Whoops, did not mean to leave you all on a cliffhanger for that long, sorry about that. Work and writer's block collectively kicked my ass for the past several months, and this chapter in particular kept getting rewritten.
"So… are you a fan or something?" Kiana asked KIANA.
KIANA simply stared at her.
Kiana kept going. "I mean, you've got my face and my hair, surely you're here to meet your idol, right?" She asked.
KIANA tilted her head slightly.
Kiana moved her head closer, examining KIANA's face. "Oh, but I guess you don't have my eyes. That's kinda important if you wanna look like me. Have you looked into colored contacts?"
KIANA had only known Siegfried for about an hour, and Kiana for a couple seconds, yet she was already able to tell that the apple did not fall far from the tree.
That was a term humans used, right?
She shook herself out of her musings and focused on the girl in front of her. She had seen her briefly from Wraith's cameras, but it seemed she looked more similar than KIANA expected.
"I'm afraid not. I'm here to secure the Gem behind these doors. I'm working with your friend Fu Hua." KIANA replied.
"Oh, you know Fu Hua then? Alright then. Nice to meet you, my name's Kiana Kaslana!" She perked up at hearing the familiar name of her Class Monitor.
Apparently just the mention of someone she knew was enough to earn KIANA her trust.
"My name's KIANA, nice to meet you." KIANA replied.
Kiana's face turned pensive as she heard the introduction.
"You sure you're not part of some fanclub or something?" She asked.
"Y-You are…" A new voice spoke up. KIANA realized then that someone else was in the room with them. An old man was hanging off of Kiana's shoulder, using her to support his leg. "Y-You're the girl from yesterday."
Ah, now she recognized him. It was the man who injected her with that serum yesterday.
Her neck ached as though responding to her reminiscence.
"You must be Dr. Magi. Nice to see you again." She said casually.
He winced at the reminder of what he did to her. He stared at her with a look of guilt as well as fear.
That made sense, she supposed. He hadn't expected her to explode. As a being born from Honkai, the Anti-Honkai serum was more potent on her than a normal human.
She could only hope that his guilt overrode his fear and prevented him from looking too deeply into why she had such a reaction.
"I am truly sorry about what I did to you, I was only trying to help!" He said, bowing his head as best he could while still being held up by Kiana.
Kiana looked between the two of them.
"Am I missing something?" She asked.
"Not much, he just injected me with an Anti-Honkai serum and I nearly exploded. I know he didn't mean to." KIANA answered, acting remarkably calm despite her words.
"Injected you with- Was that the same thing you injected me with? I could have exploded?!" Kiana cried out, looking at Dr. Magi as if she were tempted to drop him.
"No, no! I've tested it before, you were in no danger. She was the only one that's ever happened to." Dr. Magi denied. He then gained a contemplative look as he began to ponder KIANA's odd reaction to the serum.
That wasn't good, needed to get things away from potentially dangerous reveals.
"Do you know how to get into the vault?" She asked. She had her own way in with the Shade of Finality: Void, but at the moment she was trying to avoid doing anything that might draw more attention, and using a Herrscher authority was pretty high up that list.
"Yes, I do, assuming Cocolia hasn't changed the codes yet." He entered a four digit number and the door opened up.
"It worked!" Kiana cheered out.
"But why didn't she lock me out? Something's not right…" Dr. Magi pondered.
Hovering in the middle of the bunker was the Gem of Serenity, a dark crystal brimming with Honkai.
It was odd, looking at it. It felt like a Herrscher core, yet it wasn't. It was a feeling more akin to a Divine Key, yet it wasn't that either. It was something different.
Dr. Magi was less focused on the Gem, more taking note of the Honkai crystals around the Gem. "What is going on? Is there a leak in the container?"
"Oh, right. I suppose you don't know yet." KIANA turned to him. "Cocolia's planning to use the Gem to create an Eruption and give rise to a Herrscher."
"What? Cocolia, that mass murdering psychopath…" he looked down and saw that even with his Honkai resistance, he was still showing signs of infection. That was how dangerous the Gem was. "Of course, she's done this before! Nagazora was her doing!"
The Third Eruption? That was also Cocolia?
Ah, Siegfried had mentioned something like that. What did Cocolia hope to gain in advancing humanity's destruction?
