Honkai: Fire Moth Herrschers-Chapter 259 - 384,400 KM Between Earth and Moon

Michael stared, lost in thought, at the scene before him, watching the dim light and shadows drift slowly with the fine dust amidst a soft rustling sound. He had the strange feeling that he had stood here for hundreds of thousands of years, perhaps longer, as if the world completed a cycle with his every blink.

He turned to look at Elysia. The Herrscher of Sentience power couldn't decipher her thoughts; all Michael perceived was emptiness. There was nothing he could do but secretly grasp her icy hand, hoping to offer a sliver of warmth against the eternal cold and solitude.

Then, Michael turned towards Mei. Under the gaze of Sentience, her every thought process unfolded before him. She was rapidly resolving her own confusion with astonishing speed:

"Why are there Divine Keys here?" —Because this was the site of humanity's final battle against the Herrscher of Finality. The warriors of the previous civilization wielded Divine Keys here in their last stand.

"Why are there Divine Keys I don't recognize?" —Perhaps they were Divine Keys made from the cores of the three Herrschers who hadn't appeared yet in our era.

"Why are there identical Divine Keys?" —Those identical longswords must belong to the Tenth Herrscher Michael mentioned. Since there were a thousand individuals, a corresponding number of Keys were left behind...

But the other Divine Keys, like the unfamiliar cross, like Abyss Flower, like Judgment of Shamash – multiple copies existed. There was only one possibility: they were the same Divine Keys left behind by different eras.

But how could different eras have identical Divine Keys? Did the Herrschers' powers barely change across cycles?

"And the 'me' who left the inscription 250,000 years ago, the Kevin and Prometheus mentioned in it... And..."

She wasn't questioning the existence of even older civilizations, perhaps multiple ones. But it clearly contradicted Earth's current archaeological findings—

It wasn't just that these civilizations left no trace on Earth; the Herrscher of Finality destroying everything could explain that.

But there were complete fossil records of hominid activity on Earth from both 250,000 years ago and even 1.2 million years ago. This created a temporal paradox. Could Earth simultaneously host both a modern human civilization and primitive hominids? That was clearly impossible.

Furthermore, the language on the inscription belonged to the Homo sapiens sapiens lineage. But where did modern humans come from 250,000 years ago?

The suspicion had been brewing for a while, and she had vaguely grasped at a thread of understanding. But only now, seeing these Divine Keys with her own eyes, could she articulate her suspicion with a concrete hypothesis.

"Perhaps time doesn't flow linearly forward, but rather in a..."

Her thoughts, visualized as small bubbles by the power of Sentience, shifted. The words within them changed, finally settling on the same term Michael had also grasped—

"Cycle."

But Mei's exceptional quality lay in not letting these thoughts paralyze her. Instead, her eyes suddenly lit up, and she asked with a hint of anticipation: "Michael, that cross, and that Divine Land-style longsword – can you analyze them beforehand?"

She remembered the tragedy of the Herrscher of Binding described in the future Michael had revealed. If Michael could analyze the power of Binding before it appeared, they would have more methods, more possibilities, to break through its so-called restrictive barrier.

After all, Mei had spent considerable time pondering this. Even knowing the 'solution' in advance, she couldn't devise a better battle plan—they could skip the reconnaissance phase that relied on heavy sacrifices to understand the barrier's properties, but breaking it still ultimately required throwing all their MANTIS warriors into the fray, creating that single, decisive opportunity for Kevin or Michael.

But if Michael could master the power of Binding beforehand, he could deploy his own restrictive barrier, using identical forces to neutralize the Herrscher's. In theory, the two barriers could cancel each other out.

Could the Divine Keys lying here allow Michael to analyze the power prematurely? Even Mei herself doubted they would be so lucky.

As expected, Michael shook his head. "I already tried just now. The space in this area isn't stable. No, it's not just space... it's time."

He motioned for Mei and Elysia to stay put while he walked alone into the desolate expanse before them.

His boots left deep prints in the dusty sand, leading a trail straight to one of the crosses – the Eleventh Divine Key, Judah's Oath.

Michael reached out towards the faintly glowing core at the center of the cross. His hand continued forward, closing into a fist right where the core should be—

Unsurprisingly, just like the countless times Michael had tried before, his palm felt nothing.

Equally unsurprising, from Michael's perspective, as well as from Mei and Elysia's third-person view, all the Divine Keys that had been present just moments ago vanished completely.

They disappeared into thin air, leaving not even indentations in the sand where they had rested.

Mei looked down, searching for the footprints Michael had just made. They too were gone without a trace.

