Honkai: Fire Moth Herrschers-Chapter 229: Reunion (Part 2)

"Boom—Boom—Boom—Boom—"

The giant, hunched over, chased a tiny fluorescent light with heavy, uneven steps. After the four Honkai Beast genes were extracted, its body deflated like a punctured balloon. Its height remained unchanged, but the once bulging muscles had almost entirely vanished, leaving only thin, sagging flesh clinging to its bones.

It no longer possessed any Honkai Beast abilities. With their factors gone, it was questionable whether the [Instinct] that had previously rivaled Michael even still existed.

Michael's lost powers remained within the giant, but without consciousness as a rein, the horse of power couldn't be controlled.

Now, it was just a lumbering beast, its only weapon its immense size. Its combat strength was possibly less than the combined might of Parvati and Sesa that Kevin faced, but this was a fight Michael couldn't entrust to anyone else. He wasn't fighting an enemy, but himself.

"Moo—"

The giant's foot effortlessly obliterated an entire city block. Michael dashed out from the flying debris, leaping onto a building, but the rising dust completely obscured his vision.

Though his sight was blocked, his hearing and spatial awareness kept him informed of the giant's movements.

As he prepared to move again, the sky above darkened. He stopped abruptly at the building's edge, turning and swiftly conjuring three overlapping Imaginary barriers.

But even before the giant's hand reached the barriers, the wind pressure from its downward swing tore them to shreds.

"Alright, I take back what I said. You're much tougher than Parvati and Sesa combined."

The moment he spoke, the massive hand slammed down, creating a crater hundreds of meters wide. The impact dispersed the previous dust cloud but whipped up even thicker dust, obscuring even the giant's own fingers.

"Pchhh—"

Transcending the spatial rift, the tip of Abyss Flower pierced the skin of the giant's hand, creating a hole too small to register immediate pain. But the inner "Abyss" within the weapon flared, and the power of death surged into the wound, rapidly turning the skin around it a sickly blue-green.

To the giant, this was like a normal person being pricked by a tiny splinter—a slight tingle, easily missed. And as the power of death spread, causing massive cell death, even that tingle couldn't reach its nerves.

Oblivious to Michael's counterattack, it stared with blood-red eyes at its right hand as if its gaze could penetrate the dust.

A blue light flashed through the dust. Michael, holding Abyss Flower in reverse grip, sprinted along the giant's arm, the spear's tip dragging across its skin, leaving a long trail. But the exposed flesh beneath wasn't the normal crimson, but a blue-black, corrupted by the power of death.

Unfortunately, for a being of the giant's size, this level of cell death was inconsequential.

"Moo—"

The giant flung its arm upward, throwing Michael off. It swung its left arm, trying to swat him out of the air.

The giant's size, once an advantage, now became a glaring weakness—just as Michael had stated in his later addendum, "Several Explanations for Abandoning Project Jaeger": "The massive body grants Jaeger unparalleled destructive power and psychological pressure, but its disadvantage is its inflexibility. Against large Honkai Beasts, their comparable size negates this advantage. Against Herrschers, its sluggishness leads to a 'can't hit a fly' scenario."

Unless it possessed Honkai energy far exceeding a Herrscher's to support its movements, but the Honkai Beast factors that had granted this advantage were now gone.

Its arms flailed wildly, the bones almost liquefied, its limbs waving like ribbons. But Michael, using his spatial powers, zipped through the gaps like an untouchable fly. After several passes, he landed again on the giant's right arm.

The instant his foot touched the giant's skin, he sensed something wrong. He pivoted and leaped back, putting some distance between them.

The next moment, the giant's body slammed down, the resulting shockwave blasting Michael away.

He phased through space multiple times, finally using solidified space to halt his momentum. The giant before him was now on all fours like a beast.

"Gurgle—"

Its throat moved, and a cloud of white vapor puffed out from between its blood-stained teeth.

Then, their gazes met—

Both blood-red, but one a vertical pupil, symbol of bestial savagery, the other gear-shaped, a mark of human reason.

