That Which Heralds Death
Buildings composed of shimmering glass rose into the azure skies. The blaring sounds of horns could be heard amongst the squeal of wheels and conversations between people of all types.
Two figures could be seen walking through the large crowd, the lifeless gray of the ground beneath their feat stretching forever onwards.
One of the figures was a young male, he had dark brown hair that was lazily swept to the side and lightning blue eyes that seemed to almost shine in the light.
The other figure was a girl. While her companion was certainly not ugly, he could not be considered the most physically appealing of males. The girl on the other hand, was an almost ethereal beauty. Her hair was like a coat of snow and her eyes were that of molten gold. She should have been the object of every passerby's thoughts, but she was not.
The boy did not question it however, he had grown used to strange events as a result of the girl, in fact, this was not even the oddest of occurrences that had transpired.
Contrary to the boy's calm pace and expression, the girl gazed at every passing object as though it were the grandest thing she had ever witnessed. He childlike awe elicited a chuckle from the boy.
The girl pouted, an adorable puff of her cheeks, "Stop laughing at me!"
The boy simply continued, "Aww, but it's so much fun to see your reactions..."
Stepping back a bit in embarrassment, the girl stuttered, "I-I won't let you!"
She stomped her foot in indignation, trying to convince herself more than the boy in front of her.
The boy held his hands over his heart, as though he had been struck. He then took his companion in his arms and lifted her off her feet.
"Your so adorable!" He proclaimed while spinning in a circle with the girl and laughing.
The girl attempted to wiggle out of his grasp, "Stop it, I'm not a teddy bear!"
After seeing that he would not agree to her demands, the girl vanished from his grasp with a flash of purple light.
The boy held up his now empty arms, "Oh come on, that's not fair."
"Your one to talk!"
Throughout this entire exchange, the people around the young couple ignored the two's actions, no matter how supernatural it might have been.
The boy figured that his companion probably wasn't doing anything intentionally, much like that time she set his hair on fire. Nearly all of what she did was purely subconscious on her part. She had claimed to him before that it wasn't like it felt any different from walking or breathing, further muddling the boy's perception of her nature. She was many things, but certainly not human.
Pushing aside his thoughts for now, the boy spoke, "Alright alright, then how about we go get something to eat?"
He smiled as his friend reacted exactly as he expected.
"Really! Let's go get some ice cream!" She cried out in joy at the prospect of consuming the delicious dessert.
The boy sighed, sometimes he wondered how she had survived before they met, "You can't eat ice cream for lunch. How about we get some after food."
The girl spoke in a dry tone, "Ice cream is food."
She crossed her arms in an attempt to further her point.
Despite himself, the boy smiled. Her flaws were certainly there, but he could accept them as long as she remained the same.
How bad could they be, right?
"Ughh..."
A groan echoed throughout an empty room.
On the bed in a corner of the space, a large lump was protruding from the center of the blankets.
With groggy eyes, Einar pulled his sheets from his face.
He was met with a pair of golden eyes.
Einar gazed at them for a moment. Eventually, the owner of the eyes became red with embarrassment.
The boy pulled the sheets back over his face.
"Wait, You can't go back to sleep! You were supposed to become energized after seeing my first thing in the morning!" The pawed uselessly at the blankets, she was unable to interact with anything due to her method of appearance.
"Yes, I can. Watch me."
"Nope, not happening! I'll start singing if you don't get up!"
Einar immediately bolted upwards in terror.
He loved Kaguya, but her singing was awful. She has a pleasing voice, but she just might be tone deaf. It would also seem that Kaguya was aware of her own flaws as well and used them to threaten him.
They had a complicated relationship.
And, now that she could communicate with him whenever she wanted, due to their rings, he couldn't escape her "music".
The boy groaned, "Fine, I'll get up..."
You would think that after sixty-two thousand years of life, Einar would be able to get up in the morning with relative effectiveness. You would be wrong of course, not even a few dozen millennia could change ones sleeping habits. If anything, it only made them worse.
"Yay! Then let's go paint the town red!" Kaguya spoke such worrisome words in a cheerful tone.
"Where did you even learn that phrase?" Einar spoke in a dry tone.
The boy was ignored as Kaguya promptly dragged him off the bed. Apparently she could touch him. Why was it that he seemed to be the exception to every rule that his wife had placed upon her, was the author just that lazy?
