Chapter 3: Investigation, Conflict VI
Siberian Tundra, Inside the Honkai Chrysalis
Far away from Babylon Labs, having currently no idea her enemy now knew her location, Sirin stood in the middle of the watery floor, ripples moving outward from her feet.
"Tear it all apart."
Sirin began to glow purple, her hair whipping about in an unseen wind, as she began to float, hovering above the water she had stood on.
"Tear through the fragile fabric of space…"
Wisps of a new energy, this time colored blue instead of the purple-pink of Honkai, began to appear, emanating out from the young Second Herrscher.
"…command the powers (Authority) of the Void…"
As the process continued, the simple white dress that Sirin had worn for her entire stay in Babylon Labs began to change… reconstituting itself into a new form, one its wearer desired.
"…and tear their dark, evil hearts from their chests."
Sirin opened her eyes, a smile forming on her face… for her vengeance on her enemies would soon manifest.
Some time later…
Three individuals continued walking in a certain direction, one chain of Judah snaking forward and acting as a compass leading them to their target. "Judah is pointing this way…" Theresa was announcing to her companions, before she caught sight of what the chain probes had lead her to… and the red-headed boy still standing guard outside it.
Shirou caught sight of Theresa, Siegfried and Welt approaching, instantly on guard against the new arrivals, before he recognized Theresa. "It's you… from that time, you freed the other children from their holding cells and said you would take them in… You said you cared about them when no one else did. That other Valkyrie called you… Theresa, was it?"
Theresa also stared back at Shirou, heart pounding. "Yes, that's me… and you are Shirou, right? The other children called you that… and you were cooking meals for them before you suddenly disappeared, along with that other girl… Sirin…"
"So this is one of the missing children… all the way out here… but where is the other?" muttered Welt to his companions. "And… what is the boy standing in front of? It looks like a sphere… a Honkai chrysalis? Is the girl inside?" As the bespectacled man took a step forward, intending to study the object, Shirou moved to stand in his way. "You shall not pass me. I have been ordered to stand guard here in front of this sphere."
"For what purpose?" Shirou refused to reply to Welt's question. 'So Pat's intel is correct again, that this red-haired gold-eyed boy is for some reason working with the Second Herrscher…' The older man was about to continue his questioning when he was interrupted by Theresa unexpectedly. The Valkyrie had walked closer to Shirou, stopping only when she was some paces away from the boy in front of her.
"Shirou… I've read your file in the labs' database, done a few things I'm not supposed to do… and I learnt some information I have to confirm. Could you tell me… are you really called 'Subject HM-03-1204' by… Grampa—no, I mean the Overseer? Are you really a clone, created by him, with Honkai beast DNA?" Theresa nervously stretched out her left hand, pleading for an answer to a thought she dared not voice out loud: 'Are you really like me?'
Shirou immediately tensed at those words, fear and anger looming, the emotions fueling his next action. "How do you know that… name?! No one else knows of how I was created by that man! And… what do you mean… with Honkai beast DNA?!"
Theresa thought back to the previous night, while Shirou was cooking dinner and unknown to her, Patricia had been confronting Sirin.
As everyone had their attention elsewhere, Theresa sneaked down to the facility server room. She had tried to access her objective remotely, but had failed multiple times: her last resort had to be done manually with a direct connection to the database servers. She had also left her bodycam and GPS tracker in the room she had been assigned to, so her Grampa would think she was still asleep.
"I'm not supposed to have this, haha… the login information for Grampa's Overseer profile. I saw him input his password and other things once and memorized it for fun… but I have to know. Did he make more clones of someone other than Kallen Kaslana… is that boy, Shirou, like me, Theresa? Is HM-03-1204… created by the Overseer, just like… A-310?"
With her stolen authorization, she was finally able to read the true, unredacted and uncensored file of 'Subject HM-03-1204'… and her worst fear, yet also a selfish hope was confirmed.
"So, I was right. What I read… wasn't a lie. You were created by Grampa… you're like me." Theresa whispered quietly. A small, sad smile was plastered on her face. "He continued making more clones of others… without telling me." All the previous words were said so softly even Siegfried and Welt could only hear a murmur, yet at that moment, Shirou heard her clearly. Her quiet words cooled his sudden rage, and Shirou then realized that her words were not a condemnation, but sympathizing, that Theresa had been telling the truth. However, the information that he was part Honkai beast was completely unexpected, and he needed to know more.
"Please, explain… what did you mean about Honkai beast DNA? I only knew I was a clone, the Overseer did mention it during his combat tests, but he never mentioned anything about that. What else did he not see fit to tell me?" Shirou almost begged for an answer.
