Rampage of Nature (2)

It was really just a moment, no one knew that the situation would suddenly turn out like this.

...

Ayame POV.

I wiped my chin which was dripping with sweat, I glanced at my clothes which were slightly wet with sweat but then evaporated quickly.

This place really has a very bad environment, my Persona Herrscher and I were talking about this, only for me to suddenly hear the screams of Higokumaru and the others.

"Be careful, Ayame!"

Their shouts startled me, just as I wanted to turn my head, my pupils shrank involuntarily and for a moment my eyes caught the silhouette of a white spear.

"Huh-"

*Swosh!

"Urgh...!"

All of a sudden an extremely stinging pain appeared in my chest and even made me vomit blood, with a gasp of breath, I looked down at my chest that had been pierced by some kind of white spear.

'Blood?... Who... Who attacked?...'

Perhaps due to the shock, I didn't feel any pain from my pierced chest, only a cold feeling that appeared simultaneously with my blood gushing from my chest, I could hear their screams including my Persona Herrscher.

['Come to your senses Ayame! You're not segs with Kouro yet!']

My Herrscher persona's shouts brought me to my senses a little, but it was no use.

A hand suddenly emerged from the portal that appeared right in front of me and instantly gripped my neck tightly.

Before I tried to break free, I heard the cruel laughter of a familiar-sounding girl from the portal.

I finally knew the identity of the person who grabbed my neck.

My pupils shrank, reflecting cold and cruel orange-colored eyes that shone brightly, sending chills down my spine.

"Kiana! Is that... You...? "

The moment after I said that, my neck was gripped tighter making my consciousness quickly fade, my body's strength quickly disappearing.

Feeling death approaching, I frantically tried to break free with all my might, even though in my heart I knew... Death was already waiting for me in front of me.

'Death... ? I'm... Going to die?'

My teeth gnashing weakly with fear, unconsciously memories of the past began to appear and play like a movie in my mind.

But then the fear quickly subsided as my mind thought of him, thinking of the man who was the reason I kept going.

My desire to stand beside him was greater than my fear of death.

I tried to say his name, but the Herrscher before me didn't give me a chance.

*Crack! *

POV End.

__

Ayame opened her eyes and woke up panting, cold sweat could be seen soaking her clothes, her trembling eyes seemed to calm down after a few minutes passed.

"Where is this... "

She was strangely currently lying on a garden chair shaded by a large tree, she looked around at the flowers and fruits that looked fresh and juicy.

There was a feeling of comfort and calmness when looking at the surrounding scenery, this made her wonder if this place was heaven.

Ayame then pinched her cheek hard, causing her to feel a pain that convinced her that the scene she was seeing was real.

"Ouch! I am.... Still alive?"

"No, you're dead. "

"Kyaa!!!"

Ayame cried out in surprise when she heard someone's voice, so she immediately somersaulted and took an attacking stance.

"Who are you! Huh-?"

Ayame's caution instantly vanished and was replaced by a dumbfounded expression at the sight of the girl before her.

Sensing her surprised gaze, the girl merely smiled softly before saying in a melodious voice.

"You don't need to be so wary. I don't have any ill intentions towards you. You may have guessed it, but I am you-"

"Myself?" said Ayame with her eyes glaring at the girl or rather focused on something.

"-From the past. " said the girl in front of her.

Ayame looked at her, the girl had the exact same appearance as her except looking a few years older than her.

The most striking thing was the aura of authority and purity that emanated from her, coupled with her simple yet luxurious attire that made her look like a goddess, as she wore a golden tiara and a delicate and beautiful white dress with golden stripes.

Beyond the clothes and accessories, Ayame felt as if she was staring at the reflection of a mirror when the girl was in front of her.

But there was one problem, one very crucial problem.

"That's Enormous.... "

Ayame stared at the girl's large chest, even larger than Himeko-sensei's, she could see how the girl's twin mountains were bouncing slightly just from the slightest movement.

The girl was unaware of Ayame's thoughts and focused on speaking in a voice as pleasant as the breeze.

"-I know that you won't take my word for it, so I'll give you proof-"

Before the girl could finish her sentence, she saw Ayame approaching her with freaky footsteps before placing both hands on her shoulders.

*Boing! *

"Ee-eh? Wha... What's wrong? Why does your facial expression look scary like that?"

Ayame could consciously feel that the girl's chest was natural and not silicone, shattering her last hope.

She looked down with a blank expression before raising her head and shouting so loudly that the impact blew away the flowers around her.