With those thoughts swimming in his mind, Einar continued, "Alright, but before that I have something to do first."
The boy's lips curved upwards into a smile.
A Fire Moth soldier made his way through the base.
He woke up early to train. Just because there hadn't been any Honkai to fight, didn't mean he could shirk on his duty to train his body to battle for humanity.
Of course, this task also made him rather hungry.
So, as the soldier made his way to the mess hall, he had an odd sense of foreboding. A cold chill that snuck up the back of his neck as he reached the door that separated him from his breakfast.
His fears came to fruition as he entered the mess hall.
Immediately, his body left the ground in a slow accession as he flailed about in momentary surprise.
He looked around the room as he spun slowly, freed from the effects of gravity. Everything in the room that was not nailed down floated through the room. Chairs, tables, food, and even beverages were held in midair as it moved about aimlessly in the air.
The man sighed, he wasn't even surprised. Stuff like this had happened before during his time at Fire Moth.
The boy, Einar he remembered, seemed to enjoy these types of activities. Certainly not what he would expect from someone who was dubbed the "Herrscher Killer" by the members of Fire Moth.
He extended his arms and stretched his legs as he "swam" in the air.
He was hungry and a little thing like no gravity was not going to block him from eating.
At least, seeing some of the higher ups' reactions would be good entertainment.
Einar was, rather smartly, not at Fire Moth HQ. He certainly wasn't going to stick around and wait to be yelled at.
Which is also why he had placed a camera in the corner of the room. That would be fun to watch later.
No, Einar was currently roaming the grey cement walkways of a large metropolitan city. The Honkai had all but wiped out any smaller cities, leaving only a sci-fi lover's utopia.
In addition to the towering glass buildings and the bustling pedestrians, mechanical creations of all sizes roamed the streets. Most were either for policing the populace or domestic acts, but there were also a few personal ones as well.
Rectangles of light were suspended in the air next to buildings, advertising their products and bridges of luminescent color connected various structures to each other.
If only flying cars existed and then this would be perfect. Was the thought passing through Einar's mind.
Even compared to when he was born, technology had not advanced this much. Although, as convenient as it was, he did find that he preferred the less restrictive cultures of older times. Forging documentation to pass security checkpoints was a pain, one that Fire Moth certainly helped with. He was a legitimate member after all, didn't need to fake that.
"Ugh, why do humans find the need to corrupt everything they see?" A voice beside him bemoaned in disgust.
Predictably, his wife was far less enthused about the current times than even he was.
Einar gave a chuckle at that, "Well, not all of us have reality bending powers. This 'corruption', as you put it, is rather convenient to most people."
Kaguya brushed of his reasoning, "This is why we need to eradicate the human race."
"That's a rather whimsical reason."
The boy was unperturbed. His wife threatened the extinction of humanity in nearly every conversation, it didn't change much at this point.
He changed the subject, "How about we go and see some of the more entertaining elements of human culture?"
She gazed at him for a moment, before sighing, "Fine, if we must." The girl relented only when Einar pulled out the puppy dog eyes.
Perhaps the sole consensus of the human race would be that Einar looks horrifying with puppy dog eyes. And yet, Kaguya finds it to be adorable every time, without fail.
Love does strange things to the minds of those involved.
And on that note, the two made their way through the city. The boy planned to take them to an arcade, because if there was one thing that all girls would love, it would be video games.
No one should ever take dating advice from this idiot. This is why the person that married him wants to destroy the human race.
"Ugh!"
A grunt resounded through the large empty room as a dull metal blade impacted the flesh of a teen girl.
A fairly common sight in Fire Moth HQ was unfolding, Himeko beating up her subordinates in the name of "training".
Hua, clad with her usual gauntlets, once again found herself losing against her captain. The latter's sword impacting her with a swiftness that should be impossible for its size. Of course, impossibility was something she had grown to accept over the last few years, mainly from Einar though.
A male's voice resounded throughout the room, "This is going nowhere fast Himeko. Try as you might, she doesn't understand what she needs to do, or what she's doing wrong for that matter."
The captain was a swordsman after all, one who wielded a greatsword at that. Comparing Hua's martial arts to that was like comparing a great white shark to a lion. They're both amazing predators, just in vastly different ways from each other.
The crimson-haired woman whined in response, "Well, I don't see you giving her any pointers."
Kevin sighed, it was times like these that he questioned Einar's faith in this woman. Granted, it was his fault that the teen was here in the first place.
