Hi3rd: Achievement Hunter

The Herrscher of Reason was surprised by a random girl's presence inside the ship. Numerous rifles appeared out of nowhere before being pointed towards her.

"I don't like talking much. Speak… or die."

"Oh." 

Kurumi nodded slightly. It was clear she did not take the Herrscher seriously. This, in turn, wounded the latter's ego.

Click.

"Come on. I know nobody's stupid enough to commit suicide." 

The Herrscher closed the hangar shut before creating a luxurious chair to sit on.

"Hm… Fire MOTH? MANTIS? Emperor-class?" She kept asking. "I am not familiar with Fire MOTH's higher-ups, but you should be ordered by one of them, no? Aren't you angry at them? They sent you to your death."

In response, Kurumi listened to her words with a smile.

"You are different. My previous enemies aren't this talkative."

"...Alright, then. Bye."

Bang-!

Bang-!

Bang-!

Bullets ricocheted off inside the hangar. Its toughness prevented any holes from being made. 

Thud-!

Clang-!

Clang-!

Only a lifeless body coupled with dozens of bullets remained on the ground. Blood spilled from Kurumi's corpse. Her eyes were wide open when she was shot.

Just like that, the Herrscher did not care anymore.

However, if she did pay attention, she would have noticed Kurumi's strange look.

The Herrscher girl was tinkering with a custom-made pistol in her hands when several clones of Kurumi appeared out of the darkness.

"Hm?!"

She was alert enough to fire all of the rifles.

"What is this..?"

More Kurumis came out of the shadows. Her 'bodies' started piling up as the pungent smell of blood filled the entire transport ship.

This creepy sight caused her mentality to begin collapsing.

Looking at even more Kurumi clones coming out of the piles of dead Kurumis, the Herrscher stood up from her seat. 

She was about to open the hangar when something rolled onto her feet. Simultaneously, no more Kurumis appeared.

"Huh..?"

It was a metallic silver ball. It didn't have any noticeable features. Its mass was a bit heavy, but that was all.

"Wait..?"

The ball's composition did not change. There weren't any form of honkai energy on it. 

Yet…

Its mass grew bigger.

Everything took less than a second. By the time the Herrscher could react…

BAM-!

The metallic ball collapsed the transport ship in one go. Akin to a paper holding a brick, it was torn apart with ease. The clones' dead bodies as well as a huge amount of blood soon followed.

The Herrscher felt a sensation of weightlessness. A huge pang of headache came, followed by an extremely ominous foreboding.

"Ah..?"

The last thing she saw was a small black dot in the sky before falling asleep… forever.

*****

Two whole minutes.

It was a brief time. When Kevin fought the aquatic emperor-class honkai beast, their chase took thirty minutes, simply due to its extremely huge body as well as annoying abilities.

However, the Kevin of today is different.

The Evolution Cube brought an extremely huge increase. Aleph's estimates placed the current Kevin just below the Kevin who received the Project Chimera. Even then, that estimate was still unclear.

Swoosh-!

A huge cloud of steam continuously emerged from the ruined city. It caused the visibility on the streets to drop to an extreme low. 

Nevertheless…

BAM-!

Rumble-!

The Herrscher of Fire, Rong, was sent flying several blocks away. Her body crashed into the burnt infrastructure. The moment these leftover cement and steel bars came close to her vicinity, they melted into a red magma.

The house where her body landed was no exception. She was left lying on the ground, which was continuously being turned into magma.

Such an environment left no effect on Rong's body. 

From the moment one becomes a Herrscher, their body mutates and gains numerous capabilities transcending humanity. This process occurs as they remain connected to the imaginary space.

It was due to this fact that Rong did not think about the extreme heat surrounding her. Perhaps it was in consideration of her authority, but her resistance to extreme temperatures was raised the highest. The rest of her capabilities couldn't compare to it.

Bam-!

Suddenly, swathes of ice made of honkai energy descended upon her location. The extreme heat melted most of them, but there are still several ice shards that wounded her body.

'This… It's not just honkai energy.'

She noticed something different every time she got attacked by Kevin. The latter was still able to pierce through her shields no matter what she did.

Bam-!

Bam-!

Bam-!

Kevin let out three consecutive attacks, with each forcing her back. Their situation became a stalemate.

'Herrscher… They have a connection to the imaginary space. Aleph called it infinite ammunition.'

He did not stop attacking while he thought.

'I need to get closer to her and use that.'

Ever since the Global Time Fracture System was created, Aleph asked Vill-V to implement it on the battlesuits used by Kevin and others. That, and several other high-level MANTISes who are deemed to be trustworthy enough.

Its quality also depended on the user themselves. The greater their honkai resistance, the longer they could be 'sped up'.

Kevin's was strong enough to tie with Elysia—slowing down one second into five seconds.

Tightly grasping the Nitro Blade replica, he was about to charge when his intuition told him of something.

Clang-!

From being held downwards, he placed his greatsword over his shoulder. It blocked the tip of a scythe that threatened to pierce his back.

Kevin kicked off the ground and spun his body. During this, he blocked off yet another attack. His feet sunk further into the ground. The assailant was, in turn, sent flying away.

Clang-!

Bam-!

A pathway briefly opened up by the impact revealed the girl who attacked him. Kevin's gaze met hers.

'This girl…'

Countless images flashed in his mind before he locked on a memory.

"Sixth Herrscher…"

"...So you already knew that."

Kevin was about to stall for time when a flaming attack came behind his back. He was forced to deal with it.

His sight was drowned in crimson. White steam came off even more intensely, creating an extremely thick fog that would've killed any normal human who breathed on it.

Bam-!

Bam-!

Bam-!

Numerous explosions were set off around him. The ground was reduced to molten magma while his surroundings became extremely distorted due to the heat.

By the time he freed himself from it, he was surprised to see the two Herrschers gone.

He waited for a while and scanned his surroundings, but to no avail. The only thing left were ashes, magma, and severed parts of honkai beasts.

"Was this the thing he warned us about? It's really…"

Destructive.