Honkai Star Rail: Saving the World with a Mobile Game — Chapter 104

Chapter 104: Thou Shalt Bathe for the Last Time in Warm, Dazzling Gold

[Is this a scene from a thousand years ago?]

[The young Cipher actually had such a cute side? I really misjudged the kitty.]

[Cipher: Cat_Startled.jpg]

[Is this the relationship between Aglaea and Cipher? But what caused their falling out?!]

[This impression is so different from Aglaea a thousand years later; she was actually this gentle…]

[I wouldn’t say it’s a huge difference; more like she’s pretending very well now.]

[Aglaea: Smug_Agy.jpg]

The barrage of bullet comments from the viewers, analyzing the complex dynamic between Cipher and Aglaea, flooded the screen in a dense wave. Yet, inside the streaming room, the usually boisterous host was entirely unresponsive.

Guinaifen sat frozen in her gaming chair, her expression unusually silent. The vibrant energy that normally defined her broadcasts had completely evaporated, replaced by a heavy, suffocating dread.

Within the game, the narrative pressed forward mercilessly. Not long after the flashback concluded, Dan Heng and Phainon’s group finally shattered the Purifiers’ encirclement. Bloodied and exhausted, they broke through the enemy lines only to be struck by a devastating revelation: Aglaea was dead.

The pieces of the grim puzzle rapidly fell into place. These Purifiers hadn’t come to assassinate the trailblazing crew at all. They were merely a vanguard, a suicide squad deployed solely to stall everyone else so the true assassins could make their move on Aglaea.

But the most chilling truth was that Aglaea had anticipated this. Aside from locating Cipher, she had long since calculated the exact hour of her own exit from the stage. In secret, she had sought out Hatonus, the Great Artisan who commanded the highest forging techniques of Kremnos.

In her nymph form, Aglaea’s physical vessel was already irreparably shattered. Her long, agonizing journey as a human in this world had finally reached its absolute limit. Knowing this, she decided to seek out Hatonus and use the Suspended Edge’s forbidden soul-forging technique, willingly infusing her remaining soul into a simple piece of jewelry.

The cost of this ritual was absolute. Only her cold divinity would be preserved, completely filtering out and destroying any lingering traces of her humanity. Yet, she accepted this price, hoping the artifact might aid Phainon and the others in their most crucial hour of need.

“Is this truly what you want, Aglaea?” Hatonus asked, his voice thick with hesitation as the forge fires cast dancing shadows across his weathered face. He sought confirmation again and again, desperate to offer her a different path.

From within the ethereal glow of the nymph, Aglaea’s reply was as unwavering and regal as ever.

“For the past thousand years, all the fabrics that have passed through my hands have been stained with this cold, unyielding divinity. Because of it, I began to loathe their colors, their textures, and their scents,” she confessed softly, the weight of a millennium echoing in her tone. “But this piece of jewelry is different. It was a gift from a child—pure, simple, and kind. How I wish my own childhood could have been like hers.”

The artifact she entrusted to Hatonus was a humble knucklebone necklace. It was a relic that carried the weight of her first and final attachments to the mortal world.

Hatonus’s repeated questioning could not curb her resolve. Amidst the familiar, melancholic farewell music swelling in the background, the Great Artisan’s final assessment of her sacrifice was reduced to two brief, heavy sentences.

“Selfless.”

“To the very end.”

He watched the forging complete, certain that Aglaea’s humanity had already walked its own magnificent, tragic life to the very edge.

Meanwhile, Phainon sprinted back toward the holy city of Okhema, her lungs burning and her mind rejecting reality. She simply couldn’t believe the news. Aglaea, a god who had reigned for a thousand years, possessed a majestic presence so absolute and reassuring that even her reported death felt like it had to be a calculated trick—just another layer of her grand scheme.

However, as they rushed to find Tribbie, the cold, hard facts settled over them like a shroud.

From Kratros, who had arrived a step ahead of the group, they learned the gruesome details. Someone had personally witnessed Aglaea fall into the bath. A Purifier’s dagger, laced with lethal intent, had pierced her heart with flawless precision. Not even the legendary Sky Blessing of Hyacine could mend the fatal wound.

Tribbie, it turned out, had known all of this long before the blade ever struck.

Yet, in the wake of the tragedy, Tribbie alone appeared the calmest. There were no tears, no frantic denials.

“On this long journey, ‘we’ have always been by Aglaea’s side. We understood her thoughts better than anyone,” Tribbie said, her voice a gentle, soothing murmur. “She knew she wouldn’t live to see the end of the Flame-Chasers’ journey. Yet, she burned herself away without a single reservation, all to secure everyone’s tomorrow.”

Tribbie reached out, comforting the trembling Phainon, urging the young girl not to drown in self-blame or paralyzing grief. From her robes, Tribbie produced a final message—a memory Aglaea had left specifically for Phainon.

