-"It was truly an interesting experience, thank you."-I stood up and started to bid farewell to the stall owner.
-"Mhmm."-Elysia also nodded and followed my lead.
-"I'm happy to hear that. Ah! Right, I have a little gift for you two; consider it a blessing for your journey."-The person took out two cards from his pocket and handed them to us.-"May those give you a little help when you feel lost."
When we left the tent, I took out the card to observe it. The reverse had a simple motif like a starry sky on an azure background. When I turned it over, I found it looked akin to a tarot card, with an image of a person and a title underneath; but this title didn't belong to any arcana I was familiar with.
The figure depicted was me, wearing my usual armor with my wings visible behind me. The background was covered entirely by a nebula mixing azure and purple, filled with countless brightly shining stars. In the picture, I had my crystalline left hand, which appeared to blend with the background, extended forward; the amber hue here was also replaced by a deep purple color. In the palm of my hand, I held a pure white light, seeming to contain both holiness and ruin, trying to break out of my grasp. At the feet of the figure was a carefully calligraphed title: Veil of Evernight.
It was obvious that this card had much deeper meaning than a simple gift, but as I couldn't feel anything special about the figure we were just talking to, I decided to accept it without worry. If that being was so powerful that I couldn't even catch a glimpse of its power, then their blessing might indeed help me in the future.
When I finished observing my card, I looked at Elysia's. The motif on the reverse of her card was a sea of pink and white flowers, while the figure on the other side was herself. In the picture, she was wearing a beautiful wedding dress, inlaid with purple crystals and accents. The background depicted a field of wheat, while she held an aurora-like Möbius strip. At the bottom, a title of 'The First Nouspore' was displayed.
-"What a nice dress."-Elysia broke the silence, her eyes sparking while looking at the cards.-"Your armor is also cool! We have to make those costumes; then we'll look even more like a knight and a princess than you and Eden from the party."
-"Hmm. To see you in a wedding dress, especially when I'm your partner, is indeed quite a tempting suggestion. But let's wait for a day when you decide to wear it not as a costume but as an outfit."-I looked at her with a smile.
Hearing my hint, Elysia's face turned red as she quickly avoided my gaze, even giving me a solid elbow strike to my side. To not push her too much, I stopped my teasing, only smiling more brightly when I felt her hand take mine.
In such a slightly ambiguous atmosphere, we returned to Fire-Moth, but before we separated at the gate, Elysia pushed me against the wall, taking a surprisingly passionate kiss just outside the guard's view. When she let me go, she didn't stay for any goodbyes and ran into the base, leaving the still-stunned me behind.
But as if the universe couldn't tolerate such a great atmosphere, not even a week after our Date, the 9th Eruption occurred in the Mu Continent. Despite our preparations and quick response after receiving Prometheus's warning, we were still taken by surprise by the power this Herrscher possessed. While previously it took Herrschers hours, if not days, to destroy a city, this one needed only about a quarter of an hour to wipe the metropolis where it appeared from the map.
Our response team, led by Ato and Kosma, didn't fare much better against it, being almost obliterated in their first encounter. If not for Ato's sacrifice, even Kosma would be left without even ashes remaining. This broke something in that young warrior, causing him to go berserk and achieve the first Artificial Collapse, managing to exchange a few blows with the Herrscher, buying us the much-needed time.
But even that quickly proved not enough, as when Kosma was sent flying into the ocean, the Herrscher changed his focus to the Mu continent itself. We could only watch as it unleashed what appeared to be a black hole, shattering the whole continent in this one strike. Even though this attack caused the Herrscher to be weakened, allowing Kevin to finish it quickly afterward, the deed was already done; the earth had one continent less.
-"How are we to fight such a power?"-Asked someone in the room.
-"Is it truly some divine will? Are we doomed?"-Echoed another.
