Chapter Text
The dead silence was like needles steadily pricking away at her composure. Mei stared at those words on the screen. Their meaning was clear. Yet that did not stop the confusion, the dread, the shadow of realisation that was rearing its head just as surely as that storm of violent emotion pulsed and writhed in the back of her mind. She could hear the others shuffling behind her, trying to hold back their reactions even as they stared in shock, unable to decide if they should be looking at the screen, at Mei, or at Kiana. If they should say something. What could they say in the face of the woman before them and the dead woman who’s name was on screen? Was it simply an ancestor with the same name? Reincarnation? Something else they could not comprehend or had not considered? None of them could know for sure. And so they simply stood in shocked, hesitant silence as Mei processed this sight.
Dread’s icy hand wrapped around Mei’s heart and pulled it into a never ending abyss. Her arm moved, but it did not feel like a conscious choice of hers, simply a movement that she was observing. A dreadful curiosity she could not stop. A movement that opened up the dossier that was attached to each name. At this point the sight that greeted them was almost expected, though that did not stop the gasps that broke from the Moonbeams’ lips.
On the document a girl stared back at them. The photo only showed her from the shoulders up, but it was enough. A girl with violet eyes and messy blunt bangs that fell longer on the sides to frame her face down to her jaw. Her dark purple hair fell longer behind her bangs and was pulled up into a ponytail, and a piece of loose hair was gathered into a simple braid behind her ear that fell down to her collarbone. She seemed to be wearing a black under layer with pink armour protecting her neck and shoulders, presumably continuing down the rest of her body and limbs. The resemblance was uncanny enough to send a shiver down their spines. Mei’s eyes skipped over most of the info in the bio to the short paragraph at the bottom:
Daughter of Ryoma Raiden. The Third Herrscher and bearer of the Core of Conquest. Former member of a St. Freya Valkyrie trainee squad alongside Kiana Kaslana and Bronya Zaychik. Defected to Anti-Entropy. Killed in close combat with the Herrscher of the Void.
Her chest felt uncomfortably tight. Like her own ribcage was shrinking and constricting her breathing, keeping her breaths to quick and strangled gasps. She could feel the burning curiosity simmering in her companions’ gazes, yet they held back with baited breath as Mei’s eyes trailed back to Kiana with an expectant reluctance.
Her voice was but a whisper, the disbelief clear in her voice even as it came out with such effort it seemed like the echoing room might eat it up before her words ever reached Kiana’s ears, “Kiana? What is this?”
Kiana finally raised her head. But what Mei found within those shining eyes was not the resigned smile she expected. Instead her expression was mired in a nearly unbearable... sadness. A melancholy of millennia, “Like I said,” She replied quietly, “This place, that day, is one of my greatest failures.”
“So... what?” Mei shook her head, face lined with distress, “My ancestor bearing the same name was the Herrscher of Thunder? But she is dead and the Herrscher of Thunder has been at your side for millennia!”
Kiana’s eyes darted away. The hesitance scrawled across her face was all too familiar. Something that often flitted across her face when Mei wanted answers. The brief thought to pull the woman up and slam her against the pillar if she attempted to weasel out of giving her what she wanted flitted through her mind. Mei quickly batted the thought away but it remained at the edge of her mind like a parasite. After a few seconds Kiana continued with a small sigh, her voice still laced with the pain pulsing through her bones, “There’s more to this history. I know what you’re thinking. Technically... reincarnation does happen in a sense. But that’s not what’s going on here.”
“Wait wait wait,” Sophia’s voice cut in, “All the other stuff is already insane enough, but what do you mean reincarnation happens ‘in a sense’?! Do you know many centuries theologists have spent attempting to prove that?!”
“Sophia,” Isabella shook her head, “Now’s not the time.”
Kiana fought back another wince as she began pushing herself to her feet. It only took a few moments for Mei to shake herself out of inaction and rush to help the Herrscher stand, something the woman accepted gratefully. As close as they were now, it was impossible to miss the anxiety and concern swirling in those crosshaired eyes even as Kiana smiled at Mei’s aid, “There is a way for you- all of you- to see the truth. This past that has eluded humanity under the sands of time.”
“Why can’t you just tell us what’s going on?” Camellia frowned.
“I- It’s just-” Kiana hesitated, “I need Mei to see it. It’s important.”
Mei nodded, eyes never leaving her Goddess, her voice low but no less saturated with a growing determination, “What is it, My Lady?”
“The power of Finality... it is not truly the pink fires, or travel through space, or moonlight. Finality commands time itself,” Kiana paused to let this sink into the already taken aback humans, “There is a power those accepted by a gem of Conviction can achieve. Though it is extremely difficult without impressive Honkai adaptability and control. You can... project yourself through time in a way. Like looking through a window to experience past events as an observer. We just have to go to the place it happened.”
“And you can take us there?”
Kiana nodded, “Of course, Mei. It’ll probably hurt like a bitch, but I can chance teleporting us the short distance.”
