11:17 am, in the Hyperion's observation deck,
"Ah, fuck me."
Phillip rubbed the palm of his right hand across his brow, annoyed as he watched the monitor of the screen that showed a large chunk of the island disappearing into the maw of the awakened Chiyou. Gabriel alerted him and Theresa this would occur regardless of whether Phillip accompanied the group or not, so Phillip sent a special clone down there secretly at Theresa's behest to help. From what he saw, it was the right choice.
The tapping of footsteps growing closer caused Phillip to turn around and find Theresa entering the room. "Looks like sending down that clone of yours was the right call. Those 'shadow clones' are pretty effective, huh?"
"Different clone this time, actually," Phillip admitted, turning back to watch the monitors. "It was made of Gabriel's own power rather than chakra, so it's an actual copy of me that won't puff out at one hit."
"...Right," Theresa responded slowly, unconvinced about the difference. "Well, so long as that clone doesn't use anything inside Chiyou, we should only be dealing with a Judgement-level Honkai Beast."
"You make it sound so simple," Phillip said, tossing a tri-pronged kunai at the metal walls of the Hyperion observation station. "Hiraishin should get them out though, so long as they exist on this level and at this time."
A few seconds passed, and nothing occurred.
"... I'm going to go out on a limb and say that's not meant to happen."
Phillip ignored Theresa's statement and immediately delved into the telepathic link to see if he could communicate that way. 'Paging dumbass. Come in, dumbass.'
'Ya know, calling me that just means you're calling yourself that.'
'Noted. Hiraishin. Chop, chop.'
'Wish I could, but I've got an issue here.'
Phillip's frown deepened at the clone's flat tone. 'Explain.'
'Remember when Gabriel told us that grabbing the sword would bring Chiyou out of its little winter slumber?'
'...Yes?'
'How convenient of him to forget to mention that the spirit of the late Xuanyuan would follow with it to ask us to seal it correctly.'
Phillip physically stumbled at this, earning a confused but concerned look from Theresa. Waving her off to continue watching the scene below, he pulled himself straight and let out a light sigh.
'I'm going to make a guess that the seals are going to be inside the beast, aren't they?'
'If they were on the outside, I doubt she would ask us to help her with our current position.'
'Brilliant,' Phillip replied before he cut connection and turned to Theresa. "Well, looks like they're going to need to stay in there for a spell to seal that thing back up."
"Of course, they are," Theresa sighed in exasperation. "Your group can never have an easy mission, huh?"
"Don't blame the other three for shit that happens to me and Kiana," Phillip replied, half-jokingly half-serious, before he looked at the monitors. "How's big, dumb, and ugly?"
"Chiyou has already climbed up onto land, probably on the hunt for some cities," Theresa said, her face hardened for a more serious expression. "Marine forces aren't patrolling this area, so we won't have anything to stop it in the water. Luckily, the closest land border is still several miles from the closest town. At its current speed, it will reach Shenzhou in about 3 hours."
"Can you get us there before it?" Phillip asked as he stepped away from the monitors and left the room. Theresa frowned deeply at this and immediately followed him down the hallway before the door shut with a hiss.
"I can, but what can you do to stop it right now?" Theresa demanded when she got to his side. "Gabriel said he's not going to help much outside of keeping your chakra from fusing with Chiyou, and I doubt clones are going to stop it."
Phillip shook his head slowly at this, earning a deeper frown for the response. "I have other methods of detaining large creatures. Besides that, there's something else I can do."
With nothing more to say to one another, the two remained silent for the rest of the time in the hallway. After a couple of minutes, they reached and entered the armory, where multiple standing capsules trailed along the sides. Most of them were empty, leaving only one in the back.
Phillip went to that one and pressed a series of numbers into the digital keypad at the right side of the doorframe. It slid open quietly to reveal the contents within, causing Theresa to raise her brow in surprise.
"You're going to use it already? It was only finished this morning."
"Might as well," Phillip said with a shrug. "What's a better test run than against the very first Judgement-Class beast?"
