An Immortal Conflict
Back when Einar first joined Himeko's squad, he was given a standard introduction to the members.
A "Team building exercise" his newfound captain had called it. Over food made courtesy of their captain.
It further solidified his opinion that Yasuhiro just wanted to make a squad full of the strangest people imaginable.
So, here the boy was, gathered with four other around a table in a small meeting room of sorts.
A girl of medium height with shoulder length brown hair and forest green eyes was the first to speak up.
"Ooh ooh, me first!" She jumped up and down with a strange energy.
Seeing no objections within the time frame of half a second, she continued unperturbed.
"My name is Mitsuha Tachibana! I like strawberry ice-cream blasting the Honkai with my sniper rifle!" The blindly grin still plastered on her lips.
Einar was following along until the final part of her introduction, confused but not shocked until that point.
"Uh..." He had no idea on how to follow that up.
Most girls who acted as she does, hyperactive and seemingly innocent, were the last ones he would expect to have a hobby of blasting supernatural creatures into oblivion with a rifle of any kind.
Usually they were more hammer people, as he had found out.
Of course, none of that explained why she had seen fit to proclaim her favorite ice-cream. The world may never know what went through her mind that day...
The next person didn't wait for his confusion to subside however and began their own introduction. Or do anything to abate the confusion for that matter.
He was the most normal Japanese person that Einar had ever seen. He was a boy of average height, taller than Mitsuha, and had both black hair and eyes, a typical anime protagonist if there ever was one.
"My name is Takeru Kamiijo." He spoke in a dry tone.
Silence filled the room, it seemed that was it.
Now that I think about, Einar mussed, why did I expect any more? Was it because Mitsuha gave me her life's story?
Mitsuha, seeing that Takeru wasn't going to continue, pounced on the man. They seemed to be rather familiar with each other, judging from how the boy didn't even try and run away, just accepting it with a blank look.
She spoke in her, what he assumed to be, normal, chipper tone, "Come on Takky, you have to give us something more than that!"
The most angelic smile I had ever seen spread across her face, "You will right?"
Well, it would have been, if it had met her eyes.
Her pupils simply gazed at the poor boy with cold, lifeless emotion. The piercing gaze seemed to prevent life itself from escaping, a gaping maw ready to devour those lured in by its angelic bait.
The Devil himself would run in fear if he saw such a sight.
Takeru, the poor guy was still in the demon's clutches, simply gulped and nodded. His survival instincts not letting him do anything more than that.
Note to self; don't mess with Mitsuha- no scratch that, don't get near her to begin with, Einar thought to himself. World wars would have ended in a matter of minutes if faced with that.
Takeru continued, his voice cracking ever so slightly, "I-I like cheesecake and I use a scythe in combat."
Einar wondered why sharing one's favorite dessert was necessary but didn't decide to question it.
The next participant spoke up, "My name is Fu Hua. I like dragon's beard candy and use gauntlets in combat."
A chill went down Einar spine, that candy brought up some bad memories.
Never again will he go fishing again.
Unaware of his inner turmoil, the final of Einar's new squad mates came up to greet him.
He was a fairly tall man but had very feminine features and wore glasses to cover his brown eyes. His blond hair was a bit longer than Takeru's, adding to his "pretty boy" aura.
"So, you're the one the bigwigs found lying around huh?"
The boy said after pushing his glasses up his nose.
Mitsuha, once again, had a comment for this development, not giving Einar any time to respond.
"Don't mind Wilhelm, his glasses are fake. He just wants to look smart."
In an anime a tick mark would have appeared on the blonde's head. He seemed to be rather annoyed at the girl.
Einar simply gazed, highly amused, at the interaction between the two. These three seemed to have known each other for quite some time. He doubted they had only known each other for the year since the Honkai's emergence and Fire Moth's founding.
Fu Hua seemed to be the odd one out however, she stood of to the side a bit awkwardly as the other three proceeded with their shenanigans. She looked to be as though she wanted to be anywhere but there at the moment.
So of course, Einar being Einar, decided to annoy her in his usual fashion.
"Are they always like this, or is it just for special occasions?"
A small smile cracked through the girl's façade.
"Mostly always so you should probably get used to it before it gets too annoying."