There was the soft clink of metal behind them and every woman in the room spun to find Bronya standing there with a rather awkward look on her face. Her glowing eyes darted between Kiana, Mei, and the dossier still shining bright on the screen beside them, “Did I come at a bad time?”
“Seele this is bullshit and you know it! I’m tired of just sitting here and waiting for Bella to do something!” The crimson-clad woman growled and slammed her hands on the conference table before them. Seated around it were her counterpart at one end, Finality’s high priestess at the other, with another priestess acting as her assistant, the Arc City militia commander, Mifumi Raiden, Amber, and Ana Schariac taking the seats on either side and more towards Valerie than the irate Herrscher beside the Principal. Seele being the only one who did not flinch at the Herrscher’s expression of anger. The meeting room was set into a recess in the back of the Temple of Finality’s operations centre that the high priestess had been coordinating her efforts from, an open space on one wall for the entrance and glass making up the rest of that wall keeping the whole room visible to the outside. The remaining three walls were of a more solid, less transparent construction. Of course, this had the added effect of the militia guards outside and the priestesses rushing past casting terrified glances at the visibly furious Herrscher of Rebirth. The aura of dread that seemed to follow her like a cloud had lessened from her first appearance, but had not entirely disappeared. Even the light of the room didn’t seem to quite touch her features properly.
Seele sighed, “You know that even if you destroyed every Honkai beast beyond your barrier, Bella would still be an issue. If you focus your senses only on Bella, Sirin could slip through into any part of the city and we would be none the wiser until she unleashes a tide of destruction. Bronya-”
“Bronya is off gallivanting into the Honkai wastes with Kiana and Mei, as usual! I have half a mind to smother her with the mists of death just to teach her a lesson!”
Valerie’s eyes widened in alarm, “My Lady, surely that-
Seele raised her hand to halt the high priestess’s protest before sending the Herrscher a shake of her head, “You don’t mean that.”
The Herrscher simply crossed her arms, eyes suddenly avoidant and darting away from the woman.
“My Lady,” Came the calm voice of Mifumi, “If I may ensure I understand.”
The Herrscher continued to frown but motioned for her to proceed.
“The wall of mist marks a border filled with your power and presence, allowing you to hold Benares’s power at bay and sense if the Herrscher of the Void attempts to enter the city. Yet we have nothing else that could challenge Benares without taking away the complete surety of this protection.”
“That’s the gist of it, yes,” Seele confirmed.
“My power is not designed for this kind of work,” The Herrscher grumbled, “I can’t prevent Sirin from simply opening a rift wherever she wants. I’ll just sense her doing it and know exactly where.”
The tip of Amber’s finger rapped out a slow, steady rhythm against the side of her visor, “I apologise. I had been hoping Ana and her team would have been able to injure Benares enough for her to back off, but it seems I underestimated just how much her power has grown. I expected conventional Valkyrie weaponry to have a difficult time causing any permanent harm but I did not expect her to completely shrug off a salvo from the Hyperion’s cannons.” She turned her shielded gaze to the silent woman beside her. Ana had hardly said a word this entire time, instead sitting with her arms crossed and a troubled look on her face, “It is possible that Ana could handle Benares herself, however that comes with its own great risks that I am hesitant to accept unless it becomes absolutely necessary.”
The commander scoffed, “And how would one Valkyrie who’s already failed once be able to take on Benares single-handedly?”
Amber’s tapping ceased with a jarring immediacy, “I’m afraid that’s classified.”
Mifumi sighed, “Miss Amber-”
“Schicksal bastards,” The militia commander cut in with a growl, “First you mislead me about what our defences could handle and now you don’t even want to lend aid you know could work?! Do you know how many of my people- how many civilians- died because those defences couldn’t stand against a single strike from Benares?!” The woman jumped to her feet, her expression absolutely livid, “You motherfu-!”
“SILENCE!” The Herrscher of Rebirth’s voice boomed through the room with such force the commander fell back into her seat. Terror filled the mortals’ faces as the swish and metallic singing of a blade cutting through air vibrated through the room. Black and crimson scythe now in hand, the Herrscher’s furious glare darted from corner to corner, shadow to shadow. Though curious eyes may have noted that her gaze did not fall on any individual present. Then, like an invisible beacon had lit up in her senses, Seele jumped to her feet with a look of wide-eyed alarm.
A new scythe flared into existence in Seele’s palms, a black body with a bright, sky blue blade fading into brilliant white and decorated with five-petalled white flowers just behind the blade. Aesthetically it was strikingly similar to the one the Herrscher held as the two women spun in unison. The blades halted mere centimetres from the flesh of the woman that had appeared behind them faster than any of the humans could blink.
Sirin grinned behind the cage of twin scythe blades as every mortal around her scrambled to jump to their feet and draw their weapons.
Sirin tutted and locked her burning golden gaze on the two women directly in front of her, “Now now, Seele, is that any way to greet me?”
