Honkai Star Rail (READER)

Welt - You can't save everyone

---X---

"Hurry! We don't have much time-" 

You chased behind the fleeting form of the only man you knew to willingly run into the core a dying planet. He raced towards a pillar of sand that rose into the endless caresses of space, surrounded by a horrible premonition of death. The world around you both a scorching mess as piles of debris kept hurling down from the sky. Fires began to spread all around you. 

"Welt! Stop, we can't reach it in time!" You screamed, losing him in a barrage of sand that stung your eyes. Pushing against the raging storm you nearly lost your footing, a mistake that would have sent you barreling into a ravine that surged mere moments before. 

This planet was dying. 

 "We can't give up Y/N, not now!" 

Pushing on you shielded your eyes and he was gone. It had been a moment; a single second and he was gone. 

In the seconds that followed, the entirety of the Stellaron would completely annihilate the remaining specs of the ground beneath you. Your heart began to throb erratically as you desperately searched for Welt. 

Unable to find him you were unwilling to give up, willing to die on this planet if you never found him in time to leave. 

"WELT!" 

Finally spotting him charge ahead into a swarm of nothingness you threw yourself to follow him. Stumbling through the storm, you pleaded to whoever could hear 'Don't take him from me'. The sand picked up and cut through your skin like shards of broken glass. Nothing would stop you from reaching him, not the sand, and not his willful heroism. He couldn't leave you, not again. 

Once you'd finally gotten to him you were just short of enough time to make it back to the express. "Damn it, Welt!" You placed all your might into forging a protective barrier that meekly warped around the two of you. It was nowhere near powerful enough to completely negate the destructive power of the Stellaron- as the both of you were launched into the air the moment the planet was destroyed. 

"Y/N! Are you alright?" Concerned voices flooded your mind as you slowly batted your eyes open. 

"Welt!? Where's-"

"I'm here." 

You stared at Welt's dejected form, as he languished in his failure to save the world from its destruction. 

You charged to your feet and brought him into your terrified embrace. Tightly wrapping your arms onto his back and clenching the dense fabric of his overcoat. 

He could feel you shaking in his arms as he dropped his cane and bit his tongue, not wanting to make a scene. You rarely showed such vulnerability, even to him. He knew that what had just happened had truly shaken you enough, to the extent that you nearly broke down. 

Unwilling to let him go you gently retract your arms from his embrace and join him to look out at the broken sphere. It could no longer be considered a planet at that point, a husk of life, devoid of any remaining organic material. It was a completely scorched planet. The red hues of lava pouring out from its molten core and sending cracks of ash and a cloud of death over its atmosphere. 

"We were so close- If I could only have gotten there sooner." He looked longingly at the desolate chunk of flaming rocks. 

"Are you serious?" The look you gave him was nearly complete contempt. You weren't sure how he could say such a thing, not after what the both of you had narrowly survived. 

"Y/N-"

"Don't 'Y/N' me! We nearly died on that planet." You took a step away from him. 

"Putting you in danger is my greatest regret." He admitted, reaching a hand to your face. You wanted to pull away, but you stood there, regaining your composure. Feeling as he placed a terrified palm to your face.