Honkai Impact 3rd AU: The Runic Anomaly

A/N: Two chapters in one day. And from me of all people.

***

If the ominous scare at the party hadn't been bad enough, the long delayed prediction from Prometheus made things far worse.

"14…" The room fell silent as Mei read that part aloud.

She continued, "The 14th is predicted to be stronger than all of the other Herrschers prior combined, and unlike what we expect of Herrscher to go through a maturity process, the 14th might be already fully matured as a Herrscher…"

No-one made a sound, they all sat/stood there in silence.

…

"We'll reactivate Project VALUKA." Thor stated after the minutes of silence.

Su perked up, he was the one who proposed the project in the first place after knowing the 2nd keys capabilities.

Thor sighed, "We'll also need to make progress on ARK, Soldier, SWARA and finally Sanctuary that Aurora proposed." His words shocked them.

Afterall it was Thor who discontinued projects VALUKA and ARK as it would require some of their fighting force to be off world, which is a danger when Herrschers can appear whenever they like.

SWARA was something Mobius proposed in response to Hua's wanting to become a MANTIS, but Thor pushed it back due to the implications it could have. Sanctuary didn't surprise them much as they all pretty much guessed that they would need to do this with how dangerous the battle between what they had previously guessed to be a herrscher that could very well destroy the surface of the earth.

Kosma raised his hand and Thor gave him the floor, "What about EMBER?"

"Good point, with the purpose of Sanctuary, EMBER would be a smart move." Everyone else agreed.

After further discussing what to do, everyone left, but not before proposing a way to make Prometheus mobile.

***

A few days later, Mei had called Kevin to her room where he found her buried under notes at her desk. She noticed his arrival and stuck her hand out telling him to come over.

He did so and Mei slipped a data pad in front of him.

Picking it up, he tapped the screen and it lit up displaying information to him.

[S.A.V.E]

[STIGMA] - Tap for More

[ARK] - Tap for More

[VALUKA] - Tap for More

[EMBER] - Tap for More

"S.A.V.E? What the hell is STIGMA?" He looked up from the pad at Mei's tired eyes, clearly he wasn't gonna get much from her in this state, she looked like she was about to fall asleep just sitting there.

"Hah… I'll take this to Thor and see what he thinks," Mei gave a slow tired nod and Kevin narrowed his eyes at her, "And you are going to get some sleep." He then put the data pad down, picked Mei up facing no resistance, laying her down in her bed as she passed out the moment her head hit the pillow.

Kevin still looked mildly concerned but still took the data pad and left the room heading to where Thor should be.

***

Kevin watched as Thor read the document regarding Project STIGMA, he had taken a look at it on the way over and to say he was overwhelmed by the contents would be an understatement.

"Exposing the people of earth to Honkai, less than 1% would survive, but those that do will become resistant enough to Honkai to survive the fallout."

Thor's hand tightly gripped the data pad and Kevin could hear the Soulium device creaking.

Thor looked at him with anger, "Kevin. Mei made this?" Kevin could tell he was trying to keep his voice calm, but his anger was leaking through.

Kevin could only stutter, "Y-yes." as Thor's gaze bore into him.

Thor turned his attention back to the document and read through it again, he then tossed the pad down onto the table and started to walk away, but not without saying, "Tell Mei… We'll only do it as a last resort." Thor grit his teeth saying that.

Kevin stared at his retreating figure before sighing, pinching the bridge of his nose he muttered, "God damnit Mei."

***

With their new understanding, Aurora didn't need to be present for the 2nd key to function anymore, and Thor was preparing to make a trip using Cosmic Juggernaut to kickstart Project VALUKA.

"I'll be back in around a week, I'll be leaving the branch and hopefully entering a different one to begin our search." Thor held Aponia's shoulder.

"Aponia will be with me for this time, we want to see how her abilities work outside of the universe."

As the main group understood his words, Thor looked at Himeko, "Get some rest, you've been pushing yourself too hard lately." Himeko had a wry smile as he said that

 Elysia stepped in front of Himeko "Hey~ What about us, we've been working hard too!" Meanwhile Vill, Aurora, Eden, and for some reason Nuwa gave heavy nods of agreement, the latter being pulled away and reprimanded by Fuxi.