The boy waved his hand in a dismissive wave, "Its fine, I find them to be rather likeable. In fact, they remind me of some people I knew a long time ago."
Hua raised a singular eyebrow, "Really? I find it hard to believe that there are more people like this trio."
Einar gave a chuckle at her remark, "Oh but they were, a real strange bunch those guys. They pulled me back on my feet once. They choose to help me even though they weren't in the greatest of spots themselves."
He then gave a large grin, "They're the reason that I'm such a well-rounded person!"
As Hua opened her mouth to refute that claim, didn't need to know him long to detect the sarcasm in his voice, she was interrupted by the untimely yell of a certain brown haired girl.
"Hey, no fair! You guys can't have bonding time without us!"
Takeru gave a snort, "I don't think you can stake a claim on 'bonding time' as you put it Mitsuha."
"I concur, we do not have a monopoly on what the other members do with their free time." Wilhelm pushed up his glasses further along his nose as he gave his two cents.
The girl in question gained an exaggerated look of shock and betrayal as her head shifted rabidly from between her two companions.
It was at this moment that Einar decided to interject.
"Tsk, tsk, gaining up on a lady, you two should have some shame." Despite the severity of the words spoken, Einar was wildly amused as the grin on his face indicated.
"Wh-I-no-!"
"I-Why would I nev-!"
As the two boys sputtered out their hastily constructed denials, Mitsuha rolled with laughter.
"Hahaha, that was brilliant! Well new guy, I like you!"
She eventually got up and stretched out her hand to Einar, even as she wiped tears from her eyes, "I have a feeling we'll be great friends!"
"Hey!" Takeru intruded. "Now who's leaving the other squad members out!"
Mitsuha put her hands behind her back, stood on the soles of her feet, and whistled innocently. Everyone knows that if you whistle, you are completely innocent.
Einar stared, laughing at the scene and even Hua gained a smile at the humorous events unfolding before them.
At that moment Himeko decided to arrive with her culinary creations.
"Hello, I hope you don't mind taking a small break to eat."
Himeko walked in the room pulling a cart, with several dishes on them, into the room. Everyone was handed a plate of food, which looked surprisingly good, no one had expected their captain to have any culinary talent.
A moment later, they all took a bite.
At that moment they newly formed squad had come to their first unanimous decision.
Never let Himeko into the kitchen. Their lives depended on it.
Einar was proceeding with his daily routine. Eat, sleep, and run away from his teammates for fear of his sanity.
Himeko or Hua, most likely the former, had spilled the beans about his age to the rest of the squad and they now found an enjoyable pastime in tracking down and cornering him so he can answer questions like, "Was Gandhi really bald?"
The content of the questions were both hilarious and concerning.
So, this inevitably led to Einar taking refuge in the lab with Mei, which she was completely okay with.
"Einar, please leave the laboratory. Now." The woman in question spoke in a cold voice.
"What! How could you be so cruel to me in my time of need!"
Mei sighed in exasperation, "You can teleport. I believe I've made my case."
The boy stood up and pointed his entire arm in his friend's direction, "Objection!"
"Objection overruled."
"Since when do you have that kind of power!?"
The girl refused to answer, instead bringing up a screen full of information on a strange curved, Solium stick. That was honestly what Einar thought it looked like from the image showed. It was a slightly curved stick that ended in a smaller more pronounced curve towards the bottom. It also connected to a handle of sorts that had half of a diamond shape of the side opposite of the small curve.
Not giving Einar the time to ask what the item was she spoke, "Well, if your so adamant about staying here, then I might be able to make use of you."
The boy's face fell into a deadpan, "I'm so glad that you care so much for my well-being."
Mei simply continued with her explanation, "Recently I've discovered that the Herrscher cores power is not contained exclusively within the gem of the corresponding Herrscher. It seems to come from a different dimension almost, much like the 2nd Herrscher's imaginary space."
Einar caught on, "And so, since I have a similar core, you want me to help you try to access that space."
She nodded, "Exactly. You'll also get a Solium weapon out of the situation as well, which could never hurt."