"So he made you go through combat trials too… Grampa really hasn't changed since almost 30 years ago… let me guess, your final trial was to fight another clone similar to you?" Shirou's breath hitched at Theresa's question. "By your reaction… it seems I'm right again." An uncharacteristic scowl appeared on the Valkyrie's face. "Was your name given as a reward for killing the other—"
"No! I refused to kill Gudako when he ordered me to! My name is also my own! No one chose it for me. I am Shirou, not just 'Subject HM-03-1204'!" the redhead passionately stated. In response… Theresa suddenly hugged the young boy. "Hehe… you really are just like me! We both refused to kill the other clone of us, but… what happened to your other counterpart? Gudako, you called them? Sounds like a girl's name?"
Shirou shook his head. "I'm not sure what happened to her. After I refused to obey him, the Overseer tased me into unconsciousness, and I woke up in a holding cell on the same floor as Sirin and Bella…" At the thought of his friends, the boy abruptly remembered why he was blocking the three adults. "Wait! I'm sorry, but I still have a duty to my friend! Why are the three of you here? You're from Schicksal… but you're also not like those researchers. Why did the Overseer allow them to conduct tests on the other children? Those tests killed Bella! When I tried taking her place, the head researcher mentioned I was on an 'observation only' status because of the Overseer's orders! Did that have to do with my apparently being part Honkai beast?!" Shirou frantically questioned.
Aware that Siegfried and Welt were walking forwards towards them, Theresa hurriedly gave a summary of what the file on Shirou had detailed. "You are a clone of Experiment Model HM-03, incorporating both the genes of two Judgement-class Honkai beasts 'Albion' and 'Ddraig'. 'Albion' was an ice dragon, 'Ddraig' was a fire dragon. The Overseer wanted to recreate MANTIS, supersoldiers created in the Previous Era to fight against the Honkai. You didn't display any special abilities that he wanted, but you were still strong and unique enough that the Overseer decided to keep you alive but leave you at Babylon Labs—"
The two adult males finally decided to intervene in the long-whispered conversation. "Theresa, you've talked with this boy for long enough, you can continue later. Remember why we're here: the girl is still in that Honkai chrysalis and may be getting stronger with every passing moment."
"Wait, what? What did you just call the giant ball? It's also something of Honkai? But Sirin's still in there! She said her God asked her to do something inside it… What exactly is going on?!" Shirou questioned in frustration, feeling fear for his remaining friend. The boy almost turned to run into the Honkai chrysalis himself, only for Siegfried and Welt to grab his shoulders.
'From the way this kid is acting, he's just a clueless boy who only wants to help his friend… I don't think he even knows what a Herrscher is, let alone know that Sirin has become one… maybe we can convince him to our side.' Both men shared the same thoughts for a moment.
"Hey, Shirou, do you even know what Honkai is?" Siegfried questioned.
"All I know is that Schicksal and its Valkyries fight against what they call Honkai beasts… I fought a few of those monsters myself during… the Overseer's combat trials. That's all I know."
Both men mentally facepalmed at the simplicity of the information. "You really don't know anything important at all…" Welt muttered.
"Kid, Honkai is the enemy of civilization, of Humanity itself. It is a worldwide disaster, causing destruction of cities, homes, people… young, old or otherwise, it has no mercy for anyone; the Honkai energy radiation in every single one of these occurrences cause plagues and illnesses, with a 100% fatality rate and no cure. When exposed to Honkai energy, the first symptom of the Honkai sickness is purple lines that spread across the victim's body, then loss of the five senses commonly follows, eventually ending with organ failure and death." At this description, Shirou jolted, now recalling exactly what he saw happening to Bella's body before she died. "But sickness and disease is not the only way Honkai tries to exterminate humanity. Honkai beasts are monsters with white armor and glowing pink highlights, entities of Honkai energy created by the Honkai itself as endless armies that we fight against to protect the people of this world." As the two men of Schicksal and Anti-Entropy worked together to explain to the young redhead, Theresa approached the giant sphere out of curiosity, fingers lightly brushing against it.
Ripples formed where she had poked the shimmering surface. "It's flowing like water…" Too late, Welt noticed where Theresa was. "Stop, Theresa! That Honkai Chrysalis just emitted a powerful energy spike! Step away from it right now!" the First Herrscher warned as he sensed a change in the surroundings. "Okay! Okay! I got it!" Theresa replied back, annoyed at Welt's yelling at her. 'AE people are so mean and angry!' she secretly thought to herself.