Theresa shook her head with a gentle smile on her face, almost like she expected something like this. "You've been around Kiana too much, apparently." She rolled up the left sleeve of her nun dress to reveal a small golden wristwatch. "We should be arriving at land in a second, so whatever you got cooked up, get prepared."
"Fine with me." Phillip began pulling out large bits of silver armor from the capsule while Theresa retreated to the observation deck. He stripped off his jacket and started connecting them to his battlesuit, starting with the large shoulder pieces that connected to the gold clips.
"Let's see what this second layer can do."
11:55 am, topside of the Hyperion,
Remember: you're using completely experimental tech here. ~
"Yeah, I got it the last twenty times you've told me," Phillip responded to Theresa's reminder, the massive, silver shoulders of the armor clanging as he walked closer to the side of the bridge. "The design choice is... interesting."
~ Tell that to Gabriel. He made the design choices. ~
"And what's wrong with a bit of 40K?"
Phillip shook his head slightly, making sure to make no exaggerations to avoid causing his helmet to scrap against the socket the armor had for it. The silver armor had golden accessories, indents, and highlights, and was bulky, with knee pads that stuck out when he walked and shoulder pieces large enough to block both sides of his head. The chest was bulked out, leaving a ring around the helmet that looked like a weakness but was sealed off internally, which Phillip's stomach was closer in but not form fitting. The upper legs of the armor were attached to the stomach and lead to the inner armor of the knees, while the knee pads were connected to the outer, lower leg armor that shifted down to the ankle of the steel boots.
Phillip peered through the blue lens of the eyes of the pointy nosed helmet. "Did you get the specs on this, Theresa? What's the impact durability of this thing?"
~I've been told it should be able to survive re-entry speeds. ~
"Well, here's test 1." Phillip tucked his gloves hands under his arms, knocking the bracers on his forearms together, and jumped off the edge.
Phillip traveled for a few minutes, feeling the armor begin to shake and the white scapular in the front fluttered as he gradually increased in speed towards the ground below. When Phillip reached it, he hit with enough force to make a deep and wide crater in the grassy plain he landed in.
~ I should congratulate you on making a new landmark. Quick, tell me how you say "Moron Crater" in Chinese. ~
Phillip grunted as he stood up from his kneeling landing position and jumped over the crater's edge and back onto standard land. Once he was back on flat land, Phillip found his target hundreds of miles away, making steps massive enough to make ten miles disappear in the blink of an eye.
~So, what's the plan that you decided to not bother telling me about? ~
Phillip didn't bother responding as he spread his left hand out to his side. As if knowing his next action, the glove armor melted back into the rest of the armor to display his bare hand. Wasting as little time as possible, Phillip jammed the bare thumb against elbow joint of his right arm and slammed it shut, badly cutting his thumb in the process.
"Summoning: Giant-Quelling Serpents!" Phillip called, pressing his palm onto the ground once Chiyou was close enough.
A massive plume of smoke covered the plains in an instant, succeeding in stopping the rampaging Honkai beast in its tracks for a brief second. This second was enough, as two massive dirt-brown snakes emerged from smoke and quickly coiled around Chiyou, muzzling its maw and pinning one back leg and one front leg to its body.
~ ...You know what, I'm not even surprised anymore. Just do what you need to do, I'm getting some bitter melon juice. ~
Phillip ignored the resignation of Theresa and kept his eyes on the struggling beast and squirming snakes still a few miles from him. Chiyou stood, balanced on its remaining two feet, and slowly broke through its binds. With little else to do with his arsenal to restrain some of Chiyou's size, Phillip rushed forward.
When he reached the restrained beast, which managed to yank its front leg from snakes, he grabbed the newly unrestrained limb, digging his fingers into the crusty skin of the beast. He quickly began pumping chakra into his arms as he groaned heavily to lift the giant monster. In response to his chakra, the armor that surrounded him began to glow a dark purple, using stored up Honkai energy from his inner suit to further increase his strength.
