An Unexpected Impact Chapter 20, a honkai impact 3rd fanfic

This is the updated version

Enjoy :)

Never did I think that I would ever see the day that I would find myself running straight at a storm of gunfire with just a sword in my hand.

A scene so bizarre and impossible that one would only ever see in an anime.

Yet here I was doing that exact thing.

I suppressed the urge to try and dodge the rain of bullets, every instinct in my body was screaming for me to jump out of the way.

Yet I felt no fear when a green luminous shield manifested before me, the gauntlet in my hand responsible for it. It was strange to try and describe how I was able to even activate the shield in the first place. Maybe if I clenched my hand in a certain way or it could detect incoming projectiles...

But I could say for certain that after the first time I had used it.

It naturally came to me like breathing did.

The hail of bullets harmlessly bounced off of the hexagonal green shield, the shattered metal cartridges littering the floor as my shield held fast against the torrent of hot steel. It shined as brilliant as it had first appeared when the soldiers ran out of ammo to waste against its unyielding defense.

"Now!" I shouted as Midori jumped above me, a hand on her blade as she soared above the soldiers. They moved to try and fire at the mid air Valkyrie with their secondary pistols, hoping that a lucky bullet would put her down.

Midori whispered something under her breath as her hand unsheathed her katana in one swift motion. The sound of a blade cutting through the air was all that was heard before Midori landed gracefully behind the soldiers.

She took one last look at the soldiers before she sheathed her katana.

And with it every soldier falling to the ground like a stack of dominos.

Watching the soldiers topple with such frightening ease, I wanted nothing more than to avert my gaze from what would follow after. The blood that would no doubt flow like a river from Midori's single strike, painting the warehouse floor in its scarlet hues.

But alas I could not have that single comfort as we were in the midst of a grueling battle. Even now I could hear soldiers making their way towards us from every direction, no doubt with the intention of encircling us with their far superior numbers.

So I casted an apologetic look to the fallen soldiers' bodies before I ran through their bloody corpses, following Midori's lead as she was already making her way towards the closest group of soldiers.

It was quite a simple plan, Midori would merely focus on cutting down the enemies' numbers as quickly as she could and I would follow behind to act as her shield but also to take out any stragglers she missed.

It was surreal to see the real Midori Aki in action. She was always reserved back in Chiba Academy, saying very little unless she was asked to do otherwise by her peers or a teacher. Aside from Mei I don't think I've seen her interact with anyone else aside from her kendo clubmates.

In retrospect she was the same in battle, I had yet to hear her say a single word since she first drew her sword.

Yet there was certain air to her now, a vibe to her that I never felt from her before.

It felt as if she was singing, as strange as it was to say. She actually wasn't singing because her blade was the one doing it. Each swing she performed with it played a silent song that only she danced to.

A silent dance that she continued to dance to the tune of, evading bullets as if they weren't there to worry about in the first place. Each time she swung her sword another body fell to the ground.

This was the true power of a Valkyrie.

"Take him out!" A sudden shout broke my focus away from Midori as I looked to the one who yelled that out. In my awe I had failed to notice that a trio of soldiers had gotten around to my flank, leveling their rifles at me. "Fire!"

"May not be as graceful as her," I muttered as I activated my gauntlet shield. Just like before the green hexagonal shield shimmered into life as it protected me from the hail of bullets. "But I can get the job done at least." I held my sword at the ready before I ran towards the trio, shield raised up.

Those three soldiers probably weren't the brightest of the bunch as they kept firing at me even with the fact that my shield was still up and wasn't going away anytime soon. They probably believed that if they kept wasting their ammunition the shield would eventually falter.

If it could take a rocket head on and still come out unscathed, then I highly doubt that some regular bullets were going to even scratch it at all.

In no time I was able to close the distance between me and the closest soldier, who happened to be the one to yell out the order. Retightening my grip on my sword, I swung for the man's torso as I continued holding up my shield.

The man's armor offered no resistance as my sword's edge tore into his body. I could feel the force of my sword entering through his gut and exiting out the other side, no doubt a fatal hit.

Regardless of what I did next he would not make it past this night. I bit my lip at the implication of that thought.

Another kill to add.

Another person whose life was now gone because of me.

But I could not dwell on that as there were still two more soldiers present. Quickly freeing the sword from the man's body, I swung it reactively at my left to the soldier who had taken advantage of the fact that my shield only covered the side it was facing.

The sword cleaved through the rifle in two as if it was cutting through butter, the soldier could only give a shout of surprise by the fate of his weapon before my blade's path continued upward. And with no rifle to block my blade.

His entire chest suffered a fatal deep gash by my blade.

That made two lives taken.

The third and final soldier decided that a rifle was not the best weapon to use in a close quarters situation as he went to grab the knife that was sheathed on his vest. To be honest he was the only one who made a sound judgment considering the first soldier should've moved away while the second soldier risked shooting his comrade by trying to hit me with his rifle.

Catching him doing this with the corner of my eye, I lashed out with my shield arm. The green defensive shield actually served as a rather effective weapon as it bashed into the man's arm, knocking the knife that he had managed to grab far out of his reach. The length of the shield was just long enough that it caught the man's helmet in the process, shattering the majority of it into pieces.

Disoriented, the man fell back until he hit the side of a shipping container. The warehouse that we were in was littered with miscellaneous shipping containers. A fact that Midori abused as she used the mountains of steel as a way to break up the enemy's significant number advantage to dart around them, taking them out group by group.

The soldier tried to catch himself from falling all the way but by the time his feet orientated themselves the last thing he saw was my blade's edge as it sunk into his chest, the tip of it coming out his back and shredding the steel container his back was touching.

The soldier gave a low strangled gasp as blood flowed out from where my sword had pierced him as he slumped forward. I pulled the sword free from his body as I watched his body slide down the container, painting the metal surface in his blood before he hit the floor.

In the span of what felt like a minute I had just killed three people.

Three people who had an entire life ahead of them only for it to be taken away,

By me.

I took a step back, careful to not place my feett in the rapidly growing pool of blood on the ground, and looked at the three soldiers that I had just killed. I could feel my stomach rising to where my throat was, the contents within swirling uncomfortable.

I clenched my fist to stop myself from doing that. I couldn't stop now, not that I think I could if I wanted to. This was the role that I picked for myself after all, I chose to go down this path of my own free will.

"Sorry," I muttered, closing my eyes, as I gave a silent prayer to the fallen soldiers in front of me. It was probably stupid decision to make seein how I was in the middle of a fight and a random soldier could easily put a bullet in me, it wasn't like I could put up the shield in my current state.

But a part of me felt that I needed to do this. If it wasn't for me they would've still been breathing.

This was the least that I could do for them.

But I couldn't dwell on this for too long, I needed to keep moving forward. Finishing the prayer I turned on my heel with the intention of joining Midori wherever she was. Judging by the sounds of frantic shouting and gunfire, finding the Valkyrie again was not going to be a problem.

Placing a foot forward, I readied myself to make a run for where the action was at.

Only for a sudden wave of deju vu to hit me with such force that I almost toppled over. It was only the quick placement of my other foot that prevented me from having my face hit the floor.

A vision flashed through my mind, quick and abrupt like a streak of lightning piercing through the night sky.

What might've been once a vibrant, green field had now been reduced to a bloody battlefield. Flags that once proudly bore the marks of their respective kingdoms had been reduced to bloody and torn scraps. The once mighty symbols of power had now been deprived of their prestige.

Below countless bodies of knights littered the field, most often than not in big piles. It mattered not what affiliation the knights were as many soldiers from both sides had painted the greenery of the fields in their blood.

There in the middle of it all, a single knight stood. Blood clung to her damaged armor, her breathing ragged as she shouldered on all of the injuries that she sustained from the battle. The sword in her hand was still shining brightly despite the blood that clung to its steel, a testament to its divine blessing.

Yet now it felt more like a curse than it did a blessing.

The knight set her focus to the corpse of the knight that she had just slain, blood still seeping from the wound that she had just inflicted on her moment's ago.

"Was it worth it?" She found herself looking upward as she asked that question out loud to the darkened sky. Her words spoke to no-one in particular, not that mattered as she was sure that she was the only surviving soul from this tragedy.

Perhaps she was attempting to understand the reasoning of why the knight before her had started all of this, why she would throw away the lives of all these men so carelessly.

But the dead tell no tales however as the silence of the battlefield was all that answered her.

"Why must you do this? What possible reason could there be to justify this massacre? The loss of such significant life?"

The vision suddenly changed as I found myself watching a completely different scene. The bloody fields had given way to a desert currently cloaked by the night. However this was no ordinary desert as the usual tan color of sand was a blood red instead!

And sitting in a desolate patch of red sand, huddled around a fire were the same boy and girl from that strange vision I had earlier today.

"Does it hurt?" The boy asked as he looked at the bandaged hand of the girl's right hand.

The blonde girl gave her injured an experimental squeeze, her face slightly wincing in pain. "It still does, but not as much as it did before." She looked back at the boy and gave him an appreciative smile. "Thank you for helping me bandage this."

"You shouldn't be thanking me," The boy frowned as he looked towards the fire. "It was because of me that you even got into that situation in the first place."

"Don't be like that," The girl now frowned as she lowered her injured hand. "You couldn't have predicted what would happen back there." She assured him. "I'm a Valkyrie, remember, this is normal for me."

