Chapter 4

[Mission Title: Eliminate the Herrscher of Space]

Drop ships approach the spatial barrier, Mei was able to get an analysis check on the dome for any weak spots. "This herrscher is more intelligent than I thought." She couldn't help but felt outsmarted for once.

"It's alright Mei we'll take it from here!" Yin said he unsheathed the prototype sword and looked at the half of the flame chasers. "Squad 1 are on the move!"

Yin and squad 1 consisted of Eden, Kalpas, Pedrofelis, and Vill-V, Skydiving straight to the center of the spatial dimension.

"Approaching destination."

Yin activated the prototype weapon throwing the weapon straight at the center hemisphere of the spatial barrier breaking through it allow the 2nd squad in.

Kalpas laughed as he accelerated himself towards the ground. He looked like a meteorite crashing into the earth. Eden and Vill-V landed much quieter, seems Vill-V had a better tempered personality in the current moment.

Yin silently on the ground he was amazed by how a herrscher created a infinite amount of spatial dimensions but the real question was where was the source of the barrier at.

"Kalpas with me! The rest of you split up and find the herrscher." He ordered as he picked up the Adapter weapon.

Eden compromised and took Vill-V with her to search at high amounts of honkai energy. Kalpas silently followed Yin, he usually would go off on his own and find the herrscher by himself. Teammate alive or not. However he was asked by Sakura to not kill this soldier just yet as she had an eye for skill.

Yin looked around the spatial dimensions as he held his in pain. "The herrscher is close by, make sure she doesn't escape." He looked at Kalpas with sweat dripping down his face.

"Your body can't stomach the radiation." Kalpas said as he stared at Yin for a moment. He turned his back to Yin and spoke once again,

"Doesn't matter how skilled you are if you aren't even able to resist the existence of your opponent. You'll die."

"Oh shut it, I'm saving my sister one way or another!" Yin said pushing past his pain to locate the herrscher, until he realized he forgot someone. "Where's Pardofelis?" Know he felt scared that he lost someone already, until laughter was heard coming closing it was the herrscher of space holding Felis by the neck .

"Well you took your sweet time little brother~. She as he gripped the handle to his blade aggressively in rage.

Kalpas took no time thinking about the situation, rushing at the herrscher like a rabid dog. "AGHHHHHHHHHHH!" He yelled, flames exploding from his body.

The herrscher of space opened space rifts shooting beams right at Kalpas and Yin who stayed behind dealing with Emperor class Honkai beasts and zombies. "Kalpas stay back!" He ordered pushing mostly all of the Honkai beasts with heavy difficulty.

Kalpas was not listening, he never does. He continued to be bombarded by the attacks, being slammed into the ground, walls, and other beasts. However, Kalpas never stopped moving forward every chance he got.

The herrscher of space grew more irritated from Kalpas rampage that she summoned a space lance, sticking the thing right in his abdomen. "You're worst than that bastard!" She pointed at Yin who was coughing up blood, the Honkai radiation spread throughout his body rapidly slowed he more he kept fighting the beasts. Yin looked up only to be shot by Honkai energy right at his chest, side, and even his left thigh.

"..!?"

The pain was excruciating to the herrscher of space to the point he wanted to scream but he couldn't breathe at all when his lungs were hit. He felt weak but at least his wish was granted for the first time.

Thousands of bullets began raining from the left of the herrscher, it seems backup arrived. "DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!" Vill-V exclaimed, flames bursting out from the bullets. Kalpas began to get up once again.

Yin was limp on the floor, the first to notice being Eden who ran to his side.

"No no we can't have this happen again…" Eden said quietly, doing all she can.

The herrscher was once again met with fire stacked upon fire stacked upon fire from her two crazed attackers.

"Damn you humans, stop getting in the way of killing my brother!!" The herrscher of space yelled creating multiple barriers around herself before summoning more Honkai beasts to kill the others.

Vill-V snapped to a different phase after hearing her words.

"Wait… Hey! The herrscher is sane, their target is Yin not humanity!"

The team heard this and all understood what to do. Eden picked up Yin and, with the others, began to retreat to tend to the brother's wounds.

The herrscher saw what they was doing and created a spatial dimension to trap them but it was nullified by Yin's prototype. "DAMN YOU YIN!!" The amount of Honkai energy was enough to test her strength surpassing that of the 9th herrscher. She then flew after them high speed to kill Squad 1.

"Kalpas! Get that!"

Vill-V exclaimed as the herrscher approached rapidly. Kalpas was already on it, seeing the surge in strength from the herrscher riled him up.

"HAHA, YOU PROVEN YOURSELF WORTHY OF DYING!"

Kalpas' body began to surge, exploding spontaneously. Active Honkai Reaction, a phenomenon that occurs when a mantis lets their honkai energy run wild causing them to transform into something far from human. Kalpas in specific, becomes a monster. Asura, the beast of rage, was the one kalpas merged with. The honkai energy levels that come from Kalpas aren't known, because nothing can get close enough to even measure it. The force from the transformation even begins to bring down meteors from the atmosphere, any human that may have been living here will most definitely never be coming back.

