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Its been a week since Thor has been in this world and so far after what he's seen reading up further on the world and more specifically Moth and Honkai.
Its suffice to say concerning is an understatement especially after what he saw in the Moth reports First the previous Herrschers reports went into detail on their theorised abilities and the actions of these Herrschers that from his experience told him that first, there are many more Herrschers to come.
2nd some good news, while at a base level they might only be a little stronger than the previous, some bad news however that he theorised their abilities will be more devastating in potential and it might scale exponentially.
For him this wasn't the greatest news, and he was looking on the Brightside. Worst case multiple Herrschers at once rather than what they've had. Thinking about the situation he throws his phone at the pillow.
"Fuuuuuck! Why couldn't I just have it easy here, first we deal with Chaos and the Eldritch abominations. Thought it could get any worse than a Great Old one or maybe an Outer God descending to say "hi".
But no we have Herrschers that have a fucking goal other than spreading Chaos being to actively seek to destroy humanity meaning 'hiding' or 'running away' won't help so- urgghh, I'll think about this later, until a third or fourth Herrschers shows up this might not even happen and I'm just paranoid."
Realising, "Shit, that's a flag if I've ever raised one, Shit."
So far all I've done is a little training in runes that can be used using energies other than Honkai, Eden has had marginal success in using Honkai energy to power the 2 runes I gave her, but even then I doubt she's doing it consciously. However, this means Honkai energy can be used with runes, the issue is I can't use them with runes. Feeling the energy in his body he feels no trace of Honkai energy at all, minus the energy around his soul, but that feels more refined per sa than Honkai energy, 'Pure' you could even call it but he can't risk assimilating something that feels like Honkai energy.
Falling back onto the bed he sighs and grabs his phone "And I still have to do this stupid school thing, not out of obligation but more so Mei being connected to Moth and I can 'use' her as an in for them in future in a more official way rather than the B&E I've been doing on some production facilities for Honkai fission missiles which are crude as just stuffing a concentration of Honkai energy into a missile and hoping 'It Just Works' Stupid." Hah, Why do I even care right now, all I've got to do is just getter stronger and win.
After a 'Minor' crisis Thor decides to just head to the school, Mei asked him for some assistance with a little project she has been working on. The look on her face when she asked me to that almost made me laugh at how much it seemed to hurt her 'pride' to have to ask ME of all people to assist he, haah, here's to hoping it's interesting.
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I walk into class to see Mei... without that book in her hands? Did she finish it already, that would be good. Though seeing the small glare when she noticed me kind of tells me its not that she finished it. "Hiya~, Mei-Chan" He glare seemed to soften a little almost imperceptibly.
"Stop with the Mei-Chan, just Mei is fine, rather call me just Mei than Mei-Chan" Now why would I do that and miss this, nope.
"So 'Mei-Chan~' what's this little project you need the assistance of mwah" No change in expression this time, good she's used to it, or she is just indifferent, but hey I only finished Vol, 1 of "How to Understand Women" even then it took 2 years to read. Mind you theirs 3 Vols, all written by my sister, and turns out they were easily understood by women but most men couldn't get past Vol 1 because the 'Book' was the size of a door if there were physical copies with how many pages there were over 20,000 pages.
"I'll show you after school, just come with me to the lab after the final bell."
"Alright, no problem." I do need to meet Eden tonight so I can't stay for too long. "Though I couldn't help but notice you don't have your book today, you finish it?"
"No, rather not bring it when your going to be helping me on the project later, besides I can't read it anyway." I guess she's right.
After that we talked a little before I went back to my seat deciding to wait on Kevin and Su to arrive.
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*BRIIIIIIINNNG*
Just as the final bell rung Kevin immediately turned to Thor giving him those weird puppy dog eyes. "Kevin, seriously if you want to get to know her just go up to her and talk to her." Seriously I thought it was just a nervousness thing at the beginning, but for some reason its as if he hasn't even thought of that idea.
"Thor, you know I can't just do that it might come off as weird or creepy." I facepalm, That's what he thinks, no wonder this guy has no experience even though he's popular.
"Dude, seriously and I mean this, Just. Talk. To. Her. Simple as that." Now for some random bullshit. "'Most' girls like confidence and since your at least handsome you get the creeper pass so just do it. There's nothing else that can be done.