Dr. Magi looked at KIANA with what she could only call desperation. "Please, tell me you and your ally know of a way to stop this!"
"Yes, Fu Hua has a container that can seal the Gem. She'll be here soon, she's just dealing with the Pretender right now."
Dr. Magi couldn't have possibly known what she was talking about, and it seemed he didn't care to. He looked over at a meter for gauging Honkai levels.
"She needs to get here soon. The Gem will erupt any second now!"
"Hey, so all we need is for Fu Hua to put the gem in that container, right?" Kiana called out. She was standing next to the Gem. "So what if we bring the Gem with us and meet her halfway?"
KIANA suddenly had a bad feeling. Her worries were immediately confirmed when Kiana reached out and grabbed the Gem.
Dr. Magi was yelling out to her. Predictably, Kiana started yelling too. Holding a highly volatile Honkai Gem with your bare hands would do that.
KIANA sighed as she walked over to Kiana. Her plan wasn't bad per say, moving the Gem managed to get it away from the reactor and closer to Fu Hua in one fell swoop.
Kiana just went about that plan in the worst possible way.
KIANA reached Kiana and prepared to take the Gem from her. As a Herrscher, she would be much better suited to carry the Gem.
"No! I've got it!" Kiana cried out, and refused to hand the Gem over. Stubborn brat.
She prepared to use Shade of Finality: Sentience and make Kiana hand the Gem over.
"Wait! It's, actually working?!" Dr. Magi called out. KIANA looked over and saw that the meter detecting the Honkai had lowered.
In fact, she could sense the same. Kiana was somehow managing to fill the same role as the Soulium container, blocking out the Honkai.
Could humans do that? Or was it a Valkyrie thing?
Dr. Magi seemed just as confused. "What are you?"
It couldn't last though, and Kiana passed out from the sheer Honkai flowing into her.
Luckily, KIANA saw Fu Hua appear in the doorway.
"There's our container. Let's get out of here." She picked Kiana up and began to move towards Fu Hua. Fu Hua met her and grabbed Kiana herself. Fu Hua then turned to Dr. Magi.
"My task is to bring you in too, Dr. Magi." However, he pulled his short back, revealing the signs of severe Honkai infection on him.
"I can't. I still must destroy the reactor. The Eruption has been averted, but a reactor meltdown would make Singapore just as uninhabitable. I've lived long enough."
KIANA couldn't fathom the idea of living too long, though she supposed that as someone who was still relatively new to humanity, there was a difference between her and him.
He tossed Fu Hua a vial of curious liquid. "Give that girl 5 mL of that when you're far enough away. Save the rest for later. That girl told me about her teacher's Honkai problem." KIANA had no idea what he was talking about, but Fu Hua seemed to, and pocketed the vial.
Fu Hua left the vault with Kiana in her arms, but as KIANA turned to follow, Dr. Magi called out to her. "KIANA, was it?"
She turned and faced him, though he was still staring at the computer. "I've figured it out. There's only one type of being that would have such a reaction to my Anti-Honkai serum."
Her eyes widened, but he kept going. "I don't know why someone like you is working to stop an Eruption, but I won't complain. If you are a Herrscher that fights for humanity, then you are the best kind of Herrscher out there."
He spoke no more, so KIANA left, thinking over his words.
'A Herrscher that fights for humanity, huh?' She supposed that with this, she was fighting for humanity. She had fought against the Honkai before, when she met Tesla and Einstein. But this was the first time she was actively preventing a Honkai Eruption.
With this, she was well and truly a traitor to the Honkai.
A Herrscher that fights for humanity didn't sound all that bad.
KIANA found Fu Hua and Kiana on a rooftop. She had considered simply leaving with the crisis over, but she wanted to confirm that the Gem was secure before she did.
"Ah, there you are." Fu Hua called out. "With the reactor gone, it should be safe to remove the Gem from Kiana." Fu Hua moved to take the Gem from Kiana's hand.
KIANA got a familiar sense.
She moved to stop the Herrscher from attacking Fu Hua, but luckily Fu Hua dodged the attack in time.
"You're pretty fast." An echoed voice called out from Kiana.
KIANA's yellow eyes stared into Kiana's yellow eyes.
"Sirin, I suppose?" Fu Hua asked calmly.
What? Had she known about this already?
