A/N: This chapter was brought to you by the 25.6% of you readers who are female. Yes, in a harem fantasy/sci-fi with a male MC. What are you doing here? I don't know. But based. Enjoy.
***
Since the advent of the Vipralopa-Class Honkai Maheśvara, the entirety of Moth has been on high alert for months. It's not a surprise as over the course of these weeks, multiple Emperor–Class Honkai have appeared, without causing an outbreak.
If it wasn't for Honkai detectors that noticed the increase in ambient Honkai energy. It was manageable for the most part. That is until the final one appeared, a Judgement-Class.
A massive bird-type beast. It had a wingspan… spanning over a kilometer. Luckily Kevin, Elysia, Mobius and Eden, managed to hold it off, they even managed to evacuate the coastal city nearby with the help of Himeko and Hua leading the evac. Vill-v was able to test a new invention as well.
A particle cannon. It was a massive turret built at the headquarters of Moth that held the same power per shot as the charged arrow Elysia used against Maheśvara. It had previously decimated the last Emperor Honkai, but barely scratched the Judgement-Class one.
Thankfully Thor had sent Aurora back from the train the moment he sensed it so she arrived just in time to do the classic, hero arrives just in time.
Su being the doctor he is at heart, kept his efforts at trying to create a cure to Honkai sickness, with minimal success.
***
"No." Hua deflated Himeko's words. Being Hua's guardian and all, Himeko had the final say in certain aspects.
"But–" She tried to refute.
"I said no Hua." Following her words, Himeko scanned the results she received from Klein.
[MANTIS Compatibility Results]
[Narasimha - 5.69%]
[Grauda - 96.37%]
[Mitra - …]
96% compatible with a Judgement-Class. Only surpassed by Aurora and Thor himself. The two rejected the fusion, Thor's was obvious, but Aurora just didn't know what might happen if she, a Herrscher, fused with a Honkai beast.
The moment Hua found out she could become a MANTIS like Kevin and Mobius, she jumped at the chance, but Klein stepped in and stopped her, making sure she had Himeko's consent to it.
Himeko being the one to take care of this 16 year old already hated that she chose to be a soldier at 14 yet… she wouldn't allow it. If the world still existed in 2 years, sure she'd be a little against it, but it would be Hua's choice by then.
Hua's expression faltered, shoulders slumped, she left the office, Himeko could only watch her leave, she felt for Hua, she wanted to do more than just train, logistics and management, the odd Honkai eliminations, but being a normal human, Hua couldn't do much.
***
Weeks went by as everything was welcomingly uneventful. No honkai eruption above a couple Chariot or Templar class. No rising Honkai levels, a problem for sure, but for the time being most people preferred to enjoy themselves and take a break from the months of getting barely any sleep.
In a training dome outside of HQ, Thor decides to ease his boredom by amusing himself with Vill's combat evaluation.
"Come on Vill. You can do better than that." Thor teases as he barely avoids another of her rockets, while slapping another beam aside.
"Well I'm sorry. I can't move at the speed of light." She grunts before pushing the big red button. A wall of turrets emerge from her vehicle as they all charge multiple Honkai powered lasers towards him.
"Correction. 1.3% the speed of light, but who's counting." Abusing his speed he shimmers between each of the lasers, casually moving toward Vill's… tank? He didn't know what to call it. Vill had some name for it but he never bothered to remember it.
Thor leaned over the console with a smug grin, "Hey."
"Hmph." Vill snorted, de-holstering her Honkai cannon, blasting him in the face at point blank.
–BOOM–
She grinned and thought she got him.
–Zap–
"Kyaa!" She jumps back, something had zapped her from behind, turning to the source, Thor had his finger held out with lightning surrounding it.
"You missed.
Did you really think you got me with that?" He paused before shifting his gaze to the large holopanel.
[Combat Evaluation Session 1]
[Examiner - Thorald Arwannson]
[Result - Emperor-Class S]
'Ugh, why!? Why couldn't it be Elysia. She would have at least been less strict. I wouldn't have been put on my ass so many times at least.' Vill groaned, Thor could be a real slave driver when it came to training and his standards were always way too high to them.
Thor gave her a few pats on the back, "Now, now. Be happy I gave you that score. If it wasn't for that move of yours at the end you'd only get A Rank."
