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ArabicHonkai Star Rail: My Chat Group is Full of Broken Timelines — Chapter 6
Chapter 6: Borrowing Power, The Swarm that Blots Out the Sky
“You know the rules.”
Jing Yuan’s voice was a low, unhurried drawl. He watched Kazuki’s frantic state with an almost infuriating calm, a faint glimmer of amusement in his eyes.
“If you want it, you’ll have to take it.”
“Great-Uncle, I am absolutely not in the mood for games right now!” Kazuki’s voice was tight with urgency, his words tumbling out in a rush. “This is a real emergency! I don’t have time for this!”
On any other day, Kazuki would have gladly indulged his great-uncle’s eccentric brand of humor, matching his wit and playing along with his bizarre references. But not today. Today, he had no such inclination.
“Alright, alright.” Jing Yuan’s playful demeanor finally softened as he registered the genuine panic in Kazuki’s voice. The teasing glint in his eyes vanished, replaced by a familiar, steady calm. “I understand.”
A sharp crackle, like a clap of thunder contained within the hall, echoed off the ornate walls. Golden lightning erupted from thin air, coalescing into a magnificent formation blade, its length easily rivaling a man’s height.
Jing Yuan released his grip, letting the weapon plummet toward the floor. Just an instant before its tip could mar the polished wood of the desk, Kazuki lunged, catching the hilt with both hands.
An immense, unexpected weight slammed down, making him stagger. A jarring numbness shot up his arms, the sheer force of the impact stealing his breath, but he gritted his teeth, his muscles screaming as he refused to let the blade touch the ground.
Stone Fire Dream Body. The name of the legendary weapon echoed in his mind. It was a masterpiece forged eight hundred years ago by the genius artisan Yingxing—a member of the High-Cloud Quintet alongside Jing Yuan himself. Its very metal was born from the embers of light arrows fired by the Reignbow Arbiter, arrows powerful enough to shatter stars.
“Your form is still lacking,” Jing Yuan commented dryly, his lips twitching.
“Hmph! I’m leaving!” Kazuki shot back, ignoring the jab. He took two steps back, clutching the heavy blade, and with his free hand, quickly tapped on the chat group interface that only he could see.
He selected the option: [Enter the world of Titania II]. A system prompt immediately flashed in his vision: [Request Approved]. In the next moment, his entire body dissolved into a cascade of faint light, vanishing completely from the hall.
“Interesting… he really did just disappear,” Jing Yuan murmured to the empty room.
Even though the General had been staring fixedly at Kazuki the entire time, he hadn’t perceived the slightest ripple in space or any conventional method of departure. The boy had simply ceased to be there.
“Alright, Master Diviner, you can come out now.”
A short while earlier—just after Kazuki had ended his call with Fu Xuan—the Master Diviner of the Xianzhou Luofu found herself unable to rest. Though she had projected an air of indifference on the call, a deep unease had settled in her heart.
Her divinations revealed no abnormalities, yet this very absence of abnormality was the most unsettling omen of all.
After a moment of deliberation, she had gone directly to Jing Yuan, relaying everything about the strange events Kazuki had described. Coincidentally, just as she finished her report, a commotion erupted outside. Kazuki himself had charged into the Seat of Divine Foresight, blowing past every checkpoint with the Sky-Faring Commission in hot pursuit.
Now, a pale blue light shimmered in the center of the hall, and the holographic projection of Fu Xuan materialized. She wore a deep frown, clearly still troubled by the unsolvable puzzle of her divination. “What is your assessment, General? My matrix shows everything is normal, and a common Masked Fool could never evade the Omniscient Eye… Could this be the work of Aha the Elation?”
“Master Diviner,” Jing Yuan began, his tone placid.
“How can the machinations of an Aeon be fathomed by mortal logic?” he countered gently. “We of the Xianzhou have followed the Path of The Hunt for millennia. Have we ever truly claimed to understand the Reignbow Arbiter’s will?”
“Whether it is the intervention of an Aeon or not, we can only hope this sudden turn of events is a blessing for Little Kazuki and the Xianzhou, not a curse.”
Compared to Fu Xuan’s evident anxiety, the General appeared remarkably open-minded, almost unconcerned.
“Hmph. General, Kazuki is your grand-nephew. Can you truly be so unbothered?” she challenged.
“At the very least,” Jing Yuan’s lips curved into a slight smile, “I am calmer than you are, his fiancée.”