"How do you know my name?" The newly named Sirin replied, seeming just as confused as KIANA.
As Fu Hua threatened Sirin to return to slumber, KIANA stared at Kiana, or Sirin, or whoever this was. That sense of familiarity told her that she was a Herrscher, but she couldn't tell which one. That was odd. Before she was able to determine Elysia and Welt's authorities with just a glance, but this Sirin…
Was she Death? That would make sense, as she had been awoken by the Gem of Serenity.
That possibility only became stronger as Sirin attacked Fu Hua with a mist that could only belong to Death, ignoring KIANA's presence entirely.
However, something told her that Sirin wasn't Death, simply borrowing Death's powers.
Instead, she was…
"Void?" She asked. Sirin turned her attention to her.
"You… who are you? Why do you seem so familiar?" Sirin asked, seemingly ignoring their near identical features.
Of course, KIANA knew. It was not her face that seemed familiar, but her presence.
All Herrschers stemmed from Finality, and so all Herrschers looked upon her with familiarity, just as she did them.
"My name is KIANA." She answered rather casually despite Sirin's threatening demeanor. "Now a question of my own. Why do you reside in that body? Why do you have the powers of Death? That Gem is the clear cause, but you should not be able to wield that power, and I did not sense you before in Kiana."
She was aware that she asked more than one question, but she just couldn't wrap her head around it. Even if Kiana had secretly been a Herrscher the whole time, KIANA would have been able to tell. However, instead it felt more like Kiana suddenly became a Herrscher as soon as this Sirin woke up.
At that, Sirin began laughing.
"Hahahaha! Of course, it may seem that way to you, but even though I started out as the Herrscher of the Void, I was then granted new power by God! I now possess five authorities, thanks to God's generosity!" God? What in the world was she talking about? Not to mention her claim, had a single Herrscher really managed to awaken five authorities?
Yet… she was still only using the power of Death.
"Please, stand down, Void. I'd rather not fight you." So far, the Herrschers she'd encountered were people who were kind and just. They were people KIANA would gladly consider her 'family'.
She thought back to Dr. Magi's words.
They were Herrschers that fought for humanity.
"You don't want to fight? I'm rather curious as to why you're so familiar, but I'm afraid that won't save you. All humans must die." KIANA couldn't help but take it as a compliment to be called human, even if Sirin likely hadn't intended it.
"Very well, then, I had to at the very least try." If Sirin was insistent on fighting, then KIANA would have no choice but to oblige.
"Then I'll defeat you and save Kiana." She announced simply yet sternly.
It was the job of big sisters to discipline their younger siblings, right?
Fu Hua then managed to make it to KIANA's side, a suspicious look on her face.
"I'm not sure how you knew she was the Herrscher of the Void, but that can wait. Right now the Void Core is dormant. Sirin's only keeping herself awake through her contact with the Gem of Serenity. If we separate her from the Gem, she'll go back to sleep, saving Kiana."
"Plotting amongst yourselves? I won't let you!" Sirin spewed out more black mist from her hands. Fu Hua jumped out of the way, leaving KIANA to jump the other way to avoid the mist coming down the middle.
KIANA began to don the Herrscher dress, knowing that it would help combat her weakened state by the Anti-Honkai serum.
However, when she tried to summon it, all she got was a surge of pain.
"Gah!" She yelled as the pain shot across her body.
The sudden shock left her unable to dodge the rapidly approaching vapors, and it slammed down on top of her.
She leaped out of the mist, but it had already begun to corrode her. She watched as the arm she instinctively raised to protect herself was eaten away by the mist.
Predictably, it was agonizing. Especially with the leftover ache from her attempt to summon the Herrscher dress.
She bit her lip to prevent another yell, forcing herself to focus on what power she still could draw upon.
This wasn't like being injected with the serum, where all she could do was struggle to keep herself together.
This time, she had a direct counter.
Shade of Finality: Death
Death was simply a facet of life, and so the power of Death could also be used to create life.
In KIANA's case, the corroded part of her body was slowly healed as her own limited power overpowered the lingering mist.
She looked over to see if Fu Hua had seen her do that, and while she was facing KIANA's direction, she was more preoccupied dealing with the vapors of Serenity to see her recovery.
However, someone else noticed her.
