Chapter 4: Escape Route

It felt like his body was drifting down somewhere. Soleil felt weightless, but he could feel like he was being dragged down. When he opened his eyes, the space around him lacked many features at all, only swirls of sky blue that shifted and pulsed about around him. Eventually, the drifting stopped, Soleil coming to lay down on some surface. It felt like he was moving in water as he sat up, his movements smooth but slow, like he was moving through something.

"Where is this?" Surprisingly, Soleil found he was able to stand as well. It didn't look it, but his feet were indeed on something. "Hello?! Hey! This isn't you, is it Sozo?! What's going on here?!"

"…"

Soleil flinched when he heard something. A sound wasn't audible, but he knew he heard something in the back of his head. Like before, he saw a blue butterfly drift in front of his eyes, making him turn as it passed him. Amid all the swirls, he could swear he saw something, someone, sitting there… only a silhouette, small but present, and looking right at him. It felt he knew exactly who it was.

"Seele?"

Soleil shot up in a jolt, breathing heavily as his eyes rapidly adjusted to being awake. He wasn't in that place anymore. It was the room he'd chosen to sleep in to rest after the fight with the Herrscher. Considering this wasn't meant to be lived in, it was small and meant solely for sleeping when needed. Soleil would have much preferred his own apartment, but that wasn't much of an option anyway. At the least, he didn't really have anything of vital importance he couldn't just replace.

"Who… who's Seele?" Soleil put a hand to his head as it throbbed, groaning as he did. He felt a prick at the back of his head again. A ruined amusement park, a small girl with silver hair and eyes… and something even further, a shadow of a person, but eyes just like his, azure as the sea and looking at him with hope in them. "Bronya… Bronya and Seele. What the hell is up with this?"

"Mmmnnn… Soleil-senpaiii… nooo not there~."

"Wat."

Soleil looked down and noticed a lump in the bed next to him. In fact, because it was a measly twin-size bed, he was also finally registering there was very clearly someone sleeping next to him. And the clump of white hair poking out from the sheet told him exactly who the guilty party was.

"Sleeping in another room, my ass." Soleil muttered, folding his arms. Considering how dead tired the trio had been after the previous fight, Soleil had honestly just been focused on crashing. He was still dressed to boot, the only items he'd bothered to remove being his shoes and equipment belt. So really, he still didn't feel like he was keen to complain beyond the flat bemusement of the situation.

But he was going to anyway.

"Let's see… what's the loudest noise I can play from my phone?" Soleil got out of the bed and flicked through his phone, snickering as he found a good song. A loud song. Taking a second as Kiana continued mumbling about whatever dream she was having, Soleil moved the phone's speaker near the girl's ear and pressed play.

The shrill sound of screaming guitars pierced the room, and the second it did, Kiana shot awake with a shout. The girl grabbed at the nearest pillow as she shot upright, and Soleil was already laughing on the floor. At the same time, Kiana looked around with wide eyes of surprise.

"W-Wha? Why did… Soleil-senpai?!" Kiana shouted as she looked down and saw Soleil cackling, the boy managing to turn off his phone as he sat up, a toothy smirk on his face. "What was that for?! I was in the middle of a good dream."

"And apparently a dirty one. You talk a bit in your sleep, it seems." Soleil said, standing up and pocketing his phone, snickering again as Kiana's face turned red, the girl promptly hiding behind the pillow. "Ah, so you can get embarrassed, eh? Hehe, that's cute."

Soleil raised an arm as Kiana chucked the pillow at him hard. It actually made his arm lurch back and left a sharp stinging sensation in his forearm.

"Damn, just how strong are Kaslanas, huh?!" Soleil hissed as he shook his arm, and Kiana gave a huff as she folded her arms.

