角色故事•四（解鎖條件：角色等級80）
若讓她參演「終末」的劇目，在億萬種可能性的匯流中，她都將以各種方式叛離。

星核獵手有太多關於銀河的秘密，當她窺探這些記憶，「毀滅」終有一日將向她投來注視。
她將厭倦無休止的苦旅，轉而加速終末的到來——以「須臾」為名，升格為毀滅「記憶」的大君。

在一種可能性中，她會令銀河所有人遺忘她的晉升，似乎從沒有第八位絕滅大君出現。
當時間走向盡頭，她的火焰將燃遍善見天，將宇宙過去的摹本付之一炬。由此，她向所有的無漏淨子宣告，她會為銀河留下「記憶」的墳塋。
……
所以，我拒絕了她加入「星核獵手」的請求，以斷絕這洶湧的可能性。

——劇本的批註

「記憶，毀滅，終末……」
嘴角揚起，裙裾飄飄，不停旋轉。
到頭來，她仍不知道自己到底要投向何種命運，或許永遠不會有事物能令她滿足——
「但如此一來，我便永遠不會是命運的奴隸。」

一曲舞畢，只剩下餘音在灰燼中繚繞——
「那便再度痴愛，再度叛離，再度投身命運的洋流吧。」  

Character Story: Part IV

• Unlocked at Character Level 80

If she were to be cast in the play of the Finality, among the confluence of countless possibilities, she would find ways to rebel in every single one.

The Stellaron Hunters hold too many secrets of the cosmos, and as she peers into these memories, the Destruction will one day cast THEIR gaze upon her.
Weary of her endless suffering journey, she hastens the coming of Finality by becoming the Overlord who destroys Remembrance, taking the name "Ephemera."

In one possibility, she would make everyone in the cosmos forget her ascension, as if the eighth Lord Ravager had never existed.
When time reaches its end, her flames will engulf the Eden of Blessed Insight, burning every trace of the universe's past to ashes. Thus, she declares to all Pure Children of Anāsrava that she will leave behind a tomb of the Remembrance for the cosmos.
...
Therefore, I rejected her request to join the Stellaron Hunters, to sever this raging possibility.

— Script Notes

"Remembrance, Destruction, Finality..."
With a smile and flowing skirt, she twirls ceaselessly.
In the end, she still doesn't know which destiny she should embrace, perhaps nothing will ever truly satisfy her...
"But this way, I'll never be Destiny's Slave."

As the dance ends, only echoes linger in the ashes.
"So let us fall in love again, rebel again, and cast ourselves into destiny's currents once more."

千冶·刃

角色詳情
身如春木，心若死灰，指尖仍留工匠的火星。
累世宿怨再度點燃，他許諾將自己與神明一同送往彼岸——
支離此身，千冶成刃…會鑄就何種答案？  

Character Details

His body is like springwood. His heart is like dead ash. Yet still, a craftsman's spark cling to his fingertips.
Ancient grudges flare anew. He vows to send both himself and that God over to the other shore.
This body torn asunder, yet holding fast through a thousand temperings into a blade... What answer will it forge?

千冶·刃

角色詳情
身如春木，心若死灰，指尖仍留工匠的火星。
累世宿怨再度點燃，他許諾將自己與神明一同送往彼岸——
支離此身，千冶成刃…會鑄就何種答案？  

Character Details

His body is like springwood. His heart is like dead ash. Yet still, a craftsman's spark cling to his fingertips.
Ancient grudges flare anew. He vows to send both himself and that God over to the other shore.
This body torn asunder, yet holding fast through a thousand temperings into a blade... What answer will it forge?

角色故事•一（解鎖條件：角色等級20）
他想起初至朱明不久，仰望那不可勝數的鑄器典籍，庫房陳列的神兵像海一樣無際。
蟪蛄不知春秋，朝菌不知晦朔——他第一次感受到人在時間前的渺小，以短生種的壽命，他恐怕一輩子也只能觸摸到鑄器的一角。
他只能從邊角料開始，用煤渣填滿搖搖欲墜的冶煉爐。
他失敗了，那柄劍看似通體無瑕，鋒銳無比，卻在他彈指試劍時支離破碎。
「一柄無用的鋒刃……」他羞憤地藏起了劍。
他沒有看到，白髮蒼蒼的師父撫過那柄殘劍，指尖竟然留下一絲血痕——
「不忍萬物靡費，必善盡其巧工，好。」

他想起自己為十王司鍛造的枷鎖。
「鑄劍如煉心，把最簡單的器物鑄好，才是本事。」
他不明白，既然自己的功夫已經出類拔萃，師父為何要讓自己從學徒練起？
但他從來不會和師父爭辯，他相信將軍的話，就像他相信自己絕對不會被埋沒。
師兄弟們來過，焰輪八葉來過，懷炎來過，他們看着日夜不息，守在鑄煉宮中的他，直到火焰熄滅，眾人見到了此生最為懾人的枷鎖。
那鐐銬寒光內斂，卻肅殺如山，誰也沒想到，多年後幽鎖深牢的步離戰首，會在類似的刑具中度過漫長的監禁歲月。

