Fly Me 2 The Moon (Honkai Impact 3rd)

Thus Spoke Kaslana

A deadly dance took place atop of Senba Academy. Bolts of lighting were thrown, pink arrows of Honkai energy were shot with expert precision, and geysers of blue blame erupted in the skies.

First, I wake up in an alley after dying with the knowledge and memories of someone from another universe. Then I find out I have some kind of crazy regen and blue flame powers, and now I'm risking my life and the life of literal Honkai Jesus to save my girlfriend from an alien force beyond human reckoning.

Geez, just how much more ridiculous can this get...

No, stop yourself Kevin, that way leads to Houkai Gakuen 2 and I'd rather not deal with that universe's non-stop suffering and general bullshit.

"Mei!" I called out as I dodged another bolt of lightning. "I know you're still in there! You can fight this!"

"Silence!" the possessed Mei yelled as she sent another bolt a lightning my way.

I swung my flame covered bat, sparking a Honkai reaction that detonated the area in front of me. Thankfully, that did little to no damage to me, thanks to my new miraculous physiology.

I knew damn well how low those odds were. Finality's grip on her mind was just too strong. But it was causing her clear discomfort; either she was remembering, or the real Mei was fighting for control from within. The Herrscher of Death had pulled a fast one on the Kevin of the Main Branch by faking still having human emotions, so I remained doubly on guard.

"Come on, Mei." I drew in more power to reinforce my body. "You of all people know that when it comes to me teasing you, you have to kiss me to shut me up!"

"Tch!" She gritted her teeth and a volley of pink arrows zoomed from behind me, and she was forced to dodge, moving at high speeds due to her electricity powers.

We were at a sort of stalemate. I was acting as a distraction to allow Elysia to get off potshots. Simple MMORPG Tank and DPS strategy, the only problem was the Thunder Queen's speed. Obviously, having domination over lightning made her quite the speedster, and while I could dodge and even cancel out her attacks with my own, Elysia couldn't land any proper hits. It was a battle of attrition, and I doubt we would win before the rest of MOTH showed up or the Herrscher figured out how to kill us.

But it wasn't as if I didn't have a proper plan...

In the Escape From Nagazora manga, Kiana was able to bring back Mei by breaking the Empress of Lightning's wing. Kiana was lucky and found herself in the best position possible to pull it off even if she did it, probably, by complete accident.

I needed bait to provoke her, and who better than myself for that?

Let's hope the healing factor from before stuck around...

Alright, time to lean into my years of experience playing rushdown fighting game characters!

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"Elysia!" Kevin yelled. "I'm switching up the strategy, follow my lead!"

"You got it!" Elysia replied as she readied her arrows.

She had to admit, she was very impressed with Kevin's performance in combat so far. From what she read in the reports about the Herrscher of Void, it took entire armies to combat her, not helped by her ability to enter Imaginary Space at will. And here they were, the cutest soldier in all of MOTH, and a one really cute super powered boy, and they alone were taking on a Herrscher.

She could feel the flow of his power too.

The longer the fight went on, the more Honkai energy he seemed to draw in, and the greater control over them he displayed. When she first met him, his flames looked like small will-o'-wisps, but now he was a veritable blue inferno given human form.

He was growing stronger and faster at an exponential rate, but it made sense, he had to save a cute girl and impress another!

Kevin dashed forward like a blue comet, his bat held by his side. His flames grew even fiercer as he swung his bat, and the Herrscher dodged the attack by a hair's breadth. Previously, he would've moved out of the way to give Elysia an opening to safely fire her arrows, but this time he didn't move out of the way, he kept on swinging his bat, not giving the Herrscher any room to move.

There was a burst of purple lightning, and the purple-haired girl dashed away from Kevin's onslaught. Elysia let loose a volley of arrows, it forced the girl to stop dead in her tracks and shoot them out of the air with lightning. It took only a split second, but it was more than enough time for Kevin to rush back in and start swinging once again.

Elysia understood the plan now. Unlike before where she was to take pot-shots, now her duty was to keep the Herrscher from running out of Kevin's strike zone to keep the pressure on her.

Kevin and Mei shot across the roof like blue and purple streaks of light, and Elysia could barely keep up with how fast they had gotten, but still did her best to provide support.

Suddenly, Mei stopped and blocked his bat with a continuous wave of lightning. "You are... infuriating."

Kevin smirked. "Wouldn't be the first time you've told me that, Mei!"

She raised her hand and shot a bolt of lightning, point blank at his face. By some miracle, Kevin dodged it just in time.

...Then suddenly he was right behind the Herrscher, bat raised! She barely even saw him move, it was just a blur! The Herrscher's eyes widened, she whirled around just in time to stop Kevin's bat with a forcefield of electricity.

"G-Grrruh!" The Herrscher struggled to hold back.

"You're not getting away this time!" Kevin's bat let off flames like a jet engine as he poured more and more power onto her. "Elysia, shoot the wing!"

She didn't need to be told twice. Elysia let loose a dozen arrows, all aimed at Mei's wing, and all struck true.

"Arrgh!!" The purple-haired girl let out a pained yelp as the arrows impacted her wing.

While the arrows didn't penetrate the wing, it did leave cracks.

It was a weak point...

How did he know that?

"That's the ticket, keep it up!" Kevin cheered.

Elysia didn't let up her attack, they finally had her cornered. Volley after volley of arrows, her hard-light wings look just about ready to shatter.

But just then...

"K... Kevin..." The girl's voice was soft, fragile even as she looked up into Kevin's eyes, agony written clear on her face. "It... It hurts!"

Kevin's eyes widened. "Mei..."

The Herrscher let out a huge pulse of electricity, Kevin was sent flying off his feet, as was Elysia, her bow flew off the side of the building.

"Ow..." Elysia blinked the stars out of her eyes.

Then she saw the Herrscher looming over the downed Kevin, no chance for him to escape.

Kevin groaned as he sat up to see the enraged face of his possessed girlfriend over him. "Aw hell..."

The girl raised her hand to the dark skies above...

"Die, human!"

Then brought her hand down.

The world turned white as an enormous bolt of lightning consumed Kevin. It was so loud it deafened the world, Elysia couldn't even tell if Kevin was screaming or not. So powerful was the amount of energy being released that it felt as if the entire city was shaking.

Then it was over.

...And there laid Kevin's body, unmoving, with smoke rising from him.

"Fool." The Herrscher spat, and then she turned to Elysia. "You... You will pay for raising your hand against me."

Elysia knew the Herrscher had her dead to rights. She had no weapon, no back up, and no escape. By all means she should be terrified at facing down her own death. Yet, as the Empress of Lightning raised her hand to strike her down, she felt no fear.

"That Kevin really is a reckless boy." Elysia smiled.

The Empress of Lightning stared at her with contempt. "And now you'll join him."

A hand fell on her wing. "Yeah, about that..."

Her eyes widened. "That... That's impossible!"

Kevin stood behind the Empress of Lightning, his clothes were charred and smoke was still clinging onto him, and he had the absolute smuggest look on his face.

"You know, I don't know what's funnier..." His body erupted with blue flames once again. "The fact that you actually thought I fell for your third-rate acting, or that you fell for your own trick!"

The Herrscher grit her teeth. "Y-You...!"

"Anyway, we can continue this chat in couple's counseling!" And with that, Kevin tore his hand through the Herrscher's wing, destroying it completely.

The girl collapsed to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.

Then Kevin fell to his knees. "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuucking hell that hurt!"

Elysia rushed to his side. "Are you alright!" She put her hand on his shoulder, then immediately pulled it back in pain. "Hot!"

It felt like she had just touched a searing hot pan.

Kevin let out a long groan. "I'll live, but I'm going to feel this in my soul for a while. Honestly, I can't believe that plan worked."

Elysia blinked as she processed what she just heard. "You planned for that?"

"Mhmm, powers came with a healing factor, I had to place my bets that I could tank the damage." Kevin gave her a tired smile. "Luckily, it was a bet that I won."

Elysia stared at him for a few seconds before she let out a laugh. "You're something else, you know that?" She turned to the now unconscious Herrscher. "What now?"

"Honestly..." Elysia looked carefully at Kevin's expression, he bit his lip, and seemed like he was on the verge of tears. "I didn't think we'd even get this far."

Elysia pouted. "Don't tell me you risked the life of poor little me on a whim~!"

He waved her off. "Cool it, pinky. Worse came to worse, I would've held her off and bought time for you to escape." Then he gave her a knowing look. "But knowing you, you would've flat out rejected that option and stuck around." A smug grin made its way onto his face. "And you call me reckless."

Elysia let an over dramatic gasp. "Kevin! You're never supposed to blame a pretty girl! Even if they're wrong you need to just nod along and take it!"

"Foolishness, Elysia. Foolishness..." He said in his own dramatic tone. "I, as a man, strive for true gender equality!"

Elysia gave him a bland look. "You're lucky you're cute."

Kevin let out a snort, and brought his attention back to his unconscious girlfriend. "Anyway, we don't have many options here..." Kevin frowned slightly. "Sooner or later, she's going to wake up and go on a rampage all over again. I doubt that stunt I pulled is going to work a second time." He sighed. "Taking out her Herrscher Core isn't going to work either..."

Elysia blinked. "You already knew about the Honkai?!"

Kevin met her stare for a few seconds before looking down at the unconscious face of his girlfriend. Silently, he reached down, and tenderly tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.

"It's complicated, Elysia." He admitted that he'd only been playing at being ignorant. "It wouldn't be a stretch to say that I currently know way more about the Honkai and its true nature than MOTH does."

This was something she'd have to follow up on later, hopefully he had some good stories too. "So, why wouldn't taking out the core work?"

He raised a finger. "One: We don't have the surgical equipment or skills required to safely remove it." He raised a second finger. "Two: If my theory on how Herrscher Cores function in this era holds any true weight... then it might do nothing at all to return her to normal, or leave her comatose."

Elysia felt her heart drop, it was obvious just how much this girl meant to Kevin. "So, there's nothing we can do?"

"I... don't know." He took the girl's hand into his own. "I've never seen a situation like this happen before under these circumstances. I'm honestly at a loss for what to do."

"I see." Elysia looked up, seeing the storm clouds above give way, letting the moonlight and stars finally glow upon the ruined city.

She brought her gaze down to look at the girl, the school girl called Mei. She truly was a stunning girl, it wasn't hard to see why someone like Kevin would've fallen for her. Then she noticed something peculiar. On the left side of Mei's hip, there was a strange marking.

"Hey. what's that?" Elysia pointed towards the marking.

"Ah, that's a Stigmata, it's part of the reason why I said taking out the... core... couldn't..." Kevin trailed off as his eyes slowly widened. "Stigmata... Stigmata Space... Holy. Shit."

Elysia looked at him curiously. "Kevin?"

"Good fucking Lord, Project STIGMA actually turned out to be good for something!"

Elysia blinked in confusion. "Project what?"

He looked off to the side nervously. "It's complicated... regardless, I..." His gaze shifted to Mei's face. "I'd like to ask for your help."

"Of course I'll help!" Elysia declared cheerfully. "I'll always be there to help a cute girl!"

"It's more complicated than that..."

"Is it ever not complicated?" she shot back.

Kevin paused, then he raised his head and looked her dead in the eyes. Though she'd known him only a little while, she'd never seen the seemingly carefree boy look so serious before.

"Elysia, do you trust me?"

Elysia looked into his eyes. His beautiful sky-blues that nearly caught her heart in her throat the first time she saw them. There was so much emotion in them, respect, adoration even, but through all of it, she saw something that shook her to the core.

Trust.

A trust so complete and unwavering that she knew... all she had to do was ask, and he would walk arm in arm with her through the gates of Hell itself.

What else could she have possibly said other than: "Yes."

A beaming grin stretched across Kevin's face. It was far different than the other times she'd seen him smile, there was something missing from the ones before. But now, she could tell, it was a genuine smile, pure and utter joy.

Under the moonlight and stars, it was one of the most beautiful things she'd ever seen.

"Alright then," Kevin held out his hand. "Take my hand, and let's do something so stupid, it just might work!"

There was no hesitation, Elysia held his hand in hers, noting just how small her hand was in his.

She met his smile with one of her own. "Let's do this!"

Blue embers rose from their held hands, and soon they were covered in blue flames, but not for a second did the flames burn her. A gentle warmth spread through her body as the flames spread more and more until they were both completely covered.

"Take Mei's hand in yours." Kevin instructed.

She nodded, and took Mei's soft and delicate hand into her own, the blue flames converging from where they both held her.

In front of her, Kevin took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Elysia felt honkai energy being drawn in from all around. Massive quantities beyond anything she'd felt before swirled around them like a tornado of energy as the flames grew more and more intense! Then she felt something pull on her, within the very depths of her very being...

Her eyes shot open, and met with Kevin's.

He smiled knowingly.

Elysia was left utterly speechless.

He knew... He knew and he still trusted her...!

He winked. "With your permission, my dear radiant lady?"

Elysia felt tears gather in the corner of her eyes. "Of course!"

She felt the pull on the core of her being once again, but this time she did not resist.

The world was then flooded with white light, and when it died down, they found themselves somewhere new. At a glance, it looked like a long hallway, but it was more like a bridge, one suspended in a white void. Black and white checkered tiles made up the floor, and various images were swirling around the bridge to make a sort of tunnel.

This was not a place that could exist in the real world.