Honkai: Fire Moth Herrschers

"Ugh... uh... yawn!"

Michael groggily sat up in bed, fuzzily clearing out his "inventory" from the night before. The sound of the toilet flushing seemed to come from far away, drifting through a thick fog before finally reaching his ears.

The light outside was a hazy gray. Without even opening his eyes fully, Michael could feel the atmosphere of early morning – thanks to the underground city's light-sensing system, it could simulate the light levels of the outside world for the corresponding time.

Oh, right, Fire Moth's underground city project was finally complete. Just as Mei had said, after she submitted that pile of "evidence" to the United Government, they had clearly gone through a period of unrest.

Even though that unrest had subsided, facing the monolith that was Fire Moth, they couldn't make any moves. On the contrary, in order to fight the Honkai, they had to "willingly" cough up the money.

So, after receiving the corresponding funding, Mei had directly created a 500-meter deep space under the entirety of New Moth City and Fire Moth headquarters. But this step hadn't cost much at all, because Michael had used his space powers to dig it out in an instant.

Then, the entire surface area was moved underground, and thirty-three layers of special alloy armor plates were installed on top, making it virtually impregnable.

But Michael wasn't in the mood to marvel at any of this. His drowsiness receded like the tide, only to quickly surge back. His perception of time had become hazy – what day was it today, anyway…?

One, two, three, four, five...

Michael counted on his fingers and wrinkled his nose.

"Is it a day off? Yawn! Then I'll sleep a little more."

Michael held onto the wall and found his way back to his bed, collapsing onto it.

After his consciousness perceived about five seconds pass –

After he spent a whole year in his dream –

After the second hand on the old clock on the wall went around twice –

Michael, who had mastered the inequality of time, finally opened his eyes again. After his second sleep, he was finally awake.

He opened the window. The March air was still a bit chilly, carrying a hint of the dampness and earthy smell unique to the underground. Two yellow birds fluttered over and perched on the branches of a small tree outside his window. Unfortunately, they weren't the same pair from the Golden Courtyard.

At the birds' feet were the tender green shoots of new growth. They were using dead branches and willow twigs from somewhere to weave a small nest, a nest for themselves and their offspring.

Michael stared blankly for a long time, then slightly raised his gaze, looking toward the blue lake in the distance.

Even underground, a soft breeze came from afar, ruffling the lake and making the willows around it sway.

Two or three willow catkins also floated up in the breeze, easily crossing over a thousand meters and spinning in front of Michael's window.

Moving his gaze closer, he could see a jade-green and crystal-clear pyramid standing beneath the blue "sky" – after sinking underground, Fire Moth's headquarters finally no longer needed a thick layer of soil as external cover.

On the contrary, with the construction foreman Vill-V having obtained a large injection of funds, she had spent a fortune obtaining the same green crystal as in Ruruye from the Mu Continent, covering the entire base with it.

Even Mei and Michael hadn't known about this beforehand, so when these materials were placed in front of him, he had thought that the United Government's logistics and purchasing department had made a mistake, giving Fire Moth a great deal...

And Vill-V was actually quite clever. She had only paid for one-third of the materials to appease Michael with the budget. When the construction project reached one-third completion and all the materials were used up, Michael finally realized how much money he had spent on those "green broken rocks"!

Michael looked up at the blue sky, which was the result of this incident, even though it was invisible to the naked eye – the originally planned eighty-eight layers of armor plating were reduced to only thirty-three due to budget constraints.

But it wasn't a big problem. In the face of future Herrschers, thirty-three layers and eighty-eight layers didn't make much of a difference.

"Clunk, clunk—" From above came the rumbling of chains and gears, mixed with the sound of hydraulic actuators retracting. It was the almost unprotected "chain-style" elevator, transporting personnel and materials from the outside world to the underground city.

However, the name "chain-style" wasn't due to the transmission method, but due to its shape – chains hanging down at a forty-five-degree angle from the ceiling.

Oh no, according to those soldiers, the full name should be: "Vill-V's Chains."

Infamous.

Michael shook his head. His mind seemed to be loose inside his skull, giving him an unsettling feeling of wobbling.

He closed the window, quickly washed up, and then skillfully turned right, reaching Elysia's door, and gently knocked.

It was just past eight o'clock! Elysia definitely wasn't awake yet!

He confidently knocked on the door, but after waiting for a full half minute, there was no response.

"Huh?"

Normally, what would follow would be a few half-awake mumblings, and then a few "thuds" as she rolled around in bed with her legs entangled in the blanket, trying to wake herself up.

Sometimes, there would be a short scream, followed by a "bang," and Michael would feel the floor beneath his feet shake. She must have accidentally fallen out of bed…

But all of this only existed in his memories. In reality, nothing seemed to have happened.

"Sorry, Elysia."

He apologized in his heart, his feelings a little hard to describe. He allowed his space powers to flow in like water, seeping through the crack in the door. Though he didn't actually see anything, the world inside was even more detailed in his perception than if he had seen it with his own eyes.

"A closet full of various maid costumes... huh, why are there so many different sizes? No way, these aren't for Mobius, right..."

"Things thrown everywhere... uh... this..."

Michael touched his slightly warm cheek. He wanted to use his space powers to help her tidy up her scattered undergarments, but then he thought that when Elysia came back tonight and found these things had been touched...

She would kill him, wouldn't she?

She definitely would kill him!

Okay, he confirmed, the entire room was empty, and even the rumpled sheets had no warmth.

"Hiss... she's really gone? She woke up before me? And didn't even call me!"

Michael threw his hands up at the doorplate, shrugging as if the door's owner could see him.

No, wait!

Michael circled the door twice. He scratched his head. Although he knew that Elysia must have something urgent to attend to if she had left without a word, or perhaps she had guessed that he would oversleep since it was a day off, and therefore had deliberately not woken him up.

But not seeing Elysia as the first thing he saw when he woke up, he felt a little lost.

He felt like his luck for the day was bad…

"Never mind, never mind, I'll just go to the base."

Stepping through a space rift to the Anti-Entropy training base, Michael simply glanced around. Elysia wasn't there.

Even though it was a day off, everyone hadn't slacked off that much in the past, only sleeping in a bit.

But today, not only was Elysia gone, even Sakura was absent.

Only a sleepy Pardofelis and Rin were still following Hua, doing their nth round of practice punches for the day.

Michael shrugged. He was about to go see what was up with Mobius, but Hua had already noticed him and was walking towards him.

"Hmm? It's rare for you to give up a set of punches halfway. Is it because you're about to be transferred?"

According to the initial plan, those in Anti-Entropy who hadn't undergone Fusion Warrior surgery, like Hua, Pardofelis, and Su, should be transferred to other positions. But in reality, it was based on personal choice, and if they really didn't want to go, Michael just had to say the word.

For example, Michael had directly and forcefully kept Pardofelis in Anti-Entropy. Su himself had chosen to join SPACY's research team because he had met an acquaintance there, his former superior Director Farrell.

As for Hua... she was an extremely principled person. Michael didn't want to interfere with her choice, and he had thought that she was troubled by it.

He habitually tidied her sweat-dampened bangs that were stuck to her forehead, but his gaze drifted past her, looking at Pardofelis, who was sneaking along the wall toward the back door, and Rin, who looked hesitant, conflicted over whether or not to report Pardofelis's escape attempt…

Hua shook her head slightly, so subtly that it was barely perceptible. Michael spent a long time trying to process that, before discerning that she had actually shaken her head.

He paused, his fingers naturally running through a small braid near Hua's temple, then sighed, "Actually, you don't have to transfer if you don't want to. The reason why I haven't let you have a hyper-fusion surgery is because, on the one hand, you're still young, and on the other hand, I wanted to find something more suitable for you..."

"Michael, you don't have to hide it from me anymore…"

Hua's body had already grown out, and the top of her head was now at Michael's chin level. She no longer needed to look up so much.

"I asked Dr. Mobius. According to the model given by Dr. Mobius, Garuda is the only Honkai beast that I have a chance of successfully fusing with..."

"!"

Michael reacted with alarm, quickly grabbing Hua's right arm and pushing up her sleeve. Sure enough, there were three needle marks left there.

He grabbed her left arm, and it was the same.

"You..."

"I'm sorry."

Hua said softly.

"Garuda's factor is very strange. Its surgery success rate is high, relatively high, but the subjects don't seem to show much extraordinary ability. The level of improvement… is about equivalent to turning an ordinary girl into a fighter with the same combat prowess as Himeko?"

Michael would have never thought that the girl referred to in Mobius's conclusion would actually be Hua...

That snake!

"Are there any side effects?"

Hua shook her head.

But Michael knew that it was because she had only recently undergone the surgery, and hadn't experienced the full weight of the side effects yet…

"Anyway, since you've accepted the Fusion Warrior surgery, you naturally no longer need to be assigned to the normal forces."

Michael's tone brooked no argument.

"Oh… okay, then."

Hua appeared a bit dull, but Michael clearly saw the corners of her lips turn up when she turned around.

"Oh, right, Hua."

Michael suddenly stopped her.

She turned around abruptly, only to see Michael with a hesitant expression.

She covered her mouth and chuckled lightly.

"Do you want to ask where Elysia went?"

"Uh... uh, yes."

Hua looked at Michael with a suspicious glance, her eyes conveying a sense of disbelief:

"Michael, do you really not know what day it is today?"