The Hyperion was only a few minutes out.
Nothing at all had happened while I was on watch on the rooftop, I had really been expecting… something… to happen.
I felt like something as eventful as the 3rd eruption should be a little more… eventful!
But Siegfried was doing an exceptional job handling the Honkai beasts created during the eruption, I had to admit that he was doing much better than I expected.
Maybe the path energy had done more than heal his arm, maybe his injuries were much more extensive than I thought, not just limited to his missing arm.
I knew that Siegfried was being chased by the Kaslana family Stigmata, which was attempting to use him as fuel. It had classified Siegfried as a failure due to his many, many, failings. Which I thought was legitimate, however it's not like very many Kaslanas had ever really been given even as much of a chance as Siegfried in order to become strong enough to pass the trials. Not everyone was like Kiana. The original Kiana, that is, Bianka 'Durandal' Ataegina.
Siegfried had taken an ancient previous era ICHOR factor injection during the Second Eruption, on the words of Kevin and the recommendation of Einstein. A reckless decision, given the serum was over 50,000 years old. Yet, somehow, it worked out for him.
Even so, Siegfried suffered devastating injuries during that battle with Sirin, injuries that, I now suspect, never fully healed, even in the 14 years since the 2nd eruption. When I healed his body, temporarily purging all Honkai energy from his body in the process, something unexpected might have happened. Perhaps the process repaired the lingering damage caused by the ICHOR factor, and in the absence of Honkai energy, his body established a new equilibrium with the foreign element before he had absorbed all the Honkai energy in the surrounding area once again.
In doing so, I may have accidentally created a powerhouse rivaling even pre-CHIMERA Kevin.
He was far stronger now than he ever appeared in the original timeline after the Second Eruption. For hours, Siegfried had been tearing through Honkai beasts across the city, and every surviving Honkai beast seemed drawn toward him like moths to a flame. From my vantage point, I'd seen smaller ones moving through the street below, while Chariot and even Templar-class beasts smashed through buildings to reach him. I had severely underestimated the number of powerful entities still roaming the city, I had thought that most of the energy would have been concentrated into the Herrscher.
I suspect that most of the energy in the nearby area had been absorbed by Herrscher Mei, leaving only areas further away with enough Honkai energy to create large numbers of Honkai beasts.
Fortunately for us, Siegfried was keeping his distance. The Honkai hordes were converging entirely on him, as if he were a living beacon.
Judging from the massive pillars of fire rising on the far side of the city, he was wielding Judgement of Shamash with reckless abandon, using its burst attack as a basic attack. Thankfully, he hadn't unleashed the weapon's zeroth-rated power, or the entire city would have already been destroyed.
Then Otto might have attempted to drop another Honkai Fusion bomb on Siegfried's head.
I wondered whether Siegfried was in his active Honkai reaction form, but from this distance, and with the buildings blocking my view, it was impossible to tell.
"Bronya, do you have any close-ups of Siegfried right now?" I asked.
Bronya hesitated for a moment, before Project Bunny projected an overhead satellite feed of the city.
From above, Siegfried's trail was unmistakable, collapsed buildings, city-block wide scars carved into the earth, and fires still raging uncontrollably. It was almost absurd how pristine our own district looked by comparison. Roughly three-quarters of the entire city had been reduced to ruins, while our third remained relatively untouched, save for the occasional path carved by a passing giant Honkai beast on its way to Siegfried.
From here, the destruction felt distant. A few collapsing towers in the distance and pillars of flames were the only hints of the chaos consuming the rest of the city. The contrast was almost surreal. No wonder Bronya had been on edge the whole time if this is what she was watching.
That meant that Siegfried had maintained his rationality this time, unlike during the Second Eruption. Which is why our area was so untouched.
When the satellite feed tried to zoom in further, the resolution couldn't keep up. All I saw was a blur of white pixels running through the streets, the image flickering as flames periodically engulfed the view entirely.
Looks like no unexpected events would be occurring this time. Like the re-emergence of the Herrscher.
While the Honkai energy in Mei's body had probably recovered to its original levels, given how the Herrscher core was capable of unlimited output (with limited throughput) from the imaginary singularity, she probably wouldn't violently explode now that she had the stabilizing force of Kiana.
If something were to happen to Kiana, like in the original Escape From Nagazora (who's canonicity was questionable) Mei would probably explode again.
That might now happen at St. Freya, or it might not happen at all until Kiana sustains an extreme injury on a mission. It's not like it was very easy to sustain a life threatening injury at a school, even a school for training Valkyries.
Mei would undoubtedly tell St. Freya about her status as a Herrscher, and probably suggests the same security measures as before.
If she didn't, I would do it myself. After all, one of Fu Hua's primary missions was to monitor K432 at St. Freya, another reason she was sent was also to monitor the Herrscher of Thunder.
If the Herrscher of Thunder wasn't the one at St. Freya, but just some random stigmata wielder, Otto might not send Fu Hua to monitor them and K432. Instead sending someone else less qualified but better suited for observation work.
I didn't think this was a particularly high probability, but it existed.
