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.

The reason to fight

"Now beginning the confrontation and subjugation of the HERRSCHER OF THE VOID."

Kevin said his final message and stepped on the roof. He saw a woman in her thirties, with dark red hair flowing freely in the wind. There was a hairclip on her head in the shape of a diamond cross with two transparent leaf-like projections coming out from them. She had three golden wings on the back of her left shoulder and three lance-like-looking things behind her right. She was dressed in her work clothes which indicated that she was once an employee of a shop of some kind.

Kevin shook his head; it was no longer of a human. The person who inhabited that body is long gone just like everyone in this town. What now remained is a threat to humankind that he must finish off and that too in twenty minutes; as that was the limit of the device in his coat pocket.

The Herrscher finally noticed the human standing there with a stony expression. She was genuinely surprised that someone could survive her birth, less long move. But that didn't matter, she just had to squish it like an insect it was. Thinking such she fired a subspace lance to cleanly stab him and get over with it. What she didn't expect was for the human to cut it down with a swing of his sword. Interesting, along with his superior physical prowess, he had some kind of other power as well. The power was something much more primal than Honkai energy, much more powerful; but she was not able to deduce its true nature. The sword he carried was also interesting, it was almost like it belonged to… she snarled when she realized who was the creator of that sword.

"So, you are one of the dogs of that traitor Reason."

Kevin remained silent. The fact that it knew Welt-san was enough for him to deduce that all Herrschers knew each other. The Herrscher spoke again:

"No matter I will crush you just like the insect you are."

It was followed by a barrage of subspace lances that were cut down by the insect in front of her yet again. She was growing interested in it and asked:

"Who are you insect?"

"Your death." the insect replied.

She was beyond furious. Did this insufferable insect just say that it was her death? But she was a queen, so she had to maintain her elegance. So she asked again:

"My death? Have you forgotten your place? You are an insect, I'm a goddess. I can and I will destroy you to the last atom."

The insect said with an even voice:

"Try your best."

This irritated her to no end, how dare he? She was going to make his last moments so miserable that he will regret it to the end, she will make sure that it begs like a worm on her feet before she kills it.

"I will make you suffer your worst nightmares, insect." she said as she fired all the subspace lances she could muster at that moment at that insect. The sheer amount of the lances caused the place where she was standing to collapse. She went to check once the rubble settled, that should have surely impaired him. Good, now she can make him suffer to her heart's content. The moment she neared the rubble she felt the swing of a sword. She dodged at the last moment but was nicked by it on her cheek, as she saw that worm claw his way through the rubble, it readied its sword and said:

"Let's do this Herrscher."

"YOU PATHETIC WORM." She shouted as she fired another barrage of lances towards it. She was now absolutely livid; she was going to kill him slowly.

Kevin dodged most of the lances and cut the rest of the lances. He noticed that even though the Herrscher had immeasurable power, it was not able to utilize it fully to its maximum potential like Welt-san. It may be because it was born recently unlike him; he understood that he may yet stand a chance, but it was not going to be easy.

'I have to do this for everybody that died here, those that are outside, and for ***. I WILL PURGE THE HONKAI.'

Thinking such, with anger fuelling him he rushed into the Herrscher and locked his sword with its barrier. With an expression of murder, he said to the Herrscher:

"You are going to fall here, Herrscher."

Kevin dodged a lance aimed at his head and cut down another that was aimed at his body. Even though the Herrscher was lacking in strategy and battle skills, the raw power of spacetime that it commanded was making up for it. as Kevin dodged another barrage of attacks, he looked at the device, the remaining time was showing 17 minutes. Good, if he utilizes it properly, he can wear down the Herrscher before delivering the finishing blow.

On the other hand, the Herrscher was going livid. No matter how many of her lances she fired, the insect managed to evade and cut them down. And whenever she tried to use her spacetime powers to trap it, that thing used some kind of weird power from that traitor to stop it from affecting itself. This insect was slippery as well, disappearing from her view and trying to attack her from her blind spots. However, she was not worried, what that insect didn't know was that she could perceive the change in the flow of ether of all things and that included itself. He was not able to hide from her. As she thought she predicted from where that insect was going to strike next.

