Chapter 405: Stelle and Welt, Out
The blinding, scorching white light finally receded, leaving behind a heavy, ringing silence.
Across the devastated battlefield, the endless sea of insects summoned by Bringer had vanished without a single trace, erased from reality as if they had never existed in the first place. The only remaining evidence of the strike's sheer terror was a vast, cratered expanse of earth, its surface completely fused into a smooth, smoking sheet of glass by the unimaginable heat.
Miraculously, the surrounding space held firm; the Hollow's fragile reality had not shattered under the pressure.
With the detestable Swarm completely eradicated, the blinding, Nameless rage that had hijacked Stelle's reason finally began to recede like a retreating tide.
The searing white aura radiating from her body flickered and died. The golden flames that had consumed her eyes extinguished, replaced by a clear, trembling gaze clouded with sudden bewilderment. As the overwhelming power drained from her veins, a crushing wave of physical exhaustion slammed into her, closely followed by a sharp, belated spike of panic.
'I... what did I just... do?' Stelle stared blankly at the chaotic, smoking ruins of the battlefield. The once-surging power of her Path felt entirely hollowed out, leaving her chest aching and empty. In her peripheral vision, a stark red warning flashed from the Chat Group interface, alerting her that she was about to be forcibly ejected from the activity for severely exceeding the permitted power limits.
The horrifying realization crashed over her. Blinded by her own fury, she had recklessly unleashed an attack far beyond her ability to control. She had nearly annihilated the entire Hollow, almost dragging all of her friends down into the destruction with her. Her fingers, still locked in a death grip around her weapon, trembled violently. This time, the shaking wasn't from adrenaline, but from deep exhaustion and a cold, lingering dread.
She couldn't bring herself to turn around. Her shoulders hunched, terrified to face the others. She dreaded seeing the astonishment, the harsh reproach, or the heavy worry that would inevitably be painted across her companions' faces.
Then, the crunch of steady, measured footsteps approached through the settling ash. Stelle's entire body went rigid.
"Stelle."
It was Welt. His voice carried its usual calm, steady cadence, completely devoid of the anger or disappointment she had braced herself for.
Stelle bit down hard on her lower lip. Moving with stiff, mechanical slowness, she finally forced herself to turn around.
Welt stood just a few paces away. A heavy trace of fatigue lined his features, a clear indicator that manifesting the Simulated Black Hole to perfectly catch and neutralize Stelle's apocalyptic strike had taken a massive toll on his stamina. Yet, the gaze resting behind his wire-rimmed glasses remained warm, gentle, and deeply concerned.
He carefully scrutinized the Trailblazer from head to toe. Only after confirming that she was merely drained of energy and completely unharmed did his shoulders relax a fraction. "Stelle, are you alright?"
There was no harsh interrogation. No stern lecturing. Just the simple, grounding concern of a senior looking out for his junior.
Stelle immediately dropped her gaze to her boots, shrinking in on herself like a child caught making a terrible mistake. "I... I'm alright," she mumbled, her voice thick and muffled. "It's just... Uncle Yang, I think I... I messed up again. I almost..."
The words caught in her throat. She couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence.
Welt let out a soft, understanding sigh. He stepped forward, raising a hand to give her shoulder a reassuring pat. "Everything is under control. Don't overthink it right now. Your current state is highly unstable, and you desperately need to rest. We will discuss the specifics once we return."
The moment the words left his mouth, a soft yet utterly irresistible pillar of digitized light descended from above, enveloping Stelle's entire body.
[Balance mechanism forcibly broken... abnormal status removed... returning to entry point shortly...]
A sudden sensation of weightless detachment washed over Stelle. She snapped her head up, desperately wanting to catch one last glimpse of her friends. She wanted to call out an apology to Zhongli and Venti standing in the distance, to Dan Heng, March 7th, Lumine, Paimon, and the stunned operatives of Section 6.
But her time had run out.
Before anyone could react, her figure, along with Welt standing faithfully by her side, shattered into countless tiny specks of golden data. Like a cluster of fireflies scattered by a sudden gale, the two of them dissipated completely into the stagnant, heavy air of the Hollow.
Back at the entrance to the Epis Port Hollow, deep inside the abandoned warehouse that the Chat Group had hastily converted into their temporary base of operations, the fabric of space subtly rippled. Stelle and Welt materialized onto the concrete floor, stumbling slightly as they regained their footing.
Meanwhile, back on the battlefield.
Inside the Hollow, the four elite operatives of Section 6 remained frozen in place. Minutes ticked by, yet none of them moved a muscle, their minds still thoroughly submerged in the sheer, logic-defying shock of that apocalyptic strike. A suffocating silence hung heavy over the battlefield, thick enough to choke on amidst the lingering clouds of ash and dust.
Yanagi slowly slid her weapon back into its sheath. In the dead quiet of the Hollow, the sharp hiss of metallic friction rang out with deafening clarity. She kept her eyes locked onto the exact spot where Stelle and Welt had vanished into thin air. Slowly, she turned her head, sweeping her gaze over the massive crater where the endless sea of insects had been completely erased. There wasn't a single corpse left. Not even the faintest trace of Aetheric residue remained to prove they had ever existed.
