A Little Sneak Into The Past

The next day Ethelred was at Chiba highschool and as expected Mei was not absent, seeing as the huge crowd at her seat was still present today Ethelred didn't have to see for himself to know that the girl attended the school.

"Ethelred. Mei. How is the progress of the assignment?" The teacher asked, her gaze was not looking at us but instead was on a book and her pen was ready to write.

"Under revision," Mei replied in her usual respectful and gentle tone. Honestly at this point He doesn't even know which one was the real Mei. The gentle girl at school or the daughter who had enough of her father making dumb decisions.

"Alright class this assignment is due next week so I hope you've all prepared well and good luck," with that the class ended and as usual Mei went to the cafeteria accompanied by her horde of fans while Ethelred went to find a table in one of the corners in the cafeteria.

Seeing as he was alone Ethelred concluded that Elenoire was still pissed at him and either she didn't attend school or she was at her class.

Flipping open his phone no messages were sent from Elenoire so nothing of importance was needed to be discussed. For the first time in a while he was now acting like an introverted emo high schooler.

While he ate his food in silence he noticed someone who shouldn't be here.

Durandal, an S ranked Valkyrie, was in the school. Although she wasn't wearing any uniform she dressed like any teen at her age.

Ethelred tried to send a message out to Elenoire, but he soon locked eyes with the S ranked Valkyrie of Schicksal.

Clicking his tongue he stood up and headed towards the door of the cafeteria. He could feel that Durandal's presence was slowly making her way closer to him.

With rushed steps Ethelred took a sharp right, but he was soon intercepted by a scythe in front of him. Using some energy he punched the scythe blade away before turning around only to meet Durandal.

"I wonder what two S rank valkyries of Schicksal are doing this far away from home," Ethelred smirked, but in his mind he was trying to find a way out of his current predicament. He can't just power up and escape brute force as he still needed this identity.

"What are you doing here hunter?" The maid behind Ethelred asked in a polite tone as she lowered down her scythe, even though the two didn't show any hostility towards him it was only a matter of time before he got caught off guard.

"Is a hunter not allowed to have a normal life?" The hunter asked with a smirk before he felt Durandal punch him in the gut.

"You have a lot of nerve joking around. Did you perhaps forget about me? Because of you, the people I was supposed to protect a year ago died. I'm holding back as much as I can from fighting you so stop joking around and answer our questions," Durandal's voice, although calm, had an icy feel to it. Ethelred who saw no opportunity let out a sigh before straightening his body.

"How long was that? A year ago?" Ethelred asked, while Durandalw as gripping her knuckles tight ready to give another punch.

"I'm here for work, last I checked the hunters never did stuff that caught Schicksal's interest, so why are you two here?" The hunter asked in a calm voice as he took a few steps away from Durandal.

"We received reports that valkyries that we sent here were intercepted and caused them to return back to base in dire conditions," The maid answered in Durandal's stead while making her way beside Ethelred.

"Now I can see why that happened. They met a hunter," The maid said as she put away her scythe and stood beside him, her gaze intense as she observed the hunter.

"I'm here because of a rogue hunter. He stole a weapon and I intend to take it back by force and his execution would be due when I deliver him back and he will be judged by other hunters," Ethelred answered their question, although it was not the truth it was a protocol that all hunters that were asked would answer the question with this answer.

"A rogue hunter?" Rita raised an eyebrow in interest while Durandal furrowed her eyebrows in suspicion.

Taking out his phone he took out a document of Luka who was chosen as his group's scapegoat and handed it to Durandal.

"Keep this to yourselves, the reason I'm showing you this instead of fighting is because I don't want my cover blown. I'm still searching for the suspect. He was last seen in this city," Ethelred made some stuff out on the spot, approaching durandal he swiped his phone to the left and revealed a weapon that was 'stolen' by Luka.

"This is what I seek. The sword of symphony. It's a sword that resonates, each time the sword clashes with something it produces soundwaves that are so strong that it will eventually cause internal injuries, but the soundwaves slowly turn into a symphony if the attacks are successful consistently.

Hearing this both Durandal and Rita frowned. Even if Schicksal scientists were to try and create something like this it would end up in multiple failures before succeeding and the hunters had just revealed that they might have one or more weapons that Schicksal has no record of.