"But I-" The boy looked so guilty about her injuries but another reassuring smile from the girl pushed his guilt away, for now. Desperate to change the topic the boy asked a question that he had of his own.

"Hey Bianka, why did you become a Valkyrie?"

The girl in question looked confused as to why he was asking such a question. "What made you so curious about that now?"

"Well," The boy shrugged as he thought back to how their first meeting went, how...memorable that was. "You weren't exactly the most approachable person back then."

The girl thought back to their first meeting and blushed when she remembered how she acted towards him. It was certainly something that she deeply regretted and wanted nothing more than to change that experience.

"I suppose so...but the reason why I wanted to become a Valkyrie was so that no one got orphaned in the way that I did." The boy remained silent as Bianka grabbed a fistful of red sand in her hand and brought it up, watching the tiny red particles slip through her fingers as it got scattered by the wind.

Just like her life before the orphanage, scattered to who knows where.

She couldn't even remember the names of her parents.

"In a way joining the Valkyries also allowed me to vent a hidden side of my anger at those responsible for my predicament," She took a deep breath to calm herself from doing something rash.

Not like the time she had acted when she came face to face with the dark emotions that had been lurking within her this entire time. She never believed they existed in the first place, thought she had risen above such emotions a long time ago.

How they laughed at her when she faced them for the first time.

"...But now I no longer fight them for vengeance," She turned her gaze to the boy who was watching her with wide eyes. The boy who had changed her entire life.

"I now fight for all that is beautiful in this world."

The vision ended as abruptly as it came. I fell to the ground, my arms barely catching me as my breathing tried to stabilize itself back to normal. Sweat poured down my forehead as I struggled to process what had just happened to me.

It was the same as the vision that I had back at the apartment, no warning or reason why I had those visions in the first place. But there was one thing that set this one apart, one very major detail.

I placed my hand where my heart was, feeling how maddening the pulse had become.

That felt way more vivid than a simple vision!

"Haruto? Haruto!" I could hear a familiar shout before a pair of hands landed on my back in worry. "What the hell happened to you?!"

I looked back up and gave a small grin to Midori's distressed face. "Hey Midori, just had a little episode that was all." I pushed myself shakily back up, ignoring the Valkyrie's pleas to take it easy. "And what about you? Don't tell me that you got them all."

"Most of them," Midori looked around to the now quiet cargo holding area as I went to pick up the sword that I dropped earlier. "The rest retreated back into the confines of the warehouse, most probably making a last minute stand where they're keeping Kiana."

"That's good," I took a deep breath to resettle myself from that ordeal I had just gone through. "C'mon we just need to make one last push to free Kiana."

"Are you sure? If you're not feeling up to it I can go and free Kiana while you keep watch," She offered as she looked worried about my condition after what I had gone through.

I was touched by her concern but now wasn't the time to stop now, not when we were so close. "I'm fine," I assured her as I readied my gauntlet, the green hexagonal shield activating on command. "Let's go before any more reinforcements arrive."

Midori looked like she wanted to say something but ultimately decided against it as she motioned for me to follow as the two of us rushed off to where Kiana was being held at.

Yet a single thought hounded my mind no matter how hard I tried to push it away.

Why did I have that vision? Why was I getting them now of all times?

And what was this horrible feeling of trepidation I was feeling?

If there was one story that Fu Hua would teach to any aspiring Valkyrie, it would have to be about the story of David and Goliath. A tale of how a boy brought down a giant with just a single stone.

It taught a very simple but very significant lesson.

That even a 'god of war' had a weakness.

It was important that every Valkyrie learned this lesson. Especially should they ever find themselves crossing blades with a Emperor-Class Honkai Beast or god forbid a Herrscher. No matter how daunting their opponent may be.

They all had a weakness that could be exploited.

However…

The Valkyrie narrowly ducked under the edge of Iudex's massive zweihander, the edge of it barely grazing her skin as she moved away from the steel behemoth's range. The sword continued its trajectory before it slammed into the warehouse floor, tearing the concrete up before it became lodged.

She was starting to believe that this monster's only weakness was that it was the only one in existence.

That and it's inability to conduct any range attacks, though not like it needed it.

It held the perfect mix of offensive and defensive abilities. It's armor proved more than resilient to any attacks that came its way, whether it be her fists or Ishigami's gravity powers. The soulium infused armor simply absorbed the blows and while it did show that their efforts were not in vain with its armor showing some damage, it was not enough.

And after persevering through their attacks, Iudex would focus its attention on either one of them, chasing after them with its zweihander.

Quickly they devised a strategy that placed them on opposite sides of their opponent so that when it went on the offensive it could only pick one out of the two of them to go after, then the other one would take advantage of its undivided attention and hit it with all they got.

But it did not really matter in the grand scheme of things if their attacks could even damage the enemy's thick soulium armor.

Not to mention that they had to somehow deal with its ability to seemingly repair its own armor should it ever go down a certain threshold. Which meant that they should seek to destroy this soulium knight..

They would have to essentially destroy it in one hit, or a succession of fatal hits before it could repair itself.

But they would cross that bridge when they got to it, for now Fu Hua had to focus on trying to find another weakness that they could exploit. Landing a few feet away from Iudex, she shot forward and slammed her fist into the armor of the knight's left arm. The ground shook by how strong her fist had hit the knight's armor, but ultimately all it left was a small dent in its arm.

Seeing how its blade was still stuck in the concrete from its earlier attempt to hit the Valkyrie, Iudex used the arm opposite of Fu Hua's position to smash the women into the concrete.

However, reacting quickly Fu Hua jumped over the outstretched arm before beginning to scale the now immobile giant's arm up to its head, intent on pushing the offensive. Gathering as much power as she could she delivered a powerful kick to the knight's helmet.

The knight was powerless to stop her from smashing her foot to the side of its head, the sound of metal clashing reverberating loudly throughout the warehouse. The force behind the kick was so great that surprisingly, the knight had become disorientated by it.

The knight let go of its grip on the zweihander as it began to shakily step backwards, desperately trying to regain its sense of balance. Though it's struggle would be in vain as it eventually fell backwards into a stack of containers, bringing some down with it.

"An unexpected surprise to be sure," Ishigami floated beside her as he watched the dust cloud that the knight's fall stirred up. "But not an unwelcome one," He panted tiredly as he used this moment of reprieve to stop using his powers and catch a breather.

"Agreed," Fu Hua also took this time to catch her breath. Unlike her comrade, whose powers seemed to be heavily taxing on his body, she was fine. Her fists slightly ached in pain by how hard she was punching with them but that was to be expected.

Soulium truly was a troublesome material to deal with.

"We need a different plan of approach," Ishigami started as Iudex began to pull itself out of the predicament it was in. Judging by how slow it was going, that kick had done more than enough damage. "If we keep going like this then it'll beat us by sheer endurance alone."

"Then we take the time to review what we have learned," Fu Hua cupped her chin with her hand as she fell into a state of contemplation. "Conventional attacks won't work on it."

Ishigami soon joined her as he offered his own insight as well. "And nothing short of a one-shot attack will suffice, lest it repair its injuries back to its pristine state."

"Could we not damage it enough times that it will run out of energy to be able to repair itself?"

"A valid strategy if we plan on wasting several hours doing that, and that's not accounting if our stamina will even allow us to preserve that long."

"What about Anti-Entropy? Surely they have something in their arsenal that can take this beast out?"

"That is if you want to take out the entire dock alongside that knight, not to mention the fallout of using such an ordinance would have to make that our final option."

The more ideas that were traded between the two, the more it became apparent that they were outmatched against this kind of foe. If someone like Durandal was here then it would just become a simple contest of strength.

A contest that Fu Hua was confident that the S-Rank Valkyrie would prevail in.

"What about your gravity powers? Surely it's Soulium armor cannot withstand a full powered attack by a Divine Key." The Fenghuang Down was a fearsome Divine Key in its own right, however when it came to sheer power it left much to be desired.

At that moment the teacher started to harshly cough as he held a fist to his mouth. After his coughing ceased he lowered his arm to see some blood painting his fist. "Not only am I close to hitting my limit, I'd probably kill every person present with a gravity attack before I could destroy the soulium armor."

Fu Hua frowned as she watched the knight pick itself up off the ground, but something was bugging the immortal Valkyrie. More specifically the way it had acted when she had delivered the kick to the side of its head wasn't how any regular robot would act, at least not any robots that she fought.

It almost acted...human.

"Get ready," Ishigami sighed before his body became wreathed in dark red energy once more as Iudex looked towards them, its red visors a darker hue than it once was. "If anything I think we just pissed it off rather than doing any lasting damage."

"A fact that we can exploit," Fu Hua's eyes trailed over to where the knight's zweihander was still lodged in the floor.

At that same moment the knight did the same, the two locking gazes before the giant rushed towards its fallen weapon. Cursing inwardly, Fu Hua rushed over to where the knight was trying to reclaim its lost strength. They could not afford to lose the one advantage that they had managed to secure, if the zweihander was returned to its wielder they would be back on square one.

Ishigami was not sitting idly as he fired a barrage of dark red energy missiles at the knight. The magic missiles hit the knights head on and while the damage they dealt was negligible, it did slow the knight's speed down.