"There." She said as she deflected a strike from that traitor's sword coming from her back right.

"Don't think you can hide from me, worm." She continued as she fired a subspace lance at point-blank range piercing through the worm's shoulders.

Kevin saw something pierce his shoulder and retreated quickly. He saw something flow from his shoulder but felt nothing. It was the same for everything, he was not able to feel anything after that surge. Not the wind, heat, sensation of the sword he was holding, and most importantly pain. He concluded that he had lost the sense of touch, but had to confirm once he got back to the base; no if he got back to the base. Because by looking at the situation it was practically impossible now. He was going to perish here like others, but he refused to do so before he killed the Herrscher in front of him. He will burn down this false god in front of him, and will not yield to it even if he dies.

He looked at the device in his hands, 15 minutes. He was running out of time. He had to fight with everything he had now.

FIRE MOTH BASE – 2019(Previous era) (same time)

Mobius was internally hyperventilating now. The last sentence spoken by Kevin before the communications were cut off again was circling in her mind again and again:

'Confrontation and subjugation of the HERRSCHER OF THE VOID.'

'He was going to fight.'

'He was going to fight the Herrscher.'

'He was going to fight the Herrscher alone.'

'He was going to fight the Herrscher alone and d-d-d…'

She didn't want to even admit those three letters, because if she did then that means that she will never see him again. Never feel his touch again. Never hear his voice again. Never will be able to spend time with him again.

All she will be left with were memories. Only memories of him that will die with her.

'No.'

She started shaking if that-if that happens then she will-… Mobius was brought out of these dangerous thoughts with a shout from one of the persons in the room.

"Dr. Welt, we have restored visuals in the Sgt. Kevin's vicinity."

"WHAT?" shouted Welt as he made his way to the man.

"Yes sir. We were able to somehow hack into the remaining CCTV cameras, the quality will be extremely bad but we are able to cover a huge portion of the city."

"Quickly bring up the video feeds on the main monitor." general Alexei ordered.

"Yes sir."

'They were able to restore the visuals. Thank goodness.' Mobius inwardly thought. She was doing things that are extremely irrational such as praying and hoping. But this was all she could do now. She was not a fighter, and she has in no way provided any big contributions to fighting the Honkai due to a lack of new specimens and personnel. Whatever they had, they were already researching to full capacity. If she had more people or new specimens then he wouldn't have to be in this dangerous situation. She gritted her teeth and decided that if everything ends well, she is going to increase the pace of research tenfold, so they can develop stronger anti-Honkai measures. So that he can be safer even if only a little.

As the restored visuals of the CCTV camera came up on the screen, they finally saw the state of the destroyed city. What they saw was utter chaos, destroyed buildings, beasts roaming here and there, and the sky was grey with a storm brewing that looked like the typhoons of southeast Asia. The entire scene looked like a scene of hell with fires burning on the street and ground broken here and there.

"My goodness, what the hell happened there?" said one of the people present in the room.

"It's hell." Said another.

"And in that hell, it is present…. the bane of humanity." replied Welt in a serious tone.

So, this was the hell in which he was fighting, all alone to protect what others held dear. The thought made Mobius' heart heavy but also proud. He was no monster as he claimed himself to be, he was a hero, a WARRIOR. But she had one complaint

'Where is he?'

Indeed, the warrior who was fighting a nearly invincible enemy somewhere in this hell was nowhere to be seen. This made Mobius worried again. Was he-. No, she has to believe in him; he will not go down so easily. Her concerns were shared by Welt as well as he asked:

"Have you pinpointed Sgt. Kevin's location?"

"We are trying sir. But a majority of the CCTVs are busted in the city, and our correlation with the Honkai energy distribution plot is also not working because of the wild whirling of the Honkai energy in the city."

"Forget the plot, focus on the portions that show the highest fluctuations of the Honkai energy in the city." Welt ordered.

"Sir." The technician acknowledged. After some time, the technician said.

"Sir, we found a huge fluctuation in the North of the city, it's bigger than any others."

"Good, bring up the feeds for the cameras in that portion of the city."

"Do you think we will find him there?" Mobius asked for the first time.

