"Himeko!/M-Major Himeko!" Said Alex and Bronya in unison as the two were shocked at the sight as the redhead merely gave them a smile.

The redhead also seemed to have joined the new suit club as she now wore a red, orange, and black battlesuit.

"Good work you two." She said.

Their conversation was cut short however as more Honkai Beasts began to approach them.

"Kid, you're with me. Bronya, go back inside Hyperion." Said the redhead.

"B-But." Said the girl as she looked at Alex.

The boy simply nodded his head, telling Bronya to listen.

"Don't worry. I'll be okay." He said.

With that, Bronya safely retreated back to the elevator as Alex now walked up to and stood side by side with Himeko.

"Hope you're ready for a struggle kid. We got tons of enemies to take down." Said Himeko as she withdrew her large broadsword.

Alex merely gave a chuckle as he withdrew his sword as well.

"Let's raise some hell Major Himeko." Said Alex.

The two began to take down an enormous amount of Honkai Beasts as one by one they began to fall.

Even at the quick pace they were going at, it seemed like there was no end to it.

Thankfully, just a few handful were beasts were left as they were slowly taken down one by one.

Once they were done, Alex panted a bit being a little exhausted, but when he turned to look at Himeko he saw that she was even more exhausted and had actually taken a lot more scratches and cuts than he did.

"H-Hey are you okay?" Asked the boy as he approached her.

Himeko didn't respond or look at Alex, as she looked off into the distance.

"She's here." Said the redhead as she immediately ran off on her own towards another area of the top floor.

"H-Himeko wait!" Shouted Alex however before he could chase her, he had immediately been surrounded by a whole new batch of Honkai Beasts.

"Ugh there's just no end to these guys!" He said in genuine frustration as he once again began to hack and slash his way through them.

Once he was done, Alex fell onto one knee, using his sword to hold himself up as he was completely exhausted at this point.

Even through all that, Alex knew that he had to get straight to wherever Himeko had ran off towards.

It took a lengthy while, but Alex had eventually arrived as he finally arrived Himeko who was currently engaging the Herrscher all on her own.

As soon as he saw that, Alex made a mad dash trying to offer some assistance however before he could get there, he saw a bright and large beam pierce directly through Void.

Even from a distance Alex could clearly see that she was in tons of pain as tons of Honkai Energy was leaking out of her body.

After a bit, a rift appeared as the Herrscher retreated back into her space.

With her gone, Alex ran up to Himeko as he immediately put her arm over his shoulders to help her up as she could barely stand on her own.

Thr two spent no time talking as Alex assisted the redhead back to the elevator.

Along the way, the intercom had went off as Einstein spoke.

"Attention everyone aboard the Hyperion, we are immediately withdrawing. Repeat, we're immediately withdrawing." She said.

After a while, Alex had taken Himeko to the elevator as he dropped her off at the medical bay as he stepped outside into the lower passageways as he sat on a down and looked down, just trying to physically and mentally rest himself.

As he was doing that, he looked up to the side to see that Himeko had already gotten out of her room as she leaned on the railway.

"H-Hey what the hell are you doing!?" Asked Alex.

He saw her try to stench her own wounds, but the bleeding didn't stop.

"Ha. Look at me kid. I really did a number on myself this time." Said the girl in a melancholic tone.

Before Alex could respond, the Hyperion's alarm went off again.

"Seriously!? So soon!?" Said the boy in disbelief.

As he did, he saw Himeko turn around to face the elevator.

"Where the hell are you going!? You've barely healed a single amount! You'll die out there!" He shouted.

"You and the girls never grow up. I really like it here. We probably still have a long way to go before we reach the end of this long battle. Geez. I could kill for another can of beer. Godspeed, girls." She said before turning to face Alex as she approached him.

She then placed a hand on him, softly patting his head as she gave him a smile.

"Godspeed, Alex." She said, giving him a soft kiss on his forehead before walking off and entered the elevator.

Alex was simply in shock at what had just happened, however with the tone she had just spoken in, he was given a big sense of dread.

The boy rushed to the elevator and quickly entered.

As he was one his way up to the top floor again, an extremely loud bang sound was heard as it caused the whole ship to shake, elevator included as Alex struggled to keep his footing.

Eventually he reached the top floor as he noticed all the commotion was coming from the front of the ship.

As Alex rushed his way towards there, he saw Himeko taking on and extremely large black, blue, and white dragon.

