The Oath of a Valkyrie
The scenery in front of Kouro instantly changed, from what was originally thousands of Honkai Beasts flocking him to a sea of burning blue flames that burned everything.
Kouro obliterated thousands of Honkai Beasts in just one slash in an instant.
"So powerful..." muttered Sakura when she saw this scene.
She wasn't sure if she could withstand the attack directly, but even from a distance, she could feel the heat of the blue flames.
Kouro looked at the sea of blue flames with a difficult expression before stabbing his sword into the ground.
Suddenly his sword was enveloped by a cold aura and in an instant ice instantly appeared around Kouro and extinguished the blue flames.
After doing this Kouro then sighed, revealing vapors of his breath.
From a distance, beside Sakura was Higokumaru who was staring at Kouro without blinking.
Kouro who was in the middle of the sea of blue flames just stood still with his back facing them.
Looking at his back reminded Higokumaru of someone she knew and missed.
Without her realizing it, the silhouette of a person was seen merging with Kouro's current pose.
Wearing a shabby robe, and messy black hair, the silhouette of the person turned to look at her with bright purple eyes.
"Rin..."
Higokumaru instantly came back to her senses and shook her head several times.
'Why do I now always remember him when I see Kouro? Is it because they both have the same appearance?'
A memory then shot through her mind.
Recalling the memory Higokumaru bit her lip until it hurt, the hope that arose in her heart instantly disappeared.
'What did you expect Rin? Kouro can't be that person... After all, you saw that person's death with your own eyes, right? You were even the one who accompanied him in his last moments before he died!'
But why?!
Why is it that when she sees Kouro, his figure always appears in her mind?
Higokumaru touched her tight chest with her small hand.
Ever since she met Kouro in Nagazora town, this feeling had appeared in her chest, she didn't think much of it at first and just thought it might just be a coincidence that Kouro resembled him.
After all, she had also seen Sakura's younger sister who looked really similar to herself.
But... Only Kouro gave her this feeling...
When she met the person controlling the shadow with the same face as him, she didn't feel this feeling.
When did she have this feeling?
Higokumaru tried to remember before finally remembering that she had this feeling when Kouro tried to save his childhood friend who had turned into a Pseudo-Herrscher.
Thinking about this, she finally understood why she remembered him when she saw Kouro.
Kouro and he have the same goal.
They were trying to guide the Herrschers' return to the path of righteousness.
But there was only one difference between Kouro and him.
Kouro succeeded in making a Herrscher return to the path of righteousness, whereas he... failed to do so.
Thinking about this, another memory came to her mind.
...
In a house whose roof had been destroyed, revealing a starry night sky.
Higokumaru and a man who looked similar to Kouro were sitting staring at the bonfire.
There were no insect sounds or even animal sounds, only the crackling of the fire.
They both stared at the campfire in silence, before the man said in a hoarse voice.
"Listen, Rin, I have failed to get the Herrscher to side with the humans, no... I failed as a person from the start."
"No! That's not true, you've succeeded in saving me!" Higokumaru retorted, refuting the man's words.
The man merely smiled in response to her words and continued, "Failure after failure keeps coming my way, I couldn't save her, I couldn't save them, even I now can't save myself..."
"Everyone I care about has been taken away by Honkai, but not only that, the humans did it too. They are greedy, covetous, cunning, even in an apocalypse like this they are still selfish."
"I... I don't know which side to take anymore. I hate Honkai and Humans..." He muttered.
A sad smile was plastered on his face, the light of the campfire illuminated his expression that looked empty mixed with fatigue, his purple eyes had lost their shine like never before as if to say.
'I'm already tired. I don't care anymore.'
"Rin... You know, I'm just an ordinary human, I'm not as talented as Kevin, not as strong as Kalpas, not as wise as Su, not as smart as Mobius and Vill-V, I can't even beat Phyllis who is the weakest MANTIS. " he said in a mocking tone.
Higokumaru just listened in silence.
"Yes. You are probably now wondering how an ordinary person like me can always survive Honkai and Herrscher's rampage. "
"...Because of luck? " said Higokumaru unconvincingly.
