K Particles

After the celebration, Kouro never again appeared in the eyes of the world, the paparazzi, reporters, and even the most fanatical fans were looking for Kouro, they tried to meet Welt, Mobius and others.

Unfortunately Welt was silent to the questions they asked and occasionally avoided them, because Welt was really stubborn not to say anything, so, they moved their target to Overseer of Schicksal, Otto Apocalypse, but in the end Otto also did not answer them either.

In the end, the fanatics who were looking for Kouro had no other choice but to look for Mobius and the others, but it was a pity that Mobius and the World Serpent members could not be found because they did not know where they lived.

Time quickly passed like running water, the fanatics who were looking for Kouro gradually diminished due to their own mindset of thinking that Kouro disappeared because his duty to save the world had been completed.

Even so, humanity would never forget the existence of a hero who has finished saving the world.

They believe that one day if the earth experienced another catastrophe, the hero would return.

[Time remaining : 1 Day]

...

At World Serpent's secret headquarters, inside a dimly lit laboratory with a cold and slightly tense atmosphere.

Mobius, who had regained her adult body in a white doctor's coat, was seen reading a virtual log wearing round glasses with a serious expression.

The automatic door behind her opened and someone walked up to her, Mobius who heard someone's footsteps from behind her did not have a surprised expression, just turned off the log and turned around with a suspicious smile.

"You know, very few people come to my laboratory voluntarily like you, Kouro." Mobius said, staring at the person who came to her.

Kouro, who had disappeared from the eyes of the world, was hiding in World Serpent.

Well... Actually he wasn't hiding but was trying to maximize his advantage by looking for the previous Era's technology blueprints, and the only place that had it was World Serpent.

Fortunately the World Serpent accepted his request unconditionally and even allowed him to stay.

"Incidentally, since you're here, can I conduct an experiment on you?" continued Mobius with his reptilian eyes sparkling as if her "Habit" had returned.

"No thanks, I'm here because I have a question related to KOURO and Honkai." said Kouro calmly as if used to Mobius.

This was not surprising since Kouro had almost spent all the time he had in World Serpent remembering and memorizing many of the previous Era's Blueprints so he often met with Mobius and the others.

"Hmm~... Are you here because of Aponia?" asked Mobius while sitting on the swivel chair with an interested expression.

"Well... She said that you know more about KOURO and Honkai than anyone else."

Mobius seemed to pause for a moment as if recalling the past before putting her palms together and saying, "... Well~ that's true, but unfortunately my memories of the previous Era have mostly disappeared due to my MANTIS ability."

Mobius with her MANTIS ability was able to revive herself from the dead at the price of making her appearance younger and some of her memories disappear.

Kouro didn't know how many times Mobius had risen back from the dead, but judging from her previous appearance that looked like she was thirteen or fourteen years old, it seemed like she had experienced many deaths.

Fortunately thanks to Kouro's healing, Mobius' appearance had returned to normal as a woman in her twenties, but about her missing memories...

Kouro didn't know if Mobius' memories returned as well since Mobius herself didn't explicitly say so.

But that's okay, he had already gotten some information about KOURO from Aponia and the others although the information wasn't very important because they turned out not to be very close to KOURO except for SAKURA and Vill-V.

From the information that SAKURA said, KOURO turned out to only have a close relationship with Kalpas, Pardofelis, Elysia, Eden, and Kevin.

KOURO was familiar with Kevin because they were in the same school, unfortunately their relationship at that time was more like a mediocre man who felt inferior looking at an extraordinarily talented man from afar.

SAKURA also said that her relationship with KOURO was a little complicated because she once fought with him because of orders from her superiors, it happened before the sixth Honkai Eruption occurred.

According to SAKURA, KOURO has an extraordinary talent in killing humans because he has a brilliant mind in strategy and tactics, unfortunately at that time, the enemies they fought were mostly Honkai Beasts and Herrschers.

When mentioning 'Herrschers' from the previous Era, SAKURA's expression was a little strange, it is because KOURO at that time was the only one who tried to negotiate with a Herrscher even to the point of without hesitation going against humanity. 

SAKURA also said that KOURO always had bad luck, because when fighting in a team, he would always be the only one to survive the battle.