With two boosts working simultaneously, Phillip was able to pick up and push the offending limb away, sending the beast flying back. The surprise of the feat came and went quickly to allow Phillip to follow up on the attack, jumping after the beast at speeds that went against the armor he wore. He reached the beast's stomach in an instant and slammed a fist into it with enough force to generate a shockwave that toppled the closest trees to them.
Chiyou flew back another hundred miles from the blow, something that seemed rather miniscule to the scale of the beast, before colliding with the ground and shooting up a large cloud of dirt. For Phillip, he fell at a much gentler pace when the lights of his helmet's lens glowed red, indicating a message.
"What?"
~Oh, nothing much, ~ Gabriel's special clone said in a perfectly calm tone, radio contact finally re-established with team inside the beast. ~Just wanted to know if you were – oh, I don't know – tossing around Chiyou for any reason. ~
Phillip looked over the Honkai beast, which was again struggling against the serpents that began to constrict it tighter, and turned away. "Possibly. Why?"
Meanwhile, inside of Chiyou's stomach,
"Oh, no reason," the clone said, one hand buried into the ground behind him and the other wrapped around the waist of Kiana as the two looked down into the darkness that blocked sight of the top of Chiyou's stomach. "A head's up would have been good next time, though."
~ Sure, I'll let you know when it happens again. Have fun sealing it again.~
The connection cut immediately after that, leaving the clone to growl in disapproval. It knew the original deeply cared about the girls inside of the beast, but shaking around the insides of the beast didn't really show it.
'Gabriel needs to get after him about that.'
"What did Aunt Teri say?" Kiana asked curiously, not hearing a word of the conversation the clone had with Phillip due to Gabriel's interference. "What caused all that shaking?"
The clone breathed a prayer of thanks to Gabriel before it turned to Kiana. "Apparently, they got some back-up to stall off Chiyou, but one of them went a little overboard."
"Great, now we're stuck hanging upside down because of them," Himeko complained, now awake and clinging desperately to her clone's neck. "If it's that Durandal girl, I'll train her into the ground and back."
Kiana let out a slight snort at this and grumbled to herself. "I don't think you know her that well, then."
The clone shook his head in amusement, knowing well what Kiana meant by this, and began the climb towards the edge of the floating isle they found themselves on. "First things first: let's get back our foothold."
The other clones, each carrying one of the other girls, followed him. "Phillip" flipped over the edge once he got there, landing on the craggy upper side of the capsized terrain. He was lucky the outer part of the island was flat enough to stand on to release Kiana, who refused to reciprocate the action of removing her hand from his chest. The others soon followed suit, climbing over the ledge and letting out of their respective partners and dispelling, except the last who kept his in the bridal carry she came on.
"... Please, let me down," Mei requested in a small, near silent voice as a crimson blush flooded her face.
"Nope," her clone responded, continuing to walk to where Bronya stated to be a conglomerate of Honkai energy in Chiyou. The rest of the group turned to each other in confusion of a slight second before shrugging and following the couple.
Several minutes of eventless walking passed before another tremor tilted the land once more and forced the group to change their vertical placement to continue. After a few jumps to other separate landmasses, they found a massive crystal that floated off on the flatter side of the platform.
"Phillip" looked over to Bronya, the one that lead them to this place. "Is this it?"
"Da," Bronya responded positively, Project Bunny hovering over her with a blue holographic screen in its hand. "Sensors indicate this crystal to be a convergent point for Honkai circulation in Chiyou."
Himeko gave a hum as she looked over the edge to the crystal, her visor flashing through several of her own screens. "Looks about right. This thing's giving off more energy than the Hyperion's main engine."
"Phillip" turned to his left and pointed at the wall of pulsing flesh, where the top of Chiyou's stomach was. "Send out the seismic pulse, like you planned with Theresa, I'll try getting in contact to the outside aid."
Bronya immediately ordered Project Bunny forward, causing it to switch one of its arms into a cannon to fire off seismic pulse just above the crystal. While this was going on, and the chakra clones were securing the other three for both the blast and sudden shifts, the special clone reached out telepathically to the original.
'I know you're busy playing with the giant chew toy, but could you do us the favor of flipping it back onto its stomach?'