The conference room was far back enough that the sloping operations centre in the main room was out of sight, but for those in this raised command area, the clear view of the purple-haired woman that had appeared in the room sent a wave of panic through the priestess leaders. The humans present all leapt to their feet. The guards at the door aimed with shaky hands as the realisation of who had appeared behind them began to dawn. Valerie and the militia commander both had Honkai enhanced pistols aimed squarely at the Herrscher’s head. Amber’s scythe and Ana’s dual daggers were both positioned to strike. Valerie’s priestess assistant had drawn a longsword and activated what appeared to be a small hexagonal energy shield on her forearm, holding it before her body with the point of her sword positioned over it in a defensive posture. Electricity sparked along Mifumi’s limbs but she otherwise did not draw a weapon.
Sirin laughed in the face of it all, “Come now, you didn’t really think your power alone could thwart one who commands space itself?”
Seele’s grip tightened on the haft of her scythe, “What do you want, Sirin?”
Sirin’s smile immediately dipped into her trademark sneer, “I heard some pathetic humans thought they could hurt my Bella and brought along that hunk of junk you call the Hyperion.” Crosshaired eyes locked onto Ana, “And of course it was you. The failure of a Herrscher that resigns herself to being Schicksal’s pet. Whether Schicksal or the Will, you continue to lack the strength to be anything but a slave and it makes me sick.”
Though the mortals around her shot confused glances towards the Valkyrie, Ana never took her eyes off of the disgusted Herrscher, “All Herrschers will remain slaves of the Will until the day of humanity’s final victory.”
Sirin snarled. In less than a second the room exploded into chaos. She disappeared in a flash of purple light the same instant the Herrscher of Rebirth flung herself forwards. The Valkyrie stood steadfast in the face of the inhumanly fast Herrschers as the terrifying black scythe arced towards her only... Seele was not headed for her. Ana’s eyes widened and she too burst into action as the Herrscher’s body melted through the table like a living shadow. The deadly scythe cut the air before Mifumi’s neck. The broad blade halted mere centimetres from the neck of the Herrscher who had winked back into existence within that same split-second. A mere heartbeat later and Ana had darted over the table and positioned herself partially between the Herrscher and Mifumi Raiden, dual daggers positioned to gut the Void Queen.
The Herrscher of Rebirth grinned wolfishly, “Did you forget, Sirin? You can’t outrun me over such short distances.”
The Void Queen clicked her tongue in annoyance and darted her eyes to the side, though she did not turn to face the Herrscher behind her, “Come now, Seele, it’s just been so long since I personally greeted a head of the Raiden clan, it would be remiss of me to ignore her.” Sirin flashed an arrogant grin at the woman in question.
Mifumi bowed respectfully, though lightning still darted across her limbs, “I am honoured to have attracted the personal attention of one as great as you, Lady of Revenge. However, I’m afraid I must ask you to leave Arc City in the name of the Herrscher of Thunder.”
“Hah!” Sirin barked out a short laugh, “You have some nerve asking me to leave in the name of a Goddess who is no longer there to answer you!”
Mifumi frowned, “It is true she has been silent for nearly fifty years, but I find it hard to believe that she is completely gone.”
Sirin chanced turning so she could grin back at the Herrscher of Rebirth before returning her gaze to Mifumi, “You have no idea, do you? All these years and you’ve just been blindly aiding her plans? The Raidens have only grown more pathetic with time, it seems.” The scythe blade pulled back and pressed its edge against her neck in response.
“Please wait, My Lady,” Mifumi pleaded with Rebirth. She returned her gaze to Sirin with a troubled pinch to her brows, “What do you speak of, Queen of the Void?”
Sirin’s smile only grew wider, “Your daughter’s mind is quite interesting. Kiana stopped me before I saw everything. But that vast emptiness in her mind is certainly curious. Like something within her is simply... missing. Hidden? Restrained? It doesn’t matter. Something that is plain as day, curiously, only when I connected to her Honkai energy like I might with a fellow Herrscher. Don’t you think that’s strange? Do you think? Have any of you ever questioned what the Finality might be hiding from you?”
The air shivered dangerously as dark mists curled around the Herrscher’s body. Hovering just out of range, but a warning that was obvious nonetheless.
“Come on, Seele,” Sirin entreated, “I know you two don’t trust my sister either. Has she hidden her plans from even you? Has Bronya?”
The Herrscher’s hands tightened on the haft of her scythe and Seele’s expression tightened, “Leave Bronya’s name out of your filthy mouth.”
Sirin clicked her tongue in disappointment, “Awww... Bronya’s hiding it from you, too, isn’t she?”
“You’ll shut your fucking mouth if you know what’s good for you, brat.” The Herrscher growled, “Whatever Mei’s planning-”
Sirin cocked a curious eyebrow at that, “Mei’s plan? That’s... Ah,” The Herrscher’s brief confusion trailed off into a satisfied giggle, “I see. No wonder Kiana has been rushing around on the edge of madness. Not even enough time to keep a promise to her dear big sister,” Her voice dropped into a low growl as she finished.