"RAAAAH!" Kalpas yelled as he met the herrscher face to face in a instant.

"I'll get rid of you first before ending his life, it was his fault that he ran away now I have to deal with the torture our parents started!!" The herrscher of space now lost it, she wanted to make her brother suffer one way or the other. She charge at him with multiple space spears flying towards Kalpas at light speed, even if her dimension powers were nullified it doesn't mean she can't use the smallest of her power to win.

He spears stabbed straight through Kalpas, which would normally cause fatal damage as his vitals were pierced. However, someone like Kalpas simply doesn't care, someone like him doesn't feel pain. Not only that, but Kalpas isn't stupid, he knows what he's supposed to do here. Kalpas forces a meteor shower to rain down on the herrscher.

Spatial rifts opened up above her but disappeared again, meeting face first with one of the meteors slamming her down cracking the spatial dome. "I need to destroy that sword!" She lifted the meteor off of her and dashed to the sword that was left behind by Yin.

However, the second her eyes left Kalpas was the moment she made the biggest mistake in her life. With her back turned away from her enemy, Kalpas appeared to her left the second before he reached the blade.

"Turning away from an opponent during battle? No wonder you're the idiot's sister!" Kalpas laughed as he spoke into her ear. He slammed his flame filled fist into her cheek.

The herrscher couldn't believe she was being overpowered by just one human, she wiped the blood the flow her head. "S-such power, where did you get it from…!?" she demanded to know so she could figure out a way to kill him. She was losing conscious slowly from depleting power thanks to Yin's invention.

"Human? Hahahaha, if only I was one of those. I'm just like you, a heartless monster that follows an even more heartless monster!"

Before anything could proceed, Kalpas noticed his time was out.

"Shit, you may have lived this time herrscher, don't think it happens again." Kalpas said as he used the last of his energy to follow his team.

"Come back!! Bring me back my brother!!" She used the last amount of energy to teleport away from humanity to heal herself. This wasn't the last time she would see Kalpas.

[At the Moth base]

The flame chaser, named Eden carried Yin to Doctor Mobius in order to save Yin, "My, bringing me a new test subject and it's not even my birthday. Thank you Eden~."

"Try not to kill him Mobius, I do prefer him alive and well. Please just keep the surgery being a success as your highest priority…" Eden stated after seeing Mobius' eagerness as she got Yin ready.

"I can try but I need a emperor Honkai beast that his dna can fuse with~." She stared at the dying Yin with interest before knowing what Honkai genes to use for him. "I'll give him the flame emperor genes, that should at least help him regenerate his wounds."

"Thank you Dr, I know I can count on you."

Eden responded as she left the operating room. Mobius grabbed a couple of vials off her table and got to work on Yin's body. Stripping him bare and ripping through his flesh. The surgery would usually be so cruel that even sleep drugs only worked half the time. By the end of it Yin has changed quite a bit.

A few minutes after the surgery, Yin woke up, he never felt so much better before his body felt lighter than it was before. "Wow, what happen to me? I feel brand new but hot!" he looked to see he was in the infirmary, he remembered dying and being carried off back to base.

Two people entered the room. One was a short bodied women with gray hair and the other was a tall man with white hair. After a few moments of readjusting one could deduce that these two were Fu Hua and Kevin Kaslana. Two of the Flamechasers.

Usually Yin would immediately feel Kevin's cold aura, but this time it felt more mellow even when Kevin walked closer to him.

"Congrats."

Kevin said with a blank look on his face.

"Seems you are a mantis now, you survived the surgery." He blankly stated once again.

Yin tilted his head, "Huh? I became a what?" he was so confused until he realized what happened. He also the cold presence around Kevin somehow vanished.

"What happened to me sister!?" he asked in a very brief tone. He has to make sure his sister is still alive, his hair was pure red not a single color of his old hair was there.

Hua opened her mouth to speak,

"A mantis, a biogenetically modified human (usually) who is physically bodied with a honkai beast to increase the level of combat. You will notice a lot of distinct features that are abnormal in your body because of this. As for your sister… she is alive."

Yin looked up at Hua still trying to understand what happened. His sister is alive but it seems if she doesn't change her way he's going to have to kill her sooner or later. "So what can I do as a Mantis?" He asked not even bothered by left arm that changed into a strange red arm with golden outline.

Hua simply tapped on his arm, motioning Yin to look at it. "You can do a lot of things, it's unique to each user. So we don't know exactly what you can do."

"So I'm basically a super solider with the power to face the Honkai!" Yin was so excited that he was jumped up and down, he couldn't help but feel like he was apart of something better.

Kevin was about to protest, giving Yin a harsher reality, but Hua lightly punched Kevin and said, "Sure, if that's how you wanna look at it. I think you look healthy enough to be discharged. Don't you think Mobius?"

"I would say yes but there's something odd about this kid, his genes fused so easily with the Honkai genes that it almost made no sense." Mobius remember how Yin's body was already self healing before he got his Honkai genes. It shocked her to the point she has to study him more whatever means necessary.

"Don't get greedy mobius, we don't have time to research everything." Kevin said.

