My Honkai Star Rail: Reversing All Phenomena

Though Star's attitude of meeting soldiers with generals and floods with earth was more like that of a fearless newborn calf, Hua Yi, who knew the truth, found the girl increasingly interesting.

Just as the Antimatter Legion's Voidrangers had ultimately become kindling for Hellfire and material for Hua Yi's exploration of the Path of Destruction, Star possessed the Cancer of All Worlds, the Stellaron. Her very existence, as well as her use of the power granted by the Stellaron in battle, could serve as reference material for his understanding of Stellarons.

"The Doomsday Beast is enormous. The only place in the entire Space Station suitable for battle is the platform facing open space."

Hearing that Hua Yi, who had only just returned to the Safe Zone, intended to head back into battle and confront the Doomsday Beast, Asta panicked and grabbed the hem of his clothes with her delicate hand.

"Don't go! The Space Station's energy reserves are still plentiful. We can deploy the shield and hold out a while longer. Even the Doomsday Beast can't tear through it immediately... Even if the Company's reinforcements can't arrive in time, it can at least buy you some time to catch your breath."

"Now that I've received the concern of a beautiful girl, I have the strength of 340 people."

Meeting Asta's eyes, which overflowed with worry, Hua Yi understood that her concern had muddled her judgment.

Just as when she had previously entrusted the Express crew with heading to No Heavens Left Unspoken, the Station Master could have used the surveillance system and energy-monitoring devices to indirectly determine that he was not embroiled in a difficult battle. Yet she had still imagined every possible worst-case scenario and offered the Astral Express the best terms she could possibly provide.

"Come with us. The battle against the Doomsday Beast is the final fight. It won't take long, and the Safe Zone still has Herta Automatons guarding it. That will be more than enough to ensure nothing goes wrong."

Asta was a Pathstrider, not someone entirely without combat ability. Earlier, constrained by her duties as Station Master, she had needed to consider the bigger picture, maintain basic order amid the chaos, and direct the panicked personnel into emergency work. Not only was the Safe Zone in the Control Zone under her command from afar, but so were the Base Zone, Storage Zone, and Support Segment.

When Hua Yi arrived, what he saw were departments working busily and methodically rather than crowds gripped by fear and confusion. That was largely thanks to Asta's contributions in the rear.

Otherwise, even though many researchers had personally witnessed the warrior wielding a Flame Sword sweep away hordes of enemies, the Antimatter Legion had long inspired deep fear. Unless Hua Yi remained in everyone's sight at all times, they could not help worrying whether the hero who had fought Voidrangers alone could remain safe.

Beside them, Star blinked her large eyes twice. She wanted to imitate Asta and grab Hua Yi's clothes, giving him the strength of two hundred people and doubling his combat power. Unfortunately, just as she was about to act, a Baryon Channel appeared before them.

Had the Legion invaded the Safe Zone itself?

The Galaxy Bat Hero tightened her grip on her weapon, ready to give any Voidranger that emerged a good whack. But after waiting for a moment, she realized that no monster was crossing through the passage.

Having noticed something when she observed the sea of fire earlier, Himeko raised her elegant brows and looked toward Hua Yi.

"This is a Baryon Channel you created. Without baryons and antibaryons in operation, you can actually connect space out of thin air?"

"Even if the uniqueness of the Imaginary Tree has been disproven, Imaginary Energy is still a universal tool. During my battle against the Legion, I destroyed hundreds or thousands of ion traps. I kept trying both forceful destruction from the outside and disrupting the balance from within. It was equivalent to dissecting them countless times inside and out. Being able to control Imaginary Energy and create a Baryon Channel should be perfectly reasonable."

"That's amazing!"

March 7th did not truly understand the astonishing feat Hua Yi was describing and clapped foolishly. Himeko, however, understood exactly how terrifying it was.

While protecting Herta Space Station, suppressing the Antimatter Legion's advance, and preventing countless fiends from taking even a single step forward, Hua Yi had still had enough energy to observe the Legion's transportation method, analyze it, swiftly understand its principles, and then precisely control Imaginary Energy in a way most Pathstriders could never achieve, recreating a Baryon Channel?!

If one also considered the Stellaron Hunter who had appeared midway through, then even if they had not clashed with Hua Yi, they must have had some sort of exchange. What he had done could no longer be described as fending off the Legion's attack with one hand while exploring the truth of Destruction with the other.

The more she thought about it, the more terrifying it became. It was not something that could be summed up with talent or comprehension. He was a genius on the level of the Paths, the kind who ought to join the Genius Club.

Seeing Hua Yi take the lead through the Baryon Channel, with Asta and Star following close behind, Himeko suppressed her wandering thoughts and followed alongside March 7th.