"WRYYYYYYY!!!"

...

"Ett-etto, are you alright?" The girl who proclaimed herself as Ayame from the past was confused mixed with panic and was currently trying to comfort Ayame who was lying on the ground with an expression like a dead fish.

"... Right... That's right, I actually have a big chest, but god was jealous of my beauty so I was cursed to be flat-chested, that's it! That's for sure!" Ayame muttered insanely trying to escape reality.

"If you continue like this, you'll be wasting her sacrifice~" the girl said which made Ayame's mumbling stop.

Ayame lifted her head and stood up before looking at her in confusion.

"Who are you referring to..."

"Haven't you guessed it already... The reason your soul didn't go straight to the underworld was because of the other Persona's sacrifices. "

"What?... How could that be...?" Ayame's expression froze.

She could not imagine her Herrscher persona doing such a thing... She knew that her Herrscher persona did not have a heart of gold like Kouro or even a possessive personality like Mei-senpai's Herrscher persona.

"That means... She won't exist anymore?" Ayame muttered looking down at her palm.

Why... She felt empty? Wasn't it that with Herrscher's persona gone, she no longer needed to bother and fear that it would control her body.

Ayame understood this so she did not understand why she felt unhappy.

A drop of water fell into her palm, she blinked and finally realized, that drop of water was her tears.

'... Ahh... I understand... My bond with her... is very deep. '

A flashback of memories seemed to play out that made her understand that Herrscher's persona was....

Without Ayame realizing it, she had regarded Persona Herrscher as a sister who was always by her side.

Seeing Ayame lost in thought, the girl then spoke back softly.

"Using your mutated Stigmata, she channeled the last of her energy to connect with me. We are now inside your [Stigmata Space], I am the embodiment of the Will of Stigmata 'AYAME'."

"Stigmata Space? Will of Stigmata?" Ayame's expression became full of confusion at the words of the girl before her.

For your information, Stigmata Space is an imaginary space that is independent and outside of reality, basically similar to Imaginary Space only on a smaller scale.

While the Will of Stigmata itself as the name suggests is a will born from Stigmata by imitating some of the personalities and memories of Stigmata users.

The unique thing about the Will of Stigmata is that they can be passed on to the descendants of the Stigmata user who gave birth to the will so that they can be connected to each other as happened to Siegfried who met Kevin when he opened his MANTIS gene in Second Eruption.

After the Will of Stigmata explained, Ayame finally understood a little, she looked at the girl before her with a slightly strange expression before asking uncertainly.

"So... You are the will of my ancestors?"

Will of Stigmata seemed to smile slightly at her question but did not answer her question and simply said.

"That's not important, let's focus on you being here. "

The girl subtly changed the topic but Ayame did not notice.

"Eh? Right! Why am I here and why is my Persona Herrscher calling you?"

The Will of Stigmata looked at her with an unknown gaze before saying, "Your Persona Herrscher wants me to save you from the brink of death. I can do that but... It will also require your cooperation. "

Ayame's expression became serious, she seemed to ponder before asking quietly.

"What should I do?"

Hearing her question, the Will of Stigmata's lips curled visibly.

__

Under the dazzling green light, the Sapphire city that had become ruins suddenly experienced a violent earthquake and tree roots began to grow from Ayame's body.

Her body then decomposed into a sprout that grew at a high speed and the roots moved towards the arid and burnt land caused by the Herrscher of Void's nuclear attack.

"KYAA!!!" Wendy and the others looked panicked as the massive earthquake and the giant roots numbering hundreds of thousands were like a tsunami moving towards them at high speed.

"What exactly happened to Ayame-san!" asked Kallen who was floating using a mini jetpack on her back beside Higokumaru.

"I don't know, this kind of thing has never happened before even in the Previous Era!" replied Higokumaru, she looked back with her pupils trembling.

She could feel the powerful energy of the 'Buds', that energy seemed to stimulate Herrscher Ayame's authority thus creating the current chaos.

This made Higokumaru confused, because Ayame was actually not a full Herrscher as she did not have a Herrscher core.

As her mind was filled with questions, Higokumaru suddenly felt very sleepy, her body even seemed to fade for a moment before returning to normal.

"What... The—? My energy... Feels like it's being sucked up by something... "

Higokumaru quickly lost consciousness and would have fallen to the ground if not for being quickly noticed by Sakura and catching her.

"Higokumaru!" Sakura fell to the ground after catching Higokumaru, she suddenly felt the same thing as her making her body weak.