“That’s enough, Sirin.” Seele cut in. Her usually joyful eyes narrowed at the Herrscher, “Leave. Or face the consequences.”
Sirin rolled her eyes, still smiling at the increasingly distraught Mifumi, “Come on, you can do better than that, can’t you?" She glanced back towards the Lady of Rebirth, "Why are you holding back? Is Seele tugging on your leash again?” Sirin fixed her gaze back upon Ana, a knowing smile slowly spreading across her face, “Oh, I see,” She said, much too pleased with herself for everyone else’s liking, “You three are afraid of using your powers in the middle of the city like this, aren’t you?” Sirin laughed, “I should have expected something as pathetic as caring about the insignificant lives of a few hundred humans.” Her smile only seemed to grow wider as the points of Ana’s daggers pressed threateningly against her exposed belly.
“Sirin...” The Herrscher of Rebirth’s voice trailed warningly.
Without warning the scythe pressed against her neck jerked backwards with incredible speed. A move that would have decapitated any normal foe. A move that was observed with no small amount of disbelief by the humans as Sirin’s body gained a strange transparency to it, and the scythe moved straight through her without a scratch. Ana found her daggers experiencing the same phenomenon as she moved through the motion of carving a duo of gashes into Sirin’s abdomen. Yet the instant their weapons were clear of her body, Sirin spread her stance and slammed both of her fists into the women on either side of her. At the instant of her touch she was solid again and Ana was flung across the table into Amber as Sirin’s strike launched her like a cannonball, sending both women crashing into the far wall. The Herrscher of Rebirth reacted with similar speed and dropped her scythe to grip tight to Sirin’s arm as her fist slammed into her. It was not a simple task to catch the Herrscher of the Void at the precise moment she shifted back into reality, yet it was a feat the Herrscher performed with seeming ease. The guards and militia commander opened fire. But even as the bullets exited their weapons in a flash of fire, the very shadows surged forth and wrapped both Herrschers in a tangle of ropey darkness. Before an eye could blink these shadows solidified into a sphere around them and collapsed into the floor like a wave crashing onto the shore. The humans’ projectiles hit nothing but the walls and the floor, for the Herrschers had vanished. The sound of gunfire immediately sent the centre around them into another flurry of chaos.
“Amber!” Seele shouted through the panic erupting all around them, “I need to go help her! Contact the Hyperion’s Captain!” Not waiting for a response, Seele rushed out of the room.
Amber scrambled back to her feet with Ana’s help before the woman rushed around the table to check on the others. Amber wasted no time in activating the comms device built into her visor, “Hyperion, we have contact with the Herrscher of the Void. Keep your sensors primed for-”
“Our sensors just picked up a massive spike in Honkai energy towards the western edge of the city,” The woman on the other end cut in, “Two Herrscher signatures. Moving to engage.”
“Negative, Hyperion,” Amber quickly shot back, “Do not approach the Herrschers. Keep your attention on Benares. Leave Sirin to the Herrscher of Rebirth.” There was a frustrated growl on the other end shortly before the click of the comms being disconnected.
Amber allowed her gaze to trail over to the troubled face of Finality’s high priestess. The woman sighed before she and her assistant rushed back into the operations centre proper. Two Herrschers locked in combat was the worst case scenario. Yet it was one that had been entirely expected. Sirin was nothing if not known for her eagerness to engage her enemies personally. The Hyperion’s Captain was a formidable woman, if obstinate and headstrong, always eager to leap into the thick of things. Much to the detriment of Amber’s usually carefully constructed plans and orders. She found the woman rather irritating if she was honest. But she knew the Valkyrie would also see the wisdom in her commands and act accordingly when it truly mattered. Seele would never have allowed her to remain in the position of Captain if she did not care for those under her command.
“The west?” Ana’s voice came, tense and strained, “There’s still civilians over there! Amber...” She seemed to plead.
The woman nodded, “Yes.” Ana’s steps came quickly as she bounded into action at the confirmation, only for a hand on her bicep to stop her in her tracks. The magenta eyes darting back to see what obstructed her were met with the worried frown of her superior, “Leave the Herrschers to each other for a moment longer before you go, Ana,” Amber pleaded softly, “Check in with your squad first. The equipment is on the Hyperion anyways. And... if worst comes to worst you will leave them with no answers.”
The Valkyrie’s gaze dipped to the side guiltily. Three days. Three days and her own weakness had prevented her from visiting the Valkyries still interred within the Hyperion’s sickbay due to her failure. A few seconds passed. Ana’s head rose. A new resolute shine shimmered within the sharpshooter’s hawk-like gaze. She nodded, the hand holding her released, and Ana disappeared into the rush of priestesses outside. Amber and the commander left soon after, leaving the distraught Mifumi to contemplate the Herrscher’s words.
