Dan Lei was highly efficient when he got into work mode. As soon as he thought of trying the Memory Destiny, he immediately put it into practice.
In the game, the Memory Destiny had originally been developed specifically for the Summoner class.
As for Dan Lei's situation in the real world, he could only say that Star Rail had been telling the truth all along.
Ninety-nine percent of the power of Dan Lei's Memory Destiny was in the Holy Grail, which existed as a Memory Spirit. The power that could empower him was whatever was left over after the Holy Grail had its fill.
And aside from taking him through time and summoning Heroic Spirits, Dan Lei hadn't discovered any other abilities the Holy Grail had.
But those two abilities were already astonishing enough to live up to the Holy Grail's name, so Dan Lei had nothing to complain about.
Still, when it came to the Memory Destiny, the boost it gave Dan Lei's combat strength was even smaller than that of the Abundance Destiny.
And by the looks of it, that wasn't likely to change much. He hadn't seen that Stellar Core Spirit, after gaining the Memory Destiny, had stopped using a Baseball Bat and a lance to fight—even when using Mimi's power to create a time prison.
That was why Dan Lei had all but forgotten the Memory Destiny existed over the past year or so.
Fortunately, the Power of the Path didn't suddenly become inaccessible just because you hadn't used it for a long time. With a mere thought, Dan Lei let the Abundance Destiny's power empowering him fade, and the Memory Destiny's power took its place.
As soon as the Memory Destiny empowered him, Dan Lei's mind instantly cleared by a third.
Although this little bit of Memory Destiny power made next to no difference to his combat strength, Dan Lei could now be certain he hadn't fallen asleep.
The Memory Destiny let him sense the flow of his memories and the state of his mental activity more clearly. There was no way he was asleep in his current state.
So Dan Lei chose to leave the Holy Grail at once, and his mind returned to his body.
When he opened his eyes again, Dan Lei found that nothing around him had changed. There was no demon, and no ordinary person beside him holding a weapon.
So Dan Lei sent a thought to Kojiro Sasaki.
"Kojiro, how long was I asleep?"
Kojiro Sasaki replied instantly.
"Not long. About three breaths."
Dan Lei knew that time flowed differently in the Holy Grail Space than it did outside. It was normal for a whole jumble of thoughts to pass through his mind while only a second went by outside, so it made sense that he'd woken up almost instantly in reality.
Now, as he took out the train ticket again, the Memory Destiny empowered Dan Lei to clearly see the traces of mental energy on it, as well as the approximate direction of the person it belonged to.
Dan Lei stood up at once and told Kojiro Sasaki to take the luggage.
After all, he'd already been attacked. There was no reason to sit around and wait for the next ambush.
In truth, Enmu hadn't noticed anything unusual about Dan Lei. The ticket inspector was an ordinary person, after all, and couldn't sense anything special about Dan Lei's aura.
The staff member under Enmu's control had simply followed orders: hypnotize a few young people, then offer them up to Enmu.
To Enmu, this was just an ordinary dinner. At most, he'd told the people under his control to watch for anyone boarding with a sword and hypnotize them first.
Dan Lei, however, wasn't carrying a sword.
The ticket inspector had gone after Dan Lei purely because his clothes made him look like a foreigner. If you were going to scam someone, you might as well start with a foreigner.
So Enmu had no idea Dan Lei was coming for him until Dan Lei showed up.
At that moment, Enmu was in a first-class compartment at the rear of the train, drinking blood and waiting for his dinner to be delivered. Then he saw Dan Lei shove open the compartment door.
Enmu still hadn't realized how serious things were. With the air of a hunter teasing his prey, he smiled and said,
"Sir, you've got the wrong compartment."
The response to his words was an ice short sword.
The compartments on an old-fashioned train weren't very spacious. A long sword would only get in the way, so Dan Lei chose a short sword for the fight.
Water Breathing: First Form—Lightning Slash!
The ice short sword, trailing water streaked with lightning, swung straight at Enmu's head. The latter's head came off with ease.
But the blow didn't feel right to Dan Lei. Lower Rank One's neck couldn't possibly be softer than an ordinary demon's.
Even with his "head" on the ground, Enmu still seemed utterly unconcerned.
"Oh my, to think that temporarily merging with the train to make feeding easier would end up saving my life.
"Hey, you're not a demon, but you don't seem to be a demon slayer either. Now I'm curious about you~ Before I eat your brain, I'll have to take a good look at your secrets~~"
As Enmu spoke, a strange blush appeared on the face of the head on the ground, making Dan Lei feel sick.
Dan Lei stomped on the head and crushed it, then ran down the corridor toward the connection between the train cars.
At that moment, a disgusting layer of flesh sprouted across the walls of the car, and several slime-covered tentacles lunged at Dan Lei.
Normally, this was where Dan Lei would use Magecraft and blast the tentacles apart.
But this time, he kept Kojiro Sasaki's advice in mind: unless he was about to lose, he should try to fight with sword techniques.
So, as he advanced, Dan Lei changed the short sword in his hand back into a long one. He turned his upper body to the left, shifting the point of force to his right side. Then he swung the Ice Sword down from above with all his might, a stream of ochre water coiling around it. A blade of murky ochre water shot forward in an instant.
Water Breathing: Second Form—Turbulent Flow Slash!
This was an extended sword technique that Dan Lei had developed by using earth elements to increase the density of water. The blade of murky water flew a little slowly, but it hit with tremendous force, like being struck by a heavy sword.
The blade of murky water cut through all the tentacles attacking him. Its immense force sent them crashing into the wall, where they turned into a smear of flesh, and it also smashed the door at the connection between the train cars.
With the path cleared, Dan Lei dashed to the partition between the two cars and swung his sword at the train coupling.
This wasn't the Mugen Train. Through the power of the Memory Destiny, Dan Lei could sense that Enmu's spirit existed only in the last car. Enmu hadn't merged with the entire train as he had in the anime.
Dan Lei didn't know where Enmu's neck was, but he could let the train keep moving while he stayed in this car and fought Enmu at his own pace.
Enmu had clearly realized what Dan Lei intended to do, so a face sprouted directly from the side of the car.
"What are you doing?! If you disconnect the train, I'll kill everyone in this car! There are twenty-one people in here, including the staff!"
Enmu had threatened the wrong person.
Dan Lei's approach to the trolley problem was simple. He had just two principles: first, whether anyone important to him was involved; second, the number of people.
There was definitely no one Dan Lei cared about on this train. How could the twenty-one people in the last car matter more than the hundreds in the cars ahead?
So Dan Lei slashed through the connection between the cars several times, detaching the last car, then said,
"Lower Rank One Enmu, you seem to have gotten the wrong idea about me.
"What makes you think I'm the sort of hero who wants to save everyone?
"Remember, not negotiating with demons is a principle. There's only one way I save people: I kill you before you can kill more of them."
In the Version 3.1 cutscene, the Stellar Core Spirit may have entered battle in its Remembrance form, but by the end of it, you could see it fighting with a Baseball Bat.
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