"You could train them better than I ever could!" Kevin remembered scathingly. He just didn't want to have to deal with these two on his day off, the jerk.
They say that you mature with age, apparently no one told Einar that as he still has the mentality of a middle schooler.
He broke from his thoughts to respond to the woman in front of him, "I thought that you, and I quote, 'have everything under control'?"
A large slab of metal brushed past the now ducking form of the Kaslana. He was beginning to understand why Einar enjoyed pushing people's buttons so often, it was rather fun.
As soon as that thought crossed his mind a chill ran down his neck. Maybe he shouldn't be spending so much time around the old man after all, ability to fact check legends aside.
Shaking his head of such thoughts, he spoke, "Then teach Hua sword skills."
Himeko repressed a snort, then spoke slowly, as if to a child, "Kevin, Hua wants to learn how to fight with her fists, not a sword."
The beer loving woman had placed a hand on the younger boy, who simply wore a blank expression.
A moment of silence passed. A tumble weed somehow spontaneously appeared in the background.
"I know that, I haven't been sleeping for the last few hours." Kevin spoke in a voice devoid of emotion.
Hua, seeking to prevent her two comrades from killing each other, spoke up, "Then why do you think I need to learn how to use a sword?"
She could understand the opposite. Learning martial arts would be convenient if one ever lost their sword during combat after all, but she could not understand the reverse being of much use.
Instead of answering their question directly, Kevin posed an inquiry of his own, "How do you take down a Honkai Templar then?"
A Honkai Templar was, rather obviously, a variation of Honkai beast. They were unique in the fact that they are the only know Honkai being to carry weapons, large lances and shields to be precise. They were particularly famed for both their precision with their weapon of choice and their sturdy defenses, which begs the question of how to counter that.
In a rare moment of candidness, Himeko spoke up, "Either wait until they strike, so you can hit their exposed flank, or hit them from behind."
Kevin smiled, "Exactly."
Seeing that he wasn't going to continue, Hua asked, "But what does this have to do with me learning to using a sword?"
"Everything, and that's no exaggeration."
Seeing the confusion of the two's faces he expanded, "It might not be conscious, but by knowing how to combat a templar, you learn how they fight. You learn what they can and can't do and how to exploit that." The albino teen said.
What Himeko said was accurate, but there are even more ways to fight templars. In addition to striking behind them, where they can't block it, you could simply bypass its shield. Not an easy feat but possible with either electricity or a piercing projectile, such as a large caliber bullet or laser beam.
The point is that, by learning how the templars operate, you can also find out what they can't do, and what better to do that then to put yourself in the shows of the templar, or any other foe you might encounter.
"For example, if you learn swordsmanship, then you can understand for yourself how it functions in a way that can be exploited." Kevin said to Hua. "Of course, you also need to know the strengths and weaknesses of your own weapon."
The teen girl posed a question, "And what would those be for martial arts?"
"Well, obviously there's a wide variety of practices, but in contrast to the sword it would be speed and range."
"I hope you're not trying to say that martial artists have superior range to swordsmen." Himeko interjected.
The young man shook his head, "Just the opposite in fact, and that would be the point. For all of the truth in the knowledge that swords are a close combat weapon, they can't function well too close to their target. They are longer and require more distance to properly complete their actions."
Kevin used a training sword on a dummy in various distances to illustrate his point and then finished by showing how close he could be with his fists.
"And then for speed?" Hua asked.
Himeko at this point had caught on, she wasn't one of Fire Moth's greatest fighters because of her lack of dating prospects.
"And since they are a part of your body, you don't have to swing them to get enough force behind the blow and it isn't as easily telegraphed."
Kevin grinned, his teeth as white as his hair, "Bingo. Now try and use that in another match."
As he watched the two fight he wondered if this was why Mei tried to teach him about quantum science, it was nice to have someone understand what you were teaching them. Too bad he could never understand what Mei was talking about, he just smiled and nodded.
Well, Einar was right about one thing, even if you don't understand a word, just listening makes all the difference, Kevin thought to himself, remembering some advice that his friend had very explicitly told him.
Guess even someone like Einar can learn a thing or two about women after sixty-two thousand years.
"Achoo!"
A sneeze echoed out amongst the noise of frolicking arcade goers.
Someone must be talking about me, Einar mussed. Due to his regeneration, he couldn't get sick so that was the only explanation.
