"The train is about to make the jump!" Pom-Pom announced from the conductor's station. "All passengers, please be seated!"
March and Stelle quickly settled into the parlor seats. Welt sat down calmly, adjusting his glasses. Himeko remained at the navigation console, fingers dancing across controls. Dan Heng stood near the archives, bracing himself against the wall.
Kevin remained by the observation window.
"Passenger Kevin!" Pom-Pom called out. "Pom-Pom said to be seated! The warp jump can be rough!"
"I'll be fine," Kevin said quietly, hand resting on the glass.
I'm an Emanator. My body can withstand worse than a warp jump.
Pom-Pom looked uncertain but didn't argue. "Alright... Pom-Pom is beginning the countdown! Five... four... three... two... one..."
The Astral Express shuddered. Reality bent at the edges of Kevin's vision—colors bleeding into one another, stars stretching into infinite lines. The sensation of movement without motion, of being everywhere and nowhere simultaneously.
Kevin's body didn't flinch. The rings on his fingers hummed softly, anchoring him to existence itself.
Then, as suddenly as it began, it stopped.
The Express materialized in Xianzhou space.
Kevin's breath caught.
Before them floated a ship no, a world. Massive beyond comprehension, dwarfing anything he'd seen since Aionios. The Xianzhou Luofu stretched across the viewport like a city-continent suspended in the void, its architecture a blend of ancient tradition and impossible engineering. Towers and pagodas rose from jade-green hulls, glowing with internal light. Skyports dotted its surface like stars.
I knew it was big. I'd seen it through a screen. But this...
Even after everything he'd witnessed, the Luofu made him feel small.
"Whoa!" March leaned forward against the window, eyes wide. "So that's a Xianzhou ship?! It looks bigger than Jarilo-VI!"
Dan Heng stepped forward, gaze distant. "For Xianzhou natives, these ships are their planets. Terrestrial environments are cradles that allow civilizations to survive and develop. Some of those civilizations progressed further constructing space-faring vessels which allowed them to voyage into the unknown." His expression softened and hardened simultaneously. "The Xianzhou Alliance is one of them."
He paused, something vulnerable flickering across his features. "I've only glimpsed it a few times, but... it's as magnificent as I remember."
March looked at him, concerned. "You okay? What's with all the nostalgia vibes?"
Before Dan Heng could respond, Himeko's voice came from the navigation console. "This is the Astral Express. I repeat, this is the Astral Express. We have arrived in Xianzhou territory, requesting landing permission from ground control from the bridge, I mean."
A moment of static, then an intermittent signal crackled through. "Welcome to Luofu Skyport Starskiff Haven. Please await transfer. Please await transfer. Please await transfer."
Stelle frowned. "Is this stuck on repeat?"
Welt's expression darkened. "Something's not right."
Himeko looked at them, concern evident. "The signal is still repeating, but no one is guiding us to the dock."
March clasped her hands together nervously. "Maybe the Stellaron Hunters were telling the truth? It seems like something really happened to the Xianzhou. A vessel arriving at a deserted spaceport isn't that how, like, loads of horror movies start?!"
"Let's not let our imagination get the better of us," Dan Heng said calmly, though his grip on his weapon tightened slightly.
The automated signal continued droning. "Please await transfer. Please await transfer. Please await transfer."
Welt glanced at Himeko. "Still the automated signal?"
"Yeah, it's still on repeat... Ah, there we go." Himeko's console lit up. "Jade Gate is opening. On behalf of Xianzhou Luofu: Welcome, guests from afar. Please proceed to dock in accordance with the guidance."
The signal cut off abruptly.
Himeko shook her head. "The signal broke off. Seems that's all there is."
Welt turned to her. "We should get going. Himeko, stay vigilant back here on the Express."
Himeko smiled reassuringly. "Relax. I've got Dan Heng here with me."
Kevin stood silently by the window, thoughts turning inward.
Two reasons I need to go with them.
First: they're my companions now. My... friends, maybe. And I know what's waiting there. Phantylia, Emanator of Destruction. In the plot, they survived. But plots can change. And I won't risk them.
Second...
He touched the Ring of Death and Beginning.
I need to—
"You're staying too?" Stelle's voice broke through his thoughts.
Kevin turned. She was looking at Himeko.
"Yes," Himeko replied. "But I won't be putting my feet up. There's a lot to take care of here on the train."
The expedition team gathered near the airlock Welt, March, Stelle, and Kevin. They began checking their equipment, preparing for departure.