Welt looked displeased to see her still in the control room but replied nonetheless:

"Yeah. If what I know about that idiot is correct, we will find him there-"

Mobius chuckled quietly at Welt calling Kevin an idiot. He has truly grasped the nature of the soldier they were trying to find. Seeing her smile made Welt uneasy and he asked:

"What is that smile for?"

"Oh, nothing. Please do continue." Mobius said in her usual tone. Welt was skeptical but continued nonetheless:

"-and if my thinking is correct, we will also find it."

Mobius gulped inaudibly, she knew what 'it' was, but she asked anyway:

"it?"

"Yeah, 'it'; the Herrscher." At this Mobius went quiet again, her worry returning tenfold.

Finally, they located him, and what they saw shocked everyone. Standing on the top of the rubble was a woman with red flaming hair, had a strange hairclip on her head, wings on her left shoulder, and big lance-looking things on her right. No explanation was needed as to who she was, everyone in the room understood what she was:

THE HERRSCHER OF THE VOID

And standing down was a defiant-looking man, challenging a literal god with a flaming sword in his right hand, holding a pole to stabilize himself on the inclined ground. He was the warrior who challenged the divine for the future of humanity:

KEVIN KASLANA.

Even though there were numerous wounds on his body he still stood straight looking the Herrscher in the eye. It was at this moment that he gained the absolute respect of everyone present in the room including Mobius. To her, he became the pinnacle of the current humanity and the key to its ascension.

And in front of them, the battle which will decide the future of humanity began as the warrior charged into the Herrscher.

Kevin charged into the Herrscher again only to be blocked by her invisible barrier. But he did not stop there, he quickly drew one of the BABEL and shot the Herrscher point-blank, this also did not do anything but it distracted her enough, he sliced his sword upwards and struck his other hand containing the device Welt-san gave him to the shield. The shield became nullified for a moment and that was when he struck. The Herrscher dodged but due to recovering from the shock of the bullet fired earlier was not fast enough, the blade grazed her cheek drawing first blood against it. The moment it felt pain, the Herrscher pushed him away thus ending his attack sequence. The Herrscher screamed in pain and rage:

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH…... I WILL KILL YOU AND TEAR YOU APART PIECE BY PIECE WHILE YOU ARE STILL BREATHING, YOU WORTHLESS WORM."

She then summoned a never seen number of subspace lances and poised them at Kevin. The entire sky was littered with them, all aimed at Kevin. She then gave the most sadistic smile she has ever given and fired all of them on Kevin. She was absolutely sure that it would kill the worm.

Kevin to his credit however stood his ground, he started spinning Solflame like a helicopter blade to deflect all the lances. He was successful to deflect most of them but he underestimated their numbers, some were able to get past the spinning blade and pierce his hands and legs. However, it didn't stop him, the adrenaline from the duel with the Herrscher along with his inability to feel pain anymore made him go on until all the subspace lances were dealt with.

"WHY ARE YOU STILL ALIVE WORM?" the Herrscher asked clearly enraged.

"Pant, Pant…. You will fall here." Kevin said narrowing his eyes and readying his sword.

"Such impudence, then let me show the full power that the god has bestowed upon me."

'God?' Kevin was confused, did Herrschers have something like that? But he wasn't able to think on it long as he felt a rise in Honkai energy in the air. When he saw the Herrscher, she had an orb of some kind and the moment she crushed it, time suddenly stopped.

Kevin found himself in a place vastly different, there was no flow of air and he felt as if he was in the same place and not in the same place at the same time.

"So, this is one of those imaginary dimensions that Welt-san talked about." Kevin said to himself.

"Are you surprised insect? This is the power given to me, the absolute power to control what you all worms call reality. Welcome to my world; still, I should give you some praise for pushing me this far. It seems that you are better than a mere insect." The Herrscher said in a condescending voice.

At this Kevin readied his sword once again, imaginary or not the condition to beat it has not changed. And by looking at it, the Herrscher was also starting to struggle to control its powers due to inexperience.

'Just a little more.' Thought Kevin as he charged to the Herrscher again.

"Ugh… So impatient to die. Very well I will fulfil your wish." the Herrscher said as she snapped its fingers and numerous subspace lances projected out of nowhere.

