…
Thor had spent so long sitting on that mountain that the sun was setting, and he himself was also covered in a thin layer of snow.
It was only when he stood up that he spoke for the first time in hours, "*Breaths*. That was something, wasn't it?"
(What are you going to do now?)
Thor grinned, "Rescue my girlfriend."
Scathach chuckled, (That's one way to put it, but how are you going to do it? You heard what Jyahnar said, without a Herrscher core, you will die.)
"Isn't it obvious?" Thor stared up at the orange sky, "I'll just become a Herrscher." He clenched and unclenched his fists, "The key of blankness won't work, Vill's battlesuits aren't suited for it, and I can only hold so much Honkai energy."
(So you want to become a Herrscher so Honkai energy passes through your core, leaving your body unharmed, good idea, but how do you know Herrscher cores can do that?) Scathach pondered his idea, and while a possibility, Thor wouldn't risk his life for a mere possibility, right?
Thor scratched the back of his head, "I don't, Aurora is a natural Herrscher, she was chosen by the Honkai, I don't even know if I can become a Herrscher by using a core, let alone be able to regulate the overwhelming amounts of energy passing through me…"
Scathach's mouth was agape. Was Thor really that different now that he was more in touch with his emotions?? Scathach didn't know, at least she knew Thor before arriving in this world, wouldn't make such a reckless choice.
Thor deduced the reason for her lack of response. "You must be surprised, right, Master? It's not like me to be so abrupt; before, I wouldn't gamble on such a possibility, I would make it a guarantee, but I don't have the luxury to waste time on that."
Scathach opened and closed her mouth like a gold fish before scolding him, (Are you crazy?! What the hell has happened to you to call it a 'waste of time' that you would risk your life like this!?)
He turned his gaze to the setting sun, "Haha, it is nice to know you care so much for me, Scathach, not that I didn't know before, but it does feel nice to hear you show concern from time to time."
(...) Scathach was silent.
Thor teleported back to Moth. If he was going to rescue Aurora, he was going to need to put everything in order as quickly as possible.
…
Mobius was having a lovely day after the Elysia incident. She wouldn't admit it to the traitor's face, but she was more than motivated to get stronger, even if it was only to wipe that smug smile off her pretty face.
"Ugh, this is the 12th time now." Mobius rubbed the back of her neck as she stared at the results monitor.
While Mobius was complaining about yet another failed experiment, a pleasant aroma reached her nose thanks to her heightened senses. Quickly, she snapped her head towards the source. "Klein!"
On the other side of the lab, Klein could be seen devouring the large plate of food in front of her.
"Hmm?!" Klein froze, hearing the abrupt callout. She quickly ran possibilities through her tired mind and found the culprit to be the delicious plate of food in front of her.
Clearly, Mobius had been attracted by the smell of it, "Y–*Gulp*, Ahem. Yes, Dr?"
Mobius stared blankly at her, "Wipe the sauce from your lips first."
Klein's pale face that hadn't been in the sun for years gained a hint of pinkness to it.
Sighing, Mobius abruptly appeared beside Klein, and while the latter was wiping her face, snatched the plate from her, "Hmm. Did Sakura make this? Or did Mei create a miracle?"
Those were the only two possibilities she could think of; it certainly wasn't something Thor would make, and since no one other than Sakura and Mei tried their hands at cooking, with Mei creating poisonous 'dishes' each time, Mobius was leaning towards this being a creation of Sakura.
Klein shuddered at the mention of Mei and cooking, "S-Sakura, made it at my request."
Mobius raised a brow, "Really, since when does that pink rabbit cook for anyone but Thor?"
Klein straightened her posture, and her tone took on that of one scolding a child, "That is quite a rude statement, Dr. Miss Sakura loves to cook for everyone when she isn't training, you are just too lost in your experiments or Mr Thor to ask her."
"Hmph, what's so bad about that? It's not a bad–Hmm?"
Mobius paused as her device started to ring, holding it out. Mobius saw it was from Blanca. "Tch." She clicked her tongue before answering, "What is it, Blanca?"