Just enough that Fu Hua was able to reach the zweihander first, placing herself firmly between the sword and its knight.

Normally this would be a fool's gambit, after all she did not have the strength to rival that of the steel knight's but she was not aiming to best it in strength.

Rather she wanted to test something.

Placing herself right in front of the zweihander made it so that the only thing Iudex could see was her and her alone. Clenching a fist the knight made its way towards her as it readied its arm to smash her into a bloody smear on the ground.

Ishigami's attacks were doing very little to deter the knight's actions and just as it seemed that nothing could stop it, Fu Hua's eyes glowed red for a brief second.

Then the knight suddenly punched itself in the side of its helmet.

Ishigami's eyes widened in shock as he saw what had just occurred, what in the hell just happened?!

Fu Hua however did not share her partner's shock as all she felt in that moment was disgust. "It's human?!" What other explanation was there that she could use the Fenghuang Down on the knight to make it believe that she was right in front of it's helmet to fool it's judgement?

"Human?" Ishigami heard what she had said and looked at Iudex in growing abhorrence. "Is that even possible?"

It was, more so than the teacher believed. The foundation that Schicksal was built on was not as glorious as many of its Valkyries believed it to be. It was not some glorious tale of how heroes of each era banded together to fight their common enemy, for an organization made by humans was always susceptible to folly.

Rather it was built on the countless sacrifices of the young and old in the pursuit of creating humanity's lauded defenders. Normal humans were very susceptible to the influences of Honkai and it soon became apparent that merely creating honkai powered weapons would not be enough.

And thus began the foundation for what would eventually be the Valkyrie Program.

But as abhorrent as the situation had become, a plan began to form in Fu Hua's mind. A plan with very low chances of success, however it was the only plan that had any chance of success that didn't involve destroying the docks.

"That's the key," She started out, drawing a confused look from the teacher. "It's part human, that's how we win this fight."

"I'm sorry but I fail to see how this soulium juggernaut being part human to be somehow helpful."

"It means that we no longer have to worry about destroying it in one move," She turned her gaze to the enlodged zweihander.

"We just need to kill off the human element."

Kiana could faintly make out the noises of gunfire, explosions, and the frantic shouting of soldiers in her current state. Blue eyes groggily opened up as she tried to make out where she was at.

The white haired girl could faintly remember being back inside her apartment waiting for...someone to come by. The girl racked her brain to try and remember who she had been waiting for until she finally got a name.

Yeah it was Haruto, she was waiting for him to come by so they could work together on some assignments.

Then…

"You didn't think I was defenseless now did you?!"

It was starting to come back to her now. After hearing the sounds of grenades going off she had immediately hidden herself in the bathroom with a frying pan, though that didn't exactly help her when the strange pink gas began to seep in through the bottom of the door.

Whatever that gas was it was very potent, even now she could feel her body still reeling from the direct exposure to it. It felt as if every part of her body had a ton of weights dragging them down.

Barely able to lift her head up, Kiana registered the fact that she was still in the room that she had woken up in after she had been kidnapped. She remembered trying to break out of her bonds and when they proved to be futile she resorted to irritating the hell out of her captors.

A delirious laugh escaped her lips as she thought back to how riled up the guards had become. Just when they had enough of her and were about to shut her up, then those blue mechs started showing up and causing chaos across the docks.

It was a very satisfying karma to witness.

"Oh no, she's awake again," A very familiar voice lamented as she moved her head towards the guard whose nose she had broken with her forehead earlier.

So he was still alive, huh.

"God I hate this job," His partner groaned as idly checked his rifle. "What's the status of everyone else? Weren't there two intruders in the building?"

Intruders? That meant that the fighting had not ended yet and actually moved closer to her. If she waited long enough then whoever was fighting her kidnappers then she could be saved!

But who exactly was coming to save her?

"Wasn't one of them a Valkyrie?" Those words froze Kiana in shock as she registered what she had just heard. She remembered her father's words to avoid Valkyries at all costs, that they were the same people that were hunting him down and would not hesitate to hunt her down if they got the chance.

What were they doing here? Were they the ones rescuing her only for the sole purpose that they could kidnap her in turn? If that was the case then she needed to get out of here!

But how could she get out of here if she couldn't even break her way out of these bonds. Looking down she gave the handcuffs an experimental pull, trying to see if she could snap the chains that connected the handcuffs together.

The two guards were oblivious to her attempts in trying to break free as they continued talking to each other. "What about the other intruder? Heard that he tanked a rocket head-on."

"Yeah apparently he has on some sort of gauntlet that can create a shield. Apparently he's on Gray Serpent's list of interest, that Haruto Nakamura kid."

Kiana became still as a statue when she heard Haruto's name leave the man's lips. Haru-senpai was here? Trying to save her?

"Does that mean we can't kill him?"

"There's been no change of orders from Owl or command, we see him we are free to open fire."

"Finally," The soldier whose nose she broke rejoiced as he went over and grabbed his rifle that he had propped on the side of a wall. "We get to finally shoot something, I'll be sure to vent my frustrations onto the poor boy from having to guard this child."

The thought of Haruto, who was trying to save her from this, was going to be in danger because of her filled the Kaslana with an indescribable amount of anger. Fists clenching she wanted nothing than to beat these soldiers into a pulp.

How dare they threaten her friends!

But she wasn't feeling 100% and there was the matter of these cuffs that she still had no idea on how to get off. The only thing she could do was wait for an opportune moment to get the drop on them.

"...Isn't it really quiet right now?" The partner pointed out as the two stood where they were in silence, straining their ears for any nearby sounds of gunfire. When the soldiers that had been assigned to the warehouse had engaged the intruders, all you could hear was gunshots.

Now you couldn't even hear a single thing aside from explosions created in the distance.

"Might as well get a check-up," The partner walked up to the only door to the room and knocked on it a couple of times. "Hey what's going on out there! Give me a sitrep on the situation over there."

The trio waited in silence as they got no answer from whoever was stationed outside their door. The soldier with the broken nose just motioned for his partner to try it again, maybe they didn't hear them.

The other soldier just shrugged in response before his hand went back to the door, ready to knock again for a response. "Hey this isn't funny! What the hell is happening over there-!" The soldier gave a sudden shout of pain, startling the two others in the room.

Looking down he saw the edge of a katana had torn through the wooden material of the door, alongside piercing his abdomen. Blood dripped down the katana's steel edge before it was cleanly pulled through the door, blood spurting out of the now open wound.

"Oh...shit," Was all the soldier had said before he fell onto his side, dead. As his body impacted the floor the door was kicked open with brutal force to reveal the Valkyrie who Kiana presumed to be one of the intruders.

"You bitch!" The now lone soldier roared as he opened fire at Valkyrie with his rifle with the intention of avenging his fallen comrade. "You'll pay for that!"

The Valkyrie simply danced out of the way of the door, evading all of the bullets fired her way as they were uselessly embedded into a wall. Before long the sound of the rifle clicking was all that could be heard as the soldier wasted all the ammunition in the magazine.

"Dammit!" The soldier cursed as his hand made its way to his vest to grab another magazine. At that same moment Midori moved from her cover and entered the room, face set in an impassive mask as her hand rested on her sheathed katana.

"Surrender," She stated as she tensed her legs ready for action. "Your life will be spared if you drop your weapons." Her hand slightly moved her katana out of its sheath, revealing just a tiny bit of its steel to the soldier.

"Otherwise you will be reuniting with your fallen comrades."

"Tch," The soldier scowled as his hands moved away from where he kept his spare ammo clips. For a moment Kiana actually believed that he was going to take the offer that the Valkyrie had presented him.

After all, a regular soldier was no match for a Valkyrie.

However, just as it seemed that he was going to surrender, his hand shot towards his holstered pistol and unclipped it before pointing the barrel at the bound Kiana.

Midori's entire body tensed as she prepared to cut the soldier down with a single strike. "Not so fast Valkyrie!" The soldier interrupted as he looked at the undercover student with a crazed look in his eyes. "Take one step and I'll blow her brains out for all of us to see, I'm not dying today!"

"...Not like you were going to get out of this place alive anyway," Kiana muttered under her breath, just loud enough for the soldier to hear as he whipped his head to look at her incredulously.

"Are you crazy bitch?!" He moved the barrel so close that it was almost touching the side of Kiana's head. "I hold your fate in my hands, you should be begging me to spare you!"

Kiana just smirked as she moved her head to where the barrel was now touching her forehead, her blue eyes looking up at the soldier's visor with no fear whatsoever in them. "A Kaslana does not fear death."

"Why you!" The soldier held his other hand with the intention of reprimanding her, and it was at that moment that Kiana striked.

With his attention solely placed on the Kaslana's infuriating smirk, he never the rest of her body moving to action. Even if she was still under the effects of the gas, her speed was nothing to joke about. So caught up in his anger the soldier was powerless to stop the Kiana from swiping at his feet, causing the man to fall down.

Caught off guard the soldier tried to shoot his pistol but a well timed roll by Kiana had her out of the bullets' path. Falling roughly on the ground the soldier scrambled up as fast he could to try and kill her for making a fool out of him.

However he blinked in confusion when the person he saw in front of him was not the prisoner, but rather the Valkyrie. What was even more confusing was that she was not walking towards him but away from him, blade in hand.

Had she done something with that?