At that moment, a flood of desperate question marks was still scrolling rapidly across Guinaifen’s live stream. The streamer mechanically maneuvered Stelle through the city streets, wandering aimlessly as she tried to process the shock.

Suddenly, Stelle’s footsteps halted.

There, in a quiet corner of the memory, Tribbie was silently bidding her final farewell to Aglaea.

“Aglaea, I still remember the taste of that bowl of oatmeal,” Tribbie whispered to the empty air, a sad smile touching her lips. “See you tomorrow morning. I’ll prepare breakfast for you again then…”

The lingering image in the memory shifted, revealing Aglaea’s final, desperate plea to her mentor. The invincible leader was gone, replaced by a vulnerable girl.

“Wuwuwu, Aglaea…”

“Please don’t cry, My Teacher…” Aglaea’s voice trembled, stripped of all its usual haughty command. “I wish for my death to be calm and gentle. I wish to die quietly, lifelessly, not exposed to the cruel gaze of the masses.”

She looked up, her eyes reflecting a millennium of exhaustion. “My Teacher, I have experienced too many changes in my life, but there is only one pursuit I have held onto for a thousand years…”

“‘Beauty,’ right?” Tribbie spoke sadly, completing the thought.

Tribbie had once asked Aglaea if she was truly ready for the storm that was coming. Aglaea’s answer had been etched into her memory forever.

“Born in this era, we have no choice but to grow amidst terrifying waves. We cannot wait to prepare everything before setting sail, just as I was forced to do when I took over Meneta’s torch.”

Following that memory was the last letter Aglaea had written to Phainon. It was a testament, a passing of the torch, and perhaps, her suicide note.

“Phainon, my humble student, my trusted colleague—”

“As I write these words, you are engaged in a war of words with the Senate’s debaters, fighting desperately for the survival of the Flame-Chasers on the intangible battlefield of smoke and fire.”

“I am deeply apprehensive and remorseful for the decision to hastily push you and Stelle onto that debate stage. But please forgive me; at that time, I absolutely could not show cowardice before you, for it would surely have shattered your morale.”

Phainon read the letter with trembling hands. Under the continuous, unblinking gaze of millions of players, even Guinaifen began to shake.

In the streamer’s confusion, it felt as if she had been transported back to that crisp morning when Aglaea still stood proudly by the cliffside. Aglaea had told Phainon the brutal truth: her humanity had run its course.

During the fierce debates with the Senate, after her cold divinity had violently overwhelmed her fading humanity, she had fallen victim to the Senate’s vile political trap. Knowing her time was up, she began carefully planning her own death. It was destined to be anything but peaceful, for she was determined to use her own assassination as bait to lure out the venomous ‘serpents’ lurking in the darkness of the city.

Finally, she entrusted the heavy responsibility of Okhema to Phainon—this ‘perfect,’yet beautifully’imperfect’ person.

“Phainon, I want you to understand that my thoughts of you have never changed from beginning to end.”

“You are Amphoreus’s destined world-bearing, the gateway to Amphoreus’s future.”

“Go forth. I will await the miracle you carve out at the end of the west wind.”

The letter bore the final period of Aglaea’s thousand-year journey.

Only at the exact moment of her departure did everyone finally realize the truth. This seemingly all-powerful, untouchable leader—from the very second she took up the divine authority—was ultimately just a young girl, barely older than those she commanded.

She wasn’t truly all-powerful. It was just that, as a leader, she couldn’t afford to let anyone see her fear or her weakness. She had to project absolute perfection to make the restless serpents within Okhema cower in fear. She needed to guide everyone through the dark, forcing herself to be that blindingly bright lamp, fully aware she was ready to be extinguished at any given moment.

[Thou shalt bathe for the last time in warm, dazzling gold…]

[Another oracle’s curtain call? Who would have thought it would come this quickly?]

In Guinaifen’s live stream, a heavy, suffocating silence stretched on for a long while. Eventually, the bullet comments began to recover from the somber atmosphere, exploding into a frenzied, emotional discussion about the fallen leader.

[This counts as a heartfelt suicide note, right? So this seemingly cold, even heartless Flame-Chasers leader actually had such a vulnerable side?]

[Plot twist! Over the span of four versions, the Author completely reversed this character’s entire image?!]

[Shut up! What kind of sick joke are you playing? What do you mean the Flame-Chasers’ coldest leader was actually just a young girl feeling her way forward in the dark?!]

[Wuwuwu~ I don’t accept this ending! OOC, this is absolutely OOC! She must be tricking us, right?!]

[My brain can’t process this right away… Was Aglaea acting like a tyrant purely because she took up the torch first for everyone’s sake, burning away her own humanity in the process?]

[Just like in the Citizens Assembly! When her humanity was nearly spent and Caenis guided her to blurt out that outrageous, cruel statement… even her difficult, harsh treatment of Stelle back then was because of this?!]

[But… she didn’t choose to apologize. Just as she said herself, ‘No matter how much resentment you hold against me in your heart, it will dissipate like smoke with my departure.’]