His unfathomable nature had far surpassed the bounds of an outstanding researcher or warrior and reached something abnormal. This ability to manipulate [Destruction] could not help but remind one of certain extraordinary beings. Yet the Navigator could be certain that the Lord of Ruin, who delighted in exerting indirect influence and guiding conflict and collapse within civilizations, would never stand forth to repel the Legion's assault and bring hope to suffering people, no matter how much he enjoyed toying with hearts.

And if Hua Yi was not a Lord of Ruin concealing his identity, but merely a Walker who had only begun to understand the Path of Destruction, then that was even stranger.

What he had done was clearly [Preservation], so why was he wielding the power of [Destruction]?

Even setting aside the restrictive characteristics of the Paths, if Hua Yi had initially needed Voidrangers to understand the Power of Destruction, then the knowledge he had absorbed and the progress he had made in such a short time were perhaps even more absurd than an infant instantly growing into an adult and setting foot upon a Path.

The more knowledgeable and intelligent someone was, the more they could appreciate his uniqueness. Himeko was clearly among them. Asta should have been able to think of many things as well, but the girl's heart was entirely fixed on Hua Yi, leaving her with no room for any other thoughts.

As for March 7th and Star, they looked like a pair of idiots.

After passing through the Baryon Channel and returning to the Reception Platform in the Support Segment, Star had no time to marvel at the convenience of spatial travel. A draconic monster spread its dark wings across the starry sky, circling the Space Station clad in fiery plumage. Even within a vacuum, it stirred waves of destruction, and the gale formed from Path power sent the girls' hair flying.

"Get down here!"

The super beautiful girl March 7th drew her bow and nocked an arrow, issuing a fierce challenge to the Doomsday Beast.

Perhaps understanding the tiny human's provocation, the colossal beast soaring through space in search of a weak point in the fiery barrier beat its long wings. No flesh-like tissue could be seen anywhere on it. Its claws, seemingly exoskeletal yet also resembling some unknowable supermetal, pressed down from above.

"Perfect!"

Star charged forward with her Baseball Bat in hand. In that flash of lightning, she felt an endless stream of power flow from her chest into every part of her body. In an instant, her clever little brain had even come up with a name for this move: Sayonara Homerun!

Since she was using a Baseball Bat, she naturally had to use baseball terminology. A hit by the trailing side that overturned the score and ended the game was called a Sayonara Homerun.

This strike would shatter mountains and rivers!

Watch me send the Doomsday Beast flying with one swing.

Thinking this, the Galaxy Bat Hero charged forward bravely, making March 7th, who was drawing her bow, too afraid to aim at the Doomsday Beast's claw. She feared that Star might suddenly leap up midway and shift position. If that happened, she would not be assisting her teammate in battle—she would be shooting her in the back.

Bang!

The deafening impact traveled through the platform's internal air system and the spreading Path ripples, transforming into a near-tangible blast wave that surged in every direction.

The Doomsday Beast was not sent flying by Star's Baseball Bat as she had imagined. The savage dark claw merely gained a crack insignificant compared to its enormous body. Instead, Star, who had leaped up to meet the beast's claw, was slammed back into the ground. Her feet scraped across the platform for a hundred meters before she finally dispersed the force.

The platform contained the wisdom of countless scientific minds and served as a key node in the Space Station's operation and maintenance. In terms of structural quality and strength, it could crush the greatest defensive fortifications of countless Planetary Civilizations.

Yet the theoretically indestructible platform could not withstand the horrifying force beneath Star's feet. The solid ground was plowed into deep ravines, while unimaginable kinetic energy was converted entirely into thermal energy, causing the charred construction material to emit white smoke.

"So powerful?!"

Several voices rang out at once. Star stared wide-eyed at the Doomsday Beast, while Asta and March 7th stared at Star in amazement. Neither had expected that the gray-haired girl, who treated a Baseball Bat as a weapon on a battlefield against the Antimatter Legion and did not look like a real warrior at all, actually possessed the strength to take a Doomsday Beast's blow head-on and the body to endure that collision without injury.

The Doomsday Beast gave them no time to be amazed. It drove the Claw of Nightmare, born from lingering resentful spirits, and the Right Hand of Disaster, said to bring catastrophe, tore through the Left Hand of Dawn and descended at the same time, intending to destroy both the platform and the tiny insects upon it.

Star immediately charged again, shouting a resounding slogan with impressive flair.

"Rules are meant to be broken!"

This move is called Stardust Ace. The power inside my body keeps pouring out, and my Baseball Bat is starting to spit out blue light!

Star fought more fiercely with every passing moment, determined to clash head-on with the Doomsday Beast. March 7th, who continued firing arrows without pause, could only attack the colossal beast's other hand.