Vill slouched and began mumbling all sorts of things while Thor saluted and vanished.
***
Watching over the landscape before him, Thor sat on the cliff's edge and opened the PDA. "AURA~ Want to tell me why you gave her an S?" He smiled at the end, but his eyes said otherwise.
Not even a moment later AURORA's avatar showed on the screen trying to look all meek.
Realising its not working she grunted before spiking the power grid to think of an answer to his question.
A lightbulb lit up above her avatar and she slammed her fist into her palm.
"Ahem. You saw her particle cannons, they can pretty easily decimate emperor class honkai so why wouldn't you give her an S" She nodded the whole time trying to convince herself.
The corner of Thor's lips twitched in response, before sighing.
Her avatar shivered seeing it not working, she tried to think of another excuse before he could speak, but it was too late.
"I said to give her A rank for personal strength. She can't carry a particle cannon in her back pocket, yet, but until she does, don't give her anything above A rank without sufficient support."
She nodded rapidly almost like a bobble head, then she ran off the side of the screen before pulling a blueprint onto the PDA.
Once the blueprint popped into the screen fully, it pushed her avatar down hitting her head on the virtual ground.
Thor observed the blueprint, while AURORA sat up all dizzy before shaking it off and jumping to attention, she began explaining everything about the blueprint.
"If it's a casing issue, then why does the second work?" He inquired, thinking of the prospect.
"I–I don't have an answer for that, I spent days processing it, but there's no explanation other than Aurora being a Herrscher." She scratched the back of her head sheepishly.
"We'll give it a shot, Send it to the main server, file it under the first Divine key's remodel section." AURORA nodded before the Blueprint disappeared in a pop. She then waved before vanishing as well.
Sigh "What I do for some peace around here." As the birds around him continued to chirp he threw up a barrier so he could at least enjoy the sunset for now.
"The Honkai have been suspiciously quiet recently, the Herrscher must be near to appearing." Choosing not to worry about it for now, he'd rather enjoy the free time he's had before dealing with another Herrscher mess.
***
–BAM–
Kevin was sent flying crashing right into the wall of the combat arena.
–Crash–
"Haah." Su sighed, already expecting the outcome. "I told you not to, she might not be a MANTIS, but she can fight emperor class." He ignored Kevin's condition and glanced back to Eden.
Fist still stretched out, Eden had a bored look on her face. She also looked to Su then asking, "Can I go now, I doubt he can still fight like that–"
The temperature plummeted as the area turned into an ice sheet.
Letting out a groan Eden flicked her wrist summoning a ball of golden flames, she then casually tossed it towards the ground as it spread into a sea of fire melting the ice and evaporating it before she canceled the rune.
"Can you just hurry up whatever thing you're trying to do, it's movie night." In an instant, a storm of chilling air rushed past her, rustling her jacket and air, but Eden remained bored.
–Fwoosh–
Kevin shot out from the wall, dragging behind him an ice greatsword.
Breaking the sound barrier he swung his sword up at Eden, the temperature dropping further the closer he got.
Eden yawned, indifferent to the attack.
–KABOOM–
A burst of air pressure resulted in an explosion on impact, the floor behind her was ripped to shreds, rubble and chunks of metal digging into a fissure.
As the resulting smoke cleared. The result was revealed, Kevin was gritting his teeth, then coughing up a mouthful of blood.
Eden on the other hand had blocked his strike with a blade of purple flames. She hadn't even been pushed back an inch, let alone be affected by the strike.
Looking at Kevin's state Eden eyeballs Su who nods. She then released the flame sword and walked away, curious about what movie they'll be watching tonight.
Kevin just collapsed onto the ground exhausted, Su laughed at him for being such a idiot to challenge Eden, though he first made sure he was fine before patting his back, he'd have a better chance against Mobius, even if she'd subject him to torture in the end.
***
A/N: Basically just a chill chapter for the most part. Eden and Kevin's fight is mostly to just show how strong Eden is in comparison as I saw in the last chapter I kind of sidelined Eden after trying to physically stop the Judgement-Classes tail slam.
It was also to show that yes I do still remember the runes, it's just that Thor has reached the limit of them currently, while improvement is possible, it's just too slow for him in comparison to his Authorities and physical/Honkai capabilities.
Ciao