"What the hell did you do, cheater!" Sirin called out. "I had you dead to rights, you don't get to just ignore it!" KIANA sighed. Void seemed to be rather immature, was this a result of her only being half awake? Or had she only been a child when she first awakened?
KIANA couldn't help but flinch at the possibility of a child being corrupted by the Honkai.
"That… won't work again." KIANA spoke slowly, flexing her newly regenerated fingers to help the lingering ache. Luckily she had thought up a new way to deal with those vapors, without needing to put herself in harm's way.
"You're a little cocky for looking like you're already getting tired. You want to try it out? Here!" Suddenly, Sirin created enough vapors to blot out the sky and created two domes with them, surrounding both Fu Hua and KIANA each.
"Ha ha ha ha ha! See how you like it! This Vortex of Serenity will turn you both to dust!"
KIANA sighed once again. She said it won't work again, so it won't.
She once again reached inside herself, wincing at the pain.
Her powers were still weakened, she needed to put in far more effort into drawing this power out that usual.
Shade of Finality: Wind
The Vortex was dispersed by a sudden gust of wind, blowing the vapors into the air and dispersing them.
KIANA stood on the rooftop gasping, but unharmed.
"Dammit, dammit, dammit! Both of you survived?!" Sirin was getting frustrated. KIANA looked over and saw that Fu Hua had managed to get out safely as well.
Turns out that the Herrscher of the Void wasn't all that scary when she had the wrong authority. The true Herrscher of Death may have been trickier to deal with.
No, she corrected herself, Void was still a threat, especially with KIANA weakened as she was, but between herself and Fu Hua, she was confident they would prevail.
KIANA kept watching Fu Hua, how was she able to hold up so well? She could understand herself being able to overpower Sirin, but Fu Hua was just a standard Valkyrie, wasn't she? It would usually take a lot more humans to take out a Herrscher, even one as weakened as Sirin.
There was something about Fu Hua in particular that made her able to stand up against even Herrschers. Something that set off alarm bells in KIANA's head.
Fu Hua then shifted into her battle stance and prepared to re-engage Sirin.
KIANA froze. Her mind tickled with a memory long past She knew that stance. She had seen it before.
50,000 years ago.
Looking at Fu Hua, she couldn't help but recall a warrior on the Moon, using that very same stance.
Thinking back, they also shared a hairstyle.
As well as the 8th Divine Key.
If she looked hard enough, she could almost imagine the gray haired woman standing there with white hair and red eyes instead.
That isn't good.
Even as Sirin began glowing with power, summoning even greater Honkai, KIANA simply stared at Fu Hua, finally realizing why she seemed familiar.
This was one of Elysia's friends, the ones she fought on the Moon.
Someone who lost her friends and allies to the Herrscher of Finality.
As Sirin let out a burst of energy and summoned a new battlesuit, KIANA could only continue to stare at Fu Hua, realizing that Sirin was not the only danger here.
Fu Hua could only stare at Kiana- no, Sirin, as she summoned the Knight Moonbeam battlesuit.
She didn't know how KIANA had managed to get out of the Vortex herself, she could only figure it was a method similar to her own. But for now she wasn't sure that KIANA would be able to fend off a Godsbane battlesuit.
As if on cue, KIANA dashed up next to her.
"Why haven't you used your Divine Key yet?" KIANA asked quietly. Fu Hua's eyes widened.
"You know about Fenghuang Down?" KIANA flinched at Fu Hua's words, realizing that had been the wrong thing to ask, especially given her recent revelation. However, Fu Hua shook off her confusion in the face of the greater threat Sirin posed.
"I'm sorry, I used up all my feathers on the creep earlier. It'll take time for me to be able to use it again." She said, deciding she could focus on why KIANA knew about Fenghuang Down later. The questions she had for KIANA were continuing to pile up.
"Tch, and I need to get close to use mine…" Fu Hua didn't know what KIANA meant, and couldn't possibly know that KIANA also possessed the power of Sentience, though more inexperienced than Fenghuang Down.
KIANA took another glance at Fu Hua making sure she was looking away from her. She then summoned her lance to her side as she dodged one of Sirin's lasers fired from Knight Moonbeam.
For reasons she didn't know, Fu Hua had yet to recognize her. However if Fu Hua saw KIANA using the very same lance she used back then, she was far more likely to remember, so KIANA had to make this quick.