The ethereal girl next to him seemed unperturbed, "Come on! We need to whole set!"
The "Herrscher Killer" and "The Will of Honkai" were playing a crane game. To be more accurate, Einar was simply getting what Kaguya wanted him to. He never would have pegged her for a completionist, but he supposed it wasn't the strangest revelation he'd had about his wife in his lifetime.
"Hurry up, we need the Nyarlathotep plush!" Kaguya spoke in anticipation.
Yep, the crane game they were playing was for monstrous Cthulhu abominations. What had his life come to?
Thankfully, or perhaps unthankfully depending on how you look at it, crane game were absurdly easy for Einar. He could curve space in the appropriate direction, create a magnetic effect with electromagnetic waves, use the wind to move the plush, or even change the gravity of the item itself to fall in a different direction.
Yes, the amount of way that the superpowered human could cheat at a children's game was astounding.
The girl's mouth gaped, "Einar! They have Hastur too! We have to add it to the collection!"
Despite himself, the boy smiled. This was what he fought for, the smile of this girl.
Maybe now she'll learn that humans can make some good things too, Einar chuckle to himself.
After all, seeing the greatest threat to humanity pin her face to the glass of an arcade crane game was quite the amusing sight.
Maybe Einar isn't so bad at dating advice after all.
...
Yeah, I don't believe that either.
Two figures could be seen panting on the floor of a colorless room.
One with grey-blue hair and the other with deep, blood red locks.
A teen boy stood off to the side before slowly walking towards the two.
"Good job Hua, you actually got a few hits in this time."
The girl's gulps of air accented her response, "I...hate...you..."
The white haired devil simply smiled in response.
"I need a beer..." The crimson woman groaned.
Hua pushed herself off the ground, her limbs aching from exertion, "A beer is not the answer to all of life's problems, captain."
"Of course, it is!" Himeko brought herself to a seated position, "But Kevin, where did you learn how to fight with a sword, I though you started using your 'tae-gun-do' or whatever you called it?"
The boy let of a breath of exasperation, "It's called 'gun kata' and still use it. I was simply talking to Einar a while back and he mentioned that knowing how an enemy fights is quite the handy ability to use consciously."
He continued with a bit of pride in his voice, "I've even gotten a few good hits in on him during some spars. Probably just because he had never fought against something like this before, since he seems to be getting a lot better at defending against it."
The teen finished with a sort of somber resignation, "But I mean, he's sixty-two thousand years old, so what could I do?"
The two young women froze. They didn't even dare to breathe for a moment.
The silence was shattered quickly thereafter.
""What!?""
The soldiers shouted in shock.
Kevin simply flashed a knowing smile, "Yeah, he told me before the last Herrscher fight. He didn't seem like he wanted to keep it a secret though so I thought it would be okay to share."
A blatant lie. He had mostly likely expected Kevin to keep it a secret, but he also didn't ever say those words. Kevin could finally get revenge on his friend for his endless pranks, he did, after all, have to eat both breakfast and lunch today in zero gravity.
Both of the women had very different thoughts on the matter of Einar's age, however.
Hua was busy putting together the pieces of the puzzle that was her companion, realizing why he acted so lost in thought every now and again. He must have seen some pretty horrific things over the years.
Meanwhile, Himeko was wondering why the boy never offered to go drinking with her. She would've promised not to try and seduce anyone if he went with her...unless they were rich, then all bets were off.
And she said as much aloud, "We need to go drinking together then!"
Both Kevin and Hua were immediate in their response, "Absolutely not!"
The teens shuddered to think of what a drunk Einar would act like. His childish pranks were already horrible, but what if he pulled out all the stops...
They felt a chill run down their backs, world destruction would come from him rather than the Honkai.
Himeko whined, "Why not, he would be legally able to?"
Hua was the one who came up with an excuse, "Because who would believe that he's several dozen millennia old? Besides, he looks like a teenager."
The captain seemed to deflate at the answer, but otherwise accept it.
"Fine, but I'm still asking him later."
Kevin and Hua turned to the other, now they just had to convince Einar before the women in front of them could.
For the sake of the world, Einar could never become drunk.
Speaking of the anomaly, he was currently finishing up his wife's demonic collection of horrific monstrosities. Maybe she liked them because they opposed humanity same as her?
The boy shrugged, it didn't matter to him too much. Long as they could just keep pretending for just a few moments longer.