Naturally the boy quickly approached the battle to lend a hand right as Himeko had successfully knocked the dragon onto the ground.

As Alex got closer, Himeko swung her large broadsword high above her, ready to slay the dragon until bright light emanated from the dragon and completely surrounded the two.

They shielded their eyes only to eventually see that they were now on a large land purple colored landmass resembling the Hyperion as they were surrounded by large, floating chunks of purple colored debris in a purple landscape as there seemed to be no ground beneath them aside from the floating debris.

As the two looked around, Himeko finally noticed the boy and was immediately not happy.

"What the hell are yo-!?" She was unable to finish as echoing all through the landscape was the Herrscher's laugh.

The two looked up and ahead of them to see the Herrscher slowly descend and approach them with a very confident stride.

As soon as Void stepped onto the same ground as them, she used her telekinesis to quickly bring Alex towards her as she had a smirk on her face.

"Well well well, look who came crawling back. Stay right here and don't try anything." She said as she telekinetically threw Alex behind her, the boy slamming into a wall harshly as he was quickly on the ground.

The Herrscher then turned her attention to Himeko.

The redhead simply readied herself, holding her broadsword out in front of her.

Void merely did the same thing again, as she telekinetically brought Himeko towards her, however this time she pushed her back, launching her in the direction she came from as Void brought a hand up, raising a section of the Hyperion lick structure's floor as it became a wall that Himeko collided against as the wall then morphed into a cube.

Void snapped her fingers, as the cube then split into four smaller cubes as they all rotated and spun against one another with Himelo still trapped within.

The Herrscher then sent two projectiles at the cube as they gave two clean slices.

She then sent out two more projectiles as they went up into the air before coming back down, directly through the middle of the cube where Himeko was, as the cube was slammed back down onto the Hyperion shaped floating land mass.

"Now then, onto you." Said the Herrscher turning her attention to Alex who was still dazed.

That was until a sudden projectile was launched at the Herrscher, who caught off guard summoned a rift at the last second as the projectile ended up crashing into different landmass.

Void looked back to see Himeko slowly emerge from the rubble, extremely beaten and battered, but not down for the count.

As she panted heavily, she muttered out a sentence.

"My turn to attack now. Hope you don't mind, girl."

All Void could do was put a hand to her face and laugh at herself before giving Himeko a cold glare as she summoned tons of rifts as they launched out numerous lances.

Himeko wasn't phased however as she stood her ground, the projectile from earlier coming back as it split into three, attaching themselves to the blade as it began to immediately flare up, being coated in scorching hot flames.

In one swift swing, all of the lances were destroyed.

Himeko then began to lunge foward.

In response Void thrusted an arm foward, sending two long projectiles at her, however Himeko kept going, using the sword to cleanly cut straight down through the middle even though it meant getting a ton of cuts all over her body.

As Himeko got closer, Void began to get pushed back.

Himeko then launched herself high into the air, spinning herself to get aligned with the Herrscher before using all of the remaining power she had left as flames bursted out from the back in the shape of wings, as her sword picked up its intensity.

As Himeko came down from above, Void summoned to orbs from her hands ready to retaliate, however right then and there Alex had regained some form of awareness as he immediately grabbed both of Void's arms and held them behind her as desperately as he could.

"H-Hey let me go you human scum!" Shouted Void.

"Come on Himeko! Do it!" Shouted Alex.

As she got closer and closer, Alex closed his eyes, a smile on his face as only one thought ran through his mind.

'Sayonara, Murata Himeko.'

--------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 37: Complete

Ending Theme: Don't Think Twice by Hikaru Utada from Kingdom Hearts III

Well, there ya have it.

The completed version of the revamped and revised Merc's Involvement.

Obviously regardless of what I see, feel free to read either version as you please.

I simply just made this to fit more in line as a prequel to R.O.N(Road To Nagazora).

As you noticed, I also moved the first two chapters of the sequel over here.

Reason for that is because ending Merc's Involvement with Nightglow seemed rather fitting as a conclusive chapter to the first part of this Honkai Journey.

Obviously, you all know where the story resumes so stay tuned for Road To Nagazora to resume production very soon.

With all of that out of the way, thank you all as always for supporting my works.

I hope y'all will always enjoy.

Till next time.

Merc's Involvement: Finished

The Journey Continues in........