Kevin looked as if he's just been enlightened by that as Thor gets up to follow Mei to the lab to see her project.
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Mei was stood there looking at her blueprints and notes along with the few tests she was able to run without specialist equipment. Thorald better be as good as he claims to be, otherwise it was a huge waste of time, I need results not more theories and 'concerns' or 'impossibilities'. Fuck that, Herrschers and reality warping power didn't exist until a few decades ago and they still refuse to believe that, why do the-. The door opened to show Thorald walking into the lab.
"So Mei, what's this project?" He at least seems interested in it, good he might actually contribute. Turning the main blueprint Mei pushes it towards Thor. "This is my project."
Seeing him pick it up and look it over, and seeing his indifference, Mei thought he couldn't care less until he walked round the table next to her. "This is some good stuff Mei, unrefined sure but interesting none the less, if this is what you've been working on I don't mind helping you a little on the side."
That reaction shocked her as most just call her a optimist or blinded by her lack of experience, yet. "W-W-Wait, you actually want to help me with this? You don't think its out of reach, or too optimistic for a newbie?"
Thor looked at her like she was an idiot. "Of course, we might need to change a few materials and some configurations but its not like its even that difficult to make, we already have the tech for that, you even seen how small a microchips transistors are and how precisely we make those." He went looked over the rest of her papers. "It's not that the it can't be done, its that there was no sustainable cost efficient method or plan that would make the corpos go wild for it."
Processing what he said Mei finally understood that he was interested and wanted to assist her making her smile at the prospect of a lab partner. "Alright so, what do you think of my plan so far. Also," Grabbing the test results from her bag she passed them to him. "These are the few tests I could do with my limited capital."
He reads through them then starts to tell Mei what she's done well, where she's went down a spiral and so on. This went on for a few hours while they bounced Ideas off of each other.
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Before they knew it, the Sun began to set.
Realising that he lost track of time, meaning that he would soon be late for when he's meant to meet Eden.
"We've made some great progress so far, sadly I'm gonna have to cut it short, I have places to be." Mei also realised how late it was getting and that her parents, while not the caring type, would still care that she's not back yet and she hasn't contacted them yet. She opened her phone to see a few missed calls, but that was it.
"Damn it, this will be annoying." With both of them having something to do they wrapped up what they were doing and said their goodbyes and left the school with Mei heading home and Thorald heading towards Eden's place.
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I arrive at the gates to Eden's mansion, invisible to the guards obviously and make my way inside. Phasing through anything in the way because why not it looks cooler even though no one can see it.
Finding Eden sitting on the terrace with some wine in hand Thor just sits down in the chair next to her picking up the wine she already poured for him, while undoing his runes. "Evening Eden." said taking a sip, acting like a true wine 'connoisseur'. "How's your practice coming along?"
"Evening to you to." She raiser her cup. "Not great, I've been trying to use "Flame" like you taught me but I just can't do it like you said, feel the energy inside your soul and guide." Ahh, she's struggling on the 'feel the flow' part.
"Well if that's your issue, why don't you try using Honkai energy? Its all around us and inside your body too. I use my vitality and other such energies to power runes but you can use Honkai Energy. Didn't you notice yourself using it whenever you activated "Link" because your using Honkai Energy for it."
The look on her face after I mentioned Honkai Energy in her body and that she's been using it seemed to make her worried that she might turn into a zombie before realising that her teacher wouldn't tell her to use it unless its fine right?
"So how do I use it then?"
"Very easy, just activate "Link" but instead of that try to feel the honkai energy in your body when you go to activate it and that's all there is too it. Once you've felt it once you've got a place to start and can work from there." Hell I know, I've never done anything like that, I'm just following what those Xianxia protags do and hope that bullshit works.
"I'll do it." Determined are we, she'll need that if she wants to go anywhere.
Eden sat up and activated "Link" trying to feel for the 'flow' of Honkai Energy at the same time. Feeling a slight movement in her body, not physically but more like a sixth sense movement that you get when you know your being watched or looked at. Deactivating "Link" and turning to Thorald "Teacher! I felt it"
That shit actually worked, makes sense. If those Xianxia protags could do it and so many people followed that there had to be at least some truth behind it. "Good, now try and draw "Flame"." Sitting up Thor watches intensely making sure to observe every detail to maybe find a way that he could use Honkai Energy even if not internally he could maybe guide it externally.
