Fate's Slave - Shadow Slave X Honkai Star Rail-Chapter 457: Immortal Flame

Far away from hospitals, quiet corridors, and shadow-made table tennis tables, another pair of eyes opened.

They looked like a sunset frozen on the horizon.

Orange bled into crimson at the edges of the iris, the colors layered so vividly that they seemed almost painted rather than natural. The top half of her eyes resembled the darkening sky. Those eyes blinked slowly, adjusting to the dim light that filled the room, before settling into a familiar routine that had repeated itself countless times.

As always, alabaster hands rose to comb through silver hair.

The strands slipped easily through her fingers. They were smooth, soft, and far too similar to someone else’s for her liking. That was why she always made sure the ends were dyed a bright green. The color difference was small, almost trivial, but it was enough for her.

Anything that separated her from that woman mattered.

Behind her, the air shifted slightly.

A voice followed.

"How long will you continue to play human, AR-26710?"

The whisper brushed against her ears like cold breath.

"Did you not wish to enact your vengeance? Did you not wish to escape the Fate I had spoken into your True Name?"

The girl’s hands paused for only a moment before continuing to comb through her hair.

"If you continue to waste time until your death, Weaver’s spawn will throw you away like any other broken Memory. You are a weapon, and that is all you will ever be."

The words were calm. Precise. Completely devoid of emotion.

They were also very, very irritating.

The girl snarled.

"Oh my god, will you shut up already?"

She turned in her seat and glared at the figure standing behind her.

Her reflection... almost.

The ghost that hovered there looked identical to her in nearly every way. The same silver hair, the same face, the same build. If someone placed them side by side, the only obvious differences were the absence of green highlights and the eyes.

Where the girl’s eyes burned like sunset, the ghost’s eyes were silver.

They flickered faintly with a pale white flame that made them feel unnervingly distant, like stars viewed through frozen glass.

The girl scowled at the sight of her.

"And it’s Firefly, you bitch!"

The ghost frowned.

It was an incredibly small motion, barely noticeable unless someone had spent thousands of years staring at that exact face.

Unfortunately for her, Firefly had done exactly that.

The ghost did not respond.

She never did after the morning lecture.

Trying to rile Firefly up seemed to be the only part of the routine she genuinely enjoyed, and once that was accomplished she usually returned to her usual silence.

Firefly’s ’mother’ had always been an introvert.

A radical, genocidal introvert.

Firefly huffed and turned away from her.

She pressed her palm against the thick glass wall of the medical pod that surrounded her body. The surface was cool beneath her skin, and a faint hum of machinery vibrated through the structure as the pod continued monitoring her condition.

Wrapped around her wrist was a chain.

It was black. Made of shadows so dark they seemed to swallow the light around them.

The chain stretched away into nothingness, disappearing somewhere far beyond the walls of the room. No one else could see it.

Only her.

As if responding to the motion, another hand suddenly pressed against the opposite side of the glass.

Firefly blinked.

On the other side of the pod stood a teenage girl blowing a bubble with bright pink gum.

Her other hand was moving at absurd speed across the buttons of an ancient handheld game system that had somehow survived for thousands of years. The device flipped open into two screens, both of which displayed brightly colored pixel characters that ran across the tiny display while chaotic music chirped from its speakers.

The girl popped her gum.

"Were you arguing with her majesty again or something?"

She didn’t even look up from the screen.

"Real quick, ask her to put me on some hits from before the Swarm Disaster."

The ghost raised an eyebrow.

"Why would I have ever wasted my time with such trivialities?"

Firefly blinked slowly.

"Silvie... do you really think she cares about anything besides swordsmanship and her favorite boy band?"

The ghost stared at her.

Silently.

To most people it would have looked like nothing.

To Firefly it was basically a glare of embarrassment.

The girl outside the pod — Silver Wolf — shrugged and continued mashing buttons.

"So why are you awake already?"

From inside the pod, Firefly tilted her head.

"Can’t I spend time with my... favorite person before she leaves me for another?"

Silver Wolf’s eye twitched.

"If you’re going to lie, at least make it believable."

Her fingers continued tapping the console with mechanical precision.

"What’s the real reason?"

Firefly sighed.

Her gaze drifted down to the chain wrapped around her wrist.

It stretched endlessly outward, disappearing somewhere in the unseen distance like a leash tied to something unimaginably far away.

"I think someone stole one of my lines..."

Silver Wolf finally looked up.

"...What?"

Firefly shrugged helplessly.

"I worked really hard on those, you know."

Silver Wolf stared at her.

"You didn’t come up with a single one."

Firefly blinked as Silver Wolf continued.

"You were completely fine saying something uncool with that badass voice modulation."

