Disclaimer: 'Honkai impact 3rd' is the property of Hoyoverse, Singapore. I do not own any characters in this story except the minor OCs here and there.
Herrscher
"Herrscher?" asked Kevin, confused at the word that the man had chosen to describe himself as.
"Yes." said a man with brown hair with a white strand running in the forehead portion, he had a normal body typical of an intellectual. He had golden-brown eyes and was wearing specs further solidifying his image as an intellectual. The man's name was Welt Yang, and as he proclaimed was apparently something called a Herrscher.
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Kevin.
"Right, explanation time. Do you know what is the main objective of Honkai?"
"…"
"Come on, humour me Mr. Soldier."
"….. sigh... Eradication of humanity."
"Correct. Now if you think of the Honkai beasts akin to an army, to invade and destroy humanity, it makes sense that they would require a leader of sorts, right?"
"Honkai beasts, army, what are you talking about? Since when do they have intelligence enough for that?"
"Don't underestimate them, Mr. Soldier. They can be very intelligent than mere beasts; otherwise, how do they know to prioritize strong humans and kill them fast with their numbers?"
"…" to this Kevin was not able to give an answer; because the more he thought about this, the more it made sense. The Honkai beasts he had encountered until now always tended to go for the most armoured soldiers in his unit. However, when he starts killing more of them, they quickly switch their focus to him and try to actively kill him more than anyone else. He had used this fact as a tactic of sorts for dealing with them effectively while minimizing the number of wounded people.
Welt seeing that the boy in front of him pondering over his theory positively was delighted, to say the least. Thus, he continued to explain:
"Anyway, those leaders are some chosen humans, what makes them special I don't know currently. Then they start hearing whispers in their head telling them everything will be alright, that the main source of their grief is the humans around them, that those humans should die."
"And when those humans completely fall under the voice's trance, then IT happens."
"…" Kevin still remained silent hearing what this self-proclaimed leader of Honkai has to say. Even though he didn't believe him one per cent, but him knowing about Honkai which was supposed to be a secret of a high level made him alert. So, in the end, he decided to listen to him in an attempt to keep an eye on him for any potential threats.
"A large Honkai energy surge, which either kills or corrupts everything in its path. And from that destruction a HERRSCHER is born, an apostle of Honkai, an existence that exists beyond human knowledge. To us, laws of nature mean nothing and the very thing you call reality is our playground."
As Kevin listened to the man, the more he was becoming sure that the man has lost his mind. 'Existence beyond human knowledge', 'reality as our playground', how could anyone believe it? But he sensed that the man was telling the truth, so how could it be possible? Finally having enough, Kevin asked the man.
"If the birth of a Herrscher causes many deaths, then why has not anyone died in this country? We got no reports of any kind of destruction of Berlin. Furthermore, what happens to the person who turns into a Herrscher?"
"I'm getting there now." said the man before continuing:
"So as you see if a person realizes, they have been tricked they would surely rebel, right? So, the moment a Herrscher is born the Herrscher persona overwrites the host and completely becomes a separate entity. You can say that the chosen person dies as well in the surge."
"Then why are you-"
"It is because of what type of Herrscher I am. I'm the HERRSCHER OF REASON, and reason dictates that it is pointless to kill any organism unnecessarily."
"You think that justifies your existence?" Kevin asked tightening his hands on the pistols.
"Think what you want Mr. soldier, but the fact doesn't change that I'm not the last. And if you are to have any hope of surviving the next ones then you and your organization need the knowledge that I possess." Said the man passionately.
"We'll continue this afterwards, we have company." Kevin said ending the conversation.
"Around twenty Honkai Signatures are coming from the back Sergeant." One of the soldiers shouted.
"Fifteen from the right." another one said.
"Ten from the left." a third one said.
"Sir, we have Honkai signatures closing in on us from all directions, we are getting surrounded, orders Sergeant."
"Calm down, all squads form five-man teams and cover all four directions in the petal formation. Adjacent teams, cover each other's blind spot and take down the enemy starting from the front line first. Those who got the prototype rifles, try to take a greater number of beasts. Pay extra attention to beasts above knight class and do not attempt to singly engage them. Inform me of any beasts of Emperor-class, I will handle it."
