Honkai Star Rail: I Played the Villain, Now the Heroines Want Revenge — Chapter 255

Chapter 255: The Temptation of Destruction

【That’s right, that was just a dream.】

The voice in his head was so soothing. It sounded like Phantylia, but it also sounded like his own, truest, most logical thoughts.

【All of that was fake. The train, the stars, the fighting… just a nightmare.】

【Only here, this land that brings you peace, is real.】

【Accept all of this, Orion.】

【Accept yourself… accept the essence of “Destruction.”】

【You were born to be “Destruction.”】

After that, whenever Orion defeated an enemy with that new, dark power—that cold, satisfying surge of strength—and saw Seele’s adoring, awestruck gaze, he felt an immense, intoxicating pleasure.

Perhaps that voice was right.

Destruction is not an enemy.

Destruction is a means.

Destruction… is him.

Until he met Bronya that time.

It was at the Great Mine’s exit, the demarcation line between the Underworld and the Overworld.

Bronya was wearing the crisp, white-and-black uniform of the Silvermane Guards, her posture tall and straight. Her silver hair was tied back, and her eyes already showed the weary, premature dignity of a future Supreme Guardian.

She looked at Orion with a complex, pained expression.

“Orion, Mother… well… she rejected my proposal.”

“The lifting of the blockade between the Overworld and Underworld… it will have to wait a bit longer… but I promise, you and Seele will definitely be able to live in the Overworld later… I promise!”

Orion listened. He had actually been hopeful before, but now only a cold, familiar disappointment remained.

And that disappointment was quickly suppressed.

“It’s okay,” he said with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “I already guessed it would be like this.”

Bronya bit her lip, feeling terribly guilty. “Orion, I… I’m so sorry.”

“It’s really okay, Bronya.”

As long as I can see you occasionally, as long as Seele is by my side, that’s enough.

The thought felt… wrong, too small, too simple… but he held onto it.

He turned around and looked at the distant, hazy “sky” of the Underworld—the massive, frozen plate of the Overworld above.

It was always like this.

No sunlight, no hope.

Only endless, artificial gloom.

Like a giant cage, trapping everyone deep underground.

“Staying in the Underworld is pretty good too,” he chuckled self-deprecatingly. “At least no one bothers you here. It’s free and easy.”

But…

Was that really true?

An inexplicable, burning emotion began to churn in his chest.

He remembered the sneering faces of Tiger and his gang.

“Trash from the Underworld should just stay in the trash heap!”

He remembered the undisguised contempt in the eyes of the Silvermane Guards from the Overworld when they looked at him.

He remembered the humiliation of rummaging through trash cans every time he was hungry.

And Seele, getting hurt and bleeding, again and again, to protect him.

Unwillingness…

Why?

Why should he be trapped here? Why should he accept this “happiness” of scraps and misery?

Why should he accept such a fate?

“Orion?”

Bronya noticed his abnormality. His sudden, dark silence. She walked forward worriedly.

Orion’s fists were already clenched, his knuckles white.

No.

This isn’t right!

Why should he merely eke out an existence here?

Why should he look up to people?

He clearly… has power.

Yes… that power. The power that tore the Fragmentum monsters apart. The power that made Seele look at him with awe.

That power that can destroy everything!

【Since you have power, why should you endure all of this?】

The voice purred, full of logic.

【Why can’t you change it?】

【Why can’t you… destroy?】

【Yes, that’s it.】

【Are you unwilling? Are you angry?】

【This small place cannot contain you at all.】

【These foolish rules, these decaying classes, are all binding you.】

【Destroy, Orion.】

【Destroy it all!】

【That high and mighty Supreme Guardian… those Overworld nobles who despise you… this city that traps you underground…】

【Even this cold and desperate planet!】

【Destroy. Them. All.】

Orion’s breathing became ragged. His pulse hammered in his ears.

The world before his eyes seemed to be covered in a layer of blood-red.

Destroy…

Yes, destroy!

If this world is unjust, then destroy it!

If rules bind him, then break the rules!

If…

“Orion!”

Bronya called his name in a panic, shaking his arm.

She saw Orion’s eyes. They had turned a strange, glowing blackish-purple. They were not human eyes.

They were cold, cruel, and full of the desire for destruction.

“Orion, what’s wrong with you? Snap out of it! You’re scaring me!”

Orion turned his head and looked at Bronya.

The blackish-purple in those eyes deepened.

“Sober? I’ve never been so sober.”

His voice was his, but colder, layered, as if two people were speaking at once.