-"Gods are nothing more than powerful beings, and if they could be defined, then we can understand them, find their weakness, and kill them."-I answered as if I was talking to myself.-"This is the only path we can take. Whether it's salvation or destruction, we will see it to the end."
-"Indeed."-Mei nodded, the shock in her eyes replaced by conviction.-"Even if it means flying into a blazing flame, we shall seek that light. That was always our motto."
-"To kill a god, huh? This is indeed a achievement worth my genius."-Vill-V laughed after hearing my words.
-"I'd rather create one, but having a god on my dissecting table would definitely help."-Mobius's eyes showed a crazy glint, her gaze locked on my back.
Others also woke up from their shock and fear, an almost burning conviction returning to their eyes.
-"Their battle is over, but we will have our hands full of work from now on. Don't let this world collapse on its own even before it's destroyed; that would be truly shameful."-I shook my head as if I was disappointed.
Mei smiled at my acting, quickly returning to arranging the tasks for all available personnel. The most pressing matter now was minimizing the aftermath of Mu's destruction. Herrscher's attack had already caused many earthquakes around the world and a cascade of tsunamis that quickly approached the shores.
But those were just the direct consequences; the disappearance of an entire continent would create much more lasting troubles, such as chaotic changes to the environment, unpredictable and destructive weather, and even bring a possible ice age due to changes in ocean currents.
And all those matters don't include the socio-economic catastrophe that is about to happen. The almost instantaneous destruction of one-sixth of humanity will definitely cause riots and a rise in anarchist sentiments. But to be honest, I doubt the current political structures can survive such upheaval, so some riots will only be a background to the real mess that will happen.
Add to that all the disrupted production and supply chains, destroying and crippling many industries and putting even food security in question. This is as close to an apocalypse as a society could endure, but whether it could recover was entirely on our backs. As such, all of us were put in charge of a certain aspect of the 'clean-up'.
Mei was responsible for the coordination and environmental changes, Mobius for restoring food security, and Vill-V for repairing destruction and the supply chains. Kevin was responsible for dealing with Honkai that appeared as an aftermath of the Eruption; Sakura was put in charge of quelling the riots; Su was responsible for looking for any dangerous movements, and even Elysia received the task of trying to calm down the population.
Me and Eden received a task of restoring both social and power structures. As such, we divided our responsibilities that: I was responsible for ensuring governmental agencies continued to work as intended, while she became a public speaker, responsible for calming down the population and representing Fire-Moth during this 'transition'.
And so, the next half a year was one of the busiest times I could remember. I effectively became the president of the remaining world, unifying all the organizations and trying to consolidate resources and power in our hands.
This caused many to consider Fire-Moth a tyrant trying to take over power during a disaster, calling our actions a coup. But surprisingly, my and Eden's reputation didn't take much of a hit; on the contrary, all common people saw us as protectors of their stability. The political structures of this world had long ago existed solely in the hands of the richest, and while an average person could live without much worry, they still felt disenfranchised.
When Eden and I appeared, we indeed gained many enemies in old political circles, but to all others, we not only protected their livelihoods, but also overthrew the 'kings' of old. Another reason for our good reputation was also the contrast between us and some other Fire-Moth members. Many MANTIS possessed some side effects of their surgeries, causing them to be feared, and with their tasks of quelling rebellions, their reputation was not that great. Even Kevin, the hero, was now looked at with more fear than awe.
But our reputation was only a minor matter; what was important was that we managed to stabilize the world and make Fire-Moth the sole organization controlling all the other countries and resources. The local governments were replaced by members of Fire-Moth; even the armies and police officers were integrated into us, becoming Fire-Moth warriors and soldiers, many undergoing MANTIS surgeries.
Aside from those matters, my research also didn't stagnate, and I slowly but surely walked toward creating a Mantra that fit me. What troubled me was that the Mantra was starting to get absurdly long. It already had over a hundred thousand syllables, something that caused even Aponia to be baffled. But I knew that there is no greater obsession in the world than divinity, and I, for better or worse, possessed exactly that.