The boy agreed with that assessment since Solium was the only material he could create using his powers. Apparently the 1st Herrscher could but it was not something that the anomaly could replicate. He could, at best, store Solium in a pocket dimension of sorts, but that was it. Mei had a far more technical way of describing it, but he didn't understand a word of it so that's what he was going with.
Although, he did have some reservations.
"As much as I don't mind helping I do need to know something, would this cut of my connection to my core?" He voiced his concerns. After all, losing that connection, even for just a moment, would be dangerous, if not fatal.
"Hmm," Mei was pensive as she thought of the possibility.
After a few moments, she answered, "I don't believe it will, but I won't rule out the possibility."
Einar grinned, "Good enough for me! What do you need me to do Doc?"
"First, don't call me that."
"Aw..."
"Second, I just need you to enter the usual spot so I can watch the results from a safe location."
"What do you mean 'from a safe location'!?"
The boy's cries were, as usual, ignored.
Despite his theatrics, Einar did end up willingly entering the room.
He felt rather strange holding the Solium stick. In fact, he was currently trying to think up a name for it. Actually, he supposed that was unrelated but when has that ever stopped him before.
"..nar...Ein...Einar!"
The boy's head shot up, his wayward thoughts vanishing to be pondered upon another time.
"Yes?" He asked with a small tilt of his head.
Mei's voice came through the intercoms, "Are you ready to begin?"
"Sure. What are we doing exactly though?"
Einar had a feeling that the scientist had already explained this, but he had more important issues to deal with. Such as naming his stick.
Mei sighed, she found that she does that quite often when talking with Einar.
"I just need you to flood the Solium with Honkai energy when I say to and then I'll do the rest."
If Einar was pouring Honkai into the object, then it would have an idea of what to bind to and Einar would be 'opening the gate' in some sense.
Another reason that Mei choose Einar to test this on, rather than a Herrscher core, was because the boy was both willing to go through with it and possessed a rather unique Honkai signature.
All Honkai energy has a fingerprint of sorts, it varies slightly depending on the type of Honkai beast or their class and more so if it's a Herrscher.
Einar's, however, is almost as though it's a completely different entity. It was less violent and more controlled than that of the Herrschers'.
The boy nodded to signal his agreement.
"Begin." Mei spoke over the intercom.
An orange-gold light proceeded to envelope the Solium. For its part, the metal absorbed the energy in a way reminiscent of a sponge in water.
A faint breeze began to form in the confines of the secure room as the light continued to shine ever brighter.
Mei then activated the device. Solium was just as much a computer as it was a metal, it could store information that could allow it to change its properties to some extent with the proper resources.
This was what the scientist was banking on as the Solium would have resisted the Honkai energy otherwise. By binding it to Einar's 'Honkai fingerprint' she could have the metal power its systems with his abilities and still resist the interference of foreign energy.
What Mei was doing was having Einar open the gate to the dimension where his powers were kept and keep it open with a small connection from the sword. The simplest way to describe it would be to compare it to creating a small hole in a door for a wire to pass through.
Although, the scientist would never have expected that something else would be in that Honkai dimension.
Suddenly, Einar fell unconscious, falling to the ground with a dull thud. The blare of alarms quickly followed. The sounds were coming from the terminals containing the observational data as warnings of unknown anomalies came, not from the Solium shell, but from Einar's core.
Reality itself seemed to crack like a broken mirror in front of the boy.
Space warped and time lost all meaning. The air was whirled into a frenzy and felt both scorching hot and freezing cold. Mei's body felt as light as a feather and as heavy as the ground beneath her feet.
In this world of contradictions, a pale light came from the shattered realm in front of Einar. It gradually morphed and solidified into a coherent shape.
It was a monster.
The creature's slender frame seemed to hold an immense power as the very space around it seemed to distort as it moved.
This, Mei barely strung together her thoughts, her mind gripped by terror, is what the Honkai truly is, isn't it.
Everything that Fire Moth had fought up until this point was either a simply inhuman creature or a human in appearance with terrifying powers. Human themselves had come up with more terrifying beasts for entertainment.
There was no pretense of human influence or inferiority in this thing that was before the scientist. It was truly deserving of the title 'monster'.