Welt looked at them, his gaze lingering on Stelle and March. He glanced at Kevin briefly acknowledging but not concerned. Kevin was clearly experienced; reminding him would be pointless.
"Before we set off," Welt began, "I need to clarify the aim of this journey with you. The Stellaron Hunters have given us a lot to consider. A lot of doubt. But the most important part of this expedition is...?"
He waited, letting them fill in the answer.
"The Stellaron," Stelle said without hesitation.
Welt nodded approvingly. "Precisely. The Stellaron Hunters clearly have ulterior motives. However, knowing them and what they're all about and given the focus of Kafka's words—I have no doubt the Xianzhou is dealing with a Stellaron."
He sighed, removing his glasses to clean them. "The Alliance and the Express haven't had any previous dealings, so our arrival might not receive the warmest welcome. But as Trailblazers, we're not in this for fame or gain. We just need to do everything in our power to assist the Xianzhou and eliminate the source of disaster."
Welt replaced his glasses, meeting each of their eyes in turn. "Always keep that in mind. And don't forget the way of Trailblaze: explore, understand, establish, and connect."
March hopped excitedly. "Yeah!"
Stelle's eyes gleamed with determination.
Kevin nodded once. Explore. Understand. Establish. Connect.
The way of the Nameless.
Maybe I can learn something from that.
Welt smiled. "Let's go."
The airlock hissed open.
Kevin stepped through alongside the others, boots touching Xianzhou ground for the first time.
March looked around, immediately deflating. "Ugh, look it's just containers as far as the eye can see!"
She was right. The docking area was a massive cargo bay, stacked high with shipping containers and supply crates. Utilitarian. Industrial. Nothing like the grand entrance one might expect.
"This area isn't for receiving guests," March complained, gesturing at the boxes. "It's for unloading cargo! Who decided to send us here this way?"
Welt frowned, scanning the area. "Something's wrong. There should be dockworkers. Security. Someone."
Kevin closed his eyes, reaching out with his senses. The rings on his fingers pulsed as he extended his awareness feeling for life, for danger, for anything out of place.
There.
Pain. Fear. Scattered life signs, fading.
And something else. Moving. Hunting.
His eyes snapped open. "The ship is under attack. There are soldiers—collapsed, injured. Some still breathing."
Welt turned to him sharply. "By whom?"
Kevin shook his head. "I don't know. But we need to move. They're injured, and they won't last long without help."
Welt studied Kevin for a moment noting how easily he'd detected distant casualties, how certain he was then nodded. "Alright. Let's go."
Stelle looked at Kevin. "We follow you."
March nodded, readying her shield.
Kevin moved forward quickly, weaving between containers. His senses guided him, following the threads of fading life.
Behind a stack of crates, they found him.
A Cloud Knight, collapsed against a container, armor dented and bloodied. His breathing came in ragged gasps, one hand pressed against a wound in his side.
"Up... ahead..." the knight wheezed, trying to point.
Welt knelt beside him. "You're hurt, son. Try not to talk." He looked up at March. "March, use your Six-Phased Ice to stop the bleeding. Go easy we don't want to add frostbite to the complaints."
March immediately summoned her powers, crystalline ice forming carefully over the wound—cold enough to numb and seal, but controlled enough not to cause damage.
The knight gasped in relief as the bleeding slowed.
Kevin was already looking ahead, rings pulsing with urgency. "There are still survivors. Not for long if we don't hurry."
He didn't wait for confirmation. Couldn't.
Every second mattered.
Kevin broke into a run, moving faster than before. The others called after him but he pushed forward, rounding containers, following the paths between cargo stacks.
More collapsed knights. Some breathing. Some not.
He saw them registered their injuries, their pain but didn't stop.
I can't heal them. March can stabilize them, but I need to stop the source. The attackers. Before more fall.
He could feel them now. Moving ahead. Wrong. Twisted.
And then he saw them.
Figures in tattered Xianzhou clothing, moving with jerky, unnatural motions. Their eyes were vacant, clouded over. Flesh stretched too tight over bones. They moved like predators—hunting, attacking anyone they found.
Mara-struck, Kevin recognized. The Xianzhou's curse. Immortality without end, until the mind breaks and the body becomes a beast in human skin.
One of them was bent over another fallen Cloud Knight, claws when had their hands become claws? raised to strike.
Kevin's rings flared.
The Ring of Finality blazed cold on his right hand. The Ring of Death and Beginning pulsed warm on his left.
"Get away from him," Kevin said quietly.
The mara-struck turned toward him, vacant eyes fixing on new prey.
And lunged.