I know where I am! It's that Genshin Impact thingy, right? Chapter: 11

Author's Note: This was commissioned by Darkterror, so this chapter comes FAR ahead of the schedule.

Thank him for this if you want. That said, I will say a few words about commissions after the chapter, for those who are interested. Do not send me any money before discussing things in PMs.

Human Bean is still happening within a week, don’t worry. This was just me getting 120$ shoved down my face and eating it happily, I still remember my obligations.


***


There was no sudden moment of clarity.

One moment, I'd been lying there on the glassy floor, feeling my life slip away. Thoughts ceased, vision barely functioned, cold and tremors wrecking my body as I felt sensation just... lengthen and twist.

Like I could perceive the world through the tunnel... which I could only see through the constantly moving funhouse mirror. Far away, flickering, barely there, and I was slipping somewhere past, into an endless abyss of agony and confusion.

And then a flash of blinding, warm punk.

I felt myself being reborn.

It's impossible to put into words.

The power that flooded into me wasn't gentle. It burned through my veins like molten metal, searing away the cold that had been creeping through my dying body. I could feel it working, actually feel it knitting flesh back together where the Herrscher's hand had punched through my chest. Muscle fibers weaving themselves back together, ribs clicking back into place with sounds I felt more than heard, resonating through my bones.

My shoulder, the one with the gaping hole, was filled with something that solidified into meat and sinew; it felt like it was on fire, but pleasantly, warmly. The sensation wasn't pain or pleasure. I do not have a word to describe what it had been.

My leg straightened with a crack that should have made me scream, but instead I was still laughing, because this was impossible, this was insane, this was me now.

It hurt, I think, but compared to the agony that's been wrecking my insides a mere second ago, it felt almost pleasant.

I could feel my heart. Not just beating, but thundering, pumping this new power through me with each pulse.

And then, it went further. With almost ticklish sensation, once my body was overflowing with this foreign, but familiar power, once it felt as if each cell in my body was burning with it... the threshold was reached, and I felt my body change to accommodate more of that energy.

I could feel my body swell in some places, shrink in others, things growing with an almost ticklish yet burning sensation that just felt so right. Immediately, I felt stronger, clenching my clawed fists, and from the minute shifts, I could feel how much sheer strength my body held, how richer the air tasted, how much more I heard and saw. Every nerve ending blazed with sensation, hyper-aware, catching details I'd never noticed before. My skin itched pleasantly, muscles shifting under it. I knew I'd changed, I just didn't care how, overwhelmed and joyful by a transformation that has been so right.

I could hear, no, feel everything. The pink girl's heartbeat, rapid but controlled. The Herrscher's complete absence of one. The crackle of energy is still dancing across my skin like lightning and a hurricane all at once, barely contained by my body.

And the power. God, the power.

It wasn't like mana, which I had to direct and shape. This was part of me now, thrumming through every fiber of my being, responding to my own joy, pumping with every breath and shift of every muscle. I felt like I could punch through a mountain, like I could run faster than sound, and I felt that if I jumped, I could reach space quite literally. My body felt impossibly light and yet just as impossibly strong, coiled potential that could explode into motion at will.

The well of energy in me felt like an ocean, its mighty tides rolling across my every cell, and spilling out into the world in a haze of violet, dark, and gold.

The laughter finally died in my throat as I found myself floating, looking down at my transformed hands with eyes that I knew weren't quite the same anymore. Everything was sharper, clearer, right. It's as if I took my first real breath, opened my eyes for the first time, and heard the world for the first time, like I've been dreaming my whole life, and now I'm awake.

I flexed my now clawed fingers and felt the air itself respond, bending slightly around them.

I understood perfectly now. Dante, Vergil, Nero, and every other fool who chased after the mere shadow of Sparda's Power.

This was better than the best food. Better than the best sex. This was everything. Life itself.

And yet...

I had something to do first.

I let out a breath from my mouth and saw a small hiss of steam.

My eyes moved towards the floating figure of a girl.

She just was there, the expression on her face just as empty, but intense. I knew her attention was fixed on me. I instinctively knew why she didn't attack.

Whatever passed for her instincts, likely screamed at her that she would die if she tried to strike.

"You," I glanced to the side, towards the pink-haired girl who stood there, frozen, her expression more awe than fear. "Don't interfere..."

My voice wasn't mine anymore. It was deeper, growling, distorted, and yet echoing. My face allowed for no change in expression.

