"This was bad…this was really… bad." Izuku thought as he felt the Herrscher's eyes narrow on Endeavor. The number two hero had launched a surprise attack on the Herrscher and from the corner of their vision, Izuku could see the other heroes closing in, far more confident now.
He felt trapped, and not just in the sense that the heroes had surrounded them. The Herrscher was mad. He knew that much but this kind of range that Endeavor had triggered. It was something else, something primal. Izuku his entire body became immobilized, not because they were being restrained, but by the mere fact that Herrscher's body had tensed so much from anger.
Yet immobility was the least of his concerns. The aspiring hero also felt a weight pressing down on his mind unlike any before. It was hard to explain but it felt like his very consciousness was being suppressed, he was trying to stay afloat but something, most likely Void, was trying to remove him altogether from the waking world.
"Void," Izuku called out trying to get the Herrscher's attention. "VOID!" He called out even more, yet his words fell on deaf ears. Or perhaps she just didn't care to listen to him now.
"Destroy!"
Izuku's felt surprised when he heard another voice whisper beside his own. Yet something was wrong. That voice…that voice was…unnatural. It called to them sounding like nothing…yet everything.
"Destroy the hero," It whispered once more. "Make them pay for what they did," It continued to instruct. "Punish them for hurting you,"
Who was saying that? Izuku couldn't tell but what he did know was that Void was hearing it…and she was listening to it.
"I will," Void answered darkly as she clenched her hands and healed her body back to its previous state.
Endeavor didn't take this as a sign to back down, instead throwing another stream of fire at the Herrscher. Void summoned a portal and immediately redirected the flame to the side of her, scorching several buildings. Endeavor immediately stopped his attack to avoid further damage. Realizing long range wasn't his best option, the hero lunged at the Herrscher fist first.
Void backed out of the way, avoiding his strikes before countering with her own. Izuku felt it all. Compared to their usual movements, it felt like his body was forcefully being bent and contorted as the Herrscher moved to evade and counter Endeavor's strikes moving lances and cubes to hit, only for Endeavor to narrowly evade them.
After evading one attack, the Herrscher was prized to deliver a killing blow with one of her lance, a direct strike to the chest. Izuku couldn't allow it. Try as he might he fought back.
The Herrscher slipped up, she mistimed or misjudged the distance, her body moved too slow, and Endeavor got a lucky strike sending her spinning back into a car.
"Stand down," Endeavor ordered as he looked at the Herrscher. "Or are you going to run away like a coward," He taunted, hoping to use the girl's temper to keep her from running away. He got his wish.
Void digged her fingers into the car, as she forced her power to the surface. She lifted the car up with the power of the Void and threw it at Endeavor. The hero dodged the attack blasting the car to pieces; however, the Herrscher wasn't done yet. She summoned several lances and lunged them all at the hero one after the other.
Unfortunately for her Endeavor was fast, and he made sure to flee as she started firing, using his flames to propel himself away. The Herrscher did not intend to let him escape. She gave chase flying after him.
He was fast but not fast enough to escape her when she warped right behind him. She turned one of her lances into a white ribbon which lunged at Endeavor managing to coil around him with the leg. She grabbed the other end of the ribbon, she pulled Endeavor back to the ground. The pro hero though was able to brace himself by using his flames to try and slow himself down before he hit the ground. He still slammed into the road at high speed but at a much more survivable rate. The Herrscher gritted her teeth and launched a lance at Endeavor, intending to skew him.
Endeavor reacted quickly and narrowly managed to avoid the lance. The Herrscher launched more and while Endeavor couldn't deflect them all…he didn't need to. The lances were knocked out of their intended path by several balls of green flame. The Herrscher looked up at the source only to a boot coming right at the face.
"Surprise," Burning screamed as she struck the Herrscher. Void was having none of it. While the boot did connect, Void didn't budge, instead grabbing the hero by the leg and then throwing her down with all her strength, crashing her into Endeavor.
The Herrscher stared down at the heroes, huffing as she tried to catch her breath. She felt a moment of relief as she saw them lying there but something was wrong. Her body ached from the burns, but the pain was nothing new to her, physical pain at least. Her head was aching as she heard a familiar voice.
"Herrsher…. Void," Izuku called. The Herrscher tried to ignore him but he kept repeating her name, calling out to her. "Void please, can you hear me." He called again.
"Shut up," Void told him as she straightened her posture and floated down at the heroes. She used her power to telepathically press Endeavor and his sidekick onto the ground. "I already did what you wanted, now I'm doing what I want,"
"You can't do this," Izuku tried to convince her.
"Oh but I can, he picked this fight, not me," She reasoned as she summoned multiple lances around her all aimed at the heroes.
"No…that's not what I meant," Izuku tried to plead. He glanced at all the lances. Even if the Herrscher only intended for Endeavor, her lances weren't 100% in her control once she fired them. "There are still innocent people around." He tried to reason. He glanced to the side noticing that not everyone had evacuated. In fact, even his mom was still in a crowd of people trying to get away.
"I DON'T CARE," The Herrscher roared as she prepared to launch all of them.