"Wha-" Kevin was stupefied and had to defend against them. He somehow managed to destroy them all, but the Herrscher just created new ones endlessly.

"This is my world Worm. I'm the law here, and I dictate that you die." the Herrscher said before firing the second barrage.

"Don't die quickly, entertain me a little. Hehe….haha…. hahaha… HAHAHAHA." it laughed in sadistic glee.

…

The battle was now completely shifted in the Herrscher's favour, Kevin realized. No matter how many lances he cut down, more appeared in its place. He was wearing himself down while the Herrscher was just standing there.

'It's going nowhere.' he thought. He had to find some way and fast; there were less than five minutes in the device, and once that time is up it will be impossible to defeat the Herrscher. While thinking these things, Kevin didn't notice a lance sneaking through his blind spot. Suddenly he felt something going through his body, and he jerked forward with the momentum of the object that was impaled into his stomach. Looking down, he found a familiar lance poking through his midsection; but before he could make sense of what happened four other lances pierced him from all directions.

"HAHAHAHA…. Is this your limit worm? So disappointing." the Herrscher laughed in glee.

His body was getting heavier, he tried to strike with his sword once again only for his sword to fall from his hands. His vision was going dark and his breath was shallow. The last thing he saw before losing consciousness was the face of the Herrscher in pure enjoyment.

The place was similar to the Siberian wildlands where he fought that Emperor-class beast before he joined the Moths. He had been wandering in the wilderness after the facility burned down taking down all those demons with it. he lost everything there:

His Happiness.

His friends.

His brother in arms.

His chance to live.

After he escaped, he didn't know where to go. He was dead anyway; this body was just a corpse with a breathing function. He did not have anything.

No friends.

No family.

No reason to live.

Why was he even fighting so fervently for? Everyone that he cherished was already on the other side. He was just expending his directionless rage on the Honkai, rage that he felt towards himself. He didn't lose the things he held dear because of the Honkai, but because he was weak; he was unable to stop them from taking him away. He was unable to save the first person who held his hand and helped him get up.

He was such a failure.

There's no point in fighting anymore, not that anyone needed him in this world in the first place. He decided that death was such an easy option, he will be able to leave everything behind: the duty that bound him like chains, the hole in his heart that seemed to never fill no matter what, the pain that constantly remains with him, the loneliness of the only one left behind.

Thinking such Kevin closed his eyes and fell to the ground. He will finally be with them.

….

He felt someone pulling him up.

"Giving up so easily Kevin?"

"***" he said with a choking voice.

Standing before him was his first friend, his brother in all but blood, the person he aspired to be the most.

"You haven't changed at all since those days, huh?"

"Are you real ***?"

"You know the answer to that right Kevin." *** said.

"Right." Of course, he was not; the real him was gone so long ago.

"Anyway, man the Herrscher did a number on you did it not?" *** laughed.

"It is stronger than me, maybe if you were here-"

"If I were here, I would be able to beat the Herrscher?"

"Yes, you were the strongest of us all. If only you were here, then-"

"You know that's a load of bull right Kevin. The strongest out of us all is not me but you."

"What are you talking about ***."

"You know before you came, we all were in despair. But your words gave us the most important thing: Hope. Hope that we can make it out of there, hope that even if we fall, we will die free not as someone's else puppet."

Kevin was shocked to hear this, all this time he thought they hated him for leaving them behind and living on his own.

"We all passed our dreams, hopes, and wishes unto you. Because we knew you are strong enough to carry us all and the kindest out of everyone."

"I'm not kind."

"You say that because you don't see yourself. I hope that someday you could move on and hope for a future for yourself as well."

"…." Kevin remained silent.

"Furthermore, I'm not the only one."

Kevin then saw that everyone was there; all his friends from the facility, his fallen comrades at Moths, and even the other people like the soldiers of the UN peacekeeping forces.

"We all wish for the same. Stand Kevin, and fight on for what we all believed. Fight so that those who are still alive do not have to lose things like us, so that they can have the future that we dreamt of."

"But I'm not strong enough ***, I may lose my way."