"Moo—"

It roared. A human body wasn't suited for crawling, but under its control, its limbs were more agile than when standing.

Shoulders spread, body lowered, it lunged at Michael.

"Tsk!"

Michael tapped his foot on solidified space, using his powers to navigate the empty skyscrapers. The pursuing giant easily swept aside the obstructing concrete jungle.

Its eyes locked onto Michael. No matter how he evaded, it pursued him relentlessly in a straight line, refusing to let go.

"Boom!"

As it smashed through a building with its head, its left claw swiping at Michael's back, a blinding purple light momentarily seared its optic nerves.

Crackling lightning struck it head-on, forcing it back hundreds of meters with a pained howl. As its head steamed, ready to resume its pursuit, a powerful gust of wind swept through a side street. It was forced to brace itself with its limbs, burying its face in the rubble to avoid being blown over by the sudden gale.

When it finally looked up, it found that Michael wasn't further away but was actually charging towards it!

"MOOOO—"

Bracing itself with its legs, the giant half-rose, its left arm sweeping aside large falling icicles. Its right arm assumed the beckoning cat posture—

"Not good!"

Michael's pupils constricted. He pushed his hands forward, creating five layers of Imaginary barriers by the time the giant's arm came down.

But even when it was only 200 meters tall, this attack's shockwave had overwhelmed the Herrscher. Now, with the power balance shifted even further, the difference was even greater.

The five Imaginary barriers shattered instantly. Michael summoned a spatial rift, the terrifying shockwave pouring into the black void, emerging from a rift behind him. Buildings in its path disintegrated, the force continuing beyond the city, reaching the ocean and generating a massive wave before finally dissipating.

A shadow fell over Michael as the giant's right arm slammed down again.

"Tch!"

The Imaginary barrier provided only a momentary reprieve. Michael leaped into the spatial rift behind him, reappearing in mid-air.

The giant's throat bulged, the swelling moving towards its mouth, puffing out its cheeks like a toad.

"What's that?"

In a single second, the light between its teeth shifted from purple to black—compressed Honkai energy. Unable to control his powers, the giant resorted to the most inefficient but brutal method: compressing vast amounts of Honkai Energy within its mouth, then firing it like a beam.

"Idiot!"

The spatial rift Michael had entered closed just as the energy beam swept past. He phased through space, seemingly randomly dodging the attack while simultaneously pulling the beam skyward.

When the giant's neck was pointed almost vertically, Michael appeared directly before it, leaping out of a spatial rift.

His body unfurled in mid-air. With his right hand gripping the middle of Abyss Flower, every muscle movement, the force and angle of the throw were precisely calculated by the Herrscher of Reason's analytical power.

Moreover, he hadn't been fighting alone!

"Seele!"

He hurled the spear. He didn't utilize his spatial powers; opening a rift would take time, and this throw was faster than phasing!

Abyss Flower easily pierced the giant's skin. The sheer force of the impact wasn't just a puncture wound—the force rippled outward, sending waves through the surface flesh and muscle.

"Haaa!"

At that moment, Michael's gear-shaped eyes locked onto the wound.

His spatial power exploded, using Abyss Flower as an anchor. Space twisted spirally, tearing the giant's left arm and a portion of its left chest clean off!

"I hereby dub this move... Kamui!"

The giant howled, Honkai energy replaced by a geyser of dark red blood. The liquid sprayed thousands of meters high, colliding with the "boundary" of the Bubble Universe like a transparent wall, staining the entire sky crimson.

The blood clinging to the invisible boundary began to drip, a rain of blood falling from the sky.

The giant looked at Michael, hovering less than an arm's length away. Whimpering, it shrugged its remaining shoulder, trying to move its right arm. Even now, gravely wounded, it hadn't given up on killing Michael.

Perhaps killing another version of oneself was also a survival instinct.

The existence of another self meant one wasn't unique, but a replaceable, standard part.

Only by becoming unique could one survive in this world.

