Honkai Impact 3rd - The Next Reality

by ANewFace

It had been many years ever since the downfall of the second civilization. The Honkai have now begun attacking the Earth once again after many years. The Earth is not prepared for these attacks, yet they fight on, hoping history would not repeat itself. During this time, an amnesiac man would be forced to become the central part of this conflict. CHAPTER 4 Rewritten.

11. Chapter 11 - View from the Unfortunate

Disclaimer: I don't own Honkai Impact 3rd, its original characters, anything related to it or miHoYo, or any other pieces of media referenced in this story.

The OCs made for this story are the only things I own.

Honkai Impact 3rd : The Next Reality

Chapter 11 : View from the Unfortunate

Date : September 1st, 2553

---

Uryusume's Perspective

Void. The black emptiness void was the only thing I saw. It wasn't scary. I've seen this emptiness multiple times and been here multiple times. This black void, it shouldn't really exist. Instead of this void, I should be witnessing a dream or a nightmare. However, I didn't, and that was something I chose for myself.

An alarm rang off, waking me up. Outside of the alarm, the only other thing I heard was a random selection of music, playing through some headphones connected around my ears. This was how I stopped dreaming. When there's something interfering with your sleep, the brain can't concentrate to create a dream or nightmare. It's a stupid idea to listen to music when falling asleep, but I'd rather not deal with dreams or nightmares. I don't want to experience a false reality that would only instill false hope or despair into myself.

Sitting up on my bed, I stared at my room, and out the window. By technicality, I was homeless. After all, when you're a pretty known Herrscher, at least the world's strongest organization, you'll have to find a way to lay low for some time. It's not fun living with a constant bounty on your head.

Currently, I was holed up in a partially destroyed motel inside of a nearly destroyed town. I forgot what the town was called, but I don't think it has made public news yet, not at least from what I've seen. It's been about a week and a half since I attacked this city? I wonder what lie Schicksal will come up with to hide my existence to the common public?

"Oh? You're up already?" A voice called out to me.

"Laevateinna, it's nearly 10am. I'm pretty sure this is around the same time some deep sleepers wake up. It might be earlier even!" I retorted back.

Laevateinna came walking into my small room, carrying a small food tray that had two sunny side eggs, a hash brown, and a loaf of bread. In between the space of her arms and body was a bouquet of orange flowers.

"I see you've already dressed up for the day. I guess it makes sense, considering what day it is." I noted.

Unlike myself, who was currently wearing a plain white t-shirt and gym shorts, Laevateinna had dressed herself properly. She had an open, navy blue light jacket on her, and had a school uniform top and tie beneath the jacket layer. She also had a red, checkered pattern skirt and black thigh highs. Her hair, which usually was free-flowing, was tied into a small, fluffy side tail to the right of her head. It was basically the hairstyle I usually donned. Laevateinna also had a cap that was loosely hugging her head, and a pair of fake glasses.

"Yeah, it's his birthday." Laevateinna reinformed me.

Her tone initially started off cheerful, but it soon went down to a more somber and depressed tone. Laevateinna walked over and placed the food tray on my lap. Pulling a random chair in the corner, Laevateinna sat across from me, her hands resting on her lap while holding onto her bouquet.

"Eat up Uryusume. Take your time."

I began eating the breakfast that Laevateinna managed to cook for me. I'm surprised she managed to find all of these ingredients to make these, considering how barren I left this place. I thought I managed to destroy most of the supermarkets during the destruction. I guess some items managed to survive. Usually, Laevateinna and I have to loot money off of the people we kill, if the money somehow manages to survive, which surprisingly happens more than often. We would have to use the money to buy food at restaurants in cities where we haven't destroyed yet. We may be Herrschers, but we can't constantly destroy cities. Laevateinna and I are still brought down by the fact that we still have human needs.

"I'm surprised you managed to find some food. It's rare for us to ever make something for ourselves." I commented.

"That is true. It's a bit difficult to control the Honkai, so getting them to save the food materials is hard." Laevateinna said.

"I'm just glad none of us completely eviscerate people to oblivion, or else we wouldn't be able to find money at all."

I scarfed down all of the small breakfast that Laevateinna cooked for me and went to go prepare myself for the day. I grabbed a black turtleneck, a black purse, a white fur hooded parka, a pair of jeans, and some shoes to dress myself up. Instead of adopting my side tail hairstyle, I let all of my hair flow freely. Finally, to top things all off, I grabbed a black face mask and wore it to cover most of my face.

"My dearest, Uryusume, you don't have to wear a face mask." Laevateinna jested.

"It's not like the face mask will make or break your appearance."

"You can't be sure Laevateinna. There might be Valkyries out in some random cities who can probably spot us out." I told her.

"We're not known to the common public, but that doesn't mean we aren't known to the Valkyries. If anything, I think Schicksal would want some of them know about us in order to get them to avoid us. They have been pretty preservative of their numbers."

Both of us walked out of the motel and out to the destroyed city. Once we were in an open area, the both of us transformed into out Herrscher state, changing our appearance to the more recognizable appearances that both of us are known for, and we flew off.

"You met Tendou a few weeks ago, right?" Laevateinna asked.

"How'd your plan go?"

"It actually went off as well as I hoped it could. I managed to get a one-on-one with him." I answered.

"As you can expect, it was mostly a clean sweep. I will say, he's actually more impressive than I thought he was. I thought he was solely reliant on Lessica to fight, but he can put up for himself. He still is lacking a lot though."

"I see. What about his potential? Did you see anything in him?" Laevateinna inquired me.

"That answer is a no-brainer if you take into consideration who he is, Laevateinna." I looked at her.

"Right, he does. Did you perhaps, tell Tendou what he is?"

"Not really. Not directly."

"I see. You think it would be best to tell him?"

"Nah, not now at least. I think it's best if we continue to let him live under his false reality and take it for granted. That way, once we, or someone else decide to shatter his utopia, the results would probably be more desirable than if we told him now."

Laevateinna and I flew for another hour or two until we reached a city. We flew above the city a bit until we reached a section that had been slightly disconnected with the city. We were stopping at a special place.

"We're here." Laevateinna stated the obvious.

Both of us landed on the ground, and untransformed immediately, going back to the original outfits, or disguises we both donned on earlier. Laevateinna had her bouquet of flowers in her hands. Her expression went from calm and happy, to somber and depressed.

"Sorry that I haven't visited you lately." Laevateinna apologized as she stepped forward.

"The world has started to begin its next phase, and all of my time has begun to get eaten up. However, no matter what, I can't allow myself to miss this day for you."

Laevateinna kneeled downward and placed the bouquet down. I kneeled down alongside her.

"Happy Birthday, Johnathan."

Both of us clapped our hands together and bowed our heads down in front of a tombstone with the name "Johnathan Avarglade" carved into it.

"Uryusume, did you bring the incense?"

"Yeah."

I opened my purse and brought out a box of incense and a lighter. I flicked the lighter on, and we both lit two incense each. Laevateinna and I stabbed the incense in a dirt box, which was placed in front of Johnathan's tombstone. I stood up and looked down at the tombstone and Laevateinna. Personally, I never met Johnathan when he was still alive, but I knew how important he was to Laevateinna, seeing how we do this every year despite our situation. As well as she tries to hide it, I can still see some tears flowing from her eyes as she looked at Johnathan's grave. The only thing I can do for Laevateinna now was hand her a tissue from inside my purse.

"Here, take it."

"Thanks."

We stayed at Johnathan's grave for a little while longer before Laevateinna felt like it was time to leave.

"Where to now?" I asked the Sentience Herrscher.

"Let's go to the city." Laevateinna answered me.

"You have the money we looted, correct? We should probably buy some necessities, clothes, and maybe some food that can last us for a while. If we still have some money left over, we can save it, or use a bit more to buy lunch and dinner at a restaurant."

"Yeah, that's probably the best plan. Alright then, let's go."

---

Nailah's Perspective

It was morning time, and it was pretty rainy. Droplets of water crashed against the dormitory building, and across Crescent City. I was currently laying in bed, and I was alone in my room. I would have had someone to accompany me in my room…..had Tanya, my roommate, not died. So now I'm just alone in my dorm, just laying in bed and feeling the outlandish discomfort of the dorm.

There wasn't any class today, so I had the entire day to myself, but what am I supposed to do? I can go train at the training chambers, but there's a good chance that it's already occupied. I'd probably get kicked out anyways due to my low ranking, and especially due to me having failed the examination. I should probably avoid going there if I don't want to get brutalized again. Should I go bowling, or to an arcade, or just to any entertainment place? I lower my risk of getting bullied, but then I would have to go out in the rain, catch a bus, and wait for long. I'm also more vulnerable to many places of bullying as well. With the amount of Valkyries in Crescent City, there's no doubt that many will be in the city.

Actually, I need to go get breakfast too. Again, I have the same dilemma. Do I go to the school cafeteria, or go into the city. The consequences are the exact same! I guess I'll go to the city instead. More food variety and well, I'm exposed to more places, but I think I can escape by blending in with the crowd, hopefully.

I got up from my bed and went towards the bathroom to brush my teeth, take a shower, and get prepared for the day.

God, I just hope everything goes fine today.

---

3rd Person Perspective

As Nailah left her room in the dormitory, she made it towards the elevator. Ascending down to the first level of the dorms, she exited out of the building, opening her umbrella as her body would leave a roofed area. She continued walking through the vicinity of the academy, creating tiny splashes from her small heels as they made contact with the ground below her. The rain would crash against Nailah's umbrella, and slide off at the tips of the umbrella. Due to the wind, some of it would get onto Nailah's clothes.

Once she made it out of the academy walls, Nailah waited at the bus stop nearby, pulling her umbrella closed as she sat down under the roofed bus stop. The pigtail-haired girl was the only one at the bus stop, a fortunate thing for her. She would wait alone at the bus stop for 15 more minutes until a bus would finally arrive. She boarded the bus, becoming the only passenger on the bus surprisingly enough. It wasn't unusual for people to stay home during the rain, but with the large population of Crescent City, it was bizarre to not see at least a few people on the bus.

The lone D-Ranker made herself comfortable at a seat section in the middle section of the bus, and the bus took off. Resting her head against the bus window, Nailah looked outside and up at the sky roads high above the ground, the roads that were used by those fortunate enough to afford flying vehicles. The sky roads had vehicles like flying limousines, flying luxurious cars, and flying buses. The most intriguing thing was that there were also air bubbles as well. Air Bubbles were basically flying vehicles in the shape of a bubble. They were clear and just had a really comfy seat. While the design was simple and it was the smallest of the air vehicles available to purchase, it was the most expensive. This was probably because unlike the other flying vehicles that still required a driver, Air Bubbles were always on autopilot. The passenger did not need to manually drive the bubble, it would go anywhere that the passenger desires, and still follows traffic rules. It was also pretty rare due to how costly it was to make these due to the autopilot AI. These factors made them pricey.

After a while, Nailah would reach close to the destination that she needed to be, she walked off the bus, pushing her umbrella open as she stepped her foot out. The Valkyrie was within a district that was the home of many restaurants in Crescent City. The place was home to different styled restaurants. Italian, German, British, Chinese, Korean, and Mexican cuisine were some of the few to be housed here. Nailah decided that she was in the mood to eat a Portuguese breakfast, so she went to the closest restaurant that had any semblance of Portuguese cuisine. The best she found was a restaurant that had a fusion between Portuguese and British.

Entering the restaurant, Nailah waited for herself to be seated. Fortunately, the restaurant wasn't super packed, meaning that a waitress was able to seat her pretty quickly.

"Hello there!" The waitress greeted Nailah. "Welcome to our little restaurant. Let me get you seated real quick. Follow me."

The waitress guided Nailah over to an empty booth over at the walls. Once Nailah made herself comfortable within the booth, the waitress placed down a restaurant menu in front of Nailah before leaving to give the Valkyrie some time to decide what to order. After scanning the menu, Nailah decided to order a Portuguese-style coffee, as well as a pastry. Once the Valkyrie chose her breakfast, she continued to scan through the menu to pass time until the waitress came back.

"Sorry for the long wait." The waitress apologized to Nailah once she came back. "Are you ready with your order yet?"

"Yes, I am." Nailah replied.

Nailah moved her fingers to point at the coffee that she wanted and the pastry that she wanted.

"I see." The waitress responded as she looked at what Nailah ordered, and swiped Nailah's order on a holographic tablet, sending it to the kitchen's holographic screen under Nailah's table number.

"Thank you." Nailah said to the waitress.