This made him alienated by the other soldiers, except for Kevin who strangely liked being on the same team as him.

According to Sakura, Kevin once said that teammates with KOURO were better than with most other soldiers because KOURO was like a 'cockroach'.

Kevin, who was always the leader in a team, always saw his partner die because they were killed by the Honkai Beast. Therefore, KOURO who always survived through bloody battles becomes an attractive choice for Kevin.

And sure enough, KOURO always survived even in desperate situations like fighting a Herrscher. Unfortunately, due to differences in opinions and thoughts, Kevin and KOURO's relationship deteriorated to the point of becoming enemies who would not hesitate to kill each other.

"In my opinion, KOURO and Kevin are strangely similar, not in appearance or purpose... But something like their philosophy of life." SAKURA said at that time with a thinking expression.

This story made Kouro interested, but unfortunately SAKURA only knew this, if he wanted more details he had to ask Kevin, but Kevin was currently trapped in a bubble universe in the Sea of Quanta.

"I'm curious, SAKURA said that KOURO always survived even when fighting a Herrscher, does he have any special abilities? For example, like the legendary technique of the Joestar family?" asked Kouro.

"I don't know what you're talking about, but KOURO really does have something special that allows him to survive various bloody battles including against Herrscher." Mobius replied, her eyes looking slightly unfocused before continuing.

"KOURO's body has a strange mutation that made it so that Honkai energy is unable to exist in his body, even if someone intentionally injects Honkai energy into KOURO's body, the energy will only disappear and disintegrate."

"Hm? Isn't that really great? Does that mean he's immune to Honkai?"

Kouro knew that in the previous Era, besides the Honkai Beast that had to be watched out for, there was a plague created from Honkai energy that only attacked humans, the plague had no cure other than an antibiotic drug that was really very expensive to make.

The antibiotic drug was created by extracting antibodies from a 1000 humans, and the drug could only be used on one person.

But if they used KOURO's body who had full immunity to Honkai energy like using his blood, could a vaccine be created?

As Kouro said this, Mobius shook his head with a helpless expression.

"Unfortunately it's not what you think, when KOURO's antibody cells are removed from his body, they will lose their immunity to Honkai energy and turn into ordinary cells."

"I see..." Kouro nodded his head with a pensive expression, because maybe the reason KOURO was immune to Honkai energy was because he had the [Unknown] ability?

Mobius then continued, "Having complete immunity to Honkai energy also has its drawbacks, for example, KOURO cannot use weapons that use Honkai energy."

"He also can't become a MANTIS because all the Honkai Beast genes back then didn't have a match with his body, even the most suitable one only had a match rate of less than 0%."

"This makes him the only soldier who had the worst match rate, even back then the worst normal soldiers had a match rate of less than 10%."

"... Even so he still joined the battle, right?" Kouro asked.

Mobius nodded her head in answer to his question before then grinning with her reptilian eyes shining brightly.

"KOURO's body is really interesting because it can always adapt and evolve to face Honkai."

"Evolve?" these words caught Kouro's attention, was it possible that his senior's golden finger was related to this?

Hearing his question, Mobius then took out a transparent serum bottle and placed it on the table to show it to him.

Kouro stared at the serum bottle which looked empty before his eyebrows raised as he vaguely sensed a familiar energy inside the serum bottle.

"This energy... The energy that was in Ashborn's body?" he muttered uncertainly.

"You have sharp eyes, the energy inside this serum bottle as you said came from the core of the Herrscher of Shadows." Mobius said with a smile.

"I refer to it as Kouro particles."

Kouro's eyebrows twitched slightly at the name of that energy.

"Hm~ it seems awkward for you, so just call it K particles." Mobius said, seeing his expression.

"... Etto, so this K particle, what does it do? Is it different from Honkai energy?"

"You can say that, it can even be said to have a different source. This K particle is likely the reason why Ashborn can bring people back to life." Mobius said before carefully storing the serum bottle.

"This K particle is not one of the constituent particles of the universe like atoms, but rather a particle similar to Honkai energy that comes from a higher dimension, I don't know too much of its usefulness even after researching for tens of thousands of years because the subject of my observation is really little other than this particle having a major role in reviving Higokumaru."