Without ever knowing why, the soldier fell face first onto the ground. His death was nearly instantaneous as his back was now sporting a massive gash that started from his shoulder and diagonally ended at his hip.

Midori let out a breath of relief as she flicked her wrist, the action cleaning her blade of the blood as it splattered onto the ground. She would never admit that when the soldier drew their pistol she almost lost her composure. Such a loss of control was unbefitting of a Valkyrie, she needed to be better than that.

Sheathing her blade back in its sheath, the undercover Valkyrie was glad that the worst was over. Turning around to face the Kaslana, all she needed to do was free her and get her as far as possible from the docks.

However once she turned around Midori now had to deal with a new problem.

The problem that she was now facing was that Kiana had picked up the pistol that the soldier had dropped.

And was now pointing it at her.

After she had just sheathed her weapon.

"Kiana Kaslana," Midori started out slowly as she held out her hands peacefully. "You remember me right? Midori Aki? Your classmate?"

Kiana's eyes looked at her in confusion before it was changed with that of recognition. That was good, that meant she knew her as a classmate more than as a Valkyrie.

"Y-You're a Valkyrie?" Kiana questioned as she kept the barrel trained on her.

"Yes I am, but I was not sent to spy on you." She spoke slowly and calmly, hoping to defuse the situation before anything went wrong. "I was deployed in Nagazora way before you transferred into the class, us meeting like this was completely accidental."

If that brought any comfort to the girl, it wasn't shown. Kiana almost slumped over but quickly caught herself before she fell all the way. It seems that whatever they had drugged her with were still in effect.

"H-Haruto," She looked around as if expecting the red haired boy to suddenly pop out. "W-Where is he?"

"He is-," At that instant the boy in question decided that it was time to make his entrance as he ran into the room, sword in hand.

"Midori where is…" He trailed off when his hazel eyes locked gazes with Kiana's blue eyes.

"Kiana!/Haruto!" They both shouted before they ran towards each other, relief in their eyes that the other was not harmed.

However it would seem that Kiana's burst of adrenaline had finally run out as not even two steps forward was the girl already tipping over. The girl's eyes started to close as she fell forward. Midori readied herself to catch the girl, but stopped when Haruto beat her to the punch and caught the girl's falling body.

"Haru-senpai?" Kiana drowsily called out as she wrapped her arms around his body, giving him a lethargic hug.

"Yes Kiana," Haruto returned the hug with one of his own as he held the girl as if she would disappear if he didn't hug hard enough. "It's me. Don't worry…"

"You're safe now."

That was all that Kiana needed to hear before she succumbed to her fatigue, passing out in the arms of her rescuer with a small smile on her face.

Once Fu Hua told him about the plan she came up with, Ishigami could only think of one thing.

"This will not work," He told her flat out as he ran what she had told him through his mind. As a Chess Grandmaster any path to victory was viable, and this plan of hers certainly could bring them victory.

It was just that there was so much that could go wrong here and they essentially needed everything to go perfectly if they wished to come out on top.

"We're running out of time," She reminded him as she watched Iudex's visor flash red multiple times. "The Fenghuang Down affecting it the first time showed us that it has enough of the human mind to be affected, but the cybernetic enhancements are most probably trying to create countermeasures to the Divine Key's power as we speak."

The officer that had been in charge of this operation was fully prepared to fight against the Fenghuang Down but this juggernaut was not prepared to fight against it. Something that they needed to capitalize on.

"I'm guessing we only have one shot before it becomes fully resistant to your divine key," Ishigami summarized.

Fu Hua nodded as she thought about her Divine Key. She never had to worry about an enemy acclimating to the Fenghuang Down, it was most often than not that they would be destroyed before she would need to use it for a second time.

"Then that means you need to deal the finishing strike," Ishigami looked back at the zweihander that was still lodged in the ground, a frown on his lips. "...Are you sure you're up to the task? What you proposed will not be easy, even with a Valkyrie of your caliber."

"Then I suppose I'm fortunate to have a capable partner who will clear me a path to make my job easier," Fu Hua smiled to which Ishigami chuckled at.

"Ah it's a shame that you are Valkyrie," The teacher began to charge up his powers as dark red energy began to dance around him for one last time as he readied himself for the climax of this battle. "I'm sure you would've made my days at the academy all the less dull."

"There is no rule that's stopping us from being friends." Fu Hua readied her gauntlets as well as she glanced at the teacher. "I would be quite honored to have you as my friend."

"Surely you aren't trying to butter me up now?"

"I feel hurt that you think so little about me."

"...Well if we somehow survive this plan of yours friend, I'll be sure to buy us a round of beers to celebrate." Ishigami gave her one last smile before he steeled himself and began barraging the soulium knight with dark red energy missiles, drawing its attention towards him.

"I hope that I haven't doomed us with this plan of mine, my friend." Fu Hua took in a deep breath before she turned around to face the zweihander. Steeling herself she walked over to the fallen sword and wrapped her hand around the handle of the sword. It was nearly twice as tall as she was!

But that didn't matter as she placed her other hand on the handle…

And began the laborious task of trying to lift the sword up.

Sweat began to build on her face as she lifted the zweihander off the ground a few inches. It was slow progress but little by little was her body getting accustomed to wielding this massive sword.

The plan that she had devised was built on a lot of 'what ifs'. It hinged on whether Ishigami, who was better suited for ranged combat, could keep the knight occupied long enough, whether she could even lift the zweihander off the ground, let alone wield it, whether the Fenghuang Down would work a second time.

And the biggest 'what if' was if this knight even held the nervous system of a human. For all she knew the brain could be the only human element that made up this juggernaut.

But they were out of options and time.

Slowly but surely she was able to lift the zweihander off the ground and over her head. She almost toppled over from wielding a sword of this caliber but quickly recovered with some quick footwork.

"Ishigami!" She yelled as she held the zweihander at her side, the tip of the blade scraping the warehouse floor. "It's time!"

Hearing her words, Ishigami nodded as he sent one final blast of concentrated ball of energy towards the helmet of the knight. Iudex staggered from the hit but recovered quickly enough for it not to be a hindrance.

The knight then slapped Ishigami away, the teacher was sent roughly tumbling down to the ground. Judging by how abruptly the dark red energy he had surrounding him had dissipated he would not be getting up to join the fight anytime soon.

The sound of scraping metal drew Iudex's attention to Fu Hua, who was now rushing up to the knight with its own zweihander as she dragged it along the ground, tearing the cement in its wake.

Fu Hua's eyes were focused as she made sure to keep moving, even if her arms were starting to feel the effects of dragging such a heavy zweihander. The strength of a Valkyrie was impressive compared to that of a human but there were such limitations to such strength.

And dragging a zweihander of this size, a soulium made zweihander at that, was no walk in the park.

But Fu Hua kept her composure cool as Iudex was practically right on top of her. She made sure her breathing was level as the knight began to draw its fist back to smash her with.

Here came the most crucial part of the plan.

She swung the zweihander up with all the strength that she could muster up. She could see Iudex's fist slightly change paths as it planned to meet the sword head on with the intention of creating a contest of brute strength.

And it was here that Fu Hua's eyes glowed red as she activated the Fenghuang Down.

She knew that the knight's cybernetics had most probably already developed some sort of countermeasure to the Divine Key. If she had tried to change the perception of the knight's by too much then they would most definitely activate and everything they had done up to this point would be for naught.

But if she made one small change, a change small enough that its programming would not pick it up and try to counter it…

Then she would have her rock that she would use to topple her Goliath.

It was simple, by using the Fenghuang Down she made it so that it looked as if she was a bit farther than she actually was. The knight would register her distance and aim higher than it was supposed to if it wanted to hit her.

And as one of the Fenghuang Feathers crossed the visor of Iudex she knew she had fooled it.

Checkmate.

The soulium knight's fist flew over her as it smashed into an empty spot on the floor. By the time Iudex had registered what had happened it was too late as Fu Hua was already right under it, zweihander already in mid swing.

"HAAH!" She shouted as loud as she could as soulium blade met soulium armor, tearing into the once impenetrable armor. The sound of screeching metal would've normally brought discomfort to her ears but all she could feel as she heard more of the horrid sound was that of impending victory.

Already her arms were nearing their limit as she continued dragging the zweihander across the knight's chest. Only the thought of victory being near pushed her onward.

But even that alone was not enough as she could feel her strength waning by the time the sword reached the middle of the knight's chest. No! She couldn't stop now, the only way she could guarantee victory was if she completed this final strike.

No matter how much she willed herself, her body would not obey her commands as she could feel her grip beginning to slip from the zweihander's handle.

Move!

As if her plea for strength was answered, the world around her turned to grey as everything seemed to be frozen in place. Her own movement was frozen in time, Iudex was as still as a statue, even the fires that she could see in the corner of her eye had ceased to move.

"No matter what happens Phoenix, remember that we are always here with you,"

The spectral image of a hand, clothed in red and white, placed itself on her hands.

"Nuwa is right, no matter how much time passes, no matter where you might be or who you might be facing."

Another spectral hand joined in, the clothing identical save for instead of the color red it was the color of blue.

"We will fight alongside you, always."

Time then became unpaused as Fu Hua continued swinging the zweihander, however instead of losing strength she could feel the presence of two unknown but strangely very familiar presences helping her. She did not dwell on that too much as she was suddenly filled with so much strength that she had no difficulty continuing to tear into the soulium armor.