"Well. Perhaps as you said, it is because of luck that I have been able to survive until now. " said the man.
KOURO's purple eyes then looked into Higokumaru's eyes.
"But the main reason I was able to survive until now is because I am a madman, Rin."
After saying that, KOURO's eyes lit up again but with a different light.
He seemed to be staring at the moon in the starry night sky with a frightening expression.
That expression was neither, an angry expression, nor an annoyed expression, but an expression of...
Emptiness.
For Higokumaru who saw that expression, she felt goosebumps.
Higokumaru who was a Herrscher of Corruption, could not feel the man's emotions anymore, there was only a messy feeling she could feel.
It was as if as the man had said himself, he was a madman.
"Sorry, Rin, I'm showing you my bad side instead. Go to sleep, you must be very tired. " the man said.
Higokumaru nodded her head stiffly before lying down with her back to KOURO.
She could feel KOURO's gaze from behind her.
And the next day, KOURO's personality suddenly changed as if he had become another person.
That day... was the last day she met 'KOURO'.
...
"-Maru... Higokumaru!"
Hearing the shout of someone nearby, Higokumaru came to her senses.
"Sakura-nee?"
"Are you okay? I've called you several times but you didn't listen." Sakura said with a worried expression.
"It's okay, I was just daydreaming." Higokumaru said with a cheerful expression.
Sakura looked at Higokumaru's face with a worried expression, this was indeed not the first time she saw Higokumaru daydreaming like that, but this symptom was increasingly frequent after the incident of the purple light that soared in the sky.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Sakura asked once again.
Higokumaru nodded her head before returning to normal and said, "~, By the way, did you see Kouro's slash earlier? That was awesome!"
Sakura could see that Higokumaru was changing the subject, since Higokumaru didn't want to talk about it, then she wouldn't continue.
Sakura then turned to look back at Kouro who was walking toward them.
"~Wah! Kouro-nii, now you've gotten stronger, huh?!" said Higokumaru.
Kouro only replied with an embarrassed smile while scratching his head.
"Hehehe... Thank you. By the way Higokumaru, can you collect Honkai Beasts and Zombies again?"
"I can, but... All the Honkai Beasts and Zombies in this place have been eliminated by you. We have to find another place."
"Good! Let's go look for other Honkai Beasts and Zombies!" Kouro said excitedly.
He was probably the only person in Schicksal who felt excited about searching for Honkai Beasts and Zombies.
Seeing Kouro's enthusiastic smile, Higokumaru's expression froze for a moment before smiling.
"Umu! Let's go find the Honkai Beast!"
(E/D: I added the Umu. Now I want an Umu festival in the paragraph above. Do it!)
Higokumaru was sure that Kouro was not KOURO, because a dead person could not be revived.
Even if it was with a Herrscher's power.
__
Meanwhile elsewhere.
In a place full of ruined buildings, on a damaged highway full of damaged cars and even some burned.
Not far away, on top of a relatively intact building, Kiana was standing alone looking at this scene.
Seeing all of this, made her remember her past in the city of Nagazora.
At that time, she and Mei could only escape to a safe place, at that time it was very difficult to save others, even difficult to protect themselves.
But this time was different, she was now a B-Rank Valkyrie and a Kaslana, she would definitely protect the people this time!
Because of the changes brought by Kouro, Kiana this time is not the naive Kiana she used to be.
Kiana had seen all of Kouro's life-threatening struggles, and she was afraid.
She was afraid that one-day Kouro would no longer exist.
She was afraid that one-day Kouro would leave her because she was too weak.
She really felt scared, plus she actually had an inferiority complex towards Kouro and Mei.
Unlike in the original plot where Kiana was a cheerful person who always chose to sacrifice herself rather than sacrifice others.
Kiana now has a more mature personality and could think critically.
Mei in the original plot also did not activate her Herrscher powers unlike now.
Kiana also in the original plot fought for the people she cared about before finally fighting for everything beautiful in this world.
But now, Mei is stronger than her, Kouro is stronger than her, and instead of protecting them, they are protecting her.
The reason she fought now was to become as strong as them, no, surpass them so that she could fight alongside them without feeling the slightest burden.