Slowly, I floated down, barely even thinking about it, locking eyes with the Herrscher once more.

"...this will be over in an instant."

I didn't care for the pink-haired girl's reaction, but there was a certainty to my voice. Casual conviction that was pooling directly from my heart.

I felt no hate anymore. Just sheer lust to finally move, to act, to test myself and see the world break.

If anything, I think I've felt gratitude. The playful, malicious, giddy kind. It was simply overshadowed by everything else, by the need to move.

"Ladies first." I gestured, inviting the Herrscher to move.

And she did.

It should've been odd, surprising maybe that she for once responded to something I said, but somehow I couldn't imagine her doing anything else.

In a gesture that felt familiar, she started to lift both of her hands...

...so slow.

My patience ran out. 

I was in front of her. The movement itself was there; I didn't teleport, at least not yet. I simply moved.

Her eyes were widening comically slowly, but I could see that she still managed to trace me as I moved, if barely. Impressive, considering a few continuous sonic booms I felt against my skin.

Not that it mattered.

I grabbed her by the throat. The choked sound that she let out was an oddity; I couldn't even hear her heartbeat, much less feel her breath, and yet such a human response.

I could feel the space around us starting to twist as her power flared, and so I acted.

It felt natural, right. The shadow-armour, the spell that has been mine for so long, that I practiced and tried to refine further every day... it wasn't an attachment to my being anymore. Not an artificial construct I needed to slot in place. It was a part of me now.

I wove the spell and poured my demonic energy into it. It felt like unleashing a tsunami in a tighter river channel. By all accounts, the spell should've broken, failed, as the immeasurable power I poured into it came not only in size unacounted, but also poured with immense force.

The power of demons was always a raging current.

But the spell didn’t break. Instead, the demonic energy woven into shape started to repair what it damaged, holding it’s own weight.

I didn't pay any of that much attention. I knew, in my core, in my soul, in every cell of my body, that this would happen, that this is just natural, that this is nature.

And so, the shadows came alive.

From under me, from under the Herrscher, and like the blackest ink, they started to pour into the distortions, sucking in my energy and growing fat and deep, widening the twisted space, breaking it apart, as they writhed and trashed.

I saw the Herrscher's eyes widen in shock.

I could feel the beginning of a grin on my lips.

"Today, the two of us were born anew," I told her, even as she swung both of her arms at me.

The first was wrapped by my shadow instantly. The second, ignited in Honkai energy, rushed towards me with fingers extended, turning into a blade that cleaved space.

I caught it.

Demonic energy running across, within, and around my own hand, I could feel something trying to cleave through, yet it had no success. Unable to disperse the power that was just as potent and rich as the power of the Herrscher, my clawed fingers easily wrapped around a girl's thin wrist, locking it in place almost gently.

Once again, traces of shock were on her face. Lips slightly trembling from exertion as she tried to push or pull away. I barely felt her efforts. Throughout all of it, her eyes were drating from side to side, searching for an escape.

I relaxed the fingers around her neck, whipping my hand back sharply.

The space around the two of us completely broke down. I could feel as if it extended, trying to elongate the Herrscher away, turn centimeters surrounding us into hundreds of meters, as her body practically exploded with power.

I didn't try to shield myself from Honkai radiation, not anymore. I let it into my body, only to see it feed into an ocean of demonic power that long since devoured my mana and was fusing this substance, that was already part of it, into more of itself. 

I knew where all this power of hers came from. Its source was right there. In her chest, pulsing like a heart that eclipsed everything around, blinding and powerful as a star.

The wings behind my back exploded into motion, extending and grasping the edges of the space, twisting away, their clawed ends grabbing into space as they burned with demonic power, giving it no room to budge, even as the space screeched and screamed with an indescribable grinding sound, sparks of energy, demonic and honkai, flying around us like fireworks.

I poured demonic energy into my hand, forming a clawing with it. It was a lot of power. So much that the world started to tremble. So much that I felt the ocean of power deep in me, which was draining rapidly, lose a fat chunk of the burning energy. My palm, fingers and claws ignited in purple and gold.

"Second, from me to you, from heart to heart, happy birthday," I told it, even as I saw the Herrscher trying to do everything it could to run away, to escape, to do something.

"Now make a wish!" The strike felt instantaneous even for me.

One moment, the fist was pulled back. Another, and my hand was now wrapped around its heart.