Of course, the fragile peace has to shatter at some point.
A loud alarm blared throughout the city. A voice spoke in a mechanical tone, warning the city's populous.
"Warning, warning, a large burst of Honkai energy has been detected outside of the city. Please stay calm and proceed to the nearest shelter for emergency evacuation."
"Warning, warning, a lar-"
The message began looping, but it had already accomplished its effects. Swarms of people were rushing to the shelters under the glare of flashing red lights.
Einar simply stood amidst the chaos, the bundle of plushies in his arm gaining a weight they had not previously possessed.
He dropped the pile into a portal that had formed on the ground. The panicked citizens didn't even notice the supernatural feat in their haste.
The pale girl that had accompanied the boy had vanished as soon as the sirens blared. He was alone again.
"Oh well, it's just a bunch of grunts. Shouldn't be a big deal." His voice drowned out amongst the sirens and cries of the populous.
He exited the building, his excitement building as he saw the telltale light of the Honkai.
Tangerine wisps covered his limbs as he pulled his armor from imaginary space. While he might not be able to enter the space himself, he could still store items inside of it. It was quite convenient power.
A sword formed in his right hand as his right eye raged gold and, unusually, his left was alight with an azure gleam.
He smiled at the oncoming horde. It had been a while since his last fight.
The distance between the boy and his prey was still rather substantial, at least a few dozen meters. Still, he kicked off the concrete underneath his feet, electricity dancing across his form before he vanished in a bolt of blue.
Using portals always ran the risk of the Honkai using it as well and curving space in a specific direction was not the easiest of tasks. Changing where gravity pulled him too was too slow and having the wind fly him was never the simplest to stop painlessly.
So, he altered his body's composition to that of pure lightning, allowing him to become immune to most attacks for the briefest of moments an cross distances in an instant. His regeneration would then knit his body back together as soon as he released control over his power.
The ability came with its drawbacks, however.
The first came from Einar's very nature. As a human with Herrscher powers he was immune to his own power up to a limit. His existence as a human prevented him from being total immunity to his own powers. This meant that using something that was so far outside the realm of man caused him excruciating pain.
The other drawback was Kaguya's influence.
While Einar had no concrete proof, he assumed that the reason his regeneration was passive was her doing. As such, when remaking his body on a molecular level he also had to fight his own pseudo-immortality. This meant that the entire process was rather Honkai consumptive.
Not that this fazed the boy much after he had used it for so long.
The blue streak landed in front of a templar-type Honkai beast and returned to a human form.
Einar wasted no time as he created a blade underneath the Honkai before sending into the carapace of the creature.
It burst into a small sun as it engulfed several nearby beasts, the Honkai dispersing into the familiar violet pixels.
Einar hastily crafted a wall of ice to defend himself against the flare. While it served its purpose, the wall melted into a cold mist that spread into the Honkai's ranks.
Of course, the lack of sight didn't bother the Honkai as they proceeded into the fog.
They should have learned wariness.
Water conducted electricity wonderfully, and what was mist but evaporated water.
Lightning coursed through the fog as it charred the creatures, making way for an azure bolt that crackled beside them for but a flash.
Einar appeared just beyond the misty boundaries and coated his left arm in frost as he punched it into the form of an angel-type Honkai.
It was a small beast, its form not much smaller than a humans. But it possessed razor sharp wings that it utilized with deadly prowess.
The creature was quickly enveloped by ice. Seeing that the beast was frozen, Einar launched it with a flare of lightning.
The angel flew, azure light following it before it shattered into another Honkai. The shards from its frozen corpse pierced the carapaces of several surrounding creatures.
In the middle of the destruction, Einar smiled. He felt that familiar heat in his chest from when he used his powers and became giddy. He enjoyed this. His life on the line as he faced an onslaught of supernatural creatures.
Perhaps my reason for helping humanity isn't so selfish after all, Einar thought, a moment of self-reflection interrupting his rampage.
He found that fact didn't bother him too much.
A Honkai chariot-type came to disrupt his musings as it used its massive forearms to attempt to crush the Herrscher Killer.
A sword soon pierced its form as it flew through a tear in space.
The boy wasn't able to create objects very far away from him, contrary to what the 1st Herrscher was apparently capable off. He typically bypassed that by using one of his few ranged abilities, ripping holes in space.
All of a sudden, a multitude of orange rimmed tears formed around the Honkai. The tips of swords could be seen poking through into this space.