With its back to her the monster took an appendage and caressed the fallen form of the boy still in the room. The area around him was devoid of the chaos surrounding that-no, not just devoid of that chaos, but the space around him seemed to be actively protecting him.
After a moment the monster turned to face Mei.
Its face was unlike anything the girl had ever seen. Its eyes and mouth seemed to be almost drawn on, as though a child had scribbled with a pencil vague shapes for this thing's features.
Mei could not bring herself to say anything as she stood their frozen in terror. She only just noticed that the glass separating her from the monster had disappeared without her noticing.
The monster took slow deliberate steps towards her, leaving the downed boy behind her form.
How large was it? Could it fit through the hole it the wall where the glass was? Could it fly if it was too small?
None of the questions that might have crossed Mei's mind appeared in this moment. The only thing that mattered was the face of the Honkai in front of her.
It's mouth never moved but words floated into her head in an agonizing shout of unadulterated rage. A fiery destruction that would consume the world.
"You dare to corrupt my beloved with your humanity." It began, the voice louder than anything Mei had ever heard and yet it did not seem as though it was shouting.
"You dare to attempt to destroy our connection." The voice was gradually getting louder, more vengeful.
The monster was right in front of her, its breath moving her locks of hair. Its eyes filling her vision.
"However, I will let you live."
The monster backed away, grasping at the edges of the broken window.
"You desire to give my beloved strength. You think you can help him. You think you can save your race."
The monster was now crawling back towards Einar.
"I will show you how wrong you are."
Wisps of orange and gold whipped around the beast, the shell that protected Einar still intact even as it hovered over him.
"I will show you that nothing you have is safe."
And with those final words, the monster vanished. The air returned to normal and the pressure disappeared.
Mei slunk to the ground.
She needed to talk to Einar about a few things.
Einar woke up on the floor in the middles of the barren testing room.
"Anyone got the plate of the pizza scooter that ran me over? I want some pizza right now..."
As per usual, the boy is even more of an idiot when waking up.
After regaining his senses, Einar took a look around the room. The last thing he remembered was a flash of red light followed by a loud noise. He could have sworn that he was in his bed asleep as he slept quite well. In fact, he could have sworn that he felt a familiar presence while he was asleep...
Ignoring that, the room had undergone a rather drastic change during his nap. The room was burned in some spots and frozen in others. There were cuts along the walls and the floor and the window, which was extraordinarily difficult to break, lay shattered.
Einar's next observation was the Solium object still held in his grasp, it had undergone a rather drastic change itself.
The main curve of the metal now sported a semi-transparent orange blade that wisped like a small tangerine flame. It was curved like ancient Japanese katana and ended with a claw like curve towards the handle of the weapon.
The handle was also a bit different. The straight part of the handle had gained a woven synthetic metal covering over it. The strange half diamond shape had gained a thin gold band that wrapped around it. Azure lightning periodically flashed throughout the handle.
The blade and the handle were separated entirely now, an empty space now formed in the middle of the part between them. Inside that empty space floated an translucent gem. It seemed to flicker between blue and orange as it spun slowly on its axis.
Einar felt a strange connection to the blade, a sort of kinship.
"I guess Mei's experiment worked out after all."
He took the weapon in his hands and spun it around a bit.
"What does it do though?"
Mei never told him what it did, just told him that it might not cause his demise.
"Speaking of which, where is Mei?" The boy swiveled his head, looking around the room.
He had assumed that he might have come down after the experiment ended. Unless of course, he was only asleep for a few moments. In any case, he hopped that Mei was okay. If he was the cause of Mei being injured, then Kevin would kill him. Forget being immortal, Kevin would find a way regardless.
A flash of blue and Einar appeared at the edge of the broken window.
Huh, that didn't hurt, Einar realized. That though was quickly put in the back of his mind as he laid eyes on a worrying sight.
"Mei!"
The scientist was sitting on a chair in the midst of shards of broken glass and sparking electronics.
Einar rushed to the girl's side to examine her condition. Despite the destruction around her she had no wounds on her body that the boy could see.
The boy was confused that no security guards or even just anyone had come to the destroyed room. How had the room even got to this state was still a question he had.
Mei's safety was a priority though, his questions could wait.
"Mei, can you hear me? Are you okay?" Einar asked gently.
