This may be the most despairing trailer the audience has seen so far, and also the most heart-wrenching one.
Because everything about Phainon has been frozen in this moment. Although it only lasts a few seconds, it is enough for the audience to feel Phainon's state of mind at this moment.
His anger. Questions fill his entire mind and body.
Even at the corners of his eyes, tears are welling up, only to be flung backward because his body is lunging forward.
What is most shocking of all may be this string of tears left trailing behind him.
Crying is instinctive for human beings when they are at their most desperate, most anguished, and most sorrowful.
But in this frozen moment, this detail is simply too cruel.
Phainon charging forward, his face full of anger, tears at the corners of his eyes.
Yet in the frozen frame, those few tears are no longer on his face. Instead, they have been flung behind him, suspended in the air like several twinkling stars that had no time to fall.
Rather than crying, this feels more like the instinctive reaction of a person's body after they have been pushed to its absolute limit.
And what makes it work so well is that the tears are not left hanging on his face, but are instead flung behind him.
It does not diminish the despair of the scene in the slightest, while simultaneously revealing an even more painful detail for the audience.
Phainon's anger came faster than his sorrow, and his sword reached its destination before his tears.
Because he has no time to grieve.
The audience already knew why. In their minds, the figures of Aglaea, Castorice, Mydei appeared one after the other.
Not to mention that, within the story itself, they had already reached their respective ends. Even just considering the several deaths revealed earlier in this PV, which are even more despairing than what happened in the story, regardless of whether the PV depicts another cycle of reincarnation, in the end, those companions still fell one after another like a chain of dominoes.
Phainon has no time to stop and cry. Okhema is still burning, and the Flame Chase Journey must continue.
None of this will pause simply because someone has died.
Phainon did not even have time to turn around and look at the bodies, let alone the time to grieve.
He can only charge forward, swing his sword, forcing all of his sorrow, anger, and despair into this process, and then hurling them behind him.
No wonder he is called the Prisoner of Flames. How much must a person endure before they do not even have time to cry?
...
: By far the most despairing PV...
: Waaaaah, whose makes a PV like this?!
: I really feel so sorry for Phainon.
: It hurts so much!!
: Why put so much effort into a scene like this?! Waaaaah! You bastard, miHoYo!
: Prisoner of Flames... Prisoner...
"Waaaaah, Phainon, can you please be happy?! Can you please survive and be happy?!
"I don't dare keep watching anymore!
...
As the audience felt the pain overflowing from the screen,
Cyrene's voice rang out, pushing the atmosphere to its absolute extreme.
"May this world never again need a Deliverer."
Not needing a deliverer means that this world does not need to be saved. Then Phainon would no longer have to shoulder so much responsibility, and would no longer be so overwhelmed that he does not even have time to cry.
But ultimately, this is merely a beautiful wish. The unattainable nature of that wish forms yet another contrast with the desperate situation Phainon faces.
Those numbers appeared again. And they began jumping rapidly.
Phainon's frozen moment ended, and the scene began flashing between different locations.
Trianne's doll submerged underwater. Aglaea standing surrounded by enemies, fighting to the death.
And Castorice lying motionless on the ground, golden blood still at the corner of her mouth.
The Chrysos Heirs died once again within that brief, extreme span of time.
The final scene froze on a pair of hands covered in golden blood.
The gentle humming of a man's voice rang out once more.
The scene suddenly changed from the burning Okhema to a breathtakingly peaceful wheat field.
A gentle breeze swept through, stirring waves upon waves of wheat.
The sun in the sky was just right, warm and pleasant.Phainon, lying in the wheat field, suddenly woke up, blinking sleepily.
Within his field of vision, stalks of plump wheat swayed gently in the breeze beneath the sunlight.
The Okhema that had just been burning moments ago now seemed like nothing more than a dream from the yellow millet fantasy.
"Phainon of Aedes Elysiae what is your dream?"
While Phainon was staring blankly into the waves of wheat, Anaxa approached from afar and slowly asked.
Phainon was stunned. But he could not come up with an answer.
