…
[While Thor and Himeko were fighting]
Aurora and Alter felt a little strange. Aurora had immediately come to help Thor deal with the Herrscher. She had arrived the moment Thor embedded Himeko in a massive crater. But just when they were about to help, their world went white, and Alter immediately started to panic.
(Aura! Whatever you do, don't accept it!) It was alarming to Aurora that Alter sounded so panicked, but she didn't dwell on that; their current situation was incredibly dangerous.
Having been instantly abducted to a white plane, only one entity could do that, and that very entity had just arrived.
The white endless plane cracked open. A blinding purple light poured into the space, saturating everything around it.
Honkai energy and Imaginary energy.
"Alter… We're screwed, aren't we?" Aurora asked with a shaky voice.
(...) Alter didn't answer, but her silence was enough to explain their current state.
An eye, a giant eye. The slit dragon-like pupil looked onto her, and both Aurora and Alter felt it, instinctively, only two words came to mind, '(We're so fucked!)'.
Like a bell signalling the charge, two massive hands fit through the cracks, only to grab it and pull it open, increasing the density of purple energy that was slowly beginning to overwhelm Aurora, despite being a herrscher and accustomed to immense Honkai energy saturation.
The cracks expanded further and further until the being pulling it apart could enter, and enter it did.
A three-pointed halo, a single massive eye for a head with a ribcage-like structure around it, a massive body that dwarfed her.
Its singular eye stared down at them, and all the two could feel was instinctive dread, Aurora's body frozen in place, and even Alter in the mindscape was frozen, struggling to stay conscious.
In that moment, Aurora knew exactly one thing, 'Th-this is the H-Honkai…' It might be instinctive for Herrschers, but there was no way they would mistake the very being that created them and gave them their cores.
…
In her soulium prison, Jyahnar sat on her bed, kicking her legs and licking an ice lolly.
"Oh? Even the Boss lost~" Jyahnar chuckled to herself. "Although it's not surprising, that human really is an anomaly."
While Jyahnar was talking to herself, Thor and the unconscious Himeko appeared outside of her cell. And without a word, Thor drew a rune on Himeko's back that made her whole body glow in a green aura before teleporting her onto the bed behind Jyahnar.
Throwing a glance at Himeko, Jyahnar saw that whatever Thor drew on her back was now slowly healing Himeko's body. She quickly lost interest and turned back to Thor, and noticing his silent anger, spoke. "You kno–Gahh!"
As Jyahnar started to speak, Thor made a gesture, and a rune-engraved ring appeared around her neck, glowing orange and causing a mild shock to her system. "Not a word, Jya. Not a word." He said before vanishing, leaving Jyahnar alone with Himeko.
The former tugged on the ring around her neck before clicking her tongue and pouting, "Jerk, I was just trying to be nice…"
…
Back on the ship's bridge, Mei was asking AURORA for a list of all her capabilities.
[Well, if Dr Mei wants to know all my capabilities–Father!] As AURORA was about to start a super extensive list that could take hours to days to go through, Thor appeared silently behind Mei, but since AURORA already had access to all cameras and spatial detection systems, she instantly noticed him and called out to him.
Mei snapped her neck back to look at Thor. His suit was burned and charred, and half his hair was still on fire, despite not spreading, but also not dying out. She instantly frowned and was about to ask how he became like this, but changed her question at the last second, "She's okay, right?"
Thor nodded, a relieved expression appearing on his face. "Yeah, I put a few runes on her, so she should be healed up within a few hours." He then glanced around the ship and panicked crew before honing in on AURORA, whose avatar averted her gaze.
"You got too excited, didn't you?" He narrowed his eyes.
[Haha…O-of course n-not…]
Mei then noticed that golden blood was leaking from Thor's lips and returned to her question from earlier, "How?"
"I'll tell you with everyone later, for now. How's the clean-up going?" Despite the pain in his body, Thor wouldn't rest until everything was handled.
Staring at him for a few seconds, Mei sighed and began to explain the current situation to him.
"Multiple Judgement-Class appeared outside MOTH?" Thor was surprised.
"Mm, but thankfully, Elysia and Sakura handled them quickly; they even had time to help nearby cities." Mei's eyes darkened, mentioning cities.
Not to be one to miss such a thing, Thor questioned her, "How many? How many did we lose?"
"Not tha–" Mei didn't like Thor's expression and thought to lighten the load, but AURORA beat her to it.
