***
'Round 3' Lightning coiled around him, a whip-like crack followed as Thor's body transformed into lightning vanishing into the clouds.
-Rumble–
–Pang–
–Snap–
A bolt of lightning struck the Herrscher mid-charge. She screamed. Her skin burned and peeled – She plummeted to the surface like a ragdoll under the power of the bolt.
–Crackle–
Thor reformed in the air, serene.
Brought his hands together. Held a breath.
Parting them – slow and precise.
A black spark flickered to life.
It floated forward directly above the Herrschers fallen form.
He swung his now parted hands down.
Unexpectedly it lazily spiralled downwards, like a falling leaf.
The recovering herrscher stared up, sneering.
"What is th–"
"Black Hole" His serene voice entered her ears before,
–Whomp–
It touched her.
The world inverted.
The space tore open, a spinning black ball appeared in place, a howl tore through the air.
The Herrschers scream cut short as her body, her very being was ripped from existence, not blasted, not burned.
Erased.
Silence remained, only interrupted by the low rumble of the black hole.
Thor exhaled, the orb flickered, then collapsed with a pop.
Nothing should have remained, except something did.
A large green palm-sized gem remained.
Dropping in front of it, he goes to grab it, only for his eyes to go blank, his mind elsewhere.
***
Floating.
He was floating, through a starry space. Yet he couldn't move. Couldn't even speak.
'What?' His body was tugged by some kind of force.
Pulled through the space a radiant sight greeted him.
'A tree?' He thought.
A magnificent tree spanning galaxies.
'It ain't Yggdrasil, that's for sure.' He'd met the bitch, and she ain't that magnificent.
–Wuuuummmm–
Space distorted. Something appeared.
An eye. An enormous purple eye. It radiated Honkai energy. No, it was the source of it…
'Shit.' It was at this moment, he knew. He Fucked Up.
"...Outlander…Anomaly…Death…Soul…Cleansed…" That was it, that was all he heard before losing consciousness.
***
His eyes regained their life. He'd returned.
"What the fuck was that about?!" He looked at the gem in his hand, he could feel a connection to it.
On instinct he swung his hand a repeat of the Herrschers first attack.
'For the love of myself, please cut me some slack.' This could only mean trouble for him. He knew what he was holding, A herrscher core, the core of desire.
Now even after the Herrscher's defeat the storm raged on.
***
"Ellie! A little help over here!" Eden shouted, fighting off 2 templars at once is difficult for someone like her.
Dodging another spear she responded, also shouting, "I'm kinda busy over here!" She fired another arrow, it whistled through the air before splitting into three, reaching their targets.
–BOOM–
The heads of three templars.
"Damn it!" Like a spring Eden leaped skywards.
She raised her arms, concentrating Honkai energy within her flame runes. A ball of roaring fire appeared.
She slammed it downwards at the chariot and knight-class beasts.
–KABOOM–
An explosion larger than anything she had done before burned 3 city blocks worth of beasts to ashes.
Sweat dropped from her brow, she quickly wiped it before getting back into the fight, but not before throwing a glance at Aurora.
"Fucking pests! kneel before me!" Or should she say Alter.
***
Aurora had swapped with Alter after exhausting herself mentally. Leaving Alter in the driver's seat.
"That bitch. She thinks she is special because 4 emperor-class beasts showed up with her!!" Vanishing like smoke in the wind, she reformed, sword sheathed, eye's shut, breath held.
"First From: Severance."
Two of the beasts stopped in place. Alter re-sheathed her sword with a,
–Click–
Cut in two, the former emperors fell into two perfectly cut pieces.
"I'll show that bitch when I see her why, I'm the Queen." She grinned, followed by another crack of lightning.
"Second From: Collapse."
Superheating the air, space cracking engulfing another of the emperors within the space between dimensions.
–ROOAARRR–
She glanced toward the source, shock soon spread over her.
"Is that a fucking wyvern??" Two legs, wings of purple, two horns – not as large as her own obviously. A long spiked tail with a blue tip, honkai scales all over it.
Rather than tensing she giggled.
"Hehehe…hehe…"
Then grew louder into full blown maniacal laughter.
"HAHAHAHA…Haaa. I needed something worth testing on." Glitching in reality she appeared above the Wyvern.
She axe-kicked it into the ground.
Falling like a missile it collided with the surface causing a miniature earthquake. Buildings collapsed, buildings shook, but Alter didn't care.
All she cared about was using it.
"A dummy, the perfect training dummy."