Asta, who had already begun channeling Path power, brought down Starry Sky Blessing upon everyone. Himeko's suitcase produced a monomolecular saw, ready to be thrown out at any moment to save Star should the reckless girl, who had rushed far ahead of the team, be injured under the Doomsday Beast's attacks.

After briefly observing and analyzing the active state the Stellaron displayed when Star fought, Hua Yi used Imaginary Energy to simulate Stellaron energy. His figure flickered, and the next instant, he appeared at Star's side, facing the Doomsday Beast's attack alongside her.

He calmly threw a punch without any buildup. It seemed lacking in force, but Star, whose Baseball Bat had struck the Doomsday Beast's claw, sensed the change immediately. The tremendous force that should have blasted her away again was abruptly weakened by several degrees, becoming something the two sides could contend against.

Perfect. Absolutely perfect!

No longer a collision where they separated at a touch, the bat struck solidly against the Doomsday Beast's claw. Star could feel a tactile sensation completely different from before. The Doomsday Beast's massive weight and the force carried in its attack were simply the battle experience of her dreams, a real and exhilarating contest.

"Watch this—Rest in Peace Homerun!"

The girl's fighting spirit soared as she swept her Baseball Bat sideways. The Stellaron power surged further, pouring entirely into the Legion's Star-Body Weapon and opening a wound on its disaster-bringing right claw several times larger than the one from their previous clash, gruesome even upon such a colossal body.

Awesome!

Star cheered inwardly. Fighting shoulder to shoulder like this was undoubtedly a joy, making her blood boil with excitement.

The momentum from her leap off the platform gradually faded, and she should have begun falling. Yet Hua Yi reached out and pushed against the gray-haired girl's back, somehow giving her another point of leverage to charge forward.

"Good, good, good! Try this! And now, try this too!!"

The Curio Baseball Bat, wrapped in Stellaron energy and immense force yet still unbroken, whistled through the air in Star's hands. With Hua Yi's assistance, she actually used the Doomsday Beast's right hand as her point of attack and smashed the colossal creature, which had been trying to descend from the starry sky, so hard that it had no choice but to beat its wings and retreat again and again.

It seemed there was no need to use the orbital cannon.

Watching this from the rear, Himeko gained a clearer understanding of Hua Yi's strength. March 7th had no attention to spare for the details of battle. Her longbow unleashed a rain of arrows, seizing the opportunity as the Doomsday Beast retreated step by step to bombard its core—the Antimatter Engine containing a trace of ancient beastly will.

Having already exhausted herself directing Space Station personnel to safety earlier, Asta was now using her full strength to bring down Starry Sky Blessing and empower everyone with Path power. She was already tired, but as she looked at Star and Hua Yi fighting the Doomsday Beast at close range in the very front, a trace of complexity and regret appeared in her eyes.

For the first time, she wished that her weapon was not a laser cannon, but a blade suited for close combat.

Come to think of it, a Baseball Bat was not so bad. At least it would let her stand shoulder to shoulder with Hua Yi. It would not be like now, with one of them at the front and the other at the rear.

Though the physical distance between them was only a few hundred meters, Asta felt dazedly that she, who had met Hua Yi first, understood him first, and confessed her feelings first, was somehow being caught up to by Star, who had set off later. It would not be long before she caught up.

Damn Antimatter Legion!

The girl forcefully planted her portable laser cannon, which resembled a magic wand, into the ground. Path power surged again, transforming into a Meteor Shower that crashed down upon the Doomsday Beast's head.

"?"

What was going on? Why did it feel like they were all getting fiercer the longer they fought?!

March 7th was utterly bewildered, but she did not want to drag her teammates down. She immediately bit her silver teeth lightly and sped up the movements of drawing her bow and nocking arrows by several notches.

Heedless fury, sorrow, or deluded joy—once the false visage was revealed, all evils began to stir.

The dark-matter-driven engine symbolized the power of destruction and rebirth. It carried deeply negative, mysterious fluctuations, sketching out civilizations once shattered beneath the Legion's rampage.

The earth steeped in disaster retained only echoes of suffering, resounding with the march of doom.

At the final dawn before calamity arrived, even the pure morning sun would tremble and quietly retreat.

The weak could not help but feel boundless terror before the Doomsday Beast, yet the girls present were overflowing with fighting spirit.

Star had lost count of how many times she had swung her Baseball Bat. March 7th felt that the arrows she had fired today might set a personal record. Asta continuously used her laser cannon in conjunction with Path power to condense flaming meteors and hurl them at the Doomsday Beast's head.

Flames scorched it black, icy arrows left behind a thin frost, and the Baseball Bat carrying Stellaron power with a faint implication of Destruction carved new wounds into the monstrous calamity time and again.