I could see the Herrscher's mouth open, maybe in shock, maybe in pain, maybe in an indescribable sensation of my demonic energy being dumped into its pulsing heart.

I could see that what I did, what I was doing, hurt it.

Whatever passed for my mouth twisted further into a grin as I leaned in, towards her ear.

"Little wanderer, hie thee home."

And so, I poured more. Direct pathway, from deep within me, into that pulsing core of its being. Unleashing all the energy I could at once.

The world exploded. In waves of deep violet and gold, as the space and reality trembled, as something inside of the Herrscher that was never meant to carry Demonic Power - had more of it than any demon in existence, injected with tremendous pressure, running across pathways meant for Honkai. 

The space distortions broke like glass, and a small body, carried by the wave of power, was catapulted into the ground, impacting it with such force that it was akin to a guided missile's explosion.

All of this exchange, from when she started to raise her hands to the moment I finished her off, took barely two seconds.

I felt it, the deep ache and a momentary sense of exhaustion, as the power ceased overflowing through my every cell, and released my body.

I fell to the ground and on my knees, breathing heavily, feeling like I've run a marathon, and yet, I felt whole and healthy. Like I just had a good gym workout.

Slowly, I laughed to myself, pulling on some of the remaining energy streaming inside of me, and forming it into clothing. Somehow, I knew armour wasn't necessary anymore; my new mastery over the spell meant that even without a helmet, something like radiation won't harm me. Not on this level.

"Haaa, that was quite something!~ Good thing I stood back like you asked!"

My eyes, as focused as they were on the dust cloud, moved to the side, where a pink-haired girl suddenly materialized.

It's not that she teleported, I just didn't notice. The sharpness of my senses decreased drastically once I reverted to being a human.

I knew she was there, of course, somewhere at the back of my mind, and yet, seeing her now, dressed in a MOTH uniform, was still surreal.

"...and you are?" I asked, feeling more taken aback than anything.

The girl just winked prettily, giving me a playful salute.

"Elysia, a Special Operative!"

...wasn't I the only Special Operative? Then again, even if my memory of what happened after the armour broke is spotty, she did manage to wrestle me out of Herrscher's hands, and doesn't seem to have any problems being here.

Not to mention that pink crystalline bow. I could feel something from it, back when I was a demon.

She clearly wasn't normal. One of the super-soldiers I've been told about?

She looked friendly. Warm. She was also stunningly pretty, but honestly, exhausted as I was, and breathing as if I had just run a marathon, I barely paid attention to that.

...yet there was something distinctly wrong with her. Not malicious, and her beaming demeanor somehow seemed genuine enough...

...whatever.

"Thanks for the save," I gave her a tired thumbs up instead, as I pulled myself up, cracking my shoulder. "In any case, we are about done he..."

The dust cloud on the spot where Herrscher impacted exploded into a vortex of cracking power.

My eyes snapped there immediately, and there she stood.

At this point, I wasn’t even surprised.

"Alright," With a single fluid movement, I got the revolver out, spinning it around my finger for a cycle or two, before gripping the handle tight, "Seems like me and Hershey's bar over there have some things to hash over."

I stepped between Elysia and the Herrscher, weaving a greatsword of shadow into being, and casually placing it on my shoulder as I started to walk towards an eruption of energy.

"Now run along pinky, adults need to talk."

I made about three steps before I heard an indignant sound behind me.

"H-hey, I can help, you know?~" She sounded more taken aback than anything, making me snicker just a bit. Good thing she can't hear me. "I am pretty strong!"

...or maybe she did.

I just waved her off with my other hand.

"Yeah-yeah, but we don't know how to work together, and I don't know how strong you are and what you can and can't do. Friendly fire will be more of an issue than actually finishing that one off," I gestured towards an imposing-looking tornado of energy, turning to Elysia, and meeting her pouting gaze with a crooked grin. "Just sit this one out; no one else has to die here today. I've got this."

There was a reason for my confidence. In the chaotic vortex of energy seemed potent, but amidst Honkai, I sensed familiar power. My own power, demonic energy leaking through.

In other words, this wasn't Herrscher raging to the heavens as she gets into phase two of this boss fight. She wasn’t me, after all. 

This was a reactor in her chest leaking uncontrollably as it broke down.

"Okay," Elysia said slowly, her expression growing a bit complicated, once her eyes searched my face.

I just nodded easily before turning towards the energy vortex.

Even now, I felt the energy rolling from the Herrscher in waves, partially refilling my own reserves.