The answer came with a violent shake of their surroundings. The clones quickly jumped at this, carrying their original passengers up into the air just in time for the sideways terrain to revert to normal. They landed onto the flat pathways that were surrounded by stalagmites with enough time for the clones to cover the girls as a massive blue laser burst through Chiyou's stomach and consumed the Honkai crystal within the radiant light.
"Well, that's one down," the special clone replied before he pressed onto his visor's earpiece. "That's one down, Theresa. We'll head over to the second one immediately."
~ Make sure not to send any false signals. We only have one more shot in Hyperion's main gun. ~
"Why you don't have extra munition on a war ship, I don't get," the clone murmured before speaking louder for the next part. "Just make sure the re-enforcements don't cause another Chiyou-quake. We prefer not worrying about being flipped to our deaths, thanks."
~ Tell him yourself. I'm at the cannon to prepare the next shot. ~
The connection cut with that, leaving "Phillip" to growl at the empty air for a while before he pulled himself off Kiana and looked towards Bronya. "How far are we away from the next source?"
Bronya pushed the clone covering her away with Project Bunny's shield and brought a holographic screen before her. "The next largest convergency point is approximately several kilometers to the left where the crystal was." The entire group looked over to the crater where the crystal once was, torched into the ground, while the hole that pierced through the stomach was already closed due to the beast's regeneration.
"Phillip" quickly scanned over the other floating land pieces to find the next crystal. He found it a sequence of platforms away, all of them within jumping distance of each other. Deciding to just get there before the original tosses the terrain off again, he tossed a tri-pronged kunai towards the island that held the crystal that pierced a large stone that sat next to it. He then quickly gathered Kiana, who had taken to investigating the crater for any remnants and teleported over to it, the shadow clones following soon after with the other girls.
"... I should just leave you at the base from now on," Himeko grumbled, slightly woozy from the teleportation as she stumbled off her clone. "Soldiers aren't made if they're being coddled."
"Ya know what, I'd prefer them to get combat experience outside of the stomach of a Honkai beast," "Phillip" responded back, dispelling the shadow clones, much to Mei's relief. "Now, Bronya, go ahead and -"
"So this is where you trashy ants ran off to!"
The entire group looked behind themselves to face the path coming to the crystal and found Sin Mal – bruised, bloodied, and dirty – standing there with heavy pants racking over her thin body. All of them shifted into their battle stances, ready to fight if it came down to that.
Once the words sank in, however, Kiana immediately ditched her stance and tried to rush at Sin, eyes pure white with rage, stopped only because "Phillip" was behind her. "Who're you calling trashy, you little brat?!"
"Easy, Kiana, she's just a cocky kid," the clone tried to rationalize, which only caused Kiana to begin thrashing harder.
"Then give me two seconds with the brat so I can wipe that smirk off her face!"
Himeko simply shook her head in exhaustion and spoke up as Mei walked over to Kiana to try and calm her down. "Are you here looking for a fight, sugar? Because I just got up from a rather well resting nap and need a bit of a workout."
"D-Damn you," Sin muttered to herself, a faint blush covering her cheeks at being called "sugar" by the elder woman. "Y-You're just lucky that asshole in the back wrecked all my toys."
"I'll do it to you if you keep talking trash," the clone called back as Kiana's tussles simmered down to a pout and glare. He looked over the one that's been silent for most of their walking. "Yuna, can you do me the favor of tying her up? Kiana may have faltered for now, but I'm not giving her the chance."
Yuna jumped from her hiding spot behind Himeko but turned to him with a semi-nervous semi-resolute expression on her face. "O-On it!" She spun around and summoned several vines from the ground, shooting out faster than the eye can track and wrapping around Sin's wrist. It wasn't long after that Sin was completely tangled up in
"Phillip" dropped Kiana from his full nelson hold when he heard a snicker pass through her lips. With Kiana now busy pointing and laughing at the bound Sin, "Phillip" walked over to the girl while Bronya began firing tremor rounds into Chiyou's stomach.
