Chapter 64: Long Night Moon is Pouting: You! Let go of March 7th!
"Our next destination is a small planet, designated Jarilo-VI."
Himeko stood near the parlor car's central projection, her voice carrying a gentle, melodic rhythm. "The last time the Astral Express passed through its coordinates was thousands of years ago. According to the Data Bank's historical records, it was once a lush, breathtakingly beautiful world."
She paused, her amber eyes reflecting the soft glow of the holographic star map. "However, after so much time... it might have undergone earth-shaking changes by now."
Leon leaned back against the plush velvet of the sofa, swirling a cup of coffee. Jarilo-VI. He sifted through the vast archives of his mind, pulling up the relevant lore.
Stellaron erosion. A bitter, freezing divide between the Overworld and the Underworld. A powder keg situation teetering on the edge of a 'War of Two Cities'.
And at the center of it all sat the seemingly glamorous Supreme Guardian, Cocolia, secretly communing with the whispers of the Stellaron.
A faint, amused smirk tugged at the corner of Leon's mouth. Compared to her counterpart back in the Honkai Impact 3rd universe, this Cocolia was practically a saint. At her core, the Cocolia of this world genuinely wanted to save Belobog; she had simply been driven to madness and bewitched by the Stellaron's false promises.
The other Cocolia, however? That one was a ruthless, inhumane schemer who absolutely deserved to be humanely destroyed.
His thoughts drifted to the local aesthetics. Belobog was practically the galactic capital of black tights. That particular fashion choice had always left a rather deep impression on him.
Wait... wouldn't Silver Wolf be making a trip to Belobog eventually?
Leon's grin widened. If he arranged a little meet-and-greet between the hacker and Bronya, would the future Supreme Guardian mistake Silver Wolf for her long-lost, vertically challenged younger sister?
And what about Belobog's resident joker, Sampo Koski? Was that slippery merchant currently acting as a Masked Fool, or was he playing the part of a Mourning Actor?
Then there was Seele. Would the fierce, scythe-wielding big sister of the Underworld ever revert to the sweet, soft-spoken 'little cake' Seele he remembered from the other universe?
His imagination ran wild, treating the impending planetary crisis as nothing more than an upcoming amusement park attraction. The eternal freeze of Jarilo-VI was an inescapable, suffocating predicament for the residents of Belobog.
But in Leon's eyes? Solving it barely required lifting a finger.
Especially since the Aeon of Destruction, Nanook, was currently lurking in his interdimensional group chat. Surprisingly, the guy was quite friendly—a far cry from the mindless, screaming berserker of annihilation Leon had initially pictured.
Nanook was chill. Nous the Erudition wasn't nearly as eternally rational and immune to mental breakdowns as the universe believed.
On the flip side, Aha and Fuli perfectly matched Leon's stereotypes. The Elation was an absolute menace, and the Remembrance was a silent archivist.
Of course, the Astral Express operated on a strict creed: 'Better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish'. The Nameless wouldn't just descend from the heavens, take over the government, and magically fix everything. They would offer a helping hand, but only on the premise that the humans of that world hadn't completely surrendered to despair and still yearned for their own salvation.
Across the parlor car, March 7th was currently engaged in her favorite pre-Warp activity: trying to remain standing without holding onto anything.
"Oh, don't worry about me!" She waved a hand, her pink hair bouncing as she shifted her weight. "I just want to see if I can actually stand steady this time..."
She blinked, her tone entirely playful, treating the imminent faster-than-light jump like a surfing challenge.
"Be careful not to fall," Leon reminded her, his tone laced with dry amusement.
"It's fine, I'm very sturdy!" March puffed out her chest proudly. "Besides, the ice will protect me. Whenever I'm in danger, I subconsciously use ice to catch myself."
Hearing Leon's casual concern, her smile grew even brighter, lighting up the carriage.
"Though..." She stuck out her tongue, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "Sometimes falling on solid ice hurts way more than just hitting the floor."
She quickly turned her attention to the two newest members of the crew. Stelle and Caelus were standing near the window, staring blankly at the stars.
"Hey, don't worry about me! You two hurry up and find a place to sit. Hold on tight!"
"Okay."
The two Trailblazers blinked in unison, obediently shuffling over to the nearest sofa and sitting down side-by-side like a pair of well-behaved raccoons waiting for a treat.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Pom-Pom's energetic voice crackled over the train's broadcast system. "Please return to your seats and sit down! The Warp is about to begin. Everyone, please get ready!"
"Five!"
"Four!"
"Three!"
With the conductor's countdown, the Warp sequence engaged.
Inside the parlor car, the artificial gravity and inertial dampeners remained perfectly stable. Leon didn't feel the slightest push against his back. But outside the reinforced windows, the starry sky stretched and warped, accelerating so violently that distant suns turned into blinding, elongated streaks of light. The Express tore through the cosmos, a majestic whale breaching the surface of the quantum sea, piercing straight through the fabric of space.
