"Void," Izuku whispered to the Herrscher. She hadn't responded just yet focusing her attention on the moon above them and the streets below them. They were currently perched atop of one the tallest skyscrapers in the city and Izuku couldn't help but feel anxious as the Herrscher's eyes lingered downwards. "Void…are you okay?" He questioned, his voice filled with far more concern than before, not just for himself but for her as well.
"How far down do you think it is?" The Herrscher mused. "I mean…it looks high enough,"
"What are you thinking, Void?" Izuku questioned.
He could feel her lips curl into a smile. "A swan dive off the roof," She answered.
"Wait…what?" Before Izuku could even register what she said, the Herrscher leaped off the roof. Izuku felt his heart drop.
As they fell, Izuku could feel the air around them start to pick up as they accelerated even more, a feeling of dread settling within him as he realized the dangerous situation they were in. They were free-falling off one of the tallest buildings, blind and out of control.
"Herrscher," He tried calling again but she had zoned him out.
After what felt like hours, the Herrscher's eyes snapped open giving Izuku a very clear view of the floor rising towards him. He screamed in horror and the Herrscher smiled smugly as she immediately pulled up.
"Hahaha…." She laughed as she soared into the sky, her arms spread outwards as she glided between the buildings. She could feel Izuku entering a state of calmness as he slowly realized what she had done.
"You…You…" Izuku stuttered, not quite sure what words to tell her. He was conflicted. He had been terrified of the fall. He was worried about her mental state, and he was angry at her for pulling such a trick. "Why?" He finally asked, and then he remembered who he was talking to. "Never mind," He told her.
Void smiled as she flew through the air, passing just above many of the people on the streets and swerving through the traffic. Eventually, she landed on top of a truck, taking a short break. She could hear the people looking on, no doubt the sight of her would cause a small uproar.
"I need to clear my head," Void told Izuku. "I figured going for a night fly would do it, maybe get an adrenaline rush." She explained to him.
"Is it working?" Izuku asked. He was slightly concerned when he saw the slight panic she induced among the people. She hadn't attacked any yet so that was a good sign but it still kept him on edge.
"No," Void told her. "It's still too noisy." She noted.
"I mean…it's the city. The only time it sleeps is when it's empty." Izuku noted. "Besides, we should probably get going, I feel like if we stick around, more heroes will show up." He explained.
"Oh, you're concerned I'll be beaten by the heroes." Void mused as she flexed her fingers.
"No…I'm more concerned by what you'll do to them," Izuku retorted.
"Smart boy." Void praised. "However, I'm not in the mood, so I'll pass on the fighting." She told him. "Besides, it's a waste of strength."
"That's a relief," Izuku told her. "So…uh what are we going to do then, you know…alarm everyone with your presence. Are we going to fly around some more?" He asked. He still hadn't fully recovered from the sudden swan dive to flying but he wouldn't lie, the rush did feel good now that he thought about it.
"Flying, yes, around the city, no," Void explained as she looked up. "This little joyride was a test run. Our real trip is up there," She pointed.
"THE MOON?" Izuku gasped as she saw where her eyes focused. "Um…Void…. are you serious?" Izuku questioned, trying to wrap his head around this.
"You think I'm joking?" She asked.
"Well…yes…I mean…this isn't just teleportation we're talking about. You're going to the vacuum of space, no oxygen. It's hard to envision and believe." Izuku remarked.
"Believe," Void told him. Her eyes glanced around, and she noticed many colorful individuals encroaching on her area. "Seems we have company." She noted. "Well…time to go," She smiled as she crouched down.
The next thing Izuku knew, she had launched herself off the truck, taking to the air. He thought the flying up would be better than the free fall but the speed the Herrscher reached made it no different. As the Herrscher kept going Izuku could only watch as they approached the clouds in amazement and then…the Herrscher looked down.
"Wow." Izuku gasped as he saw the ground, no, the city, shrink within his view. The buildings were no longer the massive structures he knew, looking like small building blocks. The roads looked like small lines of grey paint. And the people…the people were so small they looked like…
"Insects," Void finished. Izuku wouldn't normally agree with her, but for once…yeah…they did look like insects. She focused her gaze back up and Izuku watched as she kept soaring higher and higher, not even fazed by the thinning atmosphere, or drop in temperature.
Eventually, they had reached it, the outer edge of the world. The Herrscher had slowed her ascension, merely floating freely in the air not hindered by gravity in the slightest. She wasn't even using her powers this time. She glanced around before noticing a nearby satellite. She gently propelled herself to it, grabbing onto the side.
