: Hey! Don't let March 7th suddenly appear like that! It's even scarier this way!
: Damn, the entire bed is already covered in solid ice!
: That scared me to death!
: When will March finally get better?
: Damn it, I was so absorbed watching Amphoreus that I almost forgot the trouble outside isn't small either!
: Brothers, this is bad, March 7th has already been frozen for two episodes in a row!
: How many more episodes is she going to stay frozen for?!
...
After seeing March. The chat instantly went crazy…
Only now did the audience come back to their senses. Compared to Amphoreus, the situation with March 7th outside seemed even worse.
Just then, the screen went black.
Only Tribbie's voice remained.
"And so, this long day passed for Okhema."
"Some people arrived, and some left forever, just like every other day of this journey where we, stumbling, move forward."
"We have long been prepared. If we are to chase the flames, then we must grow used to farewells. And yet..."
"No one back then could foresee..."
""Death"... Its arrival would always be so sudden and so momentous."
"Even Stelle, coming from beyond the sky, could not escape the Reaper's two hands. And what people gained and lost in that trial of "Death"..."
"Was far heavier than "Life" itself."
"Just like the destiny that the prophecy revealed for Cas..."
"At the end of the sea of flowers, the souls of the living shall warm thy fingertips..."
"And after an embrace... there shall be eternal separation."
Tribbie spoke slowly. Slow enough for the audience to clearly hear every sentence and have enough time to think.
Right now, their minds were full of question marks.
What did it mean that when someone arrives, someone leaves?
What did it mean that people were already prepared?
Come on! They hadn't prepared for anyone leaving at all, okay?!
And… That final hint about death made the audience's hearts sink straight to the bottom.
Just as they were craving more answers.
Click. The progress bar had already reached the end.
Episode Two.
Had ended!
...
: GAIA!!!!
: Damn it! This traditional cliffhanger is getting more and more outrageous!
: This cut is brutal as hell!
: They're already teasing death!
: This is way too worrying, even Stelle can't escape the grasp of Death.
: What does Mihoyo mean by this?! Are they really outrageous enough to start killing off the Astral Express crew?!
: And March is still frozen!
: Holy crap… this is bad…
: Could it be that we've all guessed wrong, and the one who's actually going to be in danger next is Dan Heng?!
: Dan Heng: ???
: Damn it, it's too short! So short! Mihoyo, how dare you end it here, I want Episode Three right now!
: The withdrawal symptoms are kicking in. I didn't even realize the episode was ending! Damn!
: In the blink of an eye, the stories of two Chrysos Heirs were finished. I haven't had enough yet!
: So many mysteries still haven't been explained, and there are even more now!
...
After the classic end-of-episode, the chat was filled with wails.
Not just because of the cliffhanger, but also because the content of Episode Two itself was extremely rich.
The stories of the two Chrysos Heirs were each written with remarkable completeness.
Their characterization was also deeper than in the first episode.
After finishing it. When the audience looked back at the entire second episode.
The first images that surfaced in their minds were the figures of Mydei and Tribbie.
Those images felt incredibly vivid. As if they had truly followed them through a long and arduous adventure.
And… If the first episode used delicate storytelling to immerse everyone into the world of Amphoreus, then the second episode was the first time the seemingly harmless Amphoreus bared its fangs at the audience.
What intrigued people the most were still those mysteries.
And the Flame Reaver!
There was simply too much to savor. Even after the episode ended, the audience didn't leave and continued discussing it through the chat.
...
: Ah… after finishing it, I feel empty and lost.
: I've already been completely filled with Star Rail…
: I have to say, the intensity of this episode is way higher than the first!
: Exactly! The battle with the Flame Reaver had me sweating the whole time.
: It's the first time I've seen a villain with such overwhelming pressure.
: I was even thinking at the time, could the Flame Reaver be a hidden Emanator in Amphoreus?
: Probably not an Emanator, but the Flame Reaver's combat power is undeniably terrifying.