"Don't worry, we all will be there to guide you. Furthermore, are you going to leave the Herrscher alone to destroy everything? Was it not your oath to protect everyone?"

Kevin then realized that if the Herrscher is not killed here, it will destroy everything: The Moths, general Alexei, Griseo, aniki, aneki, Welt-san, Tesla-san, Einstein-san, Mobius-san. This he will not allow.

"No. I haven't forgotten my oath. I will protect them. Even if they don't need me, I will not abandon them. And maybe if I keep doing what I can to protect others and fight the Honkai, I will finally find my place to belong." Kevin said his voice growing with resolve. "Thank you ***, guess I just needed that push."

"Don't worry Kevin, isn't it what brothers are for?"

"Yeah, I guess it's time to leave now. I have a duty to fulfil and my oath to keep." Kevin said as he started to leave.

"Wait, Kevin?" *** called out to him

"What happened?" Kevin asked.

"Here." *** said tapping Kevin's arm, a light engulfed his arm and when it died down there was a mark of a sword on his forearm.

"What is this?" Kevin asked.

"It's our final gift to you." *** explained, "it will help you in your fight against the Honkai."

"Thank you ***. You are still looking out for me."

"Don't mention it. Go Kevin and carve out your own destiny."

"Yeah. Will….. you be with me ***?"

"I am going to be forever with you Kevin. From here to down the line. Take me with you, Kevin."

"It's a promise. Just watch over me." said Kevin as the world turned to white again.

"Always, my brother." he heard a whisper before he woke up.

The Herrscher was starting to leave when it felt it. A surge of power that didn't belong to it. Then to its disbelief, the insect started moving even though he was dead just a few minutes ago.

"How?" she could only ask in shock.

"Don't write... cough... us off... cough... so easily Herrscher..." Kevin growled, coughing up blood as he broke one of its lances with a bare hand. Seeing this, the Herscher was too stunned to even speak.

Impossible.

Kevin on the other hand broke off all the subspace lances impaled in his body. He then stood shakily, and after clearing his head of the dizziness took up his sword.

"I didn't know how you survived worm. But it will not happen again." screamed the Herrscher before it rained another barrage of lances only for them to disintegrate into the flames coming out of the blade of Solflame.

"wha-" but before it could finish its sentence, Kevin moved at blinding speeds and struck the Herrscher. It deployed its force field again to block the attack; however, the sword broke through the barrier and stuck into its body, deeply wounding it.

"AAAAAGHHHHHHHH." it screamed in agony. "How is this possible, I'm the goddess of this realm, I'm the law. How can a worm like you?"

"You are nothing but a pest to humanity. And I will eliminate you here foul creature." Kevin said before swinging his sword and disintegrating the lances aimed at him, breaking the barrier of the Herrscher again and striking it again wounding it further.

"YYYOUUUUUUUUUU WOOOOOOOORMMMMMM." screamed the Herrscher retreating for the first time since the battle started. It felt the emotion for the first time of being not in control; and as it looked into Kevin's eyes it felt it for the first time: Fear.

Kevin didn't relent, however; he closed the gap in an instant and shot from one of the pistols. The bullet shatters the barrier for the first time and strikes the Herrscher true further wounding it. He followed it with a series of slashes which put the Herrscher on the full defensive, but since it was not adept at fighting hand to hand, its measly attempts to defend itself were overcome by Kevin easily wounding it further.

In the span of a minute, the course of the battle was turned on its head. The Herrscher who was in total control until moments ago was now bleeding from various parts of its body and was in the same worse condition as Kevin. It understood that it was at a disadvantage here and tried to retreat. However, Kevin pumping full power into the Solflame just slashed hard. The flames powered by intense Honkai energy along with the power of the mark on his hand, just cut through the Herrscher preventing it from teleporting away. However, the slash didn't stop there; it went ahead and cut through the dimension itself destroying it and spitting them out back into the destroyed city.

The Herrscher was utterly shocked, the insect was able to destroy its dimension with just flames, moreover that mark on its arm was somehow interfering with her power. Dangerous, too dangerous she had to eliminate it now.