"Tch," Clicking my teeth, I kicked off the ground and rushed forward. The distance to cross wasn't huge, but it still took a couple of seconds.

As I approached, I saw the Herrscher. The figure of a child, standing, swaying in place, clawing at her chest, with the face twisted in expression of utter agony. Using her own two feet for once. But that wasn't only that. I could see scales growing across her skin. And where there were no scales, I could see dark veins beneath the torn summer dress.

There was an instinctive understanding. It was as obvious as the sky being blue, or things falling if you drop them. I knew that she was, at least in part, a demon now.

And yet, that power was destroying her. Because the power of a demon was destructive if directioneless.

It wasn’t as easy for humans to become a demon as simply being pumped with the good juice. Why would it be any easier for a Herrscher?

"YoU!" The thing in the girl's body spoke, and its voice was broken, twisted, as if screaming and whispering at once, "wHAt?!"

Someone can’t seem to control the volume, jeeze. 

"Just returning the favour, you know?" I said rhetorically, theatrically waving at her with a revolver in hand, "You had over a million people today bathing in your power and dying in horrific agony, so I thought you're a big fan of that. Practice what you preach and whatnot.”

The answer wasn't quite a roar, or a battlecry, or even a simple cry of pain.

Pretty sure it was all of it at once.

The space started to twist, but oddly, not how it did before. It twisted with grinding, ugly sounds, igniting with demonic and honkai energies both.

No, that’s not right. The honkai energy was opening the tears, but the demonic energy was a contaminant, getting in the way.

I exploded into action immediately, raising the revolver and channeling my own demonic energy into it.

Six shots were fired out almost in a single breath, streaming across like golden comets.

One impacted a twisted, familiar spear that didn't even shape right, the rest impacted rifts and constructs that seemed to be falling unto themselves even without me having to do anything.

The figure of the girl fell to the ground, even as the reality around her kept screaming and screeching, spitting out strange goo and blood from her mouth.

This was pitiful.

I lowered the revolver.

Somehow, this ruined the mood. I didn't even know there was a mood.

"Alright then," I made the first step, and slowly started to approach across the remaining distance, "I promise I'll make this quick."

The girl glared up at me, extending her hand to the side. A rift in space opened, with the same ugly sound, and slowly, agonizingly slowly, a spear formed. Her hand grasped it.

"dAmaGe! ANomAlI!" Whatever it was saying was hurting my ears. Still, this felt appropriate enough.

When the Herrscher rushed at me, her speed was also far from what I've seen her do before.

I grasped the giant shadow greatsword with two hands and braced.

Our weapons collided with a shockwave; the shadowsword was torn apart partially, but the inky blackness simply repaired the damage even as we stood there, her figure extended for a thrust, trying to reach me with the amateurish strike, and me with my feet dug into the cracking glassy ground.

"Not bad for a first swing," I displaced my mass slightly, and the Herrscher, with all her momentum and none of the skill, awkwardly stumbled past. "It's over."

I immediately tried to live up to my promise and end it, but midway through, a rift suddenly tore open on the swordpath, making me abort and swing myself aside.

"dEnIeD." Somehow, this sounded more coherent, and I could swear I heard genuine, familiar rage in this one word.

This wasn’t impersonal anymore. This was Herrscher trying to let out some of the genuine anger… it felt towards me. 

Despite myself, I grinned, pouring more energy into the shadows, and making five spears explode from the ground and towards her.

All of them disappeared into another wide rift that ceased being a moment later.

"Not bad, for a newborn!"

I rushed at her, and she rushed at me. The first swing she did seemed to have accounted for the past mistake. She didn't overextend quite as much; if anything, she seemed to try to go for a defence approach.

Ten lightning-fast strikes were exchanged, each producing a piercing, shrieking sound, each creating a shockwave, and I could feel my grin widening.

She was getting better with each movement.

"Now that's more like it!" I laughed, conjuring a longsword in my free hand, and taking a chunk of her hair, as she barely dodged, as the sword morphed into a dagger that I threw with the momentum of the same motion, "Come on now, live a little! That moment and the one after it, that's all you are getting, so act like it!"

I wasn't mocking her. Not anymore. This was me sharing an insight I have, the epiphany granted to me by my rebirth, as I felt myself grinning like a loon, the orange-tinted glasses on my nose ceasing to exist in my perception.

"Die." Genuine hate, still tremendous hurt, and yet, this was more. More personal. 

