Honkai's cocoon

Kouro flew with Higokumaru and Sakura ran and finally reached the destination in just 5 minutes.

"Hah... Hah... Hah... Is this the place?" asked Sakura while panting, after all, she had been running at high speed without stopping in the snowy terrain in addition to the heavy snowstorm.

This made her split her focus from running after them without missing a beat while avoiding the soft snowy terrain and trees.

Kouro and Higokumaru were currently beside her with their eyes staring at a giant egg-shaped chunk with a transparent light blue colour like clear water and purple stripes.

"This... Is this an egg?" asked Higokumaru uncertainly, after all, in the previous era she had never seen anything like this.

"No, this is a Honkai cocoon. If I'm not mistaken, emperor-type Honkai Beasts are born this way." Kouro replied.

After saying this, he then put on a thinking expression, 'If Sirin has gone in there, then that means Theresa and the others are not far from here.'

"Is Second Herrscher in there?" asked Kouro with his eyes still staring at the giant cocoon.

"...The aura is indeed in there." replied Higokumaru.

Kouro looked at the egg for a moment before finally approaching it and touching the light blue shell-like clear water.

'It's hard...'

In the original plot, Sirin was able to enter the egg because she had no hatred towards Honkai, after all, she was Honkai herself.

And while inside the cocoon, she was shown all her bitter memories, from how her friends died due to cruel experiments, her mother who died, and so on.

All of these things aim to eliminate the sense of 'Humanity' that exists within Sirin so that she can rise to become a true Herrscher.

Kouro knew that eliminating Sirin's hatred for humans was impossible, besides not having the right plan he also didn't have much time.

Therefore, Kouro, who happens to have the authority [Death and Life], has a very important role to be able to make Sirin side with humans, or at least, make Sirin not attack humans.

He wanted to make a deal with Sirin using his [Death and Life] authority to revive Sirin's mother and friends.

Although Kouro himself knew that... Reviving a person is impossible because the authority [Death and Life] can only create a body (container), but not a soul.

It is not that the authority cannot create a soul, but that Kouro does not have enough understanding to be able to create a soul from thin air.

Even if he had sufficient understanding, the energy required to create a soul from thin air would have to be enormous.

So basically the deal was just a facade to make Sirin waver towards eliminating humanity.

As long as Kouro gave special conditions that gave plenty of time, Sirin would be able to slowly return to good with Cecilia's help just like with the original plot.

'Love', 'Affection', 'Friendship' and so on are the strongest forces that can work wonders, but at the same time, they are also like double-edged knives.

For example, Otto who wanted to revive Kallen because of 'Love' and 'affection', he became a madman who would do everything to bring Kallen back to life.

Because the soul is something very special, even in this world there will be no one who has the same soul, it can be said that a soul is a form of a person's identity.

Otto who wanted to bring Kallen back to life knew this after he created a perfect clone of Kallen.

Even after creating the perfect Kallen clone, Otto still felt something was missing from the clone, he ended up searching, researching, and analyzing, until he came to a conclusion.

The soul that the clone possessed was not the same as that of his beloved Kallen.

He could indeed create a perfect clone that had memories, that had the experiences, mindset, traits, and memories of Kallen, but he could not create the same Kallen's soul as the one in his memory.

That's why Otto became desperate and he wanted to use the Second Herrscher, more precisely he wanted to experiment with whether humans could control the power of a 'Herrscher'.

Because of the knowledge from the previous era that he got, he found out that there was a Herrscher who could manipulate death, the 'Herrscher of Death'.

He didn't care what method he would use, whether manipulating someone or killing someone, he would do everything as long as it could make his plan successful.

If Otto knew that Kouro had the authority of the Herrscher of death, he would definitely do everything to be able to make Kouro fulfil his request.

Anti-Entropy needed Kouro's authority to heal Welt who actually had deep wounds due to the overuse of his Herrscher's power.

His father, Hanagami Sagaki, needs his authority as well to heal 'Hanagami Kouro' who is currently affected by HB disease.

They all need Kouro's authority.

It can be said that Kouro's authority [Death and Life] is a 'hot potato' that is favoured by all parties.

Kouro understood this, that's why the plans he made to change the 'future' all depended on his authority.

After thinking about all this, Kouro then said in a deep voice, "Higokumaru, wait for me here. Looking at your expression, I think you have detected someone who is also approaching this place... Remember that they are not your enemies."

After saying that, Kouro then activated his authority, magically, the light blue hard shell suddenly created ripples until it turned into stagnant water.

Seeing this Kouro passed through the water ripples and entered the cocoon smoothly.

After he entered, the cocoon's shell quickly hardened again.

"Are we going to wait here?" asked Sakura before her ears suddenly perked up.