On the other end of the call, Blanca ignored Mobius' rude tone as she was used to it at this point, [You need to come to your mechanical graveyard.]
"Why?" Mobius nodded for Klein to get up the live feed of her 'mechanical graveyard' as Blanca called it.
[There has been–]
"I'll be right there." Mobius ended the call, her gaze lingering on the screen before her, and her expression turned somewhat feral.
She quickly shook her head, however, and glanced at Klein, "We'll finish this later, and you owe me."
Mobius didn't even give Klein a chance to respond as she vanished from the room.
Klein just shrugged, pulled the plate back over to herself and continued to eat a filling meal.
..
Blanca stared at her phone blankly, but quickly shifted her gaze to the rest of the people in the room, "The Doctor will be here in a few seconds." She saw a few of the personnel shudder, but it wasn't something unexpected since Mobius had probably traumatised half of Moth's staff in the past.
And it didn't take long for Mobius to appear in the graveyard. Why was it called a mechanical graveyard? Simply because it was a graveyard of all of Mobius' experiments on creating sentient life. But after thousands of failures, Mobius just threw them into this waste pool.
Mobius's serpentine green eyes flashed green, staring into the depths of the pool, and her smile widened. "Perfect~" She raised her hand, and a black tendril shot out of it and into the pool, wrapping itself around the subject before she yanked them out.
The subject landed on the metal flooring with a wet thud, and Mobius couldn't hold back her grin, "Now this is interesting~" She licked her lips.
On the floor, wrapped in her black tendril, was a mechanical being resembling that of a human, Mobius's first experiment after encountering the sentient AURORA AI.
Originally, it had been a complete failure, and before this, she had just failed for the 12th time, "But I didn't expect the defective product to be a success~"
Mobius couldn't read the expression on the mechanical being's face, but she instinctively felt the fear aimed toward her, and that only made her more excited to explore all of its secrets.
Blanca finally appeared from the entryway, and Mobius congratulated her on being such a "Great Assistant" before walking out with the mechanical lifeform held in the air behind her.
…
Eden and Sakura had planned to see if they could get anything out of Elysia regarding her recent changes.
And as they expected, Elysia just giggled and changed the question to something about them, but even after an hour of 'girl talk', Elysia hadn't budged an inch, leaving Eden and Sakura wondering if they were either just that bad at this or if Elysia was just that good.
Eden sighed, "Ellie, are you really going to hide it from us?"
"Fufufu~ Whatever do you mean, Eddie~ Hehe~?" Elysia wiggled her eyebrows, and Eden winced at the nickname.
"We mean whatever is going on with you, Elysia. Thor won't tell us, but assures you are fine." Sakura put the tea she was drinking down.
Elysia poked her own cheek while tilting her head, "Eh, don't tell me you don't trust darling's words~"
Eden sighed again, "Of course, we do, it's just…We would like to be in the know at least." She looked down at the coffee in her hand and frowned. Wine is definitely better.
Elysia went silent. Truthfully, she wanted to tell them all, even brag about it and her unique powers that came with it, but when she thinks back to her talk with Thor about it, she realised it would only end badly, maybe not with Eden and Sakura, even Aponia would probably be fine with it, but the others?
They would definitely look at her differently knowing their deepest secrets were essentially exposed to her; it didn't matter how close they were, everyone has secrets and other sides they don't want to share.
So uncharacteristically, Elysia twiddled her thumbs in her hand, "...It's not like I can't tell you, but as Thor said, I'm fine, nothing about me has majorly changed, so please, don't ask me about it again, okay~?" Elysia stifled a laugh at the end when she saw the expressions of absolute shock on Eden and Sakura's faces.
It was at this moment that Thor returned, appearing right behind Elysia in an instant. The first thing he saw was Eden and Sakura sitting there frozen and in shock, "Err, Ely, what did you do to them?" He asked, pointing at the two.