"NO!" Izuku screamed. He couldn't let her go through with this. He won't.
"Gah," The Herrscher clutched her head as she felt Izuku's will clash with her own. It was like having a jackhammer pressed into her brain. "What are you doing?" She screamed as she shook her head. The lances and portals began to glitch in and out of reality.
" I don't know, but I can't let you do this," Izuku told her.
"You don't get to decide what I do." The Herrscher told him as she tried to get him to shut up. She looked forward but her vision was starting to lose focus as the battle between her and Izuku raged on. Neon cracks started to form on her body.
As the Herrscher struggled to fight back at the battle within her mind. Endeavor was already getting back up on his feet with his sidekick beside him. "What's going on with her?" Burnin asked as she noticed the Herrscher struggling.
"Don't know." Endeavor answered. "But you should get to safety." He told her as he clenched his fist. Burning did not say anything, following her boss's orders and fleeing from the area as Endeavor stood up and approached the struggling girl. "This ends now Herrscher," He told the villain as he stood up.
Void saw the hero appear in her line of sight. Her eyes widened as she realized what was happening. "PROMINENCE BURN!" Endeavor called as he unleashed his ultimate move point-blank at the Herrscher.
The Herrscher of the Void managed to open a portal just in time to collect the blast. The attack was redirected, coming out from a portal behind blasting apart another building, however… "No!" The Herrscher gasped as the portal started to flicker in and out before it faded out completely. "ARRRGHHHH!" She screamed as she took the attack head on.
Compared to the attack from before, this was worse. Memories started to run through her mind as the flames devoured her. Memories that had been engraved into her heart a lifetime ago, a memory of a man, no a monster, with black and blue armor-like skin and snow-white hair.
When the flames finally died down the Herrscher's entire body had been charred completely. Her dress burnt, her skin blackened and unrecognizable. Yet…she was still alive…if barely. The Herrscher fell forward, landing on her knees.
Izuku thought it was over. The Herrscher had been defeated, right? As much as he didn't like the pain they felt. It had to be over…right? Yet when the Herrscher looked up something wasn't right. Endeavor should have been standing right before them, yet he wasn't. There was someone else standing in front of them. A man who looked partially mutated into some sort of demon or dragon, a man who wielded a huge sword that was covered in flames. A man who looked ready to kill them with his claws.
"NO! NOT THIS TIME!" The Herrscher screamed as she forced herself back to her feet. This time her emotions were even more unbearable. Izuku was too drained mentally to fight back and soon he felt himself get pulled beneath the surface. His world faded to darkness.
Endeavor frowned as he saw the charred skin start to flake off the Herrscher, revealing fair skin underneath. Despite hitting her with his strongest attack. She was still standing and even worse, she was healing once more. Preparing another attack, Endeavor readied to strike again intent on hitting as many times as it took.
"Prominence…Burn," Endeavor called as he launched another attack. Yet he suddenly froze, not just him either…everything. A dome had formed, around him, the Herrscher, and a significant part of the area around them, and within that dome…time fractured.
Glanced at the man before her, her strength fluctuating as her body tried to heal but the use of Honkai started to exceed what limits she had. She stared down at her arm noticing the crack beginning to form in her body as the blood in her veins began to glow neon pink. It didn't matter to her though. She'd finish Endeavor first.
"I DECLARE JUDGMENT!" She told him as time resumed and a portal appeared before.
Izuku's eyes snapped open as he shot up from where he lay. He breathed heavily as the events of before still played in his mind. "Herrscher," He called instinctively. No response.
Looking around Izuku found that he was in a snow-covered forest. Wait…a forest? He looked up at the sky noticing it was nighttime but even stranger, there were lights dancing in the skies, but there were no auroras in Japan. He looked around seeing nothing but trees surrounding him, all covered with snow. Last, he checked it was almost summer, why was there snow now?
"Where…when am I?" He wondered as he looked around. Where was his mom? Where did the Herrscher take him? He looked around the forest for any sign of civilization or any clue on where to go and that's when he saw it, a tower standing in the distance.
He hurried towards the tower, running through the snow. He ran and he ran yet the tower seemed to keep moving away from him. Exhaustion finally caught up to him and he stopped to catch his breath.
"You'll never reach it." A voice told him. Izuku's turned around immediately to the source. To his surprise there was a girl, sitting beside a bunch of sticks, with snowy white hair tied in twin tails, looking at him, with her baby blue eyes. "Not unless she allows you," The girl added.
"She?"
"The angry girl," The girl noted as she turned to fire. She held out a strange gun and pointed at the wood, a small stream of fire shot out, igniting the sticks, and making a small campfire. "You look cold," the girl noted.
"Void?" Izuku questioned as he glanced at the familiar girl.
"Drifter," The girl corrected. "You can call me Drifter," She explained.
"Who are you? Where am I?" Izuku questioned. "Where's my mom?" He started to panic.
"Your mom is fine." The girl reassured him as she patted him on the back. "You saved her remember." She told him.
"I…what?" Izuku asked in confusion.