Her sword shifted, folding and expanding, becoming a broadblade. A weapon almost the same size as her. She held it with ease, raised it above herself.
Concentrating almost all of her energy into it.
"Third From: Purge"
A swirl of energy she slashed.
Contacting the Wyverns scales, like a hot knife through butter, it cuts through unimpeded.
A deafening boom shook the city. Everything in her path for miles was caught in the blast. It didn't matter if it was a seraph–class or Judgement–class.
Anything in her path vanished, as if erased from existence, leaving only a chasm behind.
She used up almost all her remaining Honkai reserves.
"So worth it, hahaha," She giggled to herself, though her celebration was cut short.
"ALTER!" Elysia's enraged voice was heard.
–Bonk–
"Owww" Alter held her hand, pouting, tears threatening to fall.
Elysia however, stood there hand smoking anger visible on her face.
"You could have killed us, you idiot!!" Elysia and Eden proceed to lecture Alter, harsh words were said followed by a comfort hug at the end.
All the beasts had been killed in that attack.
***
"What do we call this then?" Eden gazed at the horizon reaching chasm.
"Oh, me! me!" Elysia held her hand up like a student asking for a teacher's permission.
"Yes Ellie?"
"How about the Grander Canyon?" She wiggled her eyebrows.
"No/No" Both the now returned Aurora and Eden denied her.
"Hehehe~"
***
"Wooohooo!!" Kevin was soaring through the air.
Wearing the now molded "Blank" Kevin was having the time of his life.
He felt lighter, stronger, faster and more… free.
He knew his excitement and enjoyment was not appropriate, but can you blame him, this is the closest he will ever get to actually flying.
Who's to say. He thought back to Thor's access to Honkai. 'Maybe I should do it as well… obviously only when it's safe. Totally.'
He closed his eyes to feel the wind on his face.
Like the idiot he was he forgot he was in the middle of a storm, a storm that covered a continent.
So like one would expect a tree in his path was torn from its roots and shot through the air, right into Kevin's path.
Still no the wiser, the tree hits him right in the face.
–Thwack–
His head snapped back. He spun downwards, impacting the ground sliding across it forming a small mound as he went.
"Kevin?!" Mei who had been monitoring his vitals through the suit panicked watching them spike.
"Kevin!"
His head, literally in the dirt. First his hands twitched, then with a groan, moved to pull his head out of the ground.
Blinking, he shook the dirt off his head.
"Mei?" He said, dazed.
"Kevin! Thank god, What happened, your vitals spiked and you didn't answer." Mei's tone was full of worry and concern.
His mind cleared as the memories rushed back.
His face reddened, 'I'll take that to the grave.'
"Kevin?" She asked again.
'What do I say–'
"A beast ambushed me, I dealt with it though so don't worry." Smooth, believable too.
"How the hell did you get ambushed, of all things. Sigh"
Crisis averted.
He stood back up, checked himself over before heading to his target, making sure to keep his eyes open this time.
Who knows, he might actually be ambushed by a beast along the way.
***
Kevin had finished his mission. It was boring to say the least, He didn't encounter a single beast during his escorts, along the way he came across a familiar trio.
They were now on a VTOL heading to meet with Su's team on Christmas Island. They were using the Hospital's facilities for now as it was the closest place outside of the storm.
"You owe me dinner," Eden said, tossing her burned gloves aside.
"For what?" Aurora asked.
"For the three blocks I nuked. You think my outfit is fireproof?"
"You made the runes,
Also Alter created a canyon." Aurora said.
"Yeah, well, you're not Alter right now."
Kevin plopped down next to them. "I'll buy dinner. As long as no one mentions trees."
"Mention what?"
"Nothing."
"You know, I think I saw a branch in your suit," Elysia added innocently.
Kevin buried his face in his hands. "I hate all of you."
"He said that earlier," Eden noted.
"And it's still true."
They all laughed.
***
Thor was in the eye of the storm, glancing down at the gem clenched in his hand.
"How the fuck do I use this to deal with this" He gesture from the core to the storm, over and over.
'What if I…' He held his hand up and clenched his hand.
'Please be intent based so I don't look like a chunni.'
His silent prayer was answered as the storm began to calm, this effect spread throughout the continent wide storm before it began to recede and break apart.
"Now what do I do with this…" He thought to take it with him as Moth already has the 1st and 2nd cores in their possession, but no one other than Elysia has been able to touch them.
"We should be able to make something useful with these." A crack and he was gone heading to Shenzhou.
***