Child of the Starry Chasm

"What do you mean he disappeared?!" Su asked Kevin when he heard that Autumn was nowhere to be found. 

"It's just as I said, h-he disappeared,' Kevin reaffirmed as even he was finding it hard to believe that Autumn was not there when he looked into the alley.

"Do you have any idea what happened?" Su asked, in response, Kevin shook his head not knowing what was the cause behind the sudden disappearance.

"Can it be that he was kidnapped?" Mei proposed a theory, however, this was highly unlikely in the eyes of Kevin and Su as they knew that Autumn wasn't someone who would get kidnapped, unless...

Kevin and Su glanced at each other as they thought, 'Did he perhaps let himself get abducted?'

****

Somewhere in the Realms of Qunata...

"So, this is the place, huh?" Autumn mused as he looked at a small sort of town, though from outside the city looked quite depraved and resembled a ghost town, Autumn could feel some life force that didn't belong to Honkai.

"Well nothing ventured, nothing gained," With those words Autumn decided to venture inside this unknown town.

*Tap - Tap*

The sounds of his foot tapping on the ground echoed in the rubble streets. He took his time to look around the ghostly town in wonder thinking, 'Why does a town exist here?'

*Snarl*

However, his excursion had to be stopped for a moment as an Honkai beast emerged from the shadows, it was a Quantum Chariot, which on spotting Autumn charged towards him, however, Autumn paid no mind to the charging Chariot and instead waited for it to arrive.

*ROAR*

Observing Autumn standing still the chariot roared and with more vigour than ever, it charged towards Autumn but halfway through the beast's momentum started to falter and by the time it had reached Autumn it had completely gone still.

*purrr*

Letting out a purring noise like a cat, the beast knelt before Autumn as if to show its obedience. "Let's go," Autumn calmly said as he mounted the beast and it began to move on his command. 

'Hmm, I wonder what those three are doing right now,' Autumn mused as he thought about what Kevin, Su and Mei were doing as of now. He knew that they were safe since they were with the Moths, however, he was... worried.

'!!?' Autumn shook his head and dismissed the thought about those three as he muttered, 'Since when did I begin to care?' he inwardly mused, he himself was in awe that he actually cared.

****

Back in the real world...

"So what will you three do?" A man who had dawned on the Moth suit asked the trio. Judging from his demeanour and the series of shiny badges on his suit the three could tell that the person before them was a higher-ranking officer.

The trio nervously looked at each other, unsure of how to respond as this was their first time in the presence of someone from the Fire Moth, moreover, this person was definitely of high standing.

The man looked like someone in his mid-forties and had well-kept hair and a short moustache to top it all off, he called himself Adolf, a senior ranking officer working at Fire Moth as the Fanzer squad leader.

Sensing the nervousness around the trio the man tried to calm them down, before his eyes looked at Mei, he felt as if he had seen this young girl somewhere when suddenly an image of an eccentric fellow appeared in his head, "Wait you girl over there,"

Adolf pointed at Mei, and in response, Mei stammered, 'Y-Yes"

"Are you the daughter of Mr. Raiden?" Adolf asked to which Mei stifly nodded. Adolf thought about it for a moment before saying, "I have an offer for you three."

The trio looked at Adolf wondering what offer he had for them, Adolf looked at all of them and with his hands clasped he offered, " Do you three wish to join the Fire Moth?"

****

Back into the Sea of Quanta, Autumn was halted on his track by a petite-looking girl with bob-cut raven hair with red highlights. 

"Hmm," Autumn looked at the petite girl with curiosity, he inwardly mused, 'This girl... is not a human'. Autumn could feel that despite the girl having the appearance of a human she wasn't exactly a human, rather it felt like the one before him as a consciousness conjured from a collective fragmented consciousness.

'An incomplete soul, huh?' Autumn interest was piqued, he never had thought that he would come across such an interesting creature, however, he knew one thing, 'This poor soul wouldn't last long.'

A soul made up from shattered pieces was akin to a thin glass, it was more prone to being shattered even by a small gust of wind. 

*growl*

The chariot growled at the little girl, yet the girl stood in front of it with no fear on her eyes, her eyes fixated on the man who had mounted the beast. It was unknown to anyone what as on the mind of this girl, however, Autumn knew exactly what she wanted.

'So this little one wishes to live,' Autumn could sense a strong desire in her eyes to live. "Do you wish to live?" Autumn asked. "...," however, no response came, well this was to be expected as he already anticipate that the little girl might not know human language, much less what communication even means.

"'Do you wish to live?"' Autumn asked, yet this time there was a response from the girl this time, she glanced at him before nodding her head. 

Dismounting from the Chariot, Autumn approached the girl. "'Very well, little one. I shall protect you,"' he declared. "'But in exchange...'" He paused, looking at the vast night sky of this mysterious realm. "'You must guide me through this realm. Can you offer that much?'"