"But Sergeant-"
"It's an order soldier." commanded Kevin.
"Yes sir." replied the soldier.
"All right into formations men." ordered Kevin as the soldiers got into position with five men forming a team and covering all the directions with Kevin and Welt at the center.
"They are trained well." Commented Welt.
"…" Kevin chose to remain silent.
"Enemy engagement in 10 seconds…. 5 seconds… 3 seconds… now."
As the count reached zero, beasts appeared from all directions, they were of all types, ranging from seraph-class to even Templar-class. At the very back of them all, there were four or five Emperor class beasts. Kevin made them their target.
"Engage." commanded Kevin as he ran into the beast crowd to take care of the Emperor class.
"Hyaa." said the soldiers as they started the fighting.
"Is your sergeant going to be okay, wasn't it safer to fight together?" asked Welt astonished with the actions of the Mr. soldier.
"Don't worry Herrscher, he is going to be fine. He is the strongest out of us, even a hundred of us are no match for him." said a soldier confidently as he shot down a Chariot-class Honkai beast.
"Is that so?"
"Yeah, he can single-handedly—Hmph—can take an entire group of Templar class on his own." said another one as he struggled with one of the same Templar-class beasts.
"He hates the Honkai most out of us. Even 1000 of our rage is not equal to his own." said a third soldier as he sniped a knight-class clean off his head.
Meanwhile with Kevin
He ran forward with the ferocity of a dragon but with the presence of mind of a sage. He knew that anger was the most powerful emotion to be a soldier but only when tempered by a clear mind can that anger be given clear direction. As he cut his way through the Honkai beasts with perfect calculated strikes, he made it to the other end of the crowd of beasts and came to face the five Emperor-class beasts.
"This material sure is sharp." said Kevin to himself referring to the material with which his bastard sword was made. Tesla and Einstein were experimenting with some new material they said was 'going to revolutionize Honkai warfare as they knew it.' Even though Kevin had his doubts but the new prototype material was leagues ahead of even obsidian. It became much easier for him to cut down Honkai flesh and the sword now stayed sharp without any need for sharpening.
ROAR.
His thoughts came to a halt as he saw the Emperor-class beasts converging to his location. They may have sensed him to be the biggest threat here and are trying to quickly finish him off, maybe they really were intelligent. His eyes widened slightly as he thought to himself:
'Am I seriously considering what that man has said, what is wrong with me?' but he couldn't think further as the beasts started to attack him. He decided he can muse on this matter however long he wants after this, but eradicating these beasts in front of him takes priority now. So, as he cleared his mind Kevin said:
"Okay, let's go."
With the main group
"The soldiers are handling the fight better than I thought they would." said Welt to himself.
The soldiers were systematically eradicating the beasts, without any wasted movements and with minimal ammunition. Every bullet fired found its mark and caused a beast to fall. For the larger beasts as Kevin said, they were taking it down two per person. Welt was astonished by the level of coordination between different soldiers and the groups as a whole.
"Wahaha, I killed five Chariots, Rick, dinner's on you today." Said one soldier
"Don't get ahead of yourself, I have killed seven already Stan." Said another as he put a hole through a Templar class.
"Oi, that was my kill." Complained another.
"Well, the team with the least kills gets the special training session with Sgt. next Monday."
Hearing the words 'Special-training session', everyone's faces paled. The so-called special training session consisted of covering an obstacle course without getting hit by Kevin a single time. Needless to say, Kevin was no ordinary gunslinger, with a score of 20/20; he was one of the elites, and boy he didn't hold back. Thus, the training session was a nightmare that none wanted to live even though they respected him. Well, you got to have a body left to live right?
"Shit, Team beta double time." Said the squad leader in a nervous tone.
"Sir." replied the squad members with the same enthusiasm, they wanted to live the next week peacefully, not having body pains all over.
"What kind of a demon are you?" Welt sweat dropped hearing the soldier's chatters.
