The now teenage science brigade was currently fiddling with a device that Tesla and Schrodinger made to try and find Soulium. Emma hid the piece of they had quite far away and the team was testing it out if it worked.
"Alright, if this doesn't work. Then back to the drawing board Nancy, this was really hard to make you know?" Tesla said to Nancy, she had to work hard with Schrodinger for weeks to make their little metal detector. They found out that it was an accumulation of nano bots. Working as a collective like a eusocial bee colony.
The piece they had was currently inactive and they had a plan to steal small amounts of it to unravel the secrets of the mysterious metal.
"Let's go. We need to find where Emma-nee hid it." Lieserl gestured Tesla to fire it up and it released small amounts of honkai energy like a sonar. Though it only detected specific wavelengths of honkai energy that is stable because of Soulium.
The effective range was a few kilometers and they've found it just out of the range, a few hundred meters away. "Did it really work!? Yes! Suck on that Nancy, you didn't even help with this project." Tesla put her tongue out and smiled smugly at Nancy.
"Not that it would work without Erwin's help anyway doofus. Shut up, now let's find us some more of this metal. Schicksal said they're hidden all over the world, it was apparently a material from an advanced civilization in the past." Nancy ushered them to look and everybody got excited to find more.
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With Supergen's mass production capability, they've created more of the Soulium detectors and spread it all around America.
After finding at least a few kilograms of the stuff, they handed it out to the main branch after pocketing some of it. Apparently, it was so rare that the amount that they found were enough to make the HQ of Schicksal favor them greatly.
Giving them more information about the previous era's tech and the help of a certain specialist that deciphers it. Elias Nokianvirtanen, nicknamed Finn. A part time librarian at day. And an ancient scripts scholar by night. He was assigned in the North American branch to help them. (pic here)
He arrived at New Jersey with his son Joachim to his assignment in America. "Come on buddy, we'll be meeting our temporary boss here in New Jersey. They're currently in Princeton, I think you'll like them." He smiled at the little boy. (pic here)
Joachim was a boy that was curious about the world. Wanting to know more of it because of his father's work. "Un, okay dad. Will you find more about that lost civilization here?" He asked as his father was unsuccessful in his operations in Europe.
Finn scratched his head and smiled wryly. "Don't rub it in son, I know I was quite unsuccessful in Europe. But the researchers and scientists we'll be working with are quite the excellent ones. You do know about Edison, Planck, Tesla, Einstein, and Schrodinger right?" He patted Joachim's head and the boy got stars in his eyes.
"They're the ones you'll be working with!? That's so cool!" He gushed and was excited to meet the famous scientists that were world famous at their teens.
"Yeah, so let's go. I know you admire them, it's only a car ride away." They then went to Princeton to meet the leaders of the North American branch.
They quickly arrived and was greeted by the bubbly Emma. "Hi~ You're the new guy that would decipher ancient texts?" She was the one receiving people as she is the facade of their branch. While Nancy operated in the dark as the leader of it all, just like how Ein taught her.
"Ahh, thank you for receiving us. I'm Elias Nokianvirtanen, please call me Finn. This here is my son Joachim, go on. Introduce yourself." He smiled at the little boy that was getting nervous, being face to face with the Emma Planck. The youngest physics professor in history.
"Uhh, hello. I am Joachim, pleased to meet you big sister." He said shyly in which Emma thought it was cute. So she glomped on him and immediately hugged him tightly like a stuffed toy.
"Ohhh! You're so cute and polite. Don't be too shy now, everyone has grown up and they stopped being so cute." She puffed her cheeks and remembered the loli scientist brigade.
Finn laughed and shaked Emma's hands. "You heard that Joachim, don't be too nervous. Well then, Ms. Planck. Could you introduce me to the people I'll be working with?" He wanted to start work as he thought he will surely find something interesting here. The NA branch had massive success in such little time after all.
"Oh yes, let us meet the girls. We've found some information about the previous era's civilization and we're dying to know what it says!" She excitedly lead them to the group waiting in the lounge of the university.
Finn and Joachim entered the lounge with Emma, seeing the complete science team. And he felt depressed looking at them, they were teens that had nobel prizes and will be jotted down in history as the greatest scientists that lived.
"Ohh? Is he the guy? Come here new guy, we need you to decipher this blueprint. It looks like a mech or something." Tesla was impatient and wanted to know more about the mech. She dreams of building mechs after all, especially when Ein gave her some manga of Gundam.
"Ahh, yes. One moment." Finn was about to read it but Emma stopped him. "Frederica Nikola Tesla. You, young lady are too rude. Let him introduce himself and the young Joachim here." She chided Tesla.
Tesla flinched as Emma called her full name. Nancy snickered at her while Lieserl and Schrodinger just nodded at Emma's words.
"Ugh, fine. Make it quick though." She said, annoyed. It was frustrating for her that a piece of treasure is on their hands, but it couldn't be used immediately to make the branch more influential.
Finn chuckled and introduced himself along with Joachim. He then started to read the text and confirmed that it was a blueprint. "Ahh, it says here that this is a honkai powered robot that uses energy weapons."
Tesla listened intently while the others thought of its potential to battle the honkai. As the NA branch of Schicksal, they now knew how much of a threat honkai energy and honkai beasts were to humankind.