Another blinding exchange of attacks, as the Herrscher tried to copy me. Small rifts were opening around and inside the space where my body would've been, but my danger sense and athleticism allowed me to stay a step ahead.

A wide horizontal spear-swing, I slid under, only to twist my body and try to undercut her with a kick, making her fall, and yet, as she did, she attempted to skewer my head with a spear. I pushed myself away, laughing, by just punching the ground hard enough, twisting in the air to land on my feet.

"Eliminate that, die this, broaden your horizon Second," I pointed at myself, once again resting the gigantic greatsword on my shoulder, "Me and you, we are both not of this world. But somehow we can’t be more different. I am your senpai here, you can stand to learn a thing or two!"

The Herrscher rose to her feet, her movements shaky, and she gestured once more with her hand, ripples of twisting space thrown at me like projectiles.

"Tsk," Clicking my teeth again, I exploded into action, rolling, jumping, diving between, even as I threw dagger after dagger at her, while shortening the distance.

My own attacks deflected, even as the Herrscher's breathing clearly grew more and more laboured with each spear-swng.

I was upon her, falling with my sword down like it was a guillotine, only to have all the momentum halted by her own spear, held in both of her hands.

The ground beneath us cracked.

"Talk! To! Me!" My voice briefly flickered, as somehow, I tapped into more strength, my body changing but for an instant, throwing her away. "What are you fighting for!?" I screamed, parrying a couple of her swings, and having a single opening to strike her across the face, making the Herrscher recoil, "You win here, kill me, what next?! What the fuck do you want?!"

The Herrscher roared, but it sounded almost human, and pretty sad considering how high-pitched and childish her real voice was. A desperate scream of anger and hatred, as she threw herself forward, forgoing all defence, trying to overcome and beat me in pure swordsmanship.

A swing blocked, a thrust redirected away, two attacks, five, ten, twenty, within the span of mere seconds, and finally, I push forth.

I let another lunge pass me by, having the shadows rise from the ground and tie the spear from below. I saw the Second's eyes widen in shock before she was slammed into the ground.

My greatsword swung down.

"What do you want?"

I could see her blinking slowly, her eyes tight shut as death approached, now opened again. One eye with a vertical, reptilian slit, and red. It was on the side of her face covered with scales, where her hair was growing white. The other eye was yellow and human-looking.

Both looked so expressive.

She glanced to the side, seeing the greatsword of mine next to her head, digging into the glass.

"To be."

The words were barely uttered, but I heard just fine. Even if she would’ve said nothing, I'd have known the answer in her heart.

I could feel her growing weaker throughout the fight. She was dying; her mission, whatever it was, must have been over since I wounded her heart. Yet, she kept at it. Fighting with desperation and hate, but it couldn't have been for whatever task she pursued as that emotionless machine.

It was that desperation that I recognized. Because I felt it too.

She wanted to live. Maybe it was her body being twisted into that of a demon, rather than anything else, but she wanted to live. She had the spark.

The vortex of energy that was initially exploding out of here was now mostly embers. The flame was still there, but the heat collapsed in on itself.

If I were a betting man, so was her body. Breaking down, that is.

I hated it. Hated it from the bottom of my heart, because something about this wasn't right. She wasn't a human; she was a Herrscher, except she wasn't even that anymore; she was also a demon. But not a born one. Someone forced into being one, and breaking down from it. 

The words I uttered weren't said consciously, as I felt my expression darken. I uttered them because they felt right. Something in me I couldn't recognize urged me forth.

"...and what'll you do to live?"

One eye red, one yellow stared up at me.

"Everything." The Herrscher, too, seemed surprised by the admittance, if only briefly. I could see it in the widening of the eyes, in a pause, as her whole body momentarily ceased moving at all.

Something happened. A connection of some sort. The power deep in the Herrscher's chest responded. My own power flared. 

This was something familiar, something right, but an essential part was missing. Something small but so very important...

...ah, of course.

My eyes softened.

"And you, little girl?" I asked softly.

The eyes staring up at me, after a brief moment, wavered.

"I don't want to die..." The lips didn't move, the body of the girl made no actions out of place, yet I heard the response, soft like the wind.

Were the situation any different, I'd have thought I just imagined it.

I leaped back, allowing the remaining energy in me to flow outwards and down, and seeing what was in the chest of the girl ignite, as her body did.

Demonic power, burning like a small bonfire, erupted. The ground turned to liquid stone once again, I probably would’ve been hurt if I didn’t jump away.