Higokumaru seemed to be already staring in a certain direction with a calm expression.

Sakura also followed the direction of her gaze before seeing three people breaking through the heavy snow, two men and one little girl...?

The little girl was particularly striking as the backs of her palms seemed to glow with strange chains coming out pointing towards them, no, towards the cocoon, and would occasionally move like a living creature.

Welt glanced at Sakura calmly before his eyes seemed to narrow when he saw Higokumaru.

He didn't care about Higokumaru's cuteness, he focused on the familiar aura he felt from her, and that aura was the Herrscher's aura, but this was what confused him, from what Welt knew at the moment there were only two Herrscher, except...

Is this little girl a Herrscher from a previous era?

Welt can guess like this because Anti Entropy once found a document from the previous era that described Herrscher in that era.

There are 15 Herrscher who have been documented with a brief explanation of the abilities of each Herrscher.

For example, the second Herrscher is called the Herrscher of Void because it has the ability to manipulate space and time.

From the first Herrscher to the twelfth Herrscher, a brief explanation of their abilities is given, while the last three are special Herrschers.

One of the last three is Herrscher of the End who is ranked as the fourteenth Herrscher.

As for the last two... They are the thirteenth Herrscher and the fifteenth Herrscher.

The thirteenth Herrscher is very mysterious because there is no explanation for its ability and even the name of the Herrscher is kept secret.

As for the fifteenth Herrscher or the last Herrscher, it is also the same other than only his name which is mentioned, namely Herrscher of Shadow.

At first, when Anti Entropy got this document, they felt disbelief because Herrscher of the End who was supposedly the strongest Herrscher turned out to be weaker than the Herrscher of Shadow.

Herrschers are sorted not only because of the time of their appearance but they are also sorted because of their abilities.

This does not mean that the first Herrscher is the weakest, because Herrscher appears as the culmination of a catastrophe against the increasingly powerful human civilization.

(E/D: The first is probably the most OP along with the Ninth. The first can create anything while the Ninth can control gravity and if you have watched Jojo then you know how OP gravity control is. You can control the entire Universe with it.)

For example, the seventh Herrscher who could burn a continent in just a week, the ninth Herrscher who made a continent disappear, the eleventh Herrscher who almost kills all of humanity's strongest warriors, and finally the fourteenth Herrscher who has absolute control over Honkai...

So how powerful was the Herrscher of Shadow?

They don't know, but certainly, if there is a Herrscher after the fourteenth Herrscher, it means that the Herrscher of the End failed...

Who knows what happened in the previous era...

...

The first Herrscher ability is to be able to reconstruct something that has been understood.

According to Kouro's understanding, why the first Herrscher's ability to reconstruct something that has been understood is completely different from other Herrschers because the first Herrscher's ability is to understand the 'concept' that is the forerunner for other Herrscher abilities except for the last three Herrschers.

The first Herrscher ability refers more to 'Omniscience', the more time the first Herrscher has, the more things it will be able to understand, for example, 'life', 'death', 'time', 'space', 'destiny'.

Although it sounds incredible at the end of the day a Herrscher is human, and understanding it all is really impossible except for certain cases...

Let's get back to the main topic, this little fox-tailed girl is definitely the twelfth Herrscher, the Herrscher of Corruption.

Why could Welt be sure? It was because the document stated that the Herrscher of Corruption was the only Herrscher from the previous era still alive as well as being the first Herrscher to side with humans.

Although he didn't know whose side Higokumaru was on now, seeing her not attack him directly or anyone else was reason enough to see where she stood.

Siegfried looked at Sakura a little seriously he could feel a very strong aura from her, but seeing that she had no intention of fighting, Siegfried then turned his attention to the lump in front of him.

Unlike the two cold men beside her, Theresa greeted them in a friendly manner.

"Hello~ Those of you over there, I'm Theresa, this impudent man beside me is Siegfried, and then for the man pretending to be cold over, there is Welt."

Siegfried and Welt's eyebrows visibly twitched when they heard Theresa's introduction.

Sakura looked at the two men with a strange expression before introducing herself, "Um... My name is Sakura, and next to me is Higokumaru, she's my travelling companion."

"Hello~" greeted Higokumaru with a friendly smile while waving her hand towards Theresa.

"By the way what are you guys doing here? This place is dangerous, I suggest you guys get away from here immediately." said Theresa.

"We are waiting for our friend." said Higokumaru.

"Your friend?" asked Theresa.

Welt and Siegfried looked at each other worriedly when they heard this.

There was a possibility that their friend was...

"Yes, my friend entered the cocoon, he said to wait for him here." said Higokumaru in an innocent tone while pointing at the giant chunk in front of them.

