Honkai: Fire Moth Herrschers

Michael struggled to open a slit in his eyes, but what he saw was not the real world.

In a daze, the ground beneath his feet was stained from a pure white snowfield into a blood-red sandstorm.

"Michael..." A familiar call came from behind him.

"Celia, Mom!"

But when he turned around, all he saw was the parched, cracked ground, and houses that were either collapsing or reduced to dust.

Even so, he had not forgotten.

This was Vostok City.

The city he overlooked when he first became a Herrscher.

"How did this place become like this? Wasn't I... Could it be that I didn't stop the Second Herrscher? Could it be... No!"

He thought he wouldn't be sad, at least not this sad. Because he had never owned anything from the beginning. The only person he wanted to save was Elysia.

So, people often don't realize what kind of weight they carry in their hearts until they lose the things they thought they didn't care about.

One drop, two drops...

Something wet his face.

Was it rain?

He looked up, but the rain that fell was black.

It was as if it was the sin he was born to bear.

"..." A strange sensation came from behind him again.

There wasn't a sound, and he couldn't feel any temperature, but Michael felt that something was embracing him.

A voice planted a seed in his mind. It seemed to want to call him back into its embrace.

He suddenly had a strange premonition—that at this moment, he should and must turn around, and he would see...

But he was destined to be disappointed. He only glimpsed a golden vine before he started to fall rapidly in the darkness, as if someone had pushed him.

But there was no sound of wind in his ears.

Gradually, the sound of blurry conversations reached his ears:

"Dr. Spas, what is the patient's current condition?"

It was a sticky, cold, and damp voice.

"How should I say it... Perhaps my analogy is a bit inappropriate. I can't find a medical term to describe the patient's condition. His brain is now like a... uh, a CPU that is operating at an overload and is about to burn out?"

"What about the rest of him? Is there anything abnormal about his body?"

"No, his body tissues are no different from normal humans, except that his Honkai energy adaptability is extremely high. In addition, he does contain a small amount of Honkai energy in his body, but considering his identity as a soldier and Captain Himeko's report, I think this is a normal phenomenon."

"Spas, you should know what to tell 'them', right?"

"Uh... Dr. Mobius, I don't understand what you mean..."

"Wait, it seems our patient is awake."

The stark white light made his eyes sting a little. He couldn't help but squint, but when his gaze swept over the green-haired woman sitting by the bed, he sincerely showed a look of utter despair.

He quickly figured out the situation he was facing.

He didn't know if Himeko had ultimately guessed his Herrscher identity. Either way, she had indeed kept her promise and concealed the truth from the Fire Moth. Otherwise, Michael felt that he wouldn't be in this kind of ward—he would already be in prison or on Mobius's dissection table.

But the reason why a lie is a lie is that it cannot deceive everyone—at least the one in front of him, it seemed, could not be deceived...

Michael examined his body. His Herrscher core was gone.

It must have been Ellie who did it, otherwise, with just that core, he would be on the dissection table right now.

"Alright, Spas, you can take the report to them. I have some things I want to say privately to this patient."

Although she said that, Mobius didn't let him leave immediately, but instead snatched the medical report from Spas's hand, modified it, and threw it back to him.

Spas shrugged. He seemed to have expected this situation long ago. He took the modified medical report and turned to leave the ward.

Mobius tapped the iron railing on the bed and said, "Alright, my lovely patient, now that there are no third parties here, you must answer the following questions carefully!"

Michael let out a dry laugh, taking it as an answer to Mobius's words.

"You should know what I'm going to ask, right? And you should also know that they've already asked those two the same questions."

"In the battle against the Herrscher, what happened to those mecha, railguns, and battleships at the end?"

Michael thought silently—if it were Ellie, what kind of lame excuse would she use?

"Cough cough, that was the Herrscher's last attack after absorbing all the Honkai energy. She seemed to want to use mimicry to construct products of human civilization... Ha, you know, the purpose of Honkai is to destroy civilization, so she was backlashed when she controlled these products of human civilization? Anyway, we don't know what happened. Those things that she created turned around and attacked her."

After Michael finished speaking, he saw Mobius biting her finger, looking at him with a smile that was not quite a smile.

"How should I put it? Without any communication, you were actually able to guess their answers with almost perfect accuracy... You're really amazing."

"Doctor, you know that this isn't something that can be done by guessing, so this is the truth."

Mobius scoffed. Michael couldn't figure out what she was thinking, so he simply stopped talking.

"Oh? Then how did you survive? Why didn't those mimicked creations attack you? Do you know that even the idiots in the Fire Moth don't believe this lame excuse? And the reason why they and you haven't been subjected to further investigation is only because I, who dissected the Herrscher's corpse and studied her core, confirmed this claim, nothing more. And if the medical report that Spas submitted just now hadn't been modified by me, you should know the consequences."

"And..."

Mobius took out a player and placed it by his bedside. Michael turned his head and saw that it was playing the scene where he had just landed and faced the Second Herrscher, wielding a railgun.

"You're actually a Herrscher, aren't you?"

Michael took a deep breath. He didn't answer directly but instead asked:

"Equivalent exchange, Doctor. What are your demands? Just name them."

Mobius was stunned. She covered her mouth and giggled, her slightly oversized white coat trembling along with her.

"I've never seen a lab rat as cooperative as you... Because of this, I'm even more interested in you now."

"I'm honored."

"No, not honored. You should feel fortunate, because I'm interested in you. So, in the experiments that follow, I will take extra care of you to some extent. At least, before I've thoroughly studied you, I'll keep you alive..."

Michael remained silent. Seeing this, Mobius directly and roughly ripped off his IV drip.

"I'm very reasonable. You can leave now and go to the Fire Moth's celebration dance. But I'll be waiting for you in my lab. You shouldn't get lost, right?"

"Friendly reminder, Mobius's patience is very bad. I hate waiting for others, so if you want to come to me, you have to come as soon as possible."

"And I don't know when these 'truths' in my hands will appear on the desks of the Fire Moth's higher-ups."

Michael silently put on his clothes and walked out of the ward.

Mobius bit her finger, watching the young man's back as he left the ward. She didn't know if she was asking him or herself, "A Herrscher who fights for humanity... obtaining power from the gods and using it to rebel against them. Is such a thing really possible?"

Michael's footsteps stopped at the door of the ward.

"Who knows? Maybe we obtained power from the gods in order to pull them down from their thrones."

Mobius narrowed her eyes. She was in a daze for a long time. It wasn't until the figure disappeared that she scoffed, "It seems that I've found a direction. The goal of human evolution... Oh dear, I'm a little reluctant to let him go..."