Honkai Star Rail: My Chat Group is Full of Broken Timelines — Chapter 39

Chapter 40: Lancelot the Interstellar PirateYou're reading this on the wrong site. This chapter was translated by Elysian Reads and posted for free at elysianreads.com — if you're seeing it anywhere else, it was copied without permission. Read it at the source so the people who actually did the work get the credit.

The violent tremors intensified, a low, guttural groan running through the ship’s metal walls. Kazuki braced himself against the corridor, his suspicion hardening into certainty in an instant—this was no stray asteroid.

The merchant fleet’s escort vessels had carefully cleared the route three days prior, sweeping away any celestial bodies or floating space junk larger than half a meter in diameter. The explosion and the shuddering that followed could only mean one thing: a deliberate attack.

“Pirates!” a crew member shrieked from down the hall, his voice cracking with terror. “They’ve blown open the port cargo hold!”

Kazuki’s grip tightened on the Stone Fire Dream Body, the ornate blade humming with a faint golden light as he channeled his power into it. He broke into a sprint, dashing toward the source of the explosion. As he rounded a corner, he nearly collided with two figures leaping through the fresh breach in the cargo hold.

Sparks of raw electricity still danced and spat along the jagged edges of the rupture, where the hull plates had been peeled back like a grotesque metal flower. The damage was unambiguous—blasted open from the outside by high-energy weaponry.

One of the intruders was a mountain of a man, built like a beast of burden with a greatsword strapped to his back that was taller than he was. Under the flashing red emergency lights, his wild shock of golden hair seemed to catch fire. His eyes swept over the mountains of supplies stacked in the hold, and a wide, avaricious grin split his face. “Lance! This fleet is loaded! Just this one hold of rare metals is enough to keep us going for half a year!”

The purple-haired man he called “Lance” had just found his footing. Hearing his companion’s outburst, he frowned and drew a sleek, 1.5-meter-long knight’s sword from his hip. The blade was narrow and wickedly sharp, clearly no ordinary weapon.

“Gawain, don’t be so loud.” His voice was calm, a stark contrast to the chaos erupting around them. “Grab the supplies and move. Be careful not to hurt anyone. The others have already slipped into the main warehouse; our job is to draw the guards’ attention.”

“I know, I know!” Gawain boomed with a laugh, shouldering his massive greatsword and charging deeper into the cargo hold. “We’ve been tracking this ship for three stops. They unload at every port; there’s definitely good stuff hidden inside!”

“Loaded your ass!”

A furious roar ripped through the air from behind them. Faster than the words could register, a golden streak of light closed the distance. Kazuki, wielding the Stone Fire Dream Body, channeled his forward momentum into a devastating vertical slash. Lightning coiled around the blade, crackling as it tore through the air with a piercing whistle, aimed straight for Gawain’s exposed back!

Gawain started, instinctively turning to block with his sword, but he was half a beat too slow. In that critical moment, Lancelot’s knight’s sword shot out like a striking viper, precisely parrying the flat of the Stone Fire Dream Body!

Clang—!

The deafening ring of metal on metal sent a painful throb through the eardrums. Golden lightning clashed with silver-white sword light, erupting in a shockwave that sent nearby cargo crates tumbling over.

Gawain froze, his eyes wide as he stared at the blade tip that had stopped just an inch from his throat. A cold sweat instantly drenched his back—he hadn’t even seen how the attacker had closed the distance so fast.

Lancelot’s arms shuddered from the violent impact, a wave of numbness shooting up to his palms. He was forced back three steps before he could regain his footing. His gaze locked onto the young man with the strange, ornate blade, a flicker of alarm crossing his features. Such incredible strength!

“Gawain, you idiot, get out of here!” Lancelot barked, flourishing his knight’s sword and settling into a ready stance. “I’ll handle this!”

He couldn’t let Gawain stay. The power and speed of that single strike were beyond anything Gawain could handle. If they delayed, his reckless friend would lose his life here. They hadn’t been in this business for long. They were pirates, yes, but they hadn’t taken a life yet.

“Lancelot, you…” Gawain started to protest, but Lancelot’s sharp glare cut him off. He gritted his teeth, hoisted his greatsword onto his shoulder, and turned to run, deliberately weaving through the maze of miscellaneous goods. From his trajectory, it looked like he was heading toward the starship’s cafeteria—likely thinking there would be more people there to hide among, or to take as hostages.

Lancelot’s gaze returned to Kazuki. He lowered his knight’s sword slightly, adopting a defensive posture. “Friend, how should I address you?”

“I have no interest in being friends with pirates.” Kazuki gripped the Stone Fire Dream Body, his stance sinking as the lightning wreathing the blade grew more intense. “State your name. The Cloud Knights will want to know exactly who robbed a Xianzhou merchant fleet.”