他想起成為百冶的試煉。但一個短生種要選為朱明工匠之首，前所未有。
他做好了準備，卻在冶煉開始時發現自己的材料全數被偷換為殘次的廢鐵。
他笑了笑，卻在一個晝夜後，端出了玲瓏精巧的機關獅子，遠勝奇珍異寶所鑄造的機關。
他記得被賜予「百冶」前，師父重複了那個最簡單的問題——
「何物為刃？」
他從沒有猶豫過自己的回答，那即是他要鑄煉的、冠絕此世的神兵。

然而，當這些遙遠往事浮起的時候，已滿是劍碎悲鳴的聲音。  

Character Story: Part I

• Unlocked at Character Level 20

He still remembered those early days in the Zhuming, gazing up at the endless shelves of forging manuals, the armory's display of divine weapons stretching out like an endless sea.
As a mayfly never sees the night, a cicada knows nothing of spring and autumn. For the first time in his life, he truly understood how small a man could be next to the ages. With the short lifespan of his kind, he'd be lucky to even scratch the surface of the forging art.
He could only start from scraps, filling the crumbling smelting furnace with coal slag.
He failed. That sword seemed flawless and sharp beyond measure, yet shattered into pieces when he flicked his finger to test it.
"A useless blade..."Burning with shame, he hid it away.
What he didn't see was his white-haired master running a finger across that broken sword, nor the thin red line of blood it left on his fingertip.
"Waste not the bounty of the world, but perfect it through craft. Good."

He remembered the shackles he forged for the Ten-Lords Commission.
"Forging a blade is like tempering the soul. The real skill is making the simplest thing well."
He didn't understand. If his skills were already exceptional, why did his master make him start from being an apprentice?
But he never argued. He believed in the general's words, just as he believed that a true gem never stays buried for long.
His fellow disciples came, the Flamewheel Octet came, Huaiyan came. They all watched him, laboring day and night without rest in the Forge. Until the flames finally died out, and they laid eyes on the most fearsome shackles of their lives.
The cold gleam of those manacles was muted, but their menace weighed on one like a mountain. No one could have imagined that years later, the imprisoned Borisin Warhead would spend long, long years locked up in chains cut from the same cloth.

He remembered the trial for Furnace Master. But for a short-life species to be chosen as the chief craftsman of the Zhuming, that was unprecedented.
He'd prepared himself well. But when the smelting began, he found that all his materials had been swapped for rotten scrap.
He just smiled. A day and a night later, he unveiled a delicate, ingenious mechanical lion, a creation that put any treasure-forged contraption to shame.
He remembered how before being granted the title "Furnace Master," his master repeated that simplest of questions—
"What makes a blade?"
He'd never once hesitated in his answer. That was the peerless weapon he was meant to forge, the one that would leave every other blade in the dust.

Yet when these distant memories resurface, all he could hear was the mournful howls of shattered blades.

角色故事•二（解鎖條件：角色等級40）
加入星核獵手，只為尋求最後的「解脫」…起碼，獵手是這樣承諾的。

叮叮噹噹，彈殼掉落到地面，仿佛某種樂曲。
「糟糕，子彈打完了呢。」女人舉起雙手，眼神瞥向天空。
緘默的夜空，一柱光束刺破天穹，向獵手們襲來。
瘋狂的男人迎了上去，高能光束險些讓他灰飛煙滅——不，顯然不能，他的肉身如同瘋長的春藤，片刻間恢復如初。
「別再考驗我的忠誠！假如發現你們的許諾只是謊言，我第一個就殺了你！」
「聽我說，阿刃。只要你不想，沒有人會讓你受傷。」

眼前的反物質軍團被墨色的身影扯成碎片。
銀色機甲將僥倖逃脫的虛卒一拳擊碎，無奈地看着與大軍斡旋的孤身一人。
「記住，薩姆，千萬別被捲入他的劍陣。」
她想起臨行前，卡芙卡給她的囑託。看着眼前觸目驚心的殘骸，她明白了何物為刃——
他就是星核獵手最鋒利的「刃」。

鏘鏘泠泠，徹夜的大雪險些將營地整個淹沒。
銀髮少女走出帳篷，發現他仍然盤坐着，劍橫於膝頭。
「你歇着吧，今天我來守夜。」
「不用，我習慣了。」
「哼，怪人。」
少女看着雪覆滿男人的肩頭，仿佛染白了他的頭髮。
她突然感到深深的寒意。
她知道，世上有一些人，只有在這樣一無所有的雪原上，才能感到片刻的安慰。  

Character Story: Part II

• Unlocked at Character Level 40

He joined the Stellaron Hunters to seek the ultimate "salvation"... At least, that's what the Hunters promised.

