Honkai Star Rail: I Played the Villain, Now the Heroines Want Revenge — Chapter 252

Chapter 252: The Crew Falls

“As expected… as expected of the one She favors…”

Phantylia struggled, propping up her upper body with the stumps of her severed arms. The divine, golden blood pooled around her on the dying lotus.

She raised her head, her beautiful face contorted, and her eyes flashed with a final, ecstatic madness.

“I admit, I still underestimated you, Orion!”

Her voice, no longer a seductive purr, was a raw, grating shriek.

“Your strength! Your methods! They all far exceeded my imagination!”

“It’s truly… marvelous!”

She giggled, a broken, chilling sound.

“I even… I almost can’t bear to destroy you.”

“What do you want to say?”

Orion walked in front of her, his blade held loosely at his side. He looked down at her, his expression unreadable.

The tip of the black sword in his hand was pressed lightly against her brow.

“Heh heh…”

Far from showing any fear, Phantylia’s smile grew even brighter.

“But… do you think this is the end?”

“I’ve long taken Asat Pramad’s failure as a lesson! That fool thought a simple performance was enough!”

“Do you think I would truly stake everything on the power of this single, withered Ambrosial Arbor?”

“Too naive, Orion!”

“For this grand destruction, for you, I’ve prepared… a final gift!”

As her words fell, the surroundings trembled violently once more!

This time, the tremor was even more intense than before. It wasn’t the ground shaking; it was reality itself.

It was as if the entire Luofu Celestial Ark was trembling and wailing under this new, immense power!

“What is that?!”

March 7th pointed behind Phantylia, her voice cracking with a new terror.

Everyone immediately looked over.

They saw that behind Phantylia, the Ambrosial Arbor’s roots, which had completely withered and been severed from her connection, suddenly split open with a massive, gaping fissure in the middle!

A light, even more dazzling and scorching than the sun, a light of pure, chaotic potential, burst forth from that crack!

Fu Xuan, in the distance, turned pale.

Her third eye on her forehead, the Matrix of Prescience, slammed shut in a reflex, and a line of bloody tears streamed from it!

“No… impossible… this kind of energy… it’s not a Stellaron, it’s…”

Jing Yuan and Dan Heng’s expressions also changed dramatically.

Even Stelle, who was usually fearless, felt the approach of danger at this moment.

It was an instinctive fear, like a small animal facing a natural predator.

The Stellaron inside her, the one Kafka had implanted, was screaming.

Only Orion remained calmly in place.

He looked at the object slowly rising from the crack, his brow furrowing slightly.

Was that a… Stellaron?

No.

It was a sphere many times larger and more terrifying than any Stellaron he had seen before.

It was a pulsating, swirling mass of pure, golden chaotic energy, a caged, screaming god.

[Inorin’s Note: A normal Stellaron is known as the “Cancer of All Worlds.” This is something far more potent.]

“Come, Orion!”

Phantylia looked at the giant, rising Stellaron, her face filled with ecstatic, religious excitement.

“Come and admire it! This most perfect gift, personally refined for you by Celenova!”

“A Great Stellaron!”

“Formed from one hundred high-purity Stellarons, compressed, fused, and refined! It is the purest essence of a Stellaron!”

Phantylia laughed maniacally.

“Let me see, Orion!”

“Can you still…”

“Sever the destruction of one hundred Stellarons gathered together?!”

“One hundred… Stellarons?!”

Hearing this number, Welt’s expression changed dramatically in the distance.

A single Stellaron was enough to cause a disaster that would sweep across an entire planet.

One hundred Stellarons, fused into one… what kind of terrifying disaster would that be?

He simply couldn’t imagine!

At this moment, Phantylia’s eyes held only Orion in front of her.

She wanted to see fear and despair on his face!

She wanted to utterly crush this man who had brought her endless humiliation!

“Come!”

The Great Stellaron, hearing Phantylia’s summons, began to drift towards her broken, defeated form on the ground.

Jing Yuan and Dan Heng’s expressions were solemn, preparing to join forces again, determined not to let Phantylia touch that thing no matter what.

However, at this moment.

Orion moved.

He seemed to have lost patience.

“Pfft!”

The black sword in Orion’s hand, without the slightest hesitation, plunged fiercely into Phantylia’s head from top to bottom!

He traced the central death line of her host body.

Phantylia’s body stiffened abruptly.

She stared at Orion’s eyes with difficulty, desperately.