"I see he's enjoying his new life, too bad he doesn't know what truly lies ahead~." Mobius smirked deviously before leaving the infirmary.

"So let's go stop my sister!" He said getting ready to leave the room but was stopped immediately by Kevin.

"We can't let you go until we know what powers you have." Kevin replied sharply staring at Yin's left hand.

Hua continued on from Kevin's words.

"We do need to see how the beast reacted with you in terms of combat capability. However, I don't know if the lab is the best place to do that."

Yin tilted his in confusion before looking down to see he was naked, "Before that, I'm going to need my clothes back." He requested embarrassed that he jumped back into the bed.

Mobius laughed before responding, "Your old clothes are long gone, here's something to wear though." She then threw some white cloth at him.

"Let's get going!"

Yin said leaving the infirmary as Kevin, Hua, and Mobius followed behind him.

Hua takes the lead and begins to take the route to a special machine known as the training simulator. A machine that allows the user to train against imaginary enemies that compare to its power in real life.

Yin bare witnesses to the technology the Moths had. "So where do I begin?" He asked his legs shaking in excitement to understand his new powers. He then looked to see multiple shadow figures watching him from a far.

Before Yin could start, Hua handed him a bottle of water.

"This may come in handy, just a superstition I have."

"Thanks Hua!" He accepted the bottle, his smile never show fear nor worries.

The training simulator, project live Honkai beasts Knight class and Chariot Class alike. "Yin you must prove to us that you're worthy to be one of us." Sakura said behind the glass through the comms. This was life and death now, Yin felt his body temperature rising from his emotions.

"Let's do it!"

He charges at the beasts without hesitation delivering pure physical blows most of the others beasts were incinerated when they got too close to the red hair kid.

As the Flamechasers were analyzing, Su appeared behind Hua and said, "Hm, it seems that the boy radiates intense heat at all times, and it definitely raises the more he fights. Like I estimated, his attacks also bring a lot more destructive force. What do you think Eden? Since it seems you are very interested."

"Oh! I uh…" Eden was about to cover her embarrassment by saying something random about the simulation, but figured it wouldn't fool Su. So she just hid her face and stayed silent.

Yin dodge a sneak attack from one of the Knight class, he grabbed the lance and threw it around hitting the others. *"Is that all?"* he asked before coughing up blood his throat burning from his own powers. His body smoking from the intense flames though it didn't affect his external body.

"As expected." Su said before pulling a level, chasing a halt to the simulation. A few medical members ran up to Yin asking him questions on how he felt and attempting to take a look inside him.

"I can breathe…." Yin voice so dry and wheezy that he felt his own lungs burning to the point of no return. He looked at the water bottle Hua gave him and weakly reached out to it. Was this truly the end for him, his eyes almost devoid of life and he was just about prove that he was worth something. 'I don't want to die yet!' He thought clenching his teeth as he was trying to overcome death while burning his insides.

"Seems the effects were pretty devastating," Mobius slyly responded as she witnessed the events. Vill-V, who was right by her outside of the glass enclosed room, had an idea.

"Hmm, but this is just like Kevin except our subject has way worse effects right? Couldn't we just due to reverse with what the relationship between Shamash and Kevin is? Kevin's body is very cold, and so that's why he uses shamash, to cool it down whenever he needs. If we gave Yin some sort of rapid cooling divine key, we could potentially limit his side effects massively."

Mobius nodded to Vill-V's suggestion

"I assume you mean to use the 5th Divine key? That's a very difficult weapon to use, only Sakura has been able to use it efficiently, but even she says it feels awkward. You sure this boy can do it?"

"Wouldn't hurt to try right?"

Vill-V left and came back short with a large black suitcase in her hands. She entered the room with Yin gasping for air. She pushed past the medical assistants and crouched in front of Yin.

"Hey hey, listen up. Usually I'd have to get your consent to do this but I don't think that matters too much currently. So I'm skipping it." She opened up her briefcase revealing two short blades that looked like they were used for assassin work. It had black patterned handles with dark red and blue coloration in its blade. This coloration seemed to move around, leaking in and out of its original placement despite not being living.

"Now grab one of these, and make sure to wield it far away from me alright?"

The boy struggling to reach out to the blades, the trickled down his mouth and eyes. His body smoking as if he was inside a grill, Yin had to prove that he become part of this war by picking up that blade.

" I….I…won't…Die..!"

He screamed out as loud as he could grabbing onto the blade. The heat that burned his body was gone as if he was being healed by the ice itself. Slowly the blade glowed ice blue aura around it healing the new mantis, it was outstanding to see the pain and heat slowly fading away. The simulator room became engulfed with ice that's so cold it was below absolute zero, it created a room of ice just to cool the boy down.

"What kind of weapon is this!?" He asked looking at Vill-V with a wide smile on his bloody face.

"It's a Divine Key!"

Vill-V said, wishing she wore more layers.

"It's a weapon made from the core of a herrscher. The 5th herrscher, herrscher of ice, was used for the creation of this weapon. We split the core in half to construct to blades that can change the laws of nature itself."

"Congratulations on passing, Yin!" She applauded him for his success. He never knew what challenges he would face but what it truly matters is that he save his sister one way or another.