, whatever you’re planning, she has nothing to do with it!”

Himeko also cried out anxiously: “Orion! Don’t!”

“Stelle is innocent! She’s not part of this!”

Dan Heng, his Imbibitor Lunae power suppressed by Feixiao’s ice, tried to break free from his restraints. “Let her go!”

March 7th was so anxious that tears streamed down her face. “No!! Don’t hurt her! Please! We’ll do anything, just don’t hurt Stelle!”

But they were all firmly restrained by Feixiao and Phantylia.

“Behave!”

Feixiao stomped on March 7th’s back, forcing her face-first onto the cold floor.

“Don’t hinder him. He’s doing what must be done.”

Phantylia merely watched with a bored, amused smile. “Oh, do be quiet. He’s just taking out the trash. That cancer inside her… it’s an affront to my Path.”

You continued to move your hand closer to Stelle’s chest.

Stelle trembled, but she did not beg for mercy.

She just looked at you sadly with those golden, tear-filled eyes,

as if asking…

Why?

Just as your hand was about to touch her,

suddenly!

KLAAAAXON! KLAAAAXON! KLAAAAXON!

Alarms blared throughout the entire Seat of Divine Foresight!

That was the highest-level alarm on the Luofu.

It only sounded when the Xianzhou faced an existential crisis!

You frowned, temporarily halting your movements.

Just then, a Cloud Knight soldier, his face pale as a ghost, burst in frantically, stumbling over his own feet.

“Re… report!”

“The… the Yuque Celestial Ark… has been destroyed by the Reignbow!”

What?!

Everyone, including you, was stunned.

Welt and Himeko exchanged glances, their eyes filled with shock.

“Reignbow?”

Himeko said in disbelief, “Why would The Hunt attack its own Xianzhou?”

March 7th exclaimed in surprise: “That’s impossible, right? Isn’t the Reignbow the guardian Aeon of the Xianzhou?”

At this moment, Phantylia smiled. A wide, genuinely triumphant smile.

“Finally… it’s here.”

Just then, everyone felt it.

An indescribable sense of oppression suddenly descended.

It wasn’t a physical weight, but a cosmic one.

That was… the might of an Aeon.

So powerful it was suffocating, making one want to prostrate themselves in worship.

“What… what’s going on?”

March 7th’s voice trembled.

“Such a terrifying, oppressive feeling…”

Stelle also felt it. The Stellaron in her chest hummed, not in fear, but in recognition.

Phantylia’s smile became even brighter.

“He… has arrived!”

You reacted immediately.

Without hesitation, you rushed out of the Seat of Divine Foresight and looked up at the sky.

And then, you saw it.

He had descended.

The Aeon of The Hunt, Lan, the Arrow that Ends All.

His unimaginably colossal divine body floated above the Luofu.

Just as he had when he destroyed Fanghu all those years ago.

Lofty and aloof, looking down upon all living beings.

Feixiao and Phantylia also escorted the bound Express Crew out onto the balcony.

When they saw the figure in the sky, they were all stunned.

“That’s…” March 7th’s eyes widened, “The Aeon of The Hunt?!”

Stelle also looked in shock at the colossal entity.

She had never seen the Aeon of The Hunt before.

But just looking at him from afar made her feel her own insignificance.

“No…”

Welt’s expression became extremely solemn.

“If the Yuque Celestial Ark was truly destroyed by Lan…”

He looked up at the sky.

“Then Lan’s purpose in coming to the Luofu…”

Himeko finished his sentence: “Could it be to…”

She dared not voice that terrifying conjecture.

“Destroy the Luofu.”

Dan Heng stated the answer in a deep, grim voice.

March 7th, however, retorted: “That’s impossible, right? The Luofu is a member of the Xianzhou Alliance!”

“Why would Lan destroy his own territory?”

Stelle was also puzzled: “Yeah, that doesn’t make sense. Haven’t the Xianzhou always worshipped The Hunt?”

“Why would he destroy his own believers?”

At this moment, Phantylia spoke, her voice laced with mockery:

“Have you forgotten… what The Hunt, Lan, exists for?”

March 7th thought for a moment: “The Hunt… is for revenge?”

Phantylia shook her head.

Stelle tentatively asked: “Is it to protect the Xianzhou Alliance?”

“That’s not right either.”

Dan Heng’s expression darkened.

As the former reincarnation of the Dragon Lord, he knew a great deal about these matters.

“No, the meaning of The Hunt’s existence is…”

“To exact revenge on Abundance.”

“Exactly.”

Phantylia said, “Lan’s sole purpose since birth is to destroy Abundance.”

“And now…”

March 7th: “No way…”

You continued, your voice cold as you stared up at your ancient enemy: “Abundance has already infiltrated the Xianzhou.”

Phantylia chuckled: “Hehe, now the Luofu, the Yuque, the Yaoqing… because of Lan’s inaction, many people have converted to believing in Yaoshi.”

“And the Xianzhou people are already blessed by Abundance; they should naturally believe in Abundance.”

You continued: “The Xianzhou has become a breeding ground for Abundance forces.”

“So…”

Stelle looked up at the sky in shock: “So, Lan is going to destroy the Xianzhou?”

March 7th said in disbelief: “Is Lan crazy?!”

“This is where he was born!”

Welt shook his head, his voice heavy:

“No, Aeons are just such beings…”

Himeko sighed: “They only follow their own Path, walking it to the very end.”

“In their eyes, there are no so-called believers.”

“There is only the distinction between those who conform to the Path and those who violate it.”

You looked at Lan in the sky, the fire of hatred from a thousand years burning in your eyes.

“The Hunt should not exist!”

“Nor should he be worshipped!”

“He is just a cold executioner!”

Just then.

Lan moved.

He slowly raised his arm.

Light converged, forming a divine bow.

And then…

He drew the string.

The exact same motion as when he was at the Yuque Celestial Ark.

The arrow, an embodiment of pure, cold purpose, was aimed precisely at the Luofu below.