"No problem." The waitress replied. "….I hope I'm not being sensitive when I ask this but, are you here alone? Usually, girls your age would come with some friends."

"Oh….." Nailah began. "I…don't have a lot of friends actually. Me being alone is normal. Really, I just…..tend to avoid people."

"Hmm? Why's that?" The waitress asked.

"I…." Nailah began. "I'm…just afraid of becoming close to people and then having that bond be separated." She explained. "I'm afraid that one day I'm going to lose these friendships without my consent. I've already experienced this once, and it's already enough."

"I see." The waitress said. "I don't know what you do in your life, but I understand the feeling. No one would want a broken friendship, especially one that breaks without input."

"Yeah."

The waitress excused herself from the table and went away from Nailah. The Valkyrie would pull out her phone, scrolling through social media as she waited for her order. Her eyes would scan over posts made by other Valkyries, and the latest news informing the world about recent Honkai attacks and new developments. Surprisingly, there hasn't been anything major like another eruption, or a highly deadly Honkai beast roaming around. For Nailah, it was kind of a rarity since she had gotten used to seeing major attacks on the news.

"Sorry for the long delay dear." The waitress apologized once she arrived with Nailah's order. "Please enjoy!"

"Thanks." Nailah replied.

Once the waitress came back with Nailah's order, the Valkyrie chowed down on her breakfast. She finished it pretty quickly due to the light amount that she had. Portuguese breakfasts were pretty light. After finishing, she patiently waited for the waitress to come over with the bill and paid both the cost of the breakfast and the tip for the waitress. Once paid, Nailah sat around for a few more minutes before getting up to leave.

Now out of the restaurant, Nailah technically had all the time available to go wherever she wanted. Thankfully, she already made up her mind. She wanted to go to the movie theater. There wasn't actually a movie that she desperately wanted to see, but Nailah loved the experience of going to the movie theater. She walked back to the bus stop she was dropped off at earlier and waited for a bus to come and pick her up.

---

"This place again?" Laevateinna moaned.

"Yeah. You got a problem?" Uryusume uttered back.

"Obviously! We were just at one of this franchise's restaurants in another city yesterday. Why are we eating here again?" The Herrscher of Sentience asked the Ice Herrscher.

Both Herrschers were standing outside of a beef bowl restaurant, a personal favorite of Uryusume's. They were pretty cheap most of the time and Uryusume just had a thing for meat. Service was also pretty quick and mostly non-conversational with most employees as well, which was a benefit for the two Herrschers.

"We can get a quick bite here without having to talk to the employees as much. Both of us can eat and get out quickly." Uryusume made her rebuttal.

"…..You just described like….95% of all fast-food restaurants. Wouldn't it be more convenient to just go to a fast-food restaurant?" Laevateinna argued back. "Conversation amount is the same, and we aren't even forced to eat at the restaurant. We can just buy the food, leave, and eat while walking around in the city."

Uryusume's eyes directly met Laevateinna's eyes. The Herrscher of Ice stared at her partner for an awkward while before she walked inside the beef bowl restaurant. Laevateinna reached her hand out to Uryusume, only for Uryusume to increase her speed to avoid the hand.

"Damn it all." Laevateinna balled her hands to a fist. "If she keeps up her beef bowl consumption, she'll start gaining weight."

Laevateinna reluctantly followed Uryusume into the beef bowl restaurant, sitting down next to her partner as a waiter arrived.

"Welcome." The waiter said. "What would you like to order?"

"Two beef bowls please." Uryusume responded. "Both with noodles and egg. Get us two waters as well."

"Sure thing. I'll be right back." The waiter announced as he left.

"Please promise us that we'll get another thing to eat for dinner later." Laevateinna begged. "And also for lunch tomorrow….and dinner tomorrow…..and lunch the next- you know what, can we avoid beef bowls for the rest of the week?"

"Fine, I'll find another restaurant for us then." Uryusume reluctantly agreed. "The things I do for you."

"And what exactly do you mean by that?" The Sentience Herrscher cupped Uryusume's masked chin. "You implying that you only do stuff for me? I'm honestly flattered." She forcefully turned her partner's face to look at her and got closer. "I never knew that everything you do was-."

"I didn't mean it literally, nor did I imply that I did everything for you." Uryusume placed her own hand over Laevateinna's face. "I'm not your lover or anything. I don't do everything for the sake of your satisfaction." She slowly pushed Laevateinna away. "I'm pretty sure you're the one who told me that I should do stuff for myself 7 years back."

"I know, I know." Laevateinna chuckled. "I'm just messing with you."

"Hmph." Uryusume scoffed back.

"So, what happened on that day?" Laevateinna asked. "How did your bout with Tendou go?"

"Ah, the fight." Uryusume pulled off her mask. "As I said earlier in the-."

"Here's your order." The waiter interrupted Uryusume as he placed their orders down. "Enjoy."

"Thanks." Uryusume said. "Anyways, back to what I was saying. Like I said in the morning, the fight was a clean sweep on my part. That being said, he did pass my expectations. Lessica seems to have taught him how to use his abilities more." She commented. "Tendou seems to be a fast learner, but he isn't efficient in, well, pretty much everything else. It takes a while for him to actually think of a plan, always going in headfirst without one first. He also seems to suffer a strain on his body the more he uses his power too. I don't know if that's something exclusive to him, or Lessica suffered from that too during the past 20 plus years."

"So he's lacking in the experience department." Laevateinna noted as she ate a bit of her beef bowl. "That makes sense. I don't expect him to be knowledgeable in combat after gaining consciousness a few months back." She sipped on her water cup. "I am curious about the strain that you mentioned though. I don't remember Lessica suffering from strain when she was active, at least I didn't see it visually. Do you think he suffers from physical strain because of the fragmentation?"

"Probably." Said Uryusume. "Tendou seems to output a lot of energy when using his abilities. Lessica also outputted a lot of energy during our past bouts. Unless they're both brash people, then the fragmentation of them is probably the reason why."

Uryusume began eating her own beef bowl at a fast pace. Laevateinna could only look at her partner in slight disgust. Despite the elegance, the Herrscher of Ice showcased both in her Herrscher regalia and her fighting style, her table manners were pretty much the opposite. Scarfing down her food at intense speeds, and not giving a damn if a few kernels of rice or a few tiny splashes of egg yolk got stuck around her lips. Laevateinna was honestly glad that Uryusume's stomach wasn't a bottomless pit. The Herrscher of Sentience did not want to feed a black hole, nor did she have the budget to do so for their circumstances.

Once Uryusume lowered her bowl down to the table, her entire lips were smeared in egg yolk with kernels of rice stuck to them.

"Uryusume, please watch yourself!" Groaned Laevateinna as she grabbed a nearby napkin. "You have to mind your manners when eating, both for your sake and the sake of people around you." She began wiping the Ice Herrscher's mouth with the napkin.

The Herrscher of Ice didn't fight back against Laevateinna's motherly instincts, but she did express her discomfort towards the action with expressions.

"Youdonhaftodewtisyoukno." Uryusume mumbled out as Laevateinna continued to wipe her mouth.

"Excuse me, but what did you say?" Laevateinna asked about the mumbled mess.

"Gah, I said you don't have to do this." Uryusume enunciated.

"I know I don't." Laevateinna responded. "I'm just doing this because I know you won't."

"And there's a problem with that?" Uryusume asked. "There's no difference if I have food spread across my lips and if I don't."

"You're only saying that because you're only thinking about eating." Responded Laevateinna. "Think about how you look in front of others. Do you really want people to think of you as a swine?" She promptly asked.

"I don't care what others think about me." Uryusume answered. "We're most likely not even going to meet these strangers ever again, and I doubt they would be bothered to spread rumors. Besides, I think acting like this helps with the facade that we try to keep up anyway."

"I mean…..I guess." Laevateinna reluctantly agreed. "I'm just saying that you have other options for your fake act that aren't as dirty and improper."

Uryusume continued chomping down the rest of her beef bowl with Laevateinna just watching in disappointment. By the time that Laevateinna reached halfway, Uryusume had already finished. The Herrscher of Ice even tried to offer to finish Laevateinna's bowl, to which the Herrscher of Sentience rejected. Uryusume would keep being persistent to help, but she would stop once Laevateinna slapped her back-handed. Laevateinna wasn't a person who could get angry easily, nor was her anger outbursts something explosive, but Uryusume knew that it was best to not get Laevateinna angry. Laevateinna wasn't threatening when angry, but she could somehow dispel disappointment towards others and make them feel guilty.

"That was delicious!" The Herrscher of Ice exclaimed. "I think we can leave now, right?"

"Not until we pay first." Laevateinna said. "You're the one with the money on you. Pay up."

"Oh, right." Uryusume responded.

The Herrscher of Ice pulled out a wallet containing what little money the two were able to collect and paid the bill for their meal, alongside a small tip for their waiter. Uryusume put her mask back on and left the restaurant first. Laevateinna would take a while to leave as she waited for the waiter to come back, making sure that no one would steal his tip from him. Once the waiter came back to take everything, Laevateinna could finally leave.

"Is it really necessary?" Uryusume asked. "You know the tip is meaningless in the long run right?"

"I know it is." Laevateinna responded. "It's just….well, we should let people enjoy the small things in life before they lose their right to life. That's what I believe."

"You really think so?" Uryusume asked again. "You think we should allow these people to enjoy stuff before we kill them?"

"Yeah." Laevateinna nodded.

Over in the distance, both Uryusume and Laevateinna spotted a large group of people coming down the street. They were being led by some other people. The two Herrschers immediately recognized the group of people coming down the street.

"Aren't those…" Uryusume began. "Aren't they the people from the last city that we massacred?" She whispered.

"Seems like it." Laevateinna whispered back. "I didn't think there would be any survivors. I thought we managed to find everyone."

The group of survivors were being guided by a small medical team within the residence of the city. They provided the survivors with provisions and first-aid while the team tried to find a way to escort the survivors to a medical building.

"Should we…." Uryusume began her sentence.

"No, not today." Laevateinna responded. "I'm not in the mood to carry out our duties on Johnathan's birthday."

"Right." Uryusume said. "Maybe killing is not the best birthday present."

"Agreed." Responded Laevateinna. "Now then, what do we do now?"

"I don't know." Uryusume replied. "We can just walk around the city and go to some fun spots for the day. We just got to make sure we stop by at a bakery at the end of the day to buy a cake."

"Do we even have enough money for a cake?" The Herrscher of Sentience asked.

"I made sure that we did." Uryusume said as she pulled out some money. "It's the reason why I avoided choosing the more expensive restaurant. The cake is the main priority, so we best budget our cost for the day."

"Right." Laevateinna said. "Alright then, let's go see what the city has to offer."

---

"Thank you for the ride." Nailah gave her gratitude to the bus driver.

Nailah exited the bus, an umbrella held up above her head. The rain had started to settle down for a bit, and the raging thunder had calm down to faint cries that happen once in a while. The weather still wasn't anywhere near ideal, but still an improvement from earlier.

The bus shortly left the stop that Nailah was dropped at, and the Valkyrie continued to walk to the movie theater. Nailah wasn't particularly interested in most movies. The dominant genre of movies currently, historical fiction, wasn't really her favorite, nor did she really like most movies to begin with. Movies always had this air of over-dramatization to Nailah, which she really didn't like. Her aversion to movies was probably due to her fondness for realism and logic. Nevertheless, Nailah did go to the movies pretty often for the experience they provided.

Thanks to the advancement of technology, movies are physically viewed differently. Instead of being portrayed on a large screen, movies were now portrayed in virtual reality. The viewer would sit in a comfortable chair and have a virtual reality headset placed on top of them by the seat itself. The headset would give the viewer the illusion that they were in the movie themselves, watching through different camera angles as if they were an invisible spectator in the scene at play as if they were a part of the movie's world itself. The experience of virtual reality movies is popular among all age groups, with young teens probably making up most of the group.

That being said, it isn't perfect. Since the virtual reality headset gives the illusion of the viewer being inside of the movie, it does cause the viewer to lose most of their senses of the actual world, meaning that it would be mostly impossible to eat or drink anything as the viewer will probably not be able to find their consumptions and possibly knock them over. The virtual reality headset itself does cause a small problem as well. Because it is attached to a seat and can only be controlled by the seat, viewers can't manually take off the headset themselves. While the seat and headset will detect if the viewer starts entering a critical or fatal physical or mental state and alert for medical aid, it doesn't detect if the viewer has to go relieve themselves, meaning that it is impossible to use the bathroom. It is recommended that viewers use the bathroom beforehand.