Clink, clank, bullet casings clattered to the ground, like some kind of melody.
"Oh no, I'm all out of bullets." The lady raised both hands, eyes darting toward the sky.
The night was silent. Then a pillar of light pierced the heavens, hurtling toward the hunters.
The madman charged straight into it. The high-energy beam nearly tore him apart. No, clearly not. His flesh was like rampant spring ivy, knitting itself back together in the blink of an eye.
"Stop testing my loyalty! If I find out your promises were nothing but lies, I'll be the first to put a blade through you!"
"Listen to me, Bladie. As long as you don't want it, no one can make you bleed."

The Antimatter Legion before her eyes was torn to shreds by a dark figure.
A silver mech punched what few Voidrangers remained into dust, then turned to watch, helpless, as one man danced alone against an army.
"Remember, Sam, whatever you do, don't get caught in his sword formation."
She recalled Kafka's parting words before the mission. And now, staring at the gruesome wreckage before her, she understood what it meant to be a blade—
He was the sharpest "Blade" of the Stellaron Hunters.

Clink, clang, the snow came down all night, so thick it nearly buried the camp whole.
The silver-haired girl stepped out of her tent and found him still sitting cross-legged, sword laid across his knees.
"Get some rest. I'll take watch tonight."
"No need. I'm used to it."
"Hmph. Weirdo."
She watched as snow piled up on his shoulders, as if it had turned his hair white.
A deep chill suddenly washed over her.
She understood then. There were some people in this world who could only find a moment's peace on these barren, empty snowfields.

角色故事•三（解鎖條件：角色等級60）
混沌，黑暗，來自寰宇伊始的巨獸之腹仿佛要將一切溶解。
他原本以為自己早已對痛苦感到麻木，但此刻無形的爭鬥卻要將他的靈魂撕扯粉碎。

瑣碎的絮語在他的腦內喋喋不休，一步一步誘惑他劃向墮落的深淵。
「何必要抗拒？我能賜予你重塑生死的力量，令你彌補一切遺憾！」
彌補一切遺憾——他想起失望的懷炎師父，他想起原本意氣風發的五個人，他想起他本應擁有的落幕……
不，完全不是，從來不是，永遠不是。
這不過是逃避，是懦弱，是投降……
一如當年只能於悔恨中度日，一如迄今渾渾噩噩着茫然求死。
自己的「劇本」不應是這樣的「結局」。

「星核獵手為改寫終末而存在，也為改寫自己的結局而來。」
在艾利歐展現的「終末」里，他瞥見白骨滿地的彼岸花海，無垠的巨獸被貫穿，熔爐傾吐烈焰，青絲成暮雪，垂老的匠人終於能擁抱死亡，可長生禍源已於別處再度綻放……
他仍有改變這一切的機會。
「應星，難道你真想與我玉石俱焚？！你只會在生死折磨之間，承受無邊的痛苦！」
他沒有聽見倏忽的嘶吼，他聽到了師父的聲音，他聽到了同伴的聲音，他聽到了自己的聲音——
「何物為刃？」

他曾打造囚禁強敵的枷鎖，如今，他將把自己鍛造成牢籠。
作為獵手曾追尋的唯一目標，是虛無縹緲的解脫，如今，他要向悲劇的罪魁禍首復仇。
他感到自己在崩裂。
一片片，一片片，如同支離破碎的雪花，在一瞬間被磅礴的生命凍結，再度飄落於苦海之中。
「不忍萬物靡費，必善盡其巧工，好。」
他艱難地舉起手，就像許多年前，他第一次舉起了鑄煉的鐵錘，敲打那白熱的材料，直至鋒利到讓那不死的孽物承受無間地獄。
熾熱的鐵軀令他無法流淚，恍惚間他以為自己還在鑄煉宮中，如淬火後的神兵，爆發出刺目的耀光。  

Character Story: Part III

• Unlocked at Character Level 60

Chaos. Darkness. The belly of the beast from the dawn of the universe seemed ready to dissolve everything.
He'd thought himself numb to pain long ago, but now an invisible struggle threatened to tear his soul to shreds.

Petty whispers chattered on and on inside his head, step by step, coaxing him toward the abyss of ruin.
"Why resist? I can grant you the power to reforge life and death itself, to undo all your regrets!"
Undo all regrets... He thought of Master Huaiyan, the disappointment in his eyes. He thought of the five of them, once so full of promise. He thought of the ending he should have had...
No. Not that. Never that. Not once, not ever.
This was nothing but escape, cowardice, surrender...
Just like those years spent rotting in regret. Just like this aimless, half-dead existence, wandering from day to day with nothing but the wish to die.
That wasn't how his "script" was supposed to "end."