A teacher, a question, waves of wheat... Everything was so simple that the audience wished they could stay here forever, wishing this scene could become reality.
No deliverer. No Flame Chase Journey. Only a young man staring blankly amid the waves of wheat, being asked by his teacher about his aspirations for the future.
Unfortunately.
The next second, a flash of sword light tore everything apart.
Furious, Phainon swung his greatsword and struck at the Flame Reaver, but the other party easily dodged it.
The two locked in battle.
Weapons clashed. Every collision was accompanied by Phainon's roar.
His roar was once again drowned out by a burst of cheering. The scene switched from the battle to another kind of everyday life.
Inside the prosperous city of Okhema, Phainon, Mydei, and Aglaea stood atop the back of a Dromas. Flowers rained down from above, while the streets all around them were filled with the people of Okhema cheering for them.
The humming maintained the same gentle, soothing melody throughout.
But at this moment, the volume of the humming grew slightly louder.
Immediately afterward, the scene of them returning home with their companions, receiving flowers and cheers, was once again torn apart by the ongoing battle to the death.
And so, accompanied by the humming, the scenes repeatedly switched back and forth between the deadly battle and gentle everyday life, with even more details appearing.
Under the sunlight of Okhema, Phainon gently patted the head of a purple-haired little girl, while his other arm was stretched out and constantly tugged on by two children as though it were a toy.
In a corner, a blonde girl and a brown-haired girl were holding hands affectionately.
These looked like the titans from the previous cycle.
Watching this scene, a thought emerged in the minds of the audience.
Phainon saved the world.
Right? So these people had returned to ordinary lives in the new world that Phainon had paid the price to create.
Just like this brief scene, warm and healing.
Bang!
Before they could think any further, the greatsword of Phainon and that of the Flame Reaver collided once again.
Phainon gritted his teeth tightly, roaring as he poured all his strength into the clash.
The next moment, the two colliding greatswords transformed into two colliding arms.
Mydei and Phainon stood under the sunlight, sparing intensely with each other. Yet both of their faces carried carefree, exhilarated smiles.
The camera circled around the two of them once.
After passing behind Phainon, it naturally transitioned back to the scene of him fighting desperately against the Flame Reaver.
Phainon was already completely exhausted.
During his struggle with the Flame Reaver, he fell into a disadvantage.
The greatsword in his hand was also knocked flying into the sky.
The flames filling the sky reflected off the blade, turning into a brilliant gleam of light, like dawn.
Phainon gazed gently at the sun that had just risen.
He opened his arms. After first bathing himself in the sunlight of dawn, he finally reached out his hand, wanting to grasp that distant, unreachable sun.
His eyes were filled with such longing, such anticipation. Yet even though his hand closed around empty air, no matter how hard he tried, he could neither grasp it nor feel the weight of that dawn.
"In truth... I just want..."
But amid the dawn, Phainon murmured blankly.
He abandoned the thought of grasping the dawn. Instead, he spread his arms wide, allowing himself to be swallowed by the light.
In an instant, the dawn transformed into flames filling the sky.
They completely devoured everything around him. The sword that had been knocked into the sky by the Flame Reaver came falling back down, descending along the blade.
Following the sword's descent, the audience saw a scene that made their hearts stop for a moment. Phainon was grabbed by the neck by the Flame Reaver and lifted into the air, his feet dangling helplessly.
"Ugh… guh…" Phainon desperately tried to pry the Flame Reaver's fingers apart with both hands, but he simply could not do it. His throat produced a muffled, painful sound that made people's hearts ache.
In the background, the humming voice also became even more indistinct at this moment.
Without the slightest hesitation, the Flame Reaver violently thrust the greatsword in his hand into Phainon's body.
Phainon let out a muffled groan.
The greatsword pierced straight through his back allowing golden blood to pour out.
The viewers in front of the screen were already completely stunned. That sword had almost pierced straight through their hearts as well.
After the Chrysos Heirs had died one after another, was Phainon the next one…?