The boy smiled-no smirked. A confident twist of his lips as he revealed his next move.
"Checkmate."
The blades released themselves from there prisons. Space itself warped and twisted as they raced to meet their mark.
And Einar stood amidst it all.
He had seen better days though. Even though he had not been hit, his body was fading away into golden dust and he panted as though he finished a marathon.
He coughed, a crimson liquid filled his hand.
"Well that's just wonderful." He spoke sarcastically.
The boy gave another smirk though before looking up, numerous infantry carriers appeared in the air. Fire Moth dropships.
"Fashionably late as always huh?"
Himeko gazed out the window of the aircraft. Glass lie shattered, the pavement was crushed, and the Honkai kept drawing ever further into the heart of the city.
Lightning danced, fire raged, and swords tore across the fabric of reality. And at the center of it all, lay a boy.
The woman sighed in exasperation, "What is that idiot doing?"
Even Hua, who was near enough to hear her captain, agreed with her words. Einar currently looked to be leaking golden dust from his armor. The color seeped out of his armor in an endless stream, as though the wind was blowing out what was contained within the metal.
"Even if he's thousands of years old, he still hasn't matured a wink." The crimson maiden muttered. Her wistful smile, however, contradicted the words she spoke.
She made no mention of Hua's confusion and proceeded to the large sliding door of the aircraft.
They had slowed down significantly since they had entered the city, but the rush of air from the opening in the craft was still uncomfortable to say the least.
She gazed at the battle that raged below her.
"Well team, what are you waiting for? We have a teammate to bail out!"
The squad made a show of groaning but otherwise didn't seem to mind much, if the resignation in their smiles was any indication. After all, he was the only one they could rely on of Himeko got too drunk. Why Dr. Mei saw fit to give the beer loving women Honkai based powers was unknown to them.
Himeko, seeing no objections, jumped out the craft. They were about three stories off the ground, which was hardly anything to her.
Of course, her squad was a different story, but thankfully Mei had solved that problem. She had essentially remade the rifles from the fight against the 3rd Herrscher into a backpack with the same purpose, blasting compressed air.
Since it couldn't be activated in a long burst, it had to be used fairly close to the ground. Luckily, Himeko had required them to use the device in a safe environment before now.
Not every squad had access to these creations, but Mei had figured that it would be helpful for the other members to keep up with Himeko and even Einar to a certain extent.
As soon as they landed, most of the squad shed their backpacks. They certainly weren't light and many of the members would rather shed the weight than use its benefits. It required a bit of bodily contortion to angle the device anywhere but up after all, which is why only a young female member by the name of Mitsuha kept it on.
Himeko was by Einar's side in an instant, "Maybe next time you won't leave without us."
The boy chuckled exhaustedly, "What, I shouldn't trust you to have my back?"
Readying her sword, the woman grinned, "Never said that now did I?"
She charged a Honkai beast, running her sword through the chariot's torso. She then took hold of the dispersing Honkai and converted it to a fire across her sword.
"That's better." She said, the flame illuminating her face.
Hua also fought the Honkai with a vigor. While she wasn't able to kill the beasts as easily as her captain and friend, she made up for it in precision. Every punch landed with a sickening crunch into the carapace of the creatures in front of her. Every toss of her fists rending the supernatural.
She landed a blow on an angel-type, sending it flying into the path of a wrathful marksmen.
Mitsuha used her rifle in combination with the height advantage provided by her jetpack of sorts to turn each Honkai into a violet light with a well-placed shot.
Meanwhile, Einar was not simply sitting around and letting his friends do all the work. A large golden chain appeared and constricted himself around his arm.
He motioned his arm in the direction of a Honkai. The chains responded eagerly, stretching out and restricting the beasts movement.
The creature cried out in pain, a horrid, artificial screech, and halted its movements.
A Honkai beast was made of Honkai energy, that's why they simply dissolved into violet light when killed, and when that energy is cut off, it produces a deadly effect. In fact, the same process would produce a similar effect on Einar.
But the boy was no yet done. He sent electricity coursing down the golden chains, shocking the beast.
But before anyone could do anything else, a bolt of Honkai energy came out of nowhere, blasting the beast into the expected purple glow.
A young man with white hair revealed himself from behind its disappearing corpse.
Himeko was the first to say anything, "Your late!"
Though the words were scathing, the white of her teeth showing signaled something else.
