Kouga — still in Kamen Rider Chalice form — was hurled through the orange portal.
The world twisted.
Color stretched.
Sound vanished.
Then—
Impact.
He slammed violently into something solid and ricocheted downward, crashing against an uneven surface before rolling across jagged terrain.
He groaned.
His body was riddled with holes — Subspace Lances still embedded through muscle and armor. Green blood pooled beneath him, staining the unfamiliar ground.
Slowly, painfully, he pushed himself onto one knee.
His breathing was uneven.
His vision blurred.
Kouga: "Where am i ?"
The world around him was wrong.
The sky — if it could be called that — was a vast pink expanse with no visible sun, no horizon. Massive floating rocks drifted silently in all directions, suspended without gravity's logic.
Time itself felt… absent.
He clenched his jaw.
No time to space around. He needed to return — now.
With a strained exhale, Kouga grabbed the Subspace Lance lodged in his chest.
He pulled.
Agony surged through him.
The lance slid free with a sickening sound, and green blood poured from the wound like a river. It splashed onto the pink stone beneath him.
But even as it flowed—
The flesh began knitting itself back together.
He grabbed another.
And another.
Two from his right arm.
One from his left.
Each pull sent fresh blood spilling down his limbs.
His body trembled from blood loss.
His healing factor struggled to keep pace.
Yet he forced himself upright through sheer willpower alone.
Four lances removed.
Still more remained.
Before he could continue—
Space distorted in front of him.
An orange portal tore open.
And out of it rushed Sirin — the Herrscher of the Void, still inhabiting Kiana Kaslana's body.
She was injured.
Burn marks.
Scorching along her sleeve.
Whatever Himeko had done — it had hurt her.
But the wounds were already closing.
Her head snapped toward Kouga.
Her orange eyes burned with pure rage.
Without a word—
Four Subspace Lances materialized around her.
She hurled them forward in one motion.
They struck precisely—
Through the exact wounds Kouga had just cleared.
One through his chest.
Two through his right arm.
One through his left.
The force carried him backward, pinning him against a floating rock formation behind him.
The stone cracked from the impact.
He was nailed in place.
Fresh green blood splattered outward.
Kouga winced, forcing out a strained complaint.
Kouga: "Oh come, i just pull those lance out."
Sirin didn't smile.
She didn't speak.
She surged forward in a violet blur.
Her fist collided with his face.
The impact shattered stone behind him.
Green blood sprayed across the pink rock surface.
His head snapped violently to the side.
Whatever Himeko had done—
It had truly angered her.
And now—
She was taking it out on him.
Flashback
The orange portal snapped shut behind Kouga.
Rain lashed the fractured battlefield.
Sirin turned slowly.
Before her stood Himeko Murata — alone.
The Honkai beasts Sirin had summoned lay scattered in burning remains across the deck. Surtr Muspellsverd glowed fiercely in Himeko's grasp, heat distorting the air around her.
Sirin's lips curved into an ominous smile.
Sirin: "Your strongest warrior had fail you, what hope do you have against me."
Himeko adjusted her grip on Surtr.
Steam rose from her armor as the rain struck heated metal.
She charged.
Sirin vanished.
Reappeared above.
Dozens of Subspace Lances materialized and rained downward like divine punishment.
Himeko roared and swung Surtr in a blazing arc. A wall of flame erupted upward, colliding with the descending lances. Explosions rippled across the sky as fire devoured void constructs.
Sirin clicked her tongue.
Portals opened at Himeko's flanks — spatial distortions snapping open like jaws. Lances shot out from impossible angles.
Himeko twisted, barely evading a fatal strike. One lance grazed her shoulder and drawing blood.
She didn't slow.
She planted her foot and swung Surtr downward, flames surging violently across the deck. The blast forced Sirin backward mid-air.
Sirin retaliated instantly.
Purple lightning descended from the storm clouds, striking around Himeko in a tightening cage.
Himeko endured the shockwave, armor sparking, knees buckling for only a second—
Then she roared and pushed forward through the lightning.
Her battlesuit flared brighter.
Heat intensified.
Surtr ignited fully.
She leapt.
Sirin conjured a massive Subspace Lance and thrust forward.
Greatsword met void.
The clash shook the air.
Fire pressed against abyssal energy in a violent stalemate.
Sirin smirked—until she felt it.
Heat.
Himeko pushed harder.
Flames erupted along the blade and crawled up the length of the Subspace Lance, forcing Sirin to recoil.
Himeko pivoted mid-air and brought Surtr down in a diagonal slash.
The blade connected.
A clean strike across Sirin's torso.
For a split second—
Silence.
Then—
Crimson spilled from the wound.
Sirin staggered back, landing roughly on the broken deck.
Rain struck her shoulder.
Blood mixed with water.
She touched the wound, staring at the red staining her fingers.
Sirin: "What? The battlesuit..."
Himeko landed heavily, breathing hard but smiling through the pain.
Himeko: "That looks painful! You're actually bleeding! I never expected a God to bleed."
Sirin's eyes widened in fury.
Sirin: "...impossible...! I should have killed you a dozen times over!"
Himeko leveled Surtr at her, flames spiraling upward.
Himeko: "Oh, I am SO sorry...I can be rather sticky at times."
Lightning cracked across the sky.
Sirin's voice trembled with rage.
Sirin: "...insolent human!"
Himeko's gaze sharpened.
Himeko: "Don't you ever get tired calling us insects or humans? I've a name, you know. Try to remember it when you go to hell and cry to your daddy."
She raised her blade high.