"Stellaron Hunters exist to rewrite Finality, and to rewrite their own endings."
In the "Finality" Elio revealed, he glimpsed a sea of spider lilies scattered with bones, a boundless beast skewered through, and a furnace belching flames. Black hair turned white as snow, and the aged artisan could finally embrace death. Yet the root of the immortality calamity had already bloomed anew elsewhere...
He still has a chance to change it all.
"Yingxing, are you really so bent on dragging us both into the abyss!? All you'll gain is endless suffering, torn between life and death!"
He didn't hear Shuhu's frenzied roar. Instead, he heard his master's voice, his companions' voices, his own voice—
"What makes a blade?"

He had once forged shackles to cage the mighty foes. Now, he would forge himself into a prison.
As a hunter, his sole pursuit had been the elusive release of death. Now, he would take revenge on the architect of this tragedy.
He felt himself cracking apart.
Piece by piece. Shard by shard. Like snowflakes torn asunder, frozen in an instant by a surge of boundless life, then sent drifting once more into the sea of suffering.
"Waste not the bounty of the world, but perfect it through craft. Good."
With great effort, he raised his hand, just as he had many years ago when he first lifted the forging hammer, striking the white-hot metal until it was sharp enough to plunge that immortal abomination to unending hell.
His scorching iron body couldn't shed tears. In his daze, he could almost believe he was still in the Forge, blazing with blinding radiance like a divine weapon fresh from quenching.

角色故事•四（解鎖條件：角色等級80）
他想起伊須磨洲的孤島，上面插滿了鏽蝕的殘劍。
他想回去一趟，讓那些不甘、怨恨、悲傷的劍鳴，能有片刻的安息。
他想起年歲已高的師父，心頭仍湧上一股混雜了追念和羞愧的暖流。
閉上眼，他仿佛就能聞到朱明的煙火，聽見不絕於耳的鐵砧脆響。
「等這裏結束了，或許我也可以……」
他嘆了口氣，回到了獵手的駐地。

「魔陰身？完全好了…起碼他沒吵着要把那條小青龍給扒皮抽筋了。」
「對了，刃說的那個匣子，他親口承認裏面的東西是送給我們的了！」
他輕推開門，皺了皺眉頭：「這種和任務無關的事，也要向她匯報？」
「阿刃，謝謝你。」電話那頭傳來了女人的聲音。
「不必。」
「等你們都回來了，再為你慶祝。」
男人頓了頓，走出幾步又站定——
「鐵匣子裏的東西做得不好，你們想要的話，我可以再做。」
「好，好哦，」少女驚訝地看着他，「那你親自來給她說唄，你看，跟你說話我又要重開了！」
他沒有回答，轉身回了隔壁房間。
「好好練習，你的手好了，下次PK我可不會讓着你！」

「好。」
他解開「支離」，放在了床邊。
從前，它是怨恨，是憤怒，是遺憾，是一切的痛苦。
他撫過破碎的劍身——何物為刃？

也許，刃就是刃，僅此而已。  

Character Story: Part IV

• Unlocked at Character Level 80

He thought of that lonely island of Insumousu, bristling with rusted, broken swords.
He wanted to go back, just once, to let those sword cries of grief, of hatred, of sorrow, rest in peace, if only for a moment.
He thought of his aging master, and the warmth born of longing and shame welled up in his chest.
Closing his eyes, he could almost smell the smoke and fire of the Zhuming, hear the endless rhythm of hammers on anvils.
"Once this is all over, maybe I could..."
He let out a long sigh. Then he turned and walked back to the Hunters' camp.

"Mara-struck? He's completely cured... At least he's no longer clamoring to skin that little azure dragon alive."
"Oh, right, about that box Blade mentioned, he admitted that the stuff inside was a gift for us!"
He gently pushed the door open, frowning: "Do I really need to report matters unrelated to the mission to her as well?"
"Bladie, thank you." A woman's voice came through the phone.
"No need."
"We'll celebrate for you once everyone is back."
The man paused, took a few steps, then stopped again.
"The item in the iron box is poorly made. If you want, I can make another."
"Okay, sure," the young girl looked at him in surprise, "then why don't you tell her yourself? Look, talking to you just made me have to restart again!"
He didn't reply, but turned around and headed to the next room.
"Practice hard, the next time we PK when your hand is healed, I won't go easy on you."

"Okay."
He unfastened the Shard Sword and placed it by the bed.
In the past, it was resentment, it was fury, it was regret, it was the embodiment of all agony.
He stroked the shattered blade. What exactly constitutes a blade?

Perhaps a blade is simply a blade, nothing more.