Several Hours Earlier
Amarant checked both girls. Their breathing was steady. After the Dragon's landing she had scouted the area. The Dragon stood guard over the unconscious pair. Returning to the sounds of Honkai beasts had left the woman dreading the worst.
Watching the Dragon brutally tear them apart had left her feeling worse still.
Locating a shopping mall had been the easy part. The Dragon had even assisted outdoors. Carrying the two into the secure location indoors had drained her strength. The wound to her chest, though it was healing well, still placed a heavy burden upon her. Were it any other they would have long since collapsed. Amarant was a born survivor and would not so easily give up.
Indoors provided shelter, warmth and security. This twinned with an abundance of viable resources made it the perfect place to recover and strategize. Amarant's first goal was a staging area. It was fortuitous the mall contained a camping store. Several slow, round trips yielded gas stoves, LED lights, clothes racks and sleeping bags. Unburdened by guilt, Amarant stripped the pair bare and hung clothes and undergarments to dry. Leaving them to rest within their sleeping bags, the woman had explored further afield in search of medical supplies and food. An intact grocer had born more treasures. The blue haired woman returned with arms laden with food and other useful supplies.
Mei and Kiana's undergarments had dried by the time of Amarant's return. Amarant's priority was her own injury. Cleaning and dressing it led to the injured woman emptying her stomach several times from pain and nausea. The energy beam, though having gone clean through her torso, had missed various major organs. Mei's cauterising did temporarily save her life. Stitching it shut gave her better odds. Only time would tell if infection would claim her.
With their undergarments now dry, Amarant dressed the girls for the sake of modesty and got to work preparing and cooking a meal. The three were wounded in various ways. A meal would go a long way to helping in their recovery. The pot of rice bubbled in the background. Seaweed sheets were laid out ready to finish off the onigiri. A separate pot of miso soup would help fill their bellies.
With time now to relax, Amarant did none of that and instead began planning. She had a myriad possible contingency to explore and far too little time to do so. She was stuck with the two and that limited her options. Other ideas spun out from her imagination. Plans and possibilities that would lead to her survival and the people she thought most critical. Her green eyes reflected the blue gas store fire. In her pupils danced the future of the planet. One simple choice and humanity could survive or be ground into the dust. And not by the Honkai's hands. The Honkai were impersonal and without prejudice. They only sought to destroy humanity. It was the malice of Humanity that damned themselves. Endless politicking. Internal strife. Factional warfare. Ideological impasse. Schicksal, Anti-Entropy, World Serpent, Children of Ashur and more. These people held in their hands the future of species.
'They are far too busy trying to prove who has the biggest dick. That's what matters. Ego and self-serving agendas. They might cloak themselves in righteousness. Yet certainly farcical. Each has their own personal motives and goals. And none have humanities best interests at heart.'
Kiana's stirring drew Amarant out from her musings. The girl was covered in Honkai energy burns, gleaming white in the darkness and hinting at a cruel fate awaiting her. Amarant groaned as she got to her feet. She had been active for too long. The wound was a lance of white-hot pain. Going through old mental exercises, the woman pushed the pain to the background and compartmentalised her mind into priorities and foci. She walked over to the suffering Valkyrja and drew out her smartphone. In the months after the Honkai Eruption Arc City had encouraged all manner of cyberization and augmentation. A way to protect its citizens and a means to give the city authorities a means of tracking errant Honkai energy spikes. Amarant had little trust for the authorities and instead upgraded her personal equipment. Her phone was the first to be augmented. The fingerprint scanner on the back had many features now. Pressing the scanner against Kiana's neck, she activated a custom piece of software and watched the results spool out. Both Honkai and Herrscher energy readings were high. Anybody looking of Amarant's shoulder would have asked how she was aware of Herrscher energy. Let alone how scanner and software had been adapted to take such readings. Amarant was not about to reveal her sources. Privacy and security were the principles of her job she would not compromise on.
"It doesn't look good for you," Amarant whispered.
Glancing in Mei's direction, the woman wondered if one of her theories might held true and decided to test it. She walked over and read Mei much the same way. The readings left Amarant running cold. The hot pain of the wound was doused in frigid water.
"You have to be fucking kidding me."
Head switching between the two, Amarant felt the burden of her decision pressing hard upon her shoulders. With a hiss she strode over to one of the plastic storage crates she had dragged over and fished around within it. From it she withdrew a katana. The handle was black as obsidian, sheathed in a strange brassy metal. Amarant walked back to Kiana and dropped to her knees. She popped the blade partially from the scabbard, the black metal of the blade reflecting the Honkai burns of the twitching girl.
'A girl that can open portals between locations in Real Space. That would make you the Herrscher of the Void. Lying beside you is a girl that controls lightning and storms. That would make you the Herrscher of Lightning. Between the pair of you, millions have died. Uncountable still are those displaced, those that suffer and those that will die from the repercussions of your destructive acts.
Yet do I hold you responsible? Were your actions of your own volition or driven by outside forces? Did you come willingly to the Honkai or were you manipulated, created and shaped by these self-same forces? Will you fall to them again or rise up?'
Amarant drew the blade out a little further.
'Will your life be made forfeit for what you have done? Or should you be granted the grace of mercy and allowed a chance to do right?'
The woman stood on a knife-edge. It would be a quick death. A clean stroke across the throat and it would be done. Her choice could and would shape the destiny of humanity. There was irony in that. An unknown person, amidst the billions of people that lived, carried so much power. It was fitting. Finally, she slammed blade into scabbard. Amarant extended her hand and affectionately ran it over Kiana's forehead.
"What you have gone through, nobody should go through. What you will go through, nobody should go through. I do not envy you or your choices. Yet in the end I think you will be the right one to make them. I wish this could end well. But I do not see it happening. Too many people are arrayed against you that seek their own goals. Thought it will not end well, I believe you are the one to make sure it ends right."
Amarant looked over her shoulder toward Mei and spoke again to Kiana.
"You've a good friend. If you believe in such things, pray that she keeps true to herself and does not become consumed by foolish desires."
The woman gave a bittersweet smile and slowly got to her feet. She recalled the second chance given to her. Spitting in the face of such morals was not her style. Walking back to the crate, she placed the blade within and got back to work making dinner. Again, if anybody had asked how she came to the knowledge of Herrscher and the factions in the shadows, Amarant would not speak of it. It was her job to keep secrets.
"I'll cheer you on," Amarant whispered as she stirred the Miso. "But I'll also make sure to keep an old promise too."
Amarant stirred her soup and pondered the forces arrayed against them. People who would do anything for their own agenda. Fighting them would not be easy. But it would be worth it.