The feeling of the elevator reaching the top was familiar to anyone familiar with Honkai Impact 3rd. I remembered the noise of the door opening, Ai-chan's familiar announcement, your favorite Valkyrie turning around to greet you.
There was nothing of the sort here, the door simply opened 2 floors before the rooftop, so we had to take the stairs ever so slowly. Clearing a staircase is just as tiring as it is unnerving. But to Watchpoint it must have been familiar because they'd stopped checking over their armor and weapons once the elevator stopped.
The door to the roof was opened and…
The sun shone.
Huh, now that I thought about it, I hadn't seen the sun of this world ever since I woke up back on the crater. Didn't look any different, but somehow… I knew this wasn't my world. Even if I ignored the extradimensional shit trying to kill me. I knew that I wouldn't find myself or my family in this world.
The cloud walls looked as if they were just over hundred meters away, but the bottom of the tower was as shrouded in darkness as everywhere else. The sun shined on the rooftop of these four towers as if the world wasn't ending down below.
A beautiful girl stood on the corner to our right, she was standing on the edge of the rooftop as if it were a veranda. Looked totally at peace while Watchpoint tensed and tried to raise their rifles. I motioned to wait while I made my way towards her.
She didn't look at me as she spoke "So, have you come to try and kill me too?"
Huh, unexpected, but that was a familiar line, just from where… "Will you make us try?"
She gave me a dainty snort. "You would dare to raise your hand against the emissary of God?" And she went back to staring at something in the distance.
"If that's what it takes to keep my people safe, yes." I answered, and I came close to her corner from her left. She didn't react, probably thinking that I was just as insignificant as any human here.
"Why has your God sent you then? She could have tried speaking with us before unleashing hell on this land."
"Do not presume to question her will, mongrel. But if your curiosity is genuine, I shall dispel your ignorance. Humanity has been judged. Their sentence is death."
"And what crimes would justify the eradication of my people?"
"Your crime of existence" she turned to me and I saw… Yatogami Tohka?
Spoiler: Yatogami Tohka, dress is the same but heir is white for this fic
Yeah, the face, the hair was white, but everything else screamed it was that girl. If she had grown up in every good place and still had that dress of her ultimate form. That didn't explain how she was here. Or why her.
It's time for a little digging. "Does the hand of divinity have a name? We have taken to calling you Raiden after your storm, but your face reminds me of someone named Tohka…"
"Call me whatever you may, it matters not. Its just a matter of time before you all perish." Well…
"Will you reconsider our sentence? Just what must we do to avoid the fate given to us by your God?"
"Die like vermin"
"Ok" In the distance, three flares were barely visible through the cloud walls, but they shone, nonetheless. Kanata had made it out. It was our turn.
My hand reached to my back as I slashed the Herrscher with the Calibur, she conjured a claymore made of lightning and parried my slash, but it left her distracted for Watchpoint to begin trying to give her lead poisoning.
[INVADING BOLIDE!]
… that warning shone in a corner of my HUD. Huh, they figured out silent mode.
Seven people tried emptying their mags and then some on that girl, but the only the first finishers nicked her, then she did something as the bullets began being deflected in a weird manner. Not energy shields. Shit, she's using superconductive field around herself. Meissner Effect. Shit.
"Switch to non-magnetic rounds!" I shouted as I locked blades with the Herrscher, more lead being deflected by her shield. Her dress began glowing and she turned towards the Raiders, and the lighting blade became more solid. It now looked as if made with steel but gave a whiteish glow that superheated blades did. Uh oh.
"Scatter!" I got to scream as Tohka(?) swung her blade and the roof on her way was cleaved by thunder. The gash left was still dripping molten concrete as she swung again. This time I blocked her with the Calibur, but I could feel my sword quickly heating up. Crap, my hand went to my holster and fired the Typhoon Magnum at point blank.
The shots made her stagger but didn't connect fully. She looked as if someone had punched her in the gut instead of getting hit with hyper accelerated 50 BGMs. I kept firing, as did Watchpoint, they had changed mags and I saw some explosions and a bit of flames hit Tango Hotel.
She wasn't happy, as she used her right hand to send Force Lightning our way. One hit the part for the door to the stairs and blew them up. Shit.
[ZEA Notification: Lightning Hornet Ready for printing]
Print it!
Once the card appeared in my hand, I quickly slotted it in the Calibur. A notification appeared on my HUD:
[THUNDER! PROGRISE KEY CONFIRMED, READY TO UTILIZE. HORNET'S ABILITY!]
Yellow lightning covered the blade and I felt Ark and Zea working to make a counter to the arcs of electricity the Herrscher was throwing around. I finally equalized the electrical potential between me and her so I was finally free charge at her. Thank you for the lesson Inaho, even if your anime deserved at least four seasons.
[ARK Notification: Sharing data across team-net. Countermeasure ready. Deploying update]
The Tohka look-alike widened her eyes for a moment before she brought down her blade on me again. This time I parried it and punched her in the sternum, she tanked the hit that would pulverize anyone else's ribcage and returned it with one covered in lightning.
The punch sent me back skidding across the rooftop, yet I managed to avoid getting tripped over the gash in the middle. The others hadn't stopped firing but only now were more of their shots landing on the Herrscher. One of the rounds actually went through and pierced her left hand.
I guess she wasn't told of what pain meant since she looked at her wounded hand in fascination, before I rushed in and shot her point blank. My magnum tore a hole through her chest, and she fell on her back, apparently dead.
…
Wut?
That can't be right…
[ZEA Notification: Honkai Energy Spike]
I guess one of Watchpoint's was savvy enough to back up from the 'corpse' as it dissolved into light motes and a new Tohka floated down from a gathering of electricity.
Well, shit. She has a Thunder clone technique, doesn't she?
Just our luck.
Pvt Tyler saw the girl fall dead from Yinsen's point blank shot. For all appearances, dead. Oh, he knew this part, he hoped it wasn't what he thought it was but motioned to the others to back off from the 'corpse'.
His hopes lasted until the wind picked up and a new version of her floated down from somewhere. How they didn't see that, would remain a mystery.
It seemed like this thing had phases.
Great.
His armor had received an update (from somewhere) that let them avoid the thunder strikes more easily. Before they would track them somewhat, not they grazed them but did close to no damage. He switched ammo again, the Hypervelocity managed to connect once but he saw the other kinds of ammo being sent sideways before they managed to get her.
The timed explosive ammunition fuse was set, and he kept his trigger down for as long as the mag lasted. Yinsen had backed off and was shooting Tango-Hotel with his oversized revolver. The new Tango Hotel one barely flinched at the explosive munitions but actually raised her hand to stop the shots coming from Yinsen. Everyone took the chance and fired everything they had. The Lt even added her not-Lawgiver to the fray in a way he thought Drill sergeants beat out of anyone at boot camp. Akimbo.
He felt bad for doubting Yinsen, this bitch really was fucking with reality.
A massive claymore appeared in her hand, not the explosive kind, but a blade as long as Tyler was tall, black as the darkest caves. She heaved it and struck a pose with it.
Spoiler: The Claymore
Aw shit.
The slashes came within moments of each other, cutting the tower, right to left, thrice over as she spun. He felt terror grip his heart as the piece they stood one began sliding down. The storm had picked up as soon as the not-dead bitch appeared.
And oh shit, she had cut the three other towers too.
But instead of letting them fall, the storm winds had picked the pieces and slowly, but surely, they were spinning around, held by physics fuckery and a desire for murder.
And now, they were in this thing's boss arena.
Fuck.