Blood dripped from the rubble, trailing down from the twitching remains of a headless corpse. Nerve signals still fired weakly, spasming dead limbs. The air was thick with the foul stench of blood and decay.
Swish—
The spear carved a crimson arc across the cracked pavement. Ryan hopped lightly over the stream of blood without breaking stride.
He wasn't squeamish—he simply preferred to maintain an illusion for those still ignorant of the truth. As he scanned the ruined courtyard, his brow furrowed.
"Not only is the frequency increasing… but the scale's grown. The contamination has spread to the entire zone."
The air shimmered faintly, heavy with invisible Honkai energy. It didn't follow logic. Its emergence was random, but the concentration dictated the scale of the catastrophe—from subtle mutations and infections to widespread viral plagues and full-on natural disasters.
In plain terms, Honkai energy was a type of lethal radiation. It corrupted all life it touched and could even trigger tectonic upheaval. These events were collectively known as Honkai Impacts.
"Those without Honkai adaptation… just drop dead. They don't even get the chance to turn into monsters."
He glanced through a broken shack door. A young couple lay lifeless in bed. Hardened, crystalline growths spread across their pallid skin like an alien disease.
Honkai radiation was invisible. Silent. Unforgiving.
"I need to move. Before Kevin starts asking questions."
With a flick of his wrist, he looked away and casually entered another building. There was no need for stealth—the noise would draw the infected to him.
Night had begun to fall. The hallways were pitch-black; even the old streetlights had been stripped and sold. The narrow corridors reeked of mildew and urine, and every so often, twisted figures shuffled through the darkness—like something out of a horror film.
Ryan didn't flinch. He knew that once someone turned, there was no going back. Without emotion, he swept through the floors, each precise strike ending another cursed life.
By the time he reached the fourth floor, he paused.
Crash!
The ceiling burst open. A dark figure dropped from above, slamming into the spot where Ryan had stood just seconds before. Two cratered holes cracked into the floorboards.
Grrrr…
The creature crouched low, muscles twitching beneath sickly, crystallized skin. Its build suggested it had once been female, but now it was barely human. Razor-sharp crystalline claws jutted from its limbs. Its eyes, glowing with fractured madness, locked onto him.
"Claw Zombie."
Ryan's frown deepened. Just as some humans adapted better to Honkai energy, their mutations varied too. Claws meant danger.
"That's bad. If they can't resist the mental erosion—even with physical adaptability—it just accelerates their death."
He shifted his stance, eyes narrowing.
Clang!
A metallic shriek rang out as spear met claw. The impact hurled the Claw Zombie backward, sending it crashing into the wall like a discarded rag.
But it twisted midair, rebounding off the wall with beastlike agility. In a blink, it was already lunging at him again.
"No consciousness. No control. Just raw instinct."
Ryan ducked low, catching the claws with his spear—and as a flicker of red light surged along the shaft—
Thrust.
The spear pierced clean through its skull and out the abdomen. The creature flew past Ryan's shoulder, propelled by its own momentum, before it exploded mid-air like a bursting bladder of rot and blood.
The hallway was painted in gore.
Ryan's white clothes remained untouched. He spun his spear once, casually. Wisps of white steam began to rise from the weapon's surface, evaporating the blood before it could touch him.
This red-hued energy… a mystery even to this era's greatest minds. Very few could wield it. But Ryan could.
"Guess I got lucky." He smiled faintly.
Just then—movement.
He spun.
Another Claw Zombie lunged at him, silent and swift.
Boom!
The spear swept in a wide arc. The zombie's body snapped in half midair, and its upper torso was driven through the concrete wall, leaving behind a meter-wide hole.
"Mastering this energy… it's the key to survival. This is what makes me stronger than human."
Without hesitation, Ryan sprinted down the hallway, then launched himself off the railing.
Crack—
A heartbeat later, the wall behind him exploded. White-winged shapes burst from it, soaring like cannonballs.
Honkai Beasts.
He looked over his shoulder as glass and concrete rained from above. In a single motion, Ryan jammed his spear into the third-floor wall, using it to swing downward in a gymnast's arc before landing in a crouch. He looked up through the settling dust.
"Ah… Seraph-Class."
Unlike the zombified humans, these were pure Honkai energy given form—beasts born of nothing but entropy and rage. Smaller ones like these were mockingly called "mosquitoes," but they were fast, vicious, and deadly in packs.
More high-pitched screeches tore through the air. White blurs launched from the dust cloud, streaking toward him.
Ryan gripped his spear.
Thrust. Thrust. Thrust.
Clang-clang-CLANG—THUD!