Not to say that Otto was incapable of finding out that Mei was the Herrscher on his own. While St. Freya might not exactly be competent with their background checks, Otto definitely was. He would undoubtedly find the true story eventually, if he didn't already know it.
I still needed to figure out what I needed to say or do for Fu Hua to help me with a mental defense.
I wonder if I could just ask her to read my memories, and then ask her to erase her own memories of the event afterwards. However she might not agree to this, or change her mind about erasing her own memories afterwards.
She would undoubtedly agree to guard my memories against Otto if she read them, but she might not be willing to submit to fate. Especially now that things were all loosey goosey.
The key was to try and get her help without getting her to read my own memories.
Maybe it was better to just be straightforward. Just go up and ask her to create a memory barrier to prevent my thoughts and memories from being read.
I can claim that the information I possess would be disastrous for anyone to possess, including her, which is basically true. Since I needed to work with Otto to 'return home' I especially didn't want him to read it, so I needed a mental barrier.
"The Hyperion is approaching the city." Bronya stated. The satellite feed blinked to a new image of the Hyperion from above.
"Attempt to contact the Hyperion and try to arrange for a pick-up." I said, since I didn't actually know how to do that, "I will go get Kiana and Mei."
They were still in the apartment. Hopefully.
Walking back down the staircase again, and to the apartment, there were a couple of dead zombies piled outside the door, which had a few new holes in it.
The zombie corpses were a bit burnt, and there was a sprinkling of water from the overhead sprinkler, which had stopped. Seems like the water supply to the building was cut off at some point. Luckily the walls of the apartment building were made of painted concrete, as it wasn't exactly luxury housing. Otherwise the building might have been set on fire by the Alloy Dominators.
Opening the door and walking in, Kiana and Mei were not in the living room or kitchen. However, the door to the bedroom was closed.
I was about to enter when I recalled that Kiana seemed to keep the door open. I decided to knock just in case.
"Don't open the door!" Kiana yelled in response to the knock.
Well, that was certainly something. I didn't really have a reaction to this, so I simply shouted through the door "It's time to leave." before walking back and sitting on the couch.
Around 30 seconds later, Kiana and Mei had emerged from Kiana's bedroom, both wearing new clothing from Kiana's dresser.
I decided that it wasn't worth spending time thinking about. I wished I could change into the spare set of clothing in my backpack, but we were about to leave.
Making our way back to the roof, Kiana had given the Alloy Dominator back to me and was now wielding her signature dual pistols, while Mei was armed with the shotgun from Kiana's closet.
I had disarmed the Alloy Dominator and placed it back in my backpack, this time without deleting the content of the energy cell.
Making our way back to the roof, Bronya was still floating there in the same position they were in when I had left.
"Hyperion control has acknowledged our evacuation request and sent a landing craft. ETA 1 minute 30 seconds."
Bronya then made Project Bunny disappear, I guess she hoped not to draw attention. I wondered exactly what she had said.
When the patrol ship arrived and landed on the rooftop, several Schicksal emerged and gestured for us to follow them into the aircraft. I entered first, followed by Kiana, Mei and then Bronya.
I was forced down into a seat and forcefully buckled in.
"Just you four?" a random Valkyrie asked, presumably the commander of this small group.
"Yeah, it's just us." I responded, "We haven't seen anyone else from the school or surrounding area."
Hopefully St. Freya would accept my false identity, just like how it had seemingly ignored Bronya's connection to Anti Entropy.
The patrol ship had taken off as soon as I had confirmed, looking around the cramped patrol ship, which was packed with around 8 Valkyrie's and the four of us, I expected to see Himeko or someone else I recognized. However I didn't recognize any of the faces.
I guess without the threat of a fully active Herrscher of Thunder, Himeko had remained on the bridge of the Hyperion, commanding from a distance.
The patrol ship remained low to the ground, scanning street level and the buildings along the street for potential survivors while on its way back to the Hyperion. Unfortunately they didn't find any.
Once the Patrol ship neared the Hyperion it suddenly rose, and for the first time I could see the devastation Siegfried had wrought on the city with my own eyes.
It was much more extensive then I could ever have hoped to understand with the satellite images.
The Holographic display in the middle of the landing craft suddenly lit up at the commanders touch. Showing a live close up of Siegfried wielding Judgement of Shamash. Presumably from a drone.
He was not even in active Honkai reaction form, but he was effortlessly mowing down Honkai Beasts.
"The Herrscher signature was confirmed, but disappeared after a little while around 3 hours ago. It's theorized that Siegfried managed to kill the newly born Herrscher, after we drop off survivors we will have to confront him." The commander said to the other Valkyries of the 5th squad. Most however in the landing craft seemed terrified at the prospect.
"That's Siegfried, he is a S class Knight! He has avoided the pursuit of Schicksal for years, and he might have just soloed a Herrscher!" One of the more nervous looking Valkyries spoke up.
"Personality analysis shows he is unlikely to attempt to kill us, however, Captain Hiemeko will be joining us when we arrive back at the Hyperion to drop off the survivors." The commander spoke.