"Amazing," Izuku awed as they looked down at the world. Never in his wildest dreams would he have assumed he would have gone to space. It seemed like an even bigger impossibility than being a hero.
"It is, isn't it." The Herrscher smiled as she looked down. Seeing the small world before her, brought a sense of calmness to her being, one she couldn't quite describe. "But we're not done yet." She told Izuku.
She looked to the moon which was slowly becoming more massive now. She leaped once more from the satellite, propelling herself forward with her powers. Though the distance was far emptier it was no less just as intriguing to Izuku who felt lost in the sheer amazement of the space trip.
Thud!
The Herrscher landed on the moon's service with the grace and elegance of a trained gymnast. This was incredible, Izuku thought as he felt the moon under their feet. He could see the Herrscher looking around the area.
"Strange, it's emptier than I expected," Void noted as she tried to feel around the area. The moon… was far more barren than the one she knew. The Will of the Honkai….it wasn't here.
"Well, it's the moon," Izuku noted. "After quirks emerged, not many really focused on space after, it was always just an effort trying to regulate and keep things in check on the Earth."
"Eh, I suppose so, still I thought there would be something more," Void told him. "The last moon I remember had a lot of old ruins we could rest in." She commented.
"The last moon…wait…Void. Are you an alien?" Izuku questioned.
The Herrscher seemed to freeze up at his words.
Void folded her arms and closed her eyes as she thought how to respond. "Yes and no," She answered. "Why do you ask?"
"Yes and no? What does that even mean?" Izuku questioned.
"I asked you first," Void told him. "Why do you think I am an alien?"
"Well, aren't you?" Izuku wondered. "Your powers don't seem to fit how powers work in my world. You call other people humans or insects. You also just mentioned something about the last moon you visited." Izuku noted. "I was just wondering if you may be an alien. It would explain a lot of things." He added.
"I suppose that makes sense, but again my answer is still yes and no," Void explained. "I am from 'Earth', I was born on 'Earth'. However, I am not native to your 'Earth'." Void told him. "In simple terms, I came from another world that was identical but still had notable differences."
"Seriously." Izuku wondered. "You're from another world. You mean like those fantasy or sci-fi stories." Izuku told her.
"I suppose that's the best way to describe it," Void noted. "What did you think I was?"
"I mean even if you did say you didn't have a quirk, I still assumed you did and was just lying about it," Izuku answered. "It would be a good way to scare people."
"I see."
"So…if you are technically an alien…is that why you hate us," Izuku wondered. It was something he hadn't quite realized till now. Void had always addressed the people as humans or insects, he had written it off to her apathetic nature but now that he knew better, perhaps that wasn't the case.
This seemed to catch the Herrscher off guard. "Hate you?" She repeated. "You think I hate you because I'm from another world." She mused.
"Yeah. I mean…that's how it is in movies." Izuku told her. The Herrscher let out a light chuckle. The next thing Izuku knew she had leaned backwards, falling on the ground. Her gaze focused on the Earth which was now floating above them.
"Sometimes I forget you're still such a child." Void chuckled as she placed her hands behind her head. "I don't hate you for such petty reasons." The Herrscher answers truthfully. "My hatred for humanity is…more…. reasonable than that," Void whispered.
"Would you tell me why though?" Izuku questioned. "Why do you hate us so much?" A few days ago, she had said he wouldn't understand but he thought things were changing between them. Even if she still had an edge, she was becoming more tolerant.
She was silent.
"Void?" Izuku whispered. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."
"Do you value your life Izuku?" The Herrscher questioned.
"Yes," Izuku answered. Of course, he valued his life.
"So, if you were told to just throw it away, just like that. You wouldn't do it." The Herrscher clarified.
"No. I wouldn't. I want to live, and I don't want to die just because someone told me to." Izuku answered her. He thought back to the day he first met the Herrscher. Bakugo had told him about jumping off the roof. Izuku scoffed at it. He loved his life; he couldn't just give it up.
"What if someone told you, you'd have to die so others could live?" The Herrscher questioned. "Essentially you can save everyone in the world, but the cost is your life. Would you still do it?"
"I…I don't know." Izuku answered. "Are we sure it's the only way?"
"It's your life or theirs, no compromise, no alternative solutions. Either you die or everyone else does." The Herrscher elaborated.
"Then…if it means saving everyone…I'll sacrifice myself," Izuku told her.