"Surprise attacks like that aren't fair." Sharply spoken and to the point. Soleil could only chuckle in response while Kiana hopped out of bed, stretching as she did. It was here Soleil noticed her hair must have come undone at some point because rather than her two long braids, now it was a fluffy, somewhat curled curtain of white that fell all the way down past Kiana's rear

"Hm… I like the loose hair a bit better." A set of words that had definitely slipped out. Soleil blinked as he realized what he had said, Kiana's head shooting around so quickly he worried about whiplash. A sly smile came to the girl's face as she turned. Soleil was already blushing as she started moving closer.

"Ohhh? Senpai, you like how I look with my hair down?" Kiana flicked the length of her hair as she chuckled, Soleil coughing into a hand.

"It was just a slip of the tongue. N-Now come on, we gotta remember the situation! We do still gotta get out of the city, so please stop getting closer to me!"

"Hehehe, don't look so embarrassed, Soleil-senpai! It's just a bit of friendly skinship!"

"What's "friendly" about trying to pull off my shirt?!"

"What? It's wrecked anyway!"

"KIANAAAAA!"

"Is something wrong?! I heard yelling!" Things froze when the door flew open. Mei barged in. First, she looked worried but then shocked. She had come right in as Kiana was over Soleil, who was struggling as she was openly trying to strip him. It looked exactly like the kind of thing one could mistake for something else. Mei's face immediately turned red, and she slammed the door. "I'm sorry for interrupting!"

"It wasn't what you thought!" Soleil snapped, getting out from under Kiana as the girl was still somewhat surprised. And as if on some kind of delay, the reverberating slam made a piece of the ceiling fall right onto Soleil's head. "Ugh… just my rotten luck!"

A short time after that morning incident, the three gathered in the common area. Luckily they managed to find fresh uniforms to switch into in place of their wrecked ones. Kiana was checking her equipment over. Mei was cooking with whatever had been left in the cupboards of the nearby lounge kitchen. And Soleil was staring at his pendant like he was trying to bore holes into it, swirls of blue energy threads coming from his palm. Set on the table in front of him was his closed switchblade and whatever throwing knives he had left.

"C'mon… why the hell isn't it working?! C'mon… c'mon… AHHHHH!" Soleil yelled and threw the pendant onto the carpet as he stood up, tapping his foot as a crick appeared on his forehead out of frustration. "Why can't I make this damn thing work again?!"

"Can't make what work?" Kiana stepped over as Soleil picked the pendant up. "The pendant? What does that have to do with anything?"

"You know that sword I used?" Kiana nodded in response. "It came from this. But for some reason, I can't call it out again. What the hell?! This is bull! All I've got left is a bunch of knives… which admittedly is more useful than not."

"I mean at least you still have weapons. We don't have anything for Mei-senpai." Kiana put a hand to her chin, Soleil rapidly nodding as he put his pendant back on.

"You two look worried. Is there still a problem?" Mei got nods from both, and as she brought over the good she'd prepped, they all sat down around the small table of the lounge. "But shouldn't things have stopped after… all of that?"

"That doesn't just solve things." Soleil said, tapping a finger. "Just because you're back to normal doesn't mean anyone else is. Honestly, I think while the Herrscher was out, she kept sending out Honkai waves. By now, the entire city has probably become a filled to the brim nest of zombies. And if things get worse, Beasts will start showing up too."

"So ya' know, Beasts are what we call creatures who get transformed by Honkai Energy. They take on a lot of different forms, and they tend to be pretty powerful." Kiana said.

"Well, I mean, we should be fine. If you were deployed here on your own, then that means you're at least an A-Rank Valkyrie, right?" Soleil raised a brow when Kiana suddenly looked away, the girl now twiddling her fingers. "Kiana? You are an A-Rank, right?"

"Wellllll… see, not quite."

"Wat."

"Now, I am a Valkyrie, but…"

"But?!"

"I'm… not exactly ranked."

"I'M SORRY WHAT?!" Soleil shot up as his hands slammed onto the table, Kiana twirling her bangs, Soleil's eyes twitching. "So, Kiana, why is it then, you're here with a Pantheon Class weapon? Yet are somehow apparently not even ranked?!"

