"Alright, this girl's going all out!!"
"Heroes! Can't back down at the last second—take this girl's Sixfold Ultimate Invincible Frost Explosion, hey↘↗ya↘↓——"
Previously, after March 7th's cutscene performance ended, it would return to the normal battle interface.
But now, the missing segment was filled in.
Leon's hair color shifted from off-white gray to deathly pale, another strand falling out.
Only now did players realize that when Leon first transformed into his five-star form, his hair wasn't that white yet.
The change was too subtle; most people overlooked it.
Leon looked toward the barrier, the giant dragon, the hourglass.
"You must hold on… Everyone, deal as much damage to Phantylia as possible, so that we can…"
"Deliver a fatal blow."
"The hourglass still needs about one-fifth progress. Almost there…"
Players finally understood why Leon suddenly unleashed even greater power.
—He was reaching his limit.
The damage accumulated in the barrier was still far from enough to deal a fatal wound to Phantylia.
To gather enough power to injure Phantylia, he had no choice but to call even March 7th—who wasn't suited for direct combat—into the fray.
Why Phantylia was puzzled that everyone's life force hadn't been drained.
Because Leon was silently bearing it all.
The cycling wind that never stopped throughout the battle was his Healing Wind Therapy.
Back in Belobog, many had speculated that this ability of Leon's would one day come with a knife.
But no one expected that day to arrive so soon.
Many players also understood why Phantylia found it strange that Leon never attacked her.
Leon's prior injuries hadn't healed, and now he was bearing Phantylia's life-devouring cost for everyone—where would he find the spare energy to launch an offense?
As for his promise to Welt, that was certainly a secondary reason.
A wounded body enduring an Emanator's life-devouring technique for so long.
According to Phantylia, even ten thousand lives wouldn't be enough for an ordinary person to survive.
Phantylia summons purple-black lotuses in phase two, applying life-devouring to reduce character HP.
And that was precisely when Leon first lost hair.
It was also… when he used Healing Wind Therapy.
Finally condensing the barrier's power into Stelle's lance wasn't about playing support to highlight the protagonist.
He simply couldn't act—any move would expose the fact that he was completely spent…
After understanding everything, countless players whose eyes were brimming with tears let them spill down their cheeks in an instant.
Some with low tear thresholds and more emotional players reacted even more intensely.
No one expected that after defeating Phantylia, such a knife would suddenly plunge into Leon's body.
What made people tremble with rage was—
[Intermission]
[To be continued in the next chapter]
At this moment, the lamenting chant faded along with the mournful background music.
Witnessing Leon fall into the deep sea, yet the main story cut off here—Ah Xian's mental resilience bar hit zero, she broke down, crying as she transformed into a legendary telegram operator.
"MiHoYo!! I fuck your mother'ssuperenemybloodhorse* aaaaaah——"
"What the fuck are you trying to do?!"
"Answer me!!"
"Woo… woo ah…"
She stood up in a daze, walked to the corner of the camera, turned her back to the lens, hugged her knees, and sobbed with twitching shoulders.
Anyone could see—
She was in full shutdown mode.
On any other day, the barrage would surely tease her relentlessly.
But now?
The bros were feeling blue too, their hearts heavy.
That line about how, as an elder, the most important thing is to give children a sense of security—it dealt critical damage to many.
Security—such a simple word.
But how many people, in the present or the past, have truly enjoyed enough of it?
Especially those whose childhood shadows required a lifetime to heal—their eyes reddened, their noses stung.
[Only now realizing… when Leon was around, going through the story really felt secure.]
[You call this… a space comedy game?]
[People who eat knives often know—now's the time to camp outside MiHoYo's office and ambush the writers!]
[Can't take it anymore! May the writers choke on water, find no toilet paper in the stall, and come home to see Old Wang's shoes!]
[MiHoYo, you deserve to die aaaaah, let me kill you a thousand times, ten thousand times, it's still—not—enough——]
[Knife is fine, but deliberately cliffhanging, fuck, cliffhanger dog biss!]
After squatting in the corner for several minutes, Ah Xian seemed to remember something, panicked, ran back to her chair, and sat down.
She opened the map, teleported back to the Express, searching for the figure that—unlike Welt and Himeko's random spawns—was fixed in a specific spot.
Empty.
The Leon who should have been there… was gone…
Maybe he's somewhere else, she thought.
But the parlor car was only so big—one glance and you could see everything.
No Leon meant no Leon.
On a certain tabletop, an interactable glowing point caught Ah Xian's attention.
She ran over and pressed F.
A familiar incense burner came into view, with text appearing below.
[An odd incense burner left by Leon. It seems to be a curio.]
[You notice a piece of paper pressed under the burner. Picking it up, you find several lines written on it.]
["The fragrance of the burner can effectively relieve fatigue. As long as it's not destroyed, it can last for several hundred years at least."]
["Dear Nameless ones, no matter how wonderful and beautiful the Trailblaze journey is, don't forget to rest well."]
["Left by an insignificant Nameless."]
Ah Xian stared blankly, pressed F again, entering the cutscene.
The protagonist sat on the nearby sofa, eyes closed, resting.
A few seconds later, a UI popped up: restored 60 Trailblaze Power, and additionally obtained 3 Star Rail Special Pass rewards.
Staring dumbly at the rewards, Ah Xian's lips trembled, she silently raised her hand to cover her face, slumped back in the chair, head thrown back.
So. The incense burner Leon left for Himeko before getting off… was used like this?
So, he had long prepared for the possibility of not returning…
Murder…
And then salt the wound?!
This time, it wasn't just Ah Xian whose emotions collapsed—her weak point shattered. Everyone in the stream broke down.
[Arminos, even a tough guy like me can't hold back tears. Is the writer a poet?]
[Password grilled chicken, was this your doing?!]
[I wasn't this upset when Tingyun got knifed…]
[Tingyun got knifed and her fate is unknown—that's true, but at least there was hope.]
[Leon? The hope is his daily rewards replaced by a curio—what that means, no one's blind, right?]
[One day when I have a knife in hand, I'll slaughter every cliffhanger dog in the world. Agree? +1!]
[The girls in our dorm are crying harder than the last.]
[+1]
[1111111111!]
Leaving Ah Xian's stream and opening the community, the heat was already exploding like TNT.
Under every official media account's new post, comments started in the tens of thousands.
Everyone was happily welcoming the new version, new main story, new character.
But reaching the end of the main story—who would've thought it'd be this massive.
Forums aside for now.
In the video community, countless Reaction videos sprouted faster and in greater numbers than bamboo shoots after rain.