Nailah entered the movie theater, heading to the bathroom first as she understood the consequences of not going before. Once she relieved herself, she wandered over to the board list of movies. As expected, the list of movies was mostly historical fiction movies detailing the history of the past 100 years of the world. While her lifespan was nowhere near 100 years, Nailah was already well informed of the events of the past 100 years all thanks to her education, which gave her a more realistic, believable, and credible information of the past. She wasn't particularly interested.

However, something had caught her eye. Near the bottom of the list was a movie called "The Downfall of the Previous Past". The movie was a historical fiction movie just like the others, but the topic of interest was different. Instead of dealing with the events from 100 years prior to today, the movie goes back further into the past, all the way back to the events of the Second Civilization, back nearly 2553 years ago. The Downfall of the Previous Past was actually the 3rd movie in a trilogy of movies, which detailed the events leading up to, and eventually, the encounter with the Herrscher of the End.

Information on the Second Civilization was scarce and hard to come by. Since the events of the Second Civilization happened over 2553 years ago, the records would be lost, and those that weren't would begin to be twisted in ways where the original source material would not be anywhere close to what is shown in the current day. The events that have any sort of proof of occurring were the events revolving around the Herrscher of the End, and even those have been warped to be inaccurate.

Nailah wasn't interested in the movie, but she was curious to see what happened in the past. She wanted to see and learn what happened, even if the events might be inaccurate.

Walking up to the ticket machine, Nailah waited patiently in line. The Valkyrie looked around the movie theater, trying to see if any other Valkyries were here. Much to her surprise, she could only make out herself as the only Valkyrie being here, a shocker for her considering how many Valkyries there were within Crescent City, and how many were movie fans. It was a blessing for her. Had there been other Valkyries present and they spotted Nailah alone, they would have tried to physically and mentally torment her in public, and knowing the public, they would have just been bystanders and record the entire ordeal.

After a while, Nailah would finally reach the ticket machine.

"Hello there. What movie would you like to see?" An AI spoke to Nailah once the girl tapped on the screen.

A holographic screen appeared in front of Nailah, giving her a view of the movie names listed in alphabetical order and their promotional poster. Nailah scrolled through the alphabetical list of movies, stopping at the 'T' section and looking for "The Downfall of the Previous Past". Once she spotted her desired movie choice, she clicked on its name.

"The Downfall of the Previous Past." The machine spoke out. "Is this the movie that you want to view?"

Clicking "Yes" on the holographic screen, the AI closed the screen, only for a new one to appear and take its place. An empty box and a box full of single-digit numbers were shown on the new screen.

"How many tickets?" The AI asked.

Inputting the number '1' inside the empty box. The AI once again closed the holographic screen, only to have another replace its spot.

"How would you like to pay?" The AI asked as it brought up a new screen with the words "Cash" and "Credit" on the screen, each word having a box around it.

Nailah pulled out her wallet and clicked on "Cash".

"Please insert cash inside the machine." The AI said.

Nailah slotted some dollar bills inside the machine, which quickly counted. Once it confirmed that Nailah paid the right amount, the machine spawned out a ticket for Nailah.

"Thank you for purchasing a ticket." The AI said. "Please enjoy your movie."

Nailah got out of the line and headed for the second floor of the movie theater, which was where the movie was going to be shown. Walking up a small flight, Nailah turned to the nearest corner, heading to the cinema room holding the movie viewing. Before she could enter the cinema room, a holographic screen appeared in front of Nailah and the door to the movie. This was a security system. This system checks if the person entering the room has a ticket for the movie, which was why physical movie tickets were still a thing. If the person has a ticket, the security system scans the person to see if they have any sort of weapon on them before allowing them to enter. If they don't have a ticket, then they aren't allowed to enter, and if they have a concealed weapon, security will be called. This system also has an extra feature in that the door will only open after these security checks, and only allow the person who was scanned to enter. This was made in order to prevent movie thefts or people who try to secretly enter cinemas without buying a ticket. An extra step to combat this is that the security system will know if an unscanned person tries to enter when the door is open, and in that situation, a barrier will be formed to prevent them from entering while still allowing the scanned person to enter.

Once she passed all the security checks, Nailah entered the cinema, taking a seat in a spot far from the most crowded area. She still had time until the movie started. That being said, Nailah didn't really have anything to do, so she just sat down, twiddling with her thumbs until the movie began. After five minutes, the movie had begun. The VR headset slowly set down on Nailah. Her vision was blurred black for a bit, until the movie began, shedding some light for the Valkyrie.

Nailah was set in front of a plain area. The clouds were dark and raining. In front of Nailah was a strange cave. It was very small and didn't go deep inside. Nailah, or rather, the camera zoomed in closer to the cave, until the camera cut inside the cave, giving a center shot of a girl, who was sitting inside the cave. The girl had snow-white hair, which was split down the middle. She had a strange-looking dress on, and a few floating lances to her side. Her eyes were closed, but she was not dead, only thinking. This was Kiana Kaslana, or rather, K423.

The camera then cuts to the entrance of the cave, where we see a shadowed figure coming in. The shadowed figure looked almost similar to K423. She had the same hair color, an identical figure, and nearly the same hairstyle. This was Kiana Kaslana, the real one. Immediately as these two appeared, the audience noise had slightly risen up, being excited to see two legendary heroes on screen.

The scene now showed a shot, looking from the sides of each character. K423 looked up at Kiana.

"Shouldn't you be hiding right now?" The K423 actor asked. "Your existence alone already puts us in immediate danger."

"It does." Kiana replied.

"If you know that, then why are you here?" K423 asked. "The longer the Honkai knows that you exist, then-."

"I'm here to get you." Kiana replied. "We don't have much time on our hands. She'll awaken soon, and she'll come for me first."

"What are you getting at?" K423 said.

"What I'm saying is we need you. As you are the Herrscher of the Void, you are one of the strongest people we know fighting against the Honkai." Kiana acknowledged. "Without you, we won't be able to prevent her from achieving what she once originally intended."

"Am I supposed to believe what you're saying?" K423 scoffed. "How am I supposed to know this isn't another attempt at my life from you?"

"If this was another attempt, then I would have done something else." Kiana replied. "We both know that I don't have the ability to match you, at least in a one-on-one fight. If the Overseer really wanted you dead, he would have sent someone else along with me. Plus, I don't even have a weapon on me."

K423 looked down for a bit. She got up from the ground that she was sitting on, and looked up. Her heterochromatic blue and golden eyes stared back at Kiana's homochromatic blue eyes. The copy's eyes flashed a hint of doubt, while the original's showed honesty and worry. Both were aware of what was at stake here. It was now a question if one could get over her own ego.

"Kiana, please." Kiana replied.

"You shouldn't be calling me that." K423 answered back. "I may allow others to call me that, but you of all people should refer to me by my actual designation. I can't help but feel sinful every time I hear you call me by the name that I stole from you."

"It doesn't matter." Kiana said back. "Real Kiana or not, you've been given the name of 'Kiana'. It was never stolen in the first place."

"Hmm….."

K423 closed her eyes. The current situation has devolved much worse than anyone could have anticipated. No one expected her to awaken soon. Could the Earth even fair against The End herself?

After opening her eyes again, K423 moved past Kiana and left the cave.

"Let's go." The clone said to the original.

Without speaking, Kiana followed behind K423. Once both were outside the cave, the camera instantly switched to show an airship that was waiting for both of them. Standing out on the entrance were two people who were very familiar to K423. The camera zoomed in a bit to show both of them in a clearer view. One had long black hair with a purple tint near the ends. She had red horns coming out from her, or donned a red, white, and black dress that looked similar to the one K423 was currently wearing.

Next to her was a much shorter girl. The girl had silver hair which flowed freely, something different from her usual drills. She wore a blue, white, and black dress that was frilly and had a robotic companion floating behind her.

These two were Raiden Mei and Bronya Zaychik. As Nailah and the rest of the audience were able to see these two clearly, more noise erupted from the audience as two more famous figures showed up.

"Mei? Bronya?" K423 called out.

"Kiana…." Mei begun. "We don't have much time. Let's go."

K423 could only nod her head. Her emotions were mixed on the entire situation, but she knew she didn't have enough to think about them. They were on borrowed time. K423 boarded the ship, with Mei following behind. Bronya waited a little bit, looking at Kiana.

"Are you sure that you want to be apart of this?" Bronya asked. "The entire fate of this world depends entirely on you, and you don't even get to choose."

"I'm sure." Kiana replied confidently. "It feels terrible knowing that I'm the deciding factor, and it's worse knowing that I can't choose the fate. I'm causing a huge pain for all of you, just by existing." She lamented, twirling a small patch of hair to her side. "The only thing I can do now is try to repay everyone for existing."

Bronya, the usually poker-faced girl, showed a slight hint of worry for Kiana. She, like many others, didn't want Kiana to be a part of this but gave up on the option to convince her. Just like K423, Kiana was pretty stubborn as well, not willing to step down even if the situation was dangerous. Ultimately, with little time to spare, and knowing that Kiana's stubbornness will prevail, Bronya gave up on talking her down.

Bronya turned around and went inside the airship, Kiana following suit. As all for entered, more recognizable faces appeared, and more cheers rang in the audience. The first to show up was Seele. Seele was the second era's Herrscher of Death, something of an ironic joke. The Herrscher of Death, the Herrscher dealing with the concept of death, is not fond of killing, at least not with Seele. Her other personality, who was the first era's Herrscher of Death, begs to differ. Seele's other personality, who makes an appearance once in a while, doesn't actually have a name. She is nameless by default, and the others only refer to her as Seele. That being said, many fans of the movies and history nerds like Nailah tend to dub her "Veliona".

The second to show up was Durandal. Durandal was Schicksal's greatest Valkyrie, and an enigma herself. She has many items inside her arsenal, including her own pocket dimension. Uniquely, Durandal is stated to have "infinite potential", something bizarre for a rather normal human like her.

The third to show up in the VR movie was Kevin Kaslana. Kevin Kaslana was probably the oldest among the cast. Unlike everyone else present, Kevin is one of the few survivors of the first era of the world. Kevin is a MANTIS soldier from that era, having witnessed the end of humanity once. While his goals are pure and righteous, his methods in reaching his goal are extreme. Had the world not been near its final hours again, Kevin would have not worked with everyone else here.

Finally, the final character, and the character who garnered the most cheers among the audience, was the Overseer of Schicksal, Otto Apocalypse, who, unlike the other characters, was played by Otto himself.

"I see that everyone is here now." Otto said. "Now then, shall we begin our discussion?"

---

"Well this was unexpected." Uryusume mentioned, standing in front of the entrance of an amusement park. "How did you manage to save up enough money for this without my knowledge?"

"I refuse to tell you." Laevateinna responded. "If I do, then the secrets out. Plus, you'd berate me for saving up money for something unnecessary."

"I mean…" Uryusume began. "Berate isn't the right word, but I would probably yell at you. I guess I can let you off in this case. You've mentioned how Johnathan always loved amusement parks."

"That's precisely why we're here." Laevateinna stated. "If we're gonna celebrate someone's birthday, then we have to make it as special as we can."

"Right." Uryusume agreed. "So where are we headed first?"

"That!" Laevateinna excitedly pointed out. The Herrscher of Sentience's finger pointed directly over to a giant roller coaster, which had a gigantic drop that angled about 95 degrees.

"No!" The Herrscher of Ice retaliated. "I'm not getting on that!" She said, visibly shaking.

"Wha-?" Laevateinna sputtered out in shock. "There's no way you can be terrified of that?! You can fly, and you're not terrified at all!"

"Riding a roller coaster and flying are different!" Uryusume argued. "At least when I'm flying, I know I'm in control. With a roller coaster, I have no control at all. What happens if the roller coaster collapses?"

"Urysume…" Laevateinna blankly whispered. "You're a Herrscher. You're going to survive."

"It's not about dying, it's about the thought of not knowing what will happen." Uryusume retorted. "That's what frightens me. I know I'm not gonna die, but just the thought of the unexpected and not being able to control it, is what terrifies me."

"I see." The Herrscher of Sentience nodded. "….Anyways, let's get in line before it fills up too much." She said as she began to forcefully drag Uryusume towards the line.

The Ice Herrscher tried many attempts to retaliate against the Sentience Herrscher, but all attempts failed. The two Herrschers would stay in line for about 30 minutes before they would eventually get a spot on the ride. To make sure she doesn't get away, Laevateinna made sure to buckle Uryusume first before she buckled herself up.

