Wow... We've reached the end of another story. I don't think I'll ever get used to this feeling! I'll be looking for another Honkai: Star Rail story soon, so if you know any good ones, please leave them in the comments <3
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"Thank you for your love."
Demiurge had always been straightforward about her own love — she was a being born from love itself, and she needed no further embellishment from Leon on that front.
"What's wrong, partner?"
Demiurge blinked, tilting her head in puzzlement.
"Nothing. I'll bring Cyrene to find you in a bit."
Leon stood, reached out, and gave her head a gentle pat as his farewell.
"Okay! I'll wait for partner and Peach!"
Demiurge nodded, with all the earnest obedience of a child receiving instructions from a parent. Very well-behaved.
——
Room Twenty-Three.
"You seem to be late, don't you~"
As Leon pushed the door open and stepped inside, Cyrene turned her gaze toward him. A soft smile played on her lips as she welcomed him — as though she had always known he would come for her.
"I've always been late."
Leon stepped forward — but he didn't take the seat across from her.
Instead, he walked in a straight, unhurried line until he was standing directly before her.
"Thirty million lifetimes late."
He lowered himself onto one knee.
With careful, deliberate fingers, he removed the ring from his right pinky.
"I've made you wait far too long, Aili."
He cradled her left hand in his and guided the ring onto her ring finger — slowly, inch by inch, with a tenderness that stretched like the full length of thirty million lifetimes.
"Do you know?"
Cyrene's eyes were warm, brimming with feeling. The smile on her face was gentle.
"In Castrum Kremnos, people often read the word 'first meeting' as 'reunion'."
Her voice was soft. She turned her hand and clasped his in return.
"You were never late. You were always there. It was only because you were with me through every one of those thirty million cycles of reincarnation that I was able to grit my teeth and keep walking."
She had paved thirty million lifetimes just to make a single meeting possible.
"The story of Amphoreus has ended — but the story of you and me has only just begun."
[Quest Progress: 23/24]
"I love you."
Leon lifted his gaze, smiled, and said it with complete sincerity.
"My partner already knows my answer, doesn't she?"
For Cyrene, her love had long since surpassed the need for words. Every single moment, in every single way — her love for Leon was already written plainly across everything she was.
"Yes."
Leon knew. Better than anyone.
"Go find March, then. After that, we all go back together."
Cyrene's voice was gentle and melodic, her smiling face radiant.
"Alright."
Leon rose, gave his agreement, and left.
——
Room Twenty-Four. The last one.
March 7th was waiting for him inside.
"March."
At the sound of her name, March 7th looked up.
That face she knew better than any other in the world was right there before her.
"You've been with me for such a long time now — do you have any feelings about it? Any thoughts at all?"
He didn't sit down. He simply stood at the edge of the table and asked.
"Feelings?"
March 7th pressed a finger to her chin, tilting her head up slightly in thought.
"Yeah — like, have you ever thought about whether you'd want someone other than me? Another Navigator of the Astral Express someday?"
Though, admittedly, that particular decision had already been made for her by Evernight.
"No."
March 7th shook her head.
"Isn't meeting Leon already more than enough?"
She genuinely didn't understand.
"Why would I even bother imagining a different future?"
A person only begins asking 'what if' about their life when one prerequisite has been met: they are not satisfied with the life they have. The very existence of 'what if' is born from the belief that something better might have been.
But for March 7th, the life she had right now was already enough. Nobody knew what the future held — but at the very least, right now, she was satisfied with her life.
She didn't think she'd ever find a better choice than Leon.
"March — will you walk forward with me? No matter what comes — in sickness and in health, through youth and old age, until death — we will never part."
"I want to become your future."
It was the first time Leon had ever been this serious.
"I won't ask about your 'past' — but I will find your 'past' for you. And I promise you this: I will never let your 'past' become a burden to you."
March 7th's past was wrapped in layers of secrets — some of which even implicated the Aeons themselves. But for Leon as he stood today, that was nothing more than a task he could handle with one hand tied behind his back.
I stand as sovereign under heaven — every enemy in this world, I will strike down.
"Shall we go home?"