"You stopped the Herrscher's attack." She explained. "Saved a lot of people back there. You should be proud."
"You know about the Herrscher," Izuku said in shock as he backed away. The girl simply nodded; the news was nothing special to her.
"Yeah, I know a lot about her." The girl answered. "But we're not here to talk about me, we're here to talk about you and her," The girl explained.
"Huh?" Izuku questioned. "The Herrscher? Why?"
"How can I put this in the best of terms?" The girl wondered as she placed a finger on her chin. "The Herrscher likes you, or at the very least…she doesn't detest your very being…I think,"
"You think."
"There's a slight chance she thinks what you did to her is a betrayal," The girl noted. "You kind of shut off her powers mid-fight and got her barbecued worse than anything I ever cooked,"
"She was going to hurt innocents with that attack," Izuku defended.
"I know, and I'm not saying you stopping her is anything wrong, it's good that you did that." Drifter reiterated. "All I'm saying is that the Herrscher is going to be angry with you because in stopping her then you allowed her to be cooked by Endeavor."
"So now she hates me?" Izuku wondered.
"Allegedly," Drifter pointed out. "If you point out how your mom was in the crowd, there is a very likely chance that she won't completely shut you out."
"Why does it matter to you if she shuts me out or not?" Izuku questioned. "After today, I'm starting to think it was a mistake. I trusted her to help me save my mom and look where it got us. She went loose and almost killed a lot of innocent people. It was one thing if it was just the villains but…"
"She never makes it easier." Drifter shook her head. "She's…horrible, and no one knows that better than me…but…"
"But?" Izuku repeated.
Drifter sighed. "I can't say I have the right to ask you this." She told him. "In all honesty, it shouldn't be your responsibility but you're the best chance I got."
"What is it?"
"I need you…to…not give up on her," Drifter told him. "The Herrscher…is a problem…but I believe she has the capacity to be good. I believe you can save her." The girl told him solemnly.
"Why me?"
"Because you know the face behind the monster." The Drifter spoke. "You know what she is, a being born from the trauma of another, shackled by a past defined by only pain and suffering." The Drifter explained. "I've seen the type of person you are. You are kind and forgiving, you believe anyone can be saved."
"The Herrscher needs to be reminded that sadness, hatred, and anger, aren't the only things that define a person, that they aren't the only things that can or should define her," Drifter explained.
"You really believe in her," Izuku noted. "Why?"
"Because someone has to…I know what's it like to feel like a monster, to feel like that's all I ever was, all that I was ever meant to be, but I had people who showed me otherwise, who were willing to believe me even when I didn't believe in myself," Drifter explained.
"I'll try," Izuku told Drifter. His mind trailed back to his previous interactions with the Herrscher, most notably the interactions she had with his mom. Even if it was all meant to be fake, he couldn't help but feel there was some underlying truth to it all.
"Thank you," Drifter told him. "It really means a lot to me,"
"You're welcome," Izuku told her. "Now…um…would you mind explaining where we are?"
"We're in the Herrscher's mindscape," Drifter explained. "You were sucked in when her rage reached a breaking point. It should be easy for you to get back to the waking world, now that she's calming down, of course I can help speed up the process." The girl told Izuku. Sticking her fingers into her lips, the girl whistled loudly. Not long after a giant dragon appeared landing right beside her. "Izuku…meet Benares, she'll be you're escorted out of here."
"Wait what? Why didn't you do so before?" Izuku questioned as he glanced at the dragon. Admittedly he was also kind of in awe by such a majestic-looking creature.
"In her frenzied state, even if you escaped, you'd only be sucked back inside," Drifter explained. "If that happened too many times, you'd probably be stuck in here forever,"
"Oh,"
"Yes, Oh." The girl repeated as she stroked Benare's snout.
"But I can return now," Izuku questioned.
"Yes."
"Will it be bad?" He asked. The girl stopped stroking the dragon.
"It's always bad whenever the Herrscher's involved," Drifter answered. "A Herrscher's very existence brings destruction."
"But is it truly worth it," Izuku asked.
"Oh, it's worth it," Drifter answered. "If you're strong enough." She added.
"Okay…send me back." He told her. Drifter let go of Benare's snout as the dragon lifted itself up. It opened its mouth and then breathed a beam of energy of Izuku. In a flash, he was gone.
"Good luck, Izuku," Drifter told him.
Once again Izuku came too, but this time, he was in a familiar place. He recognized the ceiling almost immediately. Sitting up on the sofa, Izuku looked around, he was back in his apartment. "Mom," He called as he glanced around. He made his way to her room and opened the door. "Mom," He called. There was still no answer.
He walked back to the living room still calling out to her, when he still got no response, he decided to try another person. "Void," He called.
He felt the air shift behind him. He turned around finding the Herrscher of the Void floating behind him her face was unreadable. She didn't sprout the confident, haughty look he had grown accustomed to. Her expression was…tired.
"She's in the hospital." The Herrscher told him. "She's just getting looked at after the incident." The Herrscher clarified.
"What happened?" Izuku asked.
"I won." She answered.