"I'm going to let you know now," the clone said, digging away the vine the gagged the girl. "We have one thing to do here, even if the outside forces seem to try and impede us. We-"
"Oh, so it's you guy's fault I almost fell to my death!" Sin screeched back, causing "Phillip" to stick his tongue into his cheek in annoyance. "You jackass better repair my scythe before I-" The vine from before was pushed back into her mouth to muffle the screams.
"Now, as I was saying," the clone continued as Sin glared him down for the action. "Once we're done here, it's very likely that this place is going to implode. You can either come with us, or you follow the beast back to the depths of the ocean."
Sin Mal spat out the vine violently and snarled back at him. "And what makes you think I'll go anywhere with you sniveling failures?!"
"Phillip" raised a brow at her question and tilted his head to the side, just in time for Hyperion's main cannon's second shot pierced through the beast's hide and obliterated the Honkai crystal behind him. Sin stared in awe and fear as the beam slowly dissipated and sluggishly brought her eyes back to the clone's.
"...So, when do we leave, huh?" Sin asked, suddenly vastly more chipper than before. "Because let's be honest: that Cocolia woman is a complete and absolute psychopath."
"Uh huh," the clone responded plainly, a smirk plastered on his face as he stood up and addressed the rest. "Alright, everyone, that should do it! Let's find a way out of this hell hole as soon as we can."
Just as they moved to gather, the ground beneath rumbled violently, enough to toss those on their feet to the ground. Bronya was the only one that remained upright, due to her levitation, which allowed her to check her scans again.
Himeko pulled her head from the ground and spat out a piece of dirt she swallowed with a frown. "Damn, rowdy HQ operatives. Wished they'd give a heads up on when they're going to shake things up."
"Phillip" thought his agreement to this and pulled himself back to his, just in time for a message to come across his visor. Knowing how it would be, as Theresa usually communes through Himeko, he asked for Gabriel's protection as he answered.
"What do you want?"
~ Well, I'd like to know what the fuck happened in that. I was having a nice time kicking Chiyou in the shins, and now it's trying to swallow the continent. ~
"Phillip" blinked several times and then turned to face the most likely place they entered in, cutting communications as he did. Sure enough, massive chunks of land came barreling towards them at breakneck speeds.
"Shit! Yuna, shield!"
Yuna complied as quickly as possible, erecting a wide barrier of foliage around the group just as the land reached them. Luckily, the shield stood strong against the relentless barrage of dirt and grass.
"I thought we crushed it's hearts!" Kiana yelled over the pounding the barrier endured. "Why's it getting worse all of a sudden?!"
"I have a bad feeling the things we destroyed weren't hearts," the clone said through gritted teeth, mentally cursing himself for following through with an uncertain plan. "I'm going to guess those were the seals instead."
"I'm getting the same feeling," Himeko muttered before looking at Bronya. "Could you pinpoint the location of the actual heart? We might not have the firepower of the Hyperion anymore, but we should be capable of taking it down once and for all."
"Already accomplished," Bronya responded before she pointed over to the side of their island, where the barrier of vegetation blocked their eyes from seeing too far. "A large concentration of Honkai energy has appeared in Sector X-23."
"You mean that arena-looking platform in the middle of this place?" the clone asked, earning a nod from Bronya. "Well, that's good and all, but we'll need Chiyou to stop choking down rocks for a second."
"I'll get Theresa on the line then," Himeko said, pressing on to her earpiece to make the call. After a few more minutes of waiting, the pelting began to subside and Yuna dropped her shield. With the path now clear, "Phillip" ran over to the inner part of the island and looked down. There, acting like the center of the floating landmasses, was a small disk of land, with a circular design in the middle that was adorn with flower decorations. Like the other stops the group had, a large Honkai crystal floated just above it with an ominous glow.
With a flick of his wrist, "Phillip" sent another tri-pronged kunai down to the disk and waited until the sound of a "ding" echoed throughout the stomach. He then ran back to the others and had each of them grab some part of him, though Sin did so reluctantly.