With a yell she finished swinging the zweihander, in its wake was a mighty gash in the armor of Iudex.

Iudex's visor began flickering an intense hue of red as Fu Hua waited with baited breath for what the knight would do next, not like she could do anything else as her strength had all but diminished.

[Warning: Must initiate Rejuvenation Program, Warning: Critical Injuries sustained, must initiate…]

Iudex's voice trailed off as the red in its eyes slowly died out, the knight's body going slack once there was no longer any color in the knight's helmet before it toppled into the ground.

They did it...they won?

The realization that her plan had worked left Fu Hua in stupor, so much so that she didn't realize that she had dropped the zweihander onto the ground as she placed a hand on her heart to calm its frantic beats.

Against all the odds they had somehow done it.

"Fuxi, Nuwa, thank you," She smiled as she thought back to her two friends that…

Wait.

Who was this 'Fuxi' and 'Nuwa'?

She tried to remember who exactly these two people were but all she was getting was blanks. Her memories could not find anybody to place these names on but something within her knew who these people were.

Just how did she know these names?

But before she could try to think any further on this, a sudden hand on her shoulder broke her out of her thoughts. Without thinking her body moved to act only for her muscles to freeze in place from all the exertion that they had gone through.

"Woah easy there," Ishigami assuaged as he moved to her side. The teacher had a noticeable limp in his left leg but that did not deter the massive smile on his face. "You did it, against all the odds you actually bloody did it."

Fu Hua nodded as she looked back to the unmoving body of Iudex. She should be celebrating their victory against this formidable opponent but all the valkyrie could think about was the two names that she had just uttered.

And why they brought such sorrow to her.

Yet as the two basked in the glow of their victory, they did not notice the slight glow that was still left in Iudex's visor.

"Are you okay with this?" Midori asked as I finished positioning Kiana on my back. I just gave her a nod as I placed my hands under the white haired girl's legs to make sure she didn't fall off as I stood up.

"I think I'm the best candidate out of the two of us to carry her. I have the gauntlet's shield to use if we run into any problem and I don't think you could use your sword as well if you were carrying her." I turned my head slightly around to see Kiana peacefully asleep.

"Besides you can react much faster than me so if we encounter any problems on the way you can act swiftly and-" Whatever I was going to say was cut off when I felt a pair of arms snake their way around my neck, giving me a hug.

"Haru-senpai don't do that," Kiana sleepily muttered as she deepened the hug that she was unknowingly giving me, a smile now on her face. "Mei-senpai will get jealous~."

My cheeks turned deep red at those words while Midori laughed in return. "Not a word of this to anyone." I embarrassingly hissed out at her.

"My lips are sealed...Haru-senpai," She made a zipper motion on her lips before giving one last laugh as the two of us left the room.

The hallway that once was filled with soldiers armed to the teeth now laid dead as we walked past their corpses. As much as I hated to admit, a fair amount of them died by my hand, though a majority of them had died by Midori's blade.

To think that this hallway was once filled with the noises of gunfire as these soldiers gave their lives to defend their position. Now it was deathly quiet as the two of them made their way down the hallway, the only sound that could be heard was the light snoring of Kiana as she peacefully slept.

"Midori, what do you plan on doing after this?" I quietly asked as the two of us entered the cargo holding area, careful not to wake the sleeping Kaslana. To think that just a while ago we had been fighting for our lives here.

"What do you mean?" She looked at me for clarification.

"Well we have Kiana now and you were tasked with saving her…" I trailed off not knowing how to exactly word that Kiana was technically a wanted fugitive. To be completely honest I was just waiting for the Valkyrie to decide that my usefulness had come to an end and attack me.

It was very unlikely to happen as she could've ended me with relative ease back when we first met but unless I knew for sure what Schicksal's plan for Kiana was I would be wary of her.

To my utter relief Midori just shrugged her shoulders as she too was unsure of what to do after his. "I'm not so sure myself, I'll have to ask my superiors about it but I'm fairly sure that all that will happen is that I will have to monitor her status in the upcoming weeks. Make sure that no-one else tries to kidnap her again."

"That's..good," I breathed out in relief, a huge weight taken off my chest.

"But enough about Kiana, I want to talk about you," She changed subjects as I could feel her green eyes looking at me with scrutiny, I could feel my heart stop at those words. What did she want to talk about that involved me of all people?!

"I know this might sound strange but have you ever considered being a Valkyrie? But in your case I guess it would have to be a Knight."

"A Knight?" I asked in disbelief as I looked towards the Valkyrie with shock. "You want me, a regular highschool to join the elite defenders of humanity?" I pointed to myself to affirm that she was referring to the right person.

"Is that so strange? After all no one is born a warrior, they're made." Midori had a wistful smile on her face as we continued walking side by side. "To be honest I was in the same boat as you, just a normal girl living her life until fate decided to have other plans for me."

"But that's a story for another time, I can guarantee you that you'll do well as a Knight. You've already shown promise with that gauntlet of yours." She motioned to the gauntlet that was still attached to my arm.

The Schicksal prototype that I had 'borrowed' not too long ago felt as if I had lived with it for my entire life, and fought with it in every battle. It would be a shame that I would eventually have to part with it once this whole fiasco ended.

"Won't I need a stigma then?" I asked, not even trying to hide what knowledge I held about Valkyries or the Honkai. I had a feeling that Midori knew that I knew things that I wasn't supposed to know but for reasons unknown she simply just went with it.

"It's very rare for someone to have a Natural Stigma, mine is actually an artificial one. " She lifted up the sleeve of her left arm to reveal her implanted stigma, the red tattoo seemed to be alive in the darkness of the hallway.

It was very cool to see but also very creepy at the same time.

"And the fact that you can use that gauntlet means that you possess a much higher resistance to the Honkai than most people, I think you'll acclimate to an artificial one just fine." She assured me as a thought entered my mind.

Getting an artificial stigma...wasn't actually a bad idea. If I could get my hands on one then I essentially became a Knight. While I may not get the proper training of one and probably still get beaten up by the majority of every Valkyrie out there, it would be a major upgrade from where I was at right now.

But the only problem was that I was essentially signing myself up to be a Knight of Schicksal. Something about that...it just didn't sit right with me.

My internal conflict must've shown as Midori gave me a smile that showed she would not be offended if I declined her offer. "I know it may seem like alot but please think it over will you?" The two of us, three if you count the sleeping Kiana that I was still carrying on my back, then entered the loading bay section of the warehouse. Just on the other side of the room was the exit that would mark the end of this long and arduous night.

"I'm sure if you did join that you would climb the ranks very-!" Midori abruptly stopped, her hand shooting to the handle of her katana. I stopped in my tracks in alarm when I saw the Valkyrie settling into a combat stance.

My eyes frantically darted from every dark corner of the loading bay, desperately searching for whatever had set off Midori into this state.

"There is no use in hiding," She calmly called out loud in the silent space. "Reveal yourself."

The air in the loading bay became choked with anticipation until the hidden observer decided to reveal himself. On the opposite end of the room emotionless light blue eyes stepped out of the shadows.

"Midori Aki, B-Rank Valkyrie that was once assigned to the Vermillion Rose Squadron. It was only recently that she was assigned to a mission of unknown origins." The officer talked as if he was reading off a report. Finishing up Midori he calmly moved his eyes to mine.

"Haruto Nakamura, a normal highschooler that got into Chiba Academy after catching the interest of Raiden Ryoma." His emotionless eyes narrowed just a bit and... was that a flash of anger I saw cross his eyes just now?

"And a person who pokes their noses into business that doesn't concern them."

My eyes scanned whoever this person was, my gut was telling me that this was no regular soldier. The way he held himself in front of us, not at all scared by his disadvantage. Even with the fact he was favoring a certain leg whilst clutching his stomach.

Already he had set himself apart from every other soldier that we had encountered.

The way that he looked as if nothing would break through his mask, even as injured as he was now. I was almost certain that he was the one in charge of this operation.

"I presume you to be the leader of this little operation?" It seemed that Midori also came to the same conclusion as she drew her katana in one swift move, pointing its sharp edge at him. "Should I feel honored about personally meeting you…"

"I suppose it would not matter if I were to tell you my name," The officer shrugged nonchalantly. "I am called Owl…"

"Not like it will help you as you will both end up dead soon enough."

After hearing countless soldiers say that to me in the last hour had made it lose its effect. Now I would simply shrug at their words but hearing it from this 'Owl' character was different. The way his eyes remained as emotionless as I had first seen them.

He was quite confident that we would be dying soon.

"And with what army?" Midori challenged as her green eyes observed the loading bay. The fact that no one else had stepped out or made a sound meant that Owl was the only one present to stop us.

And with his injuries I doubted he would put up much of a fight, even if I had Kiana on my back.

Owl gave her a small smile, the most emotion I've seen from him yet. "Sometimes you don't need a thousand strikes to break a wall down…" He moved his free arm up to reveal a bracelet that was flickering with an ominous red.

"But merely one good strike."

I could not ponder what he meant by that when the glass ceiling of the loading bay shattered. The loud sound of glass breaking was soon followed by the sound of the earth breaking as the ground beneath us vibrated from the impact of the crashed object.

The smoke parted to reveal the head of a towering knight of steel. My jaw dropped in shock by just how massive this thing was. I felt like an ant in the presence of this monstrosity of steel!