Elysia shrugged playfully, "Nothing much~ Maybe they're stunned by my beauty~!" She flicked her hair back.
Thor rolled his eyes and walked over to the two and snapped his fingers in front of them a few times, "Hey, snap out of it, you two."
"Huh?! What?!" Eden snapped out of it first, her eyes searching erratically before finding Thor and then Elysia waving at her with a cheerful smile. And in an instant, her face flushed when she realised she had been frozen from shock alone!
Sakura was next, but unlike Eden, only a dust of pink could be seen on her cheeks; her expression shifted back to her normal one of stoicness.
Thor raised an eyebrow but didn't question it; he had more important things to worry about. such as finding a way to become a herrscher, or at least an artificial one.
"Ely."
"Hmm~?" She tilted her head at him,
"We've got work to do." He glanced at the confused duo, "Eden, Sakura. You come as well."
Despite not knowing what Thor meant, the three exchanged looks before nodding.
"Great." Thor snapped his fingers, and the four vanished from the room.
…
Klein yawned. "Dr…Do we really need to–"
"Yes, Klein, we do. Can't you see! Sentient life! We–Well, "I" created sentient life." Mobius's grin managed to scare Klein, purely because the last time she saw that grin on Mobius's face, the MANTIS procedure was finalised.
On one of the many autopsy tables in the lab, a mechanical lifeform, hooked up to many different types of machinery, was being dissected by Mobius. Mobius had ensured the lifeform's survival and consciousness throughout, and since mechanical lifeforms feel no physical pain, it was fine, right? …Right?
"I am curious, how did so much change~? I don't remember or even recognise half of these parts now." Mobius licked her lips. She really created such a treasure, and now she was going to do everything she could to understand it!
But just when she was going to start another round of tests, Thor's voice appeared in her ears. "Oh, you're looking quite tired, Klein. Here, have a bubble tea."
She snapped her head away from the lifeform to see Klein accept the bubble tea with sparkling eyes, "Thank you, Dr Arwan."
Thor patted her head, "Sigh, just call me Thor, I've told you this many times, Klein."
Klein nodded, but even Mobius could tell she wasn't really listening.
"Thor?" She asked.
"Ah, Mobius, I was looking for you–What's this?" The moment he saw Mobius in her lab coat, he appeared in front of her, but when he saw the robot on her autopsy table, he couldn't help but question her.
Mobius felt a little disappointed that he didn't kiss her as he usually did, but it was overshadowed by her joy at his interested expression as he stared at her very own creation! "Hehe~ Can't you see it, Thor? I did it!"
(Did she…) Scathach caught on to what Mobius meant, but even she refused to believe it internally.
'She did, Master. And I'm not even surprised, after all, My Mobius is a genius beyond me~'
Scathach huffed at his prideful tone.
"Ohh? So you did." Thor smirked at her. Mobius nodded before she started to go into a rant about it all.
Off to the side, Elysia, Eden and Sakura decided to sit down next to Klein and wait; they could tell that Mobius would be talking for quite a while.
..
"So, what's it called?" Thor asked after hearing Mobius's very detailed explanation.
"What?" Mobius stiffened. That's right! She forgot to name it! She took a glance at it and then at Elysia on the other end of the lab before grinning, "Gray Serpent, that's what I'll call it."
(Are all geniuses like this?)
'All geniuses have their quirks, just like you, Master.' "Good name, but what do you plan to do with it?"
"I was planning to dissect it and mass-create them, but half of the internals have changed, and not even I or Vill recognise the parts inside it now." It left Mobius frustrated, because if she couldn't understand her own creation even a little, how could she claim to be its creator? "Anyway, why are you here, Thor? Do you have any more samples for me~?"
"Oh, right," Thor clapped his hands and looked into Mobius's green slit eyes seriously, "I need your help becoming a Herrscher."
"...What?"
…
A/N: Again, the chapter is quite short imo, I would like to make them 3K+ when I do write, but they just feel forced if I try to get them to that length, so 2K+ is the limit for now.