"Oh, I can't wait for this ride to start!" Laevateinna beamed with excitement.

"Yeah…..I totally can't wait…." Uryusume retorted sarcastically with a defeated tone.

After a few minutes, the roller coaster rumbled a bit before moving on the rails. The cart was moving at around, 10 mph, then 15 mph, then 20 mph. Laevateinna's hands were already up in the air, ready for the air to take them. Meanwhile, Uryusume's hands were gripped tight onto the handlebars, frozen, and locked in place. The cart slowly moved up the ramp, climbing up to the big, 95 degrees angled fall. The two Herrschers close to the front of the ride, sitting at the 3rd section of the cart. With how the cart was angled, they had a view of the very top. The cart stopped, the voices of everyone were silent. The anticipation was building up, and no one knew when the cart would fall. It was dead silent, until…..

*SWOOSH*

The coaster cart let go, and the two Herrschers fell down the massive drop. Laevateinna's hands were now fully in the air against her own will, only able to wave them around side to side. She let out a few cheers, cheers that were completely drowned out by Uryusume's will helm like screams. The speed of the roller coaster picked up, going at 50 mph. With each smaller hill, twist, and turn, Uryusume's will helm scream only got louder. Once the ride started to slow down as it reached its end, Uryusume's shriek slowly dissipated. The roller coaster reached its end, and the cart halted back at the beginning. The railings that held everyone down lifted themselves up and everyone got out. Uryusume got off, her soul gone from her body. She stumbled around a bit before falling. Laevateinna caught her partner in her hands before she could fall.

"Hahaha, you good?" Laevateinna asked.

"uGh…..uagh…..guh." was all the Herrscher of Ice could muster.

"…I'm taking that as a yes. Alright, next ride!"

"Wait, no!" Uryusume shook herself back up. "I'm not going back on those extreme rides again!" She rebelled.

"Hmmm, fine." Laevateinna sighed. "Guess we'll go on the kid roller coasters then."

"That's not any better." Uryusume chatted back.

"Then what do we do then?" The Herrscher of Sentience questioned her partner. "If you refuse to go on anything, then what's the purpose?! Did I just spend all of this money for us for nothing? Are we just going to spend Johnathan's birthday doing nothing for him?"

Laevateinna turned Uryusume around to face her. She softly head-butted her head against Uryusume's chest, surprising the Herrscher of Ice. The Herrscher of Sentience turned her head upwards to look at Uryusume, giving her puppy eyes with tears on the edge of her eyelids. Uryusume's cheeks were flushed red, something hard to see with her mask on.

"Laevateinna, please be mature." Uryusume lowly begged. "You shouldn't act like this in public."

"Uwaah…" Laevateinna quietly cried as the tears slowly began to fall down.

"Uh, agh…..fine. We'll go on more rides." Uryusume gave up as she gently rubbed Laevateinna's head.

Laevateinna's eyes sparkled. Her arms reached out and hugged Uryusume, much to the other's girl's embarrassment.

"I keep forgetting that as much as you love pampering children, you also like to act like a child too." Uryusume sighed in slight disgust. "I guess people who love fawning over others have a love for being fawned over as well. Now, will you please let go of me?"

Laevateinna let go of Uryusume, gently adjusting her hair. Her sparkling eyes had reverted back to her normal eyes.

"Yes, yes, I understand." Laevateinna patted herself down. "Now then, let's go over to that ride there!" She pointed over to another ride.

Uryusume turned around to face the next ride that Laevateinna pointed at. The irises of the Herrscher of Ice instantly shrunk as she looked at the roller coaster. Instead of using the standard cart, this roller coaster had "floating seats" or basically the seats were attached on the bottom of the rails, meaning that riders would technically be floating on a seat. Uryusume had already regretted her decision, but it was something she couldn't back down from now. She would simply have to deal with the consequences of her own actions now.

"ah….ueh….agh…." Uryusume mumbled.

"Come on, let's go!" Laevateinna cheered.

The Herrscher of Sentience grabbed hold of the Herrscher of Ice's arm, essentially dragging a soulless body to the next ride. The process of riding a roller coaster would repeat itself. Laevateinna and Uryusume waited in line for another 30 minutes before they would get a seat. The two Herrschers would seat themselves before the ride began. The new ride, which went at 55mph consistently, had many twists, turns, and slopes. As soon as the ride began, Uryusume already let out screams of terror as the sudden increase to 55mph was not something the Ice Herrscher was prepared for. Her hands were firmly wrapped on the railings that prevented her from falling forwards.

Once the ride finished, Uryusume limped off the ride, being aided by Laevateinna so that she wouldn't fall. Laevateinna wanted to go onto another ride as soon as possible, but she did understand her friend's mental trauma. Before they continued, the two Herrschers decided to sit on a bench.

"I'd figure it'd be best if I let you rest before we continue." Laevateinna told Uryusume.

"Thanks." was Uryusume's reply.

The two sat silently on the bench, watching as random kids, teens, adults, and elders within the amusement park walked past them, living within the lively atmosphere. This world, this atmosphere, this feeling, they once felt this world before. The two Herrschers held fond memories of this joyful world, but now, with their duties as Herrschers, this colorful world was estranged to them, abnormal, non-existent. Their feelings on this were mixed. They were conflicted as to if they should enjoy it like they once did in the past, or despise it by the law of their world position.

"So…" Laevateinna broke the silence. "What do you think about that Nailah girl?" She asked Uryusume.

"Nailah?" Uryusume was confused. "Who's she?"

"She's that lone survivor that was with me a while back. Don't you remember?" Laevateinna informed her.

"Oh yeah, that lone survivor…..do you have any idea how little that narrows it down?" Uryusume retorted. "You leave so many children alive to pamper them, only for them to die of Honkai poisoning later. How am I supposed to recall anyone from that list?!"

"No, not the children!" Laevateinna shouted. "I'm talking about that Valkyrie that was with Tendou when we first met him. You know, that girl that was close to death?"

"Ah, that girl. What about her?"

"She's very interesting, might I say." Laevateinna said. "She is pretty pathetic, and if seen like a book cover, doesn't stand out. That being said, she surprisingly didn't die. Nailah's quite resilient."

"I guess that's true?" She did survive fighting you despite not being special in any way. I honestly thought she would have cascaded just by being close to you."

"Right." Laevateinna agreed. "Which is why I'm keeping an eye on her."

"Wait, really? I thought Tendou was our main focus." Uryusume said.

"He still is in the grand scheme of things, but I'm more focused on Nailah." A smile crept up on Laevateinna's face. "I still remember our first meeting. Maybe…."

"Laevateinna, what are you-?"

"Eh, no matter. I'll see if it will ever happen." Laevateinna got up from the bench. "I think we've had a long enough break. Let's get back to the positive."

Laevateinna quickly grabbed Uryusume by the wrist, dragging the Herrscher of Ice over to the next ride.

"Come on, we don't have all day!" Laevateinna beamed a gleeful face.

"Wait, hold on, I'm not ready yet!" Uryusume panicked.

---

The council of humanity's last formed around a table, with Otto leading the conversation. The camera uncomfortably sat Nailah next to Otto, who towered over the camera, similar to how Otto towered over Nailah in reality.

"As you all are aware, the dawn of the apocalypse is looming over us." Otto stated. "Sadly, we have no other options left. All of our biggest resources have been destroyed. We can't rely on powerhouses like the Selene anymore. The Honkai targeted them at their vulnerable state."

The cast all looked grim. Without such advances, humanity would surely end. Sure, humanity may have a few Herrschers, Kevin, and Durandal on their side, but even their combined might may not prove enough for the Herrscher of the End. Kevin has already fought her once, and failed.

"Kevin, how did the previous civilization make it out alive?" Otto asked the experienced veteran.

"We had the Selene in our hands that time. We were able to delay her from ending us for 12 hours. However, with the Selene gone, our known options don't exist anymore." Kevin calmly said.

"Wait, you've taken her on before, what's saying that you can't now?" Durandal asked.

"I've taken her on, but I never won." Kevin told the Valkyrie. "Even then, I had outside help. With how far behind we are in comparison, I doubt we would be able to do as much."

"So what? We're just gonna stand here and keel over?" K423 furiously rubbed her head. "You invited me here, just to tell me we have no hope?! You could have just left me alone and nothing would have been different." She started getting furious.

"Hey, don't think about it like that!" Kiana shouted at her. "We may be in a grim situation, but that doesn't mean we aren't able to turn the tides a bit. Stop thinking while having your arse up your depressive mindset!"

"Both of you! Calm down." Mei attempted to calm the two. "Fighting amongst each other is the last thing we need right now. Like Kiana said, we can still think of a plan to at least save some people here, but if you two continue to pester our process, we'll be dead before then."

The two Kaslanas lightly growled before backing off.

"Now that the two idiots are done fighting, does anyone have any solutions?" Bronya asked everyone.

"The best we can do is find to repeat the past." Kevin regretfully exclaimed. "We have to find a way to stall the End long enough so that all of us can evacuate to a place where she won't be able to reach us."

Everyone gave a look of depression, even Otto. They really couldn't win in the end.

"…How are we gonna stall?" Seele asked the council.

The council remained silent. While the last hope remaining were strong, the time they could buy for everyone else was undeterminable. Power wasn't everything to a fight. One's ability to think on the fly mattered just as much, and it can easily take one down easily.

"What are you gonna do?" Bronya looked at the Overseer.

"Very simple." Otto answered. "Schicksal's currently the only one that can transport whoever remains to the safe haven. I'll be overlooking the transport operation and make sure we can get everyone we can."

"Not gonna fight?" The Herrscher of Reason asked.

"Bronya dear, I'm not a fighter."

"Yet you possess a Key."

"Touche."

"If that small tangent is settled, then that leaves Bianca, Mei, Seele, Bronya, K423, and I." Kevin listed. "The End will most definitely have her beast attack the planet, even if K423 gets her stuck inside. Bianca, you lead a Valkyrie squad, correct?"

"The Immortal Blades?" Durandal asked. "That, I do, but we've lost so many in our squadron. I doubt we'll be able to do much with our numbers."

"Obviously, but I wasn't referring to them." Kevin said. "I was asking if you had any leadership experience. While the Immortal Blades may be few, Schicksal still has many other Valkyries in their arsenal. We need you to be the one to lead all of them. Is that within your grasps?"

"Yes, I believe so." Durandal replied.

"Then that's your duty. As for you 3." Kevin looked over at Bronya, Seele, and Mei. "Mei, you're to protect Kiana. We need her to evacuate to the safe haven, but with her as our prime target, we can't risk having her hide within the common people. We'll need you to safely escort her separately. Bronya and Seele, you will go with her. The beast will most likely target her, so Mei will need any help that she needs." Kevin ordered.

The Herrscher of Reason and Herrscher of Death simultaneously nodded their heads. Kevin turned over to the final member, K423.

"You and I," Kevin began. "We're facing the End head-on."

K423 gave Kevin an initial hesitant look. She didn't want to be the one to face off the biggest threat of this planet. The lives of her friends, her family, everyone, all laid on her hands. A burden too great for her to handle. However, she had no time for selfishness.

"I don't have a choice, do I?" She said.

She didn't need to look at Kevin to know the answer.

"Fine." was all she could muster.

"It's settled then." Otto let out. "All of you, you know what you have to do. We have no time to spare. Let's go."

"Roger!" Everyone but Kevin yelled.

From what she's seen so far, Nailah couldn't help but feel intrigued, yet confused at the same time. Maybe this was a result of her not watching the previous two movies in the trilogy, but she was genuinely confused. What connection did the Real Kiana have with the Herrscher of the End? Why is everything dependent on her existence? These were questions Nailah wanted to know badly.

With her attention fully captured, Nailah continued watching the movie, wanting to know more about what happened.

The scene had switched from the council meeting, over to a smaller room. With how the camera was angled, it felt as if Nailah was looming over the shoulder of Durandal. Speaking of Durandal, the strongest Valkyrie held something within her hands. In her hands was a partially bloodied, partially ripped, and partially broken maid headband.

The camera would change again, making it look like Nailah was now looking at Durandal from below. The strongest Valkyrie had a nearly emotionless expression, but hints of tears could be seen forming from her eyelids. Footsteps could be heard from behind her. Nailah's position would be changed again, putting Durandal at the front view, which would soon focus on Mei, who was coming behind her.

"Still lamenting over her." Mei said. "Bianca…"

"Sorry." Durandal apologized. "I just…..I just can't help, but lament over her. Rita shouldn't have died."

"Bianca….." Mei tried to comfort her.