A ball of living shadow winked into existence beneath the monoliths of Arc city’s skyscrapers. Still one-hundred-fifty metres above the asphalt below, spatial distortions ripped and roiled against the power of the Herrscher of Rebirth. Sirin blasted free of the shadows with a snarl and the force sent both Herrschers careening into opposite nearby buildings. The Herrscher of Rebirth crashed through the floor to ceiling glass, tumbling into the midst of several civilians rushing around the office space of the skyscraper. Looters? Employees returning for things left behind now that she was keeping the beasts at bay? It didn’t matter.
“What the hell are you doing?!” The Herrscher shouted, “Get the fuck out of here!”
She did not wait for an answer. Scythe once again in hand, her senses were alight with the unlimited power of the Honkai. Sirin shone like a beacon in her mind. As did the flare of power preceding the blocky Honkai crystals that flew from the hole Sirin had made in the opposite building. Her blade flashed through the florescent lighting and shattered each projectile in quick succession. Sirin herself followed quickly behind, teleporting herself across the distance faster than the human mind could comprehend. A wall of mist burst from Rebirth’s shadow and met Sirin’s next strike, the wisps of darkness curled around the tip of her lance like a grasp halting the weapon in place. The very floor she was standing on cracked under the pressure of halting such a blow. For the briefest of moments time slowed. Sirin’s gaze met her own, golden irises burning with unending rage meeting a near equally furious crimson. Forces of nature clashing in a terrible, immeasurably powerful storm of violence. Void and Rebirth were, by the nature of drawing their power from concepts as immutable as space and the cycle of life and death, two of the strongest Herrschers in existence.
For the Void itself existed throughout all existence. Even the Imaginary Tree could not take up all that was, and wherever it did not extend its roots and branches the void would be there as a never-ending abyss. Yet the void was not stagnant, it was not unchanging. Stars and galaxies still withered and died within it. Even the Imaginary Tree could not escape this inevitability. Its leaves will always eventually fall from their branches and whither, becoming dying remnants sinking into the Sea of Quanta. Some debated if Finality also fell under sway of Rebirth and death, for the Bringer of All Ends is in itself a kind of death, and yet by all accounts the Goddess of the Moon was even greater. Rebirth and death. The Void. As intertwined as they were different. Both an absence of life, and yet a promise of the possibility for more. And so incredibly dangerous when brought to bear on something as fragile as human existence.
This moment of still contemplation within the ancient eyes of the Herrschers was near instantly shattered. The clawed tails of Sirin’s clothing moved with a life of their own and whipped over both women to slam down upon the opposing Herrscher. The mists of death once again leapt from the Herrscher’s shadow and formed a solid barrier against the four-ended strike. Unfortunately buildings such as this were not built to resist the force of Herrschers clashing and the already cracked ground gave way to Sirin’s sheer strength. The black-haired Herrscher crashed downwards like a speeding cannonball, floor after floor slamming into her back only to give way. One floor. Fifteen. Thirty. Fifty floors down in only a few seconds until solid earth halted her fall. Dirt and dust suffused the air and scattered everywhere, the Herrscher hitting with such force that the windows of the ground floor shattered in a hail of glassy splinters and the screams of civilians. Such an impact was not enough to put a being such as Rebirth down for the count, however.
She scrambled out of several metre deep crater she had created and rushed through the shattered sliding doors into the street like a slinking shadow. Her senses came alight with a flare of Honkai energy once more and the Herrscher ducked just in time to avoid another void lance flying from the rift that had torn open behind her. Another nearly took out her arm, flying from a completely different direction. Another, then another, then another. This was followed quickly by Sirin herself flashing back into reality with her fist already arcing towards her foe’s head.
Even as she barely avoided attack after attack, the Herrscher of Rebirth’s mask of steely resolve only cracked right at this moment. She smirked at her foe as she danced to the side away from the incoming fist and twirled her scythe in the perfect arc up and into Sirin’s torso. Sirin grunted in shock as the chill of death burned through her body. The Herrscher of Rebirth did not stop there. A shifting of her bodyweight, a grunt of exertion, and the Void Queen was lifted into the air and swung over the Herrscher’s shoulder as she spun. Sirin was tossed from the broad blade of the scythe and sent crashing across several cars abandoned in the street like a ragdoll.
Even before the Herrscher stopped tumbling dozens of spatial rifts bloomed to life like Sirin’s own wall of death. The Herrscher of Rebirth only had a second to react as dozens upon dozens of void lances shot forth in a stream of destruction. The shadows jumped and lashed, her scythe danced with a precision and elegance borne from millennia of experience, but for each lance she destroyed another would slip by. Each missed lance would detonate on impact with enough force to blast straight through the concrete buildings around them and gouge out metre deep craters in the asphalt.