: This guy has exaggerated clone abilities and insane survivability, he can even cross through time and space!
: His entire body is stacked with stats. I can't even see what the mechanics are supposed to be.
: Trash-tier boss Flame Reaver hahaha!
: Heh, if you think about how Trianne died indirectly at the Flame Reaver's hands, can you still laugh like that?
: ??? Shut the hell up!
:But doesn't anyone feel that the Flame Reaver's appearance is very strange?
: A terrifying masked man holding a greatsword who never appeared for thousands of years, yet the moment Stelle arrives, he suddenly shows up.
: Even the Chrysos Heirs don't know where he came from, but he's ridiculously strong.
: He can even solo-kill Titans, it feels like killing Titans is as easy as killing chickens for him.
: Yeah… that part is really suspicious.
: Thinking about what Black Swan said earlier, I honestly feel that the Flame Reaver's appearance is deeply connected to the three Paths and the outside cosmos. He's definitely not a native of Amphoreus.
:That makes sense.
: I just wonder which faction he belongs to. He's really mysterious.
: But whatever. No matter how strong he was, he still got defeated. I think the Flame Reaver's sudden appearance and quick defeat might just be setting the stage for other characters to appear later.
: But he could also be a traitor. Don't you remember he once tried to attack Mydei's only weakness?
: Hiss… that's true…
: Anyway, this guy is completely shrouded in mystery. There's basically no clue proving his identity.
...
In the chat, the audience kept discussing the suspicious points surrounding the Flame Reaver.
Just like before. In the current setting, this guy was excessively powerful, yet his origins were extremely mysterious.
Everyone in the chat let their imaginations run wild, making all kinds of guesses.
And unsurprisingly, before long, the topic was steered toward the Path of Elation.
For the audience, Elation seems to be the only solution in the Honkai: Star Rail universe.
Whenever something can't be figured out, it must be Aha's doing.
But jokes aside. While the comments was making guesses, some fans were also posting threads on forums compiling the information from Episode 2.
And they put forward their own speculations.
The Flame Reaver remains mysterious, and the development of Amphoreus is still unpredictable.
But correspondingly, for those veteran analysts, the sense of dissonance hidden beneath this moving story was also growing stronger.
"What exactly is the third Path?"
"Why is the power system of Amphoreus so unique? It even seems far removed from the other planets we're familiar with."
"If you dig into every detail of Amphoreus, the information MiHoYo has hidden is probably enormous!"
Exploration posts like these were popping up on forums and across major platforms like bamboo shoots after rain.
Fans also flooded in, joining the discussions.
Among them, the most eye-catching was a thread exploring the power system of Amphoreus.
"As we all know, the most striking impression MiHoYo's Amphoreus gave from the very beginning was its special power system."
"In Amphoreus, there are Titans, Priests, Chrysos Heirs and finally Mortals…"
"The power wielded by the Titans is the highest level of power that the people of this world can possibly obtain."
"But here's the old question, the power ceiling itself feels strange!"
"If I were a scholar in the Star Rail universe, I'd absolutely dissect Amphoreus to see what's really going on."
"And after Episode 2 ended, we obtained a lot of key information. Looking back at it now, Amphoreus feels even more bizarre!"
"First of all, the prophecy."
"There's definitely something wrong with the prophecy. When Tribios' mother received it, it was clearly stated that during the festival for worshipping Janus, she obtained the prophecy from the Worldbearing Titan."
"Why would a ritual devoted to the Passage Titan receive revelations from the Worldbearing Titan? That alone is already suspicious."
"No one knows whether this prophecy truly came from the Worldbearing Titan."
"Next, we'll set aside what the prophecy means for Amphoreus itself. For us, it only tells us one thing, everyone will part with one person, and only that person will witness the miracle."
"Everyone else will die, leaving only one person to begin the re-genesis of the world."
"Based on the current direction of the story, the most reasonable, and also the most boring, explanation I can think of is this: following the current steps, all the Chrysos Heirs will ascend to godhood, and then die on the path of Flame Chase."