But that was all. They had not inflicted any truly fatal damage.

Himeko knew it well. Even if she used the monomolecular saw in her suitcase and entered the already chaotic battlefield, relying on her combat experience to avoid disrupting Star, March 7th, and Asta's rhythm while coordinating with them, they still would not be able to defeat the Doomsday Beast easily.

In truth, this Star-Body Weapon had not even been able to display its true strength. Several times, it had tried to gather an attack capable of annihilating stars, only for Hua Yi to interrupt it with a seemingly ordinary punch. That was a disturbance involving the Path itself, directly destroying the balance and making the energy-gathering process, which should have proceeded normally, as difficult as lighting a fire underwater.

The Doomsday Beast had been severely weakened. Throughout the battle so far, it could only unleash brute force, and even the force powerful enough to send Star flying was mostly neutralized by Hua Yi's fist wind.

He had not even condensed that Crimson Greatsword again. He had fought bare-handed the entire time.

Was he, just as he had analyzed the Baryon Channel, trying to understand the power and life essence possessed by the Doomsday Beast so that he could use the Power of Destruction better?

No, it was more than that. Hua Yi seemed to emit power fluctuations similar to Star's, that sensation of Stellaron energy mixed with the Path of Destruction.

And Star's combat ability was improving at an incredible rate as well. Move names such as "Sayonara Homerun" and "Rest in Peace Homerun" might sound somewhat casual, but their destructive power was beyond question. The Doomsday Beast's claw, now covered in cracks, was the best proof.

He had treated the Legion's Star-Body Weapon as a research subject, experimental material, and a punching bag for honing everyone's combat skills.

Hua Yi truly was gradually coming to understand the Path, rather than being a Walker who had traveled it for a long time.

That was even more alarming.

"Pant... pant..."

As time passed, Star, who had initially been able to swing her bat with full force from every conceivable angle, gradually slowed down. Her breathing grew heavier, while March 7th and Asta in the rear could no longer maintain their intense offensive either, exhaustion showing on their faces.

"Tired?"

"Not tired."

Star was still putting on a brave front. Hua Yi said nothing further, simply grabbed her hand and retreated toward the rear, opening the distance from the Doomsday Beast again.

The Path disturbance that had been suppressing the colossal creature also settled at that moment. The Star-Body Weapon had long wanted to tear apart those tiny yet infuriating enemies. Its previously unstoppable giant claws had failed to achieve anything, and the instant it sensed the abrupt calming of the Path's disorder, the Antimatter Engine immediately began operating wildly without the slightest hesitation.

That great and terrifying power belonging to the Path of [Destruction] was gathering. Ethereal ripples of the Path condensed into substance and were held in the Doomsday Beast's mouth, ready to annihilate the insects blocking the Legion's advance along with the Space Station itself.

Watching the sphere of violent energy continue to expand, Star knew that even if Hua Yi pulled her back to March 7th and Asta, a distance of only a few hundred meters would offer no safety at all.

She resolutely stepped forward, spreading her arms to shield Hua Yi. Asta made the same choice, but she was positioned farther back and was already too late.

Even Himeko, who had seen through some things, showed panic on her face. The Doomsday Beast's strongest attack, capable of destroying stars, was not something that could be easily dealt with.

"What, are you planning to face-tank the ultimate?"

At that critical moment, amusement colored Hua Yi's voice.

This time, Star said nothing.

Having already touched the Path of Destruction, the girl could sense the terror of the Doomsday Beast's incoming attack. Whether it was Sayonara Homerun or Rest in Peace Homerun, even while strengthened by Stardust Ace, she could be certain that she could not block this strike...

Adrenaline surged through her body, and her mind became incomparably focused. Time, which had been flowing quietly, seemed to slow at that moment. Meanwhile, the Stellaron in the girl's chest radiated golden light beneath the "vessel's" intense emotions, becoming even more active than when the Stellaron Hunter had removed its seal and freed her from confinement.

Power kept pouring forth. More! Give me more!!

The Galaxy Bat Hero cried out inwardly, unaware that the sea of fire enveloping the Space Station—the flames that had recently incinerated every fiend apart from the Doomsday Beast and wiped out the Antimatter Legion's reinforcements as well—was dispersing. Countless sparks transformed into ships of light crossing the starry sky, then recondensed in Hua Yi's hand into the form of a greatsword.

Bzzzz!!!

The light sphere held in the Doomsday Beast's mouth fired. A massive beam descended toward Hua Yi, who radiated a dangerous aura, determined to erase this bizarre existence.

Path ripples spread outward. They required no medium to travel; they were rules themselves, endlessly spreading through the vacuum and proclaiming lofty, sacred laws.