Mobius then continued, "I was able to observe this particle after researching the bodies of Ashborn and Shadow, as only the two of them had this particle in their bodies."

"Unfortunately the source of these particles has disappeared..." Mobius said while secretly glancing at Kouro.

Kouro could only laugh in embarrassment while scratching his head.

The Herrscher of Shadows core that was the source of the K particle had been taken, nor could he even return it as it had turned into a dungeon key.

"But... What is the relationship between K particles and the evolution of KOURO's body?" Kouro asked.

"That's because K particles were created in KOURO's own body after evolving several times." Mobius said briefly.

Kouro's eyes widened upon hearing this, "Are you serious?"

"I never joke about matters like this, you know." Mobius replied.

Seeing that Mobius was really serious, Kouro then held the ends of his front hair while wearing a thinking expression.

"Mobius' words really contain a lot of information, so let me first organize the information. First of all KOURO has a unique relationship with Kevin which is from friend to enemy then from enemy to friend again.'

'Secondly, KOURO is immune to Honkai energy so he cannot use Honkai energy-based tools, but this weakness can be overcome because KOURO's body can evolve. Then... The result of that evolution created the K particles.'

The last piece of information was really hard to believe, that's because creating new particles from nothing is really impossible for humans.

But... Perhaps with KOURO's golden fingers, this could be possible.

Kouro now had confirm that KOURO had a golden finger but did not know explicitly what it was, whether it might be KOURO's golden finger like himself which was the 'System' or something else.

He did not know.

This latest information also led him to another conclusion that KOURO turned into Herrscher with a power other than Honkai energy.

'Hmm... Since KOURO turned into Herrscher not because of Honkai's power... Should I change his nickname now? Let me think about it... Hmmm... The nickname 'Shadow Monarch' doesn't seem too bad. Alright! Let's call KOURO the Shadow Monarch now!'

'But then... Why did Elysia refer to him as weak?'

As this question crossed his mind, Kouro then asked this to Mobius.

"I have a question, why is KOURO considered weak even though he has the ability to evolve?"

Mobius glanced at him before saying, "Isn't that obvious? KOURO evolved and adapted to Honkai within his physical scope as a human, he is considered weak because his opponent is Herrscher who has the ability to manipulate concepts at will and then there are human soldiers who have been genetically modified after joining the SWARA and MANTIS projects."

"I see..." said Kouro while nodding his head.

"KOURO's pure physical strength before turning into the Herrscher of Shadows was only a few times stronger than ordinary humans. But MANTIS? They are thousands of times stronger than ordinary humans." Mobius continued.

"Perhaps the only advantage KOURO has compared to Herrscher and the MANTIS Warriors is his extremely strong survival ability. I'm sure if KOURO's personality is more inclined to shamelessness, he can survive even if facing the Herrscher of the End as an ordinary human."

Kouro didn't know the meaning of Mobius' last sentence but somehow he felt it referred to him.

Well... Maybe it was just his feelings.

"Alright, we've strayed from the topic. Let me explain once again, those K particles cannot increase in number and remain constant in the user's body as it is except in the core of the Herrscher of Shadows."

"K particles can also destroy Honkai energy more effectively, it is even possible to convert Honkai energy into K particles after being exposed to them for a very long time." Mobius said with a serious expression.

"Then what about my father?" asked Kouro.

"Your father as a Pseudo-Herrscher only has a small amount of that energy and cannot even manipulate it like Ashborn and Shadow. "

"The possible reason why Ashborn died after reviving Higokumaru was because he had insufficient K particles so had no other choice but to use his 'soul' energy."

As Mobius said that, Kouro's eyes lit up slightly and muttered to himself, "That means... Theoretically as long as you have enough K particles, reviving others without sacrificing yourself is possible."

"Yes. But only in theory, unfortunately very few people can become the Herrscher of Shadows."

Kouro's eyes stared at his system interface which showed his [Job Change Quest] which was about to be completed.

Changing concepts, adding concepts, and twisting concepts... That was what Ashborn had told him about the power of the Herrscher of Shadows.

And now as the future Herrscher of Shadows, he felt a little nervous but at the same time excited.

Kouro then calmed himself down before remembering why he was here to see Mobius.

"Last question.... Do you know anything about the 'upside-down tree'?