The Doomsday Beast’s body burned itself out and scattered into dust across the cosmos.
Starlight poured down from overhead.
One look around and it felt like standing at the center of some unknown star field — the space station had vanished to who knows where.
Felutina stood at the center of the universe, staring blankly at the emptiness staring back.
Where in the world had she been dragged off to?
Was this even the Herta Space Station anymore?
By the script, after the little gray-hair took the Doomsday Beast’s dying counterattack, her mind was supposed to blur for an instant, she’d step into the Interstice of the Paths, be gazed upon by Nanook, and walk away with the power of Destruction.
Fine, step in, whatever.
But why drag her along too?
A golden wound was the first thing to appear in her field of vision, golden blood welling and streaming from it.
“It is time to set out.”
“Go and reach that terminus.”
“Reach that ending by your own will.”
“Look.
He has already taken notice of you.”
A pair of golden eyes opened slowly, fixed on Felutina…
and on the Trailblazer behind her.
The Aeon of Destruction, the incarnation of the extinction of all things.
Nanook.
There was no time to think it through.
Felutina had already planted herself in front of the Trailblazer.
“Don’t you glare at her!”
What are you looking at?
I can glare too.
I’ll glare you to death!
Nanook: …
He spared them a single glance, then was gone.
But that power had stirred the Stellaron in the Trailblazer’s chest.
Frenzied energy churned inside it, on the verge of bursting loose.
Felutina reached out without a moment’s hesitation.
Exactly as she’d predicted, the instant her hand went out, a dark red cane descended and tapped lightly against the top of Stelle’s head.
Welt Yang, fashionably late, had walked in right as the Stellaron was about to erupt.
He moved fast, pressing its power back down.
“Hm?”
But in the moment his cane came down, a white-haired figure seemed to flicker through his vision and vanish.
Before he could react to it, the Stellaron in Stelle’s chest had already been forced back into quiescence.
…
Meanwhile, in the real world.
“Oh come on, the Doomsday Beast is so weak.
How does it lose to the main cast?”
Little Bluebird clicked her mouse, her expression sliding from tense to disappointed and finally to flat despair.
She’d let her Ultimates sit at full charge without firing them.
She’d let her Skill Points cap out without spending a single one.
The Doomsday Beast still wasn’t a match.
Cursed scripted victory.
What she really wanted to see was the Trailblazer giving it everything and still losing, then screaming out the cheat code at the last second to summon Felutina.
Plenty of the scrolling comments were just as deep in the plot, sobbing and thrashing along with her:
[Waaaah, why am I this strong!]
[Waaaah, Doomsday Beast, I’m lending you my strength, don’t go down!]
[You’re the Doomsday Beast of the Legion of Destruction!
If even you fall, who’s left to carry out the destruction?
Get up!]
[Just got here, who’s the villain?]
The Doomsday Beast went down anyway, and its dying breath sprayed toward March 7th.
With a hair’s breadth to spare, the Trailblazer threw herself in front of March 7th and called out the name that haunted every player’s dreams —
“Felutina!”
The white-haired girl arrived exactly as promised, one arm thrown up in front of the Trailblazer.
“Honestly…”
“Not bad at all.”
[So she really does come whenever she’s called?]
[MOM!]
[Did Felutina just shoot March 7th a look?]
[She totally did.
She’s jealous, isn’t she?
She cares about me!]
[I am Felutina’s dog!]
The scene flashed past in an instant, and right after it came the Interstice of the Paths, with Nanook’s gaze falling upon them.
[Whoa, what is this place, and who’s the giant bleeding gold?]
[That’s Nanook, the Aeon of Destruction]
[Felutina squared off against an Aeon for me?
Fow weal?!]
[I’m taking her home today, let’s see who dares stop me!]
[Pass it on: Felutina scared off the Aeon of Destruction.
Felutina is unbeatable, WRYYYY!]
[Waaah, waifu, save me!]
[Whoa, Uncle Welt’s here!]
[That look on Uncle Welt’s face is so weird, did he see Felutina?]
…
Hands clasped behind her back, Felutina strolled unhurriedly through the crowded space station.
The system panel unfolded in front of her.
[Honkai: Star Rail Act One main story, Herta Space Station arc, nearing completion]
[Host has not yet obtained performance clearance for the Belobog arc.
Preparing to send host home]
[Popularity Points will be settled after the Herta Space Station arc concludes]
So the Act One main story really only counted everything before departure?