"It's not my fault! Papa took me out a few years ago for… private training, so I haven't been ranked yet. For the record, all of my combat grades are top class!"

"That doesn't change anything."

"Uhm… I'm sorry, you two, but uh… I'm kind of lost." Mei held up a hand as Soleil snapped again, the boy sitting down as he let out a breath. "I mean, I kind of get what you're all saying but, my mind is just racing with questions right now. What's Honkai? Valkyries? What is all of this? What went on with me?"

"Well, that's… complex. But, the rundown is…"

Soleil took the initiative to explain what he could to Mei. Primarily about Honkai Energy itself and what it did. How it was a natural force in the world that influenced how it worked. Natural disasters were often caused by it, and how its degenerative properties had always been a crisis for humanity. Simultaneously, monsters from legend were, in truth, Honkai Beasts people gave some explanation to.

He talked about how most people had little to no resistance to Honkai Energy, but they did as rare as they are. How humans had been fighting against the Honkai forces for ages. And how recent efforts had increased as furthered technology allowed the ability to, while with risks, more people could be given the ability to fight against these forces.

And there was also the topic of Stigmata, even rarer than having the minimum resistance to be a Valkyrie. Those with natural Stigmata like Soleil and Kiana, whose natural resistance was often much higher, but how rare such things are. And along with it, Herrschers, "Agents" of the Honkai, who in current history, now including Mei herself, there had only been three so far. But also how records excavated from a civilization longpast told of the possibility of up to fourteen Herrschers.

When the explanation was done, Mei was quiet as they also finished eating. It was definitely a lot to take in, but she seemed calm even as Soleil and Kiana seemed a bit worried about how she'd react.

"So that's what I am… a Herrscher." Mei went quiet as she mulled over the new information before her. While it answered many questions, it left the door open for even more. Like why she was "chosen" to become one of these Herrschers. But, other things were perhaps more concerning. "So we now just need to get out of the city, right? It shouldn't be that dangerous even with all the… zombies."

"Well… yeah, pretty much." Soleil said, folding his arms. "Though the first step is, of course, getting off of this campus. Kiana and I at least have weapons that are more than enough for the zombies. But you're unarmed, and I don't have anything useful against Beast types."

"A way out… and weapons too? Hmmm…" Mei's thoughtful expression got the attention of the other two. While Mei looked troubled for a moment, she nodded after giving a hum, looking between Soleil and Kiana, who looked locked in anticipation. "Well, at the edge of campus, there's an ME Corp facility that's also connected to the railway. I doubt the trains are working but, that would at least help us find a way out of the campus and hopefully to a safer part of the city."

"That's perfect! But then what about weapons?" Kiana went from enthusiastic to slightly less so. While Mei looked clearly bothered, she let out another breath to calm herself down.

"You see, while I don't like knowing this, ME Corp has been involved in weapon production for a while, ever since it was taken over from my father. It's just a hunch, but there's a chance the facility here may house something that Soleil and I can use. It's a long shot, but we don't have a lot of other options, do we?"

"No, no, we do not." Soleil gave a dry snicker as he stood up, hands on the table. "But if it's zombies then there's not a lot to worry about. Let's hope my luck actually rebounds on us here."

The way from the staff building and to the ME Corp facility, while definitely not free of zombies, was comparatively light compared to before. By now, odds were without any kind of "signal" to follow. All the zombies would just be wandering the city aimlessly and with no direction. The lot found that so long as they didn't get too close, they would be left, mostly, alone, as it seems they had also become somewhat passive.

Somewhat being the operative word. Because as Soleil attested, it was like the world hated him. Sometimes along the way, they got surprised by a sudden bunch of zombies. He suddenly got knocked on the head by something and then hit something else that would make noise, the works.