Kevin came a small upturn of his lips as well, "Einar told me that the heroes always show up fashionably late."
The boy in question shouted in indignation, "Hey!"
Laughter escaped those in range of the conversation, despite the dangerous situation they were currently in.
Kevin parried a templar's lance before blasting it point blank with one of his pistols.
"Your 'gun kata' is still rather interesting Kevin. Want to teach it to me?" Einar spoke intrigued by the fighting style.
"Absolutely not, I have to have something to hold above you."
"Please don't be so upfront with your intentions..." The boy whined.
Himeko joined in with a change of topic, "Oh yeah! Einar, you need to come drinking with me!"
Einar gave her an incredulous look, "I'm not even old enough yet."
"Don't try pulling that, Kevin told me today your older than dirt!" Himeko refuted.
The boy held up his finger as he tried to say something before closing his mouth, "I-jus-actually you're not wrong. That's kind of sad."
He thought about it for a beat, he really was older than some dirt at this point. That kind of hurt to think about.
Einar shook his head clear of those thoughts, "Anyway, no. Someone needs to stay sober enough to bring you home."
"Aww..." The woman said, sounding much like a dejected toddler.
The Honkai dropped like flies.
Kevin taking care of any mid ranged opponents as he slung his guns in a maelstrom of bullets.
Himeko crushing Honkai underneath the blade of her flaming greatsword as she tore into their flesh with fire and brimstone.
Hua beating Honkai with her lightning quick strikes from her Solium gauntlets.
Mitsuha and the rest of Himeko's squad eviscerating the beasts with bullets and swords strikes.
And the Honkai seemed to only gain in number.
Himeko blocked the strike of a chariot's large arms with her greatsword before pushing it back and slashing it across the chest.
"Where are all of these things coming from?" She yelled to no one in particular.
She's no wrong, the sheer amount of Honkai make it feel as though...
Einar's train of thought trailed off as he came to a startling conclusion.
"It's a Herrscher! The 6th Herrscher is producing the Honkai!"
No matter how many Honkai beast were in a group, only so many could form from a mass of Honkai energy. A Herrscher, however, exuded a near infinite Honkai energy to fuel both her powers and the creation of Honkai beasts.
Almost as if it was waiting for him to say that, a black and purple mist began pouring into the city.
The strange thing was that, despite its odd color, it didn't seem to be doing anything as it spread across both the city's landscape and the oncoming Honkai.
Einar bolted forewords in a blue bolt of light, intent of discerning the effects of the mist.
Doing something stupid, he reached his arm into the oncoming fog.
"Agh!" he grunted in pain. The mist was causing his flesh underneath his armor to disperse, revealing the white bone underneath and eventually destroying even that.
He jerked his arm form the cloud. It didn't do much as the ominous cloud stuck to his skin like glue, inching up his arm ever further.
He immediately tried to blow it off using wind. No luck.
His next reaction was to burn it off using fire. Success with a burnt arm.
Regeneration was already kicking in as he warned the other Fire Moth soldiers, "Fall back! This stuff is highly dangerous!"
That alone put the soldiers on high alert, if Einar found something dangerous, then normal people wouldn't have a snowball's chance in Hell.
Of course, they were prepared for something of this sort to happen, as aircraft began to arrive almost as soon as the boy had finished speaking.
As the soldiers were evacuating the area, Einar stopped Himeko for a moment.
"Hey, captain." He grabbed her arm, causing her to look back at him with curiosity.
"Fire works quite well against the mist, can you help me burn it to give everyone a bit more time to get out?" He asked seriously.
Himeko grinned, "Of course! What kind of captain would I be if I didn't ensure the wellbeing of my squad?"
The boy chuckled, "Not a very good one I suppose."
He brought them to the encroaching mist with a portal and went over the plan.
"Okay, when I create a flame, I'm going to have a lot of Honkai energy pour off of my body, I want you to use that to set this gunk ablaze."
She seemed almost bored, "That's it?"
Einar smiled, his captain was something of a challenge seeker it would seem.
"That's it." He confirmed.
"Well alright then, let's get started shall we?" She shouted.
A moment later the evacuating members of Fire Moth saw the mist ignite, a flame engulfing the entirety of it as it burned like a second sun.
Hua could feel the heat even thought she was several blocks away.
A raging wind then blew past, sending the soldiers' hair flying in the direction of the flame, and stocked the raging fire.