"I hope you two can leave town as soon as possible. Two S rank valkyries suddenly appearing would surely arouse suspicion and I don't want my prey to run. I've let him run enough," The smirk of enjoyment and excitement that Ethelred made creeped the two valkyries out, but they knew how the hunters were. Even though not that much is known about the hunters, it is believed that the older the hunter the more deranged they were. There were many cases in the past where a hunter went mad and was eventually hunted down by his fellow hunters.

In the end no one knew what exactly a hunter was. No one knew their exact power level, and not a single soul knew their base location. This led to the big powers of the world to stay cautious when dealing with a hunter, because the topic of a hunter is a gray area for everyone except themselves.

"We will not leave the city, but we will hide ourselves as much as possible to not alert your prey," Rita spoke up and even though this would set back Ethelred's plans, there was no other choice.

"Fine, but if my prey escapes. One of you will hold accountability for the disturbance," Ethelred's dark eyes seemingly darken if that was even possible, the two nodded carefully.

"I will take full responsibility if your prey escapes. You may do whatever you see fit to me, but do remember that killing me would cause a conflict with Schicksal," Rita said and added a slight threat at the end.

"Schicksal?" The hunter mused and soon chuckled. "Even if the whole world banded together and tried to stop us. They'll fail. This is not arrogance, this is a fact. We hunters have existed years before valkyries were invented. We've existed before the flamechasers existed. We were the first warriors that rose to oppose the Honkai," The power of Ethelred's voice was suffocating, it was true that if he were to kill them he would do so even if the fight would be difficult, but they were sure he would be the one to come out victorious.

"Remember that you valkyries are merely enhanced humans that got their powers through many experiments and some talent. We hunters have cultivated our skills for years," The hunters had no problem revealing some of their secrets to the public. They do this because they want to push people to despair, but also hope that they will rise up, becoming stronger than before. The hunters were not arrogant. They were sociopaths that would do anything to entertain themselves.

The hunters have a bad track record of challenging people who were deemed the strongest to the public, because of this many hunters have sent those people to the hospital, some lost their limbs, some their sanity, some even their lives.

"The curse of immortality is insanity"

This was a well known belief the hunters knew and accepted. Their bloodthirst and constant search for excitement would be the thing that would end them, but as long as it hasn't happened they would not change. They could not change. It was in their nature, they were born with that very instinct. To hunt. To fight. To kill prey stronger than them. This has strayed them from their mission. From time to time they would put their blood thirst above humanity's salvation.

"You hunters are all the same. You were the one who fought Cecilia in the past right?" Rita asked.

"Yes, I was the hunter that fought Cecilia Schariac before the second eruption began. I fought her until a stalemate," Ethelred put no effort to deny that statement as there were a lot of people who were present that watched his fight against the strongest valkyrie at the time.

"It was one of the best fights I've experienced. The way Cecilia made my blood boil in excitement was something that happen on rare occasions,"

"In the logs it was stated that you and Cecilia had a connection before that fight as you two acted strangely when Schicksal had a joint operation with the hunters a few months before the second eruption," Rita pressed Ethelred who seemed unbothered by the prying, so he decided to answer her question. He actually saw this as an opportunity to shift their attention to things that happened in the past, things that he held no importance of.

"Cecilia and I had a one night stand," Ethelred coughed uncomfortably as he turned to the side to avoid their judging gazes. Sure he didn't care to share this information, for fucks sakes being known as someone who had a thing with the former strongest valkyrie was like having a mantel of honor.

"It happened when she was in her mid twenties. She and I kind of got drunk and some stuff happened when I was taking a holiday, of course I'm not some bastard so we tried to date, but in the end things didn't turn out well and we split ways," Ethelred shrugged in the end and looked at the two girls who were dumbfounded by this new information.

"No she never bore my child because hunters drink some medicine to prevent those kind of stuff, of course if we stop taking those medications we will be able to reproduce, but usually those kind of things happen when a hunter decides to retire," The two didn't even ask and he had already know what was going on through their mind.

"Yup, when she saw me attend as the representative for the hunters it was awkward for both of us, but we managed to not dwell in the past and I asked her for a spar and that's it," Ethelred finished his story and the bell rang.

"Alright I have class," Ethelred spoke up, the two were still staring blankly trying to process the information. Looking down to Durandal's left hand he noticed that his phone was still on her so he took it back and walked away from them, the two were still frozen solid.

In class Ethelred didn't pay attention at all as a fragment of the past slipped into his mind.