With a flash of yellow light, the entire group teleported to the platform. "Phillip" quickly looked around to gain a view of their surroundings and was immediately hit by two black hooves, sending him flying back and almost off the ledge.
"Phillip!"
Clattering hooves quickly silenced the girls' screams for Phillip and caused them to return to the source of the attack. The horse, clad in black and gold armor, spun to show its side and reveal the rider.
A black haired, fair skinned girl sat confidently upon the horse, wearing matching-colored garments to the horse's armor. Golden apparel adorned her legs, revealed by the four-way cut black dress, highlighted with gold that ended in red orbs with a black center. A piece of the dress was cut from her neck down to her belly button, revealing a tan mesh below it and held another crimson orb just above her heart.
"Leave here and now," the girl spoke, lifting her jet-black blade towards them, gripped tightly with one black armored hand. "I will not fight those chosen by the Honkai."
"Hey, what's your problem, lady?!" Kiana yelled, pulling her guns out to point at the girl, as "Phillip" pulled himself to his feet calmly. "For all you know, we could be here to rescue you, and you just up and hit one of us!"
"I know your intent," the girl said plainly, her horse pacing back and forth protectively in front of the crystal. "You aim to destroy Chiyou's heart, and I cannot allow this. I will give you this one chance, however, to retreat and leave this place."
"Why would we do that?! If we don't stop Chiyou, the entire world could be destroyed!"
The girl snarled at the group. "Let humanity perish. They hold little meaning now."
"Wha-"
"Don't waste your breath, Kiana," the clone said, walking over to the group as he fixed his broken nose and wiped the stream of blood from his face. "Considering who she looks like, I'm going to guess this is the lingering soul of Jixuanyuan, corrupted by both Chiyou's Honkai energy and the despair."
"You seem to be the intelligent one," Jixuanyuan said, her horse stopping dead center of the platform. "However, I've long abandoned the name of my host. She fell, alone and full of dread, and gave rise to me with her departure."
"Which means the one we met may have wanted us to put you out of your misery," the clone decided before looking at the girls. "I can deal with this one by myself. You girls keep yourself safe and try to destroy the heart."
"What? Oi!" Kiana stormed over to "Phillip" and grabbed his battlesuit to pull him close, ignoring the horse-riding girl. "I'm getting real tired of this 'do it myself' crap from you!"
"This isn't martyrdom, Kiana," the clone replied, pulling his battlesuit from the girl's iron grip. "For me, this won't be much of a fight. So, you girls should just focus on the mission of trying to get out of here."
"What, did you sense her power level or something?" Kiana questioned, unimpressed with the decision. "Just because you say it's going to be easy doesn't mean it will, ya know!"
"Phillip" opened his mouth to retort but was forced to jump back to avoid a shockwave that cut through the land between him and Kiana. The two followed the attack back to Jixuanyuan, her blade now off to her side.
"If you wish to battle, then I will slay all of you, even those chosen by Honkai." With this, Ji Xuanyuan's horse galloped forward with her sword poised to pierce Kiana. "Phillip" quickly pushed Kiana away and side-stepped the stab. He then sent an uppercut into the blade's edge, repelling the blade high above Ji Xuanyuan's head. She snarled and brought the blade back down in a flash, sending another shockwave through the ground.
"Phillip" sidestepped this to be in front of the horse and launched a punch towards its neck. To his surprise, the horse and Ji Xxuanyuan faded into a ball of smoke that retreated to the crystal heart of Chiyou before the pair reappeared in front of Himeko, who tried to take a swinging chance at the heart with her claymore. Ji Xuanyuan deflected the claymore with her own and swung her blade sideways to cleave Himeko in two, only to be blocked by a barrier of thorns.
Ji Xuanyuan looked back at the group to find the perpetrator, only to lean back to avoid the backhanded stab from Mei aimed at her head. Mei, teeth clenched at her miss, shifted the stab into a downward slash which Ji Xuanyuan managed to block with her blade at the last second. As the two clashed for a second, a jolt of lightning flashed briefly across Ji Xuanyuan, which was Mei's only warning before "Phillip" tackled her out of the way of a lightning bolt that dropped from above.