*Huff* I can do this. Closing her eyes Eden proceeds to draw Flame in the air and feels for the same flow she felt when activating Link, she struggled for a minute before she found it and tugged on it and guided it somehow towards here hand and finally into the rune, activating it and unleashing a torrent of flames of the side of the terrace.
Eden was stunned. Thor of to the side was nodding as it worked how he expected yet also confused on why the Honkai Energy wasn't corrupting the rune as from what he saw that was the same as when he tried to use Honkai to power his runes.
Its most likely something to do with how its in her body and she can control it. Sadly I can't test it until I find some way to use Honkai energy without it corrupting me or my runes but this is good enough for now, through Eden I can see how Honkai and runes interact as well as how it flows around the body. Quite a few tests to run.
Eden finally snapping out of her stunned daze faced Thorald "Teacher! Teacher! Did you see that I did it, It worked, the rune worked like you said!!" She didn't believe it would really work, that maybe she wasn't talented or even able to use runes properly as even after a week she had only managed to use Link and even the she thought that was Thorald's doing. But she did it, she actually did it. She spent hours each day trying and nothing worked and now it finally did.
He patted her head "Yes, yes, yes, you did Eden, you managed to use runes, a really big accomplishment for someone who's only be at this for a week, I guess you've been working hard huh, Good Job." Realising what he did. "Ahh, sorry about that."
She turned a little red and muttered "It's fine" embarrassed that she didn't stop him.
She's not to bother by it, at least negatively, but now that Eden's finally using runes I can really start teaching her now, well start with basic elemental runes and then some enhancement runes and then move up to some telekinetic runes and go from there. Depending on her speed it could take anywhere from a few weeks to a few years, too slow if another Herrscher descends Moth might not be able to handle it unlike the other 2. They barley managed the 2nd one meaning a 3rd they might not even stand a chance leaving it to just me as far as I know, having Eden as even some support to help with evacuations or protecting citizens would help take some of the burden if it comes to it.
For a little while after that we discussed what I'll teach her, how and when. I also gave her a few more unique runes to see if she has the affinity for space or soul runes. I then went back to my apartment for the night.
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Shenzou, FireMoth HQ (Only know that Hq moves to an Island in the Pacific when Mei takes over)
A cheerful pink-haired girl was laying down while looking at her phone. "mou~ I'm late. How could Moby put all that work on little ol' me." Remembering the 'threat' that she would be the next test subject for her experiments reminded her why so many people in Moth fear her. Only her, Klein and Blanca are able to be around in a somewhat normal way. Originally Klein was meant to be Blanca's replacement but Mobius refused to let her leave and in the end the workload got split between them with her only helping out when the work became too much.
I guess I can go now right? I've done the 'work' so Moby can't force me to stay (she can). She got up and made her way towards the lab to hand the papers to Klein. As the door opened she cleaned up a little area on the bench of all the instant noodle cups and went to leave.
"Elysia"
"Yes~ Klein" She turned to see a tall green-haired women with bags under her eyes, clothing and hair dishevelled, clearly overworked.
"Make sure to tell Blanca on your way out that she doesn't need to find anymore 'willing' subjects. Dr Mobius already has enough." Yawning Klein walked back to her table and let her head rest before drifting off to sleep.
Elysia stood there with a wry smile as if Klein knew she was leaving than Mobius definitely does. Wait, that means I can leave, yay~. Quickly making the decision to leave before Mobius changes her mind, she heads to Blanca's quarters to tell her the news before leaving.
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Getting into a VTOL, Elysia tells the pilot to head for Nagazora.
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A/N:
I found a massive lore page for the entirety of Firemoth and it's a lot, like a lot a lot, reading through it I've decided that now I'm just gonna think of it as a AU as the pasts of certain characters will be changed and some will remain what they were. More so for Convenience sake than for narrative purposes.
I'm a just add an AU to the title so I don't get hit with the, x is wrong or y is wrong in an essay.
This chapter took a little longer as I had to read up on some characters and decide how to handle them and their backgrounds and rewrote this chapter twice because I wasn't happy with it.
Ciao