Wendy who saw this immediately used her [Wind] Authority to carry them into the air before flying away followed by Kallen.

"Huh?! " Wendy raised her eyebrows as the Honkai energy output she had to spend was more than usual, but the effect was halved.

"Higokumaru-san! Sakura-san! Is there a problem?" Kallen looked at the two of them with a worried expression, especially towards Higokumaru who was unconscious.

"My body... Feels weak... Something... Sucking the Honkai energy in the air... " Sakura said weakly and looked back at the tree roots that were still moving like a tsunami before looking at Higokumaru with a deep expression.

"Looks like my guess was right... That tree... Absorbing Honkai energy!" muttered Wendy with a serious expression while looking back at the 'Bud' that had grown into a giant tree hundreds of meters in size and continued to grow.

"I hope Mei and the others are okay... " Kallen said with a worried tone, fortunately she knew that Mei was one of the strongest Herrscher so she was confident that her life was not in danger.

She raised her head to stare at Hyperion in the sky who was currently battling with Benares.

'I hope Hyperion's energy won't be sucked up by that tree either.'

Her thoughts were interrupted as Wendy said, "Think about that later, we need to find a safe place and contact the others immediately!"

Wendy then raised her head looking at Hyperion and thought of Theresa and Himeko.

She was sure that the Honkai Beast Benares would have no chance against the two of them, after all there was Theresa who was an veteran S-level Valkyrie and had the Divine Key Oath of Judah in her hands.

But... Wendy then turned her head to stare at the tree roots that were spreading in various directions, the roots had filled the city of Sapphire and the 'Buds' had grown to sprout a large white flower with pink hues, the flower was growing at the top of the tree and was getting bigger at a high speed.

Is this what will happen to the Herrscher when they lose control of their powers?....

If the tree is not stopped it is possible that... the Honkai energy on earth will vanish!

Wendy had mixed feelings about this because if the world was free of Honkai then there would be no more Honkai Beasts, no more HB disease, and most importantly.... There will be no more Herrscher.

She quickly shook her head before then glancing at the Herrscher of Void who was floating in the air with a tense aura, her eyes seemed to be focused on the 'tree' ignoring Wendy and the others.

Wendy was relieved not to be noticed by her so she quickly darted away. Coincidentally, the direction where they went was the direction where the evacuation was located.

...

"Hmm... Is this your last fight? What a useless thing. "

Herrscher of Void then narrowed her coldly glowing eyes before using [Flame] Authority to burn the roots of the tree.

She waved her hand and created a vast blazing firestorm with heat equivalent to the surface of the sun.

*Swosh! *

"Huh?! " Herrscher of Void's eyebrows raised, she stared at her palm and glanced at the tsunami storm of flames burning the roots.

'The energy output I need to use is several times more than the normal output—My energy is being absorbed? This 'tree'... Able to affect [Imaginary Space]?!'

The premonition of danger suddenly appearing made her instantly alert, she saw thousands of thorny roots shooting towards her, she quickly teleported while simultaneously burning those thorny roots whenever she found the opportunity.

Although the attack is effective, it is not efficient enough because a second later thousands of new roots will grow from the roots of the burnt tree.

It's really like the saying 'One dead grows a thousand'.

The most annoying thing for Herrscher of Void was that the attack she launched would be absorbed by the 'tree' as nutrients to accelerate its growth.

As a result of the 'tree' growing too fast, it crashed into Hyperion in the sky at a height of a thousand feet.

Theresa and Himeko who were fighting against Benares suddenly lost their balance due to Hyperion's tilt.

"Kyaa!!!" In the air, they both screamed in surprise before Theresa quickly threw the golden chain of the Oath of Judah that shot towards Benares before entangling her.

Himeko then hugged Theresa to prevent her from falling, both of their actions angered Benares, the Honkai Beast let out a loud roar and flapped its wings hitting Hyperion until it suffered severe damage before flying into the sky.

*BAM!*

Inside Hyperion, the Staff were in a panic as one of Hyperion's Leonov Anti-Gravity engines had been damaged by Benares' impact.

In general, the damage to the Leonov engines is still manageable as Hyperion has two Leonov engines, unfortunately this time the energy-producing nuclear reactor leaked and was absorbed by the 'Tree'.

Whether it is a backup reactor and others are useless because all the 'deadly' energy will be absorbed by the 'tree' into nutrients.

This resulted in Hyperion's engines shutting down and quickly the airship began to fall.

"What the hell?! " Himeko and Theresa who were hanging in the air saw this and had worried expressions.