The air around the Herrscher of Rebirth began to rush and swirl itself into a frenzy, Honkai energy flaring bright within her godly body as the mists of death tore from her form like it was made from liquid. More and more the dark particles of the Herrscher’s power joined the rushing wind whipping around her until it formed a veritable tornado of death. Void lanced crashed into this opposing power, blasting holes that were rapidly refilled and scattering the mist through the air. If any civilians were left in the immediate area they would have only had a split second to react before this power surged forth from the Lady of Life and rushed to fill every bit of space between her and the Void Queen within a single, explosive blink. A kilometre wide storm of pure death swirling and twisting and tumbling around and around in an endless dance. The shadows themselves formed the edge of this space like long strokes of a paintbrush, the air inside suffused with the vapours of death fluttering through the air as deadly particles and a hovering mist. Such was the force of the energy the Herrscher unleashed that her hair and clothes whipped like she was caught in a gale, abandoned cars sliding along their tires, nearby glass shattering, concrete cracking, debris sent flying from the epicentre. Though she had not heard from her counterpart, her storm of power was met by gentle tendrils of quantum energy. Like the mists of death, this healing breath rippled along the ground and simple white flowers bloomed upon every surface as searching ethereal blue pierced deep into her storm. The Herrscher of Rebirth grinned in the face of Sirin’s strength. Seele was out there, ready to support. She could not fail.
Yet still Sirin did not relent. More void lances stabbed at the Herrscher of Rebirth, joined quickly and suddenly by the reappearance of the Void Queen herself. Lance in hand she teleported herself from one position to another, a quick slash here, a thrust there, a jab with the blunt section. Rebirth’s scythe flashed in the dimmed light within her cloud of death. Yet Sirin was no longer allowing for her own amusement. Strike after strike phased through Sirin, strike after strike gouged another bit of flesh from Rebirth’s body. For how could one defend from an enemy that did not care to defend? Sirin would rush from another rift already swinging only for the quick phasing in and out of reality to skip through her defences and tear at her arm, her sides, impale her chest. All the while she was eaten away by the caustic vapours. Anything but a Herrscher such as Sirin would stand no chance against such exposure to her power. And if the Herrscher of Rebirth had anything to say about it, Sirin would not leave this city until she lacked the strength to do so again for several centuries.
“Get everyone back to this position at least! Quickly!” Seele commanded. The Valkyries at her side nodded and rushed forward towards where the Herrschers had just crashed into the skyscrapers. How Seele had gotten there so quickly, no one had time to question, least of all the Valkyries and priestesses stationed in this part of the city. The western end of the city was so far relatively unscathed and there still remained a civilian presence as there were simply too many people for the evacuation to be done with any semblance of speed. Under the watchful eyes of Finality’s priestesses and Schicksal’s Valkyries they attempted to survive. In a city this big, that meant managing several thousand people at a bare minimum. Yet now they all were in danger of facing the wrath of the Void Queen.
The Valkyrie Major beside her frowned as the high rises flashed with the power of the clashing Goddesses, “Madame Principal, we are already at great risk even being this close. If the Mistresses of Rebirth and Void escalate their conflict further, there is little any of us could do to protect these civilians.”
Seele winced as a multitude of loud cracks resounded against the walls of the buildings, quickly followed by the rumble of a massive cloud of dust billowing into the air, “Do not worry, Major,” Seele said, nodding to the civilians as they passed in their retreat, “I have a trick up my sleeve in case of the worst. Just do your best.”
The Major’s gaze lingered on the diminutive woman for a few moments longer before she nodded and ran to rejoin her squad.
Though she was loathe to admit it was necessary so easily, Seele had no doubt that she would be revealing said trick very shortly. Even two Kilometres away she could sense the ever intensifying hum of the Herrschers’ energy output. She knew what Seele would do, how she would attempt to overpower Sirin. And there was not enough time for her to pull everyone back. Seele Vollerei stepped forward, through the crowd of retreating civilians, through her worried Valkyries who called for her to stop.
As she walked, the formal white and blue dress she wore as Principal began to fall from her body. Piece by piece fell away to flutter into the wind behind her like butterflies. Yet as this layer dissolved into the ether, so too did a new dress form upon her body. An ethereal white dress, not too dissimilar to what she wore when she met Mei, ends tattered and draping around her limbs in a strange almost organic looking design. The skirt was segmented into four white tails shaped like a neck tie on top of six darker segments of the same shape decorated with white five-petalled flowers glowing with an ethereal, inner blue light. An ornament reminiscent of antlers shimmered with a blue light as it formed within the hair on the side of her head, the bones shining bright blue with a ghostly transparent sheen to them. She held her hands out, elbows bent and palms up like a priestess approaching an altar for prayer. In the empty space between her hands that same blue light coalesced and birthed an orb of condensed power encased within an ovoid tangle of white branches.
Explosions sounded from between the buildings flanking the opposing Herrschers, flashes of light and the collapse of rubble the ever increasing visual markers of their power.
“Madame Vollerei!” The Valkyrie Major dispatched by the Hyperion ran up close behind her, “It’s dangerous to approach! The Herrscher of Rebirth-”
“Shall protect you all,” Seele finished for her with a smile, “Hold your breath.”
“What?”