With Kevin
Kevin was already used to fighting Emperor-class on a regular basis, so much that he was more expert at dealing with them than the other classes. The first one charged at him to which he just side-stepped and sliced it with his bastard sword. At this time a second was charging some sort of attack which it let out at him. Kevin dodged the attack by running behind a third beast to which the attack hit and cause the beast to die. 'One down' thought Kevin. He then charged to the fourth one, taking out his pistols and changing the firing mode.
"Burst mode." he said, and the pistol glowed amber to indicate the mode change. He then jumped and landed on the beast's head "it's over."
Explosive power equal to an artillery gun exploded at once with a loud noise and at point-blank range, annihilating the whole upper portion of the beast. However, Kevin underestimated the recoil of the mode and was flung back by it. He landed on his back on the ground, and while he was getting up was struck by the three remaining beasts simultaneously.
"Ugh." he heard something crack and his entire left arm exploded in pain. He understood that he most probably had broken his left arm, but he didn't care. 'Not enough, can still fight.' thought Kevin as he got up. His men were fighting and he refused to leave them alone. He will kill these beasts no matter what happens to him.
The main group
The fight was going smoothly, the soldiers were killing the Honkai beasts at a good pace. Seeing them it was hard to believe that they were fighting mostly using conventional weaponry. Welt knew that it takes a huge amount of ammunition from normal rifles and weapons to damage and kill the Honkai beasts. This was mainly thanks to the impromptu experiments that he did with his powers before the soldiers came.
BOOM.
A loud sound rattled the ground, and welt looked in the direction from which the sound came from, and what he saw shocked him to the core. The boy Sgt. with whom he was talking just unleashed a shot so powerful that it blew away the entire upper portion of the beast that he fired on, from his pistols. He was then blown away from the recoil, and landed some distance away from the remains of that beast; however, three of them suddenly appeared and attacked him simultaneously. The boy fell down again, and Welt saw him clutching his left arm most probably broken, but then he got up again and charged to the beast again.
'That idiot, does he want to get himself killed or what?' thought Welt. One of the soldiers noticed as well.
"Sir, Sergeant is wounded, we should go provide him support."
"No, we will follow our orders and deal with the Honkai beasts here."
"But sir-"
"I said no. If we go there, we will only get in his way and he will get hurt more trying to protect us."
"!"
"Yeah." said the squad commander the soldier belonged to "no matter how strong we become, we are still weak against Emperor- class, if we go, we will only die needlessly. That's how weak we are."
"But-…. F*ck."
"I know how you feel boy, I know. No matter how better we become, he will take the heaviest burdens alone."
Welt was again surprised hearing the conversations of the soldiers, it seemed that this was how the boy did things. By taking the most difficult battles, so that his men could be safe. He could not make up his mind whether the boy was painfully kind or painfully stupid.
'Who are you boy?', thought Welt as he scrunched his eyebrows.
With Kevin
He had to end this fast. His left arm was broken, in many places probably, he was bleeding from his forehead which was impeding his vision and he was bleeding heavily from a gash on his right abdomen. The first beast charged to which he jumped on it and got to its face, but as he was to shoot, the other beast rammed the first one causing him to lose balance and fall. The third one tries to overrun him, but he dodges by rolling sideways.
'This is getting nowhere.' thought Kevin to himself. He had to finish this fight fast but how? Then he saw a pointed rock and an idea came to him. He made for the rock, the beasts chasing him. Once he came to the rock, he climbed up quickly and unholstered one of the guns. He had only one shot at this and if he failed, he may very well die. Without hesitation, he jumped from the rock and aimed the gun at the ground and pulled the trigger. As the gun was in Burst mode, he flew further upward by the shock of recoil. The beasts losing their sight of him were confused, but soon felt an immense amount of Honkai charge in the air, they saw him charging what seemed to be a shot, and instinctively knew that if they didn't move, they will perish. However, in their pursuit of the human they have been bundled together and were unable to get away while blocking each other's path, the last thing they saw was an orange light descending from the sky.
Two of the three remaining beasts were blown away by the shot killing them instantly. After firing, Kevin fell to the ground with a thud, his padded clothes broke the fall somewhat, but still he felt the wind knocked out of him. He looked around, two of the three beasts were dead; However, one of the beasts was still alive albeit barely and was trying to crawl away to safety. So, with some difficulty, Kevin stood up and started walking to the beast. Each step proved a bit difficult, but he walked on until he reached the beast. As he reached the beast, he aimed one pistol at the beast's head, the beast looked like as if pleading for mercy; as if he would grant it to Honkai like that. "Die." was the only thing he said as he pulled the trigger.