"See? That's how it is," Michael's voice came from where he stood. "Whenever I try to approach these Divine Keys, space and time fluctuate at the critical moment."

"I see..." Mei shook her head regretfully.

But then, Michael's voice echoed directly in her mind: 

The dim light slightly distorted Michael's smile. He seemed to wink at Elysia.

"Alright, this is all we can see for now. But I think, for a simple reconnaissance mission, we've already gained quite a lot, haven't we?"

Whether it was the tangible substance of Soulium, or the intangible, yet world-altering concept of cycles nearing the "truth" of their reality, both were undoubtedly immense discoveries.

Since they had gained enough, was it time to head back to Earth?

Mei shook her head with a wry smile. Although she felt she could hold on a bit longer, it seemed Michael wouldn't allow it. Besides, she understood her own importance to humanity at this stage. Now was not the time for her to be "reckless."

But just as she was about to agree, a blinding light flared up beside her. She turned in alarm, only to see Elysia aiming a pink arrow directly at Michael.

"Elysia!"

There was no time to stop her; Mei was powerless to intervene. In the instant before Mei's shout left her lips, the arrow was already loosed, flying forward irrevocably.

Michael's eyes also held surprise, but only surprise, and just a barely perceptible trace of it.

His reaction was half a beat slow, but it didn't matter. From his perspective, the arrow wasn't aimed at him, but zipped past his ear, plunging deep into the ocean of darkness ahead.

CRACK!

A sharp sound echoed from the darkness – the sound of a crystal arrow striking something hard and shattering into countless fragments.

"Hey! Michael, you were being way too careless!" Elysia seemed to finally snap out of her trance-like state, having apparently detected the anomaly even before Michael.

Or perhaps, her trance itself had been a form of deep reconnaissance.

"You protect Mei. Leave the fighting to me," Michael said.

He took half a step back, turning unhurriedly to face the deeper darkness.

"Honestly, I never get a turn when it's time to fight!" Elysia complained, even as the corners of her lips curled upwards. She tapped the ground lightly with her toe. Pink crystal rained down from above, forming a large dome that inverted itself over Mei and Elysia, shielding them.

ROAR—

Accompanying the low growl, a pair of blood-red eyes materialized in the darkness.

"Oh? Quite large, aren't you? Emperor-class... No, Judgment-class?"

In an instant, Michael pinpointed the Honkai energy signature that had been hiding within the spatio-temporal turbulence. Its power level fluctuated right on the borderline between Emperor and Judgment class. Following the principle of estimating enemy strength generously, Michael classified it as Judgment-class.

ROAR—

The Honkai Beast kept roaring, much like a dog that barks but doesn't bite. It was clearly intimidated by the two Herrschers before it.

Tsk! It was hiding within multiple, constantly cycling pockets of spacetime. To minimize risk, Michael had intended to lure it into attacking first, then look for an opportunity for a swift kill. Unfortunately, this Honkai Beast was far too cautious.

"Although I've never won a gamble... precisely because of that, maybe let me get lucky just this once?" Michael prayed silently, while verbally warning Elysia: "Elysia, brace for spatial turbulence!"

The next moment, brilliant golden light erupted. Even from Elysia's perspective, all she could see was something leaving a long, golden trajectory in the air.

The Honkai Beast fell silent instantly.

"Is it... over already?" Even knowing Michael handled Judgment-class beasts relatively easily, this seemed excessively fast...

Not just Mei, but even Elysia found it somewhat unbelievable. However, being more sensitive to Herrscher powers, she hadn't clearly seen Michael's attack but could discern faint traces left in space. She deduced Michael had likely fused his Void and Sentience powers.

The Void Lance itself was notoriously difficult to defend against. Once hit, the overwhelming spatial forces involved left only two outcomes: instant death or catastrophic injury.

Adding the power of Sentience to deliver a devastating mental blow upon impact... It was practically an unavoidable, guaranteed killing technique.

Michael stood waiting for a moment. Not even a sound of struggle came from the darkness ahead. To be safe, he instructed Elysia and Mei to remain where they were while he advanced deeper into the area affected by the spatio-temporal turbulence.

His figure quickly vanished into the darkness. He himself was unaware, unfeeling of his disappearance from their sight, simply following the position of the Void Lance he had just thrown, continuing straight forward.

After an unknown amount of time, he finally sensed something wrong—aside from the initial moments where the distance between him and the Void Lance shortened slightly, the gap between them had remained constant ever since.

For every step he took forward, the Void Lance's position shifted back one step.

