Chapter 99: Kevin: Weren't We Talking About Penacony? Why Are You Spoiling My Stigma Plan Now?
[Meanwhile, elsewhere... Welt was still exchanging information with Acheron. Both could feel the Dreamscape collapsing around them. "Miss Acheron, you must have gained considerable insights from your journey.
Would you mind sharing them with me?"
After their intelligence exchange, Welt attempted to make casual conversation. Acheron showed no objection: "Of course... provided I still remember."
As she spoke, her hand briefly touched the tsuba of her sword—then immediately withdrew, the motion fleeting. She proceeded to share her experiences during the Moments of Dawn, Gilded Moment, Blue Hour, and Twilight with Welt. Yet regardless of which Moment she described, Acheron's eyes had only witnessed tragedies. "Someone once told me: Penacony wasn't always like this. Penacony shouldn't be like this."
Facing present-day Penacony, Acheron posed a question to
Welt: "If this is truly the world people desire—if this is why lives choose to slumber—should we still seek to change it?"
Welt remained silent. "Miss Acheron, allow me to share a story with you instead."]
[Stelle]: "Uncle Yang! While we're running around investigating the truth, you're here chatting with Acheron!?"
[March 7th]: "Hey! Uncle Yang is doing important work too! Weren't you having enough fun with those clock tricks in the Dream's Edge?"
[Huohuo]: "So this is what lies beneath Penacony's surface? It's completely different from its glamorous appearance."
[Kiana]: "Teacher Yang's going to share a story! Is it about our fight against the Honkai!?"
[Mobius]: "Let me see how later civilizations confronted the Honkai then—a solution superior to the Stigma Plan."
["In my homeland, there was a man who made a decision when the world faced wounds that could never heal. He wove together the dreams of all people, connecting each person's dreamscape, then shouldered them all himself.
Thus he created a giant—a 'Spiritual Adam.'
From then on, that giant stood between heaven and earth, becoming the pillar supporting the world's continued existence. The price? Those who couldn't move forward... would forever lose their 'future.'
They slumbered in dreams free from disaster and pain, spending their lives peacefully in the utopia he created. And this 'Spiritual Adam' would become indestructible through these people's unwillingness to awaken. "
"Yet here you stand before me now... which means that man ultimately failed."
Acheron concluded.]
[Kevin]: "No! If that's how it ended, it would have been a good conclusion."
[Grey Serpent]: "Ah!?"
[Elysia]: "Is this Kevin's story? Kevin's ending?"
[Mobius]: "So it really was the Stigma Plan after all."
[Tesla]: "Slumbering in dreams? How could we ever accept that!?"
[Einstein]: "So this was World Serpent's plan? No wonder Joachim opposed Kevin's return."
[Kevin]: "Because of this screen, I'm not prepared to implement this plan yet. But you must still surpass me—show me your alternative plan."
["Because people must always move toward the future. Even when human weaknesses make them pause... when truly unable to advance, humanity will inevitably try to save itself."
Welt spoke earnestly to Acheron:,
"And that man... he was never a failure."
"Like every person in that world, he carried humanity's possibilities in his heart. He was the mythic Sun-Chaser (Icarus), flying skyward only to claim his ultimate victory through his fall. He rose high solely to reach the sun—a place no one had ever reached before. He would melt away, plummet into the sea, and thereafter..."
Welt's eyes shone with reverence for the hero: "...countless others would climb past him, flying to even greater heights."] (TL/N : I luv you keBin)
[Honkai Impact Welt]: "My future self... actually respects Kevin this much?"
Even now, Welt still felt lingering fear from his quantum sea battles with Kevin—though he wasn't sure whether being killed by Kevin multiple times or ending up on Mobius' operating table was more terrifying.
[Honkai Star Rail Welt]: "This is the respect owed to a warrior bearing the [Savior] epithet. Regardless, he remains a hero worthy of respect."
["...Quite fitting for the Trailblaze spirit of a Nameless."
Acheron remarked. "Thank you, Mr. Welt. I understand what you wish to confirm. The universe contains countless worlds both similar and different."
"Within them exist countless people both alike and distinct. I too have journeyed, encountering [old acquaintances] with familiar faces across worlds, watching their lives trace eerily similar paths. So let me tell you... While not identical, the story you described... overlaps significantly with my past. And in those unfathomable dreams..."
"...I ended that man's life. Alone."
Welt could only remain silent.
"I'm not the person you know, and my homeland wasn't as fortunate as your world."
"My condolences," Welt said. "It's fine. If this resolves your doubts, I don't mind."]
[Kiana]: "Is Teacher Yang trying to confirm whether Acheron is Mei?"
[Raiden Mei]: "My future? No! This won't be my path."
[Acheron]: "Nor would I wish you to walk my road. Your world is luckier than ours."
[Pardofelis]: "Wait wait wait—did I just hear that Acheron personally killed another world's Kevin-boss!?"
[Kevin]: "Given her demonstrated combat strength—plausible. I'm not that powerful."
[Pardofelis]: "Uh..."
["But I still wish to know—beneath this [Hunt] exterior, Miss Acheron, what force truly drives your solitary journey?"
Acheron countered: "...Mr. Welt, before answering, let me continue our earlier topic. I quite liked your metaphor. True, birds are born to fly, but in distant antiquity, their ancestors could only gaze skyward from the ground. They saw that distant light from beyond pierce the clouds to illuminate earth. So again and again, generation after generation, birds spread their wings seeking the zenith—simply because the sun was there. But what if... when the final bird finally reaches the sky, it discovers the light's source isn't the sun... but a black star?"
"Then for what reason... have we been chasing this light?"]
[Eden]: "They overcame the 'Finality,' only to find not hope awaiting them... but deeper despair."
[Kiana]: "Thank goodness defeating the Finality was our endpoint! I'll definitely turn this imperfect world into what we all hope for!"
[Murata Himeko]: "If you've got that much energy, put it into catching up on your cultural lessons!!"
[Honkai Star Rail Welt]: "After defeating the Finality, we still couldn't relax—there were still the Lovecraftian horrors from the Quantum Sea, the Martian quantum computer..."
[Theresa]: "Let's save those discussions for after we defeat the Honkai! It's too early to worry about that now!"