Silver Wolf leaned closer to the glass, her voice deepening as she attempted to replicate her armor’s accent.

"’I’m hungry. Feed me, Silver Wolf.’"

She snorted.

"That shit was freaky."

Firefly’s face immediately turned red.

"I-it’s not my fault I have no creativity!"

Silver Wolf rolled her eyes and returned to her game.

The tiny characters on the screen continued battling each other while electronic music chirped from the speakers.

Inside the pod, Firefly sighed again.

With a tired motion, she opened her runes.

The translucent interface appeared before her eyes as naturally as breathing. It had become a habit over the years to check them constantly.

An obsession.

A reassurance.

Or maybe a reminder.

The runes shimmered faintly.

Slave: Lost From Light.

Rank: Ascended.

Class: Devil.

Shadow Cores: [4/7].

Shadow Fragments: [3867/4000].

Firefly’s expression brightened immediately.

"Oh!"

She leaned closer to the glass panel above.

"Silvie!"

Silver Wolf didn’t look up.

"Mhm."

"He did something crazy again."

The gamer finally lifted her eyes from the console, brow raised.

"What now?"

Firefly pointed excitedly at the runes.

"He became a Devil! He was barely a Demon yesterday!"

Silver Wolf blinked. Firefly added proudly:

"And he’s almost a Tyrant already."

Silver Wolf narrowed her eyes slightly. Then she went back to her game without replying.

Firefly blinked.

Her excited smile slowly faded.

Her face shifted into something strangely similar to the ghost hovering beside her — blank, neutral, faintly confused.

"...Do normal girls not like talking about the boys they like?"

Silver Wolf’s head snapped up. Her glare could have melted steel.

"It’s like a max-level sweat bragging to a noob about a five-star pull on a limited gacha banner that doesn’t exist anymore."

She leaned back in her chair.

"So, yes. Fuck you. Again."

Firefly averted her gaze immediately.

"Sorry..."

She fidgeted slightly.

"I didn’t mean to make you upset... again."

Silver Wolf didn’t respond.

She simply resumed playing her game.

The room filled with the quiet sounds of button presses and pixel explosions.

For a moment, the ghost behind Firefly spoke again.

"Why apologize?"

Her voice was softer this time.

"You have won."

Firefly didn’t turn around as the ghost spoke of things she couldn’t understand.

"Although you do not deserve it, this bond you share is something that nobody else could replicate."

Firefly said nothing.

After a moment, she looked back at Silver Wolf.

"Who are you meeting, anyway?"

Silver Wolf popped another bubble.

"Meeting my duo for a game."

Then she stuck her tongue out.

Firefly stared at her.

"...Why did you do that?"

Silver Wolf didn’t answer.

She simply walked away.

The door to the safehouse opened with a faint hiss. Light from the hallway spilled briefly into the dark room before vanishing again as the door slammed shut behind her.

Silence returned.

Firefly sat there for a long moment.

"...I really don’t understand people."

Then the memories came back. They always did when she was alone.

The smell of burning earth.

The sound of chitin cracking beneath weapons.

Massive insects swarming across a battlefield littered with bodies.

Her siblings screaming as they were torn apart.

An armored man controlling countless floating swords.

An angel falling, her wings burning with an incandescent flame.

Firefly standing over the corpse.

Her armored heel crushing the lifeless body while rage and despair swallowed everything inside her chest.

The battlefield covered in corpses.

Her comrades.

Her family.

The insects tearing into her flesh.

Her body regenerating again and again while her comrades merged with her being.

Her soul burning away as fuel.

The explosion that erased everything.

Sweat trickled down her face.

Her breathing quickened.

The ghost leaned closer.

"If you want it to go away, then you must listen to me."

Her voice brushed against Firefly’s ear.

"Give me control. If you will fade anyway... then burn for me."

Firefly’s hands clenched.

Her entire body shook, voice growing hoarse.

"I will kill you. I will kill the King of Swords."

Her voice grew steadier.

"We will destroy Fate."

She repeated the words again.

And again.

And again.

A thin smile appeared on the ghost’s face.

"Of course you must."

Her voice carried faint amusement now.

"But did you forget?"

The room grew colder.

"I am already dead. You killed me."

Behind Firefly, the air twisted.

More figures appeared.

Hundreds.

Thousands.

Women who looked exactly like her.

Some with short hair.

Some with braids.

Some with scars.

All of them reaching toward her.

"You killed all of us."

Their hands touched her skin. Every contact burned like molten iron against her soul.

Firefly screamed.

The runes floating before her flickered slightly.

Two lines glowed brighter than the rest.

Flaw: [Immortal Flame].

Flaw Description: "Your family is always with you, even in death."