Finally, her gaze shifted toward the horizon. Several towering, golden Stone Steles had quietly erupted from the earth in the distance, their glowing geometric patterns now gradually fading into dust. Swirling around the ruined landscape were the gentle, lingering currents of Anemo energy, carrying a crisp, refreshing breeze that refused to disperse.
Yanagi's brows knit together in a tight, complicated frown. It wasn't fear that gripped her, but rather the deep, world-shattering shock of having her entire understanding of combat and physics completely overturned in a matter of seconds.
Close behind that existential shock came an incredibly practical, deeply annoying headache: how on earth was she supposed to write the incident report for this?
Was she supposed to just write the absolute truth? 'Mysterious extra-dimensional visitor, triggered by unknown rage, unleashed a suspected rule-level annihilation attack that nearly collapsed the Hollow. The attack was subsequently neutralized when her companions casually deployed an artificial black hole and unknown Geo-Anemo elemental constructs.'
Forget whether her superiors at HAND would immediately institutionalize her for losing her mind. Just trying to accurately evaluate the threat level and the subsequent political fallout of an event of this magnitude was enough to give her a migraine.
Beside her, Miyabi stood ramrod straight. Her katana remained quietly sheathed at her hip. She kept her fingers resting lightly against the cold, familiar touch of the hilt, using the grounding sensation to keep her mind absolutely sharp and clear.
Deep within her mind's eye, Miyabi continuously replayed that final, blinding moment. She saw Stelle raising her weapon high into the air, summoning down a purifying, miniature sun to scorch the earth. She remembered the raw, unyielding resolve radiating from the gray-haired girl, a terrifying will to completely cleanse the defilement from the world, even if it meant burning to ash alongside her enemies. The cataclysmic power displayed in that single strike defied all martial logic.
Witnessing it firsthand forced Miyabi to involuntarily recall the ancient, almost mythical legends surrounding the founding generation of Void Hunters in New Eridu's bloody history.
No. That wasn't right. The deep artistic conception and sheer destructive purity contained within Stelle's strike felt even closer to the true essence of combat than any legend ever recorded.
What concerned the Section 6 commander far more was the trigger. Such a terrifying display of power clearly wasn't Stelle's normal state. It had been violently ignited by some extreme, uncontrollable emotion. Yet, the resulting output far exceeded anything Miyabi could achieve even in her absolute peak burst state.
What exactly had those creatures done? What kind of dark history could possibly cause that cheerful girl to have such a deep, violently visceral reaction to the mere existence of an insect-type Ethereal?
Just as the operatives of Section 6 were lost in their own heavy thoughts, desperately trying to digest the impossible reality of what they had just witnessed, March 7th's voice abruptly shattered the silence. Her tone was laced with clear, lingering fear and deep concern for her best friend, masked thinly by her habitual, tension-breaking complaining.
"Stelle, you massive idiot! What on earth just happened?!" March yelled at the empty air, stomping her foot. "Suddenly getting so angry out of nowhere and causing such a huge, terrifying commotion!"
She patted her chest rapidly, her wide blue eyes staring down at the glowing, molten glass covering the ground. "Thank the Aeons that Uncle Yang was here, otherwise I really don't know how we would have ever cleaned up this mess! Dan Heng, why didn't you stop her?! That was so insanely dangerous just now!"
Dan Heng, suddenly thrust into the spotlight, let out a long breath and rubbed his temples. A rare, highly uncharacteristic expression of utter helplessness, mixed heavily with mental fatigue, washed over his usually stoic features.
He glanced over at March 7th, then shifted his gaze toward Lumine and Paimon, who were both casting him highly questioning, wide-eyed looks. Noticing that the operatives of Section 6 had also subtly perked up their ears to eavesdrop, he offered a brief, tired explanation.
"I did try to stop her. Or rather, the 'me' currently stationed by her main body was already trying his absolute best to hold her back."
He paused, his brow furrowing as he recalled the chaotic feedback. "Stelle suddenly went completely berserk directly inside Phaethon's Seed Trial Space just now. I tried everything to appease her, to talk her down and dissuade her from acting, but her emotions at that exact moment... they were far too intense. She almost instantly broke straight through her critical breaking point."
"I had to immediately focus all my attention on dealing with the situation on that side first," Dan Heng continued, shaking his head. "If Medea and I hadn't forcefully joined hands to suppress her output, that entire trial space would have already been shattered into pieces by her raw energy."
Lumine let out a soft, sympathetic sigh. Dusting off her dress, the Traveler walked gracefully over to Miyabi and Yanagi. She offered them a gentle, reassuring smile, her tone deeply apologetic yet comforting. "Please, don't worry. Stelle and Mr. Welt are perfectly fine. The sheer scale of the power they deployed just now..."
"...far exceeded the normal upper limits allowed for this specific activity. It automatically triggered the system's built-in protection mechanism. As a result, they were temporarily and forcibly teleported back to the designated safe zone at the Hollow's entrance. They didn't encounter any actual danger themselves."
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