“General!” A faint blush colored Fu Xuan’s cheeks, and her projection wavered for a moment, betraying her composure.
“Do not worry,” he said, his voice softening into a reassuring tone.
“Little Kazuki is a clever boy. He came to borrow a blade, yes, but in doing so, he was subconsciously seeking the power to confront the dangers he faces… my power. He came here, risking the revocation of his flight license, to borrow a strength that could handle whatever he was about to face.”
Jing Yuan’s gaze drifted to the spot where Kazuki had vanished. “Just now, when I gave him the weapon, I infused it with a sliver of the Lightning-Lord’s might. As a divine weapon forged from the Reignbow Arbiter’s own light, Stone Fire Dream Body is more than capable of containing a fragment of the Might-Spirit’s power.”
He turned back to Fu Xuan’s projection, his expression serene. “In that case, there is truly no need for us to worry.”
The world that greeted Kazuki was one of perpetual twilight.
“So… dark…” he murmured, his eyes struggling to adjust.
He stood on a desolate, cracked wasteland under a sky choked by a thick, roiling layer of what he first mistook for clouds. But they weren’t clouds. They were insects. Countless True Stings, packed so densely together that they formed a living, breathing canopy, blotting out the sun.
Only thin, scattered shafts of light managed to pierce through the gaps in the swarm, dappling the barren ground with shifting, mottled patterns that only made the oppressive atmosphere feel more alien and sinister.
“Watch out!”
A sharp, clear female voice cut through the drone of the swarm. A flash of purple light bisected the air in front of him. A True Sting that had been silently diving toward his back was neatly sliced in two. Green ichor splattered onto the ground, releasing a pungent, acrid odor.
“Thank you… Miss Castorice?” Kazuki turned his head to see the newcomer. A girl with waist-length purple hair wielding a scythe—it was her, alright.
It was only then that he noticed her attire, and he had to do a double-take. She wasn’t wearing her usual outfit. Instead, she was in a set of pajamas, complete with a pattern of small, embroidered Chimeras.
“Your Excellency… the situation was urgent, and I didn’t have time to change,” she explained, a hint of embarrassment in her voice.
“Ah, sorry!” Kazuki quickly averted his gaze, scratching the back of his head awkwardly.
He tightened his grip on Stone Fire Dream Body and was surprised to find that the crushing, sluggish weight from before had vanished. In its place, a continuous, thrumming stream of power surged from the hilt, flowing through his arms and into his entire body. It felt like he could overturn the heavens and the earth.
“Thunder, awaken!” Kazuki roared, swinging the massive blade in a wide arc.
Golden lightning, the power of the Lightning-Lord, erupted from the weapon. It spread out like a vast, crackling net, tearing through the ranks of the Swarm. Amidst the deafening sizzle of raw current, countless True Stings were electrocuted into charred husks, falling from the sky like a morbid rain.
But for the swarm that blotted out the very sky, this was merely a drop in an endless ocean. The scent of a living human and the flash of power only drew more of them, their chittering growing into a deafening roar as they swarmed toward the two figures on the ground.
“So this is The Swarm…” Kazuki breathed, a chill running down his spine despite the lightning coursing through his veins. It was hard to even imagine the sheer terror the Swarm Disaster must have been at its peak.
“Your Excellency Kazuki, follow me!” Castorice shouted, her scythe cleaving through another lunging insect. “When I found Miss Liu Ying, she was already unconscious. Miss Robin is looking after her now. We need to retreat! There are too many of them to fight head-on.”
“Then why did you stay out here?” Kazuki asked, parrying a diving insect with the flat of his blade as he fell back to follow her.
“I was worried Your Excellency would come,” Castorice’s voice was small, tinged with shyness. “I was afraid you would be in danger if there was no one here to guide you.”
My little Butterfly is as kind as ever… A warmth spread through Kazuki’s chest, but it was immediately followed by a prickle of doubt. Wait a minute. Logically, since Amphoreus isn’t a ‘real’ world yet, Castorice shouldn’t be a true, physical lifeform. How can she be here in the flesh? Is this the power of the chat group?
Before he could ponder the question further, the swarm’s attention on them intensified. More and more True Stings noticed their presence, and their attacks grew increasingly fierce. Kazuki and Castorice were forced to fight and retreat, a desperate dance of blade and scythe, until Castorice finally led him to a hidden cave entrance tucked away in the side of a rocky outcrop.