"Why are you even attempting this?" Durandal's tone started to become more aggressive. "Her blood is covered all over your hands. I don't want to hear sympathy from the reason she's not here anymore."

Mei remained silent. Durandal was spot on. Mei is Rita's killer, and no matter what the Herrscher of Thunder does, her sins for that will never disappear. The best she can do within the final hours is to make amends.

"Bianca, I didn't kill her out of cold blood." Mei told the Valkyrie. "This is sadly just a consequence of conflict. Only one side can prevail. Having both sides prevail will only cause them to clash again."

"I know that, and that's what makes this hurt even more." Durandal whispered and stuttered. "The fact that I know this one had to happen makes this hurt even more. Knowing that I had little power to change something…"

Mei didn't say anything. She was in the exact same situation before. Ironically, the situation she was thinking of was a near reversal of the moment Durandal was thinking of. A few still images with a jaded filter flashed on the screen. The first one was of Mei, standing below Durandal who had K423 in her hands. The second was of Mei, seemingly defeated by Durandal. The final still image was of a crying Mei, holding onto what K423 left, a hoodie.

The Herrscher of Thunder could almost empathize with Durandal, but the simple distinction of Rita losing her life made that impossible. She sat down in front of Schicksal's strongest Valkyrie, looking at the maid headband. Mei could only grimace when she looked at it. The bloodstains from Rita still mentally scarred themselves on Mei's hand. Even if they were on opposing sides before, it didn't stop the Lightning Empress from regretting taking and lamenting over Rita's life.

"I don't want to be cheesy," Mei began. "But fight this battle for her. Rita has dedicated her life to serve people, to serve this world as a protector from the Honkai. She would want you to join this battle for her."

"I know." Durandal replied. "She'd want me to fight, not out of order, but for the sake of everyone. Ever since I've joined Schicksal, I've followed the orders of the Overseer. I had the choice of freedom, but I never took it. It wasn't until Rita gave me the push forward that I began to do things not for the sake of the Overseer, but for the sake of the inhabitants of this planet. It's ironic when you think about it." She sniffed. "A maid, a person whose purpose is to follow orders, is the one who gave me the push to be more free. I acted more of a maid than she was." Durandal wiped her tears.

Durandal stood up from her place, still clutching onto the headband. While still holding back tears, her mouth at least transformed into a smile.

"It's sad how I never really felt like I appreciated her enough until she has long gone by." Durandal lamented. "I hate how none of us ever appreciates anything until their demise. We were all fighting against each other not too long ago over our own ideals, but once the world is on the ticking clock of doom, we all side with each other like nothing ever really happened." The Valkyrie lightly scoffed. "What a twisted reality."

"So is the selfishness of humanity. Even when facing the most fearsome of foes, our pot of greed comes to haunt us, and from that pours the rest of our bestowed sins." Mei sighed as she got up. "We don't have time for more chat. You have more preparation than I do."

"Yes, you're right." Durandal stowed the headband away. "I may have led the Immortal Knights, but I've never led the entire Valkyrie force before. A burden that I didn't ask for, but the circumstances call for. I best be going." She began to walk away before stopping to glance at Mei a final time. "You arguably have the most important task. Don't let us down." Durandal said before she left.

"Good luck Bianca."

After the camera displayed a few-second shot of Durandal leaving the room, Nailah was instantly switched to a different place. The room was empty, save for a few chairs. The only occupants in this room were Otto and K423. Otto was currently formulating his plans while K423 was looking at him.

"Otto." She began. "Where's Aunt Theresa? Where's Fu Hua?"

Otto stopped his process for the moment to look up at the wall, looking back down to the plans laid across his thighs after a few brief moments.

"I can't confirm their fates." Otto told the Herrscher. "We weren't able to make contact with either of them. We sent a team on a voyage to look for the two, but no evidence suggesting their location, or possible death was found. As it stands, those two are classified as MIA." The Overseer spoke.

K423 only looked down to the floor. Being MIA was not the worst that could happen, but its ambiguity instills a lot of hope and despair simultaneously. This was not something she wanted to feel during this crisis.

"What will happen to me if I perish?" K423 asked Otto.

The Overseer of Schicksal kept his head low on the plans. He didn't have an honest answer to the clone's question. Should K423 die in battle, well, she dies in battle. At this point, no one has the resource to do something.

"I can't answer that." The Overseer admitted. "At this point in time, personal questions like that aren't important. The fate of the planet is more important."

"And the fate of the planet relies partially on me." K423 said. "Who knows what she'll try to do. She could take my core and give it to someone else. Even worse, what if she brings that side of me back? That turns the tide even worse for us. Kevin already struggles to fight the End alone. Sure, he may overpower me if I were to go insane, but the End will surely prevent him from doing that."

"If she wanted to do that, then she could have done it whenever she wanted." Otto looked over at K423. "She has absolute control over the Honkai. She can easily toy with you to her liking, but she hasn't. They only care about getting Kiana." Otto wrapped up a document. "I can understand where you're coming from. Death is a scary thing, and I know that's ironic coming from me. However, sometimes, people have to sacrifice things for the greater good."

Otto stood up and walked over to K423. He knelt down to match her on an eye-to-eye level. His eyes expressed seriousness.

"K423, no, Sirin. I created you in order to stop the Honkai. We've had a rocky relationship, and maybe it's too late to smooth it out, but just for this once, I need you to listen to me just once. Many people you knew and loved sacrificed themselves in order to one day defeat the Honkai. Himeko, Siegfried, Cecilia, they all made sacrifices in order for humanity to win." Otto started his speech. "We may not be able to prevail over the Honkai today, but at least we can keep their honor by saving the rest of humanity. Don't let their sacrifices go to vain."

K423 could only look away from Otto. He made her for a good purpose, but his treatment says otherwise. As to if his actions were intentional or not, K423 doesn't know.

"I'll…..I'll try." was all she could muster up.

The scene would make a transition, one that Nailah thought was awkward. The camera now cuts to a scene showing the distance between the Earth and the Moon. It was nothing at first, until a swarm of Honkai beast appeared on the moon, the Earth as their site of target. With the aid of a few beasts that could fly, the volley of Honkai were flying towards their destination of Earth. Behind the horde was the Herrscher of the End, lance in her hand, staring down at the Earth.

"Time to make things right." She said with a stern expression.

The End lifted herself up before levitating slowly over to the planet. She approached the Earth first, leading the rest of her servants. All of them were pulled down by the gravitational force of the Earth, an aura of flames surrounding them as they entered the atmosphere. They pierced through the clouds, easily parting them as the ground became visible to them. The hordes of Honkai began splitting apart, covering more ground. As the End and her servants landed, they created craters that dotted the landscape. The Herrscher of the End brushed her hair once she got up. The rest of the Honkai beast began moving outward.

The End went her separate way, aiming for her specific target. Her angelic wings of light spread across her body as she began to take flight. She loomed over and watched her little minions as they began their peaceful march…..until…..

"EXCELSIOR!"

A roar of pride could be heard filling up the theater, both from the movie and the audience watching it. A swarm of Valkyries charged forward as they engaged with the Honkai beast below the End. Likewise, the End met herself with a few bullets shot from beneath, which she swiftly evaded. The Herrscher tried to ignore those shots as they were insignificant to her, but someone from behind grabbed onto her.

"You're not ignoring us!" K423 yelled as the audience cheered.

The Herrscher of the Void dragged the Herrscher of the End down to the ground, slamming her against the Earth. The End quickly pushed the Void Ruler away from her and met face-to-face with her and Kevin.

"Just the two of you?" The End dusted herself off. "Last time I had an entire legion and you couldn't stop me. What makes you think you and that girl are enough?" She directed at Kevin.

"Like I would tell you." The MANTIS spat back.

Without hesitation, Kevin dashed towards the End with Shamash in its sword form while K423 soared towards her from the side with a lance. Both would try to stab the Herrscher of the End with their weapons, only for the End to block them completely using her spear. Using her lance, the End tossed Kevin away while punching K423 back. Kevin was forced a few meters away, but it didn't matter as he quickly shifted Shamash into its gun form and shot a few rounds at the End. At the same time, K423 recoiled back a bit from the punch, but was still ultimately able to toss her lance towards the End. Sadly, the Herrscher of the End quickly countered the two by summoning voidal shields to cover her from Kevin's round and summoning an identical lance to crash into K423's lance.

The Herrscher of the End would take offense into her own hands. Using her left hand, she created a lightning bolt in her palms, blasting it towards K423 before flying forward towards Kevin. She slammed her lance down towards the MANTIS, only to be met with resistance when he blocked it using his guns. Kevin was able to hold his own, but the End still had the upper edge, being able to push him back.

"Resistance is futile." The End told Kevin. "Push yourself aside."

"Not yet." Kevin muttered. "Void, now!" He yelled.

From behind the Herrscher of the End, K423 flew at her back, pushing both her and Kevin back. The Herrscher of the Void created a portal behind Kevin, pushing herself and the other 2 into the portal. All three entered the Imaginary Space, and K423 closed the portal, trapping all 3 inside.

"Now that we're here, you won't be able to interfere with activities on the Earth." K423 panted.

"Hmph, you think taking me here will do anything?" The Herrscher of the End scoffed. "You are fully aware I can exit whenever I want to."

"And we'll be here to stop you." Kevin said.

Crossing his arms and the Judgement of Shamash, an aura of flames erupted around Kevin. It would slowly turn into a gigantic fiery pillar, one that would blow burning steam around Kevin. The fire pillar would be sliced by the mighty MANTIS warrior, revealing the Might of An-Utu within his hands.

"We won't allow you to have your way!" Kevin exclaimed.

The Herrscher of the End gave Kevin an arrogant smile. She lifted a finger towards him and K423, wagging it as a taunt towards the both of them.

"If you so believe that you can halt me, then show me!" The End boasted. "Actions speak louder than words, so prove to me that you can stop me."

"You don't have to tell us twice!" K423 exclaimed.

The Herrscher of the Void flew towards the Herrscher of the End with one of her keys in hand. Up close, she aimed her gun directly at the End's face, trigger finger ready. Before she could fire, the End stabbed her lance in the muzzle of the gun, pushing it upwards. Luckily, this allowed K423 an opening towards the End. Quickly, she summoned a bat in her other, freehand. With all of her might, she slammed the fat metal rod against the End's skull with enough exaggerated force to create a loud *WHACK* noise, and even shake the camera. It was so strong that the audience, including Nailah, slightly shook in their seats.

After the metal whack, Kevin immediately ran towards the End, slashing An-Utu upwards. The End countered by summoning a Void Shield below, blocking Kevin's slash, but all this did was give Kevin an opportunity to grab the Herrscher by the arm, using his Parvati powers to freeze it, locking the joints in place. With her limited arm movement, the End used her arm to slap Kevin away while sending a gust of air directed at K423 to push her off. Immediately, the End used her other arm to create a flaming aura around it. She grabbed her other arm, evaporating the ice.

"Not bad." The End shook her freely unfrozen hand. "I guess you can prove to hold me back here, but how long can that last? Let's see shall we?"

Flashing a cocky smile, the Herrscher of the End flew towards the camera before it cut towards another scene. The movie now focused on an empty city, where Mei, Bronya, Seele, and Kiana were hiding. Bronya was peeking around the city with the aid of drones in order to secure a safe passageway for Kiana. Of course, with the End's primary goal to go after her, Honkai Beast would clearly be close by. Since Kiana's mark was nearly identical to the End's it made it easy for the enemy to know her general location. This is mainly why they had her separated from the rest of the population.

This…left a plot hole, at least one recognizable by Nailah. If they knew where Kiana was, then wouldn't it have made sense to store Kiana down in the safe haven before the Honkai arrived? They only know her general location, not her exact. If the crew brought her down to the safe haven, then none of this would have happened. A bigger plot hole that Nailah realized, or at least one that she thinks is one…why are they evacuating the humans now? The characters seemed fully aware that they couldn't do anything, so why start evacuating now?

Regardless of how unlogical the situation was, the low-ranking Valkyrie tried to continue enjoying the movie.

"Bronya, what's the status outside?" Mei asked.

"Honkai Beast spread across the city. All low-class beast." Bronya informed everyone. "Easy to deal with, but if we're seen with Kiana around, the beasts will most likely alert the higher ranking monsters over here." She continued. "We might be able to clear them fast enough if we exert full power, but we might cause a large enough ruckus to alert others to our location. Do the opposite and the results are similar."

"So what's our best option?" Seele asked.