[37.2 million and counting, another 130 million injured and 700 thousand missing]
"Shit! Thor wa–!" Mei turned back to Thor only nothing. "Damnit!"
"Why did you say that! You should know how bad an idea that was!" She snapped at the AI.
[He would have found out anyway, it was better–]
"No! It wasn't! He was clearly injured and needed to rest! That bastard gets so reckless in times like this!" Mei interrupted AURORA, letting out all her current frustrations on the AI.
[...I'll track him.] In less than a second, AURORA's superintelligent mind ran multiple simulations based on her Father's personality and prior actions, and concluded that she had indeed messed up.
Mei groaned, but she had other things that needed her attention, like the hundreds of MOTH squads and teams to manage. Although she did have AURORA send out a notice to avoid contact with Thor until the situation is handled.
…
Unlike what Mei and AURORA concluded, Thor did not rush out to join the cleanup; his body was already screaming at him to rest, and even the constant runs he keeps applying to his body are barely keeping him awake.
Instead, he teleported to the surface of the moon, "I'll probably be out of commission for a couple of weeks after this… Better to give them something while I'm benched."
Thor raised both hands outwards and started to draw thousands upon thousands of runes, many of which started to overlap and engrave into one another.
The more he drew, the more his hands shook, but he managed to draw all the runes needed for the plan, and after drawing the final one, all of them except one started to glow in different shades of light and colour. Then the runes started to move across the moon at perfectly spaced intervals.
Feeling with his sense that all the runes were in their correct locations, Thor sapped an incredibly small aspect of his soul and, with a single finger, injected it into the rune before him.
The rune took on a multitude of colours. Thor smiled, but then his vision started to go blurry. Barely able to keep himself upright, he teleported one last time.
The destination? Mobius' lab, where he passed out the moment he arrived, unaware of the shock, surprise, and scare he gave the two scientists in the lab.
…
Elysia and Sakura jointly pierced and sashimi'd the final Judgement-Class Honkai beast.
While bits of the Honkai beast rain from above, Elysia noticed that the immense Honkai aura she was feeling vanished, but rather than feeling relieved that the Herrscher was handled, she frowned, concern on her face that Sakura did not miss.
"What happened?" She asked.
Elysia tapped her chin and muttered, "No clue, I just feel like something is off."
At her words, Sakura also frowned. Elysia's instincts were often correct, and by often, they mean 99% of the time correct. So if Elysia says something strange, then something is indeed strange.
"Should we head back for now and call Mei?" She proposed.
"Mm." Elysia hummed in response, taking a quick look around at the Honkai beasts below, Emperor-Class getting annihilated by the cannons and soldiers before heading back with Sakura.
…
"What do we do, Doctor?" Klein stared at Mobius; the dark circles under both their eyes showed their exhaustion, a miraculous feat considering one was a Flamechaser and the other was genetically enhanced.
"...I don't know." Mobius bit her thumb. "I can't pierce his skin in this state, I can't draw blood, it will just die when it leaves his body, and all the scanners break down coming into contact with his energy. Ugh! Why did I make him so perfect!"
Klein watched her boss grasp her head and throw a small tantrum. But seeing that she also had no idea what to do, she could only return her gaze to the man on the table, surrounded by machines and covered in bandages.
…
Aurora felt like her body was on the brink of collapse. One arm was broken, the other was missing. She was forced to a knee while Alter screamed at her in her mind to let her take over.
She didn't know how much time had passed, an hour? A day? She didn't know; all she knew was that whatever she did to try to escape back to Earth was foiled by the Honkai.
(You dumb idiot! Stop trying to play hero! Let me take over, I'll get us out!) Alter yelled in her mind, but Aurora didn't listen; she could already guess what Alter wanted to do, but she wouldn't let her.
"...N-no…" She coughed out.
(Arghh! Dummy! You are just like him! Trying to play hero for no reason!)
Despite the pain she was in, Aurora managed to crack a smile at Alter's outburst.
The Honkai may be just watching her, but as long as she didn't try to take action to act against its imprisonment of her, it would just watch her, its massive purple eye watching her every move.
Using very little imaginary energy, what Alter told her is the origin of Honkai energy. Aurora started to heal herself. Giving a cautionary glance at the massive entity still half in this domain and half out of it made Aurora realise just how futile her resistance had been.
'So what if I control a fundamental law. That bastard gave it to me.' Aurora gritted her teeth, not just from the realisation, but from the pain of regrowing a limb.