The triumphant, mad smile on her enchanting face had not yet completely faded.

“You…”

She only managed to utter one word.

Orion twisted his wrist, and the black sword churned, obliterating the “line.”

“Ahhh!!!”

Immediately after, her physical body began to dissipate, turning to ash.

“She… died?”

March 7th asked, somewhat unsure.

“Orion, did he win?” Stelle asked.

“No! It’s not over yet!” Fu Xuan warned, her voice strained. “Her true body… is still there!”

Sure enough!

The moment Phantylia’s body turned to ashes, a ball of azure, destructive flame suddenly flew out from it!

It was Phantylia’s Heliobus true body!

[Inorin’s Note: A Heliobus is a being of pure energy, a fragment of an Aeon. Phantylia is a Heliobus who possesses bodies; this is her true, non-corporeal form.]

“Do you think I’m really that easy to catch?”

Phantylia’s venomous, layered voice came from within the flame.

“Orion! I will never let you go!”

Before her words finished, the ball of azure flame rushed towards the sky!

Its target was precisely the Great Stellaron, suspended in mid-air, formed by the fusion of one hundred Stellarons!

“Not good! Stop her!”

Jing Yuan reacted and immediately summoned the Lightning-Lord to strike.

But it was too late.

Under everyone’s gaze, Phantylia’s Heliobus true body instantly merged into the Great Stellaron!

“Hahahahahahaha…!”

Phantylia’s insane, divine laughter echoed through heaven and earth.

“Come! Welcome the final feast of destruction I have prepared for you!”

BUZZ—!

The Great Stellaron, the moment it merged with Phantylia, all its brilliant, golden light collapsed inward.

Then, darkness swallowed everything.

A wave of pure, conceptual negation.

Light, sound, space, and even thought were being engulfed by that boundless darkness.

“This… what is this…”

March 7th felt her consciousness being pulled by something, and the scene before her began to twist and blur. She felt cold.

Stelle quickly raised her Flame Lance in defense, the fire of Preservation burning bright, but she felt the spear in her hand becoming illusory, intangible.

“It’s a mental attack!” Welt shouted loudly, his own will pushing back. “Everyone, steady your minds! Don’t listen!”

However, this power was too strong.

Phantylia, carrying her towering resentment and fueled by the power of one hundred Stellarons, had temporarily ascended, becoming the strongest Emanator, impossible to stop!

March 7th and Stelle, who couldn’t hold on first, groaned, their eyes rolling back as they collapsed together.

Fu Xuan, her mind already damaged, groaned, blood spilling from the corner of her mouth, and she fainted.

Jing Yuan and Dan Heng were also not doing well. Their strong wills, tempered by centuries of battle, held for a few seconds longer. But they too were overwhelmed, their eyes rolling back as they fell down.

In the span of five seconds, the entire crew, the General, and the Master Diviner were all unconscious.

Only Orion remained standing, his brows tightly furrowed.

He also felt the power invading his mind.

It was trying to alter his perception, to pollute his memories.

It wasn’t forceful, like a hammer. It was like water, seeping in everywhere.

It was inducing. Distorting. Seducing.

It was Phantylia’s voice, whispering directly into his soul.

【Are you really going to continue this path… to be an enemy of destruction?】

【From now on, the Lord Ravagers will forever fix their gaze on you, like a shadow, with no peace.】

【One Emanator of destruction after another… one battle after another… until finally, you stand before Nanook himself.】

【It’s too tiring, isn’t it? Too difficult, isn’t it?】

【How can a mortal body bear such a heavy burden? How can flesh and blood contend against destruction itself?】

【Can you truly… reach the end?】

【Look at your scars. Look at your exhaustion. This path has no end, only endless, meaningless battles.】

【Let go… give up on Trailblazing…】

【Destruction has never been your enemy.】

【If you wish, all pain will end. If you wish, all burdens will disappear.】

【Come… embrace your new life, and your choices will be different…】

【Go to a new world without hatred, without pain…】

【Go to a world… where you can truly feel happiness…】

Orion’s consciousness began to waver.

The darkness before his eyes, the image of the cavern, gradually receded.

In its place was a familiar, bone-chilling scent of rust.

And… that gut-wrenching, extreme hunger.

He lowered his head and saw a pair of small, thin hands, covered in chilblains and grime.

“Hungry…”

A weak, childlike voice emerged from his own throat.

He was back in the Belobog Underworld.

He was a starving orphan, once again.