Sirin's Resolve (1)

Sirin looked at Ashborn with an angry expression, it was because the moment she entered into this strange, majestic palace, her connection with the Will of Honkai had been severed, she couldn't hear the voice of her 'god' anymore inside her mind.

Although the blessing of boundless energy still existed in her, but she was not immortal anymore, one decisive fatal strike and it would be the end for her.

Well, at least her regeneration factor was hundreds of times stronger than a MANTIS thanks to the 'Gem of Serenity' so as long as it wasn't a fatal attack like Ashborn's before, she could easily regenerate.

Even so she knew that without the blessing of her 'god', she was nothing, after all she still remembered how helpless she was against all of them without the help of her 'god'.

It's just that even when she had the blessing of 'god', Sirin still lost against Ashborn and now against Higokumaru and Ashborn without the blessing of 'god', it was like a death sentence.

And again, there was another problem, Sirin stared at the core fragment of the Herrscher of the End that was at the end of the grand palace.

A vague will wanted her to immediately rush to retrieve the core fragment.

This was really a big deal because thanks to the help of 'god', she was able to stop the influence of the Herrscher of the End core fragment, but now she had to avoid using the power of the Herrscher of the End core as much as possible.

'But... To fight the two of them, is that possible? If I use the [Space] ability I can indeed escape from this place, it's just that...'

Sirin's eyes glanced at the Herrscher of the End core shard behind Ashborn and Higokumaru that was several thousand meters away from her. With a single teleportation she would definitely be able to retrieve the core shard, except that Ashborn and Higokumaru would definitely not let her easily.

If she ran away now... She will not have another golden opportunity to immediately become stronger, especially if she wanted to destroy humanity, she would need more power than what she had now.

What's more she had many enemies stronger than her now, if she doesn't become stronger, she will die, no, something worse than death.

She will disappoint the 'god', she will not achieve her goal, and she will even disappoint the grudges of her friends who died unjustly.

She cannot retreat, no, rather Sirin cannot retreat, she can only force herself to move forward even if it is hell.

She cannot, should not, and will not retreat, she must become stronger, stronger than Ashborn, stronger than Kouro, and she must even be stronger than the Herrscher of the End!

'With that I will be able to bring my mother back to life!'

Sirin's eyes shone brightly, she had made up her mind.

Having tasted 'death' once, she no longer feared death, her mentality had slowly changed to become stronger.

__

Ashborn and Higokumaru looked at Sirin who let out a strong wind that swept away everything, they saw her angry expression and thought that their plan had indeed worked.

Moreover since Sirin was angry right now, it meant that she hadn't thought of any plans and would just attack blindly so their chances of victory had greatly increased.

Higokumaru stared at Sirin for a long time, although she was still putting up a fighting stance, her current expression looked dreamy as if recalling the past before finally saying.

"Ashborn, forgive me if I sound presumptuous, but can you not kill and just capture her alive?"

"I think... Everyone has a second chance to be better. " She continued.

*BAM! *

Higokumaru remembered KOURO who fought against the world for a Herrscher.

Although in the end he failed, but at least in this era, she wanted to fulfill KOURO's wish as much as possible which was never realized in the previous era.

She believed that what KOURO wanted to achieve, namely killing Herrscher, was not the only solution.

Don't believe it? Just look at Higokumaru herself, she was the only Herrscher that KOURO managed to save.

And now here she was, facing off against Sirin with the goal of saving the world.

Ashborn glanced at her for a moment and thought about Kouro's words before finally nodding his head.

"I will try... But if her threat increases..." Ashborn did not finish his words, but Higokumaru nodded in understanding.

Seeing them talking to each other, Sirin unceremoniously flew at high speed towards them instead of teleporting.

She then created flames as hot as the sun before forming them into high-speed lasers which then entered the portal thanks to the [Space] ability that randomly appeared to confuse the two of them.

*ZING!*

Higokumaru's gaze followed the laser that randomly entered the portal only to find it flying straight at her.

Seeing this she entered a focused state until for a moment time slowed down in her cognition before slashing vertically.

However, her slash did not hit anything because just as her attack was about to cut through the laser, a portal appeared in front of her so the laser instantly entered and randomly teleported away.

"Where?! "

Suddenly a portal appeared from the bottom releasing a laser that could exhaust anything.

*ZING!*

Ashborn of course didn't stand still, he had already approached Sirin from earlier and fought her in close combat.

Unfortunately Sirin always kept her distance from him and used [Vortex of Serenity], but instead of using it as an attack, she used the skill as a defense, this could be seen from Sirin covering herself with black mist like a cocoon.

Ashborn could only approach Sirin cautiously while using the martial art [Edge of Taixuan] to deflect Sirin's attacks.

...

Higokumaru stared at the light laser that would soon hit her before shouting, "JIZO MITAMA!"

