KIANA floated above the buildings, gazing down at the town with a vacant look.
This would be the third town on her journey. Ever since she left the first town, she had been to one other.
It had been a nice town, even if it lacked an amusement park. She supposed that made sense, no reason to have two amusement parks right next to each other.
She looked upon the town that she found herself in now, and compared it with what she had seen at the other town.
There was a stark difference.
This town could hardly be called such anymore. The term 'town' implied that there were people who lived in that town. People who worked and shopped in that town, just like what she had seen in her previous destinations.
A town that lay in ruins was not a town at all.
She knew the instant she arrived what was responsible. The ambient energy still in the air told her everything.
This was the work of the Honkai.
She landed softly amidst the ruins, looking around to see if anyone was still alive. The chances were unlikely though, even if someone survived the initial assault, the Honkai leftover was like poison to humans.
She was no stranger to such destruction. When she first came to Earth 50,000 years ago the entire world looked as this town did now. She herself was the final key in the destruction of that era, all life falling to Finality and returning to zero.
However, that was before she met Elysia, before she gained a life of her own.
Now she walked through the town with a very complicated feeling inside her.
She did not know anyone who lived here, did not experience any of the sights to see here. There was nothing here for her to mourn.
However, that itself was perhaps why she couldn't help but mourn. These were people she could have met, sights she could have seen.
This was a side of humanity that she'd never get to love.
So she did not cry for the faceless masses she never met. But she mourned all the same.
Tesla knew the moment they arrived that there were no survivors. It was a gut feeling, she didn't need to look at any of Einstein's monitors to tell.
The fire spoke enough for her.
She looked over to the backup they had brought with them, a squadron of Anti-Entropy Titans, her own design. Some were manned by other pilots while some were unmanned machines that simply followed orders.
Tesla herself was in her own unique Red Titan, personally modified in her spare time to suit her preferences. After all, while she had a decent Honkai resistance herself, it was always better to be safe than sorry.
"All units, fan out and search for survivors." Einstein, however, was a little too confident in her own Honkai resistance, and was walking around outside of her Titan. It wasn't unfounded confidence, Tesla supposed, seeing as Einstein had previously been in direct contact with a very angry Herrscher of the Void back in the Second Eruption, and came out without a trace of infection. "Dr. Tesla, you're with me. Let's go find our missing convoy."
Tesla took the lead, being able to actually defend if anything showed up, and began moving towards the last known location of the 4th Key's wreckage.
They trudged on through the flaming ruins, keeping their eyes peeled for any sign of their target or survivors.
"Heads up Tesla, Eins is detecting movement." Einstein called out from behind her. A moment later, Tesla's Titan also alerted her of movement. That damn mophead! Bragging about her design's better sensor! Once they got back she'd show her and make an even better motion sensor!
Bringing her thoughts back to the present, she turned the Titan to face where the movement was detected.
There was a person there. A survivor?
She activated her Titan's speaker and yelled out,
"Hey! You there! Are you ok?!"
The person jolted. Whoops, that may have been too loud.
As the two approached her, the woman seemed to tense. Tesla realized that her Titan's appearance was probably doing more harm than good, so she opened the hatch and got out.
"Not to worry, we're with Anti-Entropy. Are you a survivor here?" What she needed now was a helpful face, not an imposing machine staring her down.
"No… I just arrived here. I… was too late." The woman had white hair and somewhat ragged clothes. She gazed out into the flaming ruins with an indecipherable look on her face.
"Hey, don't be like that. Sorry to say, but I doubt you could have done much against an Eruption like this." Tesla wasn't the best at reassuring people, but she liked to think that the effort was enough.
Einstein walked past her and began looking around. Oh, just leave Tesla on her own completely out of her depth, why don't you? Brat.
"It'd be best if you come with us, the air here is still radioactive and we wouldn't want you getting infected, now would we?" There, a simple attempt to lighten the mood and convince her to follow them at the same time. That was how reassuring people worked, right?
"No need. I have… ample resistance." Ample resistance? What, was she a Valkyrie of Schicksal or something? Tesla looked closer at the woman they found, trying to see if she recognized her from Schicksal's records.
To her surprise, she did recognize her. Just not from Schicksal.
"You're that Princess KIANA lady from Homu World!" What were the odds, Mophead was right! Even if now was hardly the time for questioning.
"Of course not, I look nothing like a princess." The woman responded quickly. Too quickly, especially given her slow manner of talking earlier. It seemed almost rehearsed.
"Yeah, I don't think you're fooling anyone. Hey Mophead, I hate to say it, but you were right after al-" When she turned, she was expecting to see the blue mop of hair that indicated Einstein.
What she saw was a white blur coming towards her.
*CRASH* A hand grabbed her and jumped out of the way of the attack.
When she looked, her savior turned out to be Princess KIANA herself. She looked again and saw Einstein safely out of harm's way, then turned her attention to her attacker.
Dammit, they got careless. This wasn't like them.
The attacker turned out to be one of many, as numerous white shapes with pink glows had appeared, with more approaching.
These were the monsters that destroyed this town. The creatures of collapse that waged war with humanity, only seeking destruction.
These were the Honkai Beasts.