"As much as I hate it, we have to split up." Bronya regretfully sighed. "Two of us needs to gather the attention of all the Honkai Beast while Kiana and someone else tries to sneak out. Of course, we can't do this at the same time since Kiana escaping might cause her to run into some random beast that were intended to come after the distraction." Concluded Bronya.

"If that's the case, then let me and Bronya be the distractions." Seele offered.

"No." Bronya completely rejected. "As much as Bronya wants to stay with you, you have the more powerful ability between Bronya, Seele, and Mei. In the chance that someone higher comes and attacks Kiana, you will be able to exterminate it quicker."

"Bronya!" Seele reluctantly called out.

"Bronya, I can see where you're coming from," Mei began. "But Seele's synergy with you would allow you and her to clear out the mobs faster than if you and I were together. My powers may not be as potent as hers, but I can make up for it with experience."

"….Seele, let's go." Bronya prepared herself. "Mei, stay here with Kiana until Seele and Bronya attract everyone. Bronya will tell you when to move."

Without a moment's hesitation, Bronya and Seele began running down the stairs of the abandoned building, heading for the first floor door. Meanwhile, Kiana and Mei sat down in place. As expected, Kiana looked depressed, knowing that all she can do is drag down this entire planet.

"I'm sorry for everything." She apologized.

"For the last time, you don't need to apologize." Mei uttered. "This was forced onto you. No one asks to be the turning tide of the whole planet. No one ever asks for responsibilities like that." Mei continued. "I never asked to be a Herrscher, it was something thrusted into my hands, and even when I became one against, part of it was out of desperation. I never had a full freedom choice."

"I know, it's just that I can't help but feel sorry for causing you all this trouble, even if it isn't my causing." Kiana said. "I just feel so, helpless. I want to do something. I want to help you all in this final push, but doing anything can change everything for the worst. I'm useful and useless at the same time."

Before the two could continue their conversation for long, Bronya audio into both of the two.

"Everyone is onto us, get away now!"

"Come on, we don't got time to lose!" Mei ordered.

Forcefully, the Herrscher of Thunder grabbed Kiana's wrist and they both jumped out of the building together. Lightly landing as to not cause noise, Mei carried Kiana in a bridal position and hastily levitated away from the city. The two safely escaped from the city, but outside, a dragon could be heard roaring towards the two. Looking up, the camera would spot a dragon soaring above the sky, circling around the two.

"Damn it, we've been found!" Mei cursed. "Just hang on."

With no time for preparation, Mei boomed towards the sky, flying away from the dragon. The dragon continued chasing after her, but the distance between the two would increase bit by bit. While they may have escaped, it doesn't change the fact that the two have been spotted.

"How far away is the damn safe haven?" Mei angrily swore. "Hang on, let me see if I can get us there faster. KURIKARA!" She roared out.

Within a single roar of its name, the camera swiftly changed to show a scene of a red dragon, soaring through the air and cutting the wind. It flew next to Mei, who invited herself and Kiana on top of the dragon.

"Bear with me Kurikara. I need you to bring us over to our destination as fast as you can." Mei told her partner.

Unleashing a mighty roar, Kurikara bolted towards the safe haven.

---

"Ugh….no…more….." Uryusume weakly groaned.

The Herrscher of Ice was limping, with Laevateinna holding onto her. The two had just finished their series of rides around the park. There were more to be enjoyed, but maybe they had their share, at least definitely in Uryusume's case. Maybe it was time for dinner.

"Let's see here…$10, $11, $16, $26….." Laevateinna began counting their allowance. "$47, $57, $58, $59, $60…..$60 is our total."

With one of her hands, Laevateinna pulled out a map of the amusement park, one that she sketched herself, and included keys for restaurants, rides, etc. The amusement park had many restaurants, all of which specialized in different types of food, though sadly, a majority all dealt with basic western cuisine. Another downside, most amusement park restaurants were a bit more on the expensive side, at least when compared to restaurants outside where you can get the same product.

"Uryusume, where to?" Laevateina shook the map in the Ice Herrscher's face.

"ugheffffesfcshh….." was how Uryusume responded.

"…..Alright, that won't help." Laevateinna took the map back. "I'm making the choice then. Don't come at me if you complain, you had the choice to begin with."

The Herrscher of Sentience quickly scanned the map, looking at the variety yet not so varied restaurant choices. It kind of hurt her seeing how little options she technically had. In the end, she chose some random chicken shack, which, as it entails, deals with chicken.

"Alright, let's go." Laevateinna carried her friend.

It didn't take long for the two to arrive at the restaurant. Sure, Laevateinna had to carry her friend, but it was no big deal considering their superhuman strength. As expected, the line for every cashier was long since it was dinner time. The two just had to be patient with time. In the meantime, they had some time to think about what they wanted on the menu, or to talk about other things.

"What….are we….gonna do?" Uryusume mumbled.

"Looks like you're finally recovering." Laevateinna noted. "After we eat, I think we can just leave, there isn't much left to do here."

"Thank the End." Uryusume weakly let out.

"So what do you want?" Laevateinna forcefully grabbed her partner by the chin. "Look up at the board and not at the ground. Can't decide if you can't see what's on it."

"I'll just get a chicken sandwich." The Ice Herrscher said without looking.

"Alright then."

The two waited in line for a while, just fiddling with their own fingers, and sometimes playing rock-paper-scissors. Once they made it up after 15 minutes, they quickly ordered their meals before waiting again for it to be served.

"What are we gonna do after this?" Uryusume asked, finally out of her trance.

"We're gonna head back to the city, probably walk around for a bit, then we'll buy a cake to celebrate for Johnathan." Laevateinna said. "Normal, or Ice Cream?" She asked Uryusume.

"I'll decide when it's time." Uryusume told her.

After a while, their meals were placed on the counter. Uryusume grabbed her sandwich meal while Laevateinna grabbed her tenders. Both sat themselves over at a corner within the chicken shack as to not attract much attention. The two didn't have much to talk about, or at least not anything interesting. All the important things they wanted to converse about were already dealt with before. Well, almost everything…..

"What was Johnathan like?" Uryusume asked.

Uryusume never met Johnathan before. She had only heard of him from Laevateinna due to how important Johnathan was to her. However, even the Herrscher of Sentience never spoke anything about Johnathan to Uryusume other than his existence. To the Ice Herrscher, Jonathan remained an enigma.

"Johnathan." Laevateinna began. "Johnathan was…how do I say this? He was kind of brash, hot-headed, and short-tempered. I wouldn't say he was a delinquent, but it didn't take much to tick him off." The Herrscher sounding like she was insulting him. "That being said, he was also brave, courageous, and pure of heart. He may have easily burst, but everything he ever did was for what he believed was right, for what he thought was just."

Throughout this conversation, Laevateinna's face became gloomier by the second, which makes perfect sense considering that she's lamenting over a dead person.

"He even stood up for me despite having everyone against him. A brave choice, but one that costed him his life. I…look back at that moment sometimes. I don't know if I regret allowing him to do that, or not. On one hand, if he did, I wouldn't be what I am today, but on the other…." She became to whimper.

'Let's move on." Uryusume quickly butted in. "I'm sorry for bringing this up in the first place. I should have known that grieving over a dead person wouldn't end well."

"No, no, no, no! It's fine." Laevateinna quickly assured Uryusume. "I never said anything about him other than that he used to live. Your curiosity makes sense."

The two continued on with their meal in an awkward silence after their talk about Johnathan. Laevateinna now stuck lamenting over him while Uryusume drowned in guilt for making her friend think back to the now-dead man. Once they finished with their meal, both quickly left the amusement park. Laevateinna pulled out a crumpled map of the city, one that she sketched herself as well since neither her nor Uryusume had access to a phone whatsoever, and maps were nearly obsolete with the existence of technology.

"The closest bakery is actually pretty far off from where we are." Laevateinna eyed her handmade map. "Come on Uryusume, let's go get the desert. It'll most likely be evening by the time we reach there if my estimates are correct."

Walking and squeezing through the traffic of the crowded city, the two Herrschers made their way through the city. Once they reached what Laevateinna assumed to be halfway, the two arrived at a less crowded part of the city. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary, at least in the open. Laevateinna and Uryusume were only just going through the rest of their day, until Laevateinna grabbed the Herrscher of Ice by the shoulder.

"Look over there." Laevateinna pointed to an alleyway.

Over in the alleyway pointed by Laevateinna, there was a bulky man, someone who looked like they were a part of a gang. They were dragging a young-looking boy by the collar, having nefarious plans for him

"Looks like someone's trying to do something disgusting" Uryusume said.

"Be right back." Laevateinna replied.

The Herrscher of Sentience quickly made her way towards the alley.

"Hey, wait up!" Uryusume quickly pursued her.

Both Herrschers ran into the alleyway after the gangster. They easily caught up with him, just in time too. The mobster had begun to tear the boy's clothes using a knife. The boy was obviously fighting back, but he proved weak against the sheer size of the mob.

"Calm down you boyslut, this will be good for the both of us." The rapist breathed.

The small boy tried screaming, only to be muffled when the mobster placed his massive hand over his mouth. He tried reaching for his own pants when he received a gentle knock against his head.

"Excuse me, but I can't help but notice that you seem to be committing a crime." Laevateinna continued knocking on the man's hair with the back of her left index finger. "And to a little boy too? Committing two crimes in one sitting? I can't let that go, can I?" She gave the man a sly smile while winking and raising her other index finger at the same time.

"What the-? Who the hell are you?!" The man swung a fist at Laevateinna.

Laevateinna dodged the fist with ease, spinning behind the man. The man turned around, tried to backhand the Herrscher, only to fail miserably again. Without saying any words, the man furiously rushed up to Laevateinna with his knife, trying to stab her multiple times at the same place. Of course, unknown to the man, she had a major strength advantage to her side, preventing the man from even getting to move the knife.

"Aww, how cute." Laevateinna taunted.

The Herrscher of Sentience easily grabbed the knife out of the gangster's hand, tossing it to the side. Finally, she made an offensive move, forcing the palm of her head against the man's forehead, pushing him to the ground. Laevateinna turned around and knelt down to match the victim's level.

"Are you ok sweetie?" Laevateinna asked in a motherly tone.

The boy didn't know what to say. He slowly crawled back, panicked and confused. Ultimately he got up and ran away, screaming in fear.

'Aww, I scared him away." The Herrscher of Sentience pouted.

Behind her, the man slowly got up. He tried getting back at Laevateinna, but before he could, he received an upwards kick at his jugular from Uryusume, who had been standing at the side the entire time.

"Stay down you idiot." Uryusume said.

The man mumbled a bit before he lost all consciousness. The two Herrscher quietly left the scene, having stopped a crime at hand.

"Phew, that was dealt with." Laevateinna beamed of happiness.

"Laevateinna, this isn't the first you've done this, but I'll always be confused." Uryusume said. "These people are all gonna die in the end. Why bothering saving them anyway?"

"Uryusume, it's because these people at least deserve to live a good life before the end comes to them." Laevateinna began. "Harken back to your days before now. All you wanted was to live a good life, am I wrong? That's just the primary wish of everyone. You're right, these people are running on limited time. They will perish once it happens, but with the time they have, at least let them live the best life they can."

"Laevateinna, you're being hypocritical." Uryusume argued back. "If you really believe that, then why are you murdering others with me? Did those people back in those cities not deserve time like that boy?" She shook the Sentience Herrshcer's shoulders. "I even had to spare that rapist in order to not get a yelling at you! I don't understand! Just sparing these people will cause you consequences that you don't need. Did that rapist need to be spared?!"

"Uryusume, there's a split between our job, and our lives." Laevateinna argued back. "We're not obligated to do our jobs every day of our lives." She pushed the Ice Herrscher's hands off.

"A split between our job and lives?" Uryusume eyes widened. "Laevateinna, our jobs are our lives! There is no split difference between them. This is just our reality now. We're forced to end the lives of others, no matter who, or what. That's our job and our livelihood ever since we were chosen. That's our jobs as Her-!"

"Shush!" Laevateinna quickly covered Uryusume's mouth. "You can't shout that out here! We're not-, I'm not looking for this attention, at least not today."

"Argh, right. Sorry." Uryusume apologized. "It's just, I don't understand why you make this a discrepancy."

"Uryusume, the both of us never asked to be like this." Laevateinna grabbed her by the shoulder. "We may have accepted this gift, but only out of grief. The Will chose us, and forced us to be man killers. We ourselves never, ever asked to become this."

The Herrscher of Sentience bumped her head against the Herrscher of Ice's shoulder. While it wasn't heavy, Uryusume could feel her shoulder start to become wet.