The Herrscher went silent for a moment. He could hear her muttering but couldn't make out what she said. "So you're fine with sacrificing your life for the greater good?" The Herrscher asked once more. "You'll be fine dying for millions of blank faces who you don't know, people who likewise don't know about you either."
"Yes," Izuku told her.
"What if it was your mother then?" The Herrscher questioned.
"Pardon?" Izuku told her. "Could you…explain what you mean?" He asked her.
"What if instead of you, it was your mother who was being sacrificed for the greater good of humanity?" Void asked him. "And what if she didn't want to do it but she didn't have a choice, because it was what everyone else decided for her?"
"I…."
"What would you do then? Would you stand aside and let your mom be sacrificed for others? Would you be content watching her scream and plead for her life, instead of suffering for others?" The Herrscher questioned. "What would you do Izuku?"
"I'd save her," Izuku shouted. "I'd save her." Selfish as it sounded, he knew what he would do. "If she doesn't want to do it, then she shouldn't." He clarified. "We'd find another way."
"What if there isn't?"
"There is always another way," Izuku affirmed.
"Alright then." The Herrscher told him.
"What does this have to do with you?" Izuku questioned.
"In my world, we have something called the Honkai, a destructive force of nature that has existed with humanities for thousands, maybe even millions of years, perhaps since the world even began." The Herrscher explained. "The Honkai has always been at war with humans, attacking in various forms, either manifesting as monsters, or by infecting people, turning them into zombies, or just outright killing them. It was a natural cycle, if Humanity grew and developed and so would the Honkai." Void explained.
"Of course, humans don't like to lose, so they tried to develop all sorts of countermeasures to the Honkai, be it robots, or weapons…or even specially trained soldiers. Humanity would not fall and for the greater good of humanity, many would be willing to sacrifice themselves to fend off the Honkai."
"But there were some…who were willing to sacrifice others." The Herrscher told him.
"They sacrificed you," Izuku concluded.
"No," The Herrscher shook her head. "They sacrificed everyone else." She coldly answered.
"They built a tower, far away from everyone else, and filled it with children, many children. Then they would 'experiment' with them, filling their bodies with liquid extracts of the Honkai, and waiting to see who would live and who wouldn't."
"Those children…did not consent to such activities." The Herrscher growled. "Yet no matter how much they denied it, how much they screamed and begged and pleaded, it didn't matter. It was after all, for the greater good of mankind." The Herrscher repeated the last sentence in an almost mocking manner.
"One by one, the children all died. Some on the operating table but some died in their cells with their friends watching, wondering if they were next. One by one they would die, their bodies harvested, if possible, thrown out like trash if they had nothing of use, and the cycle would repeat."
"Then one day…a young girl had just finished her round of experimentation." The Herrscher narrated. "She was the sole survivor from her group of friends, the last one standing. This girl had lost everything, her mom, her friends, there was nothing else left to take. Still, the girl had to try, so the girl prayed." The Herrscher trailed off.
"She prayed to whatever God would hear to help her. To give her the power needed to escape, to right the injustice that had been done to her. And you know what? 'God' answered…or rather the Honkai did." The Herrscher told him.
"The very being who humanity had sought to fight. The very being whom humanity had sacrificed all those young children to fend against, had answered the girl's prayers. From that prayer, 'God' blessed the girl, and a Herrscher was born."
The Herrscher let her voice trail off. She allowed Izuku to take in her words and meditate on what had been said. It was a lot to take in after all.
"That girl…. that was you, wasn't it," Izuku noted.
"It depends on how you view it," Void told him. "My existence is complicated, and I will explain it later, but yes the hatred I hold is because of this very incident." She clarified upon sensing his confusion.
"But…that wasn't humanity's fault…" Izuku reasoned. "Sure those scientists may have been the bad guys…but not all of humanity is like them."
"Oh, you think so?" The Herrscher questioned. "After all the scientists and lab personnel were killed, the 'authorities' were brought in to investigate the situation." The Herrscher explained. "The lab was supposedly an off-the-books project."
"See…" Izuku interrupted despite how he could feel the calm fury of the Herrscher bubbling just beneath the surface, he thought he should have pointed it out.
"Well these rescuers saw all these kids, but rather than take them to safety, and properly treat them, they had mentioned taking the kids to private school, where they would be trained to be soldiers against the Honkai." Void continued.
