***
"Australia? Sorry Eden, I can't join you on this one." Thor turned down Eden's offer, while it was really tempting, she even tried to convince him by making a few "Adult promises" he begrudgingly turned her down, not only did he have this Honkai loyalist group to deal with, but a million other problems among the instinctual feeling that the 7th could appear any day now.
Eden pouted, "Hmph, fine. I'll just take Hime and Hua with me then, they clearly love my singing." She crossed her arms and looked so cute to Thor that he could resist just pulling her onto his lap while hugging her from behind.
"Ahhh~ T-Thor~ Pl–Ohhh~ N-not" Taking a page out of his book when it comes to dealing with a pouty Elysia, he nibbled on her ear sending shivers through her body, he also played with her nerves a little to enhance the sensation.
While Eden was putty in his hands, Hua covered her eyes with her hands, but was peeking through them, Himeko just stared at them blankly, she was in the middle of peeling an apple for him. She wanted to enact a scene she saw in a romance show, but now she felt like turning the apple to ashes.
"Ohhh! Thor~" A pink head peeked out from the door.
Elysia was smiling but soon turned mischievous when she saw Eden's situation, and like a hunter stalking its prey, she carefully snuck over to her, but halfway she felt someone grab the collar of her shirt and pull her back.
"What are you doing?" It was Sakura, and she was giving Elysia a stern face and Elysia felt like a child caught stealing from the cookie jar. She was just about to make an excuse, but she saw the subtle blush on Sakura's cheeks.
"Ohhh~ My, Sakura. Didn't think your mind went to those places~" Sakura's cheeks got a shade redder.
"W-w-what are you even saying Elysia?" Elysia smiled and used the moment Sakura relaxed her grip to escape.
"Freedom~" She cheered. She then looked back at Sakura and stuck her tongue out, "Blegh~" and made a run for it giggling as Sakura's hand threatened to draw her blade as she began to chase her out of the room.
Hua blinked at this before looking to her mentor, "What was that about?"
Himeko thought for a few seconds, "Sakura likes Thor, but her teachings make her too shy to confess and with how sadistic Thor can be…" She gulped, "He'll draw it out while teasing her until she…" Himeko stopped as she realised she went off course, and with the way her student was now looking at her, she felt like crawling into a hole to die!
She could not believe she just said that.
Hua tilted her head, "Isn't that what he did with you? Then why…Oh…" Hua chose to ignore it and look away, not knowing that an invisible arrow pierced Himeko's heart when she did that.
ORZ
'My own student thinks I'm weird now, AHHHH!'
As Himeko was having her mental crisis, Eden wiggled her way out of Thor's grasp and to the doorway, looking at him while panting and red faced. "Y-you better w-watch it. Okay?"
"Of course Eden, just because I'm not there doesn't mean I won't be watching." He wiggled his eyebrows at her and she ran off leaving him to chuckle.
***
Kevin had just finished another training session with Kalpas and Kosma, Su wasn't there today as he was with Mobius trying to figure out a way to lower the amount of raw materials needed to make the serum for Honkai sickness.
He was looking for Thor and since he was not in either of his lab or office, he went looking for Mei, and as one would expect, she was in her new workstation, she couldn't really just sit around in her room when she is now the leader of Moth and technically the leader of humanity itself.
"Kevin?" Mei asked, confused, he should be in training, right?
He looked around the place in awe, internally praising Vill, Thor, Mobius and obviously his girlfriend for being such good architects. "Yo. Do you know where Thor is? I can't find him." He gave her a little wave.
Mei sighed and spun her chair and checked the console, "He's with Ein, something about the ELFs and them gaining consciousness."
Kevin made an X with his arms, "Nope, he is NOT dragging me into that mess, I always end up in pain around those ELFs, especially the ELF of me."
"That's ironic, your ELF is programmed to have the same personality as you." Mei smiled at him.
"T-then it must be a mistake, I-I would never be like that…right?"
"Kevin. I programmed that ELF…" Mei's words caused him to shiver.
He straightened up instantly , "It is 100% me, yep! Captured my personality perfectly!" Sweat dropped down his cold face, didn't that mean he called Mei's programming a mistake? He did not want to sleep on the floor tonight, and would do anything to avoid–
"Oh? That's good, now why don't you go and join Thor and Ein with the ELF problem hmm?" Her cold smile made even the sub zero Kevin shiver somehow so he nodded aggressively and sprinted out of the room.
***
"Too slow~" Elysia laughed while taunting Aurora. She, Alter and Thor have been training Aurora in how to use her Herrscher powers, Mei tried once to explain how electromagnetism worked to Aurora, but both Aurora and Alter were confused, both of them needed a brain restart after that lecture.
"Stop dodging then!" Aurora shouted as she raised her hand and made a pulling gesture.
Elysia felt some force trying to tug on her blood? She quickly overwhelmed the force using her own Honkai energy, creating an effective barrier. "Wow Aura. Did you learn how to control the iron in my blood?"
Even Aurora was surprised, "Y-yeah, or at least I think so…?" But moments later Alter confirmed it.
(YES! Finally! You did it Aura, you learned to control blood! Now we can do vampire rolepl–) Aurora immediately tuned her out.
"So~ Did you?" Elysia at some point got next to her and was now staring at her.
Aurora coughed into her fist. "Y-yes, Alter just confirmed it."
"YAY~!" Elysia chimed as she pulled Aurora into a hug and the women blushed embarrassed. She felt like a kid getting praised for doing a good job.
"Oooh~ We must celebrate, hehe, I'll get Thor to reward you thoroughly." Elysia showed a smile that was just full of mischief and Aurora blushed again, her mind drifting to Alter's words. She crouched covering her face while screaming at Alter internally.
Elysia tilted her head, but shook it off and skipped out of the hall humming a tune to herself.
***
A few days passed after that. Aurora got her "reward" from Thor, though the rest joined at some point.
Eden left with Himeko and Hua to Australia, she has a few concerts to do before finishing at Sydney.
Thor did feel something off about this and asked AURORA to monitor Australia and to have extra detail assigned to them. Yeah they might not need it with Eden being as strong as she is now, and Hua being a MANTIS and having the SWARA treatment, but Himeko was just a normal person, a highly respected person in Moth, but still a normal human. AURORA only tripled their guard detail because of this.
Einstein, Thor and a reluctant and scarred Kevin, managed to sort out a problem that came up with the ELFs, most of them gained autonomous sentience and consciousness, they said that if it wasn't for the treatment Einstein gave them and how Thor always took time out of his day to play with them, they would've likely rebelled.
In the end they decided to send all the ELFs to a newly constructed facility in the Mu continent. It was what used to be the 2nd institute's base, but even after the 5th Eruption, the facility stood so they designated it for storage, but now it would also double as a home to the ELFs. They'd still work as normal, they just wouldn't do suicide missions and were given rights equal to humans.
Sadly that was only internal with MOTH, as knowing how bad racism is with humans, they'd rather not deal with the fallout of announcing this to the public. So Thor kept the decision internal and had Aponia use her discipline to make sure word didn't spread. That did mean some MOTH staff became Thor loyalists, something Aponia just wouldn't stop doing, but Thor turned a blind eye as long as she kept within his limits.
So with Einstein and the couple thousand ELFs stationed in the Mu continent, they had a spare lab, which immediately became an on-site storage room. Despite the immense warehouses they have on the island, it was better to keep some important items close by.
***