"So that means... Lasers and beams!" Tesla shouted excitedly as the others rolled their eyes at her. "It isn't just beams Tesla. We can use it to fight against the honkai remotely. This is a game changer, we don't have infinite supply of manpower and unlike Schicksal's HQ. We don't have a valkyrie order that are superhumans." Einstein concluded.
"We need an army as well. Schicksal is not only an organization that researches about relics and technology. We also need to fight the honkai, we don't know when it would arrive in droves at America. And we would be blind sided, sitting like ducks. Waiting for HQ's support from Europe." Schrodinger summarized their current predicament.
"Okay, we will try to produce these. And we can also use the mechs for trivial tasks. Their dexterity would be helpful unlike forklifts and other heavy machinery." Edison thought of the possibilities.
Emma then clapped and smiled. "Okay, Finn. Please decipher this first. It would be a great discovery. This will be your initial work for now. And welcome to North America's branch of Schicksal. Enjoy your stay here too little Joachim." She patted Joachim's head and he nodded with embarrassment.
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Everything was quite calm, but of course. Things can get out of hand quite quickly. Back in the base in Japan, MEI noticed a sudden surge of honkai energy in Germany. Specifically, Berlin.
"This pattern and surge... It's the 1st herrscher." She quickly called for a meeting and tried contacting Ein. But he was deep inside the abyss and their message would arrive late.
"So it's the start huh? We've prepared for this day to come. But it's quite surreal that we will go to war again." Kevin sighed and remembered the times they had to destroy numerous cities with orbital strikes to kill just an emperor class before the advent of divine keys and MANTIS.
"All of us could take care of the 1st herrscher. Even sending only Nuwa would take care of it." Mobius shrugged and thought only the 14th herrscher was a threat now. They've grown leaps and bounds. And their hardest hitters can affect even galaxies. Like Mobius' ultimate form, burning mode. Where she could vaporize entire solar systems with just a near miss of her beams.
"Let us send out Kallen and Sakura then. This will be their 1st encounter with a herrscher. And they need some field experience in handling one without destroying earth. As that was a big problem Ein faced back in the day." Eden gave her two cents and everybody agreed.
Kallen got excited, she was shown by Ein how he battled the herrschers and she thought this was her destined moment to save the world. "I'll kick that herrscher's ass! If I remember correctly, her power would be to create anything she understands?" Kallen remembered the powers of each herrscher.
Sakura clapped and patted her head. Like congratulating a pet for a good job. "Umu, but this one would be handicapped severely. The 1st herrscher's absolute peak would be copying all of their powers. But due to the civilization and technology, the herrscher is severely limited." She concluded the situation.
"Hehe~ I'm the greatest Kaslana after all! I can beat grandpa Kevin now, so I'm number 1!" She was proud that she could beat Kevin and it is because of the sheer versatility of her fighting style, coupled with Vishnu's genes that Ein pumped with honkai energy aplenty.
Kevin cringed. "When will you stop calling us grandpa and grandma Kallen? Please stop that." He tried for centuries, but Kallen still called them her grandparents.
"Okay~ go now you 2. Remember Kallen, there would be casualties, so don't beat yourself up because of it." Elysia smiled at Kallen that was still the bright and cheerful girl she was centuries ago.
"Here, shoot the herrscher with this. It's an Adamantine serum that would coat the herrscher's core and cut off their connection with the imaginary space." Vill-v gave them a little dart that contained liquid Adamantine that would incapacitate any herrscher hit, bar the 2nd and 10th one. As the 2nd controls space and the 10th have many individual cores.
Kallen saluted and sortied with Sakura to Berlin. "How's the situation MEI?" Eden asked and Vill already deployed nano bots to protect Berlin's population.
"It's all under control, I think Kallen would be disappointed on how weak the herrscher is. It's amassing honkai energy quite quickly, but it's only above an average judgement class honkai beast from back then." MEI observed the energy levels, and it was lacking.
"Then that's much better. We don't want a huge honkai eruption. Let's watch for now." Su commented and they observed Berlin like it was a reality tv show.
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Meanwhile, Ein was still planting mega structures inside the sea of quanta while sipping a mega pint of beer. "Hah, this is quite tiring... I'll need a few decades more at least to finish the plan."
He was now nigh immune to null energy due to absorbing tons of it trickling in to him because of the anchors he planted like a forest inside the sea. Ein needed a massive surge of it to become immune and absorb the sea completely. But the imaginary tree and abyss would surely retaliate if he can't do it fast enough.
Ein sighed and thought how much more would he work for true peace when he just wanted to sit back and relax. "Hmm? Carl's shield just activated. What's happening up there?" he quickly spread his senses and his suspicions were confirmed.
"So the 1st has appeared? Interesting, let's see how this would impact the world." He then teleported back to earth and looked over Berlin.
And in the year 1952, January 1st. The very first honkai eruption in the new era shaked the world.
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Thanks for reading guys, the herrscher of reason has appeared once more. And anti-entropy would defect from Schicksal.
After the battle of New York, the story will be going to the 2nd honkai war and then we'll get to alien space. And the main cast would come in at thunders over Nagazora. Ciao.