So, it used her full powers and lifted the rubble, and strung them through the void portals that she created. Since the rubble was in her own dimension the insect would not be able to predict where it will come from. But to her dismay, the insect just disintegrated all of them with those flames. So she went all out.

Kevin saw the Herrscher summon strange cube-like structures, which she could control at will; and shoot out straps-like projections. Kevin cut through them and started making his way toward the Herrscher.

"Don't come here you freak." it shouted in fear.

Good, the Herrscher should feel the same fear that it put others under. The ones whose lives it took without mercy.

"I said don't come near." it fired another barrage of them but was cut down by Kevin again.

"I said Noooo." it shouted and unleashed all the remaining power it had, and the dimension started to twist and distort again; Kevin saw a ramp-like structure in the distorting dimension and ran up on it, he then jumped from one rubble to another to get to an adequate height; and jumped.

As he fell towards the Herrscher, it in a last-ditch attempt fired everything it had on him. Kevin put every bit of power he could channel into the Solflame. The physical blade shattered due to the extreme amount of Honkai energy it had been subjected to, but the flames roared more than ever. He put all the strength he had and slashed through everything: lances, cubical particles alike. Even though he was further wounded by some of them, he didn't care; his eyes were only fixed on the trembling Herrscher below.

As a final effort, the Herrscher summoned a huge partition of void separating itself from him, but he tore through that nonetheless. He finally came close to the Herrscher and looked straight into her eyes. It looked downright terrified and pleading for mercy? He scoffed; as if he would grant it that after everything that has happened here. With the remaining of his strength, he struck his left hand forward with the device from Welt-san and punched the Herrscher with it. her powers were cut off due to the combination of the device and the power of his mark.

As she looked into the worm's eyes, she saw: rage- pure, raw rage against her and that was when it understood:

She was going to die. A goddess like her was killed by this mortal.

The last thing she felt was a strike to her right, followed by a bright orange flash.

And then everything burned and burned.

Her last thoughts were:

'I don't want to die.'

And then everything went black.

…

Kevin fell with a thud with the Herrscher's corpse on the ground. He was extremely weak; his vision was flickering with black dots starting to appear on the edges of his vision. He stumbled his way toward the Herrscher with one of the Pistols in his hand to end the job in case it was still alive. Once he was standing on top of it he pointed his pistol toward its head, expecting it to move.

But the Herrscher made no movement, that was when he noticed that it had an expression of sadness and acceptance on its face. Did it accept its demise when it was burned by the flames of the now-destroyed Solflame? Who knows? To Kevin it didn't matter, the Herrscher was dead and that was the end of it.

Confirming the death of the Herrscher, Kevin fell down to the ground. As he was losing his consciousness, he made his way toward a broken piece of rubble and propped himself against it. He was content knowing that everyone was now safe, he had kept his oath.

'Guess…. I…..will…take…..a…..little….nap…..' Kevin thought as he closed his eyes.

The second eruption was over with humanity coming out in a victory against the 2nd Herrscher. However, millions were dead and cities destroyed. Humanity has won but at a great cost; and still, twelve Herrschers remained.

To be continued….

Hello everyone, welcome back to 'A Warriors Destiny'.

Now before you all start blaming me that Kevin has won against the Herrscher too quickly or the Herrscher was depicted weaker than it original is, there are certain points to be kept in mind:

1. Herrscher like any other being will take some time to fully realize their potential. Kevin was present at the right time when she was just born.

2. Kevin in this AU is special, as to how he is will be explained in the future chapters along with his past.

3. The weapons and the gadget made by Welt who is a Herrscher himself are not to be looked down upon.

4. This is the previous era, as you all know that previous era Herrschers were not able to turn back once they submitted to the will of Honkai. So, if Kevin fails to kill them when he confronts them the first time, they are all screwed.

5. This is not a flawless victory; Humanity still has lost here a portion of its population and many major cities are destroyed.

So, if you are not satisfied with these explanations then I have no more arguments. As to what was the power that Kevin showed, I think many of you will already connect the dots. Anyway, the next chapter will deal with the aftermath of the eruption, along with the introduction of some more known characters. I hope you look forward to it.

As always if you like the story please leave a follow, favourite, and/or review.

Thank you for reading, until next time.