Theresa approached the chunk with a confused expression before muttering, "Isn't the shape more similar to an egg?"

She then unconsciously touched the cocoon's shell which suddenly made ripples like stagnant water.

"Theresa get away from that cocoon now!" shouted Welt.

Dozens of transparent hands suddenly appeared from inside the cocoon and pulled Theresa forcefully into the cocoon.

"Theresa!" Siegfried ran to try to save Theresa but unfortunately, he was one step slower, those hands had pulled Theresa into the cocoon.

He tried to run to get through the rippling water that slowly seemed to harden before suddenly his hands were held back by Welt.

"Stop, Siegfried. We don't know what we're up against, acting rashly will only get us killed."

Siegfried pushed Welt away angrily, "I don't care! My friend is in there! Don't get in the way if you don't want to help!"

Welt's eyes narrowed slightly at the impulsive Siegfried, 'I have to think of a way to persuade him... Even if it makes my patience run out...'

"...Since I'm going to do it myself, I'll go inside, defeat the enemy and save Theresa!" said Siegfried in a high tone, his hand had touched the cocoon's shell.

"Wait? It's solidifying?"

*Crack*

There was a cracking sound from the cocoon, the cocoon started filling with cracks until...

*Crack!*

A pair of large pinkish purple and blue eyes could be seen staring at Siegfried from inside the cocoon.

"Uh... Hello?" said Siegfried with a slightly surprised expression.

*Crack!*

The cocoon broke and a creature, no, a pair of giant creatures, an emperor-type Honkai Beast directly attacked Siegfried.

"Damn it, it's an Emperor-type Honkai Beast! Let alone two!" grumbled Siegfried as he blocked the two fists of the Honkai Beast with trembling hands.

__

Kouro, who had just entered the cocoon, suddenly felt his body sink into a deep sea of cold.

Feeling this, he then opened his eyes before suddenly feeling his body fall to a certain place.

Kouro landed in a place that was not connected to the real world, he was currently in a pocket dimension created by Sirin

He looked around before he saw a vague silhouette of a person in red in front of him, the 'red silhouette' was saying something to the little girls around him.

This was the bitter memory that made Sirin hate humans.

'This... Is Sirin showing her memories to me instead of Theresa?' Kouro thought.

["Don't be afraid, Schicksal will take care of orphans like you."] said the 'Red silhouette' with a deep and cold voice that was terrifying.

Kouro then glanced back with a calm expression, where he saw Sirin's back facing him.

["You are special because you have strong Honkai energy resistance, you have to take some tests in order to help humanity survive."] said the 'Red silhouette' while holding Sirin's wrist and injecting something into her.

"HOT!!!"

When Sirin's scream was heard, the scene suddenly changed, Kouro was now in a small cage with Sirin in front of him, face down while holding her head and twitching like a worm in heat.

"Argh!!! It's hot!!! It feels like my body is on fire! Please stop this! I beg you! The pain is killing me!!! Please stop this!!!" Sirin shouted with her tears coming out while rolling around and banging her body against heavy objects.

["This test subject is useless like the others."] said 'Red silhouette' looking at Sirin from outside with a flat voice.

Kouro was standing silently watching this with his hands clenched very tightly.

No one knew what expression he was wearing now, but what was certain was that his eyes were currently shining brightly.

The scene changed again, Kouro was currently standing on a snowy plain, he was looking at Sirin who was staring at 3 mounds of snow that were stuck by tree branches.

"Agata... Avrora... Bella... Let's sing the song we used to sing..." Sirin said in a sobbing voice.

Sirin then sang, her voice sounded mediocre and even a little bad, her voice sounded hoarse and discordant probably because she often screamed cause of the pain...

Even so, she still sang because this was her only way of remembering her friends who had died.

["Hey! Time to go! We have a lot of tests for you! Are you listening? I don't want to waste my time looking at the trash here! Now get back to the Lab!"]  The annoying voice of the 'Red Silhouette' came from behind Sirin.

Sirin visibly flinched before wincing sadly, just to commemorate the deaths of her friends for not even five minutes, she was willing to experience pain that was many times that of before, and now 'they' wanted to do experiments again.

With a hopelessly blank expression, her eyes only stared at the unkempt graves of her friends in front of her, tears could be seen starting to escape from her eyes reflecting Kouro who was looking at her.

Just when Sirin was about to turn around Kouro suddenly approached her and then hugged her very tightly.

"I love you Sirin."

Feeling Kouro's warm embrace, Sirin was seen blinking her eyes a few times with a blank expression as if unable to understand the situation before suddenly her face turned red.

(E/D: Me and the Author had some serious Lore discussions. So... you can expect some good shit.)