"Previously I wondered how these people could possibly die so easily after becoming demigods. But the appearance of the Flame Reaver fixed the bug of the Chrysos Heirs being too invincible."
"How do you make demigods die? Simple. Now there's a Flame Reaver who also wants the Coreflames."
"And just like that, the deaths of the Chrysos Heirs gain a logical explanation."
"So I'm guessing the Flame Reaver won't simply be trapped or disappear so easily. In the next episode, he should appear again and continue stirring up trouble."
The thread starter's speculation was very detailed and very reasonable. It was practically the most logical scenario given the current direction of the plot.
Mydei would eventually die from wounds inflicted from behind. And the story had conveniently shown that the Flame Reaver seemed to know Mydei's weakness.
Combined with the prophecy, the Flame Reaver appeared to be the designated villain.
A necessary piece for fulfilling the prophecy. And that was precisely where the problem lay.
It felt a little too deliberate. Everything seemed as though it had been designed in advance.
Whenever an all-powerful villain was needed, the Flame Reaver appeared.
The prophecy said Mydei would die that way, and right on cue the scene showed the Flame Reaver striking his weakness.
The comments from fans beneath the post expressed the same feeling as the original poster.
...
: Yeah, it's really strange…
: The prophecy itself already feels suspicious, but it actually predicts the future correctly, that makes it even weirder.
: I think the prophecy probably wasn't issued by the Titans at all. Could it have come from the Black Tide?
: !!! That's a crazy theory!
: But what would it even mean? What's the purpose?
: Even if all of this was planned out in advance, what exactly is the prophecy trying to achieve?
: From what we see so far, the prophecy has always guided the Chrysos Heirs to continue the journey of chasing the flame and recreate the world.
: Exactly. If it really came from the Black Tide…
: And if the prophecy itself represents the villain's side…
: Then there'd be no reason to push for world recreation.
: I can't see the truth yet, but all these questions give me one strong feeling, everything feels heavily designed.
: I suspect there might be a traitor among the Titans.
...
Most of the replies under the post focused on the purpose of the prophecy.
Amphoreus itself was already a doomed world.
If the prophecy truly came from some malicious entity, then logically it should guide people to abandon resistance against the apocalypse, not push the Chrysos Heirs to continue their flame-chasing journey.
And while countless fans were racking their brains over it, very few people went a step further to guess where the real problem lay.
If the prophecy itself was suspicious, then could the world recreation it pointed toward also be suspicious?
From the very first episode, Amphoreus had been constantly emphasizing the existence of the prophecy.
Then in Episode 2 it was revealed that the prophecy had issues.
That meant the foreshadowing for the future had already been planted at this moment, with subtle hints already given.
It follows a very simple logic. In a business war, what's the most direct way to find the real mastermind behind everything?
Answer: whoever benefits is the mastermind.
The prophecy and world recreation follow the same principle. Everyone now believes the prophecy is no longer trustworthy.
Yet the prophecy still guides the Chrysos Heirs toward recreating the world.
From a third-person perspective, there is only one explanation.
The re-genesis of the world benefits the entity that issued the prophecy.
And the many doubts derived from this would begin to truly touch the secrets of Amphoreus.
For example… the truth behind the re-genesis of the world.
Or… what is the reason behind the re-genesis of the world according to the prophecy.
Or… the logic behind the Flame Reaver's actions.
Once the connection between the prophecy and world recreation is understood, many later questions would naturally make sense.
But these hints were hidden far too deeply. It was difficult for fans to dig this far into the mystery.
At this moment, in the minds of the audience, there was still no great sense of urgency or pressure.
The battles within Amphoreus still seemed to be nothing more than conflicts within a mysterious planet. It was mysterious, but ultimately insignificant to the broader Honkai: Star Rail universe.
The only thing that made the audience uneasy was the ending that hinted at countless deaths.