In the midst of the battlefield a small and light chuckle could be heard. The chuckle soon became a mirthful laugh. The source of the laugh slowly made himself closer to the enemy. With both of his hands raised to his sides, a taunting and provocative grin was plastered on his face. The man walked forwards in a calm and steady manner. His face filled with nothing but confidence.

"If this is the best you can do you can come back another time queen of the void," The man mockingly said to the woman that had caused so much destruction.

A man with brown hair who's glasses had been broken was being stepped on his stomach, he soon winced in pain when the purple haired woman kicked him away. A stab wound was visible as his waist was bleeding out.

"Who are you?" The woman asked, voids opened around her as she stared at the man.

"I am Ethelred. A first generation hunter," Ethelred answered and as soon as he replied from the voids around her projectiles were fired towards Ethelred.

"More," He muttered as a sword formed beside him and he slowly but accurately hit all the projectiles fired by the woman with his sword still in its scabbard.

The woman who saw this increased the number of voids, but when she saw that the man was staring at her she felt a chilling feeling crawling down her spine.

"How dare you stare at me with that gaze of yours," She screamed in anger as a bigger void than the others and from it a bigger projectile was falling down from the void.

Ethelred's smirk slightly widened as he put the sword on his back and from his empty hand a giantsword with a skull face on its guard appeared. The red blade glowed slightly before vines started to wrap around Ethelred's whole arm and the glow intensified. Thorns grew from the vines, penetrating the hunter's skin. The blood was sucked and used as an amplifier for the sword.

"Blood moon," Ethelred whispered and soon the surrounding area became darker. The moon in its full form glowed blood red and a forest made out of red trees grew almost instantly. Each tree was no regular tree. They all emitted Honkai energy.

Ethelred put away the greatsword and unsheathed the sword on his back, the sapphire blade looked like the blade was new. The red aura that was produced by the red forest was all absorbed by the sword and Ethelred calmly looked up.

He simply swiped his sword vertically then horizontally. Crescent-like projectiles were fired upwards, their blue light became the momentary light of the area. When the two Crescent-like clashed with each other after hitting the giant projectile that was coming out of the void a bright white explosion momentarily blinded the eyes of many people, the light it emitted could be seen from the moon.

"W..what," The queen of the void muttered as she took a step back.

"I said come back later. I'll be waiting for you," Ethelred said, he was beside her. Not noticing his presence and how he got there The queen panicked and attacked him with all her might, but he dodged her fist and grabbed her by the head.

"It's time to go back to sleep. Sirin," Ethelred whispered and the Herrscher of Void lost consciousness.

"Thank goodness she was exhausted after fighting The Herrscher of Reason and other people who met her before me. Ethelred breathed a sigh of relief as he looked around to see the damage of the area. The red forest was slowly withering away from the result of being absorbed of all its Honkai energy, the wounded were being treated, the dead were being wrapped inside body bags, and the battle was over.

Looking back to Sirin "I doubt that attack was her full force. Even in her current state she would be able to fight me to a stalemate," He thought as he took out a lance.

"I can't risk it for now, the anomaly still hasn't been resolved," Ethelred plunged his lance to Sirin's heart killing the girl, but he knew. That her consciousness had become one with the Herrscher of Void, so killing her only acted as a delay.

"I hope we can have a full battle the next time you come out void queen. This fight has been the most entertaining," Ethelred twisted his lance and Sirin's body was burnt into ash.

"With this the second eruption comes to an end. Now to deal with the anomaly," The hunter hummed a song that he was very familiar with.

Wolves asleep amidst the trees

Bats all are swaying in the breeze

But one soul lies anxious wide awake

Fearing all manner of ghouls, hags and wraiths

For your dolly Polly sleep has flown

Don't dare let her tremble alone

For the witcher, heartless, cold

Paid in coin of gold

He comes he'll go leave naught behind

But heartache and woe

Deep, deep woe

Birds are silent for the night

Cows turned in as daylight dies

But one soul lies anxious wide awake

Fearing all manner of ghouls, hags and wraiths

My dear dolly Polly shut your eyes

Lie still, lie silent, utter no cries

As the witcher, brave and bold

Paid in coin of gold

He'll chop and slice you

Cut and dice you

Eat you up whole

Eat you whole

A/N Song name: Lullaby of Woe - Ashley Serena