But, aside from that, the trio made it to their destination with little issue. In stark contrast to the timelier buildings of the campus, the ME Corp facility stood out as a cold, sharp contrast in its geometries and stark appearance, the walls of the building dark, almost foreboding in their coldness.

"Eesh, talk about whiplash." Soleil put a hand behind his head as he scanned the place, clicking his tongue as he saw there wasn't any exact way around to the other side of the structure. While the rail line was visible, it was on the other side of the building. "We're gonna have to go through all the way, huh?"

"We do need to find some gear after all." Mei added, Soleil nodding even as he looked annoyed. "Though we would have to go deep in any way. There's no chance any kind of advanced equipment would be near the front."

"And odds are a lot of people got turned into zombies too." Kiana noted, sighs coming from them all. "Well, no way to go but forward!"

The inside of the facility was as cold as the exterior, made only worse because the only ones in there who were alive were the trio. A few zombies here wandered the halls and were either dealt with or ignored as they moved on. They'd managed to swipe a map from the reception desk since the place was also mostly open to public visits to show off the developments ME Corp made for public benefit.

Of course, under normal circumstances, locations like the back halls in the development areas would be barred from the public. Still, it wasn't like anyone was there to even attempt to stop the three teenagers as they wandered the building. Mei's expression was dour throughout their searching, clearly having some unpleasant memories dredged up just from being in the building.

They had to go down a few levels to find what they were looking for. Thankfully the building's emergency power meant the elevator was working, so the trip didn't have to involve taking the long way through the stairs. And it was on that level where it became quite clear just what was going on there.

As soon as the elevator opened to the experimentation hall's lower level, Soleil and Kiana went wide-eyed at what they saw as they exited. Aside from dozens of terminals, there were large tubes all around filled with bizarre pink fluids, and inside every one of them were Honkai Beasts. Well, at least it seemed that way at first, because to the worried looks of the two who knew just what the things were, a few of the massive tubes were broken with the still drying, sticky fluid coating the floor.

"That's not good at all." Soleil knelt and stuck his fingers into the fluid, rubbing it on his fingertips. "By the looks of it, these things are at least inert… maybe this fluid has something to do with it? It's got traces of Honkai Energy in it."

"Wait, are these those Beasts you told me about?" Mei asked, Kiana nodding as she pointed to one of the tubes.

"Yeah. These are just the basic types, though. These bird-looking ones are called Angels, while the four-legged things are Chariots. There's plenty of other types, though. And they're all dangerous if you're not prepared." Kiana said, walking up to one of the terminals. "Wonder if these are on?"

"I think they're in lockdown." Mei noted, noting how the screen was also a glaring red. "That… doesn't look good."

"What'll be terrible is if we run into those Beasts before we find weapons that can deal with them." Soleil said, picking up a small fragment of an odd white thing from the fluid, rolling it in his palm. "See this here? This is a piece of one of them. A Beast's body is entirely made up of silicon materials, and they're hard as concrete to boot. Even with my powers, it'd be too dangerous for me to fight one without a suitable weapon. Thankfully for me, I've been learning how to fight the bastards since I was seven."

Accentuating his point, Soleil crushed the fragment in his palm with a small burst of energy threads coming from his hand as he did. Mei was also very clearly mulling over what all of this could have meant. Thoughts that perhaps her father was behind this, as clearly these Beasts were here for experimentation, and all the other implications could come with it. Also hope this was all after what had happened and ME Corp had been taken over by someone else.

"Well, we should really get looking and find that armory. If Beasts are roaming around here, too, that just makes things even worse. Those thing's hides take a lot more for my guns to get through." Kiana sighed as she put a hand to her head.

"Yeah… but where to start?" Soleil hummed as he looked around. Then to his surprise, that blue butterfly appeared in his vision, drifting off and diverting down the path to the right.

"This way! I'll help you."

"Did you two see that?"

"See what?"

"Did something show up?!"