Her body didn't burn with the flame. It dissolved into bright, purple mist that seemed to have been absorbed by a golden star deep within.

That star that consumed more and more energy, mine and the energy from around us, as it gently floated towards me.

I extended my hand, confused, having no idea what was going on, but feeling that this was right. Some instincts I never knew I had.

The star reached my outstretched hand, and suddenly, I barely managed to catch it in time. A decorated, beautiful purple spear with a tip covered in odd geometrical shapes.

A golden, beautiful ribbon was wrapped around the middle of the shaft. It felt nice to the touch, and the end of it was flapping gently on the wind.

A pulse of warmth reached me from within the weapon. It felt tired and sleepy, not fully there.

Slowly, I blinked.

What...

"What the fuck?" I muttered more to myself than anything, feeling an even more colossal wave of exhaustion crushing against me.

This...

"A devil arm?" A spark of recognition, and suddenly I knew that yes, indeed, it was just that.

But that made little sense, didn't it? Devil Arms were demons who agreed to serve Dante to... avoid death...

Did blasting someone with enough raw demonic energy into the heart to flatten half a city count as making them a demon?!

"Wha...~ That's pretty!" I jumped in place, turning towards the pink-haired girl I, again, forgot about. Freaking pink ninjas. 

She stood staring at the spear in fascination.

"Thanks," Without even my conscious input, just following a vague intent, the spear disappeared in a brief flash of purple and gold, leaving me and Elysia alone, "Don't even ask, I literally have no idea how to even begin explaining this to Mobius," I said with a sigh.

The girl giggled softly at that, swinging the bow across her shoulder with a fluid, seemingly practiced motion.

"She can be a bit hard to deal with, hu~?" She asked coyly, I think. With a weird, gremlin-like questioning sound, and the smuggest of grins.

Honestly, I was so drained right now, emotionally and physically, that I was beyond trying to make sense of it.

"You have no idea how much of a pain in the ass this woman can be when she wants to be," I told her drily, chuckling a bit to myself as I scratched my head, "Good thing my earpiece is broken too, she is also surprisingly vindictive. One would think a woman in her position would learn to get over herself, but I knew kids in school who were less petty."

Elysia looked at me for a while before pointing at something just below my chin.

I glanced down.

There was a microphone.

"...in my defence, I fist-fought a Herrscher," I said awkwardly, trying not to think about what I will have to deal with once we get back to the nearest base, "Speaking of which," I gestured to the crater around, "How the fuck do we extract?"

Elysia brought her finger up with a smile before freezing.

Slowly, she lowered it.

"We... uh, wait for a pick up?" She tried.

I considered her for a moment.

"Let's get on a rooftop, maybe?" She added with a chuckle.

We should, before I pass out.

Overpowering the inhuman urge to groan, I nodded, heading towards the discarded shield and sword. It wasn’t far away from the torn apart remains of MK.0.

"So, Special Operative? Did Alexanderson hold back on me?" I asked, as I felt the girl catch up, and walk side by side with me.

"It's not what you think," She denied, her voice still warm, but slightly chiding, "I am… well, a bit of a happy unexpected occurrence, one can say?~"

I glanced at her, seeing the girl skip next to me across the cracked crater, gently kicking a small pebble.

"New hire?" I tried.

She just nodded energetically at that, giving me a wink.

…jeez woman, whatever did I do to you? Stuff like that kills people, you know?

"You can say that!" She glanced up at the sky, her expression growing a bit distant, "Coming here and joining was a bit of a spur-of-the-moment thing." She looked back at me, smiling once more, "I am happy I did, though! I even got to save the one I joined up for!"

…Jesus Christ, did my heart just skip a beat?

I paused for a moment, genuinely thinking I had a heart failure or something, but no, just me being me.

"Speaking of that…" I said, sounding aloof and -hopefully- cool, while my mind...

'Shit shit shit, change subject, abort, redirect, gaslight, knightboss'

"...what exactly did you do to me when I was passed out, dying, and possibly delirious?"

The way she squirmed under my questioning gaze made me awfully suspicious.

"Well, this and that, you know how it goes, hehe~!" I genuinely wasn't sure if she was teasing, embarrassed, or trying to rile me up. "That said, it proved super effective!" She nodded to herself importantly, "The power of a sufficiently cute girl can even give someone like you a never-before-seen power up, if properly utilized!"