"Stop yelling..." Her weak voice finally spoke up.
The boy exhaled a breath of relief at her word, if she could insult him then she's fine. A strange metric to use but one that was rather effective against most of the people that Einar knew.
"Are you okay?" The boy asked in a quieter voice. "Do you need anything? Want me to get Kevin?"
The scientist held up a hand, "No I'm fine, I just need to get my bearings."
Einar accepted that answer in regard to her health, she didn't seem to be lying after all, but there was still one looming mystery.
"What happened here? It looks almost like you were attacked, but both of us are unscathed." He questioned, confusion coloring his voice.
Mei seemed hesitant to answer.
"Einar, what do you know about the origins of your powers?"
That one question tipped Einar off to all he needed to know.
He grimaced in reply before stating, "You saw Kaguya."
His voice was melancholy. The last time Kaguya had meat someone who had even done him inadvertent harm, she removed them from existence. And that's the nice way of putting it.
What was highly concerning to the boy was why she let Mei live. She had never been fond of people in general and that was only exacerbating by their last face to face meeting. He could only imagine the disdain she held for his race, one which he could gain something of an understanding of from the actions of her servants, the Herrschers.
Mei snorted, pulling him out of his thoughts, "Is that what you call that monster?"
Einar could understand why she might have called Kaguya that, he really did. But then again, it was only for the briefest of moments, right after his near death experience. However, having someone call his wife a monster was not something he was terribly fond of, to say the least.
"Yes," He answered his friend, bracing himself for her inevitably reaction to his next words. "And she's my wife."
Mei froze.
"What."
She phrased the word as more of a command than a question.
Unlike Einar, Fire Moth's resident quantum physicist was not privy to the other side of Kaguya. Her initial, and currently only, meeting with the Honkai creature was an adrenaline fueled nightmare. Not exactly suitable for first impressions.
The scientist wasn't done, however, "How did you even meet that thing, let alone fall in love with it?"
Despite the situation, the boy chuckled, "Well, she found me actually."
Mei was not nearly as amused, and her glare communicated that extremely well. He rubbed the back of his head nervously and elaborated.
"One day she simply came up to me and said, 'you're different' before latching on to me. As it turned out, she didn't know how she came to be and only knew that she found humans to be as attractive as cockroaches."
Mei interjected, "And what made you so much different?"
The boy shrugged in response, "Even she never really knew. Only ever said that I didn't 'feel' like any other human and that she simply grew attached after that."
The scientist's brain was in overdrive. What were the odds that, not only did the Honkai creature manifest in front of Einar, but that she found him to be better than all other humans or that she even found one better at all? It was astronomically low, almost zero from any metric.
Despite her many questions about the lackluster story, there was one glaring detail missing.
"Why did it give you your powers?"
Einar gave a little smile, "Why do you assume she gave them to me?"
"Because I doubt you could take them, and I don't assume the idea of protecting you if it wasn't around ever crossed its mind. Not being human would naturally mean that you don't have human common sense after all." Mei pointed out.
"That's some sound reasoning." The boy agreed. "Well, to answer your question, it was to save my life and then some."
He chuckled at his friend's look of confusion, it wasn't a common sight after all with her intelligence.
"To put into layman's terms, she wanted to save my life and then prevent something like that from ever happening again. Which also including wanting to wipe out the rest of the human race, but that's beside the point."
How is that beside the point! Is what Mei wanted to cry out, but she was interrupted by an untimely beeping in her ear.
"The Herrscher alarm." She noted with a scowl. There was still a lot she wanted to ask Einar, but it seems that would have to wait for another time.
Einar gave a nervous smile, "Well, duty calls! We can talk when we get back!"
A tear in space opened beside him before he turned around in haste.
"Oh yeah, I forgot to ask what this thing does." He waved around the sword he had picked up from its position on the ground where it had laid when he was worried for Mei's health.
Any shock that Mei might have had for the project's success was overruled by other events.
She sighed, "I'll tell you on the ride to the drop zone. That is, if you actually get in the aircraft with the rest of your squad for once."
The boy chuckled nervously, seemed he wasn't getting out of this one.
"So basically, this thing is the greatest cheat ever created for me." Einar summed up after hearing the explanation of his new weapon.