"These children weren't even out of those wretched labs and the first thought that came to their mind was to try and brainwash them to be mindless soldiers." The Herrscher spat. "What's more, the Herrscher was made to be a target because of her crimes for killing those scientists, the same scientists who abused them and treated them like lab rats rather than people." The Herrscher clarified.
"Oh."
"Yes…oh," Void told him. "Do you know what the worst part was?" She asked the boy.
"What?"
"The organization that had been involved with this. The ones whose resources were used to torture and kill these kids. They were all praised as heroes by the public. They were good guys because what they did helped 'Humanity'. Those kids were written off as noble sacrifices who gave themselves for the cause."
"There was nothing noble in their deaths. None of them wanted to die, no one wanted to be poisoned and left to rot in a cell while others watched. If that's what it meant to sacrifice for the Greater Good of Humanity…then Humanity does not deserve to exist." The Herrscher told him. "Humanity…is a mistake."
"Still…it still wasn't their fault." Izuku tried to reason.
"At this point, I don't care." The Herrscher admitted. "Even if they were not the ones in the lab, the potential humanity has for such cruelty, especially for such innocent beings among their own, it's unforgivable." The Herrscher told him. "And I know it wasn't just those scientists in the labs, all throughout history humans betray each other, preying on those weaker than them. It is in humanity's nature to be such wretched beings." The Herrscher told him. "And it is why I seek to end humanity…once and for all."
"That's…" Izuku wasn't sure what to say after that. His mind drew a blank. "So that's why you hate us." He realized. As much as he'd want to sympathize with her and he really did, her actions were too extreme for him. "I…I'm sorry you had to go through that. I can't even pretend to understand what it was like for you. Still…"
"It is what it is, Izuku. I don't expect you to understand." The Herrscher told him. "You can see now why I was doubtful of you."
"You think I would have been like those scientists." Izuku wondered.
"No," The Herrscher told him. "You're too kind for that. I thought you'd be like the humans who saw the sacrifice as something noble." The Herrscher clarified.
That actually made Izuku feel a little better. Yet the Herrscher wasn't finished.
"There is something else you were wrong about though." The Herrscher told him. "I don't hate you, Izuku." Void confessed. "I...I never have."
"Huh…but I thought…" Izuku trailed off, but the Herrscher stopped him.
"To hate you would imply you wronged me, but you never have. You have neither offended me nor hurt me. When we first met I was apathetic to you, I saw you as a nuance much like how you'd see a lone ant in the grass at the park, small, harmless, and nothing worthwhile. Then I got to know you and I saw what you are inside."
"What did you see?"
"You are a reckless, self-sacrificing hero. You have nearly no self-esteem, and you are very foolish and naïve in your methods and your outlook." The Herrscher told him. "Yet when I see you, when I look into your soul, I always find myself impressed."
"You are kind, you truly wish to think the best of others, and you truly wish to save people just because you feel it's the right thing to do. It's not about any assumed personal responsibility, it's not about anyone forcing you. It's your own choice to do it. You're selfless….an exception to humanity." She voiced.
"Wow…" Izuku responded. If he had his body still, he'd blush at the comment. He would have never expected such high praise from the Herrscher. "I thought…I thought you hated me. You always made it a point about how I'd be snuffed out by your will." He told her.
"It's a cruel mercy," Void told him. "I had offered you a chance to end the world with me. I truly hoped you would have accepted, but naturally, you wouldn't. You are a hero, after all. So of course it made sense. Letting you live to see it all gone, letting you fall to such despair…it's too cruel an end. Alternatively, I could simply let you keep resisting, an act that would just foster resentment between us." The Herrscher explained.
"In the end, you don't see a peaceful resolution." Izuku realized.
"Either we fight forever, or one of us loses and I don't want to lose." The Herrscher told him. "Still…I'm hopeful."
"Hopeful?" Izuku wondered. "What are you hopeful for?"
"When I first bonded with you, I thought we could be kindred spirits," Void explained. "We're both beings who suffered at the expense of our own worlds. I have known only an existence of trauma, pain, and hatred while you have been beaten down by the world simply for being less powerful than everyone else."
"Our situation isn't the same." Izuku reasoned.
"No, but I still thought it was possible. I thought perhaps, deep down there is a side of you that is resentful, a side that is perfectly willing to give in to your hatred. You have no reason to love the world, in fact, you have many reasons to despise it. It's one of the reasons I acted the way that I did when you first touched my core."
"You wanted to fulfill my darkest desires," Izuku noted. He had known long ago this was her goal, he thought it was simply a means to corrupt him, not that she was doing it as a sign of camaraderie. "I'm sorry to disappoint you, but that's not who I am."