"Phillip" shifted Mei into a bridal carry as his feet hit the ground and skid all the way to the edge of the platform. As he set her down on her own feet, Kiana walked over to them as she pelted the Jixuanyuan with bullets. Ji Xuanyuan paid this no mind, her horse's armor deflecting them away, as she focused on blocking the other's attacks to Chiyou's heart.
"Are you willing to let us help now?"
"If she's planning to play defensive the entire time, sure," the clone replied to Kiana's question as Jixuanyuan began clashing blades with Himeko. "We'll need to drive her away, though, if we want to even touch Chiyou's heart."
"On it." Mei jumped into the fray once more and, as a cannon shell from Bronya slammed into Ji Xuanyuan's back, managed to earn a few gashes across her front alongside Himeko. Jixuanyuan pushed the two swordswomen back and tossed a few lightning bolts at Bronya, who dodged nimbly away. All the while, her horse tried its best to block the increasing barrage of bullets from Kiana.
As vines came out from the ground and wrapped around Jixuanyuan's sword, "Phillip" appeared before her and slammed a fist into the side of the horse's head. With it now dazed, Kiana's bullets landed home but only served to act as an annoyance as none of the shells pierced Jixuanyuan's skin.
Ji Xuanyuan pulled her blade from the vine restraint easily, tearing them into pieces as she did, and swung a horizontal slash at "Phillip". The clone ducked under, wrapped his left arm around the horse's neck and kicked off on the right side to land a kick to the rider's cheek. Placing his right hand, he rucked in his legs to complete a swing to other side once more to land a drop kick this time. He landed on the horse's neck and launched a straight punch at the dazed Ji Xuanyuan, forced her back and her horse to rear back with her.
With his part done, "Phillip" jumped off the horse just in time for Kiana to drop from the sky and land her own flying kick, forcing the horse to stand on its rear legs. Kiana kicked the horse to push herself out of the way as Mei appeared behind Ji Xuanyuan and landed a diagonal slash across her back.
Ji Xuanyuan gasped in pain as blood spurted from her wound, falling off her horse and landing on her back. Her horse, letting out a power final whinny, fell onto its side and dispersed into black smoke. The group cautiously gathered around the fallen warrior, who stared off into space while the crystal on her golden headdress began to glow.
"Finally," she muttered as blood started spilling from beneath the crystal and down her nose. "I won't have to suffer this loneliness. I can see my comrades once more." She turned her head slightly to lock eyes with Himeko, who stared back in concern, and smiled slightly. "Thank you, young warriors."
Himeko knelt close to Xuanyuan and tried her best to comfort the dying woman. "Rest now. We'll take it from here."
Ji Xuanyuan simply smiled slightly wider at this before bursting into light, causing everyone to look away to avoid being blinded. When they looked back, only small bubbles of light remained, floating up a little way before fading.
"...Well, that was kind of anti-climactic," the clone stated plainly before he turned to Chiyou's heart. "Let's get out of here before anything else shows up."
"Only you would tear the mood down from a somber moment."
"Sorry I'm not extremely sympathetic to someone who tried to kill us."
Kiana paid no attention to Himeko's jab at Phillip, her thoughts lingering on the sudden passing of the ancient hero while her eyes followed the last flickers of light. Mei, who noticed her sudden change in demeanor, walked over and touched Kiana's shoulder.
"Kiana-chan?"
"Hm?" Kiana hummed back before realizing the situation. "Oh, right. Sorry, I was just daydreaming." She turned around to the rest of the group and ran forward, a suddenly more energetic Kiana coming to the surface. "I call the first shots at the Heart! I'll break it first try!"
"Are we finally on the same page then?!" Sin cried out as she came out from hiding behind a large rock for the duration of the battle. "Good, so let's blow this joint! That bitch on the horse was a pain in the ass" She flinched when all the group looked at her with ridiculing stares. "W-What?!"
"Where the hell were you?!"
4:30 pm, Hyperion's helm,
"Well, this has been a weird mission to be sure."