"Iudex," Owl commanded as he held the bracelet up. "Eliminate these two and retrieve the Kaslana." The bracelet lit up a bright red as the command was registered.

[Directive Confirmed: Proceeding to Engage]

Things went from bad to worse when this massive behemoth proceeded to pull out a zweihander of all things! I could not help but take a step back in terror at just how menacing this juggernaut was with a zweihander that was twice the size of a person!

But as the knight stepped forward, the signs that it had been previously in a battle were shown. Evident by the massive diagonal slash on its chest and judging by how one could see the flickerings of the internal circuitry from the slash it had been a fatal hit.

"...Haruto, I'll distract the knight. You get Kiana as far as possible from this place." Midori decided as she settled into a combat stance. "You should be able to get out of here if you open the loading bay doors over there."

I looked to my left to see the loading bay doors and the panel that controlled the actions of the doors. "No way!" I protested as I held my sword at the ready. "I won't let you fight this alone!"

"Think about Kiana you idiot!" The Valkyrie shouted, reminding me of why we were here in the first place. "If they capture Kiana then it's game over for us."

My head turned to look back at Kiana, who sleepily mumbled something about a pizza toast. "But-." I made eye contact with Owl, who looked back at me unflinchingly with his usual emotionless gaze.

Midori must've seen that I was concerned what Owl would do with her occupied with Iudex. "I don't think he's in any position to fight. He'll probably let this knight do all the hard work while he sits back and watches." Her hand tightened around her katana as Iudex began to slowly approach us, shaking the earth with each step it took.

"Besides I'm sure that I don't need to fight it for long, see that giant slash on its chest? It looks fairly recent meaning that it was probably in the middle of a fight before it got called over here. Chances are whoever it was fighting will come running after the big guy."

Hearing her logic, I hated the fact that I was agreeing with every point that she made. I could find no flaw in it, nothing that I could point out would not work. Meaning that the only thing that I could do was take Kiana and get out of here as fast as possible.

But that meant leaving Midori alone to fight this juggernaut all by herself. I couldn't help but be reminded of back when me and Kuro had fought Stalker Carbon together. I almost wanted to chuckle at how fast time seemed to fly ever since that fateful night, how crazy life had gotten in the span of a few months.

However reminiscing wasn't what was at the forefront of my mind, no it was the fact that I couldn't help but relive the same helplessness that I had first felt when I could do nothing when Kuro fought Stalker Carbon.

And I had been a useless spectator.

Even now history was repeating itself. Here stood an indomitable opponent and someone that I valued was fighting them, alone. Even when I had the power to fight back it wasn't enough when it mattered the most.

Yet again all I could do was stand back and be unable to do anything, unable to help the people who mattered the most to me as they got injured for my sake.

GOD WASN'T THERE SOMETHING I COULD DO?!

I was so caught up in my self loathing that I hadn't noticed Iudex getting closer and closer with each step it took. "HARUTO GO!" Midori's roar brought me back to the present as the Valkyrie sped forward, katana at the ready, as she began to fight the steel juggernaut.

With a heavy heart I resigned myself to my role as I made my way towards the loading bay control panel. With each step I took towards the panel it seemed that the fighting between the two got much more intense.

Each step I took added more to the guilt for leaving Midori to fight alone.

The sounds of combat got increasingly louder in both volume and frequency as steel clashed with steel. I wasn't sure how much time had passed since the fight had started but I risked throwing a backwards glance to see how my friend was doing against such an opponent.

Midori was like a flash of steel as she danced around the massive juggernaut. Everytime it swung its zweihander she was already in the motion of dodging the swing before she retaliated with her own flurry of strikes. She would then back away when the knight swung around its sword again, and then she would simply rinse and repeat this dance of theirs.

Surely she would be able to come out on top if her opponent could never hit her, right?

But everytime the juggernaut swung the earth shook wherever the zweihander landed. That was worrying all by itself but in reality the biggest worry was not the strength behind its strikes, but the intelligence that went behind it.

Before it would swing its sword in reckless abandon, simply trying to catch the nimble moves of the Valkyrie. As time passed however the flailing it once showed slowly became pinpoint as the knight was beginning to get more accustomed to Midori's moves, starting to anticipate where she would end up next.

And while Iudex was improving as the fight continued, the opposite could be said about Midori.

In the beginning she held the advantage over the knight, easily dodging its brutish strikes. However no matter how good she was at dodging, it was meaningless if she couldn't deal any damage back. Her katana, no matter how fast or hard she striked, harmlessly scratched the armor of the knight.

Then Iudex began to adapt to her attacks and it all went downhill from there. Strikes she could dodge without much effort now were narrowly dodged as she began being pushed back by the knight. It did not help that Midori's face was filled with exhaustion as the fatigue of the previous battles were now starting to take its toll on her.

If this continued on without anything changing then she would be…

No! I shook my head clear of those negative thoughts as I focused my attention back to what my role was in this. Ever since I had turned my head to watch the battle my legs had not stopped moving. By the time I refocused my attention I was already more than halfway there to the control panel of the loading bay doors.

Kiana was still resting peacefully on my back, undisturbed by the intense duel that was happening just a few feet away.

It felt as if an eternity passed when I finally reached the control panel but I quickly forgot about that as I felt in that moment an indescribable amount of joy. My hands reached over to turn the thing on as I could see the end was in sight, all I needed to do was turn this on and-!

Midori's pained scream suddenly tore through the air, freezing me in my tracks.

In panic I whipped my head around to see just Iudex catch the Valkyrie with the back of its hand. It was a small relief that it had been its hand and not its massive sword that had been the one to hit her.

But that relief quickly disappeared when I saw Midori get promptly launched into a shipping container. I looked on with shock to see the force behind the hand strike was so great that Midori's impact had created a human sized dent in the metal.

My classmate's eyes were closed as a trail of blood began to fall down the side of her head, her katana still held but with a weak grip.

My mouth was open and about to shout her name only for a sudden shadow to suddenly descend over me. My eyes turned in alarm to see Iudex jumping towards me, already in mid jump as it held its zweihander over its head.

Without thinking I roughly forced Kiana off my back, the girl's comatose body hitting the floor away from me as I held up my gauntlet. The green hexagonal shield materialized to life right as the blade of the juggernaut was right upon me. I tensed my body as the blade came into contact with the shield.

And for my body to experience the force of what felt like getting hit by a train. I coughed harshly by just how harsh the force behind that strike was. The shield had protected me from getting eviscerated in half but could do nothing about the force behind it.

The force was so great that my legs had buckled and my back harshly slammed into the ground. My body was wracked with so much pain as I tried to move my way out of the crater that I was now trapped in.

Only for me to bring up my arms once more as Iudex slammed its zweihander into me again.

The crater that I was in grew much bigger as my body absorbed the force behind the strike once more. As the knight brought its sword up, I no longer had the strength to try and get out of the crater, my muscles screaming in agony if I so much as tried to move an inch. Everything in my body was in so much pain that closing my eyes only brought me a sliver of relief.

"Good," I could hear Owl's voice now as his footsteps grew louder and louder. "Now retrieve the Kaslana, we are leaving."

I cracked an eye open to see the knight turning its body to where I had pushed Kiana away to, the white haired girl groaning in pain but still asleep. "Kiana I'm sorry," I lamented as I could see the knight take a step towards her position.

"I failed you,"

Those three words brought more pain than what my body was currently experiencing at that moment. Tears began to well up in my eyes as I reflected on my failure and how I failed to keep that simple promise to her.

[mAlfUNctIon DeTeCtED iN pROCessING CoRE]

The knight's sudden garbled speech had me halting in my tracks. That didn't sound like everything was alright. Blinking away my tears I tried to see what was happening to it…

Only for them to widen in shock as the zweihander suddenly descended upon me once more, with much greater force than before. I threw my arms over me again as the green shield activated to block the mighty blow as the earth shook in its wake. What followed after was the sound of a bone breaking before I felt the searing pain.

I think it just broke my arm.

"Iudex! I order you to stop this immediately! Retrieve the Kaslana and retreat!" Owl shouted in an attempt to regain control of the malfunctioning machine.

[WaRNing: OrDeR CaNNNOT bE AcCePTEd. MuLTiPle SyStem FAiLUrEs]

I became aware of the red hue that was beginning to leak out of the massive gash in the knight's chest. It seems that the damage inflicted by that was now starting to take effect as the knight's visor began to erratically flash red.

And while that might have been a good thing, that was not the case for me as Iudex began to lift its zweihander up into the air once more.

My body screamed in protest once more as sword met shield, the ground further cracking from the impact. I could feel another bone in my body break, one of my ribs shattering judging by the pain now flaring up in my torso.

I would've screamed if it wasn't for the fact the entirety of my focus was directed to making sure my gauntlet and body were ready as Iudex wasted no time in bringing down its sword on me again.

Feeling another vicious strike against the unwavering green shield was not a very good feeling, far from it, but it was way better than the alternative of being cleaved in two by a giant sword. Each time that sword clashed against the shield I could feel something in my body break but I held fast against the pain knowing that help was coming soon.

As long as this shield held then it would just be a test of endurance that I would have to-!

[Warning: Shield Integrity at 75%]

The gauntlet called out in alarm as I could see a tiny crack appear in the green luminous shield. Oh you have got to be kidding-!