Luckily, its influence on my day-to-day life wasn't that big, especially as I was only a god of faith, making its compulsion much easier to resist, but it still resulted in my personality changing slightly, becoming more fixated on oaths and promises, as well as having even greater reverence for both life and death. But for now, I didn't care about that, as I had too many things to deal with.
Especially as the current fragile stability could be easily broken, and lately, a suspected terrorist organization started committing various attacks on our infrastructure, assassinating important people and doing what they could to destabilize the hard-won peace. I tried to prevent their actions, even using Prometheus to monitor the whole internet to find their traces, but it was as if they were spontaneously appearing, with no coordination or contact, yet always acting in unison.
They also didn't care about being captured or surviving; they had only their purpose in their eyes. I found this illogical; how can so many fanatics exist with a purpose of creating chaos? It's not like they have some religion or higher calling; they just want to create as great a mess as they can.
It was only after a similar attack occurred at headquarters that my doubt was resolved. We weren't facing a fanatical cult or a terrorist organization but a Herrscher. A small core was found in every attacker, and by comparing their Honkai capacity to other cores, Prometheus predicted that there would be thousands of such Herrschers.
That doesn't mean that only a thousand people will be attacking us, only that thousands of hosts can exist at the same time. If a host is killed but the core is recovered by another host, it can be used again. As for how one could become a host, we had no clue, and that was terrifying. No matter who they were, they could strike you the next moment; this level of paranoia quickly spread throughout the Fire-Moth.
Our enemy was truly in the dark; with such low Honkai reaction, it was impossible to distinguish the enemy before they struck, so we could only passively respond to each attack. Then, as if this situation wasn't already troublesome enough, another attack happened that changed how we saw this Herrscher.
-"Eno."
-"Hmm? Klein? What's the matter?"-I looked at Mobius's assistant, who appeared here.
-"The doctor asked to borrow the Key of Creation for a moment."
-"Is that so? It's in the storage; if you have Mei's permission, you can take it."
-"Thank you."
I returned to my work, without looking up from the table. It wasn't rare to use Divine Keys in our research, so I didn't think it was a strange situation. But then I felt a strange Honkai reaction behind me, and before I could react, I felt a pain in my back as my consciousness disappeared.
Most of what happened next I learned from Mobius after I woke up a month later, but by then, the things that happened were already irreversible. The first person who noticed my state was Hua; she would visit me every day to remind me when it was time for dinner, but when she entered, she found me in a pool of blood with my breath barely perceptible.
I was rushed to the infirmary while Mei tried to find the culprit, but before she could do so, Klein attacked again, this time Mobius herself. This time the attack failed, but the fact that her assistant was turned into a Herrscher under her nose and even harmed her lover caused Mobius to fully let go of her scruples. When my state stabilized, everyone gathered to discuss the cause of this attack, and after finding out that the Herrscher sought out the Divine Key, they decided to set up a trap.
Shortly after, Mei announced the successful completion of her research project, codenamed Project Blank Key. This successfully attracted the attention of the Herrscher, and by cooperating with other MANTIS, in just ten days, they managed to capture close to nine hundred hosts. As everything appeared to be going as planned, an accident occurred.
One of the MANTIS soldiers turned out to be a host of the Herrscher, leaving Mei in a dangerous situation and forcing her to overuse her Blank Key. This resulted in her also ending up in a coma with severe Honkai infection. Thanks to Mobius's actions, she saved her life, but she had to be kept in a state of suspended animation for longer.
When I woke up and learned of all that happened, I was in disbelief. I knew that in Mei's current condition, she had slim chances of living. I discussed with Mobius every possible cure, but none gave any real chance for her to wake up; even some outright fantastical ideas couldn't provide any real prospects. But looking at Mei, who lay there quietly, I couldn't just stay here and leave everything to fate. Returning to my lab, I threw myself into research, seeking that one glimmer of hope.