Could the Honkai Beast still be alive?

But that was impossible. The feedback from the hit was solid, and Michael was confident no Judgment-class beast could survive that blow.

Moreover, he had been walking in a straight line. At his speed, he could have covered over a hundred kilometers in this time. Yet, observing from the crater rim earlier, the widest part of the crater was barely over twenty kilometers across. The crater walls didn't seem to curve inwards either. Which meant, if everything were normal, Michael should have slammed into a wall long ago.

If he had wandered into some cave, the small patch of light overhead shouldn't still be visible and unchanged.

Pondering this, Michael unconsciously stopped walking. As soon as he stopped, the perceived location of the Void Lance also stopped receding.

"So that's how it is? Really bad luck, huh..."

If the Honkai Beast were still alive, it likely couldn't maintain a perfectly constant distance from him. Especially after he stopped moving, it should have rapidly moved away.

Therefore, only one possibility remained—the space he occupied, from some point onwards, hadn't changed at all.

"Has the space here formed a closed loop?"

Michael's first reaction was to forcefully break through using his spatial powers. But that option was quickly discarded for a simple reason – he couldn't.

"Hmm... Even Herrscher powers can't break it? No, a Judgment-class beast lacks the power to construct space that Void powers cannot destroy. Is it the Herrscher of Finality's doing..."

If the power of the Herrscher of Finality was responsible for all this, then it naturally made sense.

But Finality was fundamentally a "higher" power. Could the "lower" power of Void truly...

Of course, it could! If he lacked the courage to even face the spatio-temporal turbulence left behind by the Herrscher of Finality from at least fifty thousand years ago, wouldn't that make him worse than even Pardofelis?

There are no unsolvable problems, only a lack of methods to solve them—

"No, a true closed loop, a Möbius strip, cannot exist in three-dimensional reality. The spatial structure here is merely arranged in a ring shape. The connection point is just inconspicuous, not non-existent! There must be a flaw!

"What I need to do now... is find that flaw, then adjust the Void Lance's position to overlap with it, and then force the flaw open from the inside!"

Putting thought into action, his spatial power spread out like water, like mist, completely enveloping the ring-shaped space.

Under the scrutiny of his Herrscher authority, Michael quickly discovered... the expected seam wasn't there, at least not immediately detectable.

Could the Herrscher of Finality truly have constructed a Möbius strip using absolute spatio-temporal power?

Michael silently closed his eyes, his mind racing.

"No. While time might loop or reverse, it's still based on three-dimensional movement. Since the Herrscher of Finality exists in a three-dimensional world, it cannot break the laws of this dimension to create something only possible in two dimensions, unless it turned the entire world two-dimensional.

"The flaw must exist. I just need to search more meticulously, narrow down the scope..."

Was it where the spatial forces were inherently weak? No, if the flaw were there, it would be more obvious, easier for him to notice.

The answer was right in front of him—like a patch on clothing. Precisely because a spot is weak, it needs reinforcement.

Therefore, the flaw must exist where the spatial forces were most concentrated!

Dark red gears spun rapidly in his vision. Having narrowed down the search area, Michael located the minuscule flaw almost instantly—

"There!"

He transformed into a streak of blue light, moving forward, feeling the position of the Void Lance perfectly align with the flaw in the ringed space, and then—

A golden light flashed abruptly in the darkness.

BOOM!

"What happened?!"

The violent tremor nearly knocked Mei off her feet. Even Elysia beside her had to plant crystal flowers into the dust to maintain her balance.

She steadied Mei with one arm while explaining the situation, though her tone sounded more like she was thinking aloud: "That golden light just now was likely a product of spatial power manipulation. What happened? Did the previous attack not kill the Honkai Beast?"

Though her face was etched with worry, she remained firmly beside Mei. Compared to rushing blindly into an unknown battle situation and offering potentially negligible help, trusting Michael and protecting the defenseless Mei as he'd asked was clearly the correct decision.

Therefore, even as massive amounts of Honkai Energy surged towards that patch of darkness, swirling and intertwining under the influence of the spatio-temporal turbulence, coalescing into a huge blue-black energy sphere, Elysia stood her ground, steadfastly guarding Mei, continuously thickening the crystal barrier to block the immense Honkai Energy radiating outwards.

"After all, this level of battle isn't really a big deal for Michael!"

But the next scene made both her and Mei gasp aloud in unison, "Ah—"

The blue-black energy sphere rapidly collapsed inwards, shrinking from a colossal object easily twenty meters in diameter down to a tiny point of blue light.