He was currently inside of a Fire Moth transport aircraft, listening to Mei tell him what his new weapon allowed him to do.
The weapon essentially functioned as a surrogate body for the boy. It allowed him to channel his powers through it and increase the amount of time he could use his powers as it reduced the amount of Honkai in his own body.
"That is not the word that I would use, but I suppose it works." Mei spoke to Einar through the comm.
"Well, regardless we're nearing the drop zone, so see you later Mei! Tell Kevin I said hi."
The scientist simply sighed and hung up.
Einar laughed, "Probably should have expected that."
Mitsuha spoke out from the other side of the aircraft, "Are you finally done reading the tutorial over there?"
"No, I'm writing the guidebook." The boy retorted.
Wilhelm gave his own opinion on the matter.
"That...that is not as nearly as funny as you think it is." He said in a dry voice.
The anomaly was about to give an offended response when Himeko appeared from her previous position in the cockpit of the craft.
"Okay guys we'll be dropping in a few minutes so let's go over the plan." She spoke in a relatively serious tone.
The information they had on the new Herrscher was few and far between. The only thing that they knew about her was that she was capable of creating a mist deadly to any human that was contained within it and could only be stopped by burning it.
Of course, assuming that was all that the 6th could do was just wishful thinking.
"...Which is why me and Einar are going to be on the ones closest to the fog. Everyone else is on support duty keeping the Honkai beast away from us and keeping a reasonable distance from the fog." Himeko elaborated.
From a tactical standpoint it made sense to leave the only two people with the ability to counter the deadly mist fight the Herrscher, but it also wasn't something that sat well with the rest of the squad.
"Don't worry," Himeko started, attempting to assuage their fears, "if push comes to shove then I can just use Einar as a meat shield."
Everyone was in agreement with the plan after that, in spite of Einar's protests.
His words, however, were interrupted by the announcement of the pilot followed a decrease in speed of the aircraft.
"Here we are! You guys ready back there?"
The squad voiced their agreement and they opened the door.
They were greeted with the sight of a blackened city, ravaged by deathly mist and Honkai beasts.
Many of the taller buildings poked through the top of the low hanging abyss. A void of Honkai crafted fog decimating life below their sky-reaching roofs.
Himeko issued a final command before they dropped, "Stay on the rooftops as much as you can, it doesn't look like the fog can naturally reach that height!"
The wind whipped at her hair as she made her observation. The implications were obviously that the Herrscher would be able to create mist at that height, but it would float up there on its own.
That gave the crack shot Mitsuha an edge.
The dangerous glint in her eyes alluded to her enjoyment to a worrying degree, as evidenced by Takeru taking a few steps away from her.
And with that, they were off.
Gravity quickly pulled them to the roof of the building they were dropping onto as they landed with their "bargain jetpacks" as Einar so eloquently calls them.
This was where the two groups split off. Hua, Mitsuha, Takeru, and Wilhelm went to take out the Honkai surrounding the Herrscher while Einar and Himeko leapt off the building, carving a path through the smog with a raging flame.
The latter two cut through the near endless horde as they attempted their search of the Herrscher. All of the Honkai in the fog surrounding them made it very difficult to track the girl.
Which, as it turned out, was unnecessary.
She found them instead.
Or, to be more specific, a blue blur tackled Einar to the ground after the bisected a Honkai beast and tried to run him through with a knife.
The boy bent space to force her into the opposite direction and burst away from his previous location on the ground in a flash of azure light.
Himeko came rushing towards him, attempting to stall the girl if need be.
The Herrscher landed perfectly on her feet, almost like a cat, and spoke in a sad voice.
"Aw, why are you running away onii-chan?" Her voiced gradually gaining an edge to it as she continued to talk. "Don't tell me you prefer this scarlet woman over me?"
The knife in her hand morphed, turning into a black mist that almost looked to absorb the light of everything around it.
"I know," She continued, her voice growing steadily darker. "If I kill her then you'll come back to Seele right? You will won't you? This is just a test of Seele's love for you isn't it?"
Einar shivered. Forget a cold chill, a blizzard spread down his spine.
"Whose idea was it to give a yandere the power of death itself? Who though this was a good idea!?" He yelled in anguish.