Another strike came down, and any form of rational thought flying out the window as all that remained was hot searing pain. Adrenaline spiked pain flowed through my body as I tried to keep myself awake through it all.

[Warning: Shied Integrity at 60%]

"Haruto?" Through the indescribable amount of pain I was feeling right now my eyes could see the form of Kiana beginning to move from where she had landed, the Kaslana finally coming to her senses. "Haruto what's happening to-!"

"RUN!" I yelled before another strike descended onto the shield, cracking it even further. The white crack that once had been small had grown almost triple in size. I could feel blood begin to trail out of my mouth as I shouted to Kiana, ignoring the pain that was slowly becoming unbearable. "Get out of here!"

"But-!" Kiana's eyes were full of horror as she looked at me, realizing the grave situation I was in. "What about you?!"

[Warning: Shield Integrity at 50%]

"Just go!" My voice had gotten hoarse from the mix of screaming in pain and screaming at Kiana to leave. "Leave me and-!"

Another strike came hurtling down, shaking the earth even further. No sounds left my mouth as it opened up in a silent scream. The only sound I was making was that of a choking noise that barely described the agony my body was going through.

It was like my entire body was swimming in lava, no relief to be found from my predicament. Every time Iudex's zweihander came down on me the temperature of the lava would increase to temperatures I would have never believed possible.

My vision was beginning to darken as the only thing that I could feel now was just pain. Half of my brain was telling me to simply accept oblivion, to stop resisting. The only thing pushing me forward was this animalistic instinct to hold on. "Please Kiana...run," My voice was nothing more than a cracked whisper by now.

[Warning: Luminous Blaze at 25% integrity. Shield failure imminent. Repeat shield failure imminent]

"No!" She yelled as she forced herself up and tried to make her way over her to me. The way that she was groggily making her way to me meant that her body had not fully recovered from the toxins of the gas.

Yet against it all she made her way towards me, slowly limping towards me as she shouted once more in vain. "I won't abandon you!"

Everything inside me felt broken, it would be a miracle if something had not yet been broken by Iudex's zweihander. I was dimly aware that Kiana tried shouting something at me but all I could focus on was the ominous steel of Iudex's blade rising up into the air.

And something within me knew that it would be the last time it would do so.

"...kiana," It barely came out as a whisper as I held my arms out one last time, gauntlet beeping dangerously as I readied it to activate it.

"..tell Mei…"

"Haru-senpai NO!"

I barely processed the sounds of a wall exploding somewhere in the loading area as a familiar masculine voice called out. "Owl surrender now and...Haruto is that-!"

"...I'm sorry."

Iudex's sword descended like a guillotine as the green shield materialized to meet it. However unlike the previous times the moment the sword made contact with the shield, it shattered like a piece of glass. Without the shield to block it the sword continued downward without resistance…

Kiana looked on in growing horror as she heard the sounds of steel meeting flesh as a cloud of dust was created. She shook her head in denial as she refused to believe what had just happened.

"Kiana, are you okay?" Haruto asked, unsure of the sudden predicament he was in. The two had just left Mei's estate after having dinner to celebrate Kiana's success in class that day. It was a cool night in Nagazora as the two walked back to the apartment.

Well had been walking as just as the two were about to enter the apartment complex, Kiana had suddenly just hugged him without warning.

"I'm fine," She mumbled into his shirt, tightening her hold on him. "Just wanted to thank you for helping me study."

Haruto said nothing for a while and the Kaslana feared she had made him uncomfortable with her sudden action.

Just as she thought the worst, the redheaded surprised her by returning the hug, "Anything for a friend." He affirmed, unaware of how his words would affect the girl.

For that was the night that Kiana Kaslana knew that she made her first ever friend.

She shouted with all of her might as tears began to run down her cheeks, not wishing to believe what she had just seen. "HARU-SENPAI NO!"

Ishigami looked on in terror as he saw what Iudex had just done. "Oh gods, please don't tell me..."

Yet both his and Kiana's prayers would go unanswered as Iudex's blade came back up, now having blood paint its once immaculate shine. Any further hopes were destroyed as the last nail in the coffin was hammered down for when the smoke cleared up.

And saw a lifeless hand resting on the ground, blood beginning to pool up around it.

Cold

Dark

That was all that I was feeling as I could feel myself drowning in a sea of darkness, descending further and further into its murky depths.

I died didn't I?

Such a realization should've brought me an unspeakable amount of sorrow but all I could feel was...nothing. No anger, no sorrow, not even terror from the fact that this had been my second death.

Would it even matter anyway?

…

I wonder what happens now? Would my death change anything? Would it even affect anything in the long run? If I could I would've bitterly laughed at how it all ended like this. Just when I thought I could finally make a difference, I ended up dying.

…

Was this what truly awaited everyone after death? A bottomless sea of darkness that one would continue to descend into without end? Or maybe this was my own special hell for cheating death for the first time.

...

…

I wonder what happens to Hyperion and Apollo now, are they in their own versions of hell or have they been able to escape? If it was the latter I hoped wherever they ended up was very nice.

…

Maybe if I close my eyes I can fall into an eternal slumber.

…

Kaa-san, Otou-san...are you well I wonder?

...

Sora...your big brother won't be able to take you out for chocolate now.

...

Kuro...I wish you only the fattiest pieces of tuna wherever you go.

...

Ishigami, Keji...forgive me I won't be able to attend our next chess game.

...

Oba-san, Akihiro-san...I won't be able to enjoy your drunken conversations any longer.

...

Midori-san...I could not live up to the trust you placed in me, I'm sorry.

...

Mei, Kiana...please.

…

...

Live.

…

"Open your eyes."

...

Who said that?

"Please Haruto, do not go gentle into the dark."

Who are you? Why do you…

Why do you sound so familiar?

"Please, open your eyes."

My eyes slowly opened to see a crystalline like orb in front of, falling beside me into the abyss. Without thinking my arms reached out and grabbed the orb before hugging it closer to my chest. It was no bigger than volleyball, but held the shine of a diamond.

And it was warm...so warm that the cold dark embrace of the abyss was now forgotten.

"Remember please."

As if heeding the girl's words, a vision flickered into my mind as I found myself in a familiar field of green. There in the field was the familiar sight of that blonde girl and boy walking side by side. The black haired boy looked at the blonde girl who now held a sword close to her.

"Is this...it?" The girl questioned as the two of them stopped in front of a torii gate. Within the frame of the gate was a strange purple energy that held the reflection of what laid beyond the gate.

The outside world.

The boy beside her nodded. "That's right Bianka, walk through this and you'll find yourself back in your world again."

Words that should've brought joy to her now only brought sorrow as she frowned at the boy. "But Haruto, that means you'll be stuck here."

Haruto? That was...me? But I've never met her before, I had no recollection of who she was.

Yet my soul knew who she was, I knew I could trust her with my life even if I had no recollection of who she was.

Who was she?

And more importantly was this really...me? The boy carried the same colored eyes I had but none of the red hair that all Nakamuras had.

…

But before Haruto Nakamura, back when I lived in another life, in another world, I remembered having the same shade of black hair as this boy did. The problem with that though was that I had brown eyes and not the striking hazel that this boy's eyes had.

"Are you sure you can't come with me?!" The girl protested as she clutched the sword tighter to her chest. "I'm sure that the Schicksal can come up with something and-."

The boy only shook his head, interrupting her as he gave a knowing smile. "I don't have a physical body like you do. If I tried to enter the real world my body would cease to exist."

But that did not deter Bianka. "Then what if I come to get you after Schicksal builds you a body?! They have the best scientists so I'm sure that with enough time I can-!

Once again the girl was cut off by the boy as he shook his head yet again. He had asked the same questions to himself ever since he was stuck here.

And each time he was greeted by the same answer.

'Haruto' walked up and embraced the girl, holding her tightly as they both knew that this was the last time that they would see each other.

"...Have you forgotten what I taught you about this place? An exit to one place does not mean it can be used as an entrance back." His hazel eyes looked to the sprawling green field around them.

"Besides time is in flux here, an hour can pass in your world and the equivalent of a week might roll by here. In our case our journey is probably the equivalent of a day back in the real world. Even if you came back, several years could go by here."

"But-"

"And nothing remains the same here, even if I were to wait for you to come back here this dimension could get pushed around with the infinite other dimensions that inhabit the Sea of Quanta. You could spend a lifetime searching and never find me."

Silence soon remained as Bianka came to terms of what passing through that gate meant. That if she stepped through it she would never see him ever again, no matter how hard she tried. For all her strength and determination, they would not help her this time.

Not when she needed it the most.

"Now don't be like this," 'Haruto' tried cheering her up when the girl said nothing. "You'll be coming back stronger than before, I know that you'll be saving a lot of people as you grow into the strongest Valkyrie ever."

"...call me," She mumbled.

The boy released the hug as he looked inquisitively at the Bianka's downward face. "Excuse me?"

The girl looked up as her blue eyes stared into the boy's hazel eyes. Tears had begun to build up in the girl's eyes but behind that they shined with the determination that he knew her for. "If you're ever in trouble, call my name and I will come to your aid. No matter what walls I must break or enemies I will face, I will come to your aid."

