Otherworld - War of Honkai 1.

The face of Honkai

The three Hunters staying with Jason felt strange.

They all felt the energy outside of course, but it was like the closer they got to Jason, the thicker the energy became.

As if it came from Jason's body.

***

"Is this a virus or what is this?", Percy asked.

"It's not", Kiana answered. "As far as we know, it's an alien stuff from the tree."

"What tree?"

"You really know nothing about this? I thought it was happening in the whole world."

"Ummm... What part of the Earth are you from?", Percy asked.

"Germany", Kiana answered.

"Pretty sure Germany was okay until now..."

"Wha—" Kiana stopped. "What do you mean?"

"I said the Earth has never had faced this kind of problem."

"It might have", Annabeth said. "But maybe nobody knows about this."

"What do you mean?", Petra asked.

"The mythology states that Chaos, the Primordial God was born of void", she explained. "They couldn't be born from the nothingness, they had to have some kind of parent or somethi—"

She suddenly heard some strange noise from in front of her.

"Let's continue this later!", Percy said.

They started running.

They were in the corner of the camp when a lighting bolt struck the zombies behind them.

In front of them, Thalia was standing.

"Thanks!", Percy said.

"So it's zombies, huh. How did they get through the barrier?", Thalia asked.

"No idea."

"While you were gone, something happened to Jason."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know, he looks...weird. He's in the Artemis cabin, maybe you can do something with your water healing."

"I'll try."

Percy and the girls went straight to the Artemis cabin.

Jason was lying there next to a wall inside the cabin. He was looking really bad.

He was shivering. His arteries got a lot bigger and much blacker. He also had bags under his eyes.

He wasn't like this a few hours earlier.

The energy also became much thicker around him.

"What the fuck do I witness right now?", Percy asked in shock. "Is he...turning into...a zombie?"

"No...", Kiana answered.

She was also in shock.

But to Annabeth, her expression differed from Percy's.

Percy's was like a normal not-so-welcomely surprised look.

On the other hand, Kiana's was more like a 'I didn't want to see this again!'.

She met this before.

And Kiana did remember this.

She saw this happening on a fellow Valkyrie. Vendy.

And the very same thing happened to her too.

"He's turning into..."

She stopped and collapsed on her knees.

She knew she was doing something she shouldn't have.

She knew she killed somebody.

She saw this someone right next to her.

This someone was smiling.

That red suit. That red hair. It's all engraved in Kiana's mind.

And that smile...

"Himeko...", she cried.

"Kiana...?"

Annabeth didn't understand what was happening to her. Maybe a memory?

Then she realized.

She felt the Honkai Energy stronger.

Maybe Jason's situation worsened?

No, that couldn't be it, not in few seconds.

It was coming from Kiana.

"He's turning into a Herrscher!"

Percy didn't know what that was, but Kiana was really afraid of it.

But Annabeth knew what she was talking about. She'd already told her what a Herrscher was. Annabeth also noticed Kiana had been really afraid to say this word, like something had happened to her before that she didn't want to remember."

"Back away!", Annabeth said.

"Huh?", Percy looked at Annabeth. He was already next to Jason and was trying to help him. "He's dying, Annabeth... You want me to get away from him?"

Percy didn't know what he should do.

He didn't want to leave Jason there. But he also wanted to trust Annabeth.

"Please, Percy, trust me!"

Tears rolled down Annabeth's cheeks. She also didn't want to leave Jason there. But even if Percy would've been able to save him, looking at the state Jason was in, he couldn't have made it in time.

And she was prioritizing her boyfriend's life over one of her friend's.

It was a really hard choice to Annabeth.

But it didn't matter anymore.

All Annabeth felt was the explosion.