While not for the same reasons, Himeko was also quite perturbed by the girl, apparently named Seele, in front of her, and not just because this girl wanted her dead.
"I don't know, but I blame you." The crimson haired woman said to her companion.
"What did I do?" He shouted in indignation.
"You're the oldest one here, so you have to take responsibility!"
"That's not how that works!"
Meanwhile, the Herrscher gained a darker expression by the moment. Her eyes were devoid of light as she spoke to the pair.
She giggled, "Cheating is bad Einar, and bad children need to be punished."
Seele threw her blade at the boy, the edge barely missing his throat as he dodged to the side.
"I'm older than you are!" He proclaimed.
Perhaps not the greatest of defenses he realized, but his mind gets stuck on strange things sometimes.
Also, he really needed to ask Kaguya to never make a yandere a Herrscher ever again. Or a tsundere. Actually, did she even have control over that process? He could think about that later, right now he needed to stay alive.
Which wasn't a difficult as he might have thought. In fact, it seemed almost too easy.
Sure, she could through her knives with deadly accuracy, but that and her flesh eating fog was the only thing she had used so far.
Something isn't right here, there's no way this is all she has up her sleeve.
Not that he was going to complain if she was exceptionally simply to beat.
Einar teleported above the girl before increasing the effects of gravity on himself, effectively making him an immortal going at terminal velocity straight into a supernatural being's chest.
The Herrscher blocked it effortlessly. Even Einar, the closest thing there was to a Herrscher, could not outmatch the physical prowess of a true Herrscher. The effects of the Honkai that they had access to, elevated their physical prowess so far above a human level it was plain unfair.
She immediately followed up the defensive move with a lightning quick strike towards Einar's wrist. Or more specifically, the artery within his wrist.
Meanwhile, Himeko had her hands full simply blocking the occasional attack thrown her way and clearing the smog that enveloped the area.
The fog was being created in excess, preventing both Einar and Himeko from landing a blow as they were too preoccupied with the mist. In addition, Einar was struggling to keep the Seele's focus on him so that she didn't try and kill Himeko. Every moment the Herrscher was not on the defensive or the attack, was a moment that she spent inching towards The red haired maiden.
So, Einar decided to try something new.
He forced the encroachment of the imaginary space on the real world, bathing the world in a black and blue color scheme not too dissimilar to Tr*n.
The Herrscher paused in her attack.
"What are you hopping to accomplish with this onii-chan?" She was confused as she rolled to the side, dodging a small pillar of Honkai energy rushing towards her. "Oh well, if your giving up then allow Seele to help you!"
The boy grinned despite his apparent mistake, "Check and mate."
The world exploded into orange and red. Fire enveloped the mist, the Herrscher, and even Einar and Himeko.
Speaking of which, the captain was none too pleased at this situation.
"Hey, warn me next time you do something like this! What if I couldn't prevent the fire from reaching me in time!"
Einar just gave her a thumbs up, "I had the utmost faith in your abilities!"
Himeko was not amused at that remark to say the least and Einar had a feeling he was going to be put on toilet scrubbing duty for the next few weeks.
The pseudo imaginary space burned like the inside of a volcano. Fire oozed from every surface of the Honkai realm, rising into the sky before vanishing into the blue. The normally blue lines that bordered everything in the area had gained a warm red-orange color.
The mist was gone, at least in a small area, and the fire would prevent it from coming back. Everywhere Einar looked was distorted with a haze of heat.
But of course, it wasn't over.
A maniacal laugh resounded from inside the countless pillars of flame.
The 6th Herrscher walked out. Her charred from rapidly cooled, knitting itself back together and paling to the shade it was before. The crystalline blue of her eyes and hair shone in stark contrast to the heat surrounding her.
"So that's why she doesn't have much in the attacking department," Einar realized. "She can heal from any injury."
"Like you." Himeko noted.
The Herrscher of Death is immortal. How do you defeat something like that? Einar mussed.
The Herrscher pouted, an adorable puff of her cheeks in childish anger, "Bad onii-chan, you weren't supposed to see this yet."
Einar noted the change of personality. He assumed that this was her "dere" mode which he probably shouldn't be as concerned with as he was.