The battle was finished and the beasts were taken care of. This would provide another headache for the research team that would be sent to retrieve the bodies. The soldiers then started to group up back in straight formation but kept vigilance for any more unseen threats.
Welt looked around, astonished. He never thought that people had developed such a methodical system fighting style against Honkai. But then again, this squad must be special because of the young Sgt. of them. Speaking of the Sgt. he was even stronger than Welt gave him credit for earlier, as he had managed to take down five Emperor-class beasts, as they said it. The young man was making his way to them slowly, maybe because of his injuries. He definitely was the most beat-up out of all of them and Welt was sure that his left arm was broken by the way he held it with his right.
'Such a reckless boy.' thought Welt to himself as the boy finally reached them.
"Report." Kevin said in an even breath without seemingly being aware of his state.
"Most of us are lightly wounded, we have maintained our advantage over the beasts as you have instructed. The beast corpses are mostly intact for ease of study by the research division."
"Hmm, good job. Contact the HQ for our pickup and tell them to prepare a cell with the best Honkai insulation. We are done here."
"Sir if I may, you should rest, your wounds-"
"Do what I said first, soldier." Kevin without missing a beat, cutting off the soldier's words.
"Sir." replied the soldier and went to contact the HQ for requesting their ride back.
Welt made his way to the boy and put a hand on his shoulder. The boy whipped around expecting something to attack him.
"Relax it's me, Mr. Soldier. You should probably sit down; your wounds don't look good at all." said Welt noticing a huge patch of blood on the boy's abdomen.
"It's none of your concern." replied the boy coldly.
"You are bleeding to death here and you say it is none of my concern. Sit, I will give you first aid."
"No need."
"Don't be stubborn. Sit or I will make you." Said Welt before forcing the boy to sit. The boy was not able to put up much of a fight as he had lost quite some blood. Welt then proceeded to bandage him up using the bandage that he materialized using his powers. After he was done, the boy got up.
"This much is enough." said the boy.
"Wait you shouldn't move yet." Welt tried to stop him, but the boy squatted his hand away.
"Our ride back is here." said the boy looking up in the sky where the Helicopters were coming towards them.
They boarded the helicopters as soon as possible with the boy and Welt in the same one. They were mostly quiet the entire way until the boy spoke up.
"You still haven't said how no people died when you became a Herrscher."
"Oh that," replied Welt "When I started hearing the whispers, I went to a psychologist who suggested me to take a break and visit my home. So, I did just that. When I reached my hometown, the surge happened and everyone was either dead or became zombie-like creatures, and I was forced to put them down."
"What about your family?"
"They are long gone." Welt said in a solemn tone. Kevin didn't press it as he knew the feeling exactly when you lose everything.
"So," asked Kevin "how did you gain this knowledge? About Honkai, about Herrschers?"
"When I became a Herrscher, my brain transformed as well. All the knowledge regarding Honkai, those beasts, Honkai radiation, and Herrscher was suddenly put into my head. It made me nauseous as hell and felt like someone was beating my head with a hammer. But I was able to assimilate it all over time."
"Wait how many days have passed since this surge you mentioned?" asked Kevin.
"I don't know properly but I would say about two weeks."
"That's impossible, our Honkai sensors picked the surge only today." replied Kevin.
"It means that your Honkai detection system isn't as advanced as you thought."
Kevin went into deep thought. Their sensors were unable to detect a Honkai surge to wipe an entire town out for two weeks! This meant very bad news for the Moths as they were fully dependent on the reports from these sensors. So like this how many surges have been unknowingly ignored, how many people dead just because they didn't know. The thought of it made Kevin sick to the core. He made up his mind to personally talk to general Alexei about this, they have to be better prepared than ever.
Seeing his face morph into a bad expression, Welt questioned himself whether he had said something that he shouldn't. Deciding to change topics, Welt asked the question that he asked when they first met.