"You guys too, but Himeko especially, she's been doing a lot these past few days. Look after her Hua." Thor then gave some final words before disappearing into the train with Aponia and made the start up process to leave.

***

With the departure of Thor and Aponia, the group immediately started their work.

Mobius was conducting multiple tests on what she had left of Thor's blood samples. 

Felis and Kosma were both preparing for their MANTIS surgeries and the following ICHOR. Kalpas was a bit more unrestrained, but with the new addition of Griseo to the team following Ato's volunteering for the MANTIS surgery. Somehow he was well behaved despite Thor and Aponia's absence.

Mei was advancing work on SWARA under Himeko's watchful eye as Hua immediately brightened the moment it was announced that she'd be the first to receive it.

Kevin kept up his training with Aurora/Alter, Eden, Elysia, Sakura and the odd session with Mobius.

Nuwa and Fuxi quickly advanced their understanding of the MANTIS and ICHOR, gaining enough knowledge to be able to assist both Mobius and Klein in their research fully.

Einstein was becoming more and more conflicted with what to do with the ELFs as with each passing day they became closer and closer to sentient beings and the new activation of more ELFs didn't help. In that time Rin somehow became close to Einstein which helped relieve some of the stress she was feeling.

Vill and Himeko were working on creating gear that will work with the MANTIS and SWARA volunteers, Vill was even designing Hua her own unique suit, which instantly made her Hua's favourite much to Himeko's dismay.

Su was getting closer and closer to finally developing a cure to Honkai sickness, but progress had slowed with Thor's departure.

Incremental progress was made on preparing Project Sanctuary and EMBER, but Vill was having problems creating a suitable shell for the 5th's core.

Other than this, everything was moving itself along just as it should be. Sadly Thor's absence has caused another issue, a tragic one.

***

Three days later, Thor and Aponia arrive at the edge of their universe. In this time the two had nothing to really do but talk and observe the universe rush past them, but now they were here, but there was also something else.

"That's strange." Looking out of a window Thor noticed debris floating through space, a natural thing normally, but he sensed Honkai, massive amounts of it.

He could tell Aponia noticed the difference as well, she had her eyes open and was actively looking about the debris field.

"Any ideas Aponia?" He asked.

Aponia looked at him, "Yes Thor-sama, there are threads here. Intertwined with this debris I can feel it, an entity rivaling a Herrscher is near."

Thor was muddled by this, another Herrscher? And this quickly, they were also billions of lightyears from earth yet a Herrscher, here? "Are you sure?"

"Yes."

Taking her word for it Thor pulled the brakes on leaving the universe just yet, he can't leave this universe knowing that another possible Herrscher could be running around.

"Alright, we'll take a detour and investigate this phenomenon." Thor said and Aponia agreed.

–DOOM–

As if on cue a heavy pressure fell onto the train followed by a cheery voice.

"I found you~" A chilling voice rippled through the train as black tendrils wrapped around the train. Both Thor and Aponia were unaffected by the pressure, and Thor immediately teleported both Himself and Aponia outside of the train.

–POP–

As they appeared above the train, they both got a look at the origin of the earlier voice.

A robed woman, black tendrils spreading out from behind her and beneath her robe, her veil was thrown back as her eyes glowed crimson.

A childish smile of wonder marred her face as she stared the two down.

Thor frowned and instantly became serious, summoning his blade from his inventory as the unknown woman looked curiously at his action.

Aponia just moved back as her eyes remained fixed on the woman, she had never seen her before, even in her visions, but either way she got out of the way as she surrounded herself in a barrier and Thor enhanced it with his authority, prompting the woman to gain an even crazier look at Thor.

"Your Interesting~ A precious Anomaly indeed~" The woman licked her finger while boring her gaze into Thor.

"This will not be easy." Thor muttered, lightning cackled around him as his body tensed and his muscles bulged, Honkai started to pump furiously around his body then, he vanished.

The woman raised a brow and tried to sense him nearby only for her senses to flare as Thor appeared beside her driving his blade towards her neck.

***