Honkai: Fire Moth Herrschers

Mei stood at the top of the tallest building left in this world, a monocular telescope in her hand… well, not actually a monocular. It was the remaining half of one that had been dismantled. Anyway, she was holding half of a telescope, staring intently at the battle seven blocks away.

The sound of the wind was a little chaotic. It was the only sound in this overly silent world… no, there was also the sound of heartbeats, a clearly audible heartbeat.

The heartbeat wasn't fast because the outcome was already determined. There wasn't much chance for things to turn around.

Based on Mei's observations, the Sixth Herrscher couldn't even be compared to Mikael, the other Herrscher, be it in terms of combat ability or powers.

After all, Mikael could use the powers of three Herrschers. Three-to-one, and even the Sixth Herrscher's "death" power, he could resist it by reconstructing his body.

So, in Mei's eyes, worried that they might lose the fight? There was no need.

As for whether or not they would win…

She believed that as long as they did it the way she and Ellie had planned, victory was inevitable.

The only thing she was worried about was if Mikael could bring himself to do it?

The biggest difference between him and the Sixth Herrscher was that his consciousness was still a human one, not a puppet controlled by the Honkai. This was the most basic condition for Mikael to stand here and fight alongside them...

But in some ways, Mei wished that he was just a puppet--a puppet that could carry out her will without any emotion.

Only then, could he use his full strength without hesitation at the right time, at the right place.

"It's coming!"

In the narrow field of view of the telescope, first a purple light lit up, and then the eardrums were shaken by the ear-piercing sound of thunder. As the lightning snakes wound about, Mei felt her hair suddenly puff up, almost standing on end.

Then, there was the dazzling pink crystal. As planned, the crystal formed a giant cocoon-like object, encasing both Elysia and the Sixth Herrscher... Compared to a crystal, it might be more appropriate to describe it as pink amber.

"Then… Mikael… it's time for you to make your choice."

The slender fingers that were holding the telescope were shaking from too much pressure.

One second...

Two seconds...

Mikael was still hesitating, not making a move. Mei silently closed her eyes.

The feeling of killing a loved one...

"Mei! I can't hold on anymore! Half of my body has already rotted… Don't bring me along anymore. I'll only be a burden… Ugh!"

"Mei, please, just leave me here… No, Mei, please just give me a quick death! Please…"

The telescope, held in her hand, was cold and hard, just like the handle of a gun.

"Mei, Mei! That's right, just like that, aim it at my head and pull the trigger… Ah! Ah! Ah! Mei! Please!"

Kevin's right hand, which was gradually turning cyan-black, shook as he grabbed the barrel of the gun and pressed it to his own similarly discolored forehead.

"Mei… if you take me with you, you'll all die… you… have to live…"

"Bang!"

A warm liquid slid down her face, just like that night when the disaster occurred.

"Five seconds... As I thought, you still can't do it..."

Mei wiped away the tears. In the telescope's narrow field of view, Mikael was clearly rushing towards the crystal, raising his lightning blade high, but... he didn't make another move.

Mei slowly turned away, no longer watching the ending.

And that short series of actions took another five seconds.

"Elysia's limit is one minute. Mikael, you have less than fifty seconds left."

But then she laughed at herself--how ironic!

This battle was meaningless to everyone.

For the Herrscher, she had already achieved her goal of destroying human civilization. For her, human civilization had already been destroyed. It was obviously unimportant to kill another Herrscher or not. Of course, according to Mikael, neither she nor the Herrscher were anything more than reflections left by a destroyed world.

If what he said was true, then the idea of "destroying human civilization" or "killing another Herrscher" had lost all meaning, even the last remaining bit of a smile.

And for Mikael, no matter what happened to this bubble world, it had nothing to do with him. The person he wanted to find was clearly not in this world.

This battle was only meaningful to one person--Elysia.

It was her last pursuit, her last wish--an ending, an ending that she was satisfied with, an ending that was worthy of humanity's efforts to struggle all along.

That was why Mikael was playing along with her.

"But, Mikael, no matter which decision you make, you'll still be failing..."

The night wind carried an endless chill. Mei quickly pulled her oversized coat tighter, her train of thought interrupted by a violent cough.

"So, no matter what choice I make, whether to do it or not to do it, I will be letting Elysia down, right…"

Inside the crystal, everything was frozen in that moment.

Elysia still had a flawless smile, while the Herrscher's face was full of rage and fear.

Mikael knew that he didn't need any kind of "full-powered strike." All he had to do was make the electromagnetic waves vibrate at high frequencies, and then use the powers of space to create an effect similar to ultrasound, and he could break everything in front of him back down to an atomic state.