Each strike met hardened chitin. Sparks flew, and bodies hurtled back, embedding in the wall like broken dolls. The building shuddered.
One. Two. Three… Five.
He counted calmly, ignoring the lingering recoil. Without pause, he pivoted on his heel, spotted another group ready to launch—and charged forward, spear low, like a man cutting through fate itself.
No flourish, no wasted motion—the spear moved like a dragonfly skimming water, each strike precise and fatal. What even anti-materiel rifle rounds struggled to pierce was cleanly skewered with every thrust.
Five strikes. Five kills. Ryan didn't spare a glance for the falling corpses. He exhaled slowly and let the spear rest casually against his side.
Boom. Boom. Boom!
The sound of crumbling walls echoed toward him—rapid, rhythmic, and fast approaching. A looming figure burst through the alley, mounted like a knight, lance in hand. Vortexes of Honkai energy spiraled around its weapon, screaming through the air.
CRASH—
Ryan was already gone, dodging sideways as the lance scraped against his spear mid-motion, sending up a spray of sparks.
And then he moved—faster than before.
"Down."
He leapt and swung, bringing the spear down with punishing force.
CLANG—
The impact rang through the bones of the building. The worn-out flooring buckled and collapsed. The several-hundred-kilogram Knight-Class Honkai Beast crashed through three floors like a stone dropped through paper, finally landing amidst corpses in the courtyard below.
Ryan didn't give it time to react. Twisting his wrist, his body curved backward like a bowstring—
Reverse Spear Thrust.
A second Knight-Class Honkai Beast had tried to ambush him from behind. Its timing couldn't have been worse. Ryan's spear shot backward, piercing clean through its torso.
It roared. The momentum carried its lance forward, aiming squarely at Ryan's chest.
But he had already rotated, crouching low. His left hand gripped the spear's base like a lever.
Snap!
The black shaft flexed unnaturally—then snapped forward like a catapult. The Knight-Class Honkai Beast was flung skyward.
BOOM!
It crashed into a wall. Simultaneously, the first beast, just rising from the courtyard rubble, looked up—too late.
Ryan dropped from above, spear first. His silhouette, merged with weapon, fell like a red meteor streaking across the night.
Falling Star.
A flash of red light cleaved through the moonlit sky. The meteor slammed into the courtyard, and all movement stopped.
Silence.
Ryan stood atop the bisected corpse, steam curling faintly from his weapon. He exhaled a small puff of white breath, eyes closing as he reached inward, sensing.
Slaughtering Honkai Beasts did help. That was the only reason he took these midnight excursions. But now…
He opened his eyes. A faint, disappointed sigh slipped from his lips.
One pile of Zombies. Five Seraph-Class. Two Knight-Class. Not even a flicker of progress.
"My control's stagnated. No breakthrough… no resonance. And I still haven't awakened any true abilities."
His spear scraped softly against the ground as he walked among the carnage.
Ten years ago, he had heard the first whisper of a Path—when Honkai energy first invaded his world. But unlike some fated hero, he hadn't been granted a system, a cheat, or even a clear direction. No gift. No rules.
He had to discover it all on his own.
"I'm not a Herrscher. I wasn't born with authority over Honkai. And I'm not one of those 'natural adapters' either. Even they can't control more and more of it over time."
No. His route lay in the Path.
Path—the essence of the Star Rail universe.
At the top of that structure, sat the Aeons—gods, or something worse. Beings that traversed the universe, shaping entire galaxies through singular ideals: Destruction, Preservation, Erudition, Harmony…
Each Path had its own philosophy, its own gravity. To walk it was to change oneself—ideologically, spiritually, even physically. One who walked far enough could even become a new Aeon.
That was the dream. That was survival.
To survive meant expansion. To live was to grow.
"So what now? Do I need stronger opponents—Herrschers even? To understand Honkai, to reach the next stage?"
His thoughts deepened, distracted by abstract ideas and unrealized questions. He barely noticed the dull roar growing louder overhead—until it was impossible to ignore.
He looked up, slightly annoyed.
Whup-whup-whup—
Under the cold moonlight, the black shapes of helicopters circled. Their rotors sent gales across the ruined buildings, kicking up blood-soaked dust and broken glass.
He didn't move.
No reason to.
Ryan stood calmly in the center of the bloodied courtyard, watching as the choppers hovered low. Ropes dropped. Fully-armed soldiers began their descent.
His gaze didn't linger on their weapons. Instead, he stared at the insignia emblazoned on the tail of the lead helicopter.
A moth—engulfed in fire.
Fire Moth.