Just as she shouted like that, a humanoid creature about 20 meters in size with samurai armor and a pair of large katanas appeared in front of Higokumaru and took the laser attack.

*BOOM!*

There was a powerful explosion with dazzling light.

Behind the thick dust was Higokumaru who was completely unharmed, as for Jizo Mitama itself its armor looked badly cracked with smoke coming out of its body, it presence became faint before disappearing completely.

Sirin who was shrouded in a black blur saw all this and muttered helplessly, "Even after all that, I haven't caused any damage to her at all. "

"You'd better not distract yourself." Ashborn's voice sounded from beside her.

Sirin's expression instantly changed as she felt a hard punch to her stomach that made her want to vomit before being sent flying at high speed and crashing into the wall next to the altar.

Sirin stuck to the wall before falling to the ground, she vomited her stomach acid before clutching her stomach like a boiled shrimp with an expression of pain with tears running down her eyes.

She sensed that Ashborn had not hit her once but several times let alone with full force like being hit by a train, as she felt several bones in her body had been cracked and broken, even her internal organs were also severely injured.

"Urgh!... It hurts!.... It hurts!" She felt that something was missing as Ashborn hit her stomach.

And it was true, it was as if Ashborn did not hear her wailing but only stared at his chipped right hand which was currently holding the 'Gem of Serenity'.

With the shadow ability or rather using the concept of [Extract] he was able to take the Herrscher's gem core from Sirin's body.

Unfortunately, he could only steal the Herrscher's gem core randomly and he was quite lucky to get the Gem of Serenity.

This ability also actually had a fatal flaw in that the Gem he extracted can be retrieved by Sirin with just her mind.

Unfortunately, Sirin whose mind was full of pain and despair at the moment did not think about that.

If it wasn't for Higokumaru's request, he would have cut Sirin's neck at that time because it was the most efficient way.

Sirin endured the pain of her stomach, she felt her vision becoming blurred, her weak hand unconsciously stretched towards the Herrscher of the End's core fragment as if to reach it.

The distance was actually not that far with a little dragging of her body she would have been able to reach the core fragment, but unfortunately... fate said otherwise.

'Bella... Avrora... Agata... Galina... I'm sorry I couldn't avenge you... Mother... Mother... I'm sorry...' With tears coming out of her eyes, whether it was tears of sadness or disappointment her consciousness was definitely fading.

'Why... The world is so unfair to me? God... Forgive your servant who has disappointed you... But I beg you... If there is a next life, I just want to live happily together with my mother...' This was her last thought before passing out.

In the end... Sirin's deepest wish was to live happily together with her mother.

She did not realize that the flower-shaped pink crystal on the altar was glowing soothingly as if granting her wish.

"What happened?" Asked Ashborn at the sight.

"I don't know either. " replied Higokumaru with a worried expression.

She felt that the light seemed to be connected to Sirin, making her unconsciously stare at Sirin whose state was a little pathetic.

"By the way, you didn't kill her did you?" Higokumaru asked suspiciously.

Ashborn blinked for a moment before saying innocently.

"Of course not. "

Hearing his innocent tone, Higokumaru looked at him suspiciously before approaching Sirin who was unconscious but with her eyes still open.

She crouched down and stared at her for a long time before finally her expression softened and tried to heal Sirin's wounds.

Seeing Higokumaru's actions, Ashborn then asked calmly.

"Why did you do that? Wouldn't it be better if we took her other Herrscher cores out first before healing her? "

Ashborn would not hesitate to be cruel to his enemy even if it was a child.

"... You're such a cruel person, Ashborn, you wouldn't even hesitate to do such a cruel thing to a 12-year-old girl." Higokumaru said softly, her eyes still focused on Sirin's face.

"I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't have a girlfriend until now."

Sirin's unfocused pupils reflected the shards of the Herrscher of the End core on the dimly glowing altar.

__

In a hospital in the country of Belarus, in a special patient room.

There was a woman with purple hair who was sound asleep, and on her neck were purple stripes indicating that she had Honkai corrosion.

The woman woke up to the sound of footsteps rushing towards her room, her eyes slightly open looking at a purple-haired girl and a white-haired man with bright purple eyes beside her.

"Mom! Mom! I did it mom! I found someone who can cure your illness mom!"

The purple-haired girl as you might think was Sirin while the white-haired man was Kouro.

Sirin then looked at Kouro and said in a hurried tone, "Kouro-sama! Please heal my mom!"

Kouro put his hand on Sirin's mother's arm before absorbing the Honkai energy that was eating away at her body, not only that he also repaired her organs making her healthier.

He did it all in less than 15 minutes.

Sirin saw that her mother's pale skin had turned a rosy white and even her face looked 10 years younger.

The woman felt light and comfortable, as if her illness didn't exist in the first place.

"Sirin..." the woman called out to her softly.

"I'm here mom..." Sirin said while crying happily, she held her mother's hand with both hands.