Extreme implosion inevitably leads to extreme explosion. The blue light flared intensely, but the expected outward blast didn't happen—an invisible force constructed a containment field, like a gun barrel, or perhaps a rail, channeling the explosive force in only one direction.

Thus, the energy mass, like ignited gunpowder in a flintlock barrel, transformed into a massive pillar of blue light, shooting out along the predetermined trajectory, propelling the unknown "lead shot" towards the elm-pod-sized point of light far above.

"Michael!"

This time, Elysia could bear it no longer. She either forgot she could simply dismiss the crystal barrier or didn't want to waste even 0.1 seconds doing so.

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She chose the most brutal method—smashing through the crystal barrier directly with her shoulder and fist, lunging towards the blue pillar of light, leaving a stunned Mei behind, unable to react in time.

However, as if mocking her efforts, when her hand reached the pillar of light, just like when Michael had tried to touch Judah's Oath moments before, her hand passed straight through without resistance, reaching into the space beyond. The pillar of light that had illuminated the entire crater vanished completely.

She turned around in bewilderment. Broken Divine Keys littered the ground around her. A clear set of footprints stretched from Mei's position behind her all the way to one of the Keys of Binding.

Beep beep beep! Beep beep beep!

VMMMM VMMMM—

In Mei's hand, the Prometheus mobile terminal emitted a series of loud, piercing beeps while vibrating violently. The vibration was so sudden and intense that Mei couldn't hold onto it, dropping it into the sandy soil.

Prometheus's holographic projection materialized without any command. Combined with the double alarms, the meaning was clear – extreme emergency!

"Doctor, communication incoming from HQ..." Prometheus began, but was immediately cut off by Kevin forcefully patching through.

"Mei! Ah— you're alright... Thank goodness, thank goodness..." Seeing Mei, Kevin was momentarily overcome with relief. A numbing sensation spread from his fingertips through his chest, shoulders, and neck, almost making him suffocate – even though he no longer needed to breathe.

Blood rushed to his head, making it feel incredibly heavy. For a moment, he forgot what he needed to tell Mei, just patting his chest and repeating, "Thank goodness..."

"Don't rush, speak clearly. What happened?" Mei prompted gently.

"It's... the Moon... detected... high concentration Honkai Energy reading on the Moon..." Kevin stammered.

"I know about that. And then?"

"It's heading towards Earth!"

Earth?

Mei and Elysia, who had hurried back to her side, jerked their heads up. They were on the far side of the Moon; the sky above them should face deep space. But through the elm-pod-sized opening far above, they could now clearly see a hazy, gray planet.

"It's too late to intercept! Projected impact point: 142 degrees East longitude, 11.5... It's... It's New Atra! The Eye of the Deep!"

Splash—

Glug glug glug...

An ordinary rifle bullet fired into water might travel less than a meter. But if you increased the bullet's mass to that of an adult man and extended the gun barrel to 384,000 kilometers, that bullet could penetrate at least 6,100 meters into the water – Michael had tested this personally.

Yes, although the underlying mechanism was likely some form of Imaginary Space warp technology, similar to phase shifting, when the distance was stretched this far... anyway, from a practical standpoint, Michael had indeed traversed the 740,000 li distance between Earth and Moon in under a minute.

It wasn't until he sputtered, choking on mouthfuls of water after crashing through countless castle-like underwater structures, that he belatedly realized he was back on Earth. Due to the immense inertia, however, he felt like his br... brain was still back on the Moon.

The location was indeed the Eye of the Deep, which he had left just... a week ago? Except now it had a new name – New Atra, constructed from the ruins of the underwater city inadvertently left behind when the Mu continent collapsed into a Bubble Universe (the one belonging to Te Moana Kino).

Fortunately, no one was foolish enough to actually live underwater.

By the time Michael managed to pull himself up, leaning against a blue-and-pink wall, his head was still spinning. Gray dust swirled in the water before him. His landing shouldn't have caused this much destruction... right?

He used the water currents to clear the dust, only then realizing that half of New Atra's buildings had been crushed. And the culprit was... the Honkai Beast he had thought he killed earlier.

"Like a skeleton? Tlaloc? Doesn't really look like it..."

Before he could pay much attention to the unfortunate Honkai Beast, the water before him rippled – the unmistakable spatial fluctuations he knew all too well.

As expected, a spatial rift tore open nearby. He was about to offer an awkward greeting when he suddenly sensed... a peculiar mix of searing heat and freezing cold...

Before the person arrived, their voice did—

"Judgment of Shamash!"

"K-K-K-Kevin, hold your fire! It's me!"