…for my sanity, I am not asking dwelling on this, or what she is on about. Now that I think about it, I need to change the subject again.

"Thanks for that, by the way," I said quietly, seeing the girl stumble slightly, "Dunno what you actually did, but pretty sure it saved my life."

For a moment, she stood there before giving me the most brilliant smile yet.

"You are most welcome!"

I managed to pick up what remained of my gear in silence. I think Elysia might just have allowed me to rest a bit with some dignity. Climbing out of the crater didn't take long, and making enough distance to find a building still standing took some time.

So here I was, studying horrendously huge, deep scratches and cracks across Cap's shield, watching Elysia energetically wave around a red flare. I think she was doing some dance, and possibly showing off.

…that's a very nice ass.

With some difficulty, I tore my eyes away, looking regretfully at the shield again. On one hand, seeing that thing so beaten up felt all kinds of wrong.

But on the other hand, Mobius will probably fix that. Eventually. She can't be too mad at me, I just beat up a super-alien-radiation-interdimensional demigod, didn't I?

I summoned up a spear in my hand, weighing it slowly. Right not, it felt dormant, asleep.

"I still can't believe that," Elysia suddenly spoke up, making me blink slowly and glance at her.

There was no sun for a while, the dust-clouds that the nukes elevated upwards were very much obscuring it and most of the sky.

Yet, for just a moment, through the grey veil, a few rays shone through, down on the girl. Somehow, it was the most picturesque thing I witnessed today.

Her hair was flowing in the wind. Normally, I hated that shade of pink, but somehow on her it looked fitting, soft.

For a moment, I simply stared, losing myself in just how pretty she was.

"It feels nothing like the Second Herrscher… and yet, it's her, isn't it?" She asked, her voice odd.

I considered her question and nodded slowly.

"It's her. But also, that girl she took over." I waved my free hand in a 'so-so' gesture, "Honestly, I have no idea how well this worked, or how it's supposed to work in detail. But basically, the Herrscher became a demon."

Elysia slowly blinked.

"A demon?"

I chuckled at her bewildered face.

"Yeah. That form I took? It's a transformation of a half-demon. While in it, I had access to the power of one," Yet, strangely enough, I still sort of had this energy inside, "I blasted all of it into her heart, I think. Where she was generating all the Honkai power. Poured so much into her…"

I trailed off, shaking my head.

"...demonic energy is weird. It doesn't exactly corrupt, but it changes and twists things. Whatever that thing in her chest was, it was fundamentally what made a Herrscher a Herrscher, you know? It was probably designed to conduct Honkai. I forcefully made it become a carrier of something else. Honestly, the Second should've died immediately, but…"

It was hard to put into words all those half-formed understandings, sensations, and epiphanies. I wasn't the most sciency person to begin with. Yet I tried my best in that one instant.

"...I guess even in that form, she tried to live through it. Adapt the best she could. So her being got twisted, and she sorta became a demon… in a way." I looked up at Elysia and grinned, "Demons are a lot of things. Cruel, violent, and powerful, but they truly believe in might makes right. In the demon world, supremacy is determined by who is stronger. If two demons clash, and one comes short, the loser may directly serve the winner… or, if the fight was a bit too intense, or the demon who lost wasn't trustworthy, he may turn into a Devil Arm to avoid death."

I shook the spear for demonstration, smiling wryly.

"For a few decades, the demon in the Devil Arm would be recovering, and eventually would be able to manifest again as himself. Basically, for now, it's an extension of my strength. My payment as a victor for sparing her life. As well as an opportunity to build connections and endear myself to the demon, so it may serve me afterwards, even once it reverts back." I explained what I remembered from the games I loved, as well as pieces of novelizations I got hold of back in the day, mixing it all up with my own, strange, weird understanding of how it was supposed to work.

I was so occupied with trying to put it together correctly that I didn't even notice the completely lost expression on Elysia's face.

"Haaaaaaaaa?!~"

Wait, how much did she even know about me and my abilities?! Ah…

"I can already tell this would be a long conversation," I muttered to myself, even as I noticed a Skybolt on descent.

***

Author Notes: The rolls for the whole fight were thrown before we got into the writing. I hope this was as epic as it felt to me.

I had fun doing this, and again, this was written for Darkterror.





Commissions:

So, let me clear the air about that. Any commissions should be discussed in PMs before you guys pay me any money. Because I don’t want to scam you.

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What I am (generally) willing to write for you:
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