"Two!"
"One!"
The entire train hummed, entering a extraordinary state. The interior of the carriage gradually shifted, becoming a translucent, ethereal azure. The physical boundaries of the walls blurred, merging with the slipstream of the universe.
In the next second, the Astral Express vanished completely from its original star system, erasing its presence as if it had never existed.
An instant later, it burst forth into a completely unfamiliar galaxy, shooting out of the spatial tunnel with a silent flash of light.
"Ouch—!"
The sudden deceleration hit. March 7th, despite her earlier boasting, entirely failed to maintain her balance. Her center of gravity betrayed her, and she pitched backward.
But before she could hit the floor, Leon shifted. He reached out, smoothly catching her waist and pulling her securely into his arms.
A translucent blue screen flickered at the edge of Leon's vision.
[Long Night Moon pouted: You! You! You! You let go of March 7th right now!]
Leon ignored the jealous digital outburst, looking down at the girl in his arms. "Are you okay?" he asked, a teasing lilt in his voice.
"I-I'm fine, thanks." March 7th scratched her cheek, a faint dusting of pink appearing on her face as she hurriedly, but awkwardly, stepped out of his embrace.
Recovering her composure, she practically glued her face to the window. "Ah..."
The rest of the crew followed her gaze.
Hanging in the void of space before them was a massive, desolate sphere. It was entirely encased in blinding white and deep glacial blue. A frozen, dead world. It was a far cry from the lush and breathtakingly beautiful Jarilo-VI that Himeko had just described.
"Thousands of years have passed..." Himeko murmured, her usual calm demeanor giving way to clear surprise. "Has Jarilo-VI truly become like this?"
"Eh? That giant snowball is our target this time?" March 7th asked, her eyes wide with curiosity.
"That's right." Himeko nodded slowly, her expression turning serious. "It seems this Trailblaze journey won't be an easy one either."
Before anyone could comment further, the parlor car doors slid open, and Pom-Pom waddled in, their long ears drooping in distress.
"Spatial readings are abnormal, pom! Star Rail stability has dropped to twelve percent, pom!"
The conductor waved their little arms frantically. "The stopping plan has changed, pom. The stay at this station has been extended from the original seven days to—indefinitely, pom!"
"Indefinitely?!"
Stelle and Caelus shot up from the sofa, absolute horror painted across their faces.
Did they have to stay on this freezing rock for the rest of their lives?
No way!
"Indefinitely, until the abnormality is eliminated, pom!" Pom-Pom crossed their arms, looking utterly speechless at the Trailblazers' dramatic panic. "What are you two thinking, pom? Once the abnormality is gone, we can leave, pom!"
"Think of it like a land train in motion," Himeko chimed in, her gentle voice arriving at the perfect time to soothe the rising panic. She used an easy-to-understand metaphor. "Imagine suddenly discovering that the tracks ahead are completely broken, with a bottomless abyss waiting below."
"At that point, there's no other choice but to hit the emergency brakes."
"Exactly! If we force our way forward, the consequences would be unimaginable, pom!" Pom-Pom added with a firm nod.
"Sigh, this situation again..." March 7th slapped a hand against her forehead, her tone dripping with the exhausted helplessness of someone who had seen this exact script play out too many times. "No need to guess. The root cause of this Star Rail abnormality must be..."
"The preliminary detection results are out," Welt Yang announced, stepping into the parlor car. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, the lenses catching the light. "The root of the abnormality is, once again—the Stellaron."
"A Stellaron?" Stelle tilted her head, her golden eyes blinking in curiosity. "Is it the same thing that's currently sitting inside our bodies?"
"That's right," Welt confirmed, his tone grave. "It emits the exact same energy signature as the substance implanted in you."
Caelus rubbed his chin, a deeply philosophical look crossing his face. "So... does that mean the Stellaron down there can take human form like us in the future?"
Welt stared in silence.
March 7th stared in silence.
Himeko stared in silence.
Leon let out a soft chuckle. 'As expected of the galactic baseballer.'
"Taking human form is highly unlikely," Leon said, stepping forward and shattering the stunned silence. He shook his head slowly. "But after being triggered by hundreds of years of time, that particular Stellaron has already developed a sliver of its own will."
Welt turned to him, his stoic expression cracking into genuine surprise. "Leon... you've already sensed it?"
The seasoned veteran was taken aback. He had only managed to determine the mere presence of a Stellaron on the planet using the Express's advanced detection equipment.
Yet Leon had already bypassed the planetary interference and sensed that the Cancer of All Worlds possessed a conscious will?
'Are you using cheats?' Welt's expression seemed to scream.
Leon smiled inwardly. 'I just didn't turn them off.'
"Yes, I can sense it clearly," Leon said, his tone casual, as if discussing the weather rather than a world-ending cosmic cancer. "The Stellaron's will is currently whispering into the ear of the planet's supreme leader, completely bewitching her mind."
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