"You still haven't told me your name boy?" that question brought the boy out of his thoughts, however he didn't respond.
"After all, I have said at least I can get the name of the one who arrested me, right?" joked Welt.
"…" Kevin was silent for some time till he decided otherwise.
"Kevin, Kevin Kaslana."
"Nice to meet you Kevin, as I have already said you can call me Welt Yang."
"Multiple abrasions, a large cut at the forehead, and left arm broken at three different places. Anything that I missed?" asked Himeko angrily.
"Yeah, he lost a quarter of his blood from his wound in his abdomen." piped Ato.
"Shut up."
"So, what do you have to say this time, Kevin? And you better have a good excuse if you don't want to get grounded." said Himeko, her temper flaring up even more.
"It was the most effective strategy. If others would have engaged the Emperor-class, they would have died a needless death."
"So that it means it's okay for you to get killed then?"
"…"
"Answer me, Kevin."
"…."
"I said answer me."
"…"
"I said answer me goddamit."
"The Honkai beasts are dead, that's all that matters. I already said aneki that I will do whatever it takes to eradicate the Honkai."
"And what would you do if something happens?"
"If my death is what it takes, so be it. It's not like anybody will miss me."
"YOU IDIOT!" shouted Himeko, her face was in a deep frown and her body was shaking lightly.
"I will miss you; Do you know how worried I am every time you go on a mission thinking that you won't return? And you come back with the worst wounds, and all that I hear is how you nearly died."
"We already had this conversation aneki, I don't need to speak further on it."
"Then stop worrying me and take care of yourself more." said Himeko as she hugged Kevin tightly but gently. It was always like this, he thought his death will make everything alright, while it was the opposite. Every time he came back wounded, many were saddened including Dr. Tesla and Dr. Einstein, although Dr. Tesla would not show it directly but you could hear her shouting about how much of an idiot Kevin is, and then would dive into improving his gear single-mindedly. Out of all the soldiers in the Moths currently, Kevin's gear was the only one that was maintained by Tesla and Einstein themselves. Kevin had become the younger brother of many in the base and he didn't even know it.
"Alright cut him some slack Himeko, he came back in a better condition than some other times. That counts for something right."
Himeko sniffed and reluctantly separated herself from Kevin; however, she wasn't going to let go just like that.
"Sgt. Kevin Kaslana, you are to have a leave of absence until your arm heals up and the medical department gives their approval for you to join for active duty again. This is General Alexei's order."
"But aneki-"
"Do you understand Sergeant?"
"Yes mam."
"Good." her voice softened again. "Use this time to take proper rest, Kevin. Don't worry, I will handle your Unit personally."
"Please do."
"Okay, then I will be going ahead to writing the post-mission report and informing General about your leave."
"…"
Himeko then got up and started to leave the medical bay, as she neared the door she said:
"Thank you for coming back to us Kevin." then she left the room completely leaving Ato and Kevin behind.
Silence enveloped the room until Ato spoke up:
"Yeah, about the man that you brought who called himself a Herrscher is kept in the interrogation room with Honkai proof casing, as you suggested."
"Did he say anything new?" asked Kevin.
"No, just the same things that he said to you. He's saying that even though he is a Herrscher and knows a lot about the Honkai, there are a few gaps in his knowledge that he needs to understand himself in order to explain to us. Frankly he was speaking some highly technical stuff that went over me."
"Hmm."
"Let's leave it at that. Tesla and Einstein will work something out. Meanwhile, you should get ready, tomorrow's the day."
"?"
"You forgot already; you are going to visit my home. Although you should get ready for another thrashing from Clara for the state you are in."
Kevin could only groan at that. It seemed that the next week was going to be a long one.
To be continued….
Hello everyone, welcome back to 'A Warrior's destiny'.
Originally this chapter was meant to have both the fight and the Ato's House visit scenes, but considering the average words per chapter, I decided to cut that into two portions and have the house visit in the next chapter. This chapter may lack in substance compared to the previous two as writing long fight and action scenes is not my strong suit. But I will try to improve the action scenes as the story progresses.
As always if you like the story please leave a follow, favourite and/or review.
Thank you for reading, until next time.