Soleil gained a surprised look as Kiana, and Mei only affirmed that what he'd seen apparently hadn't been totally visible… plus the voice. It had rung in his head, and the two girls obviously hadn't heard it. While it again brought up the question of just what that was, at the same time, Soleil felt a calmness about it. Some part of him told him he could trust that butterfly and the voice like some kind of instinct.

"Come on, to the right!" Soleil chose to lead off, going at a trot. Mei and Kiana followed without much to say. As they went down the path, Soleil kept his eye on the butterfly as it rounded bends. It also made apparent to the lot just how big this floor was. Not only were there more sealed up Honkai Beasts, but there were also far odder things stored like fragments of different objects too vague to make sense of.

Plus, of course, the zombified workers, but they were easy enough to deal with. The real problem for them was that they could hear heavier sounds here and there, things being crushed under the weight of something else on the floor in some of the areas they passed through. They also made sure to check the workers to see if any had a keycard. They couldn't be sure if the one they'd lifted to even get them here had the clearance level for anything higher than that.

But, as Soleil found, the path the butterfly was leading them down was also relatively safe to boot. It definitely knew just where it was going. It became apparent once it finally stopped in front of a door that, as he had to guess, was way on the other end of this floor just by the distance they had gone in the process.

"In here. You'll find what you need to fight your way out here." With those words, the butterfly vanished.

Could it have been Sozo? No… the voice was different… it was the same one from before, that girl's voice. Seele. That name popped into Soleil's head again as he scanned the door, Kiana looking at the keypad while Mei was looking into the lab across from them, which was starkly empty this time around.

"Is this it?" Kiana asked, pulling out one of the keycards they'd swiped along the way. "I mean, I guess it's worth a shot, right?"

"I at least know the armory was on this floor, but I don't know the room. Soleil-kun, why did you take us this way?" Mei asked, Soleil looking to the side as he let out a small grumble.

"Uh… instinct? I guess I just had a gut feeling on where to go." Because like he was going to tell them that he was following a glowing blue butterfly all the way there. A buzzing noise also went about as Kiana kept swiping key cards, but each one she did was rejected due to lacking the clearance to enter.

"Oh, come on! I've done six already. Why didn't a single one have the right clearance?!" Kiana muttered, then humming when she saw another option. "Oh, it has a password option… but we don't know what that password could be!"

"It might be a long shot, but… here, let me try something." Mei gently brushed Kiana to the side. She took to the keypad and switched its entry method over to a hiragana keypad that projected into a holographic display. With a few quick taps, Soleil and Kiana saw what she typed out: Her own name.

The password input glowed green in confirmation to the two's surprise, and the door slid open. Mei put a hand near her chest, and she couldn't hide the small but wistful smile that appeared on her face.

"Whoa." Kiana said, Soleil nodding.

"How'd you know that would work?" Soleil asked, Mei looking back at them with a chuckle.

"Well, it was just a hunch… but my father always talked about how he tried to keep me in mind even when I was working. He was stern but a little odd in that way. He had his computer locked in the same way." As touching as that sounded, one did have to question just why in the hell one would make the passwords in some supposedly secret lab section your daughter's own name. Granted, it was in hiragana, and Japan was known for its multiple written languages and such.

But they had also clearly found what they were looking for behind the door. The lab was different than all of the others. Many dark containers spread around the room. But much more obviously, hanging on the walls and on the tables were all kinds of weapons, enough Soleil looked a little giddy as he stepped into the room.

"Jackpot!" Soleil cracked his knuckles as he looked around, Mei and Kiana following him in, the door shutting behind them. "Oh ho ho, good to know all of this got left behind!"

"Guess they didn't have time to clear out anything before it hit. Tragic, but lucky for us." Mei commented, Kiana nodding as she moved between the rows. Some of the weapons were either incomplete with their parts strewn about or similar models to what she was familiar with.