She had to become stronger, more powerful, so as not to be abandoned by them!
Kiana did not realize it, but her eyes momentarily changed color to yellow before returning to blue.
She then jumped off the building and then focused on finding survivors.
Kiana did not realize that Sirin's consciousness inside her body was starting to wake up in response to her feelings.
__
Elsewhere, Ayame, Susannah, and Ragna were seen evacuating some survivors from the attack of hundreds of Zombies
The three of them happened to land in a place close to each other so they quickly worked together.
Ayame stared at all the zombies before stomping her foot on the ground, causing giant thorny roots to bind all the zombies together.
Ragna and Susannah then eliminated all the Zombies one by one.
They had saved hundreds of people and evacuated them to a safe place.
Fortunately, they had not found any Emperor-type Honkai Beasts or special-type Zombies yet.
"Are they the last ones?" asked Ayame.
"Fyuuh... It was very thrilling." said Susannah as she wiped her sweaty forehead.
"Yes. It's time we went somewhere else. " Ragna replied after seeing the survivors leave for safety.
"Understood! Let's go!" x2
__
Elsewhere, Nakuru was walking on the damaged highway alone.
Any Honkai Beast or Zombies that approached him within 3 meters were instantly pierced to death by a solid, needle-pointed shadow.
"Boring. Is there no Herrscher born from this Honkai Eruption?" he muttered.
Nakuru wandered aimlessly, fortunately, he still remembered his mission which was to focus on saving the survivors.
"I wonder what Kouro is doing right now." He said while looking in a certain direction.
__
Himeko along with Bronya and Lin were currently going through some of the ruins of the buildings, they were doing this to see if there were any survivors crushed under the rubble.
Fortunately what they were doing right now was the right decision.
From the few ruins, they searched they found some survivors, they even found a little girl who was crushed under the ruins.
If they hadn't found her... This girl would definitely...
However, the girl's injuries were so severe, that Bronya could only perform first aid to close the wound.
The girl was currently in the arms of Remodeled Bunny 19C.
"If only, there was Kouro here..." Lin murmured, looking at the little girl's wound.
Bronya who heard that was silent for a moment before suddenly raising her head.
"What is it, Bronya? Is there an enemy?" Himeko asked.
"No, Bronya can sense a very high fluctuation in energy concentration. " Bronya said.
The energy Bronya was talking about was the energy of the blue fire and ice released by Kouro.
"Bronya calculated that the energy has a 92% similarity with the energy of the subject Kouro."
"How far away?" Himeko asked quickly.
"About 2 kilometers from our position." Bronya replied.
"Good, then let's go meet him." Himeko said excitedly.
"Understood. " replied Bronya while carrying the girl using her 'Stand'.
As for the other survivors they found, they had been evacuated to a safe place.
__
Elsewhere, Durandal along with Rita and Mei were currently focused on eliminating emperor-type Honkai Beasts and special-type Zombies.
Kouro would surely cry tears of blood when he saw his 'exp' being brutally eliminated by the three of them.
Their current place had a high concentration of energy.
Fortunately, Mei, who had begun to gain control of Herrscher's power, currently had the strength equivalent to an S-rank Valkyrie.
__
Different from all of them, Ana was seen running alone in the middle of the damaged highway with a panicked expression.
Unlike the rest of them who had friends, she was alone this time.
Ana was also a bit unlucky, having been hit by the explosion from the airplane, and because of this, she could not use all her powers.
Ana ran quickly before suddenly stopping, she stared at a certain ruin.
"...Is it my imagination?" She muttered, she had just heard the sound of someone calling for help.
She stared at the ruins back and forth before finally approaching the ruins.
She remembered that when she first enlisted as a Valkyrie she had sworn in front of Overseer Otto along with the other Valkyries that she would protect humanity and fight on the front lines against Honkai.
So, even if it was probably just her feeling but if the voice was really that of a person calling for help? Wouldn't that mean that she was a sinner for ignoring someone's cry for help?
(E/D: Genderbend Nakuru and add him to Harem. Also, help me through my Adventures in Tevyat. UID: 865576205. Server is Asia.)