Another moment later and Einar and Himeko showed up through a black abyss, a portal. They both looked a little red, as though they had gotten a sunburn at the beach.
"What are you looking at? Let's go, we'll talk later." The crimson haired maiden responded.
Hua nodded, no was not the time for questions.
They boarded the aircraft and left, the fire already dying down. The purple shadow soon encompassed the flames until they no longer raged.
Einar gazed down at them from the small window in the craft. All the Herrscher up until the point, even the two he hadn't fought, had powers he could replicate to some extent. There were even some powers he had that no Herrscher could yet use.
But this one was different, no matter how hard he tried, he could not recreate that mist of death. That scared Einar.
For the first time in a long time, he had to face something he was completely unfamiliar with, and that certainly wasn't the most enjoyable of prospects.
I guess this is how everyone else feels against the Honkai on a regular basis, huh? The boy mussed. Maybe he wasn't so human after all.
Maybe he was jus-
"Are you alright?" A concerned voice rang out to his side.
He jumped slightly, it was just Hua.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just lost in thought."
The girl seemed to accept the answer, "That's good."
An awkward silence enveloped the two.
"Who's the strongest person you've ever fought?"
The questioned startled the boy for a moment, "Why do you ask?"
She answered a little nervously, "Well, Kevin said that you were sixty-two thousand years old, so it thought that it might be interesting to hear some stories."
Einar brought his hand to his forehead, "That guy just told everyone he knew didn't he. Can't keep a secret..." He trailed off.
Hua's enthusiasm was not assuaged, however, "So, who was it? Was it Lu Bu? Oda Nobunaga? Bruce Lee?"
"I-wha-why do you even assume that I've even fought them before!?"
The boy could see it now, between Kevin and Hua, the people asking about various mythological places and people would only increase from here. And so, would his headache.
And of course, Himeko was just watching them while laughing herself to tears.
Oh yeah, a great day indeed, the boy though sarcastically to himself.
But, despite his thoughts, he wouldn't trade these moments for anything else.
Well...almost nothing else.
A small girl looked over the carnage wrought about the city below by the Honkai.
She was a young girl, mid-teens perhaps, and wore a school uniform from the city she currently gazed at.
Her eyes were as clear blue as the ocean water and her hair was a black on the outside and the same shade of blue underneath that initial layer. It was certainly an odd look, but she wore it so well, it was unsure as to whether it was dyed or not.
She stole a glance at one of the aircrafts leaving the city and gave a smile full of sadistic glee.
"Don't worry Onii-chan," She spoke in a loving tone, her voiced holding an undertone of possession, "I won't let the filth of this world harm you anymore."
She held her hand to her cheek and blushed, "Because you'll be all mine soon enough, Einar onii-chan."
She then hoped of the building she had sat upon with a graceful leap and vanished within the purple mist.
Author's Notes: This turned out to be far longer than I expected. I was creating scenes in my head and didn't expect this to go too far over 5000 let alone just over 7000. I feel rather accomplished.
But enough about that, I came to a realization before writing this chapter. My foreshadowing was as subtle as the sun imploding and I wanted to at least try and change that.
Another thing to mention is that the next chapter will not have the 6th Herrscher fight, or at the very least not all of it. It will contain some things that will become staples of the story in the coming chapters and I also wanted to make sure that the next Herrscher requires at least of bit of thinking on the part of Fire Moth rather than just have Einar brute force everything.
Back to this chapter though, I hope you guys liked the scene with Einar and Kaguya from before he got his powers. It is currently the scene that would be the very first if I put everything in chronological order.
I also tried to build a bit of character relations this chapter, not just Einar and Kaguya. Not every character will have an equal amount of time with others, for example; Mei spends most of her time cooped up in a laboratory and doesn't interact much unless people come to her, rather than the other way around. Another example would be that Hua and Himeko's relationship will receive far more attention than say, Kevin and Himeko's.
The final thing I want to address is Einar's power level. He's powerful. But in this chapter I wanted to emphasize one thing; his endurance. Einar is like a marathon runner, he can run at full speed for a short while, or he can run a lot slower and last for far longer. Or, you could compare him to a sniper rifle; he can fire large caliber bullets at the cost of limited magazine size. I'm simplifying that for analogy's sake, please don't kill me gun nuts!
And that just about wraps things up! See you in the next chapter you beautiful people!
Sayonara,
the Slow White Guy