Honkai Star Rail: Saving the World with a Mobile Game — Chapter 81

Chapter 81: Animated Short – In That Long Night of Rest

“Don’t kill me, please, I don’t want to die…”

The death row prisoner trembled, his voice cracking with raw terror.

On the screen, the first dialogue option was highlighted in a bloody, ominous red.

Guinaifen and Sushang stared at the monitor, completely stunned. Was the game seriously asking them to decide whether this man lived or died?

“What should we do, Shangshang?” Guinaifen asked, her hands hovering nervously over the controls.

Sushang leaned closer to the screen, her brows furrowed in thought. “Castorice herself doesn’t seem very willing to do this. Didn’t she say so earlier? Taking a life so casually is unacceptable. I actually feel the exact same way.”

The two girls quickly reached a consensus and decisively clicked the second option: refuse the execution.

Unfortunately, the system had other plans.

The execution sequence did not end. Instead, Elder Amonet’s cold, raspy counsel echoed through Castorice’s ears once more, urging her forward.

Sushang stubbornly continued to select the refusal options, clicking through the dialogue until, finally, only a single, unavoidable prompt remained on the screen.

[Gently Touch]

There was no room for resistance. The illusion of choice shattered.

As the players watched, Castorice slowly reached out her hand. The moment her pale fingers brushed the prisoner, his body convulsed violently. Amidst a storm of fear, resentment, and bitter unwillingness, his struggles ceased. He dissolved into silence and eternal rest.

[Forced to kill?!]

[Holy crap! This elder is such a sore loser. Castorice clearly didn’t want to kill him, yet she’s forcing her hand?!]

[I’m so done with this. What is wrong with this cursed place…]

[There’s no other choice. It seems if Castorice wants to stay in Aethelgard, she has to act as their Executioner.]

The bullet chat scrolled rapidly, filled with a collective sense of helplessness from the viewers.

Guinaifen and Sushang sighed in unison, a heavy, uncomfortable weight settling in their chests.

But just when the two streamers thought the ordeal was over, the game proved this was merely the prologue.

With every step Castorice took across the cobblestones, ethereal butterflies rose beneath her feet, fluttering into the gloomy air.

The players were forced to control her, guiding her through the winding, mist-shrouded streets of the city-state according to the mission markers. Her duty was absolute: bringing death to a myriad of different souls.

She executed brave but crippled warriors, foreign prisoners of war, and weary travelers plagued by incurable diseases.

As she walked her grim path, her ears were constantly bombarded by the curses of the living.

“Executioner.”

“Monster.”

“Murderer.”

“May you… live in eternal pain!”

The venomous words stung, making the viewers and the streamers alike feel a deep, suffocating unpleasantness.

At the very end of the long, bloodstained road, the final execution target was revealed. It was Amonet—the very elder who had taught Castorice the solemn rites of execution.

“Why?” Castorice’s voice trembled, breaking the heavy silence.

In stark contrast, the elderly woman appeared entirely at peace.

“Because I am old,” Amonet replied, her voice raspy like dry leaves. “From the moment I felt fear toward the aging of this frail body, I was already dead.”

She looked up at the gray sky. “This is the fate of every person in Aethelgard. I shall respond to Thanatos’s call and charge toward fear, to prove that I am no coward.”

Castorice shook her head vigorously, her silver-purple hair swaying. She found it impossible to accept. The elder clearly had plenty of time left to live. Why must she end it personally just because she feared growing old?

“I… I can’t take it anymore…” Castorice whispered, her voice laced with despair.

Amonet offered a gentle, comforting smile and apologized to the young girl. She had always regarded Castorice as her own daughter, yet she had forced her into the cruel role of an Executioner. It was a burden akin to kidnapping her soul.

Now, with just a gentle touch from Castorice, her life would wither away.

But this was precisely why she had chosen Castorice. Because the girl possessed an innate blessing—or perhaps a curse—no one in this world understood the crushing weight of death better than she did.

“If viewed through the eyes of an Aethelgardian, death is the end of all life, the path we must all take. One should not resist it, but learn how to welcome it.”

Amonet spread her arms. “Come, do it. I have already taught you everything I could comprehend in this life.”

In the blink of an eye, the solemn atmosphere shattered.

The Amonet standing before them warped and twisted, transforming into a grotesque monster.

There were no dialogue options left. Only a cold system prompt instructing them to unleash their combat skills and strike her down.

Guinaifen’s breathing grew heavy, her grip on the controller tightening, but she had no choice but to comply.

[Battle Start]

With Castorice in the party, the fight consisted of only two waves of shadowy monsters. It was mechanically simple.

Yet, as she slaughtered the mobs, Guinaifen did not feel the slightest thrill of victory.

A moment later, the battle concluded.