Thus, Homo sapiens killed all other human species, becoming the favored children of the [Gods], giving rise to the current civilization.

Driven by this instinct, both "Michaels" were fixated on killing the other.

This wasn't something that could be rationally analyzed or explained with words, but a [blessing] etched into every chromosome, the irrepressible turmoil of blood in the heart.

As Michael finished his throwing motion, he swiped his right hand, a spatial rift opening beside him. He grasped the returning Abyss Flower, his grip identical to the throw, only reversed, with a trace of sweat on the hilt.

The other Michael, neck strained, roared in pain and fury.

Its right shoulder twitched several times, but its right arm remained unresponsive. Turning to look, it saw the previously greyish-brown skin now covered in a sickly blue-black. The veins and blood vessels had collapsed, and a foul stench emanated from it.

It was the power of death Michael had infused earlier. Normally, the amount and duration wouldn't cause such rapid cell death in the entire arm, but this was a Bubble Universe.

Michael hadn't dragged the giant into this world simply out of a sense of duty or fate, but because within this Bubble Universe, imbued with the Sixth Herrscher's lost powers, he could amplify Abyss Flower's power exponentially.

"Ready, Seele?"

"Tsk! Such a slowpoke. Just finish it already!"

"Alright!"

Michael held Abyss Flower in reverse grip and plunged it into the earth, using his falling momentum.

Black and white light erupted. White flowers instantly bloomed, covering every inch of visible ground. Even the falling blood rain couldn't stain their petals, sliding off into the soil below, nourishing the blossoms. Thick green vines then shot out from the ground around the Herrscher's feet, binding it effortlessly.

Michael stumbled, steadying himself with Abyss Flower. He'd acted hastily, not fully reconciling with his Core, but forcefully seizing a portion of its power.

The power itself was incomplete, unstable, and their synchronization low. After all this fighting, he was almost spent.

But then, a power opposite to the Herrscher's surged through him, filling his muscles with strength to the point of slight ache.

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"Wait, Seele, that's too much!"

"Stop nagging, are you going to fight or not?!"

Michael chuckled. In a blink, the field of white flowers was overlaid with azure—his and Seele's shared color, the blue of water and sky.

Then, countless railguns, rocket launchers, and electromagnetic sniper rifles locked onto the massive figure.

"A long-lost method of attack..."

Michael's mutterings were drowned out by the deafening roar of weapons fire. The resulting dust cloud dwarfed that caused by the giant's earlier charge. If observed from outside the Bubble Universe, it would appear as a chaotic grey mass.

Even the falling blood rain was thick with dust.

Even Michael's spatial awareness could only perceive a blurry image.

But he trusted his power, trusted Seele's power, and charged towards his former self without hesitation.

Using spatial rifts, he ascended. As he broke through the dust cloud, the giant's battered body came into view. Its face was contorted in pain and rage, yet the features were so... no, they were Michael's features...

The spear tip drew closer and closer to the giant's forehead. He saw complex emotions flash in its eyes—

Resentment, fear, and surprisingly, a hint of relief.

Without hesitation, Michael drove Abyss Flower into the giant's forehead.

"Pchhh—"

He didn't hold back, driving the spear deep.

Blinking the blood from his eyes, he saw no giant, but a familiar, normal-sized... himself.

Abyss Flower had impaled the other Michael, almost severing him in two. Michael himself maintained the stabbing posture, looking somewhat comical due to his previous downward momentum.

"Heh, heh..."

The other Michael gurgled, blood trickling from his lips.

"Haha, I thought you might hesitate. So decisive... doesn't seem like... me."

He spoke to Michael.

"..."

Michael opened his mouth, realizing something, but... he was never good at goodbyes.

"But good, decisive is good... Heh... cough! Let your weakness die with me... My dear self, I don't know if I'll be the last, but if this happens again... please, be as decisive as today. One can only truly move forward by killing their past... cough, cough, cough!"

"..."

"Looks like I can't say anything sentimental. Goodbye, future me."