Despite how serious her words were, 'Haruto' couldn't help but smile at them. "You're really stubborn, you know that?" The boy teased as Bianka's cheeks flushed red in embarrassment. "And how would you even hear me call out your name? What if you come to the aid of someone else?"

"I will come to your aid," She affirmed, leaving no room for doubt. "Trust me on this."

After that declaration Bianka shifted on the heel of her foot as she looked as if she wanted to say more. "Just so I know what to come for...can you say it? Just this once?"

'Haruto' eyes widened for only a second but softened as he nodded his head. "Sure..." The boy's mouth was about to utter the girl's name…

Only for the vision to change.

For instead of a green field it was in the inside of a castle. Instead of the two of them and the torii gate now stood an empty and lone table, a round one at that.

Thirteen seats surrounded the table and at the head of it, where the one who led this round table would sit, rested a golden blade.

Bianka's visage was replaced with that of another blonde girl, their appearances almost the same with the color of their eyes down to the shade of blonde their hair was.

Even their journeys were similar. Two girls, neither of them born to be warriors, found themselves being heroes to save the world.

Two swords they pulled out of stone. One whose blade held a universe of power within it, the other glowing bright as it held the hope of humanity.

Both were symbols that would define their lives.

The visions ended as I was brought back to the abyss of darkness, the crystal orb that I had been cradling had grown in luminosity. Yet even as I held the almost blinding orb I could sense its desire to be free, to be free of this shell.

I knew not how I knew this, nothing spoke to me or told me, I simply knew it. Like if this was my own body, neigh a piece of my very soul that I never knew I had needed.

"Call my name."

My lips opened as I began to utter that name.

"Du…"

A scene of Bianka and 'Haruto' walking through a forest. The boy had a huge smile on his face as he motioned to all the trees, explaining something, the girl had a frown on her face as she followed behind him, wishing to be anywhere else than there.

"...ran…"

Next a scene played out in the midst of a city. There was nothing too remarkable about the city, it was like any you would see in the world. In a random part of the city, inside an ice cream parlor, the boy was holding two ice cream cones in his hand whilst the girl was silently enjoying her ice cream cone.

"Da…"

…

A blade of a universe and a blade of hope became one.

...

"Excalibur."

And with the utterance of that single word, the orb within my hands suddenly exploded in light.

Engulfing the entire abyss in its magnificence.

Somewhere deep in the Sea of Quanta, in one of the countless bubble universes that inhabited the ocean.

In a sprawling field of green that held a single massive tree in it.

A figure had their back against the bark of the tree.

A young boy with black hair and hazel eyes suddenly looked in a random direction, as if his name had just been called from beyond the bubble that he was in.

Ishigami looked on in horror as he saw the lifeless face of his student. A small smile was on his lips and the teacher almost believed he was having a peaceful rest if it wasn't for the fact the blood that had been pooling around him.

"Haru-senpai, open your eyes!" Painfully he turned his attention to Kiana who was desperately trying to reach the redhead's body, the two Anti-Entropy soldiers the only things holding her back as they tried to pull the girl back. "PLEASE WAKE UP!" She begged as tears freely flowed down her face.

Ishigami could feel his blood roaring in anger as he looked at Owl, the officer's eyes darting between the malfunctioning, but still standing body of Iudex and the contingency of Anti-Entropy soldiers that all had their rifles aimed at him.

The ever present emotionless look in his eyes infuriated him to no end.

It had been his lack of insight not to check if Iudex had been truly finished. The mech had surprised both him and his companion when it suddenly stood back up from its seemingly fatal injuries, before leaping out of the warehouse.

He had been such a fool not to realize where it was going, by the time that he had been able to round up enough soldiers to help chase Owl he had been too late.

Too late to save his student from his gruesome fate.

"Calm yourself Ishigami," Fu Hua spoke up beside him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Anger will not help you avenge your student."

"I know," He bitterly spat out as he called upon the powers of the 1st Herrscher. Red tendrils of gravity angrily crackled around him, begging to tear the target of his ire into nothingness. "Iudex is mine."

The Valkyrie knew the feeling that the teacher was feeling all too well as she too was feeling it as well as she saw the soldiers load Midori into a stretcher. The young Valkyrie had done well and she would make sure that her fellow sister in arms' mission would be completed.

She gave the teacher a nod of confirmation as she readied her gauntlets for battle. "Then leave Owl to me, I have unfinished business with him."

Besides the pair the captain of the squadron raised his arm into the air, "Fire!" He ordered every soldier.

However, just as each soldier was about to hold down the triggers of their rifles, the senses of both Fu Hua and Ishigami screamed in alarm.

The two only had a second of warning before the entire room was bathed in a light. Every person in the room shielded their eyes from the blinding light, soldiers voicing their surprise as if the sun itself had appeared before them.

Daring to look at the sudden explosion of light, Ishigami's brown eyes turned blue as he activated the power of the 1st Herrscher. Through the cracks of his fingers the teacher tried to discern what had caused this intense light.

Beyond Simmering Shadow, Lieth Shimmering Light

Singeth The Song Of Victory And Hope.

Heraldth The Salvation of Humanity.

His mouth opened in shock when he saw a person standing at the center of the light. From where the light had originated from, it did not take long for the teacher to piece together who the person was.

There was only one other person there after all.

Without knowing it tears began to fall down his face as the teacher looked at the standing figure of his student, but it was not due to the miracle he was witnessing but rather the sudden heat that was spreading through him. It wasn't a suffocating heat that made one sweat in discomfort but that of a gentle fire that warms your very soul.

Like if you were standing beside a fire in the midst of a harrowing snowstorm.

The last time he had felt like this was…

"What is this?" He emotionlessly mumbled as he looked at the strange rectangular object that was being offered to him.

"It's a granola bar?" Siegfried looked at him, trying to figure out if he was lying or not. "You've never seen one before?"

He shook his head at the strange foreign object in his savior's hand. Seeing his admission the Kaslana chuckled before he ripped a part of the granola bar and offered the piece to him. "You should try it! It's really delicious!"

Delicious? What was that?

Ishigami slowly reached out and grabbed the broken piece of the granola bar, feeling the textures of the snack before placing it in his mouth. Siegfried watched with anticipation as he watched him slowly chew through the treat.

"It's incredibly dry,'' Was the first thing he said, making the Kaslana sweatdrop as Ishigami continued to critique the granola bar. "And it's mostly just sugar, there's practically no nutritional value in this. Why would anyone eat this?"

Well he wasn't wrong in that. "I just like to carry them with me and you seem hungry so…" The former Knight tried to explain why he had given him a granola bar only to go silent when he saw tears beginning to trail down Ishigami's face.

Why was he crying? For all extents and purposes the food that he had once eaten held everything he needed to survive, holding all the nutrients that his body needed.

But against all logic he found himself devouring the granola bar in his mouth, and for the first time since he could remember.

He smiled as he felt a new emotion for the first time.

Hope

And looking towards the shrouded figure of Haruto, it felt as if he was experiencing that emotion for the first time.

As if he was looking at hope itself.

Turn Thy Gaze Heavensward In Prayer

For A New Dawn Hath Cometh

The light soon dimmed to a level where Fu Hua could drop her arms and look at what was responsible without going blind. And the first thing that she noted when she saw the standing figure of Haruto Nakamura…

Was the golden sword that he held in his hand, how it seemed to be composed of pure light as it glowed incandescently in the darkness of the warehouse. Just looking at it's glow made her heart feel lighter, as if all of her troubles just seemingly vanished.

Memories of a dojo began to play in her mind, a dojo she had never known before. She saw a younger version of herself garbed in the dojo's clothes, a tired but very bright smile on her face.

"Otou-san one more time!"

Her blue eyes trailed towards Haruto himself, and took in a sharp intake of breath.

White armor covered his entire body, gone was any of the clothes that he had previously worn as in place of them was this heavily detailed armor that seemed to be ripped out of the medieval ages.

A blue waistcloth that hung from his waist and draped down to his feet.

A golden crown that adorned his head. It was simple gold, no fancy gemstones decorated the crown but they were not needed to convey the authority that this crown possessed.

It was like she was staring at a complete carbon copy of the Bright Knight Excelsis Battlesuit itself.

Glory To The King Of Knights!

Haruto opened his hazel eyes, glowing as bright as the light in his sword. The redheaded boy leveled the golden blade at the form of Iudex, his face displaying no emotions.

Glory To Their Rule, Now And Forevermore.

My biggest chapter yet and I'm just gonna say I'm really proud of this one. I know this is my biggest word count for a chapter but I think I'm going to use big chapters like these for my really important parts. Helps make it feel very dramatic and important without breaking it up into multiple chapters.

Now I know you guys probably have a lot of questions about what the heck just happened, and I'm kinda scared how you guys will receive this chapter. It's a bombshell that I just dropped on you guys.

You're probably expecting me to explain all of this but... my lips are sealed.

I plan on having someone explain this to our dear captain in upcoming chapters. And besides…

I'm not done with the bombshells quite yet XD. Let's just say expect another giant chapter for the next update…

Welp that's all for this chapter. If you enjoyed it, drop a fav/follow/kudos as they really help me out with creating great chapters. Reviews are deeply appreciated and if you have a question or a really interesting theory I am more than happy to reply. Please be patient if I don't respond to you super fast. Even if I don't respond to your comment for whatever reason, know that I read each and every one of them!

Peace!