"Oh well," She continued. "I guess I have to leave now, but don't worry I'll come back to save you from that home wrecker soon!"
She flashed a blinding smile towards Einar before the darkness returned to her gaze as her eyes drifted across Himeko's form.
The knife that was still in Seele's grasp gave all the implications Himeko needed.
And with that, she turned and dashed through the world of fire.
Einar immediately dismissed his imaginary space but declined to attempt to chase after Seele. He knew better than to think that he could find her on his own. He was a fight after all, not a tracker.
Himeko turned to face her companion, worry on her face, "Now would be a great time to know what the weaknesses of your regeneration are."
"I wouldn't mind, given the situation. Just keep in mind that I don't think that what would work against me would have the same effect on her."
Himeko was not dissuaded, "Don't care, we just need to find a way to combat her regeneration."
"Fine by me." Einar said. "We just need to make sure Mei is in the room so things might make at least some semblance of sense."
Himeko gave a tired chuckle at his statement.
Never did she think that just burning mist would be that exhausting, maybe all that beer wasn't exactly helping her as much as she thought.
Einar and Hua might have a heart attack if they heard her say that.
As her companion called the rest of the squad and the aircraft to their location, a stray thought kept nagging the Fire Moth captain.
When could I control fire that Einar created?
Elsewhere, a young girl grinned.
The seeds were planted. A spark was all it took to create a ragging flame.
The only thing it needed was fuel.
And so, she provided. Her beloved needed to see how easily humans fell to their desires, how simple it was to alter those desires to another will.
It didn't matter how many times it took. It didn't matter how many lives it corrupted.
Einar was the only thing that mattered to her.
And she would do anything to make him hers.
Only mine, She thought as she bounded away. Only mine.
The setting sun faded into the night sky. The moon once again slowly returning to its peak amongst the stars.
But the moon never really left, the Earth left it.
But every night it would turn around to face it once again.
It was inevitable.
The girl smiled.
It was only a matter of time.
Author's notes: Well this took a while. I really wanted this to come out on Sunday but here we are three days later. Feel free to berate me, I deserve it.
But, moving on to the chapter. How did you guys like the OC's? I know they didn't get much screen time, but I don't plan on them being hugely important characters. They will definitely play have influence but not like Einar and Kaguya will. I really didn't want to add more OC's but I kind of had to with the lack of canonical characters in the Old World era, I needed to flesh out the world a bit more. Their main purpose, as you will see later, is to provide a view into the less important ranks of Fire Moth, to have more of an understanding as to what some of the regular soldiers think of some of the more prominent characters and things like that.
On another note, Kaguya was here. Bet you didn't expect that one huh? This chapter I really wanted to highlight her inhumanity, to show that she's not simply a human-esque creature, but a completely different species. I want to give more of a reason as to why the Honkai is evil and not dilute that. Kaguya is evil, but not for purely evil reasons. So many series try to tone down the villainy of the character simply because their a pretty girl, I don't want to do that. Think, Esdeath from "Akame ga Kill" if you've seen that anime. Evil, but shows a very different side to the object of her affections.
I also introduced the only "power up" I plan to give Einar in my story in this chapter. The prototype Divine Key, or 0th Divine Key. It was made with the same process and the accomplish the same goal, but it doesn't have a core attached to it and can only use Einar's due to the way it functions. Unlike the Hollow Armor (otherwise known as the "Blank Key") it does not draw out the power of any Herrscher core and gift it to the wearer, but instead acts as a buffer between the damaging effects of Einar's core. I do have a name for it that will come out in the next chapter. I also put way too much time into its design and name. If anyone has any questions about its powers feel free to PM me, or just wait to see it in action more if you would rather.
The final thing to address would be Seele. It's never explicitly stated in the manga, but the Old World 6th Herrscher looked exactly like Seele in her Azure Memories outfit. So, I'm going with that interpretation and basing her personality a little of the "Dark Seele" or the "Stigmata Seele", whichever one you want to call her.
As the last note I want to give you guys a hint about the last scene. The knowledge of who's speaking will be very important later on.
Thanks again for reading, you wonderful people you!
Sayonara,
The Slow White Guy