(...Are you going to listen to me now?) Alter asked, somewhat calmer now. Ah, who was she kidding? She wanted Aurora just to let her take over so she could beat her former boss black and blue. But she couldn't; she knew that, so she decided to change her approach now that Aurora seemed more willing to listen.
'Are you going to ask me to let you take over again?' Aurora asked tiredly.
Alter shook her head in the shared mindscape, (I won't… Just listen to me, okay? We're stuck here until Thor or the others find a way to free us.)
Aurora hated to agree with her, to admit that without everyone else, it didn't matter that she was a super strong herrscher, before the one that gave Alter her core, she might as well have been a normal human with Honkai resistance.
'...I'll hear it.'
In their mind, Alter sighed in relief that her idiot of another half was willing to listen for once.
(I know it will sound nonsensical, but if we–)
…
"Why isn't he waking up?" Sakura asked, trying her hardest to remain calm after seeing the state Thor was in when they returned.
"Don't ask me." Mobius huffed. She doesn't know how many times she's been asked that same question today. By this time, the clean up of the remaining Honkai beasts was under control, and while it will take a few days before Mei makes a press statement, their biggest issue or issues, she would say, are Thor's current state and Aurora being MIA.
Mobius' face scrunched up when she thought about it all, 'Ugh! Why is all this bullshit happening all at once!'
While Mobius was having an internal struggle, Eden made an important statement: "None of this can be leaked to outsiders. If teach's condition becomes public knowledge…"
"The people might just lose faith in us." Su finished for her, and everyone else nodded in agreement.
"What about Aurora? Has anyone heard from her yet?" Kevin asked.
"No, even scanning the whole planet, we couldn't find her" Vill started before standing up and walking to the centre of the conference room. "But we did…find this."
The others were confused by the strange expression Vill showed at the end, but watched the footage that played. It showed Aurora just a few kilometres from the fight between Himeko and Thor.
And just when she seemed to be ready to join the fight, a purple light surrounded her, and she vanished.
"What?!" Everyone who hadn't seen it had their eyes widen like saucers. Only Mei and Vill-V weren't surprised, considering they had gone over the footage, god knows how many times, and found nothing.
Stepping forward, Mei proposed a theory, and the others' reaction was anything but good.
"The damn Honkai!" Kalpas' flame covered fist slammed the table, smashing it apart, flinging parts everywhere. No one was surprised at Kalpas' outburst. To him, everyone in this room and even a few outside of it were on his list as family, so knowing that the Honkai just took a part of his family, of course, his anger would burst out.
"That table cost–" Vill was going to tell Kalpas the cost was a hefty amount considering the material, but was interrupted by the chair he sat on being hurled at her.
"SHUT UP!" Kalpas shouted; no one could see his expression behind the mask, but they all knew what he felt; they felt it too, just probably not to the same extent as Kalpas and his newly found family being separated from him.
Vill ducked under the chair, letting it shatter against the wall, and sighed. "Aponia?"
The silent observer of all of this, Aponia, understood what Vill was asking and turned to Kalpas, "Kalpas, please calm down."
At her words, Kalpas stiffened instantly, but a moment later his once tense shoulders loosened, and soon enough he just grunted and walked out, probably to blow something up in the training room.
"Aponia really is scary, huh?" Kosma asked, slightly sweating at what had just transpired.
"Mm, remind me not to need her 'disciplines'," Su said with a shudder.
Mei clapped her hands, getting everyone's attention once again, "We have three important tasks right now, the Honkai is secondary with all the defences Vill has set up across the world now."
Vill smiled.
"What we need to focus on is getting Thor out of this 'coma', figure out what happened to Aurora and if we can contact her to bring her back, and most importantly." Mei paused makingg sure everyone in the room was looking at her, "Don't let this info leak, especially you, Kosma, don't go telling Griseo why her big brother Thor can't paint with her." She then pointed to Sakura, "You too, Sakura, don't go telling Rin either. Got it?"
"Yes!" Everyone answered in unison, though both Kosma and Sakura were a little upset.
Mei nodded, "Mm, good, now get to work on those tasks."
With all said and done, the room's participants began to disband, leaving only Mei, Vill, Eden and an unusually quiet Elysia who hadn't said a word the whole meeting.
"Ely?" Eden asked, placing a hand on the pinkette's shoulder.
Elysia jolted and quickly giggled, "I'm fine, Eden~"
…