Chapter 154: Welt: His Love is Dead, He No Longer Cares for Right or Wrong
In the very center of all the carvings, two sentences were deeply engraved in the script of Tesla's homeland.
"Welt, I love you."
"Welt, where are you..."
A low, guttural hum escaped Welt's throat. It started as a tremor, a vibration of disbelief, then cracked into a dry chuckle.
"Ha... haha... hahahahaha..."
The sound grew, echoing the unhinged laughter of Jingliu, raw and broken. The fragile thread of composure he had carefully maintained for years, stretched taut across worlds and decades, finally tore. In that instant, the sheer irrationality of the situation—how Tesla could possibly be here, in this world, in this prison—was completely lost to him.
Immense, soul-crushing agony flooded his heart, a tidal wave of grief he thought he had long since buried.
His gaze, sharp as shattered glass, locked onto the man he deemed the culprit behind it all. Luocha.
'Otto... it really is you.'
Every emotion he had suppressed, every memory he had locked away, burst forth like a river through a broken dam, instantly obliterating his usual calm and restraint.
Without a flicker of warning, ripples of dark purple energy exploded from his form. The solid floor of the Shackling Prison fractured instantly, a spiderweb of cracks spreading out from his feet. Tiny dust particles floating in the air, mere motes in the gloom, were unmade the moment they touched the energy, decomposed into their most basic, primordial matter.
"Construct. Decompose." The words were a cold, guttural command.
Facing a strike capable of annihilating ordinary existence on a conceptual level, the power of Abundance within Luocha's body erupted with unmatched brilliance. Verdant light flared, desperately resisting the encroaching "decomposition."
"Sir, please calm down!" Luocha said, his voice strained with urgency. "There must be a misunderstanding!"
"Misunderstanding?" Welt's voice was a low growl, devoid of all warmth. "What misunderstanding is there left to have!"
His lover was dead. In that moment, with her last words carved before his eyes, the concepts of right and wrong were meaningless distinctions.
"Maximum power... black hole..."
Just as Luocha's defense was about to buckle, a brilliant flash of lightning struck the space between them. It arrived a moment later than Welt's attack but cleaved the air with absolute authority, forcing them apart.
"Mr. Welt! Stop!" Jing Yuan's expression was grim as he materialized from the flash. "Calm yourself. Do not be deceived by the illusion; that is a remnant of the Abundance..."
The shockwave from their brief, violent clash had sent deep rumbles through the thick stone walls of the Shackling Prison, shaking the entire structure. If they were allowed to continue, Jing Yuan was uncertain if Luocha would die, but he was certain the prison itself would be destroyed first.
They would all be buried here.
"A remnant of the Abundance?"
Welt's gaze snapped back to the casket. Sure enough, the form of Tesla began to slowly dissipate like smoke, and the script carved into the wood faded along with her. The object resting on the casket finally revealed its true, grotesque appearance.
"This is..." Welt's brow furrowed, but the dangerous energy coiling around him did not recede.
"This is a remnant of the Abundance... specifically, a part of Tayzzyronth's remains," Luocha explained, breathing a quiet sigh of relief as he saw Welt's rage begin to subside.
"The spores and pheromones it emits are far more invasive than I imagined," he continued, his tone sincere. "We merely inhaled or came into contact with an infinitesimal amount of its dust, yet we fell into an illusion, completely caught off guard..."
"Hmph..." Welt let out a cold snort, the oppressive aura around him finally retracting. Internally, however, a deep sense of relief washed over him.
Fortunately, it was all fake. If it hadn't been, he truly would have gone mad.
"Could I trouble you to head to the Divination Commission first?" Jing Yuan spoke politely, stepping forward. "Please ask Master Fu Xuan about her progress."
"Fine..." Welt knew this was a pretext to separate them, and he nodded curtly. "However, I must still offer a reminder... Luocha's schemes are anything but simple. The General should think twice before acting."
Although the current situation seemed to be a misunderstanding, Welt's trust in the man had not been restored in the slightest.
Or rather, he simply couldn't bring himself to feel at ease. For Luocha to arrive on the Xianzhou Luofu carrying a remnant of the Abundance—he clearly had a plan. And it was no ordinary one.
With a final, sharp glance at the blond merchant, Welt led the Astral Express crew away from the Shackling Prison.
Jingliu, however, remained.
"Master..." Jing Yuan looked at his former mentor, his expression a complicated mix of reverence and sorrow.
"Jing Yuan," she began, her voice as cold and clear as ice. "Do not hinder us."
"The revival of the Ambrosial Arbor is a sign. It portends the moment the Xianzhou must choose the Path it walks."
"The Reignbow Arbiter, the Plague-Origin, the Progenitor of Destruction... this is a game of chess played by gods. If you do not stand on the winning side, you are a loser. And this time," she declared, her eyes glinting with chilling conviction, "we must put the Abundance to death."
After leaving the Shackling Prison, the group boarded a starskiff and set a course for the Exalting Sanctum.
March 7th patted her chest, letting out a long, shaky breath. "Uncle Yang, you really scared me just now... Who exactly was that person the illusion created?"
The oppressive, suffocating atmosphere in the prison still left her with a lingering sense of fear.
"Her..." A gentle, nostalgic curve appeared at the corner of Welt's mouth, and his gaze drifted into the distance, as if seeing a world far beyond the Luofu's sky.
"Her name is Tesla. She was my... former comrade-in-arms. And also a companion."
Having been in this new universe for quite some time, it would be a lie to say he didn't miss his home.
"Just a 'comrade'and'companion'?" Caelus cast a skeptical look his way. "The way you looked just now, Uncle Yang, didn't seem like you were just looking at a colleague."
"Exactly, exactly," Serval laughed, chiming in from the side. "From that reaction, I thought she was your wife."
A faint flush crept up Welt's neck, and the seasoned trailblazer admitted in a low voice, "She... is indeed my wife."
"So Uncle Yang has been married all along!" March 7th and Serval began to tease him in unison, their voices bright with discovery.
Even Welt looked a little embarrassed by their good-natured ribbing.
"Old Yang," Leon began, a pleasant curve forming on his lips as he posed the question, "have you ever thought about bringing Tesla over?"
"Bring her over?" Welt blinked. "I want to, but... it's difficult. She isn't in this world, and I don't know how to go back." He scratched his head, a gesture of weary frustration.
Welt's arrival in this universe had begun with the accident at St. Fountain. Void Archives, a self-aware weapon created in the Previous Era with the ultimate mission to "save humanity from the Honkai," had orchestrated it. It attempted to use stargate technology to transfer the Honkai energy on the moon, thereby eliminating the threat to Earth completely. To do so, it needed the gravity-control abilities of the "Quasi-Star of Eden" that Welt possessed.
During the St. Fountain Incident, Void Archives used a mix of deception and coercion to force Welt to participate. Welt, initially believing it was an ordinary mission, had even brought his adopted son along. However, the plan failed. To prevent the alien Sky People from invading Earth, Void Archives took a beacon and escaped to the other side of the stargate, with Welt getting caught up in the chaos and dragged along.
The two unlikely allies teamed up to destroy the Sky People's scout team, but their ship malfunctioned on the way back. They were eventually rescued by Himeko and the Astral Express. Welt chose to stay and become a member of the crew, while Void Archives was unceremoniously kicked off the train by Pom-Pom.
Since then, Welt had found no way to return to his own world.
"So, Uncle Yang..." Leon's eyes held a gentle smile, but his voice was light and carried a peculiar weight. "If it were possible—would you be willing to let Tesla come here?"
Welt's head snapped up, his eyes wide with a sudden, dawning hope. "You... you can bring her over?"
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