Once the group destroyed Chiyou's heart, the beast collapsed indignantly across the plains that it tried to cross. This gave Schicksal's forced ample time to excavate the body and pull Squad V from the belly of Chiyou. Everyone was forced to the Hyperion's onboard clinic to get treatment for excessive Honkai exposure, even if unnecessary. After her look-over, Sin Mal was confined to a "cell", which was just an undecorated and unclaimed room at the end of the hallway. Everyone else was required to meet up at the helm to report the mission to Theresa.
Theresa looked over the reports with a critical eye while Hua, finished with all the translations she did for the mission, collected what little relics the primary group collected before Chiyou's awakening. Once everything was done, all Theresa could do was sigh and look tiredly at the group.
"Your squad is already being rumored to be cursed, Himeko. After this mission, I'm almost certain it is."
"I didn't want this either, Theresa," Himeko said with a shrug. "The mission objective wasn't to fight Anti-Entropy, ancient warriors, and Chiyou itself. We just wanted the weapon and stigmata."
"You managed one of those objectives fine," Theresa replied calmly, gesturing to the golden greatsword by her seat. "However, we didn't find any new stigmata on anyone here. I must assume that getting a natural stigma was unsuccessful."
Himeko gritted her teeth at this. "Yes, ma'am. We didn't find the stigma there."
"...I'm sorry, Himeko," Theresa said, suddenly more somber about the situation. "I seemed to have sent your squad on a wild goose chase."
Himeko took a deep breath and looked at the principal with a toothy grin. "Don't worry about it. Nothing a cold drink can't fix, and it still won't stop my retirement plans either way."
Theresa shook her head, seeming somewhat amused by the response. "Right, of course." She looked over to the students, all of which straightened their backs when her eyes landed on them. "Your squad is excused from the report. I still need to speak with you about other things."
Himeko nodded at this and raised her hand with her palm facing away from the students, a signal for them to leave. They did as was requested and left, with Kiana leading the charge with exaggerated steps. As they headed towards the cabin-level of the Hyperion, "Phillip" caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye and decided to investigate.
"I'm gonna head to the restroom," the clone called to rest as they began to grow farther away. "I'll meet up with you later."
"Ew! Gross!"
"We'll see you later, then, Phillip-kun!" Mei took charge from here, pushing the now gagging Kiana down the hallway.
With the issue dealt with, Phillip walked down another hallway off to his side. No more than a couple of steps in, the original came out of the shadows that clung to the unlit right side, now free from the iron cage of his battlesuit.
"Took you a while," the clone muttered as the original got closer. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep them safe when you're the one causing the commotion?"
Phillip simply shrugged at this, earning an irked glare from the clone. "I doubt they would have been in trouble with you there. Besides, their training would have kept them on their toes."
"Phillip" simply shook his head at the original's faith. "Too cocky for your own and other's good."
"Yeah, yeah," Phillip answered offhandedly as he raised his right hand over the clone's face. "Let me get this over with and get back to the girls. Mei and Bronya might wait around freely, but Kiana will get uppity too quickly."
The clone nodded at this, accepting his fate as his body began to glow a bright white. Within seconds, the glow encompassed the clone's body and the light flowed into the center of Phillip's palm. The process lasted for only a few seconds and, when it was finished, the clone had disappeared completely.
Phillip clenched his hand tightly, the experiences and emotions flooding his mind in an instance. He breathed slowly to control and sort out everything, calming his now tense body. When he managed to contain everything, Phillip slowly shuffled out into the main hallway and down the same way the girls went.
"Let's see how the rest of the day goes."
Welcome back to the story! Hope you guys enjoy it!
There's two people I'd like to thank for this story. The first is my beta-reader, Darklord331, for helping me correct the important things and dealing with me along the way. I hope they'll be willing to continue helping me.
The second is ex555 for giving me the idea for the armored version of the battlesuit. I can only hope I gave enough of a description to give it the justice it deserved.
With my gratitude to those helping me expression, I thank everyone who continues to read this story and I'll see you in the next chapter.
