Star Rail： Chant of the Terminal Paradise

The tip of the Stellar Oath, a miniature star condensing all of Estelle's will and the Beauty's power, was poised to pierce Kay's chest, corrupted by Imaginary Energy, and end this agonizing fraternal strife.

At the very moment the light was about to erupt—

An abrupt, terrifying shift!

An irresistible, incomprehensible, and vast power descended abruptly!

Formless and intangible, it felt as if the weight of the entire universe had crashed down upon this small battlefield. Space itself groaned under immense pressure; time seemed forcibly frozen for an instant. Estelle felt his sword, his body, even his soul, gripped by an invisible, colossal hand. The concentrated **Beauty's power** at his sword's tip, potent enough to pierce stars, was snuffed out like a candle in a gale! The runes along the **Stellar Oath** flared violently, emitting a piercing shriek as the light at its point instantly dimmed and dispersed.

Lykai fared worse. The massive centaur was slammed to the ground by the sudden, overwhelming force, his composite bow flying from his grasp. The hard obsidian cracked beneath him like a spiderweb as he struggled, finding even lifting his head agonizingly difficult, able only to roar in furious pain.

Even Kay, locked in his frenzy, froze instantly. The deep violet Imaginary Energy swirling around him churned and recoiled violently, like ink thrown into boiling water. The crimson fires within his visor flared erratically, filled with shock and a flicker of... fear at being observed by a higher existence? The force wasn't targeting him; its purpose seemed solely to prevent Estelle's killing blow.

This power... vast, cold, utterly devoid of emotion, yet unnervingly precise. It wasn't the fury of Destruction, nor the warmth of Beauty.

It felt more like... absolute neutrality and order, a coercive force maintaining some kind of "balance." Its strength defied comprehension, dwarfing Estelle's own power, instantly making him aware of his insignificance. Its purpose was clear and unyielding: to stop him from killing Kay.

As the constraining force ebbed like a tide, Estelle staggered a step before finding his footing.

He gripped the Stellar Oath, knuckles white, his arm trembling faintly from the terrifying suppression. He looked up towards the Vale of Sighs' twisted sky, his eyes showing no fear, only burning, indomitable fury and bone-deep coldness.

"Kay!" Estelle's voice cut through the residual energy fluctuations, clear and firm as quenched steel, striking the silent battlefield. "Look at what you've drawn! Look at the nature of the force that shields you!"

He pointed the sword at Kay, and seemingly also at the invisible, lofty source of that power.

"Your path has long been devoured by the corruption of the void! You slaughter the Legion, but you also slaughter the innocent! You betrayed the oath of guardianship, defiled the Knight's insignia! You speak of a new god, yet commit atrocities more terrible than Destruction! Your hands are stained with the blood of those you were sworn to protect! Your heart is utterly corroded by madness and darkness!"

Estelle's voice rose, imbued with a sorrowful finality. The Stellar Oath flared anew in his hand, its light no longer mere power, but the manifestation of conviction.

"No matter what power supports your atrocities! No matter what entity seeks to twist the threads of fate! I, Estelle, Grandmaster of the Knights of Beauty, hereby swear—"

He drove the Stellar Oath deep into the cracked crystalline earth before him, dropping to one knee, hands clasped tightly over the hilt as if performing the most sacred rite. His voice boomed like a bell, echoing across the heavens, each word imbued with undeniable will, a declaration to the starfield and the invisible presence:

"By the stars as witness, by the light of the departed!

I swear by the sword in my hand, to defend the purity of life!

I swear by the Beauty in my heart, to stand against all distortion and tyranny!

Though the Abyss yawns before me, though deities bar my path!

Though my body burns to ash, though my soul shatters!

I shall press onward, to sever the chains of corruption!

To purge the filth, until the dawn returns anew!

This oath, eternal and unbroken!"

As the final syllable resonated, an unprecedented, utterly pure surge of Beauty's power erupted from the Stellar Oath embedded in the ground!

Not an offensive beam, but a Sanctuary – an absolute space forcibly carved out by Estelle's oath and indomitable will, isolating its interior from the outside world!

Invisible barriers snapped into existence, instantly enclosing Estelle, Kay, and the surrounding area within a sphere dozens of meters across.

Beyond the barrier, the Vale's crimson sky, twisted fungal forests, toxic haze, and even Lykai's struggling form instantly blurred and distorted, seen as if through violently rippling crystal. Inside the Sanctuary, the light became unnaturally pure and constant, like frozen moonlight.

The cracked obsidian ground was overlaid with a flowing, shimmering silver energy, like liquid stardust. The air grew thick and silent, severed from all external clamor. Even the pervasive scent of Imaginary Decay was temporarily purified and expelled.

An absolute sense of "isolation" permeated the space. Estelle could feel it clearly – that vast, cold "impartial" force that had intervened moments ago was forcibly blocked upon contact with this Sanctuary! The barrier held with the tenacity of stardust gossamer, resisting external penetration.

But Estelle's heart sank – he could feel the Sanctuary's walls straining under unimaginable pressure, like thin ice beneath a boulder. The barrier shielding them from the deity's influence was thinning at an alarming rate. It wouldn't last long!

Within the Sanctuary, only Estelle and Kay remained. Brothers, separated by flowing stardust, facing each other across the silent expanse.

Kay seemed momentarily stunned by the sudden Sanctuary and its pure power. The crimson flames in his visor flickered. He looked down at his cracked, filth-encrusted armor, then up at the Sanctuary's pure, glowing ceiling, emitting a low, metallic, guttural growl.

The Sanctuary suppressed the influx of external Imaginary Energy, dampening the violent force within him. For an agonizingly brief moment, a sliver of tortured clarity pierced the shroud of his madness.

