Otto pointed to the sky "An Honkai energy similar to one of the portals used to get here has been detected on Mars' orbit"
"Are you saying...that she's on Mars?" Theresa replied astonished
"Yes and that those ships were spaceships" Otto replied nodding
"So what? She's working for aliens?" she asked getting frustrated at the lack of info.
Otto just shrugged "The only thing I know, is that Anastasia is an enemy of Schicksal and that if our paths will meet again, we will strike her down" he said with a solemn tone as he then walked away.
"What do you think of this...?" Theresa asked the other valkyrie that has been silent for the whole conversation
"Anastasia...is not an enemy..." Cecilia muttered before looking at her hands "before those men attacked, one of them said that the Primarch didn't want any death...and I think they meant Anastasia. She didn't want to kill anyone and those who surrendered didn't even get knocked out. They could have killed us but they didn't, this is why I think that she's still loyal to our cause..."
"She's just not loyal to Schicksal anymore..." Theresa concluded
Mars.
Anastasia was staring at the vacuum of space where her fleet was navigating with their ships. Her eyes were fixed on two particular ships which were colossal, if Merlin wasn't wrong those should be occupied by the Adeptus Mechanicus...
"Breathtaking isn't it?" Merlin said as he walked inside the room which was made for her "An army to defend humanity"
Anastasia turned towards and narrowed her eyes "You still haven't explained me what is going on" she said with a cold tone as the man nodded
"I think I owe you some explanations" He said as he sat on a chair "So let's start with the beginning"
Anastasia also took a seat while staring that the man in front of her
"It was the 31st millennium when the honkai first appeared out of nowhere, probably from the warp, they immediately went after the goal of becoming the sole dominant species in the galaxy but unfortunately for them, they were extremely weak compared to the Emperor of Man and the Chaos Gods and everyone else. They were even unluckier when they basically found themselves in the middle of the Great Crusade which was led by the Big E himself. The Honkai God was utterly defeated by humanity, and this is why he wants to eradicate their existence. Anyway, the Honkai God in order to survive, opened up a portal that supposedly led to another universe or timeline and made his escape. The Emperor could not follow it since he was too busy with the whole crusade and so decided to create a legion and a new Primarch gene-stock since he decided that this legion must follow someone that comes from the Terra of that other universe. He then decided to break inside my lonely tower and to give me the job of making a new Primarch, he always kinda hated me since I'm half shaman half incubus who has no connection to the warp at all but since I'm able to see everything in the present, he thought that I could have been useful for the future Primarchs so he sent me here with the legion. Unfortunately, during the passage from there to here, the Ruinous Powers of Chaos tried to taint the Primarch gene-stock which they partially managed to do, this is one of the main reasons you are a woman instead of a giant man. They changed the DNA of the gene-stock and put a natural destructive instinct towards humanity in it. As if this wasn't enough, when we arrived here, the Honkai God, who gathered the knowledge on the origin of our universe, proceeded to kill off every race before they could become strong enough to oppose them and were heading towards Earth. In a desperate attempt to save mankind, I casted the biggest illusion I could create and hid the planet from the Honkai God's vision. After this, I guess the Honkai thought that in the universe they went, humanity wasn't a thing and so they went inside their new home, the Immaterium which you now know as the Honkai Dimension."
Anastasia blinked several times in shock as she slowly started to take in all the informations. She was about to speak but Merlin raised his hand
"I'm not done yet" he said calmly "Since our mission failed we kept hiding Earth until...the shamans of Earth did their thing, just like in our universe, and created the Emperor. When he reached his maturity he appeared to us and gave us a new task which was quite similar to the previous one. He took the gene-stock and made 20 templates of those and then gave me the most corrupted one and told me to implant it on someone. I did but the corruption always ended up either killing or turning the subject into a monster"
The pink-haired girl slowly nodded as she was completely engrossed in the story.
"My illusion fell apart and Honkai slowly started to attack mankind until its complete eradication" Merlin said as Anastasia widened her eyes "But that wasn't the end, The Emperor reset everything and so a new civilization started, they encountered the Honkai and were eradicated and by consequence, the Emperor reset everything again. In secret, I kept trying to make a Primarch while also carrying another duty that was bestowed upon me. The Emperor had tasked me with the quest of hiding all the weapons and everything that could have helped us fighting the Honkai in order to use them when the Primarch was found."
"Okay stop" Anastasia said raising her hands "You said that the Honkai is now like crazy strong but it doesn't seem like it"
"They are, it's just that their race is young and naive and don't know how to handle that power" Merlin replied shrugging "And that's our biggest advantage...can I keep going now?" he asked as he got a nod "Where was I? Oh yes! Finally, the previous civilization came around and managed to defeat the Honkai God but fell because of the Herrscher of Corruption, its survivors created the current civilization and it was then that I have found you, I gave you the Primarch gene-seed as soon as you were born and you actually accepted it. From that point onward I started to follow you and when your destructive instincts kicked in, I was the one that allowed Otto to find the nanosuit and to make it put it in you in order to repress that corrupted part of DNA. The only thing left to do it was to remove the Chaos influence from your soul which you did and here we are."
Anastasia remained silent for a few moments "why my father hasn't intervened?"
The mage simply shrugged "I think because he needs to gather up power to fight the Honkai God, each reset must have cost him a lot of it...but the Emperor of man acts in mysterious ways but it usually turns out that he had planned something that could help humanity"
Anastasia remained silent as she returned to watch the fleet hovering above Mars "It's funny y' know? Less than a few hours ago I was no one, and now, I'm someone who's supposed to lead humanity against the honkai..."
Merlin looked at the girl and smiled "Are you regretting it?"
"Never" she replied shaking her head "I feel like I have a place in this world now, I was given a goal to follow" Anastasia crossed her arms and looked at the caster with eyes filled with determination "Where do I have to start?"
"Well, while I was following you, I set a small stage for you" Merlin admitted "Many of the arsenals of the previous civilization use AI, so I spread the news that you are a Mechanicus Primarch, you are already being worshipped by the Adeptus Mechanicus who are already started to worship you as the child of the Omnissiah especially after they discovered that your body is not made of flesh but from metal"
Anastasia sighed "Well...you could have told me...anyway what does this have to do with the AIs?"
"The Adeptus Mechanicus don't see AIs under a good light and would never normally accept them...unless you tell them to" Merlin explained
"But I was made of flesh once" Anastasia said
"And we'll keep it a secret" Merlin said "It's better like this we don't have the manpower to make war against the Honkai God, even though we 250.000 Astartes and Additional Mechanicus, it's still not enough for defeating it"