It was a very simple thing. As long as he did this and that, and this and that, Ellie's wish would be fulfilled, and he could go and search for Kalpas in the next world without any guilt.

After all, from a logical point of view, this Elysia wasn't the one that he always wanted to save, wasn't the one he always loved. She was just a reflection…

But still…

But...

"But! How do you want me to endure all of this!"

Mikael's eyes instantly turned red.

Those memories that had been gradually buried after he repeatedly defeated the Second Herrscher and Third Herrscher, especially after he had obtained even greater power and believed he was "the most powerful person in the world" had resurfaced. Those memories shouldn't have been buried.

"The farewell of the Flame-Chasers must be grand and magnificent…"

"Mei, will you accompany me for one last dance?"

"Kevin, you should understand that there are differences between [minority] and [minority]. In everyone's heart, there are always certain minorities… not to mention majorities, they are even more important than [everything]…"

"If one day, all I have to do is pull the trigger like this, to save the [majority] of people..."

"Kevin/Mikael, what would you do?"

The voices in his memory gradually overlapped with Ellie's smile inside the crystal...

"But! How do you want me to endure all this!"

When the crystal shattered and Elysia appeared unharmed, Mikael shouted that out.

Then, the movement of space stopped. She thought that it was because the speed of thought and consciousness accelerated before dying, but she didn't have time to think about it. The first thing she noticed was Mikael's eyes…

Those eyes were lit up by the light emanating from the pink crystals. Even the tears that were about to fall were clearly reflected in her eyes.

"So… even if I'm just a reflection of her… I'm still so important to you… Mikael…"

But for Mikael, was a reflection really just a reflection?

If it was just a reflection that had nothing to do with him, then she would have killed him, a Herrscher, when he was unconscious…

If it was just a reflection that had nothing to do with him… how could she have poked his cheek in that way that was so familiar to him and the Elysia from his world?

And if it was really a reflection?

Then it was a reflection of Elysia. For him, at least for him at this moment, even a reflection was still Elysia! What was the difference!

So, he stopped the movement of space. It wouldn't be able to hold the Sixth Herrscher for long, only about ten seconds at most. It was far shorter than the time the crystal would last.

But Mikael had to organize his feelings and find a real solution in those short ten seconds.

"It seems my original hypothesis was wrong. If I continue to think of the Sixth Herrscher as an earthworm, I originally thought that her clitellum was the Herrscher core, and as long as I removed her clitellum, she was sure to die--after all, she was not the Herrscher of Sentience, unable to exist outside of a body, unlike me. Back then, if I hadn't felt Ellie and woken up, my consciousness would have sunk and disappeared."

"But upon closer inspection, you'll see that the Sixth Herrscher's power was manipulating the division and death of cells, which, to put it simply, is cell movement. So, for the Sixth Herrscher, what was truly indispensable was her clitellum—which was actually her cells!"

"The reason why Mei and Elysia's plan required her body to be reduced to an atomic state was to destroy all of her cells in an instant. Without any cells, she would have nothing to control. Even if her consciousness was still hiding inside her core, it would disappear in a few days due to the lack of a supporting body."

Mikael didn't know it, but it was only those who were Herrschers with a ring singularity like himself who could store consciousness in a core. It wasn't that it was just due to being fully awakened or not, as he had previously thought.

Although the logic was wrong, the end result was right. The Sixth Herrscher, and even the other Herrschers of this era, couldn't do that.

"So, reducing her to an atomic state was undoubtedly a good method. The only flaw was that it would require killing Elysia along with her. But in other words, as long as I could kill all her cells before she could divide new ones, or that I killed her cells faster than she could divide them, I could easily kill her."

"But how do I do that? Cells... There is a limit to the number of times human cells can divide, so human lifespan has an end, but the Herrschers clearly do not. Especially the Sixth Herrscher, her cells could clearly divide infinitely... Huh? Isn't that just like cancer cells..."

"Cancer cells... ionizing radiation!"

"As long as I continuously bombarded her with high-energy, high-frequency, short-wavelength electromagnetic waves, I could…"

"Yeah! Although it can't be done here, but if I did it there…"

Elysia felt a golden light flicker in front of her. When she looked again, both the Sixth Herrscher and Mikael had disappeared... Only a deep footprint was left where Mikael had been standing.

"Mikael..."

She bit her lower lip until a bloody taste came into her mouth.

Confusion also arose...

He clearly knew she wasn't her!

How deep did those feelings have to be that he couldn't even bear to destroy something that had just a little bit of a connection to her.

Her thoughts couldn't be organized, and only Mikael's voice was still looping in her mind:

"How do you want me to endure all of this!"