"I know. Still, deep down, I'm sure that person is sleeping within you, a version of you who has no problems seeing it all disappear. A version of you who will welcome it, revel in it." She told him wistfully. "He just hasn't found his way to the surface yet." She realized.
"Do you intend to push me to that edge?" Izuku wondered.
"No," The Herrscher told him. "It's pointless to make you hate me by making you suffer as such, but humanity…they could push you. I'm willing to bet on that. They might push you over the edge and when they do…I'll be waiting…to catch you and help you destroy them."
"Thanks…I think." Izuku responded. "Seeing as you're being so honest, I have something I would like to share."
"Oh,"
"I hope you can let it go." Izuku told the Herrscher. "I hope you can let go of your hatred, let go of your anger. I hope you can move past it all and become a better person for it." Izuku confessed.
"As pathetic as it sounds, you are the closest thing I have to a friend, and I'd like our relationship to be better. When you aren't trying to destroy everything, you do seem like a good person…at times. I'd like to believe you are, and you're just rough around the edge because of what you've been through."
"I'd like to see just what kind of girl you can become…if you free yourself from the pain and the trauma," Izuku told her.
He had expected the Herrscher would scoff at this idea. Perhaps she would ridicule it, and state that her purpose and resolve were absolute. Tell him that it was a pipe dream to believe such a thing. Instead…she laughed.
"You really believe I deserve a second chance," Void told him. "Even after I made it clear how much I hate humanity, and how I don't care that I killed and hurt so many humans regardless."
"Just like you believe there is a darkness in me…I believe there is a light in you," Izuku told her.
"No, there isn't, not anymore," Void told him. "She's gone," Void told him.
"I'm sure there is still some good in you," Izuku tried to reason.
"No…I mean she literally isn't here anymore." The Herrscher explained.
"Um…what?"
"Remember how I said my existence was complicated," The Herrscher told him.
"Yes."
"Well here's the complicated part," Void informed. "Despite wanting to destroy everything, the girl who became the Herrscher, still wanted to be loved and to have a happy family, it was something she held with her even as she died."
"Um…where is this going?" Izuku wondered.
"For most people, death is the end, but for others…they aren't so lucky," Void told him. "When the girl was experimented on had died, the humans could not leave her dead. A madman took that girl's remains, and through some wretched science, he brought her back, in a different body, one that was cloned from another."
"That's…insane." Izuku realized.
"You don't say." Void deadpanned. "Of course when the Herrscher came back, she did not return as she once was," Void explained. "She was broken…split in two."
"One half of her took her desire to be loved and cared for, to have a family, and became a girl known as Kiana Kaslana, an optimistic, kind girl who, while a bit of an airhead, was determined to save the world."
"The other half, held on to the desire to destroy and hate, to end humanity and it became yours truly." Void gestured to herself.
"So…you're…you're basically…her hatred given form." Izuku realized.
"I suppose that's one way you can view it. You can think of me as her dark side, you can think of me as the one who carries her original will or you can even think of me as my own person, bound by the shackles of the past that wasn't mine yet knowing not what else to do." Void told him.
"In the end, I just feel a hatred burning within me. I have memories of the horrors that happened to those people. I have a desire to destroy humanity because of them. Whether it is my own or not, I don't care, and quite frankly I rather not know. All I know is that it's my purpose."
"Does it have to be?" Izuku questioned. "You can start over. That story has already ended."
"If it truly did…we wouldn't have been brought back." Void sighed. "Me and Kiana figured it out a long time ago, there was no room to negotiate. She had her desire and I have mine. She's the Hero of Humanity and I'm the Herald of the Honkai."
"Then I'll save you," Izuku told her. "I'll save you from this past. I'll help you see that there is more for you than this."
"Really?" The Herrscher scoffed. "Even after all I told you, you still think you can change my mind. If you couldn't change Bakugo, what makes you think you can change me?" Void wondered.
"You told me you and this Kiana girl were opposites, but we aren't. Even if you could never agree with Kiana, perhaps maybe I could show you my view." Izuku reasoned.
"And I've seen how you acted around my mom," Izuku added. "When she hugged you and tried to comfort you. I felt it, a part of you deep down wanted to return it, and a part of you enjoyed it, but you didn't believe you should. I believe you and Kiana are two halves of the same whole if what you say is true, but I don't believe she's all good and you're all bad." Izuku told her.