Flames roared like a phoenix taking flight.
Himeko: "....I'm HIMEKO MURATA!!"
She charged again.
Surtr Muspellsverd collided with a freshly summoned Subspace Lance. Sparks and embers exploded outward as fire and void energy clashed violently.
Greatsword met dreadful lance.
Fire blazed.
Shadows twisted.
The Valkyrie pressed forward against the storm itself.
Sirin summoned multiple lances at once, stabbing from every direction. Himeko spun through them, deflecting some, enduring others. One pierced through her thigh armor; she gritted her teeth and tore it free mid-motion.
Surtr's flames intensified.
With a sweeping horizontal slash, Himeko carved through three lances simultaneously and closed the distance.
Sirin attempted to teleport—
Himeko anticipated it.
She pivoted and thrust Surtr straight into the space where Sirin reappeared.
The blade grazed her side again.
More blood.
Sirin hissed, retreating upward, lightning crackling violently around her.
The sky churned in response to her fury.
Portals opened everywhere at once.
Lances shot forward in a spiraling barrage.
Himeko planted her feet.
Flames surged around her like a blazing vortex.
She swung once—
Twice—
Three times—
Each strike carving a path through the storm of void weapons.
Her armor began to crack under strain.
Heat readings spiked dangerously.
But she did not stop.
She leapt again, closing in through sheer willpower alone.
Sirin thrust a final massive lance downward with both hands.
Himeko met it head-on.
Flames erupted skyward as the two powers collided, rain instantly vaporizing in the blast radius.
The deck fractured beneath them.
Fire roared against the maelstrom of void.
Lightning shrieked from the Subspace Lance as Sirin forced it forward, fury twisting her features.
Sirin: "Curses...! You're nothing but an insect to me!"
The lance convulsed, coughing out violent bursts of purple lightning. Smoke filled the air — acrid, metallic, reeking of death.
Himeko answered with fire.
Surtr Muspellsverd roared to life in her grasp. She swung with everything she had left, and a blazing inferno spiraled outward. The firestorm swallowed the lightning whole, reducing the void construct to molten fragments that evaporated mid-air.
Sirin staggered back, eyes widening as realization struck.
Sirin: "...That armor... It's powered by a Gem... My Gem! Curses...! I'll rip you to threads with everything I've got!"
Her face twisted into something feral.
Portals tore open across the battlefield. Subspace Lances materialized in overwhelming numbers, hovering like execution stakes awaiting command.
She unleashed them all at once.
The sky vanished beneath a storm of violet.
Himeko braced herself.
She carved through the first wave.
Then the second.
A lance grazed her shoulder — she endured it.
Flames poured from Surtr in blinding torrents, forming a burning cyclone around her body. Each swing of her greatsword scattered void weapons into ash.
Sirin's rage only deepened.
She poured more power into the attack.
More portals.
More lances.
More lightning.
Her fury blinded her—
So much so that she never noticed the subtle shift in the sky above.
Never saw the targeting systems aligning.
Never sensed the crosshairs locking onto her.
A calm voice cut through the battlefield's chaos.
Einstein.
Einstein: "System control. Online. Output control. Online. Trajectory control. Online. Target locked. Commencing range corrections. Correction complete..... We will not waste this opportunity you've created for us. ...fire."
High above, concealed within the battered hull of the Hyperion—
The cannon discharged.
A beam of concentrated photonic energy tore through the storm clouds and struck Sirin directly.
There was no warning.
No time to react.
It hit.
Clean.
True.
The impact detonated in blinding white light.
Sirin's scream pierced the heavens.
Sirin: "What is this? KYAAAAAAAAAA!"
The beam overwhelmed her defenses instantly.
Honkai energy erupted from her body in violent torrents. Cracks spread across her form like fractures in porcelain. From every seam and wound, luminous energy burst outward uncontrollably.
The vast reservoir of Honkai within her spilled into the atmosphere—
Transforming into blinding rays of light that radiated in all directions before dissipating in searing waves of heat.
She looked down at herself in disbelief.
Sirin: "My... my body...!"
Her form was tearing apart.
Photonic currents bombarded her relentlessly, stripping away wings of void energy, peeling away layers of her manifested authority.
This was no ordinary weapon.
Decades in the making.
A project born from humanity's desperation.
Edison had once harnessed electricity for civilization.
Now humanity had harnessed Honkai itself.
The world's greatest Honkai energy converter.
Anti-Entropy's ultimate weapon.
After fifty years of development—
It announced itself with a single shot.
The embodiment of human will.
The Selene.
The beam continued to devour Sirin's power, forcing her into a state she had never known—
Overwhelmed.
For the first time—
Outmatched.
Rage replaced shock.
With a final snarl, she tore open a portal behind her.
The beam continued to strike as she retreated—
But in the final second, she vanished into Imaginary Space.
The battlefield fell silent.
Rain returned.
Steam rose from molten steel.
Himeko stood alone, Surtr planted against the ground to steady herself. Smoke curled from her armor as the flames slowly dimmed.
She stared at the empty space where Sirin had stood.
Her communicator crackled.
Tesla's voice came through, breathless.
Tesla: "The Herrscher has escaped into the Imaginary Space! We dealt massive damage, but she managed to escape."
A pause.
Then Einstein spoke, more restrained.
Einstein: "Perhaps we shouldn't have force fired the weapon. We have few options left. Evac all personnel to the ship. Commence withdrawal right now."
Himeko didn't respond immediately.
She lifted Surtr once more.
And turned toward the Hyperion.