It didn't really take that long for Soleil to start grabbing things to use. His first couple of finds were a simple European-styled sword with a black body and edge of a glowing pink shade and a spear of similar material and with the tip much the same. Conveniently, the spear folded up and fit neatly into the pouch already on his current belt, though the sword was in its own sheathe he looped to his left hip. What he found next in a black case, though, was a bit more interesting.

The guns he found inside of the case had a frame identical to Kiana's Mjolnirs. Rather than blue and silver, the guns were primarily black, accented in red and dark grey, with segments along the barrel's blade and other parts that glowed a dull shade of orange.

"Fancy." Soleil hummed, pulling one of the guns out and giving it a spin, finding the feel in his hand relatively comfortable. "Hey Kiana, you know these ones?"

"EHHHH?!" And almost not surprisingly, Kiana's reaction was loud as she slid over. "What in the… those are Fafnir Flames! Why would this place have a Pantheon Series weapon stowed away in it?!"

"I do know that ME Corp was taken over by another group… what was it called? Anti-Entropy?" Mei remarked, still looking for something, though she did take the time to pick up a shotgun she'd found.

"Well, that explains that one!" Soleil looked downright disappointed when Kiana looked at him with a raised brow. At the same time, he stuck the Fafnir Flames into the holsters in the case and threw that belt over his other one. "Come on, you should know this Kiana. Anti-Entropy used to be the North American branch for Schicksal. They splintered off decades ago. Seeing that, of course, they'd have tech like Schicksal… hell, I'd argue they're better at using it."

"I think that's kind of mean to say." Kiana pouted, Soleil chuckling as he put a hand to her head, the girl's face going a bit red.

"Not like I meant anything by it towards you." They also stopped when loud crashes came from outside, Soleil's look going somber. "Guess a Beast is close. Let's find anything else we can use, then get out of here!"

"Right!"

"Got it!"

As they all shot off to do so, Mei's own searching stopped when she found another case. This one was marked as well, the characters on it reading "Raikiri." Mei set the case onto one of the tables and opened it, gasping a bit. Inside of it was some kind of katana, like many the weapons in here rather mechanical in look. Its guard wasn't typical, more like another component of its mechanisms. The edge of the straight blade some other kind of material that glowed a faint shade of cyan. When Mei picked it up, it surprisingly sparked to life, the edge gaining a dim glow of its own.

"This is father's work." A sad smile came to Mei's face. She took the blade and placed it into the sheathe paired to it, hooking it to her waist onto a belt she'd pilfered and also stuck one of the pistols around the room into. Always good to have something extra with you for emergencies.

Kiana seemed intent to stick with what she had. But some pestering from Soleil convinced her to grab another of the swords in the room. Once they had gotten on other bits of gear as well, the three considered themselves ready. One could almost have regarded it as amusing since they now had bits of combat gear over their school uniforms. But considering the situation and the fact they were carrying everything they had in their pockets and Soleil's bag, they didn't have my options.

Exiting the armory and beforehand making sure the halls were clear, they set off again. The trot they set off at seemed smooth, not much different from before. They could do so with more confidence being better armored and actually protected to some degree. But Soleil couldn't help but expect things to eventually go wrong at some point because it just couldn't be that easy now, could it?

And then Murphy's Law reared its ugly head in front of them.

The trio braked to a stop when Soleil called out, and what it was came crashing right down the hall and into the wall. One of the escaped Chariot Honkai Beasts, and a somewhat large one at that. If it wasn't for the corridors' size, the thing probably wouldn't have fit, its large forward limbs leaving dents in the wall and floor as they were set down, while its much smaller hind area still made heavy sounds. The beast turned towards the group. Not helping matters, a couple f the Angel types, the flyers, hovered up from behind the Chariot.

And as if only to add another nail into the board, another Chariot, if smaller, came in from the previous intersection with its own pair of Angels tagging along. Soleil couldn't help but bitterly chuckle about it as he, Kiana, and Mei drew their weapons, Soleil drawing his sword in his right hand and one of the Fafnir Flames with his left.

"Just my rotten luck."