"I don't regret becoming what I am." Laevateinna admitted. "I don't regret being the monster I am to serve justice to this forsaken world. I don't regret having to stain my hands with the blood of living things, but I miss my old life. I miss when things were simpler. I miss being able to live in peace. I miss being able to do things I like. I miss being able to live a normal life. That's why I make a disconnection between my life and duty. I just want to relive my nostalgia."

"…I see." Uryusume gently brushed the back of Laevateinna's hair. "…..Let's just get to the bakery."

Wiping her tears against her sleeve, Laevateinna continued leading Uryusume over to the bakery. They both walked for a few minutes before arriving at the bakery, which was half full. Both entered at their leisure, deciding to just buy normal vanilla cakes. They bought 3, one for each other, and one for Johnathan, which they'll split for themselves as a dead person can't eat, and also a waste for the Herrschers.

"Cheers." Laevateinna lifted her cake.

"Cheers." Uryusume replied.

Both of them slightly bumped each other's cakes before consuming them. The Herrschers consumed their cakes in peace. After they finished, they left the bakery, done with their day. The sun had dyed the sky in a golden hue as it began to set below the horizon and the moon.

"Let's go visit Johnathan one more time." Laevateinna said.

Before the two could go visit his grave, a group of gangsters came down the streets. They all carried wooden bats, metal pipes, and knives.

"That's them." The rapist from before pointed.

"Them?" Another gangster said. "You got your ass kicked to two women?! How pathetic are you?"

"Trust me, they aren't just two fucking women!" The mobster argued back. "They're monsters I tell you! That one right there snatched a knife out of my hand with ease!" He pointed at Laevateinna.

"Really?" Laevateinna raised an eyebrow. "You couldn't handle a lady on your own, so you decide to bring what? 15 other people here?" She shrugged her shoulders.

By now, the two Herrschers have garnered a major crowd of the citizens surrounding them. Not what they wanted on this day.

"Shut up!" The rapist said. "Get that bitch!"

The gangsters were reluctant at first. After all, what could two women do to them? Jokingly, one of them walked up to Uryusume, teasing the girl and underestimating her.

"Hey there cutie." The gangster jokingly flirted. "I don't know how you managed to pulverize that boy over there, but you seem strong, but you also must be scared too?" They taunted. "You must be pissing yourself just seeing this knife right now." The gangster brought their knife to Uryusume's face. "Ooooh, what are you gonna do? Scream and-AGH!"

Before the gangster could finish, Uryusume had sent an uppercut to their face. She would grab the gangster by the collar and toss them over towards another gangster.

"Oh that does it. Get them!" A gangster finally said.

The group of mobsters charged forward at both Uryusume and Laevateinna. This wasn't really the first time the two dealt with a group situation before, though it was the first time they had to do this without their powers.

"Get ready Uryusume." Laevateinna called out

"I'm 5 steps ahead of you." Uryusume said back.

As the mob charged at them, the two Herrschers charged back. While they were outnumbered, their sheer strength over the gangsters allowed them to easily split the gang up, allowing the two Herrschers to deal with them one-by-one. Laevateinna quickly dealt with her own opponents by aiming for vital spots like the jugular to quickly knock them out. Uryusume went the more violent route. Like Laevateinna, she only intended to knock them out, but her methods were much more physical. Instead of aiming for weak spots, Uryusume decided to use brute force, using fierce punches and kicks to knock out the gangsters. Sometimes, she even used grabs to throw them into each other.

Not surprisingly both of them were able to clear out the gangsters pretty quickly. The bystanders that spectated the two could only clap in awe.

"That was unexpected." Uryusume let out. "I didn't think we would have to fight people today." She wiped her forehead.

"Me neither, but I'm glad we could clear it quickly." Laevateinna let out. "Come on, let's go-watch out!"

Laevateinna quickly pulled Uruysume away from a gangster that wasn't knocked out yet. The gangster tried slashing at Uryusume with a knife. The knife missed the Herrscher of Ice's face, but the tip ended up slashing at her mask, ripping it in half. In response, Uryusume kicked the gangster in the face, knocking them out.

"Are you alright?" Laevateinna asked.

"Yeah, seems like I'm fine." Uryusume took off her mask. "Looks like the knife ripped the mask in half."

"Uh, uagh…..UAH!" A scream could be heard within the crowd.

Soon, the scream would be multiplied.

"It's her!" Someone yelled. "It's the Herrscher!"

Uryusume's eyes widened. Her cover was blown all thanks to her mask completely ripping, revealing her full face. The public began to freak out as the Herrscher of Ice was forced out of her hiding. Reacting to this, Laevateinna quickly grabbed Uryusume by the hand, running away with her. Similarly, part of the crowd began running away while a few brave ones gave chase towards the two Herrschers.

"Damn it! I didn't think this would happen." Laevateinna continued running away. "Why did the birthday have to end like this?"

"I'm so sorry." Uryusume apologized. "If I had been more weary, then none of this would have happened."

The two ran and hid in an alleyway, hiding within a dark corner. The brave fellows who chased them continued to run, passing by the hiding Herrschers. Once the coast was clear, the two left their corner.

"Where do we go now?" Uryusume asked.

"Well, we need to find a way to get out of here." Laevateinna said. "We could just fly out of the city, but we can't do that in the open. It would give the citizens a clue to where we're going. I don't want Schicksal on us for a while." She told Uryusume. "Let's find an opening and-."

"Did you find them yet?" The Herrschers heard someone gossip.

"No, I haven't yet. How did two Herrscher manage to sneak under our noses? Do they still think they're human after all they've done?"

"Ugh, there are people out there. We can't go out there." Laevateinna sighed. "Come on, let's find-."

"I saw the both of them this morning." A voice said. "Both were in the graveyard giving their prayers to some dead person. Do they think they have the right to respect the dead after killing so many?"

"Disgusting!" Another voice said. "Which grave did they go to? Let's go destroy it! They don't deserve to respect the dead!"

Upon hearing that, Laevateinna's eyes widened in fear, disgust, and agony. Tears came flowing out of her eyes and she raised her hands to her mouth to muffle her cries

"Damn it, we don't have time. Let's go!" Uryusume took the lead.

The Herrscher of Ice grabbed Laevateinna's hand and immediately rushed outwards with her. With no hesitation, she initiated her transformation. A gust of icy wind bursted around her. Immediately, Uryusume's hair was tied back to her side-tail, and she donned her Herrscher dress. Carrying Laevateinna bridal style, Uryusume flew towards Johnathan's grave.

"Where are you going?!" Laevateinna shouted.

"If we don't move Johnathan now, then his grave will be destroyed and ransacked." Uryusume replied. "We have no time to lose! We have to move Johnathan NOW!"

Without notice, Laevateinna let go of Uryusume and pushed herself off. She immediately herrscherfied herself to fly on her own. Her tears flowed off of her face and into the sky. Their day went from good, to terrible within the span of minutes.

"I'm so sorry Johnathan." She cried.

This was not how she wanted his birthday to end.

---

After Kurikara bolted off into the sky, the movie transitioned back to the fight with K423, Kevin, and the Herrscher of the End. As expected, K423 and Kevin were starting to wind down whereas the Herrscher of the End seemed like it was still ready to go.

"Had enough already?" The End taunted. "As expected. Now then, move out of the way!"

The Herrscher of the End clasped her hands together before spreading them out slowly. Electricity zapped across her fingers and formed a big lightning orb in between her palms. Bolts of thunder roared out from the ball, zapping the ground below her. She pushed her palm outwards, moving the ball to aim at K423 and Kevin.

"Electric Death Shell!" The End yelled out her attack name.

The Herrscher of the End blasted the ball of lightning towards her two opponents. K423 and Kevin would leap out of the way, but the electric explosion from the orb would reach a range far enough to shock the two violently. Both fell to the ground, still shaking from the shock.

"Now this fight has reached its end." The End proclaimed.

She turned around to exit the Imaginary Space, but turning her back would be a huge mistake. The two that she thought were dead, was not. K423 quickly got up, shooting the End with a few rounds, all that managed to land against the End. The Herrscher flinched forward from the unexpected shots.

"Damn you." She cursed. "Why won't you just stay down?!"

Quickly, the Herrscher of the End turned around, creating another Electric Death Shell. She blasted the blast at both of them again. However, instead of dodging, Kevin amped up An-Utu to its mightiest power and clashed his sword against the electric bomb. Sparks of fire and lightning exploded outwards as the sword continued clashing with the orb. K423 had to cover herself from the spewing extra while the other two continued pressuring the other. Eventually, the Electric Death Shell and An-Utu would cause a massive explosion. The Imaginary Space began to shatter, and then crumble into pieces. K423, Kevin, and the Herrscher of the End would be forced back into the real dimension. Unfortunately, all 3 returned in the air, and at the worst spot possible.

"I got you!" K423 shouted as she grabbed Kevin by his wrist. "Looks like the dimension was shattered, but at least we…..oh no."

The Herrscher of the End turned around, her eyes widened, and her grin becoming big.

"Jackpot!" She yelled as she flew towards Kurikara.

"Damn it! She's found Kiana!" Kevin yelled. "Quick, stop her!"

K423 soared towards the Herrscher of the End, but with her having to carry Kevin, it slowed her down. Mei and Kiana witnessed as the End came closer to them. Kurikara altered its path as to not crash into the End, but it wasn't like it mattered.

"Finally, I can unleash-huh?!"

A lance came straight at the End from below, halting her advance. After that, several laser beams from below came to strike at the End, all of which missed. Taking this advantage, Mei leapt off of Kurikara, breaking out her katana and slashing downwards at the End. The Herrscher of the End blocked the attack, but the Herrscher of Thunder would take this opportunity to bring her down to the ground. The two Herrschers would crash on the Earth. The End would knock Mei off of her, but now the End was surrounded. Below on the ground were Bronya, Seele, and Durandal, who were all waiting for her. K423 and Kevin would descend downward, joining up with the other 3. Finally, Mei would get up. The team, with the exception of Otto, was here, and ready to fight the End. The audience roared its loudest cheer in the theater yet.

"Kurikara. Take Kiana to the safe haven without me." Mei ordered her dragon.

Without question, Kurikara continued towards the safe haven with Kiana on it.

"And just as I was about to achieve perfection." The Herrscher of the End groaned. "I'll be sure to make your punishment even worse!"

On cue, the team of Earth's heroes and the Herrscher of the End simultaneously charged at each other. Bronya, K423, and Kevin would halt halfway, and provide ranged support. Meanwhile, Seele, Durandal, and Mei would take on the End up close with their respective weapons. For the Herrscher of the End, this battle became more difficult for her. Not only has her opponents tripled in number, but they all attacked her at the same time, giving her little room to do much. While her opponents couldn't land a hit on her thanks to the End's impressive defense, she herself could not land a single hit.

"Damn it all!" The Herrscher of the End yelled as she released a fiery pulse, pushing Mei, Seele, and Durandal back.

She quickly created multiple wind missiles, all of which she launched at all 6 people. Reacting in time, K423 would create a barrier around all of her allies, protecting them from the blast. Once the barriers were down, K423 followed up by summoning a bunch of portals around the Herrscher of the End, all of which had subspace lances pointing directly down at the Herrscher of the End. Likewise, Bronya would create loads of missile cannons surrounding the End. At the same time, the two would bombard their opponent with hellfire rain. A massive explosion occurred around the Herrscher of the End. Once the smoke cleared, the Herrscher of the End had a few dirt marks on her, but no real injuries.

Before they could allow her to move, Seele would slash her scythe a few times, creating an X with a horizontal line on the Herrscher of the End. At the same time, Mei would leap far up into the air and come crashing down with a vertical slash. In unity, Kevin would charge up An-Utu and blast forward a fire wave, and Durandal would throw her lance with immense pressure. All of this would collide with the Herrscher of the End, causing her to flinch, but again, no injury.

"How much punishment can she take?" Seele called out.

"Enough to the point that she can outlast us." Kevin replied back. "But we're still halting her. Continue pressuring her!"

The Herrscher of the End started to get up. She was annoyed by the efforts of everyone around her as it did nothing but get in her plans.

"Damn mortals!" She cursed. "Do you really think you can stop me!"

She raised an arm up, seemingly charging a ball of fire, but before she could, a few subspace lances came towards her from the sides.

"As if we'll allow you!" K423 yelled.

The lances began to shapeshift into a more string-like appearance, wrapping around the End to constrain her in place. Afterward, she summoned even more portals with lances around the End.