KIANA stared down the Beasts with a cold look in her eye. Despite being an entity of Honkai herself, she wasn't all that happy to see her kin.
After all, they were the ones who killed this side of humanity. She would have much preferred to see human survivors.
As if mocking her very thoughts, some hands reached out from the destroyed buildings, revealing humans that once resided in this town. However, they could no longer be called human. The Honkai had infected them too heavily, and even though their bodies moved, they were long dead.
Now they were just zombies, being controlled by the Honkai.
Almost like how she used to be.
She turned to the red haired woman and her blue haired companion.
"Find a safe place to retreat to… I will stop them."
The red haired woman turned to her in shock.
"No way in hell we're doing that! We're Anti-Entropy, it's our job to protect you!" Ah, so Anti-Entropy was an Anti-Honkai Organization. KIANA wondered if they knew the snake people from the Moon.
She turned back to the Honkai Beasts and held out her hand. This was probably not the smartest move, but it was better than using her Shades of Finality in front of these two.
"I can… protect myself." As she spoke, a weapon appeared in her hand. It was a thin yet intricate black spear, with an orange blade at the end that seemed to glow.
It was a weapon that belonged to the Herrscher of Finality, no measly Honkai Beast could stand against it.
"Go." With that single word, she leaped into action.
The Honkai Beasts were like paper to her blade as she danced through them.
No, perhaps dance implied too much movement.
Her moves were quick and methodical. Every slash and stab was calculated. This was how the Herrscher of Finality fought her foes. There was no anger behind any of her strikes, only a simple and clean execution.
They did not face a fighter, or even a human.
Their enemy was the End, as simple as that.
"She… really is a Valkyrie, isn't she?"
Tesla could only watch as the woman dashed into the fray, effortlessly slaying the Honkai Beasts by the hordes. Even as she asked that question, there was no other feasible answer. Even the best of Anti-Entropy's non-mecha fighters would show at least some more effort in her fights.
Well, outside of Joachim, she supposed, but he was a Herrscher, he didn't count.
"Then that raises the question of what she's doing in America, instead of in Schicksal's territory." At some point Einstein had come up behind her. "I suppose you were right to be suspicious of her. Good work."
"You don't think she was sent by Schicksal to investigate the 4th Key, do you?"
"I don't know, and I don't think we're in a position to question her motives right now, seeing as she just saved our lives." Oh, yeah, the ease at which she dispatched these Honkai Beasts made Tesla forget that she nearly died just now. That would have been an unfortunate way to go. Einstein continued speaking.
"We can worry about that later, for now, we should do as she said and find a safe place. I think she can handle herself. We should get in contact with the others, we can search for the 4th Key later." At that, Tesla nodded and started moving towards her Titan. Once she was in, she sent out a warning to the others as well as orders to convene.
For now, it was all they could do.
It was only a couple of minutes.
Luckily, nobody else had died. The Honkai Beasts had mainly appeared in Tesla and Einstein's location.
The Titans stood together in formation, ready to attack any Honkai Beast that approached.
None did. Instead, a familiar white haired woman in ragged clothes walked up to them calmly.
"They're gone." She spoke simply and plainly. Tesla almost dropped her jaw.
"Gone? Like, they retreated?" Could Honkai Beasts even retreat? Did they have the mental faculties that formed fight or flight instincts?
"No. They're dead." As simple and as plain, but it helped highlight how efficient this woman had been.
If she really was a Valkyrie, then she couldn't possibly be a B-Rank. She had to be high A-Rank, minimum.
At least she didn't seem to hold a grudge against Schicksal's rival organization.
"Then… that's that then?" The question was stupid, but Tesla couldn't really help herself.
KIANA tilted her head as she contemplated the phrase for a moment, then replied.
"That's that."
Even though it was just a simple two words, Tesla couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.
Einstein chose that moment to speak up, addressing the others.
"All right, resume prior orders. Exercise caution, keep an eye out in case any potential survivors turn out to be zombies. Spread out, but keep comms on in case they come back."
The woman spoke up.
"They won't come back… too little Honkai." Tesla gave a look of surprise.
"You can tell? No wait, of course you can. Valkyries have the weirdest abilities, I swear…"
The woman looked up at Tesla curiously.
"Valkyrie?" She asked. Seriously? Was she choosing now to play dumb? After she fought off an entire horde of Honkai Beasts so easily?
"You don't need to keep up the act, nobody else could fight like you did. Don't worry, unlike what your Overseer has probably told you, we can actually be pretty reasonable with Valkyries, especially when they saved our lives." She gave a small smile as she spoke, hoping to dissuade any tension.
"I don't… know what that is." So she was still keeping it up. Fine, Tesla wasn't really in the mood to pick a fight.
"Alright, you can keep your 'secret' then. Can we at least get a name for our savior?"
"My name… is KIANA." Wow, so it really was the same one. Tesla kind of thought that was a made up name for the Princess persona.
"All right then KIANA. If you want, you can come with us back to our base once we're done here. I promise we won't capture you or anything, not that I think anything we've got could keep you. Just as a place for food and rest, ok?"
"That's fine. I don't… need rest." She took one step forward and toppled over immediately.
Tesla was caught off guard, but she couldn't help a little sarcasm as she stared at the unconscious woman.
"Yeah, sure you don't."