"Es...tel...le..." Kay's voice was a ragged, broken whisper, dragged from the depths, laden with an indescribable mix of pain, struggle, and even... bewilderment? But the next instant, the crimson flames blazed anew.

The void's corruption, like clinging rot, devoured the fleeting lucidity. "Useless! You cannot hold me! Cannot stop me! The new god must descend! The remnants of the old era... must be purged!"

He roared, raising the Void Greatsword once more. The deep purple energy, though suppressed by the Sanctuary, still raged like a trapped beast making its last stand.

"Kay! Look around you!" Estelle's voice echoed within the silent Sanctuary, possessing a soul-piercing intensity. He gestured to the flowing, pure stardust beneath their feet, to the unblemished light above. "This is the 'Beauty' we once swore to guard! Not slaughter! Not destruction! Certainly not a throne paved with the corpses of the innocent! Stop this! Before you are utterly lost!"

"Lost? Hahaha!" Kay laughed, the sound filled with despairing madness. "I never intended to turn back from this path! To shatter that cursed prophecy... I embrace being this Omen! You... don't understand!" He ceased speaking, channeling all his madness, pain, and twisted conviction into a final assault! Abandoning defense, he detonated the last vestiges of his Sanctuary-suppressed Imaginary Energy, transforming himself into a dark purple comet tearing through space! With the resolve to take them both down, he hurtled towards Estelle! The Void Greatsword trailed a wake of annihilation, aimed straight at Estelle's heart!

Facing this ultimate strike, embodying all Kay's fallen power and insane will, the last trace of hesitation vanished from Estelle's eyes, replaced by pure, icy resolve. Words could no longer reclaim his lost brother. The Sanctuary's barrier shuddered violently. Time was nearly up.

Estelle took a deep breath. The Sanctuary's pure light seemed to answer a call, converging wildly upon the Stellar Oath in his hand. He did not dodge. He did not parry. Instead, he raised the Stellar Oath vertically before him, its point aimed at the Sanctuary's ceiling. The runes along its blade blazed like awakened constellations.

"Stellar Oath · Final Resonance!"

Estelle's voice was calm, yet imbued with the gravity of judgment. He did not swing the sword wildly. He simply extended it forward, with deliberate grace.

There was no earth-shattering explosion. No blinding flash of light. Only a single, hyper-condensed thread of pure white light, as if woven from compressed starlight, shot silently from the Stellar Oath's tip.

This thread was the purest manifestation of the concept of Beauty. It was the ultimate sublimation of Estelle's guardian oath in this desperate hour.

It discarded all extravagance and wasted energy, concentrating all power, will, and grief for his lost brother into this "single line."

It pierced through Kay's raging torrent of Imaginary Energy with effortless precision, like a hot knife through butter. It ignored the defenses of the monstrous armor, passing unimpeded into Kay's chest – striking the core that once held a knight's heart, now occupied by void and madness.

Time seemed to freeze.

Kay's violent charge ceased instantly. The deep purple energy surrounding him dissipated and vanished like a punctured balloon.

The Void Greatsword slipped from his nerveless fingers, striking the stardust-covered ground with a dull thud. The crimson flames in his visor flickered wildly, like dying embers, then extinguished completely, leaving only two empty, lifeless dark holes.

The Sanctuary's light began to fluctuate violently. Its barrier emitted sounds of imminent failure. The distorted vision of the outside world sharpened. The cold "impartial" force was about to breach the seal.

Kay's body began to crystallize rapidly from the point of impact. Dark violet crystals spread like a plague, coating his armor, consuming his form. Slowly, with agonizing effort, he raised one crystallizing hand. It trembled, as if powered by the final shred of his fading will, reaching towards Estelle.

Estelle stood his ground, the light of the Stellar Oath now dim. Maintaining the Sanctuary and unleashing the final strike had drained him.

He watched the reaching hand, the crystalline fingertips, an ocean of sorrow welling within him.

In the very last instant before Kay's body solidified completely into a dark violet crystalline statue, frozen in its final gesture, his crystallizing fingertip touched—with an infinitesimally light, almost imperceptible brush—the surface of Estelle's knightly insignia on his chest.

No sound. No flash of light.

Only a small, sharp, searing cold shard of dark violet crystal—seemingly condensed from the deepest darkness and purest agony—detached itself from Kay's form. As if alive, it instantly melted into the surface of Estelle's insignia, vanishing without a trace.

Simultaneously, Kay's body solidified completely into a grotesque, unmoving statue of dark violet crystal, forever reaching out.

Almost at the same moment, a soft pop echoed. The Sanctuary forged by the Stellar Oath shattered like a soap bubble and vanished. The foul air of the Vale of Sighs, its stench, and the distant sounds of battle rushed back in.

Estelle swayed, bracing himself with the Stellar Oath to keep from falling. He looked down at the insignia on his chest. It appeared unchanged. But he could feel it... a cold, heavy torrent of madness, pain, and endless screaming, lurking just behind the small metal disc. A dormant abyss, waiting to erupt.

Lykai scrambled up, rushing to Estelle's side, supporting him urgently. "Commander! Are you alright? Kay, he..."

Estelle's gaze shifted from the insignia to the dark violet crystalline statue before him. Its empty eye sockets seemed to stare back, filled with infinite accusation and... perhaps a sliver of unutterable, released peace?

"It's over..." Estelle's voice was hoarse and weary, laden with a profound, soul-deep exhaustion. He reached out, gently touching the cold, unyielding crystal surface.

"But... this is only the beginning."

That shard... Kay's final offering... What secrets did it hold? Estelle's heart plummeted into an unknown abyss. Kay's memories, a Pandora's box, now rested upon his chest, awaiting the moment it would be opened.