"Like yeah, you have your moments…a lot of moments actually, where it seems like you're nothing but spite," Izuku admitted. "But you still have some minor nice ones as well, like when you helped clean the acid off us or when you healed my bruises."
"I've told you before…they're pragmatic reasoning." The Herrscher told him.
"Are they?"
"You can think whatever you want." The Herrscher relented. "When the time comes, you'll see you were wrong."
"I bet I won't," Izuku told her.
"I suppose we will." The Herrscher told him as she stood up. "Oh bother, I wanted to come here to find answers from the Honkai, but instead I ended up spilling my sob story to you." The Herrscher lamented. "Maybe I'm getting soft."
"What do you mean, find the Honkai here? Is the Honkai on the moon?" Izuku questioned.
"It was originally in my world, however, I don't sense any on the moon," Void explained. "For what it's worth I don't think the Honkai exists in this world, at least not yet," Void told him.
"Yet?"
"Honkai exists in many parallel worlds, just because it has not shown up yet, doesn't mean it won't," Void warned. "After all, if I can come, why not anyone else,"
"That's a scary thought." Izuku shuddered. "You're already so strong alone, I can only imagine how powerful a group will be."
"Oh please, I was the strongest back then and still am now. People needed to gang up and cheat to beat me, using ancient weapons, other Herrschers, and that stupid chicken."
"An actual chicken or…"
"It was a breastless chicken, I can tell you that much." The Herrscher chuckled.
"Uh…what?" Izuku asked in confusion.
"I'll explain it when you're older," Void told him. "Let's head back, it's getting late, and if we don't leave now the planet will rotate too much."
"I swear, even when I know what you mean. It still feels so unbelievable at times." Izuku told her as he felt the Herrscher stand up. "Do you…think we can to space again?" He asked.
"I don't see why not," Void told him. "It's nice and quiet, no heroes or villains to bother us." She smiled as she kneeled down and then…she jumped, propelling herself straight back to Earth.
"That's enough for today." Overhaul sighed as he sent Eri off to bed. The girl in question didn't say much, merely taking her toy and walking off to bed with one of her caretakers.
He had acquired quite a few samples for her, not to mention some interesting results from observing her powers in action. Still, there was only so much he could get from the kid before she would start to break and he couldn't afford that. She was the sole reason this project existed in the first place.
Still, there had to be some alternative just in case.
"Boss…Boss come quick!" One of his henchmen barged in.
"This better be important." Overhaul rolled his eyes as he glared at the man before him.
"It's Kurono." The man stuttered.
Okay, that was important enough, thought as he stood up and headed out. What he found was unsettling? Kurono was coughing up blood as red neon-like veins illuminated his neck. His body was also pale, far paler than he was naturally so.
"Make it stop, it's burning me on the side." He begged between breaths.
"What happened to him?" Overhaul asked as he examined his second in command. Was this some sort of poison or disease?
"We were investigating Dagoba Beach." One of the men informed. "You know just trying to see what goods we could salvage, next thing we knew this giant white monster emerged and attacked us."
"We managed to fend it off but Kurono used his quirk on it and impaled the creature with his hair. It disappeared shortly after, vanishing like it was nothing, but well…."
"It did something to Kurono." Overhaul realized it was probably poisonous. He rolled up his sleeves. "Kurono, I'd suggest you brace yourself." He told his second in command.
Kurono did as he was told. Removing his gloves Overhaul activated his quirk as he touched his old friend. There was a brief flash as Kurono was immediately disassembled and then reassembled by Overhaul. His body was restored to its former state, and beside him a small puddle of glowing neon blood formed on the floor.
"Thank you," Kurono whispered as he almost collapsed on the floor. Luckily a few of the men were able to catch him. His gaze lingered on the substance on the ground, instinctively causing him to recoil away from it. "Keep it away from me." He hissed as he recalled the pain.
"What even is this?" Overhaul wondered as he took out a vial to sample it. He had never seen anything like it before. If it could cause such pain, perhaps it could be used to help later in any upcoming projects.
"Honkai," Kurono whispered.
"What?" Overhaul perked up. His eyes moved over to Kurono who was still shivering as he saw the substance in the vial.
"I said…it's called Honkai." He answered.
"How do you even know?" Overhaul questioned as he eyed the substance.
"It told me," Kurono answered, the Honkai's impact still felt like it held him, even though all of it had been purged. "Trust me," He told Overhaul. Overhaul glanced at the vial, curious about its contents.