"*Hiks, *Hiks, thank goodness mom! You're finally cured... You don't have to suffer anymore... You won't die leaving me..." Sirin only mumbled her last words, but it could be seen that she was very happy and relieved.

The cries of a young girl could be heard from inside the patient's room.

A few hours later.

Sirin was fast asleep on her mother's lap. Kouro looked at Sirin's mother who was patting Sirin's head affectionately.

"She seems to have troubled you a lot." Sirin's mother said softly.

She looked at Kouro who seemed to be a teenager, moreover from his face, Kouro seemed to be a foreign.

Kouro immediately shook his head before saying in fluent Russian "No! No! Not at all, ma'am, Sirin is very well behaved, really!"

"Hahaha~ That's good then. By the way you don't have to call me formally like that, you can call me Serina. "

After saying that, Serina looked at her daughter with a gentle expression, "I know how worried she was about me, even so she never complains at all... I'm grateful to have her. "

"Yes. She is indeed a strong girl, she unhesitatingly traveled to Serbia just to look for me in order to cure you, Seline-san." Kouro said softly as if afraid of waking Sirin.

But unlike Kouro, Seline looked at her with wide eyes, "What?!"

Sirin who was fast asleep because her biggest worry was now gone did not realize what would happen to her after waking up.

__

Sirin felt like she was dreaming, a beautiful dream where her mother was alive and saved by Kouro... Wait? Kouro!?

She immediately opened her eyes and raised her head to realize that she was currently leaning over a patient bed that had a familiar scent to it.

"Where-" Sirin suddenly stopped talking because this familiar smell was the same as her mother's lavender scent.

She could not see clearly as it was already night so she turned on the light.

The lamp then lit up revealing a simple bed that made her feel nostalgic.

Unmistakably, this bed belonged to her deceased mother!

But how could that be? Didn't she fight against Higokumaru and Ashborn earlier? How was she suddenly here.

"Am I in an illusion?" muttered Sirin.

She then closed her eyes trying to feel her Herrscher core before her eyebrows relaxed slightly, she could still feel all of her Herrscer core except for the Herrscher of the end's core fragment.

It's just that she can't use any other abilities other than [Space] authority which was her original power.

"That's good, even though I can't use the power 'god' gifted me, I can still protect myself using my power."

*Click*

The sound of the door opening made Sirin immediately alert, she looked back with her white spear in the hidden area, if the intruder attacked her she would immediately throw the white spear.

But her expression then changed when she saw who the intruder was.

"Ara~ Sirin? You're awake already."

Sirin's eyes trembled, her mouth seemed to close and open as if she wanted to say something, the white spear she had hidden had disappeared due to her unstable emotions.

Looking at Sirin who stood blankly staring at her, Serina tilted her head slightly before approaching her and patting her head with a worried expression.

"What's wrong Sirin? Are you sick? Do I need to call a doctor?"

"No! That's... I..." Sirin didn't know what to say, this touch, this scent, this voice, was really similar to her mother.

But her mother is dead! Her mother died from Honkai corrosion, wait! Now she remembered that she dreamed of bringing Kouro here to heal her mother...

"Sirin. Thank you, I am truly grateful to have you, my dear. But I really beg you not to do these dangerous things again..." Serina said before hugging Sirin.

Feeling Serina's warm embrace, Sirin seemed to freeze for a moment before tears involuntarily escaped her eyes and hugged her mother tightly.

"Well, now let's celebrate your birthday Sirin. "

Hearing this, Sirin blinked her eyes in confusion before remembering that the day her mother died was her birthday.

Currently remembering this, the door then opened again this time revealing Kouro wearing a triangular hat and carrying a small chocolate tart.

"Happy birthday, Sirin!"

...

Sirin looked at her birthday cake with a blank stare, she looked at her mother and Kouro who were singing a birthday song to her.

She didn't know if she was now in an illusion or not, but... If this was in an illusion.

She hoped this would go on forever.

...

Sirin who cut her birthday cake then fed her mother carefully before glancing at Kouro who was eating a piece of cake alone in a corner.

She was wary of this person, as Kouro could use his Herrscher ability which made her suspect that he was also like her, trapped inside this illusion.

Thinking of this, Sirin put on a cheerful expression and then asked Kouro innocently, "Nee~ Kouro-sama, where will you be staying?"

Kouro who was eating was seen stopping and looking at her for a moment before putting on a slightly embarrassed expression...

Seeing Kouro like that, a big question mark appeared above Sirin's head.

"Kouro-sama will temporarily stay at our house, Sirin." Serina said softly.

But her words made Sirin's mind explode.

'Kouro will be living with me and my mother?!'

She then stared intently at Kouro as if she had discovered his true motives.

'Kouro... Don't tell me that he's after my mother!?'

(E/D: Everyone in the comments is either screaming Milf or making mom jokes.)