…
: MiHoYo, you fucking bastards are insane! Waaaaah! Why did you have to make us see this?!
: This is too cruel!! Why are you doing this to Phainon!!
: It hurts so much!!!
: AAAAAAAAAAAH!!
: Holy shit! Why is this PV only halfway through?! This one-plus minute feels so fucking long!!!
: I seriously can't watch anymore! This is straight-up war-criminal behavior, you're just torturing Phainon!
: Why do you have to make us experience this kind of pain?!
: I feel like I'm going to die from how miserable this is!
: Where is this? This is hell, right!!!
...
The comments instantly covered the entire screen.
The viewers simply could not suppress the pain and frantically vented it through anguished comments.
They could feel MiHoYo's deep "malice." Why did they have to show them all of this?
And they had deliberately used a close-up shot, forcing them to personally witness Phainon's body being pierced.
Damn it!
But amid their sorrow, they failed to notice that the music in the scene had suddenly begun changing from the humming.
As the music gradually transformed,Phainon slowly and laboriously extended his hand and grabbed the hilt of the greatsword that had pierced through his body.
Then, he spoke the words he had left unfinished.
"■■■■■"
But the words from his mouth were concealed.
No one knew what Phainon truly wanted. But that no longer mattered.
A fierce piece of music gradually emerged. It was as though something was about to awaken inside Phainon.
Finally, the humming completely drowned out. The camera first froze on the hand with which Phainon gripped the sword hilt.
Golden blood flowed along the blade and down Phainon's hand, flowing toward the Flame Reaver.
The two became connected by this blood, and together they began to burn.
Suddenly, a jerky, stuttering electronic sound appeared.
The visuals began hitting the beats of the music.
Phainon turning around in the darkness.
Phainon clashing swords.
These scenes all shattered together with the violent electronic music at the moment the two swords collided in the final shot.
Amid the fragments, the viewers saw a scene they would never forget.
Phainon extended both hands and, little by little, forcibly tore open his own chest.
He split himself open.
But what flowed from the wound was not golden blood, but masses of pitch-black, fragmented dark blocks.
They were exactly the same as the blocks found on those creatures of the Black Tide.
The background behind Phainon also became increasingly abstract and occult-like.
Irregular patterns and distorted imagery swallowed Phainon whole.
More and more of these images frantically layered over one another, forming a space of absolute, pitch-black darkness.
Phainon tilted his head upward, his body stretching out within this space. Behind his head was a cross-shaped rift of light.
The viewers could not quite put into words what they felt about this scene.
It was too complicated.
Sacred? Occult?
It seemed to be both.
Phainon's posture in the darkness also resembled that of someone in reality who had been nailed to a cross.
Before they could carefully savor this heavily suggestive scene, the electronic music became even more frantic.
Phainon in his normal state suddenly appeared in the mirror.
His eyes were filled with fury. One hand violently plunged into his own chest and grabbed whatever was inside.
With a roar, he tore the thing out.
It was golden blood! Golden blood surging like ocean waves!
The golden blood covered the screen, splashing and covering everything.
All of this eventually condensed into a golden sphere. Phainon floated inside the sphere, his body undergoing violent changes.
Golden crystals grew from both of his shoulders. Golden armor covered his hands, while the tattered tails of his long robe fluttered behind him.
One on the left and one on the right, one lower and one higher, two asymmetrical golden wings also grew from Phainon's waist.
The golden sphere exploded. Floating debris and red blocks filled the surroundings.
Within this chaotic environment, Phainon stood before the audience like a true deity, assuming this completely new form.
His eyes were closed, his fists tightly clenched. Behind his head appeared the markings of the Deliverer, while his hair transformed into a dazzling golden color.
"If this is not the end…"
"Then I will keep walking..."
The electric guitar, carrying rebellion and unwillingness, struggled its way out from beneath the electronic music.
And Phainon, no, now Khaslana, opened his eyes and spoke.
The viewers outside the screen, regardless of whether they had previously been sad or despairing, were now completely overwhelmed by a frenzy of shock and awe.