Honkai: Star Rail’s newest animated short, “Rondo Across Countless Kalpas,” featured Black Swan and Acheron in what fans describe as “terrifying” scenes.
Honkai: Star Rail is a free-to-play strategy turn-based role-playing game (RPG) developed by miHoYo. In it, players become the Trailblazers, traveling through different planets and meeting new people.
The game has consistent updates that introduce new worlds, areas, and characters, adding to the main and side storylines. Version 2.0 showed us a new planet called Penacony and included notable figures such as Aventurine, Sparkle, Black Swan, and Acheron.
Acheron was officially revealed as a playable character, and her skills and kit were discussed during the Honkai: Star Rail 2.1 livestream. The livestream also showed the teaser for the animated short, which features Black Swan and Acheron and was finally posted on their YouTube channel and other platforms.
In the animated short “Rondo Across Countless Kalpas,” Black Swan had shown her interest in Acheron and asked her for a dance. During the first half of the dance, Black Swan was taking the lead.
She was trying to use her abilities to peek into Acheron’s memory, “Everyone has a past, and the past shapes the present. Some people hold onto memories, while others are haunted by them, unable to escape. That is why I took action. I want to know what she is.”
She continued, “Many were drawn to this feast. The IPC, the Garden of Recollection, Fools, the Nameless, and… the Annihilation Gang. They should have been present, but… Duke Inferno is dead. He and his children won’t be attending. What have you done, beautiful ‘Ranger’?” During the “Whodunit – The Sound and the Fury” mission, Aventurine revealed that Duke Inferno or Ifrit was killed on their way to Penacony and suggested that it was Acheron.
After asking Acheron about what happened, things took a darker turn as Acheron responded, “Excuse me… Are you asking me?” Finally, Black Swan could peek into Acheron’s memories with everything turning red and black. Acheron was now taking the lead as opposed to the earlier, terrifying Black Swan, which prompted her to try to escape.
Towards the end of the video, Acheron took quite some time before she finally remembered who the Annihilation Gang was.
As a fan stated, “The silly lack of memory or loss of directions is actually kind of chilling. She really does seem to embrace nihility and the void overall. She forgets easily because everything is lost to the void. Hell, even during the dance she seems to have a thousand yard stare for a good portion of it as she seems completely unaffected by Black Swan’s advances.”
When looking into the Interactive Voices of Acheron in the Character menu, there’s one for Acheron wherein Black Swan says, “Avoid entering someone’s past memories lightly, especially hers.” This reflects how terrifying Acheron’s memories must’ve been for her.
As Acheron walked away with the red tint and people falling in the background, it seems that she had taken countless lives. The animated short showed the mysteriousness and terrifying sides of the character, making Honkai: Star Rail fans look forward to the continuation of the main storyline as well as acquiring her as a playable character!