She quickly aimed and threw the lance at Sirin with all her might. Even with the Anti-Honkai serum weakening her, it was still thrown far faster than any human could hope to dodge. In her half awakened state, even a Herrscher like Sirin wouldn't be able to dodge.
'Sorry, Kiana. This will hurt.' She thought as she chucked the lance at Sirin, too quickly for Fu Hua to recognize it.
Suddenly, KIANA felt an oddly familiar energy from Sirin, as she dodged the lance easily as though it were in slow motion.
Slow motion…
"She's even figured out how to use that battlesuit's Time Fracture?!" Fu Hua cried out.
"Time Fracture?" KIANA asked Fu Hua.
"Yes, most recent battlesuits developed have it, that Knight Moonbeam suit of hers is no different. It allows the Valkyrie to temporarily slow down time." Fu Hua explained, while keeping an eye on any further attacks from Sirin. There was no need to keep Schicksal secrets that could mean the difference between life or death.
Slow down time?! These humans… they managed to replicate her original power?
'They managed to replicate the authority of Finality?! How?!' KIANA thought, with an odd feeling in her.
She hadn't used her authority over Finality at all ever since she arrived on Earth to avoid creating a Honkai Eruption, yet humans had managed to replicate it without any of those disastrous repercussions.
Was this feeling jealousy?
No, that could wait for now. Right now Sirin was becoming more and more dangerous. This fight needed to end here and now.
Sirin seemed to share her thoughts, as she began to rain down Lightwings at an even faster rate.
Fu Hua was struggling to keep up on her end. She was without a battlesuit at the moment, and her Divine Key was expended.
She dodged the rapid onslaught of Lightwings to the best of her ability, knowing that in order to stop Sirin, she would need to call in a favor from Otto.
Her decision would not be allowed to reach fruition though, as the Lightwings tore up the rooftop beneath her, sending her into free fall.
She felt something tackle her as she was brought back to solid ground. She looked and saw KIANA gently placing her down.
Before she could give her thanks, she noticed a feeling of emptiness upon her face.
Fu Hua felt her face for a moment before her eyes widened.
"My glasses!" She must have lost them in that last attack from Sirin. "KIANA, we need to find my glasses. If we can do that, I can beat her!"
KIANA was clearly confused as to how a pair of glasses would help, but saw the resoluteness in Fu Hua's eyes and began to look around the torn up rooftop, all the while still dodging Sirin's attacks.
'Sirin hasn't spoken in a while. I figured she'd be gloating non stop with us like sitting ducks here.' Fu Hua thought. She tried to look past the barrage of light from above to see Sirin.
The Herrscher in question was staring down at them quietly, all the arrogance from before gone in favor of cold-hearted aloofness.
'Something's wrong.' Fu Hua realized.
KIANA had the same thought, not by noticing Sirin's change in personality, but from a shift she felt from Sirin's Honkai Energy.
Her own eyes widened as she recognized what she was feeling.
"Watch out!" KIANA called out. "She's trying to forcibly awaken her Void Core!"
The Herrscher of the Void did not say a word in response, instead beginning to glow, as her appearance began to change. The Knight Moonbeam battlesuit was being replaced by a Herrscher dress, slowly but surely.
"Not good!" Fu Hua yelled. "We need to find my glasses, now!"
KIANA watched the glowing Herrscher of the Void, gauging the rate of her growth and completion of her Herrscher dress.
'It's not enough. We can't afford to waste time.' KIANA internally panicked.
She needed a way to subdue Sirin at that very moment. They didn't have time to find Fu Hua's glasses for whatever trump card she had.
With Sirin's Time Fracture, a singular attack wouldn't work, as proven earlier with KIANA's lance. She needed a large all encompassing attack, one that the Herrscher of the Void had no way of dodging.
Unfortunately, that meant she had to use a Shade of Finality in front of Fu Hua.
She dodged the still continuing Lightwing barrage from Sirin, annoyed that the Herrscher of the Void was still able to attack while transforming. It would be tricky trying to attack past all that energy.
Energy…
Now there was an idea.
"Fu Hua, you might feel some discomfort, but I've found a way to stop her."
"Huh?" Fu Hua glanced up at KIANA, before turning her gaze back to Sirin.