From deeper within the city, where the Herrschers were locked in combat, the air rushed forth like the shockwave from a massive explosion. Before any of the Valkyries could blink, the storm of death’s power had rushed outwards. But it was not simply the tornado that now encased nearly a full kilometre around Sirin’s location. These vapours rushed to fill in the empty space between buildings, through windows, down abandoned streets, just as it did when the Herrscher of Rebirth had first arrived.
The orb hovering before Seele grew in its vibrancy. From an easy blue glow to the brilliant sky-blue with a white core as if she held a star above her palms. Upon Seele closing her eyes this centre of power seemed to ebb and expand, a swirling maelstrom of unfathomable depth twisting and pulling the very world down into it. The Valkyrie Major could hardly comprehend what she was seeing. The disoriented spinning and falling, the warping of the buildings in her vision, as if all was inexorably drawn into this thing Seele held between her hands. This... world. A picture was ever so slowly taking shape. Ethereal white branches, a tunnel built of strange angular and blocky formations of a material she could not place. And at the end shrouded in blinding white light stood a great white tree glowing with an inner pale blue light. All was being pulled into this tunnel between worlds.
Down.
Down.
Down.
Until, with an immediacy so jarring it made her sick, this inner world exploded outwards with force to match the Herrschers kilometres away. Reality became that otherworldly tunnel, and yet it was not. She could still see the buildings, still see her squadmates and the civilians, still see the streets and abandoned cars. Her eyes ached as they attempted to parse what was Arc city and what was this dimensional tunnel seeping into reality. The roots of that white tree rushed forward faster than any plant life had any right to, chasing this deep blue energy that seemed to exude from St. Freya’s Principal herself. The dark vapours evaporated under this new onslaught of power. The light brought with it an almost alien feeling of relief, satisfaction, a strange strength seeping into the muscles and bones of all touched by this energy. A sensation they could not find words to describe other than that it was... healing. Gone was their physical exhaustion, their hunger, their mental weariness.
Seele lifted an arm up as if pleading towards the sky and the orb of her power shot into the atmosphere. Within the clouds its light poured forth with increasing intensity, a new burst of radiance that shone over all of Arc city in a blinding wave of power that sent the nearby Valkyrie to her knees.
“You...” The woman gasped, “The Herrscher of Rebirth was always...?”
The eyes that turned to the Valkyrie froze her in place. Was it fear? Reverence? The Valkyrie did not know. Those blue eyes were like an ocean. An ocean of a terrifying, unfathomable depth that her mind almost could not comprehend. It hurt to think underneath this gaze. Yet impossible for the mind to not register how the woman had changed. Her skin was too unnaturally pale, too perfect in its smoothness. Her mouth a bit too wide, limb proportions that were just off enough as to trigger the discomfort of the uncanny valley. But still none of this could compare to the terror of the abyss hiding behind those eyes, like entire worlds sunk deep into those ocean blues, humanity nothing but data to read and store, strange rings around her irises almost like the focusing rings of a camera that rotated and connected and then separated on their own. It was like looking into that disorienting tunnel within the orb again yet this time it was condensed into a horribly concentrated glimpse into a world completely alien and hostile to human life. A glimpse into the unfathomable existence of a Goddess.
And as the humans around her prostrated themselves in reverence, Seele smiled. The serene, sad smile of a guardian that knew she could never go back to the simple life she so enjoyed. Just as she’d told Mei all that time ago.
I was hoping to remain normal ol’ Seele a little while longer.
The world burst back into existence around her as Kiana’s spatial rift dropped them back into reality. The Herrscher almost immediately collapsed with a cry of intense pain, Mei already at her side rubbing her back comfortingly. Kiana had warned them that this would worsen her pain, but that didn’t make it any easier to stomach the Goddess’s cries of torment. Wary eyes observed their new location, the humans spreading out with weapons drawn to ensure their safety as Mei tended to their Goddess. Bronya and Project Bunny hovered nearby, adding her Herrscher senses and Bunny’s scanners to their efforts.
Kiana’s portal had delivered them closer to the shattered remnants of the city wall. The metal construction was yet another severely decayed remnant of ancient humanity, not much more than beams and rusted pieces of metal still clinging to their supports. The destroyed shells of ancient mechs were even more dense this close to the city, as well as other marks left by the defenders in their doomed resistance. Craters from explosives and heavy weapons still littered the ground, fragments of weapons and battlesuits half buries in the dirt, the scattered patterns of metal showed where the wall had been breached by Sirin’s forces. Just like the area around the Schicksal floating island the battlefield seemed to almost be frozen in time despite the decay.
It took several seconds for Kiana to compose herself. Though as Mei helped her to her feet, Kiana’s pain was still evident in the slight twitching of her expression and the hiss of her laboured breaths. With Kiana back on her feet Mei allowed her own eyes to wander around their new surroundings. The scene before her was almost like someone had reached into her mind and taken her dreams to transpose them onto reality. While there hadn’t been quite as much destruction from what she remembered in her mind, she found that even small details brought with it the strangest buzz of déjà vu. The distance from the city, the slight rise of the ground off to the right, and a few meters before them was even the rock she had seen the ancient Kiana hide behind. Or at least what she thought might be that rock. The stone looked as if it had been melted through the middle. A ‘V’ shape like a knife of fire had split it in two. Mei could guess who must have left that particular mark. It was not the only mark the Herrscher of Fire had left behind either. All around them were blackened streaks and blast marks, gouges and craters scattered across the ground with much more intensity than anything they had seen approaching the Schicksal island.