Felutina turned it over in her mind.
Then again, that wasn’t so bad.
Sticking to the principle that the more you do, the more you get wrong, sitting out the Belobog arc entirely probably wouldn’t cause her any real trouble.
The Doomsday Beast was dealt with, the Legion of Destruction’s assault had come to a close, and now came the moment when the Trailblazer decided her own fate.
Herta shows up, marvels over the Trailblazer’s body, and invites her to stay on as a research subject.
Himeko extends her own olive branch too, inviting the Trailblazer to join the Astral Express as one of the Nameless, to live through adventure after adventure alongside the Astral Express Crew.
And the Trailblazer’s choice went without saying —
Brimming with anticipation, Felutina walked into the Master Control Zone.
“I…
still need some time to think about it.”
Stelle’s voice carried over from a distance.
Felutina: ?
That’s not how this goes.
That’s not how Star Rail works.
You’re supposed to accept Himeko’s invitation, board the Astral Express, cross the galaxy, and follow the road that Trailblaze once walked!
She hurried after Stelle.
Stelle was the only person who could see her.
If even Stelle refused to set out on the Trailblaze, what was going to happen to her Popularity Points?
Time for a talk with Gray-baby.
Stelle went back to the place where she’d first met Felutina and sat down, hugging her knees.
She looked at the completely bare floor, then stretched out one slender finger and, copying what Felutina had done, drew a circle.
“Thinking about me?”
The familiar voice came from somewhere just in front of her.
Stelle lifted her head and saw the white-haired girl standing there, hands behind her back, eyes crinkled in a smile.
“Having second thoughts?”
“…”
“If you don’t mind, can I offer just a tiny bit of advice?”
“…”
Stelle said nothing.
She only gave a small nod.
She had no memories.
She was a blank sheet of paper, and being asked out of nowhere to make a choice that might shape her whole life left nothing in her head but a tangled mess.
“Then be brave about it.”
Felutina’s voice came again.
She bent down a little and settled onto the floor beside Stelle, tipping her head back to look at the unfamiliar ceiling.
“The choices people make on instinct are usually their truest ones.
Back on the platform, you stepped up and saved March 7th, didn’t you?”
“So go help people.
As far as your own strength reaches, that’s enough.
Save whoever you can, chase after a better and cooler version of yourself, and then walk to your own ending surrounded by everyone who loves you.”
“…Don’t end up like me.”
The white-haired girl hugged her knees and buried that delicate face against her thighs, which somehow only made the picture more beautiful.
Stelle started to speak, her eyes turning toward Felutina on instinct, gold and brilliant.
What had Felutina been through?
What was her past?
What was wrong with Felutina?
More questions took root and sprouted inside her.
Stelle looked like she wanted to ask something else, only to find that Felutina’s body had already begun to fade.
“Sorry.
I think I’m a little tired.
I need to sleep for a while first.”
Felutina’s voice sounded muffled.
A moment later she raised her head again, that radiant smile back on her face.
“There, don’t mind me.
That was just a ghost out of the past having a grumble.”
“I know you’ve got a lot of questions for me.
But trust me — everything you want to know, you’ll find the answer to it among the stars.”
Felutina wasn’t a particularly good actress.
Her words were far too slanted; she clearly wanted Stelle to board that train.
But that was fine.
One or two life mentors wandering the station was plenty, and having hopes and demands for the protagonist only made her seem more human.
Now then.
Time for the final flourish.
“I don’t have much time left, so I can’t answer all these questions of yours.
Just listen to this last thing —”
“While I’m asleep, the cheat code won’t work.
But someone like you would die for a person or a cause without blinking, that’s just how you are.”
The girl took Stelle’s hand, leaning her head slightly forward, the hem of her skirt drifting up.
Stelle could even see her own reflection in those ruby eyes.
“Try living for me instead.
As long as you’re alive, one day we’ll meet again.”
As the last syllable fell, the hand in Stelle’s lost all substance.
She lurched forward on instinct, grabbing toward Felutina —
But she caught nothing.
The girl broke apart into scattered points of light that drifted upward and finally dissolved completely.
And in that same moment, a flame seemed to catch alight deep inside her.
She wanted to understand her own past.
She wanted to understand Felutina.
She wanted every riddle unraveled.
The girl who had been a blank sheet of paper finally had a purpose written onto her — even if that purpose still carried the traces of another girl.
But that was enough.
____
________________________________________