She was still looking for her glasses while trying to dodge the Lightwings, when suddenly all the beams of light fizzled out, as though they had all spontaneously ran out of juice.
Then she felt it.
That familiar feeling of having one's body not move the way they wanted, where everything got dizzy and thoughts became muddled.
She could not muster up a sliver of power.
She slowly turned back to KIANA, her eyesight growing blurry as she struggled to retain consciousness.
She saw around KIANA a Field of golden gears.
Of all the things Fu Hua has forgotten over the years, she would never let herself forget this feeling.
The feeling of powerlessness. The feeling of restriction.
The feeling of Binding.
Shade of Finality: Binding
KIANA was struggling to keep the Field of Binding active. It was far more taxing than it should have been, thanks to the Anti-Honkai serum.
Sirin's flight was suddenly cut off, as her lightwings dispersed into the air, and her attempt to awaken the Void Core went with it.
"What the-?" As she fell, her thoughts became hazy. Were it not for the suddenness of the attack, she may have recognized it as the same field that nearly killed her back in the Second Eruption. As it was, however, she couldn't even keep a hold on the Gem of Serenity anymore.
The last thing she saw before she fell unconscious was the sight of golden eyes, so much like her own.
KIANA, unrestricted by her Field of Binding, flew up and caught Kiana's body before she could hit something. She dispersed the Field as she landed, grabbing the Gem that fell with Kiana.
Fu Hua, suddenly able to breathe and move again, stared at KIANA with an odd look.
KIANA handed Kiana and the Gem over to Fu Hua.
"That's that." She mimicked Tesla's words from way back when. Despite her casual tone, this had been far more taxing on her than her battle back then, or even against the Pretender Joyce.
Her head was killing her. Using so many Shades of Finality under the serum's effect was not easy on her.
Fu Hua remained silent as she settled Kiana down and placed the Gem in the Soulium container Siegfried had provided. She then walked to the debris and picked up her glasses, thankfully unharmed.
With the city saved, KIANA made to leave, but found her way barred by Fu Hua. "Did you need any help?" She asked.
"What was that?" Fu Hua asked coldly. KIANA closed her mouth. Nothing she could say would end well.
"What was that?" Fu Hua repeated, harsher now. KIANA may have helped her out, but Fu Hua needed an answer on why she had the power of Binding.
Either she had stolen Theresa's Oath of Judah, or she was the Herrscher of Binding, the same kind as the one that devastated the MOTHs 50,000 years ago, leaving only Thirteen MANTIS soldiers left.
And Fu Hua didn't see Judah around.
KIANA remained silent for a while, simply staring at Fu Hua. If she tried to run, Fu Hua knew she would be able to catch her by deploying the Shadow Knight battlesuit.
Instead, KIANA simply let out a sigh.
Shade of Finality: Sentience
Fu Hua recognized the power affecting her immediately. After all, it was her own power with Fenghuang Down. Normally, Fenghuang Down would make her immune to the power of Sentience, but she had already used up all her feathers.
And she told KIANA that.
KIANA gained a soft look as Fu Hua began to collapse, catching her just before she hit the ground.
"It was nice to properly meet you, Fu Hua. Kiana too." She settled Fu Hua on the ground next to Kiana's resting body, placing the Soulium container with the Gem next to Fu Hua.
"I'm sorry." She was sorry for a lot of things. For using a power that Fu Hua was clearly traumatized by. For putting Fu Hua to sleep with her own Divine Key's power.
She was sorry for killing Fu Hua's friends on the Moon, 50,000 years ago.
She took a glance at Kiana Kaslana, the reckless girl who saved the city and had a Herrscher inside of her.
Was this what Einstein had meant when she mentioned Herrscher personas back then? But looking at Kiana now, she couldn't sense Void anymore. Did that mean that Kiana had two personalities, and only one of them was a Herrscher? No, that didn't make sense.
Something was going on here.
Kiana's odd connection to Void, the 'God' that Void had mentioned, the strange Gems that granted Herrscher authorities. There were too many things that were too confusing.
It wasn't something she could look into now, though. Nor something she wanted to do right now either. She was tired.
KIANA gave one last glance towards the two behind her as she leapt off the building, letting her orange wings appear behind her and take flight.