What Theresa did not notice, however, was a strange glowing blue arm emerging from the curved wall of the sphere as she turned around to walk back to her allies. Without warning, the hand of the blue limb grabbed her arm, preventing Theresa from leaving. As the white-haired lady let out a cry of surprise, more blue arms appeared and began pulling her backward into the chrysalis.
"THERESA!" her companions screamed. As a blue hand covered her mouth, Theresa was unable to even scream for help… and in a blink of an eye she was fully dragged inside. Taking the opportunity, Shirou also sneaked out of Siegfried and Welt's grip and slipped inside the Honkai chrysalis as well before the two men could notice or react in time. 'Sirin, I need some answers from you… regardless of whether you're my friend or the Void Queen.'
"Nooo! Theresa! Don't worry! I'm coming to save you!" Siegfried desperately charged forwards, attempting to try and pull Theresa out by the last visible part of her figure he could still see… that being her boots. Shirou's figure had already disappeared into the depths of the chrysalis. Before he could reach to try and grab the boots, Welt grabbed his arm. "Stop right there, Siegfried. We still have no idea how that girl—Sirin—looks like… and no idea how she fights. Rushing into this without thinking is likely to get us killed." However, the Schicksal Knight didn't seem to listen.
Siegfried impatiently slapped away Welt's hand. "I don't care! My friend is in there! Get out of my way if you aren't helping!" The current wielder of Shamash paused, hair covering his eyes. "Yes. I know getting killed is a possibility, but I'm a Kaslana. And Kaslanas never leave any friend in danger."
'I'm running out of facepalms…' Welt silently stared at the absurd statement of the white-haired man in front of him. 'I have to think of a way to talk sense into this fool…"
Siegfried looked back to face Welt while his hand moved to touch the wall of the Honkai Chrysalis. "You can sit this out if you're scared, Anti-Entropist… because I'll do it alone. I'll go inside, thrash the enemy, and rescue Theresa… hopefully not needing to deal with those two kids inside permanently, but if needs must, I'll have to." The Knight proclaimed, before he finally noticed something.
The wall of the chrysalis was no longer watery, and his hand couldn't pass through. "Wait, it just froze solid…" Siegfried muttered. '…and where did all those blue hands go…?'
The new icy shell cracked ominously, revealing two glowing eyes… one blue, one pink. "What the hell?" exclaimed Siegfried as he stared back at the sudden opening. With loud growls, one massive figure with a giant right arm broke out of the now-frozen sphere. "It's a Honkai beast!" Having no time to draw out his weapon, Siegfried was forced to block the pink-eyed monster's right fist, only to realise… "Damnit! There are two of them!?" The man was now sandwiched between two arms: pink on the right… and blue on the left.
Meanwhile, outside the Tower of Babylon:
A flash of light cut a Seraph Honkai beast apart in front of Niggurath, her lance at ease lying across her shoulders.
"Hey, Salome, you hungry? Here's a dried tentacle horror—I mean a dried squid snack to ease your growling stomach."
A pulsing vein appeared on Salome's expression. "No, thank you. I'm perfectly fine." The blue-clad Valkyrie bit out in false calm.
"They're really good, you know." Niggurath chewed on a tentacle. "Hngh… Although they're frozen solid from this stupid cold."
The vein grew larger from irritation. "STOP FOOLING AROUND, STUPID GOAT! We're tasked with defending the perimeter, We can't let any of these Honkai beasts get through!" Salome screeched at her partner as she pointed at Niggurath.
"What you said may be true… but our allies are doing most of the heavy lifting for us." The red Valkyrie looked over at the battlefield.
Drones could be seen everywhere, blasting apart Honkai beasts with laser shots or cannon blasts. The entire army of 300 monsters that had been reported were being utterly taken care of, with no need for the Valkyries' intervention.
"We can just sit back and relax, right?" "Grr! That's exactly why I'm angry! They took our jobs!"
Further away, on top of the door leading inside the facility, Dr Einstein monitored a remote controller with a screen displaying drone locations and statuses. "Units 1003 to 1094: Focus fire on the Honkai to the west. Deploy another 300 'Eins' auto drones at Sector X-2."
"Directive received. Initiate devastation protocol: TANGO-OMEGA-TANGO-13." Letting out a breath of air, the blue-haired scientist looked on with half-lidded eyes: "This is more boring than I thought… wait, I think I forgot something." Suddenly, her red-headed, twintailed colleague came to mind. "Oh, well, she hasn't called me yet… so I guess she's doing fine." Dr Einstein let out a yawn.
Distantly, a sneeze sounded. "Why hasn't Mophead called me yet? Does she really think I'm enjoying this? I'm going to catch a cold soon…"