They both then tried to contact others, such as Wendy or Mei to be able to secure Hyperion.

Himeko contacted Mei while Theresa contacted Wendy.

"Wendy! Do you hear me!"

Fortunately, the communication network had no problems and was directly connected to Wendy.

The communication screen displayed Wendy and the others on top of the building, seeing them unharmed Theresa breathed a sigh of relief.

["Principal? There's a problem, Wha-! KYAA!!!"] The communication screen suddenly shook uncontrollably before disconnecting.

Theresa's expression instantly changed, feeling an unusual air vibration, she turned her head in a certain direction where a building suddenly collapsed without cause.

"Damn it! " Himeko suddenly grumbled which startled Theresa making her turn her head to look at her.

"What's the matter?"

"I can't contact Mei, I don't know what happened to her... "

Himeko bit her lip until it bled, she felt herself useless for being unable to do anything.

"Damn it! Am I just going to be able to look without doing anything!"

They both stared at the fallen Hyperion without being able to do anything.

Just as the feeling of despair came over them, a shadowy silhouette flashed past carrying a supersonic shock impact.

Hyperion suddenly stopped falling, no, the airship seemed to be slowly falling as if someone was holding it up.

Theresa and Himeko had shocked expressions and looked at each other, for some reason they suddenly thought of someone.

"Kouro!"x2

Right after shouting that they felt the touch of someone familiar.

"You guys called me?"

Kouro seemed to suddenly appear behind the two of them while floating in the air.

"Kouro!"x2

Himeko and Theresa immediately put on a happy expression because Kouro was here.

Kouro just smiled in reply to their call, he then turned to look at Benares with a cold expression before activating [Bloodlust].

In Benares' perspective, she was suddenly enveloped by a suffocating killing aura, her eyes then looked into Kouro's brightly glowing eyes.

From those eyes, Benares saw a living shadow that would swallow anything without limit.

That shadow stared straight into her soul and in that moment a primal emotion was etched straight into her soul...

Fear.

In just an instant, Benares was overcome by the emotion of fear and was temporarily under Kouro's control.

"Get down." Kouro ordered calmly, Benares quickly descended to the ground and acted like a trained dog.

In Himeko and Theresa's perspective, they only saw Kouro stare at Benares for a moment before the Honkai Beast suddenly became tense and finally obeyed Kouro's command.

"How did you do that? " Himeko asked with a dumbfounded expression.

"Fear." Kouro replied without turning to her.

Himeko looked deeply at Kouro, she felt something different from him.

For some reason she remembered her old friends who were her partners in fighting Honkai.

Right after remembering this, she finally realized what Kouro was feeling right now.

Himeko opened her mouth wanting to comfort him but... After seeing his expression, she finally closed her mouth again.

Kouro was currently staring at the 'Flower' of the tree that had blossomed and released an invisible powder.

"Ayame..." Kouro muttered, his expression unseen as he had his back to Himeko and Theresa.

The powder quickly spread throughout the city before growing into small buds and sprouting all sorts of vegetation.

The powder finally reached them, making Kouro narrow his eyes.

Kouro deliberately breathed in to let the powder enter his body to see if there were any symptoms of either poisoning or anything else.

After waiting for a few minutes, Kouro didn't find any [Unknown] notice which made him confident that the powder was harmless....

"Kouro..." Himeko and Theresa looked sleepy, they both felt their bodies weaken significantly as if their energy was being sucked away.

Staring at them with a serious expression, Kouro discovered that the Honkai energy in both of their bodies had been absorbed by the 'Tree'. Himeko's stigmata and Theresa's 'Vishnu' gene had weakened significantly.

Benares even seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep.

"That tree... Just targeting Honkai?"

Kouro raised his head to stare at the blossoms on top of the 'tree' that continued to release powder. At the top of the tree, parts of the tree could be seen curling into each other to form a kind of cocoon.

A giant hand shaped like a light green claw suddenly came out of the cocoon and opened the cocoon wide which turned into long leaves as if a dress for the giant creature.

The humanoid figure was 500 meters tall, its lower body a tree that had occupied one-eighth of the European continent.

The humanoid had light green skin, long hair made of pale leaf fibers with accessories of several pinkish-white flowers, its eyes were black with dark green pupils.

She was like a Dryad in mythology. Only there was a complete hatred and desire to destroy emanating from those eyes.

At the sight of the giant Humanoid's appearance, Kouro seemed to bite his lip while his hands were tightly clenched.

The giant humanoid took on Ayame's appearance.