“Bronya, tell me… if I kill Cocolia, will you become the new Supreme Guardian?”

“What?!” Bronya took a step back in shock, her hand flying to her mouth. “Orion, what… what crazy talk is that!”

“Crazy talk?” Orion laughed, a wild, frenzied laugh that didn’t sound like him at all. “Perhaps. But if she dies, won’t the blockade between the Overworld and Underworld be lifted?”

If all those nobles die, won’t no one look down on us anymore?

If this city is destroyed, won’t… we be free?

【Yes! That’s it!】

【Accept it! Accept the power of destruction!】

【Become destruction itself!】

【Then, all injustice, all bonds, all of them…】

“Destroy, yes, I want to…”

…destroy?

But, for what?

Orion suddenly felt something was wrong. A small, cold part of his mind, the real him, was screaming.

Was he living for destruction?

If not… then what was he living for?

Suddenly, a voice appeared beside Orion’s ear. Not Phantylia’s voice. A different one.

It was a voice from a long, long time ago. Seele’s voice, younger, rougher.

“Orion, what are you looking at?”

“Looking at the sky… Seele, what do you think is at the end of the sky?”

“Idiot. There’s no sky in the Underworld.”

“No, I mean… the real sky. The sky of the Overworld, the sky higher up.”

“You’re dreaming again. People like us… we don’t get to see it.”

“Seele… I’ve made up my mind.”

“What?”

“I want to leave here. Not just go to the Overworld. I want to go somewhere even further.”

“Huh? You must be starving again. How could you possibly go to a place like that?!”

“No, I just have to go. No matter what, even if I die… I don’t want to stay in the Underworld.”

“…Are you kidding?! People like us are born trash! Understand? It’s good enough to have food! Just stay here with me…”

“No.”

“I’m not trash. Neither are you.”

At this point, images began to flash by. Real memories.

That was… Bronya. But younger. In the orphanage.

“Orion, the book says there are stars beyond the sky, and cities without ice and snow. Is that true?”

“Yes. Beyond the starry sky, there are countless planets, countless worlds.”

“Really? Worlds… bigger than Belobog?”

“Of course. Belobog is just a speck of dust in the universe.”

“Then I want to see them, if possible.”

“I want to too… No. I must go.”

“Orion, are you serious? But… how?”

“I’m serious. One day, I will walk out of this Underworld, out of Belobog, and see the real starry sky.”

Bronya was silent for a long time.

“That will be very difficult.”

“I know.”

“You might die.”

“I know.”

“Are you still going?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because… if you don’t even have dreams, what’s the difference between that and being dead?”

…

Yes…

That’s right.

That was just a dream.

Orion’s consciousness whispered.

All of that was fake.

Only here, this land that brings you peace, is real.

Accept all of this, Orion.

Accept yourself… accept the essence of “Destruction.”

The insidious voice of Phantylia seamlessly blended with his own thoughts, trying to twist his realization.

He began to dream frequently. Horrible, confusing nightmares.

In his dreams, he was not Orion, the protector of the Underworld.

He was a “Trailblazer” wielding a black sword, traveling through an endless, cold sea of stars.

He dreamed of a pink-haired girl who was always boisterous and followed him around, taking pictures.

He dreamed of a gray-haired girl who always called him ‘good brother’ and slung an arm over his shoulder, her bat covered in monster blood.

He dreamed of a man wearing glasses, always shaking his head helplessly at their antics.

He dreamed of a white-haired general holding a long saber, always smiling that lazy, knowing smile.

He dreamed of a woman as cold as frost, with blood-red eyes, held in his arms, her Mara-Struck state receding…

March… Stelle… Welt… Jing Yuan… Jingliu…

These dreams were so real.

So real that even after waking up, they were still vivid in his memory.

He started to lose track of which was reality and which was the dream.

He mentioned these dreams to Seele.

Seele, however, just frowned and touched his forehead, her hand rough but warm.

“Orion, are you sick? You’re talking nonsense again. Who are these people?”

He contacted Bronya, now the Supreme Guardian, and asked her if she knew a girl named “March 7th.”

Bronya was silent for a long time before replying, her voice worried.

“Orion, are you under too much stress lately? March 7th… who is that?”

Everyone thought he was sick, crazy.

Even he himself began to doubt himself.

Perhaps, those really were just dreams?

This… he thought, looking at the gray, oppressive sky of the Underworld. This is reality.

This is my life. This is where I’m happy.

The other… that was just a bad dream.

He closed his eyes, and the memories of the Astral Express began to fade.

【Yes… that’s it…】