*nods* - The little girl nodded her head, and with this simple nod, a pact was formed between the two, however, there was still a problem. Autumn inquired, "Do you know how to speak or communicate in any form?"

The petite girl sweat-dropped at Autumn's question. Clenching her fist, she raised one finger, indicating she knew one way of communicating. Autumn stood silent, waiting for her to elaborate.

As if putting everything on the line, the girl looked straight into Autumn's eyes before her lips curled into a cute, innocent smile. This was the only form of communication she knew—a smile.

"'I see, that's better than nothing, I guess,'" Autumn simply said. The little girl, however, was stunned by his aloofness. Deep down, she perceived that Autumn was indirectly calling her useless, which hurt her feelings.

However, as someone born from a myriad of broken souls, she didn't know what the feeling of being hurt was. Rather, every being perceived this feeling of emotional hurt differently, causing an inner conflict within her.

One part of her felt as if a crushing stone was placed on her heart, while the other part was neutral to this feeling and accepted the cold shoulder the man in front of her was giving her. A myriad of emotions flickered in her eyes as two tears raced down her face.

Yet, her face didn't show pain or devastation but rather utter confusion. Autumn noticed this, but he couldn't understand the reason behind those tears. He wondered, 'Why is she crying?'

Only after a while did Autumn understand what was wrong. Feeling a bit guilty, he took the girl in his embrace and whispered into her ear, "'You are not a burden.'"

*sniffle*

The stream of tears became more prominent as the girl finally let out her sorrow. She cried her eyes out, feeling a sense of joy and relief. Meanwhile, Autumn just waited for her to finish her crying session.

Watching the little girl, he remembered Tsvetana, wondering when she would hatch. He had already gone to the Siberian Tundra and found her egg. However, at the time, it was the size of a quail egg, so there was still a lot of time before it hatched.

After a while...

A chariot beast could be seen roaming the Sea of Quanta with a figure of a man mounted on top of it. In his arms lay the same petite girl, and judging from her expression, she had a look of relief and ease.

'Hmm, now that I think about it, I wonder what her name could be. No, rather, does she even have a name?' Autumn wondered.

[How about you bestow her a name?] the OO suggested. {I was just about to say that,} the Whisper agreed.

"Bestowing this little one with a name, huh?" Autumn muttered. He wasn't particularly good at naming, but seeing the insistence of both OO and Whisper, he decided to give it some thought.

He looked at the starry sky and the desolate land of this realm before glancing at the child in his arms. 'A child of the starry realm that resembles the night sky,' he mused.

"How about the Child of the Starry Chasm, Star-chasm Nyx?" Autumn suggested. But the Whisper quickly objected, {Terrible idea for a name.} [Yeah, it's not good for a name] the OO responded, surprisingly agreeing with Whisper.

Autumn frowned and refuted, "What's wrong with this name?"

In response, Whisper answered, {Well, I understand that this is quite a good name; however, it's a good name for a title rather than an actual name.}

[Indeed,] the OO concurred, supporting Whisper's rationale. {Maybe you can just call her Nyx. That's also a good name,} Whisper suggested. However, Autumn had a different plan. "Hmm, how about we call her Veliona?" he proposed.

Veliona was a name belonging to the goddess of the deceased. She cared for all souls after they left their bodies, guiding them to the underworld. Veliona's domain included the souls of animals that died during the hunt as well as farm animals.

Given that the girl's soul was conjured from the souls of a myriad of beings, it felt like a fitting name for her. {I still think Nyx sounds better,} Whisper argued.

"Oh, shut it. If you wanted to bestow her a name that badly, you should have done it yourself in the first place," Autumn retorted, shutting down Whisper's objection.

He looked at the girl cradled in his arms and wondered what the future might hold for this intriguing soul and himself. This was the beginning of the story of the Lord of the Starry Sea and the Star-chasm Nyx.

To be continued...

****

A/N: I hope you enjoy this chapter, and please feel free to comment. Your thoughts and criticism are valuable in helping me improve and stay motivated to write more.

Hey readers it's been a while. I know that I have been not much active so lately, however, the thing is I... Okay, I will admit it, I am burned out, extremely that is. I wake up everyday, going through same schedule, go to sleep and wake up next day, repeat. 

It felt as if I was living for the sake of following the daily task only. There is literally nothing new. I told myself, today is going to be a bit different, NO!

I remember being at this place yesterday, and today boom, I am at that same place, doping the same thing that I did yesterday, that's why I decided to stop a lot of my work and just leave everything I have been doing completely for a while. 

But now that I am feeling a bit motivated to do something, or do things that I can at the moment, I guess I will slowly get back to my old plain lifestyle, yeah that's all. Cya!