Michael reached out with his left hand to steady the body and pull out Abyss Flower. But before his hand touched the other self, it dissolved into light.

Michael only managed to grasp a handful of light particles, which slipped through his fingers, vanishing without a trace.

He blinked again, now standing in a field of white flowers. The giant's body rapidly decomposed under the power of death, finally fading into nothingness.

Something pricked his left palm. He looked down to see two gemstones, one blue, one red, floating there.

"..."

He looked towards a distant building—his original anchor point. A pink figure stood there, gazing at him.

Across dozens of kilometers, their gazes met.

He could even see the tremor of her eyelashes.

He shook his head slightly—she wasn't her.

In the next moment, he vanished from the Bubble Universe.

"Shink—"

The white spear tip pierced the black scorched earth. Mobius threw open the makeshift command tent's flap. Michael stood before her, unharmed.

"Done?"

"Yes. Where are the others?"

"Tsk, they're all done, on their way back. What? Want to go greet them personally?"

Her words were normal, her tone familiar, but coupled with her unusual "age," it gave her a distinctly impish air.

"No, I have other things to do," Michael declined, shaking his head.

Before Mobius could react to his curtness, Michael closed his eyes, lowered his head, and gripped Abyss Flower's shaft.

He murmured, "Help me one more time, Seele."

"Tsk! Can't help myself with you!"

Two intertwined shades of blue rippled outward from Michael, covering the entire underground city, a sixty-kilometer radius.

Wherever the light touched, the scorched earth became fertile, green shoots sprouting from the soil.

But the shock Mobius felt was far from over.

A clearer light spread, sketching out a simplified image of the underground city from Michael's memories—towering buildings, the pyramid-shaped HQ, crisscrossing roads, the artificial lake, the breakwater, the willow trees by the breakwater, and even the "Vill-V Chains" hanging in the sky.

As Michael's lips curved into a slight smile, the simple lines filled in, becoming surfaces, then solid reality, all within ten seconds.

The overflowing light shifted, and people rushed out of the tent, stepping onto the cool asphalt, gazing up at the restored artificial "sky" Michael had recreated.

But as Mobius lowered her gaze, as Mei and the others opened their mouths to speak, the one who had wrought this miracle vanished again.

11°20' North, 142°11.5' East.

The deepest part of the ocean. Less than ten nautical miles east lay Mu, the most technologically advanced and densely populated continent on the planet.

The deep ocean was usually pitch black, devoid of light. But here, tiny fluorescent lights in the distance guided Michael.

"Tsk! Didn't expect you to understand her so well."

"Seele always wanted to see the ocean properly, completely relaxed, free from all worldly concerns. And we've had countless opportunities to fulfill that wish."

"..."

This time, Seele fell silent.

"Are you/I truly Seele?"

Two consciousnesses pondered the same question in the deepest depths of the ocean.

Imagine a ship that could sail forever, the Ship of Theseus. From the day it left port, its planks and parts began to decay. Whenever this happened, the sailors replaced them with new ones until not a single original piece remained.

Was it still the Ship of Theseus?

If the discarded parts were reassembled, which ship was the true Ship of Theseus—the one still sailing, or the reconstructed one?

This was the question before them now.

Seele's consciousness was a copy created by Aponia, representing only half of a fractured personality. This explained the difference in surface personality.

She didn't inhabit Seele's original body, nor did she even have a human form—

When the Soulium necklace that sustained her was consumed by Vishnu, the anchorless [her] merged with the formless Stigmata, resulting in her current state.

Her consciousness and vessel were both new, yet she could still be called Seele. How strange...

"Anyway, I don't want to stay inside your body all day, watching you... Never mind. You can use the Stigmata's power even without me. Even if I leave with your help, I can always come back, right?"

"That's right."

"Then don't hesitate. Let me see the true face of the sea."

"Okay."

Before Michael, the entrance to the Sea of Quanta opened slightly, then closed, finally sealed shut by his spatial powers, imperceptible from the outside.

Neither said goodbye. Therefore, it wasn't truly a parting.