"We have to knock her out." K423 told everyone. "We don't have enough energy to keep going. We have to pour all of our energy into a single attack to faint her."

"Right!" Everyone yelled.

Bronya created more cannons around the Herrscher of the End, this time, laser cannons. The laser cannons began charging up their power.

"50%, 60%, 70%." Bronya counted the charge. "80%, 90%, 100%! MAXIMUM OVERLOAD! 150%!" She yelled.

"Veliona, take over!" Seele yelled.

A red flash of aura appeared around Seele. Once the aura disappeared, Veliona made her appearance.

"To think I would be going against my own master." Veliona smirked.

Without hesitation, Veliona summoned a gigantic rune below the End, and out came tentacles. The tentacles were mainly black with a red tip, but they soon began to glow even redder, and eventually white and bright. They were getting ready to explode.

"This is the wrath of humanity!" Kevin shouted.

Kevin pointed An-Utu up towards the sky. A flaming tornado surrounded the MANTIS Warrior as he charged up his final attack. Finally, Kevin jumped up and stabbed the ground. The ground between him and the Herrscher of the End began to crumble, and trails of flames slithered forward to the End.

"We won't let you have your way!" Mei shouted.

The Herrscher of Thunder summoned her gigantic arms and katana. The arms ran against the blade of the katana before the katana erupted, forming a humongous blade of electricity. Mei commanded the arms to point the katana upwards, and to slash downwards at the Herrscher of the End.

"All of us have people that we cherish. We won't let you erase them from existence!" Durandal yelled.

A golden light surrounded Earth's strongest Valkyrie as she changed into her strongest battle suit, Dea Anchora. Durandal floated up into the air, summoning an insanely large bow and energy lance. She pulled the lance against the bowstring. Energy erupted from the tip of the lance and it expanded the more Durandal pulled back. Finally, once Durandal reached her max, she let go.

The combined attacks of K423, Bronya, Seele, Kevin, Mei, and Durandal would attack the Herrscher of the End at the same time, creating a massive elemental explosion that pushed all 6 warriors back. The crowd within the theater erupted in cheers as the explosion played in virtual reality. Dust covered the vision for all 6 of them. When the dust cleared, there was a massive crater where the Herrscher of the End once stood.

"D-did we defeat her?" Durandal asked.

"T-There's no way!" Mei exclaimed. "Did we truly-?"

*KABOOM*

An enormous explosion erupted. From within the explosion, the silhouette of the Herrscher of the End could be seen rising up. Once the vibrant burst disappeared, the audience was treated with a full view of the Herrscher of the End. Parts of her clothes were ripped, her hair was messed up, and she had a few dirt marks on her. However, the Herrscher of the End was still majorly uninjured. The End…..was furious.

"This is how you want to play huh?" The End deviously smirked. "Fine, then let me match an explosion with another explosion!"

The Herrscher of the End flew upwards a bit. Her chest began to light up a bit. Elemental trails from the powers of all 13 Herrschers came out and formed into a powerful energy ball.

"Demise!" The Herrscher of the End roared as she blasted the attack down.

The gigantic energy ball came down on all 6 warriors. The energy ball made contact with the ground, and exploded immediately. The 6 Warriors were caught in the explosion. The screams of the heroes could be heard surrounding the theater. The vision for all the viewers was lit white for a few seconds, before the light disappeared. The movie showed scenes of all 6 warriors, heavily injured. Bronya and Seele had their bottoms buried underground, Kevin had parts of his body covered in ice, Mei was visibly shaking from shock, and Durandal had an arm that was reduced completely to skeleton.

K423 was the first to get up. The audience was treated to a first-person view from her perspective. She blinked a bit before part of the screen went red. The camera changed back to look at K423's face. She was gripping the right side of her face. Blood oozed out from that side, as her left eye was completely gone.

"Looks like I didn't put enough energy into it." The End lamented. "Once more then."

The Herrscher of the End charged up Demise once again with the full intention to wipe out her opponents, but before she could, a bolt of red lightning struck her from the back. A mighty, draconic roar can be heard in the distance. The red dragon Kurikara can be seen flying in the distance, and on it, Kiana.

"Kiana, what are you doing?!" Mei shouted.

Kurikara dived straight towards the ground, low enough for Kiana to jump off safely. The Herrscher of the End was confused at Kiana's boldness, but she welcomed the benefit nonetheless.

"Bold of you to come here knowing the burden you carry." The End smirked. "Come, let us join together once more!"

"Fine!" Kiana began running towards The End.

"Kiana, what are you doing?!" Kevin shouted.

"Buying time!"

Kiana leapt towards the Herrscher of the End with her hand reaching out to the Herrscher's chest. Once it made contact, a gigantic light emerged from the both of them.

"Go, all of you!" Kiana yelled. "Get to the safe haven or somewhere else safe, now!"

The light became brighter, and fused into one. Kiana and the Herrscher of the End started to fuse together, becoming whole again. The light dissipated. The Herrscher of the End appeared, no physical changes seen. She still had her ragged clothes, messy hair, and dirt marks. However, she was acting a bit different.

"Agh….UAGH!" She began screaming.

The Herrscher of the End began to shiver and shake in place. The camera moved to give a close-up view to the End's face for the virtual audience. Her eyes were flickering between orange and blue as both sides of the Herrscher tried to take dominance for the body. Kiana vs the End itself. Her eyes continued flickering back and forth between the two colors, and all of the body's movements seemingly restricted.

"Come on!" K423 yelled as she got up. "Kiana's holding her back as long as she can. We have to escape!"

K423 opened up a portal. Durandal limped in first with the aid of Kevin. Mei would go over to free Bronya and Seele, taking them into K423's portal. Finally, K423 herself would enter the portal, leaving the Herrscher of the End behind.

The Herrscher of the End's hand would struggle to rise. It was vibrantly shaking as energy started to form around her hand.

"What are you doing?!" A combination of Kiana's and the End's voice can be heard saying. "Doing the only right thing I can do!"

The hand imbued the world with a shining light. It was silent. No noise could be heard. The world was just….white for a solid minute. The audience, including Nailah, was curious. What happened? What did Kiana do?

The minute came to an end. The flash of white disappeared. The movie audience was given a clear view of the Earth, in shambles. All of the buildings on Earth, reduced to ash. Areas with greenery, dusted to brown. All of the Valkyries and Honkai that were fighting who hadn't escaped, now gone with the wind. The Earth was completely wiped. The civilization established on it, now a relic of time.

The movie cuts back to the Herrscher of the End. She was kneeling on the ground. Besides her was Kiana. The two had split up again. The End has failed in her mission once again. Some remnants of humanity still lived, but she no longer had the energy to finish her job, thanks to Kiana forcing her to waste it.

"You….you knew this would happen, other me." The End looked down at Kiana.

Kiana coughed, weakened by her actions.

"And that's why I did something." She said. "I won't stand idle and be useless."

"If you knew, then what took you so long?" The Herrscher of the End struggled to get up.

"…Courage."

The Herrscher of the End weakly summoned her lance, pointing it down at Kiana. The Herrscher struggled to make a decision. Should she kill Kiana here, she would never be whole again, and she would never have enough power to end humanity then. Should she allow her to live, The Herrscher would have a chance to become one again, and be more powerful than ever, at the consequence of becoming her own biggest enemy.

The choice was difficult, but before she could choose, a flaming gunshot came at the Herrscher's shoulder, hitting her and causing her to drop the lance. Amidst the distance, Otto Apocalypse could be seen aiming a Void Archive replica of Shamash in his hand.

"Your time here is finished." Otto said. "There will be no more destruction from here."

Gripping her shoulders, the Herrscher of the End looked at Otto in rage.

"You may have one today human, but once I recover, the next reality will be the last." The Herrscher cursed at him.

Before Otto could fire another shot, the Herrscher of the End leapt through a portal, returning back to the moon to recover. Otto's Shamash replica disappeared. The Overseer of Schicksal walked over to the body of Kiana, seemingly lifeless. He picked her up and looked up at the sky.

"A major yet shallow victory." He began. "Humanity lives once again, but our world has been decimated. A long arduous journey of recovery waits ahead. How much time do we have this time? 100 years? 1000 years? 10000 years? No one knows I suppose. How far can we reach before she wakes? I suppose I should not dwell on that till the time comes."

Otto turns his back to the viewers, carrying Kiana away. He and her body would eventually fade into the smokey dust blown by the wind, and the movie would fade to black. The credits began playing, signifying the end of the movie. Some behind-the-scenes and blooper reels played as the credits rolled by. The virtual headset asked Nailah a question.

"Would you like to leave now?" It asked.

"Yes." Nailah replied.

The headset would move out then upward, allowing Nailah to leave. The girl got up from her seat, needing to stretch after being forced to sit for a long time. Honestly, the movie was fairly enjoyable for her. There were a lot of potholes that she noticed, and there were things that simply didn't add up, but she enjoyed it nonetheless. Maybe she might watch the other 2 movies in her free time.

She promptly left the theater that she was in and went back to the main lobby. When she entered, Nailah entered a state of panic. In the lobby, she could see other valkyries, ones that she did not fondly remember on campus.

"Why did they have to be here?" Nailah had a quiet breakdown.

The lobby was crowded. Nailah didn't really stand out all too much from the common folk as she wasn't bigger, nor smaller, nor did she wear any clothes to stand out. If she tried hard enough, she could easily blend in with her environment. The attempt was worth a shot.

Nailah kept her eyes on her bullies. They didn't seem to be paying attention to her, so she quickly moved into the crowd. Despite needing to get out of there as quickly as possible, she didn't push herself. Doing so would actually garner more attention. Patience was key. Thankfully, her bullies seem to be going in the opposite direction. After finding her way out of the crowd, Nailha exited the cinema altogether. The rain had ended, but it could easily resume any minute.

The low ranking Valkyrie waited for another bus to take her back to campus, which came by pretty quickly. She got on and went back to campus, a bus ride that only took an hour. Once she got back, the campus entrance was empty. Understandable since it was a depressing day after all. Nailah made a few steps on campus ground, going back to the dorms.

*SPLASH*

From behind her, Nailah was hit with a water balloon to the head, drenching her entire back. A storm of laughter can be heard from behind her. Nailah turned around to look at the people behind her.

"Did you see that?" A male Valkyrie laughed. "She got hit by a water balloon and didn't defend herself. No wonder she hasn't ranked up yet."

Nailah gritted her teeth out of rage hearing the insult. Her tenacity on her umbrella strengthened before she completely threw it at the group behind her. Of course, the group easily dodged.

"Well, would you look at that?" A female Valkyrie said. "Look at Nailah being brave. Too bad it won't help her here."

On cue, the group of Valkyries ganged up on Nailah, pulverizing her up relentlessly. Outnumbered and overpowered, Nailah could do nothing, literally nothing. She was pushed to the ground, aggressively kicked and punched by the group. Her clothes would be ripped as her beating continued, her hair messed up, and dirt-covered parts of her body.

"Pl..please stop." Nailah can be heard faintly crying.

Her cries were deaf to her offender's ears. Their beating only got more aggressive to the point that Nailah began coughing up blood. After 5 minutes, it ended when one of the Valkyries grabbed Nailah by the collar and tossed her away.

"Idiotic Weakling." She said. "No wonder why you failed the rank-up test 4 times. How are you even a Valkyrie? Actually, why are you a Valkyrie?!"

The bully spat on her face before all of them left Nailah on the ground, bloodied, bruised, and broken. The rain started to fall again. Nailah laid motionless on the ground, silently crying. Her day went from good, to terrible within the span of minutes.

"I…..I'm sorry…..Mom, and Dad." Nailah weakly cried.

This was not how she wanted her day to end.

---

Chapter 12 End

Hello everyone. Sorry for the very long update. I got busy with school the past few months as well as other things like my own physical health, which has gone to hell within the recent month. I will still work on this story, but don't expect me to release new chapters as fast as I could last year.

As you've probably noticed, this chapter was mainly written in 3rd Person, a major change from the usual 1st Person of the previous chapters. I received complaints from a few friends of mine that it was hard for them to read and keep up with it being in 1st Person, so for this chapter, I tried writing in 3rd Person for the majority of it to see how it would go. I'll probably try this for the next 5-10 chapters and see what the public reaction will be like. I also go back and re-write the first 11 chapters in 3rd Person, and add some story changes to reflect and fix things to make this story a bit more connected to new information and lore from the game, such as changing mentions to the Herrscher of Clairvoyance to the official Herrscher of Sentience name.

Have a great day.