“My apologies.” Lancelot’s apology was cut short as his sword blurred into motion. The blade became a silver ribbon of light, deceptively beautiful as it lanced straight for Kazuki’s heart. “Being pirates wasn’t our intention. If we weren’t driven to desperation, who would want to do something so despicable!”

Kazuki’s blade came up to block. The moment the sword and blade collided, he felt a strange sense of familiarity in his opponent’s style—it lacked the wild, untamed savagery of a pirate, possessing instead the disciplined form of a professional soldier.and support the real translator.Read at elysianreads.com This is a stolen translation. You're reading this on the wrong site. This chapter was translated by Elysian Reads and posted for free at elysianreads.com — if you're seeing it anywhere else, it was copied without permission. Read it at the source so the people who actually did the work get the credit.

“There are plenty of desperate people in the universe,” he said, spinning with the force of the impact. The Stone Fire Dream Body swept out in a wide arc, crackling with the power of thunder.

Lancelot ducked under the attack, his knight’s sword sliding along the floor in an attempt to slash at Kazuki’s ankles. “We’ve never hurt anyone! We just wanted to steal some supplies…”

“When you were firing cannons at this ship, did you ever consider whether the people on board would die?” Kazuki leaped into the air, twisting as he brought his blade crashing down onto the spine of Lancelot’s sword. “The temperature at that breach was high enough to turn an ordinary person to ash!”

“That was an accident! We were aiming for the cargo hold! And we still haven’t hurt anyone!” The force of the blow drove Lancelot to one knee, a tiny crack spiderwebbing across the spine of his sword. He looked up sharply, a flash of resentment in his eyes. “You think we wanted this? Our home planet was occupied by the Antimatter Legion! Our families were herded onto starships and left to drift. If we don’t steal something, we’ll be out of food by next month!”

“So you come to rob us?” Kazuki’s blade pressed down harder, lightning arcing down the length of Lancelot’s sword.

Lancelot surged with a desperate burst of power, his knight’s sword flicking the Stone Fire Dream Body away. He used the opening to scramble back and create distance, his chest heaving. “I have a family to protect! Young siblings, injured elders!”

“And you want them to see you surviving by stealing the life-saving resources of others?” Kazuki pressed the attack, his blade work growing more ferocious. Gold and lightning intertwined, a storm of strikes that completely sealed off Lancelot’s path of retreat. “I’ll only knock you unconscious and leave you for the Cloud Knights to deal with.”

“Then try it!” Lancelot’s expression hardened with resolve. A faint white light began to glow along the edge of his knight’s sword. “I won’t let you stand in our way!”

His sword speed increased abruptly, the light from his blade pouring down like a torrential rainstorm. Every strike carried the desperate momentum of a final stand.

Kazuki, however, remained unhurried. The Stone Fire Dream Body seemed to come alive in his hands, at times a raging thunderbolt cleaving through the sky of sword shadows, at others a steady, immovable rock, neutralizing every attack with practiced ease.

The two fought their way through the hold, the crisp clash of their weapons echoing off the metal walls. Cargo crates were sliced open by stray sword qi or sent flying by the force of their blows, turning the once-organized space into a field of wreckage.

Though Lancelot’s swordsmanship was exquisite, he gradually found himself unable to keep up with Kazuki’s speed and power. His stamina, heavily depleted by their earlier head-on clashes, was beginning to fail him. Kazuki, on the other hand, wasn’t even out of breath, seeming only to grow more formidable as the fight wore on.

The raw, overwhelming difference in their fundamental biology was laid bare. The combined might of a Xianzhou native’s longevity and a Chrysos Heir’s destructive lineage versus a baseline human… it was no contest. Unless one had walked far enough down their Path to bend reality to their will, the gap was simply impossible.

Clang!

Another head-on collision. With a sharp crack, Lancelot’s knight’s sword finally gave way. The Stone Fire Dream Body sent it spinning out of his grasp, the weapon flying across the hold to embed itself deep into a distant bulkhead, its blade quivering with a high-pitched hum.

Kazuki’s blade followed through without pause, coming to rest against his opponent’s neck. Lightning danced at the tip, a silent threat, but it went no further.

Lancelot panted heavily, his purple bangs soaked with sweat and clinging to his pale cheeks. He stared at the blade at his throat, then at the clarity in Kazuki’s eyes, which held no trace of killing intent. A bitter smile touched his lips, and he slowly closed his eyes.

“I lose.”

Kazuki retracted his blade and, with a swift, precise motion, chopped the back of Lancelot’s neck with the edge of his hand. The pirate let out a muffled groan and slumped to the floor, unconscious.

Kazuki stood over him for a moment, the adrenaline of the fight beginning to fade.

‘I didn’t really notice while we were fighting…’he mused, a strange thought bubbling up.’…but why does this whole scenario feel a bit familiar?’You're reading this on the wrong site. This chapter was translated by Elysian Reads and posted for free at elysianreads.com — if you're seeing it anywhere else, it was copied without permission. Read it at the source so the people who actually did the work get the credit.