Only a melancholic closing cinematic remained.

Against a gloomy, painted canvas, Castorice’s eyes swam with reluctance, deep confusion, and deep sorrow.

The figure of Amonet standing before her was dissipating into ash, bit by bit.

Following the final, cruel instruction, Castorice reached out and touched the old woman one last time.

However, the harsh reality of death spared no one. Even this elder, who had spent her entire life preaching about the acceptance of death, was no different from the rest when the final moment arrived. She trembled, consumed by fear and lingering resentment.

She had spent her life teaching the philosophy of ‘death’, and in the end, she vanished like morning dew under the rising sun, leaving nothing behind but a hollow sense of awe.

Later, in the dreary marshes of Aethelgard, Castorice buried her mentor among the silent dead. Seeking an audience with the Titan Thanatos, she set out on her solitary wanderings once again.

During that incredibly long, arduous journey…

She heard countless discussions regarding ‘death’.

Everyone spoke of its immense weight, whether they expressed it through violent resistance, blind worship, or paralyzing awe.

“How can a Titan of unknown whereabouts become the deepest fear in people’s hearts?” Castorice asked the empty wind.

“For the answer to this question, I continued my journey. At first, it was an escape. Then it became a search, and finally…”

She looked down at her pale hands. “I want to know… if my touch, my embrace, isn’t meant only to strip life away?”

The screen abruptly cut to black.

Silence.

A heavy, suffocating moment of silence filled the streaming room.

Guinaifen crossed her arms, staring intently at the darkened monitor. She opened her mouth, preparing to voice her complicated feelings, when Sushang suddenly lunged forward and pointed at the screen.

“Wait, Lil’ Gui…”

“Don’t move yet, look at what this is?!”

Whoosh—!

Along with the livestream feed, the bullet chat that had been preparing to spam a wave of emotional comments suddenly froze.

That’s right.

In the very next second, the game’s graphics transitioned smoothly from 3D rendering to a stunning 2D animation.

In a dark, claustrophobic prison cell, a man was screaming at the top of his lungs.

“I—I don’t want to die, please!”

It perfectly echoed the beginning of the quest.

Opposite him stood a purple-haired girl with a cold, detached expression. She turned her head away, unable to watch, but still extended her hand.

“No, don’t…”

Like a flower rapidly withering in winter, the man collapsed at the sound of her touch.

There was no dramatic twist, only the haunting visual of purple petals scattering into the dark air, accompanied by a soft, melancholic voice:

“I hate these cold hands.”

During the brief black screen transition, Guinaifen pointed at the monitor, her lips trembling slightly. “It’s—it’s, it’s, it’s…”

“Could this be the animated short Ash mentioned in the preview?!”

At the same time, the vast majority of the bullet chat was replaced by a tidal wave of question marks.

The highly anticipated animated short was actually playing right now, hidden at the end of the quest?!

The camera faded back in, reflecting a new set of images.

The first scene depicted an old-era city-state hidden beneath a thick veil of gray mist. An eerie, oppressive ritual was taking place.

Without a doubt, the little purple-haired girl at the center of it all was Castorice.

It was her as a young child.

Wearing a heavy black veil and surrounded by countless adults draped in mourning clothes, little Castorice cautiously walked up the stone steps, one by one.

The people lining both sides of the path held no warmth or anticipation in their eyes—only absolute, terrifying awe. Even the other children stared at her like she was a deity of misfortune.

They watched in dead silence as Castorice climbed the temple steps. Under their heavy gaze, she was forced to grant death to a wounded deer.

Meanwhile, the surrounding area was already littered with the deceased, all waiting for their final rest.

A towering Executioner spoke from the shadows: “Your hands are the blessing of death; only you can bring them peace.”

But clearly, the young Castorice didn’t understand the twisted philosophy, nor was she willing to accept it.

Before she could reach out her hands to the waiting deceased, the little girl turned and ran away in a blind panic.

She ran and ran, fleeing the oppressive temple until she stumbled upon a vibrant cluster of flowers.

Seeking comfort, she reached out.

With a gentle touch, the blooming flowers instantly withered into gray ash.

The question marks in the bullet chat multiplied, the viewers’ shock and heartbreak intensifying with every passing frame.

The scene shifted once more.

A group of normal children were gathered around a warm, crackling bonfire, holding hands and spinning in joyful circles.

Castorice stood far away in the shadows, looking toward the light. She was a lonely, solitary figure, leaving only a gloomy silhouette of her small back against the darkness.

That was, until a little girl from the group noticed her.

The stranger smiled and reached out, offering a long wooden branch toward the isolated executioner.

And so, the two of them held the branch across the distance, maintaining a safe gap, yet walking hand-in-hand toward the distant horizon.