Mei kept a careful gaze on Kiana as she voiced these feelings her observations brought welling up within her.
The Herrscher’s lips pulled up into a small, humorless smile, “Yes, I’m not surprised this memory is one you saw. I remember you describing it a bit back on the temple roof.”
Mei watched as that shadow of heavy sadness once again passed over her Goddess’s face for just a moment, “And so what I was seeing was this… this other Raiden Mei’s memory. Of when you two were ambushed by Sirin. And I was seeing this because you gave me a gem of Conquest?”
“Basically,” Came Kiana’s short reply.
Camellia turned away from the ruins with a look of careful neutrality, “So what are we doing here? What exactly are you trying to get Mei to do?”
“No need to sound so accusatory,” Isabella frowned.
Camellia crossed her arms and shot the woman her own frown, “I’m not being accusatory. If we are to believe everything we’re seeing here, then Mei’s… what? Past life? Ancestor? Was the Herrscher of Finality’s teammate and the Herrscher of Thunder. She died fighting Sirin on the day of the Great Eruption and now- three millennia later- we have another Mei who the Moon Goddess seems particularly interested in, gave the Queen of Thunder’s power, and ever since then Mei has been seeing her memories in her dreams?” She gestured towards the Herrscher in question with her chin, “I just want to know what’s going on. Because, Kiana, your intentions are looking more than a little questionable. I would like to believe you. But I feel it is my duty as a Kaslana to ensure Mei isn’t being used as a pawn in some godly game.” Her eyes narrowed into a glare as she finished, darting between the Herrschers and the priestesses as if daring anyone to challenge her. Kiana stared back, silent, the lines around her eyes tight. Bronya, too, looked on in silence. Both Herrschers appeared content to allow the humans to discuss their thoughts first.
After a few tense seconds Cecilia nodded her agreement, “I understand where you are coming from. What we have seen today is… a lot. I am not quite sure what to make of some things myself. But I do not believe our Lady’s intentions to be malicious,” She fixed her more analytical gaze onto the Herrscher in question, “Still, I would also like to know what exactly this power you mentioned actually entails. If Camellia and I can agree on one thing, it is that I do not want to see Mei hurt because you’ve thrown her into the deep end. My Lady.”
The other Moonbeams shifted uncomfortably, but nodded their support for their fellow priestess.
“I-” Isabella hesitated, “It is not my place to question you, My Lady. But please understand, Mei is my friend. I do not wish to see her come to harm.”
The eyes turning towards them brought with it an uncomfortable feeling of vulnerability shivering through Mei’s heart. Camellia’s words struck true at the fears that had been bubbling in her chest since those same revelations. What was the truth of Kiana’s feelings for her, now that she knew the Goddess had seemingly latched onto someone with the same appearance as her dear squadmate? The memories in her dreams that filled her with such an intense déjà vu, just as the view before her did now? That sensation like a gaping abyss where her instincts were so certain memories should be? Even the voices she heard from the rift into Imaginary Space felt so alien yet so familiar at the same time. Like something within her was constantly grasping at threads of the past that continued to slip through her fingers like the morning mist.
Mei found herself unsure of her Goddess for the first time in her life. And that was even more terrifying than anything else she had faced on this journey.
Kiana met Mei’s searching gaze with a quiet acceptance of the myriad of conflicted emotions she found there. The Herrscher took the time to meet each of her companions’ eyes before nodding, “Please believe me when I say I understand how you feel. The reason we had to come here in particular is because this is a spot where memory is deeply ingrained within the stagnant Honkai energy of this battlefield. Everything humanity knows about Honkai energy’s capabilities follows some kind of structure even if such things do not obey this plane’s laws of physics. However, there are still some things about Honkai energy that are simply so strange, so rare, or so difficult to comprehend that it’s more like magic than anything that can be explained by science- Honkai energy theory or not. The Honkai is ever changing, ever evolving, ever searching to break all laws like an infection seeping into the cracks of reality until it becomes nearly unstoppable. What I want to guide Mei through is… extremely difficult. Something borne from my power. I can’t do it myself in the state I’m in right now. It is the best way for all of you to see what truly happened. No recordings, no Schicksal-biased reports. Just the past. Our defense against Sirin, Himeko’s duel with her, Mei’s fate and… my inability to accept that fate.”
“Kiana,” Mei stopped her firmly, “Please stop beating around the bush. Tell me what I must do.”
Kiana pursed her lips, running a gauntleted hand through her hair with a sigh, “Have you ever heard of Time Runners?”