March 7th didn't answer directly — but those two simple words were worth more than a thousand.
"Yes. Home. Back to our home."
She had found her belonging in him. And in the same way, Leon — a traveler from another world — had found his sense of belonging in her. The two of them were the beings closest to each other in all of existence.
"Wait for me."
Leon made his promise to the empty chair before him.
Just moments ago, March 7th had been sitting right there — and then, in an instant, she had simply vanished into thin air.
[Quest Progress: 24/24]
Must have something to do with her abilities, he thought.
All four of them are probably waiting somewhere together right now.
The Hunt's hyper-intuition gave Leon a working hypothesis about where all twenty-four of them had gone.
[Superpower Prerequisite Unlock: Complete.]
And just as those thoughts were settling in his mind, the world around him began to shift.
One moment, Leon was still standing in the room. The next, without any explanation or transition, he was back in the corridor — and the twenty-four doors that had lined either side of the hallway were simply gone.
In their place...
Leon directed his gaze straight ahead.
When he had first arrived, the corridor had stretched endlessly into the distance, with no end in sight. Now, the end was right there — close enough to touch.
There hadn't been a door at the far end before. But now there was.
All twenty-four had become one.
[Reward: All currently possessed Superpowers — Proficiency maxed out. (Henceforth, retained Superpowers are self-sustaining. Retained Superpowers are no longer castrated versions, but fully realized, complete forms.)]
Not bad at all.
No wonder this reward was called "The Last Puzzle Piece of a Lifetime" — right now, in terms of raw numbers and overall strength, this had genuinely been his one and only remaining weakness.
Leon finally understood, too, why the future he had pulled forward could persist indefinitely.
Because the Superpower had always been whole. Complete from the very beginning — which meant the effects it produced would remain in effect permanently.
The reason there had been no prompt to save the Superpower's information made sense now as well.
No longer a castrated version. When the time came, it auto-saved. There was no need to pop up a 'retain information' prompt anymore — after all, it had always been a complete form.
[Collecting the Reward requires the Prerequisite Condition to be fulfilled first.]
Are you seriously doing this? Matryoshka doll logic, really?
[Prerequisite Condition: Open that door. (Step forward — for this is the Emperor's road!)]
But since he'd come all this way anyway.
Leon held firm to the principle that a thing worth starting was worth finishing — and so he resolved to see this quest all the way through to the end.
Tap, tap. Tap, tap. Tap, tap.
The crisp sound of footsteps echoed through the corridor, one step at a time.
Leon walked to the door.
The very next second, he reached out both hands and pushed it open —
As his intuition had predicted, it was exactly what he expected.
The moment the door swung open, the scent of gunpowder hit him.
Sure enough — every single one of the twenty-four women he had just confessed to was in this room.
Among them hung a peculiar, delicate tension.
Mutual wariness — and yet, an equally strange harmony alongside it.
At the sound of the door opening, all twenty-four women — each one of them an existence that anyone in the galaxy would consider utterly beyond reach — turned their gazes toward him.
In perfect unison.
The Golden Progeny were the only ones whose expressions were relatively friendly.
Everyone else's look could only be described as carrying, to varying degrees, the distinct energy of: you really have a talent for getting yourself into these situations. The difference was merely whether it came in the flavor of genuine grievance or artful passive-aggression.
"Haha — so everyone's here."
Faced with the twenty-four pairs of eyes that looked about ready to devour him whole, Leon could only manage a few awkward, dry laughs.
"Has everyone eaten?"
Smack——!
The sound rang out without warning.
With no one operating it at all, the great door behind him — the very one he had pushed open himself — suddenly snapped shut on its own.
The next second, even the very concept of a door simply ceased to exist.
As if the universe itself had decided to thoroughly seal off his only escape route before the battle could even begin.
Where the door had stood, a placard materialized in its place.
「You Can't Leave Until You ◼◼◼」
Those were the words on the placard.
What a statement. What absolute, staggering boldness.
All twenty-four women glanced at it. Then, without exception, they turned back to him and began to advance.
Oh no. Leon realized, with sudden and absolute clarity, that someone had set him up.
"Hey — hey! I'm here on serious business! What do you all think you're doing?!"
They gave no answer whatsoever. But their footsteps did not stop — closing in on him with slow, deliberate certainty.
Leon understood then.
The reason they weren't responding was because they had nothing to say — they were just going to do it.
This is Jack's first time fighting twenty-four monsters simultaneously .jpg
Jack's first all-out brawl against a horde.
"Ha!"
Perhaps it was some undocumented side effect of his Superpower — but when faced with certain situations, like this one, Leon's instincts would fire on their own and he'd let out an involuntary breath.
"Breathe at us, and you'll get everything you're asking for. Come on then."
The moment that sound escaped his lips, Herta's hand shot out and closed around his throat. The grip was light — almost playful, like she just wanted to have a little fun.
"I find myself feeling a little restless."
On Herta's heels, another hand — skin like jade, soft beyond all description — pressed itself against his cheek. Ruan Mei. She made her declaration:
"I'm taking you home."
"Ha... ha..."
These women posed absolutely zero threat to him in any real sense — and yet, for reasons Leon could not entirely explain, he found himself distinctly short of breath.
Short version: LeonTV. After that, things got very fun.
[Reward Collected Successfully]
"...Phew."
Thank god Leon's numbers were just a cut above everyone else's — otherwise he might have genuinely been finished off by twenty-four women in a single afternoon.
[Evaluation: Beginning — "I will become the Emperor under Heaven." Ending — Sovereign for all eternity, the Lone Emperor of the Ages!]
Before Leon had even a moment to reflect on anything, his consciousness was yanked away the instant the reward was received — pulled into a vast, blank expanse.
Here, a cluster of characters surrounded him.
The most classic kind — bold, black, oversized text. But each character had a pair of crudely drawn hands and feet attached to them. The kind you'd scribble in the margin of a notebook without thinking: simple stick-figure limbs.
Looking at what these characters actually said, it was clear they represented the Superpowers Leon had accumulated.
"Omedetou~!"
The five characters of 「Freljord」 were the first to clap.
"Omedetou~!"
「If You Come as the Three Winters」 clapped next, right behind them.
"Omedetou~!"
Then 「That's Textbook ◼◼ Thinking」 clapped.
"Omedetou~!"
「Right Hand: Profit, Left Hand: Hibiscus」 was the fourth to clap.
"Omedetou~!"
「Have You Ever Been ◼◼? Obviously Not!」 clapped.
"Omedetou~!"
「Not My Type」 clapped.
"Omedetou~!"
「The Dragon — A Sovereign's Omen」 clapped.
"Omedetou~!"
「Hey Bro, Wanna Watch Something?」 clapped.
"Omedetou~!"
「Am I Going to Die Too?」 clapped.
"Omedetou~!"
「Ancient One, Prepare to Exhale」 clapped.
"Omedetou~!"
「I Never Asked You to ◼◼ Forever」 clapped.
A thunderous wave of applause wrapped around Leon from every direction.
Bro — the awards ceremony for collecting a reward really did not have to be this unhinged, did it?
Faced with the absurd spectacle before him, Leon genuinely could not hold it together.
But forget it. He couldn't be bothered to roast any of them.
He'd go with the flow.
Farewell, then. All of his Superpowers. (Sort of.)
"Thank you."
Leon stood in the very center of it all and said the words toward the empty space directly in front of him — to no one in particular.
"Thank you for being willing to read my story. To read Leon's story. I hope this story, written by my hand, was able to bring you a little joy — even if just for a moment."
He didn't know who he was talking to.
He was like the lead actor of a play, standing at the curtain call after the final performance — offering his bow to an unseen audience that may or may not have ever existed.
"So then — if we never meet again after this."
He wore a smile on his face, the kind you'd give an old friend when saying goodbye.
"I wish you all — good morning, good afternoon, good evening. And please, don't go around breathing on people when you're out there alone."
Don't breathe on anyone when you're out alone.
— THE END —
P.S.: Flowers for the finale — thank you for being here with me all this time!
There'll be a closing afterword up in a little while. If you can spare the time, please do give it a read!
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