I woke up in a dark alley in the dead of night, a sword impaled through my heart, the memories of another life flooding my head. It was a miracle beyond anything the world had ever seen, but I, Kevin Kaslana, only had one exasperated response to it...
This chapter fought me for a good while, not going to lie.
Chapter Five: He Comes To Bargain
Mobius had no idea if she was dreaming or not. Quite honestly, she felt like the only sane person here right now.
Before her, sitting on a steel folding chair with his legs crossed and drinking a cup of milk bubble tea offered by her assistant, was the fourth Herrscher. Perfectly sane, lucid, and not trying to murder them all, but looking infuriatingly smug.
Elysia was practically trying to meld herself into his wings, snuggling into them almost like blankets. "It's so soft and cozy!"
And Ato, their guard, was trying not to laugh and failing horribly. Regardless if it was at the face she was making, or Elysia's antics...she was docking his pay.
"It's an honor to meet the world famous Doctor Mobius." He greeted her politely.
Everything happened so fast.
There was a blue flash and then the Herrscher had disappeared, then Elysia showed up out of nowhere after being MIA for hours and practically dragged her to a medical tent nearby, Klein and Ato following closely behind.
"And I do believe you're already acquainted with my girlfriend, Mei." The Herrscher motioned his hand in the direction of the unconscious purple-haired girl in one of the beds.
Mobius remembered the girl, of course she did. Mei was the daughter of a world-renowned electromagnetic physicist, and the apple didn't fall far from the tree. Mobius knew talent when she saw it, even without Mei's groundbreaking paper on Quantum Mechanics, there was little doubt in Mobius's mind that she would ever miss such a prodigy.
...And said prodigy was the lover of the first non-violent Herrscher. What the actual hell was going on?
"Yes," Mobius affirmed somewhat stiffly. "We met around four months ago. You said your name was... Kaslana, correct."
He gave a leisurely shrug. "It's more of a stage name, really. My actual name is Kevin."
Kevin the Herrscher... what a dreadfully drab name for a being of such stature. "I believe I'll stick with Kaslana."
"That's fine." He shrugged before a more serious expression made its way onto his face. "Doctor Mobius, I'm here to make a deal."
She raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"
Negotiations with a Herrscher... The very thought was completely absurd to anyone with common sense.
The first two Herrschers MOTH had encountered had been purely hostile to humanity. Even the awakening of the Third Herrscher the previous day had led to mass death and destruction all across Nagazora.
And then there was the man before her, the Fourth Herrscher, Kaslana. The sheer power his mere awakening unleashed was far beyond anything MOTH had ever seen up to this point. And yet his utter mastery of honkai energy was evident when he'd directed the eruption into the sky instead. Yet, despite all of his power and control, he looked no different from any human of this era. A normal teenager, albeit one dressed in some rather high quality cosplay.
From the power he possessed, the way he wielded it so effortlessly, to the way he carried himself... and those eyes...
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Could this be the answer she had been searching for so long? The key to humanity's transcendence; beautiful evolution?
Negotiations with a Herrscher... The very thought was utterly fascinating to Mobius.
"What I want is simple," He raised one finger. "One: My whereabouts, and the whereabouts of the Third Herrscher, completely hidden from MOTH. As far as they'll know, we escaped Nagazora and are MIA." He raised another finger. "Two: To ensure the anonymity and safety of the Third Herrscher."
Mobius raised an eyebrow. "Curious. May I ask why?"
He took another sip of his milk bubble tea before he spoke. "MOTH, as an organization, is far too corrupt to trust to be truly effective against the Honkai. The existence of Cocoon being a prime example."
Mobius's eyes widened just the slightest amount.
How the hell did he have such intimate knowledge of MOTH? The organization hadn't gone public yet, and they wouldn't for as long as they could. More than that, how did he know about Cocoon, it was a secret even within their organization!
Ato furrowed his brows in confusion. "Cocoon? I don't think I've ever heard of that branch before."
"It's a secret branch of MOTH focused on assassinating humans, usually traitors and political figures, that get in the way of MOTH's upper brass." Kaslana explained simply. "And yes, simply knowing about this would put you on a list."
Ato paled. "Oh..."
"Please don't go trying to dig any deeper into this. You seem like a nice guy and I'd rather you not get shanked in a dark alley by crazy super assassins."
The soldier looked over his shoulder. "I'll... keep it in mind."
...And keeping Ato safe from Cocoon was now another priority on her list. He may have been a little dimwitted, but he was a very good and useful soldier. Not to mention he was someone she could actually trust to get something done without much fuss.
"So, you wish for MOTH to not know of your existence?" Mobius questioned. "Yet you sought me out? Would it have not been easier to just... fly away?"
Kaslana turned to Elysia still snuggling into his wings. "Eheheheheheheh!"
He then turned back to Mobius.
She understood it was more of a humorous gesture, but still, "Point made."
"To put it clearly, I do not wish to work with MOTH, I want to work with you specifically." He explained.
Mobius nearly jumped at the chance then and there. The chance to study a Herrscher, to work with one, was almost too tantalizing an opportunity to pass up. Almost. She still hadn't heard what she was going to get out of this deal just yet.
"And this coincides with what you get out of this deal..." The Herrscher continued.
And here it comes...
"And a being of your power would offer something to us humans?" She asked as she held her hands together over her lap and she crossed her legs.
He paused for a few seconds before he spoke once again. "Doctor Mobius, do you know the difference between an idiot, and a fool?"
She raised a curious eyebrow, and motioned for him to continue.
"An idiot would stand before you relying on fear and power alone to gain your... subservience" His face turned somewhat bitter, and he shook his head. "I can practically see the play by play. MOTH outright rejects it, another Honkai War starts, I crush MOTH in its entirety. I gain nothing, and I lose everything."
Elysia was oddly still, staring at the Herrscher.
"A fool understands." Kaslana stated. "They understand the futility, or even the wrongfulness of their own actions and choices, yet choose to do them anyway. That is what makes a fool a fool, and I have learned from the greatest fool of them all. There was once a man that believed the Honkai was a cosmic test for humanity. He was completely, utterly, and absolutely wrong... and yet he understood enough to reach the nexus of existence, the Imaginary Tree, and created a new timeline where the woman he loved lived, but at the cost of his own life."
Mobius had many, many, many questions from that little tirade alone, but continued playing along with the Herrscher's philosophical lecture. "A fool indeed."
"He forsook any other avenue of happiness, enslaved people who wanted to save humanity to do his bidding, deceived the entire world, and committed unspeakable atrocities, all to save the life of a girl whose blood was on his own hands." His eyes glazed over for a few seconds, reliving a certain memory before he let out a snort and shook his head. "And when there were no more cards to play, and he walked willingly towards his own death, he waxed poetically about death and how foolish humanity's belief in Heaven is before wishing well for his granddaughter and the people he deceived and wronged." He let out a laugh, finding what he himself said hilarious. "And that is the story of the fool who, for a single moment, held the universe in his hand!"
For a moment, Mobious was left completely speechless. A man who would go just that far, not for humanity, not for anything truly grand, but for a single inconsequential woman out of guilt!
He became the closest thing to God for an instant, and he wasted it on a girl!
And he knew it.
Mobius wanted to strangle the bastard herself.
Truly, he was a fool.
Yet she could see the barest hint of respect in Kaslana's eyes behind the resentment he so obviously showed for the man he spoke of.
She loathed the conclusion she came to.
Mobius almost scowled. "And you see yourself as a similar fool as well."
Kaslana smirked at her words. "I understand that fighting against MOTH is a waste of time, people, and resources. Things which can be put to good use. I understand that speaking to anyone other than you would be a complete waste of effort, and quite frankly, you're one of the few people in MOTH that I actually like."
Mobius rolled her eyes. "You flatter me, but you've never met me."
"The rest of MOTH's upper brass would either try to kill me, imprison me, or see me as a new opportunity to further their political agenda. You're the only one I can trust to actually put me to good use."
Well, he wasn't exactly wrong...
"A deal is not a deal unless both parties get something out of the arrangement. Now, let's go over your benefits." He raised a single finger. "First: You will have my complete cooperation with any experiments and research you wish to perform on me."
And at that alone, she knew this was an opportunity that she could not pass up. It didn't matter what, she would bend over backwards to keep him on her side of the court.
He raised a second finger. "Second: The identity of the Third Herrscher."
An utterly invaluable piece of information...
He raised another: "Third: I will explain to you, as well as I can, the metaphysics of our universe and the true nature of the Honkai."
At this point, he was practically begging to be locked in her lab and never see the light of day ever again!
He raised a fourth finger. "But wait, there's more."
There's more?!
"I can tell you how the world ends..."
Silence.
Despite herself, Mobius felt her blood run cold at those words.
Ato looked at him in open shock.
Klein froze perfectly still and just stared at him.
Elysia's smile was gone, a somber look on her face. She knew, didn't she?
He had just claimed that he knew the future. And then everything clicked.
"That's why you call yourself a fool?" Mobius asked bitterly.
"I've seen every breakthrough and advancement humanity has made in preparation, damn near every atrocity and sacrifice made in the name of the greater good. And none of it meant a damn thing to The End." Kaslana gave a self-deprecating laugh. "When I look at the moon, I see The End staring back at me, and I am once again hit with the understanding that the game is rigged."
Rigged?
Mobius felt her mouth was suddenly dry.
"With everything I know, with how completely and utterly useless and futile it is to even consider fighting back, here I am, ever defiant, and the only plan I can think of is: Fuck it, we ball."
Truly, he was a fool.
No, not even foolishness. It was borderline - no! It was outright idiocy!
Kaslana leaned forward, and extended his hand. "Do we have a deal?"
Mobius clenched her teeth. She was enraged, furious even. She had rarely ever felt like this. And worst of all is... how it ate at her pride. How he all but said that her own contributions as well meant utterly nothing. She hated it because someone like her should be above such things as petty pride. To acknowledge such a thing would be admitting that she too held the same repulsive ugliness that the current humanity held.
It was completely and utterly infuriating. She wanted to scream with all her might-
There was a sharp pain in her hand. She looked down and noticed that her nails had dug into her palm. She was bleeding.
The pain brought a certain clarity in the storm of rage.
Mobius looked up to Kaslana, seeing him still hold his arm out patiently, a look of sympathy on his face.
Was this how he felt when he first learned of this?
Her gaze lowered to his hand.
To be defiant before inevitability itself was the height of foolishness, but if so...
She reached out and grasped his hand with her own, and signed a contract with the Devil in her own blood.
