Acheron Animated Short reveals Honkai: Star Rail’s most dangerous character yet

She literally went “I don’t even know who you are”

Do you know that saying of the abyss peering back at you if you stare into it for too long? That’s basically what happened to everyone’s favorite fortune teller from Honkai: Star Rail, Black Swan, when she dared to dance with upcoming character Acheron – immediately marking her out as the most dangerous character to be introduced to the mobile game yet.

The “Rondo Across Countless Kalpas” Animated Short by HoYoverse is a five-minute video that drips with mouthwatering imagery, a shocking twist, and lots of juicy lore to dig into. It’s another high-quality release meeting expectations. In the short film, Black Swan peers into the memories of Acheron, which is delightfully depicted as the two characters dancing together – and in a way that’ll make your fantasy go wild.

It turns out, however, that Black Swan bit off much more than she could swallow. After dancing for a while, the tone of the video shifts dramatically into a horrific direction as we see that Black Swan realizes what a mistake she’s made. Instead of lightly dancing through the memories of her chosen partner, Acheron takes full control and drags Black Swan deeper into the abyss.

We see some hard imagery – feathers symbolize Black Swan’s blood as Acheron tears her to pieces again and again, leaving behind nothing but a bird-shaped carcass. Even an experienced memokeeper such as Black Swan was not prepared for the nothingness inside Acheron.

Black Swan is not having a good time in Acheron's memories / HoYoverse

Nothingness, of course, is what we must associate with IX, the Aeon of Nihility, whose Emanator we can reckon Acheron to be for sure now. Emanators are beings that have drawn the gaze of an Aeon and received some of their powers. Herta, for example, is an Emanator of Nous. Now it seems we’ve met another person with such capabilities.

Black Swan sees pieces of Acheron’s past, including her killing Ifrit alias Duke Inferno, the leader of the Annihilation Gang's Ever-Flame Mansion – as was implied during Black Swan’s own Myriad Celestia Trailer and directly stated by both her and Aventurine at the end of the version 2.0 Trailblaze Mission.

Is it getting a little warm in here? / HoYoverse

Yes, HoYoverse produced a magnificent trailer to introduce Duke Inferno and his followers and promote them as the big villains of the upcoming story arc, only to kill the guy off-screen in order to show how dangerous Acheron is – and she literally didn’t even who these people were when Black Swan asked her. Now that